BRILLIANT FEATS OF BRITISH TROOPS.

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume XLIV, Issue 6582, 8 January 1916, Page 4

BRILLIANT FEATS OF BRITISH TROOPS.

Fine Work of Colonials and Maoris.

(Continued.) Rec Jan 7, 9.40 a.m. London, Jan 6. Genera] lan Hamilton, referring to the operations ft Gallipoli, continues: The Seventh Gloucester suffered terrible losses, The fire was hot and their trenches only aix inches deep, every officer, sergeant-major, quarter m«t«r, and sergeant being killed or wounded. ; Yet this battalion of the new army | fought like mad till sunset without | any officers. The Fourth Australian Brigade's j advance from Aamakdere, on the left, i meanwhile was held up by cunningly- \ placed machine guns. When heavy columns of Turkish rifles approached the Australians were virtually surrounded and were withdrawn to their original position, after losing over a thousand man. Here they stood, though half d*ad with thirst and fatigue, and bloodily repulsed attack after attack. So matters stood at noon on the Bth. The expected support from Suvia hung fire, but the capture of Chunuk Bair was a preatge of victory. The troops were fall of %bt, so they decided on essaying another grand attack with Captain Johnston's, Cox', and Baldwin's columns. The Chunuk Bair* ridge and hill were heavily shelled at dawn «9n the 9th until the whple ridge was a mass of flames and smok°, ftum which huge clouds of dust drifted slowly in strange patterns skywards.

Captain Baldwin commanded the Thirty-eighth Brigade of the new army. These were massed behind the trenches of the New Zealand Brigade. Captain Baldwin lost his way through no fault of his own. When the Ghurkas attacked Sari Bair Cnptain Baldwin's column was a long way off. Instead of Captain Baldwin's support the Turks counter-charged the Ghurkas and Lancashires.who saw the promised land, but were forced to fall back over the crest.

Other battalions of the new army attacked with tine audacity, but the Turks were now lining the whole crest in overwhelming numbers, and the enemy was much encouraged. The New Zealand troops and other battalions were holding the south-east portion of Cbunuk Bair. Constant Turkish attacks were urged with fanatical persistence but were met with sterner resolution.. Although our troops were greatly exhausted at the end of the day they still kept their footing on the pummit which cover the narrows and the roads leading to Bulair and Constantinople.

Eight hundred were met at the head of the crest of Chunuk Bair. Slight trenches were hastily dug, but the iatigue of the New Zealanders and the fire of the -enemy prevented solid work, .and the trenches were only a few inches deep. Unprotected from the fire the First Australian Brigade was now reduced from two thousand to one thousand. The total casualties on the evening of the 9th were 8,500. The troops were still showing extraordinarily quod heart and nothing could damp the keenness of the New Zea'tander*.

The new army at Chunuk Bair, halfdead with fatigue, was relieved at night, and Chunuk Bair, which they had so magnificently held, was handed to the Sixth North Lancashires and the Fifth Wiltshires. The Turks delivered a crand assault at daybreak on the 10th. The North Lancashires were simply overwhelmed in their shallow trenches by sheer weight of numbers, whilst the Wiltshires, who fought in the open, were literally almost annihilated. The assaulting column consisted of a full division, plus three battalions, which, swept over the crest and swarmed on Captain Baldwin's column, which was only extricated after sustaining the heaviest losses.

It was now our turn .The warshipsand the New Zealand and Australian artillery got the chance of a lifetime, and a rain of iron fell on the succeessive solid lines of Turks. Ten machine guns and the New Zealand infantry *played on the serried Turkish ranks at close range until the barrels of the guns were red hot and only a handful of Turks straggled back to their own side of Chunuk Bair. *Zt£Z.

By the evening of th« 10th Genera] Birdwood'a casualties were twelve thousand, including the, largest proportion of officers.. The grand coup had failed to come off. The Narrows were beyond the range of the field guns, and it was not General Birdwood's faulfor any of the officers of his command. General Birdwood had done all that mortal roan could do. General Godley handled two divisions with conspicuous ability. The troops

faced desth will joyous alacrity, as if it were some form cf exciting recrea- < tijn, whuh eteri astonisiei ai old campaigner like iryself. The orerttions at Suvla Bay were entrusted tv L»EU.tenant-General Siopford. It was befieved that the Turkish defenders | were under four thousand. 'Jne Eleventa Division was feiried i ftom Imorose, dhembarkirg half-an- I hcur after to attack the northern flank i of AMzac. I hoped that Chocolate Hill would be captured at dabyreak. The surprise of the Turks was complete. The weather wa3 very hot and the new traops suffered much from lack of water. Partly owing to the enemy's fire and partly owing to the want of nous —which 19 second nature to an old campaigner—the attack hung fire. Lieutenant-General Stopford, recollecting that vast issues were hanging on his success in foretailing the enemy, urged the divisional commanders to push on. T'hev belitved themselves unable to move, owing to the men being exhausted 39 a result of the fighting on the Tthjat Suvla. The commanders overlooked the fact that the half-defeated Turks were equally exhausted and an advance was the simplest and swiftest method of solving the Water trouble. Other difficulties of the divisional commanders were objections to over- | ride Lieutenant-General Stopford's resolution, as he had Ibid them he did not wish them to make frontal atta(ks from entrenched positions, but desired them tv turn away from the trenches if possible. This instruction was the root of our failure to . make use of the priceless daylight hour,. 0n August Bth driving power was required, even certain ruthlessness, to brush aside the pleas for a respite for the tirtd troops. The one fatal etror was the inertia that prevailed. I went to Suvla when I found the battle was going wrong and ordered forward my general reserves at Suvla, hoping to enable LieutenantGeneral Stopford to secure the commanding ground near the Bay. finally, I appointed Major-General de Liale to take Lietenant-General Stopford's place. When the fighting ended General Birdwocd was commanding 25,000 rifles. .General Davies, at Helles, ' commanded 23,001' men, and, in addition, there were seventeen thousand French. The Turks had 110,000 men, with all tha advantage of ground. I therefor* sent your Lordship 1 a long cable asking for fifty thousand fresh rifles of British divisions and also forty-five thousand under establishment. If the reinforcements were sent immediately, it seemed certain, humanely speaking, that we could still clear a passage fcr the fleet to Constantinople. It may be judged how d«ep was my disappointment when I learnt that the essential reinforcements and Diun tions could not be sen', the reason given preventing further i nsistence. Your Lordship cabled on October 11th, asking for an estimate of the losses that would be involved in the evacuation of the Peninsula. I replied, on the 12th, that such steps ; seemed to me unthinkable, and I received a cable on the 16tb, recalling me to London, as the Government desired a fresh unbiased opinion on the question of early evacuation. So I larewelled. with special God speed, the campaigners who served me right through from the terrible, yet most glorious, early days—the incomparable Twenty-*iinth Division of youi.g veterans, the Naval Division, the ever-victorious Australians and New Zealanders, the stout East Lanca--1 shire?, and my brave fellow-country- ! men from the limlands of Scotland. ! (Signed)—lAN HAMILTON.