Letters from Harold Edward 'Pompey' Elliott to his sister-in-law, January 1917 - April 1919 - Part 5

France
15/4/17
My dear Baaby,
I Have a sperriky [[ ^little ]]
letter from you dated the 11^th Feb. It came
last night. Mum finished it
Not a single skerrik of a parcel
of Shaving srope soap or nuffin’
has turned up this long while.
The boys have been getting a lot
through the Comfort fund [[ ^{from the} ]] Depot
though. I am very glad our Depot
is such a Success: What will you
do if I get a Division. Will you
have a Divisional Depot. I am
Very hopeful of persuading General
Birdwood to see that it would
be a grand thing to regroup the
Brigades now we have so many
into Military Districts so that
there would be a Victorian
Division a N.S.W. Division 
 

and so on. This would greatly
facilitate the allotment of recruits
el enlarge one’s choice of officers
& so on. Still that may never
come to pass & one can only go on
doing ones job. I’ve promised
to go to Col Stewarts to dinner
tonight & I want to see him
because we may have another
battle soon & I want to talk to him
about it So I hope you wont
mind this being a sperriky [[ ^short ]] letter
because I hear the mail for Australia
closes for [[ ⁱⁿ ]] about an hour. I just heard
this as a sort of favor a few minutes
ago so its “Sperrity” letter or naught
Bye Baaby dear & thanks about a 
Million for all you’re doing for Katie
& me & the Bairnies. Wait till Katie has 1000
quidlets a year & she’ll do things for you Baaby

[* Heaps of Pogues dearie pet from your Very own Dida *]

[* P.S. One of our [[ ^Aust ]] officers [[ ^{a N.S.W. man} ]] is a wonder. He got
the D.C.M. as a Corpl at the Landing where he was
wounded. Then got a Commission. He got the D.S.O. & a
Captaincy at Pozieres, & the V.C in an attack at the
end of Feb near Goudecourt. The other day he did wonders
& won the V.C all over again. Perhaps he
will get a Bar
to his V.C.
his name
is Murray *] 
 

France
27/4/17
My dear Baaby,
This is only going to be
a Sperriky [[ ^short ]] letter. So I’ll fill it up
the envelope with things I was going to
put in Katie’s letter which I wrote
yesterday & forgot. It is Very awkward
not Knowing when the mails are going
out too. & since the girls were taken
into the [[^Base ]] Post office in London so that
the men could come & fight our letters
are going all over the place. Yesterday
I got three letters of Colonel Elliott
of the Engineers. I got an Age Mr
Henderson sent me dated 3^rd
March yet the letter I got the day
before was only 25^th Feb. There
must be some lovely muddlers over
there. Pity you are not there to Sort
them up a bit Old Genl Birdwood
was quite pals [[ ^friendly ]] with me at our
Sports but I have to sort [[ ^“talk” ]] him
up occasionally still when he won’t
do what I want him [[ ^{to do} ]]. But he doesn’t
get offended now so much when I speak 
 

out of my turn [[ ^{as no doubt he regards it} ]]. I heard that the
Bulletin had a paragraph in it
about myself the other day. Bert
Layh said he would get the copy
for me. If he does I will tell
you what it says. He says it
was pretty rude but as Complimentary
as the Bulletin can be.
Tell me how you like the new “Old”
house. I am anxious to see a photo
of it. I am afraid things are
pretty bad in Russia : soldiers refusing
to fight & so on. Up in the front
line at present the fighting is
pretty awful the Germans
Keep coming on. Its like Killing
flies dozens seem to come to each
ones funeral They have even driven
the British back at [[ ⁱⁿ ]] parts. Some
of the 4^th Div Australians were cut
off & surrendered. There were 40 [[ ⁴⁰ ]] or
so of them & they had a couple of
machine guns. The Germans took
the guns [[ ^{& their rifles} ]] & told the men they had 
 

no time to send them to the rear
& that they would let them go.
As soon as they got 100 yards
or so away the Germans opened
fire on them with the machine
guns & Killed them all except
one man who although wounded
managed to crawl away. The 4^th
Division are raging & swear they’ll
never take another German
prisoner alive during the war
This probably accounts for the
fact that when a couple of days 
later Bob Smith’s Brigade got
a lot of Germans caught with
their backs to their own wire
& the Germans wanted to surrender
Bob’s men took no notice &
went on firing until there were
1500 corpses piled on top
of each other along the wire then
they go took 800 unwounded &
150 wounded men prisoners. One
hates to become as brutal as this

[* but these Germans are a bit over the fence. Don’t
you think so Baaby dear. And such a wreck as they 
have made of the Country side. Even the poor little Kiddies toys
not worth carrying away are all smashed 
about when they have not been burned.
Heaps of love & pogues from
Dida *]
 

France
3/5/17
My dear Baaby,
Your letter of the 4^th March
duly to hand. I am very sorry to hear
your news of th Jacky boy. Its
a wonder he never dropped me a note.
[[ ^{letting me Know of his illness} ]] I had never heard a single word
about it until I got your letter
We are still having an easy time
of it. The wee people are good
little pets to try & help mummy like that 
Tell them I am just delighted to hear
their little “secret” It will be just
splendid if the new place does Katie
& them good. It is nice having the school
teachers next door to you. Our little
people could go & come with them.
I will ask about young Coleman. I don’t
Know Mr Henderson. I Know George [[ ^Bob ]] [[ Bull ? ]]
Very well indeed. I used to try & persuade
him to take on Soldiering too. but he wasn’t
taking any. He ought to be out here now. I’m
so glad the £ 50 shows signs of returning up
at last & I do hope the parcels are not
lost. I paid £ 1 insurance on them
so they should not be altogether lost. 
 

There is nothing much to tell you Baaby dear
All the people you Know are well & blooming
It is glorious weather clear blue skies
but a trifle blowy [[ ^breezy ]] for my taste. It seems
to dry up the moisture [[ ^even ]] in your eyes
& make them feel stiff & swollen. The ground
is set like rock where it was sludge
before – but where it hasnt been cut
up there is a beautiful growth of grass
It will be very pretty soon. The remains
of the old gardens are doing their best
to flower. I saw some primroses & CowSlips
& lots & lots of wild anemonies just a
mass of white in a little spot the shells
had missed. Soon now I guess [[ ^we ]] will be
back in the front [[ ^trenches ]]. We have had by far
the best rest we ever had since we left [[ home ? ]]
The Boys are looking splendid. The old
Bosche is fighting very hard. In place of
the 11 Divisions in front of us when we
started there are now 25 – just a mass
of 500,000 men. They will take a lot
of Killing or shifting & they say there
are more coming as the Russians are
not doing anything just now so 
 

the Bosche is bunging over his men from
there & bunging [[ Austraians ? ]] & Hungarians
& Bulgarians as well – So we’ll have the
Deil’s own Scrap sure enough before
we are through. If only those fools at
home had passed conscription. I haven’t
seen anything of young Bray lately.
He went away sick about [[ Xmas ? ]] &
hasn’t returned yet as far as I
Know but I’ll [[ ? ]] inquire. [[ ^{(P.S Have inquired – He went away in January & is not yet back)} ]] Ronald Dickson
says the Mick’s about Purnim & Allendale
are very pro German & pelted the
Recruiting Sergts with Rotten eggs when
they tried to hold meetings there. Aren’t
they a lovely lot.
Well Bye Baaby dear. Sorry can’t
tell you anything about fighting Bosches
this time but I guess you’re glad
that it is so.
Heaps Pogues from Dida 
 

France
15/5/17
My dear Baaby,
Big heap [[ ^Very ]] pleased I was
to get your letters of the 11^th & 21^st March.
Both came together & were delivered
up in a dug out near the front line.
The Shelling up there was something
Scandalous the worst I’ve ever been
under. Everyone says it is the
Bosches greatest effort in this
line yet. It is like what we give
him always now but our boys stuck
it out. As a fact though the noise
was deafening & at times simply terrific
& nerve wrecking. the fighting was
nothing like as deadly as at Lone Pine
for there in the 7^th Battalion only we
had nearly as many casualties as in
the whole Brigade here. Most of them did
come from the 58^th Battalion & for them
the experience must have been quite
as bad or worse than Lone Pine and
they stood it magnificently. I Think
maybe you’ll see your Dida’s [[ ^my ]] name in the
 

London news some more as we have
had heaps of congratulations over
it & coming so soon after the other
Stunt which was all congratulations &
nothing more I don’t see how they can
dodge giving me something more
pretty soon. The little pets must
have enjoyed themselves at the fete
How did Dorothy & Ruth & Mrs Russell
look? I asked Monsieur Reynan to
write to his sister about the parcels
today. It will be very sad if they are
lost but I paid 20 francs about
15/- insurance on them so I may
get others for them if they are lost.
Has the Laddie got “Dida” hands as
well as little Gagy. Tell Katie she’ll have
to work a change next time. I’m writing
by this mail to your Cousin at Ullapool
& told her I’m coming to see her when I
get leave next time. Do you think she’ll
be scared to death with me dear. P.T.O.
Bye Baaby . Big heap glad I am to be away from the
Hell even for a bit  Heaps of pogues from Dida