Charles E W Bean, Diaries, AWM38 3DRL 606/114/1 - June 1918 - Part 8

106                                        67
had been throwing some shells w a silent
explosion into / village, besides / heavy
shell wh ws still exploding every 2 or 3
minutes in the near corner of it; &
the deep grass ws in places sickly
with the ^half-sweet musty smell of the gas.  On the
left I presently came close up to /
river - about 12 or 15 feet wide & curiously
muddy and full. (Some machine gunners
 

106                                       68
later told me tt their dugout had been
flooded out in / banks of it & tt they
thought our shells must have broken
in some dam or other, higher up.  We
had bn shelling heavily somewhere up in
/ German back region, they sd).  It
was crossed by a bridge on two pine trunks.
[Hand drawn diagram, see original]
[The bridge on the main
road to Buire had been
blown up but some
 

106                                       69  
planks had bn stretched across / gap.]
I was getting pretty near / edge
o / trees, by now.  The Rly embankment
ran close on / other side o / river
& on into / German & on into the German lines.
[Hand drawn diagram, see original]
 

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There were some huts - old camps of
ours - along it.  Ahead, just across /
rly, one cd see / huts o / Casualty
Clearing Station & the White British front line
& the banks in Nomansland & in /
German line.  On / line ahead was
a temporary station bldg - & nearer to me, a
big tank - an iron rly tank on four iron
legs.  Straight ahead along / rly ran into
 

106                                        71
a bit of a hill.  Over / top of this
green slope was the church tower of
Dernancourt -  battered very white by
shell fire & gleaming in / sun.
The trees, wh were very open now,
ended about 200 yds from where I sto was;
& the a little way in front of them, down
/ slope came a ^broad white p line, wh I
guessed, from what I had seen from /
hill S. of / village, to be our front line posts.
 

106                                        72
Further off, & higher up / slope - right at /
top of it, indeed, - were two splashes of
brown - white earth.  I guessed they were
/ German line.
[Hand drawn diagram, see original]
 

106                                          73
It seemed too far for Egertons path.  But several
times I sat down in / long grass & opened /
map - & each time ws convinced tt
I had not gone far enough.  One ws
walking about within fairly close view
o / Germans - it seemed to me.  But
that little screen of trees & the long grass
make a wonderfully good screen - & I
daresay / Germans were mostly asleep,
 

106                                              74
anyway.  At last, where the Ancre turns
[Hand drawn diagram, see original]
southwards again I came across
a path.  It ws a narrow
straggling footpath between two
not very well marked
lines of trees.  I walked along it &
presently came to Egertons post - it cd
be nothing else.  He had planted a
Lewis gun just on this path & the
Germans had come out from / village
 

106                                                   75
towards him the post at dawn, along this
track.  There was the post dug in just
on either side o / track, very roughly
- & at / end o / track about 50 to
80 yards away a couple o / village
houses showed thro' / trees.  Just in
front o / post ws a bit of a ditch with duckboard
bridge, a make sure but not too wide
to step over.
I went a little further to make
 

106                                                              76
sure.  Thirty yards away I struck /
river where it bends South.  According
to Egerton the ground on both sides
of his post ws so marshy tt / only
way he cd get along ws on / river
bank  I went along / river bank
(there ws another winding path abt
20 yds E. of the first) - where the
reeds & grass had been bent down by