LETTERS FROM GALLIPOLI.

Gisborne Times, Volume XLV, Issue 3991, 26 July 1915, Page 3

LETTERS FROM GALLIPOLI.

ARTHUR AISLABIE GIVES HIS EXPERIENCES. RUSH ACROSS A DANCER ZONE. “MY LUCKY STAR MUST HAVE .BEEN SHINING.” Writing to Lis brother, Mr jsdn Aisl'abie of Gisborne, Arthur A is! abie gives an interesting account of the operations in Gallipoli in the course of which he was wounded. MALTA 30/5/15. Dear Ben, —I suppose that you writ know long before you get this letter that I have been slightly wounded. I was very, very lucky, being in itfor a fortnight and only getting a small wound through the arm;, but I wifi tell you all about it. We left Alexandria on April 12th, arrived at the Island of Lemnos and stayed thero until the 24th. I got your letter there and answered it. I hope that you got it all right. I was not able to say much because everything was censored. We left Lemnos, and arrived off Cl aba Tepe early on the morning of ,the 25th. The Australians landed very early in the morning. We did not- hand until 10 o’clock. As soon as we got within about thirty yards of the shore, the bullets started dropping all round us. It is a lunny feeling when you first get under them. I was ducking and diving, but you soon get used to them, and do not take much notice.; .but I never got used to the shells. Every time we heard one coming, we would all go for a hole like rabbits. But I am not getting on with the talc. As soon as we got ashore, wo started out for the firing line. Had to get up a steep hill, down the other side, across a gully and up another hill, all the time under a hail of lead. Our fellows were getting hit all the time. We got to the line about 1 o’clock, and just laid down on the top of the hill. All the hills are covered with a thick scrub. There was uot a Turk to be seen, but they were sending a continuous stream or bullets over cur heads all the time. Our fellows would stop one every now and again, but most of the fellows were hit by snipers, that were left in the scrub behind us. We stopped in the line until the next night, when we were ordered back to the beach again, where we stopped for over a week, living in dug-outs in the daytime and digging trenches at night. We then went back to the line again for two days. We had a hot time. The Turks got a machine gun along the back of our trench, and killed a good many of our fellows. Wo went hack to the beach again. We had about 4GO left out of a thousand. That night we went on board a minesweeper, and landed next day at the same place as the British troops landed. I am sending you a newspaper account of what happened to us there. The name of it is Sedd-el-Bahr. I was wounded in the last charge that you read about. We had to go across an open 1 space about three hundred yards. As soon as we started to move the Turks put a machine gun on from some scrub, and just mowed our fellows down. I got a little more than half wav ai-ross, when I felt little sharp burns all over my body. I got down under sonic cover, and had a look at myself. My lucky star must have been- shining that day. A bullet had gone through my pants, and just took the skin off the inside of my right knee. A small piece of lead was just sticking in my chest. The back of my hand was covered with little bits of lead, and a.bullet went through my left arm, just a- clean hole through the flesh. I stayed there until it got dark, and then went back to the trenches. ] stayed that night, and went back to the bea’ch the next day, and was put on a ship with a. thousand others. Ido not know how many of our fellows were killed, hut otit of our company of 227 men there are 21 left —that is up to the time that I left. Ido not know how they have got on since. Well, lam all right now, and I expect I will be going hack any day. Malta is a very barren place; all rocky hills and very hot. I do not like it at all.