The 28th: A Record of War Service in the Australian Imperial Force, 1915-19 Part 13

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 skirmis.h.i.+ng 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 pa.s.sing 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 hards.h.i.+p 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.

On the 15th December the Battalion moved down the western side of the bay to a locality termed "Z Valley"--near the entrance to the harbour.

The adjacent area was now known as "South Camp" and was destined for occupation by the 2nd Division.

Tents were pitched and a neat little camp soon made its appearance. Some difficulty was encountered in making the floors of the tents comfortable. There existed a superabundance of stones of the size of emu eggs which had first to be removed. These also littered the parade ground s.p.a.ces and large parties had to be set to work clearing them up before exercises could be commenced. Water was scarce and the supply had to be augmented by sinking wells which later yielded a fair return.

Other camps appeared as units continued to arrive from the Peninsula.

The 25th Battalion marched in on the 18th, and on the 20th Colonel Paton rejoined the Brigade, bringing the surprising intelligence that the evacuation had been completed with the loss of scarcely a single man. That evening the survivors of the Machine Gun Section appeared and were heartily welcomed, the more so as they had been given up for lost.

During the first two or three days after arrival at Z Valley little but absolutely necessary work was performed. The men were allowed to rest.

Many of them went down to the adjacent beach and bathed, or sat down on the rocks and ate large quant.i.ties of oranges and chocolates purchased from Greek boatmen.

As soon as the Ordnance branch of the army had established itself near-by, the process of refitting was commenced. However, supplies were short and not even the demands for bare necessaries could be fully met.

Nevertheless, the Battalion was able to change and wash its clothes, cut its hair, and indulge in a daily shave.

At this period the 28th had been long enough on service to begin to appreciate the axiom "We are here to-day and gone tomorrow." No sooner had the members settled down in their new camp then they began to ask themselves "How long shall we be here?" and "Where are we going to?"

They knew that the evacuation of Anzac was merely the end of a phase of the war. They were anxious as to how the news would be received at home and hoped that it would not cause the people of Australia to be despondent. They speculated on a possible return to Gallipoli--now that it was discovered that h.e.l.les was being held. They considered Salonika once more; dealt with the rumours of unrest in Egypt and the threat of another Turkish attempt on the Ca.n.a.l; and, finally, discussed the campaign on the Western Front where troops lived in billets, got good food in quant.i.ty, and now and then received leave to go home.

The 28th left Gallipoli with a strength of 25 officers and 660 other ranks. It had been thirteen weeks under fire and, although not taking part in any "stunt," had held the line in such a manner as to add considerably to its prestige and earn the reputation of being a solid battalion. This duty had been carried out at a cost of 50 dead, 84 wounded, and 355 evacuated through disease.

The discipline had been excellent and, where all had behaved and done their work so well, it was difficult to discriminate between one individual and another. Nevertheless, in response to the inquiries of the Divisional Commander, the following were selected for special mention: Major A. W. Leane, Captain J. Kenny, A.A.M.C., Sergt. W. T.

Dawson, Lance-Sergt. G. M. Hammond, Corporal A. Jerry, Lance-Corporal A.

W. Curran, and Privates H. A. Franco and D. McAuliffe. Four of those so named were subsequently awarded the Military Medal "for bravery in the field."

The condition of the Battalion on arrival at Lemnos Island was such that it was almost totally unfit to take the field again without being reinforced, refitted, and the _personnel_ given an opportunity of regaining its normal health and strength. Inquiries as to reinforcements resulted in 72 men arriving, on the 29th December, from details camped on the island. Fifteen of these were individuals rejoining after sickness, etc. Larger numbers, it was understood, were being trained in Egypt.

The health began to improve with the rest the members now received, the better quality and variety of food supplied, and the inst.i.tution of a graduated system of physical exercises, drill, and marches, intended to re-invigorate their mental and physical faculties. Within a fortnight the effect was most noticeable. Colour came to the faces, the bodies filled out, and individuals moved with an alertness strikingly different from that when landing on the sh.o.r.es of the bay.

The second morning after arriving at Z Valley, the a.s.sistant Director of Medical Services of the Division attended at the "sick parade." Being a very humane man, he was concerned at the appearance of the soldiers present and told them that they ought all to be in hospital. This thought was attractive. The vision, obtained a few days before, of real beds and clean white sheets, combined with the prospect of being waited on by the comely nurses of the Australian and Canadian services, could only have one result. On the following sick parade the attendance was trebled. But disappointment followed. The A.D.M.S. was not about, and a far-seeing regimental medical officer p.r.o.nounced his verdict--"Medicine and duty"--on all but a few.

The drill exercises commenced with the squad formations, and here arose the rather ludicrous situation of N.C.Os. not being able to describe the movements required. This was brought about by the promotion on the Peninsula of men who fulfilled the requirements there and got things done by giving orders in a few terse phrases of their own coining, but had never handled a section on parade or seen inside the cover of a text-book. The position was aggravated by many of the officers being "rusty" themselves and not having books of reference handy. However, the difficulty was got over by forming a cla.s.s of instruction in each company, and the desired result was obtained in a few days. Five hours daily were given to parades and a half-holiday observed on Wednesdays and Sat.u.r.days.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE CAMP AT SARPI, Lemnos Island.

_Photo. lent by Lieut. H. V. Woods._]

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE s.h.i.+PPING IN MUDROS BAY, 1915.

_Photo. lent by M. Rene de Marigny, Paris._]

Although cold winds blew occasionally, and rain fell intermittently, the climate of the island was not unpleasant at this time of the year.

Members of the Battalion, in their leisure hours, visited the neighbouring villages of Portianos, Mudros, and Kondia, although this latter place was subsequently placed out of bounds owing to an outbreak of typhoid fever amongst the inhabitants. At Portianos occurred one of those incidents the like of which is not altogether foreign to army life--even in peace time. A solitary Australian encountered a "Tommy"

town picquet commanded by a tyrannical corporal. For a breach of certain orders, of the existence of which he was unaware, the Australian was rather roughly abused and handled by the picquet. Retiring discomfited from the scene he met several of his countrymen. A brief conference was followed by a return to the village and resulted in a very successful "clean-up" of the original aggressors.

Some men walked considerable distances and penetrated to the western side where is situated the princ.i.p.al town, Kastro--a place of some 3,000 inhabitants. Here they were able to inspect the Genoese fortress which stands on a rocky peninsula and has an eminence of some 400 feet above the sea. Souvenirs were obtained in the form of small roundshot from the ancient cannon which formerly surmounted the walls.

Lemnos has an area of some 175 square miles and, before the war, boasted of a population of some 27,000, of which number 3,000 or 4,000 were Turks, and the remainder Greeks. In ancient times, it was part of the Athenian Empire. The 15th Century saw it occupied by the Turks, in whose possession it remained practically up to the close of the Balkan War of 1913. On the outbreak of hostilities in 1914, the question of owners.h.i.+p was still under consideration by the Great Powers, but early in 1915 the Greek Premier, Venizelos, offered the island to the Allies as an intermediate base for their operations in the Eastern Mediterranean.

The island has many rugged barren hills--the highest near to where the Australians were camped being Mt. Therma, which attained to 1,130 feet.

In wandering about the valleys and villages, the West Australians noted the quiet demeanour of the inhabitants. The males had a somewhat brigandish appearance in their dress of top boots, divided skirts, sheepskin coats, and astrakan caps. With so many strangers about, it would seem that great care was taken of the younger women. Very few of those between the ages of 16 and 30 were seen. The few that were visible had rather fine eyes, but otherwise were quite unattractive. Their usual dress was European, but made up of cheap prints with a shawl or coloured material tied round their heads as a covering.

The houses are square-built of stone, with no verandahs and little window balconies in some of those of two stories. In a few cases, the exterior walls were plastered and whitewashed or else painted with colour of a violent blue. The windows and doors are small and the rooms scarcely high enough to permit of one standing upright. The building stone is granitic and of several colours, which, combined with the tint of the moss on the roof tiles, gives an unusual effect to the general appearance of the dwellings. In Kastro, the streets are of the width of a Perth right-of-way and have shops on either side. These business houses vary in size from half that of a street coffee stall to the dimensions of the little grocery shops on the corners in our suburbs.

Here, besides fruit, might be bought a lot of cheaply made English and German goods at prohibitive prices. Local wine and brandy were procurable, also "Black and White" whiskey, which had been made in Greece and bore a spurious label. This last was brought under the notice of the military police, who compelled its withdrawal.

The products of the island seemed to be grapes and a few other fruits, walnuts, wheat, barley, and a little cotton. Poultry were reared in some numbers, and the eggs mainly went to the monasteries on the mainland, at Mt. Athos, where the rules of the Order resident there forbade the admission of females of any species. At one time the authorities on the island derived a considerable revenue from the sale and export of a certain red earth which, with much religious ceremony, was dug out at stated times of the year and sealed in small packets. This, applied internally and externally, was regarded as an antidote to poison and a cure for snake bite.

A few flocks of long-wooled sheep roamed the hillsides. Many of these were black. For tilling, primitive wooden ploughs, fitted with an iron share, were used. These were drawn by oxen or, sometimes, by an ox and a donkey, both animals usually in a very decrepit condition. The ordinary means of conveyance was a curious old covered cart--also drawn by donkeys.

Dotted about on the lower hills were windmills, with long wooden arms, carrying the sails. The internal fittings and cog wheels were also wood.

These mills were used for grinding the corn that was not exported to the mainland.

The island seemed to be well watered. One or two streams ran into the Bay, and springs were plentiful. Some of these latter were built over and provided with appliances for filling the carrying vessels. The villages also had their wells, but the water in these was reported to be polluted and to be the cause of outbreaks of fever.

There was almost a complete absence of trees, the natives having to secure their fuel from the neighbouring islands. Animal life seemed to consist of black and grey crows, jackdaws, a few hares, and moles, whose mounds were numerous.

Like unto Egypt, each little village on the island had its cafes, where the menfolk gathered and drank the thick sweet coffee. The 28th men frequented these when desiring a rest in their walks. Sometimes they visited the Greek churches--mostly old places, whitewashed, poorly furnished, and with a good deal of tawdry decoration in the way of pictures and tinsel. To the building at Portianos was an annexe half filled with human skulls and leg and arm bones. Some of these were ranged on shelves, whilst others were tied up in cloths, like bundles for the laundry. The general impression was that these were the remains of victims of Turkish ma.s.sacres, but close inquiry revealed the fact that they were the relics of the priests of the church--the custom being to disinter the bones from the cemetery three years after the burial of the body.

But the excursion most in favour with the Australian was to the hot springs, on the slope of Mt. Therma. Round these had been built a rest house. The springs fed into two marble baths about three feet deep and six feet long. The water left the rocks at a temperature of 100 degrees Fahrenheit, and to the man who had not had a decent wash for nearly four months, the opportunity was revelled in. They used the baths in twos and threes, covered themselves in soap and washed it off, and repeated the process until the proprietor of the establishment knocked loudly at the door to announce that other customers were waiting.

The harbour and bay at this time presented a spectacle not likely to be again seen by many Australians. In addition to portions of the Allied navies, and smaller vessels such as trawlers, there were a.s.sembled some 13 hospital s.h.i.+ps and at least 70 transports of 4,000 tons and over.

Besides these, during the stay of the Battalion on the island, there arrived the "Aquitania" (45,600 tons), "Mauretania" (31,900 tons), and "Britannic" (50,000 tons), the latter vessel seeming to almost fill the entrance to the harbour as she steamed slowly in.

Christmas Day was now approaching, and preparations for making the season as enjoyable as possible were taken in hand. Tents were decorated and the ground around laid out in designs formed with the aid of the stones from the sea beach. A compet.i.tion had been arranged and prizes were given for the parties securing the best results. One man constructed from the soil some models of kangaroos and swans. A supply of beer was ordered from the Canteen, and a consignment of Swallow & Ariell's tinned plum puddings having been received were issued in the proportion of one tin to every two men.

On the afternoon of the 24th December arrived the "Christmas Billies."

These were two-quart cans which had been filled with comforts by the people of Australia and despatched for the use of the troops. Each can contained a card whereon the sender had written a seasonable greeting.

By a touch of irony, painted on the outside of the receptacle was a representation of an Australian kicking a Turk off the Peninsula.

Beneath was inscribed a line from "Dryblower's" well known song, "This bit of the world belongs to us." The contents of the "billies" covered a fairly wide range of articles, and an inventory made of one gave the following result:--

1 tin shortbread.

1 tin cheese.

1 tin tobacco.

1 pack playing cards.

1 corkscrew.

1 mouth organ.

Safety pins.

1 piece soap.

1 tube toothpaste.

1 toothbrush.

1 packet prunes.

1 packet boracic acid.

1 writing pad with envelopes.