Ngā Tapuwae Trails — brings Hill 60 to life

Ngā Tapuwae Trails — brings Hill 60 to life

“I had been unable to eat since the first trench was taken and I felt as though I could scrape the smell of dead men out of my mouth and throat and stomach in chunks.”

Today, 100 years ago, roughly 400 men from the Canterbury and Otago Mounted Rifles regiments, together with Australian, British and Gurkha troops launched an attack against Hill 60, a small piece of Ottoman-held high ground near Anzac Cove at Gallipoli.

Second-in-charge of the Otago Mounted Rifles Regiment and Gisborne Farmer, Francis Twisleton was one of the soldiers who fought in the battle of Hill 60—one of the many battles that feature in the Ngā Tapuwae New Zealand First World War Trails.

The Ngā Tapuwae trails explore the intense battles of the Gallipoli Campaign, with soldiers’ personal stories and moving narration giving insight into the unique New Zealand story of Gallipoli.

Trail Five – The Defence, is the last trail featured in Ngā Tapuwae Gallipoli. This trail brings Hill 60 to life with the Hon. Maggie Barry ONZM narrating the life story of Francis Twisleton.

Twisleton described the roar of battle as so overpowering that he felt as though he ‘was being driven into the ground by being hit on the head’. In the initial charge, an enemy bullet smashed Twisleton’s revolver as it was hanging from a cord over his stomach.

Later he wrote. “My revolver, when in action, always swung in front of me as I could draw far more quickly when it was there than in any other position. It was struck by a bullet on the point of the hammer, butt was shattered, barrel was bent, bridge twisted half off. One barrel fired and of course the wind was knocked out of me.

“I was sent rolling like a dead man. The only marks I had was gun-metal from the revolver in my left hand and thigh. I dug them out with a pocket knife – they did not amount to much.”

Hill 60 was the final offensive effort by New Zealanders at Anzac. These futile attacks on a relatively unimportant piece of ground simply destroyed what was left of the New Zealand Mounted Rifles, and the top of the hill was never taken.

Francis Twisleton survived the battle of Hill 60 and in March 1916 he was promoted to captain and transferred to the New Zealand Pioneer Battalion. He served with the soldiers of the battalion on the Western Front from April 1916 to August 1917.

In October 1917 Twisleton was posted to the Auckland Mounted Rifles Regiment in Palestine. Late in October he was promoted to major and given command of a squadron. In action at Ayun Kara, on 14 November, he led his men with great dash before being shot in the abdomen. He was sent to the ANZAC receiving station, but died there the following day. The Legion of Frontiersmen posthumously awarded him their highest honour, the Pioneer Axe, and in recognition of his services made his widow an honorary lieutenant of the Legion.

Ngā Tapuwae Gallipoli is the first instalment of the First World War trails, with Ngā Tapuwae Western Front being released in October this year.

Twisleton’s time on the Western Front will be uncovered in the Ngā Tapuwae Western Front trails.

The trails follow New Zealanders as they fight on the front that ran through France, Belgium and the Lieutenant Francis Twisleton, second-in-charge of the Otago Mounted Rifles Regiment United Kingdom, giving detailed accounts of New Zealand’s contribution to the war through soldier’s own words and those of their loved ones.

The ten Western Front trails trace such battles as the Somme, Messines and Passchendaele, and unearths what it was like to be a New Zealand soldier nearly a century ago.

Follow Ngā Tapuwae on Facebook for sneak previews of the Western Front, www.facebook.com/NgaTapuwaeNZ.

ENDS

© Scoop Media