Fearfully cold. The piercing wind has eased off a little.
Still snowing. The snow on the ground has turned into solid ice. Two Turks gave themselves up this morning. Poor devils were nearly dead with the cold. No one saw them come in. They were found in the cook house warming themselves. J. A. Graham
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Duty 2400 to 0300. During my watch tonight it began to snow. At 03-00am it had turned into a blizzard and the cold is intense.
Later - Our duties were exceptionally hard. Since taking over the right flank, we never had one hours spell from the trenches. If we were not in the firing line, we were on sapping, and water and other fatigues. All transporting had to be done by the boys, which meant everything had to be humped from Watson’s Pier to our line, a distance of over two miles. Often enough when reinforcements were late in coming, everyone had to go on fatigue by day and firing line by night. I was nearly always on a 12 hour shift without a break. My meals were brought to me and during any activity on the part of the enemy or ours, I often did 18 to 21 hours, then I’d get two or three hours sleep and go on duty again. A fellow wanted a cast iron constitution to stand it. I was only ill for four weeks, or rather I was off the Peninsula for four weeks, but I wasn’t sick all the time. The very first to go under were the big, strong looking fellows, whilst the thin, wiry chaps hung out like grim death and refused to get sick. J. A. Graham Have been too tired to keep up my diary. Every spare moment had to go towards getting a little sleep. This warfare is a most strenuous game. Fighting has eased off a little and has developed mainly into bomb fighting. Turk broomstick bombs are terrible things. One cannot get away from them as they fall straight down from the sky. They are just as much in fear of our Japanese Trench mortar though. It is a wonderful little gun and it does a great amount of damage. The bomb is fitted with that great Japanese explose “Shimose” and the explosion is said to equal that of a 6” shell. The concussion alone kills. Have taken over Ryries Post and the 6th Regt have gone into our Wilson’s Lookout. It is blowing a hurricane and is beginning to rain. Very unpleasant and things are anyhow at all. Am wet through. Later – Have managed to get some sort of shelter rigged up. It is getting colder every minute and looks like snowing. J. A. Graham "Gallipoli, Turkey, 1915. Members of an Australian trench mortar battery preparing to fire a Japanese trench mortar. The soldier in the centre is holding a cord which he is about to pull to fire the weapon. The nose of a mortar shell can be seen protruding from the end of the barrel. (Original print housed in P run in AWM Archive Store) (Donor G. Smith)" This image is of Australian origin and is now in the public domain because its term of copyright has expired. According to the Australian Copyright Council (ACC), ACC Information Sheet G023v17 (Duration of copyright) (August 2014) Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Japanese_Mortar_Gallipoli_1915_AWM_P01850.004.jpeg Fighting has been very heavy in our new position.
Have been on continuous duty since 4/11/15, with just little breaks and am feeling very tired on a/c of not being able to get any sleep to speak of. Destroyed enemy’s position and had only 20 casualties. Fighting very fierce. J. A. Graham Bombardment continues fiercely.
Early this morning (3/11/15) we broke through new position, naming it “Wilson’s Lookout”. Turks taken completely by surprise. All the work (in constructing it) was carried on underground and it was only a matter of a few minutes to break through the surface of the earth. 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
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