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Page 20
During one afternoon, after we had been in this place for three days,
a battalion crossed the ground between us and the beach. This brought
the Turkish guns into action immediately, and we got the time of our
lives. We had reached a stage when we regarded ourselves as fair
judges of decent shell-fire, and could give an unbiassed opinion on
the point, but--to paraphrase Kipling--what we knew before was "Pop"
to what we now had to swallow. The shells simply rained on us,
shrapnel all the time; of course our tent was no protection as it
consisted simply of canvas, and the only thing to do was to keep under
the banks as much as possible. We were jammed full of wounded in no
time. Men rushing into the gully one after another, and even a company
of infantry tried to take shelter there; but that, of course, could
not be allowed. We had our Geneva Cross flag up, and their coming
there only drew fire.
[Illustration: Getting Wounded off after a Fight.]
[Illustration: Water Carts protected by Sand Bags.]
[Illustration: Burial Parties during the Armistice.]
[Illustration: Simpson and his Donkey.]
In three-quarters of an hour we put through fifty-four cases. Many
bearers were hit, and McGowen and Threlfall of the 1st Light Horse
Field Ambulance were killed. Seven of our tent division were wounded.
One man reported to me that he had been sent as a reinforcement, had
been through Samoa, and had just arrived in Gallipoli. While he was
speaking, he sank quietly down without a sound. A bullet had come over
my shoulder into his heart. That was another instance of the fortune
of war. Many men were hit, either before they landed or soon after,
while others could go months with never a scratch. From 2 till 7 p.m.
we dealt with 142 cases.
This shelling lasted for an hour or more, and when it subsided a party
of men arrived with a message from Divisional Headquarters. They had
been instructed to remove as many of the Ambulance as were alive.
Headquarters, it appears, had been watching the firing. We lost very
little time in leaving, and for the night we dossed down in the scrub
a mile further along the beach, where we were only exposed to the fire
of spent bullets coming over the hills. Our fervent prayer was that we
had said good-bye to shells.
The new position was very nice; it had been a farm--in fact the plough
was still there, made of wood, no iron being used in its construction.
Blackberries, olives, and wild thyme grew on the place, and also a
kind of small melon. We did not eat any; we thought we were running
enough risks already; but the cooks used the thyme to flavour the
bovril, and it was a nice addition.
Not far from us something happened that was for all the world like an
incident described by Zola in his "D�bacle," when during the
bombardment before Sedan a man went on ploughing in a valley with a
white horse, while an artillery duel continued over his head.
Precisely the same thing occurred here--the only difference being that
here a man persisted in looking after his cattle, while the guns were
firing over his head.
Walkley and Betts proved ingenious craftsmen. They secured two wheels
left by the Signalling Corps, and on these fastened a stretcher; out
of a lot of the web equipment lying about they made a set of harness;
two donkeys eventuated from somewhere, and with this conveyance quite
a lot of transport was done. Water and rations were carried as well,
and the saving to our men was great. Goodness knows the bearers were
already sufficiently worked carrying wounded.
The _Bacchante_ did some splendid firing, right into the trenches
every time. With one shot, amongst the dust and earth, a Turk went up
about thirty feet: arms and legs extended, his body revolving like a
catherine wheel. One saw plenty of limbs go up at different times, but
this was the only time when I saw a man go aloft _in extenso_.
It was while we were in this position that W.O. Henderson was hit; the
bullet came through the tent, through another man's arm and into Mr.
Henderson. He was a serious loss to the Ambulance, as since its
inception he had had sole charge of everything connected with the
supply of drugs and dressings, and I missed his services very much.
We were now being kept very busy and had little time for rest, numbers
of cases being brought down. Our table was made of four biscuit boxes,
on which were placed the stretchers. We had to be very sparing of
water, as all had to be carried. The donkey conveyance was kept
constantly employed. Whenever that party left we used to wonder
whether they would return, for one part of the road was quite exposed
to fire; but Betts and Walkley both pulled through.
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