I had had no sleep for 3 nights & days & was just about worn out, so that night I slept with my head on a dead Turk’s leg. You might say why did I do that when I could have found some other place but let me tell you that there was hardly a square foot in those Lone Pine trenches that wasn’t covered with dead men; however I was not troubled with any dreams, but slept as sound as ever I slept in my life.
You might have read of chaps picking up live bombs & slinging them back at the Turks. Well it is quite true, any amount of our chaps done this. It requires a bit of nerve I can tell you, but I think that is about the last thing the average Australian is lacking in.
A fellow gets some curious fancies into his head when being bombed heavily. I remember what mine was as I crouched against the parapet with the rifle protecting my side as well as it would. At one time 4 bombs fell in the trench just underneath the parapet where I was firing from, & as they lay there — as it seemed to me for an hour but in reality only a few seconds — I thought they looked like some monstrous animal with big green eyes & smoke coming out of its mouth. When they used to explode they would daze me for a minute by the concussion. My rifle saved me several times from getting a bad wound, for pieces of bomb buried into the stock more than once while protecting my ribs. I got a few nasty gashes on my hand & leg one day from small pieces of picric bomb.
On the 10th August we came out of that Hell & in Brown’s Dip I saw George Vaughan. What a few we were compared to the lot as went in. We lost just on 400 men for 4 days fighting. You can imagine what kind of a state we were in after such a rough & tumble.
Our artillery skittled a few Turks before the charge for I saw any amount of them blown absolutely to atoms, the flesh hanging in long shreds & clothes torn to ribbons. This was done by the concussion from lyddite shells. In lots of places the sides of the trenches were quite yellow from the fumes of this explosive, & one old Turk I saw was sitting down making bricks as dead as a stone.
Our captures in Lone Pine were about 250 prisoners, 8 machine guns, about 2,000,000 rounds of Mauser ammunition & various other things. There were a few German officers killed in here, & the boys cut all their buttons off as souvenirs. After the severe fighting died down over a thousand dead men were taken from these trenches & goodness knows how many more were buried in there. Some trenches were that full of dead that they could not move the bodies on account of the frightful stench arising from them, for it was summer time, & the heat was terrific, & the flies in countless millions.
These 4 days fighting were considered to be the severest hand-to-hand fighting since the Battle of Inkerman in the Crimean War, that was how the English papers looked on it. There’s no one knows or has any idea what that place was like unless they were actually in it. The Turks fought as fairly & as brave as it was possible for men to fight.
Most of the dead men were taken out of the Pine & buried in Brown’s Dip. The Turks were buried in a big long grave, & our chaps where possible were laid to rest in a decent grave. The Connaught Rangers, an English regiment, done the burying. They used to put a rope round the Turk’s head or neck & drag him out that way. One of the parsons caught them doing this to one of our chaps. He stopped it at once & made them carry our dead out on a stretcher, which was only right. Often a man’s head would pull off & then there would be a stink. Often & often I have been as sick as a dog when going into the Pine trenches, for it was nothing to see a man’s legs sticking out & flesh falling away from him in black lumps.
As we were coming out of the Pine, Len picked up a ring & he has it to this day; though he has lost it several times, it has been found again.
It seemed lonely for a while after this affair for so many of our mates were killed: McShane, Griffiths, Brown, Curtiss, Walsh, Eady, Hopkins, Bradford, Hayward, all were dead & lots more wounded.
It took us till the 12th August to get things straightened up a bit, & then on the 13th August we had a very hot time. They introduced the famous 75 — she skittled 30 out of 60 men who were holding a dangerous part of the line in a few minutes. By Jove they are an awful gun; I am very pleased we have not many of them to face. I can quite understand how the French slaughter the Germans with this deadly weapon. They travel that fast that they are half a mile past you before you hear the report of the gun, that is if you are lucky & still alive. I have seen them come through a parapet 4 bags thick & burst in the trench killing or wounding all in it. I sent the cap of one home that just grazed my head, & killed my mate who was standing alongside me.
The trenches were alive with maggots & when trying to get a few winks of a night they would crawl all over you, & the place was even worse than our own trenches for lice & fleas, so you can see what with one thing & another, it was no holiday in there. Besides nearly everyone was nearly dead with a sort of dysentery, & to eat your meals or to try & get a little quiet place was impossible on account of the cursed flies.
You ought to have seen the Turkish loopholes. They were riddled with bullets & directly behind them the timber was a mass of holes, which proved beyond the shadow of a doubt the accuracy of our rifle fire. I guess there were a few killed in those trenches before the capture of them. Lone Pine trenches were nothing more than a warren; there were trenches running everywhere, & we were constantly getting bushed in them.
The second night in there when the bombing was so bad our fellows were getting cut to pieces for want of them, the cry was “more bombs, more bombs”. I was one of a chain who were passing them as fast as ever we could & we were wondering how much faster they were using them than we could pass them; we all thought it funny that they were being used so fast, for we couldn’t send them any quicker. At last someone noticed that we were handling the same bags over & over again. It appears that we were passing them round & round in a circle all through some officious Sergeant who would not let them down a certain sap. He got into a nice row over that for it nearly lost us the position.
The wounded in Lone Pine had a very rough time. The first lot had to lie in there nearly 24 hours, while they were cutting the sap through. How they must have suffered, poor devils. We had 2 big communication saps nearly through before the charge; the engineers & our fellows had been tunnelling for weeks.
On the night of the 14th August the Turks made a bomb attack on the section of trench our platoon were holding but it speedily fell through. I think we dropped most of them with rifle fire; we saw them come out quite plainly for we always keep a very strict lookout. At this time we were using nearly all jam-tin bombs made by ourselves; they are very effective if they lob in among men, but are dangerous to handle for sometimes they don’t look to be alight, & all the time are burning. We had a good few of our men killed with these for a time, until they started to poison the fuses, which meant putting gelignite down the fuse so as you could see it burning. They were mostly 5 sec bombs. Our guncotton bomb was a snifter — the concussion from them would do the trick. If the Turks were troublesome in certain parts we would send them over a slab (like a lb of butter on a pat) & that would stop them.
On the 17th August we held a meeting in Gun Lane called by Colonel Dobbin to celebrate the first anniversary of the forming of 1st Battalion. While the speeches were on, the shells were flying about pretty heavy, but we were pretty well used to them by this time & did not take much notice. At the conclusion every one of the old hands had a tot of rum & some packets of cigarettes issued to them, & all drank success to the Battalion. The next day the father of the Battalion, as we used to call Major Davidson, was badly wounded & died a few days after. He was a very fine fellow & popular with us all. His death cast quite a gloom over the Batt for he had been right through up to then.
On the 21st August there was a very violent bombardment & heavy rifle fire on our left. Our chaps & N.Z.s captured a fine well & about 300 rifles & a few prisoners that day.
How the Colonial troops stood out on their own during that fierce month of battles (August), both in dash, resourcefulness, daring & pure bull-dog tenacity. T
he world knows, & it’s not overrated either.
On the 25th August there was a terrific bombardment of Achi Baba. They used to give this place some awful hammerings. We could see the shells burst quite plainly from Anzac for we were perched up on high hills. Anzac was easily the roughest & hilliest of the 3 landings; the pictures & photos give only a faint idea of the steepness of the position we held. It’s a wonder we were never pushed clean off it, but they had one good try & that satisfied them.
On the 30th August there was a pretty lively bomb attack & things were pretty hot for a while. It was a dark night so the Indian batteries sent up a few star shells. They fire them from 9 pounder guns. They are very pretty for the shells burst into 9 or 10 different balls of light & they slowly drift down showing a brilliant light. Woe betide anyone caught outside then, for he was a goner.
Early one morning as I was peering over the parapet I thought I saw something move slowly. I watched it pretty close, & I saw a shot come from a certain object. I up with my rifle, took a good aim & shot an old Turk dead. He had been out sniping & was behind a sandbag not 10 yards away.
About this time Len shot a Turk 900 yards away. Capt Woodforde spotted him, & he sent for Len, & hanged if Len didn’t floor him first shot. You could see him quite plainly through the telescope throw up his arms & sink down dead as a stone.
We had a pretty rough time in the Pine. We used to do 48 hours at a stretch, which meant no sleep — you had to rest as well as you could in the little narrow trench. Those of us who were left were as weak as cats. Our clothes were hanging off our backs, & we hardly had strength to stand up. The rumours were going about that we were to be relieved by the 2nd Division & everyone was looking forward to it you can bet.
On the 4th September the 6th Brigade arrived & I can tell you it put heart into us for now we knew we were going to be relieved at last. Everyone was as happy as could be, & the nights & days seemed a terrible length. 2 days after this the first of the 6th Bde came into Lone Pine & we broke them in, & they gradually took it over from us. How fresh & healthy they looked compared to us poor worn-out lot. They reckoned we looked awful & so we did. They lost a few men at once through being inquisitive, poking their heads over the parapet in broad daylight, but they soon took a tumble.
On the 8th September we handed over the Pine to them & we filed out of her & no one was sorry, though she was pretty safe when we left her. We worked day & night improving the parapets, building new trenches & communication saps, putting new loopholes in & building bombproof shelters. Towards the last the bombs were dealt with in a very practical way. We used to have a man at every post with a blanket & whenever a bomb lobbed in the trenches a blanket would be slung on to it at once. It’s wonderful how it will smother a bomb; they are practically harmless under the blanket. One day in the trenches a chap saved his life by his presence of mind. He was carrying a sandbag & a bomb lobbed right at his feet. He dropped the bag on it at once & just in time for off she went & never touched him. The best plan is, if there is no cover, to throw yourself flat on the ground for they all strike upwards, milk-dished shape.
That same night we left the trenches we camped in White’s Gully for about 4 hours, waiting for the ship to come in to take us away for our spell. We were a nice-looking crowd: I had no seat in my pants, half of a felt hat, no sleeves in my tunic, no socks on, old worn boots & filthy underwear rotten with vermin. Len had an old helmet that you would not pick out of the gutter in ordinary times, short pants with about 6 in. of leg in them, a tattered tunic & old boots. This was practically the same with every man of the whole Brigade, & every man from the Brigadier down would be as lousy as could be. Oh we were a nice-looking lot of heroes, but we had been through something that not every man had. Besides a lot of us had been there from the start, 25th April to 9th September, & going for our lives the whole time. It was the old 1st Division that made Australia’s name & done the severe fighting, & dug all the saps & trenches & lost the good men. The Brigade numbered about 800 in spite of the 6 lots of reinforcements we had received.
About 12 o’clock that night we set off for the beach. Old Beachy Bill was sending a few in now & again just by way of pastime. It would have been stiff luck to have stopped one just then but one fellow did get hit about a mile out to sea. We all got aboard about daylight. The 1st & 2nd Batts were on the one boat, Partridge. She had to her credit the sinking of the V.15. The morning was a bonzer, nice & sunny, & we all lounged about on deck. From Anzac to Lemnos was a distance of some 40 miles & we carved it out in about 2 hours.
We landed about 11 o’clock that morning & some of the chaps were that weak that a motor ambulance fetched them round to the camp. As we passed the hospital the Drs & nurses came out & had a look at us. I heard one nurse say, “Poor fellows, they look more fit for the hospital than anything else,” & she was right.
Arrived at Sarpi Camp thoroughly knocked up, & were detailed off to tents. How glad we were to throw our packs & rifles off & to get outside & buy some grapes & figs. The grapes were very plentiful & cheap — you could buy enough for 3d as you could eat. Everyone gorged themselves with fruit for we were fruit hungry & it was a sort of craving we had on us. Needless to say we paid pretty dearly for it the next day; didn’t our stomachs ache & roll. Eggs also were plentiful & we used to get any amount of them & cook them for our tea.
All that afternoon the boys kept straggling home one by one, for some of them had to have a dozen spells before they could get round.
We slept soundly that night, for we were away from the sound of the guns for the first time for many months, & we missed them but in the right way. Next morning we had a good breakfast & had the day to ourselves. The first thing we done as you might guess was to have a good clean up, wash & shave. Some of us washed our clothes over at the well — there was a bonzer spring there & we made full use of it. A day or two after this we were all issued with new clothes, & felt like new men. The old lousy clothes were all burnt & we were clean once more.
We had been at Lemnos about 5 days when we had a terrible heavy thunderstorm which flooded everyone out. In places the water was easily 2 ft deep running through the tents, & carrying everything with it: water bottles, equipment, blankets, loaves of bread all went the one way. It was funny to see us holding what we could out of the water. It was my third experience of being flooded out while in the military, twice at Kensington & here. The camp was pitched in a rotten place, fair on a piece of level ground. The water off the surrounding hills fairly flooded us to our knees. That night when the storm was over we set to & shifted our camp to higher ground & as you might guess our tempers & sleep were none of the best that night; however next morning broke fine & sunny & we soon forgot our discomforts.
We were well supplied with food here so as to build us up. They also started to shove the everlasting drill into us again as if we hadn’t had enough of that. It took us the best part of a week to get our camp shipshape, during which time we helped to run up a thumping big marquee for the Y.M.C.A. What a splendid institution it is, they have stuck to us through thick & thin. At Lemnos they not only supplied us with pens, ink, writing paper & etc, but run a piano along as well, besides a gramophone, & supplied us with cricket sets, boxing gloves, draughts, chess, cards, quoits, footballs & goodness only knows what else. The piano was a Godsend & it used to make the place quite merry of a night.
The New Zealand Band gave several fine concerts at which the nurses on Lemnos Island attended. What a relief & pleasure it was to see the girls of our land, after 6 months of roughing it at Anzac. They made the place look quite bright with their pretty uniforms. They were bricks to stick at Mudros like they did, for I can tell you they had some rough times there. They even had to live on bully & biscuits at times, & their tents would be blown down in a raging rainstorm, & they would turn to & help put them up again in the pouring rain. Their first thought was for the sick & wounded men, & they looked after them splendidly. One cannot praise our nurses too highly, they were
bonzer girls.
We had the first proper Battalion roll call since we left Egypt, & it was sad to see the few of the old original men that were left, only a handful it seemed. A lot were in hospitals crippled, some were back in Australia, & between 200 & 300 were lying in their graves at Anzac. The majority of them were splendid fellows too.
The whole of the Batt were medically examined by 3 doctors & those who were not up to it were sent to hospital & some were sent home to Australia.
Our spell was fast coming to a close & we were not sorry for it was getting very cold & miserable. We had several false alarms about packing up, but on the 27th October we rolled up our blankets. The day we left Sarpi Camp it rained cats & dogs & we were nearly wet through by the time we got on the Osmanich. She was a very nicely fitted-out boat; the saloon was as fine as any ever I have seen. We slept on deck here, & the 2nd Batt had quarters down below. We had no blankets with us through the fault of our Q.M. & about 10 o’clock that night Dr Thompson came round. It was a bitterly cold night & drizzling rain was falling making everything miserable. He pulled up opposite me & asked me the reason why we had no blankets & I told him pretty quick the cause of it. Didn’t he perform next morning; he blew the Q.M. up properly & it done him the world of good.
When we left Lemnos we did not know properly whether we were going to Anzac or Salonika, but once we started we were not left long in doubt. We arrived off Anzac after dark — she was still in the same old place. You could see the lights burning in some of the dugouts, & see & hear the flash of the bursting shells. Though we were a good mile out to sea the bullets could be heard falling into the sea with a loud plonk, & every now & again one would hit the ship with a loud smack. Men were often wounded & killed away out to sea by stray bullets, for the Turkish trenches were up on a fairly high hill & all those which missed our parapets fell into the sea — there must be a few tons of lead in the sea off Anzac.
In Great Spirits Page 6