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[Page 5]
Lemnos
21:8:15 – distinct to our silent secrecy were the hospital ships, flamboyant with their rows of green lights and huge red crosses, and their reflected beauty in the unruffled sea enhanced the charm and serenity of the night. Serene from the artist's standpoint, but from the material disturbed by the evidence of the proximity of grim war.
We were bundled ashore in lighters attached to steam pinnaces and soon we landed at the primitive pier where our brave heroes first landed and distinguished themselves as amongst the greatest soldiers in the world.
Gallipoli
22:8:15 – On awakening my eyes were crusted with dust and my parched throat cried aloud for relief. The country around us bore a remarkable appearance. Camped in a tortuous defile of narrow proportions (known as "Rest Gully") with high broken hills of crumbling sun-baked sand and soil, devoid of vegetation except for a few isolated patches of stunted prickly gorse, the whole scene at once conveyed to me the enormous difficulties and risks of the great task of our brave comrades who participated in that glorious charge. All the night through I slept with "one eye open". My active brain ran riot and I was aflame with excited interest in my new surroundings. The boom of big guns, the sharp rattle of machine guns, the ping and singing of bullets overhead and the screech of shells soon became familiar sounds and I was thunderstruck at the equanimity with which the troops accepted their new life. Our greatest pest here, outside snipers' bullets, is flies. They swarm around us in myriads and are aggravatingly persistent. The more you irritate them, the more they attack and stick. They leave us as night falls, but are with us again at daybreak.
24:8:15 – The gallant 18th (5th Brigade) were in action on Sunday night and Monday and suffered severely in an attack on a strongly defended hill. After taking five lines of trenches they were forced to retire and held two, owing to their being outnumbered. They would have scored a decisive victory if sufficient reinforcements had arrived in time. Captured Turkish Officers state that the Turks are willing to come to terms immediately but for the domineering German Officers who urge them on and tune them up with persuasive lies of Germany's victories on land and sea. I have seen the Turkish rifle and bayonet – the former is lighter than our own .303 and the magazine is fixed, holds only five cartridges, there is no cut-off, and no safety catch. The bayonet is much shorter, like a dagger, but the bayonet standard is fashioned after our own.
25:8:15 – A day of startling incidents. Daylight was ushered in by a violent cannonade from shore howitzers and hill batteries. The Turkish reply was at first very slow but as the morning progressed they commenced to get the range with shrapnel and landed alternately on the beach and hill very frequently. The damage, however, was insignificant.
26:7:15 – "Rest Gully" is becoming very dirty and a harbour for vermin, rats, cockroaches and other lively and multitudinous insects. The dug-outs and terraces with which the limited confines of the place are adorned are filthy with camp refuse and being the continual habitation of so many soldiers moving in and out has converted some parts of it into veritable dung-heaps and rubbish tips. to date the good old 20th has suffered seventeen casualties. We moved out again at 7 a.m. and taking a circular move from the bottom of the Pass ascended a narrow mule track till we gained the trenches on the heights. (Russell's Top). Here we found the 8th Light Horse whom we were to relieve. The trenches are an intricate maze and bear evidence of the patient and arduous work of the sappers. From the hill we command a magnificent view of the sea, ever still and opalescent. Destroyers steal silently in and out the bay and the guns of battleships, shore howitzers, and fixed batteries, roar in concert. Aeroplanes are active on reconnaissance duty.