Letters from Charles Edwin Gatliff to his family and a condolence letter, June 1916 - c. September 1918 - Part 4

14     4   17.2.17
tree trunks of what were once fine
woods here & there amongst one vast
honeycomb of shell holes — there is not
a trace of verdure. One thing
I do not do now & that is censor letters
but then the lads here are either
shooting or working day & night so
have no time for letterwriting; consequently
the letters written are very
few & the other 3 subalterns have an
easy time censoring them. Whenever
I see them at it my thoughts always
fly back to when I was in the
B.A.C. in Egypt when I used to
have about 1,000 ^LETTERS a day to censor.
All batteries have two officers
attached owing to reorganization
so I have full strength of officers but
this poor subaltern — commanded
battery is the worst of the lot as
all the other batteries have two
officers overstrength & with all the
extra duties required they are
needed. There is no doubt that
this battery is the unlucky one
of the brigade. More another
time — I trust that all are well
Fondest love to all
Your loving son
Charlie 

France 14   20.2.17
Dear Father & Mother
We are having a spell of hot
weather — the temperature has been well
over 30^o during the last week; but as
it has been raining most of that
time or else there has been a heavy
fog, consequently we are again in a
sea of mud. No matter what I wrote
I could give you no idea of what
the mud is really like here. We
wear long rubber thigh boots &
yet at times the slush gets in
over their tops — what one needs
here now is a complete rubber suit.
I believe some of the war films
now being shewn give some idea
of the mud. "The Battle of the
Ancre" shewing the "tanks" in
action is now being screened
in England. If you see it in Australia
if you wrote me what
you thought of the picture I
should be glad.  Two of
Fritzs shells are the whizz-bang
from his 7.7 gun so called because
you hear it whizz & bang at the
same time & the "delay action"
which after reaching its mark delays
a few seconds before going off. 

2     14   20.2.17 
The lads now speak of of what they write
as either whizzbangs or delay-actions.
The field service postcards are whizz bangs
because as they don't need censoring
they are sent off quickly; letters are
called delay actions because they are
generally delayed a day or two until
they are censored. At times when
I cant settle my thoughts I find it
hard to write anything that will
interest you & when I read the
many interesting articles about the
war that appear in nearly every
paper I feel inclined to discontinue
my poor efforts. Still, I suppose
you appreciate a poor epistle from
someone of your own to a more
interesting literary effusion from
the pen of a stranger — the personal
touch makes up for a lot of
deficiencies. Since last writing
I have been able to have a good
look round here — when I came
snow was on the ground & I
could see nothing underneath
There are hundreds of dead
still lying unburied where
they fell during the great advance,
both British & Germans. 

3     14   20.2.17 
In some places you can see small
rows of men who had evidently been
caught by machine gun fire. One wood,
which will be famous in history in
the years to come, is a perfect charmed —
house. There is a sight there I will never
forget — a Highlander & a German, both
dead, each with their bayonet in the
other. And the whole country about
here is shewn with payments of shell &
shrapnel & articles of equipment
thrown aside in our advance & Fritz's
retreat. Souvenirs will be cheap after
the war for there so enough here for
a whole army of tourists. Apart
from the interminable mass of shell-
holes one can get a fair idea of
the quantity of shills that have been
fired by the number of our 18 pdr
shrapnel shell cases that are about.
You come across one nearly every yard
or so no matter which way you walk.
I have written to Frank but have had
not received a reply, I told Hal the
other day that a mail was leaving
for Australia & that I was writing
& the beggar calmly asked me to
send you his love
Fond love to all
from Charlie 

France 14   26.2.17
Dear Father & mother,
Today life seemed worth
living again — I don't know what the
temperature was but it must have been
between 40^o & 50^o & the sun was shining
all day (no warmth in it however).
And there was no wind blowing — it
is when the gentle breezes blow that
you feel the cold as then it seems to
pierce right thro' one. I have felt the
cold more on a windy day with the
temp. at 22^o than I have on a calm
day with the temp. at 8^o. I also left
the battery position today for the
first time during the month I have
been here, except for the time that I
paid my hurried visit to Hal.
Of course we have new positions
mapped out in case of a retreat or
an advance & as indications point
to an early retirement on Fritz's
part about here, I had to reconnoitre
my forward position & the best way
to get the guns there thro' the shell
holes (a job, by the way, to which
I am not looking forward). One
of my officers who was going as F.0.0.
took three of my N^os 1 (Sgts in charge

2     14   26.2.17 
of a gun) & shewed them the new position
in the morning. After dinner I took the
other three. We walked straight there,
most of the way along "duck walks" —
these are tracks composed of 6 feet
lengths of what look like small ladders
with square rungs instead of round ones
They are generally put in the bottom
of the trenches but here, owing to the
mud after the just few hundred yards
^behind the front line they generally run overland as the
trenches get so full of mid that it
is best to take a risk & get along
quickly than to go, slowly in discomfort
along the communication trenches.
After having reconnoitred the gun
position we then worked back across
country picking out the best track
for the guns to take. Fortunately the
last few days have been dry & as the
ground (mud) I had only thawed a
couple of inches deep it had become
fairly dry. The last couple of days
have been foggy but today it was
clear & good for observation (visibility
good ahem!) Altho' Fritz holds a
high hill & consequently can get
better observation than we ^can the country
hereabouts is a succession of hills & 

3     14   26.2.17
valleys & one can walk about in
comparative safety except when going
over the crests (ridges). After the
wretched weather we have just experienced
it seemed a glorious spring day. We
heard several larks singing, the sun
was shining & in a lot of places a
few blades of grass were bravely attempting
to sprout. In one place a field of mangels
(sugar beet) that Fritz planted here just
before he got pushed back could be
seen starting to come up. You could trace
the rows among the shell holes where the
seed had been drilled in — the crop won't
be of much use to any one as most of
the seed has been blown to glory with
H. E. shellfire. We just dawdled back
picking up souvenirs, like a party of
tourists artillery fie was pretty active
on both sides as we had taken some of
Fritz's trenches last night. It is strange
how one can get used to anything -
Shells were bursting pretty close to
us (d-d close we would have said
at one time) most of the time & yet
we just strolled along as tho' there
wasn't a war on. I had just
remarked on this to the N^o 31, when
Fritz put a couple of about 5.9s about 50  

4     14   26.2.17
yards behind us. We happened to be
walking at right angles to his line of
fire, as we were nearly home(!) & were
making for a duck walk, so were well
clear of this bursts. A minute or so
later we stopped to watch him put
a burst over near the duck walk, a
couple of men were nailing wire netting
on the duckwalks to prevent us slipping
as we walk on them in wet weather
with rubber boots. One burst right
alongside them & we heard a laugh
at the way they scrambled into the
nearest shell hole. We then continued
our journey back to the battery. I
have ^NOT written of the foregoing to show
how brave & fearless I am but just
to shew new callous one gets. It is
the same with all of us here. I have
seen when Fritz has got on to
track along which much traffic
was going. He killed a couple of
men & wounded several others
The dead were just put on the
side of the track the wounded
carried away & traffic carried on
as tho' nothing had happened.
Now most of the Australians get
buried when they get killed, except 

5     14   26.2.17
when they get "knocked" in "no mans land"
during a raid, but we came across scores
of dead, both British & German, today
who were killed during the advance &
lie where they fell. One poor Tommy was
evidently just going to have a smoke
when he "stopped one". He lay on his back
with his pipe on ho thigh & alongside
him was an open tobacco pouch. One
thing which makes one treat the average
shell with indifference is the fact that
you can hear it coming & generally can
tell whether you are in its line or not.
The exception is his High Velocity shell —
it has arrived before you hear its passage
thro' the air — they have been aptly nicknamed "Silent Henrys". So much for the
war — now for the lighter side of things
Hal's battery now has a gramaphone
belonging to the 52^nd- Bty. It has been at
my wagon lines as Major Lister was late
B. C. of the 52^nd. As he is away in England
& as Hal has an officer from the 52^nd
with him I sent the gramaphone to
them. As we have been busy with
Fitz the last couple of nights I
haven't heard any of their tunes over
the phone yet. Will now conclude
With fond love to all
Your loving son Charlie 

France 14  27.2.17
Rec'd 5/5/7
Dear Father Mother
Tonight as things seemed
quieter than usual I thought I would
go to bed early for a change — it is
generally about 2 a.m. before I "turn in," —
so I turned in at 10.20 P.M. after telling
the telephonist not to buzz me unless
anything important came through. I had
only been in bed 5 minutes when "buzz" —
a certain return was wanted at Hdqrs
at once. After going thro' some papers &
sending it off I had just snuggled nicely
into my blankets when "buzz" — a code
message came thro' a stunt is coming off
some time tonight — hour of zero to be
notified later. Then the C. O. rang me
up & gave me a task to do before the
stunt — time to be notified later. Then
I got two messages each altering my
targets. Now however I have worked
everything out & given it to the N^os 1 &
am waiting for the times to fire to
come thro', so, altho' I wrote you last
night I have another opportunity
again tonight. Here, where we
are kept too busy with shafing Fritz
& also because they are "warm spots"
the villages are still a mass of