Thomas continued with his military training during his last few months in Egypt. On Saturday 15th April 1916, his battalion was issued with new high velocity rifles. The older type machine guns were also replaced with the newer Lewis machine guns. On Sunday 16th April, Thomas and the 29th Battalion were inspected by the Prince of Wales (22 year old Prince Edward would later become King of England). A couple of weeks later, Thomas commemorated the first anniversary of the Gallipoli landing with a church service, sports event and concert in the evening.
In late May 1916 Thomas marched with the 29th Battalion from Ferry Post to Moascar (see map). According to the literature, the commander of the 5th Division, General McCay, had observed the battalion marching past English troops and was "disgusted" with the way they marched past the English soldiers. As punishment, he ordered that the 29th Battalion be roused at for 3 consecutive mornings to undertake route marches. Thomas, along with the rest of his battalion mates, detested this treatment from McCay.
"Without any spell we reached Moascar and had to set to work pitching tents, but the job didn't take very long so we had the rest of the day to ourselves. Monday morning we were roused at 3am... the order came along the line to fall in, with full marching order. When we fell in we were told that McCay was disgusted at the way the Brigade marched past the Tommies yesterday and we were to be punished by having to do three route marches... if he only knew what the men said about him... they had no time for him... and for three mornings we were up at 3am, did our route marches through the sand and were back in camp tired out by 9am" (Private W C Barry of the 29th Battalion cited in Corfield, R 2009, p.82)
In late May 1916 Thomas marched with the 29th Battalion from Ferry Post to Moascar (see map). According to the literature, the commander of the 5th Division, General McCay, had observed the battalion marching past English troops and was "disgusted" with the way they marched past the English soldiers. As punishment, he ordered that the 29th Battalion be roused at for 3 consecutive mornings to undertake route marches. Thomas, along with the rest of his battalion mates, detested this treatment from McCay.
"Without any spell we reached Moascar and had to set to work pitching tents, but the job didn't take very long so we had the rest of the day to ourselves. Monday morning we were roused at 3am... the order came along the line to fall in, with full marching order. When we fell in we were told that McCay was disgusted at the way the Brigade marched past the Tommies yesterday and we were to be punished by having to do three route marches... if he only knew what the men said about him... they had no time for him... and for three mornings we were up at 3am, did our route marches through the sand and were back in camp tired out by 9am" (Private W C Barry of the 29th Battalion cited in Corfield, R 2009, p.82)
On Tuesday 6th June 1916, Thomas and the 29th Battalion travelled by train from Moascar to the sea port of Alexandria France
No comments:
Post a Comment