WITH THE BATTERY

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2581, 1 October 1915, Page 9

WITH THE BATTERY

HOW THE TRIUMPH "WENT BDJVK , v' •. - SOIDIES'S BEEEZI piTEK Gunner Tfnrolcl Plmaner, ivho "went away with tiko JD&M 'ArtiHay of. tbe Second: lieintocemeiifc,, writes iu aa interesting drain fram a GaUipolian dug-out to his paii'siis (Mr.. aad Mrs. Charles' Phamier)., of Boycott Street.' (July B), Ikj writes, "has heen a sort 6f Dar Tag "wiiii me, for quite, a lot of paresis came to light that have been .playing iid©-and-seek in tho post offioas for. some tims past. In one I received fivo pairs of grey knitted socks. -Please don't scad any "more, as I .have more than I noed. Socks are in excess of wearws up this way. If a man~ were ,tc ofor a pair of socks in one hand and a peppermint lolly in tlio other for a 'pal to mate a choice the latter ivouH in nine cases out of ten grab the pe^Enniiit"Ercrything has beea tremendously quiet for some time past, though they pitch' a fen- shells afont oocavianally, apparently mtii.tbe'TJsteiitian of causing us as mucJi inconvenience as possible: . Thar latest novelty comes in very quick, amd seems to be looking for trouble- It is of quite a decent jsirtk' —11.2 inches. . They've landed about eight within a, oomparaiirrely short distance of us, bat T "hare not heard of any casualty. ■ Still wo have a great respect for them. Two men were hit alongside me one day. One was bruised and the other : lost his arm, the fuse of a shell going through his shoulder, iso one quickly realises that there are tragic possibilities in® these beastly ' things.

Death Agonies of H.H.S. Triumph. "Fromhere we witnessed the sinking of the Triumph. Our position is a splendid one for seeing a great many things of interest. It was a horrible sight to see the great warshig going down. The blow came about 12 o'clock. One of our chaps called out that she had been hit. I immediately lohked up and saw a great volume of smoke and . steam rising from her side, and a destroyer going full speed astern, spitting like a cat' at something I could not see. Then in the distance one could see small flurries of smoke, which developed in a few minutes to ' destroyers dashing:up to the rescue in. a scurry of foam. Meanwhile the Triumph wae slowly turning .on her, side. Great gulps of air shot from her interior, giving the water in her vicinity the aspect of a boiling cauldron. . By this time the destroyers had bolted up, and some were standing by, whilst others darted round like scald■j cd cats. At length the. ship gave a lurch, and turned bottom up, and lay so for perhaps a quarter of an houiy slowly sinking deeper and deeper, until with a final convulsive shudder shb lurched, and.' the sea closed over her. It made us all horribly depressed, as she had been a great pal to us ; and was constantly biffing at. something, which \ kept the enemies' heads down. Then ; . a guiiboat ca.me.up .with a bevy of small ' • craft, and did her bit, and made off to X'i her kennel, which was rather sad after "" i the spectacular times we had previous-.'-A , v i What Are-tha Odds? .'*/ "Our chaps and the Australians have participated in one or two attacks re- ! cently to the discomfiture of the: Turks, for whom, from, what I ca.n make out from several quarters, our chaps don't care a straw, man to man. It is the • machine-guns in .an. attack that cause the mischief, but brother Turk has no .time for the bayonet with an Australian or a New Zcalander as the means of

pushing it home. They ' (the. Turks) are a fairly: stubborn crowd, but they s have got over the habit of exposing j'h themselves more than is necessary, .' . which they did before they discovered our chaps could shoot. The N.Z. and !A. Army Corps has done little more ' than hang on to what it first acquired in the way of territory, and to malie it slightly less in ..strength than a fortress. I pity the Turks if they get a notion in their heads that they can shove our infantry into the sea. I believe'the average colonial infantry-' man reckons he is equal at the very least to three- Turks, and one sturdy specimen told me modestly that he considered himself on a five-to-one basis. Well, when the boys get that confidence in themselves there is quite a lot of • sting in them when they- get steam up, and, from what I've heard, they get-it up very rapidly.

Civilising Calllpoli. . ; ".The country round about is a perfect labyrinth of trenches, saps, dugouts, etc., and it is most interesting to .note the more or less civilised appear- ; ance of the country, we hold, for when Iwo arrived roads were not and scrub i.was. Now roads and miniature rabbitf like villages have scored the hillsides j till in some places they are almost, beireft, of vegetation. There has; been little or no rain. We have had gloriously hot, thirsty days, when visions of generously-laden tables set. out under the cool of trees rise up before us like an Arabic mirage, and we lay a. solemn curse on the germs,- which make teetotallers of us. Even & tot of mm is denied us, except when the King has a birthday. I wish he . could bo born again soon. . .'.A couple of our seafaring friends came in this morning, and bombarded Kilid Bahr, plonking some beauties into their earthworks, and shifting much landscape. It was quite a treat to see a ding-dong slatherup again, for this trench warfare is a Blow game..

More Colonials Wanted. "I wish there were more colonials here for they make excellent fighters. If they don't leave of their own free will the next best thing is to make them._ Our wounded are now coming back m drafts, and speak well of their treatment in the various hospitals. . Our battery is now about half a mile •from the sea on a plateau, and an Ambulance man said that at first it took four hours for two of them to get a wounded man from here to the beach, now thoy can easily do it in tci. jninufces, so v you can imagine the country round about has undergone a cjn'lisinir change.' ■