Charles E W Bean, Diaries, AWM38 3DRL 606/2/1 - January - March 1915 - Part 10

^X I had forgotten this was told before. The date
is evidently mixed

89
February 11 & 12
near from El Ferdan to near the hospital: north
of Ismailia Ferry.
Part of the seventh - two platoons - were
also in the trenches. They relieved some
of the New Zealanders. The Australians
saw no fighting. They say they heard heavy
gun firing on the last night or the night
before - but it must have been a
false alarm for I believe there is not
a Turk within 40 miles of the Suez
Canal.
Friday Feb. 12^{th X} More bad luck to my
encomiums. Last night about 8 o'clock
four men in masks committed a
very wanton crime just at the back
of the Mena Hotel stables – which
are opposite the Hotel, on the Pyramid
side of the road. There is a very
respectable money changer, an
Egyptian, who has his stand at the
entrance of our camp near the tram.
He is an exceedingly good looking man,
& happens to be very friendly to our
side & one of not many natives who has 

90
February 12.
the reputation of being thoroughly honest &
whose word can be relied on. He lives
in the village just below the Pyramids.
Last night about 8, he had packed up
his cash & was walking with an attendant
home across the sand behind the Pyr
stables when four men in masks &
wearing the Australian uniform set
on him. They attendan had knuckle dusters
& both Egyptians were knocked down -
The money changer was hurt & the
native with him now lies seriously
ill. The four men got the money
- which I have heard put at from
₤30 to ₤130 - and ran away through
the stables. The fact that they clearly
knew the _^ way through the stables well has thrown
suspicion on the Headquarters camp,
because we are the only people who
use those stables - our horses & cars are
there. But the evidence is very slight.
Our military police system is not in
the least likely to ensure their capture. I
daresay the provost marshal has not enough men for his work:
The native was asked why he took such 

Feb 3 - 11^th. went on 3^rd
On 11^th returned.
We knew attack ws going to be made on night of Feb 2 owing
to aeroplane reports. The Turks were alld to come right up
& cross with 20 boats; when Eg. artillery, who had shifted
positn, dragged gun up to bank of canal
& fired shrapnel at 25 yards! 18 boats
were riddled. Since
raised - many dead
found in them.
Bns very sick at being brt. back.
7^th & 8^th at
Ismalia
[Hand drawn diagram - see original]
Biv. of 7^th & 8^th.
Rly stn
½ Bn in trenches.  (Relieved N.Z people) who had had 2 wounded
1 since dead)
2 platoons of 7^th in trenches at Serapeium
Ocean
Swifts.
Requin.
Lines placing of the night.
Actn finished about 2 hrs before they got there (Hardinge at Serapeium.
They say Requin & Ocean got range of
their guns but never Swiftsure)
Wed.
Thurs. Col. Bolton went out to the defence posts across ferry but couldn't see anything of the Turks.
They had removed _^ some of our landmarks & cd be seen entrenching
on morning of Wed. abt 1200 yds from our men. Entrenching
tools were aftwds found with shrapnel bullets in them
[Hand drawn diagram - see original]
Trenches were put up v. quickly - spades made in Germany.
Rifles also but
marked in arabic.
White flag incident where Capt. Cochrane ws killed.
He went out & was shot w about 20 others.
Almost all our wounded shot in left arm i.e. enfilading
fire.
On Fird. night we were to have made an attack (Turks began to retreat
that morning) but it wsnt made. Night of Wed Feb. 10 & Thurs Feb 9 heavy firing
ws heard.
Of 179 prisoners seen by the 8^th abt ½ were in smart uniform
w 3 officers.
Men all well fed - mostly rife wounds.
Guns were not located - 1 6in gun we cdnt
see tho' aeroplanes up all day. Our little
terrier guns 15 pdrs were utterly outranged
A low break for rly wh ws near them was
showered w shell abt 20 falling near it.
Our men splendidly fed. Pack service organised inst. of tanspt. across desert.
 

91
February 12/13
risks - why he carried his money about
without him unf wanted some sort of protection. He said simply:
"There has never been any need for it."
Sat. Feb. 13th. I went down to the Suez Canal today,
just 10 days after the fighting there. I have
told of the fighting & of what we saw there
pretty thoroughly in the articles I wrote
afterwards. I went round with Maj. Blamey
(the Intelligence officer on our staff) & a
party of officers mostly from our 3^rd Brigade.
The arrangements made to show us round
at Kantara were very complete. A
Maj. Bingham gave as a very accurate connected
account of the fighting there. But at Toussoum
we were not in charge of anyone who had
any actual knowledge of what had
taken place there. It gave me a bit of
a shock at Toussoum to see, after we
had entered the Canal, some Indian soldiers
far beh about 200 yards behind us
dragging something from the Canal &
piling it – one, two, three I think
there were – on the bank. Dead Turks. 

92
February 13.
When we got out at Toussoum fort I asked
a native doctor to show me where the Turks
brought their boats down. He said - "down a
gully a little way down there." I asked
if it were 500 yards. He said "Oh no - I'll
show you - not 100 yards - just down there."
And there was the place - not 70 yards away,
right below the muzzles of the rifles of
Toussoum post. There were dead Turks
buried in it & their cartridges lying about
all over the place. The whole of this side
of the canal for 2 miles or so had a
very rank nasty smell. The burial
parties had scarcely covered some of the dead
Turks - you could see their legs sticking
out - sometines bare feet, sometimes boots,
sometimes stockings with curious leather soles.
We walked along the bank as far as
the Serapeium - the Turkish trenches
were all along the top, very thick,
just little separate dugouts in the sand.
In one place was the mark of
a Turkish boat on top of the bank -
probably the one Lieut. Commander Palmes
 

93
February 13.
climbed up there to destroy. I picked up a
bit of one blown up boat, several Turkish
cartridges, a bit of a cartridge box & some of
their rations -  biscuits baked in the desert
I believe. There seemed to be plenty of them.
No one could understand why we,
with our big reserves on the Canal, had
not hit back at them at all. We seem to have
allowed infantry, strings of camels, guns
even, to march up & down across our
front for two or three days without
stirring hand or foot; & when we had beaten
them & they were clearly in a terror of
being cut off we made let them retreat
absolutely undisturbed - made _^ easy for them the job
which they thought difficult. This was done
under direct orders some say from Ismailia,
some from Cairo, others from England. They are
almost wild about it on the Canal. It
is said we did have the Indian Cavalry
brigade over there one day, & that they
found some Turkish infanty retreating
within close f distance of them quite unconscious
& that they let it go because the orders 

94
February 13. 18. 20
against attacking were so strict. I doubt if
anyone has fought quite such a defensive
battle in this war.
Thurs. Feb. 18.
The general _^ & staff went down a few days
after we did - & returned highly disgusted,
I believe. No one made the least
preparation for them except at Kantara.
They had to sit kicking their heels on
the jetty at Ismailia, for an hour before
the old tug was ready to take them
to Toussoum. Really, these imperial
people have the most extraordinary
ideas of hospitality at times. I don't
think they mean it - they treated me
splendidly on the Canal. But imagine
a British staff coming to visit a
post held by Australians. . . .
Saturday Feb. 20. Bob Lowrie, who is Lieut. &
quartermaster in the First Austrln
stationary hospital asked me to come
down & see him on the Canal at
Ismailia. I mentioned it to Capt. 

95
February 20.23
Engledue & he said he saw no reason why I
should not go there privately. I had a fine day
down there - saw Janet Ratcliff of Hobart
who is one of their sisters; & got heard a magnificent
story from Lieut. Comdr Palmes - a simply
splendid yarn, which I wrote up. I
should have liked to ask him a few
more questions but he dried up as
soon as I began. I think he didnt
want to appear to brag - but there was
no bragging in it. Came back same night.
Tues. Feb. 23. Sent of Palmes story & the
ena account of what the Austialian
nurses saw of the fighting. Maxwell is
wrong about our engineers being under
fire - they werent. Their own officers told
me so.
I have in hand a most interesting
unfinished article - the building up
of a division - the first Australian
division - How it gradually becomes a
body out of being a collection of separate
parts. You can see it most clearly in 

Feb 28.
The 3^rd Infantry Brigade moved out today
for an unknown destination. The brigade was
complete except for artillery; & everyone thinks
they have gone either to Syria or the Dardanelles
They were all out of camp by a little after
dark, & all on their way to Alexandria by
train before daybreak. One of their transports
is the Ionian.
I believe Gen. Birdwood has been
off with Col. Skeen in the Swiftsure for some
days, looking at the place where we land.
The force we have so far sent is under
Col. MacLagan
I dont know where we're going. But
the hospitals are ordering fly whisks 
mosquito netting & the nurses have been
told to fet sun helmets. I believe only
the General & Col. White & Col. Howse know.

96 
February 23. 27 28
the case of the 1^st Australian Divn,
Sunday Feb. 27. Brand asked me to come &
see his brigade after Church Parade. I
did so - they marched past in column of
platoons. The men are mosty miners &
they looked magnificent. The lines were
beautifully kept, & there was a fire _^ & snap about
them which showed that every chap was
doing his best. They are a thundering
good brigade, the Third, with a very
good staff.
Monday. Feb 28. Went out to see theme same troops
in the desert. They were excellent. One
the men battalion had to retreat at the
double for half to three quarters of
a mile through the sand & stone under
a fierce sun. It did it, with
playing the game _^ down to the small points.
There may be some hard drinkers
amongst these miners but they are
splendid soldiers. 

97
March 1/2
Tuesday March 1. Writing up the article
about the division.
Wed. March 2. That article which I sent
last xmas has got b about the troops
being in danger of losing their good
name through a rowdy element which
ought never to have been allowed to
enlist, or at any rate to sail, has
got back here & is causing a quite
unexpected amount of feeling amongst
the troops. I have read it & re-read
it & I cant see a word in it that
anyone in the force - any decent man
at any rate - can object to. Most
of the men on the staf toroughly agree
with me in this; so do _^ most of the officers of the
engineers, many artillery officers, &
several amongst the men who have
spoken to me about it. But the
great majority are inclined to be
quite bitter about it & I am clearly
in for a rocky time. There seem to
be two reasons for this: (1) their wives 

Mar 4
went out to see the 4^th Inf. Brigade yesterday. On
getting to Heliopolis I found - after walking about
2 to 3 miles about the place that it was out on a
big field day. I walked out & found it 10 miles
out. Walked back afterwards & _^ afterwds as it was cold in
a cab, I walked from Giza to the Pyramids - 5 miles.
That makes about 25 miles between 11.30 & 9.30.

98
March 2/4
& families have misunderstood the
article - or perhaps only heard it at
second hand - & have written to them
about it. (2) The Sydney Sunday Times
which does not apparently go to the expense
of buying my articles, all borrowed
this one, instead, from the Melbourne
papers & tried deliberately to make
a scare out of it. They said it was
my first article; as a matter of
fact it was the 18^th. But the men,
who cant be persuaded I didn't write
the Sunday Times article & I don't
suppose ever will be, think it is
the first I wrote & that I have
done nothing but abuse them. A poem
written to that effect in camp - rather a good one,
I believe, has already been sold to the extent of 2000 copies.
Mar. 4 Thursday. I have done two things to stop try
& put things as far as possible right,
with regard to that article. There is
no doubt it is exceedingly unpopular &
I dont suppose I shall ever be anything
else with the 1^st Australian Division
now. I get things shouted at me whenever