SOLDIERS' LETTERS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LII, Issue 16039, 4 October 1915, Page 7

SOLDIERS' LETTERS.

TURKS SURPRISED. FIGHT FOR A RIDGE. ASSAULT ON AN OUTPOST.

GOOD WORK WITH BAYONET

Describing how he was wounded early in August at Gallipoli, Private G. Gar-' land, of the Auckland Mounted Rifles, writing on August 14 to his father, Mr. ! W. 0. Garland, of Remuera, from the No. 2 General Hospital, Cairo, says : — "We had been expecting a little ' dustup" there for some time, and last Thursday, August 5, we received orders to pack all our gear up. \V e left our blankets behind, and at 8.30 p.m. marched off with packs as light as possible round to the left of our position, No. 2 outpost, and camped there for the night and all' the next day. That evening \ve received j our first attacking orders. Our regiment I was to capture a Turkish position on a I ridge not far away. The Wellingtons had l a similar task on our right, 'and the Otagos I and Canterburys respectively on our left. I Tne jxjsition we were assaulting was : known as Turkish outpost No. 3. The' feature of the whole attack was to be sur- I prise and dash. We had to charge with ] our rifles and magazines absolutely empty, relying on the bayonet only. A destroyer ' in the bay used to send a few shells "on to this place every evening, so it was : arranged that she "should shell as usual, j We were to creep up the gully and get J into position while this was going on. At [ 9-30 p.m. precisely the searchlight was to be turned off, and the attack was to 1 start. I * Everything went splendidly. The) 3rd and 11th squadrons were the "first line, j and we of the 4th, we-e in support, and were well up. We were all carrying picks or shovels, but had to -irop them when I we started to climb the ridge. Some of! the 3rd boys had come across the Turkish outposts four men, I think, and promptly struck them down, and then on towards the top. Enemy Not Expecting Attack. " When the searchlight switched off we were in position, and got into it straight away. The Turks were fairly taken by surprise. They evidently thought the destroyer was giving her usual evening's entertainment, and had no idea of an attack. Most of them had withdrawn on. I the other side of the ridge, leaving a com- I parative few in the trenches to keep watch until the shelling ceased. These few were quickly bayoneted, one or two taken prisoners, and in a few minutes we had all their trenches, except a small one on the back of the ridge. Two companies of Maoris were following us up, and they charged across and took this trench. They lost one or two men. It was not a serious affair, but they cleared away some snipers who had been annoying us. Each of our squadrons lost a few men, and we had an officer killed by a bomb. Tommies Surprise the Turks. " Next morning there was a great sight from-the ridge we had taken. Away out to the left by the Salt Lake a whole crowd of large transport* had slipped across during the darkness and had landed two divisions of Kitchener's Army. These Tommies had swarmed acros the flat and surprised the Turks completely, killing a lot of them and taking a good few prisoners. They had then gone forward tpwards a long, high ridge, containing Hill 971, Chunuk Bair, etc. This big ridge was the main objective of the whole attack, and was being assaulted in different positions or practically along the whole face by other ' Tommy* regiments, which had landed a few days previously, and also by our own infantry. Three or four cruisers in the bay were sending big shells along the top of the ridge. At midday we received word that our regiment had to march up to the support of some others— ' Tommies'—near the top of that big ridge, so we "set sail,' but were-held in a gully at the foot all the afternoon and that night. Under Fire of Snipers. " At 2 a.m. next day, Sundav, we left for headquarters at the top. We reached there about dawn and then, to get into support, had to charge over a rise under a pretty hot fire and in to a small hollow a short distance over. We lost a few more men during this dash, one or two being killed. Lying in that small dip all day was the worst job we have had yet. The Turks were sniping at us from up the hill, and several of our men were shot. Then they got shrapnel on to us. This played the mischief with our fellows. We could not reply in any way, and lying among the dead and wounded was not too cheerful. The fellows stuck to it, however, though no one knew what moment might be his last. We had no entrench ing tools, so started to dig in as best we could with our bayonets. While at this one shrapnel bullet went through the' front of my cap—any closer would have been dangerous • Regiment Suffers Heavily. " The regiment—or what was left of them—moved up to the firing-line late in the afternoon. My troop was left behind to bring up rations, water, etc. We had had nothing served out to us for three days. We got up to the firing-line somewhere between 9 p.m. and midnight, and it was as hot up there as one could wish for. Our regiment had suffered heavily, and just as we arrived with the rations' were ordered to the left and to advance in front of the trenches, which we did Matters were rather confused for me from that time onward, as I only charged out about 10 or 15 yards when I was knocked down by a bullet in the left shoulder, but managed to crawl back, and one of our men helped me down to the dressingstation and from there to the beach. I am not badly hit, and am doing well, and will be right in a week or two."

BATTLE OF SARI BAIE.

WORK OF MACHINE-GUNS.

SUPPORTING INFANTRY

COUNTER-ATTACK CHECKED.

Tetters are now beginning to arrive from soldiers who were wounded during the general attack on the Turkish positions at Sari Bair early in August. An interesting account of his experiences has been written by Sergeant W. H. D. Coltman to his father, Mr. W. Coltman, from a hospital ship on August 12. Sergeant Coltman was in command of a machinegun section attached to the Auckland infantry, and was wounded on the third day of the battle.

Sergeant Coltman had previously been wounded earlier in the campaign, and according to his letter landed for the second time at Anzac on June 1. " On the morning of June 3 we went up into the trenches at a position called Courtney's Post," he writes, " and passed most of the day fixing up • gun emplacements. The Turks* trenches just opposite our position were no more than 30rds away, so one had to be most careful to do nothing that would draw their attention and fire on to us. However, we fixed up everything satisfactorily. That night Roy Cargo was shot through the head and" died before they could take him out of the trenches. There was no chance for sleep for anyone during the night, as we kept up a persistent Biflo fire the whole #jbsj. the

Turks replying heavily. The machineguns, however, did not open fire, as we were under certain very strict orders but we all had to man our bit of trench'and consequently had no rest. An Attack at Quinn's Post. " During the night of June 4 I listened to an attack all along our line. It was not my turn on duty so I was able to lie in my dug-out and listen to the noise. Below our dug-outs was a Japanese trench mortar and at regular intervals thev would let drive with the thing, making a noise that would drive a madman saiie We made an attack at Quinn's Post nest to Courtney's, but failed to accomplish what was required, and fell back on our own trenches. Then the time came for our machine-guns to open out on the lurks' tenches. We kept going long after I went on dut v at 6 a.m., until eventually the Turks got their artillerv on to us and knocked our epauhnent to pieces. We moved the guns out of action without anyone being hurt, and kept verv quiet for the remainder of the day. From June 6 I to June 12 we remained "in the same, position, having built it up again: nothing of any importance taking place, just doing our turn on duty, going for a swim, and sleeping. Driven Ont by Artillery. On June 12 we moved the gun round into a tunnel, a place one had to go on hands and knees to get to. and the only daylight we had was through the small j hole out of which the gun was poked At i night time it was most frightfully stuffy I and we had to sit in a most cramped pos*i- ; tion. We had a gun in that tunnel until i August 3. but beyond firing an occasional i burst or two did practically nothing with jit. On June 20 about seven machine'guns, in conjunction with an Indian J mountain batten,-, directed fire at some I of the Turks' mountain guns, and we had . the satisfaction of knocking them out be- ! fore the Turks' heavy artillerv got on to i us - When they did thev made things flv, : and we had to move verv hurriedlv, fortunately without any casualties Gun Teams All Disabled.

Tilings went on uneventfully till the beginning of August." Sergeant Colt-man continues. On August 5 we left Courtney at night, and we knew then that we were in for something big. We hid all the following day in what is called Happy \ alley— though why it is so called I don know—and in the evening we pushed round for the big attack. We were held in reserve till the 7th, when we were suddenly pushed into it and had to get busy at short notice. We had a very strenuous time the whole day and night, and on the .following morning I was ordered forward with two guns to support the infantry in a charge- That was last Sunday. We caught up with the infantry just as the Turks were preparing for a big counter-attack, and I venture to say that had not my guns been there and opened fire just at that moment, things would have gone very differently with our boys. A* it was our fire had a moralising effect on our own men and a demoralising effect on the Turks, so that we were able to nip their counterattack in the bud. It was just about then that the first of my men was hit, and, as we had no time to prepare trenches of any sort, the Turks kept continually on the guns, and gradually put the teams out of action, till at last I had but two men left. We lost heavily, but, thank goodness, there were only two who were killed. "All day long we suffered heavy shell and rifle fire, and the wonder is that there were any of us left alive to tell about it. The row was deafening. In addition to the racket of the Turks, our warships were dropping high explosive shells about 20yds in front of us, so it is no wonder that I am still a bit deaf. It was about half-past four in the afternoon that I got hit—struck by a piece of shrapnel. The wound is not serious."