BATTLE AT ANZAC.

Otago Witness, Issue 3212, 6 October 1915, Page 84

BATTLE AT ANZAC.

NEW ZEALAND ADVANCE.

UNPRECEDENTED IN WAR

In a despatch from Gaba Tepe dated August 9 Captain Bean (official commonwealth correspondent) gives an account of the operations connected with the Suvla Bay landing. He writes as follows: “ Since Friday night the battle which started on the Australian right at Anzac with the magnificent capture of the Lonesome Pine trenches by our Ist Infantry Brigade has rolled awav far to the north. The battle actually started with the bombardment of Achi Baba and the attack at Helles about 4 o’clock - on Friday afternoon. Then came the magnificent assault of the Ist Infantry Brigade on Lonesome Pine at 5.30 p.m. This was practically finished at 7.30 p.m. “ Our blow first began to be felt to the north. The New Zealand Mounteds and the Maoris were moving out from the extreme north of our line against strongly entrenched spurs opposite them. Some of these trenches were stubbornly held, but bv 11 o’clock the troops had cleared most o? them with the bayonet alone. The Maoris are said to have fought excellently. By this time the troops were already moving out along the seashore to extend the bottle further north. As these reached certain points they turned inland and plunged into dark, deep, narrow, foothill gullies. Each column had scouts working a little ahead of it. Every now and then these scouts came across small bodies of the enemy often fleeing from the attack of the mounteds earlier in the night or occupying a small outpost from which the Turks used to annoy us during the past months. Shots constantly rang out through the gullies ahead. These were almost all Turkish, as we used the bayonet almost exclusively during the night. Further north of these columns except the British flanking outpost was the 4th Australian Infantry Brigade, next southwards were some Indian troops, and the southernmost position was occupied by the* New Zealand Infantry, which turned not very far north of our position. CONCENTRATED BOMBARDMENT. “ The narrowness of the valleys, where sometimes only one could walk at a time, and the contorted shape of the hills, made progress slow. When the moon rose in the small hours the. heads of the columns wore in the hills, and the tails were just clearing the flats. Just at dawn, after one of the most concentrated bombardments ever seen here from ships’ guns and land guns, the Ist and 3rd Light Horse Brigade made a most gallant, attack from an angle of our position against the Turks immediately north of our position in order to help the New Zealand Infantry to get a footing further north. Daybreak found the 4th Australian Infantry Brigade digging in in the deep gullies' between them and the Indians. The Turks had managed to bring shrapnel on to the troops as they worked up the valleys. That was the position practically all Saturday. LANDING AT SUVLA BAY, “ Meantime the battle had extended much further north still. In the early hours of Saturday morning—about eight hours after the battle first began to spread from the south—the British force made a fresh landing at Suvla Bay, about four miles north of Anzac. About 3 o’clock on Saturday morning the sound of their rifles could be heard from the north of onr lines. All that day the troops could bo seen landing. The Turkish shrapnel was bursting over the beach and the low hills near it. By next morning, however, we noticed the Turkish shells bursting over the hill <?n the plain to the northward, from which & battery of Turkish guns had for nearly four months played on Anzac. That was

.he position yesterday. Early this morning, after another bombardment lasting about an hour, all directed to the north- , wards, another fierce battle began, which, Ito judge by the firing, has continued i fiercely ever since. The warships are firing constantly, and the rattle of musketry is absolutely continuous.’ ’ MAGNIFICENTLY-FOUGHT BATTLE. Writing on August 11, Captain Bean further stated : —“This morning, the sixth day of the fight, there was no sound of gun or even rifle firing. The perfect silky glassiness of the sea- opposite Suvla was broken this morning by two fountains of white foam, where the enemy’s guns from behind the ridge were blindly feeling for the ships; otherwise the scene reminds one of the French Riviera on some perfectspring day or when some local wateringplace up the coast is celebrating its regatta.

“ So .appears to be drawing to a close one of the most magnificently fought battles wherein the British race has ever taken part. The story of the desperate attacks by which the New Zealanders fought their way during two nights up intricate valleys through fences and redoubts will, when history can fully be written, make as glorious a page as is found in the annals of any country. The whole operation was one such as, I am told, was never previously attempted in the history of war. The moving out of a number of separate columns through the dark into the wild bush and mountain country sprinkled with trenches and redoubts against a civilised enemy is a feat which was never done before. The history of this attack as far as is yet known is as follows ; MOUNTED RIFLES ADVANCE. “ On the night of August 6 the New Zealand Mounted Rifles, advancing about 9.30, crept through the scrub against the Turkish trenches opposing them on the seaward spurs. Around some of these trenches the fighting w'as very fierce, but the Mounteds, by desperate attacks, cleared one after another till their work was completed. The New Zealand infantry advanced through them by daylight, and reached a position further northwards. The Indians and 4th Australian Brigade, working up other gullies, reached a somewhat similar position. The troops dug in, and held on there, leaving us in possession of our line along the lower slopes of the main ridge which we won during the first night’s fighting. The British force which landed at Suvla, to judge from here and by the shell bursts, have advanced several miles inland to a line about northwards of our own. Suvla Bay, which they have taken, is an invaluable harbour during the wild weather which rules here in autumn and winter. This bald account is all that it is possible at present to obtain of the battle to the northward from Anzac. “The desperate fighting by which the’ Ist and 3rd Light Horse Brigades from the apex of the position at Anzac endeavoured to assist is a story in itself. Further south still the Ist Infantry Brigade, whose splendid charge captured the Turkish trenches at Lonesome Pine, w r as coun-ter-attacked day and night by Turkish reserves, the battle resolving itself almost entirely into one of bombs. The Turkish trenches were extraordinarily elaborate, consisting of a perfect maze of tunnels, with ledges whereon some troops could lie whilst others passed through, and where troops could retire from artillery fire after the fight. The Turks naturally knew the exact position of the trenches they had just lost, and were able to drop in bombs from other trenches whose direction we could only guess at. They also managed to retake some small portions of the trench, but wore driven out again every time, and a small party of the first battalion took an additional 46 yards of a certain main communication trench. During the later stages the Ist Brigade was reinforced by the° 7th and 12th Battalions. The water and food supplies from the first have been splendidly carried out. One great cliftl-

culty was the manner in which the trenches were blocked by Turkish dead. ■ Needless to say, the stretcher-bearers worked throughout under a heavy fire, absolutely regardless of danger. Possibly the most harassing work of all has been that of the artillery. From Friday morning till Tuesday the gun crews and ammunition carriers have been working all the time without relief. Observers have to be incessantly watchfui. One day for a few minutes two Turkish guns turned up at Gaba Tepe. Our guns poured in 20 rounds, and the Turkish gun's had to be immediately withdrawn, but it can be understood what this sort of watchfulness night and day for the best part of a week means. u From the whole history of this fierce fighting one thing stands clear, and that is that the force did all that men could do. The troops were magnificently led, and when the full history comes to be written I have not the slightest doubt that it will figure as one of the most srlorious episodes in the history of this or any army.”