Diary of Lindsay Robert Turner, 1918 (Vol. 3) - Part 3

20/2/18

My diary being of very small

importance these days of stress

and trouble I have to bestow my

patronage just when I can this 

time about 5 minutes before

mess 7.30.  It isn't a meatless

day so our appetites reign

supreme.  We witnessed another

"circus" this morning tho' we

had the good fortune to partic-

irate in it this time.  We

were down for Battery Manoeuvres.

The teams are always ready and

all we have to do is to March

off with the usual celerity fold

off to our positions in somewhat

less time and be mounted

and moving in a similar space

of time.  It was a very interesting

morning the one object of the

instructor seemed to be to

get us tied up hopelessly.  As

it happened he failed to succeed

We've cancelled the idea of

 

writing our  lectures straight off

and its a very much better

scheme for now my work for the 

day is over.

21/2/18   Contrary to my usual practice

I remain in bed as long as I

possibly can here. There's no parade

until 9 but once we reach that

happy state of affairs there's no

time to even sigh so there's a

a certain amount of excuse for

it.  We learnt to do Gun drill

this morning, but there wasn't

the admiring crowd of Gunner's 

looking on , not is there time

to even sleep irrespective of

what position you are in

at the Gun.  The rest of the day

was spent in lectures but

owing to the wandering [proclioi?]

of one lecturer two of the

lectures were quite unintelligible.

Another interesting feature of the

day was toasting the King's health

 

 

in real wine but for which we

have to pay whether we're anxious

to drink the stuff or not and

I believe the price is most exorbitant.

22/2/18   Today was the day set

down for us to indulge the wander-

lust in what we term chasing

contours.  It seems to be quite a

feature of the instruction here

and roughly consists in wandering

hopelessly about the country trying

to find some location marked 

on the map but more [anon?].  The 

day commenced rather auspiciously

by the Major taking us under his

paternal wing this morning and

giving us all sorts of problems to

work out with a director.  Of

course it commenced to rain

at midday just when we were

warming up to set out on our

quest.  Armed with a map with

 

a reference to the position each

one had to find we set out.  The

map shows little else than base

contours and likely as not the

position to be found was one

somewhere in the middle of a 

featureless piece of rising ground

one youth more unfortunate than

the rest was found wandering some

2000 yards away from his position.

It tests the powers of one's [?]

Tomorrow only half a day's work

but on good authority we've found

out that its to be a 3 hours's

lecture.

23/2/18

Saturday is certainly not

a day of recreation never a 

day of rest in this officer's

Training School.  all the morning

we wrote for dear life anything

we missed we had to write out

this afternoon and these were

plenty of [dia?] to be done

 

as the lecture was "Telephones"

This is a great place for aeroplanes

this afternoon as many as 50

could be counted flying about

the camp. There are two large

flying Schools near here and on

Saturday they seem to have a general

field day and I believe its possible

to go up as a passenger properly

worked.  Most of us are moreover

very happy and at peace with the

world in General because an

Australian Mail came in.  I for

one rejoice in the fact that my quota

was 18.

24/2/18

Every Sunday morning

here precisely at 8 the outgoing

school commences its funny practice

with an [?] Pdr. Battery lasting about

5 days, and thats what greeted

us just when we sat down for

Breakfast. We used to hear the

faint roll of the guns at they [?]

 

and often wondered why firing was

indulged in every Sunday morning

and all the day long.  There was a

church parade at 9 in the church

but the village priest officiating

but it only lasted for 1/2 hour

after which we settled down to

graft.   Most of our fellows went

out on walking tours this afternoon

but being a consistent letter writer

and knowing the small amount of

spare time available during the

week I stayed in and performed

that duty.

 

25/2/18  This morning quite early

to be correct it was quite as early

as 2 o'clock, I woke up and

heard a real torrential down-

pour which reminded me 

of the rain we experienced at

Colombo and which I had the

 

honour of being in.  Then when

we did get up there was a 

bitterly cold wind blowing.  That

continued all the morning while

we had to sit and listen to a

discourse on the 4.5 Howitzer.

This afternoon we were exam-

ined in [?] altho' we have

had very little experience with

the 4.5. Still we didn't do so

very badly. Four more officers

from Heylesbury arrived tonight

and we spent a very profitable

10 minutes putting the wind

up on them.

26/2/18   Another of those awful

meatless days when kippers and

bloaters reign supreme, but we

get kippers so often that I lean

to the view some thriving merchant

must be making a pile of money

 

out of the mess here.  Another 

interesting feature in the day's pro-

gramme was having our photos

taken as a class possible for

purposes of identification in

the future.  We were all rigged out in

our Canvas Suits so the effect

from a Trades Unionist point of

view will be very edifying.  The

instructor takes a huge delight

in getting us down hell with

a battery of 45's and then 

watching the retreat back up-

hill and where the ground

is very soft and boggy, but it

makes muscle and provides an

appetite. The afternoon was

bitterly cold and thanks to an

indulgent Srg. [?] we had lectures

all the afternoon.

 

 

so were able to go very much further

afield. In our travels we passed

quite close to Stonehenge and with-

out a doubt its well worth seeing.

These huge stones weighing tons

standing upright with others almost

as large resting on top of them

and quite 15 or 16 feet high out

when one considers the Centuries

they've been standing it fills 

you with a sort of prehistoric

dread. The country round about

is very picturesque and everywhere

are to be seen [?] showing

what an important part this

must have been in older times.

We had an opportunity too of

riding thro' several camps and

it only showed to me the huge

organization existing in the [?]

of the British Army. Acres and

acres are eaten up by camps and

they are still extending.  Beautiful

roads on which Germans are

employed in large numbers are being

trade in an about the camps

altogether the days outing was all

eye opener to me and I hope its

the forerunner of many more.

28/2/18  The last day of our 4th month

away from home and tomorrow 

just 16 weeks since we walked the

plank of the "Port Sydney" Then I

wouldn't have hazarded a guess

where we'd be tho' the chances

of being here were very much 

greater that of spending Xmas in

Taranto.  However in spite of all

the hard work this has been

almost as congenial as the period

on the "Port Sydney". Were amongst

soldiers and gentlemen most

of the staff being heroes of Mons

Our Major was a subaltern during

the retreat from Mons and some

of his experiences are well worth