Trooper Bluegum at the Dardanelles: Descriptive Narratives of the More Desperate Engagements on the Gallipoli Peninsula — John Shaqi
Trooper Bluegum at the Dardanelles: Descriptive Narratives of the More Desperate Engagements on the Gallipoli PeninsulaHogue, Oliver
History
Trooper Bluegum at the Dardanelles: Descriptive Narratives of the More Desperate Engagements on the Gallipoli Peninsula
Hogue, Oliver
World War, 1914-1918 -- Campaigns -- Turkey -- Gallipoli Peninsula; World War, 1914-1918 -- Personal narratives, Australian
One charge was led by a doctor; another by a priest. Several times
they charged so fiercely that they looked like getting out of hand.
Scorning cover, they also scorned rifle fire. They scaled the
steel-lined heights like demons. It was the bayonet all the time.
One huge farmer actually bayoneted a Turk through the chest and
pitchforked him over his shoulder. The man who performed this feat was
a huge Queenslander--Sergeant Burne, of the 9th Battalion, who was
afterwards wounded and returned to his Australian home--a man whose
modesty is as great as his size. We smiled at first when we heard the
story, and people in England and Australia read of it with amazement.
But Sergeant Burne, standing over six feet high, and massively
proportioned, looks quite capable of the feat. He himself tells the
story in these words: "It is not a case for me to take any credit at
all," he said. "I was in the platoon that landed first on the right.
Our lieutenant was the first man to get ashore--and as game a man as
ever faced fire. I followed him. I was ordered to take in hand a line
of Turkish sharpshooters who were causing a lot of trouble. There was
also a machine-gun on the hill. Somebody had to stop it. Myself and
two lads went up, and we stopped it. That's all. There were ten Turks
there. We got the Turks and we got the machine-gun, but I lost my two
lads. They were only boys, but let me tell you the Australians are the
best fighters in the world. One of the lads 'fixed' the German officer
who was working the machine-gun. The Turks were higher up than we were,
and I suppose that is how I was able to throw one of them over my
shoulder. It's an old trick that is taught in the Guards."
Sergeant Burne once served in the Irish Guards, and he carries a scar
on his forehead, the result of a blow from the butt-end of a rifle
at Rhenosterkop, during the South African war. He had been living in
Australia for about six years when the Great War broke out, and he was
one of the first to answer the Empire's call. His stay on Gallipoli was
short, for on the same day as that on which he performed the feat of
which I have written he received a bullet in the shoulder.
"It was a very short experience," he said, "but I'll be back there
again."
And that was, and is, the spirit of them all.
It is sad to think that so many senior officers lost their lives right
at the outset of the fighting in the Dardanelles. Australia could ill
afford to lose men like Colonel Onslow Thompson, Colonel MacLaurin,
Major F. D. Irvine and Colonel Braund. Colonel MacLaurin was in the act
of warning soldiers to be certain to keep behind cover when he was shot
in the head. He was hurriedly conveyed to the rear, but only lingered
half an hour. Curiously enough, he had a presentiment that he would be
killed, and mentioned it to one of our Light Horse officers just before
leaving for the Dardanelles.
[Illustration: 1. Col. McCay, Brigadier 2nd Australian Infantry
Brigade. Wounded.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account