Chapter 31 – Ronald

Charles Bean describes the riot in the street Haret el Wasser, the brothel district of Cairo known as “The Wozzer”, on Good Friday of 1915 in Official History of Australia in the War of 1914-18 , vol I (p. 130). He describes how Australian and New Zealand soldiers ransacked brothels in after hearing that the force would be leaving Cairo. Beds and mattresses were thrown from windows of brothels and made into a bonfire, but nine-tenths of the crowd were spectators.

Patsy Adam-Smith describes the “Battle of the Wazzir” in The Anzacs (p. 54-57). She provides a witness account of an officer who saw the riot underway at 6:00pm on Good Friday (2 April) 1915.

Harvey Broadbent in The Boys Who Came Home includes an account by Frank Parker of the 5th Battalion AIF of the Wozzer riot. Parker describes witnessing piano’s being thrown from upstairs, and fire hoses being cut up by “our blokes” (p. 24).

Words of marching songs “Australia will be There” and “Pharaoh’s Land” are taken from Official History of Australia in the War of 1914-1918, Vol XI, Australia During the War by Ernest Scott (pp. 218,219).

Private Archie Barwick of the 1st Battalion, recorded in his WWI diary, In Great Spirits , the confidence of the Australian forces as they marched out of Cairo: “…every man was cocksure of himself, of being able to beat any man be he Turk of German, and frightened of nothing with legs on it, and that was the sort of spirit with which we landed.” (p. 27). Barwick describes how after boarding the ship at Alexandria just before dinner time, he slept on the deck where it was terribly crowded states that it rained heavily at times (p. 28).

Peter Plowman describes in Gallipoli Voyage how the Minnewaska was fitted up as a cattle boat, with accommodation for 100 first class passengers (p. 261). Hastily commissioned as a transport, the men being transported from Alexandria to Mudros had to put up with things as they found them. Plowman includes an account describing 50 or 60 ships in Mudros Harbour (p. 259)

The History of the First Battalion A.I.F. 1914-1919 records that the 1st Battalion embarked on the Minnewaska at Alexandria on Easter Sunday, April 4, 1915. She was not properly fitted out as a transport, there were no tables, hammocks or other conveniences. Men slept on the iron decks and fed service rations—bully beef and biscuits. One man wrote “We are on an iron ship. We sleep on an iron deck. We are fed iron rations, and now we are told that our Commander is Sir Ian Hamilton.” There were about 1,900 men and 500 horses on board. (pp. 23-24)

Charles Bean recorded the following in his diary, as printed in Bean’s Gallipoli by Kevin Fewster (pp. 60-63):

April 10 – “We sailed [on the Minnewaska] at 7 o’clock this morning.”

April 11 – “At sea. General Birdwood addressed the 1st Battalion at Church parade this morning. ‘Boys,’ he said, ‘as this may be the last occasion…England and Australia demand of you.’” [Birdwood’s speech is included verbatim, as recorded by Charles Bean].

April 12 – “This morning, early, when I woke up, we were coming up a strait between two lines of hills covered with green grass…A fine harbour opened up, larger and larger as we went in…”

Bean also recorded in his diary on April 11, seeing Patmos where St. John wrote the Revelation, the white capping the hill like snow, and the thousand year old monastery crowning above. (ref AWM38, item 3DRL606/3/1, p. 57).

Dale Blair records in Dinkum Diggers – An Australian Battalion at War that 61% of men of the 1st Battalion nominated their religion to be Church of England. The next largest group was Roman Catholic with 17.8%.

The history of the 3rd Battalion, Randwick to Hargincourt by Eric Wren records that “there was quite a stir on the ship when Patmos was passed” owing to the biblical history (p. 41).

Biblical reference to Patmos, Armageddon and the apocalypse (King James Version):

Revelation 1:9

“I John, who also am your brother, and companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was in the isle that is called Patmos, for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ.”

Revelation 16:16

“And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon.”

Hugh Dolan describes in 36 Days how in the late afternoon of Sunday 11 April, a German Rumpler biplane flew a reconnaissance mission from its Turkish base, over Mudros harbour to observe enemy forces (pp. 219-222). The rumpler was spotted at over 6,000 feet. An English seaplane that attempted to go after the German plane had engine problems and was unable to give chase.

Private Archie Barwick of the 1st Battalion, recorded in his WWI diary, In Great Spirits , how on arrival at Mudros Harbour, they were guided past netting by a destroyer and a lot of men thought they had arrived at the Dardanelles. They arrived to see a mass of ships and warships of Great Britain, France and Russia.