ATTACK BY NIGHT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LII, Issue 16050, 16 October 1915, Page 8

ATTACK BY NIGHT.

FINE CHARGE AT AN2AC. BOMBS IN THE TRENCHES. HEAVY TURKISH LOSSES. An account of a vigorous night attack on a sect.on of the Turkish trenches made by a portion of the Australian forces at Anzac is supplied by Captain (J. E. W. Bean, official press representative Kith the Australian Expeditionary Forces- He writes: — " It was decided that on the night <-f July 31 the 11th Battalion should take this new Turkish work. Several tunnels 'were driven out until they were underneath it. Mines were 1 c;id. They were to be exploded as soon as the moon was up, and the rush was to be made immediately. Four parties of 50that is to say, one party from each of the four companies of the battalion— detailed to make the charge. Just before half-past ten the moon showed over the oppos.te hill, and the mines were fired. " Two of the mines, those under the ends of the Turkish trench, went off almost together, and our parties on the flanks dashed over the parapet, at once, and made for the direction in which the mines had burst. They found themselves in a few seconds coming up to the edge of the Turkish work. It had sandbars and some sort of big sand bricks on the near side of it. and behind this parapet. jabbering and scrambling and staring up in an amazed manner, was a line of Turks. Our party stood there firing down at them until three or four Turks had fallen, and there was room for * man to get in and use his bayonet until some place was cleared. As soon as a few Turks tell two or three of our men jumped into the gap. and turned right and left with their bayonets. "The first Australian in. bayoneted the Turk in front of him, and was shot bv the Turk next behind. But cs more Australians jumped in the Turks scrambled back right and left into the trenches which led down the steep slope in the rear, and the trenches quickly filled with Australians. The partv from A Company, on the extreme right, found in front of it a semi-circle of trench out towards it like a cow's horn, and partly blown down by the explosion of our mine. At that point a communication trench ran back out of it down the hill, and about, eight or ten yards down this deep, winding alley were the Turks who had been in the trench when the mine blew tip. Indeed, the last Turks were just hum-in? into it as the first Australians reached the trench. A Critical Situation. " There was one thing instantly to b» done— tear down the sandbags from the ; Turkish parapet and throw them and the sand bricks and anything else that was j handy across the mouth of that communi- | cation trench. This parapet was a foot I or so high, and was growing rapidly, when ! UP from the windings of the communica- ! tion trench came a bomb, and then an- ! other, and another. " Our men carried a few bombs with them, and these were thrown down into the communication trench at once. This small stock soon ran out, and from that time forward the bombs from tbe Turks below came from closer quarters and more frequently. Men began to be hit in every direction. The Turks were able to creep close up to their side of the sandbag barricade, and we had no bombs to beat them back with. The officer in command of ' A' Company's party passed word along the trench for the officer commanding the parties to the left of him, but the only word that came back to him was, "The Turks are in the trench. . . . " Things were looking serious in this section of the trench, when the officer happened to notice lying out on the surface of the ground behind the trench a box. It looked like a box of ammunition, and a man was sent out for it. When it was dragged into the trench it turned out to be a box full of bombs. The man carrying it had been wounded, and had dropped it. From that moment the situation eased. We were on even terms again. Turks in the Trench. '"The officer in this section of the trench found that just to the left of him the trench ended. He was really in a little detached section of the trench at the southern end of the main tre.i Two communication trenches ran back out of this section towards the Turkish linos on the far ridge opposite. But the trench itself was not continuous. After 50 yards or so there came a gap—the trench ended abruptly. It was continued again a few yards away. There were men in that next section alsoAustraliansand they were so close that ammunition and tools could be passed across the top to them. But when a message was passed down to the next officer on the left the answer always came back that there were Turks in the trench. f " In the meantime the party from D and C Companies, which had' taken the northern end of the trench, could see the Turks firing over the rear of the trench vast to the south of them. The part held by the Turks was shaped roughly like a 1 fan with its handle towards the Turkish I lines. The trench just here bowed out towards the Australian litres, and from either end of the bow there ran back trenches which joined each other a. few yards back, so that tbev formed a capital "Y" with the two upper ends joined by the curve in the trench which has just been described. "It was D Company in the northern , section which realised "from the first that these Turks were in the trench. Sandbars and Turkish sandbricks were hastily l built into a barricade across the main , trench, just north of the northern arm -of , the Y trench. There was a loophole left in it, so that the Turks were free to retreat down that arm of the common trench if they dared to pass the loophole, i A corporal then suggested that a partv | should get out on the surface and charge ! down on the portion of the trench which had evidently not been covered by the first charge. Another Charge. "A party of 15 men, under the officer , leading the party just north of the Turks, jumped out ana made for the curve in , the trench. As they came in front of it , they found it was held by many more rifles than had been seen from the sideIt looked as if at least 60 rifles were flashing from that short section. Several men dropped, and the attempt failed. A message was sent back by the battalion, asking for reinforcements to charge the Turks from the front. A party of 25, under an officer, dashed out across the open from the Australian lines. *' There was a tree burning on the parapet behind the Turks, and they made for this. They did not hit exactly the right ' place, but the effect was the same, for it frightened the Turks, and they started to ' bolt for the trench. As they crowded towards the end of it a bomb was thrown 1 into the thick of them, which killed four, 1 and many others were shot as they passed ' the loophole in the barricade. The trench was clear of Turks, whose losses were very heavy, and a message went through to the 1 party in the isolated trench on the right ' that the left parties were now in touch ' with them."

The Auckland branch of the Overseas Club is making an appeal, to country districts especially, for parcels of warm clothing, clean and mended, to be sent to the Ragged School Union, London, for the destitute poor, not later than the end of October. Parcels will be received by Mr. H. H. Hunt, 21, Queen Street, vicepresident of the cub; Madame Manukau Road, Epsom; or Miss Garrett, Pah Road, Onehunga. Carnival week promises plenty of outdoor attractions, and many complexions will get their first summer burn. Get your skin in eood fettle with ** Cremoderma," and it will resist sunburn and peeling. A. postal note for 2s 6d to *" Cremoderaa.'' Box 895, G.P.0., will bring the dainty little jar that makes and keeps the skin beautiful.