Date | Entry | Locations | Persons | Notes |
Egypt | ||||
Diary No 2. Lost 1st on Gallipoli | ||||
25/10/1915 Sunday | Detail Camp, Alexandria. Starting new diary. Lost old one with tunic, badges & etc when I got wounded on August 9th. Landed at Anzac on Gallipoli on Sunday the 8th at about 12.30am. Left Gallipoli for Pont de Koubbeh Hospital owing to the slight wound I received on Aug 9th getting septic. Travelled on hospital ship Glouchester Castle. Today paraded to Saint George’s Chapel, very poor Parson. |
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1/11/15 Monday | Very quiet in detail camp, went to see boxing in Alexandria. Riot at door, things very merry. | |||
2/11/15 Tuesday | Nothing doing | |||
3/11/15 Wednesday | Embarked on ship Transylvania for Lemnos, left Alexandria Port at about 5.30pm |
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4/11/15 Thursday | Well on the way, sea very calm. Big crowd of mixed Tommies on board, about 130 NZ’er and Australians also. | |||
5/11/15 Friday | Still going strong, sea very calm, tucker just fair. | |||
6/11/15 Saturday | Passed through the Greek Archipelago about 7am this morning. Reached Lemnos 1pm. Lovely harbour, lovely view of bare hills. Hundreds of steamers of all descriptions and dozens of warships of all fighting sorts. |
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7/11/15 Sunday | Still on board, church service, good speaker, nothing doing otherwise | |||
8/11/15 Monday | Still on board at 9.30am. Left boat for camp at 4pm. I heard there for first time that I had been reported killed in NZ papers. |
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9/11/15 Tuesday | Birthday today aged 28 and never been kissed. Embarked on Osmanick for Gallipoli at 2pm. A lot of my old mates on board. |
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10/11/15 Wednesday | Landed at Gallipoli again at 12.30am this morning. Messing about with the baggage. Things very quiet in warfare. |
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11/11/15 Thursday | Reached No2 outpost. Getting merry hell from Turks high explosives. 2.30pm moved up gully with baggage to company’s quarters on Canterbury Ridge, and trenches on Rhododendron Ridge. Same trenches we were in before we left for spells. |
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12/11/15 Friday | Pick and shovel work all day. | |||
13/11/15 Saturday | Making new sap top Canterbury Ridge. Sapping tonight. Saw Kitchener on beach. |
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14/11/15 Sunday | Still navying making new cookhouse. Sapping tonight as well. |
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15/11/15 Monday | Still on cookhouse fatigue, bosker day for wind. Shrapnel wounded two men. On sap tonight 7 to 11. | |||
16/11/15 Tuesday | Still going strong on pick and shovel, on guard tonight in second line of defence. | |||
17/11/15 Wednesday | Working in sap today & tonight. Artillery active, plenty of shrapnel. | |||
18/11/15 Thursday | Things quiet, in sap today, 8.30 to 4 today and sap tonight 7 to 11. | |||
19/11/15 Friday | Continuance of yesterday’s work, tonight off in bivouac. | |||
20/11/15 Saturday | Digging away for all we are worth, in same sap, cold wind blowing, on sap tonight 7 to 11. | |||
21/11/15 Sunday | Digging shelter for donkeys tonight in bivouac, night alarm at 10.30pm went up and lined second line of defense. |
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22/11/15 Monday | Starting to dig new tunnel in bivouac, in trench on guard tonight. | |||
23/11/15 Tuesday | On water fatigue in the morning, carried on sheet of iron from the beach in afternoon, digging in sap tonight 11 to 3. |
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24/11/15 Wednesday | Navying like h… making big dugout for stores and etc. Change in weather, very warm. | |||
25/11/15 Thursday | On quartermasters’ fatigue & digging tunnel in bivouac. On guard tonight in second line of defense. | |||
26/11/15 Friday | Went to beach for iron, shrapnel wounded and killed about a dozen in gully. Australians, NZ’ers and Indians. | |||
27/11/15 Saturday | Navying in store quarters. Terrific artillery & navy firing. Chunuk Bair getting particularly hot. Went to beach for water & stores and had an aweful time with the mules, finished at 9pm. Had no tea, commenced to snow and terrible cold. | |||
28/11/15 Sunday | About 2 inches of snow on ground. Went to beach at 10am with empty water tins for mules, roads in a devil of a mess. Rations very scarce, plenty of rum but no issue. Some of the heads getting plenty, grog etc. One tin of ham 4 men 24 hours. Water fatigue tonight 7 to 8.30pm. | |||
29/11/15 Monday | Sapping in 3rd line of defense, cold as ice, in trenches on guard tonight, freezing a treat. | |||
30/11/15 Tuesday | Pretty well starving. One piece of bacon for breakfast, no tea, no jam & etc Went to beach for timber before noon. Digging in bivouac funk hole. No bully beef or jam issue for two days. Sapping tonight 7 to 11 on empty stomach. | |||
1/12/15 Wednesday | Digging in bivouac funk hole this morning. One tiny piece of bacon and tea for breakfast. Weather improved a lot, nice day, snow melting a little. I must here mention my mates names in no1 platoon, no 3 section and all in the bivouac. Lance Corporal Crawford section commander, Main Body, G. Broadley 4th reinforcements., J Trevethan 4th reinfo, George Mitchell 5th, Frank Coulam 5th, Colin Harrison 5th, C. Kavanugh 6th. & myself. All real good chaps and pick and shovel heroes. Tonight in bivouac. |
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2/12/15 Thursday | Navying on Capt Graham’s fatigue. Escort for mules tonight to beach. |
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3/12/15 Friday | Quartermasters fatigue & digging funk hole in bivouac. Tonight trenching. | |||
4/12/15 Saturday | My mate Frank Coulam & I are put on permanent in funk hole. Tonight in bivouac. Big bombardment at Cape Helles, one continual roar of cannon for about two hours, row something terrific, cant see it from here for the hills, but someone is getting the tar shaken out of them. Heard yesterday that 6500 Tommies on the left by Chocolate Hill put out of action the time of the snow. Frostbitten, 200 drowned in the trenches, numbed with cold & etc. a lot of Gurkhas included, hospital boats loading up as fast as they can. Heard yesterday that Turks are in a bad plight also. Writing letter to Jim a little at a time when I get the chance. |
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5/12/15 Sunday | Funk hole. Afternoon off. | |||
6/12/15 Monday | Funk hole all day, sapping tonight 7 to 11. Got mail today, 4 papers and one parcel that Charlie and Mrs sent me, chocolate in it simply a treat. New system on mail a success. | |||
7/12/15 Tuesday | Funkhole all day, tonight in trenches on guard. Alf Barlow and George Swan arrived today among details. |
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8/12/15 Wednesday | Still on funk hole all day. Got to go down yet 10 feet, darned hard work. Weather very good. Tonight off in bivouac. Posted letter to Jim. | |||
9/12/15 Thursday | Same old game down the glory hole. So far I am not told of any fatigues tonight. Two Otago boys, Mick Allen & T Wilson are in a bivouac up here watching their ammunition. I was with them until last night, had some cake, chocolates & etc, Mick had just received a parcel from home. |
| Spoke to Mick Allen’s grandson Ken about Mick. He pointed me to Alexander Aitken’s book about Mick & Tom guarding their ammo. | |
10/12/15 Friday | Funk hole. Heavy bombardment from navy. Read in the paper today my death notice, was amused and had a good laugh over it, worth a few dead un’s yet. Starting to write to Charlie, posted it at 4.30pm. Tonight sapping 7 to 11pm. | |||
11/12/15 Saturday | Weather dull. Tunneling in bivouac funk hole. On guard in trenches tonight. | |||
12/12/15 Sunday | One hour on Major Aldermans sap before dinner. Went to beach at 9pm to load artillery on to boats, got back at 11.30pm. |
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13/12/15 Monday | Funk hole all day. Loading goods, baggage & etc at Williams Jetty. Things all upside down, looks like all hands doing a mike off the peninsular. Tons of stuff lying about on beach “open slather”. Got back to bivouac at 8.15pm. |
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14/12/15 Tuesday | Finished and posted letter to Tina today. Had a spell in bivouac today. On guard on trenches tonight. Still preparing for a general evacuation. | |||
15/12/15 Wednesday | Deepening Major Alderman’s sap before noon to get the wounded down in case of slather. Putting in cases of ammunition in second line of defense this afternoon. Tonight in bivouac. Pulled the oil sheets off our bivouac and rolled blankets and sent them away. |
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16/12/15 Thursday | Went on fatigue to beach, loading mules harness and etc Boats very busy getting all stuff shipped off, easy day plenty to eat “bakseesh”, got back to bivouac about 6pm. | |||
17/12/15 Friday | Dumping all sorts of stuff down funk holes, tea, biscuits, rice & etc. One sack of NZ gift socks dumped. Wasted. | Photo gallipoli stuff | ||
18/12/15 Saturday | A light day, general cleaning up and getting prepared for final evacuation. Afternoon employed dumping ammunition & bombs in latrine well. On guard tonight in trenches. | |||
19/12/15 Sunday | Had early breakfast about 5.30am and left our old bivouacs for first move towards evacuation. Went down gully near to beach and rested there for a while. Did a little pick & shovel work to make Johnny believe that we were carrying on as usual. Had to turn it up, he nearly copped us with shrapnel. Went to beach quietly and embarked on Williams Pier into a floater and from there on to HMS light cruiser Mars. We arrived at Lemnos at about 2am. |
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“McLaren, Coulam & I of our sector had volunteered to stay until the last, but the nearest we could get was the second to last party.” | Letter sent home from G.Greg M. Mitchell (12/2392) | Talk about Bombing Sgt | ||
Lemnos | ||||
20/12/15 Monday | At 7am still on board. 3.30pm at camp in Lemnos. Came off boat about 10am. Ragtime camp this one, find your tucker the best you can. I received eight letters just now, there was a big mail awaiting us. Letters from Mother 2, Doll 1, Isa Pullar 1, Minnie Dempsey 1, Charlie 1, Jessie 1. It is enough to make a man cry to read these letters and learn how many nice boxes of cakes & etc has been sent me that haven’t yet received, some more parcels are to be sorted yet so I am still living in hopes. Mostly all the letters are dated in October, one or two have been written in September. |
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21/12/15 Tuesday | Fourteen of us slept in a tent last night, packed like sardines, and it blew a gale in the night, and we were pretty near buried in sand. At time of writing this 11.30am, it is raining hard. At 1pm, Hurrah, got four more letters just now. Lizzy 2, Jim 1 & Jessie 1 and more mail to sort. I hope all my parcels come next. | |||
22/12/15 Wednesday | On picket last night in native village, got back to camp about 8.30. Hurrah, got a tin of cake & etc today from Isa Pullar, very decent. On fatigue all day. | |||
23/12/15 Thursday | At 12.30pm. Drill all morning. Posted Field Service Cards to Mother, Charlie, Jim, Jessie, Lizzy and Isa Pullar. At 2.30pm, wrote more Field Service Cards and sent them to George Sentch, Bert Shirly, Bert Maxwell & Minnie Dempsey. Nothing doing much this afternoon. Trev took our photos a while ago, a rough looking lot of devils I guess. |
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24/12/15 Friday | All hands packed already ready to move off at short notice. Trev and I went down to the cemetery and he took a snapshot or two of the French and British graves. In the afternoon we took down the big marque. Christmas Eve, Australian and our own band playing. Dropped across Walter Hislop. What a rotten Christmas to spend. |
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25/12/15 Saturday | Christmas Day. Embarked on to Varsova at 10.30am. Our Christmas dinner was a failure, we had jam & bread to eat and lucky to get that. I wonder where I will be next Christmas, the Germans will have a say in it I suppose. At 1pm sitting on deck, lovely day and the sight of the harbour and camps on the surrounding hills is magnificent. |
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26/12/15 Sunday | Boxing Day. We left Lemnos Harbour at 8am this morning. A drink of half cold tea and one slice of bread for breakfast, Officers living like Lords. Wrote a letter to Alex just now, will post when we get to Egypt. | |||
27/12/15 Monday | Going full out, this boat is some goer. Doing a lot of police guard today. Met Tommy McGregor today, hardly knew him. Blowing a head wind, sea a bit choppy. |
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Egypt |
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