Charles E W Bean, Diaries, AWM38 3DRL 606/112/1 - May 1918 - Part 1

AWM38
Official History,
1914-18 War: Records of C E W Bean,
Official Historian.

Diaries and Notebooks

Item number: 3DRL606/112/1

Title: Diary, May 1918
includes notes on the 18th, 21st, 23rd and 24th
Battalions and Lord Rawlinson and Sir Nevill
Smyth VC.

AWM38-3DRL606/112/1
 

Diary May 21 —
to May 2
[* See [[S?]] abt [[?]]
of pt 11 112 *]

Regtl Record
at other end of
this book
(24 Bn. 18Bn.)

[*No. 3. *]
 

Original
DIARY No.112.
AWM38
3DRL 606 ITEM 112 [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
 

1
Tues.
103
May 21^st 1918
112
Some youngster or other took
my car out on Sunday night from
the back of the hospital baths where
Boddy left it - The Colonel noticed
it going out steering a most
Erratic Course - he thought it ws one of
us & tt / driver ws probably drunk.
Next morning the clutch cd not be slipped
in - the petrol had partly gone, & the left 

103
2
mudguard stay ws broken. The hospital
orderlies largely partly consist of youngsters
who are sent there fc because they
are too young to send into
/ line - who have enlisted
under age & been found out
(their mothers send over their birth certificates
from Australia to Gen. Birdwood) and they
are a very high spirited lot - generous
youngsters, too, who wd treat old Boddy 

103
3
handsomely & pinch his car for a lark the
with same evening without the least hesitation.
The ^British Motor transport authorities ^officer in Boulogne was very
helpful when I told him that I was
very anxious not to be away at
this time. He rang up a motor
transport Coy in Wimereux and the
staff sergeant & and a corporal there dug
into the interior of the Engine till dark.
I told them I wd make it worth their while
to get / car right before morning - & xxx 

103
4
they worked till f 4.30 am The car was
finished by ready to brought us back today.
On the way I saw White at
Bertangles. It seems he & Birdwood
are leaving in a few days. ^All / British officers are going Smyth of our
2nd Divn has already bn given the 58^th Divn.
When told of it he sd very simply tt he cd
pack up & go across / same night, if
need be. White sd to me: "I'd like you to
"Say a word about old Smyth, Bean.
"He, is a hard man (he agreed) to know.
The "I have sometimes wondered if he had 

103
5
"anything in him" (precisely my own experience)
"he is so sphinx like & silent & imperturbable.
"But there is one quality tt stands out in
"Smyth - his intense thoroughness.
"You know we have sometimes
"had a difficulty in finding out whether
"we possessed a piece of line or whether
"we did not." (I knew he referred in
"particular to Rosenthals recent action
when / Germans claimed ^in their wireless for days to have
retaken a piece of line wh Rosenthal 

103
6
thought he possessed-) "It hasn't always been
"Easy to know whether prisoners have bn
"taken from us. In Rosenthal's recent fight / other
"day, we heard nothing of prisoners being taken
"from us - Hobbs' division next door
"to them were / first to suggest / idea to us
"- they sd tt 4 officers & 10 men had bn lost
"missing - & you know it turned out to
" be f not 10 but 75 . . . . well Smyth ws a
"man whose word you cd absolutely
"rely on. When he sd he ws in any position 

103
7
you knew he was there." (At Pozieres, Smyth
underestimated the advance of his 1^st Bde in its
second tour in / line - his estimate ws too
cautious. He almost always went to see it
for himself ) - ^wh might have resulted a great advantage
in the Attack on Paschandaele on Oct 9 only
/ report ws probly too late). "That & his
"thoroughness were his great characteristics,"
White sd, "& I shd like you to make those
"the key of anything you write abt him."
(I did send a wire on these lines 

103
8
but / censor refused this & also because
there ws a rule tt no one under / rank of
Corps Commdr ws to be mentioned except
when their death ws ^already reported or in connection
w an act of gallantry. He also refused
a cable giving Australia the names & history
of the three battalions wh have been or are
being broken up - 52nd, 47^th & 36^th. (Col White goes
to 33^rd, Witham to 49^th – Denton in whom
Maclagan believed, but who ws no good, goes