John McGregor - 'A short history of the 18th Batt. 1st A.I.F. 1914-1919' - Page 2

[Page 2]

The weather was extremely hot at that time and although we captured a well from the Turks and there was another on the beach with water filtered through from the Agean.Sea. Neither was fit to drink.Our water issue was half a water bottle every 24 hours.
This water was brought by ship from Egypt.
The handful of men left in our battalion were unable to take over any position of the front line. We were used as servants to the rest of the Brigade of 3 Battalions as well as digging and repair of trenches and the digging of mine shafts for the few Engineer Units.During the day we would bring up water from the beach - 2 petrol cans at a time with a strap over the shoulder- and then at night return to the beach. There Indian troops with two mules and a truck would be loaded up with rations for the Brigade. We would guard the truck and contents and guide the driver to Brigade Headquarters. Later we were employed digging secret trenches or working on a mine shaft at Russels Top. This shaft was destroyed by explosives prior to the evacuation in December.
Later 4 lots of reinforcements were sent to Brigade and they were all posted to our Battalion. We were then strong enough to take over the front line at Courtneys Post where the Battalion remained until the evacuation.
Rumours were that we were going to Salonika but we finally finished up In Egypt. I believe It was planned to keep the Aussie boys away from the flesh pots of Cairo. We were sent to Hoascar near the Suez Canal. Later we crossed the Canal on a pontoon bridge and finished up at an outpost in Slnal. Here there were no Turks although we did find some of their equipment left behind following their attack on the Suez Canal many months before.
We left this outpost position In March 1916 and marched for many miles through desert sand to Tel El Keblr which was an old British battle ground of past years. On St. Patricks Day 1916 we boarded a train there which consisted of iron freight trucks and headed for Alexandria. The hot trucks we boarded during the day turned into refrigerators at night.
At Alexandria we boarded the Cunard liner "Ascanius" and sailed through the Mediterranean to Marseilles. Here we were paraded through the city, obviously for propaganda purposes, before boarding a train for a 3 day Journey to Northern France.
The nearest we got to Paris was to be able to see the Eiffel Tower in the far distance. We got off the train at Thlennes and drank champagne at 5 francs a bottle (about 4/8d).
Towards the end of March we relieved the Northumberland Fusiliers at Bois Grenier- from burning sands to a sloppy winter. We occupied the salient there, a swamp, where it was impossible to dig trenches, sandbag barricade being our only protection.I believe we were the first Brigade of Aussles to take over the line. The enemy hung a note on their wire saying " Advance Australia Fair-Advance Australia if you can."
Our Battalion called their bluff and organised a raid which brought back 2 enemy prisoners. We had to leave a big chap of ours behind who Was wounded. He was captured but survived the war. He was given the Job as boss of a farm, women galore, so he was lucky after all, even though he was a P.O.W.
The enemy retaliated a few nights later and belted our sandbag defences to bits and not only captured some men but also valuable war equipment. Luckily our battalion was in the support line at the time and when we arrived it was all over and the enemy had gone. We spent the rest of the night repairing the damage. Some months later we were relieved by a British Battalion and we set off on a 3 day march to the Somme area. We marched 15 to 20 kilometers a day, full pack and blankets 60 odd pounds in weight. We passed Contay, EffIngham (slc), Worloy (sic) & Balvel.
We had a few days rest and then moved towards Albert in battle order. We saw the offensive commence from a place we named Brickfield Hill. We saw the huge mine explosion which started the