Letters from Harold Edward 'Pompey' Elliott to his cousin Emily Edwards, July 1916 - December 1918 - Part 8

"Self and all commanders safe &
"well 7^th April, - Boys doing magnificent
"work. Winning golden opinions all.
"love, Elliott"
I cannot get time to write
to anyone. It seemed that the end
had come at last but we are holding
him now thank God. My men
marched all night fm 9.30 pm
to 5 am & did 26 miles & not a
man was missing at the end & we
xxx licked the Bosche to a standstill
Love to all

H.E.Elliott.
[*AUSTRALIAN 

WAR MEMORIAL

2DRL/0513*]

[*Enclosures about 

The treasures General E

Saved from the Villa
 May 1918.*]

Mrs E. Lloyd Edwards

Bryn Oerog

nr Trevor

Ruabon

North Wales
[*DRL 3297 3856 (3^rdS)

(1)*]

[*H E Elliott*] 

France

23/8/18
My dear Milly.
Many thanks for 
your letter of the 16^th Inst which has
just reached me. No ill effects have
followed from my wound such as it
was & within a week it will be absolutely
healed up. The bullet just went in
& out again & barely beneath the Skin
at that. It stung rather like a whip
cut but hardly as severe as many a
cut from the master's cane in the old
days. I assure you I dont make a
practice of talking to tanks, in Etaples
at any time as they rather tend to
draw fire but this matter was urgent
I enclose for you to keep for me a letter
I received from the Canadian
General thanking me for our
ambulance on that day. We went
in without tanks at all & of 
course the machine guns of the enemy
were very active & like to cause
us severe loss. Hence when a
tank did appear I was most
anxious it should proceed 

at once to the vital spot. As to
why the Bosche did not aim for
a more vital spot I can only say
from personal experience that when
taking aim at such a time you are
apt to become rather obsessed by the
thought that quite a number of other
people are taking an interest in your
proceedings & might incidentally be
taking a very careful aim at you. Hence
your proceedings are apt to be unduly
hurried. That is why so comparatively
few of the bullets make fatal wounds
I imagine. The news of the good
progress of the French is excellent
reading as it the news of the
fine advance of our own third
Army towards Bapaume. I
would not be surprised if we are
in occupation of that town very
soon as some of our prisoners say they
are going to retire in the old
Hindenburg line for the winter. As
we know to our cost this line
is almost impregnable but the
great increase in the number of our 

tanks should provide us with the
means of ultimately triumphing
over the enemies- defences there
I am glad to know that your friends
son is getting on so well & that
Lloyd has had a good holiday
I am sending you a copy of a letter
sent by Genl Rawlinson to our Corps
Commander to keep with the other
collection
I hear but have seen nothing yet of
a lett of French Decorations lately
published in the London Gazetter
17^th Inst I believe. I was hoping there
would be something in it for me
out of the Villers Brettoneaux battle
but so far I have not heard of anything.
I cannot as I said before gain any
more British Decorations so I
dont expect anything from this
latest Stunt. If I get a Divisional
Command I should imagine it would
be likely that at some future occasion
unless I made a mess of things in
the meantime I would be Knighted
but I am by no means sure 

that it would be of advantage
to me after the war so I am by no
means keen on it.
This morning some of our
people attacked again & so far have
had great success 33 officers & 1600
others & a great lot of machine guns
having already been captured. My
Brigade has been kept in Reserve
so far. I presume it wont be long
however before we are again in demand.
I trust Patty's Helmet turned
up all right. I sent it over by one
of my officers about a week ago
yours very sincerely
H.E. Elliott 

France
26/8/18
Dear Milly
I am enclosing for
the "collection" two papers.
The one contains a number of
extracts from Captured German orders
which deal with our operations north
& South of the Somme before the recent
Ordnance.
It is interesting to note how worried
the enemy Commanders were by our
tactics & the endeavours made to
counteract them - the only result
being however to give us great opportunity
to exploit our previous successes.
The other is a matter of personal
interest to myself in view of my
peoples long connection wilh Ballaarat
(as things are counted in Australia).
We had very heavy rain last
night but today is fine again
I should say that we will
have more rain still before very
long which may impede our
Advance. Two further items
of interest at present
yours very sincerely
HE Elliott 

France
13/10/18
Dear Milly
Many thanks
for your letter of the 4^th Oct.
We are still out in rest Billets
& except for the rain, which
has been most persistent
since our arrival here,
we are very comfortable.
Many of the Country homes
around here in which
our officers & men are Billitted
are delightful Homes
though they even here hardly
possess the same degree of
comfort - or you might say
luxury that a similar
class of home in england
would possess.
Yesterday I went into
an old French Town not
far away. I posted you
under separate cover 

a number of postcards
of views of the locality. As
I know you are rather keen
on architecture of various
kinds. The weather though
wet continues mild enough.
I enclose another Australian
Corps run Sheet.
Since we came out I am
glad to say most of the
Battalions have given way
on the subject of their
absorption & those still
objecting will I have no
doubt - give way very
shortly as they are being
tactfully handled. now so
by the comparatively junior
Commanders.
Birdwood did not
venture even to address
the men on this topic 

and this coupled with his
general po unpopularity
throughout the frice will
I think ultimately lead
to his entire disassociation
with the A.IF.
I am delighted to hear
that Martha is so much
better. It is a great blessing
to have one's health.
When you see General
Monash's name mentioned it
does not necessarily follow
that my Brigade has been
engaged but it does usually
imply that either we have
just come out or that we
are just going in
Ever since General Monash
took over we have been
employed as one Corps
with the exception of our