Letters from Wilbert Berg to his family, 1915-1918 - Part 3

[*just

about run

out I will have

to close now with

heaps of love & kisses xx

to all from your xx

loving Son, Will xxx

xxxxxxxxxxxx

xxxxxxxxxxxx*]
Signature - see original
Anzac Cove,
Gallipoli. 
18/10/15
I would advise you if you are
sending any more parcels not to send  
any clothing, soap etc because we have plenty
over here, but eatables are most acceptable. xxxxxx
My Dear Dad Mum & Sister xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
I received your very welcome (No.10) & was
pleased to see that you received the parcel I sent you, they
were not much but when we are going home we will be 
able to bring your something better. I had a few lines from Martie
by the same mail & he is still in Egypt but he does not know
when they are likely to get away. Ollie Hellyers parcel has not
come to hand yet but I suppose when it does come they will
forward it on to him (he is away in the Hospital with dysentry) Dave
Webster has also gone away sick. I have not heard from Doctor or
any of the other boys yet. I got a few lines this mail from Virg, Lyns
Woods, Grandma_^also Pearl Darby & Millie but they had no news. All the Glebe boys over
here are A1, fancy Horrie Logan going up to enlist again after being
rejected once. Well Dad & Mum things have been quiet here for the
last couple of days the Turks are keeping down. The boys soon gave
the different shells over here nic names, they call the big shells from
the Ships "Tipperary's or Turkish Delight" the ones from the Howitzers
"How is it" you will be sitting down & hear one of these shells go
over to ask the Turks "How is it ". Well Dad & Mum as news has

P.S. Your parcel has not come to hand yet but

I am keeping a good look out for it, Will xxxx

Anzac
Gallipoli
16/11/15
My Dear Dad, Mum, & Sister,
I received your last letter
(No. 13) & was very pleased to see by it that you are
all quite well the same as what I am at
present. I have not much news for the present
as I have not been out of the trenches for a
week now So I have not seen any of the Glebe
boys. I had a few lines from Tom that used to
drive Walkers cart & he was telling me that he
has enlisted so I am keeping a look out for
him over here Also the other Glebe boys who
have joined. I had a few lines from Martie & he
is still O.K. but does not know when they are
likely to get away from Egypt. he is sending me
over some baking powder & cornflour which I
wrote & asked him to send over, we get plenty
of flour over here but we cannot cook much with
flour & water so I wrote & asked him to send
some along to me when it comes to hand we
[*Nearly everyone including myself are collecting the different badges over here &
putting them on belts I have a good few now but they are scarce over here
because the chaps give them nearly all away before reaching here. Martie
said in his letter that he was collecting them too. Well Dad & Mum
I think that I have
told you all the news
for this mail so I
will have to close now
with heaps of love &
xxx
kisses to all From xxx 
Your loving Son x
Will xxxx
I have been down having a swim when the schrapnel
has burst, but the first
shot is warning enough as we
all run for our lives for shelter.
Sometimes without our clothes
It is not true that
they stop there all the
time we do when it
is bursting a good way
away from us
NH Hobbs*]

will have quite a time on puddings, scones, dampers
etc while the baking powder lasts. I tell you I
am a great cook now. In fact when I get home I
am going to do this cooking while Kassie goes out to
work. Do you know whether Tony Redmond went
back to Aust? he left here some time ago quite
deaf. Poor Father Murphy was wounded the other 
day down on the beach by the famous Turkish
gun "Beachy Bill" I don't think by what I can
hear that the wound is serious. Father M^cCarthy 
has taken his place as R. C. Chaplain. You
asked in your letter was Ned & Doctors wounds
serious, well Ned only got a schrapnel pellet
through the fleshy part of the leg just above
the ankle but Doctor was wounded in the first
charge & I only caught sight of him with his
foot bandaged up so cannot say whether it is
serious or not. Poor Eoble died of wounds, he was
only wounded in the arm but I think he died
through loss of blood. All the Bulli people are 
cut up about it, he was well liked & such a 
character too. Nearly all the 18^th wounded went
to England & by letters the different ones have
[*had, they are having a great old time. England must be a lovely
place I only wish that I am lucky enough to have a look at it 
before returning to Aust. We hade Lord K over to see us this week
& my word he did praise the Australians and N.Z.
on their work over here. I never saw him
myself but some the boys saw him.*]

Gallipoli
8/12/15
My dear Dad, Mum & Sister,
I received your very welcome letter
(No,14) to day & was very pleased to see by it that all are
quite well the same as I am at present. I have been very
lucky with all your letters I have got every one up to 
the present. It is a couple of weeks now since I
wrote a letter, I did not really have the time.
What do you think? we had a couple of days snow
here, we had about 12 hours of it & it left about 6 inches
of snow on the ground, with was bitterly cold but now
the snow has thawed we are having fine weather
again. It was quite a new experience for some of the 
boys as they had never seen snow before. I had not
had a line from Martie for quite a while now
but I write him a few lines every time I get a 
chance. I have not seen any of the Glebe boys for
quite a while so I cannot say how they are. I have 
not heard from any of my tent mates since they
have been away I thought Doctor would write
[*that we will get our good time when we go back.  How are all the
Glebe boys & people all O.K. I hope, have you seen anything of Mrs Helly
lately I have not heard from Ollie since Wagga & Eric Conlon are still
over here with me, the only two besides myself left out of the old
tent. Well Dad & Mum
I think that I have
told you all the news 
for this mail so I will
have to close now with
heaps of love & Kisses
xxxxxx
to all From xxxxxx
Your loving xxxxx
Will xxxxx
Fancy Mollie being in 
Sydney again I suppose 
Grandma will miss her
through her being home for 
so long. Remember me 
to all old friends on 
the Glebe etc
N H Hobbs*]

as he knew that I was alright because he saw
me after it was all over. I was glad to hear that
you received Marties parcel O.K as it is nice to
get some little things from a foreign country. I have
a Turkish ring I am going to send you when we get
away for a spell also a lot of little things that I
have collected over here such as Turkish bullets etc
also a 10/- note which we draw over here when
we get a pay. I will have quite a big pay to
draw when we go away for a spell because it is
not much ^use drawing it over here as there is
nothing to spend it on. I suppose you saw where
our Xmas mail from the soldiers was sunk
when leaving the Peninsula but I think that my
letters caught the mail before. I wrote to nearly
everyone so if they any did not get a line from me for
Xmas you can tell them that the mail was sunk.
I have joined the Battalion Grenadiers now & am
acting Cpl. with prospects of being made permanent.
I had a few lines from Mrs Fenton last mail & they
are all O.K down at the Avenue. Well things are
pretty quiet here just now Johnny is keeping his head
down. I wish they would take us over to France
[*so that we could have a go at the Germans etc so that we could see what
they are like against (the White Gurkha) as they call us. I dont think that the
Turks were prepared for snow so soon as I saw a couple of prisoners down
on the beach and they were poorly clothed, they seem quite at home as
prisoners & as
they passed me
one said with
a smile all over
his face "Turkey
Finis" but they
have been
saying that
ever since we.
arrived here.
I see by the
papers etc that
the boys who
are enlisting
in Australia
now are getting
a far better
time of it than
when we
enlisted but
I suppose*]

Tel-el-Kabir*]
17/1/16
My Dear Dad Mum & Sister,
I suppose you will think that
I have given up letter writing when I have not
written for such a long time but by evacuating
the Peninsula all correspondence (incoming & outgoing)
was stopped, but as I am alright I suppose you
dont care, the first opportunity of giving you any
news was when we arrived at Egypt & I got
Martie to send you a cable which I suppose you
received alright. Well we had a very successful
evacuation there was not one casualty. Our Batt
got a great name as they had it fixed that the
18^th Batt men would be the last to leave Anzac
I had my first trip on a warship, when we evacuated
we were taken on a lighter & transhipped
to H.M.S. Mars & my word what a time the sailors
gave us, first of all they helped us up the gangway
then to our Mess decks & when we got our packs off
they had hot coffee ready for us & issued us with
fresh bread & opened their canteens for us & talk
about a feed I ate until I made myself sick
[*I have my little diary that I kept from the time we left Egypt
until we arrived back here again so I am going to send it home
to you the first opportunity I get, besides a few little curios that
got on the Peninsula. Dont forget if Uncle
Wilkie comes away to let us know what he comes
away with also all others because it is very
hard to find any way one over here if you dont
know what regiment they belong
to. Well I suppose we will be into it again soon
we are resting here now & I dont suppose they
will keep old soldiers out of it for long.*]
 

(2)
& when the coffee ran out, they had cocoa ready
for us, & it lasted all the way to Lemnos Island
where we landed after breakfast & they marched
us about four miles to our camp & I nearly
died because of a full stomach & through being
out of condition. When we were passing the 1^st 
Div. camp their band started playing but it
was no use trying to keep step to it. We
arrived at Lemnos on 20/11/15 so we thought that
we would go straight to Egypt for Xmas but
no such luck. I had a very quiet Xmas & New
Year. We had midnight Mass on Xmas Eve & I
went with Jack Sullivan we also went to 7 & 8 o'clock
Mass on Xmas day Also Leon & Com. When we arrived
at Lemnos they had a few letters for us & a
lot of comforts, we had a Xmas billy Xmas cake &
all sorts of things for Xmas dinner & New Years day
so we had a real good Xmas unter the circumstances.
A couple of days after ^the New Year we got marching
orders & we went on board a P&O boat & set sail
for Egypt arriving there three days after. The first
one I saw on the wharf was Tommy Atkins he
looked real well on it I was not speaking
to him. Then we entrained but for where we were
going I did not know but we arrived at this
[*I saw by one of the letters that you had written to Martie where
he had said that he was short of jingle but he is alright now &
I saved up a few pounds while I was on the Peninsula
because there was not very much to spend
your money on over there. By the way how is
my money coming along over there alright I hope*]
 

(3)
hole of a place. I sang out to Tommy Atkins & asked
him where was Martie & he told me that he was
still in Heliopolis so I did not expect to see him here
when we were marching from the Station to the
camp on of our boys called me & I sang out & asked
him what he wanted but before he could answer
me Martie & Billy Fellew had hold of me shaking
hands when we got to camp I went & saw the
Major & he said that I could go down with
Mart, & when we got down to the Transports I met
all the boys & we sat up talking & eating until the
early hours of the morning & then we went to bed
Martie had my billy can for me & about 30
letters, the billy came too late for Xmas but
Sgt Chapman Cpl Solomon Mart & myself opened it &
had a second little Xmas on our own. I have
been down there every spare minute since we
arrived here talking all about the war & my
experiences of the war & them about their times
in Egypt since we left. Well Dad & Mum I do
not feel in the humour for letter writing to-day
so I will close now with fondest love & kisses
xxxxxxxx
I am
Your loving Son xxxxxxxx
Will xxxxxxxxxx
Remember to all old friends
[*Fancy Eily Boyd & Charlie Clem getting pad locked good way
of helping us poor beggars eh? Poor George Horan came along to
see me yesterday also Dock Coleman & I took them both down to see
Martie Poor George looks real well on it, he
was quite pleased to see me. He told me that
he had a pretty bad time of it in Hospital
____________________
 

[*I have not had any news from Ollie Hellyer
but I presume that he is O.K. A couple of our
wounded came back from the old last a few
days ago & they told me that Doc Brown is coming
out to rejoin the Battalion with the next lot of
details. He has had a good holiday, but us poor devils
have not had a days holiday since we left Sunny New South,
but they say everything comes to those who
wait*]
Tel-el-Kebir
Egypt
24/1/16
My Dear Dad Mum & Sister,
Just a few lines to let you know
that Mart & I are still together & are quite well & we hope that
you are all the same. I only came back from Cairo last night
I have been in there since Friday night I went in to send
you a little parcel of curios from Mart & myself & I hope that
you receive them O.K. I went in with a Cpl Solomon out of our
Coy & we stopped at the New Khedival Hotel & talk about a time we
had, we did not arrive at Cairo until midnight on Friday
night so we went straight to the Khedival & engaged a
double room & when we went into it we thought that we
were in heaven the first time we had seen a "dinkum" bed
for a few months we did not get up next morning until
about 10 o'clock went & had a hot bath & then had breakfast
& then went round to the Post Office to send your parcel & some
letters. In the evening I went out to Heliopolis to see if any
of the Glebe boys were there. I found out that Horrie Logan
Jack Burke & Tom Powell were there in the 18^th reinforcements
but they were away in Cairo but I did not have the good
luck to strike any of them. When I came back last night Mart