RUSE IN LANDING.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LII, Issue 15964, 8 July 1915, Page 8

RUSE IN LANDING.

TRANSPORT RUN ASHORE, STORY OF RIVER CLYDE. WHOLE DAY UNDER FIRE. In his despatch regarding the Dardanelles operations, published yesterday, Sir lan Hamilton referred to the landing on the Gallipoli Peninsula of British j troops from the transport River Clyde ' The following is a full account .if' the ( incident from the pen of Mr. Aslimead 1 iiartlett: — "We now tome," says Mr. Ashmead j Bartlett. in course of his description, " to I the most terrible of all the landings which j took place, that on 'V : beach, between | Cape Helles arid Sedd-el-Bahr. The landing oi: 'V beach will ever j remain memorab.e for the novel experi- j merit of running a liner full of troops ; deliberately ashore, and thus allowing them to approach close in under cover ! without being exposed, as is the case in ' I the open boats. There seems to be a j general agreement that a great many lives were caved by the cover which her steel skies afforded to the hundreds of soldiers , crammed between her decks. Over 2000 [ men were stowed 011 board, when at . dawn, after a rapid bombardment from ■, the battleship Albion, the River C.yde j slowly steamed towards the shore. She ! was preceded by the usual eight tows of steam pinnaces and boats, which were to j land the covering party, but it would : seem as if the River Clyde and the boats . reached the shore simultaneously. Those in the boats suffered terrib.y from a tempest of tire from rifles, machine-guns, and ; four pom-poins, which swept the fore- j shore. Along the front of the beach is a bank of sand about 4ft or sft high, and the survivors and wounded crawled behind this, which gave them some cover from the leaden storm. Desperate Venture. Meanwhile, the River Clyde had gone ashore farther east than had been in- 1 tended, bow on, close to a reef of rock. ! ihe water was too deep to allow -if men ' leaping from her and wading. But this 1 contingency had been foreseen, ai\l a steam hopper was brought up and also run ashore, to provide a gangway from i the wooden gangways on either side. But ! this was not sufficient, and it was neces- ' sary to drag a lighter to the far side of 1 the hopper before the troops on board , could attempt to disembark. i Some of the men gallantly volunteered ' to get a line ashore and hold the lii;rter in position. '1 hey ran down the gangway under a hail of bullets, jumped 0:1 to i the hopper, and from there into the sea, I and reached the reef of rock which runs ' out- from the shore. Here they held tl.e lighter in position and called 011 the sol- j diers to leave the ship. During the who.e of this time the River Clyde was being subjected to a perfect tornado of rifle, Maxim, and pompom fire, the bullets rattling against her (aides like hailstones. The troops on board knew it meant almost certain destruction to leave , her, yet at the call of their officers about 200 dashed down the gangway on the starboard side, and attempted to reach the reef. Some ere snot on the gangway, others were killed as they reached the hopper, others on the reef, and many of the survivors no sooner reached the beach than they fell. • A few only survived and lay under the * shelter of the bank of which I have already spoken. It was seen that it would mean annihilation to the whole force if any further attempt to disembark was made, and the attack was :,c.cordiii dv postponed. " * 1 Pierced by Four Shells. " Later in the morning another at- ! tempt was made. On seeing the move- I ment had failed, the battleships Cornwal.is and Albion, and also the Queen ! Elizabeth, opened a furious bombardment ' on Sedd-el-Bahr, the hills behind, and on the Turkish trenches, endeavouring to silence the pom-poms. Throughout the ; entire day the River Clyde lay ashore, ] with her <sOOO men packed like sardines j between her decks, and with officers j crowded on her protected bridge. I The Turks ou the Asiatic shore en- ' 1 deavoured to destroy the River Clyde by : 1 howitzer fire, but this was kept under bv 1 covering warships in the straits. Never- - theless she was pierced by four big shells, , j all of which fortunately failed to explode! < "It was decided to postpone all fur- ' i ther movement until after dark, and then '< to endeavour to get the troops ashore, j" In the afternoon some companies of the 1' troops landed on ' W beach advanced along 1 the shore, and captured some of the j i lurkish trenches 011 the hill overlooking 'V' beach, on the left, and also two of the pom-poms, but they were forced to retire at night. " Thus the position remained unchanged until 8 p.m., when it was sufficiently dark i to make a fresh attempt to disembark. Strange to say, almost the entire force was got ashore without the Turks firing a shot." AUSTRALASIAN TRENCHES ' ( _ c ROUTE TO FIRING LINE. j ■ I 1 THE "VALLEY OF DEATH." ( ( '"The trenches are within twenty and thirty yards in some cases, and" both sides use grenades," writes a correspondent of the Sydney Morning Henld from the Australian position in C-allipoli. "We also use periscopes, and we can, therefore, see the enemy without beiii"seen. As a matter of fact, our tieu.-hes are now 30 good that they are the safest j and most peaceful places'to be in. The men off duty play games in the trenches, and now we have few casualties from rifle 1 fire. 1

• But l' is getting to the firing line which is dangerous. There is a Valley which we tall the ' Valley of Death!' There it a line of sniping right, down it. We have erected barricades at certain angles. When you are behind these you can advance without fear, but between these yo'i have to hug the banks of the pathway. At very dangerous points wo ! have fastened red rags in the bushes. You go by these places on the run. Most of our casualties come frcm the gun i>ositions of the R.A.A. Our guns and those of the Indian mountain battery are doing excellent work, but of coin-so the Turks are always trying to put them out of action. All our maohine gun have been knocked about, and thev are constantly being repaired, both on shore and oil H.M.S. Queen, and some of them have been exchanged for new ones. There are always the casualties which occur throng I shrapnel fire on the beach. Most of the beach work is done at night now During the day the navy is'sometimes able to signal to us to clear the beach as the enemy are going to shell it. Then all fne mules are rushed into the allies and everybody gets into a dug-out. Be! sides this hail of shrapnel when the enemy replies to our guns, their ' misses ' flyover us, and endanger the picket boats, which are taking wounded to the hospital ship, and doing ether duty "These picket boats are under the command of naval midshipmen—mere boys There are nine or ten on each battleship Our men greatly admire these little admirals." The other day ! shell fire broke right over the picket | boats. Out of them a great horde of sailors and marines scurried to the hill for safety. Last of all, and with Teat dignity, emerged a. midshipman He stopped on the gangway—the most dangerous place— produced a cigarette out of a silver case big enough for a ! man, and calmly lit it. then, with due deliberation, he condescended to take I cover. This is the way with the British officer He does his duty, and then adds a little more. "On May 8 a Turkish officer galloped a cress the beach of Gaha Tepe to surrender. The Turkish fort behind that which he left followed him with rifle fire, but he reached our lines safely. He say's I that a thousand Turks wish 'to surrender, I and he is their spokesman. As yet, how- '■ ever, they can hardly come to" us, and I we oannot go to them."