THE FIGHTING ON GALLIPOLI.

Gisborne Times, Volume XLV, Issue 3997, 2 August 1915, Page 3

THE FIGHTING ON GALLIPOLI.

BRAVE DEEDS ON “THE DAISY PATCH ” A FItENCH STRATAGEM. THE “SEVENTY-FIVES” AND THE BAYONET., Off an Island in the Mediterranean, 14th June. Suicide Gully, Death Gully, Shrapnel Gully, are names of spots near Anssae Beach' that are as expressive as they are ominous. Tliey are names that will never Le forgotten by those New Zealanders who went through the first few days of battle on the Gallipoli Peninsula, and who have the good luck to return to their native land. Away down at Cape Hellos, on the end of the Peninsula, there is a spot called the “Daisy Patch,” a name that one would scarcely associate with war. There amongst the green grass grew a profusion of wild Rowers and. Beautiful daisies. They are growing there still, but amongstthe daisies are patches of brown, earth and small wooden crosses that mark the last resting-place of several brave New Zealanders, who have given their all for the Empire. When our men went down there to help our Allies in fho attack on Aelii-Baba, they landed safely and were marched about a mile up the road before they encountered the enemy’s fin —shrapnel and common shell —which, however, fell wide. They marched a further mile to a beautiful green paddock, where 1 o-v commenced to dig theme.slves in. They stayed there all night, and next day (the Oth May) they wateh<»l the French advance. On the 7th, in the afternoon, they marched out in platoons, but had not covered more tnan a mile, before shrapnel began t-o burst over them. It was almost dusk, and they retired on to toe edge of a cliff, where they were able to take cover. One of the Otago men was killed and one or two wounded. There, also, Colonel Peerless, N.Z.M.O. (of .Netson), with the Canterbury Battalion, fell, shot through the left thigh. Notwithstanding his 02 years, he was always, with his regiment. He lias been tor several weeks in one ot the military hospitals at Alexandria, is now convalescent, and on a troopship returning to Gallipoli. On the- 7th May this force, which was the remnant of the New Zealand Infantry Brigade—and would now amount to about a battalion in numbers—went a inili'- further inland, till they came to a farmhouse, and there they dug' in again. No sooner had they done this, however, than they were ordered to fall in for a night march to the trenches before AohiBaba. There was to be no lighting of pipes, and orders were given in whispers. On the way they passed, occasionally, wounded men coming down from the front. One soldier, seized with panic, imagined that the Gelmans had got him, and as he started to announce his belief m loud shrieks, he had to be sent back to the dressing station. A mile further on the New Zealanders reached the trenches, and quickly gob into them. Star shells were sent up by the enemy, and lit up the surrounding country, but the position was not shelled, and the New Zealanders bivouacked for the night, a,tul slept in the trenches. Next morning, at 10.30, they got the order to advance in column pf platoons, the men deploying in the usual way. They were at first over broken country, but after a time came to a level plateau covered with wild flowers. This was “The Daisy Patch.” There the men began to fail. It was evident that the Turks had the range of it. ■SAVING THE WOUNDED. Captain G. Craig, N.Z.M.C., who was with the Aucklanders according to all accounts, did good work here in succouring the wounded. V ith his orderly—one Stacey, a light-weight boxer —he dodged from cover to cover attending to wounded from the different regiments, including some of the Ministers, who were in the vicinity. Amongst the dead was the body of Lieut. Stead man, of the Third Auckland. He fell, shot through the heart, while leading his men. Indeed, Jio was was one of the first to fail, la the. daisy patch over which the New Zealanders crossed before gaining toe trenches, there were some {wentv dead and wounded lying in a zone swept, by machine-gun and rifie tire. One of’the wounded was heard to call out, “For God’s sake send a doctor!" Every, time the man moved he drew the Turkish fire, and the bullets were all the time hitting the daisy patch and whistling over the trench in which our men had taken cover. Captain Craig, hearing the •woundini man's call, then left, the tren h and went to the wounded man > assistance, and went back to get this man. The first man he reached was the wrong one. He was dead. Ihe doctor all the time under fire cut oil this man's identification disc and put it in Ids pocket. He then found the wounded man and endeavored to roi him forward to the trench; but he was a heavy man and the task was an impossible one, so he returned to the trench and called for two volunteers to help him to bring the man m. Two privates, Donaldson ant, Dalzie (3rJ Auckland I, inlimjdlately volunteered, ami the three men went to the wounded man, lifted him up and proceeded to carry him in. the bullet*. whistling about them all the time. Nearing the trench a sniper got. D Craig and he fell shot through the tnmh. At the same time Dalwiei leu, shot through the leg.- Thus the three men fell in a heap just, as they v ere on the point of reaching safety. Donaldson managed to drag the wounded man into the trencli, and Stacey, tinder tor’s orderly, and others, got tin doctor and also Dnl/iol into the trench. Stacey, whom I saw the other day at Alexandria, made light of his particular part in the ad veil ture. “It was nothing,” he said, 1 was under cover nearly all the. time, a statement that from other sources 1 subsequently learnt was not- stric - accurate. Stacey, however, dressed the doctor’ -wound, stayed with him in the trench, till nightfall, and tnen accompanied him on the three mi* journey to the dressing station and a, subsequent four and a-half mile jouiuev to the beach. It was a sif'entuttl a-half miles journey for the stretcherbearers, as the- route was not a direc t one, and it v-is fi.lo a-m befoie t . reached the beaeli hospital. Alter they had gone about three miles ot their journey the Turks burst a • s < _ shell .over them and they received a burst? of ri 11c fire from a range of 4t)o or 300 wards. One of the bearers with the stretcher in front was shotthrough the head. l)r Craig w now; on his way hack to bis regiment on the Peninsula. A BRILL LA NT KRENL'K CHARGEOn the afternoon of Saturday, the, Bth Til av, while some of the Now Zea landers'were lying in a trench at the Daisv Patch and singing a little to keep’up their-spirits, a man suddenly called cut that the l-Vetwh were retiring. Some time before they ha<‘ watched them advancing m a long blue line. Now it seemed as it the.' had broken and were retreating helter-skelter to their old trenches. The Turks, noticing the retreat, came on eh masse Frond, then rot,rot to their second line?, and the . promptly o-eup.ed tlie hrst hm of trenches. Then the deadly /of. g°|' to work. They had the range to a ni ety. and, with high explosive shells and shrapnel, they gave the enemy a terrible time. The fire was so lapul that a c-urtai'- of black smoke and dust arose from the bursting shells, and under cover of this cloud, the french infantry reformed and- clanged KvhSi Vm ycii»- W»* «**>«} had left undone was accomplish e with the bayonet.