ASCENDANCY OVER TURK

New Zealand Herald, Volume LII, Issue 16022, 14 September 1915, Page 8

ASCENDANCY OVER TURK

NEW ZEALAND SOLDIER.

MANNER IN ACTION.

Ascendancy is a vague term, but it represents a real state of mind, and it goes without saying that the Australians and New Zealanders have obtained a complete ascendancy over the Turks at Anzac, writes Captain Bean, official Commonwealth correspondent. Unquestionably the Turks are nervous of the Australasian soldier. Last night, for example, shortly after dark, a thunderstorm swept across the sea about 15 miles north of this place, and we were reached by some of the outermost gusts of it. The scrub has been a good deal worn down both between the lines and behind them, and no doubt behind the Turkish lines also. The gusts raised a good deal of dust, and made it somewhat difficult to see. The Turks were taking no chances. I was up in our lines when there broke out a wild outburst of firing. Tire Turks have had strict orders not to waste their ammunition. Some of their orders found on a dead man said that this waste of ammunition only served to make us think that they- were afraid of —and a Turkish officer in his diary also remarked that "it would not be allowed in any European army." Since these orders they have fired much less at night. and one was puzzled as to what this outbreak of firing might mean. It sounded like a Turkish attack, but there were reasons for thinking that they were not in the least likely to attack last-night. Then an officer a me in who knows that part of the line as well as any man in the place, and he solved the question in one guess. "Oh, it*6 the dust," he said. "They don't know whether we are coming for them through it, and they are taking no chances."

Whatever stubbornness some of the Turks may have this fact stands out, which is quite good enough to show where the ascendancy lies. The Turk spent a night like last night in a state of obvious nervousness and apprehension that the Australasians might possibly charge with the bayonet; thirty, forty, a hundred yards from them, in a parallel line of trenches, was a line of Australasians* always hoping against hope that the Turks might attempt to charge them. That is a very simple, plain fact r but it probably means all sorts of big things in history.

Really Didn't Enow. Medals and decorations will be given, but, of course, everyone knows that in a war like this only in a proportion infinitesimally small to the number of deeds that deserve them. None knows this better - than the man who gets one. General — was up in the lines of the Third Brigade yesterday asking some of the men about the action 01 the day before. In particular, he was talking to one Quesnslander, who had gone out two or three times, amidst a hail of bullets, to pick up some rifles near the Turkish trenches. "I hear you went out and "ot some rifles near the Turkish trenches," said the general. The Queenslander rubbed the back of his neck with his hand. " Oh, well, I suppose I did," was his account of the business. Another man who had won the D.C.M. was asked by the general what he got it for. "Well, I really don't know myself, sir/* was the answer. That particular man had merely pulled a Turk out of a trench by his neck on one occasion, and performed a few everyday actions of that sort.

The relations between officers and men at Anzac are as good as they could possibly be— quite the same relation as in the British service, but an extraordinarily happy mean. The other day, sitting near the- dugout of the cooks of a certain unit, I suddenly heard a fuss. Out of the mouth of the dugout came flying tins, spoons, cooking utensils of all sorts, Clearly a fight was progressing inside. It is the only fight I have seen or heard during the ten weeks we have spent at Anzac. A curious change came over the men the first day. They came to lean upon one another, and upon their officers, in a way I have never known amongst Australian troops before. They are never so satisfied ae when they are with Che men and the officers of their own divisions and of their own corps After the first day their attitude towards their officers became one of thorough appreciation.

Hatter of Digging. _ War is very much a matter of digging in these days— is much more digging in it than fighting. I have heard it said by some that the Australian sol dierdoes not recognise the necessity of digging as ranch as he ought—and I have heard others say that they have never seen troops who dug so well. One's own impression is that both are true, and are probably true in a degree of every army. There are battalions here which are probably unequalled as workers by any regular troops, because they- are skilled and experienced diggers by profession. On the other hand, in the early days, when the men were terribly weary, there were probably cases in which officers did not keep them up to the weary, apparently thankless, taek of digging until they were fit to drop, and going on digging after that. This is really a matter as much of officers as men. And where a battalion does not dag itself in quickly enough to ensure its safety when the inevitable shelling and machine-gun fire comes, the meaning of it is more often than not the officer has either not supervised the work or has felt that he could not ask those tired men to work any longer. The trenches at Anzac are easily the best I have seen. Of course we have been in them a long time, but their completeness has meant a tremendous amount of hard work on the part of the men here.