Series 03: John Brady Nash letters, January 1914-December 1915 - Page 619
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[Page 619]
,up to missing, it yesterday morning. Plenty of time Sir. Right, but I do not desire to keep you from breakfast."
The men are returning to the wharf in front of me there will in a few moments be the chatter and the other noises. The place where they are moving was dominated for some time by a gun on Gaba Tepe, it enfiladed the spot and one of the last fired shells from him, his name is Beachy Bill, in our lines, killed one man and wounded nine others on the waters edge about thirty yards below where I sit writing. He has not spoken for six days. Every one wonders why.
Some of the men must have brought food on to the wharf because I see them cutting up bread & starting to eat it. Others must have had the meal because they are carrying materia blocks of wood along towards the shore. I have not seen men fishing here, but I have no doubt that some thrifty and wise souls amongst them practise the Isaac Walton art. Fresh fish would be a most desireable article of diet to almost any man here. The variety of food is not great for either officers of men, though the former tell me that they are very much better off now than they were formerly.
The whole of these hills & valleys as they front the ocean have been transformed by our men. The shrubs have been removed, a road for wheeled traffic and a tramline with off shoots have been made along the beach. Three warfs have been run out a short way into the sea: Tracks, roads, & saps have been made all over and through the hills. Camps, hospital and other, for man & beast, have been located in the most safe & suitable ravines & hill-sides. Dug outs covered with canvass or iron are burrowed from the hill side, & in each a man or several live, from the general to the buglers. Men exist here as did the cave dwellers of some lands, there