Cheating Death - Letters from a soldier in WW1

2nd Letter

To: Daisy Walker                                                                                                                    14 Shelter Street

From: Shane Mc Clindon                                                                                                   Melbourne, Australia

Date: 30th April 1915

Dear Daisy,

This is a nightmare. It’s not what I thought it would be like.

It’s been 5 days since we first landed and nothing’s looking good for us. We got to Gallipoli (in Turkey) at sometime early in the morning by ship. We got into smaller boats and started towards the shore, immediately we were shot at and all hell broke loose.

When we were close enough most of us jumped out and started wading to shore, getting there by only sheer luck. Bullets whizzed through the water, sometimes through the men. I saw many out of the corner of my eye fall... but I kept going. It was awful, ignoring all of them. You could hear screams of pain from them or just see the bodies fall lifeless right in front of you, a red flower blooming on their chests and heads, their mouths open in a silent scream that would never come. Nearly all of the men that were wounded in the water didn’t survive, and drowned under all the weight of their guns, equipment and clothes. [1]

When we got to the beach we were surprised to see that it was extremely narrow and surrounded by tall cliffs. Perfect for an ambush.[2] As I was running up the beach a shell exploded nearby me and I fell over from the force and passed out.

I woke up that night on one of the hospital ships and was told that I had passed out because I had hit my head funny when I fell and I was then transported here. Apparently only about 16,000 of us got ashore and more than 2000 were injured.[3]

It was crowded on the ship and it reeked of blood. Moans could be heard from the wounded as they tried to sleep the pain away.

One poor boy who was lying next to me kept whispering in a cracked voice for his mother, I suspect he wasn’t much older than 15.[4] After a while he went quite and I thought he was sleeping... but he’d died Dais.

Soon after that I was rowed back onto shore and this time I managed to get across without being shot.

Thank you Dais, for reading and replying to my letters, I’m sorry I’m not the joking Shane you knew and remember right now... it’s just that a lot has happened... I’m just glad there’s at least someone I can talk to about this... Keep me updated on what’s going on over back in Australia. It helps me keep my mind off what’s going on here, even if it’s only for a short time. Missing you a lot flower girl.

Love you always

Shane

P.s. Tell Ollie’s parents that he’s still alive and well. (All the silly bugger wrote in his letter was “Dear Mum, Not dead yet![5] Love Ollie.” Some people never change right?)

[1] T Ornek + F Toker, Gallipoli: The front line experience, Currency Press 2005

[2] ibid

[3] Herald Sun, Wednesday, April 20, 2006

[4] T Ornek + F Toker, Gallipoli: The front line experience, Currency Press 2005

[5] ibid