Cecil Mills Collection - Wallet 2 - Part 22 of 22

3

Could not make any impression the first couple
of days, as it soaked in as quickly as we
could pump it out, but the next two days 
made all the difference & we got things pretty 
right, all the bally water is down my end 
it runs along from the other sections.  There 
was great aeroplane work this day.  There were 
planes all over the place, as they had been 
unable to do any observing during the bad 
weather.  You should have seen the strafing 
that went on then.  Our Airmen don’t seem to
care a hang.  They fly much lower than the 
Germans, & the shrapnel is simply pumped 
into them.  You see a plane sailing along, then 
all of a sudden the anti-aircraft guns open.  
The sharp reports are heard, then a few seconds 
afterwards, puffs of smoke suddenly appear 
up in the blue & a few seconds after that 
the reports of the bursting shrapnel comes along. 
Sometimes the shrap gets fairly close & one 
would think that next burst would certainly 
get it, when suddenly Mr Plane changes his 
course & it makes the Artillery look silly asses, 
as their shots may go quite half a mile off. 
It is all very pretty, but I would not like to 
be a bird man, it must be just a bit too exciting. 
We have one bird they call the mad Major, who 

[This page is a copy of the previous page in different handwriting]

3

could not make any impression the first couple of days
as it soaked in as quickly as we could pump it
out, but the next 2 days made all the difference, &
we got things pretty right. All the bally water
is down my end it runs along from the other
sections. There was great aeroplane work this
day. There were planes all over the place, as
they had been unable to do any observing
during the bad weather. You should have seen
the strafing that went on then. Our airmen don't 
seem to care a hang. They fly much lower than the 
Germans & the shrapnel is simply pumped into 
them. You see a plane sailing along, then all of a 
sudden the anti-aircraft guns open. The shrapnel 
reports are heard, then a few seconds afterwards 
puffs of smoke suddenly appear up in the blue 
& a few seconds after that the reports of the bursting
shrapnel come along. Sometimes the shrap gets
fairly close, & one would think that next burst
would certainly get it, when suddenly the plane
changes his course, & it makes the Artillery
look silly asses, as their shots may go quite
half a mile off.  It is all very pretty, but I
would not like to be a bird man, it must be
just a bit too exciting. 
We have one shot bird they call the mad
Major, who 

4

who does the most daring things & flies very
low. Have not seen a scrap between 2 planes
yet, but one was brought down in our lines
during the week. The tail was shot off & down
it came wap. It must have come an awful
bump. It was too far away to see if it was
one of ours or not, but I heard afterwards
that it was a German. On Easter Monday I
got a letter from Percy, it was his Birthday.
also a parcel from you with the socks, Belt
Tooth Brush Sanitary paper &c. By the way this
Parcel was advised in a letter I got from you
today, but I'll mention letters later on. Our
Fritz got pretty busy with his Artillery for a
while & put in about 70 shells one after the
other into a house in rear of our trenches, all
High Explosives & the house was soon smashed
up. Suppose they thought we were using it for
an Artillery observation post but they let our
parapets alone thank goodness.  Anzac Day
started gloriously, Larks at daybreak singing
beautifully. Old Fritz running his machine
guns along our parapets in free style, snipers
sniping & things generally were quite bright
Larks are rather classy in the bird singing business.
Fancy they are a cut above canaries, they hover
about upstairs a couple of hundred feet singing

5/

away as if they were trying to burst their
little throats. At Stand To that night, that
is just as it is getting dark, word came through
from the Colonel that the Turks had thrown in
the Towel & made peace with the Allies. Of
course we were all in a jolly good humour &
we were all very disappointed later on when
no confirmation of it came along. We all reckon
the Colonel is a Furfy distributor. On Wednesday
I got a cable from you which had been posted
to me from Egypt, had 7th April stamp on it, sent
by you from Kempsey, saying you had arrived
& were splendid. I thought you had gone, when
you sent me the last Cable, but by one of the
letters today I note there was the possibility
of strained relations. We got well and truly
strafed in the afternoon by the German Artillery,
they did fly over, some onto our parapets
some just over & others back a bit onto our
reserve trenches'. One funny thing happened.
We had a bally old Officers Latrine made of
about 8 sheets of galvanized iron. The Company
Comdr had just come out a few seconds, when
Wamp, a High Explosive hit it & where it was
there was a large sized hole in the ground & at
varying distances, distorted pieces of galvanized
iron. Not a soul hurt, truly wonderful. You know

6

there is so much space where there is no one, that
it is easy not to get hit, unless a man has bad
luck. Thursday was our busy day though. Everything
in the garden was lovely all day & I turned
in about 8/30PM to get a couple of hours sleep
before I took over the line at 11.  At 10.30 a very
excited chap rushed in & said Stand To. I
cursed him for having called me 1/2 an hour
too soon, but I soon woke up. Away on our
left there was an awful roar of guns, getting
closer quickly. Flares going up everywhere. By
the time I had been all round my section
they were fairly at it. Both our artillery
& the Huns. Shells were tearing across, our
own not too high above our parapets & theirs
a jolly sight too close to be pleasant. I got a bit
of a scare once, just as I had finished going
round my line & seeing everyone was at their
posts, was sneaking round to get into my
own position, when a Bally High Explosive
burst above about 20 yards away & hit me fair in
the face with the back kick of dirt & gravel,
luckily there was no metal with it & I got a bit of
extra pace up to get into a fairly safe place,
bent down & turned into a passage way & ran
fairly into one of my own men who was coming
along with his rifle out in front with a Bayonet

7/

on the end of it. By jove I did put the brake
on quickly & get back into the britching. Just
thing. That gave me a scare. As for the
Bombardment which lasted for 1 1/2 hours:-
It is a most difficult thing to describe
Shells were coming over my parapets (about 80 yds)
at the rate of 1 every 3 seconds. There were
big shells, whizz Bangs, Shrapnel, High explosive
& stinkers. They were bursting everywhere,
some over us, but the great majority just a
bit too long, added to this were our own guns
pumping it in just as solidly. The din was
simply terrific. We would hear the shriek
of a big shell coming & we would guess where
it was going to burst. Don’t mind telling you 
we used to keep our heads as close as we could
to the front of the fire trench, the parados
at rear protected us pretty well from any
back kicks. Infantry are absolutely powerless
during a bombardment, they simply have to
sit tight & say nothing. It did not seem
anything like 1 1/2 hours duration. All the
old hands reckon it was a really & truly bonny
bombardment, so I'm now a real soldier & I'm
jolly glad to be able to tell you I was not the
least bit scared, except when I nearly ran into the
Bayonet.

8/ 
Monday aft'
1.5.16.
Friday was a quiet day. but about
4 o’clock we got word that our Trench
Mortars were going to open up at a
certain hour. This made me a wee
bit nervy, as I did not think they would
take it sitting down, as Trench Mortars
are the very devil. They land about
60 lbs of High Explosive each time, the
charge goes high up into the air & lands
wamp, & smashes everything up.
Fortunately they did not reply very much
just tried to get the mortars with a couple
of guns, & as they were about 300 yards
away from me, I was not in the joke at
all that night. Next day was pretty quiet
& we were relieved at night. We got out
safely, there was no shelling & hardly any
rifle fire. We did not have a casualty
except my pal the Doc, who came out with
my Platoon, falling off the Duck Board
into about a foot of water. We got into
our Billets, well in rear of the firing
line about 2AM & I can tell you I was

9/

pretty weary. I feel ok when Im in
the trenches, get a bit short of sleep now &
again but when one gets out for a spell
it takes about 2 days to get back to
normal. We were all frightfully tired
all day yesterday, but today we have
been drilling & messing about, & we
are feeling pretty good once more.
After a good sleep tonight we will be
quite OK again & fit for anything.
It is great the way our chaps are
standing things. Hardly any sickness
& the Blighters all look so well. Of course
the last 8 days have been perfect. The
change in the countryside is wonderful
I said this Northern France was a
cold forbidding sort of country, but
now Spring has really arrived it is very
beautiful. The trees are nearly all out
in leaf & the fruit trees are in blossom, &
the crops in the fields are all coming
up & are beautifully green. The country
is all cultivated right up to the firing
line.  Spose they want all the food stuffs

10/

they can produce. Sunday was a large
day with me. Got No 25, 29, 30, 31 from
you with the lovely photos.  Oh Dearie
they are grand.  You look lovely in
each of them, and the boy looks what
he is, a real Treasure. My Company
Comdr says he is going to have me sent
home as soon as possible, as you are
too pretty to be running round without
a husband.  He reckons you’d be stolen
by someone if you were as plain as pretty
to get hold of Johnnie Boy. All the chaps
in my Coy are keenly interested in you & John
& always want to see all the snaps I get.
Today I got 2 Bullys with the covers torn
off. That is a great scheme, as long as
they look like YMCA papers there is
every chance of getting them, but the
temptation of the red cover is fatal to a
lot of chaps in the Post Office. Won't
answer your letters tonight, but will get
this off as it may catch a mail & it is
such a long time since I have written

11/

to you, I do hope no mail has gone
without a letter to you, as that would
be rotten. You know when the mails
come in, we don't, so there is not the
same disappointment if letters do not
come along. Well old Woman, Ive put
a fair amount of stuff in this letter
that I would not put in if it was to any
one else, so be very careful with it, but I
wanted to give you a fair idea of what
things are like over here & I hope I
have done it. Will write you your own
private letter tomorrow if I have any
luck. So now I'll ring off, with heaps
of love to you & the Boy, & every one else
knocking about. 
Your own old man
Cecil 

37 O.A.S Abroad

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

Well old Darling, just a wee bit for you &
Johnnie Boy. It does seem ages since I left you
both & it is not quite six months yet, tho it
seems such a long long time. Thank goodness
everyone expects a big decisive scrap once the
weather is right & appearances point to the
Australians having the chance of all the scrapping
they want. I suppose by now old Johnnie boy
does not worry his mum for his nursery so
much. Getting on for 14 months now, he is probably
right off it. Do hope old girl you are not suffering
at all from the old Look in [[hear]] you have not
mentioned it at all so am hoping you have not
had it at all. The old sewn up blankets are great to
crawl into at night. Don't know what I would do
without them. The loss of my other togs does not
concern me at all, one pair of pants & a tunic is
enough in the trenches. Am enclosing you a
cutting from the Bully that I discovered today. It is
about the Banks Balance Sheet. Please keep it for me
to put in my book with all the others. Well old
Darling, am going to ring off now, Such a big
love to you and the Boys, & I hope it will not be long
now before I am on my way home to my own
two Bestists. Your own old man
Cecil