Sunday November 29 1914
We had startling news
yesterday. We were told that we would be
landed at Alexandria and then go to camp at Cairo and do our training
there. Certainly the climate will suit
us Australians. The sports yesterday
were O.K. The obstacle race was the king
daddy of the lot. Such places they had
to go through, one place was a long canvas wind pipe laid along the deck and in
this was laid a trap of a mixture of flour and water and after they went
through this they were smothered in dough.
I bet it took some time to wash it out of their hair. I was in for some but having a stiff leg it
was a case of giving it in and the chap that took my place in one race got
it. It is getting much cooler and some
thin skinned chaps had to come in off the decks at night and sleep in the mess
room.
Group portrait of unidentified members of 'A' Sub Section, 7th
Battery,
3rd Field ArtilleryBrigade, on board the troopship A22
Rangatira. The
soldier third from left in the front row is holding the Battery's wallaby mascot.
[Courtesy of Australian War Memorial - A03104]
A much cooler day. Early this morning a strong
breeze arose, which has cooled the horse decks and ship generally very much
indeed. We heard today that a death had occurred on the "Suffolk",
one of the ships crew having succumbed to heat. This makes six deaths during
the voyage. Measles broke out on our ship yesterday, two cases being isolated
from the D.A.C. They had evidently carried infection from Broad Meadows camp in
Melbourne, where they were stationed during our delay in Melbourne. As a
consequence we are now faced with the problem of disinfecting all clothing,
blankets, etc of all troops on board. In view of the fact that we expect to
land either at Port Said or Alexandria we shall not have much time. This will
very much interfere with our training, particularly that for first aid which
had been arranged for the last fortnight at sea prior to reaching England. This
latter instruction will now have to be given when we reach camp. Church Service
this evening.
No comments:
Post a Comment