1st Field Ambulance A.I.F

[Waddell]

I have been researching a local man who served as a stretcher-bearer with the 1st Field Ambulance A.I.F at Gallipoli. He had landed on the 25th April and little is mentioned in his service record until late June.

There is an entry for the 27th June 1915 that states the he was ’Landed Cape Helles assisted No.11 British Clearing Station 27th June left 30th July’

The 30th July entry is crossed out and a 2nd July notation has been over written in red ink.

The man remained on Gallipoli until the 23rd August 1915 when he was evacuated to Mudros suffering fever. Interestingly he wrote to his sister and a letter was published in the Sydney Morning Herald of the 10th August 1915. The letter was supposedly sent from Alexandria and mentions an attack made by Ghurka’s as follows-

In a letter written from Alexandria to his sister, Private XXXX of the 1st Field Ambulance, says- “We had just finished constructing our dug-outs, when a message came down from the Ghurkas saying they were losing heavily, and asking for 20 Australians to assist their stretcher-bearers. We made our way to their trenches, and, though it was a terrible night, we were able to render them valuable assistance. They fight like demons. It is part of their religion that if they draw their knife it must draw blood even if they have to cut their own bodies.

I have been trying to get one of their knives for a curio, but they do not like parting with them. I could have got one that night, but we had too much to think of just then. Bullets whistled in all directions, but only one of our men was killed, while another was shot through both legs. We got back to camp next day soon after 12 o’clock, and we had scarcely finished dinner when a Turkish battery on the Asiatic shore began to shell our hospital. We retired to our dug-outs but when a shell landed in the cook-house killing two of the cooks and wounding two other men, we took cover under the edge of the cliff. That afternoon the Turkish battery opened up again.

I will never forget the two hours that followed trying to get our patients away under cover. One man was blown to atoms and two more were set on fire. Luckily we had cleared nearly all the patients out, but a number were killed on the stretchers.

Now for the questions.

1. Does anyone have any additional information concerning how many men of the 1st Field Ambulance A.I.F were sent to Cape Helles and how long for? No mention is made in the War Diary.

2. Would I be correct in assuming that the Ghurka’s referred to were the 2/10th Ghurka Rifles and the attack being referred to was the attack on Gully Ravine of the 28th June 1915? The dates seem to fit, although no date is mentioned in the letter.

3. Where was No.11 British Clearing Station positioned?

Any thoughts?

Thanks in advance,

Scott

[grantmal]

Scott,

It seems that Pte X was a member of one of the 1st Field Ambulance's Tent Sub-divisions, which did not land on April 25th, but ended up "scattered over various troopships" operating as 'black' hospital ships between the Peninsula and Egypt.

According to the diary of the 1st Field Ambulance's Capt Aspinall, on 26 June "Major Horan brought word [Aspinall and his men had just been sent ashore at Lemnos to await further orders] that we were to send 50 men without an officer to assist at the Clearing Station at Cape Helles. I pointed out that it was very unusual. We sent all the men who had been with us to give them a chance. They left at 4pm...."

Aspinall later writes that the 1st Field Ambulance's tent sub-division men were "finally gathered together and landed at Gallipoli [ie. Anzac] on August 11th."

Good on you,

Grant

[Waddell]

Thank you Grant for that information.

Having a closer look at his record and some other references I think this must be the case and would explain how he wrote a letter from Alexandria.

There must have been a fair few men 'floating' around the area. I have a copy of the book "Diary of L/Cpl Roy Arthur Findlay" who was in A Squadron of 1st Field Ambulance. Roy Findlay was a driver and was involved with looking after the horses and ambulance wagons which were loaded on to the transports in Egypt in early April 1915. He seemed to move between Alexanria, Lemnos and Gallipoli particularly moving wounded back to Alexandria. I gather that there was a fair bit of interchange between roles as driver and stretcher bearer as needed.

Findlay was not involved at Helles.

Is Aspinall's diary available? I would like to use that diary quotation.

Scott

[grantmal]

No worries, Scott. I photographed a typescript of Aspinall's diary (among Butler's 'medical history' papers in the AWM); pm me your email address and I'll send it to you.

[michaeldr]

2. Would I be correct in assuming that the Ghurka’s referred to were the 2/10th Ghurka Rifles and the attack being referred to was the attack on Gully Ravine of the 28th June 1915? The dates seem to fit, although no date is mentioned in the letter.

Scott,

This extract is from a little booklet titled 'Gurkhas at Gallipoli, May-December 1915' which was produced in 1992 by The Gurkha Museum.

"On Gully Spur the preliminary artillery bombardment was so intense and accurate that the leading British brigade had little difficulty in advancing through all five trenches. The Indian Brigade, led by 2/10GR and followed by 1/6GR and 1/5GR, moved forward, secured J11A, and consolidated and captured trenches which had been all but destroyed by the artillery fire. 1/5GR then passed through 2/10GR and 1/6GR and extended the line forward to a prominent feature, later to be known as Fusilier Bluff, which made an excellent strong point to secure the left of the line.

So far, the advance up Gully Spur had succeeded scarcely without a hitch. Unfortunately, the advance to the east of Gully Ravine had foundered in the face of heavy casualties. This meant that the right of those trenches captured on the Spur were now exposed to fire from Turkish positions to the right of the Ravine. The Turks, fully aware of the threat to their defences and determined to regain the ground lost, threw in a succession of bombing attacks on their trenches on the Spur now occupied by the Gurkhas. As usual, they had the advantage of being well supplied with bombs far superior to those of our troops.

Over the next few days the fighting around the positions held by the Gurkhas was fierce and confused. On 30th June, a determined attack was launched against the line held by 1/5GR and 1/6GR which forced the Gurkhas back but a counter attack, led by the Commanding Officer of 1/6GR retook the ground lost. The following day, it was the turn of 2/10GR to be forced to give ground and then to recover it. Inevitably, in this type of warfare at close quarters, casualties were high, particularly amongst the British Officers, and it was not long before only a handful remained in the three battalions.

On the evening of 2nd July, Turks were seen massing in front of the line held by 1/5GR and 1/6GR: it was the prelude to an attack in massed formation from which few survived the hail of rapid fire directed upon the advancing columns which left the ground littered with their dead. Astonishingly, they tried the same tactics again three days later when a complete Turkish division hurled itself in closely packed columns against the same two Gurkha battalions. Once again they were mown down, the helpless targets of well aimed rapid fire and shrapnel. In the end, some 2,000 enemy dead lay in front of the Gurkha trenches. The Turks made no further attempts to retake the ground lost.”

Further details on this battle are to be found in the book 'Gully Ravine, Gallipoli' in the Battleground Europe series by Leo Cooper [iSBN 0 85052 923 9]; the author is our pal Krithia

regards

Michael

[michaeldr]

This map is from the British OH. The trench specifically mentioned in the above acount, J11A, is that which runs up from J11 and parallel to the coast

[michaeldr]

As mentioned earlier, our GWF Pal 'Krithia' has written the book on this battle and a PM or e-mail to him may confirm for you exactly where the 'No.11 British Clearing Station' was situated.

Until then, looking at Steve's book, he gives the 29th Division's Order No.8 (27th June 1915) in his Appendix I; see page 187.

Item 3 of that order covers Medical Arrangements and sub-para. 'c' goes as follows:

“Casualties in the Indian Brigade and among the British on the extreme left will be evacuated to the Dressing Station established by the 108th and 87th Field Ambulances respectively, whence they will be sent along the sea-shore to Gully Beach for embarkation.”

[michaeldr]

The Rev O Creighton CF, the CoE chaplain to the 86th Brigade was working in Gully Ravine and he mentions a visit to this part of the front line at this time in his book 'With the Twenty-Ninth Division in Gallipoli'; see page 150

"On Thursday (1st July 1915) after lunching with the R.F.s, I went up to J12 to try and see if I could discover the bodies of any of the missing officers. I took a guide with me, who said he knew where they had fallen. I went up to Gurkha Bluff and through J11A – a long communication trench running along the top of cliff, parallel with the sea for quite 1,000 yards, to J13 and beyond, which was our main gain. The Turks had retaken J13 and part of J12, which were difficult for us to hold, but we have held J11A and dug a diagonal trench from the junction of J11A and J12 back to J11, which is now the firing line. Between J11 and J12 the ground is littered with dead. A number of Turks had got cut off and were lying mixed up with our own dead. I went down J12 and looked through a periscope. A lot of firing was going on and bomb-throwing, so it was impossible to do much, ...”

[Waddell]

Thanks Grant- PM sent.

Thank you Michael. A wealth of information on Gallipoli as usual.

That account from "Ghurka's at Gallipoli" is very useful, I didn't realise three Battalions of Ghurka's were involved.

Looks like Kritihia's book on Gully Ravine will be on the reading list!

Regards,

Scott