Charles E W Bean, Diaries, AWM38 3DRL 606/110/1 - May 1918 - Part 1

AWM38
Official History,
1914-18 War: Records of C E W Bean,
Official Historian.
Diaries and Notebooks
Item number: 3DRL606/110/1
Title: Diary, May 1918
Includes references to the 9th infantry Brigade
and the 17th and 42nd Battalions.
AWM38-3DRL606/110/1

1 
DIARY May 12
- May 15  1918
Maj. Charlton
20 A.S.C. Home made Billiard
Table
Capt Granters Salvage Dump: Door
This is not a comforts fund.
Day after tomorrow a lot of salvage
waggons coming in.
No 3   110
Original    DIARY NO.110.
ALM38      3DRL 606 ITEM 110 [1]
DIARIES AND NOTES OF C. E. W. BEAN
CONCERNING THE WAR OF 1914-1918
THE use of these diaries and notes is subject to conditions laid down in the terms
of gift to the Australian War Memorial. But, apart from those terms, I wish the
following circumstances and considerations to be brought to the notice of every
reader and writer who may use them.
These writings represent only what at the moment of making them I believed to be
true. The diaries were jotted down almost daily with the object of recording what
was then in the writer’s mind. Often he wrote them when very tired and half asleep;
also, not infrequently, what he believed to be true was not so —but it does not
follow that he always discovered this, or remembered to correct the mistakes when
discovered. Indeed, he could not always remember that he had written them.
These records should, therefore, be used with great caution, as relating only what
their author, at the time of writing, believed. Further, he cannot, of course, vouch
for the accuracy of statements made to him by others and here recorded. But he
did try to ensure such accuracy by consulting, as far as possible, those who had
seen or otherwise taken part in the events. The constant falsity of second-hand
evidence (on which a large proportion of war stories are founded) was impressed
upon him by the second or third day of the Gallipoli campaign, notwithstanding that
those who passed on such stories usually themselves believed them to be true. All
second-hand evidence herein should be read with this in mind.
AUSTRALIAN WAR MEMORIAL
ACCESS STATUS
OPEN
16 Sept., 1946.                                                    C. E. W. BEAN.

88     110  2
May 13. Monday. No attack today.
The advance made by Rosenthal's Bde the
other night has rather had / edge taken
off it by the announcement (wh I
believe came first from / Germans) tt
4 offrs & 45 men had bn captuned.
I believe tt ws on the 2nd night of /
operation. But most of the 3^rd Divn do
not know what happened tt night, & Irwin
who ws here last night sd he did not think

88      3
it wd ever be known.
The Austrians are sd to be moving thru
Brussels. If so - the postponement o /
German attack probly means tt they are
waiting till they get eno Austrian infantry
into Flanders to release a German force
wh will keep up / offensive at Kemmel
& Ypres at / same time as they attack
from Albert to Arras & at V /Bretonneux.
German planes were over bombing early this
morning. There must have been some big bombs

88          4
for they shook the house. Our own were droning away
to the East last night - following / main road to / German lines.
May 14. Fred Cutlack went out this mg. &
heard tt last night the Germans attacked
part of our positions on the peninsula
between the Somme & the Ancre, just
S of / crest line. We had bn uncertain
of the place & had put drawn / men out &
put down a barrage  bombardment on
this part o / front. Shortly after our men
had gone back into it, the Germans
seem to have come at / same point -
about 200 of them. Our supports thought

88           5
they were our own men moving &
did not fire, & / Germans got in
between two Coys of 17 Bn & into the
Front line. The supports at once went
over; the troops left & right o /
intruders in / front line bombed their
way back down / front, & about
48 Germs were captd & / greater part o
/ rest (they think) were killed. Anyway
no Germs stayed behind & the front was

88           6
if anything slightly advanced.
We had Houghton, Corps Court Martial
offr, here to lunch today. He says tt
desertion is a bigger trouble more common
in the A.I.F. than even at Ypres. About
200 cases are tried each month. The
length o / war is beginning to try some
o / older hands. A man gets sick at
heart - stays away 24 hours - & then is
afraid to come back; this sort of desertion

88     7
is getting more common. Also / cases of
real brave men who are up agst their
platoon sergt or platoon commander.
The 1^st Bde is having more than others;
also the 20^th Bn under old Bennett is
sd to have 80 men A.W.L.
There is a notice under / gate
giving a drawing of a German tank
captd S. of V/Bretonneux on Ap 24 &
photographed.  [Hand drawn sketch - see original]
The parts vulnerable to bullets or to / 

88      8
splash of bullets are shaded red. But
there advice is a pencilled note attached
by / Coy Commander - that the Lewis
guns & infantry are not to fire on tanks.
One rifle per section may be told
off to do so.
May 15^th.    The 42nd Bn which is in here
now is a most complete contrast to the
21st Bn. The first evening they were _^ noticeably quiet; 

88         9
[Hand drawn sketch - see original]
Sailly Sec

88       10
[Hand drawn sketch - see original]
Left.
Right.
Bray-Corbie Rd.
Old French line
19 centl
Copse where
reserves
were.
Front line
Trees further
along Rd.
to Bray
Valley
German post
Our front
Sailly Sec

May 15
Went up to 17 Bn today & from the Old French line
saw the posts they where the fighting had occurred - on
the hill past Sailly Sec. The post is now joined up
w a sap to our front line but is still rather isolated.