SUVLA - Sergeant William Kirk - The business of rendering the abandoned stores useless to the Turks was truly immense. Sergeant William Kirk who was an army butcher attached to the 11th Divisional Train and he well remembered his efforts.

"I was to take a party to the advanced dump up the line and we had to destroy everything, make it uneatable. We made a pyre. Bags of sugar, cases of tea, tipped it all over mixed it all up, paraffin, lime, everything we'd got, even bacon was chucked on it. We pricked the cans of bully beef so that they went bad. When it came to destroying the rum we didn't like the job and we saved a drop. The rest went on the heap. That's where I got let down as I was a bit soft-hearted and when I saw some lads making for the boat I gave them a drop of rum in their water bottles. Some of them let me down and got on the boat drunk! One of my officers told me I'd got to make sure I destroy the rum next time.

SOURCE:
IWM Sound Archive, W. Kirk, AC 9178.