THE SUEZ FIGHT.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVI, Issue 63, 15 March 1915, Page 7

THE SUEZ FIGHT.

ATTACK BY THE TURKS. TWO DAYS' FIGHTING. ENEMY BEATEN OFF. Commonwealth Official Correspondent.) (Published In the Sydney '"Daily Telegraph"" ot March 11.) Cairo. February 10.—The attack on tire Suez Canal has come and paiispd—perhaps for ever. The .following may be taken as a fairly accurate account of the manner in which the canal was attacked. It will be told in two articles—the first describing the main attack, the second explaining the previous brushes and the two attacks made in other places on the same day as tbe main attempt, and which were subsidiary to it. There are only three stretches of the Suez Canal which can be attacked by land, because the rest of it now runs through water. The northernmost of these stretches begins at Kantara. Kantara is 2S miles south of the northern end of the canal. This first stretch reaches from Kantara as far as Tsmailia, about 18 miles in all. South of the old Ballah Lakes the land rises in sandhills, and for the rest of the way to Ismailia the caaial runs through a deep cutting, which suddenly opens out where the canal widens into Lake Timsah. At this point is the Ismailia ferry, where tire canal can be crossed by a punt. The open waters of Lake Timsah are obviously impassable for an enemy. But south of it comes a second stretch of high land broken with sandhill*, through which the canal runs in a cutting until it opens out again to the much wider waters of the Great and Little Bitter Lakes. This second stretch is only about eight miles long. The Bitter Lakes again "are impassable to an enemy. From their south-

era end begins the third stretch of land about twelve miles long, where the canal runs between high and low banks alternately until it reaches Suez. It was at the northern end of the most northerly of these three sections that brushes with the Turks had bren occurring for about a wieek, when it became obvious that an attack .was likely to be made in a different direction. THE MAIX BODY OF TURKS. It was about the last day of January Or the first of February when a Turkish column moved out of a steep valley in the hills opposite the centre of the canal, and about 35 miles distant from it. Jt had come by a central road, and not hy the northern and southern caravan routes, by which most people had expected it. It had camped for a time in a valley behind the edge of the plateau, and now moved down into the bare, Bandy foothills bordering the plain opposite Lake Timsah. It moved behind these sandy spurs up to the last point, at which it would be unobserved. Part of the column had previously moved off toward the northern portion of the canaJ. The greater part—about 20.000—concentrated at Katib el Kheil. During Sunday, January 31. and Monday, February 1. considerable movements of troops could be seen in the desert some way east of Lake Timsah. The enemy's snipers gradually pushed out by night across the desert into the second stretch of la;.J defence before mentioned —the eight-mile stretch south of .Lake Timsah —and not in amongst the sandhills near the edge of the canal, about two miles south of the lake. From here there was a good dc;il of nocturnal sniping. By February 2 there were a fair number of snipers in these hillocks. Steamers going thron_li tho canal had to be protected with s":irl;Mg= around the bridge, but on very few 0.-casions was it found necessary in an way to interfere v."ith shipping. The existence of tbe Turkish force which was concentrating behind Katib el Kheil was well known to the posts along the canal: it bad pontoons, and it was clear that an attack was going to be made either against the stretch of land defence, north of Lake Timsah. or else against that to the south of it. On Tuesday, Fehruary 3, just a week after the first brush at Kantara, the Turkish artillery opened against the British positions near Ismailia. It was fiercely kept up, but had practically no effect. That afternoon there came down a very severe sandstorm, which put an end to both rifle and gun fire. THE MAIN ATTACK. On Tuesday night there should have been a bright moon. But. as a matter of fact, the sandstorm had l p ft the air as impenetrable as in a thick fog. Midnight was passed in perfect quiet. It was about 3 o'clock in the morning when a sentry on the western bank of the canal, just south of Thussoum station, saw some men on the other bank in the act of launching a boat. He fired at once, and immediately after other troops, who were on the alert on tbe western bank, let fly. There was an instant uproar of sound. Several machine guns and hundreds of rifles broke the silence With continuous fire. Other dark objects could be =een putting off into the canal. An Egyptian battery which was near by ran two rounds of case shot into one "boat at point-T>lank range. A naval picket boat, with a quick-firing gun in the bows. :s sai.l to have sunk a boat by ramming it. and onened fire with its gun at close range. Twenty bo.its were afterwards found, but only two of them reached the western bank. In one of these only four out of 25 survived. They reached the western bank, and after two had been killed the remaining two surrendered. The other boat by some chance managed to reach the land intact. -But it was seen b y a British officer commanding some of the troops on the bank above. He immediately charged down upon if. and either killed or made -prisoners of the whole crew. Several other boats were sunk, and although about ten seem to have been afterwards floated in the canal, all except two were so riddled as to be useless. Two of them were intact, and tlie Australian engineers have since been amusing themselves by constructing tjperimtatal pontoon put ol "them, ' '

Tlie attempt to cross the canal in boats was thus for the moment beaten back. But a fierce rifle five was still raging from the top of the eastern hank of the canal. Clearly there were Turkish troops lining the top of that bank, and they must have been firing at the flashes of th e Indian rifles along the western bank, of the canal. WHAT HAD HAPPENED. What had happened was as follows: The Turksrboyoud question intended to make a serious concerted attempt to. cross the canal. Orders were issued to their troops that the Suez Canal was held weakly, and that if they could only succeed the Egyptians would receive them with open arms. Of nearly 30,000 men who had conic by the central route, a certain number moved towards Kantara, hut the main body of the "20,000 was ordered to make the main attempt to cross tlie canal between the two British posts at Toussouni and Serapeum. That is to say, the main attack was to he made against the northern part of the second stretch of land defences above mentioned —the eight-mile stretch between the south of Lake Timsah and the north (if the large Bitter Lake. Tlie banks of the canal throughout the northern part of this stretch are high— they must be 30 or 40 feet high in many places—and the canal runs between them like a railway through a cutting. At the northern end of this cutting where the canal issues from Lake Timsah is tlie Suez Canal Company's station at Toussouni. Between the post of Serapeum am! (lie British post of Toussoum stretches continuously a broken, hummocky sandhill. A little way farther to the east, however, these sandhills give way to the plain, and a wide open desert basin intervenes between the broken sandhills on the canal bank, and the distant spurs of sandy hills which form the horizon. Probably troops coming across this stretch of "desert would be visible in daytime to anyone standing on the high canal bank; but once they reach tlie brokrn surface near the canal they have the advantage of a certain amount of cover in the folds and behind the hummocks and the sandhills. It was into this broken ground that the Turkish snipers had been making their way, and it was here that they decided to make this attempt to cross. TURKS FAVOURED BY DARKNESS. They were exceedingly fortunate in tlie night chosen for their attack. The march must have started at about nightfall. One brigade was to attack nnd the remainder of the division to lie in reserve, in order to be moved up as occasion required. From the leading brigade three parties were chosen consisting of about half a battalion eacH. which were to attempt the first crossing. The remainder of the brigade was to act as their immediate support, and the reserves to lie four or five miles behind until called upon. The leading parties moved ofT first with the pontoons. These were boats made of galvanised iron or zinc. They were carried on wagons drawn by oxen —the method apparently by which they had been brought from Beersheba—up to a point perhaps five or six miles from the canal. They were there unloaded and taken by the men straight across the desert towards the canal banks. About 50 men were put on to each of these boats to transport them. Whether they dragged or carried them I cannot say. The mark* of their keels are back all along the canal side, but I fancy that these were made by our Australians when dragging some of tho boats from the Canal afterwards. The probabilities are that the Turks carried them. TOOK OFF THEIR BOOTS. I The Canal hank, wherever the cutting is steep, is everywhere and there pierced |V, and making a. sort of drain or pathway leading down to' 'the water's edge or near it. i I do not know what is the ob- I jects of these crosscuttings, unless it is to afford an occasional pathway by which . the Canal Company's employees may ' (reach the top of the bank without having to climb the sides, which are here very i steep. Anyway, there the cuttings are. There were several of them down through the sandhills between Toussoun Post nnd the «'*erapeium Post, lt was down several of these cuttings that the advanced party of Turks carried its boats. On arriving at the sandhills they carried them over the uneven surface, until they reached what they knew to be the reverse slope | of those white sandhills—the last point at which they would be out of sight and hearing of our men on the western bank j • —is simply littered with boots, not very old boot.-, nor in had condition, either. . Then they came into view, and carried | the long, iron craft. The first rifle shot rang out from the opposite bank high i over their heads.. |

For some time the boats must have continued to emerge from the cuttings along about half a mile of the CanaL Two were never put into the water at all. But there can hardly have heen less than 600 Turks at one time or another |in the night bringing these boats down to the water's They intended to row them across, for they were fitted with rowlocks and carried oars. When they found the fire too heavy for them, some of them must have scuttled back 'up the cuttings, down which they had brought them, and flung themselves down amongst the. tussocks. Others who had carried their boats some way along the water's edge found themselves caught like rats in a trap on a narrow ledge at the water's brink. They dug themselves practically into the bottom of the bank, with our" rifles looking right down into their hopeless dugouts. A few who could swim threw themselves into the water, swam across, and were captured. Many were drowned. Only four got away, and they have since given themselves up.

THE FIGHT FROM THE SANDHILLS.

The first attack had thus failed. The supports behind heard the firing, and perhaps learnt of the check from fugitives. They were at once pushed up to the edge of the canal through the tussocks, amongst the remnants of the first party, and from here with three Maxim guns they kept up a hot lire at the crest of the opposite bank. Their positions can be clearly traced by the shallow trenches which they dug themselves in the crest—cacli a separate little square hole with the sand roughly thrown up in a breast work. The supports must have been scattered through nearly two miles of broken country along the top of the east bank of the canal from Toussoum to within half il mile of the Serapeum. Indeed, they were extraordinarily close to Toussoum. When day dawned the men holding the Toussoum post found a number of them crowded into a depression not 100 yards from the trenches of their own post. There happened here to be a depression leading down to the Canal, and the Turks in the darkness had actually stumbled into this depression and brought some of their boats down through it into the Canal. The dust storm had prevented their seeing or bein" seen, and when our rifle fire broke out about 150 of them gradually collected herp, imagining it to be sheltered. As a matter of fact, it was open to our rifles, and of the crowd that huddled together here 50 were killed and at loast 60 wounded. At II o'clock in the taorn-

ing two small parties-of our troops were sent out on either side of Toussoum post. The officer in charge of one signed to the crowd in this gully to throw their rifles down and hold up their hands, which they immediately did, and were taken prisoners. TURKISH RESERVE FAILS. But from the sandhills farther south a desultory fire was kept up all day across the Canal. ]t was here -that our troops on the opposite bank established one of those vague relations which have been often talked of in this war as an "ascendancy" over -the other side. Our troops on the west bank had their •heads over their trenches all the time. I do not think that at any time wove they even approximately equal iv numbers to their opponents. But the Turk had to keep his head hidden, and would only pop up a moment to lire and disappear again. The moment his head appeared our troops were waiting for it. and twenty or thirty rifles let a volley at it together. That was the way in which the trops on the western banks spent the whole of this Wednesday. The Turk in the sandhills could neither advance nor retire. That lasted from three o'clock on Wednesday morning until midday on Thursday. The Turks had six batteries of artillery and a big gun of not larger than C-inches calibre supporting their attack. These were out ■in the folds of the desert cast of Lake Timsah, in a position which seems to have been screened from the warships in the lake. But they were seen by other observers, possibly from aeroplanes, with the gun teams waiting in a hollow behind the guns. The}" were horse and mule team, 10 horses —5 pairs to each gun. They directed a heavy fire against the position on the bank of the Cana) near Toussoum. That was tho main attack on the Suez Canal. It was supported by two other attacks made at the same time farther north; one was against KanEara.