Deaconess
Hospital
Alexandria
Sun. 9/5/1915
Dear Everybody
You will see by the heading that I am still quartered at the hospital. I have been kept here under observation the doctor not being quite sure that I did not have scarlet. However he was here today & says that I can go out on Tues, so Hurrah for that, & may we move soon. I wrote a P.C. this morn & was going to he content with that, but things move so quickly here, that now I have heard so much today that I have decided to write a letter. In the P.C. I am afraid that now when I read it over I sounded very blue. It was all on account of having no word from home & of not hearing anything from camp. However about 5 o’clock as I was out for a walk I bumped into two fo my comrades, McKay & McCurdy on their way up to see me, & with them they brought a great bundle of mail, some three weeks gathering, & for the delay I was compensated for, by hearing from all parts of the two Islands, from Orepuki to Auck. including “Cornation,” so that now I a pretty fit & in good form. Everything seems to be going along very well, & all letters bear a very cheery & health giving breeze. The sister has just brought in a glass of boiled milk, of which I have become very fond, the result I suppose of having to live on it for a few days; this although she never says so, is the sign to go to bed, & so I suppose I had better obey an unwritten law for I will have plenty of time to write tomorrow. Good morning! The hour is now 8.20 & I intend to write a few lines before getting up. It is simply a perfect morning & a few birds are singing away in fair style. That is one difference between here & Zeitoun down there we never heard a bird at all, & we missed them at first, but gradually used to it.
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I spoke on the other page of hearing so much news yesterday, well it turned out this way. When McKay & McCurdy came along they informed me that they had seen the list of the wounded, & that they were going to have a look into this hospital to see if there were any in here. Sure enough there were three that we know, 2 Lieuts’ & a Major Mitchell. The Lieuts were LG Wilson machine gun officer in the 10 Otago Regt, the other, Lieut Gabities from Ingill & from the 8th Southland Regt. I do not know whether I have spelt his name correct or not, at any rate I think you will know who I mean, Eileen will know him well. He is not badly wounded, bullet through the calf of his leg, entered at the top & came out near the bottom never striking a bone, however he also sprained his ankle when he fell which make it slightly worse. He is in good form quite cheery about it, & very keen to be back at it again. Wilson is also hit in the calf of the leg, his is a very slight wound, he got hit before the game had properly begun, by one of the Turkish snipers, of which they are credited with having a great number. Major Mitchell is hit about the ribs & has a few of them broken, he was hit in fair fight. It was from these fellows that I got all the news I speak about. A funny thing they have been over there about four days now & I did not know till yesterday they were there at all. It seems George Menzies is wounded also, he sent a telegram to our camp telling me he was slightly wounded in the knee. I do not yet know what hospital he is in, but am going to find out & will look him up tomorrow. He cannot not be badly hurt or he would have told me so. I do not know whether he knows yet or not, but one of his friends, one of those who was with him on that trip to Preservation Inlet is amongst the list of killed. I guess he will get a shock when he hears it. I have not yet seen the list of killed & wounded but when I do I should not be a bit surprised to see some of the Riverton boys names figuring in either one or the other.
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It seems the Batallion which they belong to had a very arduous task set on the Sunday night 2nd May, & when it was over showed that they had got a pretty rough handling. The Riverton boys platoon commander was wounded but whether any of them were, I do not yet know. They had a muster parade on Monday & out of the Bat. which was bout 950 strong only 320 answered roll call. A great majority of the casualties are wounded, & many of them not very serious. A peculiar thing, pretty nearly all of the wounds are in the arms & legs, how to account for it no body knows. The task was perhaps one of severest of the whole of the operations, & is easily described. The Turks are holding a high hill & well entrenched, to get hold of this hill you have to fight for & seize a smaller hill below it, also heavily entrenched. This high hill dominates & is the key to the whole position, & should we manage to capture it the Turks will in all probability evacuate this part of the country altogether. Well the Otago Batallion’s task lay in a blind gulley, high hills on both sides, which were alive with snipers, & the hill at the top was strongly entrenched & well held. They had to advance up this gully under a perfect hail of bullets the whole way, & from these snipers on the hills on either side, and attack the trenches at the top. The Turks do not like the bayonet in fact will not stand up to it, but they hold on to their trenches right up to the last minute even under the heaviest rifle fire, & it is this that caused the enormous casualties. However they say our lads went forward bravely & never for one minute thought of turning back, the job was given them to do & they were going to do it cost what it may. With a final bayonet charge which the Turks did not wait to receive, they captured the trenches, but in a counter attack were forced to give back a bit until reinforced, then forward again into the trenches, this time for keeps. It was in this task that these three that are over here got wounded. The battle ships were to have given them covering fire up till 7.30 PM. However the ships could not locate the trenches & consequently the men got it worse than they otherwise would have done. The N.Z.s were not there, on the beach I mean, for the first of the landing, but they have been getting it pretty hot since. The Aust were the first to land, first lot got ashore about 6 A.M. but the N.Z.s did not arrive until about 4 in the afternoon. The Aust simply fixed bayonets & made
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straight for the trenches. They got the Turks on the move straight away, & chased them inland for about 5 miles, in going so far they over stepped the mark, so much so that they could not get reinforcements up to them quick enough, with the result that they were driven back four miles again before they could get them stopped. It was in this retreat that the Aust lost so heavily. Just at that time the while position was pretty precarious, & the Generals thought the game was up, & issued orders to the boats that they were to have all their boats near the shore ready to embark the troops again. However it did not come to that, the darkness favoured them & they managed to get themselves dug in pretty well. By morning they had formed a good line of resistance & were once more ready to assume the offensive. They did take up the offensive again but whether it was that day or the next I am not quite sure. At any rate the last we heard of them, they had advanced inland a couple more ridges, & were holding a strongly entrenched position. The country is so rough that Mtd. troops could not operate, the result now is that they are taking 75% of our Mtd. Bd. dismounted leaving the 25% to look after the horses. Just how we are situated I do not know, being divisional troops it is not likely they will dismount us. In fact the latest we have heard is that we are going in about 7 days time, on some special mission or other. I have just been over to see Gabities & Maj Mitchell, they are doing top-top, doctor told them it would be three weeks before they will be able to shift from here. They are chafing a bit over the delay but I think they are very lucky to be able to get away so soon.
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Now I have to acknowledge the sage arrival of a photo of two people, I am not quite sure yet who one of them is, but after weighing the pros & cons am coming to the conclusion that the person who signed the name Hooly is the same as the one in the photo. I can assure you Jim, I got quite a surprise when I saw it, although now I remember Jessie told me in one of her letters tat you had done the trick, I had quite forgotten it. I think it is a big improvement when you get used to it, but it did certainly strike me as funny when I first saw it. Sorry to hear you have had to take to glasses, they must be a bother to you, but if they stall of those awful headaches you used to have they are worth the little bit of trouble they give you. It seems funny when reading your letters to hear of you talking of Easter being with you in a week, here the mere idea of Easter is something that happened away back there some months ago. We have not much room over here to think of what is past, we have enough to do to dwell in the present & think of our immediate future. I must congratulate James on his very brilliant success at Invercargill. You must really have hold of something pretty good Jim, you want to keep her going while she is on it. That she will win something more at Riverton I do not doubt, yet it seems too much to expect of her to carry a load like what she will have there. However I will not be surprised if she lands bacon, on the other hand I will not be surprised if she dos’t. You must all have had a gay time at Tuatapere. The settlers round there will be satisfied for a while now, no doubt but what they have wanted the bridge for long enough. Sorry to hear your weather conditions are not more favourable wish to goodness we could give you a leaf out of our book. You might not believe it, but I would gladly stand out in the rain till I was soaked to the skin
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if only we could get some, I am fair full up of this ever lasting glaring sun. I had no idea one could get so full up of fine weather. One can hardly realize the crops being so late as you report they are, unless the weather improves it will be well into May before harvest will be finished. What awful prices everything seems to be, oats at 3/6 or 4/- one can hardly imagine it the same market at all. However the old saying will I think come true that after a feast there shall be a famine. I do not say there will be a famine altogether but there will be great depression when this is over. We just got word yesterday of the sinking of the Luisatania, & of the enormous loss of life involved. Evidently nothing is too bad for the Germans to take on. To think that they should do it without warning too, is absolutely over the edge of all their devilery. It will be interesting to watch Americas attitude towards this, should she still stand aloof, well, anything is practically good enough for them then. If they are going to take that sort of thing sitting down, they should in future be banished from amongst the lists of nations of the world. for them to sit back after this & date to attempt take part in peace negogations is inconceivable. I do not think there is any other nation on the face of the Globe, that would stand so much slaughter of it subjects without retaliating in some form or another. Of Italy’s attitude I do not know I am sure what to think. That she will finally throw in her lot with the Allies I think is a foregone conclusion. But at the present time she does not want to make any mistakes she wants to be perfectly sure she is going to be on the right side. If she is desirious of striking an effective blow now is the time to strike. We are expecting to hear every day that she has
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declared war. Of Greece the least said the better, that they lost their opportunity there is not the slightest doubt, & that they slipped the Allies up properly is also very evident. Had she played the part she was expected to play, the Dardanells would have been forced ere this, & there would have been many valuable lives saved. Had they toed the mark the Turks would never have had time to make the strong dispositions they have made, for we should have been on them before they were aware of it. Had things gone straight the Home troops would never have been landed at Alexandria to kept waiting so long, nor would our base have been in Egypt. We should long ere this all have been shifted on to one of those Islands belonging to Greece near the Dard, & then we should have been right at the door of our job, & have saved an enormous an amount of trans-shipping. That they will come in, I really believe, but not till after their elections are over. They are this month & should they turn out as we expect them to, the ex Primer will again be in power, & their declaration of war must follow. Now I think I have just about said enough, & with your kind permission I will call a halt.
Your
Sincere Brother
E.S.McI.
