THE DARDANELLES

Taranaki Daily News, 31 August 1915, Page 6

THE DARDANELLES

m GALLIPOLI. OFFICIAL BUDGET, (By Malcolm Ross), linl)ro9, July 6. Since tlio big lattle at Helles a few days ago there have been no movements of importance— -non:, wrtainly, that concern the New Zgakudera. Nevertheless, the days have not passed in idleness, nor without dncidmt. ■ A few notes from my diary will give the people of our country eonie Me« of tie current of events. July opened with the uaual morning shelling of the beach, hut thr. Turks, had they seen the result, must have heen disappointed with it. In the trendies also our man were proving more than a match for the Turks. Their greater intelligence and ingenuity make them a more effective force in trench warfta-e. Men «e told off to watch a certain number of yards of enemy trench, and as each man is pro\ided with a perissopc he can do this in safety. Such men will obferve the slightest alteration in an < enemy trench —the removal of a sandbag or the withering of a bransh that lias heen green. Behind such a branch 'there will occasionally be a Turk, and' an accurate marksman may f ick him off. Good shots are told off to fire at the loopholes in the Turkish trenches, but this shooting has been so effective that the Turk now, as a role, does not tak\> careful aim through the loophole. He is afraid of getting one in Che eye. Therefore he simply holds his rifle up above his ■head and blazes away. Such shooting is, of course, ineffective. By various ruses our men stir the Turks up all times of the day and night. They have done this to such an extent that the somewhat raw and inexperienced troops that have recendy been opposed to us hare got "jumpy," with the result that tbey waste a great deal of ammunition. Recent orders found on Turkish prisonera indicate that there are a considerable number of young and untrained troops in the field, or aJ)out to enter it, and that many of these da not know even the elementary principles of drill and musketry*. At time there are quite" a troops on the Peninsula, and as they are well entrenched it would be a mistake to hold the position too cheaply. On Monday, July 5, one of our sections reported being shelled by heavy guns, and we at Anzac had a new 11inoh gun tamed on iu The shells from the latter mostly hit the sea harmlessly, throwing up great geysers of water, which subsided into a great ring of foam; other shells that burst in the air sent great chunks of iron hurtling through space over a wide area, and our men nan to get them as trophies. I saw one man carrying a piece, still uncomfortably hot, on his shoulder, from the crest of a ridge where it had landed. Some of our men thought they cauild see this gun firing from tlie KiiidBahr plateau, but later and more reliable information led to the conclusion that it was a naval gun. Some hundreds of pounds' worth of ammunition were blazed away* by this gun during the forenoon, But the results were practically nil, though we all agreed that the new shell was a nasty brute. At u.45 a.m. on July i, the enemy epened fire on the left of Quinn's Post with a mountain gun firing nine rounds without doing any damage. Three enemy 8-inch shells were also exp'-rlcd on another position in the evening. ; nt did little damage. Another Turkish .>un on the north-western hills fired for two hours. There was very little rifle fire from the Tuikish trenches. Our guns, and also the destroyer Chelmer, replied. During the week a determined attack was made on our left centre, but was repulsed with heavy loss to the enemy. In this attack practically none of the New Zealanders were engaged, it being met by the Australians attached to our division. The Turks commenced with heavy rifle fire and then charged with the bo.yonet. They also used bombs. Our men replied with cheers and fire from rifles and machine-guns. Some Turks who broke through into our saps were soon despatched, and by 2 a.m. the remainder of the enemy who had left their trenches turned and fled. Jn places there were numbers of Turkish dead in front of our trenches, and the enemy losses must have bc;n considerable, while ours were slight. Prisoners stated that the attack had been ordered by Enver who visited the lines that night on hi.? way smith to Cape Helles.