The Fife and Forfar Yeomanry | Page 6

St Paul's Bay for the night and got into
Valetta Harbour early next morning. For most of us it was our first
glimpse of the Near East, and no one could deny the beauty of the
scene--the harbour full of craft of all sorts down to the tiny native skiff,
and crowned by the old Castle of St Angelo, the picturesque town, the

palm trees, and the motley crowd of natives swimming and diving, and
hawking fruit and cigarettes from their boats. Some of us got ashore to
see the historical old town, full of memories of the Templars--St John's
Cathedral, the Governor's Palace, the Armoury--but most had to stay on
board to bargain and argue with the native vendors. We slipped out of
the harbour at dusk, showing no lights, but to show we were not
downhearted, Lovat's entire pipe band started to play. But not for long;
as the captain threatened to put them all in irons, which brought the
concert to an abrupt conclusion.
We reached Alexandria on the morning of the 18th, and the first stage
of our trip was over--to everyone's regret. We had had a lovely voyage,
a calm sea and perfect weather, and only the most persevering had
managed to get seasick. Those of us who had still lingering hopes of
seeing horses at Alexandria were speedily disillusioned, as we were
ordered promptly to unload all our saddlery and transport vehicles. This
was done with just as much organisation and care as the loading. The
following morning we all went a route march for a couple of hours
through the town. Perhaps the intention was to squash any desire we
might have had to linger on in Alexandria. All the same some bits
undoubtedly stank less than others.
Meanwhile stacks of infantry web equipment had come aboard, and
fortunately for us about forty infantry officers who were able to show
us how to put it together. That kept us busy for the next few days.
A cruiser met us in the Grecian Archipelago and conducted us safely
into Mudros Harbour on 23rd September. It had got very much colder
as we got farther north, and the day before we made Mudros it was
absolutely arctic, which was lucky indeed as it made us all take on to
the Peninsula much warmer clothes than we would otherwise have
done. Mudros Harbour was a great sight--British and French battleships,
hospital ships, transports, colliers, and all sorts of cargo ships down to
the little native sailing boats, and the steam cutters which tore up and
down all day looking very busy. The island itself looked very
uninviting, stony, barren, and inhospitable, and a route march only
confirmed our opinions--the race ashore in the ship's boats, however,

compensated us--and nearly drowned us.
Our ration strength at Mudros was 32 officers and 617 other ranks, but
of these 9 officers and 63 other ranks remained behind as first
reinforcements when the Regiment went on the Peninsula. Each
squadron went forward 4 officers and 136 other ranks. When we
returned to Mudros three months later our effective strength was 8
officers and 125 other ranks.
On 26th September the Regiment filed down the gangways of the
Andania on to the Abassiyeh and landed that night on Gallipoli. From
the Abassiyeh we were transhipped into a "beetle" packed like sardines
and loaded like a Christmas-tree. These lighters being flat-bottomed
could run ashore on the sand and land troops dry-shod. The gangway
was very steep and slippery and the men were so overloaded, each
carrying a bundle of firewood as well as full equipment, and a pick and
a shovel, that nearly everyone, like William the Conqueror, bit the dust
on landing. Otherwise, we had an unmolested landing and started off
for our billets in some reserve trenches about a mile and a half away.
Here our difficulties began with daylight, as we were in full view of the
Turkish positions and within easy range of their guns, with the result
we were not allowed to move about outside the trenches during the day.
Water had to be fetched by hand about a mile and then had to be boiled,
and we had not, like those who had been on the Peninsula a few weeks,
collected a stock of petrol and biscuit tins for storage. Later on we even
got water-carts filled with water brought from Mudros or Egypt, but not
for at least six weeks, and meantime everything had to be carried and
stored in petrol tins, rum jars, and such few biscuit tins as were
water-tight. The wells were so congested, and the water so scarce that
water-bottles were not allowed at the wells, and all we could do was to
keep them in the cookhouse, ready to be filled and