HELLES - Sub-Lieutenant Ivan Heald, Hood Battalion, 2nd Brigade, RND, was also with the Hood Battalion and he to gave an idea of conditions in early July - mentioning Charles Lister (who featured in our 1 July quote) in this letter written on 3 July.

"We are still at the foot of Achi Baba, but we go forward a few yards here and a few yards there. The hill is terribly strong and the Turks are brave and clever. I hope I am able to find Alan Ostler out here. I now mess with Lister and young Asquith and they are very pleasant and cheery people to be with. Lister has given me some mosquito netting to keep out the flies. It would be a good thing if people sent fly netting to soldiers out here. The flies settle on your face if you try to sleep in the daytime, and every bit of food on the table is covered with them. Thanks to my net, I can sleep in peace. Part of a shell came in my sleeping valise the other day and tore up my clothes and broke my tin whistle. I was out at the time."

Photograph: a generic image showing attempts to avoid the flies!

SOURCE:
I. Heald, Ivan Heald: Hero and Humorist (London: C. Arthur Pearson Ltd, 1917), pp.162-163