Evan's Gallipoli (5 page)

‘My father is a diplomat,' he said proudly. ‘I went to the best schools. But now there is trouble in Turkey. Politics. My father is in prison and I was sent here, to punish him. I am a runner and water-carrier. There were nine of us. Now there is only me. Your soldiers pick us off as we run from trench to trench.'

‘That is a terrible thing,' I said, because it was. ‘Why did Turkey ally itself with the Germans? It is the Germans that we are fighting, you know.'

‘
Ins'hallah
,' Abdul said. ‘That is politics again. We cannot expect to understand it. We can only obey. And die.'

I agreed. I put down my pack and rummaged in it. I could see that he had lice; one crawled across his face as I was talking to him.

‘This powder will kill your lice,' I said, and offered it to him.

He took it. Then he smiled. It was a lovely smile. Then he gave a sort of salute, climbed out of the hole, and was gone.

That was a strange meeting. I found our lines by listening for English voices and paced down, slowly and carefully. So that was the enemy. And my friends, Bluey and Curly, were shooting boys like him.

I found Father a little better for his rest. I prayed a lot this evening. For peace. For me, and Father, and boys like Abdul.

June 24th

The beach says that the navy is about to start shelling the heights, like Bluey said, and then the Turks will retreat and we will be able to capture them. However, there are no new ships in the straits so this does not seem likely. This morning I talked to a sailor—who looked terribly clean in his white uniform and little round hat—who was waiting for a hospital evacuation on the sand. He was in charge of the boat. He said that it was only a matter of time before the British High Command realised that the attack on Gallipoli could not succeed and withdrew the troops. If the troops withdraw we will go too. Out of here. Oh, I long to be out of here. But then the sailor said that if they didn't withdraw it would be a great military disaster and that doesn't sound good.

I am worried about Father. If I see Major Western I shall ask him to send us across to Lemnos or Mudros for a few days. Just until he gets his strength back.

The troops really like my father. They started off by being very rude, swearing at him, telling him that God has forsaken this place (though God is everywhere). He didn't get angry. He spoke gently to them. He tells them that God loves them and they almost believe it.

June 25th

Major Western was kind and sent us to Lemnos. My father is ill. His skin is peeling and he has a cough, and he says that his teeth are loose. He is also losing his hair. Major Western sent a flask of lime juice and told me to make sure that my father drank some every day because he thinks we have the beginnings of scurvy. I mixed the juice with lots of water because it is very bitter and I have no sugar to sweeten it. Father complained but he drank it. The soldiers dilute their lime juice with raki but Father never touches spirits. And Father will not take the quinine tablets issued to everyone because of malaria. He says that the quinine is a drug and he will not take drugs. I tasted it and it too is very bitter so perhaps I could crush the tablets and put them in his lime juice. But perhaps that would be sinful. If God wants Father to have malaria then he will have it. I don't know what to do. I shall pray.

June 26th

Father cannot sleep. I woke several times in our hut and heard him praying aloud. Then he quoted scripture. Isaiah, I think. ‘How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings; that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good; that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, thy God reigneth.' I fell asleep again but he didn't. He did eat some breakfast. I managed to get an egg. It is sunny and warm and I have nothing to do today. It is a strange feeling. I am writing this sitting against the farmhouse wall, watching the chickens. Father is feeding them with scraps from the kitchen. It is quiet, except for the big guns from the ships answered by the Turkish guns from the heights. I hope that Bluey and Curly have taken cover. How odd that a war is happening just across that stretch of water. And we are sitting here watching the birds cluck and peck.

June 27th

Father didn't sleep again. He prays for peace without ceasing. So do I. But the guns never stop. Not even in the dark. But at least on Lemnos we can see the stars.

June 28th

Today I met Sister Lucas again. She is about to set out for Alexandria with a boatload of wounded. She spoke to Father and looked at him very closely. ‘I think you should get your father away from here, Evan,' she told me. I think so too. I said so. Then I asked her, ‘Why do you say that?' And she said his condition worried her. She thinks he might have shell shock. She has a lot of shell-shock cases. I told her that I would love to take Father back to Australia, but how can I make him leave? He has a holy mission and purpose, he says. All I can do is go with him on his mission and try to keep him safe. She kissed me and gave me a basket of comforts. In exchange I gave her a tin of lice powder. She says her patients are so tattooed with ingrained dirt that they will have to be soaked in carbolic for days when they get to Alex. She said that it was a miracle that typhoid hadn't swept the trenches. Father told her that God can do anything and she agreed.

June 29th

I reclaimed our remaining stores from the hut and we went back to Gallipoli today. Two Senegalese had moved into our little cave but left when they saw Father, saying that he was a holy man. Which he is, of course. He looks a little better with the lime juice and the vegetables I managed to organise on Lemnos. I believe that those lentils are very nourishing. I asked about a ham bone to make pea soup with them but no one had a scrap left of their winter pig. Not even for money.

I climbed the sap, and found that Bluey and Curly were still there. I gave them a tin of boiled sweets which Sister Lucas had given me. They said, you beaut! Soon we will have distributed all our goods. Then perhaps we can go home. I hate leaving these brave, funny men. But I need to get Father away.

Major Western came and brought more lime juice and looked sad. I asked him what was wrong and he said that he had just had a big fight with Command about a plan of theirs for a place called the Nek. He said it was plain bloody murder and he wasn't swearing. I made chamomile tea for him and Father.

They told me to do the same but I can't. Modesty is very important to Father. Also I have our emergency fund—ten English sovereigns—in a webbing belt around my waist and I don't want anyone to see them. Aunt Euphie gave them to me when we were leaving and made me promise not to tell Father about them. There isn't a lot to spend them on in the Dardanelles.

June 30th

Father is definitely ill. He shivers as with cold all the time. I slipped some quinine into his lime juice but he would not drink it, saying it was too bitter. He searched through our luggage to find a piece of white material for some reason. I gave him a big white bandage used to make slings for broken arms. Then he was happy and went to sleep, telling me to pray for peace. So I did. I am beginning to doubt that an almighty and merciful God hears our prayers. Or we would not be here, deafened by the big guns, in the stench of corpses.

July 1st

Father seemed a little better this morning so I went back up the sap. Bluey and Curly were very pleased because they had received a package from home and they were eating spoonfuls of jam. They only had one spoon so it was passed around. It was apricot jam in a tin. Then a big crump came and Bluey flung himself flat with his hand over the tin. Earth showered all over the trench. When we dug ourselves out, he was still holding the tin and the jam had no dirt in it. Everyone laughed. And went on eating jam. This is a very strange life.

I am writing this in our little cave and Father has told me to pack up all our goods, we are moving. I have made a bag out of a gas-mask case to put this diary in so I can sling it over my shoulder. This is only a damp dirty niche under a cliff but it feels safe and like home. I wonder where we shall sleep tonight?

July 2nd

When I wrote the last entry I had no clue about what Father was planning. He strode off up the sap towards the front lines and I followed him, carrying all our stuff, thinking he was going to preach to the new trenches which have been dug near the top of the ridge. It was hard going and very muddy. But when he came to the front trench he just went on, waving the white bandage square, over into Turkish lines—and I went after him, of course, terrified that some sentry was just going to shoot us. I wanted to drop to my knees and crawl but Father was moving too fast—his legs are longer than mine—so I just ran and stumbled after him. When we got into the Turkish trench Father said ‘Peace' in several ancient languages and I said in Turkish that they should take us to their commander. So they did that, not unkindly, shoving us through a network of trenches that seemed very badly made and which smelt awful, of dead men and human filth. Just like ours.

The commander was a German officer. He seemed to be a young man, with short blond hair and blue eyes. He looked very tired. I understand a little German. Father speaks it well.

The officer looked up and said crossly, ‘
Was wollen Sie?
'

Father proclaimed, ‘Put on the armour of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil, For we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities, against powers, against the ruler of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.'

The officer stared and made a movement with his hand, and said, ‘
Dieser Mann ist wahnsinnig
,' then he said, ‘
ihn erschiessen
,' which means ‘This man is mad, shoot him', and I thought we would have to die for peace, so I waited for the shock. But the sentry said in Turkish that this was a holy man and the officer nodded and we were shoved out and marched towards the rear. There are many soldiers and also people who look after or sell things to soldiers and we were escorted through a mile of such places, booths and tents and parked automobiles and horses grazing. Everyone stared at us. Some of them spat or cursed us. There seemed to be no women. Only soldiers for the longest time.

Someone is coming. Later.

July 3rd

I am very tired. So is Father. But he keeps telling our guards that they must turn away from wickedness to good and they hit him or spit on him. I wish he would be quiet. They haven't hit me because I am unimportant. Just a boy and there are lots of boys here. We are in a shell-damaged camping place. It has half a roof and the floor is covered with rubbish. I have cleared a place for us to sleep. They have taken away our packs but my diary was in the gas-mask case under my shirt and they didn't notice it. They don't seem to know what to do with us. The biggest guard, Mehmet, a thin man with greedy eyes, says that we can't be sent to a prisoner-of-war camp because we aren't soldiers. He says that it would be easier just to shoot us. But he is not cruel. He shared the leftover food from our packs with us. He also gave Father back his Bible. Father spends all day reading it aloud. Mehmet stole all the other things away to sell. I am not supposed to hate people but I hate Mehmet. Thief. Beast. The Turkish army is as poor as ours. There isn't a lot of food and he says that the peasants are hoarding. I wouldn't have said that there is a lot to hoard. This is a dry sad landscape. Everyone is hungry. Even the animals. It is strangely peaceful here. The guns are far away. I can still hear them, though. I have no idea where we are. I wonder if Major Western has noticed that we are gone? Mehmet says that if we are returned Father and I will be shot as traitors. It looks like I will be explaining myself to God very soon. And I do not want to die. What will happen to Father if I die? I feel like weeping but that would make the creature Mehmet laugh. He thinks we are infidels. One knows another, I say. Soldiers keep coming to the doorway and staring at us. Aunt Euphie had a bird in a cage. If I live through this I will never have anything in a cage again.

July 4th

Nothing happened. Mehmet gave us some bread and bean soup, which was just water with a few beans in it. Father read the Bible. An officer came and looked at us and went away again. I am not allowed out of the camp. I wandered around a little trying to scrounge some food. I have a fortune around my waist but I cannot see any way of using it. Some boys surrounded me but they did not want to fight. They asked about Father. I told them he was a holy man devoted to peace. They nodded and asked me to ask him to pray for them. One gave me a sweet called
rahat loukoum
. At home we call it Turkish delight. Only sort of delight in this camp. It tasted of rosewater. I put a piece in Father's mouth and he quoted, ‘I am the rose of Sharon and the lily of the valleys.' He isn't talking to me at all. I don't know if he knows that I am here.

July 5th

Today was exactly like yesterday without the
rahat loukoum
.

July 6th

I think we are going to be shot. Mehmet isn't talking to me. He turns his head aside as though he cannot see me. He said we are going to be sent further inland. But he isn't sure when. Lots of soldiers came through this morning, going towards the battle. I got one of the boys to talk to me. He is afraid of being sent to the front. He asked me if it was as bad as they said. I said it was. I told him about Abdul. He said he would try to find Abdul for me. That was nice. I seem to be able to hear better. The boy was whispering. Dinner was bean soup and bread again.

July 7th

I've got lice. I asked Mehmet to return one tin of the lice powder he had stolen but he had sold it all. He gave me some powdered herbs. They smell like tansy which is fleabane so maybe they will work. Having lice is disgusting. No wonder the soldiers were so pleased to get our powder. I can feel my skin shuddering as they move about. I can't strip to get at them because they would see the money belt. There are eyes upon us all the time. God have mercy on me!