Cecil Mills Collection - Wallet 3 - Part 11 of 17

France
Friday 16.6.16

Dear Old Girl
Had another Birthday 
last night. 4 dear old letters from you. 41-2.3 & 4 4 
Two parcels, with socks, cigarettes, &soap, as advised 
in your letters. The socks came at a most opportune 
time. Not that I was short myself, but some of the 
men's socks were getting pretty bad. Had the luck 
to get 5 pairs from the Store, all good hand knitted 
ones from people in A/ lia, most of them had notes 
inside, & I was able to contribute 4 pairs from my 
stock, so was able to fix up all the ones with 
really bad socks. The photos came OK, also a letter 
from Mither & one from your Brother Harry.
Answered Harry's today & gave him news of you all 
at home. His new address:- RG HeadQuarters, 
Reserve Army. B.E.F. France sounded pretty good.
I'd like to be in a Reserve Army until the end of the 
War. We got some hurry up this afternoon from 
the Germs. They poured over, 76 High Explosive 
Shells onto our Trench here. 6" shells all of them. 
They made some big holes in the ground, knocked one 
of our Cook houses to bits, smashed up a dug out & 
half buried about 6men. The net result was 1 man 
slightly wounded. Wonderful isn't it. Hope our 
shells do more damage than theirs do. Poor old pen 
has run out, so no more until I can cadge a refil 
from some one, or else get a good indelible pencil, 
when the owner, who is probably not the rightful one, 
is not looking, too closely. Its the very devil trying 
to keep a pencil in these parts, More Anon. Farewell 
for the present old Sweet Heart.

Saturday
Could not borrow any ink, so must resort to pencil.
We had some excitement last night. Were up nearly 
all night, tho allnight is not so very long. A mob
on our left carried out a raid.  Our Heavy artillery 
poured big shells in for about 3/4 of an hour. It was 
a great show.  Fireworks display quite free of charge.  
We were out of the retaliation part of it, but just about 
1/2 of an hour after we had turned in, the Gas Alarm 
came along. We did not get any of it, but we were 
all Standing To waiting for any developments.  Its 
grand to hear our Artillery roaring it out.  Our 
gunners have being giving them the very devil of a 
time lately.  Tonight there is going to be a great old 
roar up again. Another Brigade right alongside us is 
going to do a Stunt tonight, so we will come in for 
our share of the retaliation.  These raids must be 
very demoralising for the Germans.  When they turn in 
for the night, they must be anxious as to what 
particular part of their line is going to get it. When 
we first came into the trenches the Tommies we relieved 
said is was a real home.  Don’t you touch their front 
parapets & they wont touch yours. That is all altered 
now.  Our guns strafe on every possible occasion & 
we are not short of guns or of ammunition either 
judging by the way we use it. No more now, hope to 
tell you about tonights stunt tomorrow. Think it 
will be fairly exciting. - Sunday - 
Last nights stunt did not come off, but it is on for 
tonight & from latest reports it is going to be something 
quite out of the ordinary, I expect to see &
hear the biggest bombardment yet experienced -

3/
Forgot to tell you yesterday of a lovely scrap between
aeroplanes that I saw yesterday not far from our lines
The way they manoeuvred & swooped round each other
was something wonderful, there were 5 in it. 3 of ours
& 2 Germs. The result as far as we could see, was one
German plane forced to descend in long spiral redflames
into their own lines, &the other cleared off chased by ours,
so we could not see if we got that one or not. Today has
been quiet, cool & sunny, with only occasional bursts
of Artillery fire from our guns. Heard yesterday that the 
result of our raid on the left was pretty successful. The
Artillery smashed the trenches to blazes & there was only 1
live man in the front line when our chaps got there. The
others had all cleared to Reserve trenches in the rear. Wrote
a note to your Mother yesterday. Don't think I had
any fresh news to tell her that has not already been told
to you. Want to take a stroll along the line now & give
the boys the latest information about the Russian successes.
Only hope they can keep going as well against the Germans
as they have against the Austrians. It is just this time
last year, that the Germans pushed the Russians back. Hope
in this case History will repeat itself, only with the Russians
doing the pushing back part of it - Monday Afternoon
Pretty tired today, as we were up all last night
The Bombardment was a great exhibition of
fireworks. Our Artillery tore all sorts of stuff into
them It looked jolly fine seeing our shells tearing
through the air in all directions, like small
meteors leaving a thin streak of flame behind
them. The noise was pretty awful for the first 5
minutes or so, but Fritz did not answer back a

4/
to any great extent. We had 1 man killed,
not in our Company however. Would not have
cared for the job of being in the German Trenches
Still more good news from all the Fronts, we
seem to be getting the upper hand at last. If the
Russians can only over run Austria, it should
soon bring the climax along.  Well old Girlie, will
send this letter along today & start another one
next time I get a chance Do so hope that
everything is going OK with you & Johnno old
Dear Have an idea that it will not be long
now before the bally old war is over & I ll be
coming home to you. How different it will be on the 
next transport Instead of each day taking me
further away, it will be taking me nearer to you.
Heaps of love old Girleen from
Your loving old man
Cecil

No-52
16-6-1916

52 16/6/16 O.A.S Abroad

Mrs. C.B. Mills
C/. Dr A  Burne
Kinellan
Dalley St
Waverley
New South Wales
Australia

PASSED FIELD CENSOR 2964
H.Haughton

France
25-6-16

Hulloo old Dear
It seems ages since I wrote
to you & yet it is only about 5 or 6 days. It is not very
convenient writing letters in these trenches, as Co
Head Quarters is nearly always occupied by the lot of 
us when we are not on duty & there is no place to write
in my own dug out. We are out of the front line at
present, but there is not much rest in it for the men as
we have had 2 very solid bombardments from the
Germs with big guns 8.2 principally. They made a jolly
big noise & a large hole wherever they hit but that is
all the damage they have done to us. They poured 1200
shells onto our line of trenches one afternoon & did not
hurt one man. It licks me, if we'd had bad luck we
might have had 100 casualties. Have had a couple of
trips round during the week. Went up to Fills Cashier
about 7 miles away to draw the Pay, then the following
day 2 of us got leave & we went along to the Divisional 
Baths. Had a lovely bath & a change of underclothes &
then into the nice town I told you of where there is a
Champion restaurant. We had a great lunch & afternoon
tea & got home about 8/30. We all had to put our
Watches on an hour about a fortnight ago over this 
daylight saving business & it means that it is not dark
until about 10/15. The days are awfully long, with 19
hours of daylight. Fortunately I can sleep in the 
daytime when the chance offers. Yesterday I had to
take the unused balance of Battalion Pay back, but I did it
in style, sent for a Horse which met me at the first village
in rear of our lines & had a good ride on a nice horse.
Jolly sight better than pushing a bike along these beastly

French cobbly roads. I cant get your last letters out
at present to answer them properly, they are packed away 
at the bottom of a sand bag with some books & papers that
I dont want disturbed. Remember one or 2 things tho.
Please old girl don't let any of my letters get into the 
Essendon Gazette. Im not cut out for a Newspaper
Correspondent, I only write letters for my old woman to read.
She does not mind if the same word is used with
frequency, which would be an awful crime in a letter
that was published. Will be glad to hear from old Kempton
He is a real good old chap. Things seem to be looking
pretty good in this War game for us. We are harrassing 
old Fritz a good deal along our Front. He seems to be 
getting very jumpy. Every now & again our Batteries
tear into his trenches for about 10 minutes. At night 
time they tear it in very solidly & old Hoch sends up
Alarm Flares &his Artillery fires away like the very devil.
We sit tight & grin, but it would be much nicer if we
were asleep than crouched up against the Parapets.
Want to go & have a bit of a sleep now old girl, so farewell
for the present. 
Monday
Got a fill of ink last night from a bottle I found
lying about. It is nice & quiet this morning.
Hoch is trying to search out some of our gun 
positions - is going well over our heads. He had a
bit of bad luck this morning. For about 1/2 an hour
he poured over 5. 9 shells into what he thought was
a gun position about 300 yards in our rear. There
was a gun there last night, but it was not there
this morning. Hoch tore up a lot of the paddock 
& spent about £ 5000 on ammunition. rather wasteful