Letters from Harold Edward 'Pompey' Elliott to his family January 1915 - May 1915 - Part 11

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distress. His brother is here however. Tell Lyn her brother is quite
well & looking the picture of health. He is a full Sergeant now. I
fear there will be many a vacancy amongst the higher ranks
within a very short time now & perhaps if he comes through safely
he may get another step. There is no disguising the fact that the
enterprise contemplated may turn out to be exceedingly dangerous
& must have given the General responsible for it much anxious
thought Well we can only trust in him & God that all will go
well with us.
All my officers with the exception of Lieut Johnston are very
well.  Johnston has been rather seriously ill with a very bad septic
throat but they tell me he is now considerably better. He is on another
ship. Oh about that duty you paid on the first parcel I sent you from
Egypt. Colonel McNicoll tells me his wife claimed a refund of the
amount she had to pay & got it all back. What do you think
about that. It might be as well to do the same. I have no doubt that
35/ would be of more value to you than the Government.
Well my dear old lady I am dreadfully sorry I was not near you to cheer
& comfort you in your time of trouble but I know you will be bearing up
bravely as my sunshine lady always does. I trust that as Belle promised
you will be all well & blooming long before I see it is time to see you
again
God bless & keep you & the wee bairnies safe & sound.
Your own husband
HE Elliot.
P.S. You must give Belle one of the silk dress
pieces I sent back as a little reward for her
goodness to us.
 

3rd May 18
1st General Hospital
Heliopolis
Egypt
My dearest wife,
You see I am back in Egypt
again. I have received no letters from
home since I left here a month ago
except one from Belle in which she
stated you had been under an operation
naturally I am extremely anxious to
know how you are getting on & hope a
letter will come along soon. Well now
last Sunday morning before daylight we
Australians started to land about
halfway along the Gallipoli peninsula
The landing was led by the 3^rd Brigade
but they were late somehow owing to
the difficulty the navy found in the
pitch dark locating the landing place
Anyhow when day broke they had only
just landed & were driving the Turks
back off the cliffs on the beach. The
formation was like Sandringham
at home. A narrow strip of Beach
with high cliffs above rising in successive
ridges to 400 feet or more. Such
 

a scramble it was to get to the top & we
were weighed down with three days rations
& packs. We threw the packs off on the Beach
& left them. The enemys guns a couple of
miles south shelled our boats as they
approached the Beach & to the left their maxims
kept up a regular war. Five or six Maxims
were captured by the first men ashore
also a couple of field guns. Of course
we suffered heavily. Major Jackson
Lieut Chapman (since dead) & Lieut Heron
^& Lieut Heighway with twenty or thirty or fourty
men were struck down as they left the
Boats Major Blizzard received a
severe wound in the shoulder as he
went up the Hill & shortly after I
got a Bullet through the right foot
below the ankle fortunately it broke no
bones but laid me out for the time
Afterwards as I heard Allan
Henderson was killed Capt McKenner
& Capt Waddell was  ^was also killed Lieut Connelly Capt Mason
Lieut Conder Lieut Darcy Capt Henderson
 

 

& dozens of the men about 200 or 300 of
the men were wounded. Afterwards it was
reported that some of the officers reported
dead were not killed outright but only
wounded but you will know more about this
I suppose than I do by now as they would
wire out the names to you. I heard that
Col McNichol did great work before
he too was wounded & recommended
for the D.S.O. Major Bennett was also
hit. Ken Walker was hit in the head
by a Shrapnel xx bullet & looked a fearful
sight. He was literally bathed in
his own blood but the wound after it was
dressed & the bleeding stopped was even less
serious than my own. We are practically all
healed up again & am going back to
the front in a few days. The nurses back
on the Hospital Ship & here are lovely splendid. They
cannot do enough for you. We are very
fortunate in as much as we were hit close to
the beach ^[[?]]all[[?]] back Afterwards men lay for a couple
of days & in some cases when they got here the
stench from their wounds was awful
 

& they did not seem to have sufficient doctors

aboard the ships. There were nearly 200

men in some cases on a ship & only 3 doctors

& no nurses & the men suffered dreadfully. So you see

Providence was looking after your old man me

right through the whole show. The Boys

behaved wonderfully. They made no more

of the fire than they would of the Blank

cartridges at a sham fight. Owing to the

scrub which covered everything the Turks

were able to return all the time & we never

saw any except a few who got knocked

up climbing the hills & surrendered or

were bayonetted by the boys. As a rule the

Turks were dead scared of the Bayonet &

abandoned everything machine Guns etc

to get away. This was mighty fortunate for

us as if they had held firmly I dont

think a man would have got away alive.

The Engineers did some great work building

a pier so that the Artillery etc could

land. Numbers of them were knocked

out but they still kept on & on Monday Sunday

night some of the Guns got ashore & did good work

 

The Turks made a number of very strong counterattacks 
& but for their fear of the Bayonet they
might have driven our boys right out. As it

was the left was pushed back almost to the Beach

but here the Naval Guns took a hand &
inflicted great loss on the Enemy. I am

going to try to xxx get my boots on & go

down to the head office here to try & find out

the men who are Killed & those still living

Some I hear have been sent to Malta & most 

of the very severe cases were left at Alexandria

Major Blizzard & Lieut Heighway were left

there. also & also as I hear Mr Lieut Darcy who is badly

hurt. There are hardly any officers left in

the Regiment & I am anxious to get back for that

reason, I am sorry for poor Mr & Mrs Henderson

they will be dreadfully distressed over

poor Allan. He died on the ship on  the

way to Alexandria & was buried at Sea.

Also Mr Lieut Chapman. Well dearest

wife I will now close this letter I hope

I hope you are not worrying too much you poor old

lady. Love & Kisses to the wee ones.

From your own husband HE Elliott

 

Heliopolis

Hospital

Cairo

7/5/15

My dearest Katie, 

Still no letters from you &

Goodness Knows when I will receive one

now I suppose. I forget now what I

wrote you in my last letter as I was

still suffering from the wound in my foot

It is almost better now though & I will

soon be back with the Regiment again

Poor J old 7th I'm afraid it got a sad

knocking about in their first fight - Well

Katie We stayed in Lemnos an island

about 50 miles from the Dardanelles

untill Saturday the 24th April & then

at daybreak on the Sunday we

commenced to land. We were under

a heavy Shrapnel fire from the enemy's

guns for the ¾ mile row from the ship

Practically all of the other Battalions

had little tows steamers provided by the warships

but the 7^th which was the head of

the main body to land had to row

ashore. Some of the Boats particularly

those belonging to Major Jacksons

Coy, & the Essendon Boys were

 

fired on while still in the Boats by

Machine guns & a whole lot of them

Killed & wounded. Major Jackson was

hit three times I am told but only in

the arms & no bones were broken. Mr

Chapman poor lad was badly is wounded

& died on one of the hospital ships as

did poor Allan Henderson Capt

McKenna & Mr Blick were also

Killed as I hear. I am very sorry about

them. Major Blizard was badly wounded

just before I was & he was left at

Alexandria as was Lt Heighway. Lt

Conder is also there with a bad wound in

the right arm & MLt Rogers had his

shin bone fractured. Lt Heron I heard

was killed but I have since learned

that it was only a scalp wound like 

Ken Walker's by a shrapnel bullet. These

Scalp wounds pour with blood & the

man is nearly always stunned &

others think they are Killed whereas

they often are not much hurt

i.e. either they are dead or dying or only

get a graze. Sometimes however a bullet

 

goes right through the head & does not

Kill. Ken Walker is quite all right

again & will be back at the front as

soon as I or sooner. He is out of Hospital

& at the Base Camp now. I am

likely to be here a day or two ^yet, & I may

be a little lame for a week or so till

the muscles get properly strong again.

Since we have been here tha

our friends in Cairo have all

visited us here except the Milnes

They may not have heard that we

are here. Mr Roberts replied to

my wire so that I knew you

had got it. I heard that

Miss Rogers brother was

dangerously wounded by a bullet

through his stomach but it is

wonderful how to some men recover from

the wounds of this sort. There was

one poor chap here the other day His leg

mortified & they took it off. Then it

mortified again & they took it off higher

up. It was His sufferings were

frightful & he died after all.

 

 

I hear that Capt Major Mason who was dangerously

wounded is getting on well at Alexandria

I heard at first that Col. McNichol was

badly wounded some said Killed  but there

has been no official confirmation of this

& I do not know if he has been hit. I

suppose you really know more about it that

we do at present. Some more wounded

were brought in last night. They say

our fellows are still hanging on to the

hill & took like grim death but the

casualties are not anything like as heavy

now as our artillery are ashore & this

keeps their guns quiet while & the

boys have dug trenches for themselves.

I hear that some of the head officers

^of the staff have broke down under the strain & had

to get leave for the B & return to the

Battle Ships - many too have been killed

& wounded. Well darling wife I must stop

I am much better today & will soon be

about again. I got wet through as

we had to jump out of the boat

into the water & after being hit I had

to lay a long time in my wet clothes

P.T.O.