Item 01: Oliver Hogue letters, November 1914-29 December 1915 - Page 123

[Page 123]   

5
Torch Dugout Gallipoli Peninsula  
a couple of days later.

Dear Everybody
Still alive & kicking though this is due more to good luck than good management. There is not an absolutely safe spot in the whole of Gaba Tepe, for we are kept from stagnation by Jack Johnsons shrapnel shells, snipers & bombs. A German monoplane just circled overhead and dropped a bomb. One man was killed but I dont think anyone The safest spot of all is in the trenches. They are just wonderful, with dugout s & traverses & mines   & saps etc. They are a perfect maze. The Turks lie dead in hundreds all around. We granted them an armistice for a few hours yesterday to bury their dead but they really came out & collected all the arms & ammunition & equipment & left their dead for the most part where they lay.   The day we landed they made a terrific onslaught. We estimate their casualties as 7,000 of whom 2,000 were killed. (That bomb did kill one man) I was standing in the open talking to Major Lynch just now & a shrapnel shell burst about 10 yards away & the bullets & pieces splattered all round us. More good luck. Im evidently destined to die comfortably in bed. (A Turkish dance)

It was a common practice for Turks to march towards our trenches dressed in Australian Uniforms. Nowadays our chaps are very much alive to this dodge and the Turks so masquerading   gets a warm reception. The other day a party of Turks advanced to our trenches dancing - just like a corroboree. They danced back just the same & probably got some information. Our fellows just laughed. The General reminded them that   on legitimate opportunity for killing the enemy should be let slip. (Our general has received the following letter from

over