War Diaries (May 25) (nonfiction)
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Diaries
Anne Donnell: May 25, 1915
With the 3rd Australian General Hospital
S.S."Moreton"
Tuesday 25.5.1915
When I said farewell to all my dear friends in South Australia on the 20th I secretly made up my mind that I would set aside each day some time to write a few lines - but oh dear - I soon had to submit to the inevitable and twas not till we left Fremantle yesterday that I felt equal for anything. On Saturday a crowd of nurses lined up to be vaccinated. I was done under difficulties & that combined with severe seasickness - and to say nothing of loneliness & home sickness I was rather miserable.
- Diary of Anne Donnell - Sister Anne Donnell served as a nurse with the 3rd Australian General Hospital on the Greek island of Lemnos, and later in France and England
Harold R. Peat: May 25, 1915
When a man is lying close to the ground there is not so very great a chance of his being hit by bullets. They pass overhead as a rule. It is when a man is kneeling or standing, or between the two positions that the danger lies. The lad Bob and I were just in the act of rising (to carry in a badly needed ammunition box) when mine came along. I felt no more than a stinging blow in the right shoulder, a searing cut and a thud of pain as the bullet exploded in leaving my body. I fell on my face and blood gushed from my shoulder. I closed my eyes. From a distance I heard Bob speak. "I'm going to fix you," he said, and knelt beside me. He got into such a position that his own body shielded me from any of the enemy bullets. It was a marvelous piece of bravery; less has earned a Victoria Cross. Bob then turned me around so my head was towards our trench and my feet towards the Germans. Then he struggled to lift the ammunition box. Bob tried to reach the trench, but a rain of bullets got him and he fell dead only a little way from me.
- Diary of Harold R. Peat, 3rd Battalion
["Bob" may have been Private Robert Downey #63277, 3rd Battalion, 22 years old, member of "C" Company who was Killed in Action May 25, 1915]
James Keith Dick-Cunyngham: May 25, 1918
Quite a cool day. Walked a good deal before & after Roll Call. More bread parcels for individuals issued, but fear most of it very mouldy. Worked for 1 ½ hours at Shorthand. Had a bread & jam pudding made of mouldy bread for supper, think it is best way of using it, as boiling takes out mould. 4 letters arrived about 7 p.m. 1 from DD, 2 from Alice, 1 from B. B.F. & D have not had any yet. So am very lucky having had 7 this week.
- Diary of James Keith Dick-Cunyngham, prisoner of war, Mainz
Richard G. Fowler: May 25, 1944
I didn’t hear our gunners shooting at the German fighters behind us so I grabbed my microphone switch to tell them to begin firing—those are enemy planes! Not our escort, as they probably thought! The switch didn’t work and a second later there was an explosion in the ship! Those fighters had been fiendishly accurate with their machine-gun and cannon fire, and their incendiary bullets had exploded our gasoline tanks. In a fraction of a second, flames had spread all over the plane, and were licking at my feet—I knew we would have to bail out. I quickly looked up in the pilot’s compartment to see if George and John were O.K. All I could see was a wall of flame, so I knew they had died quickly.
The Emerson turret gunner, in the nose, was unaware of what had happened, so I turned around, jerked open the turret doors, and half pulled him out of the turret. By then, flames had filled my compartment too, and I could feel them burning my head and face. By instinct I closed my eyes and held my breath because it is certain death to breath flame….
Before I had opened the escape hatch to try to blow the flame back in the rear of the ship so the turret gunner could escape, so the second my pack was on my chest I fell forward and was out in the cool, soft air—fifteen-thousand feet above the ground! I can remember pulling the ripcord and almost immediately my chute popped-open, giving me a good hard jerk, but it felt wonderful!
Since I was fifteen I have wanted to make a parachute jump, and were it not for the circumstances under which this one was made I think I would have enjoyed it.
- Richard G. Fowler, letter to his wife Cornelia. Lt. Richard G. Fowler, a U.S. Army Air Forces navigator from Minnesota, age 23.
George Beck: May 25, 1945
Passed through Sheffield about 6am. Leicester breakfasted and carried on, destination said to be near Brighton.
- Diary of George Beck - 1st Battalion The Duke of Wellington's Regiment, former prisoner of war
With this entry the diaries ended. On November 01, 1945 from York he was notified that on the expiration of his leave he should report for duty and further medical examination on November 08, 1954 at West Hartlepool detraining station. His war service ended on November 13, 1945. He applied for a resettlement grant to start a Sole Ownership Fruit and Vegetable business and was awarded a War Gratuity of £37 and a Service Post –War Credit of £38-8-6 (Thirty eight pounds eight shillings and six pence). His disability was described as: Operation – Right Renal Calculus, whilst a five year prisoner. Date of termination of furlough March 17, 1946. On November 13, 1946 he received a Hawkers License at a cost of £2.
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Fiction cross-reference
Nonfiction cross-reference
- George Beck (nonfiction)
- James Dick-Cunyngham (nonfiction)
- Harold R. Peat (nonfiction)
- War (nonfiction)
- War Diaries (nonfiction)
