Letters from Charles Edwin Gatliff to his family and a condolence letter, June 1916 - c. September 1918 - Part 5

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France 14      27.2.17

 

ruins as caused by shell fire - not like

those further back which as I have

already written have been blotted out of

existence - first being reduced to ruins

by shell fire & then the debris being cleared

up by our men, the material either being

used as fuel or making shelters (in the

case of wood & iron) or else in making

roads & horse standings (in the case of

bricks & stone). I am wondering whether

we were "in the line" after my visit to

the guns. Here I often see scenes

which remind me very much of the

cyclorama, "the battle of Waterloo" - ruined

farmhouses with dead men by the side

of the road & smashed guns & ammunition

wagons here & there. The latter

are pretty plentiful (they all are in

fact) about here both ours & Fritz's - a

hundred yards behind us is where

one of Fritz's 77 batteries got blown to

glory & not far in front is ^where another battery

^was which evidently managed to get two

guns away - the other two are still in

the gunpits in good order but with their

carriages smashed about by our shellfire.

They were the first 77 guns that I had

seen & as they are Fritz's nearest

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France 14     27.2.17

 

approach to our 18 pdr guns. I was very

interested in them. They are not so

effective with their fire as our guns

& like a lot of other things "made in

Germany" have a humping shoddy look

about them - even tho' they do have a

by regimental (?) crest engraved on

the gun itself. Besides being appropriately

nick named 'Whizzbangs' the 77 shells are

also contemptuously called 'Pip-Squeaks'

I don't know what Fritz thinks of our

18 pdr shell. At other times when

I come across a derelict "tank" I

think of Jules Verne (- & Frank Read,

whose adventures, published at 1d

mater wouldn't let Ern & I read).

At present we are only firing spasmodically

(just to make Fritz keep

his head down). The shells are

roaring a lot tonight - they seem to

go thro' the air for about 500 yards

with a whizz & then they commence

to roar like a railway train until

it can hear them burst over in

Fritz's lines. At other times one can

only hear a slight whizz for a

second or so after they leave our

guns. I am going out now to make

mine roar so will end this

Fond love to all  Charlie

France 14   2.3.17

Rcd  12/5/17

 

Dear Pater & Mater,

I heard a few days ago that

Frank's battery was coming in on my

right soon but today Lieut Colishaw

brought our pay up from the wagon

lines & he said he had seen Frank

& others yesterday. They had done

well in the stint that I mentioned

in one of my previous letters & were

going out of the line again back

to where we were a couple of

months ago for a spell. I

reserved a couple of letters from Lil

a couple of days ago & she said

that she had been staying at San

Remo for the Xmas holidays & that

you both were also staying ^there altho'

neither knew that the other

were going there. Mater getting one

of Lil's letters at the Post Office

made me think of the time when

I got leave from Broadmeadows

camp & went to Croydon to

see Lil. On calling at the P.O. there

I was surprised to receive a

letter for Pater which had been

missent there instead of to Croxton

Our medical officer has been away

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14        2.3.17

 

ill in "Blighty" nearly three months.

We got another in his place but he

got put out of action a couple of

weeks ago by a piece of H.E. shell

in his thigh. His place was taken

by a Captain Smith. He was in the

next bed to me with mumps at the

No.4 Auxilary Hospital at Abbacsia

Egypt; then we were together at the

Light Horse camp at Aerodrome, Heliopolis,

& now we are together with

the same brigade of artillery in France.

He was showing us some snapshots

today when he suddenly remembered

that the nurse who took them had

sent one of each to him to send on

to me as she didn't know my address

I am sending them to Lil by this

mail. They brought a lot of memories

back to me. I think it a great pity

that we are not allowed to take

harmless snapshots here as they

would serve to bring back many a

little incident in future years that

will otherwise be forgotten. Fritz

is getting very nasty with his

submarines but I dont' think

he can do much more damage

in that direction as you can

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14         2.3.17

 

bet he has been doing his xxxxxx best

(or worst) all along. I only hope

he doesn't sink any Australian

mail boats. Until I heard from Lil

a couple of days ago I had only

received letters from Aus once during

the five weeks that I have been up

here. I am still acting B.C. &

there is no word as to when either

the Major or the Captain will

rejoin the battery.  Until

the last few days we have been

using shell hole water for all

purpose either chopping a hole in

the ice to get the water underneath

or else using the ice some of it

used to be very bitter the ground

being sort of saturated with high

explosive shells. I used to drink

very little & at times had a thirst

that couldn't be equalled on a

hot summer's day in Australia.

Now we got water sent up in

petrol tins from the wagon lines

with the rations. It is chlorinated

(most of the water in France has to

be before it is fit for the troops

to drink) & is also generally

petrolised thro' being put in

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14     2.3.17

 

petrol tins that haven't been washed

properly. One of the things I am promising

myself when I return to civilization

again is plenty of good clear water to drink.

Of course you will have heard about

Fritz's retirement along this front. We

thought we were going to advance

here the other night but it did

not come off. I think the sector

just in front of us is one of the

pivots he is swinging back on.

We are certainly meeting with

stronger opposition than further

on our left but nearly every night

we sneak another little bit of

trench from him.  The poor

old 51st is unlucky with "leave" as

in other things. My second turn was

about due when practically all

leave was stopped "one (1) officer or

other rank per divisional artillery

per week" only being granted leave

now. The lot before last were in

a train smash coming back but

none were injured. And the last

lot came back just as Fritz was

getting nasty with submarines.

They all came back except

one, who happened to be my

5           14     2.3.17

 

batman. They say they think he was

in the leave boat after theirs & when

they were in Havre they heard rumours

that Fritz had torpedoed that boat.

They have been back seven days now

& there is no word or sign from my

batman. Of course like many others

he may have fallen sick when on

leave & be in hospital in England.

When we first came to France we

were ordered to tell our correspondents

not to put brigade or division on

letters addressed to us. I fancy I

wrote & told you all. Lil carried

out my instructions but she was very

dubious about it. Mater puts battery

& brigade whilst Ean goes the

whole hog & puts battery brigade

& division. I have had several times

to impress this order on my men. A

couple of days we received a circular

memo stating that the Artillery

were the worst offenders in respect

to over addressed letters & asking us

to again impress the order on all

parties. 51st Aus Field Artillery

A.I.F. France (or Abroad) is my

address.  Fond love to all

Your loving son

Charlie

France 14

5.3.17

 

Dea Father & Mother,

Yesterday a strong bitterly cold wind

was blowing so this morning when I got up

I was not surprised to find that a heavy

fall of snow had occur^red during the night.

Today has been mild however, & a lot of the

snow had melted away by this evening.

I generally buzz up Hal several times

during the day & he is quite O.K. I had

run out of envelopes so asked him, as

he doesn't write much, to lend me some.

He was able to send some to me at once.

He was ^at Hdqrs today & heard there that

Frank's battery will be coming into the

line again soon on my left. I wrote to

Frank but have received no reply to

my letter. My reign as B.C. will

soon be at an end. Major Lister came

back to our wagon lines yesterday from

England & is coming up here tomorrow.

I often smile here when I think of

the way people in Aus. used to say 

a house was dangerous to live in if

it had damp walls. The water just

oozes out of the sandbagged walls of

our dugouts & we have duckwalk floors

to prevent us standing in the mud &

water & we have a pump outside the

2

France   14     5.3.17

 

entrance for when the water inside gets

beyond a joke & threatens to flood us out.

My dugout is only called so by courtesy.

It is just a hole dug in the ground with

a few sheets of galvo iron kept in place

on top by a few sandbags. It is not

even shrapnel proof as we found out a

couple of nights ago when a 7.7 burst over

it & a couple of pellets penetrated the

iron. It was only "slapped" together

roughly as an officer's mess but as the B.C's

& another officer's dugouts got blown in

the day the battery was heavily shelled

a bunk was erected for the B.C. in here

As the men, in addition to shooting, have

had to work on the deep dugout & one

the anti-tank position I haven't bothered

about getting them to make me a decent

dugout.  Did I tell you that one of

my sergeants got nicely earmarked about

a fortnight ago! A piece of H.E. shell made a

hole thro' the cartilage part of his ear. I

heard today that he was in England.

His was an ideal "Blight touch", i.e.

a slight wound that will cause you to be

sent to England. Capt. Dreyer has been

away in hospital 5 weeks now; so far

until we have received no notification

as to when he will rejoin.

3    France   14    5.3.17

 

Fritz is now making all his shells with

sharp points, either pointed fuzes or with pointed

false caps which fit over the rounded fuze.

This increases both the velocity & range of the

shell. His big H.V. shell is nicknamed "Silent

Henry" (I fancy I have told you this before).

He has been "shaking up" the wagon lines

lately dropping bombs on & firing machine

guns at them from his aeroplanes. A

favourite trick of his is in the middle of

the night to get over a wagon lines

swoop down & fire about 50 rounds with

his machine guns at the tents & horse lines

& then to climb back up in to the air

to repeat the same performance some

where else. When he starts searchlights

sweep the sky looking for him & anti-

craft guns on motors dark along the

roads trying to get a shot at him.

Here where the trenches & saps are

so numerous one could easily get lost

in them & it would be difficult to

pick up on the map which trench was

being shelled unless they were all named.

They are named in a sort of combination

so you can tell where you are ^if in ^one or

else where to look for them on the map

if they are mentioned. Examples are:-

Rye, Barley, Wheat, & Bread Trenches; Pork