Item 01: Oscar Rhodes diary, 26 June 1915-4 April 1916 - Page 28

[Page 28]

wh has now become an historical event in the annals of military warfare & will be recorded as one of the most magnificent achievements in this great war of nations.

At All the night through I slept with "one eye open". My active brain ran riot & I was aflame with excited interest in my surroundings. The boom of big guns, the sharp rattle of machine guns & maxims, the ping & singing of bullets overhead & the screech of shells soon became familiar sounds & I was thunderstruck with at the equanimity with wh the troops accepted their new life.

An Indian camp is beside us – Punjabis Mule Corps – they are incessantly at work & their mules are continually passing us, laden with ammunition for the hill batteries. Our Indian friends have christened the Australians "The White Gurkhas" because of their great dash & daring. Apropos this, I was speaking to an English Tommy yesterday today & he was jubilantly enthusiastic