GALLIPOLI.

Feilding Star, Volume XII, Issue 2856, 29 January 1916, Page 1

GALLIPOLI.

U N1) ERGRO UN D WARFARE

LAST DAYS AT ANZAC

EXPLORING ENEMY TUNNELS

FIGHT** IN THE DARKNESS

Writing from An/.ac on December 1 (not long'before the evacuation), Captain Hean, oflioiuL Commonwealth war correspondent, describes the underground warfare which had become a proiniettit feature of the fighting botwen Uio Australasiiuis aaid the Turks. HUMAN MOLEB. Day after, day, he says, tho sappers had beciiii digging tliciir dark, narrow burrows, through which you could .scjlfcely iliove. They were getting very ekiso to the front line of Turkisli'fronchos, and then, early one evening, the ])iiek, and in one simibir case a, main'.s foot, went th.rough the bottom of tihe funnel, and found itself Working i.nlo some unknown space luvlow. It was witlulrawii pretty quickly, you may guess. Eor two (lays a sentry in. the jot darkness watched that brown rat-hole in. the corner as a. cat uatehrs for a niou.se. I?y then the digging party had buriDMcd a.nother tunnel lo Ihe same poinl, only a litlle lowi'r. Theji, ill ii gi\en nioineiil, au engineer officer put his head down through the original bole abo\e. and .stated into the Turkish working below. Just opposite him, up through Hie brown earth, came first a ba\onel. then a band, then a head, and then half a body. Tl was an infaniiy officer who had hioke'i Ihiough from our new tunnel lo meet Itmi. EXPLORING ENKIIY TUNNELS They weie in the eiienn \s funnel system. They were evidently woiknigs whieli had been abandoned for some IFnifi <»\{enf for the purpose of listening. Jn was found a liny bol(> in Ihe mol. below ulrch the Tuikisli iilwiuT had slood and steered )>ei iwope (hrougb inlo Ihe ontsido nir, so that he could slaud there in the da.rk below and Mhnlovet the miiror showed. Two paities of Aii'-lrali.uis weiv at once sent into Ihe tunnels U> explore them. One found its tunnel almost at once slii'rring unliill. It led out suddenly info a. w : de. well-cut, solidly-roofed (rench. Great squared timbers and .solid sleepers formed Ihe covering No I a Turk was in siglif. not a <-ound I>reatiled. The wide gallery was fvidenlrv on the surface, if wound awnv right and Teff, and ende<l in each direction in a fall of broken timbers, where «ome of our howitzer iliolls had broken il. A sentry was out to Match each end for the rest, of the might. A DARING ENGINEER. Next day wo barricaded the end of the gallerj near tlie broken timber. Tl'G t corpora]_ of engineers, who went straight out in front of all our guards and piled up the sandbags of tho barrier, had nothing hut his own daring and tho -nervousness of the Turks to protect him. for tlio Turks had Jiearcl us, and were behind the tumbledown., timbers shooting through them constantly, llound tho corner past wt'liieh-tlvoii'-bullets wero scraping was nit uiwvrmed man piling up the sandbags handed to him by liifaiitrymen from behind, but the Turks were afraid of a. bomb aaid stayed where they were. As soon as our barricade was finished they .put up one almost touching it—later, when we blew it down, the bags of the two w*ere actually touching. But there .wore tunnels leading still further. That day we explored them —it waiYonio of the 24th, Australian, Battalion..-who had _ discovered the place, ajtici it was this same corporal of engineers and nji officer and some , men of tJie 23rd Battalion w-lix> explored it, Tliey wa.ndoned in aai extraordinary light-ihearted ma.nmor, on hands and lciieos, down these burrows well behind the Turkish lines. OEEIOER AND TURKISH 'SENTRY. Tho officer, coining round a turn, found a, bra.n.cii tunnel slanting mite tho light, witihni.lOit or lift ol linn. Seated sutraiglub , opposite the mouth was a TurkisJi tieiau-y, his ritie acioss his linees, pointing into the tunnel. Tlio officer stood motionless with one foot half advanced iii tho act of crawling, not daring toWhove. His pipe was actually in. his mouth; of course, tho man must see him. Presently the sentry heaved himself 'hack with a sigh, aaid leaned against 1 the trench wall. Against his own senses 'i-hc officer realised that the sentry's eyes could only see the darkness, and crept on. He had found another sentry at. tho mouth of another similar opening, and had peeped out into tho big covered trench at a point behind the Turkish barricade above mentioned —there was the Turkish guard all chattering aud gesticulating over somo argument of ite own. The officer turned, or rather the tunnel wan too narrow for that, but he backed out inch by inch. It was only a matter of feet really, a few yards ait most, but it took seven, minutes to withdraw. Later wo blew that barricade and tlio guard behind it into the air.

This is tho sort of lighting in which our second Australian division *ia» been engaged. Our picks have several times gone through, not into enemy tunnels, but into tunnels where the Turks were. Presently through the whole in the dark tumnel the faint flicker of a candie can be seen coming near—the Turks are examining it from the other side. Their officer has been' called into to see it. Then there is firing through the hole and fighting 'behind the barricades, and it may be a day or two before possession of the place is settled —all in the pitchy darkness.