Letters from Harold Edward 'Pompey' Elliott to his family June 1918 - October 1918 - Part 7

I think now that the old Boche will
have to go back to his old Hindenberg
line again which is so strong &
probably now stronger than ever
before.
Apparently we are not going to
have a chance at a scrap this time
which I am rather glad of as some
of the Bns are very weak now,
but I expect well be called in
again very soon now.
The is just about all the news
darling pet & it is so hot I think
I'll lie down & have a little rest
Bye now my own darling sweet
loving little pet lady
Millions of love & kisses from
your very own Didi Don.
 

My dearest Katie,   France
Here we are         28/8/18
again. We are still in the place
I last wrote from and we have
done nothing since. Percy's Brigade
have been in the line & slowly but
steadily gaining ground as
the British Army is in many
other places. I never saw the
war look so promising for
us before but of course when
the Bosche gets back on his
old fortified Hindenberg line
it may be a different tale. Here
is these old wasted fields of 
the Somme the soils is so
torn about that even yet it
is impossible to make any
sort of a trench in it & expect
it to hold up if the wet
came on so old Fritz is
evidently making tracks for
his comfortable Hindenberg
Line home for the winter
hoping to leave us in the mud 

2
and wet again but with all
the Americans in here things
should soon not look too sorry
for him there either. The Americans
have the makings of fine soldiers
but at present are terribly
ignorant of war. They attacked
with some of the British the
other day. Afterwards, some 
of our people relieved the British
but the Americans Major was
with us. They were losing 100
men a day & finally we sent
10 officers to them to see what
was the matter. We found that
they were sending up rations
& supplies to the men in Broad
daylight instead of waiting
for night fall. When they
got this adjusted losses fell
to 5 or 6 a day.
Bert Layh went on leave ^to Australia
yesterday. He seems to have
a notion of taking ^some job in Hong
Kong. Don't say anything 

3
about it as it may come to
nothing. I wonder how Mrs
Layh would like it. Capt Akeroyd
who managed to persuade the Drs
to let him come back with stiff
arm & all was rather badly
wounded in our fight of thirty^th
July. Not dangerously but it
will probably mean that his
knee as well as his arm will
be stiff for life & I think he
is sure to be invalided ^home this
time
We have had some rain not
enough to make mud but laid
the dust & things ^are very much
cooler & pleasanter now all
round.
My ^little wound is quite healed
up now darling pet,
Millions of love & kisses
from your very own
Dida Don
 

My dearest Katie,    France
I have been    6/7/18
neglecting you shamefully of late
but I have been just about worked
to death. We have had five days
almost incessant fighting night &
day sometimes dying down for
a few hours, ^ when both sides were worn out but blazing up again
whenever either tried to advance
At times it raged with the
utmost fury. We had an old
& very ancient city to take. You
will read about it in a novel by,
Walter Scott called "Quentin Durward."
It is encircled by a river & by a huge
moat when the river doesnt run
& another river runs through it
almost encircling its principal
bulwark which is on a high knoll
overlooking the city. The city is walled
with huge ramparts. Well we had
to take the Bridges & beating down the
fire of the enemy guns that commanded
them repair them under fire 

then rush across them & take
the town which we did by a surprise
attack at dawn. Then we held
one half & the Bosche the other &
the Bosche pounded our half with
huge shells & we pounded his
half with ours & pushed round
thro open country to the north to
surround it & the machine
gunners in the heights beyond
swept the ground like a broom
& forced our boys to lie flat in the
shell holes & wait for night in
them & again advance. The little
city rocked & shook with crack
of shell & the fall of buildings
and masonry as under an
earthquake for hours but
through it all our boys fought on
(heedless of all save their duty)
& after a terrific fight on the
northern ramparts swept the
Bosche from the City itself. Then
we had to reduce the [[suburbers?]]
& wood covered hills beyond.
Today we see our reward for 

far & wide the Eastern Sky is
black with blazing Villages &
supply dumps, which & the
air is rent by explosions
as the enemy wrecks the roads
& bridges in a desperate attempt
to delay our vanguard. But
Oh Katie the poor old Brigade.
It would break you heart to
see all that is left of them
the bravest man haggard & 
drawn- the others like men
in a sleep walk almost - &
tomorrow we fall in again to
follow the enemy. For the first
time in my life I am hoping we
shall not be engaged until the
men have a little rest. It was
an awful experience Col Layh
& Col Watson are both away on
leave so missed this fight. Major
[[Ferris?]] commanded Col Watsons
Battalion & was wounded by a
shell fragment but not badly 

I am glad to say. I hope those
new recruits which we are
hearing so much talk of awhile
back in Australia will be
coming along soon or there will
be no Australian Army left.
Well Katie love I must stop
now with millions of love
& Kisses for you and the dear

wee Bairnies, from your very
own Dida.
PS. Got 3 letters from you & two
from Broby the other day. I cannot
answer them properly yet but I got
Broby's first & 2^nd Edition all right 

My darling own love,  France
We are having a        8/9/18
lovely spell today, so I have at last leisure
to write a decent letter to you. I am enclosing
a News sheet for you in which you will see
that we are getting heaps of praise for our
work over here. Your letter of the 29^th June
& 1^st July came yesterday also quite a good
letter from the dear little Dhusach her first
one written with mum's fountain pen
& one from the dear wee laddie boy. In my last
letter I told him not to call me darling but
to keep that for mum but his little loving
heart might be hurt so I'll tell him he can
call me darling too if he would like to. I was
thinking the same thing about the
Private School being ^rather small when I wrote
to you some time back about seeing Miss
Cooper of the Preparatory School at
Wesley College about the Laddie. He will
meet a good class of laddie there & I
know Miss Cooper will take an interest
in him. I will be sending Young Somers
over to England to our officers School
very shortly. He is shaping very well 

It was kind of poor old Trowbridge to give leave
the Dhurrels & Laddie & Nana a Legacy.
Do you know what he left & who is looking
after his will? I wonder would he have
given me the job had I been home.
Do you know they are actually saying
it will be two years after the war ends
before we can get home at the very least
& perhaps more than than that. I am
wondering what that £20- cheque from

the Trustees was for. It seems strange to
me. If Moule did any work for me
they should have rendered me the Will
& not gone direct to the Trustees. However
perhaps Moule Mr Begg will tell me about
it all. Will you send me along the
letter they sent you about it or a
copy will do in case it is sunk on the
wayover. They have a joke in this Brigade that
amuses the men. They are always being
warned of the danger of German spies

& not to tell who they are. Well the
other day some one rode by & asked
who the 39^th were whilst they were on the march
Oh said one We're "Paddy" Scanlan's Irish Guards