LETTERS FROM THE FRONT.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 16577, 28 December 1915, Page 5

LETTERS FROM THE FRONT.

MEN WANTED. . Private Stephen Wilson *(of Papatowai Valley, Catlins), in a letter to his relatives, gives some particulars of the fighting on. Gallipoli Peninsula. The writer, y,ho is in the Dudley Road Hospital,_ Birmingham, says he had a touch of jaundice, but before he got off the field he received a shock from a bursting shell. He was not hit, but J the concussion of the explosion gave iiim & big thake and affected his heart. The doctors eays that he will get quite strong again, and. expressed surprise that he stood it »o > well. He spent a fortnight at Malta, and < was then sent to England. He says they are -■ well treated at Birmingham; in fact, they ' cannot do enough for the wounded. As soon as he was able to get up he was to be sent to a convalesceat home at Epsoin. Ho then proceeds: "We had a pretty rough time on the peninsula. We were on outpost ■ duty on the right flank, and never knew when we might be cut off. Had it not been >; for the searchlight and the big guns on the warships we probably "would have been. We " were on this duty until August 7, when a big advance was ordered, and we were Bent to take Table Top Hill. We charged at ' 10 o'clock at night and were not allowed to ' fire a shot, but to rely on the bayonet. The 7 Turks gave us a rough time, as we had to. rush across a flat about 300 yards wide without shelter; but once we got the first trench and gat tfiem on the run we had some satisfaction. We charged a mile and a-half, * k one of the longest bayonet charges of the ■. war. Not many prisoners were taken. The Turks would keep firing at us until we got up to their trench, when they .throw down their rifles and ask for 'Mercy, goog New Zealand!' I. was With Dave M'Dougall and Bob Welsh, and they were a pair of good ones. The second charge was.a bad v, one. AVe started at 2 o'clock, and had 1 - three gullies and two ridges to cross. >We 'fj set out with 250 men and five officers, but ' j, only 63, men and two officers' reached the " trench; the rest were shot down. My bandolier and clothes were riddled with bullets, ? but not one broke my skin. Dave did not get hit either, so we had pretty good luck. / Bob Welsh was not with us in the second • * charge, as he had been sent away suffering, from fever. Has any of the other young fellows joined? If not—well, it's time they did. 'ihey do not know how much wet needed them. At times it was just touch and go whether we were driven into the sea or not."