THE DARDANELLES

Taranaki Daily News, 30 December 1915, Page 5

THE DARDANELLES

WORSE THAN THE CRIMEA. FEARFUL WEATHER IX THE TRENCHES. TROOPS' TRIALS ON THE PENINSULA. London; Dec. 28. Mr. Ward- Price, writing on Decembei 13, says the Turkish artillery lire, cine to the opening of the railway, is increasing. The big guns have to be drawn by bullocks along a solitary road, anc. are so slow in getting '.nto possti m that smaller guns :ivc no.v manned by exrir r , Austrian and Gentian lU'tillerynien, who are bombarding the bcat'iM ai Cape Helles daily, at six miles range, with six-inch explosives. It is surprising how little damage is done, although they can bombard three sides with absvute precision.

The weather, however, is more capable of giving trouble than the Turkish artillery. A recent storm caught the light vessels which were sheltering in Kephalos Bay, in Imbros, and also damaged the breakwaters the British had constructed at Suvla", Helles, and Kephalos Bay by sinking old sand-filled ships. A hurricane from November 27 to 29 was a terrible trial to the Britishers. Australians and New Zealanders were penned in narrow trenches on naked ridges. First it rained in torrents for twelve hours, and then came a piercing frost. The drenched oversoats were so stiff that they stood up by themselves. The water froze around the men's feet as they slept from utter exhaustion. Some only kept alive by working the night long with picks and shovels. After the night came a blizzard. Men were frozen and buffeted by wind and sleet, and hardly able to move and keep the circulation alive. They endured agonies. Sentries watching loopholes were found dead at their posts, frozen rigid, and their fingers still clutching their rifles in an ironfast grip, their blackened faces still leaning under sackcloth curtains against loopholes.

I Never since the Crimea Lave the Brit- | ish troops endured sxich an ordeal. Those who doubted whether Australians could endure exposure may be reassured. They the trial well. The Turks suffered worse. Being without blankets or waterproof sheets, they had to sleep in their overcoats. When a twelve hours' cloudburst turned gullies into raging torrents many Turkish dead bodies were ! washed down, with carcases of mules and equipment. The TurkisTi trenches were so flooded that the men were forced to get out and lie in the open, where we shot them, though the fingers of some of our men were too frozen to pull the triggers. As an officer said, we could only grin at the Turks. Fortunately the weather has since set fair, arid now there is a spell of mild Riviera weather, enabling the flooded trenches to be repaired, parapets rebuilt, and the smashed jetties mended. A TURKISH REPORT. MUCH ARTILLERY WORK. Received Dec. '29, 8.5 p.m. London, Dec. 28. A Turkish communique says: Eastward of Kutele Mara wc drove back a detachment, with the loss of two raachine-guns and considerable horsemen, who were protected by two moni;tors which came to their assistance. The Kutele Mara artjllery severely bombed our right wing. At Sedd-ul Balir there was an incessant bombardment of machine-guns, bombs, and aerial torpedoes on our left wing. Our artillery replied, silencing the enemy and destroying a portion of the trenches. We seized everything useful on the transports that were wrecked on the coast off Biyuk Kimekli.