Letters from Sister Corfield during 1915 to her best friend Lizzy Ryland - Part 2

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the conclusion that our men are Britons. They
look after us well & give us a good time & no
nonsense. Two Melbourne boys motored us to
Barrage - the great water scheme - that
regulates the supply of water for irrigation
over Egypt & holds the rest for ordinary
water supply - it is a wonderful arrangement
& after the engineer explaining it for half an
hour I am afraid I could not give a very
clear paper on the subject - the gardens
out there are wonderful, lawns & trees
& flowers everywhere - afterwards we went
a sail on the Nile - then home (20 miles) in
rain & heavy roads - we enjoyed every
minute of it. I must close now or I shall
have this letter censored or stopped or something.
Heaps of love to your Aunt & of course
to you dear Lizzie from
Your loving friend
A.B. Corfield
address letters to No 15 Alexandria as usual
I must go & have dinner & then (if Matron
retires early) I might go for a drive. Love from Beryl

present there are only 16 pts but when the
convoy arrives then things will hum
with a vengeance. The hospitals in
Alexandria are very slack at present
since the evacuation of Gallipoli. I only
[[hope?]] it will last in one way. But of
course things cannot go on like this 
the war would never end. We [[first?]]
have 1700 patients in this hospital but
they are closing down 500 beds this week
as they want to get back to its ^former 1000.
Matron has gone away for a week &
we are quite enjoying it (even if she doesn't
enjoy the holiday). Be sure & write me a
nice long letter soon as I love to
hear from you all at home. How I
wish you were here, what a great yarn
we would have - Give my love to
Miss Blackburn. I hope she is alright
& having as good a time as is possible at
present. With heaps of love to you Liz.
Your loving friend
A Beryl Corfield
 

[*You must forgive
me not writing often
as we work 14 & 15
hours a day. for three
weeks at a stretch
Love from Beryl*]
August 29^th 1915

My dear Liz,
I cannot remember when I last wrote
to you or what I wrote about so if I repeat myself
you must forgive me. We are two hours sail 
Gibraltar - on our way to England. All well
we expect to arrive there about Friday mid day.
it will depend on the weather. I have such lots to
tell you that I dont know where to start. I think
first of all I will tell you about Cape Hellas & Garbatepe.
On August 10th we sailed from Alexandria at 4 am.
We arrived in Mudros Harbour Island of Lemnos on
Thursday midday - at 6 pm we received orders
to go right on up to the peninsula. We sailed for Kephalos
bay (Imbros Island) at 7 pm. At 9 pm the excitement
began - all lights were lowered & we travelled at
the great rate of 3 knots an hour - in fact we
barely moved at all, we were going so slowly as
travelling is very dangerous - all the cruisers &
torpedo boats etc have no lights on them & apart
from the chance of a turkish or german submarine
there is always the chance of bumping into one of our own.
At 9 pm flashes began to appear. ahead it was they were
the shells bursting over the peninsula. We all stayed
 

2
up until midnight watching the flashes of the guns 
and the different warships going past. We were
all make to try on our life belts & leave them, with
a box of matches by the side of our beds. We crawled
away until dawn then at last the Cape (Hellas)
appeared in the distance at 7^am we entered Imbros
Harbour - it is so funny - you cannot enter the harbour
before dawn & after sunset. As the boombs are
closed. The boombs are sort of mines once they are closed
if you attempted to enter would be blown up,
& in the day time a submarine guards the
entrance. We spent a few hours at Imbros then received
orders to proceed over to the peninsula — We passed
right along side Garbatepe (renamed Anzac) the
Australian landing place. The new landing
place - and then drew into Cape Hellas (the
British landing place). Here we stayed for ten days
we could see the shells bursting in the trenches
& on the hills - all the smoke & dust would fly
everywhere, but the noise — Sometimes for 24 hrs
the constant boomb boomb would never stop
I used to feel that I would go mad if they didnt
stop — what our boys have gone through on that
peninsula God only knows. We were not allowed
to leave the boat, as shells were bursting just
 

3
near us on the beach. Some of the medical officers
landed at their own risk for a few hrs but we were
not allowed to. I think the worst sensation of all was
the noise & vibration when our our monitors fired. I
shall never forget the ^first Sunday night we were there,
as long as I live — our monitors were trying to put some
guns out of action on the Asiatic shore that were doing
a lot of damage. You know how in Queensland in a
bad storm there is a flash of lightning then at the same
time a crackling noise of thunder, which dies away with
a sort of vibration well that is as near as I can
describe it, only the vibration is terrific on the water
you feel as if it were in your own head & for some
minutes afterwards you are completely deaf. This
kept up for hours with intervals of five minutes. You
can imagine the condition our nerves got in. However next
morning we got word that they had silenced six of
them & also put our of action the wonderful
search light the turks had that kept guard of "The
Narrows". Of the wounded that followed all the
firing we heard each night I will say nothing
but you will imagine something of their cut up
conditions when I tell you we had 50 deaths on
the two days run to Malta afterwards. Oh Lizzie
you have not the faintest idea of what war is like
 

4
you dont know what we have been through - to sit & hear
the firing & see the dust & smoke & to know that in a
few hours the wounded will be brought on from that
very shell. Of the ones that are killed & that are so
bad that they dont bring them to us we hear nothing
If I were a soldier I should pray day & night to be killed
right out, but to see men come into your ward with legs
off arms off - mouth & tongue or lower jaw blown off
you would wonder what it is all for & with whom
the great reckoning will be. We can see "the hill" quite
clearly from where we were (Achi Baba is its name)
it is just a barren hill and oh what thousands of
lifes & hours of suffering it has cost. One day from the
deck we watched the turks from on the shore, shelling one
of our transports they nearly got her to - one shell burst
just in front another to the R. side - (needless to say
she made off) & landed the men safely - I began
to feel very uncomfortable for fear they would politely
land one on us. There was great excitement one day -
we got word to move out a bit as we were sheltered
a couple of ammunition ships that they wanted
to firex as we did not move as soon as they
said they treated us to a shell. By some chance
did not do any harm - I have a piece of the
shrapnel that we picked up on the deck afterwards
 

5
one shell went right over the operating room where Colonel
Sir [[Mayo?]] Robertson (London's greatest abdominal surgeon)
was operating. it only broke a couple of windows nobody
was killed. of course we had to move, they eventually
got the little boats but luckily there was not much
ammunition on them. It is nothing to be working about

on deck and all of a sudden a whiz in the air quite
near us an aeroplane having a look round - they
are very quick & seem to get quite near - they are our
own aeroplanes keeping a watch. they go off the 
boats in the morning & return at night - I suppose

fresh ones take their places at night. I have quite
a collection of things — now I have added to my collection
a piece of Cape Hellas lighthouse, & a piece of shell from
the guns of the 'Queen Elizabeth' (battleship) Of course
we see dozens of warships — torpedo boats cruisers
mine sweepers & submarines — we had three submarines
along side one day — you have heard of
the 311 (submarine) she did all that wonderful
work in the Sea of Marmora — Lt Commander Nasmith
is in commander she came along side one day
he came on board & had morning tea with us
he has a V.C. & heaven only knows what not
for the work he has done. I will have to cut this letter
short as time is getting on. After the ten days of
 

6
torture we set sail with our mangled heap of humanity
for Malta. Of course we must strike terribly rough
weather — I am a good sailor, never been sick actually
although I have felt a but squammy at times since
I left Sydney but the second day with 80 dreadful
cases to look after a strong head wind, a rough
sea & heat terrific & working in the hold of a boat
15 hours a day for 11 days — I actually "throwed up"
I did not have time to go to my cabin I just kept a
little basin xx handy in the bathroom & each time
that I thought I was going to die I only "throwed up"
and had to set to work with renewed vigour (excuse
the satire). That was a dreadful day — there is a song
called "The end of a perfect day" (beautiful thing it is) but the
end of that day was a total of 8 deaths for my
ward alone; my medical (who had been feeling off
for some days) officer went to bed with positive typhoid
two ^day orderlies off sick (seasick) & one of the night orderlies
died at 5 p.m of enteric (caught they think in my ward) of
the day sister (myself) I don't know — I felt so bad
that looking back on it all I can only remember
that I had a headache. However when I went to
bed at 11 pm that I night I prayed to be
delivered from Hell. My pray seems to have been
answered — for next morning at dawn we entered
 

7
Malta harbour - everything seemed calm - we sent all
our dreadful patients to hospitals near - the rest went
to different hospitals then came the order to fill up
with convalescents & go to England. So here I am
outside Gibraltar sailing for England - I am
on night duty - oh life is strange I can scarcely
believe that I - Beryl Corfield am the same girl
as the one that is on board the hospital ship bound
for England - I have 350 patients to look after but they
are not a ¼ of the work of my 80 last trip. I
wish you could see me running all over the ship
at night. up stairs, gangways, hatches, talk 
about a sailor - all the crew say I am as good
as any sailor, for you know we have most of our
lights out — we have sort of cots for the very sick
ones & the rest are on mattresses on the floor.
If I had as many pounds as times I have fallen
over mens boots & feet I would be a rich woman.
the mattresses are only about 6 inches apart —
one can walk between on tip toe so you can
imagine what it is like — men everywhere
on forms under tables & in the most unexpected
places — it is midnight. I am having an
excellent night out I have written this whole letter
 

8
& only been disturbed once. It is very funny up all
night on a ship yet it is beautiful too - it is
full moon tonight. Every ¼ hour you can hear
the man of the watch call "All [[bl?]] is well [[bl?]]"
or again you will hear "Lights on star
bow -Sir" and the reply from the bridge.
I - I. This goes on all night without stop
All the officers as they change watch come & see me.
It seems to be so strange that I am the only woman
awake among all the crowd of men & crew.
I know all the watches now! Since I left
Brisbane that morning that you all saw me off
i have only spent 16 nights on land - [[?]] counting
the one that I spent in the train going to Sydney
but even then I was in a bunk — that will be
up to the 4^th of Sept — so you see I am a sailor
I think. I will close now dear (as my pen
is now dry) heaps of love to you & your Aunt
& tell her I will never forget her Love from
[[?]]
Still address my letters to No 15 ^Hospital Alexandria
until I know what is going to happen when
I get to England.