ENGAGEMENT WITH TURKS

Colonist, Volume LVII, Issue 13757, 21 April 1915, Page 2 (Supplement)

ENGAGEMENT WITH TURKS

SUEZ OANAL FIGHTING

GRAPHIC DESCRIPTION

REMARKABLE INCIDENTS

(From "The Colonist," March 24.)

Lieutenant Saunders, of the _ 12th (Nelson) Regiment. Expeditionary Force, in a letter to his father, Air. H. Saunders, of the Permanent Pictures, gives a stirring account of tho part taken by our boys in repelling the attack made 'by the Turks on the Suez Canal. In the course of his letter, which is dated Ismailia, February 12th, he says:—

"Wo have had some excitement this last fortnight with the Turks. For some time past reports have been coming in concerning the approach of the Turkish Army of some 100,000 men. Anyway, we were shifted from Zeitun down here to the Canal, and on February 2nd we were ordered to take up a position on the banks of the Canal at a place called Serapeum, which is about 400 yards from Tussoum. We were told that we would most probably see some fighting, as the Turks' advance parties, which numbered about 15,000 men, were plainly visible about seven miles out in the desert.

"After a short train journey and a rotten march of 2*- miles o>.-er soft sand and loaded ivp like pack camels, we reached Serapeum and proceeded to dig trenches all night. We had jiust about finished when very heavy rifle fire was opened by troops on our left about 200 yards down the Canal. It seems the Turks were trying to launch boats full of men, which boats they had dragged on wheels right across the desert for nearly 100 miles. The orders were that we were to let them fill the boats and then open fire, and as fast as we could fire we did. No sooner was the boat load of men wiped out than another lot would take their places. They tried this for over an hour, and then gave it up, as the boat* were no longer of any use: they were simply riddled wiK'i holes.

' 'The enemy then retired and took up positions along the bank in the sand hills, from which they poured a heavy fire into our bank, fortunately doing very little damage. GOOD SHOOTING. ''When daylight came things became very interesting indeed. All our fellows showed wonderful coolness, antl did some really good ishooting with deadly ; effect. We could see Turks iv every \ direction, some scattered about, and some in heavy bodies marching about taking up good positions, [t was at this time that we saw the sight of our lives. Our artillery started in on them with shrapnel, and gave them 'goss.' They simply mowed the Turks down by scores. We were quite excited by now, | and we went mad with delight at seeing these things happen, so we stood up and cheered wildly^ although the bullets were pretty thick about us and some very near. No one was hit, though, so no one minded.

"The enemy were most numerous just behind a low sandhill which ran out from the Canal at right angle-s, and It was on this point that our in.to both sides concentrated their lire for about half an hour; and there were very few Turks left alive. 'Ihoso that could, ran right across our froejt fit about 800 yards distance, and my fellows picked them off like ninepins. One party of about 100 men under a German officer who was frantically'waving a sword came out in the open. Tlie battery put one shot right in the middle- of them, and only one i.ian got away. This was another sign-ill•!' fron-ziedx-heering., We thought it "was \-ysn"The enemy then sent up .ibo'it 5000 reinforcements. The poor beggars *i'U! to com© across some very open grouml. That is to say, there was very little for them to take cover behind. -Well, ti:»: batteries simply smashed them up, and most of them fled in disorder. "Up till this point we had lipJ io shell fire directed at us, but <ye had not long to wait, and when they -jt.iiteJ U was hellish. Here again we hi-i great luck. Our fellows were lucky io have been able to dig themselves in, or nothing could have saved them, as the enemy's shrapnel was bursting right en top of us, sending onowers of sand down into the trenches. One chap was in a shallow trench lying as flat as he could and a shell -st-rack just under him and lifted him out of his trench and shot him into another, and he was not even bruised. <This is an absolute fact—the- joke of the camp.) SERGT.-MAJOR WILLIAMS WOUNDED. "My sergeant-major, named Williams, who has seen a good deal of service/was sitting with me in my trench when a shell burst over us, and the base of the shell flew back and got him in the shoulder, inflicting a very .severe cut in the fleshy part of the shoulder. We got him bandaged up, and sent- him back to the hospital, and he is now getting on all right. You remember how the look of blood finishes me /usually. Well, this chap was Bmothered in blood, and yet T was able to fix him up without feeling the slightest bit concerned. I must say I felt a bit rattled when he had been sent away, but it soon wore '•They shelled us' until about 12 o'clock (midday), and then shelled the hospital until about 4 in the afternoon. The patients had to be shifted twice altogether. "The warships in the Canal did some excellent shooting, dislodging the enemy's guns.; "At 2 p.m. we were ordered out of the trenches for a rest, as we had to take up-our potation--along the Canal again as soon as it got dark. Nothing much was done during the night—just sniping, which we did not reply to. "The Turks retired'during the'-night, leaving a few men behind,, who 'were

stirred up again at daylight by a warship, winch blew tip what, was left of tho boats and ploughed out several trenches. A party of regular troops crossed later and finished up the rest, killing about 59 and capturing 200. "Just as the warship passed us in the morning, a sniper picked off the look-oiit man. up in the crow's nest, and then started to run. A gunner on the ship trained a small gun (about a6- , pounder)- on the Turk, and fired, and : blew his head off. We could see this I very clearly, not more than 400 yards away, with glasses. "We went back to camp that morning with some prisoners, and caused great excitement in camp. They had heard we were badly smashed up. Some of them were very pleased to see us,, and congratulated us enthusiastically.

4 "Everything if"; very quiet now. The Turks have gone rights''back, "so the aeroplane people' say, but there' may be a big force coming from another direction. You can never tell. Anyway they cannot get any surpluses on to the Heads here*, aeroplanes-are out every day for many miles. HEAVY TURKISH LOSSES. "Major Brerefcon and some other officers and myself went out the other day to have a look at the- position held by the enemy, for instructional purposes, and, my word, it was pretty gruesome. The enemy's losses were estimated at about 400 killed and 2000 wounded and 300 prisoners, but now I think they find that very much underestimated. There must have been nearly 1000 killed, let alone a big percentage- of wounded that got light away.

'Turks in small parties keep coming in every day to give themselves up. They say that they are half-starved and are'brutally ill-treated by the German; officers, who shooti them at the slightest provocation. Not far from the place we were at our men found lots of Turks dead with their hands bound behind their backs.

"The vGermans also 'kidded' them with some great tales. One was that when they reached the Canal German warships would be waiting there to help them to land on our side. Of course, when they saw ships there they thought everything was all right, but when they had one or two broadsides plunked in on top of them they must have realised there was some mistake.

"Another German tale was that all the Egyptians were waiting to receive them. As a matter of fact< the Egyptians hate the Turks like poison."