Letter from the Front.

Huntly Press and District Gazette, Volume 4, 25 June 1915, Page 3

Letter from the Front.

Below we publish a portion of a letter received from Private Capstick, who lies wounded in Egypt. The letter speakes for itself, and we regret exceedingly that lack of space prevents us Tom publishing the whole of it in this issue. The vest will appear next week. Luna Park Hospital, ■T' Egypt, May Bth, 1915. Arthur, I received your letter, just the one I have been waiting for, for a long time, while we lay at the Island of Lemnos, somewhere off the Dardanelles. I had been expecting a letter from you for months, so I dropped you a line just before we left Egypt. You will have it by now. I don’t know how you will get your other letters for awhile as eveyboly and everything is mixed up. Of course as soon as I get back to my company again I will be alright. As soon as they pay us and give us leave I will send you some more post cards. We are all as stiff as stiff H. P’s at present. They owe us 5 weeks pay. 1 met some Te Teko boys yesterday, decent chaps; they brought me a pile ot books and papers and a box of 50 cigarettes. Just saved my life, as I was dying for a smoke. Visitors would give us a backsheesh fag now and then, but they would always give u« Egyptian or Turkish tobacco; vile stuff it is too. When they make it they dry it over a fire of camel’s dung. That’s what gives it that vile smell. I was really glad to leave Egypt. I patted myself on the back a: d said “Thank goodness Kapi old son you’ve seen the last of Egypt,” and here I am back again within a month with daylight thr ugh me. While we were waiting to embark at /. loxandria we came in contact with the French Foreign Legion. There was a battalion on the' same wharf as us. They are composed of every nationality under the sun except Germans. They locked them up as soon as war broke out. There uniform would make you laugh. Big baggy red bloomers, a green swallow tail coat, and little red cap. Makes them look like Gypsies. An Englishman amongst them told me that one of them was going to be shot for deserting. I have seen some awe inspiring sights and I never thought I could be moved so much, especially on leaving and entering a port or passing through a fleet of Men o’ War. One doesn’t know whether to laugh, cry, or go mad. I was a bit “crook” on the trip across. Wte’it to sleep and found the sun blazing down on me, so T was down with a touch of Dengue for awhile. Ever since 1 had Dengue fever after leaving Colombo, 1 get it again on the slightest provocation. I have had about six turns of it since then. It does not last long but it is rotten while it does last. I would not go to the Doctor as he would have put me in tfie Hospital for sure. It was the same at Ismailia, I had to grin.fiffdbear it or miss the fun. Leifnibs Is r land is a little over two days sail 1 from Alexandria, but we were nearly a fortnight on the boat, living on bully b.ef and hard biscuits, and sleeping on the hard floor. We woke up one morning and found oursejves in a “ bosker ” little natural harbour. Auckland harbour is pretty good but it can’t come near Lemnos. It was chock-a-block with shipping—transports and Men o’War. “Queen Lizzie” was there, (she is a monster) as well as a lot of other battleships. 1 saw destroyers, torpedo boats, and submarines for the first time quite close. We hung about there for over a week, and every day had to practice getting over the side by rope ladders, no easy matter with a load of eighty pounds on your back. It is a wonder to me how w e used to carry it. A lot of chaps caught Pneumonia. Sudden change after Egypt. It is surprising the number of strongmen that have gone under to pneumonia. We have got a very decent Major now, so different to He gave us an idea of the work we had to do. We were going to attack in three places ; the French in one place, the English in another, and the Australians in a third. The idea was to split the Turks up into three forces, then when we found which was the strongest, all outforces would amalgamate and smash it, and then settle the two smaller forces later on. We were told that the force which struck the strong party would get a rough time of it and as it was our luck to strike it with everything against us as we got a very hot time of it, hut wo landed. It was a great sight to see all the battleships file past us with old “ Lizzie ” in the lead. We always come to attention when a Man-o-War passes us. They did the same when we passed them earlier in the afternoon. - Most of them still bore the marks of the recent bombardment in the straits. We left durMg jfee night and as it was

only a few hours run, we were there by daylight. The battleships were about half a mile from shore and spread along the coast about a quarter of a mile apart firing broadsides every minute. We could see t'no shells landing and bursting, but of coure we could not see the Turks, \

A division of Australians had landed about 2 o’clock in the morning and a destroyer came out and told us that they>had cleared the beach with the bayonet and captured three guns. How they got ashore without being wiped out I don’t know, as there is a steep cilff a'most perpendicular all covered in scrub and it was alive with Turks and machine guns. An English force could have held it against thousands, but as soon as the Turks see the bayonet they clear for their lives. We had breakfast on board and drank as much w-ater as we could. We carried the remaining portion of the days rations and three days besides, and water bottles were supposed to last three days. About teu o’clock we tumbled over the side into several big barges and a destroyer towed us ashore. We could hear the rifles and the machine guns roaring, making an awful sound amongst the hills; more awe inspiring than the big guns. Two battleships were battering a fort to pieces. They take things easy over it. They fire a broadside and then the fort would fire a few shots back. Then the battleships would fire again. It seemed very slow to me. Pieces of shrapnel were flying all round us as we were going ashore and several chaps were hit before they landed. As we got closer we could see the wounded coming down to the shore in dozens, some limping by themselves, some being helped, and some on stretchers. We had to jump overboard up to our waists in water which made marching very hard afterwards. The sights I saw when we got ashore made me creep all over. Of course the faces of the dead were covered up. Some hat half their heads blown off; others their stomachs blown out. The Red Cross were doing attending to tire wounded and rigging up dressing stations. The bad cases were lying in rows, and as we passed I could see quite a lot of them were dying, shot through the lungs and coughing themselves away. The worst sight of the lot was a chap with half his face blown off. Wo all straggled along the beach for a quarter of a mile or so, then we assembled. On top of the ridge the shrapnel was bursting every second and we had orders to go up and relieve the Australians. We had just started when the order was cancelled and we had to go back half way and then go up. The engineers were making a road up the cliff and even then it was an awful climb. We struck a trench at the top and judging by the bullets that were flying about I thought we were in the firing line. We took off our packs here. We had to keep passing ■ ammunition along from hand to hand as it was getting scai ce in the firing line. There were lots of dead Turks in the trenches, mostly with bayonet wounds through them. We had to walk over them, but all our dead were placed on the side of the trenches. This trench opened out in a big steep gully, and as we clambered down the sides we were properly under fire. You can form no idea of the country we had to go over. We could not have picked worse if we had asked for it. Wo had a, rest when we t ot to the bottom and although we sheltered under a bank I got a srnack on the foot with a spent shrapnel bullet which made me dance for awhile Another chap got one on the belt. It knocked the wind out of him and he thought he was killed. We then kept to the bottom of the gully for aw ile and the place was like a slaughter house. Dead and wounded and blood and bloody clothes all along the track. The bus'hes were full of snipers. These and machine guns are their speciality. Although the firing line was nearly a mile off these snipers had managed to dodge them. They fire at a man and then put up their hands. There was a party of Australians there and they were furious about one of their mates getting “ pinked ” by a sniper. They knew that he was somewhere near a certain hush and they fired and got him in the leg. He stood up and put up his hands but it was no good ; he got a bayonet right through him. We were told to take prisoners if they would give in, but there were not many prisoners taken ; the men were too wild as the Turks were using Dum-Dum explosive bullets. They got no quarter when our fellows got to them. The further we advanced the worse the scenery became. The fighting was getting thicker and we were getting closer to it and of course the wounded increased in number as we advanced. We had to climb a steep hill and over the top was the firing line. We were all puffed when we got to the top a*t£ I remember thinking it was funny

to see a wrist watch still going o.i a dead man’s arm. We had a short rest here and formed up what men we had, and as the hoys ahead wanted reinforcements, we fixed bayonets and barged in short rashes to the ring line. The scrub is a kind of inkweed about five or six feet high so we could not see the enemy hut the bullets tore through it all the same. Our officer, Mr Allen, fell mortally wounded in the first rush and chaps were going down in all directions. Once as I was stalking behind a bit of cover a bullet cut a branch right in front of my face. It is marvellous the number of bullets that miss a man when the air is literally thick with them. We heard there were twelve machine guns playing on our bit of ground besides the rifle fire. At last we reached the firing line. Only half of our company reached it. As we could not see the Turks we lay still for awhile. Everybody was as cool as if they were skirmishing. I'know I was cool for I felt my pulse several times (I smiled to myself when I did so) and it was quite normal. I was not afraid either I am glad to say only I seemed to be waiting for something to strike me. A man felt that he could not remain five seconds in that rain of shrapnel and bullets and not be hit. I suppose that we were so quiet the Turks thought we were wiped out, for a small bodv of them crept out towards us. I spotted them and gave the word. The chaps of our section, a very decent mob, knelt up and gave them a volley and we got nearly the whole lot. Of course that turned the machine guns on us and half were put out of action. It was so thick that a lot of chaps would not raise there heads to shoot. I saw them come out again and I could not resist it. I fired and got two before they retired. They were only 200 yards off. Then they started coming away over to the left. We gave them a hot time and lliey letired. Then they seemed to spring up all over the place. I had fired at one chap and was raising myself higher for a better view when I seemed to feel something go right through my body. The bullet, struck me on the windpipe just above my breast bone, just missing the jugular vein went through the top of my right lung and out just under my right shoulder blade. I did not feel it go in much, it was too quick lut I felt it rattle against my ribs at, the back and I said to my mate “ one inis gone right through my ‘puku.’” I slipped off my equipment and lay down on my back. I thought to myself” Not much chance of gettirg over this if it has gone right through me.” Then I started to cough blood and I knew it was a case. I had got it through the lungs. As I lay down the air made an awful “sucking,” “gurgling” sound, as it came through my windpipe. T could not speak aloud but I managed to ask a mate to put mj field dressing on. He did not care about doing it much as it was so dangerous. He put it on roughly as he did npt think I would last long. I heard him say to the rest

“ Kapi is just about settled, one through the lungs,and I could see the rest nod their heads and look away. I got my water-bottle out and every time I drank I would vomit blood, but I was so thirsty I had to drink. I did not bleed so much, but I could see my hands going white. I thought I was bleeding inwardly. I did not feel nervous or frightened, although I was sure I was going to “peg out.” I seemed to feel lonely, and a thought came over me, “so this is what dying is,’, I felt my pulse again, and it was going quite normally without a hitch. Then I commenced to feel too sick to care what happened. By this time there was not a chap round me who was not hit. Some gave the word to retire, hut I wanted to stay where I was as it hurt me and made me cliokc when I moved. One chap put me on my feet and helped me to struggle along. Others had to be carried, and if ever the V.C. was won, it was hero by several of our fellows. They ran about 20 paces and lay down, but I felt if 1 lay down I could not get up again, so I kept on until I oould’nt breathe. It ib an awful sensation being choked with blood. My lungs seemed to swell and swell, until they folfc like bursting and I had not space to breathe. Just short little breaths like a sheep, and I had to lie down. I felt easier when I lay down, and coughed a bit. I could not cough much as all the wind would come out of the hole in my throat. I lay there until some chaps came and put me on my feet again. I had about 300 yards to go to get out of the fire zone, and everybody was singing out to me to lay down or I would got shot, but I felt too

“crook” to care. Either mother waspraving for me at the time or else the devil takes care of his own,for the bullets were tearing through the scrub and men were getting hit all the time, but I was not touched, 1 wanted to

strike a doctor, and get him to stop the bleeding. Several times I would have lain down and waited for the stretcher bearers, but knew they could not come up in this fire so I would have to struggle on again. (To be continued)