FIGHTING AT GALLIPOLI.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Issue 1314, 1 July 1915, Page 2

FIGHTING AT GALLIPOLI.

An IS-year-old Sydney boy, whose spirits have not been damped by shrapnel and rifle fire, was on May S lying in the Alexandria Hospital with two wounds. His outlook is conveyed in a letter to his mother, in which he concludes: “I hope my next letter will be from Constantinople.” This sort of spirit is making the Australian soldier famous. The youth is Signaller A. Edwards, of the 4th Battalion of the First Brigade of infantry. Ho writes: — “I will now try to describe the section of the battle on Gallipoli Peninsula in which' Australians and New Zealanders are taking part. But mother, you will never understand what we went through in those first two days. The most vivid description could not make you realise what it is like to be under fire. “The 3rd Brigade (4000 mon) was to land at dawn, but owing to over-anxiety they were caught between the setting moan and rising sun. The transports we r e brought to within half a mile of snore, where torpedo noats. destroyers, and ships’ boats took us ashore. Immediately we. left the ships w|e were under lire, dozens being wounded before reaching shore. The first landing party (3rd Brigade) on getting out of the boats were up to their waists in water, and were heavily fired on by rifles and shrapnel from the Turks, who were waiting 20 yards from shore. One of our officers shot six of the cows whilst up to his neck in water. AUSTRALIANS CH ARG E “ ‘Fix bayonets! Charge!’ and straight out of the water they rushed with shining oayonets. In three successive charges they drove them out of the first trenches and clean off the first ridge. The Turks had lost 'heart, and ran from us. The boys chased them for three miles, and 500 who were over-anxious got right through the Turks, but found al] their officers and most of the non-coms, were shot, and so had to retire. The first ridge was 35Cft. or 400 ft. high, and had a grade of nearly 1 in 1 in some places. You can’t realise what it meant to take that hill. ‘‘The Turks outnumbered our men by eight to one, and had their machine-guns and shrapnel playing on us. Mother. If the British held that hill, we could hold it against odds of 100 to 1. Our men had to drop their pack in order to charge the hills. "Meanwhile, an inland fort had got the range of our transports, several of which had the lucky escape from the score of “Jack Johnsons’ which landed in amongst us. The naval guns opened up on a fort close to our landing-place, which was shelling the boats as they landed with troops. It was silenced late on Sunday afternoon, and it was the fun •of the world to see the warships play the cat-and-mouse act with her steaming up to within SOO yards of the fort, and giving her a broadside and then standing off waiting to see if she would fire again. MURDEROUS Sll RAPNEL “The 4th Battalion landed at 12 noon, and were in the firing line at 4 p.m. By this time I thought that hell had been let loose. The Turks’ rifle fire was something terrific, while their shrapnel was murderous. They had the range to a yard, and it was bursting all over us. “Our main trouble was that the country was. too hilly to get our artillery into action. But on Monday morning the thunder of the guns from the dozen

HEROISM OF AUSTRALIANS.—SUICIDE RATHER THAN CAPTURE.—DEATH OF COLONEL THOMPSON.

warships present almost deafened us. "Their work was as good as their noise, as the shrapnel diminished. The whole country is one mass of flying lead. The snipers are playing the deuce with us. Some were even caught behind our lines. 1 had to carry a message through the whole tiring line this morning, and I can assure you with these snipers at mo it was no light task. QUEEN ELIZABETH GUNS "The Turks were reinforced on Monday and they attempted to advance, but the Queen Elizabeth opened on them with 15-inch shrapnel, each shell containing thousands of bullets, whereas •our 18-pounders and the Turks’ 12’s contain only a couple of hundred. “Under protection of this fire we fixed bayonets and charged. You should have seen them run. but I manag'd to get a couple with my bayonet. On the top of the next ridge we were met by terrific fire from rille and shrapnel, and were forced to retire, but with reinforcements we advanced again, this time being met bj murderous fire from their machine guns. "They had them wel] concealed, and we were on to them before we knew it. though it did not take long to find out. as they simply riddled us with bullets, sweeping us as with a hose. COLONEL’S HEAD SHATTERED "Our adjutant died with 15 bullets in him. The colonel (Colonel Onslow Thompson) had the top of his head blown off by a shell. ".Eight otticers. including ours, went down in half an hour. We were firing as fast as we could load. My rifle was red-hot. and I had to wait for it to cool, as it had jambed. I could not see my foresight for the heat waves rising from it. “A mate alongside of me had bis head blown off, whilst another lost his arm. Eight 12-pounders dropped within 10 yards and threw dirt and stones all over us. We were wondering where tire next would land. "The machine guns were chipping the twigs from the bushes a foot above our heads, and we dare not lift our beads an inch. We have no officer or non-com. in charge, as they have been shot. TURKS WITHIN 106 YARDS "We 'have found that instead of being fired on from 6'o yards they are only 100 yards in front. It’s hell, mother. The scrub is so dense that we cannot sei?, what we are firing at. "Just at this minute a shell landed in amongst 20 of us and put 10 out of action. A lump of shrapnel went into my back and a. bullet through my leg. which' was burning and helpless. I had to crawl a mile and a half from the tiring line to the A.M. Corps under lire, with' snipers at me and shells and bullets breaking all around. The curs had a machine -,un playing on the A.M.C. valley. “The wounded are being taken away in dozens, and I am afraid the stretcherbearers and the A.M.C. will be unable to stand the strain much longer. From here I was taken by stretcher to the hospital pontoons alongside the piers that have been built by our engineers. Owing to the frightful nature of the country we naturally received a rough' handling, and several times the bearers had to run the gauntlet with me. AWFUL BEACH SCENE “The scene on the beach was awful—-

hundreds of wounded, some with a limb missing, others with holes through them. All the hospital ships were full, and it was not til,] 4 the next morning that we found the Itonus. a British-India boat, which 'bad room for 25 men. There were about 560 on our boat, and about 2500 on the others. “After a trying trip of three days on the hard mess tables we arrived at Alexandria, then at Government Hospital at 12 p.m. on April 30, and are now receiving good treatment. SCOFFS AT WOUNDS "My wounds are not serious. The bullet entered just above my ankle and out at the back of my knee, but in passing through the leg went round the bone and cut the muscle a bit. It may be another six -weeks before I can walk properly. The other wound is not much —a piece of shrapnel took a slice of meat out, but it is Al at Lloyd’s. "We bad two wounded Turks on our boat —one an officer —and an Indian about 6ft’. 4in. Every day he would come up and point to his wound, then pull out his knife and feel, the edge. He could not make out why we take prisoners, so an armed sentry had to be placed over them. The Turks were worse than savages, and so we give them no mercy. "Some of our chaps wore committing suicide rather than be found by the Turks. One of their snipers wounded one of our chaps and rushed out and cut his throat. Before his dirty work was finished live of his chums cut the Turk to ribbons with tboir bayonets. SLEEPING A S Tll E Y STA NIJ 1 here are hundreds of our men lying dead and wounded in the firing line, but •rj.e lire is so heavy that they cannot be reached. I saw a man stop to help his chum who had his arm blown off. Reline he had finished his betid and arm were hit. 'There are hundreds of these scenes, motner, that would turn your hair grey. "I have received some more news. We have 16,000 Turks isolated, and they are running short of ammunition. God help them if we get near them. There will, be no quarter. They continue to make repeated attacks with the bayonet, but wo are cutting them up with our rapid' lire. "Our tmen Fave been in the trenches nearly a fortnight, and have had no relief. They are falling asleep as they stand.. We have managed to get two batteries on to a low ridge, and with indirect fire are doing good work. The two batteries of Indian mountain 9-pounders are splendid. BRAVE NAVAL MEN “One can’t speak too highly of the naval men. They are unceasingly from ship to shore under fire, and dozens of them were so inspired by our charge that they picked up rifles and joined us. We are more than keeping up Australia’s name, mother. “We have opened the eyes of the Imperial officers, and our work, I hope, will induce others to join the colours. Surely they are rolling up in this terrible hour of need. ■‘There are heaps of details, mother, hundreds of little incidents which would help you to understand what we have been through, but it is beyond me to write them just now. I will, never forget them, so there will be plenty to tell you when I arrive in Sunny New South Wales. I hope my next letter wiil be from Constantinople.”