THE DARDANELLES

Taranaki Daily News, 15 November 1915, Page 6

THE DARDANELLES

NEW ZEALAND ARTILLERY. THE BRIGADE IN 'ACTIOS'. (From Malcolm Ross, Official Correspondent with toe N.Z, Forces). Gallipoli Peninsula, Sept. 3. Now that the campaign in Gallipoli has been in operation for some nineteen weeks, and our positions have materially changed, it 'becomes possible to give New Zealand readers some general idea of the extent and effectiveness of the work done by the N. Z. Field Artillery. The brigade received extra training in Egypt, aiid did well in practice there with the X.Z. Infantry and N.Z. Mounted Rifles. The right type of men had been selected, and officers, non-commis-sioned officers, gunners, and drivers could not have been greatly improved upon for the work they had to do. The drivers were mostly men from the country used to handling horses. The first battery to land on the Peninsula was the howitzer battery. It landed during the night of April 2.5. This was the only howitzer battery landed with the force at Anzac, and from that day to this it has continued to do good work, daily giving assistance to the Australian Division as well as to the N.Z. and Australian Division. In all tbs time there was only »ne day in which the battery has not shot. Officers and men, often when ill, have stuck to their work in the most plucky manner. A day or two after the landing the battery destroyed the ''fisherman's hut," which during the early stages of the desperate fighting harboured Turkish snipers. Shortly afterwards the howitzers did good work in repulsing an attack by the enemy on the left flank. In the engagement of May 19, they did good shooting, slaughtering large numbers of Turks as they came forward to the attack in the endeavour to fulfil von Sander's boast to the Australian and N.Z. troops into the sea. This, it will be remembered, was a night attack, but the enemy's positions had been previously registered by our guns, so that their fire, even in tiie darkness, was effective. They fired both shrapnel and high explosive. The New Zealand howitzers continued daily doing useful work in any direction called upon until relieved' by a Lowland battery. During the attack on the Sari Bair position, when there were few guns on the new front, the New Zealand howitzers continued shooting from their old positions at Anzae. In twenty-six hours the New Zealand howitzer 'battery fired 1600 rounds. Our howitzers also played a prominent part in the attacks in August on our extreme left. In conjunctie*' with the heavy ftatteries of the 09th Brigade they took part in a fierce bombardment of the Turkish trenches, our one battery flrmg 300 rounds in an hour. Their shooting on this occasion was most effective, and the Turkish trenches were piled with dead. Unfortunately, the battery did not know of the two" flank trenches which the Turks had constructed, otherwise they might have been still further supported.

THE FIELD GUNS. The first field battery of 18-pounders landed on 'Wednesday, April 28, and at once sent two guns to the extreme left flank. Owing to the configuration of the country the field of actinn was however, \cry circumscribed. In addition to this the proximity of Turkish snipers made tiie position somewhat untenable. One man was killed and several wounded, so eventually the section was withdrawn, and the whole battery placed in a more ciiniiiAii.ting position. The battery is now so p'aced ;>a to afford a good crossfire to the Australian front with one section and to t'ie New Zealand and Australian Division with the other section. This battery had a very wide field of fire and it was in a covered position which the enemy never exactly located. Consequently the casualties wore few, and such as thsre were must be attributed more to good luck than to,good observation and goad shooting on the part of the enemy. "Searching," it should he explained to those unitiatcd, is permissible in areas where the fall of the shell cannot be seen by the observer, the battery commander, or the man in an aeroplane or balloon. This battery was repeatedly thanked by the Australian infantry for the excellent supporting fire it afforded them, and especially on the occasion wlien our gallant comrades from th.island continent, with great dash an.i heroism, attacked and captured the Turkish trenches at Lonesome Pin?, en the right wing, on the night of August 'd. During this lighj; tiie batt«ry fired some 500 rounds at a "irmidab'.e wire entanglement, cutting it in bits and enabling the assaulting party to cross a locality where, but for this feat, they would inevitably have been shot to pieces with machine-gun and rifle fire. It also, during this assault, prevented the Turkish reserves from coming up to the counter attack.

The second battery of 18-pounders landed on April 20. Its field of fire was circumscribed, but very important. The O.C. guarded his observation station as if it were the jewel of all Asia, and with one look through an eyeglass, which with masterly muscular control he seemed tn maintain as immovable as his own guns, lie lias bren known to freeze up intruders, who from this vantage point were only too often desirous of scanning the surrounding country. lie was especially desirous that thev should not "give away" his particular observation station, and in .spite of all temptations he maintained it almost inviolate to the end. His battery covered the famous Quinn's Post, and was the only one that could bring fire to bear on the Turkish trenches immediately to the north. This battery continued doing very good work in the same position until about ■ the middle of August, when, owing to the extension of our lines, it was shifted to a position that shall he nameless, and by which time the major bad become a colonel. Suffice it to say that in its new position it did excellent work in the recent bombardments of Hill 70 and the Kabak Kuyu position. It also did good shooting when recently the N.Z. artillery came to the assistance of tiie !)th Army Corps in one of its attacks. Having concluuded its part in the preliminary bombardment on that occasion it switched on to Hill 70 and the valley beyond preparatory to the attack by the Australians and New Zealandcrs and a section of K.'s Army, It was afterwards split into sections and helped in the second attack on Hill 70. Our third field gun battery landed at Helles in the beginning of May. . Its work may he judged from a letter that reached Divisional Headquarters from the O.C. infantry brigade, of the famous 20th Division. "The officers ill the

firing line on July s,'' he wrote, "when the enemy made their last attack on the Royal Fusiliers' Bluff and trenches near it, all report the excellent shooting of the N.Z. field battery. They describe the shrapnel (ire as most accurate from this battery, bursting just beyond our trenches and sweeping the ground and slopes over which the enemy advanced/' This battery returned to Anzae about August 20, landed in the night, and hurried out into the field of action. Notwithstanding the distance, the difficulties of transhipment, and the roughness of the country over which the guns had to be taken, by daybreak the battery was entrenched in ils new position and registering on the Turkish trenches. In this brief and simply told story of the work of the N.Z. Field Artillery enough has been said perhaps to prove that our small Dominion has not been lacking in the material for the making of efficient artillery, any more than it lias been lacking in the efficiency of their training, but if further evidence of efficiency were required it might be found in some further letters that have readied the officer commanding the brigade. The first, dated May Hi, is from Major-General G'odlcy, commanding tile New Zealand and Australian Division. "Please convey to all your batteries now here." he writes, ''my high appreciation of the excellent shooting they have made while in action here. All commanders of all positions are loud in their praises of the support they have had from the howitzers and No. 2 battery, and on behalf of the whole division I wish to express to them our thanks for the good work that led to such substantial results." On May Ifi the general officer commanding the 29th Division' wrote: "The 3rd N.Z. Field Artillery Battery has done excellent work, both in reconnaissance, occupation of ground, and in action. Their selection and registration of targels have been thoroughly done, and their shooting in support of the infantry attack has been uniformly good."

FIGHTING ON GALLIPOLI. Gallipoli Peninsula, Sept. 9. Since the brilliant capture of KnoJl 00 there has been little fighting on the grand scale in the Anzac zone. The contending forces have been _ engaged mainly in a desultory shelling of each other's guns and positions, in bombing and sniping from the trenches, and in strengthening the positions taken on one hand and still held on the other. On some days there is practically nothing doing, and the war seems to have taken on quite a gentlemanly aspect. But all the time we know that the rival forces are carefully watching one another, and are making possible preparations for eventualities.

PRAISE FOR COLONIAL TROOPS. GENERAL HAMILTON'S SPECIAL ORDER, An appreciation of the excellent work recently accomplished by the Australian and New Zealand troops has been conveyed to them in a special order issued by Sir lan Hamilton, the text of which will be read with some degree of pride in New Zealand. It runs as follows: "General Headquarters, Mediterranean Expeditionary Force, September 7, 1915. "The Commander-in-Chief, Mediterranean Expeditionary Force, desires formally to record the fine feat of arms achieved by the troops under the command of Lieut.-General Sir W. R. Birdwood during the battle of Sari Bahr. "The fervent desire of all ranks to dose with the enemy, the impetuosity of their onset, and the steadfast valor with which they maintained the long struggle—these will surely make appeal to their fellow-countrymmen all over the world. "The gallant capture of the almost impregnable Lone Pine trenches by the Australian Division, and the equally gallant defence of the position against repeated counter-attacks, are exploits which will live in history. The determined assaults carried out from other parts of the Australian Division's line were also of inestimable service to the whole force, preventing as they did the movement of large bodies of reinforcements on the northern flank.

| "The troops under the command of Major-General Sir A. J. Godley, and ]iar|ticulavly the Australian and New Zealand Division, were called upon to carry out one of the most difficult military occupations that has ever been attempted—a night march and assault by several columns in intricate mountainous

country, strongly entrenched, and held by a numerous and determined enemy. Their brilliant conduct during- this operation, and the success tliey achieved, have won for them a reputation as soldiers of whom any country might bo proud. 'iTo the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps, therefore, and to tlio=e who were associated with that famous corps in the battle of Sari Pair—the Maoris, Sikhs, Gurkhas, and the new troops from the 10th and 13t!i Divisions from the Old Country—Sir lan Hamilton tenders' his appreciation of their efforts, his admiration of their gallantry, and his thanks for their achievements. Tt is an honor to command such a force which numbers such men as these in its ranks, and it is the Commander-in-Chief's high privilege to acknowledge that honor.—W. P. Braithwaitc, Major-General, Chief of the General Staff."

THE SOUTHT.AXD INCIDENT. The only otlicr incident of special interest to Australia and Xcw Zealand that has recently occurred relates to the torpedoing of the Southland, formerly a Dutch steamer, by an enemy submarine, about twenty-five miles from Lemnos. The submarine fired two torpedoes, the first taking effect and the second just missing the stern of the vessel by a few feet. The troopship had on hoard a new Australian Division and some 3"> New Zealanders, the latter being artillery reinforcements. The troops were quickly got into the boats, and though a number of them were in the water for an "hour or more, there was little loss of life. Wireless messages were sent out for assistance, and several vessels responded. Only three Xcw Zealanders last their lives, one being killed instantaneously by the bursting torpedo, and the. other two drowned. The crew at once took to the boats, but some 2."> of the colonial troops gallantly went below and stoked the ship into port, where she was beached in a sinking condition. The gallant conduct of-these men and the splendid behaviour of the troops generally was worthy of the best traditions of the race, and, upon the circumstances becoming known at Anzac, was made the subject of the following special order from Anny Corps Headquarters:— "Array Corps Headquarters, "September 7, 1915. "In welcoming the '2nd Australian Division to join the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps, the General Officer i ComraandiiiK, on behalf of all their com-