THE SECOND LANDING.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLIX, Issue 284, 1 December 1915, Page 2

THE SECOND LANDING.

THE GREAT FIGHT AT ANZAC

TERRIBLE SCENES

Sergeant H". Jolm^. in a JH+^i- U> his 7"-ot!ier, Mr N. J.nlui.«. o<" O^nKf-C?llU-ch, F,T!}>!siiis3 fiuUlils of figlltlilK wJicn. a fresh landing was made on

Gallipoli from August 7 to August 10. ■■■• "My battalion,'' the • soldier says, "was relieved'from the trenches at Quinn's Post—l, 2, and.3—at 9 a : m. on August 6, and about ten o'clock that night we journeyed t^o Happy Valley through the sap, which runs 'parallel"with the beach towards the Silvia Plains, and wore billeted! in the thick scrub until the following evening,' when we again made through tlie sap., towards our hard-won outpost, which was on tne extreme left of our pV)sitioit-and'on thebrightflank of the Suvla .Earlier in the evening the ;.Otago Mouriteds and Infantry, who> ijtacL deployed from the outpost, carrying with the bayonet the first line of Turkish trenches, be*gan in a business-like way to drive the Turks back the two miles to the ridge which we were to take andnhokl, previous to taking the big hill some 200 yards further inland, which commanded a fine view of the Narrows. 'So well did the driving party work that before dawn Aye had gained the foot: of the ridge, our first objective. The Maoris, pushing ahead with great dash, drove the Turks back some 400 "yards each rush, I think more by their hakas than by the bayonet,.'.although there was plenty of evidence of the latter's use. From the ridge up which we were now pushing we could see the Maoris rounding up the Turks like sheep, taking prisoners all who offered no resistance and giving a hasty dispatch to those who did; it was reported that they took 40Q prisoners in one hit. Away up towards Salt Lake, the new landing met our sight. Here the sea was thick with transports, pinnaces, and row-boats, with a good sprinkling of torpedo-destroyers, cruisers, andl a monitor or two, which were operating from within the Salt Lake. About half a mile inland we could see the Englishmen, Australians and Cox's Gurkha Brigade pushing inland with great dash against a hot opposition. "We were now near the summit of our ridge, over which was a fullyreanncd Turkish, trench. This was taken with the- bayonet by the Aucklanders, but, being greatly outnmnbsred, they were bombed out insidehalf an hour. The Gurkhas Avere then lined up—and—•well, 'miff said.' Sufficient tn any "thnt 'the Turks are expert runners when a, "kukri" is anywhere near them. The result of, a, Gurkha charge is always a foregone conclusion. We consolidated our position on this ridge after two hours' brisk 'scrap.' Next morning at four o'clock my battalion, moving forward to our objective—the above-mention-ed hill—without seeing a Turk or hearing a shot fired, started to entrench with full size picks ana shovels. Although we had a clear eight minutes "before the Turks swarmed over we could not get down more than eighteen inches, owing to the hard nature of the ground. "The ■ fight, starting in earnest, found us with practically no cover up against demons, with the odds about ten to one against us. The Turks were in vastly superior numbers, with tons of bombs and ammunition to back them up, and knowing they were up against the great struggle for the Narrows, they became reckless, inhuman pieces of machinery. Fighting like wild fiends they rushed on to our bayonets or wore dropped a few feet from the trench. After the first counter-attack I saw the Turks stacked up in a heap near the right flank of our line. This was no uncommon sight, for our boys stood their ground like men. "On the left flank our boys were engaged in hand-to-hand fighting. Hie scenes here were awful to the untrained eye, our wounded being bayoneted and shot like dogs. It was reported that a party of our men were jut off in the Turkish trench, stripped 3f all their clothing, shot, and made nto a trench parapet. I" will not rouch for the truth of this, but T pot t from a,reliable source, and after ,vha-b I saw I quite believe it. None )f the terrible scenes before our e5-es iffectod the boys. and they fought on vith that cool determination which ■omi's when you know you ore m> igainat it. The men and officers of iiy battalion were laid low right and

left, but what were left, even to tho smallest rag of a boy, stuck to their guns until relieved at nine o'clock in the evening. In the centre of our trench I noticed one of our machinesgun detachments getting a rough time. As each gunner got knocked out, the next man took his place without the slightest hesitation, and got in a fey; shots before being 'outed.' In a few minutes all the gunners and everybody around the gun were 'o"!.cd,' and one of the majors, although wounded!, took charge; but after a little execution he too was 'nuted' ;and was forced to retire. The fighting Avas so desperate that all" iiion who were not too badly wounded had-.to remain in the j firing line and carry on. "Some idea of the fighting can bi> ascertained from the fact that out of 850 men in the Wellington Battalion nearly 800 were wiped out, whilst the reinforcements—Auckland Mounteds, Fourteenth Battalion Australian Infantry and Gloucestershires —suffered very heavily. The Turks' casualties must have been enormous. Their rushes were always stopped, and our boys did not ask.- them where they would have 'it.' The enemy's snipers spread themselves out and were a continual menace, especially to the wounded, many of whom were killed trying to get back to the base. -■■ "I was unfortunate enough to stop an explosive bullet early in the 'scrap,' and on my way back I was assisted into a valley.not fifty yards from the firing line with a dozen shots. In this valley I found about 400 wounded, who were unable to get out through the snipers blocking the lower end, which led back to Anzac. Our "forced-stay in the valley in> the blazing sun, dodging the iron rations (shrapnel), was anything but comfortable for wounded men, so when darkness came on we started to crawl back to the base over a rough scrubcovered ' hill some thirty feet high. "Reaching base, those of us who needed dressing were fixed up and put in dug-outs, as the shrapnel was very thick, the walking cases being .sent straight away,, to ;the hospital ships t and receiving boats. . " "Next morning the stretcherbearers} who for two days and .nights/ had not had a spell, carried us down to the boats through the long shellswept natural sap, a creek-bed! widened to about eight feet. The scenes in the sap are better left undescribed,. The shrapnel had caught- the reinforcements coming Mp, and at every turn you could see the-still forms lying about. All we could say was:— 'Poor devils, they didn't get their chance.' , ;,...

"All through the; operations. on 9 thing was particularly . noticeable, namely, the spirit of the troops. 1 never remember , onco hearing a wounded soldier groan in the fiftoeu weeks I was on the .peninsula, and I think the wounds I saw in the new movement were worse < than any 1 have previously seen. The first thing a wounded soldier says is,: 'Give us a cigarette, boys,' and when he has been fixed up.he usually tries to do as much for himself as possible, so as to lighten the burden of others. Another thing I noticed was the absejice of the word 'Retire.' It was unknown to the troops. In fact, I don't remember hearing the word used; tho common woids wore- 'Slap 'em up, advance, push on, and whack 'em'; .and-our boys invariably did."