Letters from Frederick Warren Muir, 1914-1915 - Part 14

again by a destroyer.

I was along to our new depot at the North Beach

yesterday, between Anzac & Suvla Bay. The recent 

operations at Suvla Bay have given us much more

elbow rooms & allowed us to extend our stores &

depôts right around. There is of course much activity 

all around here making preparations for the winter,

The Y.M.C.A have erected a tent for writing purposes

& have established a small canteen. They have

cakes baked at the Imbros bakeries & bring them across 

for sale. The cakes are very plain but nevertheless a very 

acceptable addition to our meals. Unfortunately the

supply is very limited & there is generally a queue of some

hundreds waiting. A large number of Ghurkas are

employed around the depôts. They are bright spruce little 

chaps very like the Japanese in features & build, continually

smiling & skylarking among themselves like children.

There has been a terrific bombardment of 

Achi Baba & the surrounding ridges this afternoon.

The fleet and the land batteries opened about 2

o'clock & are still thundering away. There is a 

continuous roar like the sound of distant thunder

and the scene to the southward is blotted out by a

heavy pall of artillery smoke & dust. We do not

know what is doing down there but presume the

allies are attacking again.

Will close for the present but will write

again shortly, will try & send you a 

description of the Lone Pine fight by next mail.

Love to all

Yours affectionately

Fred

Y.M.C.A.

On Active Service

WITH THE BRITISH

EXPEDITIONARY FORCE

Address reply to:

Anzac

Gallipoli 1915

21 Novr 

Dear Mater,

I received your letter of 3^rd October the other day with

Auntie McK's note enclosed, also your later P.C. Glad you received

my letter O.K. Your parcel will I suppose turn up by next 

mail.

Things here have been a little more lively during the 

past week. There has been some fighting on our left near

Quinn's Post the last few days. Rumour says we made an

advance there but we have had nothing definite as yet.

However there was very heavy rifle fire & bombing the in

that direction all last night and early this morning. 

The Turks have evidently received a fresh supply 
of ammunition

or have a sudden fit of extravagance as Beachy Bill

& his companions in the Olive Grove after a long spell of

silence burst forth the other day & have been firing 

vigorously both night & day ever since. Needless to 

say things have been rather lively on the beaches & 

thereabouts. At intervals all through the night we could

hear the scream of the Turkish shells & the shriller whistle of our 

howitzers in reply. At the present moment a couple of our 

18 pounders & a cruiser & pounding away furiously

into the olive groves in the hope of knocking out the 

troublesome batteries.

We have had a taste of winter conditions during

the last week. A very cold snap has prevailed for several

days with a southerly gale and on Wednesday night a 

heavy shower deposited a few inches of water in our 

trenches. It took us the two following days to get 
ourselves clean

of the inevitable mud & slush again. We do not suffer much

from the cold yet as we are fairly well provided with warm

clothes. The hands and feet are the portions which feel the 

cold most and I can see that we will have a need of all

our socks before long. Owing to the rough weather there

has been a difficulty in landing supplies so that we have

been rather short of fresh bread & water. However things 

have calmed down again somewhat & we have actually

had bread two days running; quite a rare occurrence.

I was around the beach a couple of days back & had a 

glimpse of the havoc wrought by the gale. Heaps of wreckage

& flotsam & jetsam were lying strewn all over the beaches.

Bully beef, biscuits, water tins, barbed wire & a score of

other things were either cast up in heaps or washing about in 
the waves. The piers were sadly battered & a number of

boats & barges had been stove in & beached; while

Y.M.C.A.

On Active service 

WITH THE BRITISH

EXPEDITIONARY FORCE

Address reply to:

a couple of tugs & trawlers were sunk in the deeper water.

During the gale the tug "Gaby" carrying over 300 bags of our 

outgoing mail foundered. Some 140 bags were saved but the 

remainder was lost. This is the the more to be regretted as this

happened to be our Xmas Mail. I had written quite a

number of cards & letters & hope they are amongst those saved

as I would not like our to think all my Xmas greetings had

met with a watery end. Our incoming mail too has been

unfortunate this week as we have just heard that the "Orange

Prince" carrying 560 bags of our mail has been torpedoed

(Gott Strafe Germany). I suppose some of my letters are almost 

sure to be in this batch but hope that none of my parcels were.

A Taube flew across here the other afternoon and

dropped a couple of bombs & a few handfuls of darts without

doing any harm. One of our anti - aircraft guns got to work

& the intruder immediately headed for home followed by a trail of

shrapnel bursts. We expected to see the 'plane come down any

minute for one one occasion she was actually lost to sight

in the shrapnel smoke; however she got away safely & disappeared in

the distance over the Asiatic shores.

If you miss a letter or two from me you will of

course know what has happened to them. Let me know if they all turn 

up safely especially the registered. Give my love to Auntie

McK next time you write

Best wishes to all,

Yours affectionately

Fred

Anzac Cove

Gallipoli Peninsula

25.11.15

Dear Mater,

As I think I mentioned 
in the last letter the heavy fighting following

on the landing was followed 
by a period of quiet in which each side improved

their positions & waited. There were 
of course daily artillery drills but the rifle fire

was confined to a few desultory exchanges 

of shots in the day time with heavier bursts 

of fire through the night, owing to the 
close proximity of the enemies trenches, to show

any part of your body was to invite a bullet so 
that all observations had to be

made through periscopes & even these 
were continually being smashed by bullets

from the enemy's snipers. Under the 
circumstances we settled down to the unavoidable 

monotony of trench life losing count of the day, date & time as each

day was almost exactly like its predecessor. We had by now quite accustomed

ourselves to the exigencies of active service & lived moderately comfortably in

our burrows on the hill side. We had too, received reinforcements for the 

battalion and these to-gether with the wounded who drifted back in ones & twos

from the hospital restored our battalion 
o something near its former strength.

Sometimes away to the southward 

we could hear the noise of the guns as the

allies pounded away at Achi Baba 
on the end of the Peninsula & at

night could see the flash of the guns 
flickering like summer lightning in

the sky. We were rather short of reading
 matter & always hailed a mail with 

delight but nonetheless we were not
badly off for news as our little paper is

printed daily at headquarters entitled 
"Peninsula Press" giving us the 

last official war news from both here 
& on the Continent

Although this period of inactivity was acceptable inasmuch as it

gave us a better grasp on our position our we however had a lurking idea

that the wily Turk was preparing something 
unpleasant for us behind the scenes

2.
Tuesday 18^th May was marked by a
recrudescence of activity. Early in the morning

the enemy opened a heavy 

shrapnel fire on our positions & a few hours later played

a new card in the shape of an 8" howitzer with

 which they freely bombarded our

trenches confining their attention 
particularly to that position occupied by us.

The gun was some considerable 
distance to the rear but we could faintly hear the 

report of the gun which was followed 
by a few seconds of anxious suspense as we

listened as we listened to the crescendo 
roar of the shell & a sigh of relief if it

passed over us to burst further back with 
an earth shaking roar. The shells of this

gun, soon familiarly nicknamed 
"Ned Kelly" are 33 inches in height & weigh 200 pds

The enemy fired 20 through the morning 
four of which burst very close to us

shaking our trenches & covering us with 
dust & lumps of earth. One of these blew in

one of our observation posts killing two 
men but that was the only real damage

done by the morning's bombardment, 
The effect of these high explosive shells is

happily, very local but the effect is most 
demoralising on the troops. It is

amazing with what equanimity you 

can contemplate the other side being

shelled by such monsters at the
Queen Elizabeth's 15' shells guns but how materially the 

case is changed when the enemy retaliate with
a few big shells. Just as we were

enjoying our dinner "Ned Kelly" sent over a few more shells he upsetting our tea

& filling our stew with débris. In the afternoon once again the enemy brought

the gun to bear on us & we immediately scurried for the safest looking spots

we could find. The safety of these places was more apparent thank real as

owing to the steep angle of descent attained by howitzer fire, shells can be planted

in many positions quite secure from the ordinary field guns. One shell burst

on the hillside some 60 feet below us throwing clods of dirts on us & many of us

were severely bruised. The shock of the explosion is terrific, a pine tree close

at hand was snapped off short & tossed into the valley, huge masses of dirt

& fragments of shell were thrown about 700 feet in the air while a huge cloud

of dirt, leaves & dense black smoke arose from the spot where the shell burst

3.
The next shell fell in the trenches in front of us & which we would have

occupied had we been in the trenches on duty. The force of the explosion tore many yards

of the trench down. One man who was standing near was lifted right out of the

trenches & landed some 20 feet through the air falling at our feet a bruised

& bleeding mass another man was literally torn to pieces. Several others men 

within the radius of the explosion were severely wounded, their faces blackened

& burned, their hair singed & their clothes torn to shreds. This was the last

shot fired, nearly 50 shells were fired altogether, but with the exception of

the cases mentioned the damage done was negligible.

Fearing an attack following on this bombardment the men were

called up but no advance was forthcoming. As soon as night fell we

immediately set to work to clean our trenches again & strengthen our

parapets the more especially as word was received from the aerial scouts were

that the enemy were mustering large forces for an attack which came early

next morning. The country in front of our trenches was covered with low stunted

bushes which together with a couple of small gullies which made excellent cover for an

advancing body, the morning, too, was raw & cloudy rendering observation

difficult so that the Turks were able to crawl up unperceived. Our first intimation

of the attack was when several Turks leapt upon our parapet with rifle &

bayonet in hand crying out allah! allah!." They were quickly despatched

& immediately it seemed as if pandemonium had broken loose. Through the 

dim morning light we could see the dark forms of the Turks advancing in

mass formation towards us & we opened up such a hellish rifle & machine

gun fire that they were literally swept out of existence, Our field guns then

opened a deadly fire almost blowing then the enemy's trenches to pieces & mowing

down the reserves. Several times the Turks bravely attempted to advance

but were compelled to retire leaving the ground strewn with dead even

up on our parapets while in front of our machine guns were piles of

4.
Turkish bodies. After Even after dawn the enemy once again pressed forward

but presented such a good target in the daylight that hardly a single one

returned to their trenches. For several hours after this a very heavy rifle

fire was kept up by both sides while the big guns pounded away

relentlessly: About 4 o'clock the enemy's guns opened fire on us once again

followed by a couple of shells from their 8" guns. We retaliated with our

18 pounders & two 6" howitzers which did much damage to the Turkish trenches

our forces on the left made a counter attack & succeeded in gaining some 

ground.ed. Our casualties in this engagement were very slight in comparison

to those of the enemy's which were enormous. We learnt afterwards that this

attack was directed by General Liman von Saunders in person & some

30,000 troops took part against us, including a new division which had been

brought up specially for the occasion among whom were 9000 of the 11^th

Army Corps which are looked on as Turkey's crack troops.
Towards dusk on Thursday evening the Turks came forward under

cover of a white flag & asked for an armistice to bury their dead. As the
time & circumstances gave rise to suspicion gave rise as to their bona fides this

was refused & they were only allowed a short time to retire. Immediately they

were safely back in their trenches a very heavy rifle & machine gun fire broke

out & continued all night. About midnight the enemy showed signs of

advancing & our artillery opened fire cutting off their reserves. The scene

was striking in the extreme, the night was fine & starlightlit the dark masses

of the hills standing out dimly against the midnight sky, the positions of the 
trenches were shown by the living lines of flame leaping from the rifles

now & again bombs & hand grenades burst amid clouds of smoke & reddish

flashes, the moment any flash of of the big guns & the brilliant flash of the 

bursting shells gave glimpses of a smoke blotted landscape while

a few flares lit up ground between the trenches with a red glow &

through faint shadows on the still throwing into relief the still bodies