EVACUATION OF GALLIPOLI

New Zealand Times, Volume XLII, Issue 9694, 23 June 1917, Page 9

EVACUATION OF GALLIPOLI

LECTURE BY MAJOR C. BANDREWS.

A MASTER PIECE OF STRATEGY.

Under the auspices of the "Wellington Officers’ Institute Major C. E. Andrews, N.Z.S.C., delivered by special request at the Garrison Hall last night, an address on “The Evacuation of Gallipoli. Lieut.-Col. Campbell, V.D. (in command of the New Zealand Coast Defences) presided over a' large and in teres ting gathering. , . . ■ Major Andrews, who is an expoit draughtsman, showed with the aid ot a blackboard, the ma/.e of trenches uiui the veritable rabbit-warren of dug-outs, underground c-unksliops ami magazines, tunnels, saps, etc., into which the Butish and Dominion forces quickly converted the area they held at GallipoliHo also explained how by means of listening-uosis and counter-saps they trapped the Turkish -sappers and 'ei.i often blew them up. Some time before they quited Gallipoli they had a very severe snowstorm, a foretaste of what they might expect throughout the winder if thov stayed there. The mgiiis ot the evacuation there were bright moonlight with more or less fog- They could ego the motor-lighters—tho “beetles, as they called them—coming from the shore bo the ships and back again, but, happily,-,- with the very best glasses they could' not toll whether the boiits going out tb the . ships or those coming buck again were the full ones; nor, of course, could tho Turks, who wore still further off.'. And the ,Turks evidently got the idea, very luckily—he thought it had been industriously circulated with a view to its reaching them —that the British were preparing to celebrate Christmas- Dav, 1916, by a grand attack. On the night of thp evacuation they could bear the Turks hammering in stakes all along his lines for barbed wire entanglements; and they were happy to feel that he was preparing: to repol, not «o make, an attack. It was a job, and on tho third night took off two million pounds' worth, of stores; out, unfortunately, tho remainder ot the stores, which had to bo destroyed and had been saturated with kerosene, caught fire, and the whole of the sea from tho shore to the ships was one ruddy glare. When ho saw it his heart, leapt into his mouth. He thought they were done; but. as luck would have it, the Turks had been shelling heavily that day, and he saw later -a. Turkish communique which claimed the successful shell mg from Gaba Tepe had set fire to the Bnti’sh stores on Anzac Beach. Major Andrews said that he and his rearguard of Wellington men left by ono of the very last boats.and on that night the casualties among the Australian and New Zealand troops were only five men. Ho understood that the authorities had reckoned on something like 6000 casualties. • It must be agreed that, whether it had been dons bv sheer skill, or by great goo'd luck, it certaiflily was a great -success as an operation- They certainly had good luck; for an officer of the Cornwallis told him some time afterwards that ho was oft the shore the night after tho evacuation and such a storm came up that no boat ever made could have lived at the piers in the, bay; ami thp storm lasted about u week. In conclusion ho quoted the following extract from the “Vossisohe Zoitung” ol January 21st, 1916: —“The English had in all probability realised the hopelessness of the struggle (at the Dardanelles) before the last weeks of November, and about the middle of December they had prepared for their retreat in an absolutely. admirable manner for this praise must be accorded to them. As long as wars exist their evacuation of the Ari., Burnu . (Anzac) and Anafarta fronts (Suvla) will stand before the eyes of all strategists of retreat as a hitherto unattainable masterpiece." I