We had aeroplanes in the air all day long, sometimes as many as 5 at once up scouting. The object was of course to prevent the Turks from getting over our lines & seeing too much. As soon as ever they sighted a Taube they would be after it like bull-dogs.
I went down on the beach about 2 days before the evacuation, & what a scene there was. Thousands of boxes of rifle ammunition were carried out into the sea, & dumped. The tide was out & I could see the boxes quite plainly, & equipment, bags of goods, thousands of cases of bully beef, biscuits, spades & shovels & all sorts of implements, & clothes don’t mention them. Nearly everyone had a new rigout — you could go down & get your pick from mountains of clothing. Tea, sugar, flour, raisins were broken open everywhere so as they would be of no use to the Turks. The sailors off the ships would row over & take boatloads back with them; it was a regular Godsend to them. They were piling all articles in heaps so as they could be fired or blown to pieces by the Navy, after we were all off Gallipoli. Up in the trenches for the last 2 or 3 days we lived like Kings. The one thing the military were particular in destroying was the rum. They broke hundreds of stone jars up & it was the best thing they could have done, for if the men had got among the rum there’s no one knows what might have happened.
All the tracks leading to the beach were being enlarged & little steep places cut down & making steps in them so as 3 or 4 men could go abreast. The ground was frozen hard & all along the tracks men had been chopping little chunks out of the frozen ground so as the men could get a grip with their boots & to prevent slipping. Another precaution was the placing of lights at each bend to show us the way, & rice was spread all along the track so we could follow it easily. Every little detail was worked out thoroughly, even to taking a party of men down to the beach & back again, against time — that gave them a pretty fair idea of the length of time between each party. We emptied thousands of bombs into our latrines, for it was impossible to get them away. A lot of field gun ammunition was served the same way, or else stacked in heaps along with our limbers & timber for the destroyers to smash up. We also built a lot of dummy stores to help fool the Turks.
Those last 2 nights at Anzac were trying ones. “Did the Turks know we were going” was on everyone’s tongue for it seemed like it once, for shells were falling on the beach pretty thick at times, & they kept it up for hours. At every extra crackle of rifle fire we would be on the alert, for it seemed impossible that they should not know what was going on under their very eyes, especially when nearly all the English papers had recommended it & Australian papers had been gassing about it for some considerable time.
Most of our trenches were heavily mined, especially Lone Pine, Quinn’s Post & the trenches round Walker’s Ridge. They reckon there was just about 7 tons of ammonal under the Nek close to Walker’s Ridge, & Lone Pine would be blown to smithereens & a good few Turkish trenches with it, for our chaps had mined well under their positions. There were tons upon tons of explosive destroyed so as the Turks could not get it.
Len & I were in the second-last party to leave. We volunteered to stop to the last, & looked as if we would once, but there were so many wanted to stop that they cancelled all previous arrangements & detailed men off & that settled it; it was no good kicking against it, we had to do as we were ordered.
How it hurt to leave all our mates who were lying buried there & at the mercy of the Turks you can imagine for yourselves, but the bitterest part about it was the Suvla Bay failure. They had a child’s task compared to the Australians & New Zealanders, but they missed their opportunity. While our weak Brigade was holding up & battling with a whole Division of Turks at Lone Pine, they were fooling about on the beach at Suvla instead of pushing on for all they were worth. The 1st Division & New Zealanders held practically the whole of the Turkish Army up for nearly 2 days & nights so as to allow the English troops who landed at Suvla to seize the ridges running to 971 & Anafarta. They failed miserably as we all know, & our losses were in vain.
Before we left the trenches to go to the beach everyone had to wrap bags round their feet so as to muffle the sound. We looked a comical lot of soldiers I can tell you. We had no trouble at all & the planks on Watson’s Pier were all covered with bags, so we got aboard pretty quietly. When the old barge was full they tried to get her started, but she would not budge an inch, so we all had to get on one side of her to give her a good cant & she got off that way. She took us straight out to a ship & we embarked, never no more to set our foot on Anzac. The very name seems to have a sort of charm about it, & it has been made famous by the Colonials. I can tell you most of us watched the old hills disappearing from sight, the hills among & on which thousands of brave men were killed & where good Colonial blood was simply poured out all for nothing, except a name which should make every Australian feel proud of his country, & a name which will never die, for never I should think did men fight more bravely, stubbornly & in such a self-sacrificing spirit as our boys did there, & against a stubborn enemy who fought well & fairly. We also had to fight against natural difficulties which were far worse than the Turks themselves. We felt like cowards sneaking away at dead of night with bags round our feet.
We all waited anxiously for the last men to get off. Our Battalion was practically the last of the old 1st Div. What a part the old 1st Division & New Zealanders played — the first to land & the last to leave.
As soon as the last parties were aboard, the mines were all sprung & the warships opened fire on certain points & thus ended one of the most glorious & the same time disastrous campaigns as Great Britain ever had anything to do with, & is ever likely to have. It was about 4 A.M. on the 20th December.
Lots of us left notes for the Turks telling them all sorts of things & asking them to respect our graves. In one place they had a gramophone set so as soon as they touched it it would play “The Turkish Patrol”, not bad was it, & in other places the tables were all left just as if they were going to sit down to dinner, & had been called away hurriedly, but as soon as they lifted the bottles of wine a bomb went off — what a shock they would get.
The Turks never jerried that the birds had flown till morning broke, & to make sure they gave it a terrific bombardment & rifle fire. I’ll bet in one way they were mad, especially the officers, to think they had let us get off so easily.
The Turks claim to have got booty to the value of £2,000,000. I doubt if they got £50,000 worth of stuff for everything was practically destroyed. The only thing of any value they would get would be the steel loopholes; they would be very handy.
It seemed a shame that they could not get all the horses off, there were some beauties there too, & they & all the spare mules had to be shot. One of the last things we saw was little Murphy the donkey standing on a rise overlooking the cemetery. It was a pity they could not have brought him off; he was such a pet too.
As the ships steamed away the Turks could still be heard sniping. Now the strain over, everyone was glad. I for one never thought I would come off Gallipoli alive & hundreds more never thought much of their chances. The evacuation was just as big a success in one way as the landing, for we only lost a couple of men. It was wonderful when you come to look back on it.
Arriving at Lemnos we went into tents which were pitched for us by the 3rd Brigade I think, for they had been there some time, previous to the evacuation.
We received our Xmas billies on the 22nd December & very good they were. On the outside of the billy cans they had a kangaroo with his feet on Anzac & underneath were the words “This bit of the world belongs to us”. That caused many a laugh for we had sneaked away from it.
The 24th December saw us on the Huntsgreen (otherwise Derfflinger, a captured German ship). Everyone was pleased to get off dirty Lemnos. We sailed that night for somewhere — no one knew properly where we were bound for, but Egypt was favourite. The tucker was rotten on this ship for they had made no provision for us so we had to live on biscuits & bully beef, washed down with a sort of sloppy tea.
; On Xmas we had bully & biscuits for dinner, & at night time we had a sort of pudding but it was that sweet that we could hardly eat it so our Xmas was not too flash was it.
We had a very nice run coming across. We passed some islands here & there & very pretty some of them look in the setting sun. The water round this part of the world is a very pretty blue. As we sailed south we could notice the weather getting warmer & warmer. Our only danger now was the submarines & we kept a pretty strict lookout for them. We had to carry our lifebelts wherever we went & that is an infernal nuisance hanging round you.
On the 27th December we arrived at Alexandria after a campaign of 9 months in an outlandish hole. We were not supposed to go ashore but needless to say that stopped no one. Some got down ropes, some walked boldly down, & others gave crook passes to the guard. Everyone was dying for a good square meal & a walk round a town again. The place seemed full of Australians all on the same game, but you should have seen them coming home to the ship that night drunk as lords & nearly everyone had a bottle or two of the rotten Egyptian spirits in their pockets. When the order came to move off it was funny — talk about fights. The drink must have had boxing gloves in it for they were fighting all over the place but they were as harmless as kids — they could not hurt one another no matter how they tried. Coming down the gangway one fellow broke his leg & down on the wharf a Sergeant wanted to fight anyone who would step up to him & because they wouldn’t let him, he dived over the wharf. He had no sooner hit the sea than 2 or 3 were in after him.
They got all in the train at last & off we went, but they still fought in the carriages. I never laughed so much in my life as I laughed that night; it was better than a pantomime. On the way down 2 or 3 fellows fell out — I don’t know what became of them.
We did not know where they were going to take us, although we heard some talk of Tel-el-Kebir. When daylight came we could see we were not bound for Cairo, for on one side of us was nothing but the bare & sandy desert & the other side all beautiful green fields, & we knew there is no such country on the Alexandria to Cairo line.
About 6 o’clock that morning we pulled up at Tel-el-Kebir station, a dreary-looking hole. We camped practically on the old battlefield of Tel-el-Kebir; it was here that Wolseley defeated Arabi Pasha in [18]82, if I remember rightly. The old trenches still remain to this day, & you can find relics of the old battle such as buttons, bullets, cartridge cases, pieces of shell & even skeletons in places. One of our chaps unearthed some while looking for curios.
We had no tents to speak of for nearly a week after landing here & it was pretty cold sleeping outside, for it drizzled nearly every night & wet us through.
1916
Egypt
The Western Front, France and Belgium
On leave in London, England
The Somme offensive
My arm was getting pretty crook again from the effects of the cuts from the bomb in Lone Pine so I went to the Dr for the first time since enlisting — that was a good record, wasn’t it. He sent me to hospital for he said a spell would do me no harm so that night, 7th January, I went down on the train to Cairo to No. 2 Ghezireh, one of the finest Egyptian hospitals.
When they found out that I had been on the Peninsula for 7 months they were astonished, & I think I was looked on as a bit of a freak. Anyhow the Dr was Dr Wolfagen of Hobart & he knew some of my people & he had quite a long yarn with me. I was put under the X Rays & they showed pretty plainly where the pieces of steel were. They were taken out, 2 from my arm & 3 from the leg. It stung a bit getting them out.
I was in here a week, & was then sent to the convalescent home. After being at Helouan nearly 3 weeks I was sent out to the detail camp at Giza, & while there had a good time. I was in Cairo nearly every night, for I had several mates at Giza & we used to knock about together.
On the 5th March we were all told to pack up & most of the boys were pleased. The next day we moved off, & marched to Cairo railway station where, after an hour or two’s delay, we got into open trucks & away we went.
We arrived at our destination, Serapeum, about dinner time, & it was a scorching hot day. There was a rush for the canal & soon most of us were splashing & swimming away in the lovely cool water.
After we had a swim we were marched off up the canal a bit to where our engineers had constructed a pontoon bridge across the water. The bridge was worked by ropes from either side & it would carry a good big load — it had to be strong for practically all our food & stores had to come across this slender thread & it was the only way of getting troops backwards & forwards. Once across this bridge we had a walk of nearly 2 miles to where our Battalion was camped & very glad we were when we reached it.
The Colonel gave us a lecture here one day as to how we should behave when we got to France, & everyone was as pleased as Punch, for this was a pretty good hint as to where we were bound for. We were about fed up with Egypt & everything connected with it, & all were longing to get to France & have a go at the sausage eaters, our real enemy. We done our work with a much lighter heart after this, for all were looking forward to getting away.
Just before we left Serapeum the Prince of Wales paid us a surprise visit. You ought to have seen the boys rushing out to have a look at him, some with no boots on, some without tunics or hats, & others with just their trousers on. I warrant he thought we were a pretty rough-looking crowd but the boys gave him a good welcome. They crowded all round him trying to get snapshots with their cameras. General Birdwood was with him & he was smiling like anything. We could all pick the Prince out easily by the plume in his hat. He only looks a boy & has rosy cheeks like a girl.
We had a frightful dust storm here just a day or so before we left. Blew most of the tents down & darkened the sun. Oh she was a beauty. Everyone was nearly blinded with the rotten stuff. After it had all finished we had a shower of rain, which was a Godsend as it cooled the air & laid the dust.
We were expecting orders to move any day now & were waiting anxiously for the word to come for us to pack up, so as we could get out of this hole. This made the fourth continent I had been on; we only want to see the States now & we would be quite the globe trotters.
On the morning of the 21st March we received our orders to strike tents & pack up & never did men do it more willingly than we did. We marched off about 4 o’clock with the band leading & the 2nd Batt followed us out shortly afterwards. We had a pretty stiff march to the platform where we had to entrain — it was not so very far but the sand was terrible heavy walking, especially with the heavy pack up as we had, for we carried practically everything with us including blankets.
Arriving at the platform we formed up & were then dismissed for an hour or so, for the train did not leave till 12 o’clock that night. We lit a big fire, & soon a concert was in full swing. The band also helped to keep things going. About 10 o’clock that night a big passenger ship came through the canal bound for Australia. As soon as she was spotted the whole mob rushed over & cheered her like anything & they cheered back. We could see the people quite plainly on the deck. We cooeed to her till she was out of sight.
That night we shook the dust of Egypt off our feet & I hope for good, for I am sure we all swallowed more than our peck of dirt since we have been in Egypt. The ride to Alexandria in open trucks was a fairly long & cold one but what cared we. The train ran us right down to the ship. We were not long in embarking & soon we were detailed off to our respective portion of the ship. As we went aboard a chap handed each man a meal ticket, for we had to have 2 sittings, as there was not enough room for them all at once. She had been an immigrant ship & had bunks fitted out in her & we had these & very good they were. I know I slept sound in them.
About 4 o’clock that afternoon we set sail from Alexandria & we passed a few of the old Gallipoli hospital ships on the way out. We were soon out of sight of land & so were in the danger area of the Kaiser’s tinfish. We were steering a zigzag course so as to baffle any submarines that may have been in the vici
nity.
The coast of France was sighted on the 27th March & all the mountains we could see far away in the distance were snow capped & very pretty they looked for the sun was shining brightly on them. The coast of France from a distance looks a most uninviting place, but as we got closer & closer to it how the scenery changed. We could see lovely parks of trees stretching far up the hillside & green fields everywhere. Spring was fast coming in on the south of France, & she was beginning to look bonzer.
We skirted the coast till at last Toulon was sighted. As we approached the harbour, a French torpedo boat came out & met us & showed the way in. As we entered the port we flew the French & Australian flags from our mast. It is one of the prettiest little harbours I have ever seen; it is something like Sydney. The banks of the harbour are just one huge park with lovely trees growing all over it & nice houses & roads everywhere. It looked so green & beautiful after Egypt with its hot & burning sands; it done our eyes good to look upon it. As we entered Toulon the band played & the sun shone brilliantly & all took it as a happy omen, for our first introduction to France.
That night we anchored in the harbour, & a good concert was held on board. Next morning we set sail for Marseilles, & during this run some dirty sneaking thief stole my tunic & contents out of my cabins. He got a fair haul altogether: £2.10 in money, a splendid fountain pen, pocketbook, pen knife & various other things, but the thing I valued most were my photos & I had a good collection of these from various people & relations. The dirty dog got away with all these, & also a lot of receipts & papers I had in my pocketbook.
In Great Spirits Page 8