Letters from Wilfred Evans to his family, 1916 - Part 17

6. 9. 16. 
My dear mother, 
Your welcome letter of July 19^th 
came to hand this morning - I think it was 
a straggler from the last mail as I received 
one from you only a few days ago. I am  
very pleased indeed that you received 
the vases & like them - I think it 
would be very much better if you 
kept the pair yourself - I wanted you 
to have them, then everyone would be fixed  
up Also Linda would have a pair & Alice 
another & Mab the tray which I 
hope she will like. Please do not 
think of suggesting payment for them - 
it is Wilfred's gift to mother & he would 
like to give her a lot more. Was awfully 
sorry to hear that father had had an 
attack of gastroenteritis or whatever it was, 
I wished I were there when reading your 
letter & you were saying you had jumped 
up several times - we often have similar 
complaints in the military & I would have 
liked to help you fix him up. Glad

to hear he was better & all fear of 
appendicitis removed - it would certainly 
be abominably awkward to get anything of 
that kind in Candelo necessitating immediate 
operation. Fancy Edgar Holtzhanzar 
starting business on his own - very foolish 
I think at present as his name will 
be sure to go against him & with money 
as tight as it is during the war, he will  
have a hard time. 
Next morning. 
Had to close up temporarily as tea came along. I am now quite 
settled down at the Ambulance & comfortable. I brought my 
batman - Smith - with me as he has been with X me for 12 months 
now almost, he is a very good boy & looks after me well. 
I had a little palm leaf humpy built the first day & roofed 
over with waterproof sheets. I have a hospital mattress to 
sleep on & it feels very comfy after lying on sand covered 
with a waterproof sheet for so long. x Wesley is almost 
well now & is in one of the hospitals & expects to move 
off to France in a few days - lucky dog. We are 
not very busy here at present as only a few sick 
come in from the Regiments each day & the less 
serious cases are kept here & treated & those more 
serious sent on to the Base. Then there is a certain 
amount of work to be done in keeping the Ambulance 
in working order but this is not excessive. I 
have been out for rides several time since I came 
here but these are not very interesting as the 

desert is very similar everywhere & of course 
heavy to ride over. "Hods" are very numerous 
just about here in fact within a three mile 
radius there are about seven or eight, each 
containing a large number of date palms, the 
area covered generally being about ½ an acre. 
We sometimes ride along to one just to 
collect & eat the ripe dates on the trees, 
as all the palms just now are laden 
with huge bunches of dates, for the most  
part unripe, but a certain number ripen 
each day & these we seek. They are very 
nice too when properly ripe & black. 
There are two varieties here, the usual one being 
greenish or brownish when unripe & black 
when ripe & the other variety yellow. I 
have visited my old Regiment a couple of 
times & had afternoon tea with them & 
one day went with the Colonel from here 
to Brigade headquarters & had quite 
a nice cup of tea & sweet biscuits 
just out from Port Said. Did I ever 
tell you of the road which the Turks made 
in order to drag their heavy guns over the 
desert? They cut down innumerable palm 
branches & placed them in line along the sand &

these when covered with a superficial layer of sand 
made quite a firm road over which they dragged their 
heavy 8.2 howitzars with mules or camels. The 
rumor had it that they were able to be taken divided 
into 3 pieces & dragged by 12 mules in carts but 
I cannot say that is true or not. They 
must have suffered terribly on their return trip, as 
we drove them on to a waterless tract where they would  
have to travel about 20 miles without water & walking 
as they were in this heat it must have been terrible 
especially after suffering a severe defeat. I had 
a letter from Walker with your last - he is 
doing fairly well in Tasmania, also Auntie Lily 
who writes some very nice letters. I'm x coming 
quite to know the English branches of the family 
which seems strange after never previously 
corresponding. Must close my dear as the 
mail is leaving soon & lunch coming on  
- have had several interruptions during 
writing of this. Hope father is OK & you 
not knocked up after those bad nights. 
Best love to all not forgetting 
mother extra bit from 
Her loving son 
Wilf. 
Am writing to Mab next mail I hope, had a 
letter from her last week.

15. 9. 16. 
My dear mother, 
Your The wattle blossoms enclosed in 
your letter of 4^th August arrived in good condition 
yesterday bringing quite an Australian touch into 
the atmosphere, & was glad to hear that father 
was improving though slowly & that you yourself 
were recovering from the heavy tax on your  
own resources. It is a pity that you could not 
have arranged to have extra help to do the work 
so that you could have had Em & Alice with 
you for a while as it would have been pleasant 
for you all & good for you too if the necessary 
assistance could have been obtained, but 
without that of course impossible. You speak of 
a scarcity of ham & bacon in Candelo & I think 
we are partly responsible for that as bacon 
forms part of our daily ration because it 
keeps so well & I only wish I could send 
my share along to you for I would be 
quite content to see no more bacon for many 
a long day. Since I last wrote you we 
have moved camp, not so very many miles, 
but it necessitated building ourselves new 
humpies & we are not quite finished the job yet. 

Smith my batman has fixed me up very well though 
by splitting a huge beam brought across by the Turks 
into four & using these as corner posts. The sides 
were filled in by upright palm branches & the roof 
made from two waterproof sheets & it is quite 
cool & comfortable. The old caravan route 
which has for thousands of years seen the trade 
of Egypt pass across the desert to Palestine 
& Abyssinia & Greece forms consists of a depression in the 
desert which has been padded down by the 
feet of the camel convoys & the sand is here 
somewhat firmer than the rest of the desert.  
There are wells at occasional intervals but in 
parts there are many waterless miles to be 
covered & I understand that in the old days 
the inhabitants of the country made their living 
by selling water to the caravans & travellers. 
At Katia where there was so much fighting 
there was one of the main sources of water 
supply. The Nile in past centuries entered the 
sea far to the East of it's present position 
somewhere in the region about 30 miles east 
of the canal I believe. Old ruins are 
scattered along the route also, more 
numerous nearx the canal & the old mouth 
of the river. It was along this route that

Joseph & Mary travelled & the well named 
after them at Matorrhea near Heliopolis 
which I have previously mentioned to you 
was one of the stage posts. The Turks in 
their recent attack made use of this old  
track also to bring over their heavy 
guns & they improved it by cutting 
down palm branches & placing them across it 
& covering them lightly with sand. In the 
softer places they were compelled to use 
large beams for the heavy guns & we 
have found very large numbers of these 
in places in diminsions some 8 or 10 feet long 
by 1½ feet wide & 1½ or 2 inches thick. 
Their transport must have been huge 
task & when one sees the number of shell 
cases & the huge heavy boxes in which 
they were brought it makes one realize 
the immensity of the task they undertook 
& the really splendid way it was for the 
most part organized. I have settled down 
in the Ambulance pretty well now & am getting 
accustomed to it's routine & learning things 
about it's working which will doubtless be 
useful. The weather here has moderated

very much during the last month & is now 
really splendid. It is a little warm in the sun 
between 8 & 10 a.m. & then a breeze straight  
from the Mediterranean comes up & it is 
beautifully cool. It is much better here than  
at Serapeum as we are nearer the sea, & it is 
very much cooler than stuffy Cairo with it's 
closely packed population. In addition we move 
about here in short trousers & shirts which we 
can't do in Cairo & the addition of a jacket 
makes one very uncomfortable. I am enclosing  
a photo of myself taken at Bally Bunion 
some weeks ago in front of my tent which I 
hope you will like, also one of Charley 
Wesley at Alexandria recovering from his 
illness - but it is a frightful one of the  
poor beggar & he does not look himself 
at all. Hope you are all well now & 
cheerful with very best love from 
Your loving son 
Wilf.

20. 9. 16. 
My dear mother, 
Since last writing my usual weekly 
letter we have had another little "stunt" which has 
I suppose been duly reported in the papers. The Turks 
have an advanced post at the place called Bir-el-Mazar 
(you will remember that "Bir" means a well) which is 
about 20 miles west of El Arish that is nearer to us. 
Our object was to make a reconnaissance in force 
to ascertain the numbers there & if they were not in 
very great strength to try & take the place, but 
by no means to be involved in a serious action. 
I cannot tell you our exact position here but we 
left here at midnight last Friday & travelled to a 
hod called Salmana which is the last of place 
where good water can be obtained. There we rested 
all day but unfortunately could not sleep much 
as too much movement was going on. The 
sight when we moved off the previous night was 
the most picturesque one I have seen, as it was 
bright moonlight & column after column of 
mounted men could be seen moving silently off in 
away followed by the gun teams & their business 
like burden & then the ambulance with its sand  
carts & camel stretchers for the wounded, the 
red cross on it's white background showing up clearly 
in the moonlight

I was in charge of the camel convoy which consisted 
of certain stretchers arranged one on each side of a 
camel for lying down cases & seats similarly 
arranged for sitting up cases. Then we had 
a certain number of medical baggage & 
water for wounded. We fared very well in the 
hod next day as we had brought tinned fruit 
with us & our cook made good tea. In addition 
we had brought watermelons as the Bedouins 
in the region had sown acres & acres of 
them in the lowlying desert near the sea 
& they are lying about in profusion so the 
old saying that the desert shall blossom 
as the rose is partly true already. 
We were disturbed in our afternoon rest by 
the appearance of a hostile plane which 
hovered over us for a while & we thought he 
would drop bombs but instead he turned 
his machine gun on us although he was 
at great height & by an unlucky chance 
hit one of the men who was watering horses. 
The poor fellow died soon afterwards & was 
buried in a couple of hours & I think the 
insecure tenure of life was never so brought 
home to me as then for that poor fellow 
alive & well was next in a couple of hours 
later dead & buried just by an unlucky 
shot as the aeroplane could not possibly