NEW ZEALANDERS IN ACTION.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVI, Issue 145, 19 June 1915, Page 11

NEW ZEALANDERS IN ACTION.

THE FIGHTING ON GALLIPOLI. DESCRIBED BY AUCKLAND SOLDIERS, STORIES TOLD BY THE WOUNBED.

Many letters have been received from New Zealanders wounded in the fighting at Sari Bair. and their stories are full of interest to those left behind. We give below some interesting excerpts from letters sent by men in hospital to their relatives in the Dominion, in which the progress of the-fighting is strongly described by "the men behind the gun "

FIRST TO LAND. A MOT-NT EDEN BOY. AMONGST THE THIRD BRIGADE. CoM__-_NT>__\T'S ORDER OBEYED. "HOLD AT ALL COSTS."

Private F. It.. Adams, of Mount Eden, .rites to his father I Mr. •'. H. Adamsi a vcrv fine descriptive account nf the land-

in" of the first boatload of men on Turkish soil. Private Adams wa? in Brisbane when the war broke out. and enlisted with the Oth Battalion of the Third Brigade, which suffered such disastrous losses during the first day's fighting at Sari Rair. -At the time of writing."' Mates Private Adams, i am on board the Australian hospital ship with a small shrapnel wound in the foot. There arc a thousand wounded men on this ship. It is about two months ago since we of the Third Australian Brigade, consisting of the nth. •'lth. 11th and 12th. received marching orders. We l"ft Kgypt not knowing where we were hound for, and finished up by landing at 'he island of lx-mnos. 50 miles south of tho Dardanelles. We received instruct,,': that we w»rc to remain there until .il! •. . ,- toady for a none ,'ti Turkey b\ , eoii.i::iio,| army of Aimtrnlians. Sew Zcalnndors. t-'nglish and Frencti. We had a \ rv qu:ei six weeks ashore at U'Uinos. Towards the close of that period transport- began to arrive, until there «ere ldO ship.- in hnrlioiir, Then commenced

the "mbarkation. We were io>oan" our transport lor a week liefore we received orders that the Third Bnpade was to load tne Undinp party. Uur instructions wore to effect a landing and hold on at all costs. In order to facilitate landing operations, the troops composing our brigade were disposed on battleships and dot rovers. A and li companies, the latter. my own, being quartered on 1 1.M.5. Queen. 7 nat was on the morning nf Saturday. April 24. Saturday afternoon wo made a bee-line for the -oat of operations. -TORiIING AN IM.KEdNARI-K HEIGHT.

"About 2 a.m. on Sunday we were in the ship's cutters, ready for our dash, hut had to wait til! the moon went down. Finally we set off at :'.:W> a.m. for the Ehoro, which meant that we had a distance of about five miles to rover. All went smoothly till »c were within 20 yards of the beach, then quite suddenly ritlo. ballets started to whistle round us. Tho lads kept perfectly cool and stuck to the oars, and as soon as the boat grounded we jnmped into the water and did even time across the beach to cover at the ,'i.ot of the el iff. I may say incidentally that our boat was tho first to touch and" our platoon was tho first ashore Well, to proceed, we had a hit of a tusk tr. perform. The cliff wo had to climb was pretty steep—about riO degrees from the horizontal. 1 should say. At the top of the cliff the Turks were entrench*!, and the beggars had a machine gun playing on us as well. But up the cliff we went with fixed bayonets, losing a few mon on the way. and had got within ten yards of the trenches when our enemies tamed and ran. abandoning their machine gun and wounded. It is a thinp I will never be able to understand—2so men -terming an imprepnable position with hardh a casualty.

aboard the hospital ship, which already had close on 1.000 wounded men nboard. This would be about 4 p.m., and represented twelve hours' lighting. Thp next news we had was that our chaps had been driven back with dreadful daughter almost to the sea, but had entrenched themselves and we,-e hanging on. Our brigade, the third, we went told, had been almost completely wip<td out; the ninth suffering to such an ,>xtent that there were only 2- men and seven officers left out of 1.000 men. Just then the warships, got the range o? the fardistant, battery that had don,? all the damage, and started sending shell after shell at them, and here ends my own pcr-onal experience. We heard thip moriiinp that 8,000 New Zealandess and the Second Australian Division had landed, and that our combined forcen had driven the enemy hack live milefi during the night, so 1 guess the thing; has got a good start. I nv.self am reatl good, and expect to get back to the fighting line alter being a fortnight ira Egypt.''

SH-_._P>.'KL r.rKE RAIN*. "Tbe rest of tho landing party made pood on our right and left, and in about j ten minutes from the time the fun j started wo had a nice long lino of skirmishers, about 4.(100 strong, extending along the cliff. We kept the Turks on the run for about two miles, and then they disappeared altogether. Wo at j once i-tarted entrenching, but before we i could get through with our job they j came at us again, and we abandoned j trenching fur shootinp. Our lads kept 1 -rfvanoing till at last the foe led us right | into i, rat-trap. At this time we wv-re ' about lu.nitH strong, but wo discovered, that th" '!:."■- outnumbered v- by f ve to on< -ore w-01l entrenched, with any am, f ma.:hine guns and some big gin-. Nothing daunted, our boys pros.-,-: on. turning the enemy out of four trenches and capturing some machine guns and field artillery. A large battery over on tho hills to tho left, about five miles away, opened on us with 6hrapne] md poured in shell after shell at the rate of ton a minute. Hur chaps were mowed down by the hundred, and the.-,- were dead and" dying on all sides. Tlie shrapnel swept the ground as thick as rain, machine "tins wore sweeping our line, and the rifle lin of the other side -UF ttemendou-. I in- -hole of the first Australian di- :m<.m was then in the held, consisting of l_.nnn _ien. It was too -ot. and'we had to make a general roll- ::>, BRICAPI-: A: ' -T WIPED OUT. "Ip to thi.- inn. ! estimated that our casualties niu-t li.ivr been about 3,000. It was then that I got my little lot. and as my foot was useless I hob-r-.1-U down -t .he beach and got taken

FROM AN ONEHUNGA BOY.

INJTTKED. BUT ANXIOUS TO RETTTRN. PRAI.K FOR WARSHIPS AXD IXDIAXS. An interesting letter has been written to his relatives by .Sapper K. I Put. I Sutherland, of 1 Inehunpa. who had been abroad for six years, when he ioined tlie New- Zealand section formed by the High l ommissioner in London. Footballers will remember "Pat" as a prominent figure iv Suburbs some 10 years hack, and also as. a representative full-back.

"1 nippouc it will be surprising for you to read that I am again back in ( ami," lie writes, "but it was my lot to be among the wounded, and F was included in the TOO who were brought hereon board one of the captive ships from the enemy. I was wounded just above, the right car. 1 believe it was a sniper's. spent bullet, as it caught mc when 1. with another, was digging myself in so as to pet out of the road of the shrapnel and stray bullets tliat were so thick in. the air at that tim\ The feeling I had was that of being struck with a shell as any hit on the head is Mire to bovery decidedly felt. It happosneii that' the doctor of our company was close at hand. a,nd 1 was soon bandaged up, although I lost a lot of blood. I had a tremendous buzzing in the head, hntt nmv my only trouble is the effect of my hearing. This is getting easier every day.

i have now had a taste of whrtf war really is. and. to put it plainly, it s certainly hell upon earth. To think that such a wiar should bo taking place is beyond words. The Australian and New Zealajid troops had a position that tested them, and they wont at it vritli a force and will that was marvellous. Our company landed on the Sunday cv pning. Ac we came near the scene wo heai 1 the hip guns of the warships, and srxtn wo bceame familiar with tho clash and clang of guns, hip an.l small. It is likely that so much heavy firing is somewhat responsible for my affected hearing. Being so sick afier receiving my wound I lost all my gear. i miss my razor especially, '■ We were rather nhort of help on ■our hospital r-hip. >o. as soon as 1 felt, better I tried to assist by washinp some of the wounded who-were unable to __ anything for themselves. Several on lx>ard .-till had the blood dried on their faceft and arms, and some of them thirnkod mc go kindly for helping them, as it wa-t,ov»-ra! days since they had felt freeh water. We had some very rti _ c_ses on board, and on the trip barik to Cairo some 25 officers and men wette buried at sea. having died of wounds. This trip alone s-bowed mc the horrors of wrar. Why. onJy to-day we were tryting a game of euchre, when I had to do all the dealing as my comrades were without the use of a band or an arm.

•• T can't go further without putting in a word for tho grand work of the warship-. Before we landed we liad a cli-ancp to soo tho work of tho M-jestic a.s she landed i-hot after shot witihin a few foot of rich other, while tho shots of 'Queen 1-Z-io ' must have done awful havoc. We were tokl that 'tne of lior shots lifted one of the enemy'si armoured trains -dean away from thei line. Another thing that impressed m« was ;he fbie steady work of tiie Indians, as they- wi-h their loaded mules, took thoir mountain guns into good position.- How we esr«pr-d the bullets the first night, when wic p-ep-rod a |n-n_ trench, i- _maz in_. a? tie snipers wore firing aicarr to their heant's content. Our second ni<£it was spent in preparing the road OP a valley Jot-the artillery guns to get into position. It was then that 1 was wounded. T heard afterwards that my company witiK off with barbed wire, and that they were a>o employed burying th" dead. While in Cairo 1 made many friendship, with Y-M.C.A. people, and have received kind invitations to spend days with them. *o you see hospitality is will ingly forthecrndng. At our hospital there are A_-trali-_is and New Zealandena, but 1 hear arrangement- are -being made bo brin" all Nevr Zealander. together, and I feel "tins will -c better. I can't help but ieel I have _s_i a wonderful escape, and by the time you get this I expect bo-r.e well and ready for service again."