LAST DAYS AT ANZAC

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2668, 13 January 1916, Page 6

LAST DAYS AT ANZAC

FAMOUS SPOTS REVISITED . i ' COLONEL RHODES-S TOUR A SOLDIER'S GRAVE. (By Malcolm Ross, Official Correspondent with the N.Z. Forces). Gallipoil Peninsula, November 7. With Colonel Heaton Rhodes, M.P., I arrived at Anzac and was taken off the torpedo-boat in which we had travelled, by a picket boat. Gunfire has been in progress, hut late in the afternoon it ceases. We on our side are not and have already decided upon an evening of "hate." We climb a little hill into an observation post, and watch the shooting on the Turkish trenches on Chunuk Bair, which are within full view and easy distance. We sit there in the gathering dusk talking —the New Zealand Envoy, a New Zealand artillery officer (now a general), a New Zealand colonel • (wounded and returned to tho front), and the writer. The three officers were in the South African War, and they now meet in an artillery observation post on the Gallipoli Peninsula in the greatest war of .all the ages. Tho- talk is all about war; it is grave and gay. for even in the heat of battle there have been amusing incidents, audi the day when he fails to see the humorous as well as the tragic side of. it will be a bad day for the British soldier. "There's Dirty Dick coming-in for his evening stunt," says the colonel, breaking in upon a conversation, and looking seaward we note a dull grey destroyer, stealing panther-like close inshore. For a second ■or two he, flashes a brilliant electric eye in the semidarkness—probably just a practice wink, or a signal that he is going to shoot— steams round in a graceful curve until he is side on, slows down, stops dead 1 , and then, bang! bang! a sharp report and a quick echo, a shell tearing overhead through tho air, a burst of flame and sparks, with a dull cloud of earth and smoke on a Chunuk Bair trench, and the dull report of the bursting shell coming back across tho hills and dales. This is repeated again and again, until we get tired of watching and descend to our dug-outs. By way of revenge, the enemy hurls a shell or two at Dirty Dick, who wheels round and steams slowly off along the coast unhit, a touch of scorn in the deliberation with which he moves away. Then a Turkish Gin. howitzer sends a : shell burlting into the valley where we are camped, without hurting anyone. Soon afterwards one of the 75's, captured by the Turks from the Serbians in the last war, fkos a couple of smaller shells, but they also do no damage. We go in to dinner, have quite a merry meal, a talk, and a smoke, and then to bod. A few "strays" come singing close overhead, and throughout the night,_ if you are not a sound sleeper, you will hear the intermittent cackle of rme fire, and tho loud, dull explosion; of bombs, intimating that they are still awake in the- trenches on the heights above.

We wore awakened in the early dawn by the loud reports of ships' guns. Dirty Dick was at his work again, and no sooner had we finished brcaki'ast than the morning hats began. Tho 6-inch howitzer and the "seventy-five" tried to stir us up aagin—and failed to do so. Some few of the staff came out of their sand-bagged walled >ind tar-paulin-roofed offices to see where the shells were falling; others go placidly on with their work. Scenes at Anzac. After breakfast, in. company with the General, Colonel Rhodes started on an extensive round of the 'trenches ex- . over several days. The frst day s visit was to Auzac, up the ritlgo over which the New Zealanders swept °. u P'usg's Plateau on the memorable April 25. The old Turkish trenches and the wooden crosses on the graves of some of the New Zealand Artillery ore interesting reminders of the first days of the fighting. Thenco our Mute iay via Shrapnel Gully and Monash Valley to the celebrated Quirin's Post, past an Indian camp and a little cemetery with small wooden crosses and shell-cases over the graveß of officers and soldiers from many parts of the Empire. AVo halt where General Bridges received his mortal wound, at a sjwt where shrapnel claimed many a victim. As we pioceeded up the valley, a warning notice reads: "Danger! Keep to the Sap." Away on the heights to the right the intermittent "tat-tat-tut" of a mountaingun emphasises the warning. At Quinn's we find they are still bombing and mining. Though, in mining warfare, the advantage is generally with the attackers, here our men have been too clever for the Turks, and we have more than held our own. "'he defences are always being strengthened and improved, and though tho Turlv3 are only a few feet away, they have never been able, up to this day, to break through. Tho ground is simply honeycombed with trenches, saps, tunnels, and drives. In Places where you proceed gingerly with the flickering light of a candle you might imagine yourself in the catacombs. There are gruesome reminders that add to the illusion. From Quinn's we proceed to Pope's— now also greatly strengthened—looking a little anxiously at tho opposite ridge over which we have to proceed, because, just at the moment, it is being shrapnelled by_ some well-placed bursts from the Turkish guns. However, we dive down into a deep gully, holding on by a rope, and thence climb by Bully Beef Track on to Walker's Ridge and Russell s Top—points named after two of our brigadiers. The shrapnel had failed te reach us, and wo halted for lunch the flies—in an open trench. Chunuk Bair. After describing further points of importance which were inspected. Mrt Ross continues:— A visit to the fire trenches on the forward slopes of Chunuk Bair and Rhododendron Snur is always interesting. As we walk up the narrow track at the bottom of the winding "Dere"— often in full view of tho Turkish position on tho summit and higher slopes of tho Chunuk Bair Ridge—we are in danger of being sniped; but our men are keeping the Turks down. And, in any case, it is a long range. At every turn of the. valley and every slone an 3 ridge memories of the gallant" deeds or our brave New Zealanders crowd in upon one. On the left of our path are the remains of the barbed wire entanglement demolished b/ the engineers and Maoris in that memorable night onslaught, when the Maoris and the Mounteds went in with the bayonet, not firing a tingle shot. It was here that Sapper IC. W. Watson, of the New Zealand Field Engineers, by splendid gallantry in the demolition of this entanglement, won his D.C.M. ITe was wounded by a Turkish bullet, but, notwithstanding that, he bravely helped a wounded officer out of the fire zone into safety. Just a few yards away, zigzagging up the hill on the left, is the first, Turkish trench stormed in the darkness. The eases of numberless Turkish cartridges still lio thick along the parapet, though many have hcen gathered :;s souvenirs. Oil the left is Baucliop's f-lill, where the gallant Otago colonel, after whom it was named, fell, mortally wounded, after the heights had been ivon. For half an hour before tho own turns commenced I "yarned" with him at the

mouth of his dug-out—a low, narrow hole, in tho hard sandy clilr—and was tho last to say good-bye to him as. he buckled on his revolver and went out into the darkness to lead his men to victory. He was in a thoughtful mood, apparently thinking of those far awa.V who were near and dear to him, but ho had ever the same pleasant smile and the samo cheery word for any of bis men who passed that way. He seemed to know them all, and called U;em by their Christian names. Thero was no braver soldier, and none more respected and loved by. those who stormed the ridge that night. He presented mo with his stick and his du"OU f" „"¥° ma " is an .vbody on tho penmii "who does not carry a stick. lor some weeks during those stienuous times his little unpretentious dug-out was my home. Next dav I Scin him in the cleaning station, and when my name was mentioned the same pleasant smile of recognition phiyed over his features. He could not speak, but he was cheery and bravo to tho end. In tho dug-out just above Colonel Manders our A.D.M.S., was shot through tho head while talking to Major Holmes. He, also, was beloved by us all. In the words of cne of our mess He was a sahib!" "My Final Offering—Life." We walked up the valley past the burying places of several of our men— many of them namolcss graves. On some were rude wooden crosses. One that we came upon in the first days of the fighting had now at its head a larger cross, on which was an inscription thatstuck ui the memory:— Aged 23. C. HANLEON. 10th New Zealand Regiment. . "My final offering—Life." Erected by his Cousin. Down the winding sap at the next bend, grievously injured and unconscious, borne along on a stretcher, came one of the New Zealand Engineers, injured by a falling boulder where he had been digging in tho deep trenches on tho apex. The path grew steeper till we, came to a little colony of dug-outs, where the men were endeavouring to make themselves comfortable for the winter. Id is a little bit of dead ground now, comparatively safe from bullets and shrapnel. In the first days of the for. ward fighting ono trod tho path with apprehension, hut in spite of all the enemy could do in those trying times m early August, our bravo New Zoalanders "stuck it out" flicre. In the early dawn of the first morning we saw tb'em clustered there among the prickly I ilex scrub and the arbutus. For four days they had little food and waterand the want cf water in that terrible heat was a soro trial 1 But each dawn toimd them still sticking there. We cal led it "the Mustard Plaster." to the left of the little colonv of dugouts we entered the front fire trenches, ii fjr on "" 1G farm" and up at t i trenches on the upper slopes of Chumik Bail - , dominating oiir position. The helmets and rifles and nilburied bodies of British soldier, New uealander, Gurkha, and Maori were still to be seen. We climbed steep sti'irs where bits of ammunition and rr< vision boxes held tho earth up; walked through deep trenches, where men were ever ready with rifle and bomb, and dived into dark tunnels and cave dwellings. Wo peered out of narrow iron loopholes, and finally, from the "Apex," and "the Pinnacle," looked out upon other trenches, and upon the most glorious view attainable from any of our positions. On tho hill above us, only some 400 yards or 500 yards away, is the trench whore tho New Zcalanders reached the crest of Chumik Bail'. Here Major H. Statliam and Ms brother were killed ill action by a shrapnel shell, while talking to each other in tho shallow trench.. Major Statliam had displayed great gallantry in leading every charge on. the succossivo 'positions captured by the Otago Battalion on August 6 "and 7. He was most highly thought of by his men, and had proved himself a capable and gallant soldier:

If the Positions were Reversed. The deletion of a line in the English, and possibly also of the colonial ivar correspondents' reports, makes ,it appear as if the New Zealanders had won and lost this position. It is only fair to state that it was not the New Zealanders who were driven from the position, though whether or not they could have held it without fresh reinforcements must now- remain for all time a matter of uncertainty. As it is, our present position is only 300 ft. or 400 ft. below the point gained in early August but that 300 ft. or 400 ft. makes all the difference. With the position reversed —the Turks in our trenches and our men on tho heights—wg should long ere this have done what Liman Pasha threatened, hut failed to accomplish. We should have broken through and driven the enemy into the sea. But, after their past experience in attacking the colonial troops, the Turks are, for the time being at all events, not at all keen on attempting a further advance.