Charles E W Bean, Diaries, AWM38 3DRL 606/199/1 - August - November 1918 - Part 4

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artery of / traffic across /
old lines - such little traffic
as exists. There had bn a
Portuguese battalion coming
along it -all day we had bn
meeting bits of them. (Birdie
told me tt /  Portuguese Commander
in Chief told him / other day tt
they had bn most neglected by
their govt. For a year they had
had no reinforcements. They
always had a rule in Portugal tt
when an expedit^y Force went
out it ws relieved regularly
at / end of every 12 months - but these
men had never bn relieved at
all. The officers were sent back
to Portugal on leave; & when they
got there / govt kept them there &
sent new & green offrs  back to /
front. The result ws tt / offrs
 

32
w / Portuguese Corps were useless.
The men simply laughed at them,
& when lately they were ordered to
go forward to do some work they
refused. It ws pretty serious.
A machine gun ws turned on
them (apparently by / Portuguese
Commander's orders). Six or seven
were killed & / mutiny fell through.
(This Birdie heard from /  Portuguese
command er). After tt Birdie
split up / Portuguese Corps & put
one Bn in w each of his Bdes
(in some divns, anyway) so as
to make them up to 4 Bns per
Bde. Being used in this way
they had us chance to mutiny.

We found the Old No mans land
simply full of our dead. In the
narrow Sector W of the Laies River
& E of the Corner of / Sugar loaf
 

33
Salient  / skulls & bones & torn
uniforms of them were lying

abt everywhere. I found a
bit of Australian kit lying 50yds
from / Corner of / salient; & /
bones of an Australian officer &
several men within 100yds of

it. Further round immediately
on their flank were a few
British - you cd tell them by
their leather equipment. And
within 100 yds o / W. corner o /
Sugar Loaf Salient there ws lying
a small party of English too-
also w an officer you go tell / cloth of his coat.
The ground is all divided
in its shallow turtle back
ridges between grassy ditches
or water channels. And

Hand drawn diagram – see original

along one of these water channels
near / German wire there were
 

34
lying so many ^Australian water bottles tt it
can scarcely have bn an accident.
The poor chaps must have crawled
here wounded, at night, for
water, I think. Or else one of
them must have collected a number
of these water bottles,  crawled
out w them for himself & his mates.
The Sugar Loaf salient had bn
tremendously pitted by shellfire &
by xx Plum Pudding bombs. And
/ old German wire had bn
splendidly cut. Both sides had put
up new wire since. The British
wire ws v. good ^& high & uncut; I cdnt
have attempted to get thro it in most parts.
What / Portuguese can have
bn doing  when they let / German
thro' it I dont know.
On / East o / road
obt 500 yds W. of Delangre Fm,  &
300 - 400 yds. S.  o /  German front line,
we found the water filled ditch
 

35
wh ws taken as our objective.
It had certainly bn in part a ditch
It ran to / corner of a sort of
orchard, 400 - 500yds SW of Delangre
& merged into / ditch along / orchard
hedge nearest to / German Line.

Hand drawn diagram – see original

At / point marked X I found a bit
/ cover of an Australian water bottle; &
at Y an old rifle butt, probly
Australian.
In / front line were a lot of
concrete shelters, abt 3ft of
concrete on / top & just room in
/ little box below, for a man to lie crouched.
 

36
It came on to rain a misty
drizzle. But we got a number of
photos; & then drove on to
Boulogne. I saw very little signs
of festivity over the peace. Only
when we punctured in a village
beyond Wizernes & 4 children
stood by to watch us mend it in
/ dark & / drizzle, one of them
sd to / other.
"Have they a flag in front?"
"No," sd I second.
"Then they have not been to
St Omer"
Those children came from Lens
- so they volunteered. When I sd /
Kaiser ws a refugié they sd
"we are refugiés also - from Lens."
Their house ws in ruins. They
had lived in / cellars a long time
- 3 years they had bn amongst /
 

37

Germans. Then many people
were killed by / shells, & they
came were evacuated thro'
Switzerland. They wanted to
know if / streets had been disentangled
o  rubbish yet? if / bridge on the Douai
road had bn blown up ? The Elder boy
Charles Ws 14 when / Germans evacuated
them . if he had bn 15 they wd
not have permitted him to leave.
There was a sister abt / same age
& a little brother. They were most
quiet intelligent children. They
told as tt Germans had bn billetted
on them - they were forced to
take them, & there ws no payment.
their father ws at / war ^w / French, &
their mother had brought them here.
A couple of French
youths of 20 or so passed, singing
 

38
& rather drunk - / first sign
o / peace festivity. They were waving
a flag. The French mostly seem
quietly to carry abt a ^fair sized  tricolor
on these occasions - not wave it
but carry it quietly round.
There were lights - subdued
but still lights - in / villages
we passed thro.
At Bouloyne in / main
street we did suddenly run
into a crowd, mostly of British
Soldiers, some Australian, some
French, and a few women who
were walking round / half
lighted streets. There ws one
soldier blowing a tin trumpet -
one or two waving a flag; a few
obviously half seas over; the
 

39

occasional bright shop front
attracted them like moths. There
ws very little noise really.
There were a few electric
lights near / quay but / trams
& many o / street lights were
still darkened by staining blue.
As we came over / hill
towards Wimereux an intermittent
light wh at first I took for an
electric torch showed up ahead of
us.
"I guess that old lighthouse
hasn't worked for four years, "  sd
Boddy.
And so it was - a light house
Col Huxtable, who is now at in commd
No 2 AGH. & Major White put me up.
Cars & men have been passing at
intervals all / evening. There has
bn a little shouting – not as much as
 

40
on a Saturday night at home. It
to quiet now - 11.45 p.m.
And so it is peace. The
question in all minds at present
is - can we ensure tt this
split up German Govt will pay
for / damage to France & Belgium.
Can we be sure tt Bavaria & other
parts will not escape by proclaiming
themselves separate from Germany.
Anyway - the military regime
is gone - split, rent, smashed,
fled. Who cd possibly have
imagined this 4 months ago?

Nov 12 /1918. Tuesday. Crossed from Boulogne
today - a beautiful sunny cold
day.

On the boat coming over one had,
for the first time in four years, that
feeling of delightful free roving, which