DEPARTURE FROM CAPE HELLES.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 13896, 20 January 1916, Page 5

DEPARTURE FROM CAPE HELLES.

ABLE ORGANISATION. HOW THE EVACUATION WAS. • CARRIED; OUT. .v""l .■:■•: 7 ■•: A ,; r >4^L .-;;.;:.!' ,/;.■ (London Times and Sydney Sun Services.) - LONDON, January 19. <■ Mr Ward P; rice, y i'ejjorting j from iSalonika, v says, "For able organisation and » bloodless evacuation. Cape Helles "was similar to Anzac and Sulvai It relieves the melancholy "speGtaAte of. ill-judged' enterprises. The fact- tfoat there. were no losses -mightr lead one ' .'ton under value the resource and minute care -fehbwav Considerable losses werei '-expected,' ' and. a loss of 30 per cisrit..^killed ; and/ vround' : i would not liavb been surprisiug. had tho Turks discovered the- movement^ and set' their artillery tofire iOn-the^ beaches, while they' attacked* the trenches. The process of the ovacuaK tion of SuvlaH^aJwir, ' .no doubt-j Gape Helles also— *was spread over ten nights, j and wias divided into three pei'iods : . (1) Winter store? V, and; superfluities wei'e. removed. ' . (2) Everything was shipped except the actualHdddband ammunition nieeded, and the men. of the first drafts also began to depart. r (3). Two nights. were taken up m embarking guns, animals, and men m cai'efully caSmlated detaenments. . It was determined to. fall.. back to the second line of defence for the last stage, but , this would have-given ■. clearly to the Turks an idea, and it was abandoned m favor, ofvtthe. preaei!vationi.< of. absolutely | normal conditions. This was bo often repented tliat an overworked staff officer, on receiving news that a girl had been born m his home, cabled, "Christen her Normality.". On the last "night, from 8.30 to .1.#9 a.m... the first lino of trenchesTtfafl held by a few picked men from eacjt. brigade, giving one a'ifle to each .seven yards of front, but a detacharienfc of tilie yath Brigade had the whole of the 29th Division's front, nnd wero responsible for 5000 yards. There wero two lines of trenches behind the advance lines, and also posts where a last stand could have been made, and the nien were ordered not to leave until they got word from the beaches that all was clear.