Part 9 (1/2)

[Ill.u.s.tration: REGIMENTAL QUARTERMASTER-SERGEANT R. G. s.e.xTY.

Afterwards Captain and Transport Officer. Mentioned in Despatches.]

Nor were the troops in a condition to successfully cope with the inroads of disease. ”Worn out with hards.h.i.+p and incessant sh.e.l.l fire, from which even when in reserve, they were never free,”[N] ill-sustained by a monotonous diet of food--in part of doubtful quality, and always short of sleep and of supplies of water necessary to rest the body and keep it clean; their vitality and powers of resistance to disease were considerably reduced, and they fell an easy prey to the virulent and prolific germs.

The army ration consisted of meat, bread, vegetables, and groceries.

Meat included tinned and fresh meat and bacon. Bread included ordinary bread, biscuits, and flour. The groceries were tea, sugar, jam (or cheese), pepper and salt, with such alternatives and additions as tinned milk, rice, prunes, curry powder, and raisins--which last were rarely available. The 28th's experience was that, when supplies were available and the weather permitted of them being landed, Argentine chilled beef and baker's bread left little room for complaint. However, the two factors mentioned did not always coincide and the Battalion, for days on end, had to be content with subst.i.tutes. The tinned meat (”dog” or ”bully beef”) was also from Argentine, and had already been dealt with for ”extract” besides being extremely salt in flavour. The only way to make it palatable was to fry it up with bacon fat and chopped onions, or boil it again and add rice and curry powder when procurable. Nevinson[O]

says that when the Anzac men threw over tins of meat to the Turks in exchange for packets of cigarettes it was a cheap gift, and the enemy returned the messages, ”Bully beef non, envoyez milk.” Now and again one came across a treasure in the form of a stray tin of a Canadian brand, or of ”Maconochie” (a very substantial and nouris.h.i.+ng stew), but looked in vain for the well-known Australian and New Zealand products.

The bacon, mostly very fat, was known as ”lance-corporal bacon,” _i.e._, with only one thin streak of lean running through it. This was issued _ad nauseam_. One man expressed his feelings when he said that he would never be able to look a pig in the face again.

There are no biscuits like the army issue. To those whose dent.i.tion was not perfect the masticating of them was tedious and painful. Some men made graters out of biscuit tin lids and grated the article to a powder, afterwards making a kind of porridge with it. Others discarded them as food and carved them into frames for photographs, or cigarette pictures, or contrived other mementos of a disagreeable period. Fresh vegetables were rarely seen. Now and again an enterprising individual would return from the beach with a cabbage, or a few potatoes, which he had purchased from one of the Navy or looted from some unsuspecting person who had them in charge. So far as can be remembered, not one single issue of potatoes was made to the Battalion during the whole of its stay on the Peninsula. Onions, however, were plentiful and of first-rate quality.

Other subst.i.tutes were preserved or desiccated vegetables, which were found quite unpalatable and quickly refused by the Quartermaster.

Of the groceries, the issues of tea and sugar were insufficient for the occasion. The Australian tea-drinking habit (amongst others) had not then spread through the army. The Canadian cheese was excellent, but the jam lacked in all three essentials--quant.i.ty, quality, and variety.

Bairnsfather has placed on record the soldier's feeling in this regard.

Certain other articles of importance were issued weekly. These included lime juice, rum, and tobacco. Rum was a new experience to many, but its value as a stimulant for tired troops was soon appreciated--even by the teetotallers. The virtues of rum and condensed milk were extolled. The precious liquid was contained in earthenware jars bearing on the outside the letters ”S.R.D.” The popular interpretation of this legend was ”Seldom Reaches Destination,” from the belief that, small as the authorised issue was, it was either reduced in quant.i.ty, withheld, or weakened with water by those through whose hands it pa.s.sed between the supply depot and the people for whom it was intended. Instances were not lacking which gave foundation for this belief, and an incident is well remembered in which a member of one formation regaled himself for two nights on his company's share and finished up the carouse by giving the ”alarm.” He left for Australia shortly afterwards. The Battalion made the acquaintance of tobacco and cigarettes of many brands and as many qualities. In some cases the name on the package was the only indication of its supposed contents. Some of the issues were at the cost of the Government and others as a result of gifts by soldiers' aid societies in Australia and England.

It has already been said that water was scarce. A few wells existed, but were quite unequal to the demands made upon them. It was therefore necessary to carry the water for some distance. Two-gallon petrol tins were used for this purpose by special fatigue parties. Larger quant.i.ties were carried in ”fanta.s.sies”--10-gallon tanks borne in pairs on mules--and delivered to the Quartermaster, who was responsible for the distribution of all supplies and stores. Not always was it possible to secure sufficient for ablution purposes, and at one time--during November--the issue was restricted to quarter gallon per diem per man for all purposes. At the Apex, whilst water was scarce, small parties from the reserve companies were taken in turn to the beach and allowed to bathe. A certain amount of risk was attached to this proceeding, as the enemy sh.e.l.led the locality whenever a target offered. Fortunately the parties escaped without casualty.

The cooking of food was first carried on by individuals. The mess tin could be used as either saucepan or kettle, and its lid as a frying pan or drinking vessel. With the aid of the entrenching implement, which each man carried, a little excavation would be made in some convenient place and a fire built of any available fuel. As a support for the tin when laid on the embers any number of stones was available. On some of these heat had a peculiar effect, and the unwary one was sometimes startled by a loud report and the sight of his meal being hoist in the air. Usually two or more men combined in the cooking process, but the preparation of food by the individual was found to be wasteful and injurious to health in that it attracted many flies and lacked thoroughness. The company system was therefore reverted to, and the dixies brought into use in kitchens constructed outside the trenches.

The dixies were then taken forward and the meal served out in equal shares according to the numbers to be provided for. The change at first was not popular, but its beneficial effects became apparent later, and the system was not again departed from except for very brief periods when extraordinary conditions existed.

Fuel was by no means plentiful, and anything at all that would burn was carefully collected. Under cover of darkness individuals would forage on the exposed slopes and return with arms full of twigs and brushwood. In the back areas fatigue parties were at work daily collecting firewood which was brought to a depot for issue to units. These parties worked under brigade orders and a number of 28th men were, on one occasion, sent up an exposed slope accompanied by a white donkey. The animal, so easily distinguishable against the background of dark verdure, soon attracted the enemy's artillery fire and some casualties resulted. The Regimental Medical Officer and two or three stretcher-bearers very gallantly ascended the hill and attended the wounded despite the continuance of the Turkish shrapnel.

Supply and transport on the Peninsula was no easy problem. Supplies in bulk were landed on the beach from barges when the weather permitted.

There, near the two piers, a reserve of at least seven days was stored and supply staffs lived between walls constructed of boxes of biscuit and tinned meat. These walls were lined with sides of bacon resting on a plinth of filled rum jars and certain medical comforts intended for the sick or wounded. In the neighbourhood huge piles of all manner of articles abounded, and sandwiched in between them one would occasionally discover a howitzer, which would come into action intermittently. From these depots the Army Service Corps attached to Divisions drew what was required or available and transported it to their own areas. There it was again divided up, according to the actual number of men present with each battalion, and the Quartermasters took delivery.

The means of transport consisted of carts, mules, and donkeys. Few horses were kept at Anzac. The only ones the 28th saw belonged to the 6-inch howitzer battery, and were stabled up on a hillside the face of which had been cut away so as to afford safe cover. One other horse seen was used by a despatch rider who almost daily went somewhere towards the left of our line and as frequently was the target for snipers. The carts were two-wheeled, with mule draught, and could only be used at night, when they conveyed supplies to the 54th Division which lay at the northern end of the Anzac Corps areas. These carts had made a well defined track, and their pa.s.sage was easily marked by the creaking and groaning sounds they gave forth. Yet they were seldom, if ever, sh.e.l.led by the enemy. They were driven by Maltese or natives of India who, during the daylight hours, camped in some of the crevices in the cliffs near the sh.o.r.e. As carts could not ascend the ravines, mules were used for carriage to the forward positions. They were sure-footed and capable of carrying a substantial load. Sh.e.l.l-fire had not much effect on them, but occasionally they became fitful and, despite the lurid exhortations of their drivers, would discard their loads at most inconvenient places.

They were awkward creatures to meet in a sap. One might attempt to pa.s.s them on the side where there appeared to be the more room, only to find that, when nearly through, the mule would lurch over and pin you to the wall of the trench with the corner of an ammunition box or water tank.

Each battalion had the use of a certain number of small-sized donkeys. A few men had to be detailed to look after these and drive them--being responsible to the Quartermaster, who was known, sometimes, as ”the O.C.

Dunks.” The donkeys carried loads suitable to their strength and were found to be most useful animals in the areas near the front line.

Sometimes they got shot. A story is told of one of the 28th drivers who was rather attached to his pair of animals. One day in the Dere a sh.e.l.l killed one of his donkeys and the concussion from the explosion knocked the other one over. With a little persuasion he got up again, but the driver, in explaining the loss, said that he had had one beast killed and that the other had _fainted_.

FOOTNOTES:

[N] Gallipoli Diary.

[O] H. W. Nevinson. The Dardanelles Campaign.

CHAPTER VIII.

GALLIPOLI (continued).

Lower Ches.h.i.+re Ridge, the Battalion's new position, was in part a razor-edged feature which faced the steep north-west slope of Sari Bair.

In between the two, and diagonally across the front, ran the Aghyl Dere which pa.s.sed through the trench line at the 28th's northern boundary.

Here a high breastwork had been constructed which carried a firestep and at the same time allowed room for the pa.s.sage of water underneath. This breastwork, and the line for some distance beyond, was manned alternately by the 5th Norfolks and 10th Londons, both of whom belonged to the 162nd Brigade, 54th Division, and were Kitchener Army men. Both battalions were much reduced in strength and contained many men whom disease had rendered really unfit for work other than that of the lightest nature. However, they hung on with the Tommy's well known stoicism.