Daniel Rodgers came from Dunedin and was working as a carpenter in Auckland when he enlisted in 1914. He was with the Auckland Infantry Regiment when it attacked Turkish positions in early August, 1915. He was not seen after August 8th, and a Court of Enquiry held in Egypt after the evacuation from Gallipoli found that he has most likely been killed on the 8th.
The Official History of the Auckland Regiment has much to say about August 8th - this is but a taste:
Succour from the left was slow in coming, but still the battle could not stay, the pace could not slacken. At dawn on the 8th, the Wellington Battalion, with some help from the Gloucesters, passed through and stormed Chunuk Bair. The key position was ours. If the force from Suvla would only press forward, the result was inevitable. But would help come? Wellington fought a most valiant fight. Their line was frightfully torn. Men scraped for themselves shallow pits and flung a little earth in front. The Turks crept up to bombing range, and along the whole line the fighting was hand to hand. Every moment our men grew fewer and fewer. Still they held on. Heat, thirst, wounds and death could not daunt them. "Hold on! Hold on!" If they could but hold on for a few hours longer surely the English would come from Suvla, and all would go on over the crest to Maidos.
The English did not come.
So the manhood of New Zealand dwindled hour by hour through all the long day of August 8th, Wellington in front on the crest, Auckland in support in and about their captured trench. This day Captain Sinel was wounded.
Southern Cemetery, Dunedin.
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