Zeitoun
30/1/1915
Dear Everybody,
This time it is Sat evening & the bugler has just this minute finished struggling through mess orderlies. That is one thing this Regiment has not been able to produce, for the time they have been practising, they should be very good, but out of the lot there is only about 2 that can go through the different calls without breaking down. It is very annoying to hear them struggling through revellie, especially when you have it blown just outside your tent. Well since I wrote the last post cards which was last Sunday, I received a letter from Jack, a box of beautiful cake & short-bread from Jeanie. I can assure you Jeanie you need not wonder about them being any good when they reached here, they were as good as the day they left N.Z. I wrote Jack a P.C. & complained of never hearing from him, & I am blast if the very next night a welcome letter arrived, so I hope he will not think it went astray. It & the box of cakes also a Witness from home, was all the mail I got this week, so can look forward to the next few days with confidence. We usually
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get our mail about Tuesdays or Wed’s. The last note you would get form me if I remember right was a very short one & written in as short a time, & perhaps before this is finished the same remark will apply. We are having a we bit slacker time this last few days, on Thursday we had a scheme set by G.O.C. & with the aid of Artillery we were to work it out. The artillery took up a position behind the regiment & shelled the position while we attacked & by jove it was all-right to hear the shells going over head & then bursting over the trenches; it is the first time we have ever had big guns supporting our attack. It is simply marvellous the way these guns get the range. From where the gun was placed the actual position was out of sight, but their first shot went only about 50 yds beyond the position, the second a little closer, & the third burst right in the trenches. After they had accurate range, they started firing shrapnell, & to see the manner in which this darn’d stuff burst over the trenches is an education. The guns never shifted position, & were about 3000 yds off the target. They kept firing until we were about 300 yds off the trenches, but were it in actual warfare they would keep up a hot fire until we had advanced to within 50 yds of the trenches. We have been told that on some occassions the attacking party have been known to ask that the artillery fire be kept up until they were actually at the trenches, they would even prefer that a few of their own men should go down from such fire, rather than let it stop. Of course these engagements are few, yet I believe it has
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happened during this war. The result of this test of ours was a confab with the G.O.C. in the course of which he told us he was very well pleased with the work done & that the men showed a great deal of dash, altogether he was well pleased with the work of the regiment, & if anything was wrong at all it was with the tactical situation adopted by the Colonel. Of course when it comes to that it is only one mans opinion against that of anothers, & perhaps had it been an actual test the Colonel’s way of carrying it out might have been better than his. However I do not doubt that our present easing up is due to the standard of efficiency gained. Whether it has any other bearing or not remains to be seen, anyhow we hope so, for we are getting fed up of this continual grind. The men are getting stale & no wonder for we have had 8 weeks now without a break, of long days out on the desert. This last fortnight has been very solid, we have been leaving camp at 9. A.M & not returning till about 4 o’clock. On these marches we always took a feed for the horses, but never any for ourselves. Nobody has ever complained, but we have returned to camp many-a-day simply ravenous. I should not be a bit surprised if we now have a few days getting our horses into better form, (that does not mean they are in bad for now, for their are not,) & then for night marches & bivouacs. The mounted rifles have not yet spent a night on the desert with only stars for a roof, on the other hand the infantry have done a good deal of bivouacing & digging trenches in the dark.
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Great excitement reigned here on Wed. last, on Tues night infantry brigade received orders to proceed to the canal, & on Wed morn they began to drift out by the train loads, so that by 1.30 P.M. all but the base details were gone. They took with them nothing but the bare necessities of life, fully prepared to go straight into trenches when they arrived there. They are being sent there to contend with the threatened Turkish invasion of Egypt, but unless the Turks can put up a better front than they have done yet, I do not think they will be very much needed. We have a report just come to hand that 10 men & 1 Major has been killed in the Otago infantry. However I give you the gossip for what it is worth but personally I do not think there is much in it. Of course it is just possible that it was an out-post & happened to get picked off, anyhow should t be true you will very likely here more about it than we will. You talk about yarns, gossip, war, rumourms of war & all the rest of it, but by all that is holly, you never came across anything like this crowd for that fine art. It incredible the number of false reports that go about here, one is not safe to believe anything one hears, & unless he actually sees it, never gets the proper gist of anything. For instance, a yarn went about our camp that a young fellow Bain from Ingill had been killed, & some of our fellows had go so far
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as to get ready for the funeral before the truth of the affair turned up. It turned out that a young fellow in the battery had been hurt, but was far from dead, great isn’t it? In regard to affairs on the canal the general opinion is that there will be a brush there some of these days, some of the out-post on our side have already driven in the enemy’s outpost positions in two or three different occassions, without much loss on either side. A report came in here the other day & which seems to be true that one of our out posts consisting of a machine gun & some number of men came in contact with one of the enemy’s advanced positions, & they fought a duel, the enemy is reported to have used a mountain gun, but were ultimately driven off. We did not get off scott free, losing some number of men & also some wounded. The report went on to say that the enemy did not seem to be anxious to come to close quarters, so after driving them off our patrol returned to camp. It sometimes seem to me that these beggars are only being pushed on there to annoy us, & to keep a fairly strong force here in Egypt, for we certainly can-not leave here until they have been dealt with. Then again it is reported that if the invasion is not pushed on at all costs the force will gradually drift away, as they are poorly equipped & badly fed, & at the best a large number of them never wanted to fight at all.
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Have not been anywhere sight seeing since I wrote last, have been too busy on most occassions, & on another occassion when I could have gone out I did not fee much like it. For you know it was like this, I had been vaccinated, & after eight days it began to give me gip, it treated pretty badly, just like as if I had influenza, sore head, & aching bones for about a couple or three days, then my arm began to swell, & it gave me beans for three days. However it has worked off now, & I am very pleased to say that I am as fit as ever again. One night shortly after I had been vaccinated a party of us hired a guide & went through the slums of Cairo, & for dirt disease, & immorality I have never see the like of it. If the slums of London are any worse, well they must be beyond expression altogether. Howie & I are sitting in our mess room writing, & we are going to have a fly round tomorrow, going to have a look at the Citidal one of the most historical & the best fortified place in Cairo, from there we intend to go to the museum, a place which takes the best part of a day to go through it properly. I will not have time to post those old coins I was speaking home again this mail but will get them away some day. Oh! by the way you never yet told me whether you ever received a cablegram I sent home on our arrival here
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I am going to send home some snaps I have taken, & I will write on the back fo them wheat each on is supposed to be. There are some very good ones amongst the bunch, & also some very poor ones. The ones I have of the Virgins tree & well are fairly good, but the one I took of the Chapel is a failure altogether. I have had a bad spin with the camera since I got it, there has been a great run on the films & consequently I have not been able to buy any at all. The latest news of the election results here are, that Sir Joseph is in with a majority of two, well if shuch is the case, good luck to him & be — to New Zealand politics. I was going tell you before but forgot, we are going to be fitted out with absolutely new saddlery, & not before it was time either, the addles we have just now are quite useless. A number of them tip-top every day farm saddles, but no good at all for this work. We had a quiet smile when we read Massey’s reply to the query about saddles in his Otautau speech. Well now lights out have blown so I must be off so I will be off & leave this open just now. The hour is 11. AM. & we are just back from church parade. We had our new band out for the first time this morn, & it did not do so badly, it certainly made an impression on the marching. It is an except-
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warm day today, & we are beginning to think that the hot weather is starting to come in here, & if it comes much hotter we are not looking forward to it with much relish. The first batch of reinforcements arrived here on Friday night, but the main body will not arrive until tonight or tomorrow morning. The men that are here already came on the Willochra, & disembarked at Suez & came on by rail. They had no horses on board at all. McPerry, Colonel Bowler are expected to arrive here tomorrow, should not be a bit surprised if there is a change in the personal of the officers in our squdn- Unless Capt. Paddon changes his way a bit, it is quite on the cards he will find himself on the mat. We have not smelt active service proper yet, & he has had more leave since we left NZ, for small ailments than any other man in the squdn. He is such a blusterer that none of us would be displeased if Perry was to get his job. What they are going to do with Colonel Bowler is a seven days wonder to us. So far as we can hear the reinforcements have had a splendid trip across, loosing only 8 horse out of the lot. I suppose you have noticed Roumania’s intention to join the war, the source from which she drew her loan & the bearing it has on the financial state of Great Britain as compared with that of Germany. The general opinion here, of the part America is playing just now is one that does not do any country any credit. It would almost appear that Germany is pulling at their pocket strings. That the stand they are
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is more bluff than anything else, I fully believe. I think I told you I had had long yarn with George Menzies, well he came over again on Monday night before going to the canal on Tuesday. He was in great form over getting away & standing a chance of getting a taste of the real thing. He told me to remember him to you all & to tell his people that he was never better in his life. I believe him absolutely when he says he was never better, for the same thing applys to myself, the climate seems to agree with us.George says he is as fit as a fiddle, & by jove he looks it. There is no mistake the infantry are lions, they have put in some solid marches, carrying their packs on their backs, & then when they get to the end of the day they turn to & dig trenches from 4 ft 6 to 5 ft deep. As for Jack McIlwrick, & Crawford they are in good form & wish to be remembered to you all. Well I think I have come to the end of my tether, so will have to put the peg in & say au rêvoir for the present.
Your Loving
Brother
E.S.McI.
No time to read over so excuse all mistakes
