TWO FIGHTS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3215, 27 October 1915, Page 49

TWO FIGHTS.

ADVANCE BY BRITISH FORCES.

HOW THE AUSTRALASIANS HELPED.

(By Captain C. E. Bean, official press correspondent with tho Australian Expeditionary Force.) Copyright.—Now Zealand right scoured by tho Otago Witness. GABA TEPE, July 3. He was an old soldier—at least he looked it; a hard-bitten little nut of a Queenslander, who had been all through the Mena training, which is good enough to make any man an old soldier. He came in with ii file of others from tho attack, limping down tho communication trench, growling to himself. "What sort of a blanky business is this?’’ he soliloquised. “What do they want to send us out there for, if they weren’t going to let us stay there?” A senior officer —a man for whom any one of these men would cheerfully go into any sort of a tight corner —happened to bo standing in the same trench. "I’ll tell you why you were sent out,” ho said. "You were sent out in order to help your mates who are fighting at Capo Holies.” “Oh, that’s the reason, was it,” growled the old soldier as ho limped along. Tho next in the line behind him was a non-commissioned officer. As ho passed the senior officer he stopped a moment, and pointed to the old fellow in front. "He’s got three bullets through him,” ho said, "through his legs. He wouldn’t come in and have them dressed —he stayed out there till the lot of us were ordered in.” THE DISTANT BATTLE. , The fight on Monday, June 28, was simply and solely for one purpose—to help the troops at Helles. On that day, eight miles away to the south, they were to make a difficult attack on the right of tho enemy’s lino—the side along which the British arc gradually coming up the coast towards us. The Turks have protected their trendies there with exceedingly strong wire, and, although the Territorials had broken through some exceedingly ugly wire in front of the trenches which we Australians had dug on May 8 at Helles, the British left had not been able to get along. To-da!y the Ghurkas and the 29tn Division—a division of which Australians who have seen them speak with enthusiasm, an enthusiasm which is certainly reciprocated by somo of the 29th—were to attempt that difficult position. Wo at Anzac could not help them to take it; but we could help them to hold it. That is to say, when one of the trendies had boon taken there was nothing surer than a counter-attack by tho Turks—indeed, there have been counter-attacks ever since. We could hear the bombardment and see the British shells bursting over the skyline where must have been the Turkish infantry last night; and for tho first three hours of this morning tho sound of very distant rifle firing was distinctly heard by those in the southern parts of our position here. We know by telegraph this morning that tho Turks again failed. But last night’s counter-attack was not tho dangerous ono, although the Turks preceded it by heavy bombardment. We could eeo their shells bursting over tho cliffs near the coast, and a few of them actually going into the sea, and raising geysers of foam there, showing that they were shooting from far inland as we moved gradually round their right along the coast. But they were shooting at troops who had had time to collect themselves and improve their trenches. The attack against which wo could help them was tho much more formidable one which would be certainly brought against them the moment tho Turks had time to collect their reserves and throw them in against our tired troops when the trenches had just been captured. Battles are to an extraordinary extent based on psychology, and the theory of the counter-attack is that after the enthusiasm of the attack is over, and t\io troops are relaxed and tired and unsettled—then is the best chance that tho Turks will have of driving them out of any positions they may have gained. Now the Turks have reserves between Anzac and Helles wheih they can throw against either place, and it only needs a few hours’ marching to bring troops behind Anzac itself. We at Anzac could at any rate ensure that these troops were not sent south for that first counter attack. We could attack and keep them here; if they did not reinforce their trenches here, but sent troops south in spite of us, we might make some useful gains for ourselves. THE PLAN TO HELP IT. So it was decided on Monday morning to make an advance from tho more southerly position of our lino against the Turkish trenches opposite that part. The advance was to be made by part of the 2nd Light Horse Brigade, which had so far taken part in only a few skirmishes between patrols, and the 3rd Brigade, which was the one that made the first rush up tho Anzao hills. At about 11, after a good part of the camp had been standing out on tho hillsides watching tho tremendous bombardment, which had been raising a fringe of dust from the whole length of the distant ’skyline down south, the destroyers at tho north and south ends of our Anzao lines began to throw shells in at tho Turkish trenches opposite them. Later on our own artillery joined in, and at ono oclock tho infantry and Light Horse, in their respective positions, clambered out of their trenches and made towards tho enemy’s lines. Tho companies of infantry which attended —two of them—had to dive forward down into tho gully and then up tho opposite ridge to the Turkish trench on top of it; and without entering into unnecessary particulars it may be said that tho Light Horse had very much the same task. Both had nearly half a mile to go to their furthermost point. In both eases the advanced party was covered by a party of about

the same size that moved out of the trenches into positions from which it could cover the advance, Tho advanced party in each case consisted of Queenslanders —two companies of Queenslanders —Queensland infantry in the one case and a squadron of Queensland and Northern River Light Horae. The covering infantry consisted of about 300 Western Australian infantry and tho covering Light Horse were from New South Walfes. TRENCH IN A WHEAT PADDOCK. They got out to their j-ositions very quickly and with very few casualties, considering that this was tho first advance that we have made from our trenches in broad daylight since the earliest days of the landing. When first I saw the Light Horse it was not more than half an hour after they had left the lines, and they were already far out in the scrub, just under the ledge of a hill, and digging in with picks and shovels as if they were so many workers on some deviation which you see from tho train in tho Blue Mountains. Just over tho top of the hill, on the slope of it nearer to the enemy, was a set of Turkish trenches running across a yellow stubble or grass field—the trenches were at right angles to the line of the ridge, and, therefore, to our men. And these nearer trenches were completely overlooked by other trenches on the more distant and higher ridge. Our men from the top of the first ridge could fire on to the trenches in the wheat field, which appeared just like a broken line of wheat bags laid out at intervals down the slope of tho paddock. You could see tho dust flicked up in half a dozen places at once in front of those sandbags. Our artillery was pounding somo of tho Turkish trenches, further back, which may have been firing into tho flanks of our men, and their artillery was pounding our guns —or, rather, the positions in which they thought our guns were. UNDER SHELL FIRE. It was just then, when our men were busily digging in, that I saw for the first time our Light Horse under shell fire. Several shells fell near them, but it was about an hour after they had reached thenposition that three shells in qifck succession fell right amongst them. They were high explosive shells, and the brown earth was scattered in a great, solid cauliflowershaped oloud right from the very thick of them. Three times this happened, and each time a regular fog of dust had to clear away before you could see what had happened. Each time, when the fog cleared, the men on the hillside wore exactly where they had been before. There was not the least sign of retirement. They were lying a little closer to the earth, instead of standing up as somo of them had been doing before those shells came. Tho moipont that firing ceased they wore up and about their work again aa if nothing had happened. Not half an hour later- I had the opportunity of seeing Turkish troops come under a similar fire. About two hours after the fight had begun there came a sign that tho attack opposite the Light Horse position had fulfilled its object. Above the further end of the wheat paddock, just where it bent down into the gully out of sight, ran a low line of scrub. Underneath this scrub and iust over the ©dgo of the wheat paddock there presently appeared a number of little whittish-ycllow objects, like the top of a row of eggs. It was the first sign of a line of Turkish infantry moving up to reinforce their trenches. The egg-shaped objects were their skull-caps. You could see them quite clearly creeping stealthily forward. Presently you could make out, hero and there, a pair of shoulders below tho head, end the barrel of a rifle, carried carefully along as they crawled. Their officer must have noticed just at this moment that they were within sight of our trenches, which would bo just appearing over the edge of the hill to him, for I saw an arm raised, and waving them to keep lower. A little later they began to creep up steadily on their left, and to drop quickly into the end of tho trench in front of them THE TURKS RUN. It was a splendid target for guns. Word! was sent to a certain battery, and within a couple of minutes we heard a shell pass overhead, going in their direction. There was a small woolly puff just ahead of them, and they waited for no more. They ran. As they went those same guns got in shell after shell just over tho edge of the ridge. They were not heavy shells, hut the Turks would not face them. Later on, after tho guns hod been turned on to another target, the same line of men gradually appeared again, and verv boldly came on into their own trench, and some of them worked up further into somo scrub, no more than 50 yards from our men. The Light Horae had been ordered to retire now, and very slowly they came away. One could see two Army Medical Corps men bending over a wounded man, dressing his wounds as carefully as if they had been in hospital, instead of down there in a gullv filled with green scrub, with two or three gentlemen with yellowish skull caps watching through tho dead branches near a disused Turkish trench no further than 150 yards away. Those two gentlemen seemed to be tugging at tho branches to make themselves a wellcovered opening through which they could shoot without being seen, and for a long time nobody seemed to see them. Then a dust spurt or two near the brown branches showed that someone had picked them out, and tho next time I looked there was a small dust storm around that place. Tho whitish cap was still there, but whether it belonged to a live ox a dead man one could not say. The Light Horse came back very slowly. Half a dozen, men were left in tho furthermost position. Ono could see them talking and blaz : ng, quite at their ease apparently, until the wounded were well away. At least two of tho stretcher-bearers were hit in the advance party, and ono of thorn killed. Bub this may be said of almost every attack in which Australians have taken put. THE THIRD BRIGADE. I did not see the attack made by tho Third Brigade, but the following wore tho details of it;—Ono company of Queenslanders advanced and formed an excellnt line about 10 yards from iho enemy’s trench which ran down tho ridge against which they were ordered to make their demonstration. There somo of the men, who were not satisfied with the shooting which they could make lying down, were seen to stand up and fire straight into tho enemy’s loopholes. Presently the enemy found the position of some of tho Western Australian infantry, which was lying down in tho open outside its trenches supporting the Queenslanders, and turned his artillery on to them. Ono platoon which was opor to this fire was he a vita handled, almost every man

being hit. One company of Queenslanders, also, was under a heavy rifle and shrapnel fire, and was withdrawn. It was just before this that information had come along which showed that this part of the attack also had succeeded. There is a deep gully at the back of .the Turkish positions, where their infantry from the first day onwards had massed for most of its attacks. The Turks wore seen to be collecting troops in this valley for a counter-attack. The artillery was turned on to them. Of* course the guns could not sea them—• they very seldom can in a modern fight —but they can drop a shell on the other side of a hill as accurately as if they had soon _ their target. This attack had succeeded in bringing up the enemy’s reserves, and so the infantry was brought back to our lines by half-past 4. In the last 20 minutes the enemy had found its position from another part of this line, ana the men had been falling faster. It wa? after the advanced infantry had returneq that it waa mentioned that they ought txf have brought in the equipment of their dead where possible, and, two of the men calmly walked back and picked uu rifle after rifle t as I mentioned in a cablegram tho nexf* day. One of them went out to make surS that a certain wounded man had not been left behind. He found that the man was dead, and accordingly brought in his kit. As a result of this attack tho Turks brought up to Anzao tho troops they had at the village of Eski Koui—a position between here and tho battle that was going on in tho south. The Turkish counter-attack down south was defeated, and'the Australasian force at Anzac played a distinct part in tho battlo by which more than half a, mile of Turkish trenches in front of tho British were taken and held.