Charles E W Bean, Diaries, AWM38 3DRL 606/198/1 - 1915 - 1918 - Part 7

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again.)  While this pty ws in Rest Gully
Australians were passing & going
towds Wire Gully all / time.
Someone gave Howe, DuMole & Pettit
a box of ammn to carry.  They split
it up & put in in their sandbags.
The whole pln ws then moved up to
reinforce on / left.  They went down
Rest Gully & up Monash Valley.
As they went up / valley there
ws v heavy rifle fire going on along
/ whole top o / ridge to their right
(MacLaurins Hill).  Some of 11^th men were
drawn in there.  Everett & Morgan
were neither there then but Morgan
must have bn close.  The men
were going in single file & / going
ws rough.  [DuMole, Pettit & Howe
were together & when Du M. & P left

Howe they joined Morgan - so M must have
been there].
The party bore round to /
left / whole time.  As they go up /
slope towds the Nek the firing got
heavy.  Howe lost D/M & Pettit &
 

60

picked up another couple of men
(D/M & Pettit went right & H. left).
Shrap ws heavy most o / way up
/ valley after halfway.  The rifle fire
was very heavy but but was high
above - diggers wd be standing at /
bottom o / valley arguing what the
double crack o / bullet was.  The
shrapnel was coming from Sari
Bair direction.
Howe & his 2 companions
went across Walkers Top until
they found themselves looking over
/ other side, w / sea directly on
their left.  There was a very steep
gully ahead & ^then a ridge; & the
fire which they were getting must
have bn coming from tt ridge.
There were a few men lying down
o / edge, which Howe reached, firing
across the gully.  H. stayed there to get
a breather.  The Howe & his 2 companions
left the party (prob. 12 Bn - at X) & worked
to / right & then down into / Gully where
it was very steep.  You cd shout across
 

61
/ Gully & some men on the far ridge
waved to them not to stop on / fore slope
but come on.  It wd be abt 200
yds across / gully , or less.  Hay H. & 2 men
crossed / Gully & stayed w the 
20 to 50 men there; & then hopped
over the top & ran suddenly into
a Turkish trench at Z.
While they were waiting before
doing this, very heavy shrapnel
fire was put down on / positn
they had just left - beautiful
shrapnel, low burst - so tt
no other troops cd come across
it.
They took the trench at Z.
There were Ts in it, some shot & bayoneted.
There ws a fight.
This was an absolutely straight
trench with C.Ts running off at each end.  As
soon as they got into it a m.g. was
turned onto it from / right.  They found
tt our own troops had bn in tt
trench before, because there were
dead lying in & round it.  There ws
 

62
no offr w Howes Party.  They
made up their mind by a sort of
general consent.  When they went

forward they were looking for their
battalions - looking for / firing
line.  They had an idea it ws
somewhere ahead.
They got into the C.T.s out o /
way of the m.g. fire.  From there
they cd see a long way forward
over / slight slope of a hill - they
were looking inland - cdnt see /
sea - probly looking E.N.E.  They cd
see / Turks beginning to come over the
level ground over wh they looked,
abt 500 yds away.
The pty came back to / positn
it had started from in order to have
a pow wow.  They decided to dig in
where they were, on / reverse slope,
& wait for something to be done.
There ws no digging necy.
Later t aftn a pty of N.Z.
troops (abt a single Coy) under an
officer came up / gully from the
 

63
sea & joined.  The party w Howe told
the N.Z. offr what ws happening.  The
Turks had got into / trench at Z by then,
again & they told / NZ offr this & told
him it ws no use taking / trench.
While they had bn sitting under /
edge a couple of wd men came
from / rt front & joined them - so
there were evidently troops on / half
rt front.
The NZ. offr made them attack
the (Z) trench again.  The Ts didnt resist
but simply ran.  Those who had bn
there before passed / word to get into
the C.T.s  As the pty got into / trench the
same m.g. opened & knocked pretty
well all / men in / trench.  The N.Z.
offr ws one o / first to be killed.
Howe went straight over into the C.T. w a
N.Z. Corporal & a N.Z. pte - a youngster.  The
Cpl & Howe stuck there for a bit till things
quietened.  By this time they cd see more
Ts coming back as before & also from
half right.  It looked like a real attack on
some scale.  So H. & pty started to go back
 

64
towds a line of Australns wh they cd
see on / hill in their right rear.
They decided to join this line  The whole
pty started but got divided.  Howe
& the NZ Cpl stuck together.  The Ts were
very close - by / noise. (it wd be abt 4 pm)
Howe & the Cpl got near / head o / Gully where
it ws shallower.  Something made them get
down there.  H. saw an offr - Turk or German
get right onto / skyline & started looking out
thro his glasses.  Howe took a good aim
& dropped him. (abt 120 yds away).
They got across / Gully.  Something
made them give up / idea of joining /
men at V.  The N.Z. Cpl & Howe came in
towds / nek & there found a N.Z. man
on a m.g.  There were 3 guns there under and
a sergt - there seemed to be no one else
there when H. stumbled on them.  H. took over
one of / guns.  As he got down he heard
someone sing out "Snowy Howe!"  They
were under fire at / time.
When things quietened H. started
w another man to crawl towds where
 

65
this voice ws coming from  They found
Pte Ferguson who had bn w them at
Z.  He ws shot thro / lung & had
a broken leg.  They put him down behind
where they were.  (There wd be abt 50
stragglers picked up ^coming back & w / pty by now).
They were [[losing?]]pretty heavily w
sniping & m.gs. all / aftn, & were
digging in.  There were 16 m.g. belts
up there.  They dug in on a sort of horse
shoe shape as soon as it got dusk.
Hand drawn diagram - see original document
The N.Z. Sergt
had by now bn hit &
had taken back a message
for reinfts.  The NZ Cpl &
Howe (L/Cpl) were running
the show by this time. Howe
& a S/B went back along the white
track (shown above) looking for tools,
& found a party at A. dug half
dug in across the top of Walkers R.
under a N.Z. Sergt Major or QMS.
They got some of this pty to come back w
 

66
them to the Horse Shoe trench, w some tools.
They had steady casualties there all /
aftn.
Abt dark the line ws down
abt 2 ft when Abdul attacked.  He
came across / gully & then also over /
Nek.  They let him come quite close.
It wd be abt 8 p.m.  They knocked him
back & went on digging, beginning to
feel comfortable.  A N.Z man came up
& told / Corporal: "Hey, Corp. that mob
behind us has gone."  [Before this, in
/ aftn, the Corpl had recd a written message
to say: "Hold on, Reinfts are coming up
to you." It wasnt addressed to anyone,
as far as H. remembers.  The pty in
rear ws already there so there were not
the reinfts.  The reinfts never came.]
They had felt very safe in this
positn; but when told tt the line in rear
had gone - (i.e. just after the T. attack -)
H. & Cpl. went back to have a look.  They
found tt the line behind had gone, &
tt there were Turks in / Gully on each
side of them, in rear of them.
 

67
Some o / men knew where /
right white rd led to - back to our
own centre - & so knew where
we were, more or less, in relation
to rest - at any rate, how to
get in touch.
Cpl. & H. decided to move
back & get in touch.  They had the
3 guns & a lot of ammn.  20 to 30
badly wd men were w them.  They
evacuated these all exc. 4 who were
too bad to move (Ferguson wdnt be
moved.).  Then the rest started back
carrying ^all / guns & ammn.  The
Ts came at them once when they had
gone back from 200 to 300 yds. It
ws v nasty there - they were fighting
some time.  They beat / Turks off &
were left alone.  Then they continued /
retirement.  They got back into a
trench at / top of Rest Gully, looking back
into it.  While there - they decided to
stay there.  The Turks came up & tried to
dig in abt 150 yds in front.  The party
kept up very heavy fire on them all
 

68
night & it was replied to.  It ws
a good deep Turk trench.
Apr 26. Just before daylight an offr
of the staff came & told them to leave /
positn as / ships were going to bombard.
The whole pty had not got out when
the bombt started - they seemed to be
about 6 in shells - we had 5 men
hit by one of them.  They then got out
& down to / beach the same was of they
landed.
Howe found Pte Jamieson of
11 Bn on / beach - he had just
brought Lt Morgan down, hit thro'
/ lung (he ws discharged in Aust.
& is now a Capt. in 4^th Bn Welsh
Regt).  Howe made some tea there
w some water wh Tom Shaw the ^Sergt cook
was boiling, & went away & had
a couple of hrs sleep.  Abt 10 a.m.
they started to look for / unit.  L^t
Vowles 12 Bn ws met w abt 200
men of 3 Bde in Shrap. Gully.  They
took this bunch up by 3rd Bde Hqrs.
They were put into / line there.  They