THE DARDANELLES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVIII, Issue 17845, 28 July 1921, Page 4

THE DARDANELLES.

• * HOLY GROUND REVISITED. "SOLITUDE AND BEAUTY." Writing to the London Times ahoarc H.M.S. Brymy, at the Dardanelles. Lieu tenant-General Sir Aylmer Hunter-Westoi says:— The Dardanelles after six years! Si 3 years that have, contained more events oj importance to the world than six ordinary iustra, aye, more than twice sis ordinary decades. On the sixth anniversary of the hi* toric landing, I find myself once more on one of His Majesty's ships off Cape Helles, at the same hour and at the same spot, overlooking " V" and " W " Beaches, rendered for ever immortal by the blood of our glorious dead. How much the same it is, as I saw it then from tb; bridge of H.M.S. Euryalus, with Admiral Wemyss at my side; yet what a contrast! The beautiful natural setting and scenery is the same, but no * all is solitary and at peace. Six years ago the peninsula was surroundeti bybattleships belching forth a storm ot shell, and the sea was alive with steamboats full of troops and stores and witn row-boats packed with soldiers being pulled to the shore by their comrades J the Royal Navy. Now, solitude, quie", repose, and beauty.. Then, crowds of warring men, the thunderous war of naval artillery, the shrieking of shells, the ceaseless rattle of machine-guns, and the whizz of rifle bullets; action, noise, and the strenuous straggling of men at death grips '. But the hat© and horror of war made and make no difference to nature: the appearance of sky, sea, and land is the same to-day as then. Looking at this scene to-day. how vividly the scene in 1915 comes back to memory. Above, the wonderful clear blue sky; below, the darker blue of the sea, its surface undisturbed even by a ripple, so smooth as to look almost as if covered with oil: in front the warmcoloured sandy cliffs, of a light reddish yellow-brown hue, splashed with dark or lighter green by scrub or grass. Over the bows the white ruins of Helles lighthouse ; to the right and left, " V " and " W " Beaches. 'The resemblance of these beaches to Greek amphitheatres is as striking to-dav as it was then. The narrow strip of sand by the sea is the stage, whence all around in a hemisphere rise the slopes of the cup-like depression eroded from the original line of sandy cliffs during the course of ages. From every part of this rough hemisphere, as from every marble seat of a Greek amphitheatre, a splendid view of the stage is obtained, the only interruption to view and fire in either' amphitheatre being the short stretch of vertical sand about thr»e feet high, where in the centre of "V" Beach the sea sand meets the cultivatabic but uncultivated land. At the sides of each of these theatres of death rise cliffs of crumbling sandstone, unscalable by armed and heavily equipped soldieraL Looking at these beaches now. with accurate knowledge of what the defences were and who the brave/and skilfully-led enemies were that held them, it seems* incredible that a landing could have been effected on such constricted and carefulivdefended areas. It was an impossible task for any but highly-disciplined, welltrained, skilfully-led, heroically-brave, trimly-determined Britishers, animated bv igh ideals, and upheld by the traditions of their battalions and of their race. It may truly be called the achievement of the impossible. Fortunate it i s that in the vocabulary of the best of our race there i? no such word as impossible, even as in the bright lexicon of fame there is no such word as fail.