FIGHTING IN PALESTINE.

Taranaki Daily News, 18 February 1918, Page 6

FIGHTING IN PALESTINE.

; THE TAKING OF JAFFA, STRATFORD BOY LEADS THE ADVANCE GUAKI>, Some interesting letters have been received by liis people from Lieutenant C J. Pierce, wiih the forces in Palestine"Tardy," as his friends know him by, won a commission by his gallantry at Gallipoli, and for the great work he did in Palestine was recently awarded the M.C- after being four times mentioned in despatches. His people reside on the Flint road, 'Stratford, and they have kindly allowed iu to peruse his letters. Writing on German paper, headed "Kaiserlieh Dcutsch.es Postam.pt,'' from Jaffa, under date November 21, he says: —''You will see by this paper that I am writing from Jaffa. I got. vuis paper out of the German Conseulate when we took the town. The ''big push" is over for a while, and we are holding a line here. We have had a pretty hard month of it, as We started moving on 24th October and have been moving ever since, but have had a great success. We have lost 'half our squadron in men and officers. The last big light was on the 14th inst, when our brigade was up against the picked division of Austrian and Turks; but we smashed them badly, their known casualties beng over four to one, and their dead about eight to one. They, of course, were fighting a rearguard action, and had a tremendous number of machine guns, and our regiment captured seven. We took no prisoners, hut shot, them all down, as they have played one or two dirty tricks lately. We lost bur squadron leader and second in command in one battle, and the oflicer who was made squadron leader was killed in the next. As the colonel reckoned I had done pretty well, he let me keep command for a "while, when the fighting was on, and I had the honor of commanding the first squadron to enter Jaffa. We entered on the 10th, and had e great day. All the officials were lined up on the steps of the Government buildings to receive us, and the ipeople had declared a holiday, waiting for the British troops. They'arc terriblv pleased to be rid of the Turks, who hare robbed them right and left and knocked the town about. JalVa is a fairly large place and very pretty. The country Is all orange groves and gardens, and Is a paradise after the country we hav gone through. Plenty of water and plenty of fruit The people say that a large number have been driven out by file Turks to die in the bills. I took over the Government offices and established my headquarters on the civilian hospital, the highest point, from which I could see all tlhe surrounding country and get in signal touch with the regiment. Everyone wr,s staggered when we signalled we were in Jaffa. We had a good wasli and shave and a feed at the hospital, and the people brought along plenty of wine and fruit. At the place we stopped just before Jaffa there are miles of wine cellars. This is indeed a land of milk and honey. There are quote a lot of pretty - women here, and my boys looked quite embarrassed when the ladies cheered and clapped as we rode through. It was a great «ay and worth the waiting for. There is a German colony here, hut needless to say, they did not cheer us! We hav t . commandeered their straw stacks for our horses, and they have a big chaff-cutting plant we wanted to use, but they had hidden all the parts so our people went round with revolvers and we soon got all we wanted. The frnus are very sour looking. My '■Billy" (his batman, W. Bishop, of Bell Block) eame through all right so you can tell liis mother. He and 1 have been marketing to-day, and have got some mutton and tomatoes and bread, and we are going to have a blow out to-night. He is busy on them now. | le Gods, what a gorge! „. . Later. the rainy season has set in now, and we have had a good deal of wet skin Quite a change really. Jerusalem has fallen, but we were not in it, as we were transfer™ dfrom the right-flank after a few days' fighting round Beerslieba, to the left flank, as the short-age-of water in the interior told badly on horses and men. The wells are few and far between, and we had to fight for whatever water we wanted. The country is a mass of granite hills, many of them full of caves, in which the Turks were strongly holding out. and it was like digging devils out of Hell to get at them. We ihad to hold some hills forming a salient one dav, and we could not dig in on account of the rock. So we built up sangars, and thev shelled us the whole day long. Beersheba is the land of the patriarchs, but is a dirty, desolate hole, and I was glad-to be out of it. One of our squadrons had several horses poisoned by poisoned water in Jaffa the other day. We have caught a Ist of spies here, as the townspeople gave them away. At one place, when our infantry attacked the Turks all ran into their hospitals, and after the place was taken opened fire from there,-caus-ing us a good deal of loss, so our infantry got busy. The Turks have left mines all over the place and we are always stumbling on them. Palestine, Dec. 14. It's a long time since I was able to write, but we have been in the trenches and it rained in torrents all the time, but we are out again now, and the weather has cleared. Tell "Ru" I got a line from her while, in the trenches, containing toffee and cake and we were most thankful for it. It was in perfect condition, and everyone voted it lovely. I only got one slice. It came in most opportunely, as we were not able to boil our billies on account of our tranches not being fit to stand shell fire, and if the Turks saw smoke they used to concentrate ou'\ it with their big guns. As it was, they pounded us pretty well. The earth is very bad for trenches, and during the wet weather they kept falling in and we had several men buried. Wo have now got Jerusalem after heavy fighting. We have not been there yet, but are still on the left flank. The operations "have been most successful under Allenby, who is a splendid soldier. The fighting lias been very hard, but we have plenty to show for it. The sad tiling with us is that so many of the men of the Main Body, who would have gone back had that leave come off, have been killed. Ah, well. it is war. and if we go we go out quietly knowing vo owe the Empire nothing. A lot r*i English is spoken here, and on the d- "Iterer? Jaffa sone kid. dies we«p .staifiWjj' on the side nf «.*i road and one of on? chaps said, ."Cieda LWallad," wJrlcfcL i.s Arabia ,jn»aniim

"Good day boy." The kid said, disgustedly, "Why don't you speak English ?" Tho boys are simply splendid and through all the hardships have been very cheerful. It is an lionor to fight with them. I have been awarded the Military Cross, I suppose, for their splendid work.