SARI BAIR.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVI, Issue 16992, 20 October 1915, Page 10

SARI BAIR.

BATTLE OF MAIN RIDGE. WILD FIGHTING FROM FOOTHILLS. (From CAPTAIN BEAN, Official Correspondent with Australian Forces.) (Copyright.) (Rights specially secured by "Lyttelton Times.'') GADA TEPE, August 20. I have told ol' the tremendous punch which the Australians at the south of our old Anzac position delivered against the Turks at Lonesome Pine. That punch drew two brigades of Turkish, reserves straight from the village of Kojadcro across the hills to the spot. I hare told of the self-sacrifico of the two Light Horse Brigades at tho central anglo of our position which tied down a mass of Turkish troops and although they' had their packs on: their backs all ready to move—that was at the critical hour of dawn next morning. It remains to toll the longest and I suppose really the most important story of all—the story of the movement out towards the crest of the main ridge near the northern end of which our left flank has in tho last few days heeii joined by the right Hank ol the New Zcalandors' force which landed at Suvla Bay on the night of which tin's article speaks, the night of August 6' and the early morning of August 7. THE THREE AREAS,

So many wild, fanciful stories froci the Greek islands have been published with regard to tho points: which our forces reached in the Gallipoli peninsula that, it is perhaps necessary to explain that Allies' troops had been landed up to August (3 at two points on the peninsula. French were landed at Cape Helios at- the extreme point or toe of the peninsula, from which they had ever since been advanced in the face of tremendous difficulties towards the peak of Achi Baba about seven miles away. About eight miles to the north of this peak again, and quite close to tho northern coast of the peninsula., is tho even higher and much more contorted ridge of Sari Bair. This range runs almost parallel to the sea, with its innumerable spurs branching off it like the rib< from a fish's backbone. On its western side, where these spurs run straight out to tho sea coast they make that coast very steep and rugged. It was on a triangle formed by a part of the backbone and ono of the western spurs with the sea beach as its base that the Australian and New Zealand troops managed' by the determined rush of tiie first day to gain a loothold. That foothold they had held ever since. The furthest point of their triangle inland was about 1200 ynro> from the sea. The whole area was within the rango of a moderately powerful pea rifle, not to mention the smallest held piece. The hospital ships had to be moved out ol* the nearer anchorage to avoid' the stray bullets that fell on their decks. The men working in the hospitals, the original ordnance stores and army service depots, were more under lire than the men in the trenches. These two theatres of operations wen? absolutely separate. You could see from Anznc the French and British shells raising plumes from the shoulders of Achi Baba, which was our southern horizon. But the two were as separate as if tho English Chnnne' Unwed between. During the second week after the landing two infantry brigades from tho Australasian position, which is generally known as Ansae, were sent down to Helles to take part in the attack of the heights of Krithia. where they made one of the finest advances seen on the peninsula, and were afterwards brought back to Anzac. But the two have from the first been separated by eight or nine miles of Turkish territory, which contains the most formidable | looking plateau in front of Kilid Bahr and the stretch of cultivated plain which forms a sort of bracelet acros; the peninsula from Gaha Tope to the Narrows. The only member of the Allied forces who nearly reached' one position from the other was a small British drummer hoy. who had apparently lost his way. and was, I believe, found by a warship's boat strolling the seashore only a little south of Gahn Tope nicking tip shells—seashells, not the other sort.

THE NEW LANDING. ! North of Anaac the laud runs out on to flats again. There are big crumpled bills the other side of those, flats and there are one or two minor hills in the middle of them near tho village of Little Anafarta. Where the flat reaches the. sea coast it runs out into the long projecting horns enclosing the bay of Suvla.' This bay is about four miles north of Anzac, and here a strong new British force was to be landed on the night of August (>. A British force and some Indian troops had also been lander! during tho two previous nights at Anzac to reinforce, the Australians and New Zealanders there for their more out northwards into the main slopes of Sari Bair. You must realise that our triangle of a j.osition had so far been down somewhere near the .fish's tail. What was now necessary was to seize all the maze of ribs northwards ; as far as the fish's head, where the j mountain ended and the plain bogan, , so as to join when they marched in from Suvla Bay across the plain. Every ono of these ribs had some Turkish trench or redoubt on it, somu of them very strongly hold by the Turks for months before. Tho first job to lxs tackled immediately after dork was to turn the Turks "out of these nearer foothills. Later in the night columns would march out through the hills so cleared and attack the further and higher slopes of tlie range. For tho first clearance of tho foothills there was chosen the New Zoalanders' Mounted Rifle Brigade and the Maori Battalion. The work was tn be> done in silence and with bayonets only, as long as darkness lasted. Of. course, the Mounted Rifles, like the Australian Light Horse, were on foot. No horses had yet been seen at Anzac. except, a team of about a dozen for helping to pull guns across any flat •space. INTO THE FOOTHILLS. Beyond the northern side of our triangle tho New Zealanders had three strong posts on the seaward end of the nearer foothills. On the other end of one of these, the inland end of it, was a trench which tho New Zealanders took from the Turks some time back and lost again a couple of days later. The Turks had since made it very strong with barbed wire. Every night tor a. month or two a couple of destroyers, which were the only representatives of the fleet left with us. used to conic close in and bombard these trenches and break in> the wire. After the searchlight switched off an aged Turk with a wheezy cough used to come out and string the wire no again. Our men knew him quite well by the name of '-'Old Aehmet." and thoy generally used to loave the old fellow to work undisturbed in the, dark. If ho didn't mend tho wire someone 'else would. Tho Turks used to have

patrols out beyond our Jlanka. which often met with our patrols. At this point in the line we heard quite a lot of them—you could hear them often signalling to ono another, in the dark, imitating the hoot of an owl or the hark of a. dog, just like the Red Indians of our childhood. A few adventurous New Zealunders had slipped out scouting into those hills beyond our lines. For as much as a day or even two they had explored them, lying silent when any of the e' envy passed near and reaching our linos again after dark. One of them, Major Overton, was killed within a few hours of the time of which I am writing, guiding tho Indian column through the night. It was into this half-explored country that the New Zealand Mounted Rifles stole out at about haif-pnst nine oti the night of Friday, August G. Bayonet", were fixed and there were strict orders of silence. TARING THE OLD TOST.

Tho destroyer had bombarded, her same old trench that night, as every other night. The Turks, we susjieded, lay clown in the bottom of the trench till tlie shelling was over. It had just finished and they were getting to their feet again when over the parapet on top of them came a line of silent, clambering New Zcalandors. A stuttering firo broke out. but tho Auckland Mounted Rifles finished the affair, as ordered, with the bnyouet. The Wellington Mounted Rifles were at tho same time moving up the gully on their right, and Otago and Canterbury, through tho darkness, on their left, into country that was less well known. Canterbury was sent further north, Otago was to go north also, but to turn into tho foothills earlier, to clear a hill named after their colonel, Bauohop's Hi!!.

DISCOVERED. The moment you move north from the Ansae position tho hills begin to move a little way beck from the sea, leaving a narrow stretch of flat between tho*Mils and the sea Canterbury moved out in extended order across this, two squadrons abreast, the line, of each troop following clo«e on after the line .ahead of it. They had four scouts out just ahead of them, and these scouts suddenly came on four other figures in the dark. It was a Turkish patrol. Tho Turks clearly thought that our men were tho usual New Zealand patrol out on its nightly business. Thoy did not want to make a disturbance in] the night any more than we did so they came for our men with tho bavonet. There was no sound in that strange duel, just four men fighting four with their bayonets in the dark. The Turks bayoneted one of our men in the jaw and another in the chest, neither fatally, before our four had managed to kill them. There was not a shot fired and tho column went silently on. But they were sure to be discovered before long. From away behind them there had "broken nut the. firing of tho Turks in the old New Zealand trench. That must have waked the Turks. A few minutes later tho Otago regiment just behind Canterbury turned inland' to attack its particular hill. A sputter of fire broke out. Canterbury still doing,across the flat came to a belt of laud "which was dimly lighted by tho beam of the destroyer's searchlight directed on the main ridge over their heads. From the hUi ahead of them which thoy were to attack came a. rnttta of 'rifle shots. Flashes were coming from two points along the top of it, evidently trenches. Turks wore ilso firing on them from the hill which they were passing on their right. At this moment their colonel was wounded,

WITHOUT A SOUND. Canterbury parted into two. Ono quadron went straight up the point of :he hill from the front. The other wung inland a little and then came ttj> to the i>;>iiu- from the real". There vas a machine gun in the nearer trench find they were on it before the Turks could take the breech block iway. The Turkish escort for the gun .food its ground and some of the finest v.en in the regiment wore shot as they; rushed it—farmers and farmers' sons "mm the plains about Christehurrh—their graves are there to-day. But t.h.y never answered with a single rifle hot nor yet n. cheer. They bayoneted the Turks and took the machine gun. The other squadron cleared a long communication trench clown the slop:- of the hill to the north and they then turned inland and came up the length of tho spur together, clearing four trenches in all as they wont until their spur joined the one which Otago was attacking, and the two regiments met ns had been arranged on the crest,, of the spurs they had cleared.

A CHEER IN THE NIGHT. It was while thoy were clearing the spur that the first sound that was made by anyone on our side broke the long tense 'silence of that attack. Away from the right from far up in tlie foothills canio the sound of a cheer, i beard that cheer too. It was near midnight and 1 was just passing the infantry columns which were already beginning to move out from Anzac to :;arry on tho main attack. We knew that one particular redoubt had been •riving special trouble to the mounted rifles and we guessed that this cheer ueant that they had taken it and that their feelings could not be. pent up iuy longer. Everyone heard that cheer. The Canterbury.-; heard it as they were rushing upon panic-stricken and totally vururisod parties of Turks along tho spur top and it cheered the men wonderfully, for up to that moment they had not'tho vaguest idea how any of their other columns wore getting on. For all they knew thay might be iolitary intruders into the Turkish position liable to be cut off as soon as tho Turks properly woke.

WILD CONTUSION. Tho Turks heard that cheer also. They wore fleeing now in small broken parties through tho foothills northward from gully to gully—lots of them loft well behind our lines, some of them even in their dug-outs wondering what ia the world, was happening. One of our officers returning from his regiment to bring up two troops which had strayed,' as he went back over a neck over which his .regiment had gone some time before, saw in tho dim starlight ~ string of men filing through the scrub below him. They were zig-zaggmg along their path and he thought these must be the men he was after when one of the men with him—he had four, two batmen and two Maoris—suddenly exclaimed : • " Listen ! They're Turks." Our five stepped back quickly into the bushes and waited.' There were about twenty-five men approaching and they looked like enough to our own men onlv their voices sounded unfamiliar. The small party, as it was only five against at least a score, clearly had little chance with the bayonet. So the men were allowed to charge their magazines. Presently the 'approaching party was near enough for it to be seen that its members wore no white arm-bands and patches which were worn by all our men that night—and, it may be added, by plenty of Turks, next morning. The officer challenged and fired almost at the same moment. Four of the Turk's fell, juid the rest ran down towards the beach, where they may have managed to slip away or may have been captured later. The Otagos had just such wild fighti ing along their spur. Their eloouei. I believe, "ad just called out to them, '•'Come on. boys. Charge!" when he fell shot through the spine on the hill that already bore his name. There were about half a dozen Maoris lying around the body of Captain Hay. When Otago 1 and Canterbury joined they dug iu to

hold this left flank while the columns of infantry--.marched out through them to make their further attack. T3ic whole hillside was littered with the" remains of the Turkish bivouacs. There was a ' quartermaster's store clearly, with brand new grey overcoats of German pattern, rolls of barbed v, ire, stacks of ammunition, embroidered waistcoats—Turkish soldiers aiv provided with a very good, stuffy hot khaki uniform, bnt thoy each bring their, own waistcoats of every sort of colour and stripe—boots everywhere. "he Turks must have taken off their hoots to sleep, for many of them never got them back again. There were officers washing dishes, tents waAcrprpot sheets all scattered over a mile ot Hilltop the next morning, as if a litter ot puppies had been turned loose in an old clothes shop. But there was one thing which we did not get. THE RUMBLE OF WHEELS. Over behind those hills there; had for days been a troublesome .gun ot Branch* make a eeventy-fivo originally made for tlie Serbians. The hills there were said to -be full of gun emplacements which probably means that at'least two were found and several stores ol seventy-live ammunition. But thejpUM had gone. After the Mounted Rifle* had finished and before the head of the infantry came through there was a short pause. And during that pause so,no of the men say they heard tbe rumbling of wheels. We found the l-oaditwentalong-aw^l-mad^ tary road cut through the nlls-but-the seventy-live had gone, c took a small| Nordenfelt. • • :_ So ended that first wild clcarance m the dark. The first news 1 had of it was o a vonngster who hud been ™,t back to report that the first had ended. He. stood there in ft out :Of the lantern, breathless. haUM'v.g SiSg of wWch the only other ox■n pie that T know of in this war was the rush of the Australians on the first day. So much for the foothils. The aTtack on the slopes towards the-m ridge must be reserved tor another article.