THE GALLIPOLI CAMPAIGN

Press, Volume LXXI, Issue 21456, 24 April 1935, Page 10

THE GALLIPOLI CAMPAIGN

Some Reminiscences Of Anzac ARTICLE BY COLONEL HUGH STEWART Reminiscences of the Gallipoli campaign and some aspects of the contact between the New Zealand and Australian troops on the peninsular were printed several years ago in "Reveille," an Australian journal, under the name of Colonel Hugh Stewart, C.M.G., D.5.0., M.C., who commanded the 2nd Battalion, Canterbury Regiment, of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force. Colonel Stewart, who was formerly a professor at Canterbury College, died recently when returning to England after a visit to the Dominion. Some extracts from his article are reprinted below. "After the confusion of the landing and the first day's fighting, wrote Colonel Stewart, "the Canterbury Battalion *was gradually assembled to guard the left flank from the sea up Walker's Ridge. Australian packs were strewn about the beach in this neighbourhood. As late as three days afterwards one or two Australians entered tmr lines at this point from the foothills in the north, in which they had apparently lain since the 25th. On the morning of the 26th it was reported that arms were being waved from time to time in the derelict boats off Fisherman's Hut. These boats had carried the unfortunate detachments of the 7th Battalion. A Canterbury party under Sergeant Irvine was sent out the same day, but found that the boats contained by this time only dead. -Some of these were buried that day. Another party on the 28th attempting to continue the work was fired on and suffered casualties. The last of these dead were buried on the 30th. One or two of them. I noticed at the time, with perhaps unjustified surprise, had carried Bibles in their packs. No shot, for some reason or other, was fired at us either when going out or in the course of the burial, but we were sniped at fairly heavily during our return. No damage was done."

Australians Relieved Colonel Stewart, on the 27th. was detached from his battalion with a small party of non-commissioned officers to police the top pari of the Walker's Ridge track, and in particular to stop unauthorised men from coming from the trenches in front. That evening the Wellington Battalion took over the trenches of the 2nd Battalion, and on the morning of the 23th the relieved Australians passed down the track towards the beach, Anyone who might have doubted the efficiency and staying powers of the Australians, wrote the Colonel, should have seen these men. Most of them were dead-tired, but for all that they made a remarkable impression of strength and solidity. "That impression," he continued, "was confirmed once and for all on the morning of May 3 on the Chessboard, after the collapse of the mismanaged New Zealand attack. There was an extraordinary contrast between the overstrained nerves in one part of the line and the air of confident resolution in a very advanced 13th Battalion trench held by Captain J. W. A. Simpson and Lieutenant S. L. Perry with a small party. There were three dead Australians in it; of those who were alive one or two were asleep, and the others were occupied in sniping and digging. In the open places amid the still thick brushwood all about this trench and the gully between it and Pope's were a large number of dead or wounded men. "A Turkish machine-gun from somewhere in the rear, perhaps German Officers' Trench, several times methodically went over those lying exposed, the overs and unders hitting up little clouds of dust. Once or twice during the morning Australians leaped over the parapet of Pope's and dashed down to help a wounded man to the safety of the gully bottom. It must have been galling to the 13th Battalion parties to be recalled in the evening and to see later their trenches incorporated in the extended Turkish system of the Chessboard.

The Helios Attack "One of the most magnificent spectacles I saw in the war was the open warfare attack of the 2nd Australian Brigade at Helles on May 8. During a brief halt in our own advance we watched on our right the long lines of deployed Australians making their heroic but costly charge, which has been described as an unrecognised Balaclava. The afternoon sun gleamed on their bayonets. They were too far off for us to see their casualties. Their manoeuvre-like movement, to which many tributes have been paid, was in striking contrast to the tumultuous rushes forward and backward of the Senegalese on the ridge beyond. "Seventeen years have elapsed since the evacuation,'" concluded Colonel Stewart, "but I believe that most of those who were for any time at Anzac and now survive retain fairly clear memories of its hillsides, gullies, and beach. And though war is a horrible business, and though that campaign had its full share of privations and discomforts, probably for most of us our memories of Anzac are far from unpleasant. If there had to be war, we would not have missed Anzac for anything! Unique in many other ways, it was unique also because of the extraordinary sense of brotherhood that animated all the members of its Australian and New Zealand garrison. The memory of that intense family spirit, as we'll as the memory of the splendid men who fought there, and of the magnificent setting and dramatic vicissitudes of the struggle, gives Anzac a very special place in our recollections of the war."