Document 7 - “A Very Uncomfortable Life”

Letter from Charles to Dorothy, 28 May 1915

Linklater recovered from his head wound and returned to the front lines above ANZAC Cove. On 19 May, the Turks launched a massive night attack along the entire ANZAC front line. It failed, and left around 3000 Turkish corpses in no-man's-land.

ANZAC Cove
28 May 1915

I am still safe and sound, have now been 4 weeks in the trenches, it is a very uncomfortable life. I have had my clothes on continuously for that time and only had three body washes.

The fight the other morning was splendid, our chaps fought like demons and they were as cool as possible, every shot told and the sight at daylight was grand, there were over 1000 dead Turks just in front of our Battalion as the main attack was delivered at the point where we were holding it. You could not see the ground for dead Turks and they were 2 and 3 deep in places. The official estimate was 2000 killed and 5000 wounded but they have underestimated it very much, there must have been 4000 Turks killed.

Empire Day was a holiday a truce of 8 hours being arranged to bury the dead. The Turks came over and asked how we were treating the prisoners we took that morning and we pointed to a scrubby plateau and a ravine in front of our lines and told them to look there. They got a shock when they saw the dead and it took them all day to carry them away and bury them. They made a great noise when they attacked blowing bugles, and singing out Allah! Allah! but Allah was not bullet proof as they found out.

When it rains here it is beastly, mud everywhere. I think I have eaten enough dirt to last me a lifetime, when we sit down to meals the Turks start shelling us and of cause fills our tea and food with earth. I have seen the most gruesome sights imaginable since coming here and am quite used to them, just treat them as an everyday occurrence. I just long for letters but have to put up with shrapnel instead. I can duck as quick as any man now, or dive into a burrow as quick as a rabbit when we hear the shells coming.

Source: Australian War Memorial Private Record 2DRL/0174.

Ask Yourself

  1. How has Linklater's attitude to death changed since his earlier letters?
  2. How does Linklater deal with the idea of a truce - is it as bizarre as it seems to modern readers?
  3. Historians have suggested Australian soldiers' attitudes to the Turks softened and became more respectful after the truce. Do Linklater's comments reflect or challenge this notion?