Letters from Wilfred Evans to his family, 1915 - Part 13

behind which the sun sets &  
lights up with it's glow the sea, clouds 
islands & land & the various tints 
are beautiful. Did I tell you 
that by chance the other day 
I happened to be speaking to 
a Private coming along the  
road, & he turned out to be 
a fellow named Cobb with whom 
I went to school at Scots College. 
It is remarkable how one meets 
people. I have not received any mails 
over here - could not expect to do so 
yet as I explained in my last 
but am looking forward to 
next week or the week after that. 
I have quite an easy time here, 
am wakened about 7 a.m. by 
my batman who brings me some 
cocoa then he brings some shaving 
& hot washing water about 7.30am 
& I rise, breakfast at 8a.m.

sick parade takes place at 
8.45 a.m. & I generally finish 
in about one hour, then I have 
my men here to do some dressings 
and go round on a Sanitary inspection 
Come back about eleven oclock 
& have a look at any bad cases for 
dressing, then have a smoke &  
read till lunch. Am free then till 
from 4.45 unless any men are 
wounded as they seldom are just 
at present but I like to be about 
in case anybody is hurt so only go 
out once in two or three days visiting. 
Then I have afternoon sick parade 
& dinner afterwards, & so the  
days pass by.  I hope that all 
my distant loved ones are well 
& not worrying unnecessarily for 
the absent one. Take care of  
yourself mum, go out plenty 
Best of love to all the family 
with mother's usual share 
from her loving son 
W Evans Capt          Wilf

9^th Light Horse Regiment 
Anzac, 
Nov 7^th 1915
  
My dear mother, 
Another week has passed away quietly & here I am 
sitting on a box outside my dug out in beautiful sunshine scribbling 
this letter to you. It is a Sabbath afternoon & though there is again 
no church service owing to the illness of the chaplain something 
of the peace & restfulness of Sunday has come over me as I have 
lolled about in the sun although the duties of the day are exactly 
similar to those of other days  A mail came here this week 
but of course contained nothing for me though I expect to 
that by the time the next mail arrives my letters will have been  
re - addressed from Egypt & I will receive some. Yesterday I 
sent off a week end cablegram  to you as I thought it 
might relieve your mind a little, although it will be two or 
three weeks old when you receive it as it takes fully two weeks 
for it to go to Alexandria by letter post from where it is  
sent by cable. I have also discovered that the best day 
to post letters here is Saturday so in future I will write 
on Friday commencing this week. Today we had a gift of 
tobacco & cigarettes sent from Australia, one plug of tobacco 
& three packets of cigarettes for each man - I have quite a number of cigarettes 
now with those issued, more than I can smoke, so will pass 
some on to heavier smokers.  It was very interesting yesterday 
to watch one of our aeroplanes above us here which was

going along merrily when suddenly I heard her 
engines stop & thought something must be wrong 
& she commenced to descend gradually & very 
skilfully by voltoplaning, are sloping down slowly 
in one direction, then turning & descending in another 
until she finally landed in the water from where she 
was towed to the land. It is difficult to know 
quite how much I am allowed to tell you of 
military operations but I think small events of 
that kind are allowable. Yesterday afternoon 
also there was a very interesting bombardment of 
a place called Sniper's Nest, by some of our 
howitzars on the plain near here. The Snipers who 
had some weeks ago been kept down fairly well by 
our men by counter sniping & machine guns in 
this position, had dug themselves in & built overhead 
cover for themselves so that they became fairly safe & 
then grew troublesome as there are certain points 
which are visible to them at fairly short range & they are 
constantly firing at these spots. Our guns therefore 
determined to destroy their cover & did some excellent 
shooting sending about 20 high explosive shells into 
the spot & all except two or three shots were direct 
hits & I believe they knocked almost demolished  
the place. It's a very strange thing that a large 
proportion of our men here have never seen a 
Turk & I suppose most of the Turks have never

seen an Australian or a Briton, for both sides are 
so well entrenched that they are invisible to each   
other. I saw my first two Turks today through a  
telescope a long distance away, otherwise they would 
have been undercover, & we could see one of their dressing 
stations in the open, as neither side intentionally shells 
the others medical staff or sick & wounded. I also walked 
along the trenches beyond our own immediate locality to 
a spot called the Apex, then trenches there being 
merely a continuation of our own but very much closer 
to the Turks at one point only about 30 yards away & 
I had a peep through a periscope at them with 
their wire entanglements in front & then as we passed 
back to our own line had more peeps through periscopes 
& watched the distance between the two lines of trenches 
gradually widening until it became about 600 yards 
in our own with a deep gully intervening between the two. 
At the apex itself there is just a narrow ledge connecting 
this Rhododendron Ridge with the main Tunic Bahr range 
without the intervening gully but of course Mr Turk has 
that particular part commanded by innumerable 
machine guns and guarded with wire entanglements. 
We have had a continuation of the glorious weather 
I spoke of last week, thus further verifying that 
excellent forecast which was given of us & clipped 
from the Westminster Gazette. We are to have a cold snap

in the middle of November & then it is to become mild 
at the end. Southerly gales early in December followed by 
a calm period fairly mild till Xmas. Then northerly  
winds & rain.  Blizzards in January the snow 
sometimes lies for 6 weeks, so I expect it will be 
fairly cold then. Never mind we are well covered in 
& have plenty of warm clothes. I ran down (metaphorically 
speaking) to see Wesley this week & he came up & had 
some afternoon tea with me, otherwise I have 
not been about very much. I have been reading a 
good deal, finished Thackeray's Pendennis which I 
think you would enjoy - in some respects it reminds 
me of our own case but hope I'm not so bad as 
the hero is pictured, am at present reading Carlyle's 
Heroes & Hero worship which I borrowed - had partially 
read it before I left Australia, & am also reading 
Dickens Tale of Two Cities.  I will write to Egypt again 
I think for some more of Dickens & Victor Hugos Les Miserables 
as I can get them over in about a month. My last order 
of some books chocolate etc from Egypt has not yet arrived 
but I expect it shortly. I would like to believe that you 
are well & contented & not distressed about me, all will 
be well I feel sure with God's help. Xmas greetings to  
everyone, I am awfully sorry that I can send 
nothing more than greetings. Best of love to all 
& a double share to mother from 
Her loving son 
Wilf

9^th Light Horse Regiment, 
Anzac, 
Nov 15^th 1915 
  
My dear mother, 
I am so glad to say that I had a mail 
yesterday containing two letters from you, one from Mab 
& one from Cedric Job. It was delightful to hear from 
you again after a break of seven weeks. Your letters 
were dated 8^th & 16^th of September & had been re - addressed  
from Cairo.  Reading the news of your doings, with Ern & 
Alice spending their holiday with you brought Candelo 
so near & all that it contains - I could so well 
imagine you staying at home & Ern minding the  
nippers while the others went to the patriotic meeting in 
the School of Arts, & I was glad to hear of your taking 
care of yourself.  We are dodging along here in much  
the same style as usual, making no attacks 
& receiving none, the men are for the most part engaged 
in improving the trenches & communications. We  
received word last week to change our position 
as some troops who had been away resting were 
to take over our old spot & we were to go a  
little lower down in place of some others. We were 
all so comfortably settled down that the prospect 
of turning out & fixing ourselves up again 
was very unpleasant but had to be done. 
The troops to relieve us arrived here one day

& I took the medical officer into my dug 
out & fixed him up there & the others went anywhere 
- I think they all camped under the stars in 
with their overcoats on. I am having a new 
dressing station fixed up on this position 
but it is not ready yet & I still occupy  
the old post in conjunction with the 
other chap who is a very decent fellow & 
we hold our sick parades alternately. 
It is rather awkward though & I shall 
be glad when we move into our new quarters. 
We can still see the ocean but have not such 
a fine view as we are lower down This 
week Charley Wesley was sent up to 
relieve the medical officer of the 10^th 
Light Horse who is away resting at 
Lemnos & so is practically only 200  
yards away & you may imagine how pleasant 
it is to have him so conveniently situated. Yesterday 
we went for a walk down to the Ambulance together. 
There we met quite a number of fellows we know 
who were visiting Single who is at the Ambulance 
at present. They were fellows who were at the 
University at the same time as myself, McIntyre,  
Plant & McKenzie & we all had a fine old pow-wow, 
over cigarettes followed by afternoon tea. 
One of the men in the ambulance Captain White had

interesting indeed to stand in such a commanding 
position with a telescope & just look at the different 
places, Turks British New Zealanders & Australians 
with their interminable rows of trenches & bivouacs 
where the men camp in the shelter of hills protected 
from shell fire, the white tents of hospitals 
in the open as the Turk is a clean fighter 
then the sea & the ships therein.  In 
Suvla Bay there are generally three Warships & 
a good number of transports. I received a  
letter this week from a cousin Gwen Evans of 
whom I heard many years ago (& now there is  
another of the same name) who is working as 
a Red Cross helper with two hundred 
others in Alexandria.  She had contracted 
Diphtheria & was just up out of bed & feeling 
very lonely, had been given my Cairo address 
by Ernest Hughes before leaving England 
& wrote to me there at Cairo asking me to call & 
see her if I was in Alexandria. 
The letter was forwarded to me here & I felt 
very sorry that I had missed seeing her 
& she would doubtless think me unkind 
for not replying, but I did so from here 
immediately. I am still in good health 
& spirits I am thankful to say & my 
belt feels tighter so I conclude that I  
am gaining weight. This week some

had some good cigarettes sent him, which he 
was fortunate enough to receive safely & which 
everybody enjoyed after the issue cigarette which 
we receive. You remember me saying that I sent 
to Egypt for some books chocolates & tinned stuff. 
I received quite a nice lot of books & a letter 
from Stephen to whom I wrote (& who wrote to 
you I think when I left Egypt) asking him to send 
these things, & he said that he had posted 
also the chocolates & tinned stuffs, but alas! I  
fear they are filling someone else's stomach. 
The pilfering which goes on in the post office 
is frightful, some men receive parcels all right 
but if they are not very firmly done up & look quite 
harmless (as if they contain nothing eatable) they easily 
goe astray.  Some fellows have them labelled Poison! 
or socks. The Department is doing it's best I  
think but so far it is not very successful. One of 
the positions we hold here is Tabletop from which 
one of the best panoramic views of the position Peninsula is 
obtained. It commands the whole & more of that view 
which I have already described to you as being seen from 
Tabletop & with a telescope the vessels in Suvla Bay 
show out very distinctly & one can see the men walking about 
on the shore near there & all the stream of traffick. 
Also one can pick up the Red Cross Flag over the 
white tents of the field hospitals there in which possibly 
my our cousin Majr. Evans may possibly be. It is very