The daily telegram. [volume] (Clarksburg, W. Va.) 1901-1926, 1915-12-17
BLOODIEST BATTLE
in WORLDS HISTORY

with Seddul-Bahr."
Thus begins an account OF the.
Gallipoli venture by Lieutenant Com
mander Jemiah Wedgwood, tho Lib
eral member OF Parliament who has
made the House OF Commons ring
with criticism OF the Dardanelles
campaign since he returned with
special mention for bravery and the
coveted striped ribbon OF the Dis,
tinguished Service Order at HIS
breast.
He pays a splendid tribute to the
Turk: 1.-THE Turks are tho finest
fighters in the world. save only the
Canadians and Australians" And
again: The Turks could easily have
killed all those who went TO the
wounded. They did not Are on them
sometimes for ten minutes, and then
burst OF fire would come. Then and
afterwards found them extraordl-
narily merciful as compared with the
enemy In Flanders" ~
Only once in his story does he men
ton battlefield atrocities. and then
he says, the deeds were blamed, not
on the Turks. but on two foreign Of
ficers who wero with them. Tho
two officers" he remarks, were cap
tured and killed. These fiends, II ap-
pears. had instigated the things done
to those dying Irishmen. and we
never afterwards found similar Turk
ish atrocies."
Lieutenant Commander Wedg-
woods first view OF fighting in the
Dardanells zone was at the so-called
V-beach, where the new steamship,
River Clyde, was run aground to
furnish cover for the attempted land
ing.
This old Wooden Horse OF Troy"
narrates Mr.. Wedgwood, was run
ashore on a flawless Sunday morning,
400 yards from the medieval castle OF
Seddul-Bahr. | never noticed the
grounding, for the horror in the
water, on the beach. Five tows OF
five boats each, loaded with men,
were going ashore alongside OF US.
One moment 1t had been early morn
ing in peaceful country. with
thoughts or smells OF COWS and hay
and milk; and the next, while the
boats were just twenty yards from
s.icAS' liV uAuc oth dlOuuu ttiCll DOal
was turning red. Is there anything
more horrible than to see men wading
through water waist-high under a
heavy fire? You see where each bull
let hits the water, which, like a
nightmare, holds back the man for
the next shot, which will not miss. OF
all those brave men, two-thirG5 died,
an hardly dozen reached unwound-
ed the shelter OF the flve-foot
sand dune.
About Q o'clock dash across the
row Of lighters from the Wooden
Horse was led by General Napier and
his brigade major. Would they ever
get to the end OF the lighters and
jump into the sheltering water?
No; side by side they sat down on
the engine coming. For one moment
one thought they might be taking
cover; then their legs slid out and
they rolled over.
1T was the MINISTERS that charged
first, with sprig of shamrock on
their caps; then the Dublins, the
Worcesters, the Hampshires. Lying
on the beach, on the rocks, on the
lighters, they cried on the Mother OF
God. Even when l looked ashore /
saw MINISTERS. They at some mo-
ment; they left shelter OF the bank.
told off to cut the wire entangle-
they had left the shelter of the bank,
charged fifteen yards to the wire,
and they they lay in row at two
yards interval. One could hardly be-
lieve them dead. All the time great
shells kept hitting the shiverlng ship
and doing slaughter In the packed
holds. These shells were fired from
Asia. but it was the maxims and
pom-poms in Seddul-Bahr and on the
ampitheater that kept our heads
down below the bulwarks which and
boiler plate. There, now, was Mid
shlpman Drury swimming to the
lighter which had broken loose, with
line in his mouth and wound in
his head. II ever boy deserved his
V. c. that lad did. And there was
the captain Of the River Clyde, now
no longer ship to be stuck to but
part for ever Of Gallipoli, alone with
a boat by the spit of the rock, trying
to lift in the wounded under fire."