We arrived in Cairo about midnight & on getting off the train, we were served with cocoa, cheese & a roll. It was very acceptable I can tell you. After this was finished we were all “fallen in” & marched down to the trams where they were waiting for us. Some of the boys done a get & never turned up for about 7 days. In a few minutes we were in & off, down a long street lined on either side by trees. We went about half a mile, & we came to a branch of the Nile, with a nice little bridge over it. By this time we were approaching Giza, which is about halfway between Cairo & the pyramids, & everyone was beginning to crane their necks to get a view of the pyramids. At last we spotted them, & very fine they looked in the moonlight with a light fog hanging round them. The Nile was in flood at this time, & all the flats were under water, which made the country look like a big lake.
We arrived at Mena about 1.30 A.M. & had to march about half a mile to our Battalion’s piece of the camp. There were only a few tents up when we reached there, dog tired, & so we threw ourselves down on the sand. We had no blankets or nothing to sleep in but our overcoats & oil sheets, & if ever I nearly perished well it was that night. We got a shock, I can tell you; we all thought Egypt would be a hot & warm place at night but we were never so sucked in in our lives. I do believe that once or twice during that never-to-be-forgotten night that I was frozen absolutely stiff. Wagga & I slept alongside one another, & he used to swear that he was as stiff as a poker more than once, & everyone had the same experience. One poor devil died through it & that was our Sergeant, Meadmore. He went to hospital the next day, & died with pneumonia about a week later.
We rose about 5 o’clock for sleep was impossible, & the first thing we made for were the pyramids. Early as we were, the Arabs were waiting for us, & fools like we engaged one to show us the sights. We first of all had to pay him 2/- each, for which sum he was to show us round the pyramids, but when we wanted to climb them he wanted another 1/- & we poor fools gave it to him. Having climbed them, on an empty stomach too, we sat down to have a look at the lovely view that lay at our feet & it was worth the trouble we took in climbing them. Right at our feet lay our camp, & the green fields stretched right away up to Cairo & beyond. The Nile was like a silver ribbon threading its way past villages & palm groves till it disappeared in the distance miles & miles away. The sun was just rising at the time, & as it threw its beams upon Cairo, the tall spires & minarets glinted like gold & silver, & all sorts of colours seemed to spring from the mosques & the citadel as the sun rose higher & higher, while the submerged flats at our feet looked like a lake of molten silver with the lovely avenue of trees mirrored in it so faithfully.
Turning round you face the Libyan Desert, & I can tell you from the top of these pyramids you get a lovely view. This morning there happened to be a fairly heavy fog hanging over the desert, & it was a splendid sight to see the sun breaking through the clouds of mist, throwing all sorts of pretty colour on it. It seems very funny; you might say right at your feet lay some of the richest ground on the face of this earth, & then if you turn round, you can say there lies some of the worst on earth, for you are looking on a desert that stretches, as the Arabs say, for the distance of a thousand days march, & is absolutely waterless.
Wagga & I sat for a good 10 minutes & looked on this beautiful scene, & then I became aware of someone who was offering me a tiny cup of coffee, about as big as a doll’s cup. That is no exaggeration, for they are no bigger. I took it & tasted it; it was as black & as strong as coffee is ever likely to be. I did not know what to make of it, but I drank it thinking it was chucked in by our guide, who had bought it for us off the Arab who was boiling it on top of the pyramid. After carving our name like everyone else on the top we started to descend, when the Arab running the coffee stall demanded 4 piastres for the coffee. There was a row straight away, & we ended up fool-like in giving the crafty old dog 2 piastres.
We then went down to the Sphinx, & we had to run the gauntlet of fortune-tellers & curio sellers who ask you easily 10 times the value of what they are trying to take you down with. They had the usual load of ancient coins 2000 years old as they tell you, all made in Birmingham (England), for which they will sell for a trifle of 10 or 20 piastres, according to how big a fool you look. Wagga & I never came at the coins, though we had our fortunes told in the sand with the usual promises of rich girls who were only waiting for your return, so as you could marry them & be happy for the rest of your life. There were scores of orange & peanut sellers, all on the same game; droves of beggars, demanding backsheesh. However we got through this mob & had a look at the Sphinx. It is a truly wonderful piece of sculpture. It has the face of a man, the breasts of a woman & the body of a lion lying down with its feet in front. It is a most enormous thing & it has a piece knocked off its nose where Napoleon had a shot at it with a field gun.
The pyramids Cheops & Chephren stand on 13 acres of land, & are 482 ft high standing on the top. During my 4 months stay at Mena I climbed those pyramids dozens of times. They are well worth a visit inside. First of all you go down a pretty steep incline; at the bottom you turn to your right & climb a few enormous rocks; once up these, you are on to a slippery sort of a passage with an incline of about 45 deg. leading upwards towards the King’s Chamber. Of course you have a lighted candle with you & you have to take your boots off to climb these slippery steps. The King’s Chamber is about 150 ft off the ground & is a wonderful piece of work. The size of the rocks in there is astonishing & they are cut as true as I think it is possible for stone to be cut. The old King’s tomb is still in there but his body has gone long long ago. They reckon the Persians got it.
Young Duke & I climbed Chephren one day. It is very dangerous going up this one, as you have to cross the face of it several times & the last lap is up a face as smooth as glass, only here & there the smooth face has been broken by the weather. Once on top, & you feel inclined for a spell I can tell you, someone took an Australian flag up with them, & it fluttered from the top for months. This pyramid was placed out of bounds later on for there were too many accidents on it, & quite a number was killed. The other pyramid Cheops is a fairly easy climb.
After we had been at Mena a little while, we began to settle down to our drill. We were well supplied with blankets, 4 per man & big double ones at that. Wagga & I slept together outside all the while, & it was tip-top for the sand was soft & clean — it did not have a particle of earth, & it was impossible to get dirty in it.
1915
Training in Egypt
Gallipoli
The islands of Lemnos and Imbros
After Xmas our training commenced in earnest, & for the next 2 months this was our drill: reveille at 6 A.M., breakfast 7, fall in 7.30, march about 4 miles at a good rattling pace across the burning sand in which at every step you sank to your ankles. After we had reached our drill ground, we had a spell of about 10 minutes, & then we would drill constantly till 12 o’clock & then have our lunch, which consisted of a dry little roll of bread & a small tin of sardines between 2 men. At 1 o’clock we would start work again, & work up till 4 o’clock. We would then march back to our parade ground, put on our packs, form up, & then skirmish 3 out of the 4 miles home again. You can guess what kind of a state we would arrive in at camp. Our clothes would be absolutely wet with sweat, the boots in spite of the heat would be wet with the sweat that had run down your legs, your tongue would be hanging out, & most of the chaps in a state of exhaustion.
Just before the camp was reached our band would meet us, & play us into camp. That would liven us up a bit — you have no idea how music will make tired men straighten up & step out. There is one piece in particular that I believe if men were staggering, & could scarcely crawl along, would straighten them up the instant it was struck up, & that piece was the “Marseillaise”. It has a fiery, joyous swing to it & I don’t wonder at the French being such demons to fight when inspired by this piece of music.
As soon as we reached the camp we would have a good square meal waiting fo
r us, & after that was over would come the washing, bathing, showers & etc & a change into dry & clean clothes. At 7.30 there would be night operations that would last till 10 or 11 o’clock at times. We often worked & drilled 16 hours of the 24. This is no lie I can assure, it was only too true. How it culled the weak ones out; many a big strong-looking man cracked up like a piece of dry wood.
After a month of this sort of work, our day drill was shortened, for we were as near perfection as they could get us with the rifle, & our night work was extended, till towards the last we done all our drill at night time, such as taking up positions, digging trenches, attacking, scouting, silent marches, bayonet attacks, rapid movements & all the finer points of the game. The only work we done in the day was at the ranges & that was more of a pleasure than anything else. We used to have competitive firing between the companies & platoons, & I am proud to say that my platoon, No. 11, won the % every time with the exception of twice. Ours was a splendid platoon.
After all this came our Brigade & Divisional training, which was the easiest of all, though we had some long & trying marches, some of them nearly 20 miles with full equipment & pack up, but we were as hard as nails by this time. We finished our Brigade training at Sakahara, where we had a march of 15 miles, a short spell, then attacked a hill about 2 miles in front of us. That over we retired to our original position, & for the rest of the night dug trenches in hard rock. All this time we were without food or water. That was a test if you like but the boys done it easily.
The next day we done nothing but lay in the sun, or else go bathing. That night however we marched from 8 o’clock till daybreak, when the whole Brigade (4000 men) attacked a hill with the bayonet. I marched many a mile that night sound asleep; my legs moved mechanically, for I don’t remember much of the march, & there were a good few more who done the same. That over we marched miles & miles over the sand back to our camp, & everyone threw themselves down & went to sleep through sheer exhaustion. It was a very severe test, & the next day the Brigadier formed the whole Brigade up & told us that our training was over & that he was proud to be in command of such a Brigade & that we were fit for war. How pleased we all were for we used to reckon that we would never see the front.
The next day we marched back to Mena, & everyone was very glad to get his pack off, & have a spell.
When the 4th Brigade arrived here Len came out & saw me. I was very pleased to see him, & I got him transferred from the 13th Battalion to the 1st. He arrived the night before we left for the Dardanelles; just got there in time.
About the middle of March rumours began to get around that we were going any day, & everyone was getting anxious to be in it.
Now I come to the day we were told to pack up, for we were off to war. Everyone was delighted, & worked with a will. The night we left Mena bonfires were burning, & concerts were in full swing all over the place. We marched out from Mena at 12 o’clock on the 4th April & marched to Cairo a distance of 10 miles. The boys sang all the way down, & as we were going through the streets of Cairo early in the morning people waved & cheered us.
By 8 o’clock we were all on our way to Alexandria, & I’ll bet this much that a finer body of troops never left Cairo than the old 1st Div. Every man was as hard as nails & trained to the hour. I was one of the smallest men in our Battalion — that will give you an idea of what they were like — & every man was cocksure of himself, of being able to beat any man be he Turk or German, & frightened of nothing with legs on it, & that was the sort of spirit with which we landed.
We arrived at Alexandria just before dinner, & our ship was waiting for us. We had a rotten place to sleep on her, terribly crowded (all the boats were the same). Len & I slept on deck every night. It was beautiful on top, though it rained fairly heavy at times. The food was not of the best either, but no one growled, for this was what we volunteered for & so we put up with it as best we could. All that day & the next we were busy loading stores & things — they even put some motor cars aboard.
On the 7th April the Staff came aboard. It consisted of Generals Bridges, Walker, Birdwood, Godley, Carruthers, & scores of officers, so our boat was rather an important one. We left for the great adventure on the 9th April. All the other boats in the harbour gave us a good send off, & thus we sailed from Alexandria.
The water of the Mediterranean is a different colour to any that I have ever seen before; it is almost a bright blue, & looks lovely as the ship churns her way through, throwing the snow-white foam from her bows.
We arrived at Lemnos, a Greek island that was taken over by the British along with Imbros at the outbreak of the war. The entrance to Mudros harbour was netted, so a destroyer came out & showed us the way in. A lot of us thought we had arrived at the Dardanelles when we were sailing into the harbour. When we got round the last headland we could see the harbour was a mass of ships, & warships of Great Britain, France & Russia were there, including “big Lizzie”. What a monster she looked with her enormous guns pointed straight in front of her.
The next day we all were taken out in big rowing boats that would hold a platoon. Of course we had no sooner hit the water than we were racing one another for all we were worth. We rowed up round the warships & passed the Queen, Triumph, Lord Nelson, Queen Elizabeth & a few French battleships, besides destroyers, torpedo boats & submarines, both French & British. We went for these rows every day nearly — they were getting us used to what we had to do when we landed.
We were also taken on Lemnos for a march several times. It was here that we first came in contact with the French, & this much I must say about them, that finer & more good-hearted chaps I never met. They would do anything for us & we got on well with them, & the more I have seen of the French the better I like them. They are very popular right through with the Australians & New Zealanders.
Lemnos is a one-horse place. It is very mountainous & steep, & it has scarce a tree on the whole island, though when we were first there the grass & clover were lovely & there were plenty of wild flowers growing everywhere. We enjoyed the little visits there then.
We were lying off Lemnos for 13 days & the day before the fleet sailed we were all drawn up & General Birdwood spoke to us. Among other things he warned us to be careful of our water, food & ammunition, & told us that the eyes of the whole world would be on us, to see how we fought.
They must have been cocksure of breaking right through, for they told us that there would be no haggling in the villages we were to pass through as all the prices would be fixed. We were paid on the 22nd April with notes which had Turkish writing on them.
The fleet set picked up their anchors & slowly steamed out of the harbour & what a mass of ships there was. We got a certain distance out & anchored for the night. We were then given, each man, 300 rounds of ammunition & his rations, enough for 3 days. That night everyone was as happy as they could possibly be. We had mandolins, guitars, banjos & etc going for all they were worth — nobody thought of what was going to happen on the morrow — & so we went to bed about 10 o’clock, with everything ready for an instant move.
About 4 o’clock reveille sounded & up we all jumped & got dressed. There was a young moon if I remember rightly. We were all served with a big junk of steak & bread for breakfast, & while we were munching this we heard a tremendous roar. Up we all rushed to get a look at what was going on. One of our ships had opened fire on Gaba Tepe. Soon the whole fleet of warships were belting away for all they were worth. The scene was a magnificent one: the whole of the Turkish position for the length of about half a mile seemed to be a mass of flying sparks, from the deluge of shells that were being poured on to them. We watched for about 10 minutes, then the order came for every man to get ready to move off, so we harnessed ourselves up, & waited patiently. The Turks were now raining shells upon our ships, or trying to, for I never saw any hit, but one or two whistled past very close to us.
About 5 or 5.30 we heard a crackle of rifle fire & we knew then that the 3rd Bde had landed. We then got the order
to fill the boats & down we filed on to a destroyer, the Ribble was her name. She had a few wounded & dead men on her — they were the first we had ever seen, but they made no difference to us. Now let me say right here, for it is as true as true can be, those of our chaps who had cards fetched them out & started playing. That was one of the first things that struck the sailors. It needed nerve I can tell you, for now it was daylight & the water was just a mass of bursting shrapnel, & they had the range to a nicety.
The destroyer rushed us over as fast & as far as she could & then the sailors met us with rowing boats. We quickly filled these & off we went with shells bursting all around. We were lucky in our boat for only one man was hit. It seemed miraculous how we dodged the shells — I’ll swear one did not miss us by more than a foot, & another one burst all over us. Though the boat stopped about a dozen shrap’s, everyone was as cool as could be, & those that could were pulling on the oars. I remember Len was pulling on one.
We reached the beach at last & we leaped out quick & lively. I must have jumped into a deep place for I went in up to my armpits & had to struggle ashore with about 150 lbs on my back, & rifle held high over my head to keep it from getting wet. Some of our Batt’s boats were not so lucky as we were, for one or two of them got smashed right up & everyone was drowned. They would sink like a stone with such a weight on them.
After we got ashore Lieut Payne got us together & we started up for the firing line. I should think it was about 6 o’clock then for the sun was just rising. No. 12 platoon had no sooner started than a shell lobbed right into them, killing 4 & wounding 9 others. That was a pretty start & made a big hole in 56 men.
In Great Spirits Page 3
