The Fife and Forfar Yeomanry | Page 9

what food
we had.
Rumour as to our future movements meantime was rife. Lord Kitchener
had come and gone, and all sorts of stories came from the beach. It was
not till 26th November that we knew definitely that evacuation had

been decided on, and that we had to make arrangements to get rid of all
surplus kit and all our "lame ducks."
Meantime, we were busy improving our trenches and digging South
Lane and Peyton Avenue communication trenches, and generally
making ourselves more comfortable.
On 26th November we got orders to pack all surplus stores which were
dumped, along with officers' valises, ready to be taken off that night by
the Sikh muleteers. We parted with great reluctance from our tarpaulins
and cart covers which provided the only shelters we had, but that night
even they would have been of little use. At five o'clock the downpour
started, accompanied by thunder and lightning, such as you only can
see in the tropics. Thunder-clap merged into thunder-clap, each one
noisier than the last--sheet lightning lit up the sky, north, south, and
east at the same time--and the rain came down in torrents. It was a
wonderful and awful sight. Trenches and dug-outs were quite
uninhabitable and a foot deep in water. Fortunately by this time it was
dark, so we climbed out of the trenches and prepared to spend the night
on the top, where the water was only lying in places. Then came down
the water from the hills. The Azmac Dere came down in spate, washing
away the Turkish and the Highland barricades, carrying horses, mules,
and men, dead and alive, down with it. Peyton Avenue and South Lane
were culs-de-sac and soon filled, and the overflow flooded our trenches.
The 2nd Lovat Scouts were completely washed out, and had to retire
and dig in down near the beach. By this time the rain had stopped, and
by next morning we saw the water subsiding gradually. Fortunately it
was a misty morning, and we could wander about on top, though we
did have one or two shrapnel bursts over us. We then discovered that
our valises and stores were still floating in the water-cart
emplacement--the Sikhs having turned tail when the storm broke. It
was six weeks later when we opened our valises.
We had hoped the relief would have been cancelled, but not so, and at 5
P.M. we started off for the front line. The Turks evidently anticipated
something of the sort, and their rifle fire soon forced us to take to the
communication trenches. North Lane was not too bad. There was 18

inches of water, but the bottom was gravelly and the going not too bad.
Where this trench struck the old support line we found guides awaiting
us who took us past Willow Tree Well through the most awful
trenches-too narrow for a heavily ladened man, greasy and slippery,
and full of holes which took us up to the waist in water. Some idea of
the going may be gathered from the fact that the journey of less than
two miles took upwards of five hours to accomplish. And then our
troubles weren't over. The firebays we found crammed with the
infantry we were relieving--a helpless, hopeless mob--and it wasn't till
midnight that we had the place to ourselves.
A Squadron (Major de Pree) held from the Azmac Dere to Fort Conan,
and B Squadron (Major J. Younger) from Fort Conan to the old road
leading to Anafarta, C Squadron lying in support. We could only man
every second or third bay lightly, and our left flank was in the air--the
159th Brigade on our left, being about 120 yards away. Lovats were in,
and to the south of, the Dere.
Movement in the trenches to promote circulation was impossible--one
was exhausted long before one felt any life in one's limbs, and to add to
our troubles snow fell during the night, and it turned bitterly cold. Next
day was even more bitterly cold with snow and rain, and a lot of men
had to go down the line sick with trench feet and exhaustion, many of
them suffering from jaundice and diarrhoea as well. The area was again
very heavily shelled with shrapnel, and we suffered a few casualties.
By night time everything was covered with snow, but what really put
the lid on was a sudden blizzard about 2 A.M. with ever so many
degrees of frost. Everything one had on was of course soaking wet and
covered with mud, and this was now frozen stiff by the frost. Most of
the rifles were out of action, and even the water in the machine guns
froze. However, daylight put new heart in us, and we made good
progress in improving the trenches, getting