Correspondence between Field Marshal Lord William Birdwood and Lady Janetta Birdwood, 1915 - Part 3

services on board - Communion &

Church parade - both held by the Methodist

Chaplain- such a good fellow who spoke

very nicely to the men & I made them a small

speech too.

Well little one my own, by this time next

week we may well be engaged in heavy

fighting & I hope may have succeeded in doing

what have never yet I believe been done in

history (except perhaps at the battle of Hastings)

viz. to have effected a landing on an

open hostile shore in the face of organized

& determined opposition which we are likely

to meet: much must of course depend on

the success of our plans - in deceiving them

as to our landing place etc - while we

are very much at the mercy of the weather.

A strong wind getting up  suddenly might

frustrate everything! However at this time

3) of year the weather should be more

settled & we must hope for a day or two of

quite calm sea. For you can

S.S."MINNEWASKA."

imagine what a business it is

trying to land an Army, with all its men, horses,

guns & wagons, and then making arrangements

for its supplies of food, water & ammunition when

landed - the failing of any one of which might

lead to ruin. The men are splendid & are

all actuated with absolutely the right spirit

& I know will fight for all they are worth,

dashing at anything. If it was only a case

of being able to get at close quarters, I

should have no sort of doubt as to very

speedy success, but the difficulties will

be great in the way of trenched positions

everywhere covered by acres of barbed wire.

At Neuve Chapelle lanes were made through

the wire by our continuous heavy gun

fire on the entanglements - that we can

not afford to attempt here, as being so far off

our base we can not possibly afford to expend

ammunition in the lavish way necessary for

that, so we must try all other devices we

can, and I fear we must expect heavy

losses. If it was only Turks we could rely on

finding them short of ammunition - no thorough

arrangements etc - but we may be quite sure

the Germans with them will have seen to everything

being right by now. The delay over the whole

thing is most lamentable - or rather I should

say the premature action of the Navy tryingto get

through on their own before any military

arrangements were made - and the publicity

given to the whole thing. It strikes me as

being much on a par with all our advertising

about the magnificence of our first "Dreadnought"

which so incited Germany to do all she

could to be level with us. Well before this

reaches you we should have been through

with the difficulty of our landing & first big

fighting. I of course do not expect that anything

will happen to me & naturally will not

thrust myself into places I should not be

in as a General - still I have to go where I

feel I may be most wanted if necessary to

encourage the men - to reconnoitre positions - 

and generally do ones best to ensure

confidence & make for success - and should

anything happen to me, you will always

know I have done my best facing the front

with confidence. You know I have thought

deeply about this war - for years I have seen

it as absolutely inevitable. Now that it has

come I regard it as an absolutely just

war as far as we are concerned. We are fighting

for no sort of agrandisement or power, but in an

entirely just cause to maintain our rights

& independence, which Germany would 

most certainly have crushed had we not

stood up to her now - and had we not

done so it would have meant an end to

our country, & misery & degredation to our

children & children's children. It is then

incumbent on every Englishman - & of course

especially every soldier - to be ready to do all

& everything he can down to giving his life

for his country. I have all along realised

this though as far as I am concerned I

look upon the Dardanelles as far more

hazardous than anything I should

probably have had to do in France, where

in trench warfare the roll of the General

must to a great extent be very limited.

But my own little wife if anything should

ever happen to me, you will know that at the

last I will be thinking of you & the little ones,

for it is only you who might be left behind

4) who would suffer - for me it would

be nothing - and I know you would
S.S."MINNEWASKA".

wish always to know I 

had and fearlessly done my duty to my

country - for your sake & the children's - &

all of you at home. I need hardly say I

would not write like this if everything wd.

not be over before you can get this, so you

can tear it up & laugh at my perhaps

morbid thoughts, which are only the result

of my knowing what a serious undertaking is

before us - and one ∧ⁱⁿ which the Sultan of

Egypt told me, it was quite impossible to

contemplate such a thing as failure. I

hope & think I have thought out everything

& Skeen is a perfect treasure in such

matters. I think I told you Sir Ian had

accepted all the plans I made out before 

his arrival in toto & so I trust they

are for the best - though the long delay has

a good deal altered matters , & I consequently

suggested an alteration to Sir Ian, but he still

wants to stick to my original proposals. My

own Australians & New Zealanders are good

enough to let me know I have won their confidence
& as I say I have no doubts about them,

fighting like tigers & enjoying it - though they

don't yet quite realise though all that is before

them.

I do hope you are sleeping quite all

right now my little one - with the lovely

weather coming on & motor drives like the

one you had to Cleethorpe you certainly

should & I am so glad you are at home to

go out like that with your old Father

who must love having you to go with

him. They have just come for the mail, so I

[*3DRL 3376 (15)*]

17 April 15

S.S."MINNEWASKA."

My own darling little girl.

We will be starting off at

once on our expedition with all it's

historical interest - and the next few

hours may decide a very great deal

for so much must depend on the

issue and in ways it is a great

hazard. I have just steamed round the

coast on the battleship "Queen" - in

places it is most forbidding and in

all others it is just bristling with

trenches - gun emplacements & barbed

wire prepared for our reception - or 

perhaps I should rather say prepared

originally & now brought very much up to

date by the Germans. The "Bulair lines"

which cross the neck at the isthmus xxx of

the Gallipoli peninsula were I believe

originally made by us for the Turks in

1854 at the time of the Crimea war as

I suppose a place to fall back on if

beaten by Russia. They were allowed to fall

into disrepair, till Turkey had to make them

very strong herself again to meet in turn

the Bulgarians & Greeks - and the latter

having a Navy had to be met anywhere

as we have to be - and we are now

faced with all this. At the start of the

landing I shall be on the battleship 

"Queen" with Admiral Thursby, a

capital fellow I think & a friend or

relation of Margaret's. He & I have to work

our parts together, as his ships practically

represent my artillery until we are all

ashore - then when I have a good force

on shore I join them, as I can then better

direct from land than from the ship as I

will do at first by signals & wireless. Our

great chance will be to seize the enemy's

trenches by night & I do pray I may be

successful in this, as a landing by day

might be almost impossible. We will have

a very hard time of it, as everyone of us will

land with a full water bottle & such food

as we can carry in our haversack for 3 days,

a little tin of bully beef & biscuits per

day - it is very bulky but that can't be

helped. We may be able to get nothing else

ashore & we certainly can't if the

wind gets up at all - we can of course

take no blankets either & must just

sleep as we are. All this time troops &

ships may be under heavy shell fire

from concealed guns so we have to be

very nippy in whatever we do.

I make the main attack with my

Australians & New Zealanders while Genl

Hunter-Weston (whom you will remember

in Simler years ago) makes another one

some miles off - if we can both effect

a good footing all will be well, &

certainly all my officers & men are just

as keen as mustard & looking forward

to it - though few fully realise what

we have to overcome - and we will

2)

S.S."MINNEWASKA."

and must do it all right - but it

is a great venture - a calm sea, dark

night - our getting a certain number of

men ashore without being discovered &

all will be well. If on the other hand

they can detect us before we land & bring

a heavy fire to bear on us while we are

in our boats it may become impossible

especially as their Artillery is so numerous.

But I think we will manage it & have a

great success. I am arranging for my

landing & attack during the night (it

will be very cold, as it still is so