Correspondence between Field Marshal Lord William Birdwood and Lady Janetta Birdwood, 1915 - Part 6

would quietly slip away from the ranks &

lie up in the scrub to take an easy when they

were wanted to fight. When going up a valley

which forms our main communication as I was

going round the trenches, the shrapnel came

pouring in & everywhere I saw men scattering,

simply because it was new to them. I found

quite the best method to adopt to reassure

them was to saunter quietly on swinging my

stick, just to let them see it wasn't anything so

very awful! and little me, the good God had evidently 

decreed that that was not my day to be killed

by a bullet, for for a time the shells were

bursting litterally all round - between one's legs

& everywhere without the least harm, and I really

think the men began to think it was much more

ordinary than they had imagined. All that day

they were given a short spells to dig between the

lulls in fighting, & now that they have found they

are more or less safe when dug in, they are in

quite good spirits again. What they felt too very

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very much was the fact that our guns

could give them no help, for I haven't been

able to land them till late in the evening,

except my two Mountain Batteries,

but they could do little against heavier Artillery.

What my losses were that day I haven't yet been

able to find out at all, & cannot do so till Regts

get together again, but I fear in cases they have

been very bad - detachments who dashed right

on ahead & lost themselves may I very much fear

have been quite cut up, as some C.O's tell me they

can not at present account for more than 4 or 500

of their 1000 men, but I have hopes a good many will

turn up from other units when I can get things

ship shape again - as I will do directly I can

get a lull in fighting & am able to relieve any

of the troops. In Up to now this has not been the

case, and on 27th we had a very bad day the roar

of guns & muskets going on for nearly the whole

24 hours. Like untrained men, mine were at

first very difficult to restrain from firing unnecessarily, 
and they wasted 1000's of rounds of 

ammunition. I had to appeal to them about

this & tell them how absolutely they were giving
their own game away by this - and now I am glad

to say they are already much better & hardly fire

at all at night. From the time we started till

now I absolutely haven't had a second to myself. I am

out by 5 going round the troops & with them all day,

hardly time even for a wash.  It's lucky we are by

the sea & have that to wash in, as otherwise there

isn't a drop of water to spare, & we can only get

enough to drink by pumping from the ships.  The

getting of it to the troops is then a fearful

difficulty as I have only a few mules & donkeys.

Except the minimum of horses required to drag

a few guns, I havent allowed an animal at

all to be landed, as not only can we not

water them, but you certainly couldn't land ride

them.  This is I think about all I can write. 

We have very much yet before us, & have only just

begun, though it is something to have managed the

landing. Goodbye my own darling wife - all my love to  you

Ever your very lvig old Will.

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1915
Place  Dardanelles

Reference           Date   May 15
My own darling little wife.
At last we have got a mail & I have
just got letters of yours from 26 March to 14 April,
and was so glad to get them as it seemed such
ages since I had heard from you at all. Little has
happened since I last wrote, and I do not think the
roar of guns or musketry has stopped for 10 minutes
during that time. The result is my men have
all now become old soldiers and it is no longer
necessary for me to show them an example
by ignoring shrapnel - indeed they have now
fully learnt by experience how essential it
is to dig & what a feeling of security it 
gives them once they are well dug in. They 
are curiously wanting though in knowing
what to do in other ways - only yesterday I
was going all round the trenches when they
told me to be careful as there were lots of

Turks near. I got out my glasses and
sure enough found a whole lot of them
digging away within 300 yards of us &
no one attempting to wipe them out, which
I showed them how to do by watching their
opportunities. But the life here is rather a
trying one, for as a man told me he felt really
safer in the trenches than elsewhere as so
many bullets go high & catch those who are
out & about. Major Evans joined me today
& within half an hour had a bullet through
his knee & has had to be sent off. Bullets
are always whistling past, but fortunately
the Turk has a habit of firing into the
air so many go out to sea. I have now
been given some so called Marine & Naval
Battalions, who are as far as I can
see nearly useless. They are special 

children of Winston Churchills - immature
boys with no proper training, and

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I am quite afraid of them giving me
away some day. We have had several
night attacks, which so far they have 
stuck out well, but during the last
week I have lost about 9000 men, so
you can imagine we have had hard
fighting.
I can well imagine what all the
pandemonium of Thurlby in the holidays
must mean, & I shall be very upset if I
think it has really stopped you sleeping
again, so you must get over that little
one & promise me you are sleeping well
again. By all means take the children
off somewhere for the summer holidays.
Chris might perhaps go to France - but

in any case why not go to Devonshire
again? I am sure they would all love
it & it would do you all good. I'd like
to think of you being there.
Don't worry about that young man Riley -
if there should be a single other word
about him, tell him I could not hear
of it - A young man of 26 with no
profession is quite hopeless, & with his 
age there is no chance of his being allowed
to enter the Indian Army, where he would 
be much too old to start at the bottom.

However Nancy evidently does not seem to wish to
encourage him, so let us hope the matter will
drop.
I really couldn't help laughing just now, when one
of the huge heavy howitzer shells - about 12" - came
hurtling over head & went with a plump into the
ground about 50 yards off where an old dhabi
happened to be leading a mule.  It must have
just about fallen between the two of them &
gave them the surprise of their lives! They  

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both seemed to get up out of the hole made by the 
shell - the man staggered into a bush & was apparently
none the worse, while the mule put his tail over
his back & went off thinking he was a Derby winner!!

It really did look funny! Not that there is much of 
fun here otherwise - except when a shrapnel burst over
our dinner arrangements last night smashing up plates
cups etc, & scaring the life out of the Cook - an Italian
who Onslow caught in Cairo [[?]] to do found he
must return on urgent business. I tell him he
may swim! But indeed the thread between life 
and death is very thin & I fear one gets very callous about
it when you see so much of it. With only the
ordinary shooting of the day - no regular attacks -
I have an average of 300 casualties daily &
I do not see when this is to stop. In fact, Sir Ian
has just asked me for two Brigades temporarily which
leaves me very weak & I really am anxious at having
to rely on my 4 Naval Division Battalions, as I
don't know what they would do if rushed.
There is nothing I really want here, as we haven't been able
to land any transport, so can only have on shore what we 

stand up in - fortunately the sea is at hand to wash
in! and the climate is lovely - warm days & cold
nights.  For English papers I no time at present,
but later on they might be nice, as we see nothing
here. By the [[?]] did the Alliance Bank ever send
you our pass book? They say they sent it off in
December, but it certainly never came to me. How
your Father must miss Revel & it must be rather
trying having no motor now.
Onslow is capital & they all try to look after me like
several fathers. I thought it was rather good of him
saying he wanted to come with me every day (I make 
them take it in turns) when I went round the trenches
as he feared he wouldn't be much good until he
had got not to mind bullets! and I think he &
all of them don't mind them a bit now - he must have
bagged four of five Turks yesterday which helps to
reduce the numbers who kill us daily. It was is
quite sad to see up on a cliff nearly 20 of our men
all lying dead in most natural attitudes, caught by
maxim gun fire just as they were scaling the 
cliff. Though only a few yards from our trenches
we can not get near them yet.
You might I think arrange to see old Sir George 
Reid when in London especially as you weren't 
able to attend the Australian W.A. meeting. Do
write & tell him you are in town for a time 

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and would like to see him - he is such a dear
old creature - very fat - & unassuming - a self
made man with a heart of gold. Remember me
to Mrs Eastwood & the Turners if you see them &
as I said before I don't see why Nancy should not
do some nursing _ also send her to the Vaughan-Hughes

at Chepstow. I think I told you Isobel
had written to me asking if she might come now. As
a matter of fact that is such a lovely county you
might well think of taking the children there for
summer holidays - if you can't take them to 
Devonshire & the sea where you will all be best.
Fancy my little Judith as a girl guide! Send me th a
snapshot of her as such & I know Maud would like
one! Give her my love & a big kiss & say I am
too busy to write to her now. I enclose a letter
from M^rs B B Moore you will like to see - also
one from the Sultan of Egypt whose autograph
Nancy will be sure to like to have. So please give
it to her - and tell her I won't hear a word of