Correspondence between Field Marshal Lord William Birdwood and Lady Janetta Birdwood, 1915 - Part 24

What you mean about her, well, I think she is really a nice
woman & I like him very much - Cliff told me he had bought
that house for her just before he came out here, lucky to
be able to do it, and I don't  know that it is a thing I'd have
done myself at such a time! Did I tell you I now have
Col McEwan on my staff as Adjt & Quartermaster General and very
well he does too, for he is certainly very and has tact, - he is
a very nice fellow too.

Goodbye my own little wife & all my love to you 

From your very loving old

Will

3DRL. 3376 (15)

Dardanelles Army

21 Dec 15

My own darling Jenny Jane

Such a relief as it is to know t hat we have
got through everything so satisfactorily in this withdrawal
from the Peninsula - & so far more satisfactorily than I had
ever dared to hope could be possible. I shall always feel
that a special Providence was watching us & seeing us
through this - nothing else could have ensured everything
going as it did, for the weather was just exactly right
throughout & broke up 24 hours later - i.e. the date I had
originally decided on, but found it could be put forward
a day, so I did so. The sea beautifully calm & the moon
not too bright. It is wonderful. I enclose a copy of a
letter I have just written to Sir Ian about it all, as I think
this is the best way of giving you a description of it all
& of course it is private - I mean not for any sort of publication
as though there are no great details, yet it would
interest the Germans to know how we got away as we did.
It makes me chuckle to think of them allowing us to get
all 85,000 men & 200 guns from right under their very
noses without any loss, & I expect some of their officers
are getting into trouble over it, though presumably they
will report they killed lots of us! You can imagine the

satisfaction in seeing them bombard the whole of our
trenches hard with all their guns, 5 hours after we
had left them! I daresay some of our ruses there
frightened them, for we had mines, bombs etc timed to go
off at varying hours after we left & hearing these, they
possibly thought it was a deep plot & a trap had been
laid for them! You can hardly feel what a real relief it
all is, & make up to some extent for my sins in having
had to leave at all, for in all events one feels no lives have
been sacrificed. Had we lost them in this, as we so
necessarily did on landing, it would have been awful &
created a lot of bad feeling both at home & in Australia.
In fact if we had had heavy losses tho I believe the
government would have been turned out!
I have just got a very nice wire of congratulations from the
King saying how pleased he is at the success of such
difficult operations. Both my Corps Commanders, Byng &
Gen. Godley (such a very nice fellow) did quite first
class really leaving me very little to do, & all the
credit is due to them & their staffs.
Now I am writing for further ideas as to what is 
become of us all in future. I still have an Army
Corps of my Army at Cape Helles, but not other two

2) are with me here or have gone on to Egypt & I quite
expect to get orders at any time to go there myself to
prepare for the big German-Turkish attack which it seems
almost certain will be launched against the Canal.
I shall have a lot to do if I go there as it will be a big
business.  But of course we also have Salonika & Helles
to think of.

I hope you got my line suggesting you sending out some
"Anzac" Xmas cards. I showed the one you sent me to
several people & they were all so pleased with it & asked if
they couldn't have copies that I thought I might as well
get some to distribute, though of course it will not 
in many ways be possible to give them to all - & they might
be very much too late for Xmas.
My head where I was hit in May has been constantly
troubling me, but I have never had time to think of by
sitting tight with it to let a Doctor get at it -
having [[?]] a few quiet days free I have just got
a Doctor to open it up & he discovered a tiny
jagged bit of the casing of a bullet stuck tight
there! I've just to say he has got rid of it, so I
shouldn't have any more trouble now.
I enclose a nice letter I have just got from 
 

Sir Charles Monro - it was nice of him to have
written - and as you may care to see & keep them
I sent the telegram from the King & one from
General Brulard who commands the French
troops under me Sid-el Bahr.
Goodbye my own little lamb & all my love  to
you.
From your very loving old
Will
 

also sent to Sir Ian Hamilton. This to me

WB

Evac of Anzac

Private

Headquarters,

Dardanelles Army, M.E.F.

20th December, 1915.

(To his Wife)

I wrote to you last week in a natural state of
considerable anxiety about our evacuation, but I think I said
that I felt fairly confident of being able to carry it off
successfully provided the weather did not play me false, and
the Navy could produce the necessary small craft. I never,
however, dared to hope that we could possibly meet with the
success we did, and none of us can ever be sufficiently
grateful to Providence for seeing us through as was done.
The weather was absolutely perfect.  Two perfectly quiet, calm
nights, with no wind, and I am thankful to say a certain amount
of cloud to dim the strong moon.  This saved the Navy from all
anxiety as regards their boats being knocked about, hence we
were able to work with complete confidence of success.

The first night of my final stage was of course
no trouble, for though I got rid of 10,000 men in each Corps
that night, it left me with 10,000 men in each to hold the
respective areas for the remaining twenty four hours.  What I
most feared was a big storm coming on when I was short of
strength, so you can imagine how thankful I now feel.  I
carried out exactly the programme I had always intended,
spending the last day but one in making all final arrangements
at Suvla - cruising up and down the coast that night in a
destroyer - spending my very last day on the peninsula at my
beloved "Anzac," and going round for the last time the trenches
made by the Division which first landed with us - then the
final night on board the "Chatham" with Weymss.

My last day there was, as I am sure you will 

believe/

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believe, really a trying one, as I very much felt leaving the
place, and I could see that a great many men did the same,
though when I explained it was only to enable us to put in
more useful work against the enemy elsewhere, they were I think
quite satisfied.

You can imagine how anxious we all were on the
very last night.  Things at Suvla were quiet practically
throughout the night, but I was a little disturbed when there
was a good deal of firing off and on at "Anzac," at one time
almost threatening an attack, but I was thankful that there
was very little shelling.  The Naval arrangements I may mention
were absolutely perfect, and without any hitch of any sort.
Boats all came in at the appointed times at their proper places.
The last big lot, holding the front trenches all round from the
right of "Anzac" to the left of Suvla, were divided into three
sections, who gradually withdrew through each other in turn,
until very small parties were left covering the actual piers,
and they, too, got quickly down on board and left.  At times
constant heavy firing made me anxious up to the end, as it was
impossible to tell how much of this was being opened from the
Turks' trenches, or how much the Turks had found out and were
following on.
You will probably remember that some months ago I
started making several really big tunnels under the enemy's
positions, with the idea of sapping forward and having some very
big blow-ups under more than one of their main trenches. I had
caused a tunnel under one of the most important of these, viz.
Russell's top, to be pushed on rapidly during the last fortnight,
and this we charged with several hundred pounds of ammonal in
three separate mines, which I ordered to be exploded at intervals
of two minutes.  When the rear party were well away, there were
fired/
 

-3-

fired with complete success, a volcanic eruption being seen for
miles around, and quite competing on a small scale with Vesuvius!
The result was wonderful, in that the whole of the Turks,
evidently anticipating a big attack, lined their trenches, and
for about an hour continued to fire away as fast as they could
possibly load, meanwhile our men were well down on their way to
the beach in comfort.

The results of this and many other ruses whih were
tried were so satisfactory, that it is hard to believe that we
got away the two Army Corps with only two men wounded!  It really
is almost incredible, for the Turks must have observed us for a
week beforehand making preparations, for though we naturally
tried all we could to conceal these, yet the nights were fairly
light, and it was impossible to hide everything.  I must say
the men were perfectly wonderful, and no praise can be too high
for the way they entered into it as an adventure quite after
their own hearts, and t his not only applies to my Australians
and New Zealanders, but I know that the troops on my left were
just the same.  There was an absolute struggle with the men
insisting to be with the final rearguard party, and they were
most indignant on being told that they must get on, and that the
rearguard was following, as each man seemed to claim that it was
his special right to be with it to the very end.  With a spirit
like this, you will realise how easy matters were.

We wrapped up all the men's feet in old sacking and
blankets, so that there was not a sound made as they left the
trenches.  In a few places most cunning devices had been made by
fastening a rifle on to the parpet, and firing it by a weight
arranged with a tin full of water and a hole bored in it, which
could be timed to drop and pull the trigger at any given number
of minutes after the trenches had been vacated.  Several other
dodges of the same sort were devised, such as candles burning for
an/

-4-

an inch or so, and then reaching a firework which exploded with
a loud report.  The results of them all were evidently satisfactory,
for the Turks never seemed to discover that we were off.
When the mine was fired, they kept up their continuous fire on
our trenches for a good hour after we had actually left the
shore, which the last man did at about 4.30 a.m.  Later on still
they began to bombard our whole (now deserted) position, and at
nine o'clock in the morning, they seemed to turn every gun they
possessed on to the trenches, so it is at all events some
satisfaction to know that they have got through and wasted a
great deal of ammunition.  Our mine must have accounted for a
really large number of them, as it spread right into the middle
of one of their positions covering two or three trenches.

During the preliminary stage of about a week, we
had dribbled off nearly everything of value we possessed, and
the last day I went round, I could find practically no ordnance
or engineer stores left, while we evacuated nearly the whole of
our animals, leaving I think fifty only at "Anzac" out of a
total of some 6,000 between the two Corps.  Guns had of course
been dribbled off gradually, every battery being reduced, first
to a section, and then to a single gun with lots of ammunition
for it, and finally single guns were dribbled off.  We had 200
guns originally, and of these Suvla got off the whole of their
90, while "Anzac" evacuated one hundred of their total of one
hundred and seven, the seven remaining being completely blown to
pieces.

I am bound to confess that Suvla managed their
evacuation in material far better than we at "Anzac," though
as you will remember, their facilities were very much greater,
for they have more piers, and their transports could stand right
in close to the piers in Suvla Bay, while at "Anzac" the lighters
have to go a long way out to sea.  Also, I must confess that
Suvla/

-5-

Suvla took a real flying start!  You will remember that we had
orders to connence evacuating, when both Corps started making
preliminary arrangemnts - then came an idea of the
possibility of our not going, when I had t o tell both Corps
to sit tight for a bit, and in fact to put in more supplies
for t hemselves.  I have a shrewd suspicion that Suvla did not
take much notice of this, but went on getting rid of stuff,
and as it so happens this has turned out all right.  Byng
organised the destruction of the stores he left behind very
well indeed, and it was a wonderful sight to see at the last
moment, as if by a wave of the magician's wand, the whole of
his surplus stores suddenly bursting into flame, and forming
huge bonfires.  At "Anzac," I am sorry to say this was not
done, and the enemy must have got a certain amount of food,
though nothing that would last them for more than a few days,
and of course not of any great value.

Yesterday afternoon, to take the Turks' attention
off the Northern zone, I made Davies organise a fairly big
attack on the Turks' trenches at Helles, where we had a
tremendous bombardment by the Navy, which I think created a
most sucessful diversion, for three or four monitors and two
cruisers were down there, hammering in as hard as they were
worth with their big guns, and attracting the whole attention
of the peninsula to them.  The attacks made were quite
successful, and we took two or three Turkish trenches.

It may be that we got away just about the right
time, for when I was going round "Anzac" yesterday, the Turks
suddenly opened on us with new, very big howitzers, firing
some excellently made, clean cut, steel shells of about ten
inches in diameter.  It is quite possible that these were the
Austrian howitzers, which we had heard about, and that they
were just registering our positions before starting a big
bombardment.  In the course of about an hour, they put in 50
of/