10/1173 Private Harry Moffat, (10/10/1891-7/8/1915). "back in the fighting line"

Harry Moffat was working at a Taranaki sawmill when he joined the Army, which is how a Southland boy went to war with the Wellington Infantry Regiment.  He landed on Gallipoli Peningsula on April 25th and was wounded the next day, with a gunshot wound to the thigh. He was evacuated to Egypt and recovered from his wound to be sent back to the Peninsula at the end of June.  On August 8 he was part of the attack on Chunuk Bair which, if successful, would have given Allied forces an observation point overlooking the eastern side of the Peninsula and, more importantly, the forts on the Dardanelle Strait which had repulsed the Royal Navy on its way to Constantinople the previous February.

Had Chunuk Bair been held, the battleships which were the Army's heavy artillery on the Peninsula could take on the forts with the advantage of their longer range guns. With the forts dealt with, the plan was to anchor off the city of Constantinople and force a Turkish surrender. With Turkey out of the war - or at least neutralised as far as the navy was concerned, the main strategic goal of the campaign could be achieved. This was the opening of the trade routes which would supply the armies of Russia with the products of the factories of Britain, France and the United States.  By 1916, Russian soldiers were being told that it did not matter that they were charging enemy positions without rifles. When the man beside them fell, they were told, they were to pick up his rifle and continue to advance. Had Chunuk Bair been held, there might not have been a Russian revolution and the 20th century would have been a different time.

Information is conveyed by the Defence Department that Privates George Hagen, of Wairio, and H. Moffat, of Orawia, are now convalescent, and will shortly return to the front.  -Otautau Standard and Wallace County Chronicle, 8/6/1915.

Corporal Harry Moffat, son of Mrs C. S. Moffat, of Orawia, is reported for the second time as wounded in the fighting at the Dardanelles. The nature of Corporal Moffat's wounds are not at present known. He is a member of the Wellington Infantry Battalion.  -Otautau Standard and Wallace County Chronicle, 7/9/1915.

THE DARDANELLES.  (excerpt)

The following letter, just to hand, from Trooper Fred Kynaston, eldest son of Mr J. Kynaston of Feldwick, will be read with interest by his many friends in the Western district: —

I don't know whether I told you in my last letter that Norman and Sam Allen as well as Harry Moffat were wounded about the beginning of May. Norman had a bayonet wound in the leg, but is back to the front again. Sam was wounded in both legs and it will be some time before he is well again. I received a message from Harry Moffat saying be would soon be back in the fighting line again, but up to the time I left he had not put in an appearance.   -Western Star, 14/9/1915.

DEATHS. 

Moffat. — Killed in action at the Dardanelles, 8th August, 1915, Harry, youngest son of Mrs C. S. Moffat, Orawia, aged 23. — For the Empire's sake.   -Otautau Standard and Wallace County Chronicle, 15/2/1916.

Harry Moffat's death was recorded after a Court of Enquiry in Egypt which followed the NZEFs return from Gallipoli.

Otautau Cemetery.