Chapter Nine
The beautiful face hovering before my eyes said something but no sound reached my ears and all I could do was smile like a drooling idiot at the angel who looked down at me with such concern. I willed myself to say something before this dream apparition disappeared like so may more before it. I tried to focus more on what the face looked like but it was beyond my strength but the bright light that burned behind this angel like a halo had me convinced that I was in heaven and I wanted to see my parents and friends. But my eyes were shutting and no matter how hard I fought to keep them open I was losing the battle I made one last desperate try but I lost and the shutters came down plunging me into darkness and despair. The next time I opened my eyes there was no angel standing there but I knew that I wasn’t in heaven because my hearing had returned and I could hear the screams and the moaning of the other wounded around me and it was like taking a trip to the furthest reaches of hell. I could not sit up so I glanced over to my right and looked at the figure that was lying in the bed there with its head and eyes bandaged I concentrated on the figure because it somehow seemed familiar. The person started wailing and I shit myself because the sound was not only scary but heart rending as well then a nurse came along and gave him something for the pain and he went quite. I glanced again and that’s when I knew where I had seen the shape of this man before it was my old pal Elijah Mack and then everything came flooding back the battle getting wounded the trip back to our lines being shot everything. I looked up at the crissed crossed steel springs above my head and realised that I was in the bottom tier of a bunk bed I saw the steel wall that Elijah was beside and realised that we were on a hospital ship. I knew as I had realised before that the angel I had first saw was just a nurse looking after me and I felt slightly cheated.
I tried to shout over to Elijah to ask him how he was but it came out as a terrible croak because my throat was raw and I had a terrible thirst and I tried to moisten my lips but I had no saliva in my mouth and my tongue was stuck to the roof of my mouth. I heard movement near to me and then a face appeared above me it was not my lovely angel but the face was kindly and compassionate. I focused on this apparition and saw that it was a nurse her starched apron and hat were a brilliant white colour and then she spoke. “Ah back in the land of the living are we how are you feeling?” To tell the truth I didn’t really know how I felt at the moment a little numb and more than a little sore but the pain had not really started again yet then I managed to croak. “Could I have some water please I am spitting bloody feathers here?” The face withdrew but it was back shortly with a small glass of water which she helped me drink and a good job otherwise I would have choked myself but it tasted marvellous. I was just about to ask her to tell Elijah that I was in the next bunk when she said. “Try not to talk too much yet I will go and fetch the doctor he wanted to be told when you woke up again”, and she disappeared from my line of sight. A kindly old face now came into my line of sight and I took this to be the doctor as he said. “How are you lad feeling a bit better than when you arrived here no doubt?” He looked down at me with kindly eyes continuing. “The pain medication we are giving you must be working well otherwise you would be screaming like a lot of these other poor men.” He took hold of my wrist and pulled a large fob watch from his waistcoat pocket and proceeded to take my pulse. He said. “That’s fine young man nice and steady I must admit you had us a bit worried when you arrived I pulled a lot of scrap metal out of you and a couple of bullets it’s a wonder that you didn’t rattle like ironmongers cart”, and he smiled at his joke. He dropped my arm saying. “Right then I must be off there are other patients to see and we don’t want to tire you out you need all the rest you can get. The nurse will come back and change your dressings so its goodbye for the moment but I will see you later on”, and with this he moved out of my line of sight. I could hear him speaking to the nurse no doubt leaving instructions about me I stared up at the bed springs above my head and resolved to tell the nurse to let Elijah know I was here.
It was about an hour later when the nurse came back to change my dressings and it all went well until she came to the one covering the wound in my groin and I blushed like a beetroot and stammered out that I thought the dressing would be alright and didn’t need changing. The nurse looked at me and said. “Nonsense it has to be changed or you would soon be in trouble and there is nothing you have down there that I haven’t seen before”, and with this she went about changing the dressing. She smiled at me and continued. “Oh lordy lordy and me nursing and married for ten years I’ve seen it all so there’s no need to blush on either your or my account I’m no wilting rose.” She finished the dressing off in no time and quite professional she was too but I was glad there was no stirring in that area from me and then she crushed my vanity by saying. “I don’t know why there was such a fuss about such a small thing”, and she pushed her trolley with the dirty dressings on it and waltzed away down the ward. I was a bit crestfallen and deflated by this remark and I wondered if Helen might feel the same when we were married. Then I thought well the girl in Egypt hadn’t complained she hadn’t laughed and said it was a ‘small thing’ and this eased my mind. Then I thought wait a minute she was a whore and wouldn’t complain anyway I scowled and thought sod you it doesn’t matter anyway. The trouble was that it did and it took me along time to chase the doubt from my mind but by that time it had ceased to matter anyway.
I shouted across the way. “Elijah it’s me Billy Boy I am over here on your left hand side how are you bearing up mate?” There was no response so I carried on. “I don’t remember anything after I got back near the trench can you tell me what happened after that?” The nurse appeared above me again and asked. “What’s all the noise about you can’t go about shouting in here there are other wounded souls who don’t need disturbing by you.” I replied. “I am sorry but that patient there is one of my best mates called Elijah Mack and I need to speak to him.” I explained about the battle and said I could remember everything up to leading him back and getting back in front of our trenches but I could remember anything hardly after that. She looked down at me and there was compassion in her gaze and she smoothed my hair and forehead with her hand saying. “He can’t answer you because the pain medication he is on makes him sleep a lot he needs quite and rest.” I jumped in replying. “He must be alright he just got a flash bang over his eyes that shouldn’t have done that much damage he is alright isn’t he?” She looked at me and shook her head looking a little apprehensive as she said. “No I’m afraid its much more serious than that you friend was hit by shrapnel and not only is his face badly scared he has lost his sight as well he was also shot through a lung and it was touch and go with him.” Elijah blind it echoed and re-echoed through my brain I could not believe this had happened to us and I started crying and the more I thought about the mates I had lost or who had been injured the worst the sobbing became. Because up until now it had been an adventure despite the squalor and filth of the peninsula I had taken everything in my stride and had put the same hard shell on as the others when dealing with things.
But here now led in this bed with clean sheets in relative comfort hearing the news about Elijah the one person I thought would surely survive this war unscathed brought everything crushing down on top of me. It was now I suddenly realised that big as I was I was still only sixteen years of age and all though I might show the maturity of a twenty year old it counted for nothing and the more this reverberated through my mind the louder and more abandoned my crying became. I sobbed for my mates who had been torn from their families forever and for the ones like Elijah who were terribly mutilated and wounded. I sobbed for my mother and father who I had lost at an early age but more than this I cried for myself and my lost youth and again I asked the question what am I doing here? The nurse tried to comfort me but it was useless the pent up emotions that had been held inside me for so long broke through and just like a dam breaking they flooded out. I probably would have cried myself to death heartbroken at what had happened had I not heard a voice from my left hand side say. “This bloke who’s crying bears no comparison to my mate Billy Boy Lamb non whatsoever he was a bonzer bloke who knew the score.” I cried out this time in delight and my snivelling stopped right away as I said. “Archie Lane you old Aussie dingo where are you show yourself?” I tried to sit up and find him but the nurse pushed me back gently back saying. “Oh no you don’t we will have none of this now either lie back or I will sedate you.” Archie told me. I am up here above you they have me perched on this top bunk like a bloody kookaburra in a tree and they won’t let me get up either. It was a few days later and Archie had been allowed to get up he was sat beside my bed He had already told me about Ben being killed when they first landed on Gallipoli and that Snowy had been killed the night that he had been injured I told him about Charlie Slater being killed. Then he had told me that we where on the Royal Mail ship Essequibo but it was only a temporary hospital ship and that we would be sailing to the island of Lemnos for transfer to a proper hospital ship.
Sitting beside me now he began to speak about the Aussie landings so I made myself more comfortable as he said. “We invaded at 4:30am so it was concluded that a barrage wasn’t necessary because any Turks we encountered would only be guard units.” He sighed and continued. “At first it was alright we were towed in the ships boats by steam launch and at first things seemed alright then the dawn came up like a thief stealthily the shadows rolled back and the smudge of grey and inky blue on the landscape faded. As we closed into the shore you could see the phosphorescence of the wave’s caps rolling and breaking on the shore and you could almost hear it lapping on the shingle and pebble shore sighing in its anticipation of the caress. As we looked landward we could see the large yellow jagged steep pitted mound that was called the ‘Sphinx’. Archie stopped speaking for a moment lost in memories and then he continued. The sea was like a pane of window glass and the twinkling stars had gone back in we had been cast off and we were now nudging our way forward towards the base of the ‘Sphinx’. But the best bloody thing about it was that we shouldn’t have been anywhere near here our landing beaches were a mile further up the coast.” He blows his nose on his hanky and then returns it to his pocket saying. “For some reason they had cast us off in front of the wrong beachhead and as we are rowed in the Turkish sentries spot us and open fire so by the time we land on the beach they have whistled up support and raised the alarm.” Archie offered me a cigarette and we lit up and then he went on with his story. “Well mate we found it hard going at first I can tell you and we were pinned down it was then that someone found a place that wasn’t so steep and we could get a toe hold and climb up. All the way up though the Turks were pouring a withering fire down on us but me Ben and Snowy made it to the top and with a bit of help we cleared old Johnny Turk out of there.”
Archie stopped again and at first I thought he had dropped off to sleep but then he continued. “We found a path that led up towards the top and as always you know old Ben like a hound on the scent right out in front. Anyway the path twisted and turned on its way up and Ben and some other blokes had just turned this corner when we heard the rat tat tat of a machine gun as we got up to the corner we could see Ben and these other blokes lying on the path.” He stopped again until he had once more got his emotions in check and then went on saying. “You see the Turks had a hidden gun position under a rock overhang that covered the whole path and it had wiped out Ben and the blokes who were out in front.” Archie coughed and the wiped his face with is hand in a gesture of emotional fatigue. “Well we had no grenades or anything bloody else so we fixed bayonets and charged the bloody thing it was the only way to take it and we couldn’t be held up here. To say it was a bit hairy is not doing it justice and we lost a few more good blokes on the way in but then we had a bit of luck the machine gun jammed and this allowed us to get into the position.” I looked at Archie full of admiration and thought what courage these Aussies and the New Zealanders who landed with them had. Archie continued again. “Well let me tell you we didn’t spare a one of the crew or their guard we gave them the cold steel and Snowy was like a man possessed and kept jabbing at this Turk until his body looked like an old bloody rag.” He smiled at the memory then looked at me and said. “Anyway when I could finally pull him away we went back to were Ben and the blokes lay and I picked him up in my arms and cradled him his blood stained my shirt but do you Know what Billy Boy he looked so peaceful and he even had a smile on his face”, a strangled sob came from his throat then he carried on. “I know it sounds daft but that’s the only way to describe the look on his face of course the machine gun had caught him square on and stitched a row of holes across his chest. You know what its like yourself to have the blood of a mate running down your hands it doesn’t seem real at first and then it hits you and the pain is almost unbearable.
I felt such compassion for my mate Archie for I knew exactly what he meant we had been through the same thing he had lost Ben at the landing and we had lost Charlie Slater so I felt the same pain. He wiped his face again with his hand and then went on. “Anyway Snowy and me found a little place off the path and we dug a grave for old Ben we thought he would have liked it there as it was quite and quite a nice little spot. Of course he would probably rather have been buried at Balarat but there was no chance of that happening. Anyway after burying our mate me and Snowy and the rest carried on and eventually made it to the top before the Turks threw in a full Division and pushed us back to the positions we near enough hold to this day.” The nurse came round and said. “That’s enough you two now get some rest or you will never get better we are setting sail soon for Lemnos where you will be transferred to a hospital ship so no more talking”, and she went off to harass some other poor buggers. Archie watched her go saying. “She’s right I do feel a bit tired do you mind if I tell you the rest later on?” I replied that I was a bit weary myself and that I would have a sleep before tea so we both got our heads down and had a rest.
We woke up later feeling refreshed and we had tea then Archie continued his story. “Well we have been stuck on that little piece of land called Anzac Cove ever since we first took it and were in spitting distance of the Turkish trenches. We have launched god knows how many attacks since we got there and I have lost count of the number of good blokes we have lost.” We reflected on this statement and then Archie continued. “Well of course it’s probably been the same for you I mean lets face it the whole peninsula is a bag of shit and at the end of the day who really wants it? And let me tell you between old Johnny Turk having a go at us the bloody Staff and the diseases that are doing the rounds there are not many of us old hands left.” We were quite again for a while thinking of friends we had lost to disease like Eli Woods eventually the story was taken up again. “The Turks launched a massive attack against us in May thousands of the little perishers attacked our positions but we were ready for them. We slaughtered them but I will give them their due they kept on attacking there spunky little buggers and no mistake even though there were that many of their corpses in no man’s land that we could hardly see their trenches. I handed him a cigarette and we lit up before he went on saying. “Later on the smell and flies that came from them meant we had to call a truce so that we could bury them much I must say to the relief of both sides. With Ben gone it was just me and Snowy and then when we attacked ‘Lone Pine’ I got these wounds and Snowy bought the farm.”
I thought that maybe he had finished but he was just taking a rest and carried on saying. “Our trenches faced theirs and the distance varied between them anywhere between sixty and one hundred and fifty yards. So we pushed three tunnels out from the pimple that was our salient opposite ‘Lone Pine’ when the ends were finally opened we would have less than forty yards to cover to reach the Turkish trenches. A barrage had been going on for about three days and it had smashed most of the wire inn front of the Turkish trenches. The Turks didn’t know about the attack and didn’t know what hit them when the two assault waves from the 1st Brigade charged out of the tunnel ends. I could see how much this was taking out of him and told him that he didn’t need to continue but he said. “Listen Snowy was a mate of yours just like Charlie and Elijah and the rest were mates of ours he was a bonzer bloke old Snowy and he would want you to know. When we got into their front line trenches we found that they had been roofed over with pine logs and some of these were really elaborate constructions and we kept pushing to find a way in. He stopped and his eyes took on a far away look then he continued. “Some of the blokes fired through gaps in the logs while others poked their bayonets through. Eventually we found a way in and dropped through to the foul smelling galleries below then more of our attack pushed past these trenches and stormed the communication ones. Troops poured across from our trenches to reinforce us and considering we had launched a frontal assault our casualties were fairly light.”
He stopped again and shouted for the nurse when she came he asked her for a glass of water she fetched one and he drank it down in one saying. “Ah that’s better my mouth was drier than a camels asshole.” He then carried on with his story. “The place were most of our casualties occurred and where Snowy got his was underground in these galleries and saps the fighting was vicious down here hand to hand using bayonets and bombs and it was brutal in its intensity. We were kicking and punching stabbing there were shouts and screams that echoed round the galleries and we were stepping on the bodies of the dead and wounded.” He stopped and I could see the horror in his eyes then he continued. “It was here that Snowy bought it though he saved my life and few more in the process this Turk threw a grenade and it headed straight for us and we had nowhere to go so Snowy just threw himself down on top of it.” The tears now streamed down his face and he cuffed at them with his hand saying. “I shouted no to him but it was too late the explosion ripped his chest and guts to pieces I could see that he had gone the fighting passed on but I sat down and cradled him in my arms like I had with Ben. I whispered to him no bloody hero’s son, that is what we always said to one another and here he was playing the hero and getting himself killed. I said to myself here is another son of Balarat that wont be going home and I knew that we were leaving to many good blokes behind here in some places out dead was piled three and four deep. I was injured further on in the galleries when a bomb went off and I was hit in the chest thigh and arm with shrapnel and I was out of it.”
He looked at me and shook his head grief etched on his face. “The Turks counter attacked for a few days and we were reinforced by the 2nd and 3rd Battalions and everyone wanted to fight here at ‘Lone Pine’. I had heard of blokes stuck in the reserves that had offered bribes of up to a fiver to get to the front line. It was all bombs now the Turks had a lot as well as grenades which were still like rocking horse shit for us to get hold of. Some of the bombs were thrown back three and four times between the trenches before they exploded. Archie laughed as he said this and then carried on. “I saw blokes who had lost a hand like this picking up more bombs with their good hand and throwing them back you think they would have had more sense. I was down on the beach at the aid station by this time but they could do nothing for me really and so they loaded me on board this tub as our hospital ship had already set sail but the doctors were alright on here and did me proud. So that’s it sport you know everything that happened to Snowy Ben and me and to tell you the truth its done me good to tell it to a mate and get it off my chest.”
I felt a shudder run through the ship and the sound of the anchor being pulled up and about an hour later we were sailing away from Gallipoli heading for Lemnos and our date with the hospital ship. We cut through the blue Aegean Sea at quite a fair pace and the rolling and swaying of the ship soon lulled me and Archie to sleep when we awoke Archie said. “We are going to have to do something about Elijah we will have to get him on his feet again and behaving normally if we can after all we can’t leave him like he is can we?” I replied. “Yes I know what you mean and I don’t mind saying that I’m worried about him and his state of mind we will have to jolly him along a bit.” Although the voyage was fairly short I was glad when we were transferred to the larger hospital ship as the screaming and praying and the constant calls for mothers and fathers and sister and brothers was heartbreaking. We entered the harbour of Moudros and there we were transferred to the liner Mauritania which had been turned into a hospital ship the public rooms had been turned into wards Officers had the cabins and the dinning rooms had been turned into operating theatres. The whole of the huge liner had been painted white and there were huge red crosses painted on the sides and we sat sail that night. I thought to myself this is more like it the large public rooms kitted out as wards were roomy and airy and the décor of them was both elegant and opulent I mean after all this had been one of the worlds finest liners. The only thing that hadn’t changed was the cries of the wounded men in agony or the mutterings of the fever ridden and we knew that the serious dysentery cases were all in one ward on the port side. If it hadn’t have been for the morphine and other pain medication we received we would have been gibbering wrecks for the pain was never far away and men like Elijah needed it badly. When you looked round the ward you could see men both arms missing men with one or two legs missing men who had been eviscerated and emasculated. There were wrecks of men some with no faces and some with half their head shot away there were bayonet wounds bullet wounds shrapnel wounds all kinds of wounds and it broke your heart just to see them. We made the crossing to Egypt in three days and we were once again waiting to enter Alexandria harbour as we had done what now seemed a lifetime ago once in we would be ferried ashore and then to hospital. Elijah was not sedated anymore but he hardly said a word when I and Archie spoke to him not even when I informed him that Johnny Grundy was dead. We were eventually transferred to No 19 General Hospital in Alexandria and as luck would have it we were all kept together and put in the same ward.