Letter To Home

• Min Ji Lee, Grade 9
• Poetry
• 2010

Dear my mother
I hope this letter has been sent to you. I still cannot get rid of the situation which I had experienced. Actually I cannot say the exact day of it. It’s not because of my memory, people around here have no sense of what date it is. They do not really care about what day today is because it doesn’t mean anything to them as well as me. Every single day is about the same as the other days. The only thing difference was the frequency of hearing Bang! Bang! Bang!

It was between 5 to 6 o’clock in the afternoon. Because of the noisy of gun fire, I could notice that another one was coming up again and there were a lot of noise outside. It was so easy to draw a background of outside in my mind. I could even smell the dust in the air and the blood everywhere. I certainly heard the sound of frightened people screaming and the explosions.

2000 Australians and 7000 Turks populations were killed and wounded from this battle called Lone Pine Battle between 6th and 10th of August, 1915. This battle was one of the most famous assaults of the Gallipoli campaign. It was designed to divert the Turks from the main assault by the British and allied troops. Our soldiers had sewn white calico crosses on their backs to see each other in the dark as the attack was planned for late evening and night time. The attack was preceded by a heavy artillery bombardment of the enemy. And at that time of situation, it was hard to receive urgent medical treatment because of rugged terrain at Gallipoli.

There was Sir Ian Hamilton who was commander in chief of the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force. He was born on 16th of January 1853 in Corfu. He spent six fruitless months unimaginatively bombarding the Turks at Gallipoli. Even though he made little progress, we had to face incurring severe casualties. Heavy fighting ensured between the two forces. When the Turks threw bombs at our sides, we caught them and threw them back. However there were number of soldiers who had lost their hands and arms because some exploded before they could be thrown back. The battle ended up with resulting in horrific casualties on both sides.

The nurses such as me who joined the war service, our task was to save lives and reduce sufferings as much as we could. We were faced with soldiers suffering and dying from appalling wounds. We also had to assist doctors with the amputation of limbs that were horrifyingly maimed. Also the doctors and orderlies working in the hospital tents on the beach at Anzac Cove were in a dangerous situation because the Turks could shell the tents from the cliffs above. I can only say this to you as you’re my mother, I’m now sick of soldiers with intestinal disease. I better tell you this as well that we work under difficult conditions such as intense heat and primitive conditions particularly in the field hospitals. The task of the stretcher bearers to carry the Australian soldiers to the hospital tents was hard and as dangerous as us because they had to make their way amid a hail of bullets and exploding shrapnel. It was one of the bloodiest battles of the Gallipoli campaign.

I absolutely miss you and my bedroom but, from now I’m trying to make my mind firmly and find out the way I can think of myself that I appreciate of living at this moment and be able to write like this letter to you. I cannot wait until the date I see you again.

from Helen.