Correspondence between Herbert Vincent Reynolds and his family, 1914-1915 - Part 7

(4)
foundation as the troops are
behaving exceedingly well
under the trying circumstances
and none of the Sebas boys need
be ashamed of the conduct of
any of their number. This place
is about the worst that could
be found for any troops, and
it is disgraceful the manner in
^which the papers are trying to make
the people of our home country
beleive, that the troops, themselves
are the cause of the large death
rate here, the fact of the matter
is the trouble is caused by the
sand, the sickness that is taking
the men off is pneumonia, and
tha the way the men have to
lay about is no wonder that there
is so much of the sickness here

(3)
Take us reinforcements for instance
there are 14 of us we left the boat
with 3 tins of beef (2 lb) betwen 4 of
us and 6 biscuits each, that was
supposed to do for dinner and
tea that day, next we had our
great coats and a 4 x 4 blanket to
sleep in that night, and it was
that cold that we could not sleep
so some of us got up and walked
about to keep warm, next day

there was not any hot tea for
breakfast, let alone any thing to
eat besides dry bread. we had
3 single blankets issued to each
man and had to sleep on the damp
cold sand without a waterproof
sheet and have had to do so
untill a fortnight ago. and
then they blame the troops

(6)
for the great amount of
sickness that they have
here. We are all right now
we have plenty of food and
do not have to sleep on the
bare ground, we do not mind
the hardship and the risk of
sickness but when they start
blaming the men for the quantity
of sickness it is time to go
crook about it. I have been
all right so far, but one of the
reinf was in hospital for a
fortnight, and one has been sent
back as he cannot stand the
training here, it is by no means
a soft job here in the sand, the
days are very hot and the nights
are very cold a heavy dew falls
of a night. Hoping you are all well
yours truly Bert

Mrs H Reynolds
Albert St
Sebastopol
Ballarat
Victoria
Australia
April 9^th 1915
[*On active service
no stamps available
Pte HV Reynolds No 622*]

1^st Field Ambul
1^st Aust Div
AIEF
Egypt
Frid 26^th March
Dear Mother
I received your letter
of Feb 23^rd last Tues and was pleased
to hear that you are all well, I have
been off colour a bit for the last few
days, but am all right now, I thought
that I was getting a touch of tonsilitus,
like I had on the boat but it did
not come to that although I had a
very crook throat. I am sorry to hear
that Grannie is not too well. You
say in your letter you expect that I

have to wait a good while for my
letters well 4 in 14 weeks is rather
encouraging, and I will write no
more untill a few letters come along

(2)
I will be much obliged if you send
along a paper occasionally, a weekly
one like punch, it will pass away
a few spare hours, besides we get very
little news of home, here at all.
No doubt you are wondering about the
photo, that I mentioned in the
last letters, well we could not get
our money refunded for them, so
we had to make them do, I posted
mine in Cairo yesterday along
with a metal broch for Florrie, it
is rather late for her birthday but
nevertheless it will serve the purpose,
it cost me 4/- it is only metal but
it was about the best artical I
thought of, hope they reach you all
right. We are not sending one of
the photos to the council as there
is not enough in it. and it is

(3)
not a decent photo even, and we
paid enough for them 2/- each.
Those in the photo are from left to
right are Jock Whidburn, J Humphries
B Smith, R Telfer, J Allen, Jensen
and J Kimberly standing. F Stevens
myself, _ JW Madden, J Kernick,
_ and J Raine, sitting, both
of the Jensens are here in camp.
The Pyramid in the background
is the Kheops (Cheops) or Great Pyramid
at the time the photo was taken
the top was covered with soldiers
who had climbed it, a height of
450 odd feet. A soldier can be seen
behind the group, arguing with a
native over the price that of a
ride back to camp on his camel.
It was a bit of bad luck loosing
the two battleships in the Dardenelle

(4)
I remember the cheer that the
Ocean's boys gave us as we passed
here in the canal, on our way
to Port Said. All the troops on
our boat stood in ranks along
the decks at attention while
passing her and the sailors on
the battleship done the same,
it is a fine sight the two lines
of blue along the decks. I was
in Cairo yesterday with the chap
Clark, we went to see the Indian
soldiers who were wounded in the
fighting along the canal, a new
batch of wounded arrived when
we were there, they are in very
comfortable quarters in the Citadel
hospital, all the nurses are their
own ar AMC men and they can
shew our hospitals that is our field

(5)
hospitals. where there are only the
men, to look after the patients
points, most of the fellows could
not understand our language, but
every where you turn you hear
Salam which is their good-day,
we had a bag of oranges with
us and they soon went, we came
across a couple of officers (native
officers) who could almost speak
our language as well as ourselves
and we spent the best part of an
hour chatting to them, one was a
Major and the other a le Lieutenant
and they are mourning their ill
luck at being here, although taking
things ^cheerfully as they come, I have never
seen a more cheerfull lot of men
in the army, than the Indians
here. I asked one if he wanted to

(6)
go back to India, and he laughed
at the idea and said "Germans
now, Turks no" "no Germans, no
Turks" "go back India". they are
set on having a go at the germans.
Most of the wounds are caused by
bullets and some very narrow
escapes from serious injury are to
be seen. A little Gurka has a hat
here he hangs on too, as if if it were
gold, he was laying down firing
when a bullet went through his
hat an inch from his head in
the rim, and went in his shoulder
and out of his armpit. We went
through the Mohamed Aly Mosque
at the Citadel it is a wonderfull
place, the dome is the largest that
I have seen,and the windows are
all coloured glass, the walls are