An eyewitness account of the first world war’s Gallipoli campaign
From a letter received by an Australian woman in London from a nurse in the Dardanelles:-
I am doing transport duty to Gaba Tepe,
where we take on wounded Australians and New Zealanders direct from the
field dressing stations. We take all the serious cases. The slightly
wounded and the medical cases are taken on minesweepers to where
troopships are used as hospitals. When they have a certain number of
cases they take them back to the hospitals in Egypt. It is a sad time
for us all, but you can be proud of being an Australian. Our men are
perfect dears at all times. They bear suffering and trouble without a
whimper and just die smiling. It breaks my heart to see them. I hear
to-night that the casualties to date are 12,000, and killed 4,000, but
that must include British also: but really I am not sure. Every place
here is full.
It’s a charming trip going up to Gallipoli.
We pass amongst little islands, and the sunsets and the twilights are
lovely. It’s all very charming until you come round - and the bursting
of shells, the cracking of machine guns, and rifle fire make you realise
what war is. All night long it never ceases. But we are so busy that
after a time one grows indifferent except when something unusual takes
place. The aeroplane flying over us gets an audience out on deck. We
take on most of our wounded at night. We are a mile out front the shore,
and trawlers tow them out on barges. They are under fire coming out. So
are we, for that matter, but the Turks are decent enough. What firing
takes place is at transport and ammunition ships which get near us, so
if we get hit it’s their fault, as they won’t keep away on a patch of
their own. Our captain often has to move when shells come rather too
close for comfort. We are very well fitted up, although rather cramped.
Still, the ship’s people are awfully kind and do all they can for our
comfort.
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