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After the failure of the
August offensive, talk of evacuation was ripe. A number of events would make it
a certainty. The winter that was approaching was one.
There were some rumours from
intelligence officers that the Turks wanted to mark the Islamic sacrificial
feast of Kuban Bayrami on October 19th with a general attack. At
Courtney’s Post and Quinn’s Post an unofficial truce took place for thirty
minutes.
Thomas, O’Brien, Sands, Smith
and Carboni were trying to communicate with the Turks standing with them in
no-man’s-land.
O’Brien said, “Let give him
some bully beef”.
Sands said, “Jim, it’s a
truce, you don’t give them bully beef. So what if they’ve been trying to kill
us, what have they done to deserve bully beef? That’s cruel.”
One of the Turks said, “We
take, we try, you want coffee?”
“Yes, please”, said Sands.
Another Turk offered Smith
olives. “Thank you”, said Smith.
Thomas asked the Turkish
soldier who spoke English, “Why is there a truce today?”
“Kuban Bayrami, our Allah,
God, yes”, the soldier replied.
“We give the poor meat. It’s for when Abraham
sacrificed a ram to Allah, God, instead of his boy, son, yes.”
“I had the nuns teach me that
story, back in Collingwood.” said O’Brien.
“We want no war today. Take
holiday.” said the Turk.
“We’re happy with that.” Thomas
agreed.
The truce ended and they went
back to their respective trenches. From the Turkish trench an open can of bully
beef was thrown back and landed between O’Brien and Sands.
“I told you not to give them
the bully beef.” Sands said.
On November 26th the
winter arrived with a vengeance. Heavy rainfall turned to snow, ice and then a
blizzard. Frostbite broke out amongst many of the Australian troops, for whom
this was the first snow they’d ever seen. Ironically, the arrival of the snow
was the first time that the Australians and New Zealanders did not suffer from
a shortage of water since they’d landed.
Click on the link to order John Tognolini'sBrothers Part One: Gallipoli 1915
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