GALLIPOLI.

Taranaki Daily News, 20 March 1919, Page 3

GALLIPOLI.

A POIGNANT CONTRAST. MIGHTY FORTS THAT ARE NOW HARMLESS. Mr. ft. Coliinson Owen, the special correspondent of the British Press witii the naval forces at the Dardanelles describing the landing of the British troops on the Gallipoli Peninsula on November 9th last, writes: — We left Mudrps in a destroyer at 4 o'clock in the morning to see tho landing, and arrived at Cape Helles about 9 The first outward sign that we were in such historic waters wai, the sight of a mart sticking up off the rocky coast of Imbros. This marked the spot where the big monitor Maglan and the smaller one, M'2B, went down when standing up hopelewly against the Goaben and the Breslau at the time of their ill-starred sortie last year.

We passed over deep water)s that concealed the remains of sunk British and French battleships, the Ocean, Irresistible, Majestjc, Goliath, Triumph, and Bouvet. We anchored just off V beach, where the River Clyde was run ashore.

As the landing of the troops was not expected for some hours We went ashore ,A motor-boat took us ashore, and we passed under the sides of the scarred and gallant old River Clyde. One felt thai she had a soul, and that it was living yet in spite of the bare hulkthat the Turks have made of her. The rtpar water that lapped gently against her sides might have been whispering of what once happened there. It was there that onr men fell from the gangways, 'burdened by their heavy packs, and, were drowned. The four big square ports cut in each fide for the quicker disembarkation of the heroes who landed From her gaped on her stripped interior. At the forward port, near the bows, the wooden gangway that led clown to the light.-jrs waiting alongside, and down which the very first men who landed on Gallipoli ran or stumbled, is still intact, and it was jtwt bc-yond this stairway down to death and glory that we stepped ashore from the launch It was strange indeed to put foot rn lhat barren shore, realising how much we had paid to take it, and find it now completely deserted. Above us as we landed were the remains of the old fort of Sedd-el-Bahr, which the fleet knocked to nieces in the first bombardment. We walked up steep ground, passed over the old trencher both our own and the enemy's, and <=aw new onas constructed in case of the further attack which for months past the Turks had been expecting We embarked atrair near the River Clyde in a patrol launch, and proceeded up the Straits Landing at Cape Helles and wiilW to Hamidieh hatiery. a mile and a. half away, which is the strongest on the Straits.

Hamdieh Fort was quite deserted. It lias played a big part in the operations against" the Dardanelles. It has three l't-inch gnw, dating back to the 'eighties, and six 9.2-ir.ch guns. Looking from one of tli? emplacements one could see right down t.n the mouth of the Straits and bevond.

By the time we returned to Capn Helles a tig transport and an old-type cruiser, both loaded with British troop?, were lying there. The actual landing and the occupation of the first forts were devoid of incident.