A SOLDIER'S LETTER

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 148, 24 June 1915, Page 3

A SOLDIER'S LETTER

"AN AWFUL TIME." (IT TELEGRAPH— SPECIAL TO THB POST.) AUCKLAND, This Day. "My wounds were dressed by a fleet surgeon, who said he did not know how I could be alive, judging by the appearance of my clotlies, which were all torn by bullets," writes Pte. Colin Campbell, of the Now Zealand Field Enginers, and formerly second mate on the 6.5. Rosamond, in a. letter to a friend in Auckland. During his brief stay on Gallipoli Peninsula, Pte. Campbell was wounded five or six times, and his experiences w,crc decidedly thxLUiwE. ''On

Sunday morning, between four and five j o'clock," he stated, "we came up to the fleet, which was bombarding the forts. . . . The Australians were then landing. We received orders to land at nine o'clock. We went in lighters, but had to wade ashore waist deep, and then we made for the hills, which rise sheer from the beach. There wa« a terrible fire,' both rifle and shrapnel, to meet us. When we reached the top of the ridge, and were having a spell, two or three shells burst overhead in rapid succession, and nearly all the fellows round me were hurt, but I was uninjured. Lieut. Wooley had a shrapnel bullet through the kit shoulder, which laid him out, so I jumped across to him, and bound up his wound. The sergeant-major and the other non-commissioned officers were injured, and I took on the remainder of the men, and took them over to Major Dawson, meeting my chum, Corporal Cowan, on the way. We reported to the Major, and Cowan, and I were sent over to reinforce the left bank, and ako to pick up any information we could get; in fact, we had a roving commission, which we made full use of, and did some pretty good work. We got through the Turkish lines, doing a cut of smping on the way. "Later on in the afternoon we found the Turks were being reinforced, so we returned with the information, and joined up with the 6th Haurakis. We told the> captain where the Turks were. He gavo me the uee of the glasses to pick them out, and direct the fire. This was about 4 p.m. on the Sunday. I naturally had to make myself prominent, and received a bullet in the left thigh. I lay "down, undid my puttee, and tied it aoove the wound. Charlie Cowan picked me up, and I was carried to the rear, when I got another bullet in the same leg, and that bullet penetrated Cowan's leg. He dropped, and I also fell again. I told him to go away, and leave 1 me, but life would not go, and we lay there till 8.30 p.m. Our firing line had retired 20 or 30 yards to an entrenched position, but they must have missed us, as we were left there between our own force and the enemy. Shortly afterwards I was struck on the knee; 'then got a bullet through the itrm and another bullet grazed the first and second fingers of the left hand, and another took me in the back. It is awful while wo were lying there, with bullets whistling all round. What made it worse- was that we conld not get any water, as my water bottle was punctured. "At 8.30 p.m., an Australian carried me in, and we lay there till 11 p.m. Then we were carried some three miles to the beach, where I was. looked over, and sent off in a lighter. We 'arrived on a ship at half-past five on Monday morning, and about five that night my wounds were dressed. I can tell you the four hours the firing lines was a nightmare. It was Hades! We ieft the Peninsula on Tuesday evening at six o'clock, and arrived at Alexandria at midnight on Thursday. I was taken into hospital on Friday morning. "They are treating us very well indeed here. Everyone is very good to us. A chum is writing this for me, as I have a bullet through the right arm, my left leg is in splints, and I am lying in bed and dare not move.