Letters from Harold Edward 'Pompey' Elliott to his family, July - October 1916 - Part 10

-6-
had then been dragged in to their     
parapet. I went down to the trenches
this morning at 7 o'clock to see our
trench Mortar play in the enemy's
parapet & behind it. It must have
been very uncomfortable there. At one time
I saw about 12 feet of Tramline fly
up 100 feet in the air & go whirling
round like a feather with the force of
the explosion. We are much better up to

date in Trench Mortars than the

enemy is & there is some sort of new

thing that I heard has taken part in
the last few days fighting on the Somme.
It is a sort of Armoured Tractor
Engine that will crawl over trenches
& barbed wire or any of the other obstacles
it meets at a good fast pace. It has
an cannon 18 pounder cannon in it &
several machine guns & proved a great
success particularly in the Village fighting
Previously the Boche used to get into cellars
& dug outs & put machine guns firing
down every single street & it was an
awful business to get  them out . In fact
 

-7-
Pozières & other villages there had simply
to be blown to atoms before a successful
attack could be made upon them
but these things rattled away up the
street full of men perfectly protected 
against machine gun fire & going so 
fast that the German artillery could 
not hit them & the Germans left their
machine guns & ran for their lives
for they knew it was all up if the 18
pounder started to fire into them at 
about ten yards range. It seems to 
me it is definitely the most promising
implement of war we have yet invented
and if we get a big lead in their construction
we ought to have the old Germans well
licked before he can get them to reply 
to us with. But all this is rather counting
our chickens before they are hatched for
no full account of their fighting has yet
been published. Wont it be lovely if they are as a a 
big success as they promise.
Well dear old lady love I don't think 
I have any more news at present & 
it is getting dark so I must stop.
[*Oh Katie I nearly forgot to say my new Diary book arrived 
all right with some nice paper & envelopes. I dont think
you need seen any more of these. It is quite easy for me to
buy them here Katie darling & you must save your money up
But you are a dear darling old pet love to send me things*]
 

France

18/9/16
 

My dearest Katie,
Still feeling lonely for my
sunshine lady & no letters coming
along. It is such a drefful dreadful wet
misery of a day & oh my goodness
the mud. We carried out a raid on
the enemys trenches last night &
killed a number of Germans. We 
lost one officer a young fellow from
Geelong & four men killed and
5 others wounded. I begrudge them

very much. The results seem so
inadaquate for the loss of these fine
boys but on the other hand a shell 
lad landed in a patch of 10 boys who 
had come to get their breakfast at the 
Cooks fire & eight of them out of the 10
were wounded all at once one seriously
Two of my old boys come over to 
see me yesterday. Capts Barton & 
Oates. Both have been doing splendid 
work & Oates who was recommended
for the V.C. got a D.S.O. So they are 
keeping up the record of the old 7^th
 

 

They both look splendid & it was 
lovely splendid seeing & having a talk with
them. They are splendid boys. They
rode nearly 60 miles to see me & the return
had to be done after 8 o'clock last night 
It was pitch dark & very wet too.
Did Mrs Barton call and see you
yet..? No more news of Violet or Jacky 
boy. I am posting you a paper with
one or two funny pictures in it. The
one by "Barnsfather" in the centre of
the picture paper will make you laugh
I think.  He is the same that drew the
"Fragments from France."  Another one
where this Yeomanry man gets his horses
all tied up & wants to know "why the 
'ell I didn't  I join the Infantry." is a lovely
one too. Well darling theres not a lot of
more news to tell you 'cept one 'I love
[Lines taped over - see original]
who solemnly said the war would be over
in August of this year are now saying
it must surely be over by next August
 

 

That is what poor old Lord Kitchener said &
he will be just about right again. If we
can manage to keep pegging away at
Germany all this next year I think
she will have had enough. But its
a weary weary while to wait isn't it
darling. With all the loving times we
might be having together & that silly 
old Kaiser Bill is cheating us of.  We
[Lines taped over] ring & each other than
ever when I do come home because we
have all those wasted years to make up. No
more 'pardons for anything at all dear
old tender sweet love. Oh I have made
some enquiries about this old "Order of St
Anne" I hear it is not a bad order 
to have at all. Something like our C.M.G.
Perhaps Anyhow it will be something for 
the people at home to know that at last
I am being considered worth a little notice
None of the other Gernerals in our Divisions have
received anything at all yet but I expect
old McCay is saving up something better for
them. Well darling sweet dear old darling
[*Lovey dearest wifelet. Give all my love & kisses to the dear wee
bairnies & your own dear self. from Dida Don
God bless & keep you always & ever.*]

 

France

20/9/16

Dear old Katie.

This is just a wee spunk

of a letter to tell you I love you good.

The weather has not been too good

The days are fairly fine but every night

a drizzling rain or mist sets in

making the roads & trenches horrid

sloppy messes for the next day.

I am enclosing a letter from

General Birdwood which came

yesterday. I am more pleased

with it than with the Decoration

itself although. It shows he has

got over being angry with me over 

the Egypt letter I sent him business.

Not one bit of news have I to tell you

because I wrote a long letter just the

day before yesterday. But I love you

& I'm lonely for you & my pets & I must 

just tell you so I think I ought to

get a letter from you soon because I

got one from Mr Roberts dated 8th Aug

in which he mentioned that poor

Geoff McCrae had been killed & he

therefore knew we were in France. Your

 

2

last was a week before that so

I'm hoping one will come along today

or tomorrow. I've just been inspecting

some of old Bert Layh's Battalion &

found them very dirty & unshaven

They came out of the trenches the night

before last & had all day yesterday

to get clean so I'm sending a note

to old Bert that will make him sneeze

I guess. The young blighter has been

off down the town having a good

time himself instead of looking

after his men. Constant supervision

is necessary to keep the men

up to the standard. One cannot

afford to let a day go by without

checking any slackness. I had

a letter from Mr Forkin yesterday

Eva is coming to England he said &

she will see you on the way while in

Melbourne. His son broke his leg or

ankle in Egypt while we were there &

is now being sent to England for convalescence

so it is still weak. It must have been

a bad break. Well now dear old

 

3

sweetheart lovey pet I'll just put this

letter aside for a day to see if anything

turns up. Millions of loves & kisses for

you & the wee pets. In case I forget

Tell Mrs Roberts that after a lot of bother I
got her nephew xxx who was in the 8th Brigade

under Tivey transferred to my Brigade

He was a Sergt & we have now fixed him

up with a commission. His name

is Stillman & seems a nice boy. He

is with Col Duigan. He was slightly

wounded in the Jap Battle but is better now

though he is still rather thin & pale. Eric

Walker is doing excellently Col Duigan

is very pleased with him. Tell me

does a love me big heap million little sunshine

lady?

22/9/16

Dearest old girl. I've just received two

letters one dated the 5th August with a

dear little wattle blossom in it and a little

spunky one dated the 8th August. Aren't

you a darling to write so often. I hope you

are getting the my letters all right now. I

write just as often as I can as I know

you must be anxious for news

 

- 4 -

you will have heard about young Stirling by now.

He was very brave. Just as he was crossing our

parapet he was shot in the throat & fell back.

He would hardly wait until they tied up his

wound before he rushed out to get ahead of his

men & lead them on. When nearly across to the

German trenches so far as we can learn & while

leading his men on in the most gallant way

a big shell seem to burst right upon him

and he was seen no more. He was put down

as missing simply because his body was not

recovered but as is the case of Ray Warley as I

told you long ago I feel positively certain he is

dead. I sent his name in to the General telling

what he had done & just recently he was given

the Military Cross in the hope that he was still

alive to enjoy this Honor but they had nothing

to go upon except my report. I think all our

letters are now delayed in the post as in case

we give any news likely to be of use to the

enemy. I am very pleased with that the wee

laddie is was so nice to poor old Mr Trowbridge. I am

sorry he is so poorly. Please remember me to

him. Thank you for the little loves. It is as

sweet as you my sunshine lady love.

Mr Webber never gave me Mr Trowbridges

letter. I am sorry to hear of his death.

I did not get any Cable about Stirling

from a lady but Jimmy Burrowman,

one of my old officers who lost his arm

at Lone Pine called to me about him and

Capt Plowman. I replied by cable.

 

 

- 5 -

Well dear old Katie love Your letters are
a great comfort to me just as you were
yourself ever since I knew you. God bless
and keep you always you dear old 
sweet love. Give my kind regards to 
Mr & Mrs Charles Lowe. I have not
forgotten them nor their babies. Give my
my love to old Dick Coster if ever he
rings you up. I am still very
pleased with my officers & my boys.
It is almost as nice good as being with my
old 7th Boys now. Such a lot of the old
boys want to come over and serve with me
Harold Barker Lynn's cousin has asked to
come. He was with me in the 7th Also Capt
Swift and the Essendon boy want to come 
too. Well now darling what more can I tell you
It is getting wetter & colder every day here now
It will be winter soon with all the wet &
snow. It makes me miserable to think of it
But we are digging fine deep dugouts right
under all the mud & water down into
dry black rocky clay soil safe from shells
and rain. The British Engineers have been here two
years & their men suffering dreadfully & they never
thought of this until our Engineers put down bores
& showed them that it could be done. We had about
a dozen generals down to see ours the other day.
The Colonel of our Engineers calls my 15th Brigade Area 
the show area because my boys have done such
a lot of work here. The Army General Sir
Herbert Plumer said there is no palace in his first

P.T.O.