THE FIGHTING ON GALLIPOLI.

Taranaki Daily News, 3 September 1915, Page 6

THE FIGHTING ON GALLIPOLI.

SCENES AT ANZAC. (From Malcolm Ross, Official War Correspondent with the N.Z. Forces). Anzac, June 19, From the scrub-covered hills, on which at tlie landing you could see never a Turk, though the air was full of Turkish bullets, Anzac has undergone a strange metamorphosis. The scrub is disappearing from the hillsides—it goes up in smoke from under countless pots and mess-tans, cooking the food for the invading army. In place of the siarub there have appeared numberless dugouts. There are whole terraces of them, and others appear promiscuously on the knolls and steep slopes. In their search for homes, • the men have ciimbed and climbed till the topmost habitations are perched on dizzy slopes, to which, in the words of the song, a man must be "afraid to go home in the dark." The shadows of the entrances to these dugouts stare at you like great hollow lacklustre eyes in the daytime and like stars at night. Away back of all this are long, narrow, deep communication trendies, leading to the firing line and other colonies of 'Mug-outs." In some of the outposts there is a perfect maze of trenches, and a man has to be very well acquainted with them to be able to find his way to any particular Though the trenches are kepf clean, and the sanitary arrangements are excellent, there are numberless flies everywhere, and othr insects equally irritating or annoying. But in spite of everything, the Australians and New Zealanders are cheerjEul and do their work with a thoroughness that is highly commendable. When one considers the difficulties of supply here it is really wonderful to note how well men are fed y Tea and bacon are brought up into the trenches in the firing line every morning. Tea is also brought up at lunch time. For the evening meal the menu is tea and stew. Each man is allowed a quarter of a, pound of jam and half a loaf of bread a day. Occasionally when there has been a shortage of water there has been no tea for dinner, and also on occasions there have been no vegetables, to put in the stew. This is hard to bear. Generally speaking, however, there are few complaints, and the men recognise that the best is being done under difficult circumstances. The stretcher-bearers still have very hard work, though it is not so deadly as it was in the early days of the fighting; but they now have to carry the wounded for a much longer distance, up hill and down dale, before they get to the clearing station. Then there is the business of getting the sick and Wounded on to the hospital ships. The wounded are still wonderfully plucky and uncomplaining. Most of the bandsmen have now been turned into stretch-er-bearers. , like the men, the officers here are doing splendid work. Some others, who have been only slightly wounded, we hope soon to see once more in the firing line at Anzac. The Duntroon boys have maintained a high standard, and everyone speaks in the highest terms of their courage, leadership, and initiative. Several killed and wounded, and there have been individual deeds of pluck and heroism, but in these articles one must not, of course, mention names. Both New Zealand and Australia, however, sjave reason to be proud of their Duntroon boys. A MESSAGE FROM THE AIR. AUSTRALASIANS ASKED TO SURRENDER. Anzac, June 28. The Turks do not seem to have many aeroplanes, but occasionally we hear the ' popping of an engine in the sky, and looking up we see one of the bird-like Tauben coming down from the Bulair lines, and hovering over our position. Watching one of these Tauben the other day, we _ saw her drop a bundle of leaflets, which glistened in the bright sunlight as they came fluttering down five thousand feet to earth. We could scarcely understand why the Turks should be sending us messages, but it appears they have their own ideas of the colonial soldier, and have even hopes that they may persuade him to surrender! It appears that'most of the leaflets were carried by a gentle breeze into the 1 Turkish lines; but some Turks tied a couple to the tail of a bomb, and threw,, them into our lines. Our men responded by tying some to a hambone, which they threw into a Turkish trench. Tliis caused a great hubbub in the enemy trench. They were soldiers, and did not mind a bomb. But a ham-bone! That, in the vulgar parlance of the day, was "the limit." The gist of the Turkish invitation has since been published in the Peninsula Press, which says it has no hesitation in giving it this widely, publicty: "Proclamation to the Anglo-French Expeditionary Forces.

by a heavy fire of a powerful fleet, you had been able to land on the Gallipoi Peninsula on and since April 25. "Backed up by these same men-of-war, you could establish yourselves at two points of the Peninsula, "All your endeavors to advance into the inner parts of the Peninsula have come to failure under your heavy losses, although your ships have done their utmost to assist you by a tremendous cannonade, implying an enormous waste of ammunition.

"Two fine British battleships Triumph and Majestic, have been sunk before your own eyes by submarine boats, all protective means against them being found utterly insufficient. "Since those severe losess to the British Navy, your men-of-war had to take refuge, and have abandoned you to your own fate!

"Your ships cannot be possibly of any help to you in future, since a great number of submarines are prepared to suppress them. "Your forces have to rely on seatransport for reinforcements and supply of food, water, and every kind of war materials.

"Already the submarines did sink several steamers carrying supplies for your destination.

"Later on all supplies will he entirely cut off from your landed forces. "You arc exposed fo certain perdition by starvation and thirst.

"Your desperate attacks will not avert that fate from you.

"You could only escape useless sacrifice of life by surrendering. "We are assured that yon have not taken anna against ua by, (hatred. Greedy Britain has made you fight under a contract

"You may confide in us for excellent treatment. Our country disposes of tons of provisions; there 13 enough for you to feed you well, and make you feel it bo your comfort. "Don't further hesitate! Come and surrender!

"On all bther fronts of this war your own people and your Allies' situation is as hopeless as on this Peninsula. "All news spread amongst you concerning the German and Austrian armies arc mere 'lies.

"There stands neither one Englishman nor one Frenchman nor one Russian on German soil.

"On the contrary, the German troops are keeping a strong hold on the whole of Belgium and on conspicuous parts of Prance, since many J & month. "A eonsidena-ble part of Russian Poland is also in the hands of the Germans, who advance there every day. "Early in May strong German and Austrian forces hare broken through the Russian centre in Galicia. Przemyel has fallen back into their hands lately. "They are not in the least way handicapped by Italy's joining your coalition, but are successfully engaged in driving the Russians out of Galicia.

"These Russian troops," whose cooperation one made you look forward to, are surrendering by hundreds and thousands. "Do as they do; Your honor is safe! Further fighting is mere stupid bloodshed!" QUINN'S 'POST. AT CLOSE GRIPS. Anzac, June 29. Away at the head of a steep-sided narrow valley on the outermost line of our trenches is a spot that will live for%ver in colonial history as the scene of great deeds. It is known as Quinn's Post. It is worthily named after a gallant Australian who in the early days of the occupation held it against great odds. You approach it now through long communication trenohes leading over a hill and up what is known as Monash's Valley, formerly known as Shrapnel Valley. In places you still have to dodge an occasional Turkish bullet, and yesterday you were lucky if you got through the shrapnel unhit. 'ln the first few days of the fighting the man who went up there literally took his life in Ms hands. The side 0! the hall became one huge graveyard. That, graveyard has since disappeared. It has been covered by earth and stones slipping down the steep hillside and by earth thrown from the trenches.

An Indian Army medical officer who is with our Divisional Headquarters gave me a vivid picture of his first experience of the valley. >He came suddenly upon a dead officer. Beyond were/two dead men, and, staggering down the p'ahtway, were two mortally wounded men. Then the shelling began. In the midst of it all "The Painted Lady," an English butterfly, flew across the dead. The ground was decked with ilex, heatli, rosemary, juniper and albutus. "By George!" he could not help ejaculating, "ihere we are in the Riviera again!" And, what seemed still more strange, the day finished up vfith a nightingale in full song—a fitting requiem for the dead that littered the f!6or of the valley and its steep slopes. The enemy now hold a position dominating the way to Quinn's Post; but as a, matter of fact they do not shoot you because our men have another trench that dominates theirs, and no Turk daire put his head above his own panpet to shoot into the valley. The slope about Quinn's has been shot away, blown away, and cut away, till there is now only a razor-edge where once was a wooded spur. It was, early in the fighting, covered with dead" men—Turks. Australians and New Zealanders. You still see . dead men's rifles of the first day's fighting lying about there. The position is in charge of the New Zealanders, who have done and are stiM doing gallant work. The trendies aie so close that neither side dare use shrapnel, and the fighting has resolved itself into bombing, snap-shooting, mining and counter-mining. Our men have got used to the bombing business, and the enemy cannot teach them anything. If y<m, throw an overcoat over the bomb" it does no great damage—except to the overcoat! The Turks also are wary as to bombs; and they seem to have shelters into which they can retreat. In the early stages of the bomb-throwing there was one Australian who used to catch the bombs as they came over—no doubt he was a cricketer —a,nd throw them back into the Turkish trenches. At last he caught one too many, and lost a hand. On other occasions our men have been known to sit looking at a Turkish bonlb thrown into their trench and "count it out." If it did not explode before they counted ten, the bomb was "outed." If one were not on the spot and saw daily under his own eyes the utter indifference to death displayed by these Australian and New Zealand soldiers, one, would regard such stories as travellers' tales . The colonial soldier, undisciplined as he undoubtedly is under certain circumstances and conditions, is a thing apart in war. His bravery is more than great, and as a fighter lie is unexcelled by any soldiers in the world. He longs for action and change, and as often as there is fighting to do he will do it, but the monotony of trench work will certainly begin to pall upon his free and unfettered soul.

It was from Quinn's Post that most of the New Zealand sorties were made after the fighting steadied down. The Australians who observed one of these charges from a. neighboring position said it was a fine sight to see the New Zealandere silhouetted against the dawn with bayonets fixed, and going "at top." There have been times, too, when our rifles have been red hot with the rapid fire necessary in repelling the Turks, and each man had two rifles, dropping one as it got hot, and carrying on with the other. Often six or eight rifles would be smashed by enemy bullets in one night at this post when there was anything doing. Once when the Turks were retreating, and there was no room in the trenches for supports, our own fellows in the rear on the reverse slopes of the hill ran up to the top just behind the men in the firing-line, and simply mowed the Turks down with a deadly

As already mentioned, the trenches at Quinn's Post are so close to each otjier that neither side dare she!]. In the earlier stages of the fighting, however, some wonderful work was done by one of our batteries, which in the darkness poured shell after shell only four feet over the heads of our own men into the Turkish trench only forty yards beyond! Our men could see the shells from the muzzle to the burst coming through the darkness with the golden glow of an oTange. They seemed to be coming right at their faces, but they went jnst over their heads, and burst amongst the attacking Turks in massed formation, the battery fired 600 rounds that night, and tihere were only two short bursts. But ihat is not all. The range of tiheae. field guns is usually from 3000 r to, 400Q" yards, but here the firing had to befnim 950 yords, an almost pofat-btadk mnga,

,so that the slightest error in shortness 'would have been disastrous. If was a piece of the most marvellous shooting thai had over been seen, and tilie Australian infantry afterwards stated that the New Zealand artillery, that night gave<| Quinn's IPost.

SAPPING AND MINING. Just at present the great feature about QuianVs Post is the sapping and mining that is going on there day and night. The other day the young engineer in charge dropped in on us with a map aoid a quaint description of what is taking place. "Well, it's frightfully funny work," he said, in reply to our request for information. "Last night we heard them working very close to us, but we did not want to burst a big charge for various reasons. The officer asked us to put in a few pounds to frighten them. That charge made a hole in the roof of our tunnel, and there was the Turkish tunnel on top of us! The officer could put Qiia hand through the hole, so he ! went off and got a revolver. When he came back he could see a light shining through, and could hear the Turks talking above hdm. They could not, however, go on without danger of being shot, so they started rolling bombs along towards us, as if it were a bowling alley underground. I arrived in the middle of this in the dark, but I got a candle. Immediately a bomb went off with a bang; but we stood round a corner out of harm's way. I told our men to work on at another gallery, and keep a sentry at the hole so that the Turks could do nothing. When they got this along a few feet we blew in our own mine, and cut them off. Had they still come on we had another one ready for them. In doing this we did not damage our own arrangements in any way." In another place the New Zealandens froni one listening galleries heard the Turks "working close at hand, 5 so tihey blew up their tunnel at midnight, apparently successfully. In one place the rival parties got so close in their tunnelling that they could hear the Turks talking around a corner. It is very jumpy work tin's underground warfare in a tunnel only 4 feet by 2 feet, when you never know when you will be blown up or buried alive. Quinn. after whom the position was named, was last seen throwing bombs at the enemy. Subsequently his dead body was founA by his comrades. His name will live in history. \ ' OPERATIONS AT HELLES. A TERRIFIC BOMBARDMENT. Anzac, June 30. On Friday, June 25, we who are camped at Anzac were shelled by the Turks from both flanks. One of the shells landed in the midst of the men who were working on the beach, killing two and wounding fourteen. Some of the wounds were slight. During the day there was a naval demonstration, one battleship, a monitor and several torpedo-boats firing from different points off shore. The battleship's shells bursting inland raised great clouds of dust and earth in the air, and her broadsides went right across the Peninsula and the Straits, with the result that Chanak on the Asian coast was soon in flames.

On Saturday morning (the 26th) we could hear the booming of the guns at Helles, In the afternoon, while many of our men were bathing, "Startling Annie" from her hidden retreat commenced to send her shells on to the Anzac beach. She made excellent'practice.

On Sunday morning about 5 o'clock we were awakened by the booming of a monitor, which seems to fire a great deal but never appears to have any effect in silencing a Turkish gun. Later the Turks commenced to shell and fire along our whole front. There was a continuous rattle of rifle fire through which we could heaT the maxims popping. THE BATTLE AT HELLES.

On the morning of Monday, June 28, anyone who was awake at dawn might have noticed a long line of ships off Cape Helles. There appeared to, be troopships, supply ships, one or two battleships, the balloon ship, and monitors, destroyers and trawlers in large number. It was quite evident that something important was going to happen. Two of the smaller craft went close in.shore a little to the north and commenced vigorous sheEing. Then the guns oh shore and the guns on the other ships eaine in and a continuous thunder rolled up from Cape Helles. Out of the dull monotonous rumble occasionally would come a louder quick boom! boom! boom! boom! as from some other kind of gun-fire. The Turkish guns on Achi Baba added to the din, while on the right flank the French with their "75's" were pouring their U9ual rain of shells on to the Turkish trenches. With the naked eye, and still more clearly through the glasses, one could see the flashes of our ships' guns and note the great clouds of dust and earth sent up by the bursting shells. Mingled with these bursts of high explosive shells came occasional shrapnel, and you could note their fleecy puffs of white smoke blow slowly inland on the gentle air?.

By 11 a.m. the bombardment had 'increased in intensity till it had become one continuous roll, with occasionally the louder boom of some big gun rising above the general din, Then after a time there was a comparative lull, and wo presumed that the infantry were attacking. All day the battle waged with varying bursts of noise. At 5 p.m. there was a long line of craft silhouetted against the sky-line from Helles to the end of lmbros. The noise of the big guns again came booming through the air, and on the plateau below Achi Baba great bursts of shc'l-fire were doing destructive work over the trenches.

In the evening there was a renewal of the heavy gun-fire, and we judged that the .Turks were making a counter-attack. The Australians on our right flank at Anzae made a vigorous demonstration, and this assisted materially in preventing the despatch of reinforcements to the Aohi Baba position in the south. In this operation the Australian casualties were about 2-">n. We learnt next day from General Headquarters that the operations had been even more satisfactory than was anticipated, and that the British Field Artillery and the 29th Division had done magnificent work. The splendid attack of this division was the subject of marked mention. The Turkish counter-attack was repelled with heavy loss to the enemy.

NEW ZEALAND POSITION ATTACKED. On the following day (Tuesday, Juno 2fl) we had rather a quiet time at Anzae, but soon after dark there was a great burst of rifle-fire from fcho Turkish trenches nearly all along our llnea, mid it was apparent that the enemy intended an attack in some force. The Turkish guns also opened on some of our positions and were replied to by our batteries. There was a continuous rattle of rtfle-fire, through ' which could be 'heard at intervals the popping of the

maxims, and, above all this din, the loud booming of the guns and the bursting of their shells.

At first we thought this burst of fire to be only a Turkish ruse to make us waste ammunition, but later wc found that a determined attack was being made on our left' centre. The first rush was of a very determined nature, sixteen of the enemy being shot down and bayonetted as they reached the sap. Owing to a mistaJcen order thirty actually succeeded in getting into and over one of the saps, but were instantly killed. Some tried to work round our left flank. The Australian Light Horse bore the, brunt of this attack, but the ftth Manawatu Squadron, of the Wellington Mounted Regiment, who are in the trenches, were also slightly involved. Repeated charges were repulsed by the I Australian Light Horse with bombs and rifle-fire. Flares also were used with some success, and a destroyer by lighting up the ground in front of our trenches did useful work. The enemy artillery must have fired about 300 rounds over our position, but their shells did little damage. Some of the Turks got over from another position into the head of what is known as Monash Gully, and two tipops were sent to drive them out. Twenty-five of their dead have since been seen lying in front of IPopc's Hill. By 1.45 a.m. the attack against No. 4 section practically ended, but the ground in front was not cleared of the enemy till 4 a.m. At 3 a.m. some of the enemy again opened fire and thirty Turks charged up to the parapet in front of Qudnn'a Ridge. They were stopped by our rifle-fire, and over twenty of their dead were counted next morning in front of our trenohes.

One of the prisoners captured stated that Enver Pasha visited the lines during the night, and ordered the attack, urging his battalions to drive the New Zealanders and Australians into the sea. Some of 'th A.'prisoners wejert*ther sulky; others seemed glad to be captured. They were well clothed, except that their clothing was much too heavy for this hot weather, and'the soles of some of their boots were almost worn through. Most agreed that the Turks aTe tired of the war, but they do simply as they are told, and the Young Turkish Party still holds the reins of power. Small ammunition and food are plentiful. There are no German officers with the infantry who are opposing us at Anzac. There are, however, some Germans with the artillery.