SOLDIERS' LETTERS

Southland Times, Issue 17658, 16 February 1916, Page 7

SOLDIERS' LETTERS

WITH THE AUSTRALIANS. EXPERIENCES IN GALLIPOLI. WORD FROM PRIVATE “DOUG” PORTER. Mr A. R. Porter, of Esk street, has received a very interesting letter from his son, Private “Doug” Porter, who left with the Main Body of the Australian Expeditionary Force. From it we (have keen permitted to make the following extracts: — Military Hospital, Ward C 4. 161 Vauxhall Bridge Road, / London, S.W. December 1, 1915. As promised, I will try and give you some of my experiences in Gallipoli. It will be rather difficult, as I have lost my pocket book with all the notes 1 had taken in it. ■' Anyway, here goes. At 4 o'clock on the afternoon of April 24 we were told to get everything ready to land next morning at daybreak. We were then at Lemnos on a troopship called the Mashobra. That night we were not allowed to undress, but had to sleep on deck with our kits along side of us. I woke up on the morning of the 25th April about 4 ..o’clock and had breakfast in the dark. After breakfast we all went up on deck to see if there was anything to be seen. We knew that the first landing party would try to land just before dawn, and we were rather anxious to know how they would get on. At this time it was as dark as the inside of your hat, but all of a sudden dawn broke and then a round of cheers, and we knew that the boys were mixing it. Then the Queen Lizzie started throwing things about, and I felt glad I was playing in .lohnnie Bull’s team, because some of the stuff Lizzie lets fly is decidedly unhealthy. About six o’clock a destroyer came alongside our boat with a couple of barges in tow. On the destroyer were about a dozen wounded and one or two dead. It was only then I properly realised we were in it at last. By this time the battleships were going hell for leather, and the row was something terrific. They were firing over our boat, and as the shells went by it sounded as if some one was tearing about 5000 sheets of calico at once. Anyway- wc got in to the barges and the destroyer took us in tow. When about 200 yards from the shore things began to happen. First, a shrapnel shell burst over us, wounding a couple, then about half a dozen more shells with a few dozen bullets intermingled. Veil, the destroyer left .us when we were within about 20 yards off the shore, and we drifted on till we touched bottom. Then we jumped ashore —no easy matter when you remember we had a full kit on which consists of pack, three days’ rations, mess tins, overcoat, first aid kit, and also a stretcher between two men, weighing in all about 90 to lOOlbs. Also wo were sniped at all the time. If anyone asked mo how the landing party got up those cliffs and drove the Turks off the top, I would tell them I was no good at riddles. It was about the stiffest proposition ever. Well as soon as we reached the beach, we were IN THE THICK OK IT, wounded and dead lying all over the place. Wc soon had a dressing station rigged up and going full swing. As soon as we had the wounded on the beach fixed up, we scrambled up the cliffs into the trend) at the top which our boys were holding and started bandaging there. But we soon run out of bandages, and had to use handkerchiefs, shirts and putties; in fact, anything at all. We had to carry the wounded down on our backs, as it was too steep to use the stretchers, and it’s not a joke getting down a mountain-side with a 12stone man on your back I can tell you. Things were getting very hot in the place were I was working, and I thought tlie Turks were going to drive us into the sea, hut the New /Zealanders reinforced ns about 12 o'clock. They passed where f was in single file, and I caught a glance of a few of the Invercargill boys, but not many recognised me and no wonder, as 1 was covered in blood. I spoke to ■’.loe” Wildermoth (lie worked in tiie Bank of N'.Z.). He was surprised to see me there. I’oor Joe was killed a few moments later. Well, I got back to the beach again about 5 o'clock and it was a terrible sight, wounded everywhere, and men bleeding to death be - cause there were not enough A.M.C. to look after them. We got as many as we could on to the barges, to he taken In the hospital ships. We worked on till about G o’clock next morning; then we had a spell for a couple of hours and something to eat. 1 had not had anything since 5 o'clock the morning before, hut I fell too crook to eat much. Well, I can't describe my feelings of the first day, I had not time to think' about myself, so I did not suffer from cold feet, hut it was hell seeing your pals lying around in agony. The way the boys took their wounds was absolutely splendid, not a word out of most of them, and all trying to help each other, (jne boy I saw could nut have been much over IK. lie was lying on the beach with four shrapnel pellets in him. As I passed him lie asked me if i had a spoon on me. I said "No," and asked him what he wanted it for. He pulled a tin or jam out of his tunic. It was burst open by a shrapnel pellet, and he told me he wanted the spoon to eat the jam with. Cool! Well I reckon that chap would make an iceberg look sills-. THE SECOND DAY was like the first, going all the lime, and by night I was pretty much knockoil up* 1 managed to get a few hours’ sleep, although I bad to sleep on stones on tiie beach, without blankets or oven an overcoat, and lb make matters worse it was bitterly cold and raining. I woke up once or twice, and saw o couple of our officers walking about trying to keep warm. They were in the same boat ns mvself, having given their blankets and overcoats to the wounded. When J woke up on the Tuesday morning I was wet ID rough and gee! talk about cold, J thought someone, had put an iceberg down my hack. But I made a fire, and had some oxo, and felt a lot better. Tuesday night was a circus. The Turks bad brought up strong roiiUm-ce-ments during the da>. and had been titling a lot of attacking. W also had landed more men.. Tim Turks knew it, and they also kiimt that the otiiv way we could, get mti" men inco toe firing line waa by taking them up Shrapnel Gully. Well, just. at dush the Turks started, b Qttibag-'dmg. t-ht;. gjtliw Whfß,

bombardment .started six of our stretcher squads were half way up the gully, on our way to the first aid post at tho tojp. There was only one thing to do, and that was to take shelter. 1 jumped into an old Turkish dug-out. There were about 3 2 shells bursting at once, and to make matters more uncomfortable, a sniper spotted us and got good and going. Just then word came down tho gully for stretcher-bearers, so wc had to make a bolt for it. It was not so bad going up, but coming back with a wounded man on the stretchers and having to go slowly, well, it was a picnic. We got to the bench safely, and went back again to the first aid post. By this time the bombarding had stopped, and I tell you was were not sorry. I was bringing a walking patient down to the beach, when a sniper spotted us, and just as we struck a moonlit patch, he let go and got the other chap clean through the heart. 1 had the jumps all the night and was not sorry when we were told to turn in. 1 had been asleep about a couple of hours when I was woke up and told we had to try and get to some chaps who had been wounded the first day and were lying out on one of the hilltops. One of our captains let us. He took us up gullies and over hills till I though we must be lost. We kept going till we came to a party of New Zealanders lying on their stomachs digging themselves in. Our captain asked one of them if there were any wounded men about. The New Zealander said that there would be a lot of wounded men about if we did not get into shelter, as we were right on the skyline, and the Turks not mote than thirty yards away. Greased lightning wasn’t in it with the way I got off that skyline. Eventually we found the chaps we were looking for, but most of them were too far gone from wounds and exposure.

Shrapnel Gully was not a pretty sight on the Wednesday morning, what with dead men, dead donkeys and dead mules. On the Wednesday we moved our camp from the beach to a hillside near Shrapnel Green, and stayed there till just before I left Gallipoli. Well, the first three days in tho new camp we spent in making dug-outs for ourselves and for hospitals, and also a large one for our officers to mess in. On about the 3rd of May after we had been at Anzac for a week, we received orders to pack everything up and be ready to go aboard ship at 7 o’clock at night. We were taken on a mine-sweeper, slept on deck all right, and woke up at Cape Helles in the morning. That was the coldest night I have ever gone through. At Cape Helles there is a largo boat of 8000 tons called the River Clyde. She had large doors in her sides, and was used in the first landing there. She was run right up to the beach as far as possible, and the troops poured out of the doors in her side AND HUSHED ASHORE. Anyway, we got ashore, and marched through a village that had been battered to pieces by the warships, and where the French had their headquarters. We got a great reception at Cape Helles from the English and French troops, for they had heard of our landing at Anzac. During the first three days at the Cape we did not do anything at all, except go down to the beach and pinch what we could off the Army Service Corp. I pinched half a bacon and about 30 tins of jam. Tho New Zealanders were camped near us, and 1 went over to their camp and was speaking to a good few of the Invercargill hoys. Poor “Stan” Strang! 1 had a long yarn with him tiic day of the charge. It was his first time under lire, and he was anxious to get into it. It was a very unpleasant surprise to me when f heard a couple of days later of his death.

On the Sth of,>faV we moved up to just behind the reserve trenches, and at 5.:!0 our brigade charged. Jt was mad right from the first. Our boys had to charge 400 yards before they got to our first trench; then over it. and at the Turks. Jt was a marvellous charge. They went up as one man, although It was board daylight, and they had hundreds of machine guns and shrapnel shells against them. I saw the charge from start to finish from a tree top. There was another chap in the tree with mo, but a stray bullet got him through the head. Wo gained -1 On yards through that charge, but at a terrible cost. It took us three days and three nights to clear way the wounded and then we had to get the K.A.M.C. to help us. At Cape Hellos it is a four-mile carry from the firing line to the hospital on the beach. Wc started work at six o’clock on the night of the charge, and my squad hart done two trips to the beach and back. That is a matter of I (> miles, and wc were feeling just about done, as it is pretty rough ground. V.'e had no sooner got back to camp from the second trip when we were sent to look for Major Cass, who had been pretty badly wounded. A little Irish man. who had seen the Major hit, volunteered to show us where to find him. Well, talk about looking for a needle in a hay-stack', looked everywhere till at last we found him under a tree, liy this time we were ready to drop; but we dressed the major and off we started. Well, after that everything was a nightmare to me. We got lost, and nearly had a bullet put through us by an Indian sentry, who halted us. He could only speak Indian, and we could only speak Hnglish, so we had to wait there till he turned out the guard. We had just got past the Indian, when the French sent up a signal light, and the Turks, who were still very nervous after the charge, sent over ten rounds rapid. J thought WH WRI!K ALL GONKRS. We got down on our bellies, and stayed there till things got quiet again. At last we came to a creek, and there was some more sport. Getting a 15-stone man on a stretcher across a creek on a dark night is like climbing up the water tower from the outside, standing on your head at the top and (lowing otf your socks. Wo arrived at the beach at daybreak, and being too knocked up to go hack to cam;), we got into an obi trench and slept the sleep ol the just. After our brigade had been in the I reaches three’.lays they were brought hack again to near tilt* beach. I shall not forget that morning. It rained tankfills and we were carrying the medical necessaries on a stretcher. L'very step we took, wc slid hack a coupie. The ground made a skating rink look silly. The next five days we did nothing at all. i think 1 slept most of the time during the day, as it was too cold m sleep at night. We had no blankets at this time, and I had only a water-proof sheet and a Turkish overcoat. We lived .on ih.e fat of thft. land, white a.t Caa*-

Helles. The French used to give us fresh meat and bread, and we had plenty of bacon, cheese and rice, besides potatoes and onions, bully beef, and biscuits. I have never enjoyed my meals so much in my life as I did while at Cape Helles, although I have had some big dinners here in London, consisting of anything to a dozen courses. About the 12th May we were bunged back to that death trap, Anzac Cove, and we did not do any more stretcher-bearing for over a month. We made one or two big dug-outs and turned them into a hospital. Life would not have been so bad at that time If Beachy Bill had only let us alone. Beachy Bill by the way is a Turkish battery that enfiladed the beach at Anzac. The casualties from this battery alone amounted to well over 1000 when I left. We would be in bathing perhaps when Beachy would let fly and then IT WAS A SCATTER for the shore. Beachy got five of the boys out of the 2nd Field Ambulance in one lump one day. I suppose he got twenty of the boys in the 2nd altogether. One day I was in bathing, and I had left nur clothes on the barge, but some one knocked, my shirt into the water accidentally. In my shirt pocket I haft my matches and matches were precious at Anzac. I said something you won’t find in a school book, and made the best of it. That night I could not sleep for the neat and the “grey backs,” so about 12 o’clock I filled up my pipe and then remembered I had no matches, so 1 looked out of the dug-out and spotted one of my pals having a quiet smoke at the foot of his dug-out. I hopped over to him to get a light. I had just got over to him when we heard old Beachy ;let fly. We both fell into his dug-out, and 1 could tell that Beachy had landed unpleasantly close. You can imagine my feelings when I got back to my dug-out to see the side- of it blown in. Luckily the chap who shared, the dug-out with me was at the first aid post on duty. I took back all I had said about the chap who knocked my shirt into the water. I believe if your name is not on the shell or bullet It will never reach you. I saw the poor old Triumph torpedoed. She sank in a few momentsj The Turks played very fair that day. As soon as they saw she was sinking they stopped firing and let the rescue boats get to work. When all is said and done Johnnie Turk is a good and fair fighter. Our boys were always having a joke with the Turks. One flay at Quinn’s Post our hoys threw over into the Turkish trenches a few tins of bully beef. The Turks scrambled fqr them, and' while they were all together our boys threw over a few more tins. But this lime, it was not bully beef that was in the tins but high explosive bombs. You should have heard the cries of “Allah.” The Turks got one back on us though. One night we put out new barb wire entanglements. ’ The next night The Turks pinched this from the front of our trenches and put them in front of their own trenches. One day I was in Shrapnel Gully on water fatigue. While waiting my turn at the pump I heard a chap in front of me say to his pal, “1 wish. Bill. I had a frying pan and some grease.” Bill asked him "what for?” “Well,” he said, “if I had some steak 1 could fry it.” I WAS TICKLED. About the biggest curse of the lot at Anzac was the flies. We had to have breakfast before sunrise and leave dinner till sunset so as to dodge them. At the last lauding, that is the Suvla Bay landing, we worked for just on sixty hours without a spell. 1 thought that landing was going to finish Johnnie Turk, and it would have done, so if it had been carried out properly. But, as you know, it went wrong. I saw the Maoris make a great charge round fcjuvla Bay way. I can tell you that tho Dardanelles campaign has been one big mistake after another. If they had carried things out properly it would have been all over by now, and instead of me writing this in England I would be writing it in Constantinople. At Anzac we held more ground the first day titan we hold now. The place is a natural fortress, and as long as Turkey can keep up her supply of ammunition, she can keep the Dardanelles. Take no notice what the papers say. For a fortnight before 1 left we were very busy, ami the strain began to tell on me, till at last 1 got that weak I had to give in. I had helped to carry a wounded man down to the beach, and 1 was that crook when I arrived there that 1 could not get back to camp. So one of our officers came down to tho beach to see me, and he sent me off to the hospital • ship right away. J was not sorry. 1 Tuesday, 7th Dec.

J am going hack to Weymouth camp to-morrow. J am all right now and expect to have a good time at Christmas. I am imping every day to receive word from home.