Letters from Harold Edward 'Pompey' Elliott to his family, January 1918 - May 1918 - Part 3

1
France
27/1/18
My dearest love,
Today is such a lovely
bright sunshiny day. I forget if I told
you that on the 22^nd Genl Birdwood came
to see us. I had the logs all drawn up
& they looked Very well. The next day Genl
Hobbs inspected us with all our Kits
& transport. Both said they were
Very pleased with the show.
I had another dear loving letter from
you dated the 4^th November - which of course
was long before the last one I got which was I think
dated the 25^th Nov. So it is a funny old
way we get our letters now.– but  it is
very nice to get them all the same especially
when they are dear loving sweet ones like
your are always. There is just no doubt in
all the world that you are the dearest best little
soul in it. You say you’d just about eat me when
you see me. Can you imagine how I am longing
to feel your dear arms about me & to feel your
dear lips on mine my own dear sweetheart
You would have a task answering all
those letters dear old Katie. No photos have
come yet. I am longing to get them.
I am sorry to hear about Beat Powling
I did not Know Jacky boy had been
making headway there. Yes dearie time
flies here. One cannot realize that it is over
3 years since I saw you & the dear wee people
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-2-
and another year sprinting away just as
fast as ever it can run. There seems
all the time a sort of unreality about it
all. Nearly half of our wedded life we
will have been separated soon dear. it is very
sad – what we have missed of each other – but 
perhaps we will make it up by remaining
gentle & loving to us always & ever dear
lady. We must try.
There is very little news dearie just
now. I hear Bob Smiths people ^Brigade could come
here for a rest after we go. It is a lovely
place for a rest. The Bosche Aeroplanes
dont seem to have discovered it though
they bombed a place about 20 miles away
the night before last & the huge bombs they
used shook the house walls like an
earthquake. When the Big German push
starts which will I think be pretty soon
now things will be pretty lively no doubt.
I think we will hold them up.– though
a lot of the British Troops now are unreliable
& run away. at times. That was the trouble at
Cambrai which promised so well at one
time & then fizzled out. I wrote a
strong report on the same thing I saw
in Belgium but my Report was 
squashed by Genl Birdwood who had
even the official copy on our files removed
whilst I was away in Hospital. Bye now
dearie love & God bless & Keep you all safe.
Yours very sincerely H.E. Elliott
^I am getting absent minded & signed “Yours very sincerely”. Thats not the way to write to my Katie
[* is it, but just this way Millions of love & Tishes from
your very own Dida Don. *] 
 

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3
I have about £30 or so more saved up. I
any trying to be most awful saving, darling for
your sake ^in case anything happens to me & I hope about the end of February
to send along another £50 to you. It
will be just lovely if I can manage to help
you. I cannot bear to think of that other
debt ^of Roberts which may spoil it all for us &
make our efforts valueless. Mr Lowe’s last
letter was more hopeful that the thing may be
fixed up but I can hardly believe that can
be possible. It was terrible news to send
you for Xmas you poor dear suffering soul.
I wonder if you will grow tired of all the
trouble I seem to bring down upon you my 
 

P.S. One of our Chaplains
Capt Nye is going back to
Australia because his
wife is ill. He said he
would call & see you. He
went last week 
 

[*D.R.L. 3297 (3 vols)*]
France
2/2/18
My dearest Katie,
We have moved back again
from our old Chateau but not straight
into the line. We are Reserve Brigade
We will go in again I suppose in
10 days or a fortnight to just
about the same part of the line as we
came out of a fortni just before
Xmas. It is still very quiet
as a rule but the other Division
we are relieving suffered a good
few Casualties from Gas Shells.
The old Bosche sends a whole bundle
over at times & catches the careless
ones who haven’t got their masks handy.
The weather has turned bitterly cold
again. It is Very foggy too. The
trees present an extraordinary sight.
As the fog drifts past the bare
branches it wets them & this freezes &
this ^process goes on until every twig has
a coating of ice like sticks of Sh sugar
Candy dangling from them. If the sun
were to shine out suddenly it would
look like fairyland for a little while.
The frost makes the twigs brittle &
when the wind blows it brings the
icicles down in showers. One man
said ^exclaimed yesterday morning -^”Why” “it is snowing
lumps of ice”. He did not see what was happening 
 

I am living in a galvanized hut under
a row of big elm trees. About Midnight
a limb about twenty feet long
broke off up near the top of the a
tree & fell with a terrible clatter
on my roof. The roof was fortunately
strong so no harm was done. It
woke me up of course & I thought
that the Bosche was over dropping
Bombs again but then I realized that
there had been no concussion as there
would have been with a bomb dropped
So near that fragments fell on the roof
so went off to sleep again & only found
out the truth this morning.. One
gets pretty indifferent to everything
in the way of noise out here.
My hut is near the top of a hill & a
Main road runs nearby. & along the
Side is laid a little railway. There
is a little puffing Billy Motor engine
on it & coming up the Hill is
puffs & grunts dreadfully. It has
waked me up once or twice at
Night but I hope to get used to it
soon. The fact that Mr Lowe was
able to tell you things might not
prove too bad after all was lovely ^splendid
news to get. I had one letter
from him which said ^were about Mrs Roberts
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lending the firm £800 & that things were
going on successfully so far as
he could see. I have had a Cable
from Mr Begg of Mowles whom I asked
to look into the matter which sounded
promising. Dhusach is getting clever
ringing up Lyn all by herself. I
must have missed a letter somehow
when you told me that the telephone
was to be an automatic one. I had
a very nice letter from poor Lyn. She
did seem cheered up. I am glad
to Know. I was afraid the news would
be too much for her. I got another
dear loving letter from you dated the 27^th 
Nov the day before yesterday. Page two
is missing from it. Isn’t that funny.
I wonder if that young rascal of a laddie
had run off with it when you were not
looking. It is sad to lose all the news
that was on it. On the 5^th I have to
go to a course of Lectures on M. Gun
work – It will last three days &
will be down on the Coast not far from
the place we were at last. We now find
ourselves by the Shortage of men obliged
to go in for a lot of Machine guns
in order to hold the line & so everyone
must learn about them. Now that
Conscription has failed again in Australia
I do not see how we can possibly Keep 
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all the Divisions going at full strength
& with the reduction of Divisions goes the
last hope of promotion ^I suppose that I could
have. That is very sad isn’t it. The
box that Geordie sent you may turn up
yet, but if it doesn’t - dont worry. It was
not Very Valuable. It would perhaps
have made a little work box for Dhusach
It must be funny to hear the two
wee people talking about Mannix
& Hughes. Poor old Mrs McKenzie of
house Melbourne. I’d forgotten all about
her until your letter recalled
the name to me. I got a parcel
yesterday from the James Street
Presbyterian Church. That must
be from Mr Rock. It just had a rubber
stamp with that upon it – no name
You can ring up Mr Rock & tell him
I got the parcel all right & I will
write later & thank him. It
had sweets & tobacco in it also a
little tins of Shortbread. I gav & cheese
I gave the food to the mess & the
tobacco to the officers on my Staff. The
lollies I am going to Keep & eat myself
They are very nice in the cold weather
& help to Keep you ^one warm. Frank Fischer
Came to see me yesterday. What a
big fellow he is grown now. He seems
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to have got on very well indeed.
for himself. Tells me he was getting
£8 a week when he left his job.
to come away. I think he will do
well though I never did think
Very much of his Colonel Daly – though
to give him his due he is a brave
man & a sticker & not like some
of the others. His trouble always was
that he was conceited & affected & that
always gets on peoples nerves & he
never ^didnt Knewow his work any too well
either so no one had any confidence
in him. But he was lucky &
escaped being Killed where so many
better men were Killed & so has got
to be a Colonel in time. He was
Very nasty to Frank on his arrival. His
blankets had not come to land but he
went straight up & reported. Daly
however sent him straight on up into
the front line without anything. On
arrival there the Captain sent him back
saying that his dugout was small & overcrowded
as it was & there was no room in it. Daly
promptly ordered Frank back to the line &
told the Captain he had got to find room for
him. However Frank took all this in good
part & seems to have pleased them all so he
should get on Very well over there. With all
the best wishes in the world darling & Millions of love & tishes
from your Very own Dida
Don
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10 Feb ’18
My dearest Katie,
I think I told you in my
last letter that we were back once more
near the front line. Then I had to go away
for three or four days to a School. on
Machine Gun work. When I got back
I found Col Mason had left me to Command
the Corps School for officers & Major
Scanlon had been made temporary
Lt Col in his place – Also Neil Freeman
had left me & become temporary Lt Col
in one of Genl Tivey’s Battalions.
He had got on Splendidly. I did not
want to lose him by any means
but when the chance came to him I
would not try to stop him as some
of the Sperriks ^Staffs do.
When I got back I found a fat letter
from you dated the 13^th December & felt
sad because I thought a lot of your letters
had been drowned. However I got another
today dated the 4^th 4/11/187 – but I think
it must have been 4^th Dec you meant &
in it was the missing page of the letter
I acknowledged in my last one
So poor Mrs [[ Hone ?]] is against Conscription
Oh well I suppose when the Germans get
to Melbourne she’ll give them a warm
welcome. I have had a letter & a cable 
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