N.Z. HOWITZER BATTERY AT GALLIPOLI.

Otago Witness, Issue 3227, 19 January 1916, Page 53

N.Z. HOWITZER BATTERY AT GALLIPOLI.

"VALUABLE WORK HAS BEEN DONE." It is known from communications that have reached Now Zealand that some very useful and timely work was performed by the First New Zealand Howitzer Battery on the Gallipoli Peninsula. An officer who was associated with the artillery in New Zealand writes to a friend in Dunedin in terms of high praise of its work, and from his letter we have been allowed to extract the following paragraphs to indioato the services it has rendered:—"Until the end of July ours were the only howitzers at Anzao, and we were kept very busy. I was surprised to read in the New Zealand weeklies letters from wounded soldiers attributing wonderful shooting to the Queen Elizabeth in April last. As a matter of fact, all the close high-explosive shooting on the left flank in the early days was by the humble New Zealand howitzers. The "Lizzie" only put in an appearance at this end once or twice, and then only to get a, decent line to (ire on the Dardanelles, miles away. The country here is very like Otago. The hills often re:nnd us of Central Otago. Sometimes I smile when I think of our allowance there of 10 rounds stter tho year's training, and ret one sees how valuable that work is, if, nt tho end of 12 months, during which time men have been properly disciplined and trained, the B Battery could effectively engage targets as we used to do. You can take, it as proven that valuable work has been done, and that that battery, provided it is properly equipped, is to all intents and purooses ready to take the field. I am satisfied the battery could have done this in recent years equally with the batteries hero "

A gunner, writing to his people in Dunedin, acknowledges the receipt of several copies of the Otago Witness, and, further, says:—"l am tonong the small percentage that has been here all along. At present T am sitting on the hillside above our guns—the Gulf of Saroa before me, and the trenches behind. There is a French aeroplane roaring over me, after dropping a bomb on the Turks on Hill 971. Aeroplanes are stale sights now. . . . Last week we smashed three redoubts Yesterday wo did some superfine shooting, thanks to Major Falla's observing, and received congratulations from headquarters. Wo are getting some attention from the Turks' artillery. They have a couple of 4.7 howitzers, which patiently drop their messages into our little hollow. Cover is no good for their and our howitzer shells, and one must take one's chance. One of their shells killed two patients in our hospital. I side-stepped at once, and merely got a chunk of hard clay on the, shoulder. The shell went in too deep beforn bursting, and spoilt its scatter."