Toora and Welshpool Ensign and South Gippsland Observer (Vic. : 1914 - 1918), Friday 12 November 1915, page 2


Letters From Our Soldiers.

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Writing on September 3rd, Lieut. C. L.

Fox, formerly of Toora, says:-

"On arriving back into the tren ches, after a splendid time in Egypt, I was pleased to find quite a

of correspondence waiting for me. I would like to give you some idea of how things are going here, but beyond

saying that they are fairly satisfac

tory, and have improved since I have

been away, my remarks and opinions

must be omitted. One's area of writ ing matter is thus greatly reduced.

After living on the fat of the land in

Egypt one does not take too kindly to trench life again. I found the men cery stale and much needing relief.

To be continually under fire month after month is a great strain on the

best of nerves and constitutions. The men are cheerful enough, however.

The Australasians have been abso lutely splendid through it all. There are very few troops that could equal

them, in my opinion. The way they fit themselves to circumstances I wonderful. I quite understand why

Kitchener is asking for all he can go.

I am afraid they will be terribly swollen-headed afterwards, because I believe the soldiirs in France have

far better time of it than we do,

what with ample rest and occasional

leave, not to mention other conven iences. We were all misled in the

fiest place as to the qualities of the Turk. who is putting up a magnifi cent fight and a fairly clean one, but

his use of explosive bullets is not to be commended, and I know he does

use them. Up to now no gases have been used. I believe Willie Silcock I has been at Alexandra all the time with the transports. . . Remember me to all friends."

Tlie following letters are from Pte.

Cecil Lousada, formerly of Toora, who is now at the front, will be of

interest to his many friends here. He

says:-

''I am still alive and well. Prac

tically all this week we have

been on fatigue work, laying

line around the beach. I may say it is just us dangerous doing this work as if we were in the trenches, as shells are continually bursting all around

us and each time there is "something" hurt. By "something" I mean mules, Indians, Tommies, New Zealanders, Australians. All the transport work here is done by Indians and the mules. These wiry little beasts are

either used in carts or as pack animals and they save us a tremendous amount of work. I met Jimmy Dya

mond (late of "Toora Ensign") the other day. His gun is not far from where we are camped. Bon. Curram has just arrived with the 13th Light Horse. He was working on the train line with me, so we were able to talk

over old times. He told me that Fred. Kerr was here in the 22nd Battalion, but I have not seen him

yet. Most of the sighting and firing in the trenches is done by means of

an instrument called a periscope. The rifle attached to this instrument and you put this above the parapet and look into the bottom glass re flector. You, of course, have the sight of a certain loophole in the enemy's trench and fire immediately anyone is reflected in the glass. By this means you can shoot without the risk of being seen, which is of great

importance, as the trenches are only from 100 to 200 yards apart."

In the second letter he writes:-"Just to let you know we are in the trenches. We landed at the first land ing place where the Australians and New Zealanders did such wonderful work. It is called Anzac, the name

being made up from the first letters of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps. We had a few shots around us as we came ashore from the

transport in a barge. The barges

that ran aground with the first lot are still here on the beach as they were on the night of the landing. You can hardly realise the absolutely impossible heights that the first troops had to take, and besides that they were all covered in brambles and small bushes. Now, these same hills are full of dugouts and trenches. We

landed here at 4 a.m. on Sunday and spent the few remaining hours to daylight up in the hills about a mile from the shore. In the morning

were put in dug outs on the side of a hill which was sheltered from shrapnel fire and we remained there till next morning, when we set off for the trenches where we arrived and were duly installed in trench dug-outs. You are allowed cook in the trenches and when you want anything special you can sometimes get hold of a little flour and make a pancake or 'Johnny' cake. So you see we can make our selves comfortable and we are as safe as a church here except for a few stray bullets which sometimes fall in the trench passages."