Charles E W Bean, Diaries, AWM38 3DRL 606/105/1 - April 1918 - Part 3

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along w some men. He sd tt

he understood part o / line ws
retiring. “This is a Brigade Hqrs
here” he sd. “We have to go back but
I believe tt / front line is holding 
them alright”. We asked him
what the scene on / horizon meant
& he sd he didn’t know. Someone told
us tt / offrs had bn trying to rally / men & they thought had
succeeded. Wilkins & I wd have waited
had we been on foot but the thought
tt / car on / main rd might be
swamped in / traffic o / retirement
made us retrace our way thro / 
wood. Parties of British troops - parties
of from three ^men to dozen or more -
were plodding rearwards, past
/ wood, off towards Cachy, off
towards / rear, all away from /
front. “Which is the road, Sir”
one party leader asked us.

“What road?” I asked “The

Main road”, he sd. Another

 

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asked: "Which is the road to Amiens?"

(Aymeens’ as he called it).

We asked others to youngsters what they were

retiring for. “There were too many

Germans for us” they said simply.

The guns on the road in /

wood were preparing to retire.

The German had lengthened his

artillery again & ws shelling

Cachy, &^ some into wood, & occasionally

shells well along / main road

towds Amiens. It seemed to me

tt he knew he had a broken

crowd in front of him & ws turning

his guns onto their retreat - but

very likely it ws / normal

lengthening onto targets in rear

after / attack. One or two

shells fell near / road on wh

we were passing.

At the bottom o / road, where

we got onto / main rd leading

 

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straight from Amiens thro Villers

Bretonneux (where 5^th Army HQrs was

on March 21) we found bunches of

men about ^12 to 25 strong walking back

down / main road, other stragglers

2 or 3 a body . Artillery waggons - 

& a few men w bayonets still fixed

on their rifles. These were Australians -

the first we had seen in he crowd.

The first i asked what he was

doing told me tt they were retiring.

The line had been beaten back -

“I was pretty near captured,” he sd,

“I hung there till the Germans ws

within a hundred yards of me”.

They sd tt / Germans had got

round their right flank -

“We’ve been in five days without

a spell.” sd a man of the 35^th.

“He gave us a lot of gas shell

(his gas mask ws still in his hand}

“& we are pretty well done up.”

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I said to some: Look men,” you

Australians here, it’s no good

going on without knowing

where you’re going to. Hang on

here a moment until an Australian

officer comes along.”

They stopped at once “We’ll 

as we’re going to stop”, one said

we may as well sit down.”

Their rifles were choked w

mud but every single Australian 

carried a rifle. There were some

of every battalion - but no

officer - only English Officers.

I asked some o / British if

they had seen any British

Australians digging in front o / wood.

Another sd that they were Austlns

whom we cd see retiring along

 

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/ rly line . I looked across -

the rly ran on a high

embankment just behind

us - & on top of it were

walking I suppose 100 men,

mostly w rifles & waterproof

capes - so they may have bn

Australians. About 30 more

were coming down to our cross

Road - I was anxious about

our car as / road ws swarming

w traffic & wanted Wilkins

to go on o / car while I found

an officer for these men, but

he would not agree to this.

Just then a 5.9 shell came

down about 10 yards from where

we stood & covered us all w

mud & wounded a man beside

us. That made me think this

cross road was registered &

that / German fire was going to

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^※ & one Austln sd tt our m.g. were

trying to hold the Germans up by / town

but tt he thought / Germans must

be in / town by now -

 

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come onto / road . There was a heavy

rattle of m.g. around the town at

/ end o / road - xxxx these might

be ours ^※, but / road around up near /

town ws clearing & it looked as 

if / German might turn up there

at any moment. The shell settled

my attempt to hold / men till

I cd find an offr & we walked

up / road to find / car. I

thought he wd have gone in / crush

but Wilkins sd he knew he wd

not stay. A score of cavalry

with an officer, if not two,

came down / road towards / near

at a canter pushing straight

thro / middle o / x mob - looking

rather panicked; I thought tt it

ws a very unwise thing to do, if

not worse. Abt / same time a

gunner officer found two of his

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gunhorses & their drivers retiring.

"How dare you move those horses

without my order ?" he sd." go

back this instant - " It ws probly

/ same officer whom our car driver

(Jack-) told us of, who cursed

the head off the N.C.O. who ws bringing

up the [[?]] ammunition - "I thought

I ought to wait & see what happened,"

sd  / N.C.O. " I thought you might

want it. " The battery commander

told him to get / ammunition then

& there & bring it up at once

& as / man turned his horse

the C.O. gave it a cut across

the quarters w his stick.

A dozen tha battery teams were going

up / road to their guns clearly to

pull them out - men were

trooping down / rly & along / road

 - & it looked as tho thexxx old

game was begun again.

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A 33rd Bn signaller who ws retiring

carrying his telephone told me tt he

understood tt they had to retire

to the rear o / wood.

There ws a line of trenches

newly dug near the back o / xxx

wood - just here we met the first

part of a formed body of troops marching

up towds V-Bretonneux. I

recognised them as men whom

I had seen marching South thro

Beaucourt this morning. They had

an inverted black triangle on their sleeve

Hand drawn diagram – see original

We met others marching

at intervals all along

/ way to Corbie

(? 58th Divn)

 

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/ German had had another

break through - everyone there tt we

ws telling spoke to gave tt account of it - we drew

clear of crowd about the

first rly crossing - & went

home by Corbie in great gloom,

calling at Corbie to tell Gen.

Elliott what we had seen so

tt if Villers Bretonneux were

taken he wd not be caught

in / flank. He had been

ordering his battalions to

reoccupy the german positns

lost East of Havel, if  possible.

He withdraw this order & told 

them to be careful on their

right flank & to send, patrols

out towards V. Bretonneux  to

see what / situation was.

On reaching Division I told

Gen. Maclagan also at his mess?)

I was sure than that

 

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Very likely, I told Maclagan & Elliott -

the 9th Aust Inf Bde was making /

fight of its history in defence of tt

village. We saw nothing to account for /

whole Bde except tt we saw men of

every unit in it. They might have bn

desperately thrown in, I thought -

Maclagan & Elliott no doubt cd

clearly see tt x I thought V. Bretonneux

had gone - indeed, though I didnt say

so, I thought the positn there quite

hopeless. The one thing tt cheered

us ws / difference between our men

& / British in / retreat - our men

most easy to handle - quite easy to

take back if we had had an

officer there. The British, though

only walking as if from a football

match, were clearing panicked

& quite spiritless. I only saw one of

our men frightened - & he came up &

asked me where his Bn was. He had

foam at / corners of his lips & shocked

eyes - the Germans had all but cut him

off - indeed he had been through a very 

bad time.

 

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The line had gone at V. Bretonneux. At / same time

there ought to be two fresh Battalions of the 9th Bde &

had dinner with Wilkins
we had certainly not seen anything like a whole Brigade.

Had dinner with Wilkins & Cutlack

Cutlack & went very depressed

to bed. Old Butler, old trump tt

he is, had dinner w us &

offered to do what I have bn

yearning to do - to get the

go north & see if by his personal

efforts he cannot get the

War Museum Relics removed

from our store at Bailleul where

they are in great danger

both from shell fire & from a 

possible German attack. We

have already lost one of our

Lagniecourt guns, xxxxx

a 77, & a heavy minenwerfer

wh the 2nd Tunnellers had

rescued for us and / German

has retaken; & all the heavier

relics of our Corps school at

Aveluy.

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※ The line ws gn:-

19 Corps situation, 7p.m. 3rd Cavalry

Divn from Vaire Sous Corbie along road to

P 8 a 7.9. P A central, P 8 D oo, P 14 A 20,

P 13 D 20, P 19 D 70, houses in P 25 c ;

Australian battalion from houses in P 25c

to V 2 C o.o.; 18th Divn from V2 c.o.o.,

V 8 a. o.o., V.13. centl. V 19 A 7.4,

U 30 A 0.7, U 30 A 0.0 - junction with

French.

From the French from a reliable

source: " a converging attack on Amiens

tomorrow (5/4/18) from / directn of

Albert & Roye."

 

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April 15th

: Going up to / chateau

this morning I saw Laverack GSO 1 beckoning

to me from his office.  I'm glad to

say you were wrong - he said.

According to our latest informatn

the 19^th Corps is still holding

/ line in front of Villers Bretonneux.

I saw tt this report

ws dated 7 p.m. from 19^th

Corps ^※ wh meant tt it left the

front before  the situation 5 - &

therefore before what we had

seen, & there ws no news

since. I therefore went w

Cutlack in / car to Gentilles

as things were so uncertain

down there we took all

our goods on / car except

our food supply. We cut round

thro Amiens where there were a

few Australians & along the 

Peronne Rd past Longeau to / turning

off to Blangy Tronville. All ws sd