THE TIGRIS CAMPAIGN.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 13972, 19 April 1916, Page 3

THE TIGRIS CAMPAIGN.

STOICISM OF THE TROOPS. STERILE BATTLEFIELDS. Tlie country m which ' the British Mesopotamian forco has been operating is described by Mr Edmund Candler, a correspondent with the forces, m the following terms : — Above Amara the banks of the Tigris become even more barren and desolate. The reed huts of the nomads give place to black goat-hair tents. The scenery is easy to describe — hard-caked mud* on either side. *< > • At Ali Gharbi, when we concentrated for the advance, tlie- river takes a sharp bent to the east, and here a new feature lends variety to the scenery m the Pusht-i-Kuh hills, a low-lying, snow-rimmed range on the Persian frontier, about which cloudsi hang all day and throw dark shadows * on a mauve ground. The ground between the river and the hills was the scene of the battle of Sheikh Sadd. Tlie land is maliciously and fanatically sterile — naked earth m its most depressing form, cracked and caked and rutty without the rock, (Travel, or sand which <xive color to the desert. It was over this rutty ground that the transport waggons* bumped and jolted with their freight of wounded on the evening of January 7. The memory of suffering is mixed up with one's'impression of malice m the clay. "IT IS NOTHING." It was evening when our steamer moored near the battlefield. We went out to meet them as they steamed m over the anud-colored' fljUt atnd gave what aid we could. Many were walking very erect, some of theip with' the stiffness of effort. These were the less serious coses ; the stretchers and ,tffaiisport waggons came m later. One.- was struck with the hardiness and stoicismof the British and Indian alike. "Beg your pardon, sir," says a British private, "can you tell me where the ambulance is?" and he deprecates the snp-

Sort of my shoulder, though his. calf Is andaged, and it is painful for him to put hiß left foot to the ground., if I ani all right, sir; it's nothing serious." lie lifts up his shirt and points to a puncture m his stomach. His face is bloody » and damaged. "It is nothing," he oxgains, "took off a bit of my gunm*-* He will not rest, hut moves on towards the distant Red Ctpsb flag and the funnels of the steamer on the river. ..»' INFANTRY LIKE TREES. • . We have heard the guns overnight and again m the morning as our paddle steamer with its attendant lighters forged up-steam. The evolutions' of our troops on land were obscured by the mirage. We saw infantry like trees moving and 1 thought them a transport tram. Other masses which could be nothing but artillery.crossed the pontoon bridge ahead of us from the right bank to the left.; The mirage does not., affect the atmosphere .at the height of a bursting shell'; we could see, -the shrapnel smoke unfolding two or three miles from the bank, and wondered if ««L W fi re Turkish wtiHery or our own. Shelling their advance posts" was the general verdict. '

It was not till later that we realised that the whole force were at grips with , the enemy, and it was not until we • moored and met the converging stream coining m from the trenches that we knew how costly the day had been. The guns we had heard had piayed but a small part m the action, for the mirage had made artillery preparation for our advance ineffectual, and the hulk of our casualties on both banks of the stream had occurred m frontal attacks on the enemys position. !.,".'!.-