DAYS ON GALLIPOLI.

Taranaki Daily News, 26 April 1930, Page 17 (Supplement)

DAYS ON GALLIPOLI.

LANDING OF THE ANZACS.

Being extracts from the letters of an Anzac, a New Zealander who served with the Australian Forces, written home from a hospital base in Malta. May 10.—“ I am getting stronger every day now, though 1 can’t lift my arm yet. I sailed out of Alexandria with the Third Brigade for wo did not know where until we pulled' in at Lemnos. At Lemnos we spent eight weeks, a very slow time, forming a base for our operations and growling at the delay. Do you see, we thought Kitchener perhaps did not think we were good enough and perhaps the war would die down and wo would go home with Spare-faced medals. The Suez Canal business was only a picnic. “At last, on April 24, the day came and a t-vrpedo boat took us aboard the Prince of Wales. We were told that we would find 'barbed wire and spiked pits which we were to clear to let the infantry' charge the enemy wmea was entrenched behind. Our luck wa<s in. In tho dark, we were landed in a dll-, ferent place where there was no wire. The Turks counted on Vue steep cliffs to stop us. “We got ov.r iastruvi-ioiis on board and tlißii iiiid buii- ciiid .hour to wuit. ihcii the baitlesliips stopped. The moon was just sinking. Ail me big, black -forms sat .still ou the water. There was not a. light, not a sound. The boats, were brought alongside, we filed into them and puiied lor the snore. We must be 200 yards off the shore and not a shot yet. Were we lucky? Would there be any Turks? —then, crack! Our hearts jumped. Then the crackle of a long volley and the vicious spitting of machines, tho shot hitting the water like red hot coals. They were explosive bullets. j The command came: Pull tor your lives. A machine gun was playing above our heads, just too high. After years of time we grounded and fixed bayonets. The Turks heard the sound of out steel, fled to the trenches in the cliff.’ Their German officers had told them we were cannibals.”

June s.—“My arm and .shoulder are bound up and 1 can only move my hand from the wrist. This inactive life gets on. one’s nerves after the good sport wo have been having lately. Perhaps it was just as well it was dark that morning so that we could not see what wo were taking on. If you have ever climbed Karangahape mountain—add on live days’ food, 300 -rounds of ammunition and rifle,-etc. The hills were covered with scrub. In this the Turks had hidden machine guns painted green and had painted their faces and hands green; They were thinning our ranks and we could not spot them. Four of my mates killed and four of them wounded in ten yards. But we got there and dug in.

“The Turks rallied and came back. We had no bullets left so wo stopped them with tho bayonet. At daylight, the shrapnel came like a storm. You are in the open and you hear the whirr of a shell, it is like being in the middle of a tunnel with the express rushing through at you. We began to get anxious, We had to repel one attack after another. We were all but fagged out when the New Zealand boys landed about ten o’clock. The . Turks were 10 to one against us. I was never sc. pleased in my life as when I saw those boys coming. They charged and scattered tho Turks like a flbek of birds. It was good. Wo had won our foothold on Gallipoli. '■■■■ “Those machine guns were d.eadly.' I see one lad now; the doctor dressings himl Four bullet' wounds across his chest and shoulders in a perfectly straight line. There is ono Vf chr boats on the beach with 32 men in it. They are all dead. Machine guns got them.”

“All tire next , night the Turks made wild rushes, but their nerve failed them every time they reached our line of steel. Next day I went down to the beach, I w as helping one chap who had his thigh half blown aw-ay; God knows how he suffered as, we, scrambled over the rocks, bumped by passing mules. The wounded were crowded on the beach, right down to the water’s : edge. Tho less wounded formed up and joined hand*? to keep the transport mules passing on -the narrow beach from hurting their mates. From these boys, some of them cut to ribbons, there was not a sound to show they were in pain. “Wle were out cutting • a road -at 2 o’clock in the morning when- a rifle cracked and ..our officer, a fine chap- hewas, too, went down. June 19—“ It -will, be your -birthdayon Monday. . “I was in my dugout reading my evening mail. Bullets .were spattei ingall round. I said to my mate: ‘There's going to be some fun to-night.’ I was right. We had been threatened by theTurks that day that if we didn’t get out of it within 24 hours, they would drive us into the sea. The Turks had brought up 20,00'9 reinforcements during the day. They opened up with riflefire and bombs until the place became a perfect hell. This lasted till 3 a.ni. and our rifles v, r ere nearly red hot. Then wo saw black, stealthy forms creeping towards us. Word came to cease _ fire. Tho crawling shadow became thicker still. Fingers twitched on triggers but not a shot was fired by the men. Moro daring, the Turks stood upright. They were 30 yards away. No Surrender was passed along and No man to leave the Trenches. They came closer and then our rifles spoke in one long line of flame. A din of shouts, screams and groans. The Turks seemed to waver and our boys jeeringly called them on. They paused" and rallied. Their thick, black line was very thin now. They pushed right on to the parapet. One just in front of me dropped to his knees and fired at 15 yards. I had just picked off his mate and before I could reload he had got me through the shoulder. I fired again and down he went. At dawn they retired, the flower of tho Turkish army, ' brought from Constantinople, crushed. . . And I retired also, and have been retired for two months now, and. still I cannot lift a cup of tea ; with my right arm.”