“We have just been enlarging our dug out & I am going to work hard at it to day, to try & get it fairly waterproof befor[e] the rain comes.”
RI MS RCB/A/15
August 1915 to Aunt Litz , unsent
This later is undated and probably unsent as it isn’t finished or signed. This is the only letter not to immediate family which we have, the fact it’s unsigned and without an envelope leads me to suspect it was never finished and sent.
It is now getting on for the end of the summer and Robert is thinking about provisions and arrangements for the rainy season including enlarging the dugout. A few days after this was presumably written a Turkish shell landed a direct hit on the dugout while Robert and Ellison were censoring letters, it severely injured Robert then ricochets and injured Ellison’s arm. Robert was taken across to a hospital ship but died the next day.
A/58th Bgde RFA. 11th Div /B. M. E. F.
Dear Aunt Litz
Thank you very much indeed for your letter. It was good of you to write it. I suppose you know how we look forward to our mails out here. I hope Uncle Robert is getting better, I was so sorry to hear in your letter that he had been so ill. I always seem to snatch odd hours for writing my lettres [sic], it is just 7 am and I am waiting rather anxiously for breakfast.
It is not a true Gallipoli morning; they are usually glorious, perfectly still & mild with a fresh smell in the air. This morning it is cloudy with a blustering wind which makes things rather chilly. Up till now we have been crying out for thin shirts etc but very soon I think we will need good waterproofs & warm clothes. I hear that we must expect rain for about a month on end! This is not a very cheering prospect as there is not a sign of a hut or cow shed within miles of our position. We had a very strenuous time when first we landed; for the first five days I don’t think any of us got more than 10 hours sleep, and I can tell you we felt pretty well done up at the end of it. Since then we have settled down & made ourselves fairly comfortable. We have just been enlarging our dug out & I am going to work hard at it to day, to try & get it fairly waterproof befor[e] the rain comes.
Photos courtesy of the Royal Institution of Great Britain. RI MS RCB/A/15
Notes and General Information
The campaign was already a failed enterprise after the lack of progress made by the August Offensive but those in command argued against evacuating the troops as they were still trying to present it as something other than a defeat.
Robert is very right about the change in the weather, while the commanders were debating whether to withdraw the troops the men on the ground faced severe autumn storms and eventually snow, the conditions causing the casualty figures to rise even higher.
