How the guns were starved

During a visit to my uncle’s on the weekend, I finally learnt how my grandfather Sydney Williams earned his Military Medal. I won’t share details now – it seems premature, and if I leave it a while, that may induce you to come back some time to find out.

Tonight, instead, I turn to the next installment – ‘How the guns were starved’ – of the official 1922 history of the New Zealand Field Artillery. The author, while saying it was ‘unnecessary and inadvisable’ to deal with the overall events leading up to the Gallipoli campaign, felt it necessary to cover the shortcomings that affected the Artillery. Namely, the out-of-date and inadequate guns, and a severe lack of ammunition– usually limited to two rounds a day.

After several urgent requests by the Commander of the Australian Field Artillery for some more powerful naval guns, on 11 July 2015 (100 years ago) ‘one very old and much-worn gun arrived’, though its usefulness turned out to be very limited. At the same time, an ‘absolutely reliable’ source had informed the British that the Turks were having to economise on ammunition for the next three weeks, however, there seemed to be no let-up in their bombardment.

Later in July, reinforcements arrived, resulting in a reorganisation of the Artillery Batteries into two Brigades. I learned today that my grandfather’s commanding officer was Major F G Hume, in charge of 2^nd Battery in the 2^nd Brigade.