FOOD
Ion L. Idriess
“We have just had dinner. My new mate was sick and couldn’t eat. I tried to and would have but for the flies. I had biscuits and a tin of jam. But immediately I opened the tin the flies rushed the jam. They buzzed like swarming bees. They swarmed that jam, all fighting among themselves. I wrapped my overcoat over the tin and gouged out the flies, then spread the biscuit, held my hand over it, and drew the biscuit out of the coat. But a lot of flies flew into my mouth and beat about inside. Finally I threw the tin over the parapet. I nearly howled with rage. I feel so sulky I could chew everything to pieces. Of all the bastards of places this is the greatest bastard in the world.”
Pugsley, Christopher, and John Lockyer. The Anzacs at Gallipoli: a Story for Anzac Day. Auckland: Reed, 1999, p18.
Image: Group of officers eating a meal in their dugout. http://cas.awm.gov.au/item/A00715
“We have just had dinner. My new mate was sick and couldn’t eat. I tried to and would have but for the flies. I had biscuits and a tin of jam. But immediately I opened the tin the flies rushed the jam. They buzzed like swarming bees. They swarmed that jam, all fighting among themselves. I wrapped my overcoat over the tin and gouged out the flies, then spread the biscuit, held my hand over it, and drew the biscuit out of the coat. But a lot of flies flew into my mouth and beat about inside. Finally I threw the tin over the parapet. I nearly howled with rage. I feel so sulky I could chew everything to pieces. Of all the bastards of places this is the greatest bastard in the world.”
Pugsley, Christopher, and John Lockyer. The Anzacs at Gallipoli: a Story for Anzac Day. Auckland: Reed, 1999, p18.
Image: Group of officers eating a meal in their dugout. http://cas.awm.gov.au/item/A00715
Sydney Lock
“For supper we had nothing more than those tough square biscuits given to us as rations – they were so hard a man could break his teeth on them. I had three days provisions with me, but was warned that they might have to last for five days. So I took care not to dip too deeply into my provision bag. Someone offered me the bottom of a can of tea, which helped to wash those tough biscuits down.”
Loch, Sydney. To Hell and Back: The banned account of Gallipoli, Sydney, NSW: Harper Collins, 2007, p89.
Image: Standard Army Issued wholemeal biscuit. http://cas.awm.gov.au/item/REL/00919.002
“For supper we had nothing more than those tough square biscuits given to us as rations – they were so hard a man could break his teeth on them. I had three days provisions with me, but was warned that they might have to last for five days. So I took care not to dip too deeply into my provision bag. Someone offered me the bottom of a can of tea, which helped to wash those tough biscuits down.”
Loch, Sydney. To Hell and Back: The banned account of Gallipoli, Sydney, NSW: Harper Collins, 2007, p89.
Image: Standard Army Issued wholemeal biscuit. http://cas.awm.gov.au/item/REL/00919.002
O. E. Burton
“Army Biscuits! What a volume of blessings and cursings have been uttered on the subject – army biscuits! Biscuits, like the poor are always with us. Crawling from our earthly dens at the dim dawning of the day, we receive no portion of the dainties which once were ours in the long ago times, but instead we devour with eagerness – biscuit porridge. We eat our meat. Not with thankfulness, but with biscuits. We lengthen out the taste of jam – with biscuits. We pound them to powder. We boil them with bully, we stew them in stews, we fry them as fritters. We curse them with many and bitter cursings and we bless them with few blessings.”
Bean, C. E. W. The ANZAC Book. Sydney: University of New South Wales, 2010, p76.
Image: Soldiers eating from their dixies in Mule Gully. http://cas.awm.gov.au/item/P02647.039
“Army Biscuits! What a volume of blessings and cursings have been uttered on the subject – army biscuits! Biscuits, like the poor are always with us. Crawling from our earthly dens at the dim dawning of the day, we receive no portion of the dainties which once were ours in the long ago times, but instead we devour with eagerness – biscuit porridge. We eat our meat. Not with thankfulness, but with biscuits. We lengthen out the taste of jam – with biscuits. We pound them to powder. We boil them with bully, we stew them in stews, we fry them as fritters. We curse them with many and bitter cursings and we bless them with few blessings.”
Bean, C. E. W. The ANZAC Book. Sydney: University of New South Wales, 2010, p76.
Image: Soldiers eating from their dixies in Mule Gully. http://cas.awm.gov.au/item/P02647.039
Sergeant Cyril Lawrence, 2nd Filed Company, Engineers
“We had porridge for breakfast this morning and milk, MILK, mind you. Yes, golly, just fancy, condensed MILK. Jingo, if only some of those at home, who perhaps grumbled at their breakfast because the toast was cold, if only they knew what this little extra means to us, they would blush for shame and rightly so. Here they, like us, would eat anything.”
Reid, Richard. Gallipoli 1915. Sydney, NSW: ABC for the Australian Broadcasting, 2002, p87.
Image: Group of officers at their mess table at Battalion Headquarters, Victoria Gully, Anzac Cove. http://cas.awm.gov.au/item/P02321.009
“We had porridge for breakfast this morning and milk, MILK, mind you. Yes, golly, just fancy, condensed MILK. Jingo, if only some of those at home, who perhaps grumbled at their breakfast because the toast was cold, if only they knew what this little extra means to us, they would blush for shame and rightly so. Here they, like us, would eat anything.”
Reid, Richard. Gallipoli 1915. Sydney, NSW: ABC for the Australian Broadcasting, 2002, p87.
Image: Group of officers at their mess table at Battalion Headquarters, Victoria Gully, Anzac Cove. http://cas.awm.gov.au/item/P02321.009