Charles E W Bean, Diaries, AWM38 3DRL 606/9/1 - June 1915 - Part 4
57
were bathing again. Birdwood (shepherded by Chirnside who
ws told by | staff at to try & keep him out of danger) was thro it all.
The gun ws bursting beautifully - low down - not more
than 10 ft above | water (K. Tepe generally goes in solid,
wh doesn't matter). The shot tt hit this man ws a
perfect one aimed at exactly | point where | men were going
in. They have been much more effective | last 3
wks - their shrap. kills much more often than before -
it seems to be a better shell. but perh it merely bursts
lower.
[*Medical.Bo (Casualties)*]
The N.Z. ambulance people whose hospital is
exactly in line w | beach a little short of it say tt these
shots have for a long time bn aimed at | bathers. The
hospital certainly gets | benefit of them. It has been hit
again & again. One shell came thro the roof & burst
during an operatn scattering cigarette tobacco &
dirt all over | patient but wounding no one. They have
had 5 killed & many wounded (they act as clearing hospital(under Lt Col. Begg). They think bathing ought to be
stopped. I daresay it will be restricted to night but
Birdwood thinks it splendid for | men. So it is - even |
shrapnel-practice. He admires | Australian swimmers
- but himself can swim faster than most of them. He
bathes 2ce a day. He thinks | Australian is less good at
diving; too many belly-floppers.
[*Ryan.
Medical.Stom (wounds)*]
Poor old Col. Ryan, I hear, has become very ill on |
Dunluce Castle of dysentery & is not expected to live.
Little Holmes, of the 10th, Maclagans orderly officer
& one of the cheeriest & best little officers going, who ws
hit in | stomach by a shell shrap. pellet seven days
ago is dead. He ws down near | hospital on | beach
whilst Maclagan ws having tea w Gen. Walker when he
ws hit.
[*Artillery
(T.)*]
At / same time these T. guns tho' they are such a
nuisance are nothing to what they wd be if they had |
ammunition. K. Tepe scarcely even fires except at a
ship or steamboat. They havent even gone for | pier.
The T, have a catapult or something wh is throwing a
small bomb 150 yds behind our lines.
Their observatn on / beach is splendid.
[*Quinns*] There are a few bombs at Quinns wh do any gt damage now
25
hot in the early days; & Phillips always gets it hot
bec. he is on top of 400 & fires on Quinns. There is
fortunately a bit of a false crest in front of him & ^also they cant
see most o | shells wh burst behind him in | valley. The
ground in front of him is simply pitted w shell - all
small stuff but there must be a hundred holes at least -
probably more. The shield of one gun has a huge hole in it
& I dont know how it survives. Our gunners are
rather careless abt getting green stuff for their gun
screens. All these guns were covered with old brown
shrubs & were | easiest thing in | world to pick out. In |
^case of one of Jopps guns indeed | screen had partly fallen
down & | sandbags were most obvious.
The enemy have been making a fine line
of trenches on Kilid Pine Ridge (I got a photo of these
from the parapet).
Diagram - see original document
The enemy are also sapping across | edge end of
| gully betw. Popes & the N.Z. - so are we lower down.
They had a curious opening like a Sally Port at | head of
gully betw. Popes & Quinns - a square hole open to us
low down in | trench - cant make out what
its for. They've also bn making a very
wide road up at | head of one of these gullys
Diagram - see original document
56
it off. It
A little later Anafarta got onto the | beach again during
bathing & killed two & wounded 14 men with one burst - they were
on the edge of | beach having a sun bath. A later shell I believe got
8 - tho' I'm not sure if these were not the N. Zealanders hit by | first
one. In | evening I went down to bathe. Birdwood ws in at | same
time. As I was undressing down came a shell right on / spot where water opposite me. It seemed to be all over
some of / bathers but didnt hit them. They hurried out; 3 or
4 shells followed. Then a rest. I waited 10 minutes & then
undressed & went in. again. I took a header off a barge
swam round it & then got out. I thought - "now shall I
go in again off tt corner - well, better not - its risky"
so went off & dried under | ammunition waggons boxes.
No sooner was I half dry than Bum-Bump - wheeeooo -
bang came a shell abt 10 ft over the very spot water
exactly opposite | nose of | barge I had swum round.
There were several fellows there - they held up their
hands & waved afterwds - & as always happens
one cd not tell if / men waving were hit or were
in fun - I think most were in fun. Then I noticed one
man also waving his hands ^in a rather more meaningless
way - & a red ^line streaming from his throat. He cd walk
- he never fell at all - & they helped him out &
put him on a stretcher. He wont be coming back to this war.
[*Artillery
(Turk)*]
This gun was clearly firing at / bathers (even
tt didnt end / bathing for / day - 10 minutes later they
Diagram - see original document
Camels can sometimes be seen crossing | top of Kilir
Bahtr Plateau. The other day a most hurried movemt
of troops from behind | left of Achi Baba to behind |
right of it.*]
26
and two emplacements. I think we saw from the Indian
Battery observatn post a telescope shining in one of
these emplacements today.
The enemy ws also showing A lot of mounted
officers in batches have also bn riding up to & away
from a place far over to | back of Krithia Hill.
The monitor & a destroyer put a lot of shells
in it today - Jopp was observing for the monitor
tho' she fired off 5 rounds before she followed his
direction & altered 150 yds or so. The officers had gone away
½ hour before - but some came back. Men cd be seen running ^out to take away the mules.
Caddy has altered his shooting at one target -
"C" I think - He adopted the plan - rather elementary
I must say it seemed to me - of sending his Sergt.
to another point & getting a second observatn at an
angle from his own. He then found that
he had prob. bn all | time abt 150 yds away
from his target & to one side of it. I wondered why
he had not tried tt double observatn before. I
thought they always did it.
By Phillips H.Q. on the hill - or rather near
to | new 1st Bde H.Q. (2nd Bde has taken their
old one) is an old Turkish trench & some of our
trenches cut in | early days. The T. trench is
on the N. edge of 400 across a small gully from it,
& faces down | gully.
Diagram - see original document
Probably owing to the Turks having crawled
up & cut | wire in ^front of the 3rd Bn & not 10 yds
55
apptment & several wanted to resign. But Birdwood
told them resignatns cd not be thought of in a war
like this. They must stand loyally by their commander; &
if he ws as weak as they made out there ws all | more
necessity to stand by him & help him thro. He was De Lisle's
Intell. Officer for a year in s.a. & that has impressed
Birdwood a good deal in his favour; though De Lisle
is looked on as a mean man (a chap who'd do you down
^in selling you for you a horse) he is not a man ^and a canter, he is a good soldier.
[*Snipers.*]
[They have a yarn tt De Lisle (who is a hard man)
when inspecting / lines of a certain cavalry regt in France
ws shot at by a sniper. "You must go out & shoot
catch tt man," he sd - he ws v. angry. They caught |
sniper & he put up his hands for mercy. "No - not you,"
they sd. "You shot at De Lisle - & missed him."]
[*Brit. 29th Dr & 52nd.*]
Dr Lisle has now the 29th Divn at Cape Helles,
since H. Weston ws given the Army Corps. I must find
out what that A.C. is. The 52nd (Lowland) Divn is here
because their Howitzer (Glasgow) battery (5th Battery 4th Bde,
R.F.A.) is here. The Argyll & Sutherlandshire Highlanders
are part of the 52nd Divn.
[*Howitzers (Lowland)*]
The Lowland Howitzers are here in a row on |
beach. And | poor blighters of men have bn put into |
empty dug outs on Hell Spit - an awful place for them -
until they are moved into positn on the right. I hope
for their sakes they move them tonight.
I am getting my diary of the first week complete
awfully interesting work piecing it in.
[*Bathers*]
I sent off a cable this morning - Kabatepe 13 -
abt the positn & abt bathing. Several shells - X fire
- Anafarta, K. Tepe & the big gun at Olive Grove,
got into the beach & a fleetsweeper far out - & drove
the bathers off | beach & made | Fleetsweeper
move. They didn't hit a single man on | beach as
far as I cd see (wh ws well) & two beginners
continued to paddle and do dog-stroke in amongst |
barges all | time. I wrote this in | cable & sent
27
away from it, we have now a set of trench standing orders giving
a new system for our trenches. The chief point is tt a sentry
group of 6 has to be responsible for every 12 yds of trench - &
two always on duty - a spotter & sniper by day & two observers
by night. The group on duty must always be ready.
Smith of the 12th has four lines of trenches
now & puts one lot of men into each every day.
(1) in | fire trench. This lot will be Tomorrow (2) in | rearmost
line getting absolute holiday.. They have to (3) do most of
fatigues | next day & are in (4) the support on | follg day
- & so on.
The men have bn issued w instructns as to
precautions agst gas but I dont know if | respirators
have bn drawn or have arrived. The instructns are
a little childish it seems to me, for our menin the obviously ^tinged by an anxiety to show tt it is fatal to run
away & safest to stay or charge forward.
The aeroplane ws over today flying low
& getting shot at. Took 2 photos of her from Rosenthals
H.Q. also photo of Parkers gun (Burgess Batty & the
other gun near him - the graveyard at Hell Spit, & on
the hill by | pine near | first gun of Hughes batty;
The Pine Ridge trenches (Turk - yesty I got some
photos of the 12th Bn trenches - almost invisible)
and of a good dug out on | rd behind the 12th)
The anafarta gun did not open till
this evg when she blew up a mule to pieces in
| next gully to us & killed several others.
Several o | batteries make use of an
ingenious voice pipe - an iron pipe w tin funnel
to work betw. bally & telephone stn.
54
One of their shells today hit a man in | water & took
off his arm - at least it was hanging by a thread & he came out
of | water holding it. It didn't stop | bathing. I heard there
were 8 casualties on | beach in all but bathing went onalmost as usual except for a few minutes. Some men
didn't, I think, even get out. We saw three men swim further out
today than I ever saw before. Maxim bullets often drop into
| water between them & / shore. There were 404 men in on Sunday
last (or undressed). Some officers bathe on | S. beach after dark.
When some Australian (or will it be a Greek) starts a hotel
here after the war bathing will be one o | chief attractions
recreations - youll have to walk ^nearly to Kaba Tepe for your golf.
[*Aeropl. XXXXXx XX *]
I suppose if Australia had sea or aeroplanes we shd
have had them here. I wonder where the R.A.A. (accepted
by | British Govt) is going to.
[*N.Z. (numbers)*]
The 5th Bde left in April & the 4th L.H. Bde has also left.
N.Z. up to May 1 had sent 15,000 men to Egypt; she
ws offering another 4000. She will send 2000 a month
reinforcements - Col. J. Allen says this in their house.
(15,000, he says, = Australia's 75,000).
Thursday June 24
[*Legge.*]
[*Base*]
XXXX Maj. Gen. J. G. Legge arrived this
morning from Mudros. Gen. Birdwood asked him to stay in
Egypt long eno' to examine | base there. He went to Cair ^was in Cairo
two days & in Alex 1 day & then G.H.Q. muddled things by
asking him to proceed at once - Its a pt pity bec. he
cant see how things are.
Legge told me he ws told by | govt to start from
Aust. as soon as it ws know Bridges ws seriously
wounded. As xxx there ws on ship leaving imd. & another
in a fortnight he took the immediate ^ws told to take the ship at once
before the other ship answer o | Brit. Govt as to his
apptment ws received. The Australian Govt asked
| British Govt to cable & say whether it wd consent to
Legge taking command - it replied "yes." He got
a ready made uniform out o | clothing factory.
Many o | senior officers objected to Legge's
28
The first tolerably rough days (without one exception) today &
yesty - & they say we are without water on | beach tonight.
See Donaldson cd get none when he went down, anyway.
This The pier is unfinished - one shell went v. near it &
the tressles are rather knocked abt by the tiny waves -
not | shell. The waves even so werent really approaching
roughness.
Rather uneasy night (as usual) at Quinns.
Bazley & I had an experience w flies in here
last night wh ws rather like delirium tremens. We literally
fought them for ¼ hour - waving towels, burning Keatings
scattering them. We must have killed one or two thousand
but only excited them. They swarmed in our faces, crawled
all over us (I suppose the Keatings made them silly)
dropped off | ceiling onto | floor. The place was filthy
with them this morning - nothing but dead flies.
We turned it out & swished it down with creasol &
it is comparatively free today. But perh. the cooler
weather accts for that. The men find the flies at
present far worse than the Turks.
Was sniped at twice today whilst looking over
parapets.
People in Australia, when 50 casualties were
published, seem by the latest papers to have been
almost shocked. We know that by then the list
was really 5000 for this Divn alone, & we
cant help wondering what they thought. I am
hoping that J's wound ws announced to father &
mother in a comforting form - my cable may
have arrived first saying his wound ws not serious.
It is rather cold tonight - 3.25 or I suppose
by MEF time which we have to use now ∧ bec. the French use it 1525 - no,
0325 of course. The G.H.O. wd have these brainwaves & do
53
Lost Horse - but they were v. grateful for its help.
[*Strategy.*]
It does seem strange tt we, within 8 miles o |
Southern Army, sit here & see it fight without doing a
hands turn. The Turks may of course be as strong as
we can well manage in front of us & I've no doubt we
have orders not to move - we cdnt hold a bigger line as
yet. But in spite of all tt cdnt we do something - get
our first objective or make some move. I cant help thinking
history will say so.
[*Egypt.*]
We hear | Egyptns are very cheeky to our wounded,
showing all sorts of delight when they see so many landed.
"I wd like to stick a bayonet into some of them," sd Sergt. Noonan,
who told me.
Wednesday June 23. Maj. Gen Legge ws to have arrd. today
to take over command from Genl Walker - but he didn't. There
is a lot of question abt Legge & Mackay can hardly stand the
idea of being under him. M. talks far too much - He has
bn saying (I am told) when he saw Quinns "At the Is that |
job tt | N. Zealanders are held up by. I shd like to see my
boys have a go at it," or something to tt effect. His boys
aren't at all anxious. They'd do it if they had to, but -
well Quinns isn't a comfortable place to go into if you're not
obliged.
Two shells got into the ammunition depot at |
southern end o | beach today. One got into a lot of rifles
& smashed up abt 50. The other got into the ammunition
& broke up set fire to two boxes. Some men immediately dumped them
in | water & put | fire out. The Turks have been singularly
unenterprising w all this ammunition & stores abt -
bec. there is a very gt amt on the beach now - oil, food,
fodder, carts, ammunition. They dont even try to sink
the barges - they reserve their shots for trawlers, destroyers
& sometimes lugs. They K. Tepe got right into a trawler yesty
w tt nasty iron clank tt tells you a shot has gone home.
29
such solid work as wheeling wounded men from dressing stns
to the beach or telephoning its orders for attack in reasonable time
we might be a little nearer Achi Baba.
However - its 0325 & the hospital it seems to be
blowing up for the storm which is overdue & the Hospital
ship is out there very beautiful with her green stripe &
red cross brightly lit - & I am going to turn in.
3.40 Day just breaking. Good deal of firing at Quinns.
Wed. June 16. Centenary of Quatre Bras. Casey tells
me that he ws in Brown's battery when the 8in shells
from Kojadere (or a little N of it) came in. You cd see
them coming & see which way they were going to fall.
Diagram - see original document
The periscope rifle has been hitting the Turks up
a lot. They know what it is bec. they can see it
over the parapet. It seems to me a gt pity it ws ever
used over | parapet.
The gun at Anafarta has been giving the Beach
a heavy shelling ∧at intervals all day - & the K. Tepe gun has
been shelling it from the South. For
Diagram - see original document
some reason the Anafarta gun gets the
hospital almost every time after searching
the gullies. We have no aeroplane & no
sea plane so I dont suppose we have
any chance of knocking these guns out. The
Anafarta gun killed 2 & wounded 14 men on |
beach today.
The Gun ridge guns, possibly 6 of them, gave
Hughes battery a heavy shelling. The crew had just left
no 2 gun when she got a shell thro & the shield wh
played old Harry with the sights & knocked them away
52
nations in | British official news.
[*Hellas*]
The news from Hellas today is good. The French have
captured the Haricot redoubt - and seem likely to hold it.
They twice won trenches to | left of it & twice were driven out & |
third time asked |British also to help them with artillery &
recaptured & now hold 600 yds of T. trench on their left.
All v. good. But the communiques have never told us tt this
ws | famous redoubt wh I saw them take on May 8 & which they
had since lost! No word abt the losing.
[*Later.
I am not
sure it was
the same.*]
The news from Russia, on | other hand, is really poor ^not so good.
There is no doubt they have had a bad licking tho' not
a decisive one. In spite of Italy being in, Germany has
managed to get 1,250,000 men down there & to shove like
blazes towards Lemberg.
We shall be in difficulties here if we dont end the show
before the autumn when the gales begin. I see we are
making big platforms for stores up the valley below this dugout
- building up terraces. The gr stores on | beach are reaching
an immense size. A prisoner says we have the 15th &
[*Turk Army
9.15. Divs*]
9th Divns in front of us & a few battalions from some other
Divn - the rest o | Turks went south after May 20th.
A prisoner taken by N.Z on the flanks tells us this. Our L.H.
has been trying to get a few prisoners on |other flank; butthey the 2nd LH. Bde is in there. It dug 400 yds of trenches on
[*2 LHB.*]
two nights - pretty good. It has a patrol out every night. One
patrol the other night bumped a Turkish patrol also coming
towards it; it captu lay low & tried to capture a man or two.
But the leading Turk coming on w his rifle ran right on top of one
of our men & the latter had to shoot him. Lt Hanly of the
5th L.H. was out with one of these parties | other day - & ws
shot. They tried to bring him in - but he ws a big heavy man &
ws dying - & there seemed every chance they might be surrounded
So he ws left. A party went out | next night but cdn't
get to | place. Another party the follg night got to what they
believed to be | place but found the nothing. Of course |
Turks wd search an officers body, & might carry it in.
The 2nd LH Bde has only just bn reformed. It ws
temporarily split up amongst | other bns o ] 1st Bde in | ly
in order to gain experience. The Infantry called it the
30
rendering the gun useless for | present until | sights
can be repaired. I think our guns are very inadequately
hidden, but of course its difficult to find positns.
Trenchard thinks his 6in Howitzer knocked out one
of their guns today on 971.
Altogether they had 18 guns at work agst us today
(Col. Hobbs says -) of course its hard to place their number
bec. they have so many alternative positns.
There were 4 & prob. 6 on Gun ridge.
The small destroyer was giving the trench
the N.Z. people lost a very heavy shelling today
- blazing very fast w. her little long 12 pdr. There
were Turks in it today & some men told me
they thought they saw a Turks body fly into
the air.
This evg two enterprises: 1: Blowing up
a saphead at Quinns; 2: raiding ∧of the double
trench by party of 9th helped by destroyer.
Destroyer turns on searchlight at 9.30 & fires
& we follow slowly on after the searchlight. The men
are not to stop out - just clear | trench & come
back. The Quinns business I think (by | noise)
took place at 9.30 when tremendous bombing &
rifle & m.g. fire.
The Frenchmen had one of the Anafarta
shells in above their dug out today - a little
12 pdr or 15 pdr I shd say - with high explosive,
or else percussion shrapnel. We have no
high explosive ammunitn for our 18 pdrs. wish
51
remarkably accurate. I wonder what provision has
bn made for replacing these barges. The Australian Divn is now
pretty well independent of | ^imported water – both for the men & mules.
Up the gully they are alld one water bottle per day (tho’
Arthur tells me they are alld. to wash in a well unfit
for drinking). Most o | men however now manage to bathe
occasionally. The N.Z. division has not made itself independent
- it hasn’t sunk the wells for its mules in | next gully, for example.
Of course it has less room & more work at Quinns etc.
[*Navy. t.b.d.s*]
The N.Z. & A Divn is getting most o | casualties now -
20, 19, 14, 26, 16, 8, 14 for | last week as agst 38, 9, 14, 20, 14, 9
- well, I see | figures don’t prove it. We Aust. Divn are losing from shell fire. NZ&A
lose some from shell fire but also they have these nightly patrols on
| left wh are constantly in touch w. |Turks. The Destroyers there
put in some very useful firing up | T. trenches. The other day
they got a heavy fire up a trench. The Turks bolted & a machine
gun got them in | open. The Turks have much improved the
trench, opposite the second outpost, wh | N.Z.s took & lost again.
It looks a pretty strong work but | destroyers seem to bang it
abt a lot. They go in a play a game, two of them, w their little
12 pdrs, getting a strong cross fire onto | trench – one enfilading
& | other firing from / front. They give one | impression of
being tremendously pleased at getting |opportunity of
using their guns. Col. Skeen is very pleased w | result.
[*Censor*]
Gen. Owen told me today tt his photo & Gen. Birdwoods
had appeared in a British paper as those of officers killed
w a statement tt they had bn killed. I wonder if | censor
gets down on those cases. He ought to stop | publication of
tt sort of paper. Instead, he not only bans informatn of
military value – wh of course is right – but spends most of
his time ruling out any truth calculated to “depress or alarm”
| public. That is a usele worse than useless w British people -
it is harmful. The one thing to buck them up is to let them know exactly
how things are. As It ws so in | Boer war – in
Queensland | one thing wh made every man in Parliament rise
to his feet sing | national anthem ws – including some tt
in ordinary times you wd call Anti-British – ws | news o |
Black Week reverses. They have chucked tt advantage o |
winds. Instead, they have destroyed | confidence o | British
31
we had. It has a nasty noise - that same crrrk!
that we noticed from the enemys big shrapnel falling
over | beach at Helles.
Waterloo number o | "Dinkum Oil" ready.
Col. Smith is putting the fear of Heaven into the
reinforcements - believes in knocking them down & then
slowly building them up. It is the best way undoubtedly.
They come here with big ideas - they're not fit to
compare to the old Mena trained men; & the first
thing is to make them realise it. They have a
tremendous secret admiratn for | old hands & are
just in | frame of mind when they can be knocked down
by a socking big load of hard drill to start off with. Then,
when they are lamblike, they can be put on.
I saw Smith choosing | corpl. for | waterguard
yesty. He put had to provide an N.C.O. & 4 men & |
question was - what N.C.O. He pulled out a man tt
had his testimonial for | job written on his face.
Who can we spare, Kennedy? he asked. Must
be a trustworthy man but a man who -
well - er - whom we can spare from / trenches.
"How abt Corpl X?" sd Kennedy after a moments
thought.
Smith called up Corpl. X to show me. He was
exactly the man. "You must not let them have an
ounce more than is their due, X" sd Smith. "You
must treat our own men exactly | same as those
of other Bns - You must give see tt | rules are
exactly kept-" -"I see", sd X slowly & smiling w intense
50
broken his plate &, as we have no dental corps or equipment
although we have now to accept men with imperfect teeth, he had
to be sent away. He was sent to Lemnos or Imbros to be treated
by | dentist there. At Lemnos – after being there some days – he
found that | dentist had gone or cdn’t fix him & ws sent
on to Egypt. There he hade one apptment w a dentist & had 2
teeth out & ws told to return in ten d 10 days. He came
back in 10 days & ws told | dentist had gone. So he ws sent
back to Lemnos. He found nothing cd be done at Lemnos
& so ws sent back here arriving just 4 weeks after he left,
without having had | trouble attended to.
Another case I heard of ws unable to get a boat
away from Egypt until he damaged himself as | result of
some accident. He ws then immediately patched up & sent
back.
[*L. of. C.*]
The mismanagement of our lines of communicatn
arrangements, if half of what one hears be true, is simply
gross. Dr Barrett, for some reason, seems to be entrusted by
Gen. Ford with almost supreme control of our medical
arrangements in Egypt, from | inspection of | hospital ships,
to the dispatch o | wounded to | front. The actual attention in | hospitals
seems not to be bad. The hospitals, especially Heliopolis, are
excessively advertised – Gen. Williams presenting photos of
them to the King; I’m not sure he did not go there personally
to do it.
The men as they leave | hospitals seem to be drafted
into provisional battalions wh have little or no discipline
& the sending of them back here is, if half of what officers say tell
you is true, simply one gross muddle. This is partly our own
fault for having let the A.I.F. base fall under Maxwell’s control
& therefore under a lot of Imperial dugouts; for having jealously
kept every officer of any ability w | division, & sent thedugouts inefficients to the base. Bridges cd never see tt |
base ws as important to him as the division. He ws commander
o / A.I.F. & might have retained control o / base – but he failed
to do so & I don’t know if Legge can do anything now.
[*Water.*]
Two of our 3 water barges have bn sunk during | last
two days. They say tt one ^ws sunk yesty by a new fatigue
party putting | hose into | air tanks (wh float | barge) by
mistake & filling | whole thing w water – she sank in deep
water. The one today ws sunk by a T. shell. Their firing is
32
satisfaction at his own intelligence - "I understand, Sir
tt if I do a favour - to - my - own - men - I - am
robbing - somebody - else". "That's so", sd Col.
Smith nodding. X saluted slowly & ceremoniously
&, w intense pride beaming out of all the five
parallel wrinkles of his honest wooden old smile, went
turned formally about & strode away.
I know now | sort of man they put on
fatigues. Well - he'll do his job to | letter, that man.
Thurs June 17. A little off colour. ^Maj. Bennett was down at
H.Q. & I got from him an a/c of what the 6th & 7th
did on the first two days.
I hear the sally from the 9th yesty resulted in
nothing. The Turks had cleared from the two trenches.
We now have men sniping from the sandbag
traverses in Monash Gully; & from little tunnelled
chambers with small steel loopholes right out in
front of Courtneys & 1st Bn. The Turks The latter look
right down the some Turkish communcn trenches - & the
Turks have practically ceased to use these by day
at all. They Our men sit all day with a rifle on
certain points ready to plug. If a Turk passes that
way now he does so running fast.
As a result of all this the valley road is
almost safe again. Little Jack Butler who came
down to see me today came tt way.
There was a scatter amongst | destroyers
today & I hear tt | Canopus was sunk. It is a beach
rumour but may quite well be true.
Anafarta gun & K.Tepe contented themselves
with ten minutes crossfire on the beach. But I
49
walk, Sir,” he sd shouting jumping at / chance. He hadn’t bn sure – neither
had the s.bs. tt it wsnt a fatal sort of thing to do w tt sort of wound.
Men w ricked necks & backs also – who are often carried down -
are better walking even if it hurts them. The importance of
all this in a heavy action is tt S.b.s are left for the cases such
as stomach & chest wounds tt really need it urgently.
At | same time I cant believe that it is ever wise to
chuck hopeless cases on one side & leave them as if they were
so much carrion. If our s.b. develops into the sort of man who
could do tt, or if | firing line or other men see it being done,
| effect on them is demoralising. There is nothing | takes |
stuffing out of a man more than to see wounded men lying
untended, or tt heartens him so much as to see the way in wh
our s.bs look after him. I have seen & myself experienced
this. That is where the cold blood type of organiser makes his mistake.
[*Medical.
Health.*]
Our health organisatn is now also far better than it was.
The latrines are now mostly in brigade areas, where the one
to each area, w guards po sanitary pickets posted. Who
are fairly particular. The trenches of some bns are swept
3 times a day & sprinkled in bad places (esp. where food has
been split) with “creosol.” A certain amt of creosol is drawn
for all purposes daily. Food if found in | trench (scraps etc) is
swept into ^scrap pits in the back o | trench & buried there. The men
sometimes will throw scraps over onto | parapet – the swarm
of flies at some parts ws hard to understand until this ws
discovered. Now there is a fairly strict check on it.
I suppose at Quinns we must get the Turk flies from |
Turkish trenches. Six or seven o | men employed on fatigue
there, who have their meals there, go sick every day &
this may be | cause. We can hear | Turks there & at Popes -
hear them talking at night, laughing, sometimes smell their
tobacco. In spite of any disadvantage, it is lucky for us
we had | armistice now – if all those dead Turks were
out there | place wd be horrible w flies – far worse than it
is. We constantly occasionally come upon | remains Turkish bodies in
our saps. There are abt 50 enteric cases from among | N.Zs & abt 6 or 7
from amongst our men reported from Mudros.
[*Medical.
L.of.C.*]
The divisional health arrangements are good, & the
S.b.s splendid. But when you leave here the arrangements
seem one hopeless muddle. For example. A man here had
33
dont know how things were in | trenches. They
have bn using high explosives lately & have blown
away whole bits of trench. On | other hand they put
100 shells into a squa trench held by one squadron
& only damaged one man.
Some of the Triumphs ward room wine was
washed ashore day before yesty & several of the men
got away with some of it - Consequence - two men
given 6 months each.
Some fool in the 4th Bde has written to the
Australia a faked acct. of an action "in the desert"
on Mar. 10 in wh he is supposed to have taken part
in a bayonet charge. The S.M.H. correspt. at
Maitland sent it down to them & they published
it. Hanging would be the right punishment for
that chap. I hope the other men give him what he is
asking for.
The Argus' special reporter - who must
be Charlie Smith I fancy - has published an article
attributing the pneumonia amongst the troops in
Egypt to the fact tt | officers lived well whilst | men,
so he makes out, had to spend almost all their
money in making up for | starvation rations on
wh they were kept. It is a rather bitter, hopelessly
misleading article. The food in Egypt was not
always good - there were defects, & the general
complaint tt | men did not get from ∧some of their contractors
anything like / value of the 6d a day wh they were
allowed instead of butter etc had something in it. The
officers men who went into Cairo spent a good part of
their money on meals there (& so did | officers) - & wd
have done so however they were fed at Mena. The fault
w | rations ws not so much tt they were too small
48
[*Quinns*]
men very wild.
The trenches at Quinns – gas barred – are pretty well
safe I am told – except of course agst mines. I believe we dont hold
the fire trench at all now. We are holding the suppt trench. But we have tunnelled from | suppt
to | fire trench all along so tt if the Ts jump into the fire trench we can get them as they go along | fire trench. When we want
to throw bombs of course men must go into | fire trench.
This seems a good idea but I suppose | Turks
know the fire trenches are not fully manned. They wd see no periscope rifles there for one thing.
I believe Popes also is far stronger than ever before. We had 6 m.gs
in | first Bn lines all of wh cd be brought to bear on Qs & constantly were. Qs ws always sending
along urgent messages for support. Courtneys Post has 4 mgs all bearing on Qs. Popes Hill has
6 or 7. & the N.Zs have a no. also. The 1st Bn has 6 mgs on a front of 600 rifles.
[*Medical.
S.bs.*]
I hear from Smith, who saw it (he ws hit on | nose by
an expended shrapnel pellet today) that some stretcher whilst
he ws up at | trenches the other day a shell came over into a
dugout and smashed up a man. There ws immediately a call
for “Stretcher bearer.” Two s.b.s went up & as they went a second
shell came & landed in almost | same spot. They went on as if
they hadn’t seen it. As there ws Then a third came over a little at one side - They took not | As they were tending | man a 3rd shell came
along & burst almost over them. The man who ws facing it
just looked up – the other man never even turned his head.
They carry the man down to | dressing stn now, any
time, night or day, within two or three minutes of his being hit.
The Regimental s.b.s do this. The dressing stn signals down |
gully to the Field Amb. & the bearers are up from there almost as soon
as | man is in | dressing stn.
The chief trouble w the regimental & ambulance s.b.s it tt
they often carry down men who ought to & could walk – so Howse
tells me. The regimental doctor ought to see whether | case cd walk
&, if so, especially on busy days, send him down on his legs. I daresay
this criticism on | part o | staff is exaggerated – but certainly it
occurs sometimes. The first day Howse found six of them bringing down
a regimental officer suffering from shell shock – he was bad – off his head &
didn’t know what he ws doing but there was no excuse for this. Another
time 2 s.bs were bring a man down when a shrapnel shell burst
over them. The stretcher b.s fell wounded. The wounded man
cut for his life to the clearing hospital and they found him waiting
for them there when they reached | place. Another trouble man ws shot
thro the shoulder & was in agony doubled up in / stretcher, groaning.
Howse asked what ws | matter & told him to get up & walk. “May I
31
- for there ws enormous waste as every soldier there
knows - but tt the rations were badly apportioned
between the meals; they were issued once a day (the
only possible way w an army) and | cooks were
sometimes inclined to use them throw them all in at one
meal. The consequence was a lot of waste after tt meal
& sometimes (by no means always or w many units)
a shortage of meat etc. at other meals.
On | other hand to attribute ∧ | fatal pneumonia to this
as the sole main & sole cause is false in | extreme. Some
rather bitter doctor has got at C. Smith & pulled his
leg a bit - As a matter of fact C.S. knew as well as
I did tt there were many some powerful causes of
xxx constitutional weakness w wh | feeding had
nothing whatever to do. The officers were not perfect,
but it is rough on them to make them shoulder | blame
of this illness. At | time when C.S.'s article appeared
there were abt 180 officers of our division alone lying
killed or wounded at Anzac. If you asked their
men straight whether this was a fair aspersion to cast
up at them they wd have given a very direct answer.
The cause of pneumonia amongst | infantry ws
clearly the working in | desert at trench digging &
then resting afterwds in | cold desert breeze - the
men marching under packs often also got a too
big patch of sweat on their backs where | pack
came. They took off | pack when they halted - &
pneumonia ws | result. I may say tt no one lived
in comfort or dined in luxury comparable to tt o |
doctors at | two big hospitals. The article is altogether
very misleading but has eno' truth in it to be very hard to contrad
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