Pte. Edward John Richards, 11th Battalion Australian Infantry, a former journalist, dismissed some of the reports of Turkish atrocities in a letter of 10th September 1915.

Pte. Edward John Richards, 11th Battalion Australian Infantry, a former journalist, dismissed some of the reports of Turkish atrocities in a letter of 10th September 1915. 

“If my memory serves me right, in a previous letter I referred to the many wild and imaginative statements made in many of the letters written by some of our highly-strung and excitable comrades. A good deal of the mis-statements have been so ludicrously impossible, and contradictory that amongst the men in the trenches the reading of them has been productive of much laughter and caustic comment. 

But then, again, there have been many deliberate exaggerations, and falsehoods, solely for the purpose of boosting some individual. To those who have had an opportunity of seeing the exact truth for themselves, these tawdry and meretricious statements [are] particularly nauseating, and raises one's ire. For instance, we read of Turkish atrocities and mutilation of the wounded and dead. Although I have questioned many, I have not met one single individual who himself saw any of our dead or wounded that had been mutilated. I hold no brief for the Turks, but I must say that their conduct and observance of the laws of warfare will stand the most rigid investigation, and is quite as good as our own. 

Any trickery or doubtful ruse on the part of the enemy can invariably be traced to their German leaders, and wary and careful precautions on our part have generally brought about the downfall of the tricksters. The majority of these gross mis-statements have emanated from men who have never been near the firing line, their fallacies being nothing but the idle rumours that circulate amongst the men employed on the lighters and on the beach.

 In fact one particularly misleading and highly spiced letter published was the product of the pen of an individual who never left the deck of one of the transports, and has never set foot on Gallipoli. There is a warm time in store for some of these wind-bags when the men from the firing line encounter them again.” 

 'The Northam Advertiser' (Western Australia), 30th October 1915.

Image: “A trench at Quinn's Post at Anzac Cove. The officer in the trench on the right is Lieutenant Archibald, who later became acting Adjutant of the 11th Battalion (probably John Arnold Archibald (later killed in action 24 September 1918). The soldier in the centre, with his head showing above the parapet, is Corporal H M Longmore and the soldier not in uniform is Corporal H A Goodall.” AWM A03149.