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