Egypt, 4/1/16 (No. 2)

Dear Dad,
I wrote you in a separate letter today. Things have been happening during the last fortnight.
Three weeks ago today we were in the trenches wondering if there was anything in the evacuation rumours. By 3 a.m. on Monday the 20th every man was off the Peninsula.
Our Gun Section left on the last night one gun was amongst the last party to leave. Everything went off without a hitch. Someone will no doubt be decorated for engineering the movement. To withdraw about forty thousand men from about a twelve mile front was a ticklish job and it was nothing short of a miracle that allowed us to get away without Jacko suspecting anything. We learnt on arrival at Lemnos that preparation had been made there to receive from ten to fifteen thousand wounded. Our casualties on the last night were three wounded- it took five nights to effect the evacuation nothing can be done on the beach during the day. When we first learnt that the evacuation was a certainty we were at first incredulous and afterwards a bit downhearted most of the older hands would rather have gone through another advance it seemed hard to withdraw after all that had been done there. However we soon came to understand that it must be for the best and everybody entered into the spirit of the thing and put in their spare time preparing surprises for Jacko when he came over. Devices, some worked by candles some by drips of water were rigged up to fire old and broken rifles hours after the last man had left the trenches. Bombs which explode on a spring being released are in all sorts of odd places. Altogether the first party of Turks that came over were due to have a few casualties. About the second day of the evacuation our men on Walkers Ridge stopped firing for about three hours. Jacko became curious and sent over some armed parties to see what was wrong. They all got wiped out. On another occasion we stopped fire on the whole front for 48 hours. This seemed to puzzle the Turk and we were sorely tempted to let fly when Jacko's curiosity bid him to show his head and shoulders over his trench. We were then in hopes that he  would attack but he was not to be drawn.
On our arrival at Lemnos we recieved a big mail and all hands ate a good deal more cake than was good for them. We made up for this on our trip to Alexandria however when we lived on Bully & Biscuits and had to wear lifebelts night and day as they feared submarines. We are now in Egypt and are soon to be joined by the sevenths and eighths so that I should see Gorden in a day or two. I have receieved a good many parcels so far all in good condition the parcel of clothing arrived today.
Love to all
Your affectionate son,
Rawei

Mudros, Lemnos, 6/11/15

Dear Dad,
We are still at Lemnos our months spell has dragged out to two months and the sixths who have now been with us for five weeks or so are becoming impatient. Even the old hands for whom the Peninsula has no great attractions are growing tired of the inaction and don't care how soon they get back into it.
As for myself, I am beginning to grow fat here. We are fed fairly well we are issued with bread and fresh meat daily and have cooks to prepare our meals for us. Sometimes they open their hearts and issue a pint of beer or stout per man. I have joined the machine gun section here and find the work very interesting- a machine gun man is supposed to know all about rangefinding, field sketching, etc, and to have a working knowledge of signalling besides the actual working of his gun. Some fifty percents of us are new hands so that you will see we have had any amount to do in our spare time here.
We hear very little of events outside our own corner and we look to the papers we receive from NZ for our information. The Witnesses you send reach me alright and are very welcome. Mother in her letter asks if it is any use sending clothing. Thanks to the efforts of the good people in NZ we have socks shirts etc. to burn and are in this respect very well off. An occasional pair of socks or handkerchief does not go amiss however and anything in the way of eatables is welcome particularly on the peninsula where such things are not procurable.
The old town seems to be going ahead fast and I am looking forward to the time when we return which we should be able to do in another year though Gen. Godly gives us three years before it will be all fixed up.
Trusting you are all in good health with love to all, your affectionate son,
Rawei

Note. The words beer and stout really were underlined in his letter. Now there's a man after my own heart.

Below are some photos from Grandad's photo album. First, the photo of the machine gunners and the caption as he wrote it.

Then, the same photo after it was cropped, enlarged, and sharpened. I still can't tell which one is him.

The photo below had no caption, so I don't know where it was taken. However, it was on the same page as the photo I showed earlier, with the soldiers in the cattle car heading to Cairo. I'm guessing it must be either Egypt or Lemnos, as photos of the active positions were so rare (and completely forbidden).

Gallipoli, 22 August, 1915

Dear Father,
Just a line to let you know that I am still going strong. Ere you receive this you will know all about the last fourteen days or so here. I have come through without a scratch so far. The doctor tells me I have jaundice but we are down for a few days spell and I hope to have got over that before we move again. We had a bit of hard luck with our last mail a barge overturned and dropped it. I have had no letters for over a month. Stanley as to whose fate I have been some doubt was killed here in an advance on the 2nd May so Stan Green informs me.
We get very little news here and NZ papers are rushed when a mail arrives.
I trust you are all well up there and that things on the "farm" are prospering.
There is a great deal here to write about but little that one can say that would pass the censor.
With best regards to all,
Your affectionate son,
Rawei

6/1917 Pvt. D.R. McLean
2nd Sth Canty Coy.
Canty Infty. Batn.
NZ Expedy Force

Censored O.V. Stead Lieut

PS. The Lieutenant who censored this has since died as a result of his experiences in August. He was the only the 2nd Coy Officer not wounded.

Note. There are some details about the censor, O.V. Stead, including his photo, here.

Dardanelles, 29 June 1915 (Gallipoli)

2nd Canty Regt

Canty Infantry Batallion

NZ Expedy Force

29th June 1915

Dear Father,

I suppose there is not much that I can write that will pass the censor's hands but I have been lucky enough to acquire a piece of paper and envelope and might as well use them.

We are now down in what is known as "Rest Gully" and we are supposed to be having a spell after eight days in the trenches. In reality we look forward to going back to the trenches for a spell as we are no sooner down here than they have us on some fatigue work or another, at present it is road making.

However, our officers do all they can for us and with it all we are not badly treated. The land we occupy here consists for the most part of deep narrow gulleys whose shingly and almost precipitous sides are covered for the most part with a prickly shrub not unlike a small holly. We live here in bivys (bivouacs) dug into the side of the hill: two or three men to each bivy. The enemy have been paying a little too much attention to our gully lately and a good bit of spare time has been put in deepening bivys. We thought it wise to vacate the one we were in altogether and have just finished digging another in what we hope will prove a more secluded spot.
[Censored]*

We are fairly wise in the ways of bullets and shrapnel and have a rough idea when we are safe from them but bombs have an uncanny way of dropping in apparently from nowhere. The correct thing to do is to throw an overcoat over them and then lie down or get round a corner somewhere if there is time. Last Wednesday when we were in the [censored] a bomb landed between the chap on my left and myself. I dived for the corner but was not quite quick enough and got a piece in the back of my head. It pulled up against the bone and inflicted only a slight wound which does not prevent me from carrying on. There is some consolation in having a thick head after all.

Your letter of the 4th May arrrived last week it is the first I have recieved since leaving NZ. I saw the photos of the Otago teachers in the witness and noticed that you did not have flannels on like the rest. It is a good thing your influenza did not prove serious.

In common with the other N.C.O's of the Fourth's I revert to the ranks as from the date we joined the main force.
Trusting you are all in good health. With kindest regards to all, your affectionate son,
Rawei

Censored

C. Cribb.**

[Notes]

*Do you ever wonder what censoring actually looks like? Surprisingly low-tech. The offending parts were scribbled out with a black pencil (see below- click the photo to enlarge).

** There is a page on http://www.anzacs.org/ about C. Cribb, the person who censored this letter, here. There are also some details about his fate in the The Auckland Weekly News, August, 1915. The relevant parts are as follows:

CRIBB, Major C W E, who has been wounded, was second in command of the 13th North Canterbury and Westland, Company. When Major David Grant was killed in action on April 25 Captain Cribb was promoted to the rank of major and given that officer’s command, the 2nd South Canterbury Infantry Co. Major Cribb served in the South African war, for which he holds the Queen’s Medal with four clasps and the King’s Medal with two clasps. At the time of the outbreak of the war he was in the Postal Dept at Greymouth. [AWN 19.08.1915] P.21

CRIBB, Major C W E, Canterbury Infantry, who has died of wounds, was a Greymouth resident and left exactly 12 months ago in command of the first West Coast contingent, which he helped to mobilize. He had seen service in the Boer war and had spent his lifetime in the defence forces and held two long service medals. Altogether he was over 25 years in the NZ forces. He was a senior mail clerk at Greymouth, and was a native of Blenheim. He was 44 yrs of age. [AWN 19.08.1915] P.21


[Although Max didn't go into his activities over the past few weeks, there is some information about what the New Zealand Infantry and Canterbury Regiment were up to here.]