Letters from Harold Edward 'Pompey' Elliott to his family, June - December 1915 - Part 7

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took it & held it for 24 hours. It
is like a low window now into the
Turkish lines there. I can only give you
the latest outline as the whole place is
a labrynth like an underground 
city with streets & roads (narrow)
[Diagram - see original document]
cut through criscrossing everywhere
Abdul the Turk was very savage
about this as it greatly weakened
his position his position & made
most determined efforts
to get it back again.
but except for the little bit I
have marked like the xx in the
bottom corner he
got nothing At the points where
the xxx lines touch the
two forces are only separated
by a barricade made of Sand Bags
& also at a point I have marked
Sandbag Barricade.
We have put
tunnels & saps
through to communicate
with the position captured Well
Adul kept on attacking with guns
& bombs & machine guns & rifles until
there boys got fairly knocked up. Then the
7^th were put in in the part from the
extreme right, to about the point I have
marked (x) Then Abdul started out to
give us Beans. They swarmed up about
 

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Three seven o clock ^in the evening & kept going for several
Hours. We got the Best of them that time
At about 3am the next morning he came
at us again very fierce this time He had
thousands of little Bomb Hand Grenades
& shied them in at us. We responded but
we had only a limited supply of bombs &
they are shaped like jam tins & are not
nearly so good. They also through threw
slabs of gun cotton against the Sand Bag
Barricades & blew them in on us & we had
to build them in again a dozen times Then
at day light their artillery smashed
us. Then three times they charged
up with fixed bayonets & they as we
manned the parapets they focused on
the machine gun fire from North &
South in their xx positions on each
side of us & heaps of men were shot
that way. Three times they went back
again & they caught us pretty hot then
In one little trench xx there were 13 dead Turks
piled on each other while others lay all
around. We were the same. In one charge
it was so hot that we had no time
to remove the wounded & horrible to
tell you we had to tread on their

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poor dead & dying men lying in the

trench to keep the gaps in the line
filled. All war is horrible but this

trench warfare is awful. A large
proportion of wounds were in the head
I cannot wear my tunic today because
it is all soiled & stained with a poor 
boys brains which were splashed all over
it. The Turks are trying the German
trick of firing their Bullets wrong end
first & they make awful wounds. I
saw the whole side of this lads skull
simply ripped out & his brains splashed
round. After 24 hours was over. We were 
relieved by the 5^th & just our luck  - almost
Abdul had had a good bellyful of fighting
& never came on again all night. He
came on again at daylight this morning
but was easily dealt with & they had
very few casualties. I enclose a copy
of a message General Birdwood sent
to us through the Brigadier of the 1^st 
Brigade. We the 7^th were the Supporting

Battalion, But of course on the day of the
hardest fighting apart from the first
actual charge which must have 
been simply awful we were in the firingline

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& the others were really supporting us. Still
you could only put it that way as we
started out by being supports. The Boys
behaved finely. Half the Battalion were
raw recruits but they never failed me
once.

When we left yesterday the trenches 
were indescribable. You must remember that
that not only our dead but the dead of 
the two previous days fighting Turks & 
Australians often locked in a last death
struggle still lay there in large numbers in 
spite of all efforts. Many had ^ at first been removed
but they were so many in all that no real
impression had been made. Moreover these
poor corpses were continually smashed 
by the enemies shells & torn with Bullet
rounds - I leave the rest to your 
imagination. A solider in France said
that he feared Hell no more - Trench
fighting exceeded it. We have only to get
a taste of Gas now which has not been tried yet
& I shall be ready to believe him. Well
darling Providence has been good to me
so far. Capt Layh is also quite well. We
probably go back into the trenches tomorrow

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Well goodbye Katie darling. We must
soon beat Abdul now I think the way
things are shaping. We are certain now
we can beat him even with all his
trenches whether in attack or in
defence. God bless & keep you
till we meet again. Bless my dear
Bairnies too. We captured 5 machine
guns from the Turks but they had damaged
four of them. We got about a million
rounds of their ammunition & promptly

put the maxim in action against the
themselves. They are longer little guns
better than ours. I had a letter cable
from Geordie but you cannot send
cables from here in reply. He asked
was it true Ken Walker had died of 
wounds. Strange to say just before
going into the trenches on Saturday
I had a letter from the Hospital People
that he & Capt Permezel had died of
wounds. Give my sympathy to
Lyn & the Girls. I will try to write to
them if I can get time but it is very
difficult to find time to write Such
a lot of people write to me asking about
their boys. I try to tell them all I am
allowed to but I am afraid I will be able
to tell little of the fight. It was all like a 
Horrible nightmare. Fancy seeing a man
you know blinded & with both hands
blown off trying to get up on his feet
 

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Tell Geordie I saw poor Jack West taken
away with a frightful gash on his head
trying to run back to the firing line - while
he was being carried off & waving his arms
(quite run delirious) of course - Bombs wanted
tell the Colonel we can't hold it unless he
sends Bombs - Bombs Bombs - Reinforcements
Reinforcements - He was shouting this at
the top of his voice. God knows whether he
is sli dangerously wounded. I heard
that the Doctor on the Beach gave him some
narcotic & he was quite sensible again
after sleep. I must end now
dear I fear I am wandering a bit
but I think you will excuse me
The Brigadier came down & congratulated 
us & said we had added to our reputation
& our Glory which will last for ever
etc etc But you could have my share of
all the Glory of the Battle of "Lonesome 
Pine" (as the Hill is called from the one
struggling straggly old pine that once grew on its rugged
top but which our artillery has long since torn
to ribbons & splinters) for one of the poor boys
who died or were mangled to death there
Goodbye my dear Goodbye & Pray ^ that war
may never come to Australia.
Tishes for the wee pets from Dida Donny

11^th Aug 1915
Dearest Kit
I find that in yesterdays 
letter I omitted to enclose a the Copy
of General Birdwood's message
to us. So I now enclose 
it. Everything is very quiet 
this morning & it is just bright
daylight. I think we will have
the old Turks licked all the
chaps say. I suppose Major
Smith & his boys will all be
over here soon now we are
getting Abdul on the run.
Kiss my dear wee little sweet pets
for me & tell them Dida loves them over
the moon & stars & all the Comet tails
& just everything else in the world
I am longing to see the photos of them
& you.  Have had no mail for quite a
long time now. Lieut Swift has come
back. He was wounded at Cape Helles
but looks splendid. It is luck
to have him back. Kisses for Mum
& Baaby & the Bairnies from your loving
Dida Donny

Gallipoli Peninsula
14/8/15
My darling Katie
Your letter of the 27^th
June reached me yesterday. Also a teeny

tiny one enclosing one from Mrs Pennyfather
I have replied to her direct. Her son was
ill (not serious) & sent to Hospital a week
or so ago. Consequently he missed the
desperate fighting we went through on
Sunday night & Monday last. We had
48 hours rest & then went back for 48
hours again. The nights were absolutely
indescribable. The dead still lay &
putrified where they had fallen & the first
thing I did was to dig huge pits in the
bottom of the trenches & simply stack
them in as they were. The poor fellows
engaged on this awful work had to be
fortified with liberal doses of rum to
keep them going. It was splendid how
they worked tho. The sights ^ & smell often made
them retch & vomit but they kept 
on & now the Trenches are habitable &
getting nearly as strong as our original
position. I dont think Abdul will
get an inch back if he throws his
whole army at it. Documents have

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been found on the Turkish dead showing that
on the Sunday night & Monday we had
over 3000 Turks against us in these 
attacks. I never had more than 600
& finished with only about less than 200 but we held
the Trenches. Consequently the 7th & your
old man would will be apt to get swelled head
for all the nice things said about them.
A staff officer told me yesterday that that 
attack was considered the most desperate

Battle that has taken place anywhere on
the Peninsula. I wouldn't be surprised
if your old man got a D.S.O. I receive a decoration or something
like that but there are so many who
do the Bravest things these days & I
certainly did nothing personally. I 
just kept dodging round keeping the 
officers up to their mark. It was 
curious. An officer ^or non.com would come back
& demand more Bombs or reinforcements
or he could not hold his post.
I would be very rude indeed to him
& tell him to go back to his post & die there
& I would do my best for him but whether
he got them or not he must ^ just hold the
post & they did too: You know that I
had about 170 raw recruits shoved
in just before the fight most of them

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fought like demons but a few broke
down. I found one fellow wandering
about without a rifle all trembling.
I took him to a place which had a
dark tunnel in it & told him to
watch that & if he moved an inch I
would blow his brains out. It
really led to our own lines & there
wasnt a Turk anywhere near it
but he didnt know. After about
an hour he got all right & I put
him back in the fight. Another came
back trembling all over so that he
could not hold the rifle. I told
him if he couldnt fight to fill sandbags

He went at it like a mad ^man you never
saw a man work like him - but it
pulled him round. Later I saw
him fighting as well as the rest.
It is curious isnt it. We lost 23 men
(only 1 killed) the second 48 hours we
spent in the captured positions. Abdul made
no attack but only sniped whenever he got a 
chance. However we got our own back with
interest & we must have accounted for 100
or more of his in the time we were there.
Sometimes when we threw a Bomb in one could
hear them scream & groan. There