Letters from David Wallace Caldwell to his Mother, 1915-1917 - Part 2

all accounts & the lectures we get we are going to 
france & if we do we will only go as an army of 
occupation but we are not sure. We are going to 
be on the move in about a month from now or 
even less with a bit of luck. I will send a couple of 
P.Cs with this mail & you can see what Heliopolis 
is like in most places, I hope Eve is coming over to 
see you now & again, & going out with you 
I was sorry to hear of Dorothy Casey's Mother 
dying it was hard luck, or perhaps it was for the 
best. I wrote a P.C. to Grandfather & Grandma & Uncle 
John & Dad. I will write him a letter when I get 
a bit of time, we don't get much time here as we 
get lectures in the day time & have to write them 
up at night & I must close now as I have to write 
one up, with love to all of you & don't you worry 
about me from . XXXXXXXX 
Wally 
PS. Tell Eve to look on the last page of her letter & tell me if the 
censor has cut anything out.

Abbasinia 
Aug. 19th 1915. 

Dear Mum 
I recieved your letter the other 
day & I thought I would write & let you know 
that we havn't gone to the front yet but we 
expect to be shifting shortly but I think it will 
be to Suez for a while. We have joined in with 
the 5th & 6th Brigades & have formed the 2nd Australian 
Division & it is just the thing to be on parade with 
about 20,000 men & artillery etc it seems a deuce 
of a lot. I havn't seen Aunty yet but I will as 
soon as I can. You were asking about the boy 
from the tent, well I'm not in the same tent 
now. But they are still getting on alright 
Sid Bennett had a bonser dose of 
Rhuematism coming over on the boat & 
he is not properly right yet. Billy Smith 
& Harry Alderson have been getting drunk 
a lot & been put in jail a lot & I can tell 
you it is a proper jail with British Tommies 
to look after them. Nugget & the rest are 
getting on alright. I hope Eve is getting 
on alright & also yourself & by the 
way I must wish you many happy 

returns of your birthday I won't be able 
to send you anything home, but you must 
promise to let buy something for yourself 
out of my money & I will send you 
something, as soon as I get flush with 
money, but I suppose it will be a while 
yet. I suppose you have been up to see dad 
by now & I hope he is getting on alright. 
I am feeling in tip top condition lately I 
don't think I can remember feeling better. 
I suppose it is having plenty of work & a 
good bit of sleep & plenty of tucker. We 
have been issued with helmets & they are 
just the thing for the heat. We have 
fairly cool nights over here. I hope Blanche 
& Bob & Jack is keeping well & I hope they 
have brought the boat home. I suppose 
your old tank is well full by now with 
all the rain you have been having. I suppose 
Sth Australia will have a record crop this 
year. We don't get much news over here. 
about the War. They say they have got 
Acha Baba surrounded now & once they 
got that fixed up there is nothing much 
but a straight run into Constantinople 

that will be the time Mum when we march 
into Constantinople. I think they must be 
going to go straight through to the Austrian 
frontier when they take that for it seems to 
be the general opinion of most of the officers 
& I think it must be true by the numbers 
of troops concentrating there. The Australian 
Army is only a fleef fleebite to what the 
English & French & Indian troo have there. 
It may be that they think there will be a 
rising in Egypt. it seems very shaky. I am 
going to write to Ev with the same mail as 
this. I must close now with love from 
your loving son. 
Wally 
P.S. I passed pretty well at the Zeitoun School 
& I am sending the certificate home in this 
letter & also the one I got at Mitcham as I 
don't think I will want them here. 
W. 
I thought you knew that I was leaving 
6/- a day behind & in fact I know I 
told you. 

Heliopolis' 
Sept 1st 1915 

Dear Mother, 
I recieved your letter 
yesterday it is about the 5th I have recieved 
& I have also recieved a lot of papers & I was 
glad to have them. & I was also pleased to 
hear that you had a good time up at 
Broken Hill. This is my 8th letter since 
we came here so you will know how many 
you have recieved. We are off to the front 
tomorrow for certain we are all packed up 
ready to go. We may stay at Lemnos for a 
week or two. It seems to be the general 
idea that we are going to make a fresh landing 
there will be about 20,000 Australians going 
when we leave Lemnos, That will be the whole 
of the second Aust Division. I will look after 
myself & not be too rash, but I mean to 
do my bit. We had a stiff Medical Exam 
test today. All the old tent mates passed 
alright. Harry Aldersen has been shifted 
to Divisional Headquarters & it is a jolly 
good job too as he would have been 

sent back as an inefficient soldier he 
was fooling around a lot before he went 
away, he wont see much of the front now 
I have just heard that we are supposed 
to make a fresh landing just North of 
Gaba Tepe. I suppose the 27th will be well 
to the fore I am going to send you home my 
will & 2 certificates with this letter, as I forgot 
them in the last one & I am also sending 
of one of our colours that we wear when 
we go to the front. I hope you are keeping 
well also all the rest of them. I am also 
sending a photo of the Sgt's in our tent whith 
the names attached. I recieved a letter just 
this minute from Aunty & she is at Gazierh 
Palace Hospital & I am going out this afternoon 
to see her if possible. She was on the Dundnee 
Castle but she has been shifted back now.
We were out at the Kasr. El Nil Barracks we 
were on picket duty in Cairo & mum you 
never saw such sights in your life we 
were right on the Banks of the Nile. They are 
very old barracks. They were up before Napoleons 
Time because the French Army were in Barracks 
there & y we saw the Place where Napoleon had 

his officers mess & it is just alongside the 
barracks. I will write every time I can when 
we get to the front. All the men are very 
glad to be going tomorrow, because we 
have been training very hard & it is all 
desert sand that we do our drilling in. 
We had a 8 or 9 miles route march yesterday 
afternoon with our full packs on & I can 
tell you it is pretty hard. I must close 
now with love & a kiss to you from 
Wally X. 

Transport "Ivernia" 
Sept 10th 1915 

Dear Mum 
Just a line to let you 
know that we have got as far as Lemnos 
& we are off to Gallipoli today sometime 
so you see we are getting near to it now. 
We shipped at Alexandria last Saturday 
morning early & arrived here on Tuesday 
morning early we had a narrow shave of 
getting torpedoed. There was a boat 
torpedoed a couple of days before. I think 
it is pretty near the end of the dardan - 
elles now. I think there is going to be 
a big general advance in a day or two 
& once they get started it will take a 
good bit of stopping. By jove mum 
you ought to see the warships in 
this harbour there is dozens of them of 
all sizes & shapes. This Lemnos island 
it seems to be a fairly large place. It seems 
that Turkey reckoned she owned it & Greece 
thought She owned it, so at the beginning 
of the war England stepped in & took 

it, & at the end of the war she is to hand 
it over to Greece. When we came in there 
were dozens of transportation, The ' 
Mauritania' was amongst them she is about 
40,000 tons & since then the Aquitania has 
come in & she is about 50,000 tons she is going 
to be used as a base hospital ship here at 
Lemnos. I wrote last time & told you I 
saw Aunty well I didn't get time to 
see her again. I am in real good 
condition & couldn't feel better & I 
hope you, are the same. It reminds 
me when I put Sept 10th to my letter of 
Jacks Birthday. Well you can wish 
him many happy returns of his 
Birthday from me. You don't want 
to take any notice of any rumours 
you might have heard before this 
about us being in action, because I 
saw by one of the Chronicles I got a 
picture of our Battalion marching 
through Cairo, which wasn't true at 
all because we never went through 
Cairo at all we were about 8 miles from 
Turn Over 

there so you see the papers are a lot of 
lies but there is one thing you don't see 
all of & that is all the lists of wounded & killed 
not by a long way. We'll give the Turks 
hell when we get there Mum, We are 
all anxious to get there & get it over. 
but all the Australians are the same. 
Our boys haven't got any time for the 
British Tommies. They reckon they are not 
much good. You hear a lot about the Turks 
running away from the bayonet but 
they tell us that they stand up with 
the best of ours, but our boys are too 
good for them. I must close now with 
love to all & a kiss to you from 
XXXX Wall