Part 26

This morning I wandered out of our tent about 6.30 to find a very thick mist, the first time we had seen a trace of this. The tents were soaked and the ropes as tight as fiddle strings.

We had been here about ten minutes last night when a rifle shot went off behind some bushes beside us, followed by howls from some one in agony. A soldier lay on his back with his rifle beside him, his left foot merely held on by his puttee. We learned that at the end of the war he had to undergo some years of penal servitude for some offence, and his comrades, I see, are convinced that this was an intentionally inflicted wound. I have never before seen a man shoot off more than a finger or toe, carrying off a foot shows that the man has plenty of pluck of a sort.

October 2nd.--A terrifically hot day.

Everything seems to be upset to-day. We have been slaving and preparing for a big stunt, and now it is said that no such thing is in contemplation. In my opinion this change of plan is due to the position Bulgaria has definitely taken, or seems certainly about to take, in the present troublous times.

For some strange reason she has taken the side of Germany and Turkey. We must reserve our strength, according to a statement made by Sir Edward Grey in the House of Commons, as we have promised to assist Servia with troops should this eventuality come about. We half expect some of us will be withdrawn from here and landed in Greece or wherever it is most suitable for a march on the Bulgars. Many of us would go right gladly, the monotony of living all these months on a small patch of ground gets more irksome as time goes on.

I am now at the dressing station, having come out for twenty-four hours' duty. We have a collecting station, where we keep a few stretcher squads, half a mile in front of this, and this is to be withdrawn to a site near our old station in Azmak Dere, but slightly further forward, between the Green Pool (a filthy hole full of frogs and tortoises) and the end of a communication trench. I had to inspect the situation this evening, and marked off the boundaries, and to-morrow our men start to dig themselves in. The position is very exposed and I reported that I did not like it. Three artillery officers who passed said they were to plant a battery a few yards in front of us, and they thought the place anything but safe. However, the spot was chosen by General de Lisle and there is no getting away from it.

October 3rd.--Dressing station. I was up to-day at 6.30 and at once set to work with pick and spade, not stopping till breakfast was announced at 8, when Morice, the cook, brought me three huge slices of bread, two chunks of very fat bacon, and a mug of black dixie tea that had boiled for a full hour, all on such a lavish scale that at ordinary times they would have taken away my appetite; but not so to-day, I devoured the lot and never enjoyed a breakfast more in all my life. I next had a large Sick Parade drawn from twelve units, and returned to their duties several who were on their way to the C.C.S. with very trifling ailments. This will put up the backs of the Regimental M.O.'s, but in such serious times, with our numbers getting more depleted every day, manners must not be considered. I mentioned this subject to the A.D.M.S. to-day, and he backs me up and is to see what can be done to check this wastage.

Padre Mayne held a short service under the tarpaulin-covered space we reserve for patients, his congregation being twelve poor beggars on stretchers waiting to be sent down, and about twice that number of sick walking cases. The wounded tried to cheer up and suppress their groans, but these occasionally got the better of them. Then I returned to my spade and worked till 12.30.

I returned to our new base for lunch and am now sitting on the edge of a dug-out in the setting sun, which has annoyed us all day. It is a most glorious evening, not a breath of wind, and deep down below me the Aegean glistens without a ripple; all is at peace, except the big guns, and they are very busy, the ships having fired incessantly for the last two or three hours at the Sari Bair ridge. The Anzac guns are also very active. But the Turks are at present lying low and not making a single reply.

I was explaining the position of our collecting station to the A.D.M.S. to-day, telling him about the proposed battery in front of us, and the preparations to build a bridge over the gully just beside us. He had not heard of either of these, and he now thinks our site will have to be given up for one further back. To-morrow the C.O. and I go over to inspect the ground on this side and report.

Our magnificent dressing station, over which I have taken no end of trouble, is to be given over to the 88th F.A. Their Colonel jokingly thanked me for all we have done preparing for him--we give it up with regret.

October 4th.--The day opened with a violent bombardment about Anzac and the adjoining end of Sari Bair, this spreading gradually along the ridge to our right centre. The C.O. and I should have started for the centre of the line after breakfast but this journey had to be postponed till eleven, when there was again quietness, and before lunch we surveyed the ground already occupied by our men in digging, and other probable sites behind that in case we should have to retire further back. The position we do not consider good, but we can find nothing more suitable, and we examined the ground all the way back to Hill 10. The work must therefore go on as arranged. We passed Azmak Dere, the warm spot we held so long, and Col. Fraser had a look at it for the first time.

Col. Riley, D.D.M.S., to-day says we are to retain our present dressing station, and being Divisional and not Brigade troops, it does not matter which Brigade we serve. Still we hope in our present position to be able to attend the sick and wounded of our 86th Brigade, and are willing to take all others who come our way. The 86th have moved from our extreme left--where we are--to our right centre, hence the re-arrangement of Ambulances.

October 8th.--Daily writing of these notes gets monotonous as there is nothing much doing. Artillery duels are constant, and during the last few days the naval guns have fired more than usual. Occasionally a Taube flies over us and drops bombs, but such things are now not worth noting.

Four new officers joined us yesterday--Captain McLean, Lieutenants Russell, Campbell, and Hodgkinson, and to-day Lieutenant Fyfe, so that we now have ten medical men in our unit, or one over strength. Forty medicos landed at Suvla yesterday, fifteen at Anzac, and fifteen at Helles, and more are landing to-day. More than enough surely, but all units must be very short.

The Turks used poison gas to-day for the first time. Tomlinson of the Lancs., who told me his experience, says it made him feel sick and his eyes smarted, but his respiration was not affected. One or two men were overcome by it but none fatally. Curiously the evening before all our naval and field guns were bombarding Jeffson's Post, the front line of the Turks on Hizlar Dagh, and on climbing to the top of the hill behind our camp to see what was doing the smell of chlorine was well marked, although I was nearly a mile from the above place. The shells were bursting well over the Turks who had to fly into the open where our machine-guns got them. (The smell of chlorine probably came from chloride of lime somewhere near, this being much used as a disinfectant.)

October 11th.--The statement that the Turks used gas the other day now turns out to be false, it was ordinary lydite the Lancs. mistook for one of the new fangled German devices. My apologies to the Turks.

Yesterday we had a visit from General Sir Julian Byng, our Army Corps Commander (formerly in the 8th Army, we are now in the 9th). He roughly inspected our camp, and the C.O. being in undress and unshaved I had to take the party round. Sir Julian was complimenting the Turks on their straight fighting.

October 13th.--A day of intense cold after a still colder night. Last night while we were at dinner a terrific rain came on suddenly, and when I got over to my tent it was to find my bed soaked through, as was almost everything I possessed.

To-day we had a lecture on the hillside by Sir Victor Horsley on surgical wounds in warfare, mainly of the head. A very good lecture it was.

This afternoon one of our aeroplanes came down in the Salt Lake. It was well shelled and must be useless for the present. The two aviators were seen leaving it amidst a storm of shrapnel, one evidently getting hit, he was seen applying something white round his leg.

This is one of the great routes for the migration of birds. Yesterday and several times to-day I saw flocks of geese flying over our heads and steering south, likely on their way to the Nile and great African lakes. During last night they kept up a constant cackle as they flew over us.

October 14th.--Geese in large flocks are crossing to-day, mostly in V formation of twenty-five to thirty. A good many are in two V's and some of the largest flocks must number about 500. Many thousands must have crossed before 11 a.m. when they suddenly came to an end.

A shrapnel shell struck the back of my dug-out at the dressing station two nights ago, blowing all the walls down. Two of our new officers were in it at the time, one being rather badly hit on the head by a flying stone. He is besides badly shaken and has had to go to a hospital ship. The other was blown right into the trench in front, got well shaken up and had a hand cut, but he looks on it all as a bit of a joke.

October 15th.--I have been off colour for some little time, and I question if I'll be able to carry on much longer. Of the ten officers we had the other day only three are quite fit, and most of them landed but a few days ago.

October 16th.--This morning, about 4 o'clock, the orthodox hour for attacking being one hour before dawn, a furious gunfire opened on Sari Bair, which I got out of bed to watch. Many shells were bursting simultaneously all along the ridge and down this side of the hill. It is hard to say whether the Turks or the Australians were the assailants, but I noticed in the forenoon the Turks were shelling a spot near the bottom of a gully which crosses Sari Bair, and which a few days ago was in their own hands. All forenoon a most interesting shelling went on in these hills and foot hills, but after watching it carefully I cannot satisfy myself that there is any material change of position. The Turks and ourselves have fired many thousand shells to-day, and the Turks have kept the end of Sari Bair held by the Australians enveloped in a continuous smoke.

About three days ago the Turks had placed a new gun of large calibre in the line of Hizlar Dagh, and its huge shells come screeching over our heads on their way to Little West Beach at all hours of the day and night. Its first day's bag I hear was forty-one, and its second eighteen. This is the busiest landing place we have, men in large numbers embarking and disembarking all night long.

A Turkish aeroplane crossed over our camp about 10.30 a.m. flying so low that, when I heard it in my tent, I said to myself only one of our own machines could fly at that height. It must actually have gone right over an anti-aircraft gun on the top of Hizlar Dagh, almost immediately behind us, and before this fired a shot it was allowed to go nearly a mile. Then it opened fire and shells went after it in quick succession, but every shot burst, as is almost invariably the case, hundreds of yards behind it. The machine glided gaily along past the point of the bay, straight over the British lines to Sari Bair, rifle shots being fired in a regular fusillade. It turned, perhaps three miles from here, went to its right, came straight over the warships in the bay towards us, all the time flying at the same low elevation. It then went to the east right over our centre lines where all our infantry opened on it, but it never veered from its straight course. I was watching all this with an officer of the London Territorial Fusiliers, and asked if he thought there could have been 20,000 rounds fired, and after thinking a little he said there must have been twice that number. At least fifty shells also went after it. I hope the aviator got a V.C. or its equivalent on his return to his own lines. Our shell fire was atrocious; I felt so thoroughly ashamed of it that I hoped the Turks were not watching the puffs of smoke as the shells burst a good quarter of a mile behind their mark. When the machine came within range again on its return journey the anti-aircraft gun opened fire on it again and did no better than at first, but at the very end there was a distinct improvement. I can't think how all these shots at such a short range could have missed a vital spot. The man's sailing over us a second time was the coolest act I have ever witnessed, and I would have been sorry to see him drop.