First World War

"Robert Hislop, the Territorial who fell through, the Parnell railway bridge on Thursday night last, fracturing both his thighs, died in the hospital today. The death of Private Robert Hislop, a member of the New Zealand Railway Engineers Corps, is the first serious casualty that has befallen the mobilisation of the Territorials. Deceased, who was a member of the first company of the local railway corps formed here, was on guard duty at the Parnell railway bridge in Auckland, and had only recently been transferred to the northern city from Darfield.

"A lookout had been established on the summit of the wireless mast, where some 400 feet above his less fortunate fellows, and away from the mosquitoes and flies, the centipedes and ants, he swung his improvised hammock and watched. From this point in the early hours of 14th September, lights of two ships were reported, and daylight disclosed two large war vessels making for the port. The Signallers at the Pilot Station soon identified them as the long-expected "Scharnhorst" and "Gneisenau. ...

"I could hardly struggle ashore and when I did the first thing I saw was Beck sitting on a stone, roaring with laughter at us. Billy Beck was the first New Zealander to get on to Gallipoli.”

[Fenwick p8] [It is thought that Lieutenant-Colonel Edmund Robert Bowler was the first New Zealander to land at Anzac Cove in Gallipoli, having landed with the Australians at 4.30 am]

“We moved up to a fresh position nearer the firing line at dawn. Canterbury men who had been fighting with the Australians since the landing are still coming and rejoining their units. Shortly after 10 a.m. the Turks attempted to retake our position left of Walker’s Ridge. They made a fierce attack on our front line, but we pushed up reinforcements and repulsed them, with heavy losses. Our machine guns did terrible slaughter.”

[Chamberlain p11]

“The Imperial German Government have used every effort since the beginning of the crisis to bring about a peaceful settlement.  In compliance with a wish expressed to him by His Majesty the Emperor of Russia, the German Emperor had undertaken, in concert with Great Britain, the part of mediator between the Cabinets of Vienna and St. Petersburg; but Russia, without waiting for any result, proceeded to a general mobilisation of her forces both on land and sea.  …

Britain is at war. The last elements of uncertainty were dispelled by yesterday's cablegram from the Secretary of State for the Colonies, and by the momentous public announcement which was made by His Excellency the Governor (Lord Liverpool), outside Parliament House at 3 o'clock in the afternoon to an assemblage visibly moved by the gravity of the occasion. News from the theatres of war is meagre, but the indications given of the movements of the fleets and armies of the combatant nations is significant of momentous events. [Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2221, 6 August 1914, Page 5]

New Zealand Troops were not to return to Gallipoli until December, 1918.

* The exact figure will probably never be known. Recent research by Richard Stowers suggests total casualties were 2779, 58 more than the previously, widely accepted figure of 2721 (Christopher Pugsley).

References: Pugsley, C. Gallipoli – The New Zealand Story, Auckland, 1998

"A number of men of the 13th Company were sent along the beach to bury some dead men who were lying in the vicinity of the boats previously referred to. They were fired on by snipers. Two were killed and four wounded, and they did not succeed in burying all the dead. I heard today our losses since April 25 have been about fifty per cent.

Today I had my first wash for three days. It consisted of a rub round my face with a wet shaving brush.”  [Chamberlain p11]

“My stock of powdered biscuits is out, so I have to be satisfied with bully beef today. I’d give something just now for a good feed!”   [Chamberlain p11]

“The following cablegram has been received by the Governor from the Secretary of State for the Colonies:- "His Majesty's Government desires me to offer you their warmest congratulations on the splendid gallantry and magnificent achievement of your Contingent in the successful progress of the operations in the Dardanelles.”

[Press, Volume LI, Issue 15266, 30 April 1915, Page 6]

In time of war it is not uncommon to be killed by your own side (artillery barrages falling short, targets not properly identified) but to be deliberately killed by a member of your own unit is a rarer event.