Diary of Trooper Ion Llewellyn Idriess-1916-1917- Part 1

Miss E. McGurk, State School
Brighton Hills, Via Mooretown
Brisbane Valley Line
2028 pt D.L. Inglis
Lewis Gun Section  it Coy
 H.L.I.   G.G.F
Idriess milk
Rutledge milk. No jam.
Dale (incorporated with Meiklejohn)
milk, No jam
Byrne No. Milk
Crew. Jam
Charlle Jam No milk
Underbill & Gibson Jam
Nix Jam Short
 47 M. 777. Bethlehem Semi
Automatic. (made in Yankeelana,
No 1 Gunlayer fires gun.
No 2 Breech worker (Work
Crank Handle
No. 3 Loader }Officer.
No. 4. Sight Setter}
Ammunition Supply Party
Case Holds 15 rounds ¾ cwt.
 Cr Gun  & Pedestas 7 cwt

Gun weights 4cwt.
Shrapnel Lyddite common
Weight of shell 3.3 

where the men abused their liberty
If we had been guarded and
kept in, there would have been
nothing but trouble with the
guards and orderly room. There
was a great change in the City
military police. They let us
severely alone. Consequently we
left them alone, and there was no
trouble whatever. We had a
great time, but I can't write
about it, it is best to forget
such memories in this desert.
16th Nov 1916. Its a long time since I
entered up, but there's not much to tell
Every man in the regiment has been
away for a weeks leave. Of all men in
the world, old Gus Gaunt has come
back. There are black soldiers here now,
B.W.I. men from Jamaica. A Lot of
French Algerian troops have landed
and it looks as if we are all very
shortly to trek out and take EL. [[Urish?]]
The nights are cold Now 22nd Very
shortly we move again, and
 

big ranges, were the camel
tracks of our late departed
camels. That was evidently
the track to their camp. Stan
and I decided to find out
what the figure on the hill
of rock really was, so
making sure that Dan and
Morry were alright, we
mounted our horses and
rode down the big hill
towards it. It was a long
way and the country had
now changed from sandy
to stony. We reached the
hill and I climbed the
damned thing to find that
the mans figure was a
cairn of rocks. Looking
along the camel tracks
towards the ranges, I saw
eight men-mounted on
camels coming down the
track towards us, a long
way away. It was high
judging by preparations the scrap
to come will be a very big one.
The nights are dammed cold. 2nd Nov.
Once again on the track of the Turk.
We are camped very near our old
camp of Fatia. So far we have had a
picnic during the whole trip and
glory of glories, stand to Arms is
at. 5 O'clock. The 6th L.H were bombed
at Bayud a couple of days ago.
8th Dec. Our squadron is moving out.
a few miles further today. some
of the troops had a bit-of a brush
with old Jacki yesterday, Everything 

points to a very big battle
shortly. 14th Dec. Our squadron is
on outpost duty in an oasis
away out on the flanks. At
night the camp is protected
by a ring of outposts each
outpost being four men.
Our section was on No1
outpost last night, and
a worse deathtrap could
not be found even in Egypt
 

time to clear out. We turned
back towards the big hill
and there running down
the camel track, was a
Bedouin, running full
belt. We made straight
towards him and he tried
to get away. It was no
good and we soon cornered
 him off. He was panting
 a great deal and
gabbled furiously at us in
a strange tongue, He
was very unwilling to come
with us, but we soon
convinced him of the error
of his ways. He evidently
had seen Morry and Dan.
and was running back
to warn his Bedouin pals
in camp. We lost no time
from now and crossing
the big hill soon found
Morry and Dan, Stan
A sand mound, with a stunted
bush on top; was our position
The sentry lay on top of the
mound, and peered through
the twigs at the gloomy
shadowy desert. When the
moon arose, the sentrys head
was silhouetted on the top of
the mound, and any lurking
Turk could have shot him
as I would a possum, A
hundred yards to our right
ran a straight steep sandhill,
between us and which ran
a gully, impossible to see xxx
this seen  Across from our
outpost and up this hill we
had to run if attacked, but
the gully between us and the
hill could be full of Turks
and we would not see them
On our front were sand
mounds and bushes to within
a few yards of us, forming
splendid cover for the
 

decided to have another
try at getting the camels,
and with the Bedouin
collected a lot of Sixteen
and brought them across
to us. Later we added
another lot of eight. some
of these were young ones
and I think that is the
chief reason why we were
able to drive them back
to camp. We started to
drive them, and for the
first five miles had a
rough time. By then the
young ones got tired
and the older ones waiting
back for them, were
easier to manage: I had
never thought we would
ever be able to get them
in but as the miles slowly
by went by and all
went well, I began to
 Turks if they had come. To
On our left were more
bushes, but far worse a
gully ran in this direction
completely around us,
passing behind our sand
mound only twenty yards
away. Up this gully the Turks
could have crawled with
perfect safety and then
with a sudden rush, ran
forward and bayoneted
the sentry and his sleeping
mates before the sentry could
have turned a muscle. Or
the Turks could have lain
in the bushes, and then with
one volley killed the four of
us with the greatest ease,
What luck for us that they
did not come. My pity to the
outpost there if one night
they do come. You can guess
a mans nerves are strained
 

realise that we had a
chance of success. We did
get them in to camp, at
eight O'clock that night
camels dead tired; Bedouins
dead tired, horses and ourselves
 dead tired. We received
very warm congratulations
from the Major. Next day.
the camels and Bedouin
were taken over to Brigade
Headquarters, Everything
was going splendidly
when word came out
yesterday from some
English general in [[Kandara?]]
to let the Bedouins go, and
load their camels up with
food. Tell them we are
at peace with the Bedouin
and are friends.. The
paper the Bedouin handed
me turned out to be a
almost to breaking point in
such a position. In my
second shift I got a shock,
about three o'clock in the
morning, A man does not
dare to look too long at one
particular bush, because if he
does it most certainly will
move. Then it will develop into
the head and shoulders of a
creeping sniper. And then
cold shivers go pulsing down
a man's spine, and he lifts
his rifle butt to his shoulder
by fractions of inches, afraid
that his least movement will
mean a rifle bullet through
the his brain. But let him
look away a few minutes
and then look  back and he
will see that the [[xxx??]]sniper
is only a bush after all.
Anyway last night my neck
got a kink from trying to
look all ways at once
 

Turkish proclamation, telling
the Bedouins that the Cheriff of
Mecca had revolted against
the Turks, had taken the
town of Medina and
several other towns, and
gone on the side of the
Christian dogs. It exhorted
all true Mussulmen to
fight against the Christian
else the Christians would
overrun the country and
kill all the Bedouins in
the hills, And a lot more
to the same effect.
One of the Bedouins had
a Turkish military overcoat 

on with a bullet
hole through the sleeve.
So that is the end of our
little adventure.
Feb 1st 1917. We have now
been camped in this oasis
with the regiment for some
time. The usual work. To
I when suddenly, from
the bushes on the left.
came the click! click! click!.
click! click! Click! of rifle
bolts. It was too late to do
anything but lie with stiffened
ed hair and parted lips,
and then in a flash I remembered

 the Lewis Gun section
right up on the sand hill to
our right. It was the damned
 lewis Gun sentry trying
the mechanism of his gun.
But a second before I could
almost feel the volley from
the bushes that would have
settled the four of us. Some
of the morning stars here
are very bright. I lay
and watched one rise over
the desert it was so bright
and close as to deceive a
man that it was a light
It slowly rose higher
and higher, twinkling.
 

morrow we all move further
out. But old Jacko the Turk
has got his tail down, and
refuses to face the Desert Column
He evacuates his positions now.
Feb. 3. We are treking now to EL.
Mazar the oasis that caused
us  such a terrible ride so many
months ago. I was on outpost
last night and it seemed
very strange to see and hear
the trains rush past in the
night. This lonely desert has
changed changed since that
awful ride of ours. But the
desert has not changed only
the train seems very strange.
Feb 7th We have been at
Mazar a few days. It is
just low sand hills, with
a plentiful supply of
wells, and one solitary
Palm tree, Morry and I
had a look at the old
Turkish trenches. They are
very brightly, just like
a morse signal flare.
But damn all outposts.
22. We are back with the
regiment again. The Xmas
billies have arrived, one each
to a man. A big parcel came
for me to the sections delight
Old Jacko is often a humorous 

old cuss. A taube dropped
a message at rail head which
the Turks are threatening and
frightening the devil out of
the Gypo workmen. "Keep on
with the railway line. We
are ready to take it over
any day now." The
Tommy Yeomanry general
has been kicking up a row
He says the Yeomanry
want to go out in front in
the big battle to come and
retrieve their lost camels
The Australians and New
Zealanders have proved
 

very few, or else they have
been filled up- by the ever
shifting sand. We should
have taken the place,
charged right over it
on our stunt some months
ago. The weather is splendid
and the nights very beautiful.
The trouble is that on
these splendid moonlight
nights we have to expect.
sudden death from the
air. The taubes are afraid
to fly much over E L Arish
during the day time, on
account of our anti aircraft
guns, but in the moonlight
nights they can fly very
low and drop their bombs
and turn their machine
guns on the very heart of the
camp The shifting sand
is a great nuisance to the
railway line. After every
wind storm gangs of
themselves, and now the
Yeomanry want a chance,
Good luck to them, 23 Dec
When riding about on patrols we
sometimes come across dead Turks,
relics of the recent fighting. The
wind has blown the sand away,
and parts of the half dried Turks
are looking from the sand. Most
of our own chaps have long
since been decently buried, and
their neat, white crosses are
dotted over the desert. 23rd Dec
Our troops have entered. E.L
Arish in force. E.L Arish
that Turkish stronghold
which has been so much
talked of and thought of these
long months. And surprise
of surprises, the Turk's retreated
many miles back; and
offered no resistance. They
had strongly fortified
positions, elaborate gun
and machine gun emplase
 

natives; are straight away
employed shovelling the
sand off the rails. The
train has at times been
stopped by the sand
totally covering up the
rails. There was a bit of
a scare a couple of days
ago when Turkish cavalry
patrols were seen away on
the right front. But nothing
came of it. Feb, Something or
other. We are camped in a
big oasis a couple of miles of
E.L. Arish within three hundred
yards of the sea shore. It seems
very strange, the old surf
battering the shore close by a
railway line running along
the beach. All day long it
the incessant hum of flying
machines low overhead,
coming from and going to the
aerodrome. This morning a
taube flew very high
ments, and yet they retreated
 at the last moment,
xxx rather than put up the
great battle which we have
been expecting for so long.
25th Dec. Some of the Light Horse 

regiments and yeomanry
had a bit of a scrap with
the Turks a day or so ago
and captured 1100 men
and two guns. Our casualties
were only 70. A great piece
of work, we have not heard
the full details yet. ' ' ' '  And
this is Xmas day.' ' ' ' Great

Caesar!
26th On outpost again last night
with a thunderstorm to keep
the four of us company. The
lightning was intensely brilliant
and lit up the drab desert
with a light that showed the
smallest bush hundreds
yards away. Then the damned
thunder opened up, and