ANZAC eve

April 24th.

 
 Diary entries



 Captain Percy Lay, 8th Battalion, from Ballan

April 23 : Practiced disembarking and our Colonel told us we were likely to get a lively time landing, within the next couple of days

April 24 : Got ready to move off and sailed in the afternoon and anchored just off Imbros Island. Everything is ready for the landing.


Albert Coates (later Sir), 7th Battalion, from Ballarat

April 24 : Things are moving this morning as we are told that we are to leave for the firing lines at 10am.  At 11am we leave Lemnos and pass many ships on our way out.  The "Queen Elizabeth" with her decks cleared for action is ready to move up the Bay to cover our landing.  There are 40 war boats in the bay ready to leave with us.  We reach the small bay near the mainland at 5pm and anchor there for the night.


Bandsman Harold Krutli, 14th Battalion (late of Maryborough, Victoria)

April 24 :  We left for the seat of war at 10 am.  It was a beautiful clear and calm morning and it was very hard to believe that one was going to what perhaps would be his last few days on this earth.

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The men this blog is following are from the 6th, 7th and 8th Battalions.  They are on the transports facing the Gallipoli Peninsula, and are as prepared as they can be for the dawn landings.  Except no one was prepared, on either side, for what came next.

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LEST WE FORGET

ANZAC 1915 - 2015

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Good Friday, 1915 - 'First Battle of the Wozzer'

Is that battle title unfamiliar?

On Good Friday, 1915, after the special Church Parade, the men were given leave to visit Cairo.  The time is drawing near for the troops to leave, and perhaps this is the last chance to visit.

There has been bitterness between some of the Australians and New Zealanders, and the Egyptians, for some time – relating to the bad drink served by local liquor traders, to a steep rise in price in the brothels, and by the many cases of venereal disease.  There was a crowd of soldiers in the brothel street of Haret el Wasser, and some of them decided to exact retribution for the insult and injury they believed they or their mates had incurred during the time the troops were in Cairo.

Percy Lay’s diary for April 2 notes  … there was a great row in Cairo. Someone set fire to the Waizizau. The best part of the place burnt to the ground. It ended up in a stoush between our chaps and the Red Caps [British Military Police]. Things were pretty lively while they lasted.

Sister Alice Kitchen was also in Cairo on that Good Friday.  She experienced some of the Wozzer disturbance, but also noticed something else: “the soldiers are now branded well by having stripes on their hats and sleeves. ‘Ours’ [the 8th battalion] red and white, others green and white, red and blue, blue and white…’ These are the colour patches, a new device to help distinguish the various units – the 8th Battalion’s colour patch White over Red instantly became known as ‘Blood and Bandages’.

Colour patch of the 8th Battalion, raised in country Victoria and including many Ballarat men

C.E.W. Bean, in his official history of the war, almost ignores the First Battle of the Wozzer, relegating it to a footnote, and concentrates instead on the momentous news just received in camp. The Australian Division was ordered to the front.

Percy Lay’s diary, April 3: Got word to say we were to leave for Alexandria and then embark for some unknown place where we were likely to have some fighting.

References for today’s blog – and further reading if you are interested in these events 100 years ago; all are available in the Australiana Research Room at Ballarat Library, and there are also lending copies in the main collection.

Adam-Smith, Patsy   The ANZACs

Austin, R.  Cobbers in khaki; the history of the 8th battalion 1914-1918

Bean, C.E.W.  Official history of Australia in the war of 1914-1918 Vol. 1, the story of ANZAC

Turner, J.L. (ed.)   The war diaries of Captain Percy Lay (1914-1919)