Letter from Granville de Laune Ryrie to Fred Flemming, 4 December 1915

PR82/8
[[JW ?]]
Kindly return this
letter when finished well
I did not receive the
last letter I left with you
and you forget to send it
on

F J Flemming
Avenue Road
Horton Hill
 

Ryries Post
Gallipoli
Dec 4^th 1915
My dear Fred.
I am very much afraid that
a lot of my Xmas letters xx are at the bottom
of the Sea including one to yourself. I put
in a lot of time & work writing letters & cards
and a barge taking 250 bags of our Mail
out to the Steamer foundered so I am afraid my
work was for nothing. I cant remember quite
what news I gave you, but I got back here
all right after being away for just a month
with my wound, and I had a pretty lively
time ever since as I found when I got back
that the Turks were working to get possession
of a ridge, from which they could infilade
the back of this post and of course they could
not be allowed to do this. I fancy I wrote
this to you before & the letter may have
reached you. I also wrote to the three local
papers & gave them some information of the
scrapping we had. It was very hot and I
am prouder than ever of my gallant fellows
who know no fear. Unfortunately I lost about
 

100 killed & wounded, and we got from
a Turkish prisoner the information that
they had lost 500 men in the attack so
that was 5 times our loss. We are still digging
sapping and tunnelling and the work is heavy
& our numbers are getting very low, you will
understand something of the wastage here
when I tell you that I have lost from this
Brigade since landing here 3150 Officers &
men. The weather has been something terrible
lately, last week was just about the limit
of human indurance, it rained, snowed, blew a
blizzard and froze all at once, then was
about 3 inches of snow on the ground and the
trenches were in a terrible state and many of the
troops had no cover, and numbers now are
suffering from frost bite and some will lose
their toes. I never thought any place could be
so cold, all water was frozen into blocks of ice
and stone jars & bottles & tins were burst, and
when the blizzard was at its height and it 
was pitch dark at 4 in the morning the Turks
attacked this post with fixed bayonets and
got right up to the wire in front of our trenches
but our lads beat them off in fine style
and there are 21 dead ones lying outside & 

several were seen being dragged into their
own trenches and some badly wounded ones
we allowed them to take, So things have
been fairly milling old man and our fellows
are beginning to get a bit played out, they
have been 7 months continuously fighting in
the trenches and I have only been away the
time I was wounded, and I got back in
a month whereas most of the fellows take
3 & 4 months. Thank goodness the weather
is a bit milder now but we must expect
even worse than we have had and I dont
know how we are to stand it. They promised us
stores, and iron & timber, but I expect they will
all come along when the hot weather starts
next summer.
Well goodbye old chap and drop me
a line & remember me to the boys.
Yours sincerely
Granville Ryrie
P.S. You can give any of this information to the
press if you like.
GR
 

Granville Ryrie
PASSED BY
No 2252
CENSOR

Fred Fleming Esq.,
"Saintonge"
Avenue R^d
Hunters Hill
N S W
Australia
 

[[HUNTER?]]

N.S.W.