Series 03: John Brady Nash letters, January 1914-December 1915 - Page 419
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[Page 419]
is the longer rifle and bayonet that he uses as compared with ours. This has resulted from the teaching of authorities for many years, they always laying it down that in future wars close fighting could not take place, because men would not be able to get near to one another owing to the shooting power of the modern rifle. While experience of the present great war to the moment, has demonstrated that not at antecedent epoch have men got closer to one another before charging with the bayonet.
The first thing that the untrained Australian had to do, was to go for the enemy with the fixed bayonet, not one shot was discharged from the rifle of many before it was used for close work. It is really wonderful how the men did it, and gloried in the performance. One man while narrating his experiences to me kept on repeating:– Oh it was great sport, and he was on the spot for a month, fighting all the time, he returned slightly wounded and is ready to return. Is it not remarkable how a man is prepared to face the music when he has seen many comrades killed near him. It is a peculiar feature of the thinking parts of some men. The question of personal risk is either taken very lightly or never presents itself to them at all. Strange.
Much of the water used by the troops during the early fighting was brought from the ships in barges, one day the turks sunk the barge, then those on shore were very short for three days. Water can be obtain-by sinking but it is not to be depended upon, and if possible men should have the distilled fluid from the ships, there must be lots of all kinds of germs in the soil because it has been inhabited and worked upon for thousands of years. At first we were told that there was not much cultivated land but later, and more correct information tells us that the farms are plentiful. As a sequel there is bound to be