Diary of Verner Gladders Knuckey, 1916 - Part 5

We advanced till 11p.m when the
camp was once more formed up, our
nights rest was a very poor one since
it fell to C Sqdn to form the outposts;
everyone had to lay down
fully prepared to move at a moments
notice, horses kept saddled and men
fully dressed, however the night passed
quietly and we all got a few
hours rest. Everyone was on the move
again before dawn, the outposts called
in and a hasty meal snatched on
hard biscuits and bully, great numbers
of us had nothing so had to be satisfied
with a smoke. It was now Sunday
and again a move forward was
made in full marching order, it
was fine to see the batteries of
artillery going past and then came
our men and last the long line of
red cross conveyances, the procession
must have been miles long. On
ahead was to be heard the loud
boom of our big guns sounding very
plain and I suppose it must have been
about 11am when a halt was made,
food was issued to the men and after
an hours wait we were able to water
our horses, we made a kind of meal
and snatched a few minutes sleep
lying at our horses feet, each man
holding the bridle rein, the burning
sun was no inconvenience now as
man and horse both would have rested
under any disadvantage.
The 8^th now were moved on by
themselves, at the time of course none
of us knew the plans of the officers
but since then I have heard different
men talking and can only surmise
what was supposed to happen, the
turks were very strong just outside a
certain Oasis (will give them the local
name of Hods from now on) and I believe
the 9^th & 10^th went forward to the
attack whilst we were to get behind

and cut the enemy off. We moved
away to the right and tried time and
again to go forward but evidently our
leaders considered they were blocked as
at 3p.m we joined Headquarters again
and from a bit of high ground
were able to watch the 9^th and 10^th fighting
well. After a while we mounted and
rode back a mile or so to a hod
and formed camp. Late that evening
the other two regiments came in. I
cannot say exactly what men they lost
but the number was small, on the
enemies side it was heavy as we
found out the next day, the 9^th &10^th
captured that day about 500 prisoners,
amongst them were some Austrian
and German officers & N.C.O's, we had
them all to guard that night and
needless to say proved a great interest
to our men, the turks were poorly
dressed by on the whole looked a
determined lot of men and took
things very calmly, were thankful for
any considerations shown them, all of
our men went on half rations to provide
an evening meal for them, but the
German officers were very surly and
took their capture with a bad grace,
one of them I believe whilst being questioned
by our leader informed him he
was a prisoner and was not there to answer

questions. This was my first close
acquaintanceship with Jacko, as I said
before we thought them poorly dressed but
no doubt they thought the same of us
since none had on a coat, shirts in

many cases torn, some in riding
pants whilst others had only short
knickers like a small school boy wears,
out in the firing line clothes are at a 
premium, a man wears what he
can get hold of and what he can
not get he does without, before many
days some of us cut a sorry figure,
not a man in the regiment could produce

a razor, we would go for days at
a time without water to wash. I have
gone for three weeks without soap and
for three months without any towel, I 
would use the calico that would come
wrapped round the parcels from
home, so you see clothes and appearances
do not count the same out here
as they do in Collins Street at home,
its the man who can last out the
longest and and be ready when he
is wanted. And so Sunday the
6^th of August came to an end, whilst
our folk at home where preparing to go
to church we were foraging round
for food for horse and man, cleaning
our rifles for the next days work and
as it got dark spreading out our
blanket just a yard or so behind
the horse line to get as much rest
as possible, we were in the game at
last after our months and months
of waiting and watching.
Monday 7^th Aug. An early start was made
probably about 3 a.m., the 8^th were to attack
and take at all costs the hod about
two miles away where the enemy had
their camp, as I said before the previous
days fighting had taken place outside
this hod, we were soon marching over
the battle field, dead Turks were everywhere
and in all sorts of positions,
hundreds of rifles, belts and enormous
quantities of ammunition lay all
around, I might say that during
the whole of the next weeks fighting
this was the only time I witnessed
such a wholesale retreat on the
part of Jacko, always after that it
was an orderly retreat but will
write more about that later on,
If I live to be an old man I can
never forget my first view of a 
battle field, later on I saw our
own men dead and wounded,in
some cases chaps that had been

with me in the good old Seymour
days but the impression was not
so marked as this particular morning,
one case in particular of
two turks, they had evidently been
wounded and managed to drag
themselves to the same bush, and
my mind could picture a scene
that must have been acted there,
one had died and his mate had
pulled his water proof sheet over
the body, when we came along
No. 2 was also dead, he was resting
on his right elbow and with
the left hand had stretched out
the left hand probably to pull the
sheet further over the mate and
had died during the act, the man
seemed simply to be resting there,
his face was calm and to make
sure everything was right one of our
chaps got off to see that he was
really dead, I never thought a dead
man could look so natural. Going
over this ground it was a splendid
opportunity to secure some curios but
very few of our men did so as we
thought soon we could get plenty
more. unfortunately for most of us
no such chance came our way
again. Some days afterwards I
believe our men came along this
way and buried these bodies. Our
own men were always buried and
when possible the turk also but in
some cases we were not able nor
had we the time to give the enemy
proper burial.
After crossing this fighting
ground an advance was made on
the hod but it was soon discovered
that Jacko had gone during
the night, we rode in and camped
in their old camp, they had not
left much behind them besides large

quantities of ammunition and rifles, we
pitched camp about 10 a.m and poked
around till 3p.m when the Brigade joined
us up and the order was to move on
along the track the retreating enemy
had taken, there was no missing it
as thousands of footprints in the
soft sand together with the camel
and goat tracks showed plainly the
direction taken, the Inverness battery
was attached to us and of course
moved everywhere with the Brigade.
About four oclock a halt was called
for ten minutes rest, during the
10 minutes an aeroplane came up
over the horizon, for a minute or so
until we could recognise that she
belonged to us everyone was on the
alert, the plane came straight for
us flying very low and when
passing over the head of the column
dropped a small dart affair which
had a message attached to it.
We travelled about four miles further on
before camp was formed for the night,
the wells at this particular hod proved
fairly good consequently the horses
only took about an hour to water,
after tea those who were not told off
for night duty soon were sound
asleep. It seems wonderful what a
man gets used to, a chap had
simply to lay down and in less than
five minutes would be sound asleep,
of course no one was ever allowed
to take off any clothing, our rifle
would be under the blanket beside us
and our saddle at our head, within
10 minutes of an alarm every man
could easily be sitting on his horse
all ready to move off, we were
only a few hours behind Jacko and
every precaution had to be taken, up
till now our Squadron had not been
under fire but our turn was not
far away & everyone was happy. -

Tuesday Aug. 8^th The camp was astir soon
after 2 a.m., the usual routine now was
to immediately pack your saddle and
draw the days rations for yourself and
horse, it constituted for the latter ten
or eleven double handfulls of barley,
that was to do the horse for twenty-four
hours and for a fortnight they
never had a mouthful more, each
man drew about six biscuits, one
tin of bully beef and to every four
men one tin of marmalade, a
small quantity of sugar and tea,
occassionally every eight men got a
tin of Ideal Milk, but the later was
a luxury. Many times when the
transport could not come up to us
we would go very short, on one
journey I have seen one tin of beef
to four men for a days rations,
we were only allowed one bottle of
fresh water per man. I forgot to
mention that the water out of these
wells was very brackish and not nice
to drink but the men soon took to it
when water was not to be had, watering
horses was a slow game, one man would
hold four horses, one man with the
canvas water bucket stay at the well
drawing water whilst the other two
carried x it to where the horses were,
we made no bones about drinking with
the horses, a man carrying it would
perhaps get some muddy stuff and
then secure a little clear water, he
would take a long pull and give
the rest to his horse, perhaps the
animals had been drinking out of
the same bucket for half and hour
before him. When we get back to
civilization it will make our stomachs
turn when our mind tracks back
over memories of what we have eaten
and drank, the man who has taken
care of himself in the past is the one
who will come out on top now,

We lived on this water for a fortnight
and on the whole it did not seem
to affect us but after the fighting when
the Brigade settled down at a hod
the water seemed to be crook. there
was a Cholera scare and orders
issued that no man was to drink
well water, being camped at the
same hod for perhaps a week or
ten days the transports would come
regularly and fresh water in
limited supplies could be had but
only for drinking purposes. I remember
at one camp I met some old
friends from the Inverness battery and
they showed me a small tablet that
was issued to them which was supposed
to purify the water, he gave
me a demonstration and they certainly
seemed to make the water
more palatable so I got a few
of them from him for future use,
he warned me not to let cloth get
in contact with them or they would
quickly eat through it but the tablet
was supposed not to have any effect
on paper. I very carefully wrapped
some paper round them and placed
the packet in my tunic pocket where
there were some letters, a fine photo
post card of my brother in uniform
and a bonzer testament Mum gave
me. For a fortnight they remained
there forgotten by me until one day
I turned out my pocket, the testament
was ruined, only half the card was
there and the letters were almost gone.
My opinion of those tablets is best
left unsaid.
I commenced to write about the
doings of Aug. 8^th but the book
is finished so will start on that
day in the next book when I can
secure one.
- Mar 3rd. 1916

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Please forward
this book to
address if
found
Mrs E S Knuckey
"Glen Vern"
46 Edgar Street
East Malvern
Melbourne, Victoria
Australia