ANZAC COVE.

Gisborne Times, 21 April 1928, Page 6

ANZAC COVE.

RISKY “FISHING

A SAPPER’S MEMOIRS, DE.SFEBATE VENTURES. Recent issues of the Lomlon “Daily Telegraph” have contained a Gallipoli Diary, by Mr. Aslmiead-Burtlett, which lias run through a series of issues and which has provoked quite a lot of correspondence. One of the most interesting of those lottefs is from Nat Savage, in Gallipoli days a member of the Royal Engineers Signalling Corps. Ho says : “Your diarist emphasises the peculiar flavor of adventure about the expedition, and a sort of spiritual exaltation at the beginning that must have resembled the feelings of the old-time adventurers when they sir. out to conquer strange lands and face novel perils. The same- fantastic twist gave ‘social’ life at Anzue Cove a novelty which can only lie fully realised by one who actually lived it. There was only a small body of English troops there, among the Australians and New Zealanders, mostly Signal men. I was a. humble member of the Signal Company. “I don’t- suppose that any modern military expedition ever led such a self-contained life. There wo were, marooned on a strip of desert land together, and as near such a paradox as a military democracy as it is possible to get. The generals lived amongst us, like common men, and not as the Olympians of the "Western Front. We c-ould see all the comings out and their goings on. They stood the test. General Birdwood could even abandon that without which no man is supposed capable of dignity—his clothes —and go in for liis daily swim mother-nalied.

ENGLISH STAFF 1 POPULAR

“It was remarkable bow the English Staff officers seemed to adapt themselves to the breezier Antipodean standards of behaviour. 1 never heard a word of adverse criticism against them as a class. It. will perhaps be sufficient to snv that they never ducked—arid that is saying a lot. The most cheerful man there was Bri-gadier-General Leslie, the C.R-.E. 1 don’t believe lie ever had a night’s sleep, without- being called out- from his dugout to answer the telephone several times—and that after long and gruelling days. J. often called him out in the small hours of the morning to come down to the signal office, and be never -was even snappy. It was a favorite ‘jane’ of -his, when aroused, to ask, with mock anxiety. ‘ls it a lady?’ The prospects of a lady ever calling up Anzac Cove can be imagined. “The life on the beach was a wonderful and curious spectacle. After a spell in the line, the Aussies revelled in the bathing, which was really glorious. ft was a dangerous business. From either flank the Turks were able to rake the beach with shrapnel: On the right- was the notorious ‘Beachv Tillwhile on the left was a battery known as ‘Anna of Anafarta.’ This latter was reputed to be composed of French seventy-fives which the Turks had bought for their previous wars.

“For a considerable time these two batteries used to open up on the beach every evening at 8 o’clock sharp. In spite of this, the shore was usually crowded with bathers. As many as thirty or forty would get hit in one evening. Indeed, it was a favorite dodge for men to swim out- to places where the shells had burst in order to get the- fish that ■•had been killed by the explosion and which lin'd collie to the surface. The precision of fire of. ‘Beachy Bill’ was marvellous, and it was a pom.moii saying. thi*+ ‘Beiichy’ could knock a beer bottle, off the end of the jettv if it were set im for him. Ono of the bravest men at Anzac was "a naval officer called deter, who was the landing officer. H<' was a- famitvar figure at the end' of the jetty, however hot the fire. Bales of luiv were piled along to form a protecting wall on the side of the jetty,, but poor Guitar was eventually killed at his post.

“The mules were; prominent in beach life. Boor things, they did tlieir duty well, whatever their nature may be by, repute. One of them even refused to leave us after he was dead. Hi« corpse was towed out to sea, by a picket boat, but it was back again on shore/next morning, arid repeated/retimied, each time/in a inure inllat,ec| /coqdition. Finally, it came/ mi more.:. //■/'v//-;.r (' • .•-../;

GREAT/SUBMARINE SCARE!,

“There was: ii great submarine scarp one: dily.. A chaplain -'reported that ho luitl spied a perisc- po at .sea. The destroyers came ou t Eke''terriers• toi look for the sub., but could see nothing,' and an aggrieved naval offb cer 'S-srit in a nies-sage- requesting, the chaplqin Ip be more discruninatiiu’ next time he saw a mule, floating wit! its iremairiing leg in the. air. I am lirinly-obtivipced that it was the seill.sari'i.o .mqlp; haviug its .l{ist ,jo!ci'- on -os ‘Vlt- is .difficult, from iCcomfortable .qi-vjiii'sftiibri/ .to...draw-,a picture of life .vit iiv{iS: out t.here—tlie burning isn n thf;flics by' day. and the ■. lice bnighf' ; the shortage of water, , tlie niUlps-j trudging along the sans wi D the bulging w'at<uskins, and pool- - devils triad-to. lick tlie moist.qrs ■ that v exuded j ; the extraordinp.r>" range pf, clothing, and' the. rich variety pf chpraOier ' among the overseas wen. Indeed, it all seems like • r - dream that, can never be fully told. , j Arid it-never will be. The vaat cani—s of the campaign may be roughed i, by tlie military historian, but/.tin. .

petty shifts, sorrows, and mad exaltations of tlie common soldier cannot bo wholly rescued from oblivion. Nor will the full tale of heroism ever be told.

“When I think'of the 29th Division, tho attack on Lone Pine, tlie desperate ventures of English youths at Suvia Bay, a line comes to my mind from a film which had in it something of the spirit of Gallipoli—‘Bean Gestc’: ‘Nobody’ll ever know just bow brave them poor soldiers was.’ ”