SARI BAIR.

Wanganui Herald, Volume L, Issue 14740, 20 October 1915, Page 6

SARI BAIR.

THE NEW ttAUHBEfiS. * GRIM WORK IN SILENCE. (Commonwealth Official Correspondent.) GABA TEPE, August 25. 1 have -told ; pf the tremendous punch which the Austrahahs at the south oi our old, Anzac position delivered against the Turks in, Lonesome Pine, , and T Jiavo also told of . the desperate self-sac-rifice of the two Light Horse Brigades at the central angle of our position, which tied- down a. mass of Turkish troops. It remains to tell the most important story, of all—the story of the : movement frdm the north of" our lines, and up towards the crest of the- main ridge; near the northern end of which our left, flank has in the dast few, driys been joined by the right flank of the New Zealamders’ force, which landed at Sim la, Bay on the night of August -6. THE THREE AREAS. ' So many wild, fanciful stories . from the Greek islands have been,, published with regal’d to the points which our forces reached in .Gallipoli that it is perhaps necessary to explain that the ’Allies 1 troops had bpen-landed up .to August 6 at two points on the peninsula. The French were, landed at Cape Helles. About eight inilea to the north, is tin hichor arid much more contorted ridge of Sari Bair. This range runs almost parallel to the,sea, with its innumerable smirs branching off it- It was on on© of the western spurs ;that the Australians and New Zealand troops managed by the determined rush of the first day to gain a foothold. The hospital ships had to be, moved out of the nearer anchorage. ,to avoid the stray bullets that fell on their decks. The men Working in the ; hospitals, the original ordnftnce' stores, i and army service depots, were more : under fire than the men in -the trenches. [These j two theatres of 'operations were absolutely separate—you could see from Anzac the French - - arid British shells raising plumes' from, the., shoulders .of A chi Baba, -, During the second week after the landing,: two infantry brigades from the Australasian position, which is j. generally known -as Anzac, were sent down to Helles. to take nart in the' at--taek on the heights of Krithia. whore they made one of the finest advances seen pn the peninsula, and were, afterwards brought back to Anzac. The only, member of the Allied forces who nearly reached, one position from ..the other was a small British, drummer-bo.y who had ai'mirently lost Ids way and was, ' I believe, found by a warship’s boat stroll-; incr -the seashore -only a- little south of Ghba Tcpe picking up shells—seashellsj not the other soft-

THE NEW LANDING. North of Anzao the land tuns out or to flats again. There arb big crumpled hills the other, side of those flats and there are one or two Mnor hills in the middle'of them, near, the village of little Anafarta. /Where the ‘flat reaches the sea epabt it riipa out into the long, projecting horns enelosihg'tthe bay of Silvia. This bay is about tour' miles north of Anzao, and here a Strong new British force was to, land pn the night of August 6th. A British fored and. some Indiar troops 'had albb been during the two previous night's dt Anakc to reinforce the Australians and -New.-Zealanders there, for . their- move opt; north ward a into the main slopes of Ssari/.Bah?, The first job to be tackled immediatelv, after dark was to turn the Turks put of the., nearer foothills, , Later : in the, night cplpmns would march out, .through; the hills ‘ cleared and attack tlu> further . and., higher slopes of the range. For jthp,.first ; clearance of the, Seajand-Mounted Ri|lbs find -.the Maori Battalion. The. work;,was to be done insilenceiahdrwlth baybriptsf Of cohrse. thp Mounted Rifles, Hkp the Australian LighHprse, were, on foot: No horses had yet been s£en at Anzao,' except a team of About a' dozen for .helping to pull gunacross any flat space. - INTO THE‘FOOTHILLS.'

Beyond' the northern' side of, bur triangle, the New : .Zealanders had three strong poets on the seaward end of the • nearer .foothills. ’ On the other end of one of these was a trench- which the New Zealanders-.took from .the Turks some time back and lost again a- ..coupler of days Jater., Every nighf'for a. month or two a couple of • detjfroyersV which were the only .'representatives of; the fleet,,, left with us, used totomo close in and bombard these ■trenches and break up the wire. After the searchlight was switched off an aged Turk -with a' wheezy cough used- to come out and string the wire/up again., Our men knew him quite well, by the name Old Achmbt, and they'generally used to ‘leave -the old; ‘fellow l to Work 'undisturbed in the dark, If fie did not mend the wire someone else Would: The Turks used to have patrols out beyond our flanks, which often met with’'-bar patrols. /At this point : in i the line,- wo heard - quite ~a. lot of them—you could! hear them often sic- ■ nailing to one another in the dark,-imi-tating, the hoot of an owl or the bark of:, a dog. A Zealanders had slipped put scouting into these hills beyond our line, for as much as a day or. even tWp they had explored them tying'silent'when apy of the enemy passed hear and reaching bur lines again after 'dark. One of them, Major Overton. was ' killed' Within'-a /few /hours of .the time of which I am writing. guiding the Indian column throrinh the night! It was .Into this’ balf-explcred country that the New Zealand Mbuijted "Rifles Stole but at : about half-past; O'on the night of August 6th. Bayonets were fixed, and therjf were strict orders of silence. . ■ TAKING THE OLD POST. r The ttestfoyor had bombarded ’nor same old trench that' night. The Turks lay down in the bottom of the trench till the-shelling was over! . It had just finished and; they were getting to ihojrfeet again when over t’pe parapet, on top of ■ theni,' came a lirie Of’ silent, ' clambering Nb.w Zealanders. ,A spluttering fire broke but; ' but flye Auckland Mounted Rifles finished,' the- 'afftfhv as /Ordered,! With the bayonet. The Wellington Mounted Rifles Were at the panic ■ time moving "rip the gully on the right, and Otago arid Canterbury, through the darkness, on their left into the ’ country that was less well known. Canterbury was sent furthest north. Otago was ,to go north also, but to'turn into,fhe foothills earlier to clear a .bill! named after-their colonel—Bauchope Hill. ,The. moment you move north from the Anzac;position fine hills begin to move a little Way back .from the sea, leaving , a narrow stretch of flat between the hills and the sea. Canterbury jnoved out in extended- order acroas.this, two squadrons abreast, the- line of each troop following close on after. the: line ahead of. it. Thev had four-scouts out just ahead.. These scouts suddenly came on four figure's 'in' the - , .dark: ; It was a; Turkish patrol. The* Turks - clearly 'thought : that

our men were the usual, Net? Zealand, patrol'out' on its nightlybbh^ihbsS.'Thoy did ' not midße disturb»hdcv;4a.b the, .night any mpro than.we did, so they cftme. for <! bur men'..wM the; hayohet;v There was no sound in that strange duel; just four men fighting four with bayonets in the dark- The Turks baybnetted one of our men in: the jaw, and another in, the chest—neither fatally—before otir four had managed to kill them. There was ■not a shot .fired, and the column went silently on. From away behind: them Tiring commenced. The Otago regiment -just behind Canterbury turned inland to attack its particular hill. A splutter of fire broke out. Canterbury, still gointb across the flat, came to a belt of laud which was dimly lighted by tiie beam of the destroyers’ searchlight directed on the main ridge over the heads. From the hill ahead of thenj, which they were to attack, came a rattle of rifle shots. Flashes were coming from, two points Gong the top of it. Without a sound.

■ Canterbury divided into two-. -One squadron went straight up the hill from the front. The other swung inland a little, and then. came up to the pointfrom the There, writs a maChiria-gnn in the nearer , trench, and they were on it before the Turks could take the breech block- away. .The Turkish, escort for, the gun stood "its ground, and some of the finest men in the regiment were shot as they rushed it—farmers arid, farmers’ sons from the plains about Christchurch. They bayonetted the Turks, and took the machine-gun. -ifhe other squadron cleared a long communication trench down the slope of the hill to the north, and they then turned inland, and came -up the length of the spur together, clearing four trenches hr all as they ’went- until their 'spur joined the one which Otago was attacking, and the two regiments met as had been arranged, on the crest of the spurs they had cleared.

A , CHEER IN THE^NIGHT. It was while they were clearing the •spur that the first sound that was made by anyone on onr side broke the long ten.se silence of that attack. .Away from the right, from far up in the- ifoothiils.'came the sound of a cheer. ...It was near midnight, and I, was just phasing the in* fantry columns which were already beginning to fmjye out from Ahzac to - carry on the'main attack. We knew that one, particular redoubt lipd * beien giving especial trouble to the Mounted Rifles, and we guessed that this cheer meant that they had taken it, ,and that their pentup feelings; could not be cooped up any longer. Everyone heard that cheer, The Canterbury’s heard it ap they were; rushing upon panic-stricken and 1 totally-sur-prised parties of Turks along the spur top, and it cheered the men wonderfully, for up to that moment they had hot the vaguest idea how any of their columns were getting on. For all they knew, they might be solitary intruders into the -Turkish position, liable to be cut off as soon as the Turks properly woke, WILD CONFUSION. hue Turks beard that cheer also. They were fleeing now in small, broken parties through the foothills northwards, from gully to gully, wondering what in the world was happening. One of their officers returning from his .regiment went back over a neck over, which, his regiment had gone some time before. He saw in the dim starlight a string of, men filing dirough the scrub below him.- They were zigzagging, along their , path,' and lie thought these must be, the men he was after, when one of the men with him—two were Maoris—suddenly exclaimed, ■‘Listen, they are, Turks.”. Our five stepped back quickely in to'the bushes and:-waltpd, / There were about 25 men approaching;,, and’ tlipy- looked : like enough to our men,' only their voices sounded tiu--amiliar. , ”

lie small, party cf five against at least a score , clearly had little -chance with the bayonet, so the men were allowed to. charge their : Presently the approaching party was peer enough for if to be seen that its members wore no white arm-bands and patches, which were worn by pur' men that night. The officer challenged and fired allnbst (It the same moment. Four of the Tints fell, and tinrest ran down towards the beach, where they may have managed to slip away or may have been captured later. The Otagos had just'such wild fighting along their spur. Their , colonel diadi I believe, just called to them, “Como' on,' boys; charge 1 ,”, when he .fell,'shot through the spine, cn the’ liili that already bore his name. Wlp-p Otago ; and Canterbury joined they dug .in, while colhmns of infantry, matched but “through *thetn to make tlieip further attack, . The whole hillside was .littered with thp remains of the Turkish, .bivouach-thaio. ’.was a /quartermaster’s, store, with brand new. grey' overcoats- of ,a (jermah, jiattbtn, rolls Of’ barbed wire,, staclcs of ammunition, .embroidered quilts, arid waisteprits. The Turks :must hqve taken off .their; boots to; sleep, for miiny of them riever got thetp”' back again. There were officers' washing dishes, and tents arid waterproof sheets were, all scattered over a mile.of hilltop, as if a litter of puppies had been turned loose in an old clothes shop. But there was one thing that we did not get. THE RUMBLE OF WHEELS. . Over behind those-hills there had for days' been a troublesome gun of French make—a To originally made for the Servians. , Afterj the Mounted Eiflos had finished, and ibefote the head'of the infantry came through, there was a short pause. During that pause some of the men say they ilibard .the rumbling of wheels. Wo found the- read it went along a well-made military road cut through the -hills-but the 75 had gone. - So ended that first, wild clearance in the. dark. .The' first news I bad of it was from a youngster who . had . been sent hack, to- report that tUa 1 first stage had ended—he stood there in front of the.-, lantern, breathless and hatless. The perspiration gripping ■ frijm-vwery. prre, and '’is bayonet was red'half-wav down ..the blade.- ..The Now Zealanderp had doifß‘ Wriflderful work in a!tso!rite; sileace. Sb., much for the foothill--. The attack on'the slopes, towards the main ridge must be reserved fer another article.