NEW LIGHT ON GALLIPOLI.

Northern Advocate, 6 August 1924, Page 8

NEW LIGHT ON GALLIPOLI.

A KEY POSITION,

SUVLA ORDER THAT MISCARRIED.

The approach of the anniversary of Chunuk Bair, which has been quoted by historians as "the blackest, if one of the most glorious days in New Zealand's war record," makes the following correspondence in the London "Times" of special interest in the Dominion, whose soldiers, with Austrai lians of the Fourth Infantry Brigade, were co-operating on the right flank of the ill-fated SuVla attack referred to, and had to retire from positions taken up, in accordance with the operation order, owing to the British troops in the main Suvla attack, having delayed a. day, and then failed to gain the objectives set t'hem. General Sir lan Hamilton, who was in command of the land operations at Gallipoli, wrote to the "Times" recently;—■ Sir—A few days ago a strange piece of evidence fell into my hands in the shape of a letter from Ceylon (copy enclosed). How interested the late Lord Sterndale, President of the Dardanelles Commission, would have been had he lived to see it! Clearly, the key to the whole «Suvla position was "empty" of Turks the whole of August 8; Brigade H.Q. clearly —and Divisional H.Q., therefore, presumably — knew this before dark. Clearly, too, the troops were not brought down from Scimitar Hill because of my orders to occupy Tekke Tepe, although this has always been alleged. Tho map referred to —copy enclosed —is in my "Gallipoli Diary." So provideutial did this letter seem to me that 1 instantly sent the following cable to Ceylon:— "See no objection for you and glory to regiment publication your extraordinarily valuable letter. Moment specially auspicious. Wire yes or no. I now linve the reply:— "Publish, but please read it eliminating all self praise radically." As there was no self-praise, cutting out was not necessary,—l am. etc., lAN HAMILTON. ,1 Hyde Park Gardens,,W.2. Dear General Hamilton. —You will not remember meeting me on the occasion of a dance held upstairs in this office about a dozen years ago. But I do not write as secretary of this association, but as an officer w'ho served under you o'n Gallipoli. I have just read . your "Gallipoli Diary," and read it with extraordinary interest; for rather an extraordinary reason, for it so haonens that I am perhaps. the only person in the world who can throw light upon some of its greatest puzzles. In your map of the Suvla area, square 105 F/K, you give a position on Scimitar Hill occupied and withdrawn from, apparently with.out your knowledge for two years! I was there. I know exactrly what happened, why, and when. For I was adjutant of the (itli East Yorks Regiment on that hill after Estridge (the regular adjutant) had been wounded. I was also signalling officer. xVnd, if

1 may say, I was the only officer oil that hill who had spent years in jungle and on hills and was in consequence able to appreciate things accurately. We had been ordered to take up that position on the map and we took it. I fixed our exact position by prismatic compass. We fought all day there and had-- a good few casualties, including two officers (or three), and then we were taken off again at night "because the regiments to right and left of you have not been able to get up. This 'was the night of August 8. On our right were a sergeant and two men only of another regiment, I lost and refound by us. I forget their I unit, but I can still see the identifying ! mark on their backs in my mind's eye; I it was a sort of castle in yellow. Beyond them there was a gap right away to Chocolate Hill. ' On our left v. as not, as you state, .another regiment, but only a weak half company of the West- Yorks with two officers, of whom one was killed, and the other ■ Devonport severely wounded. And this left us in the air. Your orders given to General Stopford at G p.m. never reached us on Scimitar Hill. Why? They knew where we were, for I-was in touch by day with Brigade li.Q. signallers on Hill 10, or close to it. By night I lost contact for both niy lamps failed me. As you justly say, anyone with half an eye could see Tekke Tepe was the ■key to the whole position. Even I,"a middle-aged amateur who had done' a bit of big-game shooting and kuocking about, saw it at once. We reconnoitred it, sent an officer and mv signaller corporal to climb it, and got through to Brigade H.Q. the message giving our results. I sent it myself. The hill was then empty. Next morning you saw or he.'ird that troops had actually reached the top of Tekke Tepc. Yes, they had. A worn and weak company, D Company of my regiment, together with my coion.il (Moore), Major Brunner. of the R.L'., and niysell, started up that hill, Abovt thirty got to the top; of them five got down again to tho bottom, and of those three lived to the end of the war. I was one of them. You wonder why we did not dig in (pages 78 and 79 of your Volume II) as we had lots of time.

There, sir, is where that war was lost. You set a brigade at that empty hill on the afternoon of the Bth. Actually, owing to staff work being so bad, a battalion received orders to attack and did not receive those orders unti l dawn on the 9th. I received them myself as adjutant. The order ran to this effect: "The C.-in-C. considers this operation essential to the success of the whole campaign." The order was sent out on the late afternoon of the Bth, when we were on Scimitar Hill. It reached us at dawn on the 9t'h in a- Turkish trench at Sulejik. In the meanwhile, for those hours mo-re pre.eious to the world than we oven yet can judge, the Brigade major was lost! Good God, why didn't they send a man who knew the country? He was lost, lost, lost, and it drives one almost mad to think of it. Excuse me. Next morning (from tho order) at dawn on the 9th you saw some of our fellows climbing cattle trucks. You don't place them exactly where I think you really saw them, but as I know there were none just precisely were you' say you saw them, I am pretty certain it was us you saw from the ship, only Ave were half a mile north of where you describ®. Then we climbed Tekke Tepe. Simultaneously the Turks attacked through the gap from Anafarta. Their attack cut in behind D Company and held back the rest of the battalion who fought in the trench, with the Duke of Wellington's on their left. We went on, and, as I said, not one of us got back again. A few were taken prisoners. I was slightly wounded, and stayed three years and three month? a prisoner. Later that morning wo who suiViy-.'.! were again taken up Tekke Tepe by its northern ravine, on the west side. Turkish troops were simply poming down it. and the other ravines. On the top' of Tekke Tepe were four field guns camouflaged with boughs of scrub oak, and a Brigade H.Q. was just !>ehind the ridge. I had a few minuter' conversation tlitre with -the Tur'd«h brigadier in French.

But I am coming home on leave in March- or April next. May I have the honour of meeting you and going over it on the map? I think much might be cleared up that, was still obscure when yon wrote year 1 ook. There are one or two ti»ii»;>s one prefers not to write. Please let me know your wishes in fin's matter. 1 loved your book, and T 'want to do any small thing possible to complete your picture. Yours truly, , (Sd.) JOHN STILL. Victoria Commemoration Buildings. Nos. 40 and 41, Ward Street, Ivandy, Ceylon, .September 1».

• Tlio problem of what happens to the superannuated cows which every sale day appear in the yards appears to be solved. Speaking to a "Levin Chronicle" representative recently. Mr. W. G. Sicilian ex-plained that his 2700 head of poultry necessitated such large quantities of meat foods that he had installed a special boiling plant in which every week during the laying season he boiled five or six cows for this purpose. An eight horse-power b'oiler provides the power for the plant and from this steam-pipes lead into iron vats in which the meat is placed about eight hours being required for the cooking. The bones after being stripped of the meat, are used for fuel, the residue, which is practically pure phosphate of lime, being then crushed for grit for the fowls.