Fromelles Anniversary: An Odyssey Books Bundle

Chapter 6

The push was on.

The company went over and before they had time to think about it, Harry and Eddie found themselves backed against each other, fending Johnny Turk away, shrieking b****y murder at the tops of their lungs. They’d rushed to the front of the surge and now it seemed natural to step back, to ebb away from that high tide mark. There was no clean fighting, no thought of anything they’d been taught. This was just scrapping as hard as they could, raging like they were in the middle of a wharf-side rumble, except this time they really wanted to kill someone. They wanted it more than rest or peace or home. Don’t pick a fight with me, Abdul, or I’ll kill you, I will. I really will kill you, I want to kill you.

wantToo many times they got what they wanted. Breathless and filthy, tiring now, they lurched back with rampant Turks right on them, every step. More and more of them. It was as if their only misguided objective in going forward had been to haul the Turks out of their burrows into the open where they could be killed. Whatever had been planned at the start of the day, Harry saw it wasn’t working quite the way they wanted it to. Tugging them outside didn’t make them easy to kill; it only made everything worse. They were all moving back, back from the Turks who continued to boil out of the ground in endless numbers.

Not everyone could pull out safely. There were khaki shapes down behind the Turks. They lay out of reach, screaming. Dripping blood and sweat, Eddie found the trench behind him, thwacked the butt of his emptied rifle against an enemy’s head, dragged at Harry’s belt and pulled him down too. There were half a dozen blokes already back in the trench. It was easier from there, but it was still havoc. Somehow the blasted tide had got turned around, and they were defending their own shore against a never-ending flow of enemies.

Sergeant Wallis dropped in beside them and roused them into order, manhandling more than one man into position and organising a repelling fire that gifted them a bit of breathing space. They’d lost contact with the next company; Wallis growled out his need for a runner and Harry started forward, eager as a greyhound. He had a nick on his ear from a spent bullet, and his bloodied face looked ferocious. He leaned in close to Wallis, nodded that he’d got the message, and started to push past Eddie down the madcap zigzag of the trench. Eddie grabbed his sleeve.

‘Hang on, I’m coming too.’

‘You’re needed here. Let me go, I’m in a hurry.’

‘I’m as quick as you!’

‘Yeah and twice as big a target. You keep that flaming lot out of the trench and keep your b****y head down. I’ll see you in a minute.’ Harry shook free and was gone.

12 August 1915

12 August 1915It’s been real busy the last week with pushes all along the ridge. We got in one scrap and both got some kills but we lost a lot of men. But there were lots of wounded we didn’t get to in time.

Harry’s doing some running for the company and I’m on rations duty. He’s quick, but I’m quick and strong. Often we go together. We leave our packs here and go up and down with the rations or the message. Like now …

Six o’clock. I don’t know if it’s true they reckon the English let us down. But Harry says Charlie MacTierney told him it was a stupid stunt from the start. Charlie is with us now. I remember that summer when Harry punched Charlie’s nose for kicking down our sandcastle, the one we made with Nora when we were kids. I never saw so much blood from one nose. When Harry hits something it stays hit. Charlie remembers it too. We laughed about it. Charlie looks out for us when he can.

29 August 1915

29 August 1915H is sick again but not me. Many of our blokes have got the dysentery. The doc told Harry we should all get evacuated before we die of sickness. Harry says we’ll die of boredom before that.

15 September 1915

15 September 1915Mail today. No letter from Peg. The kids sent me more pencils and Harry got some fruitcake from Ma. It’s a bit cooler. Water still hard to land. No real fighting but Harry and me went out on a raid. We got some Turk food, some sort of hard bread with honey, but no prisoners. Harry was beside Sarge Taylor when he got hit right through the head. He fell down dead and Harry got us all back crawling on the ground and he carried the Sarge but he was dead all right.

20 September 1915

20 September 1915Harry got made corporal. We are joking him about it now.

September 1915, Gallipoli

September 1915, GallipoliDear Nora,

Thank you so much for your letter. It is lovely to hear from you and any news from home is precious. I am sorry to hear your mother is not well. It must mean a lot more work for you. At least you’ve had good rain this winter.

Eddie and I are going on well. I must tell you that I am promoted to corporal.

I think about you a lot and imagine how things are at home. Thank you for writing.

Yours,

Harry F.

PS Charlie is well and I guess you know he’s now with our company.

19 October 1915

19 October 1915We never thought it would get this cold. Nothing much is happening. Up at Quinn’s they chucked some bully beef across to Abdul and he’s throwing back dried meat.

1 November 1915

1 November 1915It’s really cold. We got some sheepskin off two blokes who came back from Lemnos. We share that for sleeping and take turns to wear it if we are on sentry. The water on the beach is too cold for bathing. Ma and Kath sent us some more socks.

29 November 1915

29 November 1915It snowed the other night. I never saw that before. We wrote some letters today.

1 December 1915

1 December 1915Daniel Cavanagh, from our old school, was killed last night. And some b****y bastard sniper shot the Red Cross donkey.