Charles E W Bean, Diaries, AWM38 3DRL 606/20/1 - November 1915 - Part 2

Wire of glint
service
Restricted during night
Work going on all
time by 4 6 & 7 LH
Later Ts thrown back
[[??]] 3.7" TM (line of
from Chathams
Now bombing 2 [[?Barricades]]
(13/11)

9

Nov  10     
Trenches & damaged them, we
decided on further advance to another
old Turk trench.
At 8.45  5 L.H. had seized
this trench & bombed enemy out of
first barricade. Trench ws connected
& traversed under heavy bomb rifle
& m.g fire from T Despair, Bird
Trenches & 2nd barricade. Arty closing
supported our advance ^x & 7 mgs.

Nov 8. V. heavy enemy arty fire
demolishing part of our ∧forward parapets.
During aftn 6 LH relieved 5 L.H.
& sent in garrison of 100 for 24 hrs

Nov 9  100 of 7 LH. reld the 6th.
Enemy's 7.5s shelling but not much
damage. Destroyer shelling on
rt kept down fire from Twin
Trenches & Harris Ridge.
Working parties all time.

Salonica
8 Divns ?
Digging
Unpreparedness -
Bombs
Periscopes

10

Nov 10                
Estimate of enemy's loss - 50 k 150 w
Capt TJ Brundost k on night of 7^th
Sergt P. F. Ryan 6 LH. did gt work
w. Shanghai Batty
----
Urgent call for fire ws sent to Arty
for help on night of 7/8 -
9^th Batty was onto them within 2
minutes; 5" Lowland Batty & 17^th
(heavy) Batty v. soon after.
-----
I believe Birdwood, K. & Munro.
& possibly Maxwell are at Mudros
today. Rumoured tt we are to be
a side show – B'wood to take over
Gallipoli & whole force Eight Divns concentrated
in Gallipoli . Salonica
No great signs of digging here
yet.
Howse ws reminding me how
tho' we were training 4 months in
Egypt the Bn there came no officer
from England or France to teach us
bomb fighting. We never heard of
bombs - certly never saw them - till

Strength :
Forces Turks - strong
                           Nov 10.
              Ours    strong
                           Nov 10
11

Nov 10
we got here; & as for periscopes,
we had to send to all / transports
for their looking glasses.
Hastie tells me tt / Divisional
Staff has now everything so beautifuly
cut & dried tt Milner & Foote
complain there is nothin to do.
Why don’t they use / time for drawing
up definite cut & dried schemes
for / times where things the
present cut & dried scheme will
be broken into ? When for example
/ beach is so shelled by day tt
everything has to be done by night;
or when / waterpipes freeze or
are blown out by bombardment etc.
The Turks are very well up to
Strengt & we are getting tt way too.
As the T. camps are full our ships
shell them a lot, esp. those at
Kojadere, to destroy the fibre o / men
I suppose.
Altho the 2. LH Bde has bn in
no big battle, it has absent thro'
illness all / officers o / 5^th & 6^th
 

Deeds (Sergt Brennan)
              Bomb Dyht)
Turks (amenities
Nov 11)
There has bn a good deal of communicatn w /
Turks of late. We gave threw over some letters from
prisoners saying they were well treated & some pictures
of nice fat happy looking prisoners in Cairo [our men
dont much like doing this but I daresay / authries are
right] anyway we got / follg answer: A man who
lives by charity is a swine. We have plenty in our stomachs
& something besides plenty; we have our hands on our
bodies and our bayonets in our hands. The English
may have plenty of munitions of war but we have
our bayonets & our thoughts. If you are / gt nation
tt you are supposed to be why dont you act up to
high principles & not descend to trying to suborn others
from their loyalty to their sovereign!'
A most dignified answer. We can easily overdo
the ate attempts to make Turks desert. Still - they
[* - or the Germans - have tried the same thing
on us*]

12
Nov 10 Nov 11                           
regts exc. two in each; & all in /
6^th Exc. 3 or possibly 4. But our
1^st Divn is improving - 8000 odd reinfs
to come this month & 8000 next
(out of 22000 odd); the 1st Bn is
up to abt 600 & so is the 3rd.
Turks threw 100 shells into No 2
post today.
Nov 11. Thurs. Went up to see Holmes.
Some interesting things have been
happening at Walkers Top
Sergt Vince in ch. of Bde Scouts ? 20^th Bn.
Sergt Brennan ∧(in ch. of bomb parties Walkers) - got out of hole of crater
the other night. Saw 4 Turks in a
tole bombing; saw them light a
match of bomb B. shot bomb thrower
w revolver- He dropped bomb
& it exploded.
[Shorthand symbols, cancelled with vertical line]

13

Nov 11                           
Prenez                                               )
Femez avec plėsir! ^{x                           )}
Notre hėrox Ennemis!                  )   Scrawled in
(another notre cher ennemi)     )   indelible
Envoyez milk                                  )   pencil.

3 wks ago Ts had festival for 3 days. They
trew over 2 packets of cigs, w inscription as
above.^X We sent our bully beef. They knew
back a message on stick & stone "Bully Beef non."
We threw some biscuits (good b.) & jam. This
as all abb 8.30 to 9.15. They called out "fine"
& waved down w their hands - (all had
heads up). Next morning same proceedings.
Interpreter spoke to them from our lines.
They were allowed to go over & get a pocket
knife we had known over. Third morning
we had orders not to carry on.
1st morning one of our men nipped over
parapet & got the cigarettes
2nd morning one of our officers ws on
parapet for 2 or 3 mins. He collected a
bombion mistake for a package &
(found it ws wrapped & tied as they
sometimes do, w white linen. Bit of
scare but found it had faulty fuse & had
not gone off).

[[Sketch - see original scan]]
(Chunuk attack)
Allanson tells me Gurkhas got on top abt Y
-------
Rawson (Ind. Mtn Batty tells me he saw red flag where x is
on Aug. 9^th after 5 o'c. He saw the British leave their trenches
on the Apex at 7 o'c. (Top ws tn abt 5 am. He saw Turk bayonets
then on the flat above the Farm. Fired abt 1000 rounds into them:
He took flag to be Gurkhas & is under impression shells were our shells) 
Probly Rawsons f1ag ws either NZ or British.

[*14*]

Fight Nov 11. NZ 16^th
(Staff failure)

15

Nov 11                                                                    
There has been a bad misfire on the left.
The 162 Bde (London) had a couple of
knolls A.B. in part of its line wh rather
commanded it.
[[Diagram - see original scan]]

White suspected
some time ago tt
they ought to
take these.
On going there some time later he found
to they had taken them but that they
were dominated by a third green
knob C - wh ws between / two. It
ws so clear tt C. oughbly be taken at once
tt he spoke to / divisional commander
(who agreed) & wrote to let Birdwood
know what he had done. The Divl
commander sd he'd do it, but he didn't
have / troops. White waited till / N.Z.
A.W.A Divn got back & then spoke to
Godley. Godley sd: "Oh that's all right,
we'll do it tonight - It will be
done at once;" Or something to tt effect.
The attempt ws made - or rather
no real attempt ws made. The NZ.
people went out & finding some Turks
already on / Nek they gave up. Instead
of preparing for opposition they did nothing
to prepare for it. It is rather like
the N.Z. staff - instead of taking a
mountain of labour in order to ensure
a molebill of achievement the save an
easy offhand assurance & didnt even

T. ammun.
Snipers
(? from Nest)

Censor
(Southl.d)
16
Nov 11                                                    
achieve the molehill. The Turks I
suppose will fortify the knoll now.
As it leads straight (by a neck) to
Chunuk Bair, & is really an offshoot
o / main range it is a good important
place to have a foothold on - but not
good enough to fight / sort of attack
we shd proby now have to undertake
to get it.
The Ts seem to have more
ammunition - proby using their
stocks in anticipation of more from
Bulgaria. Servians are practicily
out of it. K. inspected Australians
& N.Z. today at Mudros.
As I ws returning from / right
today (from seeing Rawson o / Mtn
batty) the m.g. wh I noticed playing
on / path between Ari Burnu knoll
& Plugges Plateau nearly got me. It ws
clearly laid on / place & as I went over
it 3 or 4 vicious bullets went into /
sap side within a few yds of me.
I crouched under / shallow sap wall
& 4 or 5 more shots whisked overhead
- it is quite likely one of those might
have had me, if not more. I warned
White of the place. An Indian mule
driver ws hit there last night.
I have been in two minds as to

Censorship
(Beachy) 

17
Nov 11                                                                                  
whether to re-write the Southland
business & try & get it through / naval censor.
In / end I didn't because it may be
th / reason they don't want it
divulged is in order not to let /
Turks be sure to they didnt sink /
ship. If they knew tt some of our transpts
got off they might give orders to see tt
this never happened again. That may
be the Admty view. I think it is of
doubtful use - the Turks know well
eno' tt / Southland reached Mudros.
But for tt reason, I am not appealing
to them again.
I quite agree tt no information
shd go out wh can be of military
value to / enemy. But if tt is so
/ British censorship doesn't even make
a beginning of ensuring this. In the
Brit. Australasian for example of
Oct. 7. there is an article saying tt
Beachy Bill is / terror of Anzac
& has accounted for at least 1000
casualties; & makes bathing next
to impossible on / beach. That is
information of direct use to / Turks
- when a ∧dead officers diary gave similar
information ∧abt Helles we published / fact in
orders. Yet British organisatn
is too hopelessly weak kneed even to

Mines
(Turks in our
tunnel, Nov 11)

18
Nov 11                                                     
protest - I dont suppose a Censor
even reads / article. The B.A. people
aren't to blame - I don't suppose they
realise tt they are giving useful
information - It is / met wretched
week kneed English Govt. wh cannot
face any situation squarely. Every
military article sh be submitted to
a censor before it goes in so tt at
least / paper has expert advice.
If they cd give more attention to censoring
facts wh assist / enemy & less to
censoring facts wh may show / public
what blunders they have made (or at
any rate what danger / country is in)
they wd be taking at least one step
towards winning / war.
An extraordinary xxx occurrence
event took place on Nov. 10 in / 
tunnels at Walker's Top. We have
a very advanced tunnel there - 
past the old crater (wh opens onto /
tunnel & is barricaded now w wood
bec. / Turks bombed there a gt deal)
The other day (Nov. 9)-  our men working
there put a pick thro into a Turk
gallery below. (This ws our [shorthand symbol]
This inst ws imd. reported.
A pair of sentries were put on / tunnel