A broomstick bomb during this morning provided an example of the scriptural warning that "the one shall be taken and the other left." Many of these bombs landed near the junction of three communication trenches. A notice had been put up: "Do not loiter here." Despite this the Pioneer Sergeant and two other men selected the spot for a rest and were sitting down—the Sergeant between the other two. A bomb was seen to rise from the opposite trenches. Unfortunately the sentry's warning was of little avail, the missile descending and exploding just in front of the reclining trio. From the cloud of black smoke emerged the Sergeant quite uninjured. His two companions were not so fortunate.
The fourth day of the month was one of alarms. At 9 a.m. "Jacko"—as the Turk was called—suddenly opened a heavy fire with all weapons. This was continued for some time and preparations were made to receive an attack. Nothing eventuated at the time, and after a while normal conditions were resumed. Late in the day Brigade Headquarters reported a considerable body of the enemy moving south from Anafarta, and ordered a state of readiness. The reserves stood by all night, but again the enemy failed to show himself and the tired troops returned to the bivouacs after daylight on the 5th.
Companies continued to relieve each other every six or seven days, but on the 4th October it was decided to relieve the whole Battalion. One company of the 25th Battalion arrived this day and took over from "B" Company, which proceeded to the lower portion of the Cheshire Ridge. On the following day the relief was completed. However, the Machine Gun Section, a mining party of 26 men, a trench mortar party, and a certain nucleus for each post, were left in the line to carry on the works and assist the Queenslanders. A platoon of "C" Company, under Lieut. R. C. Phillips, was sent to Canterbury Slope, and Major Welch's company was directed to remain in its old position as brigade reserve.
The 24 days in the crowded narrow limits of the Apex had considerably reduced the strength of the Battalion. By the end of September, 13 had been killed, 9 died of wounds, 46 were wounded, and 35 evacuated sick. The dead had been buried in the little cemeteries which had been arranged on one side of the Chailak Dere or down near the sea beach. For these the Battalion Pioneers made neat little wooden crosses which were placed to mark the head of each grave. The wounded were first attended to by the stretcher-bearers, who made use of the "first field dressing"—an antiseptic bandage which every man carried in a special pocket on the inside of the skirt of his jacket. More than one of the stretcher-bearers lost his life, or was sorely wounded, when bravely setting about this duty. The wounded were then taken to the Regimental Aid Post, where the Medical Officer patched them up temporarily. Afterwards they were conveyed in stretchers, or walked, to the nearest forward dressing station of the Army Medical Corps, and thence passed to a Casualty Clearing Station, where they remained until embarked on a hospital ship which took them to either Lemnos, Alexandria, or Malta.
As sickness accounted for more than one-third of the casualties in this short space of time, it may be as well to touch on the factors which affected the health of the individual. The climate in September, and early October, was similar to November weather in Western Australia. Thereafter it became cooler, with occasional falls of rain, up to the end of the eleventh month. This latter date marked the downward limit of the thermometer, and the subsequent weather was almost spring-like until the evacuation. On the whole the climate was not disagreeable to the man from the Antipodes, and even when he did find it a little too warm for comfort he met the situation by discarding his jacket and shirt and moving about with a sleeveless undervest as the sole covering for the upper part of his body. Occasionally he was seen garbed only in hat, shorts, and boots.
Another reason for being rid of every unnecessary garment was the prevalence of vermin. Whence they came nobody knew; but within a few days of landing on the soil very few men had escaped their attention. No effective arrangements for dealing with the pest were practicable, and the scarcity of water, with the consequent difficulty of securing changes of clothing, made the discomfort all the greater. A fortunate few argued amongst themselves as to whether the services to the Empire of a certain insect powder manufacturer had ever been adequately recognised. The soldier's relative who sent a cutting from the "West Australian's" agricultural column headed "The Vermin Board. Position of the Squatters" showed both an appreciation of the condition of the soldiery and the phase of strategy which the campaign had reached. And here may be retold the story of the exasperated man who interrupted a conversation by exclaiming, "The Kaiser! I wish he had two withered hands and my shirt!"
But the worst enemy was the fly. This fattened and multiplied on the filth which marked the ground the Turk had occupied, and on the unburied victims of the battle who tainted to nausea the atmosphere breathed by the garrisons in the elevated positions. Whatever precautions against them it was possible to take were adopted, but the scarcity of sheet iron and timber, and the restricted space, rendered these of little avail. The water supply was not materially affected, as most of this was Nile water, properly filtered, and brought to the shore in tank barges by the Navy. But the flies, in such numbers and with such enterprise as had never before been witnessed by the most travelled bushman, could not be kept out of the food. Diarrhœa and dysentery quickly affected the Australians. Little effective relief was at hand. Castor-oil alleviated it temporarily, and this was consumed in such quantities that, one war correspondent has said, it threatened to become the Australians' national drink! Typhoid, and what was described as paratyphoid, fevers followed these maladies. Later came jaundice in epidemic form. In addition, rheumatism, pneumonia, and heavy colds, made their levy.
SERGEANT C. R. FIELD.
The First N.C.O. to gain a Commission in the Field. Afterwards Captain
and Adjutant of 2nd Machine Gun Battalion. Twice mentioned in Despatches.[ToList]