Charles E W Bean, Diaries, AWM38 3DRL 606/115/1 - June 1918 - Part 5

107                                                                   39
Senator Pearce let Surg. Gen. Featherstone
(the man supposedly responsible) come over [[?her]]
with Manifold (M.P.) & inquire into this.
Featherstone had a trip round & Howse
says he has reported tt / A.A.M.C is
seething w discontent - wh is not true
Howse asks: Why did not they answer
this questn by Examining / men whom we
send back, in order to see if they are
 

107                                                              40
rightly sent back. That wd settle it in one.
Howse long ago recommended tt
two or three medical men shd be chosen & paid
heavy salaries to go round examining
reinforcements & marking & initialling

/ pay book of each man examined.
One Transport from Egypt actually
went back w more invalids who had
 

107                                                             41
never reached / front than of
those who had. And ^the British Surg. Genl.
Birrell has reported strongly to / A.I.F.
on the unfit men reaching England -
a sticking difference from / rest of our
force wh is of over / average physique,
he says.
The Austrians heavily attacked
 

107                                                         42
/ Italians on a big front w 25
Divns - bombarding over 90 miles
(covered by 50 odd divns). They attacked
at 7 on ^Sat. June 15 after 4hrs bombt.
The Italian communiques are exceedingly
vague - almost impossible to understand
but even / Austrians admit tt they
were def held up & driven back in
some important parts. If this is only
 

107                                                      43

/ complete fiasco wh seems possible,
we may get Austria out of / war
this year.
The AL.H to come over, I believe,
to act as infy reinfts only leaving two
Bdes. This is part of big changes
out there -
Murdoch told me this mg tt
Hughes wanted to tell Gen. Birdwood tt he
 

107                                                         44
must either, in Australias view, take
the A.I.F or the Army. Murdoch had
opposed this - he ws there to dinner last
night. He sd tt Birdwood, he ws sure,
wd at once return to the A.I.F (the
Army being uncertain - the War Council
may not form it). I sd "Why not - I
think tt wd be fair to Birdwood." "Yes
but it wdnt be fair to White - hauling
 

107                                                             45
him all round / place after Birdwood
like that. I spoke told Hughes so," he
added, " & persuaded him to give a
noncommittal answer until he knows
whether / army is going to be formed.
We will find tt out tonight." Murdoch
has Ll. George, Hughes, Sir Henry Wilson
& Cook dining w him tonight & will
find out from Wilson. Birdwood arrived
 

107                                                             46
in London today & will stay till
Friday.
June 18th Tuesday. Murdoch rang me up &
said he wanted to see me. So I lunched with
him & Box & Lionel Robinson & a chap named
Birchell of the our Broad Guage Rly Coy.
Murdoch told us the genesis of
the 5^th Army - as Wilson, apparently, told it to
him / night before at Murdoch's dinner party
 

107                                                                  47
Wilson - Sir H. Wilson, the Chief of the Impl. Genl.
staff - sd tt Haig had been pressing them to form
another army. He sd tt his front ws attacked
not at one point only but ws subject to
pressure all along. He wanted to decentralise
his problems of defence more than ws possible
at present - the army fronts were too big.
The Army Council didn't agree - they thought
tt / front, with 12 Divns knocked out by /
 

107                                                              48
German offensive ws already too big; &
tt if / Germans attacked them again they
wd have to shorten their front still more.
However. / army ws sanctioned temporarily.
Haig chose three men for / command & sent
their names over, putting Birdwood first
on / list. Milner chose Birdwood, & Ll. George
confirmed it.
Wilson had an exceedingly high idea of