Photostat copy of diaries of Benjamin Bennett Leane, 1915 - Part 25
60
luck for Shaw if he has to go back to
a company. It's an awkward
predicament altogether. It seems
manifestly unfair to those who
have stuck right through to have
to give way to officers who have
been away for months ; but then
on the other hand it was not
the fault of those officers that they
were wounded, and therefore it is
not fair that they should lose seniority
of promotion on that account.
Saturday Oct 23rd — Feeling very fit
today. Inglis and I went for a
brisk walk for about an hour and
a half this morning, across the
hills and down to the beach. It
was a stiff pull getting back
but I feel much better for it.
This cold weather puts life into one,
without a doubt. It gives you
plenty of vim and snap.
Sunday Oct 24th 1915 — Another
very cold day. Word came through
tonight that our holiday is once
again put off. The 11th were to have
embarked tomorrow, followed by the
9th, and we were to have left
on Oct 29th. And now it is all
cancelled and our date of departure
indefinitely postponed. From what I
can gather there is to be a big move
on the left shortly, and no troops
can be spared for the present.
Oh well ! as one of the men always
says about six times per page in
all his letters. Oh Well!
As long as they feed us well and
send our mail along regularly I
don't mind. I don't mind hanging
on if there is a chance of putting the
business through.
62
Monday Oct 25th - A beautifully
sunny day. Inglis and I went
for our normal ramble this morning.
It is a real picnic day. Last
night a batch of returnees landed,
included Capt Minagall our Q.M.
and Lt. Loutit of 'A' Coy. Also a
Lieut. Smith, of the 8th Reinforcements
came on over. He says the 8th, 9th
& 10th Reinforcements are in Egypt ready
to come on. I wish they'd send
them, and give some of our chaps
a bit of a spell from the firing line:
Each day one platoon used to be detailed
as 'rest platoon', but now the next
platoon has to do its share of fatigues
the same as the duty platoon, and
lots of men are doing three nights
in succession in the firing line.
Ernie's boy, Arnold, came over to
see me this afternoon. He looks
pretty well. He doesn't know where
his father or Ray are: he has not
heard from them since they left for
hospital. I gave the boy some
chocolate and a tin of condensed
milk: it was all I had. His
battalion is about six miles from
here.
Tuesday Oct 26th 1915.
Very quiet day, inclined to be drizzly.
Armitage has been transferred back to 'C' Coy
so we now have four officers. I am
going to shift my quarters. Inglis and
I have long talked about making
his dugout into a roomy, double one
and our sharing it, so we are now
going to do it, and Armitage can
take over mine, which was his
originally.
Wednesday Oct 27th 1915 A beastly
day today — a strong dry wind
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swirling dust everywhere — just
like or horrible north winds in
Adelaide. I moved into my new
quarters this afternoon and am
very well pleased with them. The
dugout is much more roomy, and I
can stand up straight without
knocking a shower of sand from
off the roof down my neck.
Yours, and Gwen's, and Ethel's photos
are prominently displayed in the
little recess where I keep my mirror
and other toilet articles - my
'dressing-table' in fact. I like
to look at them and wonder when
we will be together again.
Thursday Oct 28th 1915.
Slept very soundly in my new
bed. Also its - nice to have company
for a change, and Inglis is a
very decent sort; clean minded.
The weather today is hot and dry
and enervating. We went for a
short walk this morning but soon
got fogged. There is talk of a
few odd bags of mail — about
thirty - for our brigade. I wish
it would come along. I have
heard also that there are about
three weeks' mails at Alexandria
waiting for a boat to bring them
on, so perhaps that is where your
letters and the English parcels are.
We are down low again today
no fresh meat, no bread; so we
have to tackle biscuits and bully — ugh.
To make matters worse, the water
fatigue has been down twice for
water this morning, and can't get
any, so there's no tea either!
Also our porridge supply ran out
yesterday, so we had none for breakfast
66
Later. — I wrote the previous entry
shortly after lunch, and then
stretched out for a quiet read.
Finally I decided to take a
xxxxx walk over to Monash Gully
to see Ted, and incidentally
to get a cup of tea. I saw Ted
and I got my cup of tea, as
well as biscuit with strawberry
jam and BUTTER! Irish
butter it was , tinned, but
very good, and such an
unheard of luxury. I stayed
there until nearly five, and
then came back for tea. On
my arrival I was told that
the C.O. wanted to see me at
Headquarters as soon as I returned,
so I went down at once and
reported. Whitbourn is rather
ill, but doesn't want to go away
as of course he will lose his
temporary captaincy if he does,
so the major wants me to take
over the duties of adjutant
while Whitbourn has a spell.
I have to start in the morning.
Friday Oct 29th 1915.
Poor old Whit had to go away
after all. He is absolutely run
down, and a run of dysentery
had put the finishing touch. He
went to hospital at 3 o'clock
this afternoon, so I am now
Adjutant until he comes back
which the doctor thinks will
not be for some months.
I took up my new job this
morning, but will not move
into my new quarters until
tomorrow. I started messing
with headquarters today though
68
I might have saved myself
the trouble of moving in with
Inglis, for I was there only
two nights.
Sunday Oct. 30th. 1915.
Moved in today. Rather
better quarters, more roomy and
open. Get the breeze direct
from the sea, too, and have a
most beautiful view of Imbros
and Samothrace and the blue
sea. My new job entails a
great deal more work than
did my old job, but I don't
do watches in the firing line
now, so consequently get my
nights' sleep regularly. Today
I have been busy on orders
for provisions from Imbros.
We are sending for over £100
worth for the Canteen over there
I don't suppose we will get
quite that much.
Ray's battalion is at present
relieving us in the firing line.
They moved in yesterday morning,
and move out again
tomorrow morning. I haven't
seen much more of Ray, though.
We received about five bags
of English mail today, and I
got a parcel and two London
'Punches' out of it — all from
Heaton. The parcel is O.K.
A cake, a tin of biscuits , a tin
of sardines, a tin of pineapple,
two tins of the best sweets and
a packet of chocolate. Also
the scarf Aunt Agnes knitted
for me — such a soft, warm,
wooly thing. There's more mail
on the beach to come up tomorrow
70
Sunday Oct 31st 1915
The mail came up to Brigade
tonight, but we won't get it
until tomorrow morning. 17 bags
altogether. I ought to get something
out of that .
(There's an 18 pounder
a few yards away that fires
about every thirty seconds
during certain times — she's
at it now — and the report
nearly deafens you, and shakes
dirt and spiders and other
things from the roof of the dugout.)
I had a yarn with Ray
this morning for half an hour
or so. He looks much better
than he did.
Monday Oct Novr. 1st 1915.
A big disappointment.
The 17 bags of mail contained papers
only, so I got nothing out
of it. I do wish the letters
would hurry up. I wrote
you and mother and my
other correspondents yesterday
as usual.
Fancy November here already.
It will soon be Christmas, my
second Christmas away. I
wonder will we be together
before next Christmas? I fervently
hope so, anyway.
Tuesday Nov 2nd 1915
Ate some beastly rich plum
pudding mixture last night. Consequently
out at 2 ok. some sick
as the proverbial dog. Since then
I've had indigestion. It's rotten.
And to think that once upon a time
I could eat anything.
72
Saw Ray again this afternoon. He is
just about his old self again now.
Wednesday Nov. 3rd. 1915.
Fairly brisk artillery fire this
afternoon. I was sitting out on
Artillery Road with the notes
writing our Christmas letter in
the pleasant warmth of the
sun, and the noise was
almost deafening. We have
four guns within very short
distance of us — the nearest
about twenty yards thirty yards, —
and what with their racket
and the whistling and busting
of the Turks shells overhead the
atmosphere was hardly suitable
for peaceful composition.
One shell came hurtling over
and landed in the gully just
below Artillery Road without
exploding, and rebounded,
was twisting and twirling in the
air and finally landed just
beyond a mule train. You
could see it quite plainly after
it struck the first time.
Finally a '75' burst just over our
xxxx heads, and the fragments
caught four chaps of the 12th
Bn wounding them, two
rather seriously (in the stomach)
and the others slightly. Strange
to say their fire practically
ceased after that.
The 1st Brigade moved into
position on the right of our Bde.
This morning, consequently we
have all been pushed up left.
Our Battalion has only about
half the frontage to hold that it
originally held. It is just as
well, too, for we are getting very
weak numerically. About 500 to
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600 strong, all told. The 11th Bn
are in an even worse plight.
The strength(!) of their battalion
is 300 odd — very little more
than the establishment of one
company normally.
Thursday Nov. 4th 1915.
Mail came along this
morning, but again it was
mainly parcels and papers.
However, I fared better this time.
I got no letters, but there were
two parcels for me — one
from Heritage and containing
an electric torch & refills;
The other from Wilmer Drive
and containing — let me see
a "Punch", a "Nasho" magazine, a
tube of Colgate's Tooth Paste, a tin
of Trench Powder (for FLEAS etc.)
a tin of ointment (which had
melted and permeated almost
everything) two pairs of socks.
and a great slab of delicious
fruit cake, covered with
almonds. By jove its good.
And that's on the recommendation
of four others as well
as myself.
The men the 11th Bn sent
to Imbros for fresh provisions
returned today. We gave him
£5 and he was able to purchase
about £2-10 00 worth.
We got two fine cabbages, some
potatoes and leeks, a few tomatoes,
small quantities of apples and
oranges, a lot of dried figs and
5 doz. eggs. It will give us
a little of the real thing, anyhow.
The man who went over for canteen
stores is not due back until
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tomorrow or Friday. He has
£114 of the Battalion's money, so
I hope he is able to get a good
supply. Also some gift
stuff came along today —
cigarettes from people in Australia
and a few bottles of pickles
and sauce from Lady Hamilton.
Our cook surprised us with
jam tarts tonight. They weren't
bad, either.
Friday Nov. 5th. 1915.
Most beautiful weather these
last few days; just like those
glorious days in the very early
summer in South Aus. Ted and
Allan came across this afternoon
so we all went on the see Ray.
I took the balance of the 'Heaton
Hamper" with me — needless to
add, there's none left. The Adjt
of the 11th Bn took a couple of photos
of we four. He found he'd spoilt
one of them, so later he took another
one in our (10th lines). Ted has
heard from Ern, who is in Malta,
but expects to return shortly. Ted's
boy Allan has had to go away
with enteric. Must give him
Uncle Arthurs address in case he
gets to England. Most likely
he'll go to Australia if it's enteric, though.
Saw notice of Uncle Jack's death
in a 'Chronicle' yesterday. Ted,
who has had a letter from mother
recently, confirmed it. Ted says
also that mother has had our
kiddies for a few days while you
had a little run round among
your friends. Good business.
I hope they didn't worry mum at
all. She'd like to have them.
78
We had a little excitement last
night. At about 8.30 pm.
fire developed from the enemy's
lines on our right, and rapidly
spread until it reached the
trenches opposite our own
position. As it was fairly
brisk the C.O. and I shoved
our revolvers in our pockets and
went up to the firing line. At
first it appeared to be merely
a stunt by the Turks, but
presently fire opened from our
line down at Harris Ridge. So
we established our headquarters
in the firing line and awaited
developments. Nothing of any
importance happened in our
sector, and at about 10.45 pm
everything had settled down to
normal again and we "carried
on". I slept in my clothes all
night though. Today we
find that it was an attack by
the Turks on a new section of
trench opened the night before on
Harris Ridge by the 5th. Lt. Horse.
They came up in lines of bombers,
followed by four lines of men
carrying filled sandbags. The
bombers were repulsed, but the
others managed to establish a
breastworks within about 10 yds
of the new trench, and another
line a little further back. The
Light Horse men managed to
bomb them out of the first line,
but could not shift them from
the 2nd line. Things were very
lively for awhile, and Capt
O'Hara was telling us today
that bits of Turk (in one case a
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