Correspondence between Field Marshal Lord William Birdwood and Lady Janetta Birdwood, 1915 - Part 9

I had my head rather thrown back to use the periscope  
so it only just grazed along & did no harm. At first it was of 
course impossible to know what had happened, as it naturally bled
a lot & gave one a buz, but I realised at once it was nothing, &
got up & came home to have it bandaged. The Doctor told me it
had just not touched the bone & so had avoided a fracture of 
the skull which they say so often may happen from such a shot -
also curiously enough he told me being fired from so close made it
much better for one than had it been a long shot. However I am
absolutely all right & haven't had to think of dropping my
work for a minute. To add insult to injury, & as if I hadn't 
had my share for the present - at all events - some rascal of a
German gunner proceeded to hurl a large shell right into the
entrance of my little dug out this morning. Luckily that is about
all he could do, for he would have to get round a corner to get
further in, & that I am hoping they will not be able to do.
But we will have to be altering our lodgings - or perhaps I
should say diggings. What I am very annoyed at though
is that Genl. Bridges who commands my Australian Division
has to do had a bullet wound through his thigh which
cut an artery. Will I fear lay him up for some time & 
he has gone off to Alexandria. This is a serious handicap
to me as I have really no one to replace him properly & 
am making Genl. Walker do so. I am angry too with
Bridges who had no right to be where he was in a part
 

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of the line outside his own command where he had only gone
to see a friend -  as a dangerous bit too where I never let
people go except those who must do so on duty & I am having
it much improved. I was so glad to just get your letter of
30 April from London - the last was of 14th, so one between has gone
astray & will turn up later. I had hoped the papers would have told you
definitely of our landing on 25th. I wonder you didn't send a line
round to Fitz to ask him for details which he would have given you
at once. I hear that now no more press notice is to be given
of our doings till we are through - this is quite right for our progress
will be very slow & I fear it will be a long time before we are
through. I hear that a good many more troops are to be sent
us & this is essential. I am so glad Chris had a few days in
London with you & I am sure he must have enjoyed them thoroughly.
I hope you may be able to go down to Clifton & see him during
the term -  I suppose they will keep Commemoration this year in
June as usual. I am glad you went to the meeting of the A.W.C.
association & met & old Sir G. Reid there - isn't he a dear? That
Sir N. Moore travelled home with me once on the Malwa & has
been very polite in writing to me now he is Agent General for
West Australia - I believe originally a brick layer! And
I fancy a very rough diamond now: he sent me the chocolate
box I sent home to you. I don't fancy you are at all called on to
give large donations - and I hope we shall not respirators, for
the Turks seem more gentlemanly than the Germans & so far
show no signs of using asphixiating gases!
 

I am asking to have Genl. Kirkpatrick sent to me to replace
Genl. Bridges in command of the Australian Division - he is
the best man I can think of for it & hope he may be spared
from India, but I don't know that they seem altogether too happy
there about either Afghanistan or Persia - if we could only get to
Constantinople quickly it would settle all that.

Goodbye my own little lamb. You will know that I

am quite all right- really & truly.
All my love to you

Ever your very loving old,

Will.
DONATED RECORDS LIST
3376
3rd Series (15)
 

[*3DRL 3376 (15)*]
Anzac Cove
17 May 15.

[*Goodbye 

my own little 

one. I hear

a raid is

just going.

All my love

to you. 

Ever your

very loving

old

Will.*]
My own darling little girl.
You can imagine what a state of depression I feel
in today & one is almost afraid of becoming unnerved when losses
suddenly come on one - though that is the very last thing one
can afford to be at times like these & whatever happens
one has to appear cheery & confident. It makes such a difference
being in command oneself or merely carrying on & obeying
orders. Though Sir Ian is C-in-C - and a most charming one - yet
I have to run the show here entirely on my own & am entirely
responsible. He is a dozen miles off where he has 5 Divisions &
has only been to see me twice - which I take it is quite a compliment
& shows he is quite satisfied with my command. It is a big responsibility
though as we still do not hold by any means an impregnable position.
I have 10,000 rifles while round me are about 24,000 Turks & firing
still never ceases. Every other night or so it rises at times to a perfect
roar & the Turks must get through many thousands of rounds. You

can never tell that this does not mean a very large attack
& possible piercing of my line in some vital spot, so I always
have to be very much on the alert - which is the great thing my
men are not! However we have now killed so many of them & have

I think established our moral superiority over them, that I doubt
if they will really rise to attacking us with the bayonet &
all their heavy fire is merely to frighten us off from

attacking them! There must be some brave men among them of
a beastly description in snipers, for even now we are catching men
hiding in holes right inside our valley where they have been 3 weeks.
They have had a supply of ammunition & food with them & have just
picked off any one they could & I fear have accounted for a lot of
good men - the whole place is covered with very thick scrub which
in places is nearly impenitrable, so it has been easy for a man
to lie up & never be discovered using smokeless powder. Yesterday the
Australians caught one with 3 Identity discs & ₤80 on him, which
he had evidently taken from men he had killed - one such sniper
had painted his face green! Isn't it awful - they get very short
shift when caught. Which brings me to why I feel so depressed.
I think I told you Genl. Bridges had been so seriously wounded &
I fear now they hold out no hopes of his recovery - both the
femoral vein & artery were cut & though a Doctor happened to be
actually on the spot, yet he naturally lost much blood & he is
not a man who can afford to do so. He is such a nice
charming fellow. Considerably older than me, he might well
have resented my coming here, but far from doing so, he is
has always been full of loyalty & deference, and has done
all he possibly can to help in every way. Such a nice
quiet, cultured creature, who I thought might have
proved rather high strung & nervous under fire. Not
a bit of it - he was quite happy under it & was doing
excellently. His loss from a professional point of view
 

2
is immense as we have so many Australian details to
consider, which only he knew about, & I'll find it difficult
now. Whether one of these wretched snipers got him or it was a
long distant shot, we will never know. I went on board the
hospital ship yesterday to see him off to Egypt & was told his
leg was mortifying & that amputation would he necessary, while
they feared there was little or no chance of his being able to
stand the operation, or indeed living to get to Egypt. It was most
sad leaving him & I had to arrange for him to be buried at Alexandria

if he died at sea. Then I came ashore & was met
by the most awful news that while I had been away, my
beloved Villiers-Stuart had been killed. You will of course
have seen this, & you will know now much I feel it.
Only the evening before when he came to see me with his
reports, I noticed a scratch on his nose & asked him
how he got it. He said he had been out scouting & got
this creeping through the bushes. I then & there ordered
him not to do this again as I valued his life much
too much to risk it in such a manner with little or no
object. When I was out he went off to make a sketch of
some of the Turk trenches from a place right in the
centre of our position where he should have been fairly safe.
Foolishly enough he seems to have exposed himself unnecessarily

& at a place close to where we have some of our
 

guns, at which the enemy often fire, and they began again
possibly at him or the guns. In any case they got him with
a bit of shrapnel in the heart & he must have died at once.
Poor dear old fellow - it does seem too awful - so true,
brave, able & modest as he was. We buried him last night
(it isn't safe to do so during the day) in a regular soldier's
grave, for guns were booming even then & several bullets whistled

over head as we stood round. I shall feel his loss very
much as he was so completely reliable & faithful - my most
devoted of friends & officers. How sorry one must feel for her
too, poor thing, expecting as she is No. 1 next month. I have
just sent her & his brother a line. You will I am sure want
to do so too, Castlane, Carrick-on-Suir, Ireland will
find her. I wired to his brother to break the news to
her. All here were so fond of him, & I do hope I may lose
no more. They are all so good & careful of me, & I see how
at nights they make  the sentry stand absolutely at the entrance
of my dug out -  they are so afraid of any wretched spy (we
find these snipers are wearing our uniforms) coming along
& wanting to do for me. I don't think they will succeed in
that as I have an excellent guard of Ceylon Planters who
are such a nice lot of fellows. I am, I am sorry to say, now
losing my Admiral Thursby who I shall miss very much, but he

has to take the Queen and some other ships to Malta -  we have worked together
so happily -  that he will be a loss. I get "Canopus" in place of "Queen".
 

M. E. F.
24 May.
My own darling girl.
We are having a real quiet day of it with an armistice

on from 7.30 to 4. Essad Pasha wrote in to me under a white flag
that he wished to bury the dead & get away the wounded, so we had
to make out terms which were confirmed by Sir Ian & Genl. Liman von
Sanders. What the Turks really wanted was to get away the rifles from
their dead, as we hear they are hard up for rifles now. What I wanted
was to get away the hundreds of corpses which are lying all round
my trenches & which were beginning to make life really unbearable
in some places the men being absolutely sick in some places. I
had made my fellows creep forward all along th in front of the
trenches wherever they could at nights & remove all the rifles
they could find, so in any case the Turks could not hope
to get many from near us, while any near their own trenches they
could in any case get for themselves. It does seem such a
complete change not to hear the constant crack of rifles & it is
rather a welcome rest. Skeen who went round with the Turkish
staff officer tells me he saw at least 3000 dead Turks & that it
was probably a good deal more - as there must have been
at least an equal number wounded & dead in their trenches.
We evidently gave them a real good knock, but of I fancy
now, that they have been reinforced they are sure to come on
 

again & if they do so & we can lay out an equal number, they
should have had about enough of it in these parts. I was surprised

to see what nice looking fellows many of them were. Some with
nice red faces & quite fair hair & moustache: many could easily
be taken for English or Scotchmen.

I have just had a letter from [[Halsted?]] who to my surprise has been
transferred as 2nd in command to the 27th Lt. Cavalry at Secunderabad.
It of course means promotion for him, but I am sorry he has left
the C.I.H. as the 27th cannot I think be nearly such a nice
Regt. - however he couldn't very well refuse it I suppose. He
also told us that Dorothy had had to go home for an appendicitis
operation - did not know this or where she is? You might write
to her, if you would.

We had a German aeroplane flying over us yesterday - he looked
a beauty - made I fancy of aluminum & shone in the sun. Suddenly
the rascal let go a great bomb aimed probably at some of
our guns to which I happened to be near. I had no idea their
bombs could be such huge things, for this came hurtling through
the air like a huge 12” shell & was most uncanny as it
came near. It was however a real bad shot if it was meant
for the guns as it fell 500 yards away among a lot of Infantry
& one unfortunate man had the bad luck to be blown to pieces
by it. It's lucky they cannot carry an unlimited number

of such bombs! I think you well might send me every
 

2)

week the Times when you have finished with it - we
get of course very little news here & even if one hasn't time
to read much yet a glance gives one something, so you
might make up a roll of them every week, little one? The
poor Navy here are in a great state of mind, as the Germans have
succeeded in getting some submarines out here, so instead of my
always being able to rely on ships in certain definite places to bring
their guns to bear where I want them on Turkish reinforcements
etc. I now have to take my chance of catching them while they
are running around all over the place, for of course they no longer
dare keep still, but cruise up & down with destroyers tearing
all round them - and we have not nearly enough destroyers.
A day or two ago one of my battleships "Albion" went aground
right under one of the Turkish positions & we had a most exciting

time.  We of course turned all our guns on to the Turks as did
two battleships - they peppered her a lot with shrapnel, but
didn't do much harm as light guns hardly hurt an armoured
ship, & eventually she was got off - they fired all her 12”
guns at the same moment - this made her rock a lot & at
the same moment, she & the other battleship which was
hauling went full steam & got her on the move.

I enclose a copy of the local paper, which is run by Sir Ian's
head quarter people, who all this time have been living quite
comfortably on board a troop ship & we only see them very occasionally