Charles E W Bean, Diaries, AWM38 3DRL 606/230/1 - February - March 1919 - Part 2

9
We were inclined to take these as being the whole of the Beachy
emplacements.  However - as there were 2 old 6in guns certainly
in addition to these I rode off towards Kilid Bahr plateau to
find them.  I found none there.  There ws a sunken
waggon road going round the NW corner of the hill towds
Helles.
On coming back I noticed a number of old trenches
& diggings further W. than those tt we had seen.  These
proved to be batteries.  Some had bn built since.  I
took / bearings of these but these were very loose &
Rogers is to go off to place them tomorrow.  The battery

10
on / extreme left had had a few shells near it.  There
were no trees around it.  There ws brushwood on
the epaulments & 4 ft of the left epaulment of the
2nd gun from / left, & 2 ft of the rt epaulment cd be
seen from the positn of Burgess' guns.  They
wd look like this.
Diagram - see original document
Riding home, between this & the other
bty, xx I found about 16 emplacements.
Diagram - see original document
In a
gully
something like this, on / way home, I suddenly ran into

11
a regular shell cratered area - almost like
an area in France - quite dangerous to canter
through.
Feb 28.  Zeki Bey returned today.
In / aftn Balfour & I took out abt
half a dozen men to go over / hills wh
Balfour had searched in / morning, viz:-
the slope leading up from behind our camp to
Scrubby Knoll; & the slopes back from
Scrubby Knoll between tt ridge & Mortar R.
From Balfour had found an Australian tunic

12
complete & a fired cartridge on the
slope (in a gully) about 68 d 2.  I previously
found a puttee at 68 d intersection of 2-6 & 5-3;
(just on / shoulder o / hill).
From 300 yds N of this point, on /
crest, you come in sight of the Dardanelles.
Diagram - see original document
In this interval (i.e. This
300 yds) there had bn on /
first day Turks firing; a line along /
crest.  There were Turkish dead in several places.
We struck a very deep C.T. just before

13
Scrubby Knoll.  The top o / hill had bn well
entrenched.  
Diagram - see original document
Just N. of it was a deep valley & in the head
of this valley some big shelfs & ^space for very roomy
old dug shelters
Diagram - see original document
Some of these
were filled
with the plaster &
concrete wh had once lined
them.  One or two were old huts of stone.
There ws a road on the S. Side o / valley
winding up to these dwellings & ending there.  A

^xSketch A.T.A
was made
from here, but
probably on March 6th
C.E.W.B.
9/2/47

14
trench ran off / head of the valley
northwards; & in this was Essad Pasha's
O.P. ^xFor by the description given us by Zeki Bey wd
know that this was Essad Pashas H.Qrs.
At / bottom o / valley there seemed to
be carrots & other vegetables growing wild.
Diagram - see original document
From memory
it ws something
like this.

? Probably this
means Turkish
The Staff
C.E.W.B
29.1.47
15
I fancy that I found two old small gun
pits facing towds the Nek where marked. These

Sketch, see original document
wd be abt 150 yds to 200 yds S. of HQrs.
We found one used English Australian
cartridge case on the edge of the scrub above HQrs.
But it may have bn used by someone on /
staff.^x  Our shells had fallen fairly often abt the
place.
We worked back along the Ridge E of the Usun
Dere.  There had bn a Turkish firing line here,
firing either at the lower slopes o / ridge between
Usun Dere & Chatal Dere (Furthest Tullochs Ridge); or

16
at the upper end of Baby 7 Mortar R. (Baby 700 crag).
Tullocks R. wd be abt 300 to 350 yds. Mortar R. 700 to 1000.
There were some signs of our kit on / road leading
down this ridge - ^about 4 torn bits of it carried probly by a
dog. Also, near a Turkish camp we found some
Diagram - see original document
of our kit evidently taken with
unfired cartridges in it; for near it
were many empty clips; & one
fired cartridge & one not fired were
not far away. These possibly mean tt
some man got into the Usun Dere -
Possibly one o / men who ws lost themselves

17
A good way further down / ridge, about 80 Y7
was an Australian cap. This was in a
straight line between Wire Gully & the
cartridge ^& coat picked up by Balfour on / next
ridge.
There were ^possible signs tt a Turkish attack
had come over this slope from the E or NE;
& tt / slope had bn under fire from /
ships; & tt / attack had suffered. But it
may have suffered from infantry fire.
Loutit may have seen the Dardanelles
if he reached point 165.

18
All the signs are tt Loutits party got
to a point on the ^same ridge (Loutit R.) which
runs behind our camp - a little S. of Scrubby Knoll.
Diagram - see original document
with Ryder echeloned
behind his right rear
near where I found the
putty.