THE WOUNDED AND THE DEAD
Sister Anne Donnell
“In that terrible weather, with wind travelling 100 miles an hour, and rain and sleet, all seems so pitifully hopeless…during those fearful days our thoughts were constantly with the boys of the Peninsula and wondering how they were faring; but little did we realize the sufferings until the wind abated and they began to arrive with their poor feet and hands frostbitten. Thousands have been taken to Alexandria, hundreds, the boys say, were drowned because their feet were so paralysed they could not crawl away safely in time. They endured agonies. Sentries were found dead in their posts, frozen and still clutching their rifles…their fingers were too frozen to pull the trigger. And some we have in hospital are losing both feet, some both hands. Its all too sad for words, hopelessly sad.”
Reid, Richard. Gallipoli 1915. Sydney: ABC for the Australian Broadcasting, 2002, p67.
Image: AIF heading towards Lone Pine, showing Division headquarters under snow. http://cas.awm.gov.au/item/H16533
“In that terrible weather, with wind travelling 100 miles an hour, and rain and sleet, all seems so pitifully hopeless…during those fearful days our thoughts were constantly with the boys of the Peninsula and wondering how they were faring; but little did we realize the sufferings until the wind abated and they began to arrive with their poor feet and hands frostbitten. Thousands have been taken to Alexandria, hundreds, the boys say, were drowned because their feet were so paralysed they could not crawl away safely in time. They endured agonies. Sentries were found dead in their posts, frozen and still clutching their rifles…their fingers were too frozen to pull the trigger. And some we have in hospital are losing both feet, some both hands. Its all too sad for words, hopelessly sad.”
Reid, Richard. Gallipoli 1915. Sydney: ABC for the Australian Broadcasting, 2002, p67.
Image: AIF heading towards Lone Pine, showing Division headquarters under snow. http://cas.awm.gov.au/item/H16533
Private Charles Bingham
“On one of the days we evacuated about 600 men wounded from Lone Pine, there were a colossal amount of casualties…I used to like being on the foot end, instead of the shoulder end, which was much heavier, but you couldn’t always get away with it. Sometimes you’d come to a bend in the trench and you couldn’t get the stretcher around it, so we’d take the fellow off, carry him round in a sitting position, then bring the stretcher round and put him back on it…some of them were about eighteen inches wide and about six or seven feet deep.”
Broadbent, Harvey. Gallipoli: the Fatal Shore. London: Penguin, 2005, p219.
Image: Private Charles Bingham (left) http://cas.awm.gov.au/item/P00152.001
“On one of the days we evacuated about 600 men wounded from Lone Pine, there were a colossal amount of casualties…I used to like being on the foot end, instead of the shoulder end, which was much heavier, but you couldn’t always get away with it. Sometimes you’d come to a bend in the trench and you couldn’t get the stretcher around it, so we’d take the fellow off, carry him round in a sitting position, then bring the stretcher round and put him back on it…some of them were about eighteen inches wide and about six or seven feet deep.”
Broadbent, Harvey. Gallipoli: the Fatal Shore. London: Penguin, 2005, p219.
Image: Private Charles Bingham (left) http://cas.awm.gov.au/item/P00152.001
Victor Pinkstone, 3rd Battalion, AIF
“Two New Zealanders assisted me down to the beach and with numerous others I was towed out to the transport, Seang Choon. Aboard were 600 wounded and only 3 doctors and ten Medical Corps orderlies, so you can imagine the sort of job the doctors had. They worked like Trojans.”
Pugsley, Christopher, and John Lockyer. The Anzacs at Gallipoli: a Story for Anzac Day. Auckland: Reed, 1999, p11.
Image: Evacuation of wounded from Anzac Cove. http://cas.awm.gov.au/item/C02679
“Two New Zealanders assisted me down to the beach and with numerous others I was towed out to the transport, Seang Choon. Aboard were 600 wounded and only 3 doctors and ten Medical Corps orderlies, so you can imagine the sort of job the doctors had. They worked like Trojans.”
Pugsley, Christopher, and John Lockyer. The Anzacs at Gallipoli: a Story for Anzac Day. Auckland: Reed, 1999, p11.
Image: Evacuation of wounded from Anzac Cove. http://cas.awm.gov.au/item/C02679
Albert Facey
“The sight of the bodies on the beach was shocking. It worried me that I couldn’t stop and help the men calling out. (This was one of the hardest things of the war for me and I’m sure for many of the others. There were to be other times under fire when we couldn’t help those that were hit. I would think for days, ‘I should have helped that poor beggar.’)”
Facey, A. B. A Fortunate Life. New York: Viking, 1984.
Image: The bodies of dead Australian soldiers lying on the slopes of Sari Bair. http://cas.awm.gov.au/item/P02745.007
“The sight of the bodies on the beach was shocking. It worried me that I couldn’t stop and help the men calling out. (This was one of the hardest things of the war for me and I’m sure for many of the others. There were to be other times under fire when we couldn’t help those that were hit. I would think for days, ‘I should have helped that poor beggar.’)”
Facey, A. B. A Fortunate Life. New York: Viking, 1984.
Image: The bodies of dead Australian soldiers lying on the slopes of Sari Bair. http://cas.awm.gov.au/item/P02745.007
Signaller Ellis Silas, 16th Battalion
11 May 1915
“The roll is called – how heartbreaking it is – name after name is called; the reply a deep silence which can be felt, despite the noise of the incessant cracking of rifles and screaming of shrapnel – there are few of us left to answer our names – just a thin line of weary faced men, behind a mass of silent forms, once our comrades – there they have been for days, we have not had time to bury them.”
Reid, Richard. Gallipoli 1915. Sydney: ABC for the Australian Broadcasting, 2002, p36.
Image: Roll Call of D Company, 1st Battalion at Hell Spit after fighting. This company went into action with 6 officers and 213 other ranks. When assembled, the muster was 1 officer and 88 other ranks. http://cas.awm.gov.au/item/A04050
11 May 1915
“The roll is called – how heartbreaking it is – name after name is called; the reply a deep silence which can be felt, despite the noise of the incessant cracking of rifles and screaming of shrapnel – there are few of us left to answer our names – just a thin line of weary faced men, behind a mass of silent forms, once our comrades – there they have been for days, we have not had time to bury them.”
Reid, Richard. Gallipoli 1915. Sydney: ABC for the Australian Broadcasting, 2002, p36.
Image: Roll Call of D Company, 1st Battalion at Hell Spit after fighting. This company went into action with 6 officers and 213 other ranks. When assembled, the muster was 1 officer and 88 other ranks. http://cas.awm.gov.au/item/A04050
Private William Bendrey, 2nd Batallion, after the Lone Pine Attack
“The dead were lying everywhere, on top of the parapet…in dugouts and communication trenches and saps and it was impossible to avoid treading on them.”
Reid, Richard. Gallipoli 1915. Sydney: ABC for the Australian Broadcasting, 2002, p44.
Image: Men of 1st Battalion burying the dead in the end of the Lone Pine Trenches. http://cas.awm.gov.au/item/C02014
“The dead were lying everywhere, on top of the parapet…in dugouts and communication trenches and saps and it was impossible to avoid treading on them.”
Reid, Richard. Gallipoli 1915. Sydney: ABC for the Australian Broadcasting, 2002, p44.
Image: Men of 1st Battalion burying the dead in the end of the Lone Pine Trenches. http://cas.awm.gov.au/item/C02014
2nd Lieutenant FH Semple
“You can imagine what it was like. Really too awful to write about. All your pals that had been with you for months and months blown and shot out of all recognition. There was no chance whatsoever of us gaining our point, but the roll call was the saddest, just fancy only 47 answered their names out of close on 550 men. When I heard what the result was I simply cried like a child.”
Gammage, Bill. The Broken Years; Australian Soldiers in the Great War. Canberra: Australian National UP, 1974, p87.
Image: Roll Call of B Company, 14th Battalion after the unsuccessful offensive on 8 August 1915. In this attack 3 officers and 33 other ranks were killed and 126 other ranks missing. http://cas.awm.gov.au/item/A01225
“You can imagine what it was like. Really too awful to write about. All your pals that had been with you for months and months blown and shot out of all recognition. There was no chance whatsoever of us gaining our point, but the roll call was the saddest, just fancy only 47 answered their names out of close on 550 men. When I heard what the result was I simply cried like a child.”
Gammage, Bill. The Broken Years; Australian Soldiers in the Great War. Canberra: Australian National UP, 1974, p87.
Image: Roll Call of B Company, 14th Battalion after the unsuccessful offensive on 8 August 1915. In this attack 3 officers and 33 other ranks were killed and 126 other ranks missing. http://cas.awm.gov.au/item/A01225
Lieutenand J.H. Dietze
“The dead were four and five deep and we had to walk over them, it was just like walking on a cushion…I daresay you will be surprised how callous a man becomes: a man may have a very close chum well if somebody tells him his chum is killed all he says is ‘poor chap’ and he forgets all about him.”
Gammage, Bill. The Broken Years; Australian Soldiers in the Great War. Canberra: Australian National UP, 1974, p118.
Image: The bodies of Australian dead in the trenches following fierce fighting with Turkish forces. http://cas.awm.gov.au/item/H00405
“The dead were four and five deep and we had to walk over them, it was just like walking on a cushion…I daresay you will be surprised how callous a man becomes: a man may have a very close chum well if somebody tells him his chum is killed all he says is ‘poor chap’ and he forgets all about him.”
Gammage, Bill. The Broken Years; Australian Soldiers in the Great War. Canberra: Australian National UP, 1974, p118.
Image: The bodies of Australian dead in the trenches following fierce fighting with Turkish forces. http://cas.awm.gov.au/item/H00405