IN ACTION.

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

IN ACTION.

THE DARDANELLES LANDING. WELLINGTON BOY DESCRIBES EXPERIENCES. A vigorous account of the landing operations at the Dardanelles, and of the initial fighting in which the New Zealanders were engaged, i- contained in a letter written by Corporal Chapman, late of the Stamp Department, to a friend in Wellington. Corporal Chapman '.-."rites from the military hospital at He-opolis, where he had been taken with a bullet wound in the knee. "Our wan-ports lelt Alexandria, and made for the island of -caanos," writes Cor.por.a.l tihapman. "When we had arrived there, we set sail for tlie Dardanelles, and on Sunday we got within he_r- ; ing of the war-hip- having a go at the forts. Later we could see them blazing away for all they were worth. We had the satisfaction m' peeing a couple of forte blown to pieces. "We had order, to load our rifles and st-i.d ready, but we did not leave tbe sihip until about 1 o'clock on Monday morning. We r.ot ashore at 4.30 a.m.. and had to wade tip to our waists, cross a strip of beach about ten yards wide, und then up the side of a hill about WOO feet high a very stiff climb, t0... The hillside was covered with thick n-rub. As soon as we* got ashore we were under the fire of the Turkish howitzers, but only a couple of our boy- were hit. We had to dig ourselves into the h.ll and wait, as we were the reserves.* "We waited lint- 10 o'clock on Tuesday morning, when we heard thp cry, For Hod's sake send up reinforcements,' and up we went. Wo did not waste much time over it. as the bullets were falling fast all around u.s. and when we got there it wa- hell. You have no idea what it was like to -cc your pals dropping like (lifs, with the most awful wounds, and dying undrr your eyes, und not being Mr- to heh,'them. ' But we had plenty t„ do. We'did not have trenches, an.l were i'.ist lying "ii the ground, with a bit of scrub in front, and bullets tearing through.

"As .-.,n a- ■<' got dp 1 put mv section into pci-itioii. ami presently we .tartcl to dig a '.rench. \V'.- iiad '..-ecu I'ggng lbout an hour, when I heard the irder. '!''i\ bayonets, i barge It, I _,t. for I wanted lo get run fir - un,: Hi 111. III:.If'.-, ii.it nr, luck v.-.- o'lt. I

had .ml;, just got st<i"ted .ti \ ie . hare,, when l' iiib. p.ucg. In : ■~- knee and

I..wii 1 wcit. 1 lav for -, mil hours l.il darkness »et in. s., that I ... .1.1 crawl .ul. ll t"..k nt" til midnight :., get t" the station, and it ''a*. I o'clock .n the ifret-noon when I pot hit. I was j.nt h'io.i r.i a h..spital ship mi! landed here, where there arc about 7-fl of us in .'hat u-.-l t . I-' a *'. nt:t:_ rink."