Impression sketch of British Officer in
Turkish Tunnel - by Jamie. See original at:
i
An article by way
of Australia’s
High Commissioner, was penned
By Captain Bean - an official
From the
Dardanelles, for press
With the imperial
Forces.
With the retreat
from Turkish
Land having taken
place, stories
Still emerged to
tell experiences -
As those of the
24th Australian
Battalion in a tunnel's
discovery.
Along with 23
Battalion men,
An officer and
Engineer's
Corporal they
entered entrance
To an underground
passageway,
At a distance
behind Turk's lines.
In an air of
joviality they took
To hand and knees,
crawling
Underground - to
see where
The tunnels led,
the officer
Turned into a
slanting tunnel.
In the light at
the end of that
Tunnel, was seated
a Turkish
Sentry - his
rifle aimed down
The hole - this
officer froze,
To believe he had
been seen.
A foot held mid-air, this officer
Held his pipe
clenched tightly
Between gritted teeth; the sentry
Sighed and leaned
gently back -
The officer was safe
in darkness.
Moving on, the
Anzac found
Another opening
and guard -
This time the
more confident
Officer, closer
then peered out
Seeing Turkish
guards talking.
Withdrawing by a
backwards
Slow shuffle, the
Australian
Left that sentry
- in their return
They blew Turkish
barricade
And sentry high into
fresh air.
ii
2nd Australian
Division
Fought their
battles below
Ground, in pitch
darkness -
The division of
diggers
Digging into
other tunnels.
Armed with their
picks,
They broke into
Turkish
Spaces - through the
gap
A candle might be
seen,
Held by Turkish
diggers.
In claustrophobic
fights,
As shots flashed in
the dark
Of underground
warrens -
Until possession
between
Sides were finally
settled.
With hand to hand
fights
In tunnel
against tunnel -
They crossed side
by side
To intersect with
frantic
Turk and Anzac reactions.
In the early days
of arrival
A New Zealand
situation,
Of machine gunnery called
Quinn's Post, was
situated
On the top of the
valley.
Quinn's Post in
the dense
Scrub, turned into a churned
Field from actions
beneath -
Where fifty Anzac
mines blew,
Along with ten Turks
mines.
Quinn's Post lay
to bitter end,
Among relics of
broken timber,
Like rotten teeth,
amid earthy
Clods - while
craters cut across
What had once been
trenches.
by Jamie Mann.
Anon.,1916. Epic
Of Anzac - 'Tunnel Against Tunnel'. The Daily Telegraph, [online] 25 January 1916. P.12.
Col.3. Available at http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/12111105/Daily-Telegraph-January-25-1916.html
[Accessed: 25 January 2016].
Mann, J., 2016. 100 years Ago - Poems by Jamie Mann. [letter] (Personal
communication, 25 January 2016).
#WW1 #WW1centenary #GreatWar #WW1poem #GreatWar #WW1centenary
#worldwarone #worldwaroneremembered #WW1Gallipoli
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