TURKS BOMBARDED FROM SEA AND LAND.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LII, Issue 15950, 22 June 1915, Page 7

TURKS BOMBARDED FROM SEA AND LAND.

ALLIES CONCENTRATE THEIR FIRE ON ACHI BABA.

BOMBARDMENT FOLLOWED BY DASHING INFANTRY CHARGE

FIVE LINES OF THE ENEMY'S TRENCHES CARRIED. London, Juno 20. Reuter's correspondent at Gallipoli states that details of the fighting on the front at Achi Baba, in the south of Gallipoli, above Krithia, show that on June 4 for an hour every British and French gun on the peninsula poured shells of various calibres into the Turkish trenches, while the British battleships on the right and tho French on the left battered tho flanks. Tho whole landscape*' obliterated in a curtain of smoke, and the tower of Krithia, which survived the previous bombardment, toppled oyer, the village being set on fire. The infantry charge began at noon, and tho first few trenches were easily taken, the enemy being dazed by the avalanche of shells. They merely fired a few shots upward at the. Britishers stabbing down at them in the trenches. A large number of tho dead in the trenches were victims of shell fire. The allies had the enemy fairly on the run for a time until the allied centre held the fifth trench.

The armoured turret motor-cars of the Naval Air Service did useful work, but the reads were mainly unsuitable for this method of warfare; Using two fairly good-roads from Sedd-eJ-Bahr and Cape Helles to Krithia, which cut the enemy's trenches at right angles", the light cars advanced, crossing the allies' trenches over special bridges. They ran close to the enemy's linos and opened machine-gun fire. The deep entrenchments of the enemy made further progress impossible, while the cars at the same time offered a good target for the enemy's guns. Shells began to drop around, but the motorists backed out of the danger zone after two cars had been slightly damaged. , . The allies' centre dashed so far forward that the troops were unable to maintain all the ground, although the naval division fought with the utmost gallantry. The Turks' reserves made vigorous counterattacks until Sunday, when reserves came up from beyond Achi Baba. The allies were very hard pressed, and abandoned two of the conquered trenches, but held the remainder of the ground, repulsing the Turks with great loss. The storming of Achi Baba supplies a difficult problem.' It presents a series of smooth slopes, terraced at intervals, and as difficult to mount as the glacis of an old-fashioned fort.