ADVENTURES ON SNIPING DUTY.

Otago Witness, Issue 3215, 27 October 1915, Page 53

ADVENTURES ON SNIPING DUTY.

Sergeant J. L. Wilson, of the Bth Canterbury Mounteds, in a letter to his parents at Waimate, written (says the Timaru Herald) at the Dardanelles, says .... “Last Friday week (the letter is dated August 20), we were preparing for a big attack and advance, and on that day we shifted from our own camp to the outposts on our left flank, and some Tommies took our place. A tremendous lot of them landed here that day. On Friday night we mobilised at 9 p.m. and were ready to attack. We all knew the ground wo had to take ’before starting, and that helped us a lot. Wo had to do all our fighting with bayonets, and were not allowed to have our rifles loaded in case might shoot our own men in the dark. We had distinctive badges sewn on our siiirts. Pants, shirts, and boots were all the clothes wo had on, as it was too hot for more. At 9.30 wo left the outposts and started to advance on level ground directly in front of the Turks’ trenches. Our plan was to surprise them, but wo had hardly started when they discovered us, and immediately the place was a perfect Hade® with machine gun and rifle fire. That did not stop us, but Caused us to lose a lot of men v -We then rushed rfl 'he trenches, but as soon as the Turks sa\. : he bayonets they took fright and fled, leaving us, about a quarter of their number, in possession of their rifles and ammunition, etc. We followed them until we took all the ground laid down for us.

For the last piece they made a stand and tried to hold it, but were badly beaten. At tho same time, they shot a lot of our men. Wo then held our ground and started digging in until daylight, when we got tho surprise of our life. We saw that further up the coast two more landings had boon made, and thousands of men wore advancing on our left. On our right a fierce hand-to-hand fight was going on. Our men (Tommies) wore trying to take a high ridge, but every time they tried wore driven back from the top with bombs, so at last they gave it up and entrenched halfway up the hill, where they are at present. Wo watched the fight all day, we were only 1100 yards away. In the morning I captured a Turk. He was hiding in a trench which had been overlooked, and as I saw his knee and bayonet from round a corner I was able to rush him before ho could put up any resistance. We New Zealanders took over 700 prisoners that night. On Saturday night wo were relieved, and wont back to a reserve camp and stayed there for the next week. “ Last Friday I and 99 others were picked from our division to go to the Army Corps )English). I was put in charge of the lot. Wo marched all night to our destination and reached it at noon next day. From there wo were sent on to and are now more or less in the firing line. We are sharpshooters. One day Otago go out, and the next Canterbury, and I tell you we have some lively times trying to stalk Turkish snipers, who are great shots, judging by tho way they stirred up the dirt around my feet every time I moved yesterday, at 700 yard's. Sometimes we get really good shooting v hen wo can get to a position without being seen, but that is the hardest part of our job. On the first day one of my men who was lying behind a rock with me, got badly wounded with shrapnel. My trouble now. seeing we arc about 10 miles from our regiment (who don’t quite know whore we are) is in getting tho mail. I expect they will keen it until we rejoin our regiment. When that will be I don’t know.”