AT GALLIPOLI

New Zealand Times, Volume XL, Issue 9093, 12 July 1915, Page 3

AT GALLIPOLI

SALVATION ARMY CHAPLAIN’S EXPERIENCES.

Chaplain W. McKenzie, of the Salvation Array, with the Australian expeditionary I'orcee, writes as follows under date May 14th :

I am now stationed right up in the filing line, with the First Brigade, and burying the dead around here, that is reading the burial service over them, aud, alas! I am kept much too busy in this line- I have had some thrilling experiences, and had three narrow squeaks —one bullet grazed the top of my head another my right ear, and once I got smothered with earth from a big shell that fell four feet from me. I. of course, threw myself down and missed the bullets and bolts and scrap iron. We were close to two bombs dropped by a Ta-übe aeroplane, and have been near any amount of big gun shells, and the bullets whistle around us by the tens of thousands while the field guns drop the shells each day by the thousands. It is very remarkable how one gets used to it. and can even sleep through the roar and rattle of these projectiles. I am safely ensconced in a “dug-out" at night, and even slept on while lying in a big pool of water when it rained on Wednesday night. It is cold, hard and uncomfortable, but one gets quite used to the rough conditions, though I had no sleep for the first night. Some of the bodies of those killed a fortnight ago are now being found and brought in for bunal. It was very gratifying to find our colonel’s body (Onslow Thompson) after having lain out for a full fortnight. We buried it at 9 p.m. after dark, as it lay m an exposed position. I had to kneel down and keep my head and body iu a crouching position while reading the burial service. Hundreds of bullets swept over us while this was going on. 1 don’t know what Australian i papers say about the bravo boys, but I want to' tell you that they accomplished a well nigh impossible task, and have shown themselves to be amongst the best fighters in the world. We are still at it, and have a great task before us; the price will ho heavy. It will stun Australia when, she hoars of all the casualties. My heart is lull of one big sob for the loss of so many bravo young men, hundreds of whom I knew so well. When I think of the soul anguish the mothers of these boys will pass through I can only weep and pray for them. May God comfort them. For myself I have not the slightest fear, and am more than glad to be here with the men, and they in turn have welcomed mo like a father. War is hellish ! No one, even with the most vivid imagination, can really, grasp its full details until they have seen it and been in it.