LEMNOS ISLAND.
The crowded "Osmanieh" left the anchorage opposite Anzac early in the morning of the 13th December. Removed, for the time being, from the everlasting noise and risk of battle, feeling also that the morrow would bring real rest and a life of comparative ease, the troops slept well in spite of their uncomfortable surroundings.
After daylight the transport entered Mudros Bay and before noon the disembarkation had been carried out at a pier near the northern end of Port Mudros.
The Battalion formed up and then moved off by a military road, made by Turkish prisoners of war, which ran through the lines of the 2nd Australian Stationary Hospital, the 3rd Australian General Hospital, and a Canadian General Hospital, all of which were accommodated in marquees. The staffs, and some of the patients, of these establishments stood by the roadside as the new arrivals passed. Many friends and acquaintances were recognised and the C.O. of the 2nd Stationary Hospital (Major G. W. Barber) invited the officers of the Battalion staff to a dinner, to be held the following evening, to mark the first anniversary of the medical unit's departure from Australia.
Seen on the line of march for the first time for over three months, the Battalion presented a sorry spectacle as compared with that witnessed when it left Heliopolis on the 3rd September. Equipment fitted anyhow and clothes were torn and stained. Few hats remained, their place being taken by caps of various sorts and even woollen comforters. But the most pitiful feature was the appearance of the men themselves. Emaciated bodies, colourless faces, and lack-lustre eyes, revealed the effects of the privations undergone, the continuous exposure to shell fire, and—most of all—the inroads of disease.
The route the Battalion now followed led around a shallow inlet of the sea to a camp near the little village of Sarpi. The distance was little more than three miles in all, but so weak were the majority of the men that they could not carry their packs and at the same time keep their positions in the ranks. The camp site was eventually approached in a kind of skirmishing formation of many lines. Numbers of men had fallen out on the way—catching up again as best they could—whilst some, game to the end on the Peninsula, had at last to give in and were handed over to hospitals on passing through.
It was understood that the halt at Sarpi would be only temporary. The area belonged to the 1st Division and was already occupied by the 3rd Brigade. Communication was very soon established with the members of the 11th Battalion—notwithstanding the fact that they were in quarantine on account of an outbreak of measles.
The accommodation in the camps was that furnished by tents only. In this instance they were not very plentiful at the moment and a good proportion of the men had to sleep out in the open. However, the air was still warm and another mild hardship at this stage was neither here nor there.
Having noticed a large canteen near the landing pier, the C.O. decided that the Battalion's long divorce from good ale might reasonably, and with great advantage, be brought to a close. Transport was the difficulty. The canteen was over three miles away and the unit possessed neither horse nor cart. Recourse was had to an officer of considerable powers of initiative who, in civil life, held a master mariner's certificate. He knew little about horses but a saddled one was borrowed from the 3rd Brigade and given to him with instructions to purchase the beer and bring it back to camp. He disappeared at a gallop over the skyline and returned about two hours later with a wagon load of full barrels. He had discovered a detachment of the Royal Army Service Corps and, posing as an orderly officer or a.d.c., had told its officer a distressing story of a brigadier who for several hours had been separated from his personal baggage. The arrival of the wagon was greeted with cheers and after its load was taken off, the men came up and gazed reverently on the barrels until they were tapped and the contents distributed.
Lieut.-Colonel G. H. Ferguson now being temporarily in command of the Brigade, Major C. R. Davies was detached to succeed him in command of the 26th Battalion.