Western Star AND WALLACE COUNTY GAZETTE. PUBLISHED Every Tuesday and Friday. FRIDAY, APRIL 23, 1920. IN MEMORY OF THE BRAVE.

Western Star, 23 April 1920, Page 2

Western Star AND WALLACE COUNTY GAZETTE. PUBLISHED Every Tuesday and Friday. FRIDAY, APRIL 23, 1920. IN MEMORY OF THE BRAVE.

Sunday, 2oth iust., is Auzac Day, It is to be observed by the holding of special' services in all the churches. In April, 1915, a land attack on Gallipoli Peninsula was determined upon. One hundred and twenty thousand men under the command of Sir lan Hamilton were assembled in the Aegean Sea upon the island of Lemnos. Of these, the Australian and New Zealand Army dorps and the famous 29th Division of British Regulars were; the principal units. To the extreme south of the Gallipoli Peninsula lie two capes, Tekeh and Helles, enclosing between their rocky headlands, the small rectangular bay with its strip of sandy beach known as W beach; to the t right of Helles is the semicircular bfeach, V ; while to the left and north of Tekeh, at the foot of low cliffs, runs a quarter of a mile of narrow beach, called X. Into these bays, with smaller landings on either flank, the 29th Division were ordered to make their immortal while the French made a diversion on the Asiatic side of the entrance to the Dardanelles, and the Overseas troops made an independent landing in, force (touch farther north. With the object of confusing the enemy all seven attacks were timed for daybreak on the 25th April, but the Turks were so thoroughly acquainted with every detail of the plan of attack that each landing beach became a shambles. The Anzacs were expected by the Turks at 5 a.m. uipou a small beach just north of Cape' Gaba Tepe on the Aegean coast of Gallipoli. But, starting , an hour too early, the tows drifed farther' north, to what is now known as Anzac Cove, and some of the*mtcn got ashore before the enemy was notified of the change in time and place. , The lauding of mien in open boats is a lengthy operation, and very many were killed in "the boats or in the water as the defenders gathered swiftly all through the early dawn. By ten o’clock the Turks had brought up men enough to hold up the advance. All day long, aided by the heavy artillery and constantly increasing forces, they strove to drive the Anzac into the sea. All day long, men of New Zealand and Australia landed amid a. hail of bullets, shrapuel, and high explosives, hauled up tins o'f water, boxes of cartridges, guns and shells through a s« a whipped into foam as by an egg-beater, over sands that spat and sprayed and blinded them as they staggered up the slopes. Nor did rest come when darkness descended. The thirsty agony of day was followed by the freezing hunger of night. The shell-swept beach was packed with stores and wounded, with bearers, doctors, nurses, corpses and litter. The sky was lit with flares, rockets, and shell-bursts. The half-formed trenches were filled with - hungry, shivering weary heroes, who fell asleep as they dug ami fought, and woke to fight and dig again. And with the chill, grey dawn, amid a very deluge of shrapnel, with not less than twice our strength of fresh men, the Turk rushed in to complete the slaughter. Fortunately the warships were able to come to the rescue, and dfter, a forenoon of swaying battle, of charge and counter-charge, of grim endurance and savage onslaught, midday saw the crisis past. The naval guns searched the gullies, fired the scrub, wreathed the Turkish columns in yellorv haze and flecked them with white puffs of shrapnel. By the afternoon of the 2Gth April Anzac Cove was won, but uiuety-six hours of continuous fighting ensued, with little or no sleep before a brief respite .came. Even then, only by superhunion efforts did the Anzacs cling to that inhospitable shore throughout the awful summer months of thirst, heat, flies, and sickness, endured with indomitable courage amid an iniferuo of noise and a continuous rain of the missiles of destruction that ceased not day or night. Thousands laid down their lira, in that bleak foreign

shore, and their memory shall be kept green while the British race endures.