WHERE HEROES SLEEP

Otago Witness, Issue 3384, 22 January 1919, Page 62

WHERE HEROES SLEEP

GALLIPOLI REVISITED. ANZAC GRAVES DESCRIBED. Mr E. R. Peacock, who is visiting old J and new Australian war zones on behalf of the Sydney Sun, in a telegram dated Con- ! stantinople, December 13, which has been !• delayed in transmission, says: i A British brigade landed on Gallipoli without any display. The Turkish officers quietly surrendered the administration. Later, French detaohments occupied points ' on the south bank. Then came the Ausj tralians. They had handed over their ■ horses before leaving Palestine. The men seemed saddened by the giving up of their | horses, and suffered from the sudden change I from the heat of the Jordan Valley to the J wintry conditions of the Dardanelles. | The Australians suffered from a terrible I wave of sickness when at the Jordan, nearly 80 per cent, of tho force being affected. ' They are now improving. The New Zealanders are becoming sick here with reour- ; rent malaria and influenza. There have been few deaths, but the men would be better at home. All the Australians are : camped'in a pleasant cove opposite Chanak, I which is better than being overcrowded in 1 verminous, dirty Turkish barracks and hospitals. I I accompanied the first party to the Anzac trenches. The earthworks have slightly fallen in and are overgrown. ! Shell Green Cemetery was without an enclosure, and the graves were overgrown. All the crosses of identification have been removed, except that of K. M'G. Ronald, the outlines of the inscription of which were confused. The Beach Cemetery is enclosed, and the ' grave outlines aro clear, but all identifications have been removed, except that of I Lieutenant Onslow. There are no monu- ' ments or decorations. i Shrapnel Gully Cemetery is enclosed, but the identifications have been removed. The graves are generally in good condition. There are stone outlines to many of the graves. One stone had a metal cross, the rivets of which had been wrenched awav. At each cemetery there was a signboard in English and' Turkish. 5 In tho Mazarlaki area there are some j violations, but all the areas can be enclosed, j and a monument erected giving all the ■ names. This will be better than individual headstones, because the bodies are in the I area, _ though their whereabouts may be uncertain. The general defences have been strengthened enormously since the evacuation. I Continuing l . Mr Peacock telegraphs from Constantinople • I journeyed to the Dardanelles aboard the Australian destroyer Warrego, which, with her Australian sister ships, has been part _of the wonderful Allied barrage in the ! Mediterranean. Sombre, yet eager, feeling 3 I stirred this truly Australian company as it I came at dawn within sight of the sandy ! cliffs and low dark tree-covered plains | which were Anzao. Snow has capped the peaks, and water washes against the old wrecks of the piers. We strain our eyes and I try to get a glimpse of the cemeteries, but j nothing shows on tho rugged barren hilla or sharp bluffs and cliffs of tho lower levels. THOUGHTS TURN TO THE DEAD. Every thought is turned to the hosts of lives and millions of treasure which it cost to reopen this historta highway. Around u» seemed to hover the spirits of those vr)x6 had eight months of struggle, suffering, an<s

sacrifice, and we thought of the souls of those wonderful men lying yonder, whoso deeds revealed as in a flash the national character and spirit, the bidden depths, and resources' and capacity which all now know Australia holds. We passed slowly, along, paying to our comrades our first respects Then, as the sun broke through the clouds, wo turned and the water whipped over tho hulls of the sunken warships Triumph and Majestic, passed tho wreok of the River Clyde, with tho holes still marking her heroio endeavour, and darted beyond tho wreckage of tho French battleship Bouvet, into the Dardanelles. The forts were all silent, but mines are still plentiful, so we worked along a buoyed passage passing the great anti-submarine boom constructed after the attempt of the Australian submarine AE2 to enter the Narrows* Many wrecks strew the path, showing where vessels ran against the mines and were, beached. OAMPS IN SNUG COVES. There is an amazing number of gun emplacements, fortifications, and extensive military camps in snug little coves. These sheltered, low hills must have been out of range of danger from any attackers. Verdant green relieves the hleakness, and small patches of cultivation show where tho peasants work. The promised land must nave looked fairer from the Anzao heights than it seems now, when victory has opened the gates, but the victors find only a blighted nation. The township of Gallipoli is one relief. It is large, with red-roofed buildings, substantial, but it is only when we reach wonderful Constantinople that one sees the magnitude of the issue of the Anzacs' landing, what vast possibilities were at stake, and why the defence was so tenacious and strong. Mr Peacock boarded at Mudros a cruiser which had just arrived from Sydney, looking "equal to anything in the Mediterranean." - BEST GUNNERY RECORD. The Australians, he says, had the best gunnery record in the Mediterranean. They have had a lot of the worst jobs, and cannot be called happy, because they are homesick and long for Australian control. You find among these young companies the same clean-cut look, tho same resourcefulness, self-reliance, andi independence as in the army, as they double about _ m their littlo craft completing their orders. These States school boys seem to carry a sparkle in the eye which says, "Cam they beat that?" Tho 7th Australian Light Horse (21 officers and 392 men) and the Canterbury Mounted Rifles (25 officers and 464 men) have arrived at Chanak from Egypt as an Australasian section of the British division of occupation at the Dardanelles. The transport Emperor, carrying 2000 Russian prisoners homeward, . passed through the straits. Bolshevism on board is very bad. A plot to murder 60 men from the Caucasus nearly succeeded, but life is unsafe anywhere here. It is so cheap in Constantinople that it is not nice to go out after dark. COMMANDER INTERVIEWED. In a telegram from Constantinople on December 14, Mr Peacock says:— "Glad" and "Charmed" were tho words with which Mustapha Kemal Pasha, commander of tho Turkish Anzao and Suvla armies in 1915, greeted me. It is a most curious atmosphere here—an atmosphere of extreme politeness, with the Turkish leaders trying to insinuate cordiality into the everlasting Anglophilism. I found the sensation of interviewing this cultivated Turk, drinking coffee and smoking fine cigarettes in his luxurious apartments, curious indeed. The Australians are very good fighters, ho said, in French. I often spoke to my men about them. They thought them terrible, but brave. Kemal Pasha commanded the Turks in tho Anafarta and Anzac regions from the landing until a fortnight before the evacuation, when ho became sick. He described the plan of attack as a good and strong idea, but said: It was a mistake to make tho 'naval attack first, then go away, and return. If the landing had been combined with the first naval attack it would have succeeded, and Constantinople would have been captured. We 'got warning, and propared strong- defences. We knew weeks before that the British intended to make the landing, hence the strength of our defences. I thought the landing at Anzac impossible.' AREA HELD WAS TOO LARGE. "Then?" I asked. ■ . " You made tho mistake of trying to hold too large an area," was the reply. "If the Australians had occupied a smaller area they would have held it securely, with less loss. I saw the mistake immediately and sent my main force' round the left, driving in the flank, while small holding forces opposed your centre." . Here the general sketched the Turkish, dispositions on April 25, the day of the landing, showing the .movements of the infantry"and enveloping flank. "We had very heavy losses.' he continued, " but almost destroyed the attacking force. We drove it into a tiny aro on the coast, where it was under the protection of the warships. It was a very daring adventure, and if more men had been employed at Anzao it would have succeeded. Only the bravest troops could accomplish what was done. We feared failure for some weeks but then our confidence became absolute, and after the Suvla landing we always had'the best of positions." Kemal admitted that the Turks were short of ammunition, but he claimed, that they always had enough to keep going. The supply was always short, but it was never exhausted. He later commanded in the Caucasus and Syria. It was difficult to realise that one was in. the presence of the man who fought us so bitterly. He spoke so sincerely of tho courage and resourcefulness of tho Australians that before departing I. found myself saying that if ever he visited Australia ho would find many of his old opponents glad to see him-