Letters from Fred Leslie Biddle to his Family, 1914-1915 - Part 16 of 19

23.10.15 
Dear Mother 
Letters from yourself, Father, & Isabel 
dated 6/9/15 safely to hand. 
I note you say you are sometimes disappointed  
at not getting a mail from me. 
Well I write every week regularly even though 
I know there is no outward mail, so some of them 
must go astray. 
Letters & parcels for us now arrive more regularly 
& the parcels do not seem to be stolen quite as much 
as formerly.  It was simply disgraceful a little 
while ago the way the unfortunate men here were 
robbed.  However things have been stirred up with a 
"big stick" & there is a great improvement. 
Rations also are better.  We get fresh meat & bread 
practically every day. 
Father asks where Stevenson & Lloyd went to on 
promotion.  They both stay in their own shows, Stevenson 
vice Mills killed & Lloyd vice Sweetland invalided. 
I hope Hollis is pretty right after his operation. 
He should be much better for it when the wound 
has properly healed. 
As you say operations are plentiful now with all

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the fellows being fixed up to pass Army Tests. 
They are making a great fuss of Pte I. Wren. 
Well he deserves every credit & is an example to 
other men with large interests. 
I received the socks muffler & mittens all right & 
find them very useful. 
What ho! for the red socks.  Reminds me of Percy. 
I think I'll make bed-socks of them.  The color alone 
will keep the feet warm. 
The other pair is non too soft-voiced, & I often 
fancy I hear them whispering to the red. 
Muffler & Mittens are O.K. & regimental colors too. 
We are having very strong cold winds now with some 
rain & I can see we will have a very cold time. 
According to weather reports of the last 30 years, this 
cold spell with strong winds lasts 7 days.  During November 
we get beautiful weather most of the time.  The natives 
always say it is the best month of the year. 
Towards the end of November we will get it very 
cold & wet then fine up to Xmas, when it will be miserably 
cold & wet up to January 14^th, when we get about a  
week of snow-blizzards & after that for some time 
the weather will be very irregular. 
Snow usually lies for some weeks, so we are 
going to have a great time.

(3) 
Fortunately the Turk stands cold weather very badly 
& of course the flower of their army is gone & we 
have a lot of Asia Minor troops against us. 
That is so much the better for us, & the worse for 
them. 
Bruce will just arrive in time to be reminded 
of an English Winter. 
I am glad you got the photos all right. 
You would no doubt see my notes on the back. 
So Rod had a try to enlist.  He might be useful 
to push down a big gun for cleaning it out, but 
of course is far too small to carry 70 lbs or more 
of equipment. 
Many thanks for all your good wishes 
for the 27^th.  I hope to have a quiet day & have 
saved up stores for a "beano".  I have a stock laid 
in of tongues, sardines, salmon, 3 kinds of herrings, 
curry-powder, chutney, cakes, biscuits, sauces, Oxford 
sausages, &c &c being the contents of a £3 assorted 
box which we have arranged with the canteen contractors 
in Alex.  All we have to do is to order an A.F.A. 
hamper & it comes along with a fixed assortment of 
stuff.  So we are pretty well off, for a change of 
diet.  For drinkables I have a bottle of whisky, cocoa 
& milk, cafe au lait, condensed milk & concentrated milk.

4. 
What ho for the "beano" on the 27^th eh! 
The shortbread that Isabel sent has not yet arrived, 
but parcels are usually a week behind letters. 
However if it & the cake from you arrive 
late, well, I've I'll have another birthday, that's 
all.  On thinking it over perhaps I'll have one 
every week. 
Anyway I am asking Os Caddy, McCormack  
Strachan Manton & perhaps one or two others to the 
feast. 
Things are still dull here & except that we 
now & again send a little "strafe" over to the 
Turks just for luck, one never hears a shot. 
Of course at night there is always a little bombing, 
but the effect is very small I think. 
We hear Bulgaria has had a good whacking 
from the French & Servians, & also from the Russians. 
What do you think of Greece for a mongrel nation? 
Their latest is that it is too dangerous to intervene. 
Col J. is now temporarily in command of the 
3^rd Inf Brigade & has been applying artillery ideas 
to their machine guns with the result that they are 
doubly as effective.  Things which are ordinary procedure 
to us are absolute brain-waves to them. 
He is waiting for the 3 brigades to arrive from

5 
Australia & will then be Div. Art. Comdr 2^nd Divn. 
& probably a Brig. Genl, & so quite some "bird". 
Os Caddy brought a number of minature sets of 
dominoes from London for his men & now we have 
the craze.  Our observing stations are alongside one 
another, & we play dominoes while we are waiting 
for things to happen.  Great excitement over a win, 
& it passes the time splendidly. 
I believe we'd play "Ludo" if we had the game 
here or even "tiddly-winks". 
To such a state of mind does war reduce 
"strong men". 
We rarely fire.  In fact 8 rounds in 3 weeks is 
our tally, but we are nursed for better things. 
In the event of an attack either way we shall 
have the most important & dangerous job, shelling 30 
yards from our own people. 
I'm in splendid health now.  I had the "spivels" 
a bit a week or so ago with a slightly feverish 
condition for a couple of days, but it soon passed off. 
The flies are practically "outed" by the cold & the 
health of all has shown an immediate improvement. 
I thought of Father on his birthday & wished 
him many happy returns.  Unfortunately I did not 
think of it in time to reach him by mail but

(6) 
I hope he had a happy day & doesn't feel  
any older. 
Many thanks to the Ivy Bank folk for 
their good wishes & to Clara & Fred for their kind 
enquiries. 
Also please give my best regards to all friends 
who enquire after me & to Father, Isabel, Noel, Hollis 
& your own dear self I send my best love. 
Your affcte son 
Fred

31.10.15 
Dear Mother, 
Sunday again & I sit down to write 
the weekly chat. 
Things are still very quiet but the 
Turks fired a salute on the 27^th in honor of my 
birthday. 
About 8 a.m they started in firing salvoes 
of 4 guns in quick succession & made quite a lot of 
noise.  However it was a frightful waste of shell. 
Lots went into the sea & many did not explode. 
We were quite happy & as far as I could see the 
casualties were practically nil. 
One shell landed in a dugout in the valley below 
us but did not explode.  Two men were inside & 
were taken away a bit scratched & shocked. 
Of course all batteries except the 4^th had a  
punch back.  We are not allowed to fire except under 
special orders, as we are too exposed & are wanted for 
a very special job when the need arises. 
Nothing ever comes near our observing station so 
I am alright. 
During the day we had a gale of wind which 
blew down the cookhouse & covered everybody & every- 
thing with dust.  However at night I had Os Caddy

(2) 
Doc Whitford & Strachan up to feed & celebrate. 
McCormack was also expected but he had not returned 
from Rest Camp at Mudros. 
Well we started in with Tomato Soup, then sardines, 
then Oxford sausages, sheeps tongues with chutney, Huntly  
& Palmers Oxford cake, ginger nuts & sweets.  After it all 
we felt like "Carry me to bed mummy, but don't 
bend I". 
Anyway we all felt that birthdays were a  
good idea, & Whitford announced he was very nearly 
due for one.  So we carefully informed xx him we 
would certainly feed with him that night, & advised 
him to conserve his stock of eatables for the great 
day. 
The shortbread & cake have not yet arrived, 
but there is a mail in to-day & perhaps I shall 
get them later on. 
We have had one or two goes at night-firing lately. 
The Turks have a trench mortar which we alone can 
deal with.  We have hustled him quite a lot & he 
keeps moving to different spots.  Last night we turned 
out at 10pm & found him in one of his old spots 
so received orders to have a go at him. 
We got all round the spot, but as it was pitch 
dark could not see anything but his flash when

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he fired & our own when we burst. 
However we must have done a fair amount of 
damage as that part is pretty populous at night. 
We have had a few days beautiful weather but 
today is misty & we cant see the Turkish position 
from the observing station. 
It looks as if we will have a spell of rain 
shortly. 
The men are to get special clothing for the  
winter viz. British Warm Coats, Cardigans, Gloves. 
Sk Rabbit skin waistcoats, Thick woollen underclothes, 
Macintosh capes & for trench work, rubber boots. 
So we ought to be comfortable. 
The winter lasts about 10 weeks at most, but 
is severe while it lasts 
Well I'm stumped for news as there is so little 
doing.  We keep constant observation & the telephonists are 
on duty in "watches" day & night, so that we are always 
ready for Johnny Turk if he has another go to push us 
into the sea. 
Kindest regards to all enquiring friends & best love 
to Father, Isabel, Hollis, Noel & your own dear self. 
from your affcte son 
Fred