Correspondence between Field Marshal Lord William Birdwood and Lady Janetta Birdwood, 1915 - Part 11

mortuis nil nisi bonum" and I fancy he was a fine
soldier & how Minnie was evidently quite devoted to him, 
though apparently she hadn't always cause to be so. However
I know she will feel this terribly & it must be all the worse

for her, the boy being such a young bounder as apparently
he is? How is she left off? Fairly well I hope - and I wonder
what she will do - Your Father will dread the idea of her wanting
to stay indefinitely at Thurlby. Poor thing I do feel sorry for
her, for I fancy she is rather helpless while I am sure she is
most awfully good hearted - and her appearance is so against
her unless perhaps she has decided to alter this!
I see that that nice Capt. Auld has been wounded & is apparently 

a prisoner in Germany - a bad look out.

I forget if when I first wrote to you about old Sir G. Reid
I also mentioned a M^r. Mackenzie. He is the High Commissioner
for New Zealand & such a nice fellow, very different to Sir G
who is always so full of self confidence & bon homie. Mackenzie
is a much more retiring & rather shy man but such a sterling
good fellow, whom I would describe as one of nature's
gentlemen. A Scotchman who possibly migrated to N.Z. as 

a child or perhaps as his Father did so. I mention him as
he was writing to me last week & talked about having
just been to see some N.Z. wounded & I told him I was
sure you'd be glad to see any if you were in town
again later on - so if he writes to you, you will
know who he is. He is the Hon. T. Mackenzie, C.M.G.
if you want to know how to address him.
Do you remember our going out to India in the

 

2) "Sicilia" in 1902 & taking Chris as a small boy I
fancy. I have ∧^her here now on one of my hospital ships ( &
go on board occasionally (when things are quiet) to see the
wounded before they are taken off to Egypt. Wounded are
taken on board every day, & when she is full up she goes off
& another ship relieves her. With these submarines about the
hospital ship is the only one we can keep lying at anchor
& so far the Germans have not attempted to attack her,
though I should never be surprised if they do so one of
these days!

I find the best thing to do here is to have a mixed lunch -
tea meal!  I generally start off round my trenches at about
9 & get back about 3.30. I fear that neither Onslow or
Churnside who take it in turns to come with me appreciate
late hours very much.  I mean not getting back in time
for them to have lunch, but at times I do get back. They
are both of them now quite accustomed to bullets &
shells & have become old soldiers! But my whole position
is now very much safer than it was as I have trenches cut
through every spur & traverses across every path around
the hills, so we can move about with a great
feeling of safety. The first months or so, I always
felt it was just a doubt if one would get back
safely from the morning's outing, so I used to post
you a letter before I started. Now it is ever so
much safer though of course bullets keep flying

 

over head in many places & in the trenches I 
was in this morning they kept spattering around the loopholes 

in the trenches - a great satisfaction when you are safely
inside to hear the thud on the sand bag & to see the sand 

flying harmlessly about!

You don't mention if you ever saw Col. Fitz or Lord K.
when in London? I do hope you did.

You will have got my letter telling you to write to James
Watson & ask him to invest all spare money we have at 
the Bank. If you have not already done so, better do it now, &
get him to invest xx the total balance - you must tell
him what it is - as you will be getting more early each
month. The last 2 letters I have got of yours are dated 26
& 27 May - Have you seen M^rs. Townshend? I see her Charlie
is up. I imagine Commanding a Division - under Genl. Nixon in
Mesopotemia, at present probably between Basrah & Baghdad
in the Country I went over that winter I was up there.
The heat there now must be perfectly awful, while I
doubt if there will be much fighting, as most of the Turks
have come across to oppose us here.

It is getting quite hot here & we are starting that awful 

curse of all the East, a plague of flies. They are in
myriads everywhere & make life in the trenches very
trying. Thank goodness the faithful Onslow has been 

able to get hold of some mosquito netting which 

makes life much more bearable.

Surely Thurlby will be quite quiet & not crowded
when you go back? Judy's family will I suppose be

 

3) there, but otherwise I suppose only you & Kate: Robin
I see has gone to Brisbane - I doubt how he will like it
after a bit.
I have heard a good deal about the Northcliffe (Times &
Daily Mail) attack on Lord K from Clive Wigram - Lord N.
& Rebington apparently went to stay with French & picked up all
sorts of gossip from his Staff about shortage of ammunition
etc. & then began this attack. A Counter attack by the
anti - Northcliffe-ites was only just stopped or there might
have been a big scandal.  Lrd K's garter & the general
display of feeling against the Times & D.M. is about the best
answer that could have been given, though I knew how annoyed
dear old K. will have been about it all.
Poor Genl. Aitken. I am sorry for him, though I must say
he seemed to me to have made a most unholy mess
of the whole East African Expedition.
I'm so glad you met M^rs Hancock as I was sure you
would like her & I hope you may see her again, as she
really is a genuine nice creature who can say & do things
which no one but an American can, & if you talk to her
for half an hour, her amusing expressions will make you die
with laughter. I suppose she is having a bit of spell off from
nursing in her Belgian hospital.
Have you seen M^rs Lotbiniėre at all? I hope so, for she
too is so nice - she is a perfect dear. I have just
had to send him to Egypt to try & get me some water

 

boats, or we will find ourselves with no water
here to drink! I first sent him to see Sir Ian about this
& I really felt quite flattered when he came back &
said Sir Ian had been very nice about me, & had said
I always reminded him of Lord Roberts! I do indeed
call that the greatest praise possible for Lord R was
splendid & in many ways a most ideal & loveable
character - while he certainly proved himself one of the 

finest & greatest of Englishmen of our time.
Goodbye my own little lamb. All my love to you
& the children always.
Ever your very loving old
Will.

 

 

Med. Expdy. Force
June 15
1915
My own little girl.
We have been having for us a comparatively quiet
time of it lately, as I fancy the Turks have come to the conclusion 

that it is a rather expensive work attacking us - they have 

lost so much of every occasion - more than I at first thought. 

From letters we have found on dead Turks we find that xx time 

xxing xxeas after time there are entries of their losses, & on 

one occasion when I attacked some of their trenches & had
a good fight, but of which I didn't think very much, they acknowledged to have had 600 killed & 2000 wounded. We 

cannot advance until a general movement can be made, & in 

the mean time the Turks have made tremendous entrenchments 

all around my position & unless I can succeed in a plan
I have made, I shall have the very greatest difficulty &
suffer very heavy losses when we have to advance. In the 

mean time I am doing all I can to make them waste 

their ammunition & resort to one ruse after another - last night 

I should think they might have got through about 100,000 rounds 

as we managed to scare them properly & think they were 

going to be attacked in force - tonight I really do want 

to take one of their trenches, & I hope they will then think 

it is only a cry of wolf & not be fully ready.
The Turks we find are full of respect for my men

 

as we have just seen in one of their reports that they
look upon them as fiercer fighters than the Bulgarians! 

The Germans had told the poor Turks that the Australians 

were savages - that they never gave quarter, cutting 

the throats of all prisoners - and that some of them were 

even canabals! This was of course done to prevent desertion 

as I fancy a lot of their men would really give anything to 

come in if only they dared do so!  I can't think their 

hearts are in it and it is only the German influence &

Enver Paster who makes them stick to it. The big Russian 

reverse in Gallicia is a real bad business as far as we 

are concerned, for we had looked to them to co-operate near
Constantinople and by having a good force there to prevent 

the Turks sending more troops here - as it is I much 

fear they will not have men to send there for a long 

time, and more Turks can then flow down here -
unless of course Greece, Bulgaria & Roumania, or
any others should come down really strong on our
side. Greece I fancy will do so very soon, & will 

then possibly be followed by one of the others.
We still get a lot of casualties I am sorry to
say daily, but not nearly so many as we
had during our first fortnight here - the

2)
annoying fact is, that so many of those now killed
or wounded are from stray shots - which is how
poor Genl. Bridges was killed - which is so annoying.
The parcel from Harrods has just arrived & I am so glad 

to get it little one, for it contains just the things I want - 

indeed I was at the point of writing to ask you to send a 

khaki shirt as I couldn't find a spare one or my beloved 

"khaki twill lining" ones which I always wear, & as a 

matter of fact I asked Edie to get some for me from the 

[[Eli?]] Mills a short time ago. it is nice cool absorbent 

stuff & a fast dry.  It is getting quite hot here but - a

blanket is nice at night, but is no longer really necessary, while 

one gets very hot going round the trenches every day - however 

it does one good & I am glad to say I am very fit - what we
should do without the sea I don't know - men off duty simply 

rush down to it for their swim, & I enjoy one every day if I can 

manage it & no alarm or heavy firing stops it.
If you go down to Clifton for the Commemoration I think 

you might well suggest going on to see Isabel at Chepstow 

I am sure she would really appreciate your doing 

so & you could take Nancy there & leave her. It is only 

a very short distance from Bristol & you go by a tunnel 

under the mouth of the Severn. I think I told you 

she had written asking if Nancy could go to them on 

her return home, so you may just as well write 

& ask if it would be convenient now. It is such

 

a pretty place & has so many interesting places near
it such as Chepstow, Raglan & Monmouth Castles & the 

really lovely old Tintern Abbey that I'm sure you will 

quite enjoy a few quiet days there & Nancy could stay on 

with their girls. In any case Isabel would at once say if 

they couldn't have you. How are you sleeping little one? I 

do hope quite well. I have had no letter for ever so long - 

posts are most erratic.
I made an attack on some of the enemy's trenches last night 

& was successful up to a certain extent, in that we got right 

in & turned the Turks out - but then they came along in large numbers with an enormous number of very large bombs 

which they hurled into the trench from all sides, as they 

had a regular ramification of [[?]] around their firing trench
 My fellows stuck this till dawn, then I am sorry to say
decided they could do so no longer & came away, which 

has annoyed me very much as I had hoped to make this a 

pivot from which to seize a lot more trenches further 

on. However we killed a good many of them & 

captured 24 prisoners - which all counts, & we 

didn't lose much ourselves.

You will like to see the enclosed rather amusing letter
from an old Battn of mine in the 11th!
Goodbye my own sweetheart. All my love
Ever your very loving old 
Will

 

3

DRL

3376 (15)

 

Med Expdy Force

June 15 -1915

 

We have been having for us a comparatively

quiet time of it lately as I fancy the 

Turks have come to the conclusion it is rather

expensive work attacking us. They have lost

so much on every occasion - more than I at

first thought. From letters we have found on

dead Turks we find that time after time there

are entries  of their losses, and on one occasion

when I attacked some of their trenches & had

a good fight but of which I didn't think very

much, they acknowledged to have had 600

killed & 2000 wounded. We cannot advance

until a general movement can be made &

in the mean time the Turks have made 

tremendous entrenchments all round 

my position & unless I can suceed in 

a plan I have made I shall have the

very greatest difficulty & suffer heavy losses

when we have to advance. In the mean

time I am doing all I can to make them