Gallipoli veteran’s letters paint vivid picture 100 years after the landings at Anzac Cove

DIGGER Austin Bede Pratt saw friends and colleagues fall to the roaring machineguns as the sun rose over Anzac Cove.

Tweed Heads resident Warren Keats OAM with memorabilia from his uncle Austin Bede Pratt who served at Gallipoli. Pic Tim Marsden

DIGGER Austin Bede Pratt saw friends and colleagues fall to the roaring machineguns as the sun rose over Anzac Cove.

The northern NSW resident was in the first wave of Australian and New Zealand soldiers to step foot on Turkish soil as part of the grand invasion of the Dardanelles and dodged bullets as he ran for cover.

It was April 25, 1915, and he was just 18 years old.

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Tweed Heads resident Warren Keats with memorabilia from his uncle Austin Bede Pratt who served at Gallipoli. Picture: Tim Marsden

Within four days Digger Pratt contracted a fever which brought him down as Britain’s forces attempted to seize the rocky coastline.

Digger Pratt died more than 90 years ago of his war wounds but his memories of that terrifying first day are contained in his letters, which he wrote while convalescing in the UK where he was evacuated to just four days after the landings.

“We landed just at daylight under fire from the Turks and we had to fix bayonets and charge them out of their trenches as soon as we landed out of the boats,” he wrote in mid-1915 to his sister Claris.

“Well Claris, I would have to write too long to explain all that happened but I will never forget that Sunday evening.

“We lost heavily … there was dead and wounded laying all over the place and I think someone must have been praying for me that day as I had some very ­narrow ­escapes.”

Pratt’s nephew, Tweed Heads resident Warren Keats, will take part in Anzac Day commemorations on the NSW border this year to remember a man he grew up idolising.

While Mr Keats never met his uncle, who died in 1924, he heard stories from returned veterans of a soldier with a quick wit who kept his friends smiling throughout scenes of horror.

“I grew up hearing the stories and my uncle was a legend of the 9th Battalion,” he said.

“He was always remembered as a humorous man who gave the other soldiers a lot of comfort and mirth through the campaign.”

Digger Pratt returned to Gallipoli in June, 1915 and served at the Battle of Lone Pine before he left Turkey in the withdrawal from the Dardanelles in December.

He was transferred to the Western Front in April 1916. and saw action at Fleurbaix, Pozieres and Mouquet Farm.

He was one of 148 volunteers who raided German trenches at Fleurbaix on July 2, 1916, in which 53 enemy were killed and 21 captured.

However, by December 1916, Pratt was found to have severe rheumatism and medical officers attributed it to his frontline service, leading to his discharge in 1917.