LONDON REUNION

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23110, 9 February 1937, Page 10

LONDON REUNION

LAST MEN ON GALLIPOLI Seven survivors of the little band of 10 British soldiers who held up the Turkish Army for one night during the evacuation of Gallipoli met recently at a reunion dinner in London, says The Times. They were Mr Lapper, an engineer; Mr Bowycr, a builder; Mr Burn, ft piermaster; Mr Rennie, a civil engineer; Mr Peake, a county surveyor; Mr Sergeant, a tunnel borer; and Mr Grand, an electrician. Of the other three who took part in the great adventure, Major T. C. Aveling, the commanding officer, and Sapper Smith have died, while all trace has been lost of Sapper Best. The guests at the dinner alsr included men who were engaged in the preliminary demolition work, such as destroying front lines and blocking up trenches after the infantry had left, and arranging automatic rifle fire for the deception of the enemy. When their job was done they were marched off, leaving Major Aveling’s little band in sole charge a' 3edd-el-Rahr, to hold up for several hours thousand of Turks entrenched in their front lines. DESTROYING STORES. Large quantities o French stores and munitions were left behind to be destroyed, an' 1 fuses and incendiary bombs with which to start the fires had to be made out of cigar boxes filled with tow soaked in petrol and paraffin, to be exploded by fuse and detonator. The demolition party had great difficulty in obtaining paraffin, and could only secure 45 gallons to destroy about £1.000,000 worth of goods, most of which had been left behind by the French. , At 3 a.m. orders were given to light up. All movements had to be timed to perfection, and half an hour was allowed for the longest time fuse. Within this period all fuses reported as lighted, and Major Aveling personally went round and liehted the fuses to the explosives. Then the order was given to fall in, and the 10 men marched silently down the road to the quay. Sergeant Burn leading and Major Aveling a 1 the rear. At 3.50 a.m. everyone was afloat. Five minutes after the explosion red rockets were seen bursting all along the Turkish lines, and then the British monitors began to shell their positions. The weather had held until the whole of the troops were away. Half an hour after the Peninsula was completely abandoned the weather became so bad and the wind increased so much, that between half-past three and four o’clock no lighter could have lain at the piers, nor could it have got away.