DEFENCE OF THE CANAL.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVII, Issue 236, 3 October 1916, Page 6

DEFENCE OF THE CANAL.

■ - FIGHTIJiG AT EX BOI4AST. ** DR. KESDER'S EXPERIENCES. Captain A. Kinder. V7ATP J of Parnell, who has been doing lard and useful work for some months ■with the Xew Zealand forces in Egypt, -was lately, transferred to tie New Zealand Mounted Held Ambulance operating there. Writing from the headquarters of the ambulance at Ei Kantara, on the Suez Canal. to Mr M. J. Coyle, chairman of the Auckland Hospital Board, he sajs: ''You •wiH know by this time (Augoct 8), that we have had another brash with the Turks, and have given them a pretty solid ■hiding. I liave been stuck pretty dose to it at the Canal railway terminus, and have mostly had to do with the transport of the wounded. It. is rather sick, as one hears the guns going, not to be -right up at the front. The actual -work among the sandhills is very strenuoos. I have been otrt to the front once or twice, and most of the wounded are drawn on sledges. A sledge which is found to answer as well as any is made by turning ■up one end of a sheet of galvanised iron and a crossbar on to it to fasten the horse to. It is terribly hard on the horses, as they sink in up to their knees. Fenwick is with mc here, but he is out further than I am, and I only ccc him occasionally, as ire go oat and come in at irregular intervals, according as the wounded gather up. We have evacuated a irainful each day during the last two days, mostly colonials. The earlier ones were mostly Tommies, bnt in the pursuit, as we expected, our men hare got hit Lip a good deal. 7. Captain Kinder mentions that the Turkish prisoners taken at El Komani numbered about 3500. They wer« well | equipped, he says, but very short of food and water. Their camel machrae-gnn equipment was mneh better than the British, the saddle forming the gun tripod and economising time and weight. These guns did much execution, owing to the abundance of cover among the tall sand dmnes and oases of palms. "They had dragged a 60-pomxder over the sand," be continues, -and this shook np our men in Eomani pretty much. It as almost incredible that they could drag the gun and ammunition along. 1 see a good deal of artillery units, mostly Scottish, and xery nice fellows they are. One crack crowd which came out here hat its muies, gear, guns, ett, handed over to another , unit which was short of equipment. 1 tell you there was some dnst-up over that." Captain Kinder adds that he ie keeping very well, and fit for lots of ■work.