BATTLE DIARY LEAVES.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLIX, Issue 283, 30 November 1915, Page 2

BATTLE DIARY LEAVES.

HEROIC BRAVERY OF NEW

ZEALANDERS.

(Special Correspondent of the Melbourne Argus.)

UNDER FIRE

Dawn.—Rifle fire continues*-': ss furiously a,s over, but tha big..gun bombardment has ceased. The Turks seem afraid to go to sleep. Their whole front keeps pouring bullets bh our parapets during- the dark hours, though the Australians hold their fire except when it is needed. Half of our men'havo slept, amd after the "Stand to!" ordei has been-cancelled the others will lie down within easy distance of where they may be wanted. When these exhausted soldiers do get a. chance to rest they take full advantage of it, and not even the bursting of a f Jack Johnson" shell will waken them. Some of the troops have ,to be lifted on to their feet before they realise what is required of them, yet a call to duty is answered with a jump. A rescue party crept over Steele's Post Parapot a, igw^hpurs ago and brought) in the nearest oodies of their comrades. Still- some hundreds lie outside, a" few right'in front of the Turkish trench. It, was hoped that someone might be found alive, but all were stiff and cold. All sentiment lias not vanished. When these brave men came back to the trench some of them broke down ,completely, and the others did not dare to speak. It was a weird experience crawling among lifeless heroes who had been boon companions only a few days before. '

The fighting Lonesome Pine is now intermittent, and our troops liavo the upper hand completely. Noon.—The quietness is bewildering. Scarcely a ; rifle is sounding around Anzac, though the cracking of musketry echoes from further afield, where the*-New Zealanders are fightjngc liard and the 4th Brigade is defending its new position. Shrapnel is still sweeping the level country, and our arm 18rpounders and howitzers are never idle. Time and again these guns- have been damaged, but the ingenious ■ crews are never at a loss for a remedy, and all the pieces ore intact, though the working parties are not. In one instance not a single man remains, of the team that commenced to Avork a Victorian gun on Friday night, yet it continues to bark savagely. The troops who have just been released from Lonesome Pine are busily collecting souvenirs of the fighting. One man lias gathered up eleven different kinds of shell cases, ranging from'the.-.huge 11-inehers to the ordinary field shrapnel. _ Two huge round stones have been picked Hip # among the scrub, which it is believed were used as. substitutes for ordinary projectiles— tiannon ba-ljs of the most primitive type. Catapults are used for firing bombs,. Greek fire has reappeared, and men bite, strangle, punch, and scratch in modern battle—a return to primitive conditions, which suggests that the bow and arrow and the battering-ram we perhaps not yet completely finished with. There appears to be a tacit understanding that this is to be ■a day of comparative peace around the .Anzac lines. The trenches at Lonesome Pine are being steadily cleared. The solidity of the trenches is astonishing. The position had been .transformed into .a miniature underground fort that must have beemeel almost impregnable to its constructors, and, in spite of all, our men took. it! " How they succeeded in establishing a footing at Anzac in the first place will .never be satisfactorily explained. How they captured the Lonesome Pine trenches will be another unsolved mystery. An estimate of the casualties shows that about 3000 Commonwealth troops fell killed or wounded in the course of the first action and the subsequent 72.hours' counter-attack, and that the Turks lost approximately 12,000 men. In the open 900 «aie lying, scattered amongst our rtwn fallen heroes, silent witnesses io the bloodiest struggle- that has marked the Anzac occupation. 6 p.m.—ln spite of their heroic bravery,- the -'New Zealanders have ]':I d. t? £ive ground at Chunuk Bair. VVeigiit m numbers- simply shoved them back, but not very far. The Turks braced themselves for a, great effort, and with banners flying and the Moslem equivalent for" cheers, ttiey came over the crest of the ridge. Sw:r-ms of them seemed to rise out ?ln™ earth- There (were probably 15,000 men in that rush, and they moved in a . solid mass. The Dominion troops with their sadly depleted strength could not stand against such a wave of humanity, and they had

to go; but they did not give back an Inch of the territory without at fierce and stubborn defence. The Turks Lave not come out into the open 'since they swept upon our men at Quinn's Post early in May, but tins attack was even more determined. Their operation promised to be completely successful, and it looked as if this yelling, racing jamb of troops would carry all before them, but they had reckoned without the Navy. The observers saw them coming, and the heliograph winked. In a minute a dozen shells were flying towards that charging mob, and hundreds were plastered on the hillside as if a mammoth hand had smacked clown upon a mass of flies clustered round a sugar lump. Bodies were flattened against the rocks, and when the smoke cleared away there were immense gaps in the columns, but still the others come on. Again the guns spoke, the destroyers firing shrapnel, while the cruisers poured in high explosives. It was a target that could not very well be missed, and the naval men made splendid practice. They smashed the ranks into all kinds of irregular shapes, threw whole lines of Turks up into the air, and pieces of men spun in all kinds of weird ffontdartions. Such drendiul slaughter in a few moments has probably never been seen oh any battlefield.

Midnight.—Anzac is quiet now. The centre of activity has moved further out, and all interest is