NEWS FROM EGYPT.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 11359, 10 April 1915, Page 7

NEWS FROM EGYPT.

ON THE CANAL. ; WITH THE IST CANTERBURY j IKFANTRY. ! i LETTER FROM LIEUTENANT FFITCH. j Referring to the operat-iouh along tho j !Miez Canal against the lurks, i.ieuten- j ant H. H. Flitch, of the Ist Rcgi- I ment Ctinterbuiy liuantry Battalion. : in a letter to his* people, m Fendalton, j writes. j '■ The prosition on the canal whtcli > Dobsort and I had to look after wnilo | on outpost work is- about seven miles ! south of Isniaitia, a place called Sera-j peum. o were very unfortunate in j not getting any fighting there, as we | were relieved the day prior to the at- ; tack by the Turks at, this _ point, and ; then were sent, there again the day , after the attack. , } How-ever. we fired the first shot ot | the war at- far as our battalion was j concerned, as on the first, night we j were there one of my sentries lirod at ; a Turk swimming across the canal. He j was evidently attempting to rind a | suitable landing place on our side for j the attack which was delivered the i following night. Apart from this wc ■fixed only one other .shot, when a lew nights later another sentry fired at what appeared to be a man swimming, but proved to be a corpse. _ j "On several occasions w 'e saw fairly i large bodies of Turks in the distance. { but never at close enough range to open fire. The position we held 'vns j about I'iOOydjS- in length, and equalfv ; divided between our two platoons. i had to entrench .practically the whole j length of this, making also extra ; trenches for our outposts. ' "The men all worked exceedingly ) well, and the training has been of verv j good value. All the conditions of ac- j trial fighting were there, and it was , not- our fault that we were not able to I use up some of our ammunition. Our j two platoons were at no time under I fire, although the other two platoons of ! our compaaiy who were sent to I'Tl For- ! dan, a,bout sis miles north of Ismailia, j were under slight shell iiro for about i an hour. A.>, however, they were just ! in the roar of a big bank about 12ft : high, they were not- in much danger of : being hit. The 12th Nelson Company ' arc really the only ones who otm lay j claim to having been in action, stud the ' Nelson men., from what 1 can hear j from outside accounts, put up a- very good' performance. Though their casualties were very small, the losses they inflicted on the enemy were considerable.

"I cannot attempt to give you any general description '>? the action along the canal front. ■ Probably the newspapers will have published full accounts far better and more accurate than I can give. The only thing they may not have mentioned is that at the attack launched asrain.st Serapeum and' Toussum (two miles further north) an extra battalion on the side of the Turks would probably have' movant disaster to our outposts there. For gome time it was just a matter of weight of men, and about twenty-five did actuallv succeed in crossine at this point, only to be captured' in tbe morning. Of course, even if a few hundred or so had succeeded in crossing, they would not have been in a very onv{p.hie position. as our reserves were only. two hours Hwar, hut in the memtime they could hivf< blown tin the Suez railway line, which would have isolated the troops at Suez."