GULLY RAVINE.

Northern Advocate, 20 July 1915, Page 3

GULLY RAVINE.

ANOTHER MILE CAPTURED,

A VALLEY OF DEATH

(Press Assn.—Reed. 9.20 a.m.)

LONDON, July 19

Mr Ashmead Bartlett reports a successful advance of the left wing en June 28th which took pace on both sides of what is universally

known as Gully Ravine. Although our troops made no efforts to advance directly up the ravine they have fallen on the enemy's trenches on either side and placed another, mile of this valley of death in our hands. Someone has described it as a devil of a place. The description is not inaccurate. The gully varies in depth with and security as you pass up it leaving the seashore towards Krithia. , It' twists and turns remarkably. At one point you may walk in perfect security behind a cliff and at another you may catch a stream of bullets from the Turkish trenches in front. The Turks know every inch of the ground. They formerly fired a tremendous number of shells into tiTe ravine, but lately there has been a distinct decrease in the volume of lire pointing to a shortage of ammunition. Nevertheless there is finite enough shrapnel bursting, especially when an attack is in progress. Gully Ravine lies between overhanging, craggy hills two hundred feet high, covered in scrub. In summer the herat is almost unbearable. The sun beats down on this war- worn road with pitiless severity, but there is plenty of good water icy cold which is a great boon to the crowds of perspiring and thirsty soldiers.

Under the cliffs hundreds of weary men back from the trenches fling themselves down and sleep indifferent to the shells bursting overhead. Occasionally a man drops from a stray bullet, yet no one seeks cover, prolonged experience making all indifferent or fatalists. In the ravine you come across lonely graves marked with a cross and the name of those fallen in the earlier engagement. With every yard we progress the gully gets narrower and narrower.

WHO WILL FORGET THE SCENE BURNING THE TURKISH DEAD. Who will ever forget the scenes witnessed in the captured Turkish trenches and in th e ravine itself. On the day after our infantry occupied positions with the capture of high ground, all the Turks in tho ravine were killed or fled. The Turkish positions are invariably filthy and if the enemy goes through the campaign without an epidemic he will have undue luck. All through the gully is a litter of debris scattered, bodies half protruding from the ground In hastily dug graves, hundreds of rifles and bayonets and thousands upon thousands of rounds of ammunition. We made a very big haul indeed in this last engagement. Great fires are burning at intervals. They are avoided by all as they give off", a horrid and sickly stench. These fires are burning the Turkish dead hastily collected. It is allimpcrtant to get the dead out of the way quickly In this hot climate.