Diary of Trooper Ion Llewellyn Idriess-1915-Part 5

.. We have just received news that the
Southland has been torpedoed.  Brigadier
Major Winton was drowned and a few
men.  They were of the 6^th Brigade.  The
Southland eventually made port under
her own steam, "Strike me pink if old Gus
Gaunt hasn't been wounded in the arm.  It
does not look to be a very bad wound.  He
has got a grin on his face a yard wide, "One
of our big sea planes is buzzing overhead,
and the Turks gu machine gun at Gaba Tepe
is speaking a lightning Tut- tut- tut- tut- tut- tut.
Was in the supports last night.  There
was very heavy firing towards Schi Baba.
In the distance the warships sounded a
continual throbbing roar.  It was just like
a great wave dashing against a rock cliff,
rolling back, and hurling forward again.

salt tinned beef is no cure

for a poisoned leg. Things
are very quiet. Only a few 

odd shells passed to day. . . . .

The Turks are beginning to

shrapnel us again.  . . . . We

have just witnessed what I
think is is a shameful horrible
thing. Part of the Infantry
next us are always drilling

their men on a tiny plot of

ground in front of their dugouts,
even when the shells
are falling only a few hundred

yards and less, away. What
the hell do soldiers want

''Slope'' arms for, when they

are on a battle field. It is

what we all call a ''Gawk
Act''.  A shell has burst 

right amongst the thickly

packed lines, and six of the

poor fellows are hit, two

down, two being carried, and

two being limping for their

dugouts. Others are hit who

can get away. Another

Shell has burst while 

submarines in hidden bases.  Say 50 of.
the cruising sub torpedoes could be set
sailing in the supposed direction of
the hiding submarines.  If the torpedoes
got within the magnetic attraction of
the submarines, the torpedo would
be drawn to the submarine until
it struck.  Again, if submarines
were hiding in a channel under
shelter of enemys guns a few torpedoes
could be set in a circling motion in
an accessible part of the channel,
so that when a submarine came out
of the circling submarine torpedoes
and would almost certainly be struck,
would certainly be struck if the
magnetic attraction of the torpedoes was

would get better. I am

lying here miserable, may
unable to walk now, no sleep

at nights, and all my mates

away. 2^nd June. A wretched

thing happened here last x

night. A dug out fell in and

smothered three men. They

are holding the buriel service

now. It is something unusual.

The Infantry are standing

in little groups listening. I

think it is very few poor

fellows here who have 
been buried to the strains

of ''Nearer My God to Thee.''
. . . .  I felt it would have

to come. I am down the

beach at the Ambulance

Hospital, and this afternoon

have to go t on the hospital

boat. ship. The ambulance

men say there were 13 of
the Infantry struck with that

shrapnel yesterday four

being killed. It was

nothing else but absolute
murder on the part of 

(Magnetic Torpedo.)  Could not a magnetic torpedo be
made to work by clockwork, inexpensive.  Set the
torpedo on its course, at the rate of a mile an
hour, say so that the torpedo in slowly passing
nearing a mine would be gradually
attracted to it, and not rush past, as a
submarine fired torpedo would.  Regulate
the clockwork to sail for a certain
number of hours, so that and then
to explode, so that if the torpedo were to
beach itself it would in the time limit
blow itself up, and thus prevent the
secret getting into the enemys hands, if
the torpedo were stranded on an enemys
beach.  If this clockwork torpedo could
be made a success, it would be a
great idea for torpedoing enemys
 

the officer responsible for

the idiotic drilling . . . . We

are on the Minesweeper
now, a lot of wounded.

One man, whose body and

arm are a mass of bandages,

is affording much amuseament

to all by trying to eat his

slice of bread and jam

with only a third of his

mouth visible.  . . I feel

strangely sick, feverish

and miserable. My troop

leader, Mr McLaughlin, is here

with colic. We have been

swapping tales of misery.

It is amusing in a way,

if only there was not so
much pain about.  . . . The

ambulance men on the 

boat are very kind and 

gentle.  One is making me a 

bed on the deck now.  . . . . .  I

am getting a little ease at

last. The officers on this

boat wear partly khaki

and partly naval togs. I

can't quite understand

Diagram - see original document

why wounded men are

put on a naval boat. I

suppose it is because the two

big hospital boats are full up.

5th June. Lemnos Island

S.S. Franconia. What a
miserable sort of beggar I

am. Did not intend to write

until better again. Now I

see it will help to kill

time a little. Will begin

where I left off.  . . . . The A.M.C

men coming on night shift

washed me. You can

Just imagine how I felt

towards those men. Five

days lying in a dug out

without a wash, and sick.

Had a wretched night.  Next

morning the poor devil lying

next to me, who was in bandages

from his ankles to his

head, the result of a bomb,

turned his head and said,

''I hope I did not keep you

awake last night.'' I 

did not tell him that 

my own moaning had

Water is a good conductor of sound.  Ixf two men
stand on opposite banks of a river with a
stone in each hand, then each man dive
simultaneously into the river and clap
the stones under the water, the sound of the
clapping stones can be distinctly heard by
each man.  Could this not be turned to
advantage, by equipping a battleship and
submarine with a very simple apparatus,
a telephone receiver say, a long
metal tube to go over the battleships
side into the water, to the end of which
is, for the sake of experiment say two
heavy steel hammers which could be
clanged together in the morse code.
Could not the battleship and
submarine thus communicate together.

troubled me in exactly

the same way. That

morning we had a bowl 

of hot porridge, a slice

of bread and jam, and a

cup of tea with milk in it.

How we enjoyed that

meal, despite the fact

that we could eat but

little of it. Then we

pulled up against the

towering side of a 

great vessel the largest

I have yet seen. Big

iron doors opened in her

side, and up a rough

gangway into this they

carried the badly hurt

and the rest followed

somehow. Someone

shouted ''Go downstairs

and have breakfast.'' So

we found ourselves
walking down a nice

wide stairs, into a great

room, where there were

rows and rows of long 

A magnet will draw steel to it and a
magnet is in turn ^drawn towards steel. Torpedoes
fired at battleships sometimes miss their
mark.  To obviate all chance of a lost
torpedo, why not make its outside cover
very strongly magnetised.  A battleship
is so many tons of steel, what great
drawing power to a magnet it must
necessarily be - providing that a magnet
will work under water. - Also, if a
very highly magnetised torpedo were fired
at random up a narrow canal - or such
as the Dardanelles would not a battleship
or even a mine, attract the torpedo to it.
Similarly could not a sailing magnetised
mine be made that would steer to the
steel attraction of a passing cruiser. (continued)

tables and chairs without number

And a strange yabber of voices,

mostly Scotch and English

mess-orderlies. Porridge, bread

and butter, jam and coffee
were put before us. We tried

to eat it, but. were mostly too

sick. Then a few drifted  away,

the rest lay down where we

were. We were all in the road,

and my leg was troubling  

me greatly, and at last I

dragged myself up the stairs

again. No one seemed to know 

where the doctors were, ''There

was a long procession of

bandaged cripples going up

some stairs. I followed and

came into a big room, with

two doctors, one attending to

a few sick, and the other, a 

big kind hearted Frenchman,

attending to the wounded. At

last my turn came, and I

soon thankfully found out

that the French doctor knew

his business. But it made

me sick to find out how 

constructed compass, the needle of
which would follow the wireless
current and stop exactly when the current
stopped, just like a needle being pulled
round in a certain direction by a magnet

bad my knee really was. I 

got downstairs again, and

lay in absolute misery on the

cold cement floor until
long after the last bugle

call had been blown. One man

told me there were 3000

beds in this ship, but you

had to get a long, thin

steward in a blue uniform

to get you one.  Another said

a sergeant was in charge.

An A red cross sergeant
major, who should have

been a responsible man,

when I called out to him

told me to stop the long

thin steward if I should

see him pass. I think it a 

crime that a man wearing

his badges should see a 

feverish man lying on a

dirty deck and pass him by.

At last a big English 

tommy, with a bandage

over one eye, put me on

his shoulders and carried

I, with a few others, are detailed for the Lonesome
Pine outpost this morning.  There are plenty of bombs
there, I believe. . . .  We have arrived at the
Lonesome Pine after a lede lumbersome
walk through narrow saps.  The stench is
something awful, dead men, Turks and
Australians, lying buried and half buried
in and about the trenches.  The flies are very
thick and troublesome.  No wonder they can only
keep men in here for a 48 hours shift.  The
first Turkish sap is 15 feet from us, we
can see right into the top of it.  But they
cannot hold it nor can we.  But they
sneak up it during the night, and
sling bombs into our trench.  There
are lines of trenches, one behind the
other.  We are all very close.
BOOK 2
[*made strong enough.*]
 

they were carrying one poor

wretch in. The little patch

of ''Parade Ground'' was

torn up by the bullets just as

the dust of a road is whipped

by a furious shower of

hailstones. Another shell

SL has burst above the ground,
but they are all away now.

One poor fellow is crying

out in agony. If ever

officers deserve richly shooting

it is in cases like this. It is

purely murder.  . . . .  I have

had such a splendid tea. Tinned

beef mixed with onions and

fried in bacon fat, biscuits

and cheese, biscuits and jam.

Even some mustard, which

my good Samaritan brought

from the transport, and hot

tea. If I only had a match to

light the pipe. My good

friend is very short of matches

himself, and I cannot

bring myself to impose on

his good nature by asking

for one.  . .  I wish my leg 

object struck.  Could I not say, a
wireless pole be fitted up, the wires of
which would be searching for and
immediately travel back along the air
path disturbed path of the shell.  Instead
of taking messages the wa through the
air waves, the wireless could immediately
travel right to the very mouth of the
gun, where there being no violent air
message disturbance, the current would
immediately stop.  If this could be managed
successfully, an instrument could easily
be attached to the operators end of the wireless
which would record the distance and
direction travelled by the wireless current.
For the sake of illustration, say the
wireless was attached to a specially

me downstairs. He put

me on this little bunk, with

its straw mattress, and tucked

me around with this blue

blanket. What a relief. For

the first time in days my leg

had stopped throbbing, and

how much easier it was

lying in a bunk.  . . The

first bugle call for tea

woke me from a half sleep,

with the burning feeling

gone. Some good Samaritan

let me lean on his shoulder

while I climbed those

weary steps to the tea Saloon.

It hurts horribly when I

have to move about, . . . . . 
One of my bunk companions

lit a cigarette for me. He

told me that the ladies of

Athens had sent the wounded

soldiers thousands of cigarettes.

They are twelve good cigarettes,

done up in a very pressy

little packet. If those Ladies

of Athens only knew how

greatly their little act of

Egyptian Government Hospital July 10^th 1915
To find the correct range of well hidden
enemys guns is well nigh impossible, or so
it seems to me.  Could not an instrument
for finding the exact range of such a
gun be produced from the following data?
Wireless telegraphy carries sound dreat
distances through the air through the agency
of air currents, which I suppose are
disturbances through the air.
When a gun is fired the shell roars
overhead tearing a great hole through
the air from the mouth of the gun until
the shell strikes an object.  This hole through
the air is immediately filled up by in-rushing
air which must cause a
great disturbance in the atmosphere
form the mouth of the gun to the 

kindness has been appreciated
by such a great number of
hurt men, they would be
well pleased of their little
gift.  . . . . . Last night I only
woke three times.  Such a
splendid rest, four nights
now and last night the first
sleep.  It hurt horribly to
stumble to breakfast.  Is
it getting better or worse?x
. . . I was only a little bit
feverish to-day, and the knee
does not hurt when I lie
down, yet to walk with it is
horrible.  . . . Had a bad two
hours before dinner.  Got
feverish and couldnt walk.
Yet a persistent idea of
mine is that without decent
tucker this leg won't get
right.  I at last called out to
a watery looking Tommy
standing near the cabin door,
and explained matters to him.
Said I was craving for
meat and tea and couldn't