Charles E W Bean, Diaries, AWM38 3DRL 606/111/1 - May 1918 - Part 1

AWM38
Official History,
1914-18 War:  Records of C E W Bean,
Official Historian.
Diaries and Notebooks
Item number:  3DRL606/111/1
Title:  Diary, May 1918
Includes references to the 21st and 22nd
Batallions, Sgt W Ruthven VC and the
Australian Corps command.
AWM3803DRL606/111/1
 

DIARY
29 Bn May 16 1918 -
May 20 1918
and Polygon - W Harker.
(Other end of Book
For Dyson  22 Bn and 21 Bn
Henry Poole - Sculptor Maury's Rd.
Chelsea Art Club   Regtl Records
No. 3.
 

Original.    DIARY NO. 111.
AWM 38      3DRL 606 ITEM 111 [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.
16 Sept., 1946.    C.E.W. BEAN.
AUSTRALIAN WAR MEMORIAL
ACCESS STATUS
OPEN

102    1
[*111*]
May 16. 1918 Started at 9.15 for Boulogne to
meet Bazley who is bringing across some plates
- colour negatives - which Wilkins ought
not to have sent to England as they had
not passed / Censor.  I fancy Hurley really
ws responsible as he wanted to keep these
negatives secret from / English in order to
have them first exhibited with his Australian
official pictures.
On the way down, I called at
Bertangles & there Hunn told me tt there

102     2
were great changes imminent.  Birdwood
ws getting an army.  Blamey ws down
here, so he supposed White might be getting
/ Corps.
Birdwood _^ heard my voice & called me in.  He showed
me in.  He showed me a letter wh he had
written to Senator Pearce.  It sd tt he
had inquired of Gen. Haig whether this was
to be taken as an order - the instructn to go
to 5^th Army - as, if not, he wd rather remain

102      3
w / corps & the A.I.F.  Haig had told him tt it
ws / considered decision o / War Council
& tt though, if he expressed a strong reluctance,
his wishes wd probably be considered, he (Haig)
hoped tt Birdie wd not take this course.
Birdwood accordingly agreed not to
reject the appointment.
He then advised / Austln Govt as
follows. White Hobbs & Monash were must all be
considered for Corps Commander.  Hobbs he

102     4
ws doubtful of, tho' he ws an
excellent Divl Commdr.  This left
White & Monash.  He, knowing Whites
great capacity, wd be inclined to advise
his promotion to this office if Monash
cd have bn passed over.  But Monash
cd not; he had undoubted ability &
success had met his work.  Therefore he
recommended Monash to command

? Rosenthal
C.E.W.B.
11/9/37

102     5
the Corps, White to come w him as
M.G.G.S of the 5^th Army ; himself
to remain G.O.C., A.I.F.  The divns
wd as soon as possible be brought
into his army.  Blamey wd go to
Corps as Chief of Staff to Monash &
Gellibrand get Monash's Divn.  Glasgow
& Brand wd get the 1st & 2nd Divns
as soon as Walker & Smyth left them
wh B. intended to bring about shortly.

102     6
This is a very great blow.  That White
shd leave / Corps is simply to make
a misuse o / staff o / A.I.F.  If
White has a great value to the British
Army he has a greater value to
Australia.  I have been thinking
out the straightest strongest telegram
I can to Pearce.
[It was not Wilkins but Hurley
who broke the censorship regulations

102    7
by taking those plates to England.]
May 17. 1918 (Friday)  I met Bazley yesterday;
got from him the plates ; gave him three
boxes of Anzac Book Records & War Records
to take over; picked up 4 packets of
war trophies which I myself had left
at the Pay Office in Boulogne (& for the
loss of which I have been _^ most unjustly blaming Smart)
including the precious debris of a house
at Pozieres.  I stayed the night at the
Hotel de France et de Voyageurs &

102     8
today returned to Querrien leaving the
relics at the War Museums Depot at
Ailly on the way.
As we got into the I entered the dusty little salvage
office at Ailly, with brown brown blankets
over the doorways instead of doors, where
Gullett lives with Peters the Corps Salvage
Officer, a man of the salvage hurried
up with a frightened look on his
face and said: "A shell has got
into your place - just now - & done