Charles E W Bean, Diaries, AWM38 3DRL 606/193/1 - August - November 1918 - Part 4

40 
troops up to the Rhine & to   
occupy bridgeheads.
The German submarines
to come into two British
S. Coast ports from Atlantic
& N Sea; & / German Fleet
to anchor in / Bight of
Heligoland under / guns
o / British fleet.
[The Australians have had 
to give up half their arty
& half their battles fleet.]
The reason why our
move ws delayed 24 hrs
ws / blowing up of a delayed
German mine on / rly.
This has bn happening
everywhere & causing 
a lot of trouble - it is
 

41
one reason why the troops
cant get beyond further
than they are, & quicker,
on the 4^th army front.
They are 40 miles ahead
o / rlys (Cadge says) owing 
to these mines, & /  rlys
are necy in order to keep
rations up to / men. There
is very little arty fire
now on / front exc. on
our side (so Cadge says).
Nov 7th Thurs. Left Lille today
for the 9^th Corps Hqrs. It ws
most interesting to come across
through / country where / earliest
battles in / war were fought
- outside of Lille on / Douai
 

42
road we noticed tt were a number of the  
houses had bn destroyed long
ago - a percentage of them;

& yet there were no obvious
shellholes around them or
around tt part o / country.
They It must have been in / days
when / guns were brought up
to fire direct on this house or
that. It was like looking
[*White flag*] on the sacred relics 
[*White & [[?]]*] of some incident
of the dim past.
The road to Lille

had taken us thro' Lens
wh ws completely broken
up - utterly smashed so
that it was hard to know
if the brickheaps & skeletons
of twisted machinery were
 

Rly Stns of [[shorthand]] 

43
in / town or in / suburbs.
The only decently ordered
portion of things left was
one German plank road
from / rly stn to the main
road - apparently German
 We w Today we
struck Douai - Cambrai-
Le Catelet. After Lille I 
ws surprised to see how

much they were all
knocked about. Cambrai
Especially seemed to have
had almost every house
affected by one shell or
another. The hard fighting
wh / Canadians had there
must have affected the place.
done a lot of damage to /

44
place. We expected to find
civilians here and at
least a cafe where we
could get a cup of coffee
to go with our lunch. But
there ws none; and the
YMCA at / rly stn was
closed until 2.30 pm.
Douai ws just / same. The
German had done his
damage to / rlys exceedingly
well. They tell us tt his mine
wh blew up on / rlys & wh affected delayed 
our ^1st Divs move was at Epehy - 
wh / Germans had left 7
weeks before - so long
had his mine waited been
delayed in its action.
In Cambrai the high tower
of the church or Hotel de Ville
 

45
seemed to be intact; & so
were the high fine old
towers of Le Cateau -
though / outskirts o /
town were smashed.
We began to find /
inhabitants again here - 
not so many as at Lille
but and almost all old
men, women, & little
children. It
We called at Bussigny
wh was almost intact, to
see 9^th Corps - Harper is /
general - but we saw, there
Col. Farmer, formerly of the
3^rd Aust Divn, who told us tt
our 1^st Divn had bn delayed
another 24 hrs and ws
going to St Souplet. We
 

46
passed Rawlinsons Hqrs
(looking very snug in a
fine camouflaged train) and
went on in / dark to
Buss St Souplet where / young
Town major ws very decent.
and We found little Norrie
of 4 Bn there arranging advanced
billets w Priestley (Int Offr,
1^st Aust Divn - now G.S.O 14.)
Norrie gave us one little
house he had. Our lorry
had not arived, so while
Cutlack went of to 9^th Corps
to get some rations I 
stayed at the billet & swept
& cleaned it.
It had bn an officers
billet in / German days;
and British officers & 

47
Americans had lived there
since.
While I was there Priestly
looked in. He had bn up / line
The British were very well,
he sd - The 32^nd Divn
apparently ws on a one
battalion front - one bn
in line, one in support;
one in reserve; one bde
in support and one
resting. The 32nd Divn
were going to sideslip onto
the 46^th Divn next them;
& our 1^st Divn ws going in
N. of the 32nd.

Priestly sd tt / German
white flag came in quite
close to here today. At
abt 10 am a car came
 

48
[^XLater:
It was at 10 p.m. - a German
labour company was sent out ahead
to fill in craters in the roads.
The party consisted of 10 - several
generals; an admiral; Herr
Erzberger; & a naval Captain.]
 49
down / road to Guise with
a great sheet flying from /
top of it. It contained 2
generals & 2 admirals ^X
Cutlack went back this morning
presently & told me tt / Germans
knew wilson term the armistice
terms. Wilson had let them
know of them - He had informed
them tt / Germ allied council
at Versailles had agreed to
his 14 points being taken as /
basis for negotiation except as to
two points: first the freedom of
the Seas must be understood in
/ sense given to it by / Allies (wh
means Great Britains claims interests must
be safeguarded). Secondly the
restoration must include /
 

50
restoration of / civilians
of France & Belgium in their
occupations. On learning
this / German Govt seems to
have decided to send a party
at once to ask / terms o /
armistice. This looks as if
[*White & Hughes 
Breakf.                   
Germany [[shorthand]]
German Delegates ]
demand.              
72 hours      *]
peace were certain.
White & Wynter both
spoke to me of Hughes
& his attitude. He 
is going to make any
decent arrangement extraordinarily
difficult.  For example - no
sooner has Hughes (partly as the
result of my telegram) been allowed
to stay over here & xxxxxxxx help to administer and 
support demobilization than he
xxx  rings up Dodds to know if
the "cards" are ready. The cards
are the document issued to