THE SUEZ CANAL FIGHT.

Colonist, Volume LVII, Issue 13745, 7 April 1915, Page 6

THE SUEZ CANAL FIGHT.

ANOTHER ACCOUNT,

Private T. Robb, who is with the main New Zealand Expeditionary Force in a letter to his parents, Mr. and Mrs. T. Robb,-of Nelson, describes the Suez Canal fight,, in which Jhe Turkish losses were-.■estimated at JUiX). Ha says the. first shot was fired by the (New Zeaianders at 3.15 a.m. on the. morning of Wednesday, February 3rd. The Turks had a machine, gun going strongly for a long time, but _ luckily not on* them. "We only.got rifle lire from the enemy, and they were doing some very bad shooting. Our chaps j i were doing some very good work. Dur- j ing the night the Turks brought up ■ boats, which they brought across the j desert from Constantinople, and launched them or. the canal Then the. fun commenced in real earnest. The Tommies' batteries'got to work, and it was a treat to watch the shells bursting right over Turkish lines with deadly effect? One shell burst near the end of the line, where there were between 300 and 400 men, each about two or three paces apart. Then one fell in i the centre, and another on the right, and of the whole line there was only one man left, and he made for home. It-was not safe for a Turk to put his I head up anywhere within range, without a big 'chance of getting two or three pieces of lead into it. You would see one jump up, and go to run into another trench, and he would only get about three steps, when over he would ;go. The enemy started firing their j shells about 7 or 8 a.m., but they did j not do much, serious damage. As far jas we were concerned they only wounded one man —our Sergeant-Major —he was wounded in the upper arm by a cap of a shell. We had a very lively time for a few hours. Several boat loads of Turks tried to cross the canal, but very few got to the bank, as most of them were shot before they could get out. We had some very narrow escapes.- Indian troops were with. 1 us, and they are very fine chaps to be with. I gave a hand to tie up a bullet wound m the forearm of an English officer with the Indians, it was the only job I got. As Aye were leaving our position, one of the chaps of the 10th platoon (Ham) got a bullet in th& neck, and has since died of the wound. I did not see him, as the Indian S.B. got him. The 9th and 10th platoons of C. Company were in the thickest of the fighting,.' and are mostly Nelson ar.d Motueka boys. The officers in charge of the troops spoke- very highly of our shooting. The Indians captured a number of prisoners, one of whom wars a German officer. Most of the prisoners were in rags, and if they had boots they were in a horrible state of repair. One of our chaps was blown out of his trench by a shell into another trench, and never got a scratch. (It.will be remembered that Lieutenant Saunders mentioned this incident in a letter we published some time back.) Just before dark on the 3rd we saw three dark lines approaching across the desert, and we fully expected another attack, and were quite disappointed when daylight came to find there was nothing * doing for us, although the Indian infantry went across the canal, and had a lively engagement. On Sunday morning we buried Private Ham. Our company attended, and the bugles blew the. Last Post over his grave."

Later Private <Robb mentions that most of the Turkish prisoners were suffering from thirst and hungei. They only received one large -biscuit for four days' rations, but it contained some very nourishing substance. Their water bottles were very small.