The Continual Inner Search. Margaret Winn
come. We’re needing you badly.’38 They were accommodated in a kind of blockhouse with walls of bully beef cases and a tarpaulin roof. Roy slept badly.
Next day he reported for duty to the 1st Light Horse Field Ambulance at Fisherman’s Hut. The ambulance station was partly sheltered by low hills between the Turkish lines and Fisherman’s Beach. There was only one medical officer there, where once there had been a complement of six. Although there had not been much fighting since the last battle in August, many soldiers had dysentery and those that recovered usually managed to acquire paratyphoid or jaundice.39
The newcomers were each assigned a batman who assisted in the preparation of a dugout for his nominal master. The preferred sites were on the side of a hill with the only proviso of importance being a site facing the opposite way to the enemy. Roy’s dugout was made of a wooden plank and pilfered rubber sheets to keep out the rain. It was constructed without mishap on a second site, after his batman pointed out that the initial choice was exposed to shellfire.40
Two weeks passed and Roy was surprised to find himself still alive, if somewhat jumpy. The Turks did not appear to be interested in him and, in addition, as far as Roy was concerned, they had demonstrated their inability to hit a moving target. For his part, he sincerely hoped that if he were to become a target at all, he would always remain a moving one. Meanwhile, he was still able to number himself among the quick – extremely quick at times so he considered – and was almost beginning to enjoy himself. He had never been to a race meeting in his life but wondered whether a horse race would prove rather tame without an occasional burst of shrapnel to spur on the contestants!41
One amusement was bathing. It was not as enjoyable as surfing on the beaches of Sydney, not only because there was no surf but because Johnnie Turk persisted in shelling the beach at unscheduled times. There was a compensation for this drawback in the fact that the wearing of costumes was not compulsory.42 It appears from these wry passages that humour was one method Roy used to handle his fears.
Less than three weeks after his arrival at Anzac, Roy received instructions that he had been transferred to 14th Infantry Battalion of the 4th Brigade, which was in a rest camp at Mudros. He left Gallipoli on 22 October 1915, for Lemnos where he was to replace the sick Henry Loughran as Regimental Medical Officer, RMO. Away from the fighting, the health of the troops improved but their numbers were at half strength until a large number of reinforcements joined the units soon after Roy arrived. Roy took longer to fit into his new environment than other colleagues he knew, but he slowly began to make new friends.43
Roy returned to Gallipoli on 1 November 1915. The brigade was marched to a gully north of Fisherman’s Hut. The Australian dugouts were excavated on the coastal side of the ridge and protected from direct fire. Roy used his surgical bag as a pillow. He felt that, despite its knobbiness, laying hands on it might be easier if it was never out of reach. This action became a habit. The bag never left his side by day and it took the place of his huge revolver.44 Dick always maintained that Roy refused to wear his pistol as he was not planning on killing anyone and needed more space on his belt for bandages.45
On Roy’s first night, he slept fitfully owing to the attentions of what he thought was a flea but which, on inspection, turned out to be a louse. He got the horrors, tore off all his clothes and soaked them in Lysol. After he put on clean underclothes, he immediately excavated a new dugout. After several days, he was pleased to see that his methods had proved effective.46
The brigade was told to occupy the Turkish trenches which had been taken six weeks previously. The frontline trenches formed a salient, bulging into enemy territory, opposite a mountainous hilltop known as 971. The hill was still in Turkish hands despite the loss of many lives during the August battle.47
The trenches the Australians were using were overlooked by the enemy and exposed to stray bullets coming from the flank. These had travelled a long distance and lost considerable momentum. They made a whistling sound and were called ‘canaries’. At times the canaries were silent, at other times they were so numerous that their passing sounded like summer showers, stinging the parched soil.48
Stray bullets were not the only pests encountered on Gallipoli. Flies hummed with even greater persistence than the bullets, and lice were far from inactive. Roy had been supplied with NCI powder, a highly recommended lice exterminator made of Naphthalene, Camphor and Iodoform. After spreading his blanket on the ground, he sprinkled it with the unpleasant smelling powder. Hardly had he straightened himself up than he found that the flies had devoured the lot.49 There was also an incessant struggle with flies at meal times, especially when he had carefully spread a biscuit with jam, swishing the knife wildly to disperse them, but still they alighted before he could get it into his mouth.50
The officers favoured an open-air setting for their meals, not so much for hygienic as for practical reasons, there being insufficient material available for covering the area of the main terrace which had been selected for the purpose. The only concessions to formality were a rough table and plank to sit on. There were plenty of Egyptian cigarettes, but as Roy found them too dry, he was pleased to get the occasional Virginian.51
Roy usually occupied a rough seat cut out of the dirt. It was apt to become flooded when it rained, despite all efforts at draining the hillside behind. There were compensations for the discomfort though as, even on a wet day, stretching before the occupant was the kind of panorama that had inspired the Greek poets. In the distance was the island of Imbros, which overlooked where Poseidon scaled the heights of Samothrace so that he might watch the changing fortunes in the Trojan War.52
There is not much information about Roy’s specific medical-related activities on Gallipoli although he must have been busy during his first deployment as wastage due to disease, death and wounds had almost doubled from 5 per cent to 9 per cent of the force in August and September. Later, sickness began to overtake war injuries as the prime cause of medical evacuation.53
Flies posed a huge health problem. Although the Anzacs attempted to bury their dead, it was not always possible to retrieve bodies close to the Turkish lines, nor was it feasible to dispose of the thousands of human and animal body parts strewn around several hundreds of hectares of countryside. Faeces, food scraps and dung from mules and horses contributed to producing ideal fly-breeding grounds. The Anzac medical authorities realised the danger and had incinerators built around the area. Proper latrines were dug but were often just open pits with poles across them and exposed to the elements. Hepatitis became an increasing problem.54
The novel suggests that Roy’s first casualty was an officer who, although he had only been on Gallipoli for 24 hours, had been wounded in the foot while asleep in his dugout.55 We also know that, along with all medical officers of the Anzac Medical Association, he was invited by Colonel Begg to attend Otago Gully on 5 December for a discussion about the treatment of wounds from the RMOs’ perspective. We don’t know if he actually attended but, given his Methodist uprightness, assume he did.
Roy took a number of photographs of the field ambulance tents and dugouts at B Section, Walden Grove and Hay Valley. The landscape looks dry and there was a widespread lack of water, which fell hardest on the privates who only got a quart56 a day. What they could stop themselves from drinking, they used first for cleaning their teeth, then they shaved