Charles E W Bean, Diaries, AWM38 3DRL 606/7/1 - May 1915 - Part 5
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bit of scrub. One of our machine guns had its eye on the place
for every now & then you could see the dust whipped up for several
seconds together just in front of the trench & hear the tack tack
tack of the gun. But there was something elsewhere that was
also occupying its attention & so it generally missed the Turks
one or two ran right up the hill to the top without being hit
although one dropped in the scrub & didn't seem to rise again.
The French guns were all the time tearing up the earth over the
false crest to the left just to the left - perh 100 yds away & occasionally
dusting the earth around the left hand tree. But there was a fair bit
of movement in the trench - mens' backs moving along it - blue tunics
or dark brown. Our xxxx Presently something like a periscope appeared
above it - & then a big lump of some sort - probably a sand bag -
just to the left of the tree stump. I expect they are making an observation
station & are trying to build themselves in against shellfire - the
sandbag is overhead cover or else a traverse.
The shellfire gets pretty hot about there. The French
haven't advanced but they are pounding the trench on top of the
ridge, & that false crest, & occasionally peppering the ground
in front of the tree or to the left of it. But they have never hit the trench,
& from what I know at Anzac the people in that trench are as snug
as can be provided the shell doesn't burst right on the edge of the trench
itself. One can see a man or two getting from a hole on the left of the tree
into one on the right of it.
An aeroplane is just flying over.The French guns are
There goes a shell right onto the edge of this trench, but
but a little too far to the left. Then another which raises the dust in
front of it but not quite close enough to matter. Then whiff - dense
rolling clouds of dust right on the trench top a little to the left of the tree -
pink salmon coloured dust & black curling smoke ^a salvo of at least 4 shells. You can hardly
see the tree for it. They aren't shifting yet - wonder if they are killed.
Probably not hurt in the least & chancing that they won't get another
Whoof! That one hid the tree altogether - right on them. As the
dust clears away you can see an object lying on the edge of the
trench - a little behind it - I think its that sandbag. That has
shifted them. There they go - one big xxxx first one dark figure jumps up
out of the trench & runs up the hillside into the scrub. Then two
more. One jumps into the hole on the far side of the tree - is
he going to try & stick it out? The shells are drum falling in
salvoes of four or six turning the place into an inferno. Now a
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man jumps up from the dry olive brown scrub in front of the trench
& bolts like a rabbit towards the rear. He falls - wonder if he's hit.
No, I think only crawling - a man has jumped up & is running from
a little further on - probably the same. There goes a Back in the same
patch of scrub where the first started another gets up - two,
three, four, quite a lot of them - never knew so many were there.
The first chap is by now toiling up over the top of the hill - I can
see his head & back & his rifle wobbling as he runs, or rather
shuffles, along. The rest are one can see them some way after
he has crossed the crest of the hill before he disappears. The
others are not running that way at all. They keep more to the
left & when they get near the hill top drop into some ^pale sulphury
yellow heaps of earth which must be another trench or dug out.
The guns have stopped.
Where is that machine gun of ours? It seemed to give them no
attention at all as they ran. There was an occasional spurt of
earth from a rifle bullet but as far as I cd see the whole lot
got away. Where are the guns, too? They're extraordinarily
slow.
Not so slow as I thought. Five minutes later fizz-bang
goes the earth around those sulphury heaps. The men there don't
wait for any more this time. They jump at once and for the next
minute you can see them lumbering along humping their rifles over
the top & drop into the trench there. One poor old Turk is helping a
wounded man up the hillside.
10.45 The guns have followed them there also. They tear up
the earth from the parapet & fling it in geysers into the air.
At this moment the French are advancing on the far right in
extended order, line after line. You can generally see abt three
lines at once. The French always seem to advance at a sort of
trot, & so to the Senegalese - crouching a little. Most of the
Anglosaxon soldiers here walk into action. The stooping trot
of the Frenchmen - especially the Senegalese with their tight blue trousersmakes their back with the big bunchy tails of their overcoats waggling
behind them makes them look like so many emus tootling in & out
peering between the scrub.
The French guns are now searching the top of the hill where the
Turkish trenches are. I can see a man running along the top of the
trench & the heads of about a dozen Turks sticking up, some of them
with their rifles over the edge of it. over
It was now about 11.20. A new battery had opened
just behind me (Col. Mackay & Col. Gartside had gone back) and
was bashing the Turks further back, about the Turkish centre.
The Turkish shrapnel was thumping into the outside of the
slope on which I was sitting - & sometimes flying overhead of
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course reaching for the guns at my back. I had to get down occasionally
into the trench & one shrapnel pellet just rolled onto my arm - it
had hit something else first. A battery at the back was firing just
over my head & the big guns in the valley were banging away firing away with a noise
as if someone was banging a heavy packing case. The battery
at my back is however hitting heavy nails.
11.53 More French are advancing. The French supports
are being shelled by about 3 batteries as they come up through
the trees on their own part of the ridge. By twelve o'c. the French
are reinforcing their front line. Our guns are shelling the Turks
far back at a white river flat beneath the right shoulder of
Achi Babi. I can see a Turk walking along the edge of what must be a
gully in the flat there apparently urging men to get out of it - It's a
long way from here - & I can see that brown figures coming out from
some corner by this white flat & running across a brown flat in front of it
by the side of what looks like a little stretch of flooded land. The Turks
are clearly coming out there.
At one o'c the French supports are still arriving &
being shelled. I went to sleep in my dug out for abt 20 minutes.
The French were by this time xxx lining their own advanced
trench on the hilltop very thickly. They had also crept up underneath
the cover of some banks not far below the scrubby paddock. A green
stretch was all that separated us there from the Turks (if any still
remained) in the scrub. You could see the blue overcoats filling
the reverse slope of the banks like a carpet of bluebells. In the trees
by the creek on the French left was a poppy field & the edges of this &
of the creek & the lower edge of the green paddock were lined with
khaki of our Naval Division who, however, seemed comfortable
there & got no farther. I believe they were promised to support
the French left.
As nothing seemed to be happening I went back to
lunch. At lunch I heard that we had just had orders that we
might be required to support the French left; and at 2p.m.
the N.Z. Brigade was ordered to move off. They went to support
the British on the left, moving (Hand drawn diagram - see original document)
in this direction.
At 4 o'c. the French made their attack. After advancing
abt 30 yds I am told they met a concentrated shrapnel fire -
prob. 3 or 4 batteries - & got no further. I was working & cd
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not see this attack but the brigadier did from a knoll on
our left. At 5 o'clock the French had got no further than in the
morning.
(Hand drawn diagram - see original document)
------------------------------------------
Birds eye sketch
(Hand drawn diagram - see original document)
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At 5 pm our guns were bombarding the angle of the V
shaped trench most fiercely, clouds of black smoke & red pink dust
arising rather like this;
(Hand drawn diagram - see original document)
I was just going to get
a photo of it when it ended
short & sharp at 5.30. The French
had not been able to go on since they
met the shrapnel at 4pm & the naval & other guns had
since been tearing the bowels out of the earth. They say the Fr.
got into 3 Turkish trenches & held them but they did not get the V
trench.
At this time late in the evening the British were
making a bit of an advance on the left. The whole scheme
now was for the French to get this ridge & hold on there whilst the
Brit. pushed on round the left. I watched some of the British
battalions attacking. A few were pushing on cautiously across
folded ground on the left - running from cover to cover. Others were
working thro' a wood. A big clump of men - at least 100 - was
hanging on in shelter of a knoll behind some poplars & a white
ruined cottage. The guns were bombarding a Turkish trench
further back on one of the knuckles & one of the mills just E. of
Krithia was blazing - the roof burning.
(Hand drawn diagram - see original document)
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I believe the British made some ground (? the 86th Brig)
but were very shaken. Of course one cdn't see the machine
guns. But the advance seemed to me slow & very cautious. These
were I believe 29th Div. troops who had suffered heavily earlier. but were They have not, however suffered more heavily than our
brigades.
I believe the troops here are:
weak French Divn being brt. up to 2 divns Senegalise & French
29th Div 86 }
87) Brigades
88)
?85th
one of these brigades consists of
Lanc Fusiliers
Dub "
Royal "
Munster "
Comp Div,
Then there is the composite Divn under Gen Paris ^ Maj. Gen A. Paris CB
consisting of NZ Brigade
2nd Austr Brig
Comp. Naval Brigade
The NZ have however been sent to support the 29th
& the Comp [[shorthand]]now consists of
2nd Aust Brig (about 2900 strong - having
left anzac 2300 strong & received as it left 300 reinf.
& expecting now 350 more)
Composite Naval Brig under Col. Casson
consisting of
Plymouth Bn.
Drake Bn.
We were reinforced by some Lancs. Territorials
who now began to arrive from Cairo (They sd the Cairo
papers had put up over the account of our landing at Anzac
"Bravest & maddest deed in History.") Our men are very
pleased because other ^ the Royal Scots or Naval Brigade have
46
christened them the White Ghurkas.
Sat May 8th
Operations started at 10 am. with the usual
notice. The bombardment started punctually & at 11o'c.
there was heavy firing on our left at 11.o.c. & at 11.45. Though
we did not know it at the time the New Zealanders had been
put in at 10.30 & had made about 200 yds when they were held up
by machine guns which the enemy are said to have massed there.
At 11.45 we got an order to move up to support be in a position
from which we cd support the left. We went off, brigadier & 6th Bn leading,
with Maj. Bennett as guide; when we were over ^in the fields on the Western bank
of
the Western branch of the creek which flows out of Eski Hissarlik,
we formed in fighting column on a two battalion front & marched
over the xx rolling ground, momentarily expecting shrapnel, till we
got to the Creek. In the creek bed mire were a lot of empty dugouts
& some belonging to the Indian brigade (29th) just ahead of us. The
creek here enters rather a steep narrow channel - the banks
perhaps 14-20 feet high. We got into dugouts on the bank
of this, & started to improve them. The position we carried in
was about 176.v.6 a/c to the Brigadier - but I fancy really 168.k.4-5.
Shortly after we got there the shrapnel started.
They first dusted a white house on the hill slope to the west where the
headquarters of some brigade had been two days before. They then gotonto us as We knew of course that we shd come next - & sure
enough it came about lunch time - really very little to bother
about. The 6th however were encamped a little higher up the stream
(i.e. nearer the enemy) than we were, & were digging themselves in &
improving existing dug outs at the time. They got one shell right
amongst them. The case hit a sergeant on the head & killed him &
2 others were hit by pellets.
We had our H. Q. in a sort of V shaped trench in the
top of the bank - there was another just in rear & another
just in front of it. The latter was very dirty, being made use
of by some of the other troops as a latrine. We had it thoroughly
cleaned out. The ground on top of the xxx E side of the stream just
above our camp contained several graves of men of the
29th Division, ^some with rough wooden crosses & some without -
but graves are everywhere throughout this area country peninsula - French
& British.
This xx afternoon we got up the second batch of reinforcements
(Hand drawn diagram - see original document.)
Coys consisted of 3
platoons. Each
platoon took up
250 yds front
i.e abt 5 paces between
Cptn Henderson ws here
Herm ws w / front lot
& when Cass message
saying tt he ws hit
arrived, Henderson ws
dead
(Hand drawn diagram - see original document.)
Bennett stood at
bank of Ck (wh ws
steep) & told each
platoon of abt 20 to climb & then
go across until its Left wasoccupied out of 250
250 yds from creek, just
touching right of other
platoon & then turn left &
go forwrd.
7th Bn went diagonally
& then turned ½ left. Only
abt 20 yds gap betw
2 bns.
Bennett says tt after Tommies
trench ws passed they made
rushes of abt 100 yds &
used covering fire. Cdnt
see enemy's trench from
Tommy's trench. (My own
observatn wd support this)
(Hand drawn diagram - see original document.)
Order to 7th Bn
"when your right touches
the creek (? on the Rd?)
left incline"
Gen. Paris' (H. Westons) ^order arrived at 4.55. Whilst McCoy was writing the order
himself H.W. ?Paris
rang up. M'C told him he didn't know whether he could do it in time - it was a
question. Gen Paris H.W. said it had got to be done.
M'C sent out a short written order & then saw one or two of his colonels supplemented them by unwritten
verbal instructions. He told Cass to go & look after te right. He holds that the only
way to get on was to go quickly especially as we had to cross that trench - & that if the
others had come on as quickly we shd have got Krithia.
Brigadier was away with Col. Gartside
overlooking ground in front when order came.
thro telegraph. Cass told each bn to be ready to move
on 1 minute notice - then
went to find
M'C.
Order issued
at 5.10.
47
who had come straight round after one day at Anzac under
Maj. Edgar. There were 350 of them & they were ordered to xxxxxxxx report to their regiments. The Brigadier went across to see
Col. Johnston of the N.Z. Infantry Brigade who was across on
the other side of the stream some way ahead - we werent very
far behind the firing line because the Munsters & Dublins
on the opposite slope were lining their trenches almost as if they
were in the firing lens. The reinforcements reported to had just
reported to their battalions & were being allotted to their companies.
At that moment the brigadier came back (abt 5pm) & at 5.5pm
there suddenly arrived an order that the 2nd Australian Bde
was to be in the line with the N. Zealanders & advancing by 5.30pm.
Its objective was to be the ridge behind Krithia. (which was 2½ miles
away).
Of course the order it was just touch & go whether the order
could be carried out. It left 25 minutes for the Brigadier to get the order
to the Battalions, the battalion commanders to get the order
to their men, the men to get their packs, rations & gear on,
the four battalions to get into position & move up into fighting formation
from ¼ to ½ a mile. There was no time for the brigadier to get his
battalion commanders together to reconnoitre the position or have
any sort of conference. The most that cd be done was to rip out an
order to the battalions to move out at once in fighting column,
6th & 7th in front, 8th & 5th in support. ^Each pair in that order from left
to right. The 6th xxx were to have their left on the creek, the7th & 5th were to 7th were to be in touch with the right of
the 6th, the 8th behind the 6th & the 5th behind the 7th.
(Hand drawn diagram - see original document.)
The Brigade order reached the battalions in
10 minutes or a little more, the men actually
who were digging in, improving the camp of someprevious troops who had occupied the same place,
had just time to get their packs on & fall in - work
had to be dropped just where it was - & the leading battalions
moved off. The 8th & 5th who were behind moved almost at
the same instant - the 5th very rapidly, the 8th a good deal slower.
The Brigadier with Hasty, Sergt. Maj. Monk of the Signallers,
Capt. Hogan of the machine gun section, & 2 signallers holding the reel
moved off at the head of the 6th & I moved with him. I didnt take
my pack, but I took the telescope & camera case - I had given Hasty
(* M.C. ws told on 1 telephone that the Gen. wanted
as much display as possible in order to
encourage the French. The French were to adv w bands playing colours flying &
bayonets fixed*
*7th gave picks & shovels to 2nd line
so that the line cd use their rifles*
7th fixed bayonets in Tommy's Trench - held by Drake Bn RND
started in artillery columns till just before Naval Trench then
formed line & waited at trench 2. 3. [[shorthand]]. Then Cass
who ws out of trench called out: Come on 7th, the 6th are
a bit ahead of you" - he cd see they had just started.
Made abt 100 yds at a quick march & then lay down.
When 6th started again they started until abt 300 yds
ws done. Then Cass reckoned fire ws coming from low scrub
in front & on right front & low trench parapet directly ahead.
From tt point onward went by short rushes of 50
yds - C. told them not more than 50. About 180 yds
from parapet C. was hit thro left breast. As he lay
there he cd see bullets striking thro shrub from his right.
Looked up & cdnt see French. M g.fire ws coming from
left - ^rifle fire from 3 directions. He wrote to Brig., R.N.D.
Wanliss - 2 others ^(verbal) to officers of 5th Bn direct, 2 back to
R.N.D. (verbal) 2 verbal to Col. Wanliss - 9 in all.
Whilst writing to R.N.D. he ws hit the 2nd time. He x ws
standing up all / time & ws hit by a sniper.
Ask Heron if they
got into a T. trench.
Cass when he was hit / first time saw / line go on, presently
saw the bullets coming in from the right. (He had thought he himself
ws hit from / back until he looked down & saw / bullet wound in his
tunic w / small entry in the chest). He lay on his face & wrote these messages
vomiting blood. Presently he
ws hit a second time - 20 minutes later - thro / shoulder. The 5th
had started to go beyond him before he fell. They were in position by
7.30 or 8. He ws picked up at 9. A boy dug a trench in front of him
to protect him. The stretcher bearers wdn't leave him.
The Drake bn came up into line & Plymouth came into /
Naval trench to support Drake
48
my water bottle for the Brigadier, we hadn't another. We moved off as
soon as we could get ready - acroos the ca clambered up the Eastern
side of the gully where the road crossed it (at least I call it a road - it was
a sort of a track). The signallers were unrolling the reel of wire all
the time walking just behind the Brigadier.
I don't remember how we came to the head of the advance
- the next thing that I really remember was that we were coming out of cover
with the 6th extended behind us or around us & the 7th either parallel or
a little behind us away to the right. The "cover" was a few small scrubby trees
Hand drawn diagram- see original document.
just after we left the creek. The ground we had to advance over was
a shallow ridge rather like the back of your hand - sloping away very
gradually on all sides xxxx to the two creeks which bordered it & to the
point from which we entered it from the screen of trees. It was covered
[*& grass*] with very low scrub - not higher than your ankles or shins, & there wasnot enough of a not a wrinkle in its surface - not a dimple large
enough to hide a wounded man in . We could not see any Turkish trenches
as we came out of the trees & I saw none that night; there was thisxxxx plateau in front of us, covered with heath, almost flat but almost rising towards
Krithia. I knew nothing about it except that we had to advance & that the Brigade
H.Q.
wd probably be somewhere behind the firing line - in range but not in the brunt of
it, where one cd hear anything that was going. I cant say I exactly expected to
lead the charge advance. However, there we were.
We advanced steadily up this open heath in fighting column on a
front of one company to each battalion -i.e. one coy of the 6th with one
coy of the 7th on its right. The line was such that Each battalion occupied
about 400 yds of front, ^each two xxx companies deep - the xxx companies
following each other at about 100 yard intervals distance. As we came out the
bullets began to whizz past ^fairly thickly - not the "overs" one had heard
down the gully when we were camped & which made that gully
fairly dangerous, but aimed bullets from somewhere. I was thinking
more of shrapnel than of anything else - wondering when we
might expect it. The men were extending now into line with
big intervals - 2 or 3 yards; but we - the brigadier & the 5 or 6 signallers
& staff who were with him made a fairly solid little clump xx; ones
mind was asking - I wonder if they'll get onto this lot - I wonder
when is that shrapnel going to open; I wonder when the Brigadier
means to stop & fix his H.Q. There was a line of the 6th about
abreast of us or a little ahead - walking fast, & we were walking
49
fast but not running. No one paid any attention at all to bullets.
When we were about 200 or 250 yards on our way the
shrapnel came - & it missed us altogether. It flew well over our
head & burst over the lines then coming out of the trees. The line there
was just about extending from fighting column into line. The shrapnel
seemed to xxxx explode right over it. The brigadier turned to look &
I turned too - & there they were coming through it like good ones.
We looked back several times. I remember seeing the ground
about those advancing lines whipped up into clouds of pink dust
again & again, almost hiding the foremost men & quite hiding
those in the rear. But as the dust cleared away they still came thro'
it trudging ahead as if they were walking against a Sydney dust
storm. Occasionally, I believe, a youngster would put his elbow up
to fend his forehead. But they came thro' that fire absolutely unaffected.
As they came forward it did not follow them but continued to rain onto
the supports coming out from cover. The men drill never suffered
The fighting columns extended exactly as if they had been at Mena -
they had done it hundreds of times in practice & as far as I cd
judge it was carried out perfectly under fire.
Our artillery had begun shelling the enemy (our Australian
batteries on the far right amongst them) had begun shelling the enemy
at 4.30 - the regulation hour before the attack. I didn't notice the
bombardment becoming heavy in our front until after 5 - I think
5.15. They shelled until 5.30 when there seemed to be a lull. When the
enemy started shelling us the guns opened heavily again & the uproar
was tremendous. You could not hear the bullets whizz - it
was a bit of a relief to that extent. But I was never in the midst
of such an uproar - bang, bang, bang from the front - |
bang, bang-a-whang, bang-a-whang - bang banga wang.....
& so on from the rear. It was as if the universe was a tin
lined packing case & two ^squads of giants with sledgehammers were
banging both ends of it & we tiny beings were somewhere in
between. The echoes went reverberating away to Achi Baba
& back again. We were stumbling over the low gorse tramping
ahead. One boy to the left of me carried his spade, shovel end upwards
like a fan in front of his head with his left hand. I wonder if it was
a sort of instinct - because I think the greater number of bullets
were coming from there - they could see us from the lights acrossthe creek ridge or humpy land on the other side of the creek,
in front of N.Z. people.
I don't know if our left ever touched the
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