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Page 9
As the sickness began to be more manifest, it became necessary to
enlarge the accommodation in our gully. The hill was dug out, and the
soil placed in bags with which a wall was built, the intervening
portion being filled up with the remainder of the hill. By this means
we were able to pitch a second tent and house more of those who were
slightly ill. It was in connection with this engineering scheme that I
found the value of W.O. Cosgrove. He was possessed of a good deal of
the _suaviter in modo_, and it was owing to his dextrous handling of
Ordnance that we got such a fine supply of bags. This necessitated a
redistribution of dug-outs, and a line of them was constructed
sufficient to take a section of bearers. The men christened this
"Shrapnel Avenue." They called my dug-out "The Nut," because it held
the "Kernel." I offer this with every apology. It's not my joke.
The new dug-outs were not too safe. Murphy was killed there one
afternoon, and Claude Grime badly wounded later on. Claude caused a
good deal of amusement. He had a rooted objection to putting on
clothes and wore only a hat, pants, boots and his smile. Consequently
his body became quite mahogany-coloured. When he was wounded he was
put under an an�sthetic so that I could search for the bullet. As the
an�sthetic began to take effect, Claude talked the usual
unintelligible gibberish. Now, we happened to have a Turkish prisoner
at the time, and in the midst of Claude's struggles and shouts in
rushed an interpreter. He looked round, and promptly came over to
Claude, uttering words which I suppose were calculated to soothe a
wounded Turk; and we had some difficulty in assuring him that the
other man, not Claude, was the Turk he was in quest of.
[Illustration: 4th Field Ambulance in Head Quarters Gully.]
[Illustration: 4th Field Ambulance Dressing Station on the beach.]
[Illustration: My Dug-out.]
[Illustration: Major Clayton and Captain Dawson.]
AIR FIGHTING
The German aeroplanes flew over our gully pretty regularly. As first
we were rather perturbed, as they had a nasty habit of dropping bombs,
but as far as I know they never did any damage. Almost all the bombs
dropped into the water. One of them sent some steel arrows down, about
six or eight inches in length, with a metal point something like a
carpenter's bit. In order to conceal our tents, we covered them with
holly-bushes, cut and placed over the canvas. Our aeroplanes were
constantly up, and were easily recognised by a red ring painted
underneath, while the Taube was adorned with a large black cross; but
after we had been there a little time we found it was not necessary to
use glasses in order to ascertain whose flying machine was over us; we
were able to tell by listening, as their engines had a different sound
from those belonging to us.
Our aeroplanes were the source of a good deal of annoyance to the
Turks. They continually fired at them, but, as far as I was able to
judge, never went within cooee of one. The bursts of shrapnel away in
the air made a pretty sight, puffs of white smoke like bits of
cotton-wool in succession, and the aeroplane sailing unconcernedly
along. It appears to be very difficult to judge distance away in the
air, and even more difficult to estimate the rate at which the object
is travelling. What became of the shell-cases of the shrapnel used to
puzzle us. One day Walkley remarked that it was peculiar that none
fell on us. I replied "surely there is plenty of room other than where
we are for them to fall." Scarcely were the words uttered than down
one came close by. We knew it was a case from above and not one fired
direct, because the noise was so different.
The hydroplanes used by the Navy were interesting. Floating on the
water, they would gather way and soar upwards like a bird. Their
construction was different from that of the aeroplanes.
A captive balloon was used a good deal to give the ranges for the
warships. It was carried on the forepart of a steamer and was, I
believe, in connection with it by telephone or wireless.
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