Saturday 22/5/15

Rain fell from day break
for few hours & made things rather
unpleasant here. We are still in
bivouac in RESERVE GULLY & as we
are packed up closely & dug in on the
steep clay sides of the donga. The
muddy state of things is better imagined
than described. A Turkish officer came
in under a flag of truce yesterday
to us & negotiated for a 9 hours
armistice in order to bury their
dead which are very numerous. We
are willing as we wish to have
the situation cleared up, for the
breezes coming through our trenches
from the front are laden — well –
not with lavender. It is simply
awful in places & the trenches have
to be manned continually – the
Turkish lines being as close as
15 yards to ours in some parts.

The armistice is likely to be
arranged for tomorrow. In meantime
hostilities continue as usual page 69 neither side having progressed
far during the past few days.

We have tunnelled towards
the enemy trenches in several places
and we then gently break through
and when possible place a machine
gun in the opening made. We
have several trench mortars now
too besides hand grenades etc
so the fighting is quite similar
to the struggles taking place in
France & Belgium. General Birdwood
visited us today & expressed his
approval of our doings generally –also
said he had a most excellent
report on our doings at Cape Hellas
from whence we have just returned.

Sun shone beautifully afternoon
soon dried up the surroundings
here. Reported Italy has declared war.