feALLIPOLI CAMP INCIDENTS.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVI, Issue 226, 22 September 1915, Page 8

feALLIPOLI CAMP INCIDENTS.

SCENES REMOTE FROM WAR. GABA TEPE, August 1. If it were possible—which it is not, on ] account of the shells and nickel hullflt*— ' to diBBO<-iatc tire camp at Auzac from the war, it would be found that there svus much in the situation that resemble* life in a milling camp or m a tuwnsiup just gpriiiKing up in «ouie out of the way quarter of the globe. A series of incidents will illustrate my meaning (writes a representative of the "Age"). It may be reckoned that for every ten men in the field there ie at least one man behind tli- tiring line keeping the tighW-supplii-d with food and ammunition, and arranging for their arrival and departure Therefore there is behind the long, irregular row ol trenches an army of workers who can take no direct part in the fight; they cannot avenge the death of a comrade, e\cr])t by constant devotion to the work of bending forward supplies and ammunition. Without committing any breach of rules, I may any that no greater devotion to duty ban been shown than by the Army Service Corps and the column handling the ammunition. I have previously mentioned tin- etrctcher beiirere nnd din-torn, who toil day and Jiight among tlic hills to give «hat romff.ri is possible for the sick and wounded and the ' TRADERS AND THE CANTEENS. I did not think the soldier was so fond of sweets until 1 saw a man give l)d i"r a Id :-ti<k of L-hix-olate delivered to him 111 the trenches. How the vendor had re ceived the luxury I did not trouble mvwl/ to find out. but ins limited stock was wnjn sold out. You lind men with little stores of freeh supplies, either on the beach or in the giillic*. They g.-t them from v canteen during 11 visit that has taken them uuay from the peninsula, or they manage Ito £el aboard a ship where a friend has j handed over a parcel of supplies. I In tiie early stages the sailors from the men o' war—ami even now they .xjine ! ashore — were always willing to' barter cigarettes and diocolate, not for »ilw-r or gold, but for shell cases or a Turkish rilie or bayonet. A man never went to the beach without some trophy which returned him a little to supplement his ration— not that there is any complaint about the supply. The men are living on well-baked bread, eggs, a little fresh meat, and bully beef. THE PARCEL POST. Passing along one morning by the post office on the shore I watched with great interest the sorting of a bag of parrels which had ju*t arrived. They had been delivered in a very bad condition—for which 1 blamed the sender as much as anyone, though in the handling a bag is thrown by thirty or forty hands from trains to wharves, and from barges to trawlers. Some of the pan-els were so damaged that it was impossible to tell to whom they belonged, and among these wa« one containing a cake, the crumb, of which littcre<l the bottom of the bap. 'Bet ter divide it, ' said the porter. The. cor poral conscientiously suggested that though the label was missing, there might Ibe a message inside which would indicate its destination., 'ibero Was not however and the package was untied and the cake equally divided there ami then and eaU-n on the spot. That is one of the mottoes I , . Never to keep anything; it may C et lost ;or the Turks may get it; or "perhaps a > hullet may stop you eating it." The ne«< ! that a parcel of dainties has been received by Corny does not take Jong to F , round, ami many visitors drop in to *c the recipient, be he in the trenches or',n the reserve camps down in the gully. , THE PICK AND .SHOVEL BRIGADE Hiere , 5 a whimsical savin? aaion , I the troops that they leave the trenche to commence work, and one ma y believe I there ,s , suspicion of truth in the re mark. In a campaign work « never fin Ueoed. If a umt be. "resting" they may J supply, say. water carriers or general fat gue parties. Wandering along a valley recently I paeßed a numbPr " of I men with a badge of picks and shovels cunningly cut out of shining tin They were about to set off to dig some M s c* where dug-outs would be constructed I came on their camp a little further on A windmill spinning around had been connected by a clever device with a little wooden man. wielding a pj c k wno worked harder and harder a 3 the wind spun the little windmill. Ii wa * an amusing sidelight on the men's abihtv to make, light of their digging. One's astonishment increases the , longer one remains and grow., familiar with the Anzac position, at the amount of earth —thousands upon thousands of tons of it—that has been turned over and shifted since the landing in the last week of April. The whole scene I resembles a mining camp o[ real miners. ! who have come out of the tunnels in the firing line. Gangs of engineers are I working there in the hoart of the gullies ! with a windless and bucket, drawing up earth from a at the bottom of which water will soon bubble up. The valleys are full of these parties. Some units on the peninsula have their own j private well?, which they have sunk. ! One unit applied to the engineers for la pump, which resulted in the conßsra--1 tion of their well: Others, more cute use the simple but laborious bucket, and have the water to themselves There i= a gioup of men whom I shall .call -the fowkkers." One may wat.-l, ; them going along a gully; they may be ! trophy seekers, they may be o ,,i v srarch!mi for suitable stumps of woo,I for n j special purpose. The appearance of the Inn-n when without their fighting kit v I just what it is on any back-block station lor miners' camp. AEROPLANES AND BOMBS. One of the incidents of the day in which the troops are always ,nte. e-tr-! is the regular appearance toward., nisrht-1 fall of our aeroplane, with ryes pmntel , under the planes that stare down into the earth trying, one imagines, to look ritht into the xccreU of the Turks Its course is followed by white burst* of shrapnel, win, h appear iery dangeronbut pass the planes harmle-f.lv. ••She'* laid an efg." is n rry constantly heard and there is much speculation on thoerformancc— none other than the drop j pins of a bomb. The bomb certainly ifambles « white c2;„, , t r a |i, n , Ilt( J, -lowly through nn altitude of ,000 -,- -11000 feet, and there is a tense moment of expectation until a fearful burst and explosion is heard from the hiils Then. f one is close enough to see. the Turk ->i treuehe* are torn and broken The 'Nit* of the Herman Taube nm.-hin.-nwaken j'i-t at much interest, hut they ate generally \ciy brief. Th.- ~-,.,-- -hurriedly dropped, generally int o tlr sea, and before rha*e can be given the enemy dinapprar* over the distant blue hills. In his track he sometimes drnpi j pamphlets, written in English and | French, promising good times in the i Ottoman capital for deserters who leave I the rankj 0! the "greedy English." lj