GREAT PERSIAN GULF BATTLE.

Taranaki Daily News, 28 September 1915, Page 4

GREAT PERSIAN GULF BATTLE.

6000 BRITISH BEAT 28,000 TUSKS. INDIAN GAUANTBY. tVondon, July 2. Little has been heard of the battle of Shsiba (in the Persian Gulf, on April 11 to 14), or, as ft is more accurately termed, the battle of Berjetsia woods, and yet it 19 one of the biggest and most pietnresfa* engagements ever entered on by the Indian army. The following grspbie account is from the pen of one wl» actually saw; the fighting:— The first intimation we had of the near presence of the enemy was the uews that the Turkish and Arab forces were moving down on us from, their camp 14 miles away, 23,000 strong with 30 guns. Out of this little lot (9000 were regular Turkish infantry) there were two crack Constantinople regi> ments corresponding, to our Guards and nicknamed fho 'Wemen." At the most to meet this host we could muster nine weak squadrons of Indian cavalry, 26 guns, two battalions of» British infantry, and seven of native infantry, all extremely weak in numbers, say 6000 rifles all told.

We fortunately had a preponderance in mftjhinft guns, at&ough the Turkish guns were of the latest German manufacture and better than ours, and their cannon were of much heavier calibre, as they had at least throe five-inch howitzers, the best being excellent guns of a recent Krupp pattern. On Sunday evening we first saw the enemy cavalry—hordes of them, from horizon to horizon. Arab and Kurdish horse, and a fine show they made as our cavalry retired slowly in front of them j but they dared not come too near our trenches; they had a taste of our infantry before. At dawn on Monday (6 a.m.) the fun began with the regular Turkish infantry making an attack on the trenches south of the fort.

They kept it up for an hour, but did no damage except slightly to wound one man; but at 7.30 a.m. all their guns opened on us, including three heavy howitzers, called by the Tommies "Little George." Then the dust began to fly, but it took our guns just about three minutes to stop them. Then there was an extremely one-sided duel for about half an hour, as our guns began to knock out the Turkish guns systematically. The Turkish shooting was very fine. At 10 o'clock everything was quiet again, when suddenly bang went "Little George," burning out the guard tent. As if that was a signal, thousands of Arabs with their banners flying made a dash at our trenches. It waß a wonderful sight. We waited until they got within 800 yards, then we let them have four machine guns and IS rounds per rifle rapid. Nothing further happened except continual sniping until 4 p.m., when the Turkish guns opened again. The Kurds massed behind a small hill to charge our rather weak cavalry, but they never dreamt what was really going to happen. Our cavalw, instead of charging, wheeled suddenly to the left and unmasked a battery of horse guns. What a mess! A.densely packed body of horse faced at 900 yards by a British quick-firing battery! On Tuesday our cavalry made a magnificent charge, but they were driven back; so out went our infantry under cover of the guns, and they made a proper mess of the Arabs. In the late afternoon our cavalry, and infantry attacked the Turks, arid drove them from the advance positions, capturing two guns and numerous prisoners. Tuesday night, more sniping. Ou Wednesday we thought the Turks must have gone right back, so we moved out to clear the positions in front of us. It was not such an easy job as was expect; ed. The Turks had only gone back to, an entrenched camp called Berjetsia woods. Although they hopelessly outnumbered us and were dug in we attacked across the open desert. From 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. the battle hung in the balance, but there was no stopping our infantry. Our poor devils were badly punished, but nothing to what the Turks had to put up with. The Turks began to move off steadily at 4 p.m., but the retreat quickly became a rout, and their whole line fled in. the utmost disorder.