PHILOMEL HEROES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 16545, 19 November 1915, Page 2

PHILOMEL HEROES

DEATH FROM HEAT AND EXHAUSTION.

MEN " DROPPED IN THEIR TRACKS." (Peb United Pbkbs Association.) WELLINGTON, November 18. Further details, have reached the Defence Minister of the land operations in which three men of the Philomel lost their lives. The story is a most stirring one of heroic devotion to'duty; The detachment formed a machine gun section attached to certain land operations conducted chiefly by coloured troops. The officer in charge of the detachment (Lieutenant Fitzadams Millar) received orders a little before midday to retire, and after a • mile had been retraced the men began to straggle. The heat was very great, and the men showed tho effects of it. There -were halts of five minutes every 20 minutes for rest, but the men could) not be allowed to throw themselves down because of the intense heat of the sand. On this account the lieutenant kept on as long as possible, in the hope of coming on some ambulance camels or of reaching—now about two miles, and a-half away—where shade and rest could be obtained. They fell in with two riding camels and one mule, and on these they placed five men, and sent the guns on ahead. One man fell unconscious from the camel, and one able seaman had to betaken off exhausted, and these were left in charge of an ambulance doctor who happened' to como along. One of the two men died a few minutes afterwards. Then Able Seaman Bruce Sidney Boagley succumbed to a heat stroke, and he also was left in charge of the doctor. He had given up his opportunity of riding on the camel to a comrade. He died a little later, and was buried. When the little party reached the village they were all very " done." One other man was missing—Leading- Seaman Talmay, who had gone off the track about 200 yards to get to shade with a white soldier, and both were found dead. The lieutenant and the two other seamen rested at a village, and then, very exhausted 1 , pushed on, and arrived' back at the ship with the guns that night. " The behaviour of the men was splendid throughout tho -whole day, and there was no word of complaint." Some words of praise are contained in a letter of Colonel A. M. S. Elsmie, who was in command. He said, he did deeply regret the death of the petty officer and two men of the naval detachment. Apparently, in their keenness to get into the firing line, the men had doubled some distance, and this and the long march knocked them out. The whole detachment had borne its trials at this "abominable spot" so cheerfully,and had all along been so keen to do their duty, that he knew that three excellent men had been lost. They had set a magnificent example to the Indian troops, in whose section they were living, and an example like that had a wonderful "effect on Indian soldiers, who thus realised the stuff of which the Britisher was made. : The men would not give in till they dropped in their tracks.