Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

WITH OUR BOYS. MORE LETTERS FROM THE FRONT.

"AGAINST THOSE TERRIBLE ODDS WE WON THE DAY."

Private W. A Latham, a son of Mr. S Latham, of Murgon, and a grandson of the late Mr John Stewart, of Bald Hills, has forwarded an interesting letter to friends in Brisbane. Private Latham has a brother and three cousins at the Front. He writes from Mena House Hospital, Cairo:-

I am just taking the opportunity of dropping you a few lines, as it is the only thing I can find to do to pass away the long dreary hours in hospital. My face all the time we were in Egypt would have put you in mind of a carpet snake, it was that scaly. It was no easy matter sitting down in your tent trying to write using your knee for a table, and very often about half a dozen of us writing around one table, and the rest of the chaps calling you all the names they could think of be- cause you wouldn't put the light out so that they could sleep. The names they called you wouldn't be found in the Bible, either. You don't know how a fellow longs for letters when you get so far away from the land of your birth, especially when there's a mighty big chance of you never seeing the old places again.

I don't know if you know that I have been wounded at the Dardanelles three weeks ago tomorrow. But before I tell you about it I will describe where we went after we left Egypt. It was to a small Island off the mainland of Greece-Lemnos' Island. It is one of the prettiest spots in tho world; I will come to our last day on the island - Saturday, April 24. At about 10 o'clock one of the destroyers came alongside our ship, the -----------. and took A and B Companies of the good old 9th on board, and then transferred us on to the cruiser. We got on board about 11.30, and shortly afterwards we set sail, bound for the Dardanelles or, I should say, Gallipoli.

After careful cruising we arrived within a few miles of our destination; this would be about 1 o'clock on Sunday morning, this never to be forgotten 25th. The next thing to be done was to get all the troops out into the lifeboats that were later to take them ashore. This work took some considerable time. At last they were all strung out waiting the signal to move. But no! It seemed that we must wait till the good old moon got clean out of sight. It was shining out most splendidly in all its glory as though nothing was about to happen out there but an awful lot happened before that moon shone out in all its glory again. About 3 o'clock it was quite dark, and we were off to force our landing on Gallipoli and to certain death for a lot of our fellows.

A glorious morning was breaking not a cloud to be seen in the sky. The silence was getting unbearable there wasn't a sound of a whisper to be heard anywhere, only the gentle lap lap of the water against the sides of our boats. If the Heads were never satisfied with the discipline our chaps used to show while in training, they had nothing whatever to complain of now when it was the real thing there was no such thing as smoking and striking matches. It was as calm as any one could have wished for.

We distinguished the land pointing out ahead but the strain on one's nerves was getting intolerable, still there wasn't a murmur from a solitary soul. By this time we were within half a mile of land and still everything was quite peaceful but I think the same thing was on every one's mind. How much longer will it be so? We got within a hundred yards of the shore and still never a shot was fired. On, on we went until the pinnace cast us off, and the lads on the oars were rowing for dear life, when pif! pir! bang! bang! they were at us and were quite helpless to defend ourselves. At last we got the order from our young lieutenant. Down oars boy s and get out of the boats and soon as you possibly can and for God's sake get under cover! The awful strain was over now with a cheer every man was under the sides of the boats and waist deep into the water, going for dear life away up the sides of the awful cliffs we had to climb to get near the enemy. On, on, we went always on.

There was no going back and no one thought of going back. It was on and up up these cliffs at all cost grabbing, at every shrub it was possible to get hold of to help one up, just stopping long enough to got one's wind, and then on, and on. The fire was something fearful by now; we would be about 50 yards up the cliff from the beach. It was nothing but a din and roar - men laughing one minute and swearing vengence on the first Turk they could get their bayonet into next as they saw a mate throw up his arms and roll over dead.

The bullets were simply raining on us like hail from a hailstorm. We were about 200 yards from the beach, when bang!' A bullet had gone right through my right thigh. On I went behind my lieutenant but the pain in my leg was getting awful. I couldn't walk, I could only crawl along, I went about 10 yards after being hit when I came to a very steep place so there was nothing else to do but to drop out of the fray without the pleasure of putting my rifle to my shoulder. I was knocked out of action in as many hours as I had waited months for.

It was still dark when I dropped out of action and I was the first man in my Platoon No C to be hit. I hadn't been knocked out long when the lads were to the top of the slopes. I could tell that yell anywhere-the good old yell of the boys in a bayonet charge. They captured many trenches on that memorable day. I can't tell you very much of what happened after daylight, only what I have been told by my mates. I had my leg dressed by one of our stretcher bearers and I lay in the one place for about five solid hours. The pain had my leg doubled right up, and I did not dare to move. The opposition we had to compete against included shrapnel, machine guns quickfirers Howitzers and artillery, and we only had the rifle and bayonet but against these terrible odds we won the day. In the early part of the morning the Navy had done wonders, amongst the Turks forts, putting most of them out of action in a few hours. The seaplanes also did great work among the enemy dropping bombs on them. I had to crawl back to the beach as the Field Ambulance would never have found me where I was lying. About a dozen men got knocked out only about a chain away from where I was lying and a bullet landed about 3 in from my head. So I thought to myself this is no good to yours truly. I'm going to make a move out of this. If I die in the attempt I made a start to crawl up slight gully that was a little way off. The engineers were working there making a place for stores and when they saw me crawling along two of them came down and carried me back to where they were working. I didn' t trouble very much by then what happened as I was getting weak from loss of blood. I went to sleep there and I was quite silly in the head when some Ambulance chaps woke me up to take me ashore.

On the hospital ship I don't remember anything after I had my wound dressed by the doctor till about 5 o'clock in the afternoon. I went to sleep and when I woke up there was a most terrific bombardment going on and the din was terrible. The cruisers were all firing their guns and at every shot our ship fairly quivered. We set sail for Alexandria about 6 o'clock. I can't speak highly enough of the treatment I have received at the hands of the doctors and nurses. I am doing splendidly now and I think I will be back in the firing line by the end of the month.

Brisbane Courier, Wednesday 26 January 1916, page 7