Item 02: Letters from Christopher Kenneth Millar to Elizabeth Perdriau nee Millar, 24 October 1914-1916 - Page 37
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was 2 between 3 men which took cutting up, the lads drew & the lucky two had one each.
Water is our cheifest difficulty the allowance per man is 4 pints per day, when you get 3 drinks of tea every day & a stew "made of bully-beef & dried vegetable", there isnt much for personal use, one has a shave occassionally & makes a wash out of that, the beach is too far down the hill to go often & is highly dangerous as "Johnny" has a gun called "Beachy Bill" which gives the beach hell hence his name. It is estimated that he has 1000 casualties to his credit.
I am writing this note right in the firing line with only a parapet of sandbags between me & the Turk, who is about 200 yards in front & has a trench running round us horseshoe shape about 20 yards away & to the right the chief trouble here is shells & bombs both of which we are very nervous of. Yesterday "Johnny" put 6 75 shells into our trench about 10 yards from where I was, he bagged 6 men wounded & dirtyd several others our subaltern had his face blackened & got a shaking up. They have 2 French 75 guns which we suppose they took from the Servians in the Balkan war & by gum they are dangerous. Well Lizzie dear I cannot say any more about here or I will be infringing the aforementioned