Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1915-05-07
forces ARE LANDED
UNDER HEAVY FIRE
Heroism Displayed on GaIIipoli
Peninsula by Australians
and New ZeaIanders.
TROOPS SCALE CLIFFS
AND CAPTURE TRENCH
Story of Campaign Against the
Turks as Told British Press
Representative.

Representative.
| LONDON May :. 245 ANA Brit
| ish press representative with the forces
/ in the Dardaneles sends a long and In
| teresting account OF the landing Of the
Australians and New Zealanders on the
Galipoli peninsula north Of the Gaba
Tepeh at daylight of April rs.
The night before" the account says,
| 1.-The entire feet Of warships and trans
ports left their rendezvous. the crows Of
the warships cheering the soldiers on to
victory. while the bands played them out
with an endless variety Of popular airs.
The arrangement was that the 18th Divt-
sion should disembark near Seddul Bahr,
protected both from tho Gulf of Saraos
and the Dardanelles by the fire OF the
| warships. the Australians and New Zea-
| landers, north OF Gaba Tepeh to mako a
demonstration farther north. The splen-
did organization made 1t possible to
carry out the program without confusion
| or accident.
All Lights Extinguished.
After a short service by tho chaplans
the ships parted company and made for
their landing places. At dusk all lights
were extinguished and the troops re-
tired for rest before the ordeal of dawn
1t was a beautiful night. lit up by very
bright half moon. The sea was abso-
lutely calm.
| early in the morning the men were
aroused from their slumbers and served
with a hot meal At 2:05 O'Clock in the
morning the order was given to disem-
bark The boats. which were manned by
blueJackets and commanded by young
midshipmen, slowly were towed to the
beach by pinnaces-
THE first authentic news We re-
ceived on board the battleship London
| of the landing came with the return
| Of our boats. The steamer pinnace
came alongside with two recumbent
forms on her deck and a small figure,
pale but cheerful and waving his
midshipmen. just sixteen years of age.
who was shot through the stomach but
regarded his injury more as a httlng
| contamination to glorious holiday
ashore than a wound. and the chlef
Stoker and petty officer.
"All three were wounded by the first
| burst of mus kerry. which caused many
casualties in the boats just as they
reached the beach. From them We
| learned that all the lows had almost
1
| Turks, intrenched almost on the
shore. opened up terrible fusillade
| from their rifles and also from a
maxim. Fortunately most of the bull
men were hit as they sat huddled to-
gether. forty or fifty in boat
| Australians Wade Ashore.
The Australian volunteers waited
neither for orders nor for boats to
reach the beach. but springing out
into the sea they waded ashore and
| forming some sort of a rough line
rushed straight on toward the flashes
of the enemy's rifles
Their magazines had not even been
| charged but they just went in with
cold steel. And I believe / am right
in saying that the first Ottoman Turk
since the last crusade received an
| Anglo-Saxon bayonet in him at Ave
minutes after o'clock on the morn
ing of April %.
| 1T was over in a minute. The Turks
/ in this first trench were bayoneted or ran
away, and their maxim gun was ca p
| tured.
Then the Australians found themselves
| facing an almost perpendicular cliff OF
| loose sandstone with thick shrubbery, and
somewhere half way up the enemy had a
second trench, strongly held, from which
| they poured terrific fire on the troops
below, and the boat pulling back to the
destroyers for second landing party.
Colonials in Impetuous Charge.
The colonials stopped few minutes
to pull themselves together and to get
rid of their packs, and then charged with
their magazines.
Then this race OF athletes proceeded
to scale cliffs without responding to the
enemy's fire. And in less than a quarter
| Of an hour the Turks were out of their
second position, either bayoneted or in full
| retreat
I'm the early part Of the day very heavy
| casualties were suffered In the boats
which conveyed the troops from the de-
| stroyers, tugs and transports to the beach.
| AS soon as it became light the enemy s
! sharpshooters concentrated their fire on
| the boats when they got near in The
landing continued throughout the day under
| this fire, which could not he checked
| The Australians finally established
| themselves on a ridge and advanced
northward. and throughout the day
confused fighting took place. the ships
assisting the troops with the fire from
their guns. The Turks only had com
| paratively weak force actually holding
| the beach. They seemed to have relied
| on the difficult nature of the ground
| and their scattered sniping to delay
! The advance until they had brought up
reinforcements from the interior.
Suffer Heavy Losses.
i Some Of the Australians who pushed
inland counter attacked and were al
! most outfanked by these oncoming
reserves and had TO fall back, after
| suffering very heavy casualties.
il 1T was then the turn of the Turks
to counter attack. and this they con-