SNOWSTORM AT ANZAC

Grey River Argus, 29 December 1915, Page 8

SNOWSTORM AT ANZAC

AUSTRALIANS VERY CHEERFUL. (From Captain Bean, Oflicinl PressCorespondent, j ■ . GABA TEPE, November 28. Last night a fierce and biterly cold north-east wind turned the drizzling showers into • snow. This morning "A'nzac woke up to find the whole country covered with.- a thin white mantle, and big- flakes still falling. To four-fifths of the Australians this was the first time in their lives that hey had even seen snow falling-. The j snowstorm, which .probably was an off-shoot of the very severe conditions which have prematurely descended upon the Russian theatre of war, has arrived a month before the ordinary date of such, conditions in Gallipoli, and xindoubtedly caught the troops in the Peninsula, in "sonic ways -unprepared. But we know for certain the Turkish were far more unprepared \rhan the .British. Some Victorian battalions, which had j«st finished a sjjell of rest, hacj, for a shelter no roof or walls except the thin, waterproof sheet tied up as best they could manage. . I went through all these battalions this morning, expecting to; find, the men half frozen after the miserable night. The snow was by then melting", and the whole camping ground was inches deep in mud and slime, which nearly, sucked your •boots off at. every step. The mud had invaded the little bivouacs. The waterproof sheet, still covered with half-melted white lumps, was stretched no more than a foot or eighteen inches above the ground, making the shelter into which the occupants with their blankets and overcoats had to cil.wl. But the whole camp appeared, if anything, more cheerful than usual I truly believe this was largely due to the sheer novelty of the sight o r snow. In many cases the first thing a man heard of the snowstorm was the ihud of a snowball -under 'the edge of the waterproof sheet. I walked through a great part of the firing line during the day. Spew was continually falling. The men ; n the trenches were' very, cold, hut surprisingly cheerful. Snow Hus'terei on the sandbags, on their, cips. m their overcoats. Wherever the trenches 'were roofed icicles dropped from the overhead cober. "Sentries were continually stamping their feet. I constantly heard the men adbiring the scenery. "Look at those trees," said one sentry, "the snow looks ■ beautiful on the leaves,, don't it?" The landscape was, to my mind, marred by certain ugly crossed stakes threaded with barbed wire, and the • black sandbags * of the Turkish trenches fifty yards down the hill. But this first sight of snow undoubtedly helped to take the edge off the bitterness of the weather. This morning' som Victorians could be heard singing .Harry Lauder's songs under the micerable little bivouacs. The novelty, however, will probably very quickly wear off. Water proof capes and a fair proportion of tall boots were to-day being issued by the troops. Most Australians have fairly warm woollen underclothing, thoug-fi as yet co sHeep-tißfe^ Many turn their socks into mittens, biit warm hand and foot gear, especially the former, will probably be very acceptable.. As I 'write night has fallen. The wind is far more bitter than even last night. Snow is still falling, and the ground is now freezing hard. . From what I have seen to-day I am certain that given materials and ordinary provisions, which the authorities have been making efI forts to secure, the Australian, with his magnificent physique, will endure the winter as well as most British soldiers, if^not better. The Australians •are as well proviled as any troops in the Eastern theatre, but it must be remembered that ordinary materials cannot be procured and brought to the troops in Gallipoli as simply as in France, and without it tliese campaigns in. the East might " easily become almost a-second Crimea.