Your very loving husband
x_____x
Love to Norah and the children.
[MSX 2546]
May 29th 1915
Fine day. The Turks made a determined attack upon ‘Quinns Post’. Exploded a mine, sapped up to our trenches, at the same time one of ours exploded in their trenches. They made a dash immediately after the explosion, and got into part of the fire trench. A counter attack recaptured the trench, 43 Turks being killed and 17 made prisoner. A large number of Turks were killed and wounded outside the trenches. Our casualties, about 190, only about 20 being killed. My Bn takes over Courtneys Post tomorrow and ensuing days – 1 Coy per day. On our left and right we took small trenches respectively.
[MSX 2552]
29.5.15
My dear Louie60
Many thanks for your letter of 8th Ulto, to hand yesterday. We are having a sort of 1/2 holiday so I seize the opportunity to write. By we I mean my Battalion. The somewhat quaint censor rules, prevent me saying where I am though I suppose the place in regards my Bde is concerned is published in every paper. Anyhow the Turks know we are here. I am always fit and well and enjoying life and never enjoyed it before, bar the separation from Mater and the children. The life suits me. We have had a pretty fierce time since the 25th April when we landed, and fighting goes on more or less and night and day. Some troops of course are always in reserve, as we are for the time, and so get a rest of a sort. My Battalion has been in two big things – one over 9 days and the other 4 1/2 days, by days I mean 24 hours because often there is more firing at night than day. My men have acted splendidly. NZ can be proud of them. I class them as heroes and stoics. I suppose by the time you get this, you will have had newspaper a/cs [accounts] of things.
This is a lovely country and the weather on the whole delightful. Wild flowers the most beautiful abound and are a constant source of joy to me....
We are well fed and thanks to weather conditions are able to make ourselves comfortable, in all sorts of holes, and in trenches.... Water has been and is our trouble, 2 quarts[2.27 litres] a day per man for everything – imported from Malta and carried by us up heights and for considerable distances very often under hostile fire. However we are a cheery lot of philosophers.
Yes I heard about Austin. He hadn’t a very joyful life I am afraid. I wonder as one often does, when it is too late. Whether I could not have done something to have made his lot more pleasant. I am afraid I have been far too selfishly engaged in myself and my own affairs. I must try to do better in the future. This life widens ones outlook tremendously. If you had asked me at one time to have cut myself away from my personal affairs even for a month or two I should have said that it was impossible in big letters. If I come out all right (as I feel certain sometimes or another that I shall) of this war. I will do something if I can for Austin’s boys not to say Jesse and Ellie. It is not easy to handle the matter now. I am writing my attorneys T.H. and C. Penn to try and get her to accept an allowance of the 10/-a week she wouldn’t take from the Trimbles.61 It is not much, but it should help, and I think I can easily manage it....
I hope to revisit Lille but this show ... is not going to be over in a day. The Navy has made, we think, a bad mess of things, and made our job a tough one – Tr’ importun [?]...
I shall be glad if you will write me now and again. The receipt of and the replying to letters is about our only recreation. Country walks tho’ most beautiful are not healthy! Too many snipers. We have a concert now and again, but big gun, machine gun [and] rifle fire makes such a racket, that often we cannot hear, and have to knock off. We never know when we can have comparative quiet.
Love to you and Walter
Your loving brother Willie
29.5.15
My dear Maurice
Many thanks for your letter of 10th Ulto. Glad to hear you have been accepted, and hope you will break [?] in at your drill and work, and become thoroughly fit and well trained. We shall look out for you, let us hope in France or rather Germany. We are – where no doubt – the newspapers have told you but we cannot. The censor rules are a bit quaint. I hope Brian too will be with us. Terry is here, where I am, but Edmond got his leg hurt and had to stay in Egypt, until it is well.
I am very fit and well and as hard as nails. We get well fed, but the army ration, doesn’t make fat. Biscuits (very hard), bully beef, bacon, cheese, jam, dried potatoes, tea and sugar. We don’t seem to miss the other things generally looked upon as necessities. We live in holes and trenches, and are very up to date in our shelters. The weather is lovely. Only 3 rains in a month. Thank goodness all the same. This is a lovely country, lots of wonderful wild flowers. The farming or what little we have seen of it, helps the weeds and hence the wild flowers. The newspapers will have told you mostly about our doings, and in any case I wrote you with Harry [Penn] a longish letter about them which no doubt he will let you see. I am hoping to soon hear from Mater from England, where she should have got on 20th Inst.
Glad you have been making yourself useful in the office, which I hear is doing well. I am enjoying my life very much, tho’ of course I don’t like the separation from Mater and the family.... Wool at 1/2 1/2[1 shilling 2 1/2 pence] per lb is all right. Fat sheep too I suppose will have made big money. Don and Billy are at Alexandria, sent back from here as no use for them at present. Lots of fighting here night and day. The Wellington Inf Bn have done all right and I am proud of my men. They are heroes and stoics.
With love
Your loving father Wm G Malone
5
‘Steady fighting work’
* * *
Courtney’s and Quinn’s Posts,
June–July 1915
* * *
[MSX 2546]
May 30th, Sunday
Mass and communion at 6.30am at the Bde Depot near beach. After breakfast went over to Courtneys Post and reconnoitred it. West Coast Coy goes in today, Taranaki tomorrow, and then 1 Coy per day. It is a slow process. On Bn picquet tonight.
Quite hot today. Young Parrington,1 one of my observers who sleeps close to me, got a bullet wound on side of his head last night while asleep. A ricochet I think as we are not under direct fire. I woke up thinking such a bullet had got me in the calf of my leg, but it was only a bite from some particularly venomous insect, which I couldn’t find. I didn’t know of Parringtons accident at the time.
A general attack by the Turks is expected tonight, before the moon rises, and we are all to stand by. 5 weeks today since we landed! We haven’t gone far, but we have had a good dose of fighting, and have consolidated our landing.
May 31st 1915
We had a comparatively quiet night. There were spasmodic outbreaks of heavy firing, but no determined attack. Still sleep was almost out of the question. At 3am we stood to arms, knocking off at 5am, having been knocked off during the night at 10pm. We started relieving the Australian 4th Brigade (Inf) yesterday. I am to command what is known as “Courtneys Post”, and will be under Col Chauvel.2 Taranaki Coy went over today. I and remainder of Bn go tomorrow. Glad to be at steady fighting work again. It is getting very slow. Fine day.
June 1st 1915
Went over and took over Courtneys Post, a very higgle[dy] piggledy show. People all over the place. There are 4 different machine gun detachments, 3 Australian and 1 NZ. I put Major Cunningham in charge of my Bn and began to take hold as O/C. Post. Built a new HQ bivouac and propose to terrace the ground, and so make room for the men. I put all the machine gun men in one place. The Australians didn’t like having to shift but I insisted. There is a lot of work to do remodelling, but we will get it done soon. The men are keen. We have got a Japanese mortar, which throws a bomb almost perpendicularly and can be seen coming down. It explodes with a tremendous force and must be terrifying to the Turks.3 The latter have been having the upper hand in sniping, etc., but I expect our fellows will reverse the position. At dark the usual big firing began. The Turks have been turning night into day.
/> At 9p.m. our people in next Post, known as Quinn’s, went out to blow up a sand bag and timber erection that the Turks had put up[. A]t 10p.m. A tremendous explosion announced success. We bombed away to help and turned on some machine guns as well.
June 2nd 1915
Interviewed Col Chauvel as to alteration in position – sand bags, periscopic rifles, flares, bombs, tools, etc. – and asked for extra supplies so as to have a store in hand. He was very nice, agreed to everything.4
We have told off a special sniping party to deal with some snipers who have ever since landing practically commanded, the valley, on the southern cliff of which our posts are, and have killed and wounded a large number of men, including Genl Bridges. Today we bagged two of the snipers and have quite altered the atmosphere. Yesterday morning 6 men Australians were wounded within 1 hour. Today no casualties, except the 2 Turks killed. Moreover the Turks in trenches in front of us have are [sic] learning that there is a change. We got several of them, including an officer.5 They are callous people. They sling the dead out of and over the trenches. We have started our terracing and made quite a change. My Bn will only be here for 8 days, but I shall be here at least 32 days, as O/C Post. The Otago Bn comes in, next Sunday, 1 Coy and so on, and my Bn goes into reserve for a spell. I would like to keep my Bn altogether and will have a try. It depends how they are. They have each Coy 48 hours in actual trenches practically without sleep, and then 48 hours off. Terry got wounded yesterday, so Major Whyte rang me up to say. Shrapnel, 1 ball in the arm and 2 in the leg. I couldn’t go down and see him, but understand he will be all right, and was in good heart.
Very hot today and the flies are already a plague. A most unpleasant one, when one thinks of all the dead Turks about unburied. Finished my Bivvy and am very comfortable, but it is back to prevailing wind, and in the day, a sweltering place. It has a good outlook to sea and Imbros. I am writing this 9pm, to accompaniment of continuous rifle fire – “Smack”, “whine”, “whiz”, “sheet” go the bullets overhead – the valley echoes some of the sound and so adds to the clatter. Still we are used to it. Just been round the trenches to see all right. The men are in great heart. Capt Cox of Hawera has been promoted Major and commands Ruahine Coy, vice Saunders wounded. Capt Short is my staff officer, a good solid chap. Major Bruce 26th Mtn Battery was killed the other day. Sniped. I had taken a great fancy to him and he seemed to like me. A very keen officer and a real good sort I am sure RIP. I feel so sorry for his wife, of whom he spoke to me the other day.
June 3rd 1915
An uneventful night. I turned out at 3.30am, when all hands stand to arms. Turned in again at 5am. At 6am sent in my daily report. I must try and get O/C Section (Col Chauvel) to fix 9am for this report. It means, as it is now, that one gets practically no morning sleep. And as a rule from dark up to about midnight there is the Devil’s own clatter and bang and boom, and smack and ratattat.
Rang up Col Johnston about getting away to see Terry. He was very good about it and said he would make all arrangements for a boat etc. Terry is of course on one of the Hospital ships. Soon I got word that all was arranged and away I went. Met Genl Godley on the road. He too was very good. Enquired about Terry and said he had instructed Col Lesslie [?] the RMO [Regimental Medical Officer], to see to a boat etc. He told me not to hurry back. He seemed genuinely affected. I feel very grateful to both him and Col Johnston. They couldn’t have done more, if it had been a case of their own sons.
1st visit to the beach since 2nd landing. Quite a town has sprung up, and it seems well ordered. Huge piles of stores and food, for man and beast, right along and on the beach, 4 landing ramps, with all sorts of boats and barges alongside. A field hospital, wireless stations (2), ordnance and supply depots. Hundreds of dugouts and shelters of all sorts, backed into the hills and up the gullies. It is from, safety view, an almost ideal landing place. Shells do get the beach, but it is very fine shooting. I found that I might have to wait for 2 or 3 hours before a boat went off to the Gascon on which Terry was, so I tackled the P. [Port] Naval officer, a Commander Dix, he was awfully good, at once took me down to a piquet boat (motor) and told the middy [midshipman] in charge to take me off to Trawler No.327 and to tell the Capt thereof to up anchor and take me out to the Gascon and then await my orders. We were soon away and alongside. I found to Father McMenamin, on board, On sick list, he took me to Terry – ward 7. However he was asleep, so I let him be. Later I saw him. He was quite cheerful tho’ there was I was pleased to see a tear in his eye, when he saw me. Terry feels more than he shows I am sure. He had been hit by shrapnel. 1 bullet thro’ the Right forearm, 3 thro’ Right leg (2 above and 1 below the knee). He had also a graze on the upper R. arm and one on the abdomen. I think he will be quite all right, but the doctor wouldn’t say. I got Terry some cigarettes, gave him Mater’s address (c/-the NBNZLd [National Bank of NZ Ltd] London), and a letter to Col Charters at Alexandria, to advance him any money required. I hadn’t a sou here. I hope they will send him to England. I understand they are sending a good number of our wounded there. I invited myself to lunch with the Ships Captain. She is a ‘Castle’ liner, a fine boat. The lunch was A1. Butter for almost the 1st time since 25 April, a great treat, not to say anything about cucumber and lettuce and oranges!
Quinn’s Post at a fairly early stage, about May 1915. Note the extensive use of sandbags around the dugouts.
Australian War Memorial
Genl Birdwood came on board, and chatted to me. A cruiser came up from Cape Helles guarded by some 5 destroyers and shelled village of Anafurta [sic, Anafarta] into which Birdwood told me the Turks were pouring troops, a new Division from Bulair,6 16,000 men. We couldn’t see the village from the Gascon and didn’t hear the result of the shelling. The General took me off to the Sicilia another Hospital ship. The Gascon sailing as soon as we left.
On the Sicilia, I bought for the mess 15 Tins fruit, and 3 Tins swiss milk. The Purser who was very nice threw in 3 Tins fruit. Cost £1 which I borrowed from my orderly, young Parrington.
Got back to Post at 6pm. Dinner with Col Johnston, who was most solicitous about Terry.
Usual night racket. At 10pm we made a special fire demonstration to draw all the fire we could. It was limited to 5 rounds per man. Every man, who was in fire trenches fired along all [the] front. It drew the Turks all right. In front of my post, we wrecked their fire trench, which was not very stoutly built.
June 4th 1915
Usual turn out at 3.30am. Morning busy with engineer officer Lt Savage, a young Australian, a nice lad. Scheduled all work and workers – Genls Birdwood and Walker visited the post at about noon, discussed my supporting an attack to be made tonight by Quinn’s Post, on trench in front of them at 11pm tonight and also an attack on German Officers Trench, on our right. Made all arrangements. Col Johnston visited the Post. Later, Col Smythe, O/C 2nd A. [Australian] Inf Bde came re support. He is on my Right. 6 men wounded in shelters this morning by snipers from distant ridges, also 2 men killed walking along track in Monash’s Gully, a bad track. It was there Genl Bridges killed.
A Turkish shell bursting on Courtney’s Post.
Alexander Turnbull Library
Arranging support for tonight’s attack. At 11pm the ball commenced. All hands and guns opened fire, a really terrific [changed from terrible] business. Pitch dark, flashes and reports of rifles and machine guns on all sides. Shells, red hot coming from our own guns, just over our heads, and from cross emplacements. The shells seemed to be coming straight at one – they are fired from a lower elevation. Crash, bang, then the return shells – bombs and star shells. Such a roar, crash, “hunch”, bang rat tat tat, smack, swish, boing, pop and plop and an odd boom. A veritable inferno. I seemed to be in the centre of things ... but I was really, bar very bad luck quite safe. The real danger was from premature bursts or short ranged shells from our own batteries.
It was a weird experience. Our guns made beautiful shooting just skimming the crest of the hill about 18 feet over
my head. 18 feet doesn’t seem much to come and go on. [In the old diary transcript, based on the now lost top copy of the diary, WGM apparently added: “Young Savage our Engineer says it is only 18 feet.”] It is somewhat fascinating to see a flash, then a red point travelling up to you at a terrific speed and then over you, and the hill. Then flash, bang. One gets the sound of the cartridge explosion, just about as the red shell passes, depending on distance of the gun. It was my first experience of such a concentrated performance, and I wasn’t sorry that the shells were not being aimed at me and my position. One of my orderlies tho’ within 10 feet of me was wounded by a shrapnel bullet, premature burst from one of our guns.
The shooting raged all night, slacking off a bit towards daylight and then recommencing. Quinn’s Post sortie had taken the Turk’s trench and 28 prisoners, but were enfiladed and bombed and grenaded, and had to vacate at daylight, taking their prisoners. Great work, Canterbury Bn NZ Inf Bde. We think the Turks reserves in rear got cut up. Not heard yet our casualties. Only 4 in my post which shows one is safe in the midst of an apparent inferno if you are well entrenched, and your own people are good shooters and you have good ammunition.
B = Bomb-stop, C = Courtney’s Post, GOT = German Officers’ Trench, P = 400 Plateau (Jolly and Pine), Q = Quinn’s Post, S = Steele’s Post, W = Wire Gully.
Just how close the opposing forces were at Quinn’s Post is illustrated by this photograph taken in 1919. The Turkish trench in the foreground is only separated from the ANZAC trench by a bomb-stop (a pile of earth).
No Better Death Page 24