WONDERFUL ESCAPES

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLVIII, Issue XLVIII, 22 June 1915, Page 5

WONDERFUL ESCAPES

TREACHERY OF THE TURKS. SNIPING- AMBULANCE MEN.. A Canterbury Infantry man, describing his experiences" after the landing, writes to his people in Cliristchurcb: '' i squeezed down beside two 'Australians who had managed t-d scratch a.little hole. I was covered slightly from lire by a dead man. In a few'minutes one Australian' crawled away back,'vhit in;' t-ho neck and leg. His little dug-out was' welcome. Machine-gun bullets could, not reach me. We were being enfiladed by shrapnel and machine-guns all tho while. Tho Australians had, been' under it since mkl-diay. Shallow trenches like" these aro worse than being in t'he open. They improve the targets, without -bbtterirtg the cover. The Australians 'are better fighters than they are soldiors. They < could n-ot be made to ceaso fire as night drew on, and the only effect of their sniping was to give away! our position and.draw tho enemy's fire, consequently the digging of "oar trenches was much interrupted, as wo. wcro not keen 1 ori being shot in the daiflo. It was very, cbld t'llat night, and it rained before dawn. •On Monday, the 26th,.there was ..-nothing much doing. We dug a bit deeper when the filing slackened oif, and Ave' got. *ii. littlfe more aised to tho bursting . of.- tho shrapnel, but ,wo were still about 3ft from comfortablo safety. / Bain's was, resting on. the' narrow part of the Wench with the muzzle over ;the parape-t in fronti when aboutV one-third of a "shrapnel shell smashed the butt ofliand buried itself in the ' parapet. ' Another sin jpy way and ft would ;havemy leg off. : Bullets' fr!om;.thesame shell . smashed '"my helving handle..; Cno'than had . half his ,'eai v taken 1 off. He bburid' ■up the wound. Then-a- shrapnel,' ap-; '.patently a ricochet, landed on his back without, '••■ bursting ,: iwidi stopped a--few yards away. It him until ft l }" x>tßier bullet cftit two • fingers 'and'.; his cheek, and then, he woke up. He thought ' it.yas time-lie went to the rear _to^liavo, 'liis wounds attended to.- I have, seen a ,- cap cut. right the top, from the . frdnt to the ruar and no. damage t done, . , :£lso a tunic chopped from the shouldpr :,to tho diem, but tho bullets-., stoppedshort. •\. ... . .. "The snipers talcei-up good positions, higher than ours,, and there ju -no chance , s of xetvu'niug -'their ;*firo. Their work is niarveltouk, blit the Australians are getting their measure. '.They have been* found in; our irniforrns anil viwith seyeral identity discs on them,' and get scanty mercy. , Thei'o as pot much false y : soft-faeartedness ■in our crowd. , Tho' stretcher-beaters ' won't touch a wounded Turfc. . They might hit him witli the stretcher, for their snipers have been a creat nuisance right behind; our lines fir- > ing on the "= and' "am? bulance Stationsi Pickets iar© out every night, but the bush is tfhick, 'arid, it ia ver-y- difficult to pick "them 'out/'; "V. •