Letters from Harold Edward 'Pompey' Elliott to his family, May 1917 - December 1917 - Part 8

the 14th Brigade say that he xxx

was splendid dressing xxxx

the wounded under heavy or without any fear or mind for himself at all

should like you to tell both Lyn &

Mother about it. They will be

quite pleased. I saw Geordie

three or four days ago & he looks

splendid - He has got much fatter

than he was before & looks much 

better. He will be getting leave

to England xxxxx I think

quite soon. Since I wrote last

we have moved further north towards

the area where dighting is now going on &

I was able to call & see Madame Brunet

again. She seemed quite pleased that

I called on her. It has been pouring

rain for the past week ever since

we came here. I got very wet

one day & felt very much off

color next day but I am better

now though perhaps this may have

something to do with my feeling 

of being so utterly tired or it as 

I do today. Very great damage

has been done by the rain to all the

crops about which have been broken

down by the wind & rain &

the straw is becoming black &

rotten. We have been asked to detail

men to help the people cut their crops

& get them in to save them if we can.

I think things will be very dear

& it will be very hard for poor people

in this coming winter. I do wish

it was all men but in view of the

news from Russia where the 

liberation is becoming steadily 

worse I fear that we are in for

another year of war.

    I fear that this letter will make you sad

& miserable you poor old darling

but I promised to tell you

everything & have no secrets at

all. I need all your prayers just 

as much & more than ever - heroic

Anzac - thats what the papers say

& I'm nothing but a baby - sad & weary

crying for its Mummy - because

things are not going as I like

them but you must forgive me

Katie love. I've been so long away

& I am so tired & worn out.

   There will be a great & terrible

battle soon I believe Katie it has

started this week but the terrible

rain stopped it - the men were up

to their waist in water I hear 

& I expect we will be in it.

     If we do get a chance at the Bosch

I intend to make the most of it 

if possible break through their lines

somehow. It would be worth any

sacrifice to get them on the run

really & truly going back. They go back

a little & then hold us as fast as ever

but surely that must end sometime.

If anything should happen to me

you will know that at last I am

in peace away from all the troubles

& worries that so afflict me & that I 

have done my utmost to do any job

they have ever given me. Bye now

Katie love & millions of love & kisses

from your very own Dida Do.

                                        France

                                            11/8/17

My dearest Katie,

                      Here is another week

gone & not a bit of a sign is there that this

old war will soon be over. We Were

told in fact at a lecture this week

that it will be at least a hear before the

Russians are ^again of any assistance to us.

Isn't that perfectly beastly. I am

beginning to dispair of every getting home

again. Tonight a few of old Ormond

men including myself are going to

have a reunion dinner. It will be

nice to see them again. You hardly

ever see any of the unless they

happen to be in the same brigade.

     Recently the Bosche has been very

active in this district. He has brought

up a very long range naval gun & has

started shelling the towns miles & miles

behind his front. It has frightened the poor

people terribly. Yesterday I was riding

through a small town when the shelling

started. Within a few minutes of the

first shell bursting the roads leading

away from the enemy were almost

choked with hundreds of women &

children leaving for safety into

the country around.

      They ran till they were tired. Then

another shell would fall & the poor wretches

would shriek & start to run again

dragging their children by the hands &often

with a baby in a pram & although the

shells kept falling in the centre of the

town they would crouch down at each

explosion just as if it were quite near

& expected the fragments to reach them.

        This has been going on for some days

but it was the first time I have personally

seen it. On previous occasions some of

the projectiles reached us in the villages

were ^where we are billetted & sometimes our

men have lent them blankets when

it was raining & they arrived drenched.

Often the shelling is at night & ^then they often

arrive with no clothes on except a cloak

or overcoat.

      It is all very pitiful. A number have

been killed. Nearer the front the civilians

have suffered of late very dreadfully from

a new sort of gas shell. It is very treacherous

as you dont feel it much at the time but

later your eyes get very bad & many cases

of blindness & a few deaths have been

reported. Our gas masks are too good

for his old deadly gas which can be seen

coming so he has to try new tricks &

schemes to catch us.

    The heavy rain has been relaying our

offensive action again as I feared

it would. We had to wait so long for

reinforcements that all the fine weather

has pretty well vanished & now the mud

is starting as bad or worse than

ever. Isn't it lovely. However formally

as yet we have no ground of complaint.

We ^in the 15th Brigade have had a first class opportunity of

training our men & officers & now we have

really first class Billets to live in

Exactly how long it will last I do

not know.

     Dear old Katie It is very sad about

our mails going down isn't it. Judging

by myself there is nothing so calculated

to make the men homesick & fed up than

being deprived of their home letters.

There seems nothing to cheer them up

or help to keep them straight at all 

like the letters from home.

I fear this "Thismis" must go like the

others without our "Versary" darling.

Tell my dear little pets that I am so

sorry that I cannot come home to them

for Xmas. But tell them I think of them

every day & look at their photos & that

they are a very great comfort to me.

Bye Katie dear millions of kisses from Did Do.

P.S. Eric Walker has applied to go to the flying Corps.

Dont know if he will be selected yet. No news of Jacky

Boy. Layh still away also Bol Johnston.

                                        France

                                          17/8/17

My dearest Katie,

                        Here we are still

in the same place & still no

letters from ^you my Katie love & I'm

just about broken hearted about 

then. The little photos are the only

things keeping me alive at

all. The fighting is making but

very slow progress. We gain

a few hundreds of yards but 

the Germans claim a victory

& I have always noticed this

usually means we have lost

terribly & this is confirmed

from what I hear elsewhere.

    The one bright spot is the vast

energy America is putting in.

She has already 1 division in

the line & it is said they are

coming over at the rate of 100,000

a month. They don't fool

round with things as we

do. They have got conscription

so anyone who is called up just

has to go & there's an end of it

Some one gave me a little snap shot

taken when I was in Egypt. It is

a good one of my old black horse. I 

was waiting for the Prince of Wales

to come along & see my boys & they

caught me quite unawares sitting 

half sideways in the saddle

-it was pretty hot day. These

hard cobble roads in France are

playing up with him & he was

quite footsore the other day after a

practice route march - Twice

a week we have a march of 12 miles

to keep the boys fit. They are looking

fine too - but what I started to 

say was that I wanted to get a paddock

to give old donkey a weeks run in

to rest his legs. So I asked one

interpreter man to find me one.

They are very scarce as practically

all the ground is under cultivation then

are no fences & they tether the

cows goats to a stick in the

fields to keep them from straying.

However there are a few grass paddocks

mostly too wet for cultivation but for a

good while I ^he couldn't get any one.

He said the people had cows in them &

were afraid that "the cosw might hit the

horse & kick with their horns"

It sounds like an Irishman

doesn't it - but I suppose

all foreigners find similar difficulties

in speaking English. Anyhow

I got a paddock & the put the old

horse in but he is very sad. The

interpreter says (he has a billet near)

that the old horn has has his head over

the gate all day for his mate

I never thought horses could

get to be such mates as these have

become. It will be sad when the

war is over. I suppose the Govt will

sell them to different people over

here after the war & they will have

to separate. I haven't seen Jacky

Boy or Geordie. Eric Walker is quite

well. I haven't had a reply to

his application to join the flying

Corps as yet. We are really [[?]]

at present than (in the Brigade office)

than we are when the Brigade is

in the front line trenches unless 

during an actual attack which

never lasts long. At least up t

the present it has never lasted

more than a week. But here it is like

being back at Broadmeadows or

Egypt again. I have to continually

set problems for the officers to

solve & after a week or to one 

does find it very difficult

to work out new schemes especially

as we have necessarily to work

over & over a fairly limited scope of

ground so altogether I would

rather like a move & do something

different. One thing however is

that I am getting on better with

the Sperrik ^General than I did. This last

row has cleared things up a whole

lot & at any rate he is most

anxious not to lose me & will

I am convinced do what he can

to help me which he can. I think we

^there is a vast improvement at [[?]]

the original [[?]] & now I have