LIKE MEN POSSESSED.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LII, Issue 15951, 23 June 1915, Page 8

LIKE MEN POSSESSED.

WILD AUSTRALASIAN RUSH.

THE NEWS IN EGYPT. [by telegraph,—own correspondent.] CIiaiSTCHUHCH, Tuesday. In a letter from Zeitoun camp, Trooper Lawrence Williams, of the South Canterbury Mounted Rifles, describes how the news of the landing of the New Zealand end Australian troops on Gallipoli Peniu sula was received by the mounted men. "At last our infantry have got to work at the Dardanelles, ana I see by to-night's paper that they did rather well. The first news we got was last night, when a lot of wounded arrived at Heliopolis and Abbassi'a Hospitals, but, so far, we have not got much definite news to go on, though we know that they did well and suffered a good many casualties. We are getting wild at being forced to remain here doing nothing. "Sunday: We are all most awfully excited and delighted over the news we have got fiom the Dardanelles t6-day. A long letter from one of (lie Canterbury Infant.-y boys got through to one of. the men, and the contents have been made public. It makes one feel proud to belong to the same little country that sent such men as ours and the Australians have roved themselves to be. Of course, wo nave not been told officially, but this letter tells a tale that makc3 one's blood tingle. I will tell you. as near as I can, just what happened right from the beginning. Tho Queensland Light Infantry were the first to start landing, the first "batch leaving in boats drawn by launches from tho warships, and arriving at the shore just as dawn was beginning to break. The Turks at low tide had, unknown to / our men, put barb-wire entanglements in the water, and the moment the boats got mixed up in them they opened firo on them with shrapnel, machine-gun, and rifles. Men fell thick and fast, but there was not a moment's hesitation. They fixed bayonets, and some did not even wait for the boats to reach the shore, but jumped overboard and scrambled to land as best they could. By the time they had landed, most of their officers were down, but they never hesitated a moment. There was a cliff to scramble up which was too steep to negotiate with their packs. Off went packs, ammunition, and all, and up the cliff they wont with only what ammunition was in their rifles.' Up and over the crest they went, yelling like maniacs, straight for the enemy's trenches. Shells mowed Ihem down in scores, but they went straight ahead, hacking and stabbing like fiends possessed. Presently . they got a momentary lull when the guns turned on our boys, who were by now coming over the cliff every bit as furiously as their Australian comrades. They, too, left their packs on the beach, but brought their ammunition. The whole of them surged forward once again, utterly regardless of the hail of bullets which was making fearful gaps in their ranks. " Trench after trench they took, killing the Turks with the cold steel. Hardly an officer was left, and there was no one to give orders—not that it would have made any difference if there had been, for they were fighting mad. and no one could have steadied them. Up the first hill thev swept, down the other side and up to the crest of the second. Here they were exposed to a terrific fire, which forced them to fall back temporarily, and wait for reinforcements. They were obliged to leave many oi their wounded behind, owing to

tjie hills being denfoly covered with scrub. About this time the writer of the letter I am quoting got in front of a bursting shell, which, although it did not wound nim, knocked him out for the time being. He was carried to the rear, where, when he had revived a bit, he was put on ,to help with the wounded. The casualty lists are not out yet, but they must be fairly heavy.' That is only to be expected in a landing of that sort, and when one thinks of thts glorious result and the desperateness of the venture, one's dominant feeling is one of pure pride ana delight that our boys were the ones who did it."

VERY UNEQUAL FIGHT.

TURKS IN SUPERIOR FORCE.

"HANGING ON BY OUR TEETH."

The difficulties overcome by the Australasians during the first day on Turkish soil aro emphasised in a letter written by Private E. J. Sherlock, of the 6th, Hauraki, Company, to his parents, who reside at l'arawai, Thames. He was wounded in the right thigh, and wrote from -Mena Hospital, Cairo.

" According to the papers here, we had tho best of the fight the whole time," he wrote. " That was not so, for most of the time on Sunday, April 25, we were just hanging on by the skin of our teeth to the couple of miles of land we took on landing. But it was a very unequal tight, for the Turks had over double the number of men that we did; also, they had their big guns, while we had nothing but our rilles to depend on. But we made a good light of it, although we lost a great number of killed and- wounded; but that was to be expected, for the Turks had every advantage, while we had to land everywhere under fire.

"We landed at eleven o'clock in the morning, and as soon as we got our heavy packs off we were marched to the firingline. As soon as we got to the top of the ridge we caught it. Shrapnel and bullets were flying everywhere. The fellows kept dropping all the time, but we had to go through it, for there was no way of taking cover from it, and as they needed help in the firing-line, we were told to get up to it the best way we could. From that time until I was hit I was under fire. I didn't mind the bullets at all, but, the'shrapnel was awful, for you could hear it coming long before it burst.' I expected to catch some of it every minute, but, although the chaps were getting hit all round me, I never stopped a bit. When we got to the line the shrapnel ceased, for the Turks were just making an attack, and we had to retreat about 100 yds. Then we held them. It was here that I was wounded. I had only been in the line about half-an-hour, but I got some good shots in. All the same, 1 don't want to be in such a hot place again.-"