Commonwealth Hotel Melbourne, Sunday
Dear Mum & Dad
… Charlie gave me that parcel I thank you Mum for it and dad and Mum, for the money. Well we are off on Tuesday it’s a good job isn’t it. We met Charlie and Joe at the camp yesterday we were just coming in and they were going round the camp we weren’t expecting to see them till night. It was a bad day yesterday, we went to Sharps we got a great welcome she had a nice tea for us, I enjoyed myself. When we came back we intended to go to the theatre but it was too late. Well Mum I think I have told you all the news so I will close from your loving son
Percy
Commonwealth Hotel
Melbourne Sunday
Dear Mum and Dad
Well mum you will see by the top address where we are staying. Joe Dee and Charlie Les and Frank are here with [us]. Joe and Charlie came out to the camp yesterday morning and we all came in together. Charlie Percy and I went to Sharps yesterday morning and had a good time she had a bonnie tea for us and we left about 7 oclock. I promised to go back today to take Lily for a walk but I don’t know whether I will go or not. Mum thank you for the money. I am sure we will have a good time when we get to our destination. Lily gave me another pair of socks and two pair of socks. Tell Jim I think she will be his sister all right. The old dame looks very young. They have a very nice place there. Lily is a very flash little thing now. Well Mum I think I have told you all the news but will write first chance so goodbye mum till I get back again. No need to worry we will always be safe and will return back very soon.
I remain
Your Loving Son
Allan
Melbourne
Sunday
Dear Albert
Just a few lines to let you know that we are well. Joe and Charlie came out to the camp yesterday morning and we came in with them. Well Albert we are going on board to morrow. So I suppose it wont be too long before we are sick. Well Albert don’t forget to write you will get a letter from me. I wish you had come down and we could have a good time here. Well Albert I will say goodbye to I see you again. Remember me to all.
I remain your loving Brother
Allan
Goodbye Albert old cockie
As the time for departure drew near, I doubt the youthful optimism of the twins and their efforts to reassure their mother, while noble in intent, could diminish the growing anxiety that Sarah must have experienced. The divided emotions of pride and fear as mothers waved goodbye to their sons surely brought fear of their potential loss. They must have wondered whether this would truly be their final farewell.
On Tuesday 20 June, HMAT Runic slid slowly away from Port Melbourne pier. As the ship moved out into the bay, the streams of coloured paper ribbon thrown on board by friends, family and sweethearts who bid the men of the 38th Battalion farewell were gradually severed.
AT SEA, JUNE
While many of the troops suffered from seasickness on the journey across the Indian Ocean to South Africa, Percy and Allan were more fortunate, feeling quite at ease with the rocking motion of the ship. While boredom could easily have dampened their spirits, daily drill, church services, boxing and wrestling matches kept the men entertained. Allan’s enthusiasm for his adventure had yet to wane.
Dear Mum and Dad
Well Mum we are well out on the ocean at last. Percy and I are having a bonnie time we have not been sick yet but there are hundreds sick. The sea is very ruff and it is showery now and again and very windy. Last night was a wild night but it is not a bit cold. Oh Mum there are a terrible crowd of the boys sick, one does feel sorry for them. It is a bonnie sailing boat we are in.
When it gets ruff she side rocks and pitches a treat. Dad would know what that is like. I reckon that is the best joke of the lot. We get splendid tucker on board and we sleep in hammocks above the tables. I always stop on the top deck all day they say that is the best too. I got a letter from Albert this morning Percy got a letter from someone too. Well Mum I have no news to tell as we see nothing but water. Now that I have hung out so long without getting sick I think I will last the rest of the journey. We do not know where we are going. I am putting in for leave next Saturday I think I will get it. Well Mum this is all the news for the present.
I remain
Your Loving Son
Allan S
Did you fix up about the photos.
My teeth fit lovely. Thanks for the money.
Percy also wrote of settling into the routine aboard the Runic, albeit displaying rather less enthusiasm than his brother:
At Sea
Dear Mum and Dad
Just a few lines to let you know I am still alive, we are well out at sea now, there is water everywhere you look. It is very hot today just like Summer it has been mostly cold days since we started. We have had nearly all calm weather since we left, except a few days after we started it was rough then, I was not sick, there were a good few sick. Well mum I would like to see a paper now, it seems a long time since we seen one. We get fairly good meals on board butter and cheese twice a day and porridge for breakfast, soup for dinner. I was terrible hungry for a while after we came on, the sea seems to make you hungry. We have to do some work; drill from nine till twelve, and two till four, not very hard. We had washing parade the other day. I had a big wash, it is a great job, I think if I was to make my living at it, I would starve. We have not passed many ships, only one was close. There is boxing contests and other amusements on board. There is not much room for anything on board, such a lot of men on. I saw a whale the other day he was a big one and he looked very pretty; I don’t think there is no news to tell it is very scarce on here. We have to go to church tomorrow, we will have to be in uniforms, we mostly drill in blues …
In a note to Jim, Percy added:
… the tea is not as good as in camp, it has a funny taste. We had church parade yesterday, we had to come out in uniform, we are in blues in the week. There has been a lot of wet days since we left, it is miserable on deck when it is raining. It was very hot a few days ago, but it is cool again. It is very hot down below when it is hot. We sleep in hammocks, I do not care very much about them I would sooner have the boards. We have not passed many ships, one we passed was very close, we could see the passengers on board. There is not much room for drill on board, we have some every day, it is mostly an easy time. There is a boxing contest on today. I might go and have a look at it. I suppose you are having a good time with the school teachers; has it come on to rain any time you have been there. You will be well into the ploughing now. Has Charlie any intentions of going by what he was saying to me he has. Well Jim news is scarce on here, it is a terror without any papers. Well I think I have told you all the news so I will close.
From your loving brother
Percy
FRANCE, JUNE
In an attempt to relieve pressure on the embattled French forces at Verdun, and with an eye to breaking the stalemate on the Western Front, the Allies refined their plans for an offensive in the area of the Somme River. In late June, Australian and New Zealand battalions launched trench raids on German lines at Armentieres, hoping to exhaust the enemy in preparation for the Somme Offensive. These raids were designed not only to inflict casualties, but also to gather information, take prisoners and scout the German defences to assist in the preparation for the ‘big push’. German forces answered with ferocity. George wrote to his mother as the German artillery pounded the Allied trenches:
The Somme Valley
France June 2nd
Dear Mother
… I don’t know whether this letter will catch this mail but I have written other letters and posted them before I got your letters. It is nice for Allan and Percy and the others to get in the Machine Gun section together I suppose they will have sailed by now, I haven’t had any letters from Al since Xmas. Tom Alford and the others didn’t stay long in camp I suppose they will have to finish their training over here. I suppose you know that Hughie Wales and Clift are sick in
the hospital. I was very sorry to hear that young Miller died I noticed in a paper that he was ill. The last I saw of him was I think on the 22nd Feb he was quite well then I used to have a yarn with him every night, I haven’t received any letter from his mother yet, Jack Jamison was looking very wretched then, there were a terrible lot of men getting sick while in Egypt of course it was a rough shop, don’t worry about me I haven’t had an hour’s sickness since I left and I am quite happy here. I haven’t met Amos since we left the desert. Arch Bailey is well. I was pleased to know that you got those silks, I sent them on the 25th Nov and I thought that you hadnt got them. I was surprised to hear that Bert Gibson is back home. Well there is some heavy bombardment going on. I will write again soon, hoping all are well.
I remain Your Loving Son
George
The letters I got were written in Feb, March and some on the 3rd April.
Never got the parcel Charlie sent.
Like many Australians with relatives in England, George was keen to secure leave to visit his father’s family whom he had yet to meet. His cousin, Clem Payne, had enlisted in the British Royal Navy. The Royal Navy’s Grand Fleet had engaged the German High Seas Fleet in the Battle of Jutland which lasted from 31 May until 1 June 1916. Over 200 warships pounded one other with heavy losses on both sides. The German fleet finally disengaged and escaped, signalling the end of the largest naval battle of the war. German policy then focused on avoiding further engagements with the Royal Navy, pursuing instead the devastating submarine campaign which was creating havoc in the English Channel with hundreds of merchant ships destroyed. Similarly, the English blockade of German ports was having a crippling effect on the German economy.
France June 8th
Dear Father
… I received about a dozen letters about the first of the month they are the first I have received while being in France and only the second mail since Xmas. Jim sent the addresses of Lee’s and Wilson and I have written to them and ought to get an answer from them soon.11 I have been looking forward to getting leave to England but now it is cut down only one out of the Battery to go each fortnight for 7 days before it was one each week for 9 days leave so my turn is that far off that it isn’t worth bothering about, had it not been cut down I would have got away in Sept. Five out of the Battery have been and they say they have had glorious times over there. Some of the chaps that have been wounded here are over in some of the hospitals in England. You will have had the news about the great naval fight I wonder if Clem Payne would be in it, there has been great losses on both sides but I think our fleet came out on top it ought to help to bring the war to an end sooner. The first news was in the Germans favor and there was great rejoicing in Berlin, they put up a notice in front of their trench about it and at the bottom they had “Poor England” I believe now they are keeping it quiet in Berlin about all their losses, there are great battles going on here and on the Russian front. It is alright for Al and all the others to be in the Machine Guns together. I told you before that I am in the Trench Mortar Battery now this is my address 2748 2 A/2 Light Trench Mortar Battery 2nd Inf Brigade Headquarters 1st Australian Division France. I haven’t heard anything of Charlie Cockcroft for months I think he must have been transferred to the 7 Batt. I haven’t met Amos since we have been here, I think I saw Gordon McKay one day going along in the Transport Column. Well dad there is not any news as we are not allowed to say where we are etc. So I will now close hoping all are in the best of health.
I remain
Your loving Son
George
Have you seen the Anzac books yet they are dead funny.12
Excuse the writing
In early June the troops received news of the death of Lord Kitchener, Secretary of State for War. Kitchener had been aboard the warship Hampshire, on his way to discussions in Russia, when the ship struck a German mine near the Orkney Islands. The report of Kitchener’s death was met with disbelief across the Commonwealth while the men at the front were dismayed at the passing of a man regarded as a fine old soldier.
France
Sunday June 11th 1916
Dear Mother
… We are back from the firing line now having a bit of a spell I don’t know how long we will be having, it is not a bad little place where we are, I was at a small picture show last night, there are two here one is run by the soldiers club and the other is run by the Y.M.C.A., they charge ½ a franc to go in, that is 5d and are very good, fancy going to pictures behind the firing line. I told you in last letter that I received some letters but haven’t got the parcels yet perhaps they will turn up soon. Fancy Lord Kitchener going down it was sudden wasn’t it, we didn’t believe it when we first heard about it. The Germans must have known he was going to Russia, we often hear a lot of rumours here like we heard a few days back that they had captured the Crown Prince and all his staff at Verdun, there is still heavy fighting going on there, the germans have gained a little but paid very heavily in losses for it, the Russians have taken a lot of Austrian prisoners and are still pushing them back, I wouldn’t be surprised to see the war over by Xmas now that the fleets have had a great fight and ours came out on top, it ought to make a great difference …
France
June 17th 1916
Dear Charlie
Just a few lines to say I received one of the parcels a couple of days ago, it isn’t the one that was sent on the first of March as it would have been addressed to the 21 Batt, this had the right address D Coy 7 Batt the other one I suppose has gone astray. The tin was in good order. I was wondering whether you sent it or Jim as the address was his writing it contained cake, pudding, tin sardines, socks, handkerchief, lollies and smokes they are always pretty safe when sent in a tin and wrapped in cloth, funny getting the tin and no letters, the letters that I got which I told you in my last letters came by the boat that left on the 4 April that is the latest letters that I have got but I believe there is some letters in now at the Battalion post office so perhaps I will get some more soon. I wrote to my cousin in England Flo Wilson but have had no reply yet …
There were no further letters from George during the remaining weeks of June. On 19 June the 1st Division marched to Neuve Eglise (now Nieuwkerke) on the Belgian border and then on to Ploegsteert in Belgium, to the north of Armentieres. The 2nd Brigade moved into the line on the night of 23/24 June. This was a well-worn sector which was regularly subjected to gas attack, artillery and mortar fire and plagued by the presence of enemy aerial surveillance. From his notebook we know that George had been on the move with the brigade and in the final days of the month he was positioned to the north at Messines, on the southern end of the embattled Ypres salient. He noted briefly:
Messines front
June 27, 28, 29, 30th
Possibly in the trenches at Messines, George wrote the words of a popular and sentimental song, Little Grey Home in the West, scribing them carefully in pencil as if to commit the words to memory. Written in 1911 by D. Eardley-Wilmot and Hermann Lohr, it was one of many songs that boosted morale and patriotism throughout the war years:
When the golden sun sinks in the hills, and the toil of the long day is over, though the road may be long in the midst of the song I forget I was weary before. Far ahead where the blue shadows fall I shall come to contentment and rest and the toils of the day will be all charmed away in my little grey home in the west. There are hands that will welcome me in, there are lips I am burning to kiss. There are two eyes that shine just because they are mine, and a thousand things other men miss. It’s a corner of heaven itself though its only a tumble down nest. But with love brooding there, why, no place can compare with my little grey home in the west.
The Ypres Salient
On long route marches and in the trenches, numerous adaptations of these songs would entertain the soldiers and lighten the gravity of their darkest moments. George obviously enjoyed the following version, for he also took the time to record it in his notebook. Little Wet
Home in the Trench is blackly humorous and clearly amused this young Australian soldier who was now hardened to the reality of trench warfare:
I have a little wet home in the trench which the rain storms continually drench. There’s a dead german close by with his feet to the sky, and he gives off a terrible stench, underneath in a place of a floor there’s a mass of wet mud and some straw, and Jack Johnsons tear through the rain sodden air over my wet home in the trench. There are snipers who keep on the go so you must keep your nappers down low, and the star shells at night make a dance of a light which causes bad language to flow, for then bully beef and biscuits we’ll chew, for its days since we tasted a stew, but with hails dropping here, there is no place to compare with my little wet home in the trench.
FOUR
‘THEY LOOKED LIKE MEN
WHO HAD BEEN IN HELL’1
ENGLAND, JULY
With II Anzac Corps now in France, the training camps in Egypt were dismantled and the few remaining men sent to England on 29 April 1916. AIF Administrative Headquarters was now housed in the Wesleyan Methodist Training College at Horseferry Road in London’s Westminster district. The training camps for reinforcements were established in green fields near Salisbury, some within sight of Stonehenge.2 Once the men from the 3rd Division arrived, they would begin their training at the huge Larkhill complex. Nearby Perham Downs housed command depots for men who were recuperating from their wounds and accommodation for troops who had regained their fitness and were awaiting their return to units at the front. Servicemen still unfit after six months and awaiting repatriation to Australia were accommodated at Weymouth.
As Percy and Allan continued their journey across the sea, units from the 3rd Division under Australian General John Monash and reinforcements for both Anzac Corps began to arrive at the training grounds of Salisbury Plain. Monash was a civil engineer, born in country New South Wales and educated at Scotch College in Melbourne. He had commanded the 4th Brigade at Gallipoli and was to prove an extremely capable commander in the very different warfare that characterised the Western Front. Unlike the traditionalists, Monash understood this new form of conflict. In 1918, he became commander of the combined Australian forces and was knighted in the field. Monash was to become one of Australia’s most respected Great War commanders.
ANZAC Sons Page 12
