Description
Mr. Dunn describes his unit’s arrival in the Dardanelles and the many inconveniences and obstacles faced by the troops.
Ronald Dunn
Ronald Dunn was born in Bonavista, Newfoundland on May 31, 1897. He was a fisherman at the time of his enlistment, December 22, 1914, when he joined the Royal Newfoundland Regiment as a gunner. Mr. Dunn served in England, Egypt, and finally saw action in Gallipoli. He fell ill with dysentery and was sent back to England to convalesce. He was then deployed to France where he participated in the battles at Beaumont-Hamel and the Somme. He sustained two bullet wounds to his right thigh on July 1, 1916, and was given a medical discharge on October 22, 1917. After returning home, he married Elizabeth House, and had three children. Mr. Dunn was the president of the Bonavista Branch of the Great War Veterans’ Association whose membership he helped build to 150 strong. Mr. Dunn died in Golden Heights Manor, Bonavista, on September 8, 1994.
Transcript
We got across the Mediterranean and we went to, where did we go then? Alexandria. And we left that and we went down to the Dardanelles. There was two islands out on the (inaudible). We were on one of those islands. We left that and we was carried up in warships and landed at (inaudible). We had, bad shape, bad shape, dysentery. We had other things, you know, I mean, very little to eat, and couldn’t . . . water, couldn’t drink any water, (inaudible) where we landed. And there the water had to be brought to us, you knows how it was. And the Turks was up, we were down here. Of course, we took away the trenches from them when we landed. We didn’t lose that many men. And we drove them back a little ways and we took their trenches and we had to turn the trenches around, because they had the trenches made facing the sea and we had to take, to turn it facing the land, you see. We turned them around and then we got in. You had to be armed. We had blackflies, little ones, millions. We had crawlers on the bodies, swarming, eating us up. And we had very little to eat, very little. And we couldn’t move, the Turks was a crack shot. If they see, if they see us, and there was a fella put up his helmet like that and just up behind his rifle, and put it up again, and a fella put a bullet right through the crown. And we had to watch, very careful at night time, you couldn’t, couldn’t sleep. That’s how bad it was, because they move around.