NEW ZEALANDERS AT THE DARDANELLES

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLVIII, Issue XLVIII, 16 July 1915, Page 7

NEW ZEALANDERS AT THE DARDANELLES

A STIRRING STORY. (By Malcolm Ross, Official War Cor'-' respondent with'the' N.Z. Forces.) A pale young soldier, in an ill-fittino uniform and l dusty boots, his "hand ! bandaged and in sling, was sitting' on i a conch in the great hall of Shep- ! heard's Hotel. The corporal, -who was i sitting -beside me, tailing me of those stirring days of the first attack, rose '•suddenly,., for he had recognised' a friend "whom ho thought to be dead. Such meetings ore rather common nowa- '■ elays in Cairo. "Great Scott!" he cried, "that's Piper !" In half a. minute I was introduced, and soon I was listening to another stirring .story of the battlefield. The wounded man was Corporal A. H. Piper, of the Otago Infantry, and from Oamaru. It appears that there were two other Pipers—M. Piper and J. ■P.:per—in the New- Zealand Forces. One was killed in action and the other.died of wounds. Corporal A. H. Piper was at first reported missing, because? he had uot among the Australians, and had- been fighting with them. It was six days before he coukl rejoin his own battalion, anel then he found" that he> had been reported as dead by the) sergeant who. hael' buried the other. Piper. Subsequent-, Iv Corporal Piper came over to. Cairo with J. Piper, who died in the Ksr-el-Any Hospital of a septic wound. When the' former went to camp to get someclothes, and gave his name as Corporal Piper, the-v- asked his number, and ir. replv thev said-: "Oh, but you are dead!" The corporal—lie was. the one who threw back the hand grenade, an, incident (related. elsewhere' —howeveiv was able to prove to them that he was ' still alive, even though they handed him | a letter stamped' "Dead." j

"SPLENDIDLY LOOKED AFTER.'; I Corporal Piper in a talk I hael with ; him saiel he had been splendidly looked after, and spoke in- praise of the self'eacvificinw. Wav in which the women of Cairo wer? 'working in the hospitals.. Amongst-those who were untiring tn their efforts was Lady Rogers;, who not onlv cabled to Iris people, but wrote ; letters "for him to Now Zealand. He I also pay* a high tribute tor the--work oi 'the New Zealand Army Medical Corps. Doctors arid everyone connected wcth the corps did splendid work under fire. I The orderlies were most, tender and ! solicitous in their care of the wounded.. I "Indeed," said the- corporal,, they might almost have been women so gently did they deal with its." -In the .section -m j which he was - fighting the stretcher - ; bearers diel. splendid work, as did the j doctors. One Australian, doctor climbed • into a trench, and started-to pull a bael-'ly-wounded man along the trench on a j waterproof sheet. Bv this time it was j.clear moonlight. One at the. .bearers.. said: "I think I must be • hit.: I'm spitting blood'.." -. He-, was hit: sure-. enough, but he stuck .to his,-job and got •'hisr.-man out- of .the; trench, wh; : <#:;-w,aa i too., narrow to\permit o£'..-the)- taking" pi^a-. { stretch.ei,into.it;.. 'Then: tlrem; was onejof -the ' N T ew<- ' Zealanders-r-sa, corporal-rr, 1 who all through', the day, from 10' q.m. ! to 6 pirn..,;' was under -, fireh. bandaging, ; wounds- and taking water to.the wound - ■ ed. He was an "Otago man.. My. in-f orm^j ant. did, not know his name.. ~ "But," i he added, .'.'if ever a man,'worked'.that 1 chap '..did." " Ho Was under henyy lire nearly all the time. ' : - '-■■'>■'•■' — ; ' Continuing.- his storj-,, Corpora! Pi per. | said '''l ijqt out of ' the Australian, trenches on;-the Friday 1 night, when ,1; was. relieved bv a man from.. the? B.M.L.T. Wfiej! I got into- the Aiis-'.= tralian. trench there was neither officer nor in.c,o. with them, so I had-to_ take' change. Such was the. nature of the fighting that many similar, incidents happened. Indeed, "in some' places senior privates were in charge of a- trench a hundred yarels long.". . i-y

' TAKING UP A NEW.POSITION: . On. the second' Sunday-we Toft our main! position en the beach along to. the left rat 5:30 in- the . evening, went •round to"the ; right, and up the main. gully., in comparative shelter to take up a- new position on the extrame left: To get;to this position Ave -had. to "climb; up the sides of a cliff with the aid of a rope, and all the time .we were .being sniped at, Then we had to walk along a narrow track cut by, the. ' Engineers just about six feet -bsil.bw the top of the cliff in dea-d ground. When we got to the end of this little track we had to jump up on to the side of a gradually sloping hill swept by machine guns, and heavy rifle fire, amongst which there appeared to be a large number of explosive bnlk'ts. We could see them exploding as they struck the hill opposite. This was at night, it .being 8 o'clock .when; we got on ; tj> the ridge. Colonel Moore was in charge. We .had to hop up on to the' top of "this ridge -and runrto the .extreme left. It was so daik that you could not see six i feet in 'front of you. The m'an : in. front of me"-went', oyer the edge of the cliff. ' I just managed to pull myself .up in time, but before 1, could get going again I had lost -touch '•"'. of ; "the rest. Several others had- a -similar .experience. The result was that, there were numerous batches m erf only four. or five strqug scattered over/ the* hillside. 1 had lost; all: idea of funk. 'by.that time', and spent . about an hour trying to make one'firing line. We eventually managed to: 'get. a single liue, .and I went along to the extreme left, and entrenched with sonie others. At times we-were Avithin, twenty yards of the Turks. Indeed,..so close were we that I was able to throw back. one. of their hand grenades into their-own trench. I ""ENTRENCHING. ! Wo worked all night up till daylight entrenching. - Stragglers kept coming in on the left, and- early in the forenoon our; trench was too.small to hold all the men we had. About .8 o'clock maxt morning-the enemy worked round; and fired on us over the rear left and the left prope.r. Up till,then we had in this ; adventure lost only three killed and one. wounded. One man was shot through.; the hand, and while. I was bandaging it' he was shot through the head. We could not get word to the rest of our batta-- j (lion on the risht. I had, to run j across, some twelve yards of open' y o-round, and. in doing; so I got three bul'^.ts_^onfi in the , shoulder, one grazing the wrist, and. an-explosive .bullet'that smashed mv rifle and my thumb. I managed to get into a. little -dug-out, so small and narrow that there was aiot room ; £or me to bandage my arm. The Turks were watching,; mc closely, so I, had to lie there an my. "back from 10 in the morning till 8 at night. It, was _ t-he longest day I ev«sr spent;-as in .-addition, to the .wounds. I had dysentery* During the afternoon,'however, I hadvthe sure of witnessing thei marvellous fire of- the Navv. They'were lyddite shells "into the enemy's trenches only 30 yards in front of me . T was nearly stifled bv the fumes, which, smelt something like" burning linoleum. Then word was sent along that Sba- ' in"- reinforced by . the •'-'Australians. • Eventually I <<jot out of my little tto.e ' as night fell, "and after crawling aWng for about 150 yards, I fell oveir the (diff amongst a lot" of Turks who .had -Ween. I killed on.tile, first Sunday. My woVd, they wore' bsd, too! I assure you that they were- not drawing-room Turks "bv any* means! I got into the- 'bottom hi

the gnlly, which was nun! up to m> 'knees m pla.er>s, and finally 1 i cached hf first (hessinu; tation "I he l f An awfully nice young fellow—a doctor I itihe third brigade—dressed my •wounds and gave me. a- cigarette. From there I got" to the field .station, where I was well treated. I had. tun mugs of bovL'il' and some biscuit, and- I was jolly pleased to get it, too, as I had had nothing for 24 hours. At 2 o'clock in the, morning I went over in the naval pinnace to .the Gloucester Castle, a- transport which had to do duty as a hospital diip . The stewards oi' that ship treated us splend-idrV. I 'fainted- and two st.ewtreatmnt has uvr had such good tratards put me to bed. Neext clay one of them took me into the bathroom and washed me.. Most of th'.j-n-refused 'to take, money 'for their trouble, though • itmust- have'been rather a ghastly- business for them. However, before we left we collected £9 for them. We- fended _in Vlexandria a.nd T was sent on to hospital here, where I have been absolutely treated' like a lord. You. can .take it from me that the fellow who 'grouses' about his ; treatment bus never -before had* such good treatment -bet'oie in his life." j

p- "DEAD MAN'S fIULLV." [ "On the second Sunday," added Corj poiaL Piper, "we had to retire from I what, came to be known a « 'Dead Man's 1 Gully,'" or 'Suicide Gully.' It was crow'ded with dead—New Zealanders, Australians, and Turks. On one occasion I had to harbour under the lee of a dead Turk, anel lie- was a pretty okl corpse, too. It was on the second Sunday in the? elark that'the Otago Battalion got sei badly cut up. Lieut. Cowan was tilled while leading a bayon&i. charge with nothino- but a whistle in his hand. Godley, under fire, was cheering us on at the start. In. one trench ray equipment was 'burnt with an explosive bullet. All I got. out of it was a bottle of hot water. Explosive bullets also started fires in the bushes. Captain Fleming, of Dnned'in, who got a hand grenaele in' the face, was very brave, ! and as- cool as a cucumber. Sow they I got him off the hill-1' don't know."