World War, 1914-1918 -- Campaigns -- Turkey -- Gallipoli Peninsula
The roof of corrugated iron slopes at the same angle as the slope of
the ground in which we have dug. For walls, the dugout earth forms
the back wall, and the side walls are built of biscuit boxes. We
spend the day improving on this. Immediately in front is our Supply
depot, divided into three dumps, one each for the 86th, 87th, and 88th
Brigades. At dusk the pack-mules and A.T. carts form up, and we load
on to the set of mules or carts allotted to each unit the rations and
fuel. The transport then moves off by Brigades to the front, the mules
led by Drabis, the carts driven also by Drabis, and the whole escorted
by Indian N.C.O.’s under a white N.C.O. Q.M.S.’s Transport N.C.O.’s,
guides of the units, and the A.S.C. Transport Officer accompany them to
the respective battalion and dumps, situated a distance of two hundred
to three hundred yards behind the front line. In some cases convoys
proceed direct to the regimental cookhouses. The transport dares not
show itself by day. To-night our Brigade arrives from Imbros, and is to
spend the night in De Lisle’s Gully, some short distance to the left of
the road that leads to Lone Tree Gully, but up the hill rather, and so
our rations go there. Water has been put there for them by Carver last
night. We watch this water question closely. It needs careful handling
and foresight. A man can go hungry much longer than he can go thirsty,
and water is far more difficult to transport by sea than food. Imbros
is the source of our supply, and water-tank lighters are filled there
and towed over each day.
The water dump is on “A” Beach, and all the Divisions that are being
supplied from this promontory draw from this dump. An able man,
one Private Jones, is in charge. Though before the war an L.C.C.
school-teacher, he appears to be the one man in the world who could be
chosen to be the most efficient and tactful organizer of the difficult
task of satisfying an army of 30,000 men with their daily requirements
of water, from a limited source, and by means of a limited supply of
receptacles, steadily diminishing in number.
At seven I go up with Carver to the H.Q. of the 86th Brigade. Instead
of walking up the road that leads to Pine Tree Gully, we bear off
to the right, and pass along a lower road through the wooded,
gorse-covered low lands for a distance of about a mile and a half
inland, until bullets are merrily singing their song of war overhead.
“Zi-i-ip” goes one between us. A pause in the conversation, and Carver
says, “That was not pleasant,” to which I agree, but adding, “If hit,
it means Blighty, my boy, the Savoy, and theatres, or ‘Finish,’ as we
say in Egypt.”
We come to a wide space in front of us, and to our left is high ground,
rising in one place to about 30 feet. Carver tells me that we are at
Brigade dumping-ground. A.T. carts are packed here in readiness to
bring the baggage back to the beach for the 86th Brigade, as it is
their turn now to go to Imbros.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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