Letters from Harold Edward 'Pompey' Elliott to his family, July - October 1916 - Part 6

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I have no doubt the Essendon people
would help you a lot too. I am afraid
their will be many many sad hearts
there. There is one thing the Depot might
help in that is in finding out through
me what happened so far as we know
to their dead & missing. & many would     
appreciate it. I enclose a letter from
Mrs Taylor to whom I wrote. Major
Duigan is Lt Col now: He has now
taken poor Geoff McCrae's place. He
originally took old Field's place. Then when
Geoff was getting his promotion. Duigan went
back to the old job for a few weeks. Bert
Layh will be Lt Col very shortly - old
Harris who kept him out of his the job so long
was so scaredupset in the fight that he had a
sort of paralytic, stroke & has gone
straight off home, bailed on the 9^th of
this month. So Layh will get this ^promotion all
right. Major Denehy another of my old
boys is getting the other Battalion & Col
Stewart still has his. He is doing very
excellently - So I have all the men except 

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Bob Smith that I wanted in the Beginning
I would have preferred poor old Geoff to Denehy
but that is impossible & Denehy is doing very
well. He was only 2^nd Lieut when he joined
me & Bert Layh only 1^st Lieut. So I have
rewarded their good Service. I only trust
they do well now. Bert Layh & Duigan
have a very hard hol row to hoe. They had a
splendid lot of young officers & nearly
all were Killed & wounded You
need not worry dear about the swearing -
I don't have to do it now at all. I
leave it to Bert Layh & the others. Some of
them are quite good at it too, I remember
the old chaplain on the peninsula. It was
funny too. He used to preach against
the Boys for swearing & yet he used to
swear himself. And he was quite right
too. He was always against the men
senslessly interlaiding their conversation
with filthy expressions & blasphemy.
Sure now byes, he would say, the name
of Jasus Christ was niver mint
to plasther the Gullies of Gallipoli 

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Then But they wold to use a word meaning tenders to which he strongly objected
he used to rouse on them about that. I wouldn't
mind ye doin it so much he said, but
the everlasting use of the word gets on me
nerves:
Now I am never used either but I frequently
asked some man or officer ^at the top of my voice what sort of
b _ fool he called himself for doing this
that or the other & my voice carries far.
Men have to be driven occasonally &
I find much to my regret that like some
bullocks they wont drive any unless
you use powerful language. But as I
said as Brigadier I am no longer
so much in direct touch with
the men as I was in the old Battalin
& have other people to do the driving for
me. They don't do it as well mostly
but Con Stewart & Bert Layh are
pretty good. I am delighted to have
Duigan with me. He is a born humourist
& I never see him without coming away
Cheered. Tell Mrs Duigan he is the life of
the place. He has just left me a few 

5
minutes ago. He is thoroughly in favor of
the idea of the Depot. So do your best
dearie. Preserved fruit & things of that
sort provided a useful change from
Bully Beef & Buiscuit of which we
will get a lot. Also the ration of
Tea & Sugar is sometimes a bit short
for our boys who drink such a lot of
tea compared to the British. Coffee
too would be acceptable if we are here in the
winter but perhaps it would came very dear
I had a parcel from Miss Rogers in this
Mail, pair of Socks, a little bag of sulphur
a cake of Tar loaf & Toothpaste. They xxx
all remember me dearie you see.
Oh I nearly forgot Eric Walker has just
transferred over to my Brigade so I will
fix him up for a Commission as
soon as possible. I hope he will have
better luck than his brother & cousins
He seems a very nice boy. I expect poor Lyn
will be dreadfully worried. Katie
reading between the lines I have a notion that
you were not quite pleased with the Shawl 

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I sent Dhurach. Mrs Milne chose it altogether
I intended her to get a soft fluffy one
like I sent you before. Tell me if you
would have liked one like that better.
By the way Baaby Bill said in one letter
she would like a Scarf. Would she like
best one like Dhurach's with embroidery
upon it or a fluffy one like yours
& what is the difference between a Scarf &
a Shawl. Isn't the latter only a bit bigger
The boys tell the people that the Boys can
get anything they want in France but not
free. They only get 10/- a week so that
they wont be tempted to get very drunk
& this doesn't go far when things are so
dear. It seems so funny now to hear
you talking about Egypt & me wanting to
get away from it. It seems years &
years since I was their. I have no
news of Jack. I wrote to Capt Bastin
to see if he could find out for me. I hear
Jack Dinoin has been dreadfully
cut up. I hope he & Jack are still
going strong. I shall be anxious to

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see the new photos of the laddie in his wee cap
till they come along. I sent the last one I
got over to Violet to see & send back but she didn't
send them back in the next letter so I had to sort
her up & she sent them back. She seems to
be having a good time but worrying about her old
man a good deal. She had had no letters from him
for a long time. Dear old Kit. Those cuttings
you sent were a joke. You can see they are
hitting at a special man - Brother Dick ^C. of
course. By this mail. I got a couple of Khacki
hankies from Baaby Bill. They are very nice indeed.
but truly & really I have heaps & heaps &
when we move such a lot of things have to be
thrown away. In Egypt Tivey's Brigade
had to throw away tons of stuff. At
least they did not throw it away but
handed it in to store & they will never
see it again. We are still having a very
quiet time. though not as bad as on Gallipoli
the smells up in the front line from the poor
dead in no mans land is pretty dreadful.
Every night some of my boys have to go out 

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there & see what the Germans are up to
& sometimes the Germans see them & open fire
& they have to lie in amongst the corpses until
they are quiet again sometimes for hours&
it makes then very sick. I always arrange
for them to get a tot of rum to cheer them
up when they get in again. Sometimes
they never come back. Two didn't the night
before last. It is very dreadful having to keep
them going out but it must be done. Some
seem absolutely to delight in it. One I
have just sent on for a Commission. He
actually crawled out & tied a piece of
paper in the enemy's barbed wire just
where a machine gun was firing. So that when
he got back he could have our guns fire
right in the spot where it was & we did
so & made their old gun shut up quick &
lively. Well dear old Katie this is just
about all the news I can tell you. 'cept that I
love you 'xxx xxxx. Arent you a love to tell
me you are not sorry for anything you have
done for me. PS I am so glad dearie, It is

France
Sunday
20/8/16
Dear old Katie,
I hear there is a mail arr'd to
Australia tomorrow so must write you
a wee little letter. We had another little Scrap
yesterday & made a raid on the
Boches Trenches & captured a Machine
Gun & Killed a good number of Germans
We got off Scot free ^practically until it was all
over ^& on our way back from our trenches when this bosche opened up &
terrific Bombardment & inflicted a
number of casualties. The brave leader
of the party Capt Harris was is missing
certainly he must be Killed as he was
seen almost back to our lines. I am very
sad about him. He was one of the old
Brigade & has never had a day off for
wounds or sickness since we left
Australia. As splendid brave boy.
Lts Pinnock & Watson two other very fine
Officers were also Killed. The spirit
under mighty fire case they dont get hurt
Then good ones are always getting it
It is getting harder & harder to replace
them too. I don't yet know the number of

casualties amongst the men but believe there
are about to killed & 20 wounded - but there
was only 53 in the raiding party all told.
I saw that Bob Smith's Regiment was
dreadfully cut up 18 officers being
wounded & others I don't know how many
Killed amongst others a very fine boy &
a great friend of mine that I always wanted
to get with me. Murdock McCay by
name. He was one of the old 5^th & I then
took him to the 60^th under Fox all the
could not get away in time with me
but came with Bob. He was a Splendid
boys like the Hendersons & Jimmie J & [[?]].
I wrote to Jack the other day but is far I
have had no reply. I have now no mention of
his name in the Casualty lists nor of Bob's so I
am hoping they are all right. I hear they are
out of the firing line just now but will be going
back again any time. I suppose your
really know more of the Casualties than
I do. Charlie my cousin is Turning out
a splendid officer. He's Captain told
me yesterday he is one of the best officers he
has & one of the coolest & bravest of all the 

men is the line. In the hottest fire he is as
cool & collected as if he were walking
down the street at home. Naturally I am
delighted. He had a very narrow
escape. He was just going into a dug
out to write a report on yesterday's
action when a huge shell dropped
squarely on the roof & flattened it
like a pancake. [[?]] had arrived
5 seconds later Charlie would have been
right under it. As it was he was covered
with debris but absolutely unhurt. I
heard of a curious thing the other day. In the 6^th
Brigade ie Jacks. The Battn was just being
sent back for a rest & just to celebrate
their escape the Colonel called his four
Captains in to have a whisky for luck because
they had escaped, as they thought, for the time
being. They had just sat down in the dug out
when crash came a shell into the dug out &
Killed all four at once. The Colonel was
buried & terribly bruised & shaken but
otherwise undamaged. I'snt it wonderful
the escapes some men have & how others seem to
walk into their death. Last night a [[?]]