Papers relating to the service of Stewart Murray Hansen, 1915 - 1917 - Part 9

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Our Company has gained the

unusual distinction & honour of

the first V.C to be attained by

the Australian N Zealand Army Corps.

Lance Corporal Jacka V.C. was

notified by HM. The King that 

his actions on the morning of
June 19^th had been deemed worthy

of the highest possible distinction 

he could award. Naturally

the company, the 14^th Battalion,

the 4^th Brigade, the NZ & A Division

& the Army Corps are greatly

proud of the first VC and

besides being congratulated

separately by HM King George he

received congratulatory messages

from each subordinate Commander

from Gen Sir Ian Hamilton

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down to the Company Commander 
and Minister of Defense.

The action briefly was "that on
night of 18^th- 19^th June a section
of  Courtney's post was captured
by Turks and after 1 Officer &
1 man were killed & l officer & 4
men ^were wounded in the attempt
to drive the enemy out, he
single handed killed 5 Turks
by rifle fire & 2 by bayonet
thus clearing the trench and
holding it against further
invasions until arrival of
supports".
For two days past a Turkish
aeroplane has flown over our
position and dropped a bomb
and several steel darts but
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no damage resulted. Aeroplanes
always create excitement even our
own as they often drop bombs
on the Turks position but naturally
an enemy Taube draws more
spectators and field glasses
come out with a snap.
The distinction between them is
known by the following
"Allies" Black ring inside red
ring, with white space separating
them on each under-plane
Taubes (German) Black maltese
cross on tip of each plane.
Both marks are on underside.
To date we have seen no air fight.
Our Brigade H. Quarters
have initiated a scheme of denoting
each half hour correct time.
 

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This consists of an empty Turkish
shell hung up on wire and
struck by entrenching tool handle
(metal end) as ships' bell.
We had had a new gun
against us this week - we have
become quite used to distinguishing
between each gun by the sound
of the flying shell also the explosion.
This new gun is evidently a naval
gun of 3.3" calibre and fires
high explosive on to Anzac Beach.
with nasty results as a rule.
But "little mother" (as we call
a Torpedo boat Destroyer which
protects our left flank) manages to
keep it quiet soon after it fires its
first few rounds.
Today we also discovered a new
 

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schrapnel shell which was fired
and burst over our heads against
a steep cliff sending down showers
of heavy gravel but doing no
bodily harm. The second one
burst among part of our Brigade
and severely wounded two men.
The case had two copper driving
bands instead of one and was
a few inches shorter in length —
probably a howitzer shell.
One of my -"scratches" has turned
septic but by the application of
foments at the Base Hospital twice
per day, the conditions have
improved and although the complaint
is very prevalent amongst our
Brigade, the wound should be
well again in a few days. My
blood is quite healthy, the cause was
probably due to flies which are
 

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a plague.
We have been having violent
bombardments "down South" at
Achi Baba yesterday and to-day
but whether by the Turks or ourselves
we can not see distinctly.
We received word that Bagdad had
be occupied by the British and 
we punished the Turks with a
fulisade of rifle fire and a round
of cheers. This was acknowledged
in turn by about 10 minutes
surface fire by Johnny - more waste
of his valuable ammunition.
My night work is diminishing
as the work is almost completed.
The working parties have lately been
composed of Maoris who have been
here some weeks. They are a
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fine physical specimen and hard
workers. Their Maori Officers & Non. 
Coms are nearly all University
Students and consequently very
refined.
Issue of tobacco tonight so am right
again.
Everything is great today as it has
been nearly all the week so no
further news is available and fire
bells having just been struck its
time to "mafish"

Yours 
Stewart
Lieut.

Turkey
14-8-15

Aghyl Dere
Anzac Cove
Gallipoli Pen.
Dear All,
Happenings of the past few
days since the sending of field service
card have been monstrous and varied.
We marched out of Reserve Gully on
Friday 6^th Aug at 9.30 pm and
preceeded by an advance guard we
endeavoured to outflank our foe.
We trudged all night about 1 mile
per 2 hours over unknown country  
with the yells of surprised Turks
ringing in our ears and passing
many prisoners en route captured
by our advance party.
When morning broke we were digging

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ourselves in as fast as possible in our
newly captured position.
The boldness of the move must have
bluffed our enemy as we captured
tons of stores and ammunition
besides numerous men but by
some means or other they got their
big guns away.
There were several British
regiments engaged in the attack
The whole day we were unmolested
except for stray bullets which hit
several of our men but that night
we received orders to attack along
a certain ridge at daylight.
This time we were not unmolested
and the whole Brigade came up
against violent opposition and
large numbers of the enemy.

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The whole attack surpassed any of
our previous attacks on this
portion of the peninsula even the
landing pales into insignificance
We drove hordes of Turks away
but they swarmed against us like
ants and we went down one by
one until about fifty per cent
of the Brigade were either wounded 
or wiped out. However by
falling back to our line we
stopped the hordes coming any
further.
I can not detail my parts of the
week's work but the Turks must
have been half wiped out by
shells from the warships or big guns
besides the numbers we shot.
We have had the assistance of an
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Indian Brigade and my men
joined the line to their left.
The latter action finished off half
of my men and our Company only 
have 25% left
The Casualty list will be larger
than previously but we have
gained a few extra miles of Turkey.
We have been living on hard
biscuits and  cold water (scarce)
& sleeping in bush mia-mia
or bivouacs without much sleep
& consequently several men have
dropped exhausted but by sheer good
luck out of 26 officers who left
the Reserve Gully I am one of 13
left. Most of the others are missing
Other regiments suffered even worse.
However you will know very

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soon the big victory gained and
that Johnny lost half his brothers
in almost the proportion of five

to one of our losses.
The new Division which left
 Australia some time ago and
now commanded by Col Legge
has not arrived yet and is
still whole.
When I was with few men only
one man and myself came out
whole. One fellow next to me
stopped a bullet in the head and
the splinters of the bullet skimmed
my nose. My bare knees were
badly treated and all badly
scratched.
We have been fairly down-hearted
at the loss of my comrades in one
blow but have now regained our

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brightness and besides being in 
the new trenches we are making the
most of our new country resort and
incidentally of captured supplies
The water question was getting
fairly serious until we dug wells
and now beautiful water
abounds.
The cable was sent by a wounded
officer to let you know I came

through the big action safely
the morning of Aug 8^th (Sunday)
Since then we have been sitting
tight keeping Johnny busily
occupied.
The hills are damnable to fight
over and they are thickly covered
with prickly leaves & low shrubs.
As this mail is about going I