Letters from Harold Edward 'Pompey' Elliott to his family June 1918 - October 1918 - Part 13

I am sorry if that is so as

I wrote my account of our

Battle at Morlancourt & posted

it about that time. I dont think

I got conceited on what people

tell me. I know exactly what I

am capable of & what I am not &

what people say one way or another

will never make the slightest

difference to me. In point of fact I

didn't care who hears my opinion

of General Birdwood or repeats 

it, so your advice on that head

dearie quite missed the mark.

I hope to tell him personally &

face to face exactly what I think

of him. The Australian lot have

made his name for him and

he never gave us a chance & until

he was forced by the Commonwealth

to do so - mainly I may say because

myself & General Inmashs kicked

about it - he would not appoint

any Australian to any staff

appointments at all & would

give them no High Appointments.

Now when they have got them lot

have done better than ever

yet he still tries his dirty

little tricks & when he got a chance

pushed up a man over his ^my head 

because he was an English officer.

I shall tell him excatly what I

think of him & his ways & in print

too as soon as I am out of the

Army. It was the greatest possible

misfortune for the Australian

Army that they were ever placed

under his Command. Poor

Mrs Somers her boy is gone. It seems

one cannot avoid one's fate. I sent him

to a school & he did well. It finished

just as we were moving up to our

last Battle near Bellicourt. I

sent word down to the Rear Camp

to say that he was not to come up

as I was sending him to Cambridge

in a couple of days. The message

missed him & he joined his

Regiment in the field. Where he was

there was at the time hardly any

enemy fire but one of our own

shells burst prematurely & cut

him in two killing him instantly.

It is all very sad. I was very

sad about Geordies pal, Stan Teale

He was a splendid officer. Oh

Katie just after Peronne one

of the 60th Boys named Marshall

a Scotch College Boy who had done

splendidly in that fighting was brought

to my notice & I recommended

him for & got him a direct

commission in the field & a 

medal for bravery (Military Medal)

Well then we went into Bellicourt

and he got a wound not

dangerous but painful which broke

the bones of his hand. Well he wrote

to me from Hospital & told me he

was engaged to Dorrie Walker &

was a pal of Rory & poor old Geordies.

He said he did not like to tell me

who he was before he got his Commission

in case I would think he wanted

help unfairly. Wasnt that splendid

Katie. You can tell Doris that she

has a real man in him. I

hope he is spared to her dearie.

I know mother will always look

after Jacquelyn while she lives hit

poor old Grandma is getting very

old now. You ask am I glad you

are coming over to see me? Katie I

can hardly go to sleep at night for

thinking of it. I think I shall cry

like any old woman when I see you

I hope you wont mind dearie pet It

seems so long to wait till January

for you to start. I sent you £30 by

cable today in case you needed

it. Mrs Layh wont be coming with

you ^now. Katie her old man has gone

home. Col Denehy is not going

now and a lot of the other senior

officers are not going now either

They see now what I saw in 

the beginning that we have to 

go into action again before they

come back our men are going

to suffer terribly from want

of proper leaders. I have chaps

approved this leave for that reason

that everyone was anxious for

it & only opened their eyes to

the danger when granted a lot of 

the damage was done. In the 

1st [[?]] they had to appeal

to officers not to go after all

for the sake of their men who

were remaining. The thing was

madness & even now our men

will pay for this folly of Hughes with

their blood.

The Germans are fighting very hard

now & are holding us up again

with big rises thro Scheldt in

front of them & we are still a

long long way from Germany

& all the time they are talking of

peace they are breaking their

necks to turn out new weapons

a machine gun which will

throw tablets as thick as a

broomstick almost to knock

out our tanks to invent

improved tanks to destroy

us. It is maddening to know

that precious time where we

ought to be pressing relentlessly

on crushing the life out of his

Army are being wasted & we

are letting him get his

2nd wind. I am sorry you are

having so much trouble about a

house dearest. Tomorrow it will

be November & no cable has reached

me of your new address as yet.

I am so sorry the wee people

have to change their school. They

seemed to be getting on very well

there. Poor Grandmas seems to like

our bairnies now. She spoke

so nicely of them. She says they

are so bonnie now & that Shamed

is very good at her lessons. Even

Fogie has a good word for them.

She says the Laddie has a wonderful

complection too good for a boy to have

Grandma says. She is sure I will

be proud of them when I see them.

I think the poor old lady is trying

to make me want to take care of myself

by telling me about them but she