THE DARDANELLES

Otago Witness, Issue 3196, 16 June 1915, Page 30

THE DARDANELLES

THE HEIGHTS DOMINATING MAIDOS CAPTURED EY THE ALLIES TERRIBLE SAMPLE OE GERMAN TREACHERY AUSTRALASIANS’ OPINION OE “SLACKERS” ADDITIONAL NEW ZEALAND CASUALTIES

FRENCH MINE-LAYER MINED. PARIS, June 8. Official : The French mine-layer Casablanca was mined at the entrance of a bay of the ■ JEgean Sea. A British .vessel picked up the captain, one officer, and 64 men. It is possible that other survivors landed and were taken prisoners by the Turks. MUNITIONS FOR THE TURKS. ATHENS, June 7. Krupps have established a large factory for making shells and expdosives at Con stantinople. Four thousand German workmen are employed there. ROME/June 8. Large consignments of barrels, supposed to contain beer, from Germany towards Turkey were detained at Bucharest. They contained asphyxiating gas bombs. Germany disclaims responsibility. REPORTED MISSING. SYDNEY, June 8. Corporal Vincent, reported missing at the Dardanelles, w’as educated in New Zealand. ALLEGED TURKISH ATROCITIES. SYDNEY, June 8. Captain Bean, cabling from Gallipoli, refers to the alleged Turkish atrocities. He says that the principal report which he was enabled to test proved untrue. The stories that the Turks were using explosive bullets were without foundation, being due to the Australasians misunderstanding the curious double crack of the Mauser rifle. Mr Halloran, the Sun’s special correspondent with the Australians, describing the fighting at the Dardanelles, grows hot over Turkish atrocities. He says: “We took prisoners afterwards, but not at the start. So unspeakable are the Turkish barbarities that we feel we have got to settle them right off. We took one prisoner from 4 a.m. till 3 p.m. On the Sunday we landed, one little bugler was treacherously knifed. This so incensed some Australians that when 40 Turkish prisoners were being brought along they shouldered the escort aside and gave every Turk a bullet.”

the Turks will never again withstand a bayonet charge. The Australian wounded affectionately pay a tribute to the efficiency of “ Big Lizzie,” as they call the Queen Elizabeth! One of them said: “During the whole landing ‘ Lizzie’ played up and down like an old hen with a chicken. The Turkish destroyers tried to cut in, but when ‘ Lizzie’ got a move on they skedaddled. One was a bit slow, and forgot ‘ Lizzie ’ could hit at 10 miles. A shell landed amidships, and it was a case of ‘Goodnight, nurse !’ ” MAGNIFICENT AUSTRALASIANS. SYDNEY, June 9. The Morning Herald correspondent with the Australian troops endorses a French naval officer’s tribute to the effect that no troops. in the whole world could possibly have done better than those magnificent Australasian infantry at the Dardanelles. They did the impossible. He adds : “ When the whole tale is told the world will see how richly our boys deserved this tribute.” Referring to the thoroughness of the German spy system, he says there wera spies on the transports and among the interpreters in the depots. They knew exactly the places of our landing. They learned our bugle calls, and used them with telling effect. Most shocking mutilations were practised on the killed and wounded. The Germans promised the Turks a sum for each Briton killed, and the identification discs were to be the proof. It was a common thing for the ambulance bearers to come across Australians with their tongues cut off, their eyes slit, and other mutilations, and their discs missing. He says this was a wicked trick of the Germans, and resulted in the slaughter of many gallant men.

The Ist New South Wales Battalion held their- line splendidly, despite shrapnel and Maxim fire and hand grenades, and repulsed several attacks. When a message was passed along to attack and capture the guns in front, never doubting the genuineness of the order, they obeyed, only to Be met with a fire which told them a trap had been set. v

Charles Crispin, of the Wellington, New Zealand, Infantry, who was wounded, says: “The Turks ran before the New Zealanders’ charge like hares. They used explosive bullets, which made awful wounds.” He describes his luck as rotten, to have trained for eight months and then be knocked over after five hours’ fighting. THE AUSTRALIAN TROOPS. LORD KITCHENER’S PRAISE. SYDNEY, June 8. Sir Edmund Barton has cabled to Mr Fisher that Lord Kitchener has authorised him to say that the Australian troops are admirable. A GENERAL OFFENSIVE. BRILLIANT WORK BY AUSTRALASIANS. LONDON, June 9. The Daily Chronicle’s Athens correspondent states that the general offensive at the Dardanelles continues, with most important results. The New Zealanders and Australians at Sari Bahr are fighting magnificently and scoring well. Early on Saturday the southern forces brilliantly carried a gully which the Turks held in force. Our men got among the enemy with bayonets, and few Turks escaped. Altogether an advance of three miles was registered. The Allies on the 6th inst. established themselves on the slopes of three peaks. The Turkish morale is badly shaken. AUSTRALASIANS’ REPUTATION. SYDNEY, June 9. The Morning Herald’s special correspondent in Egypt says that he heard an Imperial officer, recently returned from Flanders, pay a tribute to the Australasians, calling the Third Australian Infantry Brigade the finest in the whole of the allied armies. They bore the brunt of the first attacks, and their impetuous and irresistible bayonet charges are bearing rich fruit, for

Ho mentions that not only the Australian Light Horse, but the first brigade of New Zealand Mounted Hi lies, offered to go to the front as infantry. This offer expressed the dominant thought of the men. One officer said : “ My brigade are mostly bushmen, and never expected to go ‘ gravel-crushing,’ but if necessary the whole brigade would start to-morrow afoot, if they have to tramp the whole way from Constantinople to Berlin.” GENERAL NEWS. BUCHAREST, June 9. Submarine U 23, which destroyed the Triumph and Majestic, has arrived at the Golden Horn. British seaplanes bombed Akbasch, in the Gallipoli harbour, killing three soldiers and wounding 12 severely, besides damaging transport material. A memorial service in connection with the Australian and New Zealand troops will be held at St. Paul’s on - Tuesday evening. The Archbishop of Canterbury will attend. RUSSIA’S PART. PETROGRAD, June 8. A Caucasus communique states : The Turks attempted the offensive along the coast, but were driven back. The battle in the passes of Chine and Djavlaba ended in the Turks’ precipitate retreat to the mountains. We have occupied a village on the shores of Lake Van. The Medjidieh has been refloated and dry-docked at Odessa. [The Turkish light cruiser Medjidieh struck a Russian mine in the Black Sea and sank on April 3.] CONSTANTINOPLE’S COAL SUPPLY. ATHENS, June 8. Travellers from Constantinople report 9 serious shortage of coal. The mills ara restricting their output, and the waterworks may bo compelled to discontinue & suppiy- . , Typhoid is raging in the army. an(|

among civilians in Asia Minor, and 75 doctors have already succumbed. THE TURKISH FORCES. CONCENTRATION AT GALLIPOLI. PARIS, June 9. The Echo do Paris’s correspondent at Salonika represents that owing to the uncertainty about Rumania and to the stubborn attacks at Gallipoli the Committee of Union and Progress, with German officers’ approval, has decided to abandon operations in Egypt and Persia, and to concentrate all the Turkish forces at the Dardanelles. THE SULTAN. CONSTANTINOPLE, June 9. The Sultan declares that he will resign when requested to leave Constantinople. THE CAPTURE OF KURNA. LONDON, Jane 9. Official details of the capture of Kama, on the River Tigris, by a British gunboat force, show that the enemy’s forces were completely demoralised and did not resist pursuit. Most of the boats surrendered when overtaken, while the gunboat Marmariss was sunk and the transport Mosul captured. The garrison at Amara, numbering over 1000, surrendered to an insignificant British force. The prisoners include Humira Be)', Saifullah, and two commanders. CAPTAIN BAGE KILLED. SYDNEY, June 10. Captain Bage, commanding the Third Field Company of Engineers, who has been killed at the Dardanelles, accompanied the Mawson expedition as astronomer. He was one of six volunteers forming the relief party which was left in Antarctica for a second winter when Sir D. Mawson and his two ill-fated companions failed to return to their winter Quarters at the appointed time. Captain Rage led the southern sledging party which accomplished a perilous journey of 600 miles, hauling the sledges themselves Over rough blizzard-swept ice. SAPPER REYNOLDS KILLED. SYDNEY, June 10. Sapper F. A. Reynolds, who was killed at the Dardanelles, was born in New Zealand, but spent most of his life in Sydney. SUBMARINE AE2. MELBOURNE, June 10. In the House of Representatives to-day, Mr Jensen confirmed the report that the Officers and crew of submarine AE2 were saved when she was sunk in the Dardanelles. THE AUSTRALASIANS’ RUSH. SYDNEY, June 10. Private Carroll, wounded at the Dardanelles, writing to a friend, says : “ After landing, our platoon rushed up p,nd occupied a trench on the hilltop, Which we had to hold from Sunday morning to Tuesday night under a continuous machine-gun fire and constant enemy tushes. On Monday night they shifted their big guns, and enfiladed us. They fairly blew our trench to pieces. “On Thursday they charged. We passed the word to die fighting. Our fire neaped them up like rabbits in front of our trench. They got all but one of us, including our officers. For fully 20 minutes only one man was on his feet. Then we were reinforced. We had done our duty and held the position. There were only 60 of us in the trench.’’ VON SANDERS’S TACTICS. SYDNEY, June 10. Captain Bean, cabling from Alexandria on June 8, says: Fighting is confined to that part of the line known as Quinn’s Post. The Turks Sapped up to two holes outside our trench and caused mine explosions, and turned them into bomb-proof shelters, two parties of our Light Horse attacked and occupied these shelters, but were able to retain only one. The trench beyond our left, which the New Zealanders took and held for 48 hours, was afterwards enfiladed by the Turks’ artillery and became untenable, the New Zealanders retired to their old positions. Von Sanders directed the attack on May 19, and we only hope he will direct some jnore. AH our men are in splendid fettle, and well fed. WOUNDED OFFICERS. LONDON, Juno 10. The King and Queen are daily inviting B 0 convalescent officers to tea at Buckingham Palace. Some are accompanied by nurses or near relatives. GERMANS LEAVING CONSTANTINOPLE. PARIS, June 10. The Havas Press Agency correspondents at Athens say that the departure of German families from Constantinople is regarded as indicating that they are becoming concerned over the position of the Turkish army. The Peace party is gaining headway, fmd a movement is afoot to replace the Cabinet, with Tewfik Pasha as Grand Vizier,

DOCTORS NEEDED. LONDON, June 10. Insufficient doctors are available at Constantinople to attend to the wounded, and hundreds are dying daily from want of proper attention. Contagious diseases are assuming the magnitude of an epidemic. GERMAN AEROPLANES FOR TURKEY. ROME, June 10. A German aeroplane flying towards Turkey over Bulgaria took fire, and the airman was incinerated. Illegitimate flights across Bulgai’ia for the purpose of reinforcing the Turkish air fleet have been proceeding for two months Several machines have fallen and have been sequestrated. FOOD FOR MONTENEGRO. ROME, June 11. The authorities at Medua (Albania) detained vessels with food cargoes destined for Montenegro, and the Malessori looted the vessels. Italian destroyers thereupon shelled the town and disembarked a landing party. They will hold the leaders as hostages until the foodstuff is despatched. ALLIES MAKE PROGRESS. PARIS, June 11. Dardanelles official : We made fresh progress at the right extremity of Kerevedere. Prisoners confirm the fact that there have been considerable enemy losses. LONDON, June 12. Mr Donohoe states that Turkey is realising the hopelessness of her position and has. indirectly conveyed to Italy her intention not to declare war upon her. This foreshadows the Porte’s divorce from her German partner. Moreover, it is understood that Turkey is seeking a suitable channel through which to treat with the Entente Powers. IN THE BLACK SEA. AMSTERDAM, June 12. A telegram from Constantinople states that fighting occurred on the night of the 11th inst in the Black Sea. The cruiser Middli w r aa sunk by a large Russian destroyer, which returned to port safely. PETROGRAD, June 13. Official ; Two of our torpedo-boats on Friday night near the Bosphorous encountered the Breslau, whose searchlight showed up a Russian turbine destroyer. The latter attacked the cruiser, and a violent exchange of shells took place. Several struck the Breslau, and an explosion was heard and fire was seen in her bows. Darkness prevented us from seeing the extent of the damage done. We had one officer and six men wounded. NEW ZEALANDERS AND AUSTRALIANS. LONDON, June 12. Reuter’s correspondent at Athens states that the Allies are firmly established, and have all been brought up to full strength, with the needful supply of stores. The Australians and New Zealanders are in the best of spirits. Naval Lieutenant James B. Church, formerly with the Fijian contingent, and Lieutenant-commander Herbert Clyde Evans, a New Zealander, have been killed at the Dardanelles, and Sub-lieutenant F. S. Kelly, the well-known oarsman, is wounded. CAPTAIN BEAN’S REPORT. SYDNEY, June 13. Captain Bean, in a cablegram dated June 5, says:— “ Two small parties of New Zealanders last night took a Turkish trench opposite Quinn’s Post. One party suffered considerably. The Turks counterattacked at 5 o’clock this morning, and the place became a veritable Hades, bombs bursting over the captured trench at the rate of about four a miuute. Despite this the New Zealanders, at the time of writing, are still holding and strengthening it. “ A tremendous bombardment by the Anglo-French force operating at the southern end of the peninsula was audible all yesterday. “ The bursting of shrapnel and high explosives from June 1 has been clearly visible along the tops of the ridges bordering on the Gulf of Saros.” RECRUITING IN AUSTRALIA. SYDNEY, June 12. ’The authorities have decided to issue certificates of unfitness for service to rejected recruits. Recruiting has again taken a spurt in New South Wales. Formerly the weekly quota was 560, whereas for the five weeks ended June 7 the average was 600. The latest Victorian figures also show a big jump. A soldier’s letter states that the Turks “ crept right up to our trenches, and we caught them dressed as Indians." A New Zealander, Lieutenant Spargow, writes : “We have 10,000 wounded, brought from Gallipoli to Egypt, and this is only the beginning." THE CASUALTY LISTS. MELBOURNE, Juno 12. Strong complaints were made in the House of Representatives of the delay in notifying the Dardanelles casualties. Mr Jensen replied that the best possible was being done.

A PREDICTION. LONDON, June 12. The British Weekly predicts that Mr Winston Churchill, when the Dardanelles campaign is finished, and when he has made a few more speeches, will go to the front, preferring a soldier’s life. The paper adds that it is doubtful whether Britain will permit it to be believed that Mr Churchill and driving energy in the navy are inseparable. DOMINATING MAIDOS. ATHENS, June 11. The Allies, after successive attacks, occupied on Wednesday the heights dominating Maidos. By fierce fighting the Allies keep contact with the enemy night and day. Eight Allies’ aeroplanes are scouting over the firing line. GERMAN SUBMARINE STORES. ATHENS, June 13. It is believed that the German submarine stores are located near Aivali. The spot is impossible of attack from the sea. Large quantities of benzine are reaching the place via Doulapi Strait, which is very narrow, and is accessible only to small vessels. [Aivali is in Asia Minor, opposite the island of Mitylene.] TURKEY WANTS AMMUNITION. SOFIA, Juno 13. The Turks are hastily fortifying the positions at Wivaspaha, near Adrianople. Bulgarian merchants complain that goods passing through Adrianople are systematically looted or requisitioned by the Turks. It is reported from Bucharest that the German, Austrian, and Turkish Legations are offering large prices for ammunition, petrol, and cattle for Turkey. SAMSOON BOMBARDED. PETROGRAD, June 13. Official : Our torpedo-boats destroyed the port and buildings of Samsoon, and sank many floating mines. [Samsoon or Samsun is about midway between Sinub and Trebizond.] FIGHTING IN THE CAUCASUS. PETROGRAD, June 13. A communique states ; In the Caucasus 200 mounted Cossacks charged the enemy’s trenches. Dismounting, they sabred the Turks, manning the trenches themselves. The remainder of the Turks fled. GERMAN TREACHERY AGAIN. SYDNEY, June 14. Chaplain Robertson writes from Egypt : “There is no end to German treachery. They shouted : ‘ Cease fire, the stretcherbearers are coming.’ They were stretcherbearers, but on the stretchers were machine guns. They fired on our dressing sheds and hospital ships.” AUSTRALIAN CASUALTIES. SYDNEY, June 14. The Australian casualties to date total 7623, including 1158 dead. AUSTRALASIAN SOLDIERS. SYDNEY, June 14. An officer, writing from Alexandria, after describing the cheerfulness of the wounded and their impatience to return to the firing line, adds : “But you should hear their opinion of the seaside-campers, football wasters, and such tripe. It would blister your ears.” He ends by. saying : “All maintain everywhere that one trained Australasian is equal to three of any other trained men.” ONE BARQUE SUNK, ANOTHER DAMAGED. LONDON, June 14. Submarine U 35 by shell fire sank the barque Crown of India and also damaged the Norwegian barque Bellglade off St. Anne’s Head. The crews were saved. SHELLS FOR TURKEY. BUCHAREST, June 14. The authorities found 18 new transport wagons sent from Germany for the Turkish railways double-bottomed and loaded with 350 shells, which were confiscated. LOSS OF THE MAJESTIC. PARIS, June 14. A French officer, describing the loss of the Majestic, says: “ As the vessel heeled to port everything on the decks slid with a tremendous din. There was not a single instant of panic, the crew calmly awaiting the critical moment. Four minutes after the explosion the Majestic foundered, and 600 men were thrown into tlio sea. A number were entangled in the torpedo nets of our ships. The boats participated in fine rescue work.” KILLED IN ACTION. LIEUTENANT EVANS. GISBORNE, June 12. Nows has been received that Lieutenant Clyde Evans, son of Mrs J. T. Evans, of Gisborne, was killed in action at the Dardanelles. Deceased, who was formerly an officer in the mercantile marine, took up law, and was admitted to the English Bar. Ho enlisted at the outbreak of war, and was gazetted a commanding lieutenant in the Royal Navy. Mr J. B. [Shaddock has received word that his cousin. Lieutenant Clyde Evans, has been killed at the Dardanelles. Mr Evans was a native of Oamaru, and as a young man acted as assistant purser in the service of the Union Steam Ship Company. Ho was aiterwarda ongagoid on

sailing ships, and a few years ago ho retired from the sea with a chief officer’s certificate. On the outbreak of war he joined the navy, and it is understood that no was on the British flagship in the Dar v danelles when ho met his death. Mrs Jack, the wife of the head master of the Nascby School, is a sister of the late Mr Evans, and ho has other relatives in the North Island.