Trenching at Gallipoli: The personal narrative of a Newfoundlander with the ill-fated Dardanelles expeditionGallishaw, John
History
Trenching at Gallipoli: The personal narrative of a Newfoundlander with the ill-fated Dardanelles expedition
Gallishaw, John
World War, 1914-1918 -- Campaigns -- Turkey -- Gallipoli Peninsula; World War, 1914-1918 -- Personal narratives, Canadian
Before any one could be selected, Art Pratt and young Hayes made the
decision by jumping up, taking their picks and shovels, and vaulting
over the wall of the block house. They walked out to where the body
lay. It had been torn in pieces by a shell the previous afternoon. At
first a few bullets tore up little spurts of ground near the two men,
but as soon as they reached the body, this stopped. The Turks never
fired on burial parties; and men on the Peninsula, wounded by snipers,
tell strange stories of dark-skinned visitors who crept up to them
after dark, bound up their wounds, gave them water, and helped them to
within shouting distance of their own lines, where at daylight the
next morning their comrades found them. Once one of our batteries was
very near a dressing station when a stray shell, fired at the battery,
hit the dressing station. The Turkish observer heliographed over and
apologized. That is why we respected the Turk. When we tried to shoot
him, he chuckled to himself and sniped us from trees and dugouts; and
when we reviled him and threw tins of apricot jam at him, he gave
thanks to Allah, and ate the jam. The empty tins he filled with powder
and returned to us in the shape of bombs. Only once did he really
lose his temper. That was when under his very eyes we deliberately
undressed on his beach and disported ourselves in the Ægean Sea. Then
he sent over shells that shrieked at us to get out of his ocean. But
in his angriest moments he respected the Red Cross and never ill
treated our wounded. One chap, an Englishman, was wounded in the head
just as he reached the Turkish trench during a charge. The bullet went
in the side of his head, ruining both his eyes. He was captured as he
toppled over into the trench, was taken to Constantinople, well
treated in hospital there, and returned in the first batch of
exchanged prisoners. When I met him in Egypt, he had nothing but kind
words for the Turks. When the enemy saw the object of the little
expedition, they allowed Art and Hayes to proceed unmolested. We
watched them dig a grave beside the corpse; and when they had
finished, with a shovel they turned the body into it. Before doing it,
they searched the man for personal papers and took off his
identification disk. These bore the name, "Sergeant Golder, Fifth
Norfolk Regiment." That was in the last part of October; and since
August 10th not a word had been heard of the missing Norfolk
regiment. To this day, the whole affair remains a mystery. The
regiment disappeared as if the ground had swallowed them up. On the
King's Sandringham estate, families are still hoping against hope that
there may sometime come word that the men are prisoners in Turkey.
Neutral consuls in Constantinople have been appealed to, and have
taken the matter up with the Turkish Government. The most searching
inquiries have elicited nothing new. The answer has always been the
same. The Turkish authorities know no more about it than the English.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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