FIGHTING THE TURKS.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVI, Issue 146, 21 June 1915, Page 11

FIGHTING THE TURKS.

SOME SOLDIERS' liETTERS,

«'GL I AD I'VE DONE SOMETHING."

Lance-Corporal Ueorge Pullen, who was wounded in action at the Dardanelles, has written to 'his mother, Mrs f. C. Pullen, of Stoelcrinjrton, Buttai, from the lleliopolfe Hospital, Cairo, lio BB2TS: — "I went into action about 1 p.m. on Sunday, April 2.">. and the snmp night leas back on hoard ship with a bad bullet wound in the left big toe (bone not damnge.l). the top joint of a left-hand finger emaehod to pieces, and a piece of flesh torn off the ti>p of the next finger, _s well as a bullet through the hand between the thumb and the first finger, luckily not hurting the bone. But, worst of all. m\ left eye was badly damaged. 1 can see nothing with my left cv' , , though hope of the sight beins restored has not 'been abandoned by the doctors yet. The top joint of my ring finser hoe 'been amputated, and all wounds arc h-ealing. I expect to be here a month or two. though if my eye turns out to be settled I may have to go hack to Australia.

"Some of our mates who landed earlier that morning had driven the Turks back jplendidly from their positions, and held them hack while wo landed in small boats from a destroyer. Our baptism of fire occurred just as we were reaching the land. A shrapnel shell from a consealei pun came just over our heads, i:id burst on the ibeach 100 yards further along, where a coupl« of boatloads of our men had just landed. Six or seven of them went de-vrn. We had to Wait it .the txnu'h 3 couple of hours, au occasional spent bullet landing near us. About noon we pot orders to reinforce tmr firing line on the left, it must have taken us over an hour to get there. »s we only had a narrow .path to follow, and a lot of other troops were making their way forward at the same time. One platoon lost <ine man on the way. 1 stray bullet finding him. At last we readied the firing line. Then we got it hot and strong. Our officer. Lieutenant Dam-eon, fell dead among the first. He thought nothing of taking cover, but was standing up firing his revolver at the Turks, only 100 yards away. 1 got the wound in the toe before getting to the firing line. It hurt some, but soon became nunvb. and I crawled forward. I shot at least two Turks in the next Lour, but I could see none of my own men. the country being covered with thick, prickly bushes. A HOT COKXER. "One by one. men alongside mc got hit. and lay still. I think they were all killed. Some got hit several times. -Bullets were flying around us, and shrapnel had been doing a terrible lot of damage. It was a hot corner. I heard more reinforcements coming up behind mc. I could only see a Turk now and igain, and had fired 20 or 30 shots when I was Sjgain wounded, and lay still. I thought'my hand was blown to piecce, *nd the whole left side of my head gone. 1 lay there a bit: but the bullets were *oming so unpleasantly close, and pieeee trt shrapnel—it was shrapnel that hit mc —were ( lobbing alongside mc. so I deelded tt> cut back. 1 got to the shelter o£ a big gully, where Red Crose men bound up my hand. I was too exhausted to go further, so lay there for a while. I-aterion "two chape gnve mc a hand back to the beach, where all my wounds were bandaged; and I was sent off in a boat *~HIi a lot of otheTS."

He concludes: "I am glad to have at least done something for my country, and was not a coward when death was flying around mc. I was a bit nervous when. firUt under fire, but from the .time I got to the firing line I took no notice of bursting shelie. It was bad luck, though, to be outfd in the first day of the Australian troops' fighting." "SHOCKINGLY MUTILATED." Reports of Turkish mutilation of Australian wounded are confirmed in a letler from Private F. A. Wright, who viu, ■wounded at Gallipoli. Describing the landing aand subsequent fighting he eaye:— "We were at it all day on Sunday and up till 5 p.m. on Monday, tvhcn my platoon, which, besides being in the thick of the fighting, had been carrying water and ammunition up to the firing line since we landed, was ordered to go forward. Here's where my game ended. Shrapnel burst about ten yards to my left, and all at once I felt a stinging pa-in on the ankle, then the blood began to flow. How 1 got back to the ambnrance is a miracle. You see some awful eights on a battlefield, and then they make yon turn sick at your first experience. Men are lying dead with their heads blown to piecee, their legs blown off, aiK tlielr bodies mutilated by shells.

"The Turks take no prisoners. Any of our wounded who fell into their hande ■were mutilated in a shocking manner, but, thank God, bheTc were few victims. "BIG TUP.KS AND GERMANS FOR DLRTY WORK." The Turks I saw wore fine big men, all 6ft high, with big broad shoulders— but Teal .cowaTds where bayonets arc concerned. All the officers are German. They are doing all the dirty work. "V am going under an operation some ■time thifi week to have the shapnol Vaken out of my foot, but I hope to he back at it again in about a fortnight of all goes well." THE KEY NOTE—CHEERFULNESS. The keynote of letteie sent to relatives and friends by Bendigo soldiers wounded in the early fighting at Gallipoli i 3 cheerfulness. The majority are anxiously awaiting their return to the front.

Lance-Corporal J. Tru&dale, writing to a friend, says: —"I stopped a bullet with my jaw. and it bounced off. What price my hard dial? I have- been a nonetarto- for about ten days, and have just got over the fright. I am going back to morrow to have another crack at the gobblers. They made it pretty warm. Half our boys are down, but not With ;beat wishes Ifnom a ragtime soldier." Lancr-Corporal Tay!or, (Inscribing the fighting, on the day of landing, writes:— "Fifty of us stayed in a position until 12 o'clock. We gradually dwindled to 12. with mc a« the only non-com. A few retreated. .Six were killed, and about 20 wounded. We had to retire then until reinforcement*, came, and it is lucky we did. af, three shrapnel shells buret over where we had been. I was lying behind a stump with a comrade when a shrapnel fiihell blew the stump to pieces. but we were not injured. I had just got tip, and was looking round, when I gat tny hit of Turkish delight. The first fingc-r on the left hand was blown off, and r had to go tack and get it fixed up. Nearly all our officers were 'killed and wounded."