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THE FIGHT ON GALLIPOLI PENINSULA

NEW ZEALAND WOUNDED RETURNING. THE SINKING OP THE TRIUMPH. (Prom Malcolm Ross, Official War Cor-, .respondent, N.Z. Expeditionary Force.) 7th June. The Intensity of this war will have been brought home to the people of New Zealand with startling suddenness and with a shock that even the most Imaginative could scarcely have been prepared for. The grim realities of thebattlefield itself are mercifully withheld from our own land, yet in a few weeksf’ time the dominion will he hearing something of them at first-hand. The Willoclira, now lying peacefully in a Suez dock, is being turned into a hospital ship, and in a few days will set sail for New Zealand with three hundred sick and wounded on hoard. As lias been the case at the New Zealand Hospital at Abnssia, everything possible will lie done for their care and comfort, ami sad as it will lie for most of them to leave their comrades and to think that their lighting days are over, it will he a tremendous relief to them to get out of the sweltering heat of Cairo and to turn their faces toward friends and a temperate clime. Mayor Holmes, N.Z. A.M.C., lias been specially detailed to see to the fitting out and despatch of the ship. Meantime, the more than decimated force that remains is clinging witli all the old heroism to its little bit of the Gallipoli Peninsula, and there it will continue to hold and to gain unless the , odds should be of an overwhelming nature. Indeed, not only lias it held its own ground in the face of superior numbers, but it lias sent a force south to help the Allies while its own attenuated lines have held against the enemy in superior force on the heights of Gaba Tepo. In this southern expedition, the losses of the New Zealanders, as has already been Indicated, were again heavy; but once more they fought with magnificent dash and courage. The Allied forces drove the, enemy into the village of Krithia, but failed to take the fort beyond that was their main objective in this locality it now becomes a question of trench warfare with sapping and raining and artillery duels.

A PLEVNA MAN ON GALLIPOLI. Colonel Ryan, of the Australian A. M.C., was through the siege of Plevna with the Turks, and his book about that campaign is well known. Now he finds himself in the Gallipoli Peninsula in the opposing lines, i happened to have a letter of introduction to him, and the other day in Shepheard’s, seeing a short, stoutish, grey-bearded man with Australian badges and a Tied Gross on his arm, I asked if by any chance he happened to know Colonel Ryan. "1 am Colonel Ryan,” lie replied, with a merry twinkle in his Irish eyes. He had just come hack from ills "dug-out” at Gaba Tepe. When the armistice was granted to bury the Turkish dead facing our lines, he walked out into the Turkish trenches, and when the Turkish doctors noticed li is Plevna ribbon they greeted him warmly, hut wanted to know what he was doing in the opposing lines. He told them. They were line fellows, these young Turkish doctors, he said. One spoke English perfectly. Hr Ryan told him he looked like an Englishman. "No,” he replied, "I am a pure Turk, but I was educated in Paris.” Colonel Ryan got on very well with these young Turks, but he had a row with two German doctors, who wanted to make out that th.e Australians and New Zealanders in burying the dead in advance of their own lines were really making fresh trenches. The Turkish Staff Officer who came with the flag of truce was, he added, a charming man. THE TRIUMPH SINKS.

Colonel Ryan was in a hospital ship quite close to the Triumph when she was torpedoed by the Gorman submarine. He heard a dull noise and thought it was a distant gun ; but immediately afterwards he saw a column of smoke and water rising in the air—not very high. The warship heeled over on her side a little and remained in that position for a few minutes. Then she slowly turned over until they could see the red paint on her bottom, after which she sank. At Lemnos, on his way back, lie saw two Russian ’ men-of-war steaming for all they were worth and firing, so he judged that there were other sub - marines about. Colonel Ryan, notwithstanding his years, is fit and energetic’. ITe is off back to his dug-out. As T said good-bye to him lie remarked that lie had a presentiment that he would never come back from the beach at Gaba Tepe. ON A HOSPITAL TRAIN. SHIPPING THE WOUNDED HOME. i WILLOCHKA AS A HOSPITAL SHUN Sth June. A long hospital train was drawn up at the Palais-de-Kubba station, ready to leave for Suez at S.IIO a.m. The New Zealand wounded were already in it, lying in the cots of its white-painted carriages, with the red crescent and star on each, for the cross does not hold here in Egypt. Gol. Hall, the Base Commandant, the Transport Officers (a foreign representative of Nobel s, who had enlisted in "West Australia), and the medical office* in charge (a dark, fiatnosed little man, whom I took for a Japanese), were chatting together on the platform, all arrangements completed. Further down the platform were a

group of eight Australian nurses, who were to make the long voyage hack to New Zealand with our wreckage from the battlefields of Gallipoli. The New Zealand • nurses already in Cairo had been lent to the Australians, and it was not thought fair to send back some other New Zealand nurses who had just arrived. Another hatch of fifty was due to arrive, in a couple of days. As we steamed out of the station I found mvself witli a little group of wounded and invalided officers, not complaining about their wounds: sorry only that they had to "get out of it” so soon. It was a long, hot journey of six hours to Suez —at first through interesting country, where the industrious fellaheen was tilling his lands and threshing his corn with the primitive implements that were used in the time of Moses. The nurses made us tea, and, later, we dined on tinned fowl, bread, and lemonade. The little doctor busy with his papers turned out to be a Siamese. His already broad nose had at one time been further flattened by a sword or a dagger cut. He spoke Kngiisli quite well, and had been in the Indian Army Medical Service for many years. The attendants on the train were turbaned Indians. It was altogether a strange mixture —New Zealand wounded, Australian nurses, a Siamese doctor, Indian servants, and a Scottish transport officer —such as one may see almost any clay during the great war. At the few wayside stations where we stopped, curious little crowds of Egyptians—Arabs and others —gathered, and gazed at us. Presently the line left the cultivated billiard - table fields that stretched on either side far as the e.\ e could roach, and we touched the desert sands. It was curious to see the New Zealand wounded gazing from the carriage windows of the Red t.rescent train at the remnants of Arabi’s trenches and the little cemetery, with its trees and flowers, that holds dead British soldiers of a previous generation. Isruailia, against the bine of Lake Timsaii. sped past, and then the Bitter Lakes, and the desert away on the right, where the people still tended their flocks as did the Ishmaelitea of old. The thermometer climbed higher and higher, and the dust sifted in through the smallest crannies, but there was never a word of complaint from the New Zealand wounded. They were well tended, but they were not so cheery now, for they could not help thinking that they were going back on the long t re k—that they were going home! The wefiry months of training ; rfthe desert marches ; the Pyramids ; the Sphinx—all these were merely memories. So, also, the assemblage of the (treat armada fit Lemyos ; tho landing on Gallipoli ; the storming of the heights; and a hundred other things. They were saying good-live to Egypt, .with all its strange attractiveness, and setting their faces once more towards the land of their birth, where fairer ami more wholesome scenes and the warm welcome ol friends ami relations awaited them. They* had been "outed,” ami the graves of trusty comrades were already growing green on the heights of Gaba Tepe. Small wonder that they were silent and a little sad. Each man had a little time, as the train rumbled over the desert siuids, to do a little quiet thinking. A ad yet there was not one of them but regretted he w*as leaving his coni-rades-in-arms: not one but was longing

for “another go.” Some even, cherished a hope that they would once more regain the firing line , from far away New Zealand. For most it was but a vain hope.

Our train ran past the glorious blue of the Bitter Lakes, and on our right in the desert were the wonderful shimmering seas and faint islands and headlands of the mirage. In the heat of early afternoon wo pulled up in Sues docks. And as we were steaming in with our tired and weary wounded, another train, with young men in all vthelr pride of pliant thews and sturdy limbs, was steaming slowly out. And as they saw our men through the windows of the hospital train they cheered and cheered again. It was a greeting to the battlestained New Zealanders returning from the front from the newly-landed Australians, eager to get there. The light and shade of war had come together with- a suddenness and an intenseness that were startling dramatic. As our men waved back a greeting and the cheers of the Australians grew fainter up the line, one felt in the, same moment a thrill of soYrow and a glow of pride. ‘ • At the station to meet us was Major Holmes (now A.D.M.S.), who had been sent down specially to see to the medical equipment of the ship, and Captain Mitchell (of Naseby). the senior medical officer in charge. Captain Withers, of the N.Z.A.M.C., was making the voyage with Captain Mitchell, while Colonel Will, invalided from the Zeitoun base, was also returning to New Zealand. Major McKenzie was O.C. ship. So, next day, the Willochra —troopship No. 21, transformed into a hospital ship—steamed out into the gleaming waters of the Gulf of Suez, and took her' way towards the Southern Cross with the first of the wounded New Zealanders.

THE FIGHTING ON GALLIPOLI. BRAVE DEEDS ON ‘-THE DAISY PATCH.” A FRENCH STRATAGEM. THE "SEVENTY-FIVES” AND THE BAYONET. Off an "island in the Mediterranean, 11th June. Suicide Gully, Death Gully. Shrapnel Gully, are names of spots near Anzac Beach that are as expressive as they are ominous. They are names that will never be forgotten by those New Zealanders who went through the first few days of battle on the Gallipoli Peninsula, and who have the good luck to return to their native land. Away down at Cape Helles, on the end ot the Peninsula, there is a spot called the “Daisy Patch,” a name that one would scarcely associate with war. There amongst the green grass grew a profusion of wild flowers and beautiful daisies. They are growing there still, but amongst the daisies are patches of brown earth and small wooden crosses that mark the last resting-place of several brave New Zealanders, who have given their all for the Empire. When our men went down there to help the Allies in the attack on Achi-Baha, they landed safely and were marched about a mile up the road before they ercountered the enemy's lire—shrapnel and common shell —which, however, fell wide. They marched a further mile to a beautiful green paddock, where they commenced to dig themselves in. They stayed there all night, and next day (the (sth May) they watched the French advance. On the Tth, in the afternoon, they marched out in platoons, hut had not covered more than a mile before shrapnel began to burst over them. It was almost dusk, and they retired on (o the edge of a cliff, where they were able to take cover. One of the Otago men was killed and one or two wounded. There also, Colonel Peerless, N.Z.M.C. (of Nelson), with the Canterbury Battalion, fell, shot through the left thigh. Notwithstanding his 62 years, he was always with his regiment. He has been for several weeks in one of tlie military hospitals at Alexandria, is now convalescent, and on a troopship returning to Gallipoli. On the 71 hj May this force, which was the remnant of the New Zealand Infantry Brigade—and would now amount to about a battalion in numbers—went a mile further inland, till they came to a farmhouse, and there they dug in again. No sooner had they done, this, however, than they were ordered to fall in for a night march to the trenches before AchiBaha. They was to he no lighting of pipes, and orders were given in whispers. On the way they passed, occasionally, wounded men coming down from the front. One soldier, seized with panic-, imagined that the Germans had got him, and as he started to announce his belief in loud shrieks, he had to be sent back to the dressing station. A mile further on the New Zealanders reached the trendies, and quickly got into them. Star shells were sent up by the enemy, I and lit up the surrounding country, but the position was not shelled, and the New Zealanders bivouacked for the night, and slept in the trenches. Next morning, at 10.20, they got the order to advance in column of platoons, the men deploying in the usual way. They went at first over broken country, hut after a time came to a level plateau covered with wild flowers. This was the "Daisy Patch.” There the men began to fall. It was evident that the Turks had the range of it.

SAVING THE WOUNDED. Captain G. Craig. N.Z.M.0., who was with the Aucklanders, according to all accounts, did good work here in succouring the wounded. With his orderly—one Stacey, a light-weight boxer —he dodged from cover to cover attending to wounded from (he different regiments, including some of the Monsters, who were in the vicinity. Amongst the dead was the. hodv of 'Lieut. Steadman, of the Third Auckland. He fell, shot through the heart,- while leading his men. Indeed, lie was one of the first to fall. In the Daisy Patch, over which the New Zealanders crossed before gaining the trenches, there were some twenty dead and wounded lying in a zone swept by machine-gun and rifle fire. One of the wounded was heard to cull out. "I or God’s sake send a doctor!" Every time the man moved he drew the Turkish fire, and the bullets were all the time hitting the daisy patch and whistling over the trench in which our men had taken cover. Captain Craig, hearing the wounded man's call, then left the trench and went to the wounded man’s assistance, and went back to get his man. The first man he reached was the wrong one. He was' dead. The doctor all the time under fire cut off this man s identification disc and put it in his pocket. He then found the. wounded man and endeavoured to roll him forward to the trench: hut lie was a. heavy man and the task was an impossible one, so he returned to the trench and called for two volunteers to help him to bring the man in. Two privates, Donaldson and Dalziel (3rd Auckland). immediately volunteered, and the three then went to the wounded man, lifted him up and proceeded to carry him in, the bullets whistling about them all the Nearing- the trench a sniper fxot T>i Craig and lie fell shot through the thigh. At the same time Dalziel fell, shot through the leg. Thus the three men fell in a heap just as they were on the point of reaching safety. Donaldson managed to drag the wounded man into the trench, and Stacey, the doctors orderly, and others, got the doctor and also balziel into the trench. Stacey, whom T saw the other day at Alexandria, made light of his particular part nf the adventure. “It was nothing, he said, "I was under cover nearly all the time, a statement that from other sources f subsequently learnt was not strictly accurate:. Stacey, however, dressed the doctor’s wound, stayed with him in the trench till nightfall, and then accompanied him on the three mile journey to the dressing station and a subsequent four and a half mile journey fo the beach. It, was a seven and a half miles journey for the stretcher-bearers, as the route was not a direct one, and it ttas 2.1 r> a.m. before they reached the beach hospital. After they had gone about three miles of their, journey the Turks burst a star shell over them and they r received a burst of rifle fire from a range of 400 or 500 yards. One of the bearers with the stretcher in front was shot through the head. Dr Craig is now on his way back to his regiment on the Peninsula.

A BRILLIANT FRENCH CHARGE. On the afternoon of Saturday, the Sth May, while some of the New Zealanders we re lying i ft a trench at the Oaisj Batch and singing a little to keep up their spirits, a man suddenly called out that the I'rencli were retiring. Some Lime before they had watched them advancing' in a long blue line. Now it seemd as if they had broken anil were recreating helter-skelter to their old trenches. The Turks, noting the retreat, came on en masse. The )■ rench then retired to their second line, and l lie Turks promptly occupied the first line of , trertches. Then the deadly "TS's" got to work. They had the

range to a nicety, and, with high explosive shells and shrapnel, they gave the enemy a terrible time. • The fire was so rapid that a curtain of black smoke and dust arose from the bursting shells, and under cover of this cloud the French Infantry reformed and charged back with wild yells. What the guns had left undone was accomplished with the bayonet.

Permanent link to this item

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/ST19150728.2.3

Bibliographic details

Southland Times, Issue 17485, 28 July 1915, Page 2

Word Count
3,105

THE FIGHT ON GALLIPOLI PENINSULA Southland Times, Issue 17485, 28 July 1915, Page 2

THE FIGHT ON GALLIPOLI PENINSULA Southland Times, Issue 17485, 28 July 1915, Page 2

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