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Page 16
One night a strong wind got up, just like our "Southerly Busters," and
in the middle of it all firing began on our left. I heard that the
Turks nearly got into the trenches, but they were beaten off and
rolled right round the position--passed on, as it were, from battalion
to battalion.
It was very interesting to watch the warships bombarding Turkish
positions. One ship, attacking Achi Baba, used to fire her broadside,
and on the skyline six clouds would appear at regular intervals, for
all the world like windmills. On another occasion I watched two ships
bombarding the same hill a whole afternoon. One would think there was
not a square yard left untouched, and each shot seemed to lift half
the hill. Twenty minutes after they had ceased firing, a battery of
guns came out from somewhere and fired in their turn. They must have
been in a tunnel to have escaped that inferno. One day we were up on
"Pluggey's" while our beach was being shelled; at last the stack of
ammunition caught fire and was blazing fiercely until some of the men
got buckets and quenched the fire with sea water most courageously.
Later a shell landed among a lot of dug-outs. There was quietness for
a bit; then one man began scraping at the disturbed earth, then
another; finally about six of them were shovelling earth away; at last
a man appeared with his birthday suit for his only attire. He ran like
a hare for the next gully, amid the yells of laughter of all who
witnessed the occurrence. I think he had been swimming, and being
disturbed by "Beachy," had run for a dug-out only to be buried by the
shell.
That was the extraordinary thing about our soldiers. Shelling might be
severe and searching, but only if a man was hit was it taken
seriously. In that case a yell went up for stretcher-bearers; if it
was a narrow squeak, then he was only laughed at.
That beach at times was the most unhealthy place in the Peninsula. Men
frequently said they would sooner go back to the trenches. One day we
had five killed and twenty-five wounded. Yet, had Johnny Turk been
aware of it, he could have made the place quite untenable. I saw one
shell get seven men who were standing in a group. The effect was
remarkable. All screwed themselves up before falling. They were all
lightly wounded.
RED CROSS
About the middle of July I sent a corporal and two men over to
Heliopolis with a letter to Lieutenant-Colonel Barrett, asking for some
Red Cross goods. I had already received issue vouchers for two lots,
but these had been intercepted in transit, so the men were ordered to
sit on the cases until they gave delivery to the Ambulance. Fifty cases
came, filled with pyjamas, socks, shirts, soap and all sorts of things.
The day they arrived was very, very hot, and our hospital was full of
men whose uniform had not been off since they landed. No time was lost
in getting into the pyjamas, and the contented look on the men's faces
would have gratified the ladies who worked so hard for the Red Cross.
Talk about peace and contentment--they simply lolled about in the scrub
smoking cigarettes, and I don't believe they would have changed places
with a Federal Senator.
Those Red Cross goods saved one man's life at least. All the unopened
cases were placed outside the tent. One afternoon a shell came over
into a case of jam, went through it, and then into another containing
socks. A man was lying under the shelter of this box, but the socks
persuaded the shell to stay with them, and thus his life was saved. It
was on this day that my nephew, Staff-Sergeant Nickson, was wounded.
He had just left his dug-out to go to the dressing station on the
beach when a shrapnel shell severely wounded him in the leg. The same
shell killed Staff-Sergeant Gordon, a solicitor from Adelaide, and one
of the finest characters I knew. He was shot through the spine and
killed instantly. Two other men were wounded.
Our Ambulance was ordered to pitch a hospital up Canterbury Gully to
provide for a possible outbreak of cholera, as almost every writer on
the subject stated that, when European troops occupied trenches that
had been previously held by Turks, an outbreak of cholera invariably
followed. Major Clayton was detailed for the work, and soon had
accommodation for a hundred men. As there was no cholera, the sick men
were kept here. We had been so long in this place without a change,
and so many troops were crowded into such a small area, without a
possibility of real rest, that the men began to get very stale.
Sickness was prevalent, and this hospital seemed to help them a great
deal. It was a picture to see them all lying in their pyjamas reading
the _Bulletin_ and _Punch_, and swapping lies.
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