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
Sergeant Brennan, who used to be in the Dublin Fusiliers, and whose
camp kitchens at Liverpool have often been admired by Sydney visitors,
was in charge of the cooks and dixies of the 7th Light Horse. Every
morning, breakfast over, he took down his rifle, strolled across to
the trenches, and had innumerable duels with Turkish snipers. He had
the range of all their trenches, and when he saw a sniper's "posey"
he blazed away till he silenced the enemy. Now and then an unwary Turk
showed half a head, and this Irish sharpshooter was on to him like a
shot. Some days he would come back to camp angry and disappointed.
"Thirty shots and not a single scalp," he exclaimed, kicking aside some
innocent mess tin. But at other times he stalked back as if he had won
the battle of Anzac "on his own." "Killed three Turkeys," he cried. And
then he was as happy as Larry all day.
But there was one man in the 5th Light Horse Regiment whom we called
"The Murderer." He played the Turks at their own game, and beat them
badly. He himself admitted it was "a shame to take the money." He used
to sit with his rifle set at a certain track which the enemy thought
was well concealed behind the hills. His mate had a telescope, and
spotted for him. They waited till they saw a head appear, and they knew
that three seconds later a Turk would be in full view for two seconds.
That was quite enough. "The Murderer" was ready. The spotter said
"Right"; the rifle fired, and another victim of German "kultur" fell.
The man's name was Billy Sing, a Queenslander, belonging to "Midgley's
Myrmidons." The 5th Light Horse Regiment was nominally composed of
Queenslanders; but the North Coast rivers of New South Wales were
included in the 1st Commonwealth Military District. A great many men
from the Tweed, Richmond, and Clarence Rivers enlisted in Brisbane.
This was particularly true of the 5th Light Horse, for the majority
of Major Midgley's squadron hailed from Northern New South Wales.
They revelled in the exploits of the gallant little Major, swearing
to follow him anywhere, so we called them Midgley's Myrmidons. If he
were casually to remark, "Come on, boys, I think we'll take Achi Baba
to-night," not one of them would have hesitated an instant. Major
Midgley reckoned that since the glorious game of War degenerated into
a battle of troglodytes, we might as well make it interesting and
diverting. So, in this particular section of our line of battle, things
were always happening. We never wanted for diversion. But this same
diversion was always at the expense of our friend the enemy, and poor
Abdul was correspondingly angry.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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