THE "DIE-HARDS."

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXXI, Issue LXXI, 22 February 1916, Page 4

THE "DIE-HARDS."

LAST HOURS AT ANZAC.

SPLENDID SPIRIT OF AU TKALASiANS. EAGERNESS TO~BE THE LAS' QUIT. (From Malcolm Ross, Official War respondent with'the IN.Z. Forct ~., ~ ~ December Ihe Berliner Tageblau, e«ny v ceiaotir stated umz me iJurdai undertaking would have been i Honed long ago v it were as eat get out or tiie jaws of the lion i get into them. Weil, here we clear out 01 them, spending a n cnmtmas. One man was woub anotiier had his toe crushed by a ihe story of now all this wa's a< plisned is a fascinating one, but 1 .o are not allowed to tell it. .ihe great thing from our poii view was to make it appear from today as if events were running ordinary course. The cleverness, tne resource with wnich this wai compelled will one day pass into! Tory in detail. Suffice it for the sent to .say that the final cperatio ; dej-s were a model of clear thin ; and organisation from tke main 1 cjples clown to the smallest deta the Great Adventure, and that one all, from the highest commands c to the privates in the trenches, cai them out with a loyal co-operation! enthusiasm worthy of the best ti tions of our race. 1 Towards the close of the Great venture the humorists got to work it was no uncommon sight to sd comfortable dug-out bearing the tice, "A Lover." Many of the left messages for Abdul—"A M Christmas" and "Good Wishes foi New Year. But underlying all w an + d i r<£ lc- that is so '•ell-recogi a trait of British character in the sence of extreme danger, there W r P?i ,feelinS of sadness that should be leaving, without a fui struggle, the ground so clearly vv the ilex-covered valleys and hills ed and held with the life's blot so many of the noblest and be! £ew Zealand's and Australia's bomewhat poetically one-of the Zealand soldiers put this pha }}l ou Sht to hls battalion comman i hope sir," he said, "that . ie\\°\ s "'ho IJe buried along the will be soundly sleeping and not lus as we march away." The ■ ;£,. .ls dead comrade's might I the living were forsaking them so mind 6 a P im Pressioii o The spirit of the men towards close was splendid. As the last drew near the suspense grew gr< Did the Turks know that we evacuating? Would they attack a last moment our attenuated lines ■ New Zealand General—now In mand of the Army Corps—finally all ranks into his confidence an sued, an order expressing his trr their discretion and their high 6 olc . qualities to carry out a task the I cess of which would largely dt upon their individual efforts' Ii case of an attack he expressed hi confident that the men who had to "•edit such deeds as .the original ing at Anzac, the repulse of th« Turkish attack on May 18. the catV? S ne' the A Pex> and Hi would hold their ground with the valor and steadfastness p.s heretc however small in numbers they 1 be. The splendid spirit of them the finish showed that this ccnfi< was not misplaced. On the Friday I went into the ! line on the Apex—the highest g J W ~On ]" aJ I the fighting—nnd foum 1 .\evr Zealanders, who still occupie. post of honor, tumbling over one other to be the last to leave. - colonel commanding the Wellii Battalion called for thirty volun • from two companies. Every ma , e*f h comoany volunteered.; so • after all he had to make the sele I nimself. Men were comin^ to commanders and begging °that might be allowed to be in the la<= to go. "Do lei me stay," said one man was m the landing, and I should to be one of the last to leave "_ it was just the same .with the ™ians—they all wanted to be ir J->ie-liards." '/Have you many volunteers foi Die-hardsv',» I asked one comma. I Every, iriother's son of them v to be a 'Die-hard!' " he replied. And this, mind you. was at a when we thought that most of Die-hards-' would, for a certaint' i either hlhd, wounded or taken" ; soner—at a time when a little in riess and hesitation might very Jrave > been expected. ■ Vith sr.c!i excellent organisatio ! the part C f the staff, and such h ; and loyal co-operation and .sang s ; on the part of the officers and m* 1 the trenches, ft is, perhaps, after ! not to be wondered at that' th° T j lvere ~,S y slieHinc: the vacant tren and the deserted beaches the day 1 men. mules and gnns had been sih and secretly embarkd, and were air well across the Gulf o f Saros, in Inngunsr* of the official desp»+ch be employed elsewhere." They triumphantly succeeded in one of most difficult of operations—'me that is unique in the annals of war: