ONE AGAINST FIVE.

Feilding Star, Volume XI, Issue 2788, 9 August 1915, Page 2

ONE AGAINST FIVE.

AUSTRALIANS' GREAT FIGHT WITH TURKS. London. June 15. What a lighting man thinks of the campaign in Gallipoli is well illustrated by the following extracts from letters of a naval chief potty officer who is with the R.N.A.S. armoured car squadron out therfc. In a letter dated May 21 he says:— "It is a tough proposition, this Gallipoli Peninsula. The Australians did excellent work the other day. A German general brought 25,000 new and fresh Turkish troops from Constantinople to push aboiifr 5,000 Australian troops into the sea. "The battlefield covered a very confined area, and the conflict lasted about six hours. The- result was that the Turks lost 2000 killed and 5000 wounded, whilo our lossos were very i slight." ' j Writing on May '23. he continues:— "'lt is remarkable how strong the Mahometan religion is. especially in regard to the burial of the dead'and the rescue of the wounded. On the day of our landing about 40 or 30 men reached the ton of the cliffs in one part by nightfall. The Turks prepared to rush thorn in great numbers. 1 liis was observed, and word was passed to H.M.S. Inflexible. "About dusk the enemy came on the little band in masses. They had proceeded a woks an open field about 20 yards when the ship let fly a broadside of 6-inch guns and mowed them down by dozens. This continued for about an hour before the enemy retreated, and it was then dark. "There must have been hundreds killed, but in tho morning not a dead Turk was to bo seen, and when we advanced to the trenches they had occupied they proved to have been used as graves and filled in. This goes on throughout the campaign. We may kill mimbei's of the enemy, and after one night, providing we do not advance, tlie dead are all gone."