Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Lance-Corporal Timcke, of Payneham, had the unenviable experience of lying wounded out in the open with two bullet wounds in one leg and six shrapnel wounds in the other leg, head, and body. He told his own story as a member of the famous 10th, whose deeds will live in history.

The Covering Party.

"I was with B Company. We trained very hard at Mena, and then went to Lemnos Island for two months. On April 24 we left. Two companies out of the 9th, 10th, and 11th Battalions were selected to form a covering party for the attack on the shores of Gallipoli. They boarded the Prince of Wales, and were landed about 4 a.m. The ship took us as close as it could, and then we entered the boats which carried about 18 passengers. We were towed ashore by pinnaces. It was still dark, although the darkness was lifting and the outlines of the precipitous cliffs could dimly be discerned. We knew that we had been spotted, for when unloading from the boats we saw a reddish flare set going on shore, which burned for what seemed like 10 minutes.

A Terrific Fusillade.

Nothing happened, however, till we were within 100 yards of the shore, and the pinnace had cast off, leaving us to row the rest of the way. Then a terrific fire from machine guns and rifles was opened, but it was awfully erratic, or else few of the first loads would have lived through it. We had ammunition, but did not load, as it was useless to fire in the dark. Nearing the shore the men jumped into the sea, and shortly after they gathered on the sand under the cliff, fixed bayonets, and charged like demons up the slope. The fitst cliff was about 50 ft. high, with machine gnus on the top. We chased the Turks, who opposed us up the hill, but they never waited very long for us. We had captured the crest before daylight broke, and with the break of day we were able to use our rifles. There was a heavy interchange on both sides, but we kept advancing in short rushes.

The Deadly Sniper.

Our greatest trouble in the advance was the sniper. It did not matter which way we went there was some of him on every side. We had advanced a mile when I got a bullet through the calf of my left leg and another one through the ankle. I started to crawl back to the beach, but shrapnel had been brought into action in the meantime, and on the way I got scarified with a scattering shot which wounded me in six places on the head, body, and right leg. I am fairly well again now, except for the wound on the head and the effect of the shrapnel on the bone of my right leg. The shrapnel wounds were the finish as far as I was concerned. I lay there for 36 hours, wondering sometimes where the best bullet would catch me, and at times unconscious. Fortunately I had my water bottle, and I bound up my wounds as well as I could. I still had my rifle with me, and on Sunday I fired several rounds whenever I located one of the enemy in the scrub. Finally I was rescued by the Red Cross men, and I reached hospital safely.

Who Threw That Rock?

The Australians have made themselves' famous forever as fighters by that glorious charge, the reporter remarked. "Yes, the boys were brave," said the lance-corporal. "and none of them showed the white feather. They won the admiration of the English officers, who said, The Australians are the finest soldiers in the world; but, oh! the language. The wounded soldier laughed heartily at this tribute to the vocabulary of expletives. He said:—

"The Indians were quick to recognise the dauntless bravery of the Australians, and they made the comparison, When they see a shell coming the Tommies duck their heads; the Australians stand up and say, 'Who threw that rock?' The covering party which landed first was in a sense luckier than those who landed later in daylight, for by that time the boats had become the objective of shrapnel, which fell round them like hail. In some cases only two or three out of a boatload got safely to shore." "No," he concluded, "I can't say how the enemy fared at my hands, but I know that my bayonet was dirtied. It's a great game soldiering till you get hit; but that takes some of the sting out of you."

http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article105484016

From the Messenger East - January 2015.

My maternal grandfather served in WW1 at Gallipoli. His name was Carl TIMCKE and he joined the 10th battalion and his service number was 192. He was among the first to land at Gallipoli that first morning. Details about what happened to him next are a bit sketchy but I believe he got off the beach and into the hills and gullies and at some stage in the next few hours he was shot four times ( a head wound, torso wound, leg wound and a foot wound) and lay wounded in no-mans land until he was discovered some days later by a passing Australian patrol. He was asked how long he had been out where he lay and he said he couldn't remember but did recall it rained at some stage. Apparently that was three days before he was found. He was carried back to the beach where his wounds were attended to but his fighting days were over. He returned to Australia on the first hospital ship and he recuperated at the Keswick army hospital. It was his foot wound that had him classified as medically unfit and he never saw service again, definitely a 'million dollar' wound. If he had survived that first morning, who knows what might have happened to him during the whole Gallipoli campaign and if he had survived that, he would have gone to the Western front and his chances of surviving there would have been very low. Once he had recovered from his injuries back home, he married my grandmother and he fathered three children, the eldest being my mother. Another interesting fact was that he help set up the R.S.L. here in Adelaide. Even though he was discharged from the hospital, supposedly recovered from his injuries, he never totally recovered and he died in 1924 and the injuries he received would have been a contributing factor in his death.