Letters from Harold Edward 'Pompey' Elliott to his family, January 1917 - April 1917 - Part 12

a half in the same time. I had for most of
the time only two Battalions under Bert Layh
who did spendid work - I am delighted
with him- This man had all his four ^ Battns &
yet I had to send up Layh & Stewart to
help him out. Now my men are ready and
full of fight. Today he asked to be let off road
mending for 3 days to give his men a chance to
recover. Mine never had any such spell & indeed
had to go up & do part of his shift for him
But we had one joke on him. We captured a      
trench mortar & so did they but his men
were so lazy or knocked up they would not
be bothered carting their's away so as it was
a much nicer one than the one he we got before Bert
Layh quietly swapped his for the new good
one so he'll have a lovely fine trophy if ever he
gets it back to Coburg for the Drill hall there.
I've got all my boys quite keen on getting
trophies for the Drill halls at home & no
matter how tired they are they always drag
them back to safety. I hope the minister
lends them to the Comforts fund people to
see first. We hope they all got home safely too

Thanks very much dearie for wanting to send
me thngs You are such a dear darling loveist
sweet wife. I told you a long time ago that the
Sulphur bags from Mrs Deighton came along
all safely & they were served out to the boys
but I don't think anyone ever wore them; all
the Doctors laughed at the idea of them being any
protection at all. Tell Mrs D. they came
all right & that i sent a letter thanking
her & ask her if she ever got it. Be sure &
twll Mrs Marshall & the Stewarts that there
is absolutely nothing in the stories abput General
McCay & I would galdly serve under him
again far more so than any of the other Divisional
General's about. His one fault of which he was
being rapidly cured was that if General Birdwood
or anybody asked him to make an attack he
would do it cheerfully no matter how dreadful
the danger. He believed it the soldiers
duty "Theirs not to reason why
"Theirs but to do & die"
And he himself would like Lord Cardigan
have wits of the utmost coolness & bravery
have lead his men "Into the Valley of Death
"Into the mouth of Hell"

I think I was the first to teach him that

this was not always truest duty that 

out duty demanded that if we thought we

were being told to do responsibilities to stand 

up to Birdwood & the others & tell them

is & say "I am ready & willing to lead my

"man to this attack but you must fully

"understand that I think it is madness

"& you will have to take all my responsibility.

"It is just wonderful how these peoples warlike

"enthusiasm vanishes if you put that proposition in

"writing. Of course one must feel very sure of

"me's ground for they will sometimes find some

"one else willing to take on the job & if they do

"& succeed your name would be plain dirt/"

So far thanks to your prayers darling everytime

I have refused to attack & some one else

has tried it me they got it in the neck thus

proving my judgement correct & where I have

done the attack satisfied that it could be

done the successes have been almost a miracle

That is what your prayers have done little wife

so you just keep going so that I may always

be inspired to do juts what is right. The 

other day I wanted to go on & I was forbidden

Fritz promptly dug trenches & put up wire

like fury &made what was really an easy

job at first a very difficult one & much loss

was caused. A little while back I managed

to pass over to one of the other division the

last of the Senior officers dumped on me

in Egypt. He made an awful ass of himself

& lost over 200 men. I think he'll get the

sack all right. Then another Division

took men from them & they too made a mess

& lost a lot of men. So the fame off the 5^th Divn

who made no mistakes recaptured ever so

many more towns than anyone else wanes great

in the land for the vast delight of our Divisional

General for whom everything in the garden is just

lovely. I haven't seen anything of Jacky boy.

They are out for a rest ow. I shall try to see

Mrs Murrell in London. Her boy was one of

my Sergeants in the Goondu rifles before the

war. He was a nice boy & I had my eye on him

as an officer but he was very young then Jack

says he filled out into a fine big strapping fellow

before he was killed & was a great person to all the men.

Tomorrow is Easter Sunday. Good Friday has

come & gone & no one has taken any notice

but we are going to have a big church parade

tomorrow. Never mind about the wee Joey kid

darling. You poor old weary pet I'll buy you xxx

a pair when I come home & they will build a nest

& hatch out another dear wee thing for you to love

Katie if you promise to be good & well always for

Dido. As the photos I send mast mail will

show you I am again the picture of health.

People all tell me how well I am looking &

although the past two days have been bitterly

cold with snow & rain & sleet I dont feel

it at all. I have a lovely cosy hut with

a little stove that keeps me as warm as

toast & a table; & an easy chair that someone

found in an old Bosche dug out. I've never

been really as comfortable in France even at 

the "Brunets" because there I was in a strangers

house. In my little hit that my boys have

built I am really & truly at home I have

afternoon tea or cocoa & cakes or biscuits

Sure the tea has no flavor but it is [[?]]

& warm & that is the main thing.

I really don't think you'd see much difference

I me except where my hair has gone pretty

white by the temples & a wee bit further back

on the top. Apart from that I can see no

change myself & I love you just the same as

(three lines of text pasted over)

 

I've handed over the £100 to the Brigade

Institute Committee who will spend it

mostly in extra vegetable which are very

scarce & dreadfully dear up here. Now that

we are out of the awful mud & really got the

Bosche on the move ahead of us everyone is in

great spirits but I fear we will be checked

for quite awhile by the Hindenburg line in

front of us. The wire there is from 800 to

600 yards thick in front of it & the guns

sound just like the waves of a stormy

sea on a rocky beach never ceasing never

waning for a moment by night or day

& every few minutes the roll is broken by the

cracking crashing roar of some monstrous gun

12 inch gun which momentarily drown the

roar of its lesser mates as the roar of a lion

might silence the yapping of a pack of dogs

tormenting it. When the Generals are

satisfied that the wire is well cut we will

go on again. I never heard such an absurd

idea as sending the old 1st Division men home

on leave. In the first place every officer with

experience is required to teach the new

boys & avoid the mistakes that we have fallen

into so often. In the 2nd place the ships

required to take them home cannot

be spared. Every ship that can crry

goods must go as hard as it can to

keep the people in England from staring

with the submarines sinking hundreds of

ships a month & the people in England

are starved into wondering what use will

all our fighting have been. Neither can the

men be soared to go home either. I never

heard such madness. If she would get

up a petition for Conscription to raise

twice as many men as we have here now

so that we could go right away back

out of sound of the guns for a months

spell instead of which we are out of the firing

line being put to mend roads still under

shell fire there would be greater sense in it.

Do you sit hard on anyone who suggests such

a thing! It would be quite madness & the foolishness

of the suggestion is so great when you know

what a temptation it might prove to the

poor devils over here to demand it. How

would it look if relying upon the people

at home protecting them our men should

all demand to be taken back to Australia.

if they ever did that I think I would shoot

myself for very shame & yet that is what

such petitions if largely signed would

tempt men to do & how could your Govt

order anyone to be shot in the face of a 

petition like that to bring them home. The

Government is mad to permit such a 

petition to be signed. Wont every blessed

German & every blessed Fenion

& Anti war crank in the country rush

& sign it - Of course he will. It would

seem to them just the best thing in the

world to get all our best & most experienced

officer & men well out of the way just when

they are most needed on the front. Next 

to the rejection of Conscription this Petition

is just the very maddest thing I've ever

heard of. You need not expect me home or

any consideration until old Kaiser Bill has

surrendered for good & all even if we have

to burn the Postdam Palace about his ears before

we do it. And I'm just about as sick of the

war as I jolly well can be. Now dearie

loving sweetheart pet I don't know when the

mail will be going out but the letter is

getting just scandalous ^very fat so I'll\

just stop & have the lovely warm

bath my servant has got all ready for

me - What do you think of that - & then I'll

pop into bed & have a lovely sleep in spite of

all the hopping & grumbling of the old guns

Bye now dearest darling sweet pet

love. Millions of love & kisses from your

very own Dida ^to you & the dear wee sweet

bairnies. Bye some more & more [[?]] still for Dida.
 

                                              France

                                                   10/4/17

My dearest Katie,

      Two lovely ^long letters 

fro you dated the 18th & 19th feb. I wonder on

the ones in between drowned. It looks lite

it doesn't it. dearie & I suppose the

snap photo of the dear little people will

be in them. Wont it be sad for you if you

have to wait 3 months for letters & what a

big pile you will have to read at the end

for I'm going to keep on writing to you just

the same. I enclose the registration slip for

the parcel with the German helm Helmet

in it for the laddie. He will surely

thin he is "Christmas" when that comes

for him. Tell him it belonged to a naughty

old Kaiser Bill solder that dida's soldiers

killed because he was so naughty. I don't

know a bit if this is true because Capt

Murison found it in a dug out in

a place called Riencourt that we chased

the Germans out of. Anyhow he got such

a fright he ran away without his

helmet & now it will belong to the dear