Primary tabs
Transcription
[Page 86]
The weather has now taken on its winter coat. Rain storms are frequent & the wind blows damp & bleak. Grim angry clouds scud low overhead and threaten to deluge us throughout the day. The passage of wild fowl has begun, & flocks of all variety of game – geese, cranes, wild duck, quail & pigeons – pass over, squeaking & squawking to one another as they battle against the fury of the elements. The swallows have swarmed days ago, & left us for warmer climes, (on this see extract from Westminster Gazette …)
Work in the office has become unusually dull. The Major sits & reads novels, Hilaire Belloc, Jack London, & all the General's literature when he can – "Tatler", "Life" (New York), "The Passing Show", "Sketch", "Graphic". "Punch" seems to be his favourite. "John Bull" occasionally turns up & its virulent articles relieve the monotony of the other stereotyped press news.
Tuesday 19th Oct 1915
Watch has at last turned dog on me. After winding this morning it stopped & would not go. I endeavoured to remedy the difficulty by picking at its work with a jack-knife when suddenly bz – off went a spring, the minute second hand fell off & the whole works of machinery ran amuck. I shall treasure the watch as a memento, however. Its not served me too badly.
We evacuate about 40 to 50 sick every day. The actual casualties do not average 10 a day at the present in the Division.
The Germans have executed an English woman in Brussels on the grounds that she had harboured & assisted British & French soldiers & Belgians of military age (W.O.T. 17/10/15).
Wednesday 20th Oct 1915
In conversation with Capt. B. Mair this morning (GSO 3) he remarked upon the contrast between Div. Hqrs in Gallipoli & those in France. "The latter are invariably in some Chateau or country residence" he remarked, "6 or 7 miles back from the firing line, & if a Staff Officer wants to take his breakfast across the road he calls his motor car, so to speak. A Staff Officer is very seldom seen in the firing line" he concluded.
Wintry conditions now prevail – a high wind howled throughout the night & this morning blew with tempestuous force from all quarters. A strong wind here plays the devil with our bivouacs dugouts, especially those of primitive build. The nature of the country favours an adverse wind, so alternated is it with gullies, narrow-gutted defiles & passes, there is little protection from