GALLIPOLI (continued).
Up to this time poison gas had been unknown in the Dardanelles campaign,
although all ranks were supplied with a small respirator which covered
the nose and mouth and was secured with tapes that tied behind the head.
It was understood that the British had, in reserve, effective means of
retaliation should the Turk resort to it. However, on the 28th
September, the enemy, who had been rather aggressive all day with
shrapnel, bomb, and rifle fire, in the afternoon loosed a broomstick
bomb, which burst in the air above the Apex and emitted a whitish
vapour. This vapour drifted down into the trenches and had a decided
lachrymatory effect on those with whom it came into contact. It passed
off in a few minutes, and no further bombs of that nature arrived. The
incident was important enough to warrant a report being made to
Divisional Headquarters. As a similar occurrence at Hill 60 was noted
within a few days, some attention was given to anti-gas measures. The
result was the issue of certain instructions and a new respirator (P.H.)
which, made of cloth and provided with goggles, was worn over the head
and gave the wearer the appearance of either a partly equipped diver or
member of the Spanish Inquisition. This article was to be carried on the
person at all times.
The 29th September saw more activity on the part of the enemy, whose
shrapnel fire seemed to increase in accuracy daily. Our own artillery,
through lack of commanding positions for observation purposes, and also
through scarcity of ammunition, was not able to reply effectively. At
times a message would come from Brigade or Division to say that such and
such a battery intended, at a given hour, to fire on such and such a
target. The necessary preparations were made but the infantryman was
inclined to be derisive when, at the appointed hour, the gunners would
loose a few rounds only and then remain silent until the next day.
Occasionally the infantry selected targets for the artillery--such as
enemy working parties, enemy troops on the move, or occupied gun pits.
One afternoon a platoon of the enemy was reported near the road leading
into Anafarta Sagir. The gunners were telephoned, but their longer stay
on the Peninsula had given them a better local knowledge, and they were
able to point out that the target was the tombstones and shadows of a
small cemetery.
[Illustration: MAJOR J. A. CAMPBELL WILSON.
Commander of "A" Company.]
It was the practice of the Brigadier to make a daily tour of the front
line. The Divisional Commander came once or twice a week, and General
Birdwood--sometimes accompanied by Brig.-General C. B. B. White--paid
occasional visits. At times Brig.-General H. G. Chauvel, who commanded
the 1st Light Horse Brigade, acted for the G.O.C., the N.Z. and A
Division. This day Sir Alexander Godley especially inspected the
improvements that had been made to the position and expressed his
approval with the work done. The cutting of new trenches, the deepening
and widening of the old ones, and the repair and adjustment of the
parapets and parados, had entailed much hard work. Here and there, where
it was possible for the enemy to fire into the trench with rifle or
machine gun, overhead traverses had been constructed. These consisted of
filled sandbags supported--for want of timber--on old rifles or tools,
the ends of which rested on the two sides of the excavation. The main
communication trench had also received attention, and it was now
possible to move up the Dere without forsaking-cover.
[Illustration: CAPTAIN J. GETTINGBY.
The Quartermaster.]
As has already been mentioned, the General's visits did not meet the
popular taste. However, on one occasion he created some amusement when
he pointed out, from No. 4 Post, the distant village of Anafarta
Sagir. To an officer, who had once been Lord Mayor of Melbourne, he
said--"That, when the advance is made, will be one of our objectives
and, if the 7th Brigade captures it, you will have the opportunity of
becoming the first Lord Mayor of Anafarta." His idea of duty was
exemplified in his reply to the soldier in charge of a trench mortar
which was situated in a bay adjacent to a communication trench. The
dialogue was as follows:--
General: "What would you do if an enemy bomb landed in this
bay?"
Soldier: (indicating C.T.): "I would get for my life round
that corner."
General: "You would do nothing of the kind! You would stay
here and send two bombs back."
To a young officer, to whom he had pointed out certain things to be
done, and who had replied "I will do my best," he said petulantly "Don't
do your best, do _it_." The majority of the members of his staff were
mortally afraid of him and frequently "let the infantry down," when in
the presence of the General, by suddenly reversing a previously
expressed opinion on some tactical arrangement or in connection with the
works.
The last day of the month was marked during the evening by the arrival
of a fog, which seemed to come over Sari Bair from the Asiatic side. It
poured down into the valleys--for a time quite obscuring the country to
the west and north. The enemy became very restless and shortly opened a
heavy rifle and machine fire somewhere to our right. This, combined with
a fire which suddenly sprang up in front of the Apex, gave occasion for
extra watchfulness, and the reserve companies were ordered to be in
readiness to move. By 9 p.m. the fog had cleared and all was quiet
again. The fire was believed to have originated through a bullet
striking the ammunition in the equipment of one of those who still lay
out in front of the trenches. Sometimes the clothing would catch fire
and then the body, which for nearly two months had been lying out in the
open, would burn for hours. Once an exploding shell blew a corpse right
into the front trench. Then it had to be taken away and buried as
decently as circumstances would permit.
On the 1st October, during the early morning, a member of the N.Z.
Engineers was killed whilst at work on the wire entanglements.
The usual amount of shelling occurred on this and the following two
days. On the third the whole of the N.Z. _personnel_ was withdrawn and
moved off for a rest and refit at Lemnos Island. The Battalion was sorry
to part company with those who had been of such great assistance to them
and with whom many friendships had been formed.
A broomstick bomb during this morning provided an example of the
scriptural warning that "the one shall be taken and the other left."
Many of these bombs landed near the junction of three communication
trenches. A notice had been put up: "Do not loiter here." Despite this
the Pioneer Sergeant and two other men selected the spot for a rest and
were sitting down--the Sergeant between the other two. A bomb was seen
to rise from the opposite trenches. Unfortunately the sentry's warning
was of little avail, the missile descending and exploding just in front
of the reclining trio. From the cloud of black smoke emerged the
Sergeant quite uninjured. His two companions were not so fortunate.
The fourth day of the month was one of alarms. At 9 a.m. "Jacko"--as the
Turk was called--suddenly opened a heavy fire with all weapons. This was
continued for some time and preparations were made to receive an attack.
Nothing eventuated at the time, and after a while normal conditions were
resumed. Late in the day Brigade Headquarters reported a considerable
body of the enemy moving south from Anafarta, and ordered a state of
readiness. The reserves stood by all night, but again the enemy failed
to show himself and the tired troops returned to the bivouacs after
daylight on the 5th.
Companies continued to relieve each other every six or seven days, but
on the 4th October it was decided to relieve the whole Battalion. One
company of the 25th Battalion arrived this day and took over from "B"
Company, which proceeded to the lower portion of the Cheshire Ridge. On
the following day the relief was completed. However, the Machine Gun
Section, a mining party of 26 men, a trench mortar party, and a certain
nucleus for each post, were left in the line to carry on the works and
assist the Queenslanders. A platoon of "C" Company, under Lieut. R. C.
Phillips, was sent to Canterbury Slope, and Major Welch's company was
directed to remain in its old position as brigade reserve.
The 24 days in the crowded narrow limits of the Apex had considerably
reduced the strength of the Battalion. By the end of September, 13 had
been killed, 9 died of wounds, 46 were wounded, and 35 evacuated sick.
The dead had been buried in the little cemeteries which had been
arranged on one side of the Chailak Dere or down near the sea beach. For
these the Battalion Pioneers made neat little wooden crosses which were
placed to mark the head of each grave. The wounded were first attended
to by the stretcher-bearers, who made use of the "first field
dressing"--an antiseptic bandage which every man carried in a special
pocket on the inside of the skirt of his jacket. More than one of the
stretcher-bearers lost his life, or was sorely wounded, when bravely
setting about this duty. The wounded were then taken to the Regimental
Aid Post, where the Medical Officer patched them up temporarily.
Afterwards they were conveyed in stretchers, or walked, to the nearest
forward dressing station of the Army Medical Corps, and thence passed
to a Casualty Clearing Station, where they remained until embarked on a
hospital ship which took them to either Lemnos, Alexandria, or Malta.
As sickness accounted for more than one-third of the casualties in this
short space of time, it may be as well to touch on the factors which
affected the health of the individual. The climate in September, and
early October, was similar to November weather in Western Australia.
Thereafter it became cooler, with occasional falls of rain, up to the
end of the eleventh month. This latter date marked the downward limit of
the thermometer, and the subsequent weather was almost spring-like until
the evacuation. On the whole the climate was not disagreeable to the man
from the Antipodes, and even when he did find it a little too warm for
comfort he met the situation by discarding his jacket and shirt and
moving about with a sleeveless undervest as the sole covering for the
upper part of his body. Occasionally he was seen garbed only in hat,
shorts, and boots.
Another reason for being rid of every unnecessary garment was the
prevalence of vermin. Whence they came nobody knew; but within a few
days of landing on the soil very few men had escaped their attention. No
effective arrangements for dealing with the pest were practicable, and
the scarcity of water, with the consequent difficulty of securing
changes of clothing, made the discomfort all the greater. A fortunate
few argued amongst themselves as to whether the services to the Empire
of a certain insect powder manufacturer had ever been adequately
recognised. The soldier's relative who sent a cutting from the "West
Australian's" agricultural column headed "The Vermin Board. Position of
the Squatters" showed both an appreciation of the condition of the
soldiery and the phase of strategy which the campaign had reached. And
here may be retold the story of the exasperated man who interrupted a
conversation by exclaiming, "The Kaiser! I wish he had _two_ withered
hands and my shirt!"
But the worst enemy was the fly. This fattened and multiplied on the
filth which marked the ground the Turk had occupied, and on the unburied
victims of the battle who tainted to nausea the atmosphere breathed by
the garrisons in the elevated positions. Whatever precautions against
them it was possible to take were adopted, but the scarcity of sheet
iron and timber, and the restricted space, rendered these of little
avail. The water supply was not materially affected, as most of this was
Nile water, properly filtered, and brought to the shore in tank barges
by the Navy. But the flies, in such numbers and with such enterprise as
had never before been witnessed by the most travelled bushman, could
not be kept out of the food. Diarrhoea and dysentery quickly affected
the Australians. Little effective relief was at hand. Castor-oil
alleviated it temporarily, and this was consumed in such quantities
that, one war correspondent has said, it threatened to become the
Australians' national drink! Typhoid, and what was described as
paratyphoid, fevers followed these maladies. Later came jaundice in
epidemic form. In addition, rheumatism, pneumonia, and heavy colds, made
their levy.
[Illustration: SERGEANT C. R. FIELD.
The First N.C.O. to gain a Commission in the Field. Afterwards Captain
and Adjutant of 2nd Machine Gun Battalion. Twice mentioned in Despatches.]
So great were the losses from these causes, that in August the Anzac
Corps was evacuating 500 men a day. Early in October the IX. Corps'
return showed over 700 for one day. Also, about this latter date, in
spite of the presence of comparatively fresh troops, the N.Z. and A
Division was being reduced at the rate of 60 per diem--not more than 15
per cent. of which were battle casualties.
[Illustration: REGIMENTAL QUARTERMASTER-SERGEANT R. G. SEXTY.
Afterwards Captain and Transport Officer. Mentioned in Despatches.]
Nor were the troops in a condition to successfully cope with the inroads
of disease. "Worn out with hardship and incessant shell fire, from which
even when in reserve, they were never free,"[N] ill-sustained by a
monotonous diet of food--in part of doubtful quality, and always short
of sleep and of supplies of water necessary to rest the body and keep it
clean; their vitality and powers of resistance to disease were
considerably reduced, and they fell an easy prey to the virulent and
prolific germs.
The army ration consisted of meat, bread, vegetables, and groceries.
Meat included tinned and fresh meat and bacon. Bread included ordinary
bread, biscuits, and flour. The groceries were tea, sugar, jam (or
cheese), pepper and salt, with such alternatives and additions as tinned
milk, rice, prunes, curry powder, and raisins--which last were rarely
available. The 28th's experience was that, when supplies were available
and the weather permitted of them being landed, Argentine chilled beef
and baker's bread left little room for complaint. However, the two
factors mentioned did not always coincide and the Battalion, for days on
end, had to be content with substitutes. The tinned meat ("dog" or
"bully beef") was also from Argentine, and had already been dealt with
for "extract" besides being extremely salt in flavour. The only way to
make it palatable was to fry it up with bacon fat and chopped onions, or
boil it again and add rice and curry powder when procurable. Nevinson[O]
says that when the Anzac men threw over tins of meat to the Turks in
exchange for packets of cigarettes it was a cheap gift, and the enemy
returned the messages, "Bully beef non, envoyez milk." Now and again one
came across a treasure in the form of a stray tin of a Canadian brand,
or of "Maconochie" (a very substantial and nourishing stew), but looked
in vain for the well-known Australian and New Zealand products.
The bacon, mostly very fat, was known as "lance-corporal bacon," _i.e._,
with only one thin streak of lean running through it. This was issued
_ad nauseam_. One man expressed his feelings when he said that he would
never be able to look a pig in the face again.
There are no biscuits like the army issue. To those whose dentition was
not perfect the masticating of them was tedious and painful. Some men
made graters out of biscuit tin lids and grated the article to a powder,
afterwards making a kind of porridge with it. Others discarded them as
food and carved them into frames for photographs, or cigarette pictures,
or contrived other mementos of a disagreeable period. Fresh vegetables
were rarely seen. Now and again an enterprising individual would return
from the beach with a cabbage, or a few potatoes, which he had purchased
from one of the Navy or looted from some unsuspecting person who had
them in charge. So far as can be remembered, not one single issue of
potatoes was made to the Battalion during the whole of its stay on the
Peninsula. Onions, however, were plentiful and of first-rate quality.
Other substitutes were preserved or desiccated vegetables, which were
found quite unpalatable and quickly refused by the Quartermaster.
Of the groceries, the issues of tea and sugar were insufficient for the
occasion. The Australian tea-drinking habit (amongst others) had not
then spread through the army. The Canadian cheese was excellent, but
the jam lacked in all three essentials--quantity, quality, and variety.
Bairnsfather has placed on record the soldier's feeling in this regard.
Certain other articles of importance were issued weekly. These included
lime juice, rum, and tobacco. Rum was a new experience to many, but its
value as a stimulant for tired troops was soon appreciated--even by the
teetotallers. The virtues of rum and condensed milk were extolled. The
precious liquid was contained in earthenware jars bearing on the outside
the letters "S.R.D." The popular interpretation of this legend was
"Seldom Reaches Destination," from the belief that, small as the
authorised issue was, it was either reduced in quantity, withheld, or
weakened with water by those through whose hands it passed between the
supply depot and the people for whom it was intended. Instances were not
lacking which gave foundation for this belief, and an incident is well
remembered in which a member of one formation regaled himself for two
nights on his company's share and finished up the carouse by giving the
"alarm." He left for Australia shortly afterwards. The Battalion made
the acquaintance of tobacco and cigarettes of many brands and as many
qualities. In some cases the name on the package was the only indication
of its supposed contents. Some of the issues were at the cost of the
Government and others as a result of gifts by soldiers' aid societies in
Australia and England.
It has already been said that water was scarce. A few wells existed, but
were quite unequal to the demands made upon them. It was therefore
necessary to carry the water for some distance. Two-gallon petrol tins
were used for this purpose by special fatigue parties. Larger quantities
were carried in "fantassies"--10-gallon tanks borne in pairs on
mules--and delivered to the Quartermaster, who was responsible for the
distribution of all supplies and stores. Not always was it possible to
secure sufficient for ablution purposes, and at one time--during
November--the issue was restricted to quarter gallon per diem per man
for all purposes. At the Apex, whilst water was scarce, small parties
from the reserve companies were taken in turn to the beach and allowed
to bathe. A certain amount of risk was attached to this proceeding, as
the enemy shelled the locality whenever a target offered. Fortunately
the parties escaped without casualty.
The cooking of food was first carried on by individuals. The mess tin
could be used as either saucepan or kettle, and its lid as a frying pan
or drinking vessel. With the aid of the entrenching implement, which
each man carried, a little excavation would be made in some convenient
place and a fire built of any available fuel. As a support for the tin
when laid on the embers any number of stones was available. On some of
these heat had a peculiar effect, and the unwary one was sometimes
startled by a loud report and the sight of his meal being hoist in the
air. Usually two or more men combined in the cooking process, but the
preparation of food by the individual was found to be wasteful and
injurious to health in that it attracted many flies and lacked
thoroughness. The company system was therefore reverted to, and the
dixies brought into use in kitchens constructed outside the trenches.
The dixies were then taken forward and the meal served out in equal
shares according to the numbers to be provided for. The change at first
was not popular, but its beneficial effects became apparent later, and
the system was not again departed from except for very brief periods
when extraordinary conditions existed.
Fuel was by no means plentiful, and anything at all that would burn was
carefully collected. Under cover of darkness individuals would forage on
the exposed slopes and return with arms full of twigs and brushwood. In
the back areas fatigue parties were at work daily collecting firewood
which was brought to a depot for issue to units. These parties worked
under brigade orders and a number of 28th men were, on one occasion,
sent up an exposed slope accompanied by a white donkey. The animal, so
easily distinguishable against the background of dark verdure, soon
attracted the enemy's artillery fire and some casualties resulted. The
Regimental Medical Officer and two or three stretcher-bearers very
gallantly ascended the hill and attended the wounded despite the
continuance of the Turkish shrapnel.
Supply and transport on the Peninsula was no easy problem. Supplies in
bulk were landed on the beach from barges when the weather permitted.
There, near the two piers, a reserve of at least seven days was stored
and supply staffs lived between walls constructed of boxes of biscuit
and tinned meat. These walls were lined with sides of bacon resting on a
plinth of filled rum jars and certain medical comforts intended for the
sick or wounded. In the neighbourhood huge piles of all manner of
articles abounded, and sandwiched in between them one would occasionally
discover a howitzer, which would come into action intermittently. From
these depots the Army Service Corps attached to Divisions drew what was
required or available and transported it to their own areas. There it
was again divided up, according to the actual number of men present with
each battalion, and the Quartermasters took delivery.
The means of transport consisted of carts, mules, and donkeys. Few
horses were kept at Anzac. The only ones the 28th saw belonged to the
6-inch howitzer battery, and were stabled up on a hillside the face of
which had been cut away so as to afford safe cover. One other horse seen
was used by a despatch rider who almost daily went somewhere towards the
left of our line and as frequently was the target for snipers. The carts
were two-wheeled, with mule draught, and could only be used at night,
when they conveyed supplies to the 54th Division which lay at the
northern end of the Anzac Corps areas. These carts had made a well
defined track, and their passage was easily marked by the creaking and
groaning sounds they gave forth. Yet they were seldom, if ever, shelled
by the enemy. They were driven by Maltese or natives of India who,
during the daylight hours, camped in some of the crevices in the cliffs
near the shore. As carts could not ascend the ravines, mules were used
for carriage to the forward positions. They were sure-footed and capable
of carrying a substantial load. Shell-fire had not much effect on them,
but occasionally they became fitful and, despite the lurid exhortations
of their drivers, would discard their loads at most inconvenient places.
They were awkward creatures to meet in a sap. One might attempt to pass
them on the side where there appeared to be the more room, only to find
that, when nearly through, the mule would lurch over and pin you to the
wall of the trench with the corner of an ammunition box or water tank.
Each battalion had the use of a certain number of small-sized donkeys. A
few men had to be detailed to look after these and drive them--being
responsible to the Quartermaster, who was known, sometimes, as "the O.C.
Dunks." The donkeys carried loads suitable to their strength and were
found to be most useful animals in the areas near the front line.
Sometimes they got shot. A story is told of one of the 28th drivers who
was rather attached to his pair of animals. One day in the Dere a shell
killed one of his donkeys and the concussion from the explosion knocked
the other one over. With a little persuasion he got up again, but the
driver, in explaining the loss, said that he had had one beast killed
and that the other had _fainted_.
FOOTNOTES:
[N] Gallipoli Diary.
[O] H. W. Nevinson. The Dardanelles Campaign.