One day we were allowed a few hours' leave to go where we pleased.
In our wanderings we came to a farm where women were working in the
fields. In one field was a huge haystack. Approaching it, one of my
comrades said that he would show how he killed six Turks. He fixed his
bayonet to his rifle and made a charge at the haystack. There was blood
on his bayonet when he withdrew it. We ripped open the haystack and in
the hollow found a young Turkish girl trying to bandage her arm where
my chum's bayonet had wounded her. There were a cot, table and chair
in the stack, and the girl had a rifle with a telescopic sight, and
a box of cartridges. We were about to let her go, when she dropped a
package which broke, and thirty-one identification disks, such as are
worn by every soldier and sailor in the British Army and Navy, fell on
the ground!
She was a sniper. We had to turn her over to our superior officer. She
was court martialed and ordered to be shot in a half hour. We could not
bear to see a woman face the firing squad, so we left the place and
went back to our trench. We stayed there until the troops were landed
and relieved us.
While in the trenches we went through many an ordeal, the chief of
which was the vermin that, combined with the heat and filthy water,
made life almost unbearable. When we returned to our ship all our
clothing was taken from us and burned. We were then subjected to a bath
of hot water containing some powerful disinfectant which took away a
part of our skin. New uniforms were given us and we put them on our raw
hides with a sense of unspeakable delight.
While on land we saw something of the Turkish sniper. He is a
sharpshooter, painted green from head to foot, as he is usually hidden
among the leaves of the trees. His cartridges are in a box fastened
to a branch above his head, and on his rifle is the famous telescopic
sight, an Austrian invention by means of which a child could hardly
miss the mark. When their hiding place was discovered and they were
shot, we let them hang from the branches as a warning to others. If the
sniper sees that he cannot escape, he destroys his telescopic sight. No
more than six of these wonderful inventions had been found up to that
date. I picked up one in the Turkish trench and had it in my hand for
a few minutes, but was obliged to turn it over to my superior officer
of the division to be sent to the Government arsenal for examination.
... Shortly after our arrival in the Dardanelles one of the mine
sweepers was sunk and the body of a boy seaman floated by our ship.
One of the survivors of the sunken _Irresistible_ jumped overboard and
found the boy was not dead, though unconscious. We threw a rope and
hauled them in. A marine stepped forward and took the boy from the arms
of his rescuer. As he was carrying him to shelter a small shell from
the enemy's gun blew off the marine's head. A sailor snatched the boy
away from him. For half a minute the headless man, having his lungs
still full of air, threw up his arms, and dashed madly about the deck.
This was the only casualty on our ship during my service.