True Stories of the Great War, Volume 6 (of 6): Tales of Adventure--Heroic Deeds--Exploits Told by the Soldiers, Officers, Nurses, Diplomats, Eye Witnesses
History
True Stories of the Great War, Volume 6 (of 6): Tales of Adventure--Heroic Deeds--Exploits Told by the Soldiers, Officers, Nurses, Diplomats, Eye Witnesses
World War, 1914-1918 -- Personal narratives
We often dreamt and spoke of the day when we should march out of
Torgau. There were two destinations only which came within the range
of our contemplation--one was Berlin, and the other was England.
Meanwhile, however, there was a place of four short letters which was
to be our home for six long months.
(The chaplain continues to relate his experiences in this German prison
with many interesting anecdotes. He tells about the prison occupations,
how they spent their time in work and recreation, and describes his
parole and visits to several internment camps.)
FOOTNOTE:
[9] All numerals relate to stories herein told--not to chapters from
original sources.
"AT SUVLA BAY"--THE WAR AGAINST THE TURKS
_Adventures on the Blue Aegean Shores_
_Told by John Hargrave, the Famous Scoutmaster in the Mediterranean
Expeditionary Forces_
John Hargrave is known throughout England as "White Fox," the
famous scoutmaster. On September 8th, 1914, he said farewell to
his little camp in the beechwoods of Buckinghamshire and to his
woodcraft scouts and went off to enlist in the Royal Army Medical
Corps. He was assigned to the 32nd Field Ambulance, X Division,
Mediterranean Expeditionary Forces, and sailed away to Suvla Bay,
where he passed through the tragic scenes of the Dardanelles
Campaign. He soon began sending stories "back home," achieving for
the Gallipoli Campaign what Ian Hay did for the Western Front.
These stories have been collected into a volume entitled: "At
Suvla Bay," which is published in America by _Houghton, Mifflin
and Company_. There are twenty-eight narratives told in the jargon
of the common soldier. He tells about its being "A Long Way to
Tipperary"; "Mediterranean Nights"; "Marooned on Lemnos Island";
"The Adventure of the White Pack Mule"; "The Sniper of Pear-Tree
Gulley"; "The Adventure of the Lost Squads"; "Dug-Out Yarns"; "The
Sharpshooters"; and many other incidents of Army life. One of his
narratives, "Jhill-O! Johnnie!" is here retold by permission of his
publishers.
I--STORY OF THE INDIAN PACK MULE CORPS
One evening the colonel sent me from our dugout near the Salt Lake to
"A" Beach to make a report on the water supply which was pumped ashore
from the tank-boats. I trudged along the sandy shore. At one spot I
remember the carcass of a mule washed up by the tide, the flesh rotted
and sodden, and here and there a yellow rib bursting through the skin.
Its head floated in the water and nodded to and fro with a most uncanny
motion with every ripple of the bay.
The wet season was coming on, and the chill winds went through my
khaki drill uniform. The sky was overcast, and the bay, generally a
kaleidoscope of Eastern blues and greens, was dull and gray.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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