THE DARDANELLES

Taranaki Daily News, 20 January 1916, Page 5

THE DARDANELLES

,THE EVACUATION. t ij ; , •/ fffOW It yAS CARRIED OUT. £ V J fitoes and Sydney Sun Received Jan. 19, 5.5 p.m. London, Jan. 13. ftfr. Ward Price, writing from Salo•UKa, says that the able organisation re- ■ sponsible for the bloodless evacuation of Capo Helles tfas similar to that of Anzac and Suvla, and relieves the melancholy , -spectacle;, of the ill-judged enterprise. The faetUhat there were no losses might ' leid one to utider-value the resource and . minute care shown. Considerable losses wete expected, and a loss of 30 per cent, surprising had the . /Turks discovered the movement, used |lteir artillery on the beaches, and attacked the emptying trenches. ' iThe process' l of evacuation at Suvla, andi: n6 doubt, at Helles also, was spread over ten nights, divided into three periods.. -At first the winter stores and Superfluities wljre removed; secondly, everything was shipped except the actuand ammunition needed for the men, and the first drafts also began to d<#rt; finally, two nighta were taken lip in embarking the guns, animals, and ffiei in carefulty calculated detachments. ..It was determined to fall back on the tfttond line of -defence for the last stage, but this would have given the scheme clearly to the Turks, and the idea was abandoned in favor of the preservation ' '.of'/Absolutely formal conditions. This ™ so often fepttited that an overworked staff officer, receiving news that a girl torn at his home, cabled, - /"Christian name, Normality." . Moat of the night, from 8.30 till 1.30, the first line of trenches was held by a few picked men from each brigade. They were given 'one rifle each on a seven yards front, tut a detachment of the fth Brigade had the whole of the 29th vision's front, and were responsible r.flve thousand yards. There were two lineil of trenches behind the advanced lines; and also posts where a last stand Could be made. : The men were ordered ftOt to leave until the word, came from • tho beaches, "All is clear." V "