Avery, Louis Willyama – September 1915

Sept.1
Have not felt the best during the past week, a touch of dysentery. The M.O. wanted to send me away a few days ago, but I told him that I was not that bad… We have had an issue of fresh meat, so you see we are not so badly off for food, though it arrives weeks apart.… I am sharing a tin of cocoa with a pal, goodness knows where it came from. We are allowed a tin of condensed milk every 8 days, but the section cook gets that.

Sept. 5th.
During the past month we have been working on underground tunnels, mining & counter-mining. Sometimes we succeed in blowing Abdul to Hades, sometimes he scores a win & blows us up. We are very fortunate in having many experienced miners in the Company. Thanks to them we are able to detect where Abdul is working. We often trick then into setting off their mines by working a pick attached to a long cord. When the smoke has cleared we crush the crater & block off his tunnel. If our Generals imagine that this is the way to win the war, the it will take 1000 years to reach Constantinople. Gradually I am getting worse & worse. The water is bad, only get dried vegetables, poor meat & thousands of hungry blowflies. The springs have dried up & we are allowed 1 water bottle full each day… This serves for drinking, shaving & a face wash. Occasionally we go to the beach for a swim, but that is usually the signal for a hail of shrapnel. We dive under at the right moment. It is a wonderful sight to watch the thousands in bathing like St. Kilda on a hot day. Then, BANG & no one is to be seen above water. Yet numbers are hit…

Sept. 8th
Am no further use for a full day’s work now… I do not feel ill, but am so distressingly weak. Hundreds have been affected in a similar way & sent away, but I am determined to stick it out until they will have to carry me off on a stretcher…

Sept. 9th.
Am still struggling to keep going, but I just feel like lying down to sleep for ever, yet sleep is impossible as get severe tummy pains & my head is simply awful…

Sept. 10th.
Reported sick at last & the M.O. sent me to the beach for evacuation. Temperature 101°. How I managed to walk to the Casualty Station is a mystery…

Sept 11th.
Walked under my own limited power on board a trawler, thence to a hospital ship. She was full so late in the afternoon again put on a trawler & taken to the Island of Imbros… Conditions here are anything but good. You are pushed in amongst people with all kinds of disease… Am going to be sent to the Base where-ever that is. Dont care much now where it is…

Sept. 18th
Sailed at 5 p.m…bound for Alexandria in Egypt. This ship has accommodation for 400 patients. There were 700 of us on board but prior to sailing about 200 were sent ashore. 100 of us slept (or tried to) on the bottom of the 2nd hold. The heat was almost unbearable & rats were numerous… The doctors & nurses are English, nor Australian, & what a comparison…

Sept. 21st.
Arrived at Pt. Said at sunrise. During the morning we were put on board a Hospital train. Somehow I managed to walk, still hanging to my full pack & a few possessions. The nurses on this train were Australians… So different to those ice blocks of English nurses. … The 1st. Australian General Hospital had taken over the famous Palace Hotel… I was given clean pyjamas (had not worn them since leaving home) & put to bed. To lie in a bed again seemed like Heaven.

Sept 22nd.
Got up for breakfast & felt like eating good food after the starvation diet on Gallipoli. Tried to walk back to bed, but had to be helped… Once in bed I completely collapsed. A doctor was sent for & he said I had to be kept in bed, & placed on a liquid diet. Am feeling exhausted & have no interest in anything now. Temperature is rising.

Sept. 25th.
The head Sister brought the M.O. to give me a special examination. He suspects enteric, & has ordered my removal to No 1 General Hospital. On arrival was immediately stripped & a light sheet placed over me. Temperature was 105°. Ice sponges every 4 hours…

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