Daily News (Perth, WA : 1882 - 1955), Monday 7 June 1915, page 3


"SIX BOB A DAY TOURISTS."

NEW NAME FOR AUSTRALIANS.

A letter has been received by friends in Brighton from Captain H. T. C. Layh, 7th Battalion, A.I.F., who has recently been reported as wounded in the Dardanelles operations. He says that prior to going to the start the leather belts were taken away from officers, and other changes were made

in their equipment, so that at a few yards distance, except by the fact that he does not carry a rifle, an officer cannot be distinguished from a private. "This," says Captain Layh, "gives a chap a better sporting chance." A general who came over from France was lecturing the Australian- troops in Egypt just before they left for the Dardanelles, so as to give them some points that would be of service to them in the field. He told them, inciden tally, that his own brigade of 11,000 men, during the fighting in France, had once been brought down to 1,300, through casualties. "So things there must have been humming some." An old Scotch soldier of the South Afri can war, who arrived in the Allies' lines when things were at their hottest, was, according to the same authority, welcomed by the sergeant-major in the

trenches. "I am glad to see you, Pe ter," said he. "You have come over to fight for your King and country." "It's the fact, mon," said Peter, "that in less than five minutes I was fighting For My Bally Life." The staff officers told the Australians, says Captain Layh, that the Germans find the range with their artillery by firing six rounds short. Then they probably shoot another six that go too far, but the next lot drop fair in the trenches. These feelers are called by the Allies 'bouquets,' and now and again the Tommies in the trenches report in their letters, and to men they meet who may be posted elsewhere, that the Germans are 'throwing flowers' at them. I believe that as soon as the first six rounds drop our troops vacate the trenches sometimes until the Germans have finished with them, and as soon as the artillery firing stops they man them again, and await the infantry charge, which is the inevitable sequel." "However bad things are at the front," says the captain, "I wish they would shift us from here. It is bitterly cold in the desert of Egypt. The wind fairly cuts you, and the sand gets as cold as charity about an hour after sundown. They call our fellows in Egypt 'six bob a day tourists'."