Straits all the big ships left and went to Mudros, as there was no
sense in leaving vessels costing over a million each to the mercy of
submarines. This gave the destroyers the chance of their lives. Up to
this they had not been allowed to speak, but now they took on much of
the bombardment required. They were constantly nosing about, and the
slightest movement on the part of the Turks brought forth a bang from
one of their guns. If a Turk so much as winked he received a rebuke
from the destroyer. The Naval men all appeared to have an unbounded
admiration for the Australians as soldiers, and boats rarely came
ashore without bringing some fresh bread or meat or other delicacy;
their tobacco, too, was much sought after. It is made up from the
leaf, and rolled up in spun yarn. The flavour is full, and after a
pipe of it--well, you feel that you have had a smoke.
THE INDIAN REGIMENTS
We had a good many Indian regiments in the Army Corps. The mountain
battery occupied a position on "Pluggey's Plateau" in the early stage
of the campaign, and they had a playful way of handing out the
shrapnel to the Turks. It was placed in boiling water to soften the
resin in which the bullets are held. By this means the bullets spread
more readily, much to the joy of the sender and the discomfiture of
Abdul. The Indians were always very solicitous about their wounded.
When one came in to be attended to, he was always followed by two of
his chums bearing, one a water bottle, the other some food, for their
caste prohibits their taking anything directly from our hands. When
medicine had to be administered, the man came in, knelt down, and
opened his mouth, and the medicine was poured into him without the
glass touching his lips. Food was given in the same way. I don't know
how they got on when they were put on the ship. When one was killed,
he was wrapped up in a sheet and his comrades carried him
shoulder-high to their cemetery, for they had a place set apart for
their own dead. They were constantly squatting on their haunches
making a sort of pancake. I tasted one; but it was too fatty and I
spat it out, much to the amusement of the Indians.
One of them saw the humorous side of life. He described to Mr.
Henderson the different attitudes adopted towards Turkish shells by
the British, Indian and Australian soldiers. "British Tommy," said he,
"Turk shell, Tommy says 'Ah!' Turk shell, Indian say 'Oosh!'
Australian say 'Where the hell did that come from?'"
The Divisional Ammunition Column was composed of Sikhs, and they were
a brave body of men. It was their job to get the ammunition to the
front line, so that they were always fair targets for the Turks. The
mules were hitched up in threes, one in rear of the other, each mule
carrying two boxes of ammunition. The train might number anything from
15 to 20 mules. All went along at a trot, constantly under fire. When
a mule was hit he was unhitched, the boxes of ammunition were rolled
off, and the train proceeded; nothing stopped them. It was the same if
one of the men became a casualty; he was put on one side to await the
stretcher-bearers--but almost always one of the other men appeared
with a water bottle.
They were very adept in the management of mules. Frequently a block
would occur while the mule train occupied a sap; the mules at times
became fractious and manipulated their hind legs with the most
marvellous precision--certainly they placed a good deal of weight in
their arguments. But in the midst of it all, when one could see
nothing but mules' heels, straps and ammunition boxes, the Indian
drivers would talk to their charges and soothe them down. I don't know
what they said, but presume it resembled the cooing, coaxing and
persuasive tongue of our bullock-driver. The mules were all stalled in
the next gully to ours, and one afternoon three or four of us were
sitting admiring the sunset when a shell came over. It was different
from that usually sent by Abdul, being seemingly formed of paper and
black rag; someone suggested, too, that there was a good deal of
faultiness in the powder. From subsequent inquiries we found that what
we saw going over our dug-outs was Mule! A shell had burst right in
one of them, and the resultant mass was what we had observed. The
Ceylon Tea Planter's Corps was bivouacked just below us and were
having tea at the time; their repast was mixed with mule.
Donkeys formed part of the population of the Peninsula. I am referring
here to the four-footed variety, though, of course, others were in
evidence at times. The Neddies were docile little beasts, and did a
great deal of transport work. When we moved out in August, orders were
issued that all equipment was to be carried. I pointed out a drove of
ten of these little animals, which appeared handy and without an
owner, and suggested to the men that they would look well with our
brand on. It took very little time to round them up, cut a cross in
the hair on their backs and place a brassard round their ears. They
were then our property. The other type of donkey generally indulged in
what were known as Furfys or Beachograms. Furfy originated in
Broadmeadows, Victoria; the second title was born in the Peninsula.
The least breath of rumour ran from mouth to mouth in the most
astonishing way. Talk about a Bush Telegraph! It is a tortoise in its
movements compared with a Beachogram. The number of times that Achi
Baba fell cannot be accurately stated but it was twice a day at the
least. A man came in to be dressed on one occasion; suddenly some
pretty smart rifle fire broke out on the right. "Hell!" said the man,
"what's up?" "Oh!" said Captain Dawson, "There's a war on--didn't you
hear about it?"
THE SWIMMING
One thing that was really good in Anzac was the swimming. At first we
used to dive off the barges; then the Engineers built Watson's pier,
at the end of which the water was fifteen feet deep and as clear as
crystal, so that one could see every pebble at the bottom. At times
the water was very cold, but always invigorating. General Birdwood was
an enthusiastic swimmer, but he always caused me a lot of anxiety.
That pier was well covered by Beachy Bill, and one never knew when he
might choose to give it his attention. This did not deter the General.
He came down most regularly, sauntered out to the end, went through a
lot of Sandow exercises and finally jumped in. He then swam out to a
buoy moored about a quarter of a mile away. On his return he was most
leisurely in drying himself. Had anything happened to him I don't know
what the men would have done, for he was adored by everyone.
Swimming was popular with all hands. Early in the campaign we had a
Turkish attack one morning; it was over by midday, and an hour later
most of the men were in swimming. I think it not unlikely that some of
the "missing" men were due to this habit. They would come to the beach
and leave their clothes and identity discs ashore, and sometimes they
were killed in the water. In this case there was no possibility of
ascertaining their names. It often struck me that this might account
for some whose whereabouts were unknown.
While swimming, the opportunity was taken by a good many to soak their
pants and shirts, inside which there was, very often, more than the
owner himself. I saw one man fish his pants out; after examining the
seams, he said to his pal: "They're not dead yet." His pal replied
"Never mind, you gave them a ---- of a fright." These insects were a
great pest, and I would counsel friends sending parcels to the
soldiers to include a tin of insecticide; it was invaluable when it
could be obtained. I got a fright myself one night. A lot of things
were doing the Melbourne Cup inside my blanket. The horrible thought
suggested itself that I had got "them" too, but a light revealed the
presence of fleas. These were very large able-bodied animals and
became our constant companions at nighttime; in fact, one could only
get to sleep after dosing the blanket with insecticide.
My little dog Paddy enjoyed the swim almost as much as I did. He was a
great favourite with everybody but the Provost-Martial. This official
was a terror for red tape, and an order came out that dogs were to be
destroyed. That meant that the Military Police were after Paddy.
However, I went to General Birdwood, who was very handsome about it,
and gave me permission to keep the little chap. Almost immediately
after he was reprieved he ran down to the Provost-Martial's dug-out
and barked at him. Paddy was very nearly human. One day we were down
as usual when Beachy Bill got busy, and I had to leave the pier with
only boots and a smile on. I took refuge behind my old friends the
biscuits, and Paddy ran out to each shell, barking until it exploded.
Finally one burst over him and a bullet perforated his abdomen. His
squeals were piteous. He lived until the next day, but he got a
soldier's burial.
TURKISH PRISONERS
We saw a good many Turkish prisoners at one time or another, and
invariably fraternised with them. They were kept inside a barbed-wire
enclosure with a guard over them; but there was no need to prevent
their escape--they would not leave if they got the chance. On one
occasion twelve of them were told to go some distance into the scrub
and bring in some firewood. No one was sent with them, the idea being
to encourage them to go to their lines and persuade some of the Turks
to desert to us. But they were like the cat; they all came back--with
the firewood.
I saw two of our men on one occasion bringing in a prisoner. They
halted on the hill opposite us, and one of them went to headquarters
to ascertain how the prisoner was to be disposed of. In a very short
time he was surrounded by fourteen or fifteen of our soldiers, trying
to carry on a conversation, and giving him cigarettes and in fact
anything he would accept. An hour before they had been trying their
best to shoot one another. In one of the attacks on our left the Turks
were badly beaten off and left a lot of their dead close up to our
trenches. As it was not safe to get over and remove the bodies, a
number of boat-hooks were obtained, and with them the bodies were
pulled in to our trenches. One of the "bodies" proved to be a live
Turk who had been unable to get back to his line for fear of being
shot by our men. He was blindfolded and sent down to the compound with
the other prisoners.
The difficulty of obtaining sufficient exercise was very great at
times. We only held a piece of territory under a square mile in
extent, and none of it was free from shell or rifle-fire, so that our
perambulations were carried on under difficulty. Major Meikle and I
had our regular walk before breakfast. At first we went down the beach
towards Gaba Tepe, and then sat for a while talking and trying to see
what we could see; but a sniper apparently used to watch for us, for
we were invariably saluted by the ping of a rifle in the distance and
the dust of the bullet in close proximity to our feet. We concluded
that, if we continued to walk in this direction someone would be
getting hurt, so our walks were altered to the road round "Pluggey's
Plateau." We were seated there one morning when our howitzer in the
gully was fired, and we felt that the shell was not far from where we
sat. We went down to the Battery, and I interrogated some of the
gunners. "How far off the top of that hill does that shell go?" said
I. "About a yard, sir," replied the man; "one time we hit it." I asked
him if it would be convenient for the battery to elevate a bit if we
were sitting there again.
POST OFFICE
The postal arrangements on the whole were good, considering the
circumstances under which the mails were handled. It was always a
matter of interest for all of us when we saw mail-bags in the barges,
whether or no we were to participate in the good luck of receiving
letters. And here I might make the suggestion to correspondents in
Australia to send as many snap-shot photos. as possible. They tell
more than a letter, for one can see how the loved ones are looking.
Papers were what we needed most, and we got very few indeed of these.
I wrote home once that I was fortunate in having a paper to read that
had been wrapped round greasy bacon. This was a positive fact. We were
up the gully at the advance dressing station, and a machine gun was
playing right down the position. Four men were killed and six wounded
right in front of us, so that it was not prudent to leave until night
fell. It was then that reading matter became so necessary. The paper
was the _Sydney Morning Herald_ and contained an advertisement stating
that there was a vacancy for two boarders at Katoomba; I was an
applicant for the vacancy. The _Bulletin_ was a God-send when it
arrived, as was _Punch_. Norman Morris occasionally got files of the
_Newcastle Morning Herald_, which he would hand on to us, as there
were a lot of men from the Newcastle district in the Ambulance. Later
on it was possible to register a small parcel in the Field Post
Office--for home.
SANITARY ARRANGEMENTS
In order to keep the health of the troops good it was necessary to be
exceedingly careful in the matter of sanitation. Lieutenant-Colonel
Millard was the Sanitary Officer for our Division, and Lieutenant-
Colonel Stokes for the 1st Australian Division.
The garbage at first was collected in casks, placed in a barge and
conveyed out into the bay; it was found, however, that a lot of it
drifted back. It reminded one so much of Newcastle and Stockton. The
same complaints were made by the men on the right as are put forth by
Stockton residents regarding the Newcastle garbage. We, of course,
occupied the position of the Newcastle Council, and were just as
vehement in our denial of what was a most obvious fact. The situation
was exactly the same--only that, instead of dead horses, there were
dead mules. Three incinerators were started, enclosures built up with
stone, and a fire lighted. This was effective, but gave rise to a very
unpleasant smell along the beach. The only time I was shot was from an
incinerator; a cartridge had been included in the rubbish and exploded
just as I was passing. The bullet gave me a nasty knock on the shin.
It was a fairly common practice among men just arrived to put a
cartridge in their fire just to hear the noise. Of course down on the
beach it was not usual to hear a rifle fired at close range, and the
sound would make everybody look up to "see where the ---- that came
from." The discovery of the culprit would bring out a chorus from the
working parties: "Give him a popgun, give him a popgun!" "Popgun" was
preceded by the usual Australian expletive.
[Illustration: Mules in a Gully.]
[Illustration: Graves of Major Ellis and Lieut.-Col. Braund.]
[Illustration: Wounded being placed on Hospital Ship.]
[Illustration: Stretcher Bearers carrying Col. Cox.]
The water found on the Peninsula was always subjected to careful
examination, and, before the troops were allowed to use it notices
were placed on each well stating whether the water was to be boiled or
if only to be used for washing.
SIMPSON
Everyone knows of Simpson and his donkey. This man belonged to one of
the other Ambulances, but he made quite frequent trips backwards and
forwards to the trenches, the donkey always carrying a wounded man.
Simpson was frequently warned of the danger he ran, for he never
stopped, no matter how heavy the firing was. His invariable reply was
"My troubles!" The brave chap was killed in the end. His donkey was
afterwards taken over by Johnstone, one of our men, who improvised
stirrups out of the stretcher-slings, and conveyed many wounded in
this manner.
CHURCH SERVICES
No account of the war would be complete without some mention of the
good work of the chaplains. They did their work nobly, and gave the
greatest assistance to the bearers in getting the wounded down. I came
into contact chiefly with those belonging to our own Brigade. Colonel
Green, Colonel Wray, and Captain Gillitson; the latter was killed
while trying to get one of our men who had been wounded. Services were
held whenever possible, and sometimes under very peculiar
circumstances. Once service was being conducted in the gully when a
platoon was observed coming down the opposite hill in a position
exposed to rifle fire. The thoughts of the audience were at once
distracted from what the Padre was expounding by the risk the platoon
was running; and members of the congregation pointed out the folly of
such conduct, emphasizing their remarks by all the adjectives in the
Australian vocabulary. Suddenly a shell burst over the platoon and
killed a few men. After the wounded had been cared for, the Padre
regained the attention of his congregation and gave out the last verse
of "Praise God from Whom all blessings flow." There was one man for
whom I had a great admiration--a clergyman in civil life but a
stretcher-bearer on the Peninsula--Private Greig McGregor. He belonged
to the 1st Field Ambulance, and I frequently saw him. He always had a
stretcher, either carrying a man or going for one, and in his odd
moments he cared for the graves of those who were buried on Hell Spit.
The neatness of many of them was due to his kindly thought. He gained
the D.C.M., and richly deserved it.
All the graves were looked after by the departed one's chums. Each was
adorned with the Corps' emblems: thus the Artillery used shell caps,
the Army Medical Corps a Red Cross in stone, etc.
THE ENGINEERS
The Engineers did wonderfully good work, and to a layman their
ingenuity was most marked. Piers were made out of all sorts of things;
for instance, a boat would be sunk and used as a buttress, then planks
put over it for a wharf. They built a very fine pier which was
afterwards named Watson's. Again, the "monkey" of a pile driver they
erected was formed out of an unexploded shell from the _Goeben_. This
warship, a German cruiser taken over by the Turks, was in the Sea of
Marmora, and occasionally the Commander in a fit of German humour
would fire a few shells over Gallipoli neck into the bay--a distance
of about eight or nine miles. As soon as the _Goeben_ began firing,
one of our aeroplanes would go up, and shortly afterwards the _Queen
Elizabeth_ could be seen taking up a position on our side of the
Peninsula, and loosing off. Whether she hit the _Goeben_ or not we
never heard. It was _Mafeesh_.
The Engineers also made miles upon miles of roads and, furthermore,
created the nucleus of a water storage. A number of large tanks from
Egypt were placed high up on "Pluggey's," whence the water was
reticulated into the far distant gullies.
TURKS ATTACK
One night in May the Turks made a fierce attack on us, apparently
determined to carry out their oft-repeated threat of driving us into
the sea. The shells just rained down over our gully, lighting up the
dug-outs with each explosion. It was like Hell let loose. Word came up
from the beach station that they were full of casualties and on
getting down there one found that the situation had not been
over-estimated. The whole beach was filled with stretchers, the only
light being that from bursting shells. We worked hard all night
operating and dressing, and when one had time to think, one's thoughts
generally took the shape of wondering how the men were keeping the
Turks off. It was useless to be sentimental, although many of my
friends were amongst those injured; the work just had to be done in
the best way possible.
One night a strong wind got up, just like our "Southerly Busters," and
in the middle of it all firing began on our left. I heard that the
Turks nearly got into the trenches, but they were beaten off and
rolled right round the position--passed on, as it were, from battalion
to battalion.
It was very interesting to watch the warships bombarding Turkish
positions. One ship, attacking Achi Baba, used to fire her broadside,
and on the skyline six clouds would appear at regular intervals, for
all the world like windmills. On another occasion I watched two ships
bombarding the same hill a whole afternoon. One would think there was
not a square yard left untouched, and each shot seemed to lift half
the hill. Twenty minutes after they had ceased firing, a battery of
guns came out from somewhere and fired in their turn. They must have
been in a tunnel to have escaped that inferno. One day we were up on
"Pluggey's" while our beach was being shelled; at last the stack of
ammunition caught fire and was blazing fiercely until some of the men
got buckets and quenched the fire with sea water most courageously.
Later a shell landed among a lot of dug-outs. There was quietness for
a bit; then one man began scraping at the disturbed earth, then
another; finally about six of them were shovelling earth away; at last
a man appeared with his birthday suit for his only attire. He ran like
a hare for the next gully, amid the yells of laughter of all who
witnessed the occurrence. I think he had been swimming, and being
disturbed by "Beachy," had run for a dug-out only to be buried by the
shell.
That was the extraordinary thing about our soldiers. Shelling might be
severe and searching, but only if a man was hit was it taken
seriously. In that case a yell went up for stretcher-bearers; if it
was a narrow squeak, then he was only laughed at.
That beach at times was the most unhealthy place in the Peninsula. Men
frequently said they would sooner go back to the trenches. One day we
had five killed and twenty-five wounded. Yet, had Johnny Turk been
aware of it, he could have made the place quite untenable. I saw one
shell get seven men who were standing in a group. The effect was
remarkable. All screwed themselves up before falling. They were all
lightly wounded.
RED CROSS
About the middle of July I sent a corporal and two men over to
Heliopolis with a letter to Lieutenant-Colonel Barrett, asking for some
Red Cross goods. I had already received issue vouchers for two lots,
but these had been intercepted in transit, so the men were ordered to
sit on the cases until they gave delivery to the Ambulance. Fifty cases
came, filled with pyjamas, socks, shirts, soap and all sorts of things.
The day they arrived was very, very hot, and our hospital was full of
men whose uniform had not been off since they landed. No time was lost
in getting into the pyjamas, and the contented look on the men's faces
would have gratified the ladies who worked so hard for the Red Cross.
Talk about peace and contentment--they simply lolled about in the scrub
smoking cigarettes, and I don't believe they would have changed places
with a Federal Senator.
Those Red Cross goods saved one man's life at least. All the unopened
cases were placed outside the tent. One afternoon a shell came over
into a case of jam, went through it, and then into another containing
socks. A man was lying under the shelter of this box, but the socks
persuaded the shell to stay with them, and thus his life was saved. It
was on this day that my nephew, Staff-Sergeant Nickson, was wounded.
He had just left his dug-out to go to the dressing station on the
beach when a shrapnel shell severely wounded him in the leg. The same
shell killed Staff-Sergeant Gordon, a solicitor from Adelaide, and one
of the finest characters I knew. He was shot through the spine and
killed instantly. Two other men were wounded.
Our Ambulance was ordered to pitch a hospital up Canterbury Gully to
provide for a possible outbreak of cholera, as almost every writer on
the subject stated that, when European troops occupied trenches that
had been previously held by Turks, an outbreak of cholera invariably
followed. Major Clayton was detailed for the work, and soon had
accommodation for a hundred men. As there was no cholera, the sick men
were kept here. We had been so long in this place without a change,
and so many troops were crowded into such a small area, without a
possibility of real rest, that the men began to get very stale.
Sickness was prevalent, and this hospital seemed to help them a great
deal. It was a picture to see them all lying in their pyjamas reading
the _Bulletin_ and _Punch_, and swapping lies.