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AT SUVLA BAY

Being The Notes And Sketches Of Scenes, Characters

And Adventures Of The Dardanelles Campaign

By John Hargrave

("White Fox" of "The Scout ")

While Serving With The 32nd Field Ambulance, X Division, Mediterranean
Expeditionary Force, During The Great War




               To
             MINOBI

     We played at Ali Baba,
     On a green linoleum floor;
     Now we camp near Lala Baba,
     By the blue Aegean shore.

     We sailed the good ship Argus,
     Behind the studio door;
     Now we try to play at "Heroes"
     By the blue Aegean shore.

     We played at lonely Crusoe,
     In a pink print pinafore;
     Now we live like lonely Crusoe,
     By the blue Aegean shore.

     We used to call for "Mummy,"
     In nursery days of yore;
     And still we dream of Mother,
     By the blue Aegean shore.

     While you are having holidays,
     With hikes and camps galore;
     We are patching sick and wounded,
     By the blue Aegean shore.

                            J. H.


 Salt Lake Dug-out,
         September 12th, 1915.
          (Under shell-fire.)




TURKISH WORDS

     Sirt--summit.
     Dargh--mountain.
     Bair or bahir--spur.
     Burnu--cape.
     Dere--valley or stream.
     Tepe--hill.
     Geul--lake.
     Chesheme--spring.
     Kuyu--well.
     Kuchuk--small.
     Tekke--Moslem shrine.
     Ova--plain.
     Liman--bay or harbour.
     Skala--landing-place.
     Biyuk--great.



CONTENTS


CHAPTER

     I. IN WHICH MY KING AND COUNTRY NEED ME

    II. A LONG WAY TO TIPPERARY

   III. SNARED

    IV. CHARACTERS

     V. I HEAR OF HAWK

    VI. ON THE MOVE

   VII. MEDITERRANEAN NIGHTS

  VIII. THE CITY OF WONDERFUL COLOUR

    IX. MAROONED ON LEMNOS ISLAND

     X. THE NEW LANDING

    XI. THE KAPANJA SIRT

   XII. THE SNIPER-HUNT

  XIII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE WHITE PACK-MULE

   XIV. THE SNIPER OF PEAR-TREE GULLY

    XV. KANGAROO BEACH

   XVI. THE ADVENTURE OF THE LOST SQUADS

  XVII. "OH, TO BE IN ENGLAND!"

 XVIII. TWO MEN RETURN

   XIX. THE RETREAT

    XX. "JHILL-O! JOHNNIE!"

   XXI. SILVER BAY

  XXII. DUG-OUT YARNS

 XXIII. THE WISDOM OF FATHER S----

  XXIV. THE SHARP-SHOOTERS

   XXV. A SCOUT AT SULVA BAY

  XXVI. THE BUSH-FIRES

 XXVII. THE DEPARTUR

XXVIII. LOOKING BACK




AT SUVLA BAY


CHAPTER I. IN WHICH MY KING AND COUNTRY NEED ME


I left the office of The Scout, 28 Maiden Lane, W.C., on September 8th,
1914, took leave of the editor and the staff, said farewell to my little
camp in the beech-woods of Buckinghamshire and to my woodcraft scouts,
bade good-bye to my father, and went off to enlist in the Royal Army
Medical Corps.

I made my way to the Marylebone recruiting office, and after waiting
about for hours, I went at last upstairs and "stripped out" with a lot
of other men for the medical examination.

The smell of human sweat was overpowering in the little ante-room. Some
of the men had hearts and anchors and ships and dancing-girls tattooed
in blue on their chests and arms. Some were skinny and others too
fat. Very few looked fit. I remarked upon the shyness they suffered in
walking about naked.

"Did yer pass?"

"No, 'e spotted it," said the dejected rejected.

"Wot?"

"Rupture."

"Got