Untitled

Taranaki Daily News, 20 September 1915, Page 3

An agonising experience was the lot of a member of the main expeditionary force who returned wounded by the Tahiti. He was with the first New Zealand landing party, and had been 10 hours in the fight when he was wounded, a bullet passing through both legs. With a party of fifteen New Zealanders he had rushed to the assistance of a small party of Australians, who were holding the third ridge. Turkish shrapnel prevented other troops from coming to their aid, so they lay down and dug themselves in as best thev could. For five days the New Zealander lav wounded on the ridge, expecting each hour to be his last. Through the shrapnel curtain falling behind no stretcher party eould possible make its way; and the wounded man h-.d to lie s'.ili ;in l watch the shrapnel moving nearer or receding as the Turkish gcr.nuTs felt for the little party on the ridge. After two days a doctor managed to crawl round and make the wounded a little more comfortable, but it was another three days before those who survived the ordeal could be taken down to the bench. During this long waiting period the men were without food, but they had their water-bottles, and, what gave them the greatest comfort of all, tobacco and cigarettes. Even after this dreadful experience the wounded New Zealander had a fixed determination to return to the firing line so soon as he was pronounced medically fit to do so.