Trooper Bluegum at the Dardanelles: Descriptive Narratives of the More Desperate Engagements on the Gallipoli PeninsulaHogue, Oliver
History
Trooper Bluegum at the Dardanelles: Descriptive Narratives of the More Desperate Engagements on the Gallipoli Peninsula
Hogue, Oliver
World War, 1914-1918 -- Campaigns -- Turkey -- Gallipoli Peninsula; World War, 1914-1918 -- Personal narratives, Australian
Another chap with his tunic all clotted with blood and his head in a
bandage here interpolated: "Say, you needn't fear the Turks' shooting.
It's safer to be in the firing-line than in the reserves. But look
out for those machine-guns; they spit death at you at the rate of ten
a second. Also, keep your eyes open for the snipers. We drove them
back for miles behind Sari Bair, but there were snipers everywhere.
They never minded being killed so long as they could pick off a few
officers. One black devil shot our captain at only fifty yards. Five of
us got to him, and gave him just what Brutus, Cassius, Casca and the
rest gave Julius Cæsar."
"We fought them for three days after landing," said a big bushman in
the 2nd Brigade, "and they made about a dozen counter-attacks. But
when we had a chance of sitting down and letting them charge us it
was dead easy--just like money from home. They never got near enough
to sample the bayonets again. But on the 27th they tried to get all
over us. They let the artillery work overtime, and we suffered a
bit from the shrapnel. The noise was deafening. Suddenly it ceased,
and a new Turkish division was launched at us. This was just before
breakfast. There is no doubt about the bravery of the Turks. But we
were comfortably entrenched, and it was their turn to advance in the
open. We pumped lead into them till our rifles were too hot to hold.
Time and again they came on, and each time we sent them about their
business. At three o'clock we got tired of slaughtering them that way,
so we left our little home in the trench and went after them again with
the bayonet."
"Say, what do you think of 'Big Lizzie'?" asked another
blood-bespattered Cornstalk. "Ain't she the dizzy limit?"
Is it necessary to explain that this was the affectionate way our
fellows alluded to the super-Dreadnought _Queen Elizabeth_? The
soldier continued: "All the while our transports were landing, 'Big
Lizzie' just glided up and down like an old hen watching her chickens.
Every now and then the Turkish destroyers from Nagara tried to cut in
and smash up the transports. But the moment 'Lizzie' got a move on they
skedaddled. One ship was just a bit slow. Didn't know that 'Big Liz'
could hit ten miles off. Shell landed fair amidships, and it was good
night, nurse."
One of the 9th Battalion (Queenslanders, under Colonel Lee) chipped
in here: "Ever tried wading through barbed wire and water with maxims
zipping all round you?"
This pertinent question explained the severe losses of the 3rd Brigade.
The landing was effected simultaneously at several points on the
peninsula, but one spot was a hornet's nest and they started to sting
when the Australians reached the beach. A couple of boats were upset
and several sailors and soldiers killed. Others dashing into the
shallow water were caught in the barbed wire.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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