Correspondence between Field Marshal Lord William Birdwood and Lady Janetta Birdwood, 1915 - Part 7

M^r Riley, so have that stopped at once.
I am working here entirely on my own as
Sir Ian remains on a ship 10 miles off where 
all the other troops are & leaves me to do as I
like.  To my great regret though & anxiety he has
asked me to send him 2 of my Brigades temporarily
which I am doing, and this leaves me very weak
indeed, for I have had to send good ones & only retain
2 good but now weak ones - one moderate one - & four
of these wretched Naval Battalions in whom I haven't
the least faith & who may let me in entirely!
I shall be most anxious until I get my own
troops back again as if attacked heavily during
their absence, I feel I might almost be driven
into the sea!
Goodbye my own little wife. All my love
to you & the Children always - give my
news to your old father. I have dictated an a 

short accnt of our doings to Lord K & sent a copy to
Brig. Reid. Ever your very loving old, Will

(15)

[*DRL 3376*]

Mediterranean  Expdy Force

May 15.

1915

My own darling wife.
I have at last got your letter of 21st April - how a notice
you posted the same day can have reached me a month week ago, & this

only now I do not know. I was so glad too to get the little snap
shots you sent. The one of Judith standing is really capital - she looks
such a little monkey & exactly what you were like as a kid!!
I can't say one sees very much of you with the dog! I am enclosing

a snapshot M^rs. Carruthers took of us - Col. C. Onslow &
self just as we were leaving Alexandria: the shade doesn't
give me much of a chance! I have just lost my Admiral
Thursby. I call him mine, as he & his ships have more or less
been placed at my disposal & we have been made a little
independent force to carry on on our own, which is a great
thing. I have found him such a good fellow to work
with in every way - always wanting to do his best to help
us, & as you may care to see it I enclose such a nice letter
he wrote me saying good bye. He takes with him the
"Queen" on which I have so often been with him & from which
I did our landing here on 25th, "Prince of Wales", 'London"
and two or three others & goes to Malta where he will 

shortly join the Italian fleet for combined operations
against Austria, and I think you will see the Italians
declaring war next week. What we most want here is for
either Greece of Bulgaria to come in and land troops at the
Bulair lines up at the head of this peninsula - that would help
us enormously, as it would prevent the Turks sending down
constant reinforcements as they are now doing, & would draw
off troops from in front of us. They however I fear will not come
in, at all events at present, or in time to do us much good.
Our attack here certainly hung fire a lot & I can imagine how
you must have longed for the news of our landing. It takes
a long time though to settle details which are endless in such
matters & I certainly thought we should have landed a good
fortnight earlier than we did - one lucky thing we didn't do
so was that settled fine weather only started the day we
landed & it has been absolutely lovely ever since - just perfect
summer weather. We have had some very cold nights, but they
now seem to be over, and we have one lovely day after another.
How lovely it would be if only you were here with me for a
summer holiday! You can't imagine anything more lovely
than the sea here is - such a deep blue & so transparent
you can see right down to the bottom far out - and when
firing isn't going on on the beach it is about as lovely
a bathing place as you could wish for. The land we are 

2)

on has not very much to say for itself in particular,
perhaps because we only see such a small piece of it, but
they tell me the Island of Imbros which is just opposite is
lovely & there are some very pretty wild flowers about here
too - it seems as if only man was n vile. How beastly
it might be if we had constant rain as was the case up
to about 24th April - now it is ideal & here are we
confined to a very few miles of the country. I can so well
imagine Judith as a pixie & I'm sure she must have looked
very sweet. I am so glad M^rs Wray is always so nice to you at
Thurlby as there are so few people about there of whom you
can see much. I forget if I told you our Alliance Bank
pass book had apparently been lost, so I have asked them
to make out another. I had to send Sir G. Ker another cheque
for £150 as I found the account there was so much out -
and I fear later on I shall have to pay the Somerleyton rent
as though Edie & Bob have both worried like anything about
it & done all they could, they haven't been able to sublet -
though I hope Edie may perhaps still be able to do so at
a reduction. It is of course about the worst possible year
to be trying to do so.
I have just been so glad to get your letters of 4th &
6th, May which have come along in capital time from 

the War Office. Many thanks for thinking of sending the
shirts, socks & hankies from Harrods. They haven't of course
turned up yet & I hope will do so all right, but I am not at all
sure how parcels can get to this place - and the carrying of
kit is awful, for we have nothing here - no box of any sort, just
shaving things etc - and lately some of us have been able to set up a

roll of bedding in which one can fortunately always keep spare
shirt, socks etc. But the unfortunate men & regimental officers have I

think only what they stand up in & can carry on their backs, and I
heard a man say the other day "I am as lowly as a bull"!!
Luckily we have the sea, so they can come down in batches &
get a swim which is something. No fresh water is however available
for anyone to wash in - it is difficult enough to get enough for drinking
& except for shaving not a drop is allowed for washing - we all
have to use the sea and I enjoy a swim when I can.
I think that Lady Moore you mention, was on board with him
but I don't remember her. I imagine she will be rather
Australian, but it was nice of her to have called. I wonder
if Jim Turner will get back to India - the Chief may take
him, but I rather doubt it. Is [[Bundie?]] engaged to that
Naval man & when is she to be married? Poor Lorna I'm sorry
for her & the Body Guard, but that can't be helped & I
see Capt. de Gale has now got it apparently "pucca". 

3)

Very nice for Beth - fancy he returning to Mussoorie
after all these years. I do wonder if you have have let Fitz &
Lord K. know you were in town? You most certainly should
do so, as they'll never have known it otherwise & I'm sure Lord K
will be quite hurt, if he hears afterwards that you were
there for a month & didn't let him know. I think too
he'd like to see his little god-daughter - and I'm so glad
you are going to see old Sir Dighten - it will please him
awfully. I didn't quite know what the sum of £100 is which
you tell me has been credited at the Bank - the £150 & 148
as far as I remember would be all right - and the 255, but I
don't remember the 100, but it is sure to be all right. As so much
more is accumulating than you can want I think it will be
best if you keep say a few pounds to your credit (another 255
will be paid in monthly) and then write to M^r Watson - (J.W. Esq)
1 Tokenhouse Buildings, Lothbury. E.C & tell him you
want him to invest the balance (whatever it is) in anything
he thinks suitable. He has done this for us for years &
is to be trusted. The Bank know him & between them they will
do everything for you.  It is always as well to have it invested
in this way, as in any case it means not having all our
eggs in one basket, while at the Bank a large balance
simply lies idle. I'm glad you are to meet M^r Pollen
Lady I.H. He has been most awfully nice to me, & so 

has she whenever I have seen her & I have always liked
M^rs Pollen. Sir Ian or Capt. P. I see very little of - just
for a very few minutes when they have been over here twice since we
landed - they are living in great comfort on a ship. I can hardly
believe in Mrs Cobbe driving her own motor through London - I
call that perfectly marvellous in a nervous, high strung woman
like her. Is he still on Sir J. Willcocks staff?
When going through the poor Villains few things here we came across two
letters in his note book, one for his wife & the other to you which I enclose.
Written 2 days before his death, they seem so pathetic & seem such a
sad but nice memory of him & show to a small extent what a very
dear good fellow he was & I still can't think of his having gone. I
know you will like to have his letter.
I was writing to your father yesterday while we were in the midst of
a tremendous attack by the Turks under their German General Liman von
Sanders. From some of the prisoners we hear that two new
Turkish Divisions of their crack troops from Constantinople were
landed in the Straits 2 days ago & brought over here to join in the
attack against us. This gave them about 33,000 men against
my 12,000. If only von Sanders had attacked one point of
my trenches with his whole force, he must have been nearly certain to get
through, but as he made several disjointed attacks we were able to
beat them off one after another with heavy loss. The whole place is
now strewn with dead Turks & I tremble to think of what an awful
state it may be in a short time hence if we are unable to
bury them. I asked one Australian how many he thought there  

4) were in front of his Regt - he said he didn't know in men,
but he knew there were 8 acres of them! Such a roar as was
going on all the time. They started all their guns - we calculated

about 100 of them on here as soon as ever it was light, and
every sort of projectile came tumbling along, from a huge 14"
shell fired right away from across the peninsula from one of the
Dardenelles Forts, to small mountain guns. It was surprising what
little harm they did as we all sat tight till the shelling was
over. The huge "Jack Johnsons" you can only take your chance of, & a
large number of them injured only very few men. By midday the
Turks seemed to have had enough of it & their attacks slacked
off. I quite expected a great attack again at dark but it
didn't come off. I fancy they were too done & couldn't be brought
up to the scratch. However late this afternoon a whole lot of
them appeared with white & red crescent flags, followed by a
lot of unarmed men evidently with the idea of burying the
dead & getting the wounded. Behind all these however we
saw masses of armed men collecting & an officer who went
forward to talk with their white flag saw their trenches
simply crowded with fully armed men. Their idea evidently
was to keep playing about in our front with their dead
till dark & then probably to rush their armed men through the
burial parties & confusion before we were ready, & when
we could make no use of our guns in the dark. So
I waved off all their flags & told them we couldn't talk 

about these things so late in the evening, but would do so
next morning if they wished. As soon as their flags went, they
at once began a tremendous attack again. I thought this
would develop into something really big. The very second I heard of their
white flags I at once before doing anything else, sent round orders for every man
to stand to arms in the trenches & for all my guns to be laid on their
trenches, so the second they began we were ready for them & I had at
least a good half hour of daylight in which to use my guns well.
They gave two or three desultory attacks during the night & at 

one time began a bombardment of my poor little beach with
big guns. But evidently were not on for pressing anything very
much home after their recent losses. I fancy they may now
think it as well to wait for still more reinforcements 
as we hear they have further Divisions now coming down
from Bulair, but whether to be used against me or Ian H's
force I don't yet know.
Goodbye my own little lamb & all my love to you

Ever your very loving old,
Will. 

Anzac Cove
Gallipoli Point
May 15
1915

My own darling girl.
Very little to tell you from here as we lead a curiously
monotonous life with little variation but the amount of shooting
going on. I was so disappointed when the last mail came in to
get a letter in your writing & to find it only contained a wretched
Company's notice!! I am sure you will have written a letter at
the same time & that it will have miscarried as so many seem
to do - though I hope they generally turn up later on. I have been unable
to think of any more from here as I am still so weak in numbers.
This is most annoying & indeed serious for while I have had to
stand on the defensive the Turks - there are about 20,000 of them,
have made entrenchments all round me & I can now only advance
by means of a really big fight & breaking through an entrenched
position is always a most difficult job. They still do a
powerful lot of shooting - in fact since we landed on 25th I do
not think there has been a single half hour during which they
have not fired - at times it dies down to a few shots & then
breaks at out into a regular roar which goes on for hours
& which as you can imagine is rather trying to one's nerves
as you never know you wont get a sudden message to say they
have broken through the line somewhere and are coming on
me in force. A good deal of their firing though is very
wild & goes right out to sea - in fact I find my boys at
times try to draw them, by firing a few rounds from a maxim