Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 4, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 January 1916 — RAVINE OF DEATH [ARTICLE]

RAVINE OF DEATH

Where Fearfu# Battles Were Fought on Gallipoli. More French Blood Was Spilled In Valley of Kereves-Dere Than at Any Other Spot in the Dardanelles. Berne. Switzerland. —A French correspondent in the Revue Militaire Suisse describes the fearful battles which were fought In the early days of October on the peninsula of Gallipoli between the allied troops and the Turks. One of the chapters of the gruesome report is devoted to the Valley of Kereves-Dere, the “Ravine of Death,” where more French blood has been spilled than on any other spot at the 'Dardanelles. “We passed a dreary, dull day and sat in our holes, watching the Turkish trenches,’: the correspondent writes. “At last the evening came and darkness followed quickly; Then the moon rose and cast her silvery light over the landscape. This light was s 6 bright and clear that we could distinguish the color of .objects at some distance. “The Turks kept very quiet and the night promised to be even more dull than the day had been. Towards midnight an officer invited me to accompany him on a little scouting expedition. Cautiously we crept through some miserable shrubbery. Everywhere we saw dead bodies, singly and in heaps. At last we reached the crest of the height and we were within gunshot distance from the . Turkish position on the opposite hills. “Between the two heights there was a lkrge black hole, Kereves-Dere, the Ravine of Death.' I looked down Into the valley and shuddered. There, in the bluish light of the moon, I saw

the bodies of thousands of French soldiers lying on the gray sand, men of the Foreign Legion, colonials and zouaves. S "They were all heroes,’ the officer, my guide, said as he pointed down into the ravine. ‘From this spot they went into the gorge under a fearful artillery and machine gun fire. Dozens, liundreds of them fell, but like demons they began to storm the positions of the Turks. Bleeding, • wild-eyed and roaring with rage they climbed upward until the fire of twenty machine guns greeted them and mowed them down. “ ‘ln ten minutes more than one-half of the heroes were dead or wounded. When the survivors fell back into the ravine the Turks counter attacked and on the sand on the bottom of the gorge the most awfhl battle of the war was fought. “ ‘The Turks attacked with knives and our heroes even used their teeth on the enemy. Neither side gave quarters; it was a combat to the death and the slaughter kept up until night came and the darkness made it impossible to distinguish friend from foe. “ ‘Under a heavy shell fire we finally managed to withdraw the remnants of our troops from the ravine and the Turks returned to therf trenches in the heights. The next morning we tried to save our wounded, but most of them had to be left to their fate, as the Turks would not consent to an armistice and shelled our ambulance corps. “ ‘Let us salute the dead heroes down there. They were our bravest men and have sacrificed themselves to save the rest of our army from annihilation. Their hef-oism will forever live in the memory of the grateful French nation add future generations will mention them In the same breath with the famous Chasseur d’AMaue ■of Sedan.-’" - ■ 1 —v—^