Letter · 9 Nov 1915 · Manchester, Great Britain and Ireland
Lucky escapes
He was awarded the military medal for the following action: London Gazette, 17 April 1917, p3700] 'At Bois Grenier on the morning of the 21st February during the raid by the 2nd Auckland Battalion this NCO in the face of heavy shelling effected the repair of his mortar and was thus able to keep it in action during the whole period of the raid, as a defective rifle mechanism required constant adjustment he set a splendid example to the rest of the detachment by his courage and fearlessness under heavy fire.'
Extracts from this letter
"At 4.30 on August 6th all guns were to bombard Lone Pine until 5.30pm and then the First Brigade Australian Infantry were to charge. The wire was only 60 yards in front of our observing post and we got it all down except a bit in dead ground. At 4.30 all guns opened fire... I was watching the effect when a shell topped our sand bags, smashed my periscope, and knocked it out of my hands. As I was stooping down to pick up another a second shell smashed into our station and blew our walls to pieces. We had to crawl out from under the stattered [scattered] bags and sand..."
"Our trenches were full of gay Infantry waiting to charge so the Turks turned their guns on to us wholesale and played havoc with our trenches. Two men next to me were knocked out but I [was] still missed. The first Brigade charged at 5.30, and it was a grand sight. They got across the open space alright but before they could get into the covered trenches the enemy shrapnel got them and mowed them down. It takes a lot to stop of boys of Anzac and fresh lines of men were still going across when the black smoke from bursting shells blotted everything out as soon as our lads were a few yards from our trenches. I was kept busy all that night running between our post and the Brigade Headquarters..."
"Some of the trenches were blocked with our own wounded, in others the dead Turks lay 4 deep and we had to walk on top of them..."
"Words fail to describe the stench, flies and heat."
