EXTRA EDITION. LATEST WAR NEWS

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXIX, Issue LXIX, 4 September 1915, Page 7

EXTRA EDITION. LATEST WAR NEWS

AT SARI BAIR.

FAILURE OF GREAT STRATEGIC .SCHEME.

SURPRISE THE ESSENCE OF SUCCESS.

THE FIRST ATTACK BREAKS DOWN,

ASHMEAD BARTLETT'S ACCOUNT

«T (UaL»—PBESB i-MOcriTION-COPTEIOHI LONDON, Sept. 3. Mr Ashmead Bartlett- says: It was Jiot through want of tisying that we tailed in the great strategic scheme for getting astride the peninsult northward of Anzac by seizing the Anafarta hills, and forcing the Turks to abandon their positions before Achi Baba and the Kalid Bahr salient. One corps failed in its assigned task of dashing through, with a rush when the enemy was completely surprised and had only a few battalions of picked gendarmes opposing us. _ Another point was that it was essential for our troops to advance in very ©pen order, an" operation which involved troops becoming widely separated from they- officers and oomrades and requires troops highly trained in fckirmishing and self-reliance, every man dashing on the objective on his own accord, snd not stopping for orders.,. When . the-'first attempt at (seizure of the Anafarta hills had definitely broken down on the morning of the 10th, time was required to reorganise units,. collect wounded and land ammunition and artillery before a further attempt was possible, and not until the 21st was the army ready for * frontal attack in this quarter, where the prizes rewarding success were great and would fully justify a supreme effort. The Turks made full use of the ten days' interval, and knowing definitely where the main blow would fall, were able to release divisions stationed round Bulair and concentrate them on some threatened point. Hope of our effecting a surprise vanished, and obviously only a frontal attack and sheer hard fighting would take the lines between Hill 70 (known as Burnt Hill), and Hill 112? The Turks, following their invariable practice, dug in up to the necks, and every dawn disclosed new trenches. The manner in which they searched our beaches and caiups with shell-fire, indicated that several fresh batteries had been brought to this front.

The position of our line was hardly changed, but it had been secured by digging^ permanent trenches right across vhe low ground in front of Anafarta and out into the plain southward, connecting by a series of posts with the Australian left flank. Opposite, our front the Turks had dug two trench lines of immense strength, which they had carefully loopholed. Our immediate objective on the left ■was the capture of Hill 70, which, lying in front of the main position, caused so much trouble at the landing. Our centre and right planned to advance from the ridge in front of Chocolate Hill and from the trenches on the plain southward, converging in an assault which had for its main objective Hill 112. By a great effort the troops were massed along the line from Hills 70 to 112, and a division of Yeomanry was held in reserve behind Lala Baba. A brigade of infantry was ordered to attack Hill 70, and another to attack Hill 112, while three were held in reserve. The divisions holding the trenches on the plain to the southward were ordered to rush the treneheE on their front, wheel northward, and converge on Hill 112 from the south.