"GOD WAS GOOD."

Taranaki Daily News, 26 February 1916, Page 3

"GOD WAS GOOD."

EVACUATION OF GALLIPOLI. A "bloodless but magnificent show" is the description of the retirement from Anzac applied to Major ——, of the 24th Australian Battalion, in a' letter to his wife. Arrangements, he said, were carefnlly planned. Troops were sent away gradually, and as each ship disappeared, so the surprise of the soldiers remaining increased. They had anticipated thousands of casualties, but as days followed days they were satisfied that God was good to them and that the Turks were bluffed. Ultimately the Gth Brigade was one of the last to leave, the 24th was one of the last battalions, and the ma ; jor was left with the last 100 men to hold Lonesome Pine—loo against ">000! For four months 725 Australians had held bravety on to their positions there.

On the l\st day. when the ranks were thinned almost to a ridiculous extent. the Turks set their big guns booming. The men who were left ,in the trenches were ready for anything, nnd accepted the bombardment as proof that, their plan had been discovered. But two howitzers replied vigorously, the bombardment ceased, and the remainder of the day was quiet. Still the strain was awful. The line was weak, and it was not known how much the Turks knew. Along a rugged line where 30,000 troops had previously been entrenched only 1500 remained. The longest day any body of men ever lived through ultimately came to an end, however, though the night, when possibly the attack all feared would be launched, was ahead of them. As quietly as possible everything was got away. The last 100 saw their comrades go swiftly and silently off. and they knew that their lives were hanging by threads. They were well distributed to Keep up the deception that the forces were intact, and were at last relieved to receive the order to quit the trench. Tliev slipped qnietlv awav, their feet tied up in strips of blanket, to deaden the sound, and. reaching the beach safely, embarked, first into barges and then into a transport. "If the weather had been unfavorable it would have been all up, and if tliere had been a day's delay the last parties would have been cut to pieces, because a hurricane swept the peninsula the day following the evacuation and rushed into the deserted positions. "It was a brilliant achievement," said an officer, "but every man of the- 2nd Division got down on his knees and thanked the God who made him, even if he had never said a prayer before in his life."