Letters from Wilfred Evans to his family, 1915 - Part 17

15
of bullets which had missed
their marks & gone over into
the water. Men were frequently
wounded while landing
from these “overs “as they
were called & one man was
killed & another wounded
in the 3rd  L H Ambulance
after I left there in the
same way. The plans for
embarkation in the following
night were somewhat
similar. Three parties were
to leave from each regiment
A B & C the first at six p.m.
second at ten & third about
three or four oclock in the morning
bus The trenches of our whole
Brigade were manned
only by 200 men, but all
the machine guns were

16
there. 100 of the men left
in the first party, 68 in
the 2nd & 40 in the 3rd
You can imagine what it
meant to the 3rd & last party
They had to hold their trenches
at all costs if attacked
till a certain time until the
others got away & the spirit
in which they entered on
their task was magnificent
In fact men were actually
competing to have the
honor of being in the last
party to leave. As it turned
out however m the Turk
was completely deceived,
no attack was made

17
& the whole army came
away without any casualties
or at the most two or three
wounded by stray bullets.
What a difficult operation
it was you can realize
when I tell you that in
many places as at The
Apex, Walker's Ridge,
Courtneys Popes & Quinns
Hill the trenches were only
separated by a few feet
yards & in some cases feet
& in one case they were
actually occupying
portion of the same
trenches as the Turks &
only separated by a few
sandbags. Thus of course
it was necessary for the
men who remained till

18
the end to try & maintain
the usual amount of rifle
fire & bomb throwing so
as to preserve things as
usual but the question
was what would happen
when it all suddenly ceased
& the men were on their way
to the boats x to surmount
this difficulty to a certain
extent an arrangement ingenious device was
made in order to maintain
some rifle fire for a while.
X Several rifles were fixed
in a wooden board with
X a ∧continuous string attached to
the trigger of each & a
weights suspended to
the string. Then candles

19
Xwere placed between each
rifle with the string
running through them
of different lengths &
lighted when the men left
& then when the candle
burnt down to the string
this was burnt through
& the weight hanging
from it fell & so pulled
off the trigger of the rifle.
X The candles were timed
to burn the strings at
intervals of about a
quarter of an hour for
every two hours. Also
X an incident which had
occurred some two or three
weeks previously & which
at the time appeared inexplicable
X now showed in its true light

20
For orders had been
given then for everyone
to cease fire for two
days & absolute silence
to be preserved. We thought
at the time it was a ruse to
encourage the Turks to attack
but it was evidently a blind
to encourage them to believe
that we would sometimes
withhold our fire for some
time. XBX The whole evacuation
was beautiful, it was worked
as if by the clock &
everything went smoothly
almost all the artillery
mules of which there were
two or three hundred
were safely removed.
In my short experience of military

21
life I have never seen anything
done as well XTo continue my
personal experiences, we
were all very tired when we
boarded the boat for Lemnos
& I lay down on the Saloon
floor at two o'clock in
the morning & slept for
well till 7.30 am. Then
rose & had breakfast just
as we entered Mudros
Harbour. There we were xxx
transferred to a kind of
Mosman ferry boat &
taken some distance toward
the pier then put on board
smaller boats like trawlers
& finally into small
puffing billy steam boats
from whence we were
deposited on the pier. It
was by this time about

22
12.30 & we eat our lunch
where we landed as we
had all brought lunch provisions
with us & then marched
to our camping ground.
We were fairly heavily laden
with packs on back, water
bottles, haversack &
greatcoat that being
all we could bring with
us. Transport was however
provided for sick mens
& officers packs. I had sent
my sleeping bag & kit
bag away some days
previously in company
with other officer's luggage
with some men to watch
over it but have not
seen it since - hope we

23
will meet it in Egypt.
We spent about four
days at Lemnos under
tents but I did not
enjoy them as there was &
could not be much comfort
in a temporary camp. We
slept on the ground of
course & slept well, had
our meals in picnic fashion
sitting on our haunches &
found considerable difficultly
in having a good wash.
We were all longing for
a good bath & change of
underclothes. I went out
every day to get some extra
provisions for our officer's
mess, as we were near the
Greek village of East
Mudros in which there

24
were a good number of
shops which delighted in
charging exorbitant prices
for everything There was
also a French canteen
as the main French camp
was situated near by
& in it we were able to
purchase quite a number
of things principally tinned
fish, fruit & wines. I was
very interested in the French
soldiers we saw, they are
much more picturesquely
attired then our men but
I doubt if the uniforms are
as serviceable. They were for
the most part fine strapping
fellows, in which I was
agreeably surprised as