The Soldiers' Mail-Bag.

Free Lance, Volume XV, Issue 795, 24 September 1915, Page 24

The Soldiers' Mail-Bag.

THE following is from a long and interesting narrative written from Gaba Tepe by Sergeant A. Hall to a Welidnsrton friend. Sergeant Hall, who was formerly private secretary to Mr. F. M. B. Fisher, when "Dahn" was a Minister in the Massey Cabinet, is attached to the Division of Mounted Police, New Zealand Main Expeditionary Force. He writes:

"For about the last month there has been very little of interest happening here. The taking and re-taking of Quinn's-Post has been the only sharp Ibit of work, with some excitement now and! again with our supports on the left flank. Quinn's Post is named after Major Quinn (Australia), who captured the hill, lost it again, recaptured it, and finally was killed there. The trenches her-e are only about five yards apart, and bombs are very plentiful. Now, however, both sides have made bomb-proof covering for the trenches.

"The .other night the Turks undermined our trenches and blew them up. Luckily, very few were hurt. "We were undermining the Turks' trenches at the same time, but they reached ours before we reached theirs. The other day I had some rather good fun at the Post. Although the . trenches themselves are bomb-proof, yet places are left open for bomb-throwers'. I have tried my hand at this game,, and find _ it rather exciting. One has not much time to waste, for some of the bombs explode five seconds after they are lit.

"Altogether, things are getting exceedingly quiet, and everyone is askingwhen we are -to move. The only thing that keeps us : alive is the continual shelling. Even as I write in my dugout, the shells are whistling past and bursting on the beach below. Fortunately, they can be heard coming, and one has almost time to run for cover, but every day someone is getting hit. One day four shells' burst right amongst us, and hit ten of our chaps, but, air though I was standing quite close to one of our chaps who got hit, by a stroke of good fortune escaped, but one gets used to such escapes.

"Since I commenced this account, the reports in the New Zealand papers have come to hand, and they are practically correct. If Mr. Bartlett wag not actually ashore (here comes a shell), at the time of landing, he must have,got his information from those who were wounded, for his detail is practically correct. In view of the fact that you are no doubt receiving constant reports of our doings, it is little use my continuing because my news would perhaps be stale.

"Our inactivity is rumoured to be due to the fact that we are waiting for the forces at Cape Helles to advance, and this, I am pleased to say, they # are gradually doing. When the time is opEortune, we will push the -Turks out of ere, and join forces with the Cape Helles army for our march on Constantinople. The work will by no means be easy, but there is no doubt that we shall win, for with our entrenched positions, and supporting artillery, it would, I feel sure, take the whole of the Turkish troops about here to shift us.

"I have only struck what may be termed one real good afternoon's sport. The Turks were bringing up reinforcements into their firing trenches about

Excerpts from Letters from the Front.

"One of the greatest nests here is the flies, which are in myriads. They, like the Egyptian flies, have ja particular fancy for one's face, especially the eyes.

"At the present stage we are firmly established here, and, as- mentioned before, cannot be shifted, but this period of inactivity from fighting is getting monotonous, and we anticipate a big move any day now, and, when it does come, we will have a very busy time indeed.

"I will close this interrupted and hurriedrv-written report, but perhaps it will give you some idea of our doings since landing here. I shall continue to send you accounts as things develop and as opportunity offers. In the meantime —au revoir.

"Mr. Malcolm _ Ross, New Zealand press representative, has just landed (23/6/15). and I have had a chat with him. He tells me he has already sent full details of events to New Zealand, so you will, no doubt have read them in the papers."

"We advanced our 100 yards and lay down, waiting to dig in, but no orders came for 20 minutes, and in the meantime 16 out of 35 of us were knocked over. The cries of the wounded were horrible, and upset, some of our fellows. The chap next me nearly bolted, but a steady flow of. suitable enithets steadied him, but he was still very jumpy. Eventually we had to scrape our way in, lying down, with the ground baked almost as hard as a rock. At the end of an hour and a half (Turks only 100 yards off) the two of us were down about six inches and done up, using the entrenching tools.

"Suddenly up. jumps my chum with a pick, and puts in six colossal strokes in three seconds, flopping down just in time as a veritable hail of bullets from a machine gun tore past a foot or so above us. Those few strokes had got through the outer crust, and we. made fine progress afterwards. The funny part was the Johnny standing up when he was so scared. I was never more

250 yards away from us, and we fired until our rifles were hot. As I have said before, the fighting is generally from the trenches, and all one can see at the most is the Turk's rifle poking over his trench. Now both sides have steel loopholes through which to fire, and we have also a patent periscopic rifle which can be used without exposing any portion of the body. These rifles are very accurate indeed, and quite safe to the user. An ordinary trench periscope is fitted to the butt of the rifle, and the sight of the rifle is reflected in the mirror at the bottom of the periscope. After one knows the range, it is quite easy to use them.

"The heat here is gradually increasing. and the perspiration simply pours off. Luckily the sea is so close, and it is avaifed of to the full, but one has to be ready to grab his clothes and run to shelter when the shells come. A. whistle is blown as soon as a shell arrives, and all hands have to get. The nights are generally cool, and 1 the evenings are glorious. It does not get dark until about' 8.30 p.m., and it is delightful to sit and watch the sunsets which rival those of Egypt. One's peace is however, usually disturbed in the evening, for the Turks' gunners generally become active at this time.

surprised in my life; neither was he. and he told me he'd, not do it again under any circumstances. While we were waiting for the order to dig in, one of our youngsters fell asleep (we had been in the trenches nine days), and slept through all the fire till daybreak, when his mate, who thought he was dead and ha-d done all the work of digging in, saw him stretch and wake up. You can imagine the conversation that followed."—A Lancashire Territorial wounded at Gallipo'in

"I am doing transport duty to Gaba Tepe, where we take on wounded Australians and New Zealanders direct from the field dressing stations. When the ships have a certain number of cases they take them back to the hospitals in Egypt. It's a sad time for us all, but you can be proud of being a.n Australian. Our men are perfect dears at all tirhes. They bear suffering and trouble without a whimper, and just die smiling. It breaks my . heart to see them. We are a mile out from the shore, and trawlers tow the wounded out on barges-. They are under fire coming out. So are we, for that matter, but the Turks are decent enough. What firing takes place is at transport and ammunition ships which get near us, so if we get hit it's their fault, as they won't keep away on a patch of their own." — From ah Australian nurse's letter.

"The sooner peop'e at home realisethat they can't sit on the fence and sing 'Rule Britannia' and 'The Boys of the Bulldog Breed' the better. We're up against a- big thing, but nothing short of a German arm l - in London wouldi wake some of them Tip to. a sense of their duty."—A naval officer writing from- the. Dardanelles. * # * '. * "We took some Turkish prisoners. Generally speaking, they were ill clad, and. there were some old men among them."—A Scottish officer writing from Gallipoli. **. * * "Our chief steward thought he was sailing with the Fighting Fifth, but finds he has made a mistake. He reckons we are the Forty Thieves," writes an ambulance man who accompanied the sth Reinforcements on the Aparima on a memorable trip. "After we left Albany the horses died so quickly that we had to disembark them at Madras, which was decent for the boys, . as we could 'do the town' on a very few shillings—a rickshaw for six or seven hours, one - rupee. Somebody was kindenough to prophesy that the old 'bus would never reach Egypt, and we certainly had a bad trip, losing 80 worses, and having a. lot of sickness among the men. As a grand finale we had between 50 and 60 cases of ptomaine poisoning. Some of the boys made a. discovery, a case of tinned fish. Well, they are sadder and wiser men now. We gave them a spoonful of Colman's musfard in half a pint of water. That settled them ! We led them gently to the rail,. and watched their contortions, but glad to say they all recovered."