as scarce, small parties
from the reserve companies were taken in turn to the beach and allowed
to bathe. A certain amount of risk was attached to this proceeding, as
the enemy shelled the locality whenever a target offered. Fortunately
the parties escaped without casualty.

The cooking of food was first carried on by individuals. The mess tin
could be used as either saucepan or kettle, and its lid as a frying pan
or drinking vessel. With the aid of the entrenching implement, which
each man carried, a little excavation would be made in some convenient
place and a fire built of any available fuel. As a support for the tin
when laid on the embers any number of stones was available. On some of
these heat had a peculiar effect, and the unwary one was sometimes
startled by a loud report and the sight of his meal being hoist in the
air. Usually two or more men combined in the cooking process, but the
preparation of food by the individual was found to be wasteful and
injurious to health in that it attracted many flies and lacked
thoroughness. The company system was therefore reverted to, and the
dixies brought into use in kitchens constructed outside the trenches.
The dixies were then taken forward and the meal served out in equal
shares according to the numbers to be provided for. The change at first
was not popular, but its beneficial effects became apparent later, and
the system was not again departed from except for very brief periods
when extraordinary conditions existed.

Fuel was by no means plentiful, and anything at all that would burn was
carefully collected. Under cover of darkness individuals would forage on
the exposed slopes and return with arms full of twigs and brushwood. In
the back areas fatigue parties were at work daily collecting firewood
which was brought to a depot for issue to units. These parties worked
under brigade orders and a number of 28th men were, on one occasion,
sent up an exposed slope accompanied by a white donkey. The animal, so
easily distinguishable against the background of dark verdure, soon
attracted the enemy's artillery fire and some casualties resulted. The
Regimental Medical Officer and two or three stretcher-bearers very
gallantly ascended the hill and attended the wounded despite the
continuance of the Turkish shrapnel.

Supply and transport on the Peninsula was no easy problem. Supplies in
bulk were landed on the beach from barges when the weather permitted.
There, near the t