Letters from Harold Edward 'Pompey' Elliott to his family, June - December 1915 - Part 6

Beast & all round the place on

duty, there is always danger
[*2 DRL/0513*]

(1)

Gallipoli Peninsula

27^th July 1915

My dearest Katie

Tomorrow is mail day & I
am still in the vale of tears. I have done 
my utmost to discover whether poor Ken Walker
or Capt Permegel are alive or dead but cannot
hear any news of any kind about them.
Probably you will hear of them before we do
I have just written to Jack ^& Major Smith as I bxxxxxx
hear that they are over in Egypt now
General Legge & a lot of the staff
officers from here have gone over to

form a new Australian Division 

out of them x I hear they are badly
disciplined and trained & are going
pretty large over there. ie of course some of them

just as our boys did in the beginning x

We had two of our my men wounded by shell

fire yesterday and a couple the day before.
But it is comparatively quiet

down here ^compared to what it was in

the trenches. I suppose we

-(2)-

shall have to take another turn

at them shortly as we have 

been eight days out now, But it

is really no proper rest for my boys
at all. Some of them are on night
& day on the Beach unloading supplies
& quite a number are quite broken up

in health by the hard work. Also they

are getting very tired of the corned Beef
& biscuits although it is occasionally relieved
by bread ^ration Rice & dried prunes etc
A few more of the old men came back
yesterday I was delighted to see
them. Well dear old lady there is
very very little to tell you. We are daily
expecting the Turks to attack. It is their
holy month & we have information that
they were moving heaven and earth to get
a 100,000 fresh troops for one last big attack
on us & that they would have them ready
just about now. The trenches which
we hold & are now occupied by the 8^th
got a rather bad time last evening
The Turks started shelling in the dark
& one poor chap Capt Hartland was

[*D.R.L 3297 (3rd S)*]

(3)
buried up in the trenches & in the
dark no one saw him & he was
dead this morning when he was
found. The men seem to fear this
fate more than anything & some
who are ordinarily quite brave &
steady are aft often quite hysterical
when dug out of a place like that.
They seem to imagine that another
shell will come & land on them
while they are imprisoned & helpless.
Then there is the fear of being suffocated
before they can be got out & I suppose
the dread that the others might
not have courage to come & dig them
out. Poor Ken Walker seemed
to feel the most intense sympathy
for these poor fellows & always had 
to be the first to rush to their assistance,
He was helping to dig out one of the
6^th Battalion when he was hit himself
The poor girls will be brokenhearted
they were so fond of him & he was a
fine boy. I am longing to see Jack
to hear about you & the wee pets
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(4)

I expect it will be long before I 
can do so as they are sure to be
kept a month or two in Egypt as 

they are so badly trained
My own sweet pet It will be lovely to hear
about you from one who has seen you
so lately. I hope Lt Condon went to 
see you dearie pet to tell you you about me

trat as he saw me after I was wounded
& will be able to tell you I wasn't

damaged a bit. Fancy those gullible

x people telling you I was hit 

in the face. But you were good
little girl not to worry but just wait

till you heard from me. Always do
that my dear one, kiss my sweet
wee bairnies for me & tell Neil that

Dida is very pleased with him for telling

Mum he loves her & will look after

her for Dida and give them & [[?]] [[?]]

and kisses from Dida & tell her we
[[believe]] that Dada is big heap pleas

with her for being so good & helping mum
with the laddie & carrying sugar [[?]]
round for the visitor & say Dida is plea

& sends her a big Dida kiss & love. 
Heaps of kisses & love for you & little xxx

from Dida Donny

P.8 27/7/15

Dear Kit, I just finished your letter when
the enemy dropped two big bombs in

the camp. The first one did no harm

but a huge fragment nearly came right

in into my dug out. It was just a wee bit

high. The next one landed amongst

a party of men & took a mans leg off
a third came over & did no harm

a fourth landed amongst another party of
men across the valley & I see the stretcher
bearers going up, so some other poor
fellows are hurt. We are just waiting

for some more of them. They are
not proper shells at all. They are

just huge circular globular Bombs -

such as were the first shells
in war nearly a hundred
years ago & must be fired
from some old fashioned gun
very close in front of our trenches
Well I can only be thankful that
I am still unharmed. I am afraid the
man hit will die. He is one of the
reinforcements but a good old soldier
& I am sorry to see him go. We

[*has a notion to have another big try at the Turks very
soon & probably our attack will come soon again. Well goodbye
& God Bless & keep you my own dear old darling. My own

dear sweet darling wife just a million kisses for you from 

Dida [Donny*]
Its funny strange the wasters often seem

to be left & the good men go.

One more has just come & lobbed in a 

dug out above me & smothered me  up with 
dust but has hurt no one. It seems so
queer - outside it is a perfectly lovely
sunny day & there is no firing at
all from the trenches but every

few minutes this wretched shell
comes over. You can see the & hear the
wretched thing coming bit it is useless
to run away as you cannot tell
quite where it is going to lob &
when it burst the big fragments fly

quite a distance. These shells are the
clumsiest old things imaginable. I think
they must have been made dozens a
hundred years ago & been dug out for use
against us.    28/7/15

After I had written the above it was about

a quarter to 7 in the evening & I went down to
see Henry Bennett who is now  Lt Col in charge of
the 6^th Battn. I had just got down to his dug out
thi when these same sort of shells started to

come over there. I began to think I was a sort of
Jonah. I am sorry to say that one poor boy a son
of Mr McKenzie Kirkwood the draper has in Bourke
Street had his head blown to pieces just a few
yards from Bennett & myself & a man next to was covered
with brains & got a bad cut from a piece of the shell
The poor fellow had done so well too. He had just 

won a Distinguished Conduct medal for bravery

well deserved The Turks made a bit of an attack at 4am this

morning but it fizzled out very soon. I hear the Fleet

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[*D.R.L. 3297 (3rd S.)*]

[*P.P.S. I heard from one of the men that poor Ken died on Hospital ship

same night as he was hit but am still hoping against hope *]

I saw ship this afternoon

ought to hear by tomorrow
at latest.
25/7/15
Still no news of Ken.

I sent messages twice to

the ship but cannot

get a reply. We have

been in reserve since I 

wrote & suffered no
loss except two men

from fragments of shell

but both were slight

we get into our burrows
& stay there till the

shelling stops & are quite 
safe. In the trenches it
was different. The enemy
knew exactly where we
were & we couldnt go
away but had to stick it

Well darling I think
this is all I am delighted
to know you were pleased
with the dress which

Barty made for you.

Mail is waiting now

`so goodbye my own love
from your own Dida Donny
Million loves & kisses

for you & my wee dearest
pets
[*DONATED RECORDS LIST
3297
3rd Series*]
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Gallipoli
Peninsula

8/8/15
Mt dearest Kit,

The mail closes

tomorrow so I must endeavour
to write a few lines. The Regiment which
was recently brought up by reinforcements 
to just under 700 men engaged

yesterday in the fiercest fighting it has
had on any single day since we
landed the Turks making a most
tremendous effort to break through
our lines right at the place we were
sent to hold. We were fighting for nearly 
24 hours on end. I am not allowed
to tell you the casualties the lists
will tell their tale. But the old 7^th
held its ground through twice I drew
my revolver to join with the privates
to repel the rush. The wave came
up to the parapets 6 Turks came into

the Trench but the boys shot them ^dead
they came in & no living Turk got

through the line. The Turks had a
strong position in front of our lines &

the first Brigade the N.S.W. men charged
it magnificently & took it. That charge
will live for ever in History I think
it was  such a terribly strong place & swarming
with machine guns. Credit the N.S.W. men