Letters from Wilbert Berg to his family, 1915-1918 - Part 5

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off the Turks first trench where we stopped for a
while doing a bit of shooting & then there was one
rush & our boys had the Turks out of their first trench
& on the move Major Lane myself & about fifteen
others kept going we drove them out of their second
trench & started to charge their third line but
by the time we got half way to their third line there
was only about four of us & Major Lane left he
kept singing out for reinforcements all the time
while we were blazing away at the Turks &
German officers but no reinforcements came so the
Major said well boys we will have to retire as it
is only murder staying here so I got up and ran
for my life back to the support trench & as soon
as I got back we were sent up to reinforce our left
flank but when we got up there we found that the
Gurkhas were holding them alright so we were
taken up to the New Zealand firing line where
we arrived just in time as the Turks made a heavy
counter attack which we repelled with heavy losses
to the Turks we stopped with the New Zealanders until
about four o'clock & then we came down to see if we
could get any water but there was none to be got
as the wells were all poisoned by the Turks & the 

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only well where we could get any water was about two
miles away down on the beach so the Sgt Major & myself
volunteered to go down & get some which we did &
when we arrived back we were all able to give
some of the boys a little until more was procurable
We were now taken to dig a new trench to connect
the New Zealand firing line with that of the Sikhs
we worked on this all night Sunday nigh all day
Monday & Monday night & till about 3 o’clock on
the Tuesday evening when word was passed around
that all the 18^th had to go down to the support
trench & when we all arrived there we were taken
about half a mile away & into a gully where we had
a roll call It was awful as name after name was
called out but no one answered After the roll call
we had some tea & lied down to have a well earned
sleep but at 1 AM we were pulled out of bed to
go digging again for four hours when we finished
at 5 A.M. we came back to camp & we all went down
to the well for water. There was only about seventy
of our boys left in my company & one Officer & the
other Coys were about the same. We continued
our four hour shifts of digging until the
Thursday when he heard that there was going 

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to be another fresh charge but it was postponed
until the following day Friday August 27^th. At
half past three on the Friday we were lined up
& taken into the trenches, where the N.Z’s & Maori’s
already were, the Maori’s were throwing out long
ropes will grappling irons on the end of it & they
were pulling down the Turks barbed wire entanglements
at half past five the awaited order came & there was
one scramble & we were over the trenches & after the
Turks & we never stopped until we had taken every
trench but one on the hill we only had to take
that one & we would have had the top of the hill, we
were now fighting for our lives to hold the trenches
they send along some bombs for us to throw & one
of the officers called for volunteers to throw them
so I volunteered along with a few more I all we
threw three thousand bombs that night The 9^th
& 10^th Light Horse came along about midnigh to
reinforce us, the Turks counter attacked three times
that night but they did not budge us an inch
but they had enormous casualties on their
side. The Saturday morning passed off quietly
& on Saturday evening we were relieved after
doing our twenty four hours in the trenches & on 

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the Saturday night the 9^th & 10^th L. Horse made a
silent attack on the Turks remaining trench which
they captured with only one casualty. We were
now left with only about twenty five men in my
Company & the whole Batt only numbered about
a hundred & fifty We put in a fortnight more
around on the hill digging all the time & then we
shifted around to the centre positions where the
17^th 19^th & 20^th Batt's relieved some of the old
hands & they were sent away for a spell. My Batt
was not strong enough to hold trenches so we were
put into general reserves where we remained for
a few weeks until we got same reinforcements & then
we took over Courtneys & Steeles Post while the
17^th Batt had Quinns Post the 19^th Batt Popes Post
& the 20^th Batt Walkers Ridge. Things were very
quiet around this quarter Sometimes the
Artillery on both sides was very active & now
& again the warships would have a bombardment
In November Lord Kitchener paid a visit to the
Peninsula & a few days after orders were issued
that we were not to fire, not to use the perioscopes
but to keep strictly silent which we did for three
days but Johnny did not venture to come over 

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During this three days silence was when we got the snow
blizzard I nearly died of the cold & most of the other boys
were the same It was a pretty sight to see all the big
ridges covered with snow, we only lost a couple of our boys
with frostbitten feet but the poor Gurkhas lost a couple
of hundred they were standing in water up to their knees
in water as the water was being frozen into ice. There were
great rumours getting about now about us going to
evacuate the Peninsula but about a week before we
left we got official orders that we were going to
evacuate on the 19^th December 1915. Everyone was now
working hard to get things into ship shape, & the miners
were working hard preparing mines. On December the 18^th
all the sick men were sent away & on the following
night we all got away without the Turks knowing & we
did not even have one casualty. Everyone was glad to get
away from the place but still at the same time it
was a pity to leave the place after so many of our
gallant comrades losing their lives there. When we reached
the wharf we were taken on board a lighter & towed
out to a battleship where we disembarked The name of
the Ship was the H.M.S. Mars the sailors on board
could not do enough for us As soon as we got
settled they made us some coffee & we sat down & had 

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a real good feed & then a sleep, waking up next
morning & finding ourselves anchored in Lemnos Isld
This is a very pretty little Island it belongs to Greece
At the entrance to the Harbour & two long lines of
floating mines right from one side to the other with
just a space in the middle for the ships to pass through
once inside the mines we struck about fifteen
Hospital ships Amongst them was one of the biggest
boats afloat the “Acquitania” then further up the
harbour was all the Transports, Cruisers Destroyers,
Monitors Submarines etc As we went up the
harbour all the French camps were on our right &
all the pretty little villages on our left with dozen's
of old flour mills here & there. We disembarked
there & put in about three weeks training & also spent
our Xmas & New Year here, we did not have too bad
a Xmas under the circumstances as all the different
things sent along by the Comforts fund were there
waiting for us. We left Lemnos on the 4^th of January
for Egypt arriving at Alexandria on the 7^th but
we did not disembark till the 78^th & then we got
on the train but we did not know where we
were bound for, eventually we arrived at Tel-el-
Kebir & camped on that famous battlefield As 

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soon as we arrived here I met my brother who
is in the 18^th Transport & I went down & slept with
him for the night wI I Well Dad this is about
the best I can do, you know that I am not
any good at writing but this well give you a bit
of an idea of my experiences while on the
Peninsula I will have to close now as it is
getting near time for us to go on parade so
with heaps of love & kisses to all
I am
Your loving Son
Corp. W.R. Berg. 

Moascar
14/3/16
My Dear Dad, Mum, & Sister,
Just a few more lines to let you know
how I have been getting on of late. Well to tell you the
dinkum truth we have been having a rotten time of it.
They left at Tel-el-Kebir for three weeks doing all sorts of drill
then we were given orders to pack up & we entrained there for
the Canal After disentraining at Ismalia we marched down
& over a pontoon bridge across the Canal & camped at a
place called Ferry’s Post. Rising early next morning we set
off into the desert & talk about a march twelve miles
with full pack up & a boiling hot day through the sand
& I tell you that I could hardly move for a couple of
days. We were soon at work out there digging our
trenches & what a picnic we had, as soon as we would
have the trenches dug ready to be sandbagged they would
all tumble in again & after a months hard work they were
beginning to look a bit ship shape. We were on outpost
duty every third night but we never saw any of the
enemy, some of C. Coy’s chaps saw something one night
& called out halt & as it did not do so they fired &
next morning there was a bonza a big camel lying dead
just in front of them. Not bad eh. The sand was some 

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thing frightful out there everything we ate was full of
sand, & I reckon that I have a pretty good quarry in
my stomach. Of a windy day out there you could
hardly see your hand before you for the fine sand that
was flying about when we were on outpost duty &
it was windy we used to put a blanket over ourselves
& have our dinner if you did not cover yourself up
everytime you would open your month you would get it
full of sand. (Fine life this soldiering) ha- ha- ha. All the
different hills about all had an Aust. name, our Batt
had their trenches on Mount Kembla & our camp was
situated on Duntroom plateau We were on the hill
that the Turks came over when they made the attack on
the Canal last year & we fully expected them to come
along this time but we were dissappointed. After
putting in about five weeks out there on the desert
(Sinia desert) we were relieved by the Otago Mounted
Rifles & we set sail for the Canal again. I was lucky
this time as I was on the Baggage Guard so I had
my pack etc carried in on the Camels but never the less
I was crook marching through twelve miles of loose
sand. We arrived at Ferrys Post about 8 PM that same
day & as soon as we had pitched camp for the night
we were down & into the Canal for a swim & how
did we enjoy it the first swim since we left the Peninsula
We packed up next morning & moved off again & when 

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we got to the Ordinance stores at Ismalia we changed
our rifles for British ones, After we were all fixed up
we continued our march until we arrived here, a bit
better place than out on the desert but still it is bad
enough. All the Transport have moved over here and
Mart is camped only a few yards away from me, I go
up to him in my spare time. The 5^th A.M.C. is just near
us so Mart & I went over the other night to see
him ^(Jack T) It was the first time that I have seen him
since Christmas time when we were at Lemnos Island
he ^is still as well as ever. Well Dad they are going to
give us a chance at last in France the whole of the
2^nd Division is going to France the 7^th Brigade has
already gone they went last night & the 6^th Brigade &
us are following in the course of a couple of days. It is
hard luck that we are not going to England first but
I suppose I will see it later on. It is a bit of a
knock to the 1^st Division they expected to go it seems
like that the heads _^must think that we are the best. I
suppose we will find things a bit different to what
it was on the Peninsula & let us hope that we will
do as well against the Germans as we did against
the Turks. Me got some new reinforcements this evening
& Jack Burke was amongst them I only had a few
words to him he is coming up to see me to-night, he
looks real well on it he is in C. Coy. The old Batt is