“Well Mum dear the last few days have been the most strenuous I have ever had in all my life.”
RI MS RCB/A/11
18th August (I think) to Gwendoline Bragg
Robert is writing from ‘’A’ Battery Dugout’, now on Hill 10, they had already had to move several times and according to the unit diary this seems to be the first quiet day since they landed.
He gives only a brief description of events, either so as not to worry his mother or because of lack of time. He skims over the problems but it’s clear that it’s been frustrating and tiring: the fact that he’s not changed clothes for over a week and that their food supplies have only just caught up to them gives a hint of the actual situation. Although, according to other accounts he is lucky to have landed a little later: the earlier landings had been badly disorganised and even water rations had been an issue.
He goes into detail regarding the lack of risk from the Ottoman soldiers or ‘Turks’, whether this is because it’s on his mind or he wants to reassure his mother. It’s hard to know whether he’s down-playing the risk or is following the prevailing attitude that the Turkish army was incompetent and disorganised, something given the lie by their robust defense of the territory.
Battery “Dug Out”
18th August (I think)
My Dearest Mum
At last I have a chance to write you a line. I am afraid that there is a long gap between this & my last letter posted at M[o]udros just before we left. Well Mum dear the last few days have been the most strenuous I have ever had in all my life. The infantry landed befor[e] us & we watched from the harbour. They just landed & walked on with very little opposition at first. We landed two or three days later in small batches. Things were in a frightful mess they landed our guns in one place our horses in another & our men in another. Consequently it took some time straightening up things.
The country here is hopeless for moving guns over, no roads but sandy tracks, and all the rest is boulders & prickly shrubs but there is one thing in its favour, the climate, at least at present, is glorious, day after day its just the same, not unbearably hot in the middle of the day & cool at night. There is a rainy season though I think when it pours torrents all night & all day.
Well Mum things aren’t moving as fast as I expected though we seem to have taken up enough different positions in the last few days to last us for a lifetime. We were shelled out yesterday & so last night we moved & I hope there will be peace for a little. We have at last got hold of our mess list & to-day have fared like lords. For the first week we lived on Bully Beef biscuits & water, not too thrilling.
I have just got hold of that box of chocolate etc you sent to Wiltey I have been saving it up for some auspicious moment & the joy of that chocolate was past belief! War is a frightfully tiring sort of game, you shoot all day & move guns & dig all night until you are so tired, that your knees literally knock. The Turks shells aren’t much good, one burst just over me when I was crossing the open the other day & churned up the dust all around me but nothing struck me, which was rather luck. Also their H.E is rotten, a 6” one landed about 3 yds from one of my guns yesterday & did nothing. The snipers are jolly bad, they paint themselves green & hide in trees & bushes & have a pot at you as you go past.
I nearly went to sleep just then. We have been told that there is a chance of a peaceful day to-day so the Major is sending down half the Battery down to bathe. I haven’t had my clothes off since I landed & I can tell you they want changing. Well Cheero I am going to snatch a few hours sleep to make up for the many nights out of bed. I am feeling awfully fit but longing to get back nor am I the only one.
My best love to you and Dad,
Your loving Son
Bob
Photos courtesy of the Royal Institution of Great Britain. RI MS RCB/A/11
Notes and General Information
This is the first letter Robert was able to send after landing at Gallipoli but by the time his mother received it she already knew he had died. Despite all his reassurances that the Turkish artillery were badly resourced and easy to dodge he was killed by an unexploded shell which landed in the dug out while he was censoring letters.
While Robert may have been playing down the danger for his mother’s sake, some of the details are quite accurate, including the lengths the Turkish snipers went to disguise themselves, as this image shows.
