20th August 1915

On of the Australian 18 pound field guns, Battery unknown, that fired on Lone

Pine - a good example of the rough earthworks, that Billy & his mates of the 7th

Battery's No. 2 spent the day rebuilding, around their own gun position.

[Courtesy of Australian War Memorial - A03091]

Friday August 20

We have been working all night long, building up our emplacement and hadn't quite finished when daylight came but it is a much better pit now.  We turned in at about 5 a.m. and are pretty well done out.  Things are fairly quiet here, thank goodness and we are putting most of our time in under the quilt.

Friday 20th August 

It was nice & cool again this morning. I had a trip to Ordnance in the afternoon to buy & obtain boots but I was disappointed as the sizes required had not arrived. A Turkish shell paid my quarters a visit or one might say it said “Good day" as it was a few yards off my doorway. When it fell the earth rose quite 50 feet high in the air leaving a huge crevass in the earth.

Received parcel this morning from Mrs Attwater & Miss Elliot. How welcome the items were. I felt tremendously pleased to get the articles and it seemed as if it was a link with the other world I had previously lived in. The sweet smell of scent after the odiferous smells here.

[Courtesy of State Library of New South Wales - William Sparkes diary]

20

(Captain William Charles Waite, temporary O/C 7th Battery)

0645 N^o 4 fired 1 round trenches LONE PINE

0745 [N^o 4 fired] 25 [rounds trenches LONE PINE] in reply to shelling of our trenches by Turks 75 gun

1045 N^o 4 [fired] 3 rounds parapets [LONE PINE]

1515 N^o 4 [fired] 5 [rounds] HE 2 [rounds] shrapnel [parapets LONE PINE]

1645 [N^o 4 Gun fired] 20 [rounds shrapnel] [parapets LONE PINE]

1810 [N^o 4 Gun fired] 6 [rounds shrapnel] [parapets LONE PINE]

Repaired gun pits during night.

  

[Courtesy of Australian War Memorial - Official unit war diary, 7th Battery]

Friday 20th August

Very quiet day. Spent the morning at 7th Battery. Watched Waite engaging works on Lone Pine. HE shell very effective. Lowland Howitzer Brigade moving from our section to Left Flank. Lt Turner brought me a 4".2 shell from Lone Pine; the head of which has been adapted to take ordinary field gun ammunition fuze. Evidently the Turks are short of the correct fuses for theses shell. Several that have come over lately have failed to explode.

Wrote A.T. Sharp asking if he could get me two Livingstone medical chests. A/Sergt Miller sent off to Hospital yesterday. We shall miss him very much in connection with our telephones and lines.

[Courtesy of State Library of New South Wales - Sir Charles Rosenthal diary]