Correspondence between Field Marshal Lord William Birdwood and Lady Janetta Birdwood, 1915 - Part 16

a new Australian Division & am using them entirely to 
relieve my old one which I am going to send off to Lemnos 
or Imbros for a complete month's rest where I hope they 
may be able to get into tents - have a daily wash with out 
fear of being shot & I hope get a look in at a canteen 
which is perhaps what they want as much as anything.
So many of them have got so weak that they really are
useless except to stand behind a wall & shoot. It seems
extraordinary that great strong men should get run
down in such a manner. What I have got to do, is to try
& get them to pick up before the winter as otherwise the
cold & damp here will find them out horrendously & half
of them will go down with pneumonia.
I heard from Maud the other day, telling me they had met  
you & Nancy some time ago - you never told me. I don't 
suppose you are likely to be seeing anything of them 
again just yet awhile. 
By the bye I wonder if you could remember to send  
me later on a Lett's Indian & Colonial Rough Diary 
No. 35 for next year.  I shall not of course want it 
till Xmas, so there is no sort of hurry about it, 
but you might make a note of it. 
Also what I do want is one bath towel - not 
a huge big one like those lovely ones your Father

2) has , but a moderate sized one that doesn't take up 
so much room.  Those I have here are getting torn to  
pieces. Also do you think you can get me a pair of 
slippers. I enclose the measurements of my foot: which 
I think should do to go by. I want something fairly substantial 
& not so big that one cannot walk about comfortably without 
them coming off! I walk down to the beach for my daily swim 
in them always & my present pair is about worn out. While I 
am on the subject of sending things out. Are you sending 
me your copies of the "Times" when done with at the end of the  
week? I very often do as a matter of fact see them regularly 
here, but sometimes do not, so a regular supply would
be nice, though of course cut out anything you ever want
before sending them. Wasn't that a fine Punch cartoon 
of Christ & the Emperor? It will go down with the one of  
"Letting down the Pilot". 
I had one more biggish fight since our big advance, in 
taking a hill on my left, during which we had nearly 
2000 casualties, but I am glad to say caused losses of 
at least between 4 and 5000 to the Turks. I am always 
hoping that these heavy losses may do something to 
weaken their opposition, And at present they don't 
seem to do so & goodness knows when they will. There  
is one thing I am sure of, that is that they are fearfully

keen on not having a winter Campaign here - but that  
they may not be able to avoid! I have just heard that  
Millbank was after all killed - one never knows what 
to believe. I met little Major Lance (19th Bn) yesterday 
who told me this - he is now with the Yeomanry & is 
officiating for Colonel Cole who he tells me got a  
rather nasty wound - a bullet through the shoulder 
& chest, so I daresay he may not be back here- at 
all events not for a long time- Lance himself has  
been here (with Bingo Byng's force) about 3 weeks & was 
looking very well. he is sure though to be hit soon- he 
always is!
I have just got your letters of 5th & 16th - The latter 
about a day before the former! The one of the 5th had 
I see been forwarded by the War Office to the office of  
the High Commissioner for Australia in the first  
instance & had marked on the back of it "Reported 
wounded but still performing duties 15-5-15". !! 
Rather un-necessary eh? On the 5th you wrote 
about Monk's son - you might let her know that 
I fear it came altogether too late for me to 
be able to do anything about it, for as you know I

3) had long ago seemed de Crespigny -& failing him 
I fear there are many others I would naturally take 
first though from his report he seems to be an excellent 
 boy.  I have recently had Angelsey away sick, & have to  
send Chirnside away to Egypt - also sick - but there really is 
very little for an A.D.C to do here & Angelsey is now back. 
You have been breaking out in the swimming line, going out 
of your depth, but even with Chris there I don't think it 
is very safe, so don't you try such larks again little 
one!  I must say Harefield seems a most charming  
little place & rather like what one would like to settle  
down in when we retire? Such places with the ideal  
little house are however astoundingly difficult to come by  
& there is always some fatal drawback of sorts - the house- 
the drains (or want of them) - distance from a station etc.  
Is Revel going to stay on with your father after the war 
when he is married?  If not your father certainly ought 
to take on my little Steward who is such an excellent fellow 
& I am sure would do him real well- a teetotaller -  always  
most willing & hard working, I fancy would turn his hand  
to anything & probably, learn to drive a motor in no time.  
I don't know how useful he would be though in other  
outside work. but by the end of this war, he should  
have learnt something about ponies- I am so glad 

you are seeing something of the men in the hospital & 
I am sure they will appreciate this - they are such real 
good fellows & so seldom have any complaints. All of  
the first lot though are fearfully close now & for the time 
being practically useless, so I am trying to get them 
all away for at least a month's rest to one of those Islands 
where the climate may not be different but where as they  
say they will at all events be able to sleep in comfort 
without the constant chances of shells & bullets - of the 
former I hardly remember one coming in at night since 
poor Onslow was killed, though of course we have lots all 
day.  The Turks however never seem to tire of rifle fire 
& some nights I hear bullets coming over at any & every 
hour when I am awake - irrespective of course of attacks 
or " draws" which we often carry out & make them 
waste thousands of rounds for nothing. The men thoroughly 
enjoy this & I always make an old Regt show every  
new lot what it means as otherwise new troops are 
liable to be alarmed when they hear machine guns & 
hundreds of rifles firing away just a few inches over 
their heads as hard as they can go- it makes an 
appalling din, especially the echoes in the valleys 
The contrast between my men & the newly landed  
Territorials  & this army is rather awful - my men seem 
almost able to eat two of them and it makes one 

4) think a bit- I am only afraid that it may make 
the Australians think that these are all this British Army 
can produce & that they are so much better than them 
I am glad to say that so far they get on together most 
capitally & are the best of pals. I now have the 54th  
Territorial Division (Genl Inglefield) with me, as well as my 
3 own Divisions - which should mean about 50,000 men - but  
alas all are so weak that we are very far short of that. 
Charlie Chitty's son has come as a Territorial Subaltern 
but haven't yet seen him 
Harcourt Butter has suddenly taken to writing the most 
affectionate & flattering letters, which nearly make one blush - 
very nice of him, but I cannot think why he should. 
 I fancy he got to Burma as LG in October & wrote 
last on his way back to India, as he is to be in Suvla 
for a bit now. 
What lovely places you seem to have found you at 
Harefield & it is certainly very nice for Nancy having 
friends like the Steddalls  & Harlands to go to 
from time to time for tea etc, Chris too I am sure 
enjoys his Bathe & it is nice of Mrs Goodlake 
to have allowed them to use her grounds. 
I can quite imagine Mrs Harland being rather alarming

but with 22 children, she will need be! Fancy 
having to look after a lot like that - why it must 
be worse than an Army Corps. 
I have written about [[?]] pension & will let you 
know as soon as I get a reply, for personally I have 
no knowledge of the [[?]] regulations about such  
things 
Goodbye little lamb & all my love to you 
always 
Ever your ever loving old 
Will

DONATED RECORDS LIST 
3376 
3rd series (15)

Med Expedit Force
19 Sept 15.
My own darling Jenny Jane..
I have had a lot to do the last few days settling up
things at Anzac before coming over here to Kephalo - on the
Island of Imbros to stay for ten days with Sir Ian - and I
must say it is very nice feeling one hasn't to think of
anything & can be in at absolute peace for the time being-
when I say in absolute peace though. I am wary, as they
recently started all their air ship sheds etc. close to where
Sir Ian has his. H.Q. This the Turks have just found out
& consequently are trying to bomb & destroy our machines
etc. Just before I arrived they made a raid &  dropped 8  bombs
which wounded 5 men & there last night just as were going to
dinner we heard a series of bangs quite close & found  
two Turkish planes right over us & very low down. They  
again dropped 8 bombs but did no harm. Even though it 
was bright moonlight it was impossible to see them unless  
they happened to get right between you & moon, though  
of course you heard them passing over & they seemed to be  
only just over the tents from the noise. They are  
jolly bad shots though & it will be bad luck if they do  
much harm - Capt. (now Col) Sykes who was in Suvla 

is here in charge of our air craft, some of which were 
at once sent off to retaliate by an attack on the Turkish  
sheds & though they came back saying they had smashed 
up things there, I rather doubt it. 
And I have had a new sensation on my first fly! I first  
of all went up in a small air ship which they have 
recently got, & we just flew about round this place for 
10 minutes or so at a height of about 700 ft . It was  
quite nice though there was a strong wind & she kept 
diving her nose down & then bringing it up again. 
As soon as we got back I heard a tremendous lot of 
heavy gun fire going on at Anzac which is only 
about 12 miles off & as it might have been a Turkish 
attack I thought I might as well go over there, so I  
got on an aeroplane and off we went! I was piloted by  
a Capt Samson R.N whom you may have heard of - earlier  
in the war he did some rather famous flights in France  
& is I fancy a very good man. The actual starting off  
is I think the most alarming part of it # as  
you taxi along the ground at about 60 miles an  
hour before getting into the air - directly you are in  
the air it is all right and one feels nothing at all  
in the way of being alarmed. We went up to 7000  
ft & even that is not high enough to be safe from 

2) enemy's shells- we went over at about 70 miles an  
hour & Samson said we might have been doing nearly 
100 on part of the way back - At the same time you don't 
have any feeling of going at an awful pace, though 
of  course there is the terrible rush of air past you the  
whole time & it whistles & howls through the sails- which combined  
with the roar of the engines & propeller makes it impossible 
to hear anything. It gets very cold too. I was given special clothes 
in which you would think it was impossible to feel cold. A 
Complete airtight thick leather suit lined with thick 
wool. Cap & all complete & even then it was pretty cold 
Flying right over the peninsula it all looked so extraordinarily
easy and it seemed quite impossible to believe that we couldn't 
get over those few miles as of course it all looks so 
smooth & flat.  But when right over and looking down on 
our positions you saw all the huge network of Turkish trenches
stretching all over the hills and going right back for miles.
The bombardment had practically ceased when I got over 
there, but one could still see shells falling in different  
places - men moving I couldn't see at all. After circling 
over we turned round & came back again. Landing 
seems quite difficult but I must say Samson brought 
us down beautifully. 
Sir Ian and Braithwaite both seem very well as does 
Pollen who is always so very nice to me and Winston