WINTER HARDSHIPS ON GALLIPOLI.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVI, Issue 309, 29 December 1915, Page 5

WINTER HARDSHIPS ON GALLIPOLI.

SENTRIES FROZEN AT THE LOOPHOLES.

SUFFERINGS THAT RIVAL THE CRIMEA. (Received 11 a.m.) LONDON, December 28. Mr. Price, the "Daily Mail" correspondent, writing on December 13, just prior to the withdrawal from Suvla Bay and Anzac, says:—"The Turkish artillery fire, owing to the opening of a railway, is increasing. The big guns have to be drawn by bullockß along a solitary road, and are so slow in getting into position that the enemy decided on using smaller guns. These are now manned by expert Austrian and German artillerymen, and are bombarding the beaches at Cape Helles daily at a six mile range, with 6in explosives. It is, however, surprising how little damage is done, although they can bombard us on three sides with absolute precision. CRIMEA HORRORS RECALLED. "The weather, however, is more capable of giving trouble than the Turkish artillery. The recent storm caught the light vessels which were sheltering in Kcphalos Bay, in the Isle of Imbrose, and it also damaged the breakwaters which the British had constructed at Suvla, Helles, and Kephalos Bay, by sinking old sand-filled ships. The hurricane which raged from the 27th to the 29th of last month was a terrible trial to the Britishers, Australians, and New Zealanderß, penned in their narrow trenches along naked ridges. First it rained in torrents for twelve hours, then a piercing frost made the drenched overcoats so stiff that they stood up themselves. The water froze around the men's feet as they slept in utter exhaustion. Some were only-kept alive by working the whole night long with picks and shovels. After the night came a blizzard, and the -men, frozen and buffeted by the wind and sleet, yet hardly able to move in order te keep their circulation alive, endured untold agonies. Sentrieß watching at the loopholes were found dead at their posts, frozen rigid, with their fingers still.clutching their rifles in an ironfast grip, and their blackened faces still leaning under the sackcloth curtains against the loopholes. Never since the Crimea have British troops endured such a terrible ordeal. Those who doubted the ability of the Australians to endure exposure may be reassured that they stood the trial well. , TURKS FARE EVEN WORSE. •'The Turks suffered even worse, for they are.without blankets and waterproof sheets, and the Turks have to sleep in their overcoats. When tho 12-hour cloudburst turned.the gullies into raging torrents, many Turkish dead bodies were washed down with the carcases of mules and various equipment. The Turkish trenches were so flooded that the men were forced to get out and lie in the open,, where we shot them, though the fingers of some of our men were too frozen to pull, the triggers. As an officer said, 'We could only grin at the Turks.' Fortunately the weather has since set fair, and we now have a spell of mild Riviera weather, enabling the flooded trenches to be repaired, parapets rebuilt; and the smashed jetties mended."