THE DARDANELLES CAMPAIGN

Evening Star, Issue 16993, 15 March 1919, Page 2

THE DARDANELLES CAMPAIGN

[By Canon Nevill.]

, Beside the ruins of Troy they lie buried, those men so Henutiful: there they have their burial-place, hidden in ail enemy's land.—The Agaramemnon 453. Of conspicuous men the whole world is the tomb, and it is not only inscription on tablets in their own country which chronicle their fame, but rather, even in distant lands, unwritten memorials living for ever, not upon visible monuments, but in the hearts of mankind.—rerieles' Funeral Speech. Thus Mr H. W. Nevinson dedicates his book on Gallipoli to ihose who fell. It is ?aid to be the best account, hitherto published, except John. Masefteld'e 'Qalli- . poli," to which the author pays a iuab : tribute. His preface is painful rending. | He cave what we all Jniow now ; hit he I puts it in a peculiarly poignant way. As Iwo know, the occupation of ConstantinI oplo would have paralysed Turkey as an ally of the Central Powers; it would have blocked their path to the Middle East, and averted danger from Egypt, the Persian Gulf, and India: it wouild have roj leased the- Riiesr-m forces and secured the S neutrality of the Balkan States. The' 1 worst apprehensiuns of the Central Powers ! would then have- been fulfilled, and, so far j as prophecy was possible, it seemed likely , that the terms the Allies wanted might have- been obtained in the spring- of 1916. The saying of Napoleon still held good: "At bottom the great question is: Who shall have Constantinople?" Under the prevailing influence of French and British strategist*, these advantages were either disregarded or dismissed. The dominant minds in our alliance either failed to imagine their significance or were incapable of ?upplymg the power required for their realisation. His remarks on the it-en are worth note. Ho says: "I hav*> shared thsir apprehensions, their hardships, their bri-jf intervals of respite, and their laborious triumphs. Amont' the soldiers of many races, hut especially among the natives of these island.?, whom I could best understand, I have ahvavs found the fine qualities which distinguish, tho majority of hard-working people, all of whom live perpetually in perilous hardship. 1 have found a- freedom from rhetoric and vanity, a- simple-hearted acceptance oT life ' m the first intention,' taking life am! death without much criticism aa they come, ani concealing kindliness and the longing for happiness under a veil of silence or protective irony." Anyone who reads this fascinating hook can study in the first four chapters tho politics of the expedition, the (uieetion of the experts, and of Mr Churchill's responsibility. I go on to the landings. On April 22 the transports bearing the covering force of the 29th Division very slowly to move out from Madras Harbor. Li that land-locked inlet the water was r,ow still and singularly blue. The "black ships," as the Navy called tho transports, owing to their fresh coat of black paint, wound their way in and out among others still lying &i anchor. They passed tho battleships and cruisers of our, own fleet; they passed the Anzac transports which were to follow them next day; they passed the battleships and transports of the French contingents and the five-funnelled " Russian cruiser Askold, lying nearer the little islands which protect (■he entrance of the far-extended havon; and as they passed, the pellucid air which still illuminates the realms of ancient Greece rang with the cheers of races whose habitation the Greeks had not imagined. As they passed out of harbor, leaving the Lemnian shore, with which many by practical landings had becomo familiar, they, too, were greeted with tumultuous cheering by the ships which had not started yet, and tumnltuously they replied. Moved onward irresistibly into 'imminent death, knowing that by the morrow's afternoon at least one in 10 of their numbers would have fallen hi all the splendor of youthfid vitality, still they cheered like schoolboys boimid for a football match or a holiday by tho sea. Excitement, comradeship, the infectious jov of confronting a dangerous enterprise side bv sido, made them cheer. Never before had these men known what battle means, but the sinking dread of th" unknown, which all men feel as the shadow of extreme peril approaches, was allayed! by the renunciation of self and the clear belief that, whoever else was wrong in the- world, it was not, they.

The landing at V beach, near Sedd-el-Bahr, ono of the most astonishing feats of war in the world, is finely described. "Except for the continuous "crash of outbursting shells, not a sound came from the shore. On the right of the main party of tows loomed a large collier, called the River Clyde, but also known as the 'Trojan Horse ' and the ' Dun Cow.' ComI mander Edward Unwin, R.N., was in I charge of her —a man of eagle features and impetuous but noble personality, inclined to pour imprecations upon ' The Army,' while he assisted them with untiring ingenuity and a courage conspicuous even on that heroic day. His ordex-s were to run his ship hard aground after the tows had landed their first party." A hopper alongside the collier was then to proceed under her own steam, towing a string of lighters, so as to form a pontoon for the troops, who were to issue from square iron doors opening close up to the ship's bow. • The gangways dropped. Shoving each other eagerly forward, the Munster Fusiliers rushed from the opened ports. Hardly had the first man set foot on the gangways when the invisible enemy broke the silence with an overwhelming burst of rifle fire, pom-poms, and machine guns. The Munster Fusiliers of the first company fell so thick that many were suffocated or crushed by the sheer weight of the dead dropping upon them. Few, if any, of those eager Irishmen struggled across the lighters to the beach unwounded. Tn the tows the boats were riddled with holes and the greater number destroyed. The Dublin Fusiliers and the crews supplied by the Navy were shot down either in the boats or as they leapt into the shallow water and attempted to rush across the narrow beach. A few succeeded in reaching tho low and perpendicular bank of sand, and lay under its uncertain cover, unable to show a head above the top without death. The Turks had carefully marked the ranges of every point along the shore with stakes, and they fired in security from dugouts and deep trenches, against which no naval bombardment availed. " Inspired by a courage which baffles reason with amazement. the second company of Minister Fusiliers erowde'd upon the gangway and rushed along the lighters over the dead bodies of their friends. As they ran,*the end of the pontoon nearest the shore was torn loose by the rip of the current, and drifted off into deep water. The men fell in masses, and many, either to escape the torrent of bullets or in passionate eagerness to reach the shore, attempted to swim to land, but were dragged down by the weight of their equipment, and lav visible upon the sands below. Vvith unwavering decision the sailors labored to restore the pontoon. Commander Unwin ran down the gangway, and, plunging into the sea, worked beside the men. Midshipmen Malleson and Dreury swam out carryin"- ropes to and from the drifting lighters miller the ceaseless splash of bullets and shells. , „ . i- i , " Bv such devoted efforts a reserve lignter was brought into position, and the pontoon again comnleted. A third company of the Munster Fusiliers dashed along it, with similar heroism, towards the shore, suffering terrible loss from accurate and low-firing shrapnel, now added to the other missiles of death. The survivors joined the survivors under shelter of the low bank of -and There was a brief pause in the attempt to land, but when it began again the pontoon was again earned adrift by the current, bearing upcri it a number 01 Hampshire men', together with Brigadier General Napier, commanding tho 88th Brigade, and his brigade major Captain Cosfcker. They lay down flat upon the lighters, but uoai'ly all tfero kilkd an they lav, including these two officers. Nearly all the boats in the tows had been destroyed, and some were idly drifting, manned-only by the ckad. The dead lay upon the lighters, and below the water, and awash upon the edge of the beach. lire ripple of the tormented sea broke red against tho sand. " At W. Beach the English covering party displayed equal heroism and gained greater success. Along its gentl-e- curve.the actual

i beach is rather more than a-quarter of a mile in length. Hidden in the shallows a strong wire entanglement had been laid, and another protected the whole length of the beach from end to end at the water's edge. Sir lan Hamilton saya: "So strong in fact, were the defences of W. Beach, that the Turks may well have considered them impregnable, and it is my firm conviction that no finer feat of arms has «*er been achieved by the British soldier—or any other soldier —than the storming of these trenches from open boats." These men were of the Ist Lancashire Fusiliers, and in their honor W. Beach was afterwards known as 'Lancashire Landing.' Eight picket boats in line abreast, towing four cutters apiece, steamed towards the shore till they reached the shallows, and the tows were cast off to row to land. As at V. Beach, the, Turks maintained their silence till the boats grated. Then in an instant a storm of lead and iron swept down upon the Lancashire men. Some leapt into the water, and were caught by the hidden entanglement there. The foremost hurled themselves ashore, and struggled with the terrible wire, compared with which our British barbed wire is as cotton to rope. In vain the first line hacked and tore. Machines mowed them fiat as with a scythe. Witnesses, eagerly watching from the distant ships, asked each other "What are they resting for?" But they were dead. " The- Anzac landing was, luckily, accidental. Whether misled by ignorance of the coast and by the starlit darkness, or carried unconsciously by a current which sets along shore, the tows approached land rather more than a north of the appointed landing. The tows approached the beach in absolute silence. Trusting to the cliffs, the Turks had neglected defence at this point but for two slight trenches—one close to the water's edge, the second a little up the height. Even these seem to have been left unmanned, for about a battalion of Turks was dimly perceived running along the shore, no doubt hurried up from the open ground where our landing had been intended. Just before 5 a.m. they opened fire, and many of the soldiers and crews wera struck in the boats. The Australians i made no answer, but before the keels grated leapt into water up to their chests I and surged ashore. Throwing off their packs, they dashed straight with the bayoI net upon the enemy wherever they could ! see him. The two trenches were carried , with a rush, and still the men charged on. They began to struggle up the gully and the et-eep ascent on the right, afterwards called Mocla'ran's Rkhrs. The tows re- : turned for the remainder of the brigade on the destroyers, and these men joined in i the rush and scramble. Some of the tows | .crossed each other and added to the excited confusion. A few of the boats went j adrift, having no men left to control them. One at least swayed with the current, full I of dead." I

' The Australian charge nt Helles is described in ringing' terms : The Australians advanced to a slight hollow in the ground giving some amount of cover. Here it seemed likely that they would bivouac, for during the early afternoon an ominous pause ensued. A*fc 5.15 all the battleships and cruisers, all the French 75s and such heavy guns as we possessed, opened a tremendous bombardment. The. bui'i-tins,' shell concealed the slopes of Aclii Baba on both sides. Sudden volcanoes spouted Toek and earth, in dark cones. The orange of the lyddite curled ovor the enemy's trenches. It seemed impossible for human beings to survive that quart.ere.of an hour. At 5.30 all guns ceased like one, and with bayonets fixed and rifles at the slope the whole line again moved forward. The brunt of the. fighting now fell to the Australians. Two battalions in front and two in support, thev walked or ran in "rashes" of 50 or '6O Yards on about I,oooyds of front to the left of the Krithia rood. Tho ground was open, and Oierr appearance" was at once greeted by the roar of rifles, machine guns, and field guns, which, the bombardment had acain utterly failed to silence. The Australians, though heavily laden with packs, shovels, picks, and entrenching tools, and exposed to intense fire, pressed on, rash after rush, their brigadier directing and encouraging bv waving a stick in front. Without a sight of their deadly enemy they advanced oyer 800 yds," the support" battalions joining up into the bavonet line. They swept across a long Turkish trench. They shot those who ran and bayoneted those who stayed. They came' within half a mile of the eastern approaches to Krithia itself. Seldom in the war has so reckless and irresistible an advance been recorded. Or, again, on May 19, at Amiac: At 3.30 crowds of silent figures were detected in the darkness creeping up close to the centre of the Australians' trenches. Directly the sentries fired masses of the enemy in thick lines came rushing forward, yelling their battlecry to the Prophet's God. Though most severe along the ridge between Quinn's and Courtney's Posts, the assault extended over tho whole front. The assailants came on so thick, the ground to be covered was so narrow—in places only a few yards across between the confronting trenches—that the Anzacs had but to fire point-blank into the halfvisible darkness before them, and at every shot an enemy fell. Many Australians mounted the parapet, and.- sitting astride upon it, fired continuously, as in an enormous drive of game. Morning broke, the sun rose behind the teeming assailants, machine guns and rifles mowed them down in rows, and piled them up into barriers and parapets of the dead and scarcely living. Still the peasants of Tslam, summoned from quiet villages of Thrace and Asia, unconscious of the cause for which thoy died, except that it was the cause, of Islam—still they 'came on, shouting their battle-cry. Emptying their rifles into trenches manned with equal constancy,' rushing wildly up to the sandbag lines, they scrambled over them, only to die by rifles which scorched their skin or of bayonets dripping blood. In heaps and lines-more than 3,000 Turks lav dying or already dead. The deiwiee lost 'only ICO killed and about 500 wounded. Not a yard of Anzac had been yielded up. I will conclude a somewhat long account of a fine book with the account of a failure which ought to have been a victory—the conquest of Hill 9. It was the signal for the storming party. The little Gurkha mountaineers crawled up the precipice like flies. The South Lancashire crawled, mixed up among (hem. They reached the topmost edge. Hand to hand the Turks rushed upon them as they rose. The struggle was for life or death. Major Abandon was wounded. Men and oiiicers fell together. But the fight was brief. Shaken by the bombardment, overcome in daring and activity by some 400 startling Gurkhas and solid Lancastrians, the surviving Turks suddenly turned and ran for life down the steep slope to the refuge of the steeper gullies below. j For a moment Major Allansnn and his men paused to draw breath. Thoy were standing on the saddle between Churnick Bair and Hill 9. Tho dead lay thick i around them. But below, straight in front, lit by the risen sun, like a. white serpent sliding between the purple shores, ran the sea, the Xinrows, the Dardanelles, the aim and object of all | tbosu battles and sudden deaths. Never, j since Xenophon's Ten Thousand cried ; "The sea! the sea!" had sight been more welcome to a soldier's ever-. There | were tho ships; there were the trans- j ports, bringing now troops over from j Asia ; there ran tho road to Maidos, : though the town of Maidos was just i hidden by the hill before it: there was ] the Krithia road. So Sir lan had been > right. General Birdwood had been j right. Thts was the path to victory. Only hold that summit and victory is ours. The Straits are opened. A conquered Turkey and a friendly Bulgaria will 'bar the German path to the East. Peace will come back again,_ and the most brilliant strategic conception in the war will be justified. " In triumphant enthusiasm Gurkhas and Lancastrians raced and leaped down the reverse slope,, pursuing the Turks as they scattered and ran." Major Allauson, though wounded himself, ran with them. They fired as thev went. It was a. moment of supreme exuliaiwu*. -Suddenly., before they had .

gone a hundred yards, cr&jsji into the midst of them fell five or six large shells 'and exploded. Where these fatal shells came from was at the time, and still remains, a. cause of bitter controversy. Whatever the cause, the effect was disaster irretrievabledisaster leavii* its lamentable mark upon the world's history. Major Allanson withdrew the last of his men. Down the face of the mountain they came upon the little trench from which'they had adventurously started less than half an hour before. They alone had witnessed and shared the crisis. They alone had watched the moment when the campaign swung upon the fateful hinge No soldier in our Army was ever to behold that triumphant prospect again.