THE FIGHTING AT GALLIPOLI

Otago Daily Times, Issue 16480, 4 September 1915, Page 11

THE FIGHTING AT GALLIPOLI

•SCENES AT ANZAC. LIFE IN" THE TRENCHES. (From Malcolm Boss, Official War Correspondent, New Zealand Expeditionary Force.) • ; ANZAC, June 19. This Army Corps, originally democratic, has become much more so during its so-journ-on the peninsula. It is.quite a common occurrence to see the General in Command on the beach amongst the crowd of stark naked men. The General himself goes in for his daily swim with the men, and even the Indians who are looking after the mules have plucked up sufficient courage to bathe.

On shore you note that the staff works and walks about coatiess. and with its collective shirt sleeves rolled up. During your wanderings in the trenches yo,u may meet generals any day of the week, clad in shirt 2nd trousers, with no distinguishing badge of rank about them. Officers and men alike wear "shorts," and such as did not possess them have out off their trousers at the knee. Clad in shirt, shorts, and puttees, our men certainly look very' businesslike, and this is by far tho most suitable costume. Many of tho men work naked to the waist, and are already as brown as the Turk himself. From the scrub-covered hills, on which at tho landing you couJd see never a Turk, though the air was full of Turkish bullets, Anzac has undergone a strange metamorphosis. The scrub is disappearing from tho hillsides—it goes up in smoke from under countless pots and mess tins, cooking the food for the invading army. In place of the scrub there have appeared numberless dug-outs. , There are whole terraces of them, and others appear promiscuously on the knojls and steep slopes. • Away back of all this are long, narrow, deep communication trenches, leading to the firing line and other colonies of "dugout?." In some of tho outposts there is a perfect maze of trenches, and a mail has to bo very well acquainted with them to bo able to find his way to any particular point. Though the trenches are kept clean, and tho sanitary arrangements are excellent, there numberless flies everywhere, and other insects equally imitating or annoying. But in spite of everything, the Australians and New Zealanders are cheerful and do their work with a thoroughness that is highly commendable. Some of the'posts, such as Quinn's, are at times rather trying to the nerves!- In such situations/officers and men, have to be on the alert all the time—day and night. There are places in the trenches round which you can duck to avoid a ljojnb. If you cannot get out of the way the usual plan is to throw an overcoat loosely over the bomb, and then it does little damage. We have a bomb factory of our own, jam* tins being filled with various odds and ends in the'shape of metal and a bursting charge, connected with an ordinary piece of fuse. The art of bomb-throwing consists of timing the fuse so' accurately that the bomb ex»plodes as soon as it falls into the. enemy trench.There are other . bombs, known as concussion bombs, which explode when they hit anything hard. Bombing commences and goes on spasmodically' at any time of the day and night. II our nien _ start it, thev have to look out for the Turkish reply, and if the Turks start the bombing our fellows give them back a few, with, interest added. . , , , • The stretcher-bearers still have very hard work, .though it is not so deadly as it was in the early days of the' fighting; but they now have to carry the wounded for a much longer distance, up hill and down dale, be-, fore'they get to the clearing station. Ihe wounded are still wonderfully plucky and uncomplaining. Most of the bandsmen have now been turned into stretcher-bearers, like the men, the'officers here are doing splendid work. Some others, who have been only sligh'tly wounded, we hope soon to see once more in the firing line at Anzac. One point of interest—l suppose it occurs in every war—that has been , freely noted is that the quiet, unassuming man, from whom least, was expected, has frequently proved to be fiie coolest and the bravest soldier. Two or three days later there was a hot attack on. Achi Baba. Ourmen gamed over a thousand yards of trenches, and so far neither the Australian nor the New Zealand soldier has shown . any disposition to surrender to-.the: Turk.

■AT QUINN'S POST. ANZAC, June 29. 'Away at the head of a eteep-sided, narrbw; valley, on the outermost line of our trenches, is -a spot that will, live for ever in oolonial histciry as the scene oi great deeds. 'It' is known 'fctf' Quinn's Post. It is .worthily named after a gallant Australian, who, in the early days of the occupation, held it gainst great odds. You approach it now through long communication trenches leading over a hill r and up what is known as Monash's Valley, formerly known as Shrapnel Valley, lii places you still have to dodge an occasional Turkish, bullet, and yesterday -you were 1 lucky jf you got through th© sUrapnel unhit. In the first few days of the fighting the raari who went up there literally took-his life in his hands. The side of the hill, 'became' one huge - graveyard. That graveyard has since disappeared. It has been oovercd by earth, and stones slip-; ping down the steep hillside and by earth thrown from, the trenches.; The men who are now taking their turns in the firing line are probably sleeping on it. _ _ The enemy now hold a position dominating the way to Quinn's Post; ;but, as a matter of fact,, they'do not shoot you, because our men hive another trench that dominates theirs, and no Turk dares put his head above his own parapet to shoot into the valley.* The slope about Quinn'e has been' shot away, blown away,' and out away, till there is now only a razor-edge where once was a ■ wpoded spur. It was, early in the fighting, oovered Witli dead men—Turks, Australians, and New Zealanders. You still see dead men's rifles of the first day's fighting lying about' there;. The position is in charge of /the' Ndw Zealandere, who have done, and are etill doing, gallant .work. The trenches are so close that , neither .side dare use shrapnel, arid the'fighting has resolved itself into bomibiDg, snapshooting, mining, and coun-ter-mining. Our men have got used to the bombing business, and the enemy cannot teach them anything. Our men have been known to sit looking at a Turkish bomb thrown into their trench and "count it out." If it did not explode before they , counted 10 the bomb was "outed." If - one was not on

the.spot, and saw daily under his own eyes the' utter indifference to death displayed by these Australian and New Zealand soldiers, one would regard such stories as travellers' tales.. The, colonial soldier, undisciplined as he undoubtedly ; is, under certain circumstances and conditions, is a thing apart in war. His bravery is more than great, and as a lighter he is unexcelled by any other ebldier in the world. ' SAPPING AND MINING. Just at present the groat feature about Quinn's Post is the sapping and mining that is going on there day and night. The other day the young engineer in charge dropped in on us with a map and a. quamt description of what is taking place. "Well, it's frightfully funny work," he said, in. reply to our request for information. "Last night we heard them' working very close to us, but we did' not want to' burst a big charge for various reasons. Tho officer asked us to put in a few pounds' to frighten them. Jl'hat .chaise made a hole in the roof of

"our tunnel, and there was a Turkish tunnel on top .of us! - The officer could put • his liand through the hole, so he went off and got a revolver. When he came back he could see a light shining through, and oould hear the Turks talking above him. They could not, however, go ori without danger of being shot, so they started rolling bomlbs •along towards us, as if it. were a bowling alley underground. •. I arrived in the middle of this in the dark, but I got a candle.' Immediately a bomb \vent off with a bang; but wo stood round a corner out of harm's way. I told our men to work on at another gallery, .and keep a sentry at the holo so .that tho Turks could do nothing. When they got this along a few feet wo blew in our own mine, and out them off. Had they, still come on, we had another one ready, for them. In doing this we did not damage our own arrangements in any way." At this game our men can give the Turk points, for we have working underground picked New- Zealanders and Australians who have been used to underground work, both in gold and in coal mines. Too. much praise cannot be given for the heroic work that these brave fellows havo undertaken. What will finally happen at Quinn's Post cannot bo predicted, but it is seldom that the attacking miners do not succeed, and we, as the defenders, have the hardest row to hoo. j

On the morning of Monday, June 28, anyone who . was awake at dawh might havo noticed a long line of ships off Capo Helles. There appeared to be troopships, supply ships, lone or two battleships, 'the balloon ship, and monitors, destroyers, and trawlers in large number. It was quite evident that something important was going to happen. Two-of the smaller craf.t went olose inshore a little to" the north, a!nd commenced vigorous shelling. ' We could plainly see the flashes of - their guns and hear the report of the gun and the bursting of the shell on shore. Then, the (nans on shore and the guns on the other ships cfltne in. and a continuous thunder rolled

up from Capo Hellea. Tho Turkish guns oil Achi Baba added to the din, -while on the right flank the French, with their " 75'5," were pouring their usual rain of shells on to the Turkish trenches. All day tho battle waged with varying bursts of noise.

In the evening there was a renewal of the heavy gunfire, and we judged that the Turks were making a counter-attack. The Australians on our right flank at Ansae made u 'vigorous demonstration, and this assisted materially in preventing the despatch of reinforcements to the Achi Baba position in the south. In this operation tho Australian casualties were about 250. We learnt next day from General Headquarters that tho operations had l>een even more satisfactory than was anticipated, and that the British Field Artillery and the 29th Division had dono magnificent work. The splendid attack of this division was the subject of special mention. The Turkish counter-attack was repelled, with heavy loss to the enemy. NEW ZEALAND POSITION . . ATTACKED

On the following day (Tuesday, June 29) we had rather a quiet time at Anzac, but about midnight—while the reliefs to the sap-heads where the miners arc at work were being changed—the Turks left their trenches, and came on with fixed bayonets, on our salient position between certain saps. The first rush was of a very determined nature, 16 of the enemv beine shot down an'd bayoneted as they reached the sap. Owing to a mistaken order, 30 actually succeeded in getting into and over one of the saps, but were instantly killed. Some tried to work round our left flank. The Australian Light Horse bore the brunt of this attack, but the 6th Manawatu Squadron, of the Wellington Mounted' Regiment, who are in the trenches, were also slightly involved. Repeated charges were repulsed by the Australian Light Horse with bombs and rifle fire. Some of the Turk's got over from another position into the head of what is known as Monash Gully, and two troops were sent to drive them out. Twenty-five of their dead have sinc6 been seen lying in front of Pope's Hill. By 1.45 a.m. the attack against No. 4- section practically ended, but the ground in front was not cleared of the enemy till 4 a.m. At 3 a.m. some of the enemy again opened fire, and 30 Turks charged up to the parapet in front of Quinn's Ridge. They were stopped by our rifle fire, and over 20 of their dead were counted next morning in" front of our troSches.