Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Fred Wright enlisted from Bathurst NSW during August 1914. He served at the Landing at Anzac Cove and his file says he was wounded in action on the 1 May 1915, (gunshot wounds to the lower extremities). He was evacuated to Egypt and sent home to Australia, medically unfit, during August 1915. He did have another go, enlisting again during May 1917, in the Light Horse and served in the Middle East until 1919. The following story appeared in a Bathurst newspaper in 1915.

WRIGHT'S STORY.

UNCONSCIOUS FOR SEVEN DAYS. GABA TEPE SCENES. HOW THE DEADLY SNIPER WORKS.

The memorable April 25 was on a Sunday. Private Fred Wright was wounded in one of the Turkish trenches on the following Monday, at about 4 in the afternoon. After the official reception yesterday, the returned soldier (who was formerly a cleaner on the railway) told his story with plain vividness, at the home of his grandfather, Mr. T. Gorman, Havannah Street, Bathurst. He belonged to A Company in the 4th Battalion, which was the last brigade to land at Gaba Tepe (Gaba Hill), they forming the reserves of the first division under the late Col. MacLaurin.

''There was heavy fighting all day Sunday, practically all bayonet work, and hardly any rifle fire on the part of the Australians. The men got going, and it was absolutely no use trying to hold them. I think myself that the leading men didn't realise the danger they were going into. But the men never complained. No matter how badly a man was hit, he would gasp, 'They've got me!' and lay still where he fell, or hop away quite cheerfully. I will say this, that the Turk is certainly a game and honest fighter. Big fellows some of them, they came at us in massed formation. We were considerably outnumbered. On Sunday, there were 75,000 Turks against our 20,000 men. But the order came to us, 'Hold out, men, whatever you do!' — and we kept at it. With bursting shrapnel overhead, bullets from all directions, and the booming of the battleships' guns, we became absolutely mad. For a man taking the offensive, especially with bayonets, is mad. He doesn't know his own mind. He has one object, and that is 'Kill!' As soon as he gets his first blood he is hungering for the next. ''We had advanced about six miles from the beach when I was wounded. I was on the parapet of a Turkish trench when some shrapnel lobbed close by. I felt a sting in my left ankle, and thought at first it was only a knock. But I had got a shrapnel bullet in the left ankle. For an hour I lay there while heavy fire continued. Then, with 12 or 13 others, I set out for the nearest dressing station — about three miles distant. We were within about 200 yards of the dressing station when a shell exploded right before us. From that time, I remember nothing clearly until I found myself in the Egyptian Government Hospital at Alexandria — seven days later. ''When I came to, I asked the nurse, 'How long have I been here?' She said, 'You came in yesterday.' The effect of the shell explosion must have disorganised my faculties. I was probably suffering from a sort of nervous concussion.'' Again, recalling the battle incidents, Private Wright told how, that in the mad rush after the landing, there had been no time for the Australians to build trenches. It was one wild bayonet charge, which the Turks would not face, and our men took cover in the Turkish trenches as they advanced. ''Turkish snipers— all crack shots —were everywhere, hidden in the gullies and ridges. The sniper digs himself in a hole just large enough to let his body in. It is usually under a clump of bushes. Nearly all the sniper's rifles are painted green to match with the vegetation. A sniper has been scented out, and found to have weeks and weeks food and ammunition supply in his dug-out. “The first Turk I got was getting away. To make sure of him, I got him in the back with the bayonet and a bullet.”

Extract from National Advocate (Bathurst, NSW) 16 September 1915.