{"id":2235,"date":"2015-04-11T10:47:24","date_gmt":"2015-04-11T10:47:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kildare.ie\/ehistory\/?p=2235"},"modified":"2025-10-29T11:48:19","modified_gmt":"2025-10-29T11:48:19","slug":"athy-soldiers-thrilling-narrative","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/athy-soldiers-thrilling-narrative\/","title":{"rendered":"ATHY SOLDIER\u2019S THRILLING NARRATIVE, 1915"},"content":{"rendered":"

Leinster Leader<\/em> 7 August 1915<\/b><\/p>\n

In the Deadly Dardanelles\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n

ATHY SOLDIER\u2019S THRILLING\u00a0 NARRATIVE<\/strong><\/p>\n

The following letter was received by Mrs. Ellen Harris, of Shrewleen Lane, Athy, from her son, Wm. Harris, who is a private in the 1st Dublin Fusiliers \u2013<\/p>\n

Dear Mother,- Just a line hoping you are well, as I am so far D.G.\u00a0 I receive a letter from Mary Byrne thanking me for what I did for Joe.\u00a0 I\u2019d do more if it lay in my power.\u00a0 Joe is all right at present but I have not seen him since he came back. I make inquiries about all from Athy, every day and all are going on well up to this. I have a great tale to tell of my experience in this war.\u00a0 I had always strong nerves and did some funny things at home but I never met anything to test my nerves like the landing in the Dardanelles.\u00a0 I will never forget it if I lived to be a thousand.\u00a0 On April 25th, before we got within 200 yards of the shore, we were under the heaviest shell and rifle fire that was ever known in the history of the war.\u00a0 When we came within 25 or 30 yards of the shore, our boats stopped.\u00a0 Of course there was nothing for it only to swim ashore. Some got out all right, others were wounded, and some never came out, and may God rest them.\u00a0 It was only by chance anyone got out, for it was six of one and half a dozen of the other whichever way you swam that day, for you faced death no matter what way you turned.\u00a0 I will never forget when we got on land that morning at 5.30 a.m. in our wet clothes.\u00a0 Byrne and I, a chap named Keegan from Dublin, and our Officer were the only ones left out of my platoon.\u00a0 We fell on our hands and faces and dare not move from that position, for if we put up a finger we were shot.\u00a0 God alone knows the agony we were in, with wet clothes and cramps from lying in that position from 5.30 a.m. till 7 p.m. \u2013 13\u00bd \u00a0hours.\u00a0 I was worn out when I saw some of our brave friends, the Munsters, alongside me blown to atoms \u2013 heads, arms and everything off.\u00a0 Byrne was right behind me, his head touching my boots, yet near as he was, I was afraid to twist my head to see if he was alive.\u00a0 I called 20 times, but he must have been deaf from the shells at the time, as he did not answer.\u00a0 I gave up all hopes myself.\u00a0 I never thought I would live to see another day.\u00a0 I stuck it out till between 1 and 2 o\u2019clock, after which I remember no more for some time.\u00a0 I cannot say whether I was unconscious or in a trance, but I lost my senses of hearing, seeing and feeling and I prayed to get hit and get knocked out at once.\u00a0 But I got a surprise when I came to and saw Joe Byrne, Keegan and the officer behind me and I said \u201cThank God, there are some I know.\u201d\u00a0 This poor officer got wounded that night, and Byrne later.\u00a0 I think I am the only man out of my platoon that escaped from being hit, thank God.\u00a0 I have someone\u2019s prayers up to this, thank God, for I had some narrow escapes.\u00a0 I remember one day stopping behind a furze bush with four others.\u00a0 We were only there 20 minutes when a \u201cJack Johnson\u201d came and blew the other men as far away as I could peg a stone while I lost my senses for about an hour.\u00a0 The same evening I had my haversack blown off my left side and my entrenching tool and water bottle blown off my right side with shrapnel shell.\u00a0 I gave up all hopes that day.\u00a0 I have been very lucky up to this and please God I won\u2019t lost that luck.\u00a0 We are making the Turk pay dearly for all that now, but if anything turns up don\u2019t fret for me.\u00a0 I belong to a good old regiment \u2013 D. Blue Caps.\u00a0 Remember me to all at home.<\/p>\n

Good-bye \u2013 Your loving son, WILLIAM HARRIS<\/p>\n

Re-typed by Mary Murphy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Leinster Leader 7 August 1915 In the Deadly Dardanelles\u00a0 ATHY SOLDIER\u2019S THRILLING\u00a0 NARRATIVE The following letter was received by Mrs. Ellen Harris, of Shrewleen Lane, Athy, from her son, Wm. Harris, who is a private in the 1st Dublin Fusiliers \u2013 Dear Mother,- Just a line hoping you are well, as I am so far […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[128],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2235","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-military-history"],"blocksy_meta":[],"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Kildare Local Studies","author_link":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/author\/localstudies\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2235","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2235"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2235\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8001,"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2235\/revisions\/8001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}