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We must have more & more of the Sock Brigade from Sydney.
Empire Day. '15
Today I am sitting in our very comfortable dug out, with the rain dripping down various parts of the neck – as the dug out is in a water course with the higher side some 12 ft. above me; – it is being watched pretty closely for a rush of water!
Today, 24th, is a holiday – after many days parleying the Turks have been granted nine hrs armistice in wh. to bury their dead, of wh. there are many hundreds (our official [indecipherable] totals 2,000) piled up within easy smell distance of our trenches. Precautions are being taken to find out or be prepared for their real reason for an armistice.
This week we are recruiting our health in the leaden air of the Valley; almost sheer above us rise the various hill parts that we hold – dominated in one place by the enemy, who pour down it all day & night, a shower of bullets on our roads & bivouacs.
My dress is nail studded boots, puttees, knickerbockers or shorts, belt shirt & cap – Even in this light rig out, the sweat pours off us in climbing up the declivities, or swarming doubled up through traversed or winding trenches, narrow enough to just get through with the loss of elbow or coat material – most of our men at present in this rest cure, are digging in parties – 4 hours on & 8 off, filling sandboxes carrying stores & ammunition from the beach &