Letters from Harold Edward 'Pompey' Elliott to his cousin Emily Edwards, July 1916 - December 1918 - Part 5

my lines & angles of posts with care
so as to sweep with a crossing fire
every square yard & dig out beautifully
traversed trenches in the firm chalk
dry yet easy to dig & standing without
the heartbreaking sentiments of Sandbags
& able to be drained into the transverse
gullies at short interval. So I sat
me down & planned a defensive zone of
my dreams & lapped about it a spider's
webb of wire till like Pygmalion I
almost fell in love with the image I
had made - only instead of a beautiful
marble statue it uses but a prickly
sea of barbed wire & the turf we
cut from the trench we laid aside &
ere all was done we carefully leveled the
white chalk on either side & laid back
with care the turfy slats still growing
green upon it so that now for miles
you would not dream there was any
trench there unless you were in an
aeroplane until you are five paces
from it - & then like a spider in my 
web. I sat & waited for my prey if the

Bosche should break the front line - but
fates were moving & we sideslipped at the
left & half of my beautiful trench had to go 

to the custody of the 8 Div - General
Butler had a look at it before he
took it over & though it had not
the finishing touches in it that I would
like to have given before passing it to
a Stranger he was well pleased &
in addition said what pleased me more -
that a wonderful change & air of confidence
had passed through his men by mere
association with my boys in the
Villages which for a couple of days we
shared in common - that before they came
up they we resolved to do or die but
believed they were doomed & were depressed
& gloomy in consequence - they had
been in at the beginning driven out & lost
pretty badly - had been withdrawn to the
rear filled up with recruits & sent back
to shorten share my line & so thicken up our
forces to enable us to put up a more strenuous
resistance - but that now they felt &
looked confident of winning &
licking the Bosche to chips - in fact
looking forward to an encounter
with them.
The Bosche on the contrary seems to have
completely lost his punch. Our Brigades
in the line have nightly skirmishes with his 

patrols & have established a wonderful
supremacy over him in personal encounters
The Bosche somehow is not used to Sport
& is no match in cleverness & quickness
for our boxing - footballing race when it comes
to personal combat. The Intelligence reports
of these patrol encounters are joyful
reading - I feel like going out myself
for a rough & tumble for the sport
seems as harmless for us as chasing
& rounding up Barn door fowls. - I've
told Patty some of them - I hardly
credited some of them until I saw
the ^result of examination of the prisoners -
made by independent officers of Higher
formation hearing them out - Having
had time to think over that Country
House I have largely reconsidered my
opinion - It seemed a wonderland a
gorgeous place after months of dugout
life - but thinking it over - there seems to
me to have been a little too much ostentation
a too obvious display of wealth- a relic
of Barbarism - but - I confess that I did
xxxxxx envy the owner his possession of some
of those old swords & things. - There was
not a solitary soul of any kind about
the women had fled with all the Servants. 

At one time the Bosche was a bare two miles
away & shells falling all over the place -
The rabbits locked in hutches were starving
until we turned them loose - the wee
birdies we fed - there were lots of seed about
but the bigger ones we turned loose but
they were tame & fed about the grounds all
except the Argus Pheasant who disappeared
I cannot say. whether he go into any one's
pot by mistake. - that may have occurred
as it was very difficult to entirely stop
petty larceny particularly of food & liquor.
The whole trouble about the looting was just
as you say - they felt that if they didn't
take it, the Bosche would only get it - But
the curse of that was that very soon there was
a far greater number of men & officers looking
for what they could loot than were fighting 
the enemy - I have read so much military
History that I knew what to expect & how
to deal with it - Wellington & Moore's
campaigns in Spain & Portugal were a
good preparation for what I saw & the Duke
hanged & shot without pity or remorse
as the only way of keeping & restoring order
The final scenes in the taking of San
Sebastian by Storm are enough to
prepare anyone for what may happen to 

an unfortunate population particularly
women where the armies belonging neither
of them their own people meet in battle
in an area. While the officers were
uncontrolled it was impossible to prevent
the men emmulating them or punishing them
for so doing - things are all right now
Yesterday & today have been bright
& sunny but the wind is still a
little sharp. I have a bad cold still
but it is improving gradually -
The Trees are coming into leaf bravely
now & the Violets & primroses peeping
out everywhere amidst the tree boles.
There is a magnificent old elm in the
little park here - It isn't round but
sort of oval - ever so much thicker though
one way than the other but a lovely shady
old tree nevertheless. It is 10 paces round
the trunk & would be quite a respectable
old tree even without - the trunk is
however of no great length but breaks
into numberless branches some 20 feet up
With Kindest regards to your
husband - Thanks awfully for your
invitation to wire you & tell you I am
coming - it is very very good of you
yours very sincerely H.E. Elliott 

France
26/4/18
Dear Milly,
We had a brave Scrap
the night before last. We came
out for a spell & the British Troops
put in to hold a Key position
in our line. Unfortunately the
Bosche discovered the change
& brought fresh troops from away
up beyond Bapaume &
launched a fierce attack driving
out the British & creating a rather
Serious Situation. We were
order to restore the line &
I with my own & another
Brigade some Horse Artillery
& etc was told off for the job
Operation went off excellently
Killed Bosche in hundreds
with the Bayonet - bagged the
garrison of the village who when
they found themselves surrounded
surrendered very freely &
easily - Casualties in operation
Very slight but bombardment
very severe since but losses
still very slight compared

to Flanders & Bullecourt
Shows which were desperate
affairs compared to this. It
was a very wily attack &
one of the captured Bosche
officers was very proud of it -
he having played a big part in
planning it - naturally thought
so. He was equally frank on
of his appreciation of our
attack & said that their
Divisional General had told
them before the attack that
the Australian Troops were
the best on the Western front
- We were giving him a cup of
tea at the time & this may have
been merely Visitors courtesy
still I send it to you for what
it is worth - My boys were
very bucked up & say they
never enjoyed a show so much
in their lives - no artillery
fire at all until the show
was over & the machine gun

fire badly directed - & a
great Slaughter of the Bosche
with the Bayonet - in which
as in all recent fights the
Bosche proved as helpless as 
a two year old Babe when
confronted with our men.
I enclose a copy of a wire
received this morning from

General Rawlinson The copy
had to be censored. I leave
you to fill in the Blanks which
you can probably do from the 
papers
Weather is not too bad at
present
Yours very sincerely
H.E. Elliott

[*P.S. I am very well indeed in health except for a rather
bad throat. I inadvertently rode into a spot where a gas
shell had fallen a while before. The moment I caught a whiff of the
gas I galloped away but I was very sick afterwards & now my throat is
dreadfully sore & swollen but it is getting better
Shelling stopped. no damage.*] 
France
30/4/18
Dear Milly.
Many thanks for your letter of the
24^th Inst which has just reached me. The
first chateau with all the furniture
I spoke of has been hit several times.
We got the antiques - armour swords etc
away safely. & we hope to get the butterflies
away. We wrote to the owner & he sent
me a very nice letter of thanks - it was really
my interpreter who wrote & got the reply. I
will however get the letter & send it to you
for my collection. It appears that the
Butterflies are not really his but belong to
the Museum of Paris entrusted to his
care for classification & for the purposes
of a work he is writing on them. He
says he would be very grateful if they
could be saved. The lovely conservatory
has had all its glass shattered &
some of the plants ruined but the wattle
is still blooming - A shell (a small one
came into the dining room & ruined the ebony
sideboard dummy waggon & wrecked the room generally
but the sideboard & Table are not much
damaged - the upper stories have
however been ruined & the weather
will soon reduce all to destruction
even if no more shells fall - the

General now occupying it lives in the
Wine cellars which are deep & strong.
After our big battle I returned to the
Chateau of Mdlle de Septenville - The
Lodge Cottage was occupied by our
grooms & Servants - The night before last
we were pretty heavily shelled & one
hit the lodge & ruined it killing
3 of the servants & mortally wounded
another. Today I have information
that when the Bosche Aeroplane sends
out a Wireless call "xxx' that means
"Shell the ____ Chateau" this is the place I
live in. We got this code off a dead Bosche
So I am having dug outs built near
by at all speed, working night & day,
as a refuge - as you see we are not foolishly
brave. We hear also that in place of the 1 gun
which he previously used against it, he
got 20 in position yesterday - His objective
for these judging from his registrations is wire
a number of bridges newly thrown across
the sol river. I think you misunderstood
my allusion as to where we were:- we didn't
have a fight on the 24^th but the days that
followed saw a brave Scrap. The congratulations
I forwarded you may have give you the key to