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- Australians in Action: Great Southern Star (Leongatha, Vic. : 1914 - 1918), Tuesday 16 November 1915, page 2
The following letter has been received by Mr R.E. McIndoe, junr., -from Private J. Huntingford.
I am just going to give you a bit of an idea of what it is like to be a soldier. The first thing youmust learn is to wash in about a tablespoonful of water about once a month, and not to take your clothes off for weeks at a time; you have to do without sleep and work like a navvy, and it is no use to go on strike when the Turks are having a shot at your old brain box. Then you have to learn to live on four biscuits and a tin of bully beef every 24 hours,
and a bottle of water, and then you will be a soldier of the King. I started from Egypt at about 10 o'clock at night, and we reached Alexandria at sunrise. We were then taken on board a transport, and it took three days to travel to Lemnos. We stopped there till it got dark, and then off we went to the Dardanelles,which we reached at daybreak.. We were then taken on a torpedo boat, and from that to a barge. Then the shrap-nel started, and it came down
like hailstones. We were then landed, the wounded sent back, and the-dead had to be taken off. We then got under a steep- cliff out of the shell fire and had our dinner. We were then shifted into another valley, and next day we had to go back and go aboard under the same suspense. We then went down to Cape Helles, and marched five miles with fixed bayonets. The whistle blew, and away we went like a lot of wild animals, and by the time the sun had set we had gained a mile. We then started digging the trenches and it is alright stand-ing up using pick and shovel while Jack the Turk is having apop shot at you. When you go into a charge you lose control of your head, and go mad if you like. All night we had to carry ammunition and water and keep the enemy off. It was a terrible sight; men wounded lying all night from about-four o'clock the previous day, and hundreds of men died for want of attention. Everywhere we walked it was "Stretcher-bearers wanted." They were all shot or wounded, so you can imagine the cries of the wounded I hope never to have to see it again, but I have seen four of such like. Men are of no consideration, and they are thought no more of than if you were knocking flies off a wall with a towel. When one gets knocked it is " Poor Bill stopped one." If he gets wounded it is "You are a lucky fellow, and hope you will be back soon." There are not many of our company left, that is the third-reinforcement. They are nearly all new men, especially the officers, and the snipers get very busy when they see stripes or stars. I had a week of it, and it is not much of a joke crawling about in the grass, as it is hard to say when a Turk is on the same mission and give you one. My coat has four holes through it. One through the shoulder straps that fasten on to the collar, and the two pockets were ripped open, but the one that hit my leg did not tear it, but simply took a slice off. I am at Malta at present, and what I can see of it from the window of the hospital it looks a pretty place and all the nurses are English. There is no sign of vegetation of any kind, and all the animals I have seen yet are goats and donkeys. The population of Malta is all strict Catholic, and only the soldiers that are here are of any other denomination.
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1891 - 1976 (84 years) Has 10 ancestors but no descendants in this family tree.
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