Letters from Harold Edward 'Pompey' Elliott to his family, June - December 1915 - Part 8

4
will be some more desperate fighting
there yet as he is digging like mad in
front of us. We expect that he will
mine under & try to blow us up. The
position is most important to him
as it cuts his line in half at that
place. He is now throwing up new
lines of trenches further back on
the line to fence us in all round
as there will be lots of fire there
soon. I feel impatient to get back
there again. I feel that we were
inflicting such damage on him
& the other Battalion who relieved us seemed
very casual about the matter & more thought
more of the danger of deceiving the enemy's
artillery upon the position than of worrying
& annoying him constantly. I was delighted
that the little Brooch arrived on your
Birthday. It is a dear birthday to me because
it gave me the sweetest darling girl in all the
world for a wife. All my heart goes out to you  my
own loving little pal. Does the wee laddie say
"pals now & mum" - The dear wee loving laddie. I have
I have no postcards to sent the ^children now but have a good
supply of writing paper which our parson sent
over from Egypt. Well pet I must say goodbye

William George Murray 
Waterloo Road
Northcote
 

5
again. Tell Baaby I was pleased to get her letter
& will reply in a few days. Tell her also we
have caught lots of Turks - but cannot
recommend them - They are black
greasy looking - ice cream sort of fellows
Also some nice Germans but the
"Heads" as the boys call the Generals
all want them for themselves & we
dont get a chance to keep them.
Well darling I must stop now.
Now xxxx dearest dont let them
persuade you to publish any of my
letters. I tell you all about myself
just for yourself alone. [*Omit*] But it would
be OK xxx to tell others about it
When I write to others I tell them
about their boys & it doesnt matter
if they publish it but your letters are
for your own dear self & I like to tell
you all about things. Oh you dear
old sweet loving wife if I only had
you by me now I would nearly cuddle
you to death & kiss your dear sweet
lips all away -my wife darling true
sweet love. God bless & keep you &
our own sweet two Bairnies. Love
Dida Donny
 

[*Omit*]
P.S. What color was the piece
of silk you gave Baaby dearie
Dont forget to tell me. I might
have a chance to replace it
for you some time especially
as you seem to like it so
much. It was cheating to
give it to you & then take it
away for Baaby but I could
not buy anything for her at
that time & I wanted to give
her something for looking after
my dear pets so well
 

Gallipoli Peninsula
18/8/15
Dearest wifelet
Tomorrow it will be twelve months since
we went into camp at Broadmeadows
Since I wrote to you the other day we have
had another 48 hours in the Trenches
at Lone Pine. We had quite a lot
of fun & excitement. In strengthening
& straightening out our position which
was like this at first [diagram- see original] & we are making
it like this [diagram - see original] we discovered quite a number
of interesting points of View from which
we could shoot Turks. It was very amusing
to watch them scatter. We got quite a lot

& never got a man hurt ourselves but
yesterday morning just as we were
being relieved by the 1^st Batt the enemy's
artillery opened fire & one of our men was
hurt. Also Major Davidson of the 1^st Batt
got a very painful wound in a peculiar
way. The shell hit a bit of Pine wood
off a biscuit box & drove a big splinter
about a foot long an inch wide & ¼ inch thick
right through his right shoulder. He
was suffering dreadful pain but the Doctor
thought it was not dangerous. I had left
him for a moment to attend to something
& found him laid out when I got back
again. Poor old Bert Layt was in a 

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[*Page 3
omitted*]
great state. As soon as he heard Major
Davidson was hit he sent along to see how
I was as he knew I was going round with
Davidson. Bert is not at all anxious to be
in command of the Regiment. Well
darling old girl there is nothing much
to tell you this time. We have landed
a very big force away north by Suvla
Bay & they are fighting hard. I think it
will soon be all up with Abdul but
he is fighting very hard indeed. Little
[*Omit*] 
wifelet - the ma of the sweetest wee bairnies
in all the world - I love you. I thank you for
giving me those dear wee pets for all my
own. Oh littlest wifie no one else in all the
world could have given me those dear wee
pets - there could be no one like them for me
could there.- the dear wee loving pets always
asking for dida to be back- Katie wifie even if I
had never loved you from the beginning I would
love you now for giving those sweet pets to me I am
so happy thinking of them & you - Little sweet
love I hope they repay you by their love in all
your sufferings for them & me. I hope you
never now regret one incident of your love
for me. I do not in my heart Katie Rather
I thank God for it for I had to know

Gallipoli Peninsula
19^th August 1915
My darling wife
The bearer of 

this Capt Jacobs is returning to
Australia to finish his Medical
course. I wrote to you a while back telling
you of our fight at Lone Pine. Capt
Jacobs was in it & will tell you
all about it. I also take the
opportunity of sending with him
a rifle Bayonet etc which Stafford my
Batman got for me off a dead Turk
I will be glad if you keep them for me
It was a terrible fight but of the 510
men that I took into the actual
firing line there were 344 killed &
wounded We have & the Trenches were
piled five deep with the dead at the
end. We fought from 7 oclock at night
till nearly 1 oclock in the afternoon
next day with only little pauses
between. Well dear old lady I
posted a letter to you yesterday. I hope
it reaches you all right darling
Give the wee Bairns another kiss
from Dida & tell them he loves mum &
his wee pets best of all the world & all his heart
is with them. God bless you all.

Millions of kisses from Dida Donny

 

Gallipoli Peninsula
Sunday 

22^nd Aug 1915

My darling Kit,

We came out of the Trenches

yesterday at about 11 oclock & had a very

quiet day. resting. Today we rest also

according to programme & tomorrow

we go back to the Trenches at Lone Pine

We had very few casualties this time. I

think were all told only 3 being anyway

serious. We gave Abdul rather a bad time

though & must have got a few of him.

We can see one of their main roads for just

a little way from the Lone Pine & we always

have two or three men told off to fire when

anyone goes along it & although it is

1600 yards away you should see them

scoot past now. Men on horseback go full

gallop now & the men leading donkeys or

mules often give their animals a wallop

to set them going & then after a pause 

run full lick after them. You can hardly

shoot for laughing at them. About

midnight the night before last a big fight

commenced on our left it rumbled on till

morning & grew & grew in intensity until the

afternoon when a lot of war ship came

up & fired & bellowed till your head would

ache with the roar of the guns.

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although these are the days of the
smokeless powder gun all the ships
were covered with a gray mist & you could
see the long spirt of flame through it

when the guns fired long before the report
reached you. The scrub on the Hills
caught fire & we could see nothing of
the fight. Last night I heard that the
British had captured several lines of
trenches. The Battle seems to be still
raging furt but further off which I hope is
a good sign & away round by Suvla
Bay I can still hear the dull booming 
of the war ship while yesterday they seemed
to crack your head they appeared so near
I was very hopeful when I last wrote
that we had got Abdul beaten. Opposite
LONE PINE it seemed that he hadn't 
a single prepared line of Trench to fall
back on but he is evidently still full
of fight for he must have thousands of
men digging & digging by night & day for
new trenches are rising in front of us
like mushrooms so there will be
some fierce fighting after all to mark
his lines here. We have gained a lot
of ground on our left though & surely
PTO

[*D.R.L. 3297 (3rd ^S.) *]
-3
he will begin to realize that the game 
is up soon. As a matter of fact
he has ceased to dream of driving
us into the sea as he used to talk of
doing. We get this from our prisoners
They no longer hope to do this but say
they will fight us to the bitter end.
They seem very ignorant of the
cause of it all & ask why we wanted 
to come here with our men & ships
to take their country from them
They don't appear to have any knowledge
of the real facts ^ viz that Turkey delared
war on Great Britain but blame
us for invading Turkey. Well it
is a queer world isnt it. We are
getting a great respect for Abdul in many
ways Some of them are wonderful shots
& you have only to show the least part of you to
get a bullet into it - Many seem quite
indifferent to death & look over their trenches
in the coolest manner. I may say a fair
number of them get hit. One chap used to
look over every day & rely on a heap of dirt to
protect him except in front & he could
watch the man there getting ready to fire
& he could duck in time but one night
one of my Essendon Boys Lt B. _∧[[?]] Harris