AT GALLIPOLI.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXIX, Issue LXIX, 3 September 1915, Page 5

AT GALLIPOLI.

MALCOLM ROSS' DESPATCH

SOME FIGHTS D&SCIUBED

II^ApRDINARY PJttOf^LAMATION DROPPED Btf TLRIiB. •

(From Malcolm Ross, Official War Correspondent wita tuo JN.Z. i'prces).

Vm m + t, .ANZAC, June W. _*Rom the scrub-covered hills, on which at the, landing you C& '^or luiwsh bullets, Anzac has undergone* A fltrange fflew^morphosis. In place of the wffiHib thei:e have appeared numberless dug-o^itS- In some of the outposts there is & perfect maze of tranches, and a man* j&a? to be.very well acquainted with them to ha able to find hia way to any particular poini. Though the trenches are kept cleau and the sanitary arrangements are excellent, there are numberless flies Everywhere, and other insects equally irritating or annoying. But in spit© ot everything, the Australians' and New Zea landers are cheerful and do their work with a thoroughness that is highly commendable.

When one considers the difficulties of supply here it is realty wonderful to note how well the men are fed. Tea and bacon are brought-up into'the trenches in the firing line every morning. Tea is also brought up at lunch time. For the evening meal the menu is tea and stew., Eaen man is allowed a quarter of a pound of jam and half.'a loaf of bread a day. , Ti^e, str.^teher-bearersi still have veiy hard work,'.'though it is not so deadly as it was in the early days of the fighting; but they now have to carry the wounded for a much longer distance, up hill and down dal," before they-get to the clearing station. The wounded are ; stil| wonderfully plucky arid uncomplaining. Most of the bandsmen have' now been turned into stretcher-bearers.

ANZAC, June 28. The Turks do not seem-to have many aeroplanes., but occasionally we hear the popping of an engine in "the .sky, and looking up we see one of the bird-like Tauben coming down from the Bulair lines, and hovering over our position. Watching one of these Tauben the other day, we saw her drop a bundlo c; Lailets. The gist of the Turkish irrvjtaowi a has since been publishel in the Peninsula Press,-which says it has no hesitation in giving it this wider publicity: "Proclamation to the Anglo-French Expeditionary Forces. "Protected by a heavy fire of a powerful fleet, you -had been able to land'1 on the' Gallipoli Peninsula on and since April 25. "Backed up by thess same men-of-war, you could establish yourselves at two points of the Peninsula. "All your endeavors to advance into the inner parts of the Peninsula have come to failure under your heavy losses, although your ships have done their utmost to assist you by a tremendous cannonade \ implying an enormous waste of ammunition.

"Two fine British battlsehips, Triumph and Majestic, hare been sunk before your own eyes by submarine boats, all protective means against them being found utterly insufficient. "Since those severe losses to the British Navy, your men-of-war had to take refuge, and have abandoned you to your own fate! "Your ships cannot be possibly of any help to you in future, since a great number of submarines are prepared to suppress them. "Your forces have to rely on seatransport for reinforcements and supply of food water, and every kind of war materials. ' 'Already the submarines did sink several steamers carrying supplies for your destination. "Later on all supplies will be entirely cut off from your landed forces. "You are exposed to certain perdition by starvation and thirst. "Your desperate attacks will not avert that fate upon you. , "You could only escape useless sacrifice of life by surrendering. "We are assured that you have not taken arms against us by hatred. Greedy Britain has made you fight under a contract. "You may confide in us for excellent treatment. Our country disposes of tons of provisions; there is enough for you to feed you well, and make you feel it to vouv comfort. "'Don't further hesitate! Come and surrender. •. "On all other fronts of tins war your own people and youi Allies' situation 1* as hopeless as on this Peninsula. . "All news spread amongst you concerning the German and Austrian armies are mere lies. "There stands neither one Enghsljman, nor one Frenchman, nor one Russian on German soil. • "On the contrary, the German troop* are keeping a steong hold -tm the whole of Belgium and on conspicuous parts of France, since many a month. "A considerable part of Russian loland is also in the hands ot the Germans,'who advance there every day. "Early in May strong German and Austrian forces have broken through the Russian centre in Galieia. Przemysl has fallen back into their hanas lately. "They are not in the least way handicapped by Italy's joining your coa itionf, but are successfully engaged in driving the Russians out of Gahcia. "The Russian troops, whose co-oper-ation one made you look *°™; a*d *°* are surrendering by hundreds i.n<l do; your honor i^ safe. Further fighting is mere stupid blood shed'"

ANZAC, Jwae 29. Away at the head of a steep-sided naW valley, on the y^TSll live of our trenches, is a spot that \mll live for ever in colonial history as the scene:, of great deeds. It is known as Quran «> i Post. It is worthily named niter a J gallant Australian who in the early days of the occupation held it against glThe <e Cnemy now hold a position doro- , mating the "way to Quran's Post- but; as a matter of fact they do not shoot you Because our men have another! trench that dominates theirs, and no, Turk dare put his head above his own , parapet to shoot into the valley. Ine: slope about Qninn's has been shot away, blown away, and cut away, till there is now only a razor-edge where once was a wooded spur. It was, early in the fighting, covered with dead men ; —Turks, Australians and jNc.w 4£ a~ ' landers. You still see dead men's rifles of the first day's fighting lvmti :ibout, there. The position is. m chares n the : New Zealanders, who have done and are still doing gallant work. The trenches are so close that neith.-r side ; dare use shrapnel, and the fightnui has ( resolved itself into bombing snap-, shooting, mining and comitcr-nuums. Our men have got used to th<> !v>mb- \ inp; business, ,and the enemy <annot' teach them any tiling. If you T/iirow an. overcoat over a bomb it do°- n* '_a eat damage—except to the ovcrcniu ! The Turks also are wary as to bomlis. and.' they seem to have 'shelters into which ' they can retreat. In the early' etages of the bomb-throwing there was one Australian who used to catch the.bombs as they came over —no doubt lie was a

tncketei--ar.d throw thorn back into g« .Turkish trenches. At last he taught one too many, and lost a hand. On other occasions our men have been known to sit looking at the Turkish bomb thrown into their trench and "counVit-out." ]f it did not explode before they r counted ten, the bomb was outed." If one were not on the spot and saw daily under hifr own eyes the utter indifference of death displayed by these Australian and New Zealand soldiers, one^vpuld re^tf SUch gto^ iLSr^V.iMM. the colonial M ~ jtllW, Imdisciphned as lie. undoubtedly is under certain circumstances and condij turns, is a thing apart in war. Hie I bravery is more than great, and as a tighter he is unexcelled by any soldiers in the world. He longs for action and change, and as often as there is fighting to do he will do it, but the monotony of treach work will certainly begin rto r>all upon bis free and unfettered •soul.

It was from Qukn's Post that most of the New Zeala&d sorties were made after the fighting, steadied down. The Australians who observed one of these charges from a neighboring position said it was a fine sight to see the New Zeaknders silhouetted against the dawn with bayonets fixed, and going "at top." There have been times, too, when our rifles have been led hot with the rapid fir© necessary in repelling the Turks, and each man had two rifles, dropping one as it got hot, and carrying on with the other. Once when the Turks were retreating, and there was no room in the trenches for supports, our, own fellows in the rear on the reverse elopes of the hill ran up to the top.just behind the men in the firingline, and simply mowed the Turks «down with a deadly fire. As already mentioned, the trenches at Quinn's Post are so close to each other that neither side dare shell; In the earlier stages of the fighting, however, some wonderful work was done by one of our batteries, which in the darkness poured shell after shell only four feet over the heads of our own men into the Turkish trench only forty yards beyond! , The range of these field guns is usually fro,m 3000 to 40p0yds, but here the firing had to be from 950 yards, an almost point-blank range, so that the slightest error in shortness would have been disastrous. It was a piece of the most marvellous shooting chat had even been 6een, and the Australian infantry afterwards stated that the New Zealand artillery that night saved Quinn's Post.

just at present the great feature about Guam's Post is the sapping and mining that is going on there day and night. It .is very jumpy work this underground warfare in a tunnel only four feet by 2 feet, when you never know when you will be blown uo or buried alive. Quinn, after whom* the position was named, was last seen throwing bombs at the enemy. Subsequently his dead body was found by his comrades. His name will live in history.

ANZAC, June 30. On Friday, June 25, we who are camped at Anzac were shelled by the Turks from both flanks. One of the shells landed in the midst of the men who were working on the beach, killing two and wounding fourteen. Some of the wounds were slight. During the day there was a naval demonstration, one battleship, a monitor and several torpedo-boats firing from different points?- off shore. The battleship's shells bursting inland raised great clouds of dust and earth in the air, and her broadsides went right across the Peninsula and the Straits, with the result that Chanak on the Asian coast was soon in flames.

On the morning of Monday, Jure 28, anyone who was awake at dawn might have noticed, a long line of ships off Cape Helle-s. There appeared to be troopships, supply ships one or two battleships, the balloon ship, and monitors, destroyers and trawlers m large number. It was quite evident that something important was going to happen. Two of the smaller craft went close iifshore a little to the north and commenced vigorously shelling. Then the guns on shore and the guns on the other ships came in, and a continuous thunder rolled up from Cape Helles.

By 11 a.m. the bombardment had increased in intensity rill it had become one continuous roil, with occasionally the lounder boom of some big gun rising above the general din. Then after a time there was a comparative lull, and we presumed that the infantry were attacking. All day the battle waged with varying bursts of noise. At 5 p.m. there was a long line of craft silhouetted against the sky-line from Helles to the end of Imbros. The noise of the big guns again came booming through the air, and on the plateau below Achi Baba great bursts of shell fire were doing destructive work over the trenches.

In the evening there was A renewal of the heavy gun-fire, and we judged that the Turks were making a counterattack. The Australians on our right flank at Anzac made a vigorous demonstration, and. this assisted materially in preventing the despatch of reinforcements to the Achi Babg, position in the south. In this, operation the Australian casualties were about 250. We learned next day from General Headquarters that the operations had been even, more satisfactory than was anticipated, and that the British "Field Artillery and the 29th Division had clone magnificent work. The splendid attack of the division was the subject of marked mention. The Turkish counter-attack was repelled with heavy loss, to the enemy.

On the following day (Tuesday, June 29) we had rather a quiet time at Anzac. but soon after dark there was a great burst of rifle-fire from the Turkish trenches nearly all along our line, and it was apparent that the enemy intended an attack in some force. The Turkish guns also opened on some of our positions, and were replied to by our batteries.

At first we thought this burst of fire to be only a Turkish ruse to make us waste ammunition, but later we found that a determined attack was being made on our left centre. The first rush was of a very determined nature, sixteen of the enemy being shot down and bayoneted as they reached the sap. Owing to a mistaken order thirty actually succeeded in getting into and over one of the saps, but were instantly killed. Some tried to work round our left flank. The Australian Light Horse bore the brunt of this attack, but the 6th Manawatu Squadron, of the Wellington Mounted Regiment, who are in the trenches, were also slightly involved. Repeated charges were repulsed by the Australian Light Horse with bombs and rifle-fire. The enemy artillery must have fired about 300 rounds over our position, but their shells did little damage. Some of the Turks got over from another position into the head of what is known as Monash Gully, and two troops were sent to drive them out. Twenty-five of their dead hare since been seen lying in front of Pope's Hill. By 1.45 a.m. the attack against No. 4 section practically ended, but the ground in front was not cleared of the enemy till 4 p.m. At 3 a.m. sorar of the enemy again opened fire, and thirty Turks charged up to the parapet in front of Quinri's Ridge. They were stopped by our rifle-fire, «nd over twenty of their dead were courted next morning in front of our trenches. '

One ®f the prisoners captured statrd that Enver Pasha visited the lines during the night, and ordered the at-

tack, urging battalions to drW Si i lfe Yo^ ng Turk«h Party «Sl holds the rejns of power. Small «££ munition and food are plentiful. Thei* are no German officers with the i£ fantry who are opposing us at Aosac S 6tlff arfe r ' 6Ome GemW