Duty 0600 to 1800.
German aeroplane drops several bombs but does no damage. One of ours chases him off. J. A. Graham
0 Comments
Duty 0600 to 1800. During past week, the smell of the dead was awful but tonight it is worse. Had to wear our respirators to keep it out. It is awful and nothing can clear the stench. Later - Trench warfare is the most monotonous game imaginable. The same old thing day after day. All we hope for is for a Turk to show himself and a desire to kill. It gives one great pleasure indeed to see one of the enemy fall to your rifle. It’s just the same as shooting wallabies. At night-time things get livelier and it is fine to watch the star shells and shrapnel bursting and the searchlights playing. Looking out to sea, one can see the dark hulls of the warships creeping along and closer in are the destroyers waiting an opportunity. All at once a searchlight will flash out from one of the boats, search the enemy’s trenches until they find a target and then the guns start. The guns smash in the trenches and all the work of the enemy sappers put in at repairing goes for nothing. It is heartbreaking at times when such things as that happen to us. (5 April 1916) J. A. Graham Duty 0600 to 1800. Advance at a stand still. Desultory firing continues. Preparing for another advance.
Before proceeding a little may be said of spies. Two cases I’ll tell you of. To be exact they were traitors. A Sqt Major, in a NZ battery during an attack shortened his fuses and opened fire on our own men, killing quite a number. Another case a man was discovered signaling to the enemy by means of an electric torch. Quite a number of spies were caught, but not all by any means. Everything we intended doing, the enemy always knew of it beforehand and were always prepared. In preparing for an attack at Lone Pine we were ordered to wear white bands on one of our arms and a white patch on our back so the artillery would be able to distinguish friend from foe. However when the attack came off, to our amazement the Turks were also wearing white armlets so that shows they were kept well posted as to our movements. J. A. Graham Duty 1200 to 1800, position unchanged.
Later: The Suvla Bay operations of 7 August were one huge blunder. If the orders from General Headquarters had been carried out all would have been well. General Stopford (it was he who got the blame for it) bungled things up at the critical moment. And it was for this blunder, that our boys and the New Zealanders paid dearly for. Anzacs were giving all the assistance they could for the Suvla Bay landing. They carried line after line of trenches and fortified hills and finally reached the objective - Hill 971. The key of the Peninsula. Had General Stopford acted as he should have done, and rushed reinforcements to the assistance of the New Zealanders, Australians and Ghurkas in time, all would have been well. Unable to hold out against the enemy any longer, they had perforce to retire. Anzacs were relieved after retiring to a safe position and their place was taken by the Cheshires, Leinsters and the Munsters, Connaught Rangers. The two former Regiments were composed of poor miserable looking Tommys whilst the Munsters were a steadier and sturdier lot. The Turks counter attacked again and panic seized the Cheshires. They jumped out of the trenches and bolted down the hills and they didn’t stop until they came to the sea. Anzacs had to go again to the rescue (By this time the poor devils were nearly dead for want of sleep. They were completely worn out) and were just in time to prevent the Leinsters from taking to their heels. Capt McNeill a New Zealander turned a machine gun on to them and drove them back into the trench. Through lack of courage on the part of the Cheshires and Leinsters, other Regiments, both Anzacs and Suvla Bay suffered severely. It was during these operations that the 3rd L H Brigade made their famous charge. Every man knew that to even show his head over the trench he would be killed, but they cared not. The order came and they charged. Not one man got more than 50 yards from the trenches, yet they charged and charged again. The whole Brigade was almost wiped out. It was another charge of the Light Brigade and another mistake. By Heavens it makes a chap proud he’s an Australian and to associate with such daredevils. (from 5 APRIL 1916) J. A. Graham Duty 2100 to 2400 and 0300 to 0600.
My old friend Dick (brother of Harry) was killed. Much the same as yesterday. FOOTNOTE: See 21 July 1915 Storming Hill 971. Our objective.
Duty 1800 to 2100, 2400 to 0300. Still hot and am feeling dead beat. J. A. Graham Duty 2100 to 2400, 0300 to 0600. Still advancing under heavy artillery fire.
Saw running fight between one of our planes and a German but the latter turned tail and fled. Last day of the Ramadan (a period of fasting between sunrise and sunset for the Mahommedians). Stench of the dead is vile and one can see bodies everywhere rotting in the sun. Heat and flies very bad and water fearfully scarce. Have not had any for two days now. Later amendment: I’ll just give you a fair idea of the hardships we had to put up with. The food to begin with was not what one would call good by any means. Had those who had the issuing of the rations acted on the square, it would certainly have been better. The ASC had the handling of it and I know for a fact that cases of milk, jam etc were stolen and sold to the boys at exorbitant prices. A tin of milk often bought 3/-. Rhum also was stolen and sold. I had dinner with a friend of mine a few times. He was in the ASC and told me that they were getting plenty of everything. Well after they had their whack, the rations went to the different Regiments where they were again picked over and the best of everything and more than they were entitled to, went to the officers and Sergts Messes. The troops then got what the QM liked to give them. One QM in particular named Bennett in C Squadron used to keep the milk. He has his little clique and when opportunity offered he would have it sold. Of course one of his clique would sell it so as not to throw suspicion on him. After a time, he went away sick and over 50 tins of milk were found stowed away in his dugout. As a rule, all we got was Bully Beef and biscuits as hard as iron. Occasionally we’d get a potato or an onion and jam used to run one tin to 6 men. This lack of vegetables, almost everybody suffering terribly from septic sores, dysentery and other diseases. Water too, very scarce. We were usually allowed one bottle full, but very often our issue was cut down by half. Scores of times I remember (I’m not likely to forget it either) having to go three days without a drop. Another annoyance was the fleas, lice and flies and nothing could keep them down, although one would have thought the Authorities would have supplied us with inspect powder. The flies were terrible. At meal times, try as you would, you could not keep them off the food. The only thing to do was to bolt it and put up with the after effects. The smell of the dead too, was awful, but it could not be helped. At Lone Pine and Quinn’s Post I have seen maggots crawling over the parapets and falling into the trench and often enough into ones tea. J. A. Graham Still attacking and Abdul steadily losing ground, but is putting up a great fight.
Duty 1800 to 2100 and 2400 to 0300. J. A. Graham Advance still continues on both fronts. Objective nearly reached. Abdul faring badly. Enemy warships and transport sunk.
Our fleet bombard Maidos. Duty 1800 to 0600. Most glorious sunset. J. A. Graham |
AuthorJack Graham, ANZAC soldier, kept a diary from 1914-1918. Here it is, blogged 100 years later to the day.... Archives
February 1958
|
Proudly powered by Weebly