Page 6 Advertisements Column 3

Grey River Argus, 27 October 1915, Page 6

and thinking the correspondent had been shot he called out "Did you get one?" Fortunately the noise of the battle was sufficient to keep from the ears of the" V.M..C.A. man the language used by the correspondent on that occasion* The gallant, colonel brought up the rear. In the shelter of the trench we had a good laugh over ovr eseapdu. The V.M.C.A. man, who had been anxious to see something of a battle, and "vvl'. was witnossino; it from closer quarters than he anticipated, whimsically re marked that he had solemnly promised his wire thtit he coi'd go into no. il anger what ever! The colonel and the cor respondent were thankful that they had made no such promises. By 3.40 p.m.., the whole of the available forces on either side that could participate scorned to be engaged in. the fight, and the din of battle resound, ed on every feido, while the smoke and di:::t from yhf.il anl iire begfu; lotpro.-id a thin greyish pall over the field. High above — the noise of its engine drowned by the loud reports of cannon, the shriek of the shells, the venomous bursts of the machine guns, and the continuous crackle of the rifles— one of our aeroplanes, with the red circles on its wings, sailed gracefully against the blue of heaven, observing. At this time the artillery eased off for a while; and the warships and some ■of our guns appeared to switch on to targets further ahead. Some effective bursts fell on to the Turkish trenches. At the same time we could plainly see the Turkish shrapnel bursting over the reserves of the 9th Army Corps advane ing over a plain from the direction of the salt lake-. The iire about us became hotter ,and we made for an abandoned Turkish communication trench that promised shelter in front of our present position. As we entered at the one end, a Turk in his grey uni•form disappeared round a corner farther on. It was now clearly evident that we had indeed got quite close enough to the batleficld, so once again we hurried back to our ilex bush, only to find a couple of bullets deliberately aimed at us by our friend the enemy, who, apparently, was a member of an ndvauc «:ti lufti, or some sniper <u.t on his t-wi. We beat a further retreat to the old Turkish trenches on the reerse slope of our ridge, and then for a time were content to rmain examining the litter of war that cumbered the "ground. In one of the trenches we found an English rifle, with its stock smashed in two places, its barrel rusty, and its bolt action somewhat out of gear.. One of the bullets that had caused the damage was still embedded in the wood, stopped by the iron of the barrel. One could not help speculating upon what had happened to its late owner. Jn 'places ciip sof our cartridges and the webb equipment of our dead or wounded littered the ground. There appears to be a fearful waste of ammunition on every battlefield. A bent bayonet scabbard lay with a man' belt. All the scabbards were empty. There had evidently been bayonet work here. An envelope addressed to "No. 11332 Pte. C. Nash, D. Company, sth Battalion, Wiltshire Regiment," lay near the scab bard.. One began to speculate upon what had happened to the Wiltshire private. In the scrub were some long ! broken strands of the thin German tel--1 'ephone wire used by the Turks, gas hel. | mets, and. field dressings. The Turkish trenches were all scrupulously clean and scientifically constructed, with lit--1 tin embrasures at intervals to protect the riflemen, and grooves upoi which a rifle could be laid at night-time for ef--1 fective fire. In each bivouac was a lay ! er of stray from the barley field, prob- ! |ably put there by our oavu men when 1 khey occupied the trenches after the Turiksh retreat. Returning from thi B examination, we found that the colonel had got the bat. tered rifle into working order, and, having loaded it from the cartridges lying 1 ' on the ground, he was scrambling back ' up the ridge to have a shot at the 'Turk. The Turk, however, like our--1 selves, had ere this thought discretion 1 the beter part of valour, so after all there was to be no blood upon our heads in this particular fight. At intervals we went back to the crest of the ridge and watched the pro- ' gress of the battle. Both. sides were " getting it hot, and it was evident, that L the men of the 9th Army Corps could " make little more headway against the b superior position occupied by the ene--1 my, which enabled him to bring his ! shrapnel, and machine.gun fire especial--1 ly, to bear with effect .upon our attack, 5 and though the firing continued it was • clear that neither side was likely to " make any farther advance. b From our outpost that afternoon we 1 watched a duel on the Abdul Raman 1 Dere and one of our 60-pouud howitzer 2 "batteries of the 13th Division quite I (close to us. The Turkish gnnenrs had i'got the range and were sendiug in S t pounders, but they only managed tc r hit the limber of one gun and did nc S damage. The Turks then burst some c shrapnel over the emplacement, but oui 5 gunners pluckily carried on, and finally c the Turks seemed to come to the con •* elusion that they had wasted enougl 4 ammunition for the time being. Thai t afternon'this same battery of ours hac got on to some Turkish reserves ad s vancing from Anafarta in the directior II of the W. hills and had succeeded ii ■■ considerably reducing their numbersFor six hours the battle raged with c out cessation, though as the hours pas * sed, one noticed that there were peri, f ods of decreasing intensity in the fir a ing. Intermittent and at times vig y orous fighting continued until far inU x the night. At 2 a.m. the moon, whict 6 had been aiding the marksmen, became '■- hidden behind a bank of cloud thai t overhung the Island of Imbros, leaving k only the lights— -green. and red — of tin '• hospital ships upon the waters. Th< r hillocks of the beach loomed darklj r against a sombre leaden sea. The bat Ii tie had died down. At intervals canw c the crack of the rifle of a sniper oi c the hills behind. The mul carts, bear & ing suplies, rumbled in. Other mulei x bearing bombs and ammunition to th< c firing line crossed the flat and disap c peared into the darkness. On the edg< il ob the battlefield the leapings flames p: lj , the. grass" fires lit up the surroundin.