Correspondence between Field Marshal Lord William Birdwood and Lady Janetta Birdwood, 1915 - Part 10

Mediterranean Expdy Force
6 June 15
My own darling girl.
I have just got your letter of 20th & very glad to
get it too, for it seemed such a long time since I had heard.
I am awfully annoyed though to know that by then you had got
no letters at all from me here since our landing.  I have written
you a lot &  I do hope they will all turn up in due course.  The
first one must have been about 3 days after we landed, so you
should easily have got it before 20th May, but I know the posts
are very bad operating, worse from here than to us - at all events
as far as your letters are concerned, for sending them through the
War Office as you do they sometimes come in the special
King's Messenger bag to Sir Ian & I get them well before the
ordinary mail.
I fancy that we here are in a very different position to
the senior Generals in France who have to remain right
away in rear of the centre of their long lines.  Here we
are cramped up into rather a small position into almost
any part of which the enemy's guns can reach us & this
will be worse as we advance for I fear their heavy
Artillery on the Khalid Bahr plateaux & from the
big forts atthe Dardanelles will then be able to get

at us a bit more, & we will have to dig in very
carefully.  Also with these troops I have to & must go
round them daily to satisfy myself how they are getting
on, & I feel it is up to me to share with them in everything.
In a regular big fight it is different.  I then can not
of course be in the trenches as I must be somewhere central
to control things generally which can only be done by telephone, 

as there is nowhere, where one can see more than
a small portion of the firing line at a time, so you
needn't bother about me little one in that way.  If
however I couldn't go round my trenches & didn't know for
myself exactly how each one was situated - how it was
held - what was to be done if it was heavily attacked
or taken etc.  I should be miserable, & I am sure that
when the troops all realize that one is up & about
among them all day they must be much happier, than

if they thought one was sitting still & letting others run
[[?]]. As a matter of fact though I always say that
once in most of the trenches one is in the safest place
for they are now very well made & you hear bullets come
in with thuds on the parapet outside with the greatest
comfort. Going round one lot yesterday who had no
enemy's trenches quite close to them, I told them
I thought their's was the health resort of the force,

2) which quite seemed to amuse them. The men are so
well fed that they are quite happy, & indeed I do
feel that we are all quite a happy family here
together - you can't treat these fellows like regular
soldiers with barrack square discipline, but you can get
a lot of intelligence out of them by more casual methods.
Bombs are at present our bete-noir - as they are of the
Turks. I took a Turkish trench a few days ago & our boys
made themselves quite happy there with many sand bag havens
from enfilade machine-gun fire etc & were I hoped quite
comfortably settled,  when the Turks began throwing large
bombs into the trench from all directions & swiftly blew
them out of it, as nearly all got badly wounded.  Old
Lotbiniere has now made an excellent gun-cotton bomb for
us which bursts with tremendous force & I fancy we
have blown many Turks to pieces with them, & their
prisoners tell us they are terrified of them & are
now making head cover in all their trenches to
protect themselves.  Their guns have been rather quieter
lately, but have just begun again & as I write, they are
dropping lots of shells into the water only about 20 yards
off me, but at an angle at which they just don't get
the beach itself, though they are falling all around
our boats & piers, and have very rapidly dispersed
a lot of men who were bathing at the time!

I really do not foresee where the end of all this is to be
unless Turkey collapses which I fancy is easily possible -
and if Greece & the Balkan states come in.  I should say
very probable.  A week hence the Greek elections take place
& after them I fancy Greece is very nearly sure to come in &
join us, & Roumania will do so also.  A Greek force
landed near here would make all the difference & I don't think
the Turks would last long after it, as we should be able
to cut off their supplies. Otherwise if it is only to be
a case of driving them from one position to another, we may
take any time over it.
I have been so sorry to see poor old Alfred Edwards' boy has
been killed in France.  Their only child & I know how devoted
to & proud of him they were.  I fear it will be a terrible
blow to them - they are still in Rhodesia. I see too that
young Frank Mandall has been wounded & Kenneth is again, but
I hear he isn't at all bad.
I think you might very well all go over to France for the
summer holidays, some little fishing village in Normandy
or Brittany would I imagine be quite lovely & you
would all enjoy it thoroughly - but of course Chris would
not learn anything like the same amount of French when
you are all together as he would if by himself in
an entirely French family.  In Brittany you
wuld be quite safe & I believe it is quite
a lovely country all about there; & very nice people.

3) and if you all do go I tell you what I think
you might very well do, & that is to send Chris from there
just for a week or 10 days to the Stappers.  I believe even
that short time would do him good & get him a little
into the way of thinking in French, which is what is
really wanted.  He would like his time there too I am
sure, so you might think of it, & by all means all of
you go over there - and why not get Mrs Muir to go over
with you all?  I believe she'd love it too.  Mind you let
me know as soon as you have got my first letter from here
as I shall be so disgusted if you don't get them, when I
have written so many.  Sir Ian & Capt. P. would of course get
their letters sent home by King's Messenger but I can't do that.
I think it was most awfully nice of the Newton Moores to
have motored you down to Chichester & I expect you quite enjoyed
it, driving through all that lovely country. The Australians
are a nice lot too - use dreadful bad language - and very
keen on hearing about everything.
Fancy you meeting old Miss Knollys at Sir Dighton's.  There
friendship has I believe been the cause of smiles for many years
among the Royal household & no one even quite knows why they
didn't get married some years ago.  I believe at one time
they had a gravel & to make it up old Sir Dighton had a
beautiful new bath room made for her, at I think Windsor, &
took one of his lady friends in to show it to her. She was
rather surprised to find he had an awful mirrors all
round so that poor old Miss Charlotte could not help
seeing herself everywhere!!
I will look out for young Hugh Tate if I come across

"Implacable", but she hasn't been near me so far & I
don't know if she is now up in these parts or not.
I don't know who the Lady Robinson is you mention, but I
expect her husband is probably one of the Australian Agents-General

like Sir N. Moore.  Sir has told me his wife & her
sisters were running a small hospital on their own at Malta for
our men, but I could see he wasn't quite happy about it on
account of the expense & said he didn't think that it would be
able to afford it very long as they would find it more
expensive than they thought - and he said he thought this war
would really mean comparative ruin to all of us, & that
we should eventually find ourselves so heavily taxed to pay expenses
that none of us would have a penny left - so it behoves us
all to look out! As a matter of fact they are most awfully
well off & I fancy have at least £10,000 a year of their own.  He
jumped at a proposal I made him, that I might perhaps
be able to arrange for some of our Australian nurses to go to the
house & so save them the expenses of their own - however he
finally decided to think over it, as he was going to see
Treves about it.
Goodbye my own little lamb. Lots & lots of love [[Dear?]]
always. Ever your very loving old,
Will.

M. E. F.

6 June 15.

.................................................................................

I fancy that we here, are in a very different
position to the senior Generals in France who
have to remain right away in rear of the
centre of their long lines.  Here we are cramped
up into rather a small position into almost
any part of which the enemys guns can reach
us & this will be worse as we advance for I
fear their heavy artillery on the Khalid Bahr
plateaux & from the big Forts at the Dardanelles
will then be able to get at us a bit more & we
will have to dig in very carefully., also with
these troops I have to, & must go round them
daily & satisfy myself how they are getting
on & I feel it up to me to share with them
in everything. In a regular big fight it is
different - I then cannot of course be in the
trenches, as I must be somewhere central to
control things generally, which can only be
done by telephone, as there is nowhere, where
one can see more than a small portion of the
firing line at a time. The men are so well
fed that they are quite happy - & indeed I do 

feel that we are all quite a happy family
here together. You cant treat these fellows
like regular soldiers, with barrack square
discipline, but you can get a lot of intelligence
out of them by more casual methods. Bombs
are a present our bete-noir - as they are of the
Turks. I took a Turkish Trench the other day &
our boys made themselves quite happy there
with many sandbag traverses from enfilade
machine gun fire, etc, & were I hoped quite
comfortably settled, when the Turks began
throwing large bombs into the trenches, from
all directions, & simply blew them out of it
as nearly all got badly wounded.  Col: Lotbiniěre
has now made an excellent gun cotton bomb
for us - which bursts, with tremendous force, &
I fancy we have blown many Turks to pieces with
these, & prisoners tell us they are terrified of
them, and are now making head cover, in all
their trenches to protect themselves. Their
guns have been rather quieter lately, but
have just begun again & as I write are
dropping lots of shells into the water, only about
20 yards away, but at an angle at which they
just dont get the beach itself, though they are
falling all around, our boats & piers - and

6". June. -2-
have very rapidly dispersed a lot of men, who
were bathing at the time!  I really do not foresee
where the end of all this, is to be unless Turkey
collapses which I fancy is easily possible, & if
Greece, or the Balkan states come in, I should say
very probable - a Greek force landed near here
would make all the difference, and I dont think
the Turks would last long after it, as we should
be able to cut off their supplies, otherwise, if
it is to be a case of driving them from one
position to another, we may take any time over
it.

M.E.F.

14 June 15
My own darling girl,
I am so disgusted to hear you haven't been
getting my letters & I do so hope that in your next one I shall
hear that several of them have arrived, for I really sent you
off a great many between the time of our landing and our first
months here - interesting ones too, telling you about all that had
happened.  I only wish I had numbered them.  The first four telling
you of our landing were written on sheets from my field pocket book &
I think I wrote some to Chris too out of this.  I am sure I must
have written at least & half a dozen letters before I sent that post
card to Judith, so it is very annoying to think that that is all that
has reached home.  It is just possible that the censor may have stopped &
destroyed them, though I do not think this is likely as they have always
been censored here with our stamp.  Do be sure & let me know if
you think you have got them all later on, as very often when I thought
ships would be going I posted two or three in as many days, so you
really should have got quite a lot.  Now things are much quieter.
The Turks I daresay will attack us again ere long, but I think
they are rather afraid of us now & want a lot of working up
to attack again, so I am glad to say we are having many less
casualties daily - about 50 killed & wounded.  When we make a
move again we must expect to lose a lot. If you remember
it try & tell me the dates of some of my first letters from here, as
I fancy they should go on regularly from about 28th April.
I am so sorry to hear of poor Bottomley's death.  He certainly
was not what I could in any way describe as a
loveable character or a man to admire - but "de