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| Picture No | 10822944 |
| Date | 1916 |
| Description | Gallipoli - bringing in horses by Matania, WW1 |
| Details |
Telegraph work in Gallipoli - an unrecorded incident of individual bravery. Two men of the 1st Royal Munster Fusiliers bringing two uninjured horses back to British lines during a severe Turkish bombardment. According to an eye-witness account by an officer, 'This incident deserves to be recorded. We were in trenches just on this side of the foreground; a four-horsed wagon containing poles for telegraphic purposes was coming over the hill, and just as it got to the crest a shell dropped near the waggon, badly damaging it and killing two of the horses. There were, however, still two horses left, and as the shaft pole was now sticking up at an angle the Turks evidently took it to be a gun and began dropping shells at a rate of four a minute. The horses seemed to possess a charmed life. Shell after shell dropped. It seemed impossible that they could live. Then through my glasses I could see two men trying to cut the animals loose. When they heard a shell coming I saw one man take cover behind a tree, and the other get behind the wagon. A few minutes later they galloped the horses bareback past our trenches amid cheers from their friends. They were two men of the 1st Royal Munster Fusiliers. They both received their promotion that evening.'
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| Source | Illustration by Fortunino Matania in The Sphere, 12 February 1916 |
| Credit | © Illustrated London News Ltd/Mary Evans |
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