Letters from Charles Edwin Gatliff to his family, March - December 1916 - Part 2

On Active Service
WITH THE BRITISH

EXPEDITIONARY FORCE
France 8
26.8.16
Dear Father & Mother
Whilst waiting in
— for the train which comes to
a station near here some of us
went to the Ordnance depot to
get some things. I met our Adjt     
there & he told me that he,
Hal & a lot of other officers from
my division had come to St OMER
the day before by bus to hear
two lectures at an infantry
school nearby. I get permission
to cancel my trip by train &
stayed the night in St OMER with
them & returned here by bus
yesterday. Today I went to
our O.P. (a tall tree) with my 

battery commander & had the pleasure(?)
of seeing Hal's battery position beautifully
strafed by Fritz. He did no
damage I can say nothing further
except that he fired about 130
5.9 shells at Hal's battery. We
are both O.K. Frank I have not
seen since my return but I am
brigade orderly officer tomorrow &
have to visit all our wagon lines
so will get a chance of seeing
him some time during the day.
We are in a new position — the
gunners were building the gunpits
when I left for the school. Fritz
gave them a little bit of a strafe
whilst I was away. One of
my sergeants got shot in the
back one night presumably by
a sniper who is supposed to
be behind our trenches. Fond
love to all from
Your loving son Charlie

France 8
28.8.16
Dear Father & Mother,
A couple of days ago I had a
laugh at Hal's battery getting strafed
but yesterday he had the laugh at
me. Fritz did a bit of searching with
his guns for our battery. He came
pretty close to us, but we suffered
no harm. We are not allowed to
state the effect of hostile gun fire so
you will understand why I do not
write more about these incidents.
There was to have been a by strafe
against Fritz yesterday here but it
was postponed on account of the
weather It is taking place today
so I am writing you all a few lines.
I went & saw the result of Fritz's shoot
at Hal yesterday & then went & saw
Frank. Both are in splendid form. I
was brigade orderly officer & just returned
in time to get strafed as mentioned

above I am getting quite an experienced

gunner now Fond love to all
Your loving son
Charlie 

28.8.16
later 10 P.M.
Our strafe started this afternoon
& the most dangerous part of it, to us,
is over. We start again at 11 P.M.
when the infantry go over the parapet
& raid Fritz's trenches. Fritz will most
likely turn his guns on to them so we
will be pretty safe. Haven't much
time to write but as the mail goes
tomorrow thought I would let you know
that up to the last minute we were
all three safe & well. I'm expecting
an orderly from Hdqrs any minute
with tonight's orders & as I have to give
him this will now close
Love to all
Chas 

France 8
4.9.16
Dear Father & Mother
Another bit of a strafe against Fritz
tomorrow & as we generally stir him up
to retaliate I like to always write a
few xxxx lines before each strafe.
Hal came round to see us today
we showed him how gunpits should
be built. He is in good form but I
noticed that he has to go pretty
carefully with that leg of his. Frank
I have not seen since I last wrote
about him a week ago. Will get him to
come down after the strafe tomorrow is
over to have a look at my little "home
from home". We have been working late
tonight getting our guns into a new
position (for tomorrows shoot only) so I
will close this note now
I trust that Edith is well again
long ere this
Fond love to all

from loving son
Charlie 

France 8
8/9/16
Dear Father & Mother
A couple of days ago it was
Franks birthday Hal & I went
along to his battery for dinner —
a regular birthday party — it was
nice the three of us celebrating the
event right in the firing line wasn't it?
We are all in splendid health & till
the cold weather comes are fit for
anything. I for one won't like remaining
here for the winter which is pretty
certain to be our fate unless the
unexpected happens — the war ends before then
Perhaps Rumania joining the allies
may shorten the war - it means another
600 miles of front that Fritz has to
guard which will take a large
number of man even if he only acts in
the defensive there. We have a strafe
nearly every day now apart from our
battery’s little shoots.  Only a
few minor casualties lately.
Have received letters regularly for some
time past from Mater but only one from
Pater since I have been in France
Fond love to all

Your loving son Charlie 

[*Copies to Em
& Lil.*]

France 8
10/9/16
Dear Father & Mother
This letter will be about nothing in particular
but will be an olla podrida of little incidents scenes &
things that I have seen since I arrived in France.
Tonight we have a stunt on from 11.45 to 12.6 Have just
got one of our guns, which had been at Ordnance getting
repaired, back into its pit, unloaded a couple of
wagons of ammunition, & worked out tonight's scheme
It is now 10 pm so it is not worth going to bed
for a couple of hours & I am going to try & write
you a letter which I hope will be of interest.
Cats & rats are very plentiful here - the old farmhouses
are ruined & deserted & nearly all of them contain
families of cats. A good supply of ∧yore is necessary for
the upkeep of the other. When rations are short
we can fall back on the rats in the meantime
we are keeping them supplied with tucker. In
our last position where we used to sleep in an
old gunpit the pits were overrun with them &
occasionally at night when asleep we were
overrun by them. One night two ran over Captain
Prior's face. The gunners generally have a kitten
in each gunpit. When we came to this position
there was a cat in one of the old houses nearly &
she had a litter of seven kittens just recently born.
There was another with four kittens about the same
age. The seven were all ugly black & whites so 

2
10/9/16
the lads drowned 4 of them & gave the mother two of the
other cats kittens which were a pretty tabby colour. Several
nights I believe this second cat tried to get her two kittens
back & one night I saw her walking off with one in her
mouth when the foster mother chased her, made her drop
the kitten, had a bit of a fight & then brought the kitten
back again - hard luck for the mother! They used to
live in the old house but Fritz put a couple of shells
into it & nearly killed them to the old cat thought it
was time to move. She was not happy in her choice

of a new home for she carted all the kittens up into
the air space over one of the gunpits (will write about
this at a later date). She put up with a couple of
our small shoots but after one of our big shoots she
buzzed the kittens one by one to some infantry dugouts
about a quarter of a mile away. She is generally to
be seen about the old house every day but there is
no sip of the kittens I suppose the infantry lads
have then as pets. The captain caught a
comical little beggar up the road the other
night & we have him as a pet in the officers
billet - he is all colors of the rainbow black, white
tabby & yellow & his coat is more like fur than hair.
We are living pretty well here; our batmen
are good cooks & we can get tinned goods of
every description at the Expeditionary Force
Canteen as well as eggs from the farmhouses
which are all inhabited quite close to the firing line 

3

10/9/16
Apples, pears & plums are fairly plentiful & as they
are just ripening they figure pretty frequently on the
menu. Peas, beans & potatoes are also in abundance in
the fields nearly. The peas & beans are grown as cattle
fodder but as they are still young are good eating.
Mushrooms are now coming up everywhere so far we,

the officers, have not had any but I often see the men
coming back to the gunpits with their hats full of them.
There are a lot of towns & villages within easy
walking distance of the trenches & a lot of the houses
near the gunpositions are occupied. In fact our
billets, which are a lot nearer to the front line
than the others, are the only ones not occupied by
the owners — for one thing they are too knocked about
by shell fire to be healthy. Fritz burnt down the house
we were using for a workhouse one day. Another day,
early in the morning, whilst I was at the school
he put one through the roof of this house in exactly
the same place where he put one three months ago.
On that occasion the owners were living here but
as the wife got wounded they thought it wise
to clear out. Since then it has been badly battered
about. It is a by building but there is only one
decent room left where the captain & I sleep.
The other two subalterns sleep in another room
over which we have had to spread a large
tarpaulin for a roof. The four of as each take
it in turn to sleep in the telephone pit at 

4

10/9/16
the gunpits when an officer has always to be on duty.
The officer, who did not show up too brilliantly in
first by stunt, was just getting up ^when the shell went thru' this roof & he cleared for
dear life town to the gunpits which are supposed to be
5.9 proof. He saved us a lot of bother for about a week
for he would only come up here for meals & every night used
to sleep in the telephone pit. This used to save us the
trouble of carting our blankets down every second night or
so. However one day Fritz got on to our Battery & he
told the gunners to clear out & led the way. I was
at one of the pits — he was in charge as he was the

senior subaltern & the captain was away. I went along
to where Fritz had been shelling the other end of the
battery & found several gunners still there so to save
the situation which was not really bad I ordered
them to clear out as they had been ordered by
the other officer. After a while I let them come back
& took charge - the other officer had gone all to pieces
& admitted that he couldn't face the music. He
was due for F.O.O. next day but another officer
from another battery had to be sent & he was
sent back to the wagon lines. Fortunately for
me next day a lot of new appointments were
made each battery being brought up to its
full establishment of 5 officers (1 major or captain
& 4 subalterns the senior of whom acts as
battery captain & second in command). From
being an poor old Light Horse ^officer knowing nothing