Thomas James Richards, Diaries, Transcript Vol. 3, 26 January to 8 November 1916 - Part 4

30.
sails of a battered sailing boat. As I write it really does
remind me of the noises one hears about during a wild night
at sea. Dust has been pouring along with the wind and
everything is deep in dust. Work was impossible - everyone's
eyes are bloodshot and sore. It is unusual for the wind to
keep up all night. I have noticed it fall with the sun and
the nights turn out clear and still. Rain of a few drops
is usually the end to these damnable wind storms. They
seem to run in circles - the next two or three days may be
unpleasant, then comes three or four lovely hot days followed
as usual by the wind storms. Today has been bad enough to
make a fellow undo in ten minutes all the good it took our
Sunday school teachers years to instill into us.
March 3rd. Friday.
Now that the 1st Brigade are camped nearby the
stillness is broken by the pleasant harmony of the crude
brass and piper bands. They are dead rough at the game
right enough, but in a few weeks they will get the usual
six tunes off fairly good and give us them five times a day
over and over again. I sometimes wonder what good music
would sound like and I wonder more so as to whether we could
follow and appreciate it after having our ears blunted by
our rough regimental bands. One band could not play a march
for the men to march past the saluting base at the big
parade at Tel-el-Kebir. The men gave up changing step and
battled on, without taking any notice of it at all. It was
truly a trying proposition.
A letter today from Cis. Spenza. She is good to me
alright, but O, how impossible???? Papers from Bill.
There was no work doing today; again, the wind was
blowing a hurricane all day and night too. It has been
blowing for a full 48 hours and is still going strong; all
last night the camp was like a ship in a storm. 

31.
I wrote George Neil 10 pages but I fancy it will need
rewriting when I read it over.
March 4th. Saturday.
The wind has been as bad as ever today. The dust is so
annoying that we simply could not work at all. In the
afternoon I went down to the Canal for a swim, and paddled
across with ease. I wanted to get some "oysters", but it
was so awfully dusty I did not bother.
An African letter came to hand marked "Not First South
African Field Ambulance". Now the address on the letter is
typewritten so there is no excuse. 1st Field Amb., 1st
Australian Division, England. Isn't this remarkable - fancy
so plain a letter going astray. It was eight weeks overdue
when I got it.
The Colonel did not lecture on maps and map reading
tonight. I am not sorry as he is very dry, still he has
taught me much about maps in his previous lectures.
The whole of the 1st Brigade are camped near here. I
will have to look up some of the fellows.
March 5th. Sunday.
Today is the 5th day of this continuous dust storm.
It started in the South and worked around East to North,
from which quarter it has been blowing all day long. But
glory to the powers that be, it stopped blowing with the
sinking of the sun this evening and the night has been
suspiciously calm. In fact, the quietness makes me feel
quite strange after the flapping and jerking of my canvas home.
A whole lot of Lighthorse are camped here now. I saw
some baggage train of camels going towards Ismailia into the
desert today. The move seemed to be getting them there on
the quiet, as they could have got to their post much easier
from Ismailia. 

32.
This morning some 1,000 camels came in from the
outpost for water - they drink once in four days, and it was
a remarkable sight to see the different kinks and the queer
shapes of these camels. On the return, every camel was
filled out as light as a drum, a strange transformation to
the lean hollow camels that passed by half an hour before.
March 6th. Monday.
Today has been lovely, a little on the hot side
perhaps. Ah! but in the Canal swimming it was just lovely.
The hundreds of nude Australians that lined the bank and
frolicked about in the water made a glorious picture.
While working on a grease pit and building a cookhouse
today, ten out of the fourteen men working on the job were
doing so without any shirts on at all. You can't catch up
to an Australian for dressing himself according to climatic
conditions. I thought last evening when the wind got
around to the North that after the sun had gone down all
would be well, and that is just what did happen. Last
night and all day today it has been lovely. There is a
new moon about now and I wonder whether or not it has had
something to do with the windy state of affairs. I
swallowed enough dust during the four dirty days to satisfy
a concrete mixer.
March 7th.
Tuesday. Another splendid day and a most enjoyable
swim. There are thousands of men there every afternoon
and they enjoy it immensely.
We had some 40 reinforcements arrive today. To me
they seem very poor men indeed. Their physique does not
seem good enough to carry an empty stretcher up and down
the Anzac hills and dales. Six months' hard training is
wanted to develop them, poor devils.
Jack Earls - a sergeant in the A.M.C. but resigned 

33.
to go into the 4th Battalion as a private, was in to tea with
us last evening. He told rather humorously of several
Australians he had met in England. One case of a man
getting married before he had quite recovered from a drunk.
In fact, the fellow was not sure he was married until the
wife's claim was entered for an allowance of 4/- per day.
Lots of fellows are getting married over there, so he tells
me, some of them after only a few days' acquaintanceship.
If this is so, these fellows will find things a bit muddled
after the war. Yet to some of the conscientious fellows it
might be the best thing that could happen.
March 8th. Wednesday.
The 9th Battalion came in from the trenches this
evening, a distance of about ten miles. There was a whole
lot of band playing and some cheering as they passed the
1st Brigade and pitched camp 600 yards from the Canal. They
are very glad to get in near the water again after their
washless weeks in the sandy waste. No actual doubt now seems
to exist as to where our next move will be, and that it will
be very soon.
The infantry are being withdrawn from the front and
Light Horse are taking their places. Which should leave the
Infantry free to embark for France at any time.
I have been fagging away for some time past at letter
writing and now have things pretty well squared up, although
George Neil is still to be got through.
The Colonel would not pass one of my cards to Ettie
Gifford - it contained too much military evidence I expect.
I will keep the thing as a curio. I feel a little grieved
as I have been over-cautious in my writing at all times.
Fritz Schwarz was here today; he carries two stripes in the
7th Light Horse having transferred from the No.2 Hospital. 

34.
March 9th.Thursday.
The 10th Battalion came in today and came past singing
and merry. The idea of going to France is like a new doll
to a child.
This afternoon I went over to Serapeum on horseback and
enjoyed and saw a whole lot of fellows in the Light Horse
camps there. They are getting ready to move over to the
Arabian side. Where the Light Horse will no doubt be kept
for some considerable time patroling the lines.
I had to wait for the ferry to go over in, horse and all.
But coming back the pontoon bridge was swung across, and
the coming back caused no delay. The length of the bridge
is one hundred yards. This also represents the length of
the Canal at this point.
There are patches of green cultivation around the fresh
water canal at Serapeum but still all around is sand, sand,
and more sand.
March 10th. Friday.
Another lovely day and also a lovely moonlight night.
The sunsets are not so delightful perhaps here as they were
in Cairo last year, or is it that we are getting used to
them? I hardly think so, as I am very keen on sky affects.
The moon casts a particularly mystifying spell over the
desert. It does not seem to shine so brightly as in
Australia and though bright, it wears a strange veiled
appearance.
We must be nearing the date of our departure from the
Suez Canal zone, but where we are going to is yet shrouded
in mystery. Of course it has been long hinted at that we
go to France, but there is nothing definite about this even
now. 

35.
The Russians appear to have the Turks badly knocked about,
and we are informed that the Turks are sueing for peace, while
Enver Pasha has been shot. It is hard for us to accept this
information as we have been told so much of this kind of stuff
that we cannot put faith into anything at all. It is miserable
to be so disbelieving but how can anybody expect anything else
after the way we have been "bulled" and twisted.
Anyhow, if Turkey decides to have peace with Russia, it
will give the Allied Nations a great pull over the enemy and
no doubt bring about an early conclusion.
March 11th. Saturday.
Today has passed rather dreamily away without anything
of special note. The Light Horsemen go past to relieve one
another on patrol out ahead of the trenches and look jolly well
in passing.
Camels still go by to water and never fail to rouse my
curiosity, the ungainly looking creatures. I often wonder
what these weird animals could possibly have evolved from at
all, they seem so entirely unlike any other animal or bird I
am acquainted with.
News of Manly's great carnival came to hand by this
mail. I do hope to see a carnival there one day.
News that Bert is holidaying pleases me more especially
as I hear he is looking very well.
Munsey's  by Harry Kemp.
STAR-FACTS
To think that we dwell on a star
And poise in the infinite sky
While all about us, afar,
Systems and sun-drifts ply!
That we balance aloft in space,
Lake an irised bubble in air,
Where comets flash and race
With thunder in their hair. 

36.
March 12th. Sunday.
I got out of bed at my usual time which is half an hour
after the early parade. After breakfast I cleaned up around
the forge and dressed several horses. Since then I have
been hanging around all day reading, chatting and writing.
A regularly lazy day of it, right along. I should like to
have gone to Church, the brass band played very well, and
its strains were so pleasing. As the parade was breaking
up the band rather spoilt its good affect by playing
"Everybody's Doing it now".
Tonight with Tom Yeomans I went around, and over to the
1st Brigade lines beyind which a Monte Carlo was going
strong. Probably there were 14 crown and anchor boards in
full swing, and two "two up" schools also. We hardly had
time to look around thoroughly when Tommy saw a number of
mounted men draw up some 150 yards away, and drew my
attention to it when there was a hurried rush with Tom and
I going across the sand for dear life over to the rows of
tents 200 yards away. Finding all was safe we came back to
the scene of destruction and even then fellows were scratching

in the sand for lost money. The names of some twenty
men caught in the circle by the mounted men were taken and
by this time a fair crowd had collected round again and
very nasty names were called out to the policemen. So a
charge was made to disperse the mob while a couple of fellows
were taken away to the guard tent - one refused to go without
being carried, and in screwing his ankle to make him walk
it was broken. A couple of men were chased in and around
the tents, and bottles were thrown a few moments later.
In 20 minutes all was peace and quietness again.
This is the second raid during the past week. It may have
an effect of steadying the gamblers but will not stop them,
as the men have a gambling instinct or they never would make
such fine soldiers, so the playing will surely go on somehow
or other. 

37.
I came straight back to my humble abode and when I
finish this paragraph I am going to read the history of
Turkey with maps and illustrations from Munsey's magazine.
It promises well.
March 13th. Monday.
I have ordered five Anzac books to be posted, one each
to cousin Maggie, Williams, Jim Miller, Uncle Ned, and one
home to mother.
We did a lot of work today as all the horses are
supposed to be shod before they go aboard ship. Bob Tomson
had dinner with me and at 3.30 we went for a ride over to
where the uncovered Turks lay, but we were a little
disappointed as the bodies have all been buried again. A
boat went past and I got a wave of the hand from several men
and a woman. It did me good too I think. Rumour makes us
go to Havre in France now, and that motor ambulances will be
attached. I want to drive one of these cars as the
experience will be valuable on my return to Sydney.
March 14th. Tuesday.
The infantrymen are working heavily at present. All
these hot afternoons the plains are covered with groups of
men drilling. Its hardly fair in a way, but still some of
the new men are very crude and take a lot of licking into
shape, yet its very trying out drilling in the afternoon sun,
particularly when a lot of fellows stroll past for their swim.
It is again decided that inoculation is necessary, and
our boys went through the mill once more. The infantrymen
are lined out and taking their turns with all sorts of rough
and humerous remarks. If its likely to do any good, then
fire away, is the general feeling.
March 15th. Wednesday.
Today, has been a day of sore arms and a whole lot of
grumbling. The inoculation of yesterday causing a whole lot  

38.
of high temperature as well as sore arms. But I have
felt really nothing, as is usual. This inoculation is
the latest discovery combining a prevention for most
diseases heir to soldiers.
General Chauvel, in leaving his command of the 1st
Division, met the whole division this morning to speak to
them. All of the three brigades squared up splendidly
and in rode the General. He got under way at once, and
dealt with the much worn necessity for better discipline.
Saluting was so strongly enforced in the European theatres
of war that by neglecting the same we would appear a
rabble and so shoddy a soldier that very little decent
work or any responsible position would be assigned to
Australians.
An English general seeing the troops wandering so
haplessly and undisciplined about Alexandria and Cairo
reported to the English authorities that the Australians
were unfit to go to France and mix with the villagers and
soldiers there. Generals Birdwood, Chauvel and others
worked hard to overcome this idea. And now, said General
Chauvel, that you have got your chance of testing your
mettle beside the continental troops, it is up to you to
stand by us, and play the game.
The most disgraceful thing that has come under my
notice, continued he, is the digging up and the tampering
with the dead Turks that lie buried over there on the
desert by the Canal side. It is a curse and a crime that
Australia will never live down, and to try and divest the
blame from the whole Division and the blot from Australia,
the men who know the guilty persons should come forward
and expose. We wrote to Turkey asking that the graves
on Gallipoli Peninsula be respected and in no way molested.
They, the Turks, gave us this assurance. And now we find 

39.
you men digging up Turkish graves, how can you expect the
Turks to be honest with you and look after the graves of your
brothers and comrades."
I think that General Chauvel must take a whole lot
of blame for not burying these bodies months ago. I have
been here eight weeks and bodies lay about up to a few days
ago when they were buried. The rumoured finds that were
being made on the corpses, no doubt encouraged the men to
interfere somewhat with the half buried Turks. The General,
however, should have seen that these men were properly
buried and --- months ago.
"Irish Shamrock"
March 16th. Thursday. at the Belle Elsie.

Punkas working.
I found out today that leave had at last been
granted and that myself amongst seven had 48 hours of
freedom.
Six of them went to Cairo, and I to Alexandria bent
on arranging George Hill's headstone. The train left
Serapeum at 7.30 p.m. for Ismailia, here we changed on to the
Port Said train bound for Cairo at 8.10. Many of the men
travelled 2nd class but mostly 3rd class and myself amongst
them. The 3rd class carriages are fairly hard but as the
whole of the carriage is open the ventilation is better and
then we men are now well seasoned and a hard, or even no
seat at all, does not much matter.
We ran smoothly over the level road past Tel el Kebir,
ZAgazig to Benho; here I had to change over expecting a train
from Cairo for Alexandria any minute to take me on. But
alas, I waited from 10.45 until 2.15 a.m. for a train, and
then it was a miserably slow one and did not land me in
Alexandria until 8.20 a.m. During the night it was rather
cold, as I only put on a singlet under my tunic, trying to
sleep either on the train or on a seat at Benah was the devil
of a job, as I wascold and could not sleep a wink. I bought