Charles E W Bean, Diaries, AWM38 3DRL 606/114/1 - June 1918 - Part 5

106 37
Germans had dug, with a lot of
their kit in them  & lying dishevelled
around about / edge o / road.  On
the left were / "possies" our men
had dug. A few men were there-
about six  - telephonists _^some signallers of 22 Bn. I think. They
told me tt there was a trench a
 little higher up, by a dump of 
salvage, through which I cd get to
 

106 38
the support & front line.  I found it,
150 yds further up - Kybosh Lane
ws its name.  It passed a trench
out across / wheat field - a good
trench in wh one disappeared
at once below / level of the green
field; & marched along between
/ brick red earthen trench sites till suddenly
they opened into a much deeper 
& longer sunken road - wh ws
 

 106 39
the Big Caterpillar  - clearly.
It ws absolutely empty.  High
High up on / farthest bank of it was
/ continuation of my trench.  Down
at / bottom of it - half a mile
away, in the V between / high
banks, one cd see Ville - burning
from / German shells.  I carefully
photographed this, feeling all /
while the eyes of three men who were
 

106 40
standing in / beginning o / trench
going through & through me. I
closed / camera & went up
to the first of them & told him I 
wanted to see the nearest officer.
That disarmed him a little, If 
I had not said I wanted to see
/ officer he wd certainly have
taken me to him to see if I were
a spy. He told me there was a
 

106 41
Coy headqrs in / front line, &
if I went along / trench I shld
eventually get there by turning
to / right when I struck / front line.
"Keep _^pretty low when you get well along
- you're under direct observation,"
he sd.
There seemed to be no one else
about - only those three.  The
 

106 42
big sunken road seemed awfully
empty - nothing but abandoned
German gear in it - helmets, overcoats,
tin mugs lying in the "possies" where
/ Germans had been shot or captured.
In some of those  "possies" there still 
lay buried / Germans who had
bn shot there - the earth had bn
shovelled in on them as they lay.
 

106 43
The trench wandered through the green
wheat & presently began to descend
a little beyond  on / further side o /
knuckle.  In front, on / opposite
side o / valley abt 500 or 800
yards away one could see /
bare earth streaks on / green
hillside where / Germans were.
They seemed often on top of the
 

106 44
terraced banks - Presently my trench ended in
another wh ran at right angles across it - clearly
/ front line. I turned to / right.   indeed tt
The front line ws marked on a 
board Kangaroo Trench.  It ran
ws fairly deep at first but quickly
struck / chalk & became very shallow
- indeed not more than 3
feet deep. There ws no trace
of anyone in it. I kept pretty low.
 

106 45
Whenever I looked back - there -
right behind me on / opposite
side o / Ancre was the hill
above Dernancourt, with the white
chalk trenches of our line wandering
over the green face of the hill & the German
trenches facing them, & the quarry, &
the Prisoners of War cage. Our front
line ran round the edge of the old
Casualty Clearing station including the little
 

106 46
detached group  of huts at the bottom o /
hill - one isolated hut stood out in
Nomansland. About this time, tho'
of course I didn't know it, Wilkins
who had gone w Dyson along_^close under / other
side o / rly embankt (wh ws  I cd see / line
o / rly in / gully) was photographing
the Germans line our front line from
a point in advance of it in Nomansland
near that  under / lee o / rly near