IN A TIGHT CORNER.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVI, Issue 310, 30 December 1915, Page 6

IN A TIGHT CORNER.

SAVED BY AN EYE OF THE FLEET. (By Telegrapß.—Special to "Star.") MASTERTON, this day. "The Navy never sleeps out at the Dardanelles; those eyes of the fleet, the destroyers, are never cloeed." The speaker wae a returned Taihape ■trooper who had taken part in the historic landing, and who fought right through the campaign till the end of the big struggle in August, after which, a wreck, and bearing more than one scar where a bullet struck him, he was sent home to recuperate. "Yes, the Navy has done good work, undoubtedly," I replied. "The Navy seems to be always on i hand when help is needed," continued the , trooper. "As an illustration, I may state that on one occasion a party of about! a dozen of us ecoute were sent out to t get the lay of the land. We got a long way from our lines, and came to a posi- : tion -where we could get a splendid view of some Turkish trenches. We took a rough sketch of them, and secured all the details we could. We then commenced to return to our lines many miles away. We had to go cautiously, for we had really gone further than was really safe. Taking too much risk? Well, perhaps so, but when you are out scouting you forget all about risks. We were getting along nicely, and just beginning I to congratulate ou/delves on our luck, i But you know the old saying, "Never holler until you are out of the woods." " 'Gor blimy,' suddenly cried one of our party. "We've come to the end of the penny section, mates. , "'What's up?' we asked. "'Cast your blanky eyes over there,' he replied, and we followed hig outstretched arm. We looked eagerly, and presently we caw a move away on a I ridge. It was a Turkish patrol. We 'made a rush for it. More Turks appeared. A stray shot then rang out. More Turks appeared, and their object was plain. They were attempting to cut us off. "'Boys,' said the trooper who first !s»w the Turks, "we're bound for Constantinople this time all right, or for hell. The ekipper was right when he said we should soon be in Constantinople. 1 We're in for something winner than Cairo the night of the scrap and fire.' •'We were becoming anxious, for the Turks were travelling faster than we were. Another fifteen minutes passed. "It's Constantinople or hell all right, boys,' said the officer in charge of us. i 'Who'll go for help? . Before anyone j could reply, epit, epit came some shots, 'and one of our fellows stopped a bit of i lead. I "'l'll go!' cried one of our chaps, and I hardly were the words out of his mouth than away he went, taking his life in his hands. "The wounded man wished to be left behind. 'I don't want to be a burden to you,' he 3aid. It was the same old colonial spirit. The spirit of Anzac. But we would not hear of leaving him behind. We eventually took up a position, and prepared to sell our live 3 dearly. Thougr greatly out-number-ing us, the Turks had learned to rel spect the khaki cf the Australians and I New Zealandcrs. The Turks did not seem to fear the English troops much— except the Irish—but the colonials they believed to be leagued with the Evil One, and always moved warily when up against us. All through the night the potting went on. Our ammunition was getting low despite the fact that we I were conserving it as much as possible ' for when the final rush came. But the i Turks never came closer. We shifted i cur quarters during the night, making toward-s the coast. Would help never ! come to us? What had happened to our ' mate who had offered to run such a risk ] for us? " I'm bettin' 10 to 1 none of us see blanky daylight!' said one of our men. J There is something about a colonial I I can never understand. Never mind how I great the danger, he will have his joke —and some of our fellows, death staring them in the face, found time to pass j a joke. An odd shot or two came occa-! ! sionulV from the direction of the Turks, i just to let us know that we still had ; their charming company. Towards; morning the firing from the Turkg became more frequent, showing that they had been reinforced. Apparently they J were now in sufficient numbers to rush us, as they no doubt knew our strength, and were only waiting for daylight to put this into operation. '"'Which would yer sooner be doin'?' asked one of our fellows, as a couple of bullets whistled over his head —(he was an Aucklander, I think). 'Roller skatin , down Karangahape Road or blowing the froth off a long-eleever at the White Swan in Wellm'ton?' "'ATI the roller-skating or boozing you'll ever do again will be harmless,' was the response he got. "The first sircak of dawn was showing. We knew the end was not far off, j and we may be pardoned for just thinking of someone whom to held dear in that far-off New Zealand. " "Hang on to ymir ammunition for the end, boys!' called out our officer. A strange silence came over our party.! We could discern the sea not bo far away. A fusillade came from the Turks. Then silence again. The tension was becoming terrible. We would like to have rushed out from our position and charged the Turks so as to get the whole business over. There was no help coming from our lines. . Our poor mate (he wa.3 a Mastertoo boy, but his name I do not know as he belonged to a different troop to mc) must have gone under, we thought. Daylight was with us, and we counted how long it would be before the end. A medley of thoughts before the end. "'Here, gor 'blimey!' yelled our Auckland friend. We stood up. A shell burst .over our heads. Help at last. We screamed, we yelled, we cheered. Another shell. We cheered again. We danced like madmen. Fired our rifles bang ftt where the Turks were. "Next -we say our Auckland friend jumping round yelling at the top of his voice (and pointing towards the sea at the same time), "For it"s the Navy, -the iblanky Navy, that keeps our foes at bay; Our old souk ' "'Oh, shut up!' called out another of our men. 'I'd eooner be shot by a Turk than hear you sing!" "We looked out to sea, where the Aucklander -was pointing. There was a destroyer spitting fire, and a boat nearing the shore. "Another shell landed beyond us. We saw the Turks retiring. Then we ran, yelling and cheering, down to the waterline, where we were taken in the boat and •subsequently rejoined our lines. "We found out afterwards that our mate who had gone for help had reached our lines safely, but it was considered out of the question to get help to us. "But for that eye of the fleet it might have been 'Constantinople or hell' for us."