Charles E W Bean, Diaries, AWM38 3DRL 606/116/1 - June - September 1918 - Part 7

55.
The road (towards CERISY) sloepd aslant the hillslope
ahead of it. And down it, through ground which a few hours
ago was German, there wase coming a string of traffic -
fieldguns, muleswith waggons, motor lorries, tanks. It was mostly
horse traffic at first. But as we crossed the road, and reachedh
the top of the next knuckle xxxxx beyond the Hamel hill, and looked
down into the valley backed by the big knuckee this side of .
Cerisy - there they all were : - Artillery waggons and horses
parked thick tucked in under a bank at the foot of the
slope; tanks crawling down the road from our slope, nosing
their way over the knuckletop; a couple like great woodlice
moving sluggishly or waiting on the hilltop in the distance
hald left of us; other - one or two - far up the head of the
opposite side of the valley to the right. There were infantry-
several long strings of them in single file just going up
to that same slope away on our right. T wondered if we could
see the starting point of the new attack (at 8.20) there- but
we seemed to be not so xxxx far up as I had thought. We had still
a quarter of an hour so we hurried on up the bug knuckle opposite
and through the yellowing wheatfields on top - very wide
flat wheatfields which I thought would never end. Far away to
our right on the tableland beyond the next valley I could see
three or four of the big man-carrying "Mark5 star" tanks and some
infantry. They seemed to be stationary - somewhere up beyond
Warfusee I should say. I imagined that they were probably meeting
some opposition there for they stayed there so long.
At last we got over our knuckle and xxx were looking
down into the big valley where the German guns were all said to
be. Our barrage was to be especially heavy over this part in
order to knock out the gunners, when the barrage approached
the place, and prevent them from getting their guns away. This
was the big gully down to the Somme - the next big gully after
the one into which our line looked from Hamel heights (i.e.
the next after the one in which ACCROCHE WOOD was). The General
told us that some of the German guns were still in this valley
- at least I understood this. So we hurried over the hilltop,
the sweat, puring down under our tin hats, in order to gat a look
into this gully -(our first objective) before the 5th and 4th
Divns leapfrogged through the 3rd and 2nd)
8.20 passed while we were still hurrying across that
interminable flat hilltop. When we got to the oher side it was pxx
perhaps 8.30. I expected to see the line climbing the further
hill. But it was away and past it already. We found ourselves
looking into a green valley, /rather torn with the bursts of our recent
shelling. On the bottom of the valley, or just our side of
it were four or five gunpits, and as we went across the valley
we saw that under a bank on the Australian sid of it there were a
line of the shelters and dugouts of the gunners. There were a few
4.2 shell stacked in the valley - perhaps 20. The gunpits
were empty and did not seem to have been used for an age. There
were no recent hoof or wheel marks to show that the guns had
just been removed. A few - perhaps half a dozen - of our men
were wandering across the valley - others were on the further side
of it - on the flat crest of the next knuckle.
(I should have add d above that about the first sight
we saw when the mist cleared, xxxxxxxx before we got to the
Cerisy road, which we could see well ahead of us, was a number
of groups of our men standing around some old deep trenches ,
which must have been the German front line trenches. They were
our 10th Bde - the 39th Bn were those we saw - There were x
clusters of them looking at German gear;and one lot were standing
around a prisoner who was talking to them - a tall thin chap.
It must have been the 10th Bde which, when the fight moved ahead
went out from its own trenches down to the German front line
to see what was there. They were in tremendous spirits, laughing
and interested. We told them we wanted to see the second hop over,
- they said we would have to be quick - and we hurried on.)
When we looked down upon xxxxxxx the valley which ought
(we thought) tohave held the guns, and found it so deserted,
with scarcely a trace of recent German occupation - for all the
marks in it seemed to be old and half washed out by the weather -

56
the same thought struck both of us. "Why - he must have cleared
out of this some time ago. I believe the old beggar has evacuated
just before we attacked". We had only seen one German prisoner.
We had seen not one dead German. We saw no dumps, practically
no ammunition, no wire, no reserve trenches, no marks of
defensive organisation. Our men seemed to have got much further
ahead than the plan of battle warranted (though I am not sure
that we were not really mistaken as to where we were at that
moment, - we found the first objective still ahead of us presently.
"By God, I believe he has done us in the eye and cleared out"
I said. We found a couple of men of the 9th Machinegun company
under a bank on the other side of the valley - they w re resting
having lost their unit and wanted to know where to find it. They
and a few infantrymen whom we saw immediately after said that
some German machineguns had fought - but we were becoming more
convinced every minute that the German had really cleared out
and that our advance was trying hard to catch him up and could
only find his rearguard.
We found a line of men digging on top of the next
knuckle - 9th Brigade mostly. "Not much use their digging trenches
here", we thought. "The German is retiring and we shall never
need these defences against him. Our only chance of hitting him
hard is that his withdrawal, which must have been made yesterday
or the day before, has not gone on long enough to carry him more
than 4 or 5 miles, and perhaps we shall come up with him in
more force presently. But it is really bad luck - we shall
meet his real defence now that our guns have finished their
barrage and are more or less disorganised, pushing up; and he
will find our infantry attacking his compact little rear guard
parties and their machineguns without the help of artillery."
As we came onto this knuckle we saw a small wood.
down in the bottom of the next gully. Our men were digging in
all along the top of the knuckle on which we w re standing -
it had a flat green grassed top (from here on we seemed to get
out of the wheat area and run into poorer country covered
with grass only). Our men were digging in posts - not a continuous
line. And they were getting fairly well down already. Far
ahead beyond the gully we could see the tanks - about three or
four of them - advancing with the infantry walking xxxxxxxx
apparently between them. As we began to go down into the gully
we passed a tank - a very long one, of the type which carries
infantry -Mark 5 star. It seemed to have been having some trouble;
its officer was out in front of it with another, apparently
telling it which way to slew its nose round. There was a door
open in the near side of it- and some of the 16th Battalion were
crouching in the doorway - others were outside it. Far away to
the right - on the flat tableland, halfway between us and where
Harbonnieres must have been, were three or four more of these
big tanks and infantry - apparently stationary. I took it that
they might be held up by some obstacle - machinegun fire over
in that direction, possibly.
My attention was turned from the tank by Gullett
shouting out something about xxx gunpits. And there, halfway
down the slope on our left front were a line of dugouts, fairly
well camouflaged. I went down to get a photo of this German
camouflage - and underneath it were two German 4.2 howitzers.
So he had left some guns after all. "These must have been the
guns which he left behind to cover his retreat", we thought.
At that moment a batch of about ten German prisoners was coming
up towards the guns - I dont think they had an escort. About
100 yards behind them in the gully, was another batch of about
a dozen. As this second lot crossed the gully, out of a copse
about 30 yards from the wood there ran four Germans, across to
this party, and joined it- men in steel helmets without arms.
xxxx It was not for a moment that I realised that these Germans
must have been missed by our line and were running to join the
batch of prisoners in order to get safely taken prisoner - they
must have been lying low till they saw their comrades pass. xxxxx
I asked these Germans when they had retired. "A quarter of an
hour ago," they said. (Only afterwards did I realise that they
meant that that was when they ran away from our attack).

57.
"So this retirement was to take place this morning" I thought,
"and we are right on the heels of it". Morris was into the gun
dugouts in a moment, and brought out a telephone set and
some other things which he carried xxx about with him for the
war museum. These prisoners all had the brilliant yellow shoulder
straps and crossed red cannon of the artillery. We pushed on.
As we were crossing the hollow xxxxxxx we met a part of four
or five Germans carrying an officer. An Australian without any
weapons on him, in his shirt sleeves, had stopped them. They
were carrying a wounded officer. They had been dragging him along
in an overcoat. The Australian knew of a German stretcher in
the corner of the wood, and he had stopped them and taken them
to get the stretcher. The wounded officer had an iron cross on
his tunic breast. When we reached them the Australian was
trying to bargain it off him as a souvenir. We next met by the
side of the wood four Germans dragging down a wounded German -
his leg was badly broken and crushed half across. They were
carryong him one by each arm and one by each leg - and he was
having an awful time. I told them to come with me, and the same
Australian, who I fancy had now his iron cross, got us another
stretcher from the gunpits. xxxxxxxxxxxx The Germans were taking
it back, with me, to their comrade, when a young German officer
passed - not a bad looking chap, and asked me if I knew where his
wounded officer friend had gone. xxx He had promised to stay with
him, he said. "Did he go in the direction of that wood"? he said
pointing to a wood lower down the valley on the right.
I said I thought he had gone straight back over the hill
where our men were - Down the valley where the wood in question
was we could see the hills on the north side of the Somme. There
were.also a few bushes on the distant top of the knuckle where
it bent down to MORCOURT. And from that direction somewhere a
4.2 gun had been firing - or perhaps it was a whizzbang. We
heard the shells whizz overhead and saw them burst on the tabletop
where our men were digging - a good deal to the right of where
we crossed it.But it gave one an idea that the Germans were
still down there and I did not like the idea of this German officer
strolling off down there on his own. So I walked back with
him towards our men. As we reached the tabletop the shells which
had been bursting further up the line began to burst 100 or
150 yards away - one or two of them - I think there was only
one gun. A tank was coming over the hilltop and passing us. A
shell whizzed very close. Then another which seemed to be from
a smaller gun (or else was a dud) swished into the ground about
5 yards from us and about 6 feet short of the side of the tank.
It flung up some splashes of mud. A man who was standing
almost over the burst put up his hands to his face and stood
dazed hoding his face; but I dont think he was hit - unless by
mud. It was an uncomfortable place unless you were in a trench
- as most of our men were, they had their trenches fairly deep.
We could not see the wounded German officer. None of the
men seemed to know, where he was. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx And I
could not see an Australian officer. So I let the German walk
on but told two of the diggers there to keep their eye on him
as I had my doubts of the wisdom of letting him go alone. They
at once pulled him back and said they would take him back themsleves
- or one of them would. He appealed to me, but when I told
him that it was considered necessary by the men that he should
have an escort he assented at once.
I xxxxxx caught up Gullett and Morris. There were two
other guns of the battery, further back up the same gully -
and plenty of ammunition in little pits at the back of them. The
pits were like shellholes or riflepits. The shells were in them
covered with a bit of Malthoid roofing and grass. And various
pits were labelled.
We crossed the next knuckle and found ourselves in a
much deeper and more interesting gully - which ran down to
the Somme near Morcourt. On our side of it were a large number
of bivouacs or huts built close in against the side of the hill
nearest to us. There were two lots of these, and in one of them-
near the bottom of the slope on our left two huts were burning -

58
we had seen the smoke over the hilltop and wondered if it were
a tank on fire.
It turned out that they were the bivouacs of the men of
a 5.9 battery in the hollow.Two big 5.9 hows were at the bottom
of the steep slope on our left, and two were further up the
gully on our right. On the far side of the valley, on a tongue
which came down between its two branches like the fork of a Y,
was a wood, (afterwards I heard it called Hamilton Wood.) On the
other slope of the valley - high up above a couple of banks
was a battery of our guns. The limbers had just gone across
there with them. There were also a couple of tanks under the
further side of the valley.
We turned into the nearest hut of the top row; there was
a table inside. All the rifles were hanging on nails round the
walls exactly as they had xxxxxx been left. The bayonets were
hanging on other pegs. There were clothes on the rough wooden
bunks - matches - nothing seemed to have been removed. xxx
I sat down here to write the second half of that dys cable -
with the typewritier on their mess table. As one gradually
took in the romm and what was left there it became clear that
this room had not been deliberately evacuated. The Germans
who were here had run and left it exactly as it stood. Perhaps
they had been with their guns at the time - anyway they did not
mean to leave this bivouac today. They must belong to part of
the organisation for rearguard defence.
Two officers whom we had passed -men of the 13th Bn I
think - no, the 9th machinegun company- told us that a German
officer had told them that they had been in process of lightening
their forward area, and were going to come back about 3 kilos-
I think they said. But that they had never dreamed that we would
come so far. This rather agreed with what the prisoner of a
soundranging section, captured two days before the battle, had
told us.(He also said that they had noticed that our heavy guns
in the area had been decreased in number). I found that other
officers were puzzled at the few Germans that had been met with
and some of them thought that the German was clearing out. Others
did not think so.
While I was writing my, cable, several artillery
officers (48th or 42nd Bty) came in and inspected the place
for a headquarters for their brigade. Standing in the door
yarning they told us that they had seen very few German guns
- about 20 all together; but then they said they never thought
that the Germans had many guns here. One officer told me that he
had looked at some of the German guns and found that they had
a switch of 180 degrees - an enormous arc to cover, considering
that our guns have about 70. Their opinion was that the Germans
had been making a few guns go a very long way- using xxxx
very constantly those that they had; but had really been bluffing
and holding this area weakly.
I started my cable by saying that we had evidently caught
the Germans in the act of evacuating this area in anticipation
of our attack. But by the time the cable was finished that opinion
was so far shaken that I altered this to "clearly lightening
the number of troops in the forward zone".
I sent off Morris with the message - it was now about 11.30
am. As I left the hut, down the other side of the gully came
trooping about 200 Germans in charge, as far as I could see,
of one Australian. He was leading them, like a shepherd. They
came along, the rearmost ones running constantly to get back
as fast as they could. They clambered up the steep slope still
clustering about their shepherd; and as they reached the top they
looked back over their right shoulders to where they knew the
Germanxxxxxxxxxxxxx position still was, and half ran half
walked in their hurry, to get across the slope. They knew - I am
sure - that if their own guns saw them they would shell them. At
the same time further down the valley came another string - marching
in fours - probably 300 strong.
We went down and had a look at the ^5.9 guns. This gun is
the best- most people think - in the war. The dugout which was
burning was one which had contained charges for the guns.

59.
xxxxx A German shell or two began to fall down the lower part
of this valley - so we turned round and decided to make round
the top end of it. We were partly up the eastern slope near
the wood, when we noticed that the Germans were placing their
shell most beautifully around four of our guns at the lower
end of the valley. Therebwas a line of guns, as I have said,
around the top of the eastern slope of the gully; and the four
northernmost guns (those nearest the Somme side) were now stand-
by themselves on the open hillslope with German shells in pairs
bracketing them two or three times a minute. The gunners had x
been driven from their guns. The next battery on their right,
being a little more round the curve of the hill was firing from
the top of a bank. The shooting was so good that I went down the
gully again to get a photograph of it. Evidently the Germans
were still on the heights by Malard Wood or Bois des Celestines
or else Chipilly ;I dont think the guns can have been further
away. And those places were simply straight down the end of the
gully, blocking the lower entrance of it as the back scene
blocks a stage. Somewhere in that backscene there must be a x
couple of German guns -4.2s I should say - which is looking
right in at the back of-those batteries. The shooting was absolutely
deadly - and very quick. Then they turned onto a couple
of tankw which were on the same slope - the tank people hurriedly
got them going and moved in under the banks further round. Then
they turned on the next battery which was firing. The gunners
still worked for a few rounds; but then they all came - at some
order, I suppose - doubling roundfrom their guns under the bank.
The trouble was that the woods on the N of the Somme which ought
by now to have been taken by the British had clearly not been
taken. It was always recognised as a difficult corner and
obviously they had not got ahead there - although we thought
that they were probably into the western edge of the woods.
The German shells next began to fall on the slope on
which we were sitting; so we left, and went on up the gully.
This top of the gully was just as clearly in view as the bottom.
[*See p. 78*]
And into it came team after team of beautifully groomed Royal
Horse Artillery horses. They wheeled round and took shelter under
the edge of the wood, with their flank quite open to the Germans
looking up the valley. Across the head of the valley was by now
a complete line of guns - some of them with their camouflage nets
already spread well out-over them. They were in a straight line,
and facing them - down the end of the gully to their left - was
the same xxxx landscape which looked into the Australian guns
at the bottom of the valley - only more of it.
We went on to the top of the hill behind the wood
and sat down to have a look round with our telescope. We could
see the final objective from here - at least, from the map it
could not be further on than the horizon ahead of us. There
was one deep gully between. On the left - on the distant
hills across the hidden river - one could see what I had not
seen for many a long day - the avenue of trees along the
Peronne Albert road, xxxxxxx which was such a landmark in the
old days of the Somme battle. They were unmistakable - there
was the ragged break in them caused by the blowing up of a dump
some time in September 1916. It was like coming home, the sight
of those trees again.
As we sat here a tank pulled out a wounded tank
on our right. They had the colours of the 11th brigade hung
like great wooden pendants on necklaces round their
necks - hanging from their breasts. One had the colours of
the 34-th Bn, the other 11th Bde. Then past us on the other
side trooped a procession of Royal Horse artillery, xxxxx behind
the wood. They were led by a round backed young officer in the
most immaculate dress. He carried a rididng switch like a field-marshals
baton in his right hand. His helmet was covered with
some terra cotta shade, which looked like chamois leather; and
he wore chamois leather gloves, unbuttoned at the wrist; going
into action as he would go off to Rotten Row.
Our advancing line was here still in sight. Far
across the tableland, below the horizon, with the naked eye one
could see the line of them advancing. They had reached a wheatfield.

60
At the left had edge of this wheatfield was a clump of
trees and hedge - possibly hiding a house. One of the large
tanks had just got up a bank onto the lower edge of this field.
Further up the field was the line of our men advancing. On the
horizon ahead we could see figures jumping up and down and
hopping over the skyline in the way which means that they
are aorking in trenches. These we took to be probably Germans,
although some who were later seen a little further right were
probably Australians. Presently when we looked at this line in
the wheatfield it was clearly held up. xxxxxx A couple of shells
from some German gun on the north of the Somme, probably - for
the Germans there were now well behind us - put a shell almost
onto it. It was backing down the slope and after going a good
way stopped. The infantry in the field were making little individual
rushes forward to the haycocks, and we could see them in
twos and threes lying in front of the haycocks or tucked under
them; sometimes hopping from one to another. At the same time
others were edging forward up the slope further left. Presently
we saw two or three smoke busrsts at intervals in the copse in
the corner, or behind it. I couldnt grasp what they meant for
the moment till Gullett said they were smoke bombs fired
from rifles like grenades, and were meant to show the tanks
where there was opposition. We saw a tank further down the hill
on the left edging up. I fancy the infantry there settled it
however, by edging round the left of the hedge. A few minutes
later they were all going forward there standing up - so the
difficulty was clearly gone.
It must have been about 12.30 now. And the trenches
those men were getting into must have been the Bray line at
about R 13 C, say a mile WNW of Proyart. The Blue line.
In the meantime our shells had been pretty heavy upon
Morcourt and xxxxxxxxxx the Somme valley there. I forget what
itbwas that gave us the idea that Morcourt was still untaken -
probably the German gun which I mentioned which shot so close
to us from somewhere on that flank. One had the idea that things
had not gone so fast there as elsewhere. The shooting at our
guns in the gully by Hamilton Wood confirmed it. We now went on
to a tree at the crossroads near 22 central. There was an
English officer at the foot of the tree - turned out to be a sub
in the R.H.A. - and a voice from up the tree showed that there
was an English-major up it, getting a view of the country for
his guns.
The road to our left ran down to Morcourt. And there was
a good deal of artillery fire just beyond or on this village -
we couldnt see the place itself. And there seemed to be a lot of
shelling against the opposite slope of the river there - where
Chipilly would be. Half an hour later this increased: and then
and at dusk, when we saw Chipilly, it was simply being lashed
with English shell.
We sat down at this tree for a long while. Mericourt
was below us on the left front in the valley, with a wood on the
peninsula behind it. We were not taking this peninsula. Our
final line as to run just short of Mericourt and then onto the
heights where the Bray line ran SE of Mericourt. There was a
solitary tank out S of Mericourt, all by itslef on the hillslope;
it was smoking and apparently abandoned. Our men had been seen
beyond it - so that they were apparently further out than the
Blue line in this dirrection.
We then looked at the Chipilly Peninsula - the high green
tongue of land which stuck out from the northern side into
the horshoe ben in which Mericourt lies. At once we noticed that
there were Germans here and there moving on this green slope.
xxxxxxxx Gullett spotted motion in that direction first -
seeing a line of waggons or guns moving down a road N.E of Etinhem.
The sub took it up and was quite excited. "By Jove Sir, they ought
to get the guns onto those", he said. They were six teams either
with waggons or guns behind them; and they came down a track
behind the broken windmill( I think) through K19 Central. Then
below them, on the skyline of the Etinhem Spur I sawa number of
men walk up to what looked very much like a gun right on the

61
smooth green ridge. Gullett saud he saw them wheel it round by
hand; and they certainly went off with something to the reverse
slope of the ridge.
This was about 1.30 I should say. The Major up the treee
said that he could see the British advancing up the other side of
Malard Wood. And turning the glasses that way I saw numbers of
Tommies going forward in strings on the NW side of the wood, up
in the cornfields not far from the Bray Corbie road. They
were not very much further forward then than our old front line
but I took it that the front of their actual advance was hidden
by the wood itself. I looked hard for men on the steep slope
behind Chipilly - and saw several there - some about 28C I
should say - apparently active over something. It looked as tho
there were fighting going on there. Monash had told us that Gen
Butler had promised him to keep on attacking there all day -
just the sort of thing a British General would promise - in
order to safeguard our flank. At another time I thought that I
saw men going up from the German side about there, as if to
resinforce or trickle through to their front. There was movement
there all the time. But as it was very hard to make out
whose movement it was I turned the glass onto the green foot of
the Chipilly Spur.
Our artillery was giving this pla and Morcourt or
the valley beyond a heavy basting. And out along the road which
ran back along the foot of the hill came running a German: He
had no weapons - only his steel helmet. And he ran and then
walked and ran and walked - and one could fancy him perspiring.
It made me think that our men down at the foot of the hill by
Morcourt or Mericourt must be sniping at them across the valley.
Then there folloed another German about 50 yards behind; and
then a third leading a lot of about 12. And a little later came
6 more - 21 in all I think. They half ran, many of them. But
the last-ones were evidently the coolest for they walked and finally
all of them got away round the Eastern corner of the
Peninsula. They must have been Germans running away either from
our men at Morcourt; or else from the British attacking Chipilly.
A man of the 16th Bn had come up to us and said that our
men had some trouble in Morcourt at first. But then the British
came up on the other side and the 16th took Morcourt.
We went on a little further till we could see Chipilly.
It was 2.45 by now (I made sketches at each of these
places - or most of them) and Chipilly was being heavily shelled
all the time - going up in dust. We were licking out with
shrapnel - and were throwing smokeshell at this time at various
points beyond Chipilly on the slope of the green hill just behind
it. I noted this as a protective barrage, but it may have been
for an attack.
Meantime the Germans were certainly bringing up guns
on tht flank to fire up the gulies on our side of the river. We
saw the flash of a four gun battery very clearly on the road from
Etinhem to Bray; and the bright flash of a gun in or behind
the wood behind Hericourt. xxxxxx Shells were bursting up the
valley ahead of us, where the 13th Bn was taking cover - its Hqrs
- under the bank of a road. A little further to the right the
45th were camped under a xxxx steep slope in the same valley.
We walked round into the valley towards our right front
and found ourselves looking into a very steep narrow, half scrubby
little gully which curled right round behind us. Opposite
us on the far side of the gully we at once saw four curious looking
guns with their noses sticking very high up into the air.
We took them for anti aircraft guns - or rather, half wondered
if the Germans could possibly be using field guns with sunken
trails for anti aircraft guns like the Turks did. Then we
noticed opposite us a long, 6 inch gun, painted like a tiger
in yellow red and black, camouflaged. It was a naval gun - and
an old pattern - 1902. "I am afraid he has only left his older
guns like we did at Gallipoli" one thought.
But the 4.2s when we came to look at them - curious
though their shapes were, were 1917 guns. And the Germans had

62
actually left the sights on at least two of them - we took
one sight off - it had been struck with something but Gullett
thinks that the only glass broken was a flat one.
The 45th Bn was in the next gully, when we looked
down into it; but the German seemed to be just finding them
with a solitary 5.9. We had our lunch while we watched these
bursts. To the right of us was a farm burning - a large house.
I wanted to get a photograph of it as the smoke would show
against the hill (it never will against the sky - nor will shell
smoke except black shell smoke). We found ourselves looking
down into a steep gully of which both sides had been greatly
used by the Germans. There had been a considerable camp on
our side of it. The Germans with their little tables and seats
always make a camp of theirs rather resemble a bier garden with
all sorts of little woooden cabins in which they live. On the
far side of this gully, at the bottom of the bank, were about
ten tanks all getting lined up and into their places in their
park for the night. The burning house was on the other sid of
the gully, by the side of the road-
Then I remembered this gully. Of course - it was
one of the two steep gullies on this old Roman road where the
road swerved a little (as Roman roads do in descending steep
places) and which used to be not far behind the old French Somme
battle lines. The Germans had worn the bottom of the gully
threadbare with traffic - probably men camped there. (Our
tanks or armoured cars and the infantry, we heard afterwds,
captured numbers of Germans here today. lt wasone of the places
where they were thick.
The farmhouse which was burning up the road hdad
been used by the Germans as a dressing station - I had an idea
they set it on fire. The tents of the dressing station could
be seen near it by the roadside.
Gullett was very tired, but I wanted to get
further to see what sort of trenches our men were really in - and
what the Bray Corbie road was like. So we crossed the road and
climbed up the far siddof, the gully, keeping well clear of the
road as the Germans were shelling it. He seemed to be getting h
his shells a little in rear of the gully, though as we went f
further, from it he began to put them into the gully every time.
Higher up the gully - on the tableland behind it we now saw
Harbonnieres, not far away.
I still wanted to go to the front line. We were
meeting the 8th Bde here -32nd Bn.Presently we came on some
old unrevetted trenches overgrown with rather dry grey grass
It was the beginning of the old system. There was a well made
dugout with an aeroplane for a windvane - and one of our officers
sleeping in it. The 32nd was settled in supports. Its days work
was over - except for the digging of small posts in a line
in front of these trenches. Another thousand yards ahead we
struck another line. There were sone men of the 15th Bde -38th [*?58th*]
Bn I think, in it. It was the support line to the front line
which was in similar trenches a few hundred yards away. As Gullet
was so tired we gave it up there.
These men were looking out over a moor made by
the old Somme battle. A few Australians could be seen walking
or standing about, 200 or 300 yards on. They were about the front
line - but it didnt seem to matter where the front line was, for
they said there were no Germans then in front of them as far
as they knew. There was a train to their right front 800
yards away. The cavalry had been through in the 15th Bde
sector, they said, and had found that train getting away with a
number of Germans. They had stopped it and had just brought in
the lot. The Germans were also trying to get away with one of
"them rubber guns" i.e. high velocity (4.7 the speaker thought)
They had had it on the train but thebcavalry stopped them. The
cavalry had stopped a third train. And the armoured cars had just
come back saying that they had been to Peronne or near it. (This
I took with caution) Though later we did see a car come down the
road from out in front - I thought that it was an ordinary
civilian car. It came pretty fast, with a shell after it, past
the hospital

62A
the hospital.
We turned there and walked back - they told us that
the Germans had been sniping out in the direction of the
train - part of which had been burned (We heard later that it
had been stopped by an armoured car and that our planes saw this
and bombed it). Someone told us that the train which we could
see in the wheatfield this side of Harbonnieres was the one with
the gun on it. It had a railway engine which looked like one of
our own; so we went over near to it and saw then that it was
really a huge railway gun whichnhad been captured. Certainly
that was a bad mistake of the Boche. Whatever his papers might
say, he couldnt pretend that this gaun was left as part of a "withdrawal
as arranged". She was captured absolutely intact - shells,
train crew everything. The line had been cut by shells-in
about four places on our side of her - it seemed to be a
specially laid 5ft 3in line- and so our people could not get
her away. The engineers of our 8th field company had already
got her going - steam was up. I couldnt imagine why there
were not shells falling round her - two shell holes
had been smoking near her, but none fell there while we were
looking at her. Possibly they will raid tonight to get her, we
said; it would be worth a cavalry raid to do it - and that may
be why they are leaving her alone. We walked back, seeing the 29th
and Col Macfarlane ^Arthur on the way. As we came past Bayonvillers there
was fighting still going on away to the south of us - the roll
of guns had been continuous there all the afternoon and evening.
We found the 14th Bde just getting into little rifle pits to sleep
E of Bayonvillers. A big German gun, surprisingly close, was
shooting from directly behind (SE) of us trying to hit the
road and not making bad shooting either. Three or four big
shell exploded with a huge burst beyond the road as we went
towards it. After we had passed it by about a quarter of a mile
there was a crash, and we saw a great grey shrapnel burst apparebtly
just over the moving traffic on the road - but when
the smoke cleared all seemed to be moving as usual.
At the back of Accroche Wood our 60 pounders were xxxxxxxxxxng
xxxxxxx had got into position. Tanks were coming down to roost
under the steep side of the valley. We climbed the other side
to where there had been an old German position - and there saw
lying the first dead German. But I should say he had been there
4 or 5 days. Near him was a waggon and two dead horses; and
hitched onto the tail of the waggon (a round hooded rickety
looking light blue grey affair) was a medium trench mortar.
The horses had evidently been shot before the minenwerfer could
get away. "That was the man who threw the flares", we said.
We found a field howitzer battery by the old French
trenches between Hamel and Sailly sec. We crossed the river
at the same place - struck along the river bank - a risky thing
for you never know how far those river side paths may take you
without a turning by which you can cross the lagoons on each side;
and found Boddy in the dark xxxxxxxxxx onnthe road near the
dressing station from which we had started. And Morris.
We were dead tired. I drove Gullett back to Ailly and
then home to camp. I turned in after a feed. There was a
message from GHQ to say that Murdoch and Gilmour were to
arrive that evening; but Scott, our orderly, said they were
not coming. I turned in. About 3am Murdoch and Gilmour appeared
at the tent door. They had had great difficulties with
their car. I fixe up Murdoch in my tent; Gilmour in the
mess tent; and a youngster whom they had brought with them -
in the car.
August 9th. FRIDAY. We captured about 6000 odd
prisoners yesterday, and 104 guns. Before noon it was known that
we had taken 4000 prisoners; in the afternoon 5000; by 10am
today, Unwounded :-XX 154 offrs 5700 o.r.
Wounded 21 offrs 500 o.r.
By noon the guns were known to be 67;m.gs 150, T.Ms 23. These
include at least 2 3in; 7 5.9; and one rly gun which I say is
12 or 11 inch but Hunn says is 9.2. (It turned out to be 11
in or a little more). The 2nd Divn has 29 guns; 25 TMs and 15 Omgs.

63
Monash had told us that Gen.Lawreance had definitely
told him that he was not going beyond the "Blue line", the final
objective for the first days fighting. Monash had said :"If
you want to go beyond it - if you intend to do so - you must
have the troops ready beforehand; and the arrangements all
made. It is not easy or practicable to make arrangements to
push further the success on the spur of the moment". Monash
off course, as in Gallipoli, always playes for safety- he has
a dread of an unfixed objective, and is the last leader in
the world ever to take the responsibility of getting beyond his
flanks. The capture of guns was good enough for him - he drew
the line xxxxxxxxxx at anything more- he told us. And-I daresay
that he told Lawrence that if he wanted to go further he must
do it with other troops.
One was pretty certain that if all went well, in spite
of anything G.H.Q. or Monash said, they would try to exploit
the success. But it was all the same a little surprise when
Blamey told me that the 1st Division was to go on at 11 this
morning and try to get to LIHONS - the Canadians going on on
their right. In the meantime the French (who started at Montdidier
yesterday afternoon) were going to make a push from further
round in the direction of Noyon.
It was fairly late, when I heard this. Murdoch and I
were working a little later in the morning than Gilmour; so we
let him go out in their car with Rogers (Gen.Staff Operations)
and we had lunch and then took the car - as I saw we could
have done yesterday - through VlLLERS BRETONNEUX and out along
the main road past Warfusee to a point whence we could see the
German shells bursting fairly thickly ahead of us - xxxxxxxx
and stopped the car behind some German screen matting on the
N.side of the road. A high velocity gun was still shooting at
the road before we got to Warfusee; but xxxxxx we got in between
the shots which seemed to be at wide intervals. Only a few
horses were lying dead by the roadside.
We told Boddy to go back and wait for us in the
Bayonvillers road; and we cut-.Murdoch and I - across the field
towards Harbonnieres. The big gun was still there on its
train - the Germans had not hit it apparently in the night
(at Corps HQrs they told us the gun had been brought back
but xfxxx as we approached the train I could see the engine
with its low wide back. (I learnt afterwards that this gun
was originally on the train which we had seen half burnt
out beyond Harbonnieres, and had been detached from it and
brought to where we saw it by the 8th Field Coy).
The Germans were shelling the Harbonnieres-Morcourt
gully very sharply, and occasional shells were falling over
near the train. Murdoch suggested going up and having a look at
it. We found that the words "Captured by 31st Bn" had been
rubbed out but "Captured by 8th Field Coy" had been painted on it
A lieutenant of the 8th Field coy was superintending the
getting of the gun onto the rails. It had gone slightly off
them. The rails also had been mended in all places except one
behind the train, so that they would be able to get it out tonight.
I didnt know where they were shelling from - clearly
sniping shelling - but Framvillers Church was just beyong
the trees to the left front (or probably it was Vauvillers). I
thought that we had this but possibly we did not.
We walked on past the road from Proyart to Harbonnieres.
Some engineers had either been killed or wounded by one of the
whizzbang shelles which burst right in front of them. There was
a little red cross flag in a dugout or "sumph" on the German
side of the road. A fair number of shells were falling between
Harbonnieres and Vauvillers. We crossed the road and went on
southwesterly. A party of men - about 6 of them - carrying
party, I fancy, close on our left were being sniped at by a
swift pecking whizzbang shell which generally went too far.
Clearly the gun could see them - at least I should say so, tho'
I doubted it at the time. The party sat down for 5 minutes.