Letters from Harold Edward 'Pompey' Elliott to his family, June - December 1915 - Part 4

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trenches last Saturday. It was a quiet day
to was Sunday but on Sunday night we
blew up a sap or mine & damaged the ene
enemy's trench. This must have annoyed
them as early in the morning they commenced
a tremendous bombardment of our trenches
About 80 or 90 shells fell in a space of 70
yards long of the trenches. They were
both Shrapnel & high Explosive but
only 15 pounders which are not very big
xxx killed three Three men were killed
all of the old 7^th men. Two of them had been
wounded on the 1st day 25^th April with me
& only got back a fortnight ago. Six others
were also wounded none badly. I had
rather a narrow escape myself. I was going
along the fire trench to encourage the boys
when a shell burst in the parapet as we call
the heap of dirt & sanbags we put in front of a
trench. Three men were buried partly buried
under the debris & I was covered from head to
foot in dust & debris but was quite all right
I helped to yank pull the others out. A man
spread the report that I was killed. He had
seen me go into the [[trench]] & then the shell
burst there so he jumped to the conclusion that
I must be killed. After a while our guns
got going & the enemy shut off. There was
eerie quiet all the rest of Monday &
all day yesterday (Tuesday) until
6 o'clock in the afternoon. Then the Turks
started firing in heavy high explosive
shell from a 6 inch howitzer & again
[*D.R.L. 3297 (3rds.)*]
 

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one of my Seventh Boys was killed
It is terrible the way the old men who
came out with me from the beginning are being
thinned out. Again I had a narrow escape
I went along the trenches to see where a shell
had burst & to find out if anyone was hurt No
one was & I was passing on when a second
shell came & burst in front of me covering
me with dust & the smoke of the explosion
Two or three men dashed out of their
dug out & rushed to pick up xxx my
pieces & were much astonished to find
that I wasn't twopence the worse. So you
see Katie then providence is still good
to us. There were wonderful escapes. Four
men were buried under a huge pile of
earth which was blown into the trench
on top of them. Two were quite unhurt
except they were nearly scared to death
that another shell would come on them
before they could be got out. Young Ken Wallen
did splendid work working with some other
men getting them out. Ken looked a wee bit
white but we were all expecting that the shell
to lob near & perhaps wipe them all out
P.T.O.
 

Of the other two one was pretty badly hurt as a
sandbag had fell on his head & fractured the
skull. Another had a wound in the leg
I have some of the 6^th Battalion men attached
to me as the 7^th are so few & one of these
was also killed also. I was going along the
trenches & seeing four men waiting for the
enemy I sent away the two men in the middle
leaving only the two end ones. I had just
gone a few steps away when a shell came
& blew in the whole trench. It was nearly
8 feet deep & it was filled right to the
top with dirt & sandbags. The two men
I had left were still there & still looking
through their periscopes but not particularly
happy. I was afraid the Turks might try
an attack & hopped up & started to pile
up the Sandbags again but the men said
they would do it & that my life was
too valuable to risk like that. However
the Turks never made a move so I told
them to leave it till night. I think we
have the Turks pretty badly scared.

They hardly ever aim with the rifle but
just poke it over & pull the trigger. Very
few ^of our men are hit with rifle fire in the
Trenches but this shell fire was a bit
unpleasant. Altogether there were two killed
& 8 wounded in about half an hour
performance & a good deal of damage
done to the trenches. About 6 or 7 others
were buried in the debris including my
crack shots Sergt Fisher & Sgt Carne but
none of them suffered any particular hurt
beyond bruises & scratches. Goodbye dearest
wife. Love and kisses to all. Your [[?]] 
Dida Donny
[*2DRL/0513*]
[*D.R.L. 3297 (3rds.)

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Gallipoli Peninsula 12/7/15
My dearest Katie,
I have no heart to
write even to you we have been
holding the trenches allotted to us
They are on a narrow ridge forming
the Highest part of our line on the
Eastern Front. The Turks are only
50 or 60 yards away in front of us
& x I started out to give them a bad
time. I encouraged the Boys to constantly
fire at loopholes & watch the Turks
trenches with telescopes & Field glasses
so they could not stir without our
seeing them & we got dozens of them
& then got so they only dared to
poke the rifle over their entrenchment
with one hand and fire without
aiming. But they got my two
heavy howitzers one firing high
explosive & the other [[?]]
shell & for the past week our
trenches have been a hell upon
earth. The trenches were not
 

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Trenches any more but were
gaping holes in the earth. I have
been daily in fear of attack when
it could hardly have failed to
succeed owing to the fact that it
was impossible to get along the trenches
to support any threatened part
Men were blown to pieces by shells
or crushed to death by the masses
of earth blown down upon them
but Katie the Boys are wonderful
They stuck it out & the call for
picks & shovels or [[streather?]] [[Levers?]]
never fails to be answered though
often another shell sends these
willing workers into eternity
Poor Capt Permezel had his leg
frightfully shattered. It is said he
must lose it. Poor old Kev
Walker was always the first to
lead xx a party to the rescue
of those buried in the trenches not once
but dozens of times. For a long time
he was fortunate. I often said hes
with his face set & pale but never
shrinking. At last three or four nights
ago a fragment of shell went right
through his body. Our Doctor did
not give any hope of his being
saved at all but news of his death
has not reached me so I am
beginning to hope against hope
for it was a frightful wound &
[*D.R.L. 3297 (3rd S.)*]
 

 3
xxxx the poor boy lose it without
a murmur. Of course our
doctor injected morphine at
once & sent him to sleep & hurried
him off to Hospital so I did not
try to speak to him. Every moment
was vital, Oh I do hope his
life will be saved. He was a
bonnie boy. Major McCrae had
his face stripped of skin by a
shrapnel which ^went xxx & blew the gravel
of the trench into his face. It looked
awful but and was horribly painful
but is not at all serious though
it will take a month or more to
heal up. And then one of my men
Sergt Garner of Essendon - Everybody
is talking of him. He was
dangerously wounded on the
first day through the chest but
continued to fight until exhausted
by loss of blood. He recovered
& was just back ^only a few days
when he had both legs blown off
by a shell the day before yesterday
P.T.O.
 

He never uttered a groan nor lost
consciousness. He told the Bearers to
stop as he was being carried past a
fire & asked them to light his cigarette
One of his legs was hanging out of
the blanket & some one wanted to
adjust it. Never mind the b— leg he
said, its gone anyhow. When he
got to the doctor he was as cheery
as possible nodded to his friends near
& said. Well doctor have I got even
a fair sporting chance. The doctor
said yes old man with a spirit
like that you have every chance
of living - I hope he does survive poor chap
The other day I was ordered to make
a demonstration against the Turks
opposite here. I called for volunteers
& got a fine young officer named
Greig recently a Master at Scotch
College to lead them. Only a dozen
men all told were with him
They dashed out & took the
first Turk position although
it was held by a dozen  twice
their number. However the Turks
only retired to a little bombproof
trench & from this they fairly rained
out hand grenades (little bombs
like cricket balls) on our boys
& in a minute or two all were
wounded. Greig then ordered them
to retire & covered their retirement
with  his revolver. The Turks then
[*D.R.L. 3297 (3rd.S)*]
 

5
charged out of their original
trenches & either killed or
captured Greig. He was last
seen bl with blood streaming
down his face firing his revolver
into the Turks. All his men
got back except two who were
killed but all were wounded &
two were dying. Wasn't he a
bonny lad to fight like that &
save the others. I am proud of
them all Katie by but oh my
heart is breaking to see them.
my hair so nearly quite grey
with the worry & grief of it all
to see them dying so We are
like men under sentence of
death for every day takes its toll
of us We have lost nearly 200
men since I last wrote you
& we can do nothing. We are
worn out too. All day we [[want?]]
& fight sniping at our enemies who
grow bolder as they see our
sufferings under the shell fire but
 

6

we make them pay for any rashness
sometimes in the middle of shell fire a

man will jump right up in their
trench to better observe us. Sometimes
he gets away but more often someone
puts a bullet into him. We have
tried several times to blow them
up but they are cunning & dig
out towards us & although we
have damaged their trenches & must
have killed a number we have not
been able to destroy them. A curious
adventure occurred to me the other
day. We blew up a mine near the
Turks trench one night & the Turks
came out in the night & dug down
to the end of the Tunnel we put in
This was no good to us as they might
try to come through. So I went
down with a couple of men for
the Tunnel was very narrow. I
went ahead & when we got just close up
to the end of the tunnel about 12 feet
away the Turk on guard fired
up the Tunnel but as he did
not aim the shot went under my
arm & hit the man behind me
who dropped his rifle with the pain
I stood perfectly stiff waiting for
him to fire again & both men who were
just a little behind me came to the
conclusion that the bullet had gone
through me & I must be dead as I

made no sound xxxx & cleared
out. Anyhow when I looked back
[*D.R.L. 3297 (3rdS)*]
 

7
I could see nothing. I crept back
a few feet to a bend in the Tunnel
but could hear nothing of them. I
was afraid the Turks might
come in so I remained there with
my revolver covering the hole for
what appeared an interminable
time when Capt Gulls & Permezel
came down & found me there
& I sent them back ^ & built up
got them to send men with Sandbags
& together we built up a [[?]]
about 20 feet from the Turks who
every few minutes fired up the Tunnel
but as he did not aim he never
touched any of us all his bullets

striking the wall or the Sanbags
Next day we put in a charge of
gun cotton in front of our barricade
& packed it with a lot more sandbags
& fired it off. Of course it blew the
Turks to glory. Then a party of
volunteers under Kev Walker &
the Engineer officer went down &