Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Letter from Geoffrey Surman to his sister (Mrs Barbara Brewster) and published in the Morwell Times;

"NEWS FROM OUR BOYS AT THE FRONT

We are indebted to Mr. J. Brewster for publication of the following, which is an extract of a very interesting letter received by his wife from her brother who had some thrilling escapes from being killed, and who is, at present, suffering front the effects of being struck by a piece of a shell whilst fighting at the Dardanelles.

Heliopolis, 9/5/'15 "You will have to excuse the writing of this as I am trying to write lying down, and it is very awkward. I am in hospital here and think I will be for some time, as I got rather a nasty crack on my back and it has crippled my legs a bit. We landed on Galipoli peninsula on Sunday at 6 a.m, being the second to land. The Third Brigade was first and got a very lively time of it from the Turks. They had machine guns on the beach and were entrenched right down to the water's edge, and it was simply h - - l. They had the range to a yard and were using shrapnell all the time. I got a sharp-nosed bullet in my little finger, which smashed it up a bit, but it is healing nicely now and doctor says it will not leave a mark. Just after that a shell burst right over me and a bullet hit me on the head. They all thought that I was killed, but it did not stop me. Shortly afterwards another bullet knocked my hat off and just grazed my skull (lucky I have a hard head) and that was all I got on Sunday, but it was quite sufficient.

On Monday, we had some very heavy fighting but managed to hold our own although they got a lot of us. On Tuesday, it was just the same, but we had our guns up then and gave the enemy fits. At 5 p.m. I had just left the firing to get something to eat when a shell burst over me and a piece of casing about four inches long hit me on the back and knocked me out. I thought my turn had come. Luckily, I had my haversack on, and that saved me, otherwise I would have been cut in half. I was carried down to the beach, put on a transport, and brought here. When they were taking me down, the enemy were shelling the beach and a bullet which got me in the leg went right through my putties and broke the skin and burnt me at bit. I am nearly right again now except for the bruises. We are very well cared for as there are a lot of Australian nurses here, and visitors are continually bringing us flowers, cigarettes, papers, etc. We had a concert here last night, and to-day a Y.M.C.A. secretary gave an address, which was exceptionally interest. I am able to get out of bed while it is being made, so I am getting on O.K. I would like to see the finish of it now that I have seen the start, but am very much afraid it will be a long time before they let me go. It just happened to be my luck to get knocked out on the very day on which I was to receive promotion." - from the Morwell Advertiser 16 Jul 1915 (nla.gov.au)