"THE FIFTHS.”

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

"THE FIFTHS.”

HOW THEY WENT INTO ACTION

The story of how the Fifth Reinforcements went into action the moment they landed on Gallipoli is told by Private G. Nation in a letter to his father, Mr E. J. Nation, of the Government Printing Office, Wellington. Private Nation, who was wounded himself in the battle, and who is now in hospital at Malta, writes. — “ \Ve landed in the Dardanelles and started right away to the front. We worked our passage along the beach to a place which our officers thought safe from shrapnel. We rested there for some time, and then started again for the firing-line. When we were almost there we rested axraiii for five or six hours, and then -went on. As we got near, the bullets fell all around us, and killed about six of my comrades. We still toiled on to the place where the others waited, but there were no trenches dug, so we had to start and dig ourselves in under fire. We worked for about two hours, and then the order came up for 1 reinforcements 1’ So we doubled up to the mob just as the Turks charged. I will never forget it as long as I live. It was great! There must have been about 3000" Turks by the row they made, and we just lay down and popped them off as they came above the hill. They were yelling ‘ Allah! Allah !’ as they came. We soon settled them, and they retired to the other side of the hill. All night long they kept the firing up, and we did the same, lii the morning the fun started. The ’phone wire was cut, and we could not send for reinforcements. The bio- guns began to open fire, and I got blown out of ray dug-out, with two others. I was stunned for about five minutes, and then made a rush for one of the trenches on the right. I o-ot there, but I don’t know how. All my nerves seemed gone, and I was shaking all over. I lay down for about an hour, and that steadied me up again. By this time the Turks had worked their way up to our right flank, and started to fire right into our trenches. It was hot. They settled 30 alone in our trench —that is, killed and wounded. The trench holds only about four at a time, but there were always others coming up from the supports. All the day the fire was kept up, and as it got dusk we expected another charge from them, and we had not got the men to hold on if they did. Every time the Turks started firing we would get the order, ‘ Stand to arms !’ This went on all night, that is, until nearly one o’clock, when our relief came, and you should have seen the old Fifth Reinforcements as they crawled out of the firing-line—just like a lot of wet sacks. Our knees refused to hold us up as we tried to walk back to the rest camp. We got there about daybreak. The distance between our trendies and the Turks’ was about 9ft. I have been in the trenches five times since then, but it has not been anything like the first.”