Photostat copy of diaries of Benjamin Bennett Leane, 1915 - Part 22

Trenches.
Anzac, Gallipoli Pen.

Sunday.  Aug Sept 12/15    

Dearest old Girl,
There is nothing
like making a happy beginning
is there, and this certainly has
been a day of pleasant happenings.
To begin with, the parcel of
tobacco, socks, and chocolate came
from Wilmer Drive; later found
letters from Ethel and mother;
next a batch of fourteen returned
from England - three from you,
several from mother and Ethel,
one _^each from Norman, Miss Saunders,
& Ted. Then came another
xxxx from you. In the afternoon
I went across to see Ray
(who is acting C.O. of the 11^th. Bn.)
and who should be there
but Ted! And when I
get back there was another
 

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letter from you, dated August 3^rd,
the loveliest old letter you
have ever written I think;
I sat down right away and
replied to it, so I won’t say
any more about it.
Things are comparatively quiet.
At the moment our artillery

is exchanging its usual evening
courtasies with John Turk's guns.

And the poor old infantry

has to foot the bill as usual.

You see, our observers can’t 
see the Turks guns, and their
observers can’t see our guns,
so they work out their duel
this way. John Turk plomps
a big shell into the trenches;
then our guns do ditto to
John Turk's trenches. Then
they go again, until each
has heard about twenty or
thirty shells with the others'
from inoffensive infantry.
And the one who busts up
the parapets most wins. 
At least that is what it looks
like to us, the poor victims.
Occasionally one of our own
shells will get fired and
drop into our own lines —
we call that a “premature”;
John Turk, than whom there
is none more polite, will do
likewise to his own lines.
Poor old infantry — they do all
the fatigues, all the trench digging,
all the outpost work; supply
all the parties, whether burial,
guard, ceremonial or anything
else, do the brunt of the
fighting, walk everywhere then

 

4
go and “hang their blueys”
too; and then even in
peace times they are given

the most drab and 
unpicturesque uniform of any
arm, with not a bit of
gold lace or red stripe to
smarten them up xxxxx.
Nevertheless, they’re the boys !
night night sweetheart, I’ve 
got the all night watch again 
tonight. 

Monday. Aug Sept 13^th 1915.
All the morning, from about
4am. to noon, there has been
a continuous rumble of guns
from towards Cape Helles. Poor
Achi Baba is evidently getting it
I wonder is there anything doing.
Otherwise everything quiet. It is

unofficially stated that the
Connaught Rangers took three or four

lines of trenches to the north a
couple of mornings ago.
This morning I lost one of my 
platoon. He was in the circular
trench - about 7.30 a.m. — and
whether he put his head over the
parapet or got one through a 
loophole will never be known,
but he was seen to fall, and he
was dead. Clean through the
forehead. Leane was his name,
one of the old 10^th and a very
decent boy. Rough luck.
Tuesday Aug Sept 14^th. 1915.
Another extraordinarily quiet
day. More rumbling from down
south for about three or four

hours this morning. Last night

while I was on watch, about
 

6

8.30 - 9 pm the bombing was

very severe. At one time

It was so furious that I almost

expected an attack, the night

being very dark, so I had

the men observing and ready

in every possey instead of

every other alternate possey as

the rule is now. It quitened

down after about half an hour

and I let them get down again.

I don’t like this new idea of

observing only from alternate

posseys, at any rate not

when the nights are so dark.

It gives us only about 1 rifle

in every five yards, and

if the Turks crept up some dark

night to within about 20 yds

of the trench, as they could

and would do if they decided
to attack, they could make a

sudden rush and be on us

before the sleeping men could

get their rifles over the parapet.

One rifle in 5 yds isn’t going

to keep off a determined rush

with only 20 yds. to cover. Of course,

the idea is to give the men more 

sleep. With the old method the

men were watching in pairs, one hour

up and one hour down; and now the

the new idea, with a group of four,

gives them one up and three down.

I know the chaps need their sleep,

but after all the safety of our

line is the main consideration.

Let’s hope the Turks don’t decide

to attack yet awhile, until we

can get some more men into our

firing line.

Wednesday Aug Sept 15^th 1915 - very quiet again.

 

8
Early this morning a light rain
continued to fall, and continued
until about 6.30 a.m. The ground
became  very sticky, so we can
expect trouble when the real rains
come frequently. The weather
today is most beautiful, just
pleasantly bright and sunny. The
flies are quite conspicuous by
their (comparative) absence. The
 view from Artillery Road across the
gullies and over the blue sea
to Imbros and Samothracia is 
most entrancing. It made one
think that there could be no war,
that the whole thing was just a
peace time camp, a sort of picnic.
Only the little plot planted thickly
with rough wooden crosses seemed
to tell a different tale.
I met Ray Satterley (one-time
of Prospect) this afternoon. He landed
 two days ago with the 4^th Coy. Engineers.

He was in the New Guinea business.
The men are being paid today. Our

companies share is £397, which works
out at £2.10.0 per man, and, £3 to £5
for N.C.O.s. I am drawing £10 of which
I owe about £5. — £2 of company funds
which have been in my possession since
April, £2 to Ted for photos. etc which I
left him to pay for in Cairo.
And £1 for my batman.
Thursday Aug Sept 16^th 1915 stayed in till
lunch time; awakened to find three
letters on my stool - one from Uncle
Arthur, one from a friend I met in
Manchester, and one from Mr. Arthur
Gibbs, secretary to the Colonial Mutual
Life Assoc in London, inviting me to
dinner at his house — like offering
beef steak pudding to a hungry

 

10
convalescent who’s still on milk 
diet. Of course, the letter reached
Wilmer Drive after I had left, but, Mr.
Gibbs having just heard from
Ted that I was in England.
More rain this morning, and
more sticky clay in the trenches
I went across to see Ray this afternoon.

My trip down Harcourts Trench the other
night opened my eyes to certain
weaknesses in our defence, and I
was able to see how our position 

would be considerably improved and
strengthened. I thought of mentioning
the matter in my report, but decided
that it would be ‘infra dig ‘, as I 

had only been asked for a
report and sketch of the trench
itself, and anyway a junior
officer is not supposed to make 
suggestions to Headquarters, I did
what military etiquette and military
red tape allows — mentioned it to xxx
my O.C., but he did not seem to
think it possible. However the other
day I mentioned it to Ray, and he
saw the force of it. I thought no
more about it until yesterday the
Brigadier came along with the C.O.
 of the Battalion and inspected the

firing line, and I was told by the
officer on duty at the time that
they had discussed the very thing
I wanted done and had decided
to carry it out. As I had not
mentioned it to the C.O. I concluded
that the points must have occurred 
to him; but in conversation with
Ray today, I find that he spoke 
to the Brigadier about the matter,
mentioning my suggestions, and 
the Brigadier said he would look
 

12
into it. I am glad it it to bear
fruit, for since seeing the weakness
the matter has rather worried me.
This afternoon we have had word
that we are to be relieved from
firing line duty for 48 hours. It is
not much, but it gives us two
clean night’s sleep without having
to tumble out at ‘stand to’.
Friday 17^th.  Aug Sept /15. 12^th Battalion took
over at 10 o’clock this morning. The day
being pleasant Inglis and I took 
a walk down to the beach and
round to the left. Saw Ern. Has
a bad thumb; Ray is in hospital
with a strained back or something.
Had a swim, and got back to our
lines about 5 p.m. Seventh Reinforcements
arrived today. Not a bad
stamp either and willing enough.
Saturday 18^th Aug Sept /15.  Missed my
first ‘stand to’ this morning, but
woke up all the same. More
mail this morning — I got a
letter and parcel from you, and
letter card from Clarie Fairlie (Kalgoorlie),
Your parcel was welcome — but
white socks! The handkerchiefs
will be useful, as also the
safety pins — you remember my
weakness, dear old girl. But why
didn’t you think to put in a
cake of chocolate?
Very busy censoring and writing
letters this afternoon
Just at teatime (about 5.30 p.m.)
the Turks opened up rapid fire
from the trenches opposite. Had
it been night time I would have
put  it down to a stunt to pay
us back for ours of Thursday
night. (Oh, I didn’t tell you about

 

14
that did I? ‘I’ll tell you directly).
But being a quite daylight I  

thought they must surely intend
to attack at some point in our 
line. The 12^th  were in charge 
of the firing line so there was
really nothing for us to do,
but I went up to see the fun.
For about 20 minutes they kept
up a fierce fire, their artillery
and ours meanwhile throwing
shells at each others trenches.
All the time the men were
cursing because their tea was 
getting cold, but at last
when the firing died down, and
still there was no change, they
settled quietly down, and
after picking the flies out of
their stew, finished it. They
were very disgusted. I am
wondering, though, if they intend
to come any funny business
tonight. Anyway, it’s not our
pidgeon.
About that stunt Thursday
night. It was very funny. The
arrangements were as follows. At
10.10 pm. the 9^th were to fire flares
 and Bengal lights. At 10.15 p.m.

the 11^th Bn. (on our right) we’re to
open up rapid fire, and at
10.20 p.m. we were to sling old
jam tins etc. over the parapet to
make a sound as of a number
of men advancing at the double
and stumbling over tins etc.
Incidentally, also, we had to
light crackers (jumping jacks)
and throw them over the
parapet too. This last, I suppose
to represent bomb fuses. By this
 

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time we calculated that John  
Turk would be sufficiently worked
up to blaze away quite a
lot of ammunition. All preparations
were made; and we had
collected quite a nice lot of
old jam tins, and punctually
at 10.10 the sky was lit up
by a beautiful firework
display of star shells and Bengal
lights. The next instant the 
air was alive with whistling
bullets, and the rifle fire
from the 11^th (if they fired at
all) was quite drowned in
that of the Turks. I waited
for a long while before giving
the order to throw out the jam
tins, and at last there was
a slight lull and we we heaved
them over. But instantly the
little noise they made was
deadened by another mad outburst
from the Turks. In the
same breath some of the fellows
with the crackers, who were laughing
too much to throw the things out,
lit them, and had jumping
jacks prancing all around us.
I do not think I have laughed
as much for a long time.
And when at last the Turks
had quitened down to a 
spatter here and there a lot
of the chaps wanted to open up
a couple rounds of rapid to draw
them again. However, we
didn’t let them do that.
Sunday, Aug Sept 19^th 1915.
missed ‘stand to’ again this
morning, nothing happened last
night, it was evidently a stunt
 

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on John Turks part, but how
badly timed if his idea was to 
draw our fire.
We took over the line again
at 10 o’clock this morning. Went
for a walk in the moonlight with
Inglis. A peaceful night, and
very beautiful. Intended to
 go to church, but could not find

where the service was being
held. Got a big batch of

letters away today.
(Paid C.Q.M. Sgt Rice the £2. I have
been  holding as company funds
Inglis with me at time).
Monday Aug Sept 20^th 1915
Fairly quiet today, usual
shelling.
Tuesday Aug Sep 21^st. 1915.
Received a letter from Heritage
this morning. It had been to
England, and was in reply to one
I wrote him from there. He said
he had heard that while in hospital
we only received about a shilling a
week, so he begged to enclose a
quid. As a matter of fact he
enclosed £2.10.0. But the
point in this. When I saw
him on my return here he mentioned
that he had written me, but
when I said I had not received
it he said no more. And if 
the letter had gone astray he
would have stood the loss and
never let on a word about it. 

If that’s not the essence of a
gentleman. I don’t know what is.
Everything quiet again, and a 
glorious day. I [[?]] went over to see 
Ray this afternoon to see if my jacket 
would fit him, as he hasn’t any but