Diary of Wilfrid Wanostrocht Giblin, 1914 - 1915 - Part 5

small Greek Church, from which a stairway 
led down to the interior of the mound. I went 
down to bottom 56 steps, with solid masonery 
sides & roof, to a small chamber recently
used for christening. A small well in
cornered corner showed we were below the
level of surrounding country. As the steps were
of marble (none found in island) & the
masonery of passage very solid, I consider
this part was a remnant of ancient building.
Caught a land tortoise on way home.
March 19^th Again landed with Ward of Clearing
Hospital & took them for a route march.
Very rough landing & embarking.
March 20 Severe gale. No communication
with shore. Many boat from other transports
carried away & washed up on beach. We
f dragged our moorings & almost drifted
on to shore but have now taken up a 
new position in deeper water. It is reported
that General Sir Ian Hamilton has arrived
to take charge of our expedition. Six of the other
transports left harbour two days ago to make
a demonstration on Turkish coast. They returned
yesterday before the gale rose.
March 22 Severe weather has continued making
communication with shore difficult. News received
of loss of Ocean & Invincible & French Cruiser in
Dardanelles. May delay our landing.
March 23^rd Received orders to move our equipment
in pontoons to 'Gloucester Castle' and sail with all
our unit. No pontoons arrived. Severe weather
still continuing. Went on board 'G. Castle at 2.30
& very courteously received by O.C. who had prepared
for our arrival. Explained our difficulty & that our

brigadier had been unable to provide transport.
Gloucester Castle sailed without us at 4 p.m.
Sorry to miss her as she had plenty of
room was a comfortable off ship, well found
& with pleasant officers. She was carrying
Marine Reservists, & was under orders to
return to Alexandria till required.
March 24^th Proceeded to the Dunluce Castle
at 10 am. by order of D.D.M.S., Line of Communications,
Colonel Maher, who wanted to see me re
medical stores. Met General McGrigor,
General Officer Commanding Lines of Communication.
Both very pleasant. Was weather bound on 
board till 3 pm owing to heavy sea
running, then got towed to Mudros.
Lunched on board. Heard that we were
likely to have to wait three weeks before
landing & would go back to Alexandria
(presently) during interval. Capt Gilmour
R.A.M.C. in Egyptian service very pleasant.
Mudros very amusing with its cosmopolitan
gr crowd, chiefly French & Australians. French
Officers' funeral. Amusing conversations with
French soldiers. Greek children much
prettier & more innocent in their games
than those one saw in Egypt when there
seems very little childish happiness.
Wind abated somewhat at sundown so rowed
back to ship with some difficulty, about three
miles. L. Corp Westwood, Allschook, & Co a hefty
crew. Captain Matter negotiating to exchange

into 1^st Aust. Stationary Hospital nice Captain (Hon.
Major) J. Corbin, who is anxious to join our unit.
Mattei hopes to get more chance of sanitary
work with 1^st A.S.H. & Corbyn will be our of
more use to us c in surgical work.
March 26^th About mentioned exchange effected.
Visited the Brigadier, Col. E.C. Sinclair-MacLagan
D.S.O. O.C. Detached force Australian Division, on
the 'Ionian'. Sent wire to Egypt for more drugs
for Advanced Depot. Informed by him that it had
been originally intended to land Clearing Hospital
at Lemnos, now the 1^st Stationary Hospital is fixed
there. Also by being transferred to Gloucester Castle
it was intended to attach us to Brigade of Marines
who have no hospital in Lines of Communication.
By missing that transport it is now likely wee
we will be left at Lemnos after all. Hope not.
March 29^th Still nothing doing. Landed with unit
Practiced loading boats with wounded from beach.
Officers tried their horses, most of us for first time
as up to the present they have only had gentle exercise
to take off stiffness of long voyage from Australia.
Mine, a black mare, has good walking pace &
fair canter. Nearly all the transports have
left English for Alexandria & French for Malta
we think. The Inflexible came in after all her mishap
a week ago & being afterwards beached at
Tenedos. She lost 36 men who were drowned
when watertight compartment was closed on ship
being mined. The Implacable has arrived & there
are six Battleships in bay. We are warned that
aircraft of enemy are known to be outside the
Dardanelles & again ordered to be strict about
showing no lights. Today was very fine. The
spring flowers are coming on apace, notably the
rannunculi, poppies, & forget-me-not. The transports all fly
the red ensign (merchant service) instead of blue under
instruction to disguise in every way their business

April 2^nd Have had several rides. Horses shaping
well. One day visited French Hospital d'Evacuation.
150 beds, very good equipment. Established at Mudros.
There are also at between 1 & 2 thousand Senegalese
soldiers. Yesterday visited Hospital ship 'Soudan'
P. & O. She is for Navy only. Everything very nice.
Today wind very strong. Sailed to Mudros. French
Hospital Ship 'Canada' came in about 10,000 tons.
News of airships trying to drop bombs on Huns.
Canopus & another near Dardanelles. Their spies
arested in Mudros. Large mail came in but
none for Clearing Hospital. It is now five 
weeks since we had letters.
April 4^th Rode to Kastion with Majors Richmond, Gordon,
& Corbin Captains Campbell & Boddam. We left ship
at 8.30 met horses at 9.30 & reached Kastion
about 12. Cold day. Part of journey over hills,
pretty. Volcanic rocks & larva. Hot spring, 104^oF.
used as bath, beer available. At Kastion we found
the Greek troops celebrating Paque at the Barracks.
We put up our horses there & joined them. Two
officers knew a little English & more French. We
heard their singing of patriotic songs & they
promised to join us at Constantinople. We got
back to Mudros Bay to find the Maldie had been
moved to new anchorage. Greek boat took us
off in the rain. A hot bath warmed us up &
took off  stiffness of 30 miles ride.
April 5^th Blowing a gale. nothing doing.
   "     6 Gale continued.
   "     7 Received orders to tranship to SS Ionian
Horses to S.S. Suffolk. Niyan alongside taking
A.S.C. wagons. Hydroplane steamer Amire Riknos
beached on account of heavy weather affecting
repairs of hole in bottom. Some of the tents of
Stationary Hospital on shore blown down.

*Lt Commander Carter, afterwards Naval
Beach officer at Anzac & killed by
shrapnel on pier in my sight.

April 8^th Alongside Ionian tan transhiping our
equipment which is about 35 tons weight & about
55 tons measure. Horses embarked in Suffolk first 
& afterwards transferred to Nizam. Sent Sergt.
Syme & 4 men in charge of them.
April 11^th Visited HMS Queen Elizabeth the latest thing
in battleships. She was only commissioned in January.
Shown over by a Lieutenant * who took no end of
trouble. Saw every part of ship 15 inch guns,
submerged torpoedo tubes (16 torpoedoes) sick bay &c
Shell for 15" gun weighs nearly 1 ton, gun itself
97 tons. Antiaircraft guns. The Lieutenant had
been in Audacious when she was mined off
N coast of Jutland last year. Her loss has
been kept secret but rumours got out. No loss
of life. He lost all his gear. The holes where
Q.E. had been struck by shells recently in
Dardanelles were all visible. One into ward room
another into gun room, one into paint store, one
exploded inside a funnell, another perforated the
deck. None did any harm except wrecking contents
of cabins &c. Of course these hits were
outside area of armour. She sails tomorrow
for Dardanelles again. The new orders of the
1^st Australian Division (less light horse) have
arrived also several large transports with
English troops on board.
Ap 12^th Landed with Capt Campbell & about 15 men.
Took them for march of about 10 miles. From top
of hill counted 30 large transports in bay also
as many more warships (British, French, Russian,
& Greek) colliers, oilships, supply ships, aeroplane ships,
repair ships, hospital ships & numerous small fry,
trawlers used as mine sweepers, destroyers, submarines
etc. A fine sight. The transports are lying side
by side in pairs for economy of space. Gen. Birdwood
arrived & visited ship. Had a talk to him about
Hospital matters. Lt Col Weir, O.C. 10^th Battalion, which is 
on board Ionian with us, is pleasant. The same can

 [*xxx*]

not be said of his officers & men with one or
two exceptions. The ship was in filthy state when we
came on board. I had Major Corbin appointed as
Sanitary Officer. By dint of hard fighting with
the ships officers who all obstructed, he has succeeded
in getting troop decks &c clean. The men of
10^th are affected with vermin & we fear our
men will become infected also. This ship has
been used for transporting Indian troops & was
not properly cleaned & disinfected before
putting whites on board. Our cabins & the
catering is are inferior to Malda.
Dec April 15^th Was sent for to Headquarters of 1^st Australian
Division on board. Transport Minnoska a very
fine Atlantic Liner. It was to see General
Carruthers A.A.G. (he has been lately promoted
since I met him in Egypt) & Colonel Howse V.C.
A.D.M.S. to the Division. The question was one
of suitable evacuation over of wounded During
the attack on Gallipoli Peninsula, & the share
the Clearing Hospital (or the Casualty Clearing
Station as it is now called) is to take in
the proceeding. Owing to difficulties in
landing no horses will be used at first.
The ^3^rd brigade I have been with on Lemnos for
the last 7 weeks will have the honour of
making the initial landing. They will be
taken to their landing place in battleships &
landed at about a little before daybreak. It
is known that there are numerous concealed
batteries in the neighbourhood which is reason for
using battl armoured vessels. A few hours (?) after
they will be reinforced by another brigade which will
land from four transports. As it is very likely one
or all of these will be sunk they are nicknamed the

*Skeen
Hero ships. Our unit will accompany them & land
shortly after the brigade. Landing on beach from
boats or pontoons towed by naval pinnaces. We
are to take only a portion of our equipment but
most of our personnel. (5 or 9 officers & 60 out of 74
other ranks) We will attend wounded & try
and evacuate by means of boats to Hospital
Ships. The Bearer Sections of Field Ambulance
will accompany 3^rd Brigade but the First
Division (Col Sutton & Major Butler) will land
much later. If all goes well we may hope to
get more equipment landed a day or two
later but we have to be prepared for a
smashing & having to get out in a hurry.
A rather amusing incident happened while
discussion of situation was going on. Several
staff officers had been drawn into it Major
White & another brainy man Ske* the G.SO whose
name I dont know. He was explaining
the situation & made several remarks indicating
that in his opinion the attacking force would
be so severely handled that the so-called
Hero Division Brigade would be wiped out. A
little later he said the O.C. Casualty Clearing
Station should be here to have his instructions
'Here he is'. said Carruthers & Howse indicating
that I was standing behind him. He was
rather taken aback & apologised saying if he
had known I was there he would not have
said all he had about the prospects of our
unit. Cheerful wasn't it? We will be

expecting about 1200 casualties during the first 24 hours.
We are not taking any thing ashore except
portion of medical equipment, blankets & a few
tents for patients. Water will be a great difficulty
I am arranging to take as much as possible
We may succeed in digging a well & filtering the
result. I stopped to dinner with Howse, meeting
Charles Bean, Major Glasford Capt Major Gellibrand
& others. As I could not get a signal through
to Ionian for boat I had to spend night,
sleeping in Howse's cabin.
April 16^th Inspected the Troopship Clan MacGilleving
as to her fitness to be utilised as an additional
hospital Ship with for slightly wounded cases.
Called to Hospital Ship Siliaia to see Janet
who was in great form. She is one of twelve
nurses four of whom are Tasmanians. D-F Bird
is onboard with his nurses & his son. I believe
he is to transport wounded from 29^th Division
British which is landing at extremity of the
peninsula. The French Division are to land on
coast of Asia Minor.
May 30^th Have to write up back parts of 
diary from notes. I was unable to take
it ashore at first & so had to leave
writing up till I again got my tin
box.
Our unit is in after the landing portion
consisting of O.C. Majors Richard & Corbin
Capt. O'Brien & Atkin & 60 other ranks

transferred from Ionian to Novian about Ap. 21^st
The Novian had on board the 5^th Battalion (Melb
Scottish) under Col. Wanliss. We greatly appreciated
the change as all the officers of this Regt. are
fine fellows. / On Ap 24^th we sailed from Mudros
at 11 a.m. th with piping ban pipe & drum
band playing. They made a fine show &
stirred us all up. Most of the pipers were
shot within the next 48 hours. We had a transport
rendezvous in bay north of Lemnos. We left
here on Saturday night (24^th) & slowly made for
Turkish coast. The men were all as cheerful as
if they were going to a picnic. Corbin kept
saying to me 'None of these fellows realise what
they are in for'. The men had a hot meal
about 2 o'clock & we officers a late supper
or early breakfast about 3. All lights were
extinguished but it was bright moonlight
till about 4 o'clock when the moon set &
it became reasonably dark. It was very exciting
creeping in towards shore nothing visible
but the stern light of the ship we were
following & the dim shaddow of a ship on
each side. About 4.45 it began to get
faintly light & we eagerly awaited the first
sound of alarm from the shore which was
now visible. We knew our covering force
must be close in shore by now. A few minutes
later a bright light flashed on shore. The alarm
had been given. Directly after heavy firing could
be heard & we knew our lads were getting their

first 'baptism of fire'. Soon after a distinct cheer
was heard which was encouraging. The first tow
consisting of about a dozen boats towed by picket
boats now came for our men about 350 of whom
left the ship. As day broke we could see them
approaching the shore & the water fairly boiling
round them from rifle & maxim fire. There were
also some shrapnel bursting rather short from a
battery at Kaba Tepe. 2 miles south of our
landing place. We could see the Turks on the
sky line clearing our as our lads chased them
out up the hills. Our transport was lying just
outside a battleship about two miles off shore.
There were 3 or 4 more battleships at intervals
along the shore, destroyers rushing in & out as they
conveyed troops ashore & other transports there about
as near shore as ourselves & four more half
a mile further out their numbers well out &
waiting their turn to land troops. The warships
began to fire at cerat certain points where they
knew the Turks had guns. esp. at Kaba Tepe. The
Bacchante stood close in & gave this point a
severe handling but the Turkish guns were so well
concealed that this battery was not altogether silenced
till the evening of 30^th. Our unit landed about 10
a.m. We would have been ashore sooner but some
rather big howitzer shells were fired at us one of
which burst quite close so we & the neighbouring transports
up-anchored & made for a safer spot a
couple of miles further out. As it was I had to leave
most of our gear to follow with Capt. Atkins. We
landed in comparative safety as there was no rifle