WAR NOTES.

Taranaki Daily News, 28 April 1916, Page 5

WAR NOTES.

FIVE WOUNDS AND Alivk One of the 53 who, after despwatd hand-to-hand lighting, won their way «ui when the Wellington Battalion wwrt "caught" by the Turks on Hill 971 in the August attack, lias arrived back ivj New Zeaknd apparently none the werw. But sad to relate a piece of the fore-ana) bone in the right arm has gone mbm plotely, and one of tho wounds in side is anything but satisfactory. 1 "How many wounds did you get alto* gethert" asked a reporter. v "Well, there were five well marked the others were scratches hardly wntfcl mentioning," the soldier replied cheer* fully. Tellii)s his story, he said: "Wkei* wc wcijt up to 971 we had every assure anee about the reinforcements that'wettl going to back us up as required. Thera seemed to be plenty of them; they landed down at Suvla Bay. As we ffonil up the big valley to 971 there mrm Turks everywhere, and when we got up higher, and the reinforcements elwweq no disposition to come up alongside us, the enemy swnrmed down. The was point blank, and hand-to-hand fight* ing wns the order of the day. The Turka numbered about ten to one, and altkougK we mowed them down every time tkey rushed, wc could not get enough dewni quickly to stop them coming to olmq qunrters. The Navy backed us up iple>« didly, but of course could not do much at| the range got shorter and shorter., AfteS a while we realised the dreadful thiti* that we were left, and we turned tq fight our way out. We got out, at a few of us did. 1 must nave bien u*i . conscious for a long flrae after getting to cover, as it was four days after-thtj ' engagement before I managed to get . the beach."

THE USE OF CAVALRJf,. Colonel Ropington's to ciri V airy on the Western front reealU the 'i fact that the French made some UM o| cavalry in the Champagne battls in Sap« tember last. After the tremrtdou< '■] French bombardment of the. trenches, the African troops went cold steel. Mr. E. A. Powell .recotdt:!' "Before these dark-skinned, fierce-faced " men from the desert, who came on tpan* /, dishing their weapons and shouting 'AH v lah! Allah! Allah!' the Germans, aU 1 ready demoralised, incontinently and ran. Hard on the heels of "the JkfrU y cans trotted the dragoons and the chataiwj seurs a cheval— the first time sino»f,th« * trench warfare began that cavalry lava j had a fight from the saddle—sabring th# v fleeing Germans or driving them out oJJ",; their dug-outs with their long lakctHk But in the vast maze of communicate* trenches and in the underground ehwtera Germans still swarmed thickly, «0 th» ■§ 'trench cleaners,' as the Algerians and -■ j Senegalese tirailleurs are called, ; • ordered to clear them out, a task WhicK they performed with neatness and d«* .pafch, revolver in one hand and cntlaM ' in the other. Even five days after til# ; I trenches were taken occasional Qerttwna ■ ;] were found in niding in the labyrinth o{ i underground shelters."....... , v r]

AN HEROIC In a letter to his friends. in Nor* .1 folk (published in the London Daily News of February 4), Private 2mau ;ijj king, of the Northumberland TuiiUera, gives an account of the Jjeroißm of ail' .►>! Army chaplain at Loos, not hithertq published. The writer says he was aetj j ing as a transport driver andwas halted « close to the range of rifle Are. "Yfhllp standing there," he continues,. "I ~WW*'.;iJ patted on the shoulder by my chaplain* 31 a big, fine, resolute man (a captau bjj r | rank). -i gy.-i "After the exchange of a few WWWI|M we parted, I to the left, where a of dead lay, and he to the right, to thjj jg trenches. Early next morning wj Mfc|| run short of ammunition, and if ft not been for the tremendous energy put ffl forth by the chaplain more men have gone under. "With resolute courage he did th* -fl work of a dozen men, carrying close 0* 'jj fifty boxes of ammunition, one box ill; J each hand, each box weighing »i* In journeying to the trenches ha had i to go through a murderous rilW aAd.'j sheU„fire. Then we saw him, the "wounded and dead as fast ta ho *j could, and then burying the, dead. For v. hours he worked at it incessantly was still hard at it when I wa® Tfav lieved. Afterwards I learnt that hj' had worked incessantly all through that niglit, burying the dead and tending wounded. , j "I have thought, in looking over th£ events of that horrible battle, it jnighK have been a whole battalion awepfc «»R had not our chaplain worked so nobly. •/

U.S. EFFORTS TO BUY f>ANISB

WEST INDIES . t ,s New York, February J4.. - It is understood that there is thing more than gossip in the report! now prevalent in Copenhagen and WMfli ington that another effort will be m*M to arrange the purchase of the DaniSJl West Indies by the United State#. ; Four previous attempts the last of them, it is belioved, owjM to Gorman pressure at Copenhagen. TM| Administration is carefully feeling rt» way in the matter, and the fifth at* tempt, soon to be initiated, is likpjy Wi The acquisition of the islands, MpMtj ally St. Thomas, is greatly desired tiw only on account of their strategic WW in reference to .the Panama Canal uUj also to knock definitely on the aw«< German intrigues in the West MOjq and Central America. The State P» partment knows well, but the AnleT* can public doeß not, how far Teutpn* machinations in these regions had beg carried before the war and haw «rttl cal the situation was becoming. Recent extensions of American an tliority in the control of Nicaragua Hayti were largely measures ofpiaeM tion against German designs. The#® 4jj signs are now suspended, but thfe Atnerl can Government has no guarantee th* they will not be resumed after MM*. The purchase of the Danish West 1H dies, therefore, is held to be' doubly dl sirable in order to forestall any pofcsilfl differences later on. The American pes pic and Government are fast learning I know their Germany. •' The Danish West Indies consist of wj islands of St. Thomas, St. John M| Santa Cruz (St. Croix). They have I area of 138 square miles and a popufl tion of 3p,000. |