Charles E W Bean, Diaries, AWM38 3DRL 606/230/1 - February - March 1919 - Part 6

47

wether says) but in a trench behind the trench he
ws in at / head of Sazli Beit Dere.
From there we went down onto the 

Farm - Wilkins, Biggwether, Hughes, James, 

Buchanan & I. At first, at the N.Z. end, o / 

Farm we cd find no trace of any English attack
in force. In a trench however immediately
under the Apex we came on a number of English
soldiers killed - probably after the smash on Aug 10. Bigg Weather 

says that the offrs tried to reorganise / English from

Hand drawn diagram 
 

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Chunuk Bair at the Pinnacle but cdnt get them to stop.

There is little left of the actual Farm - a few tumbled
stones. There was As we worked along / S. edge of the
shelf we soon came on a bit of C.T. running up /
steep side to / shelf; in it were remains of
Tommies - It T-d out on the seaward edge of the
shelf - the Turks had partly used it for a later attack

fire trench, but it had a bad field of fire being
partly below / edge o / bank. A Tommy had bn
sniping from behind a stone at the right _^(s) where open
the shelf bends down the slope. From there onwards
we came across / remains of men thick - all

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below / seaward edge o / shelf. The slope for
100 yds down ws simply covered w them. Those
on / right were mostly Royal Irish Rifles;
then some Wilts & Hants. Reg As far as the
Northern edge of the Farm slope (the slope below /
shelf) the bodies of Tommies were thick - their
helmets everywhere. In some places they had
dug themselves little dugouts - scoops in /
slope. Only one man so far as I cd see
had got round / left-hand shoulder of

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? slope.

Hand draw diagram 

From the left of the slope we cd see
across / valleys northward to fa & 

I started w Biggweather & James to see if
we cd come across any traces of / Gurkhas.
we attack of Aug. 9^th. We cd see the bones of
men on two hills ahead of us, something
as in the above sketch, & cut across

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the valley intervening. We found on both the

further heights the bones remains of Worcestershire Regt, & 

a few S. Lancashires. Those at / very top seemed
to have bn attacking a turkish trench or
redoubt on / hilltop. None had got quite to
/ top; but we found them very near to it. And
some of those on top had bombd (old Jam Tin
bombs) lying near them. Hughes came across
what seemed to be a colonels' coat; & the 

buttons showed th  he belonged to 1^st Bn. Worcestershire

This opinion was changed next day, see p. 61.

^X xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
CEWB 2/4/47

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Regt. I have nowhere exc. at the Nek seen 

the dead lying so thick, I think, as on these slopes &
those of the Farm.
We searched for signs of the General (Baldwin) but
cd not find any.
We went on as far as the second
Crest of Hill Q. & there, on / top, found
a couple of bits of web kit & a mess tin
cover. There is a steep slope up from / valley
but it is scrub covered all / way at /
point below Q. (North Summit). This seems / 
likeliest place for them to have reached / top^x. A

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piece of kit ws also found S. of Q (Southern 
summit) - but if the Gurkhas had gone up this
way they must surely have seen something
of Baldwins attack – wh they did not.
Back via 971 (over looking Anafarta).
In a gully at the N. of Koja Dere was lying the
body of our old 4.7 gun – Hughes had located
it before. Raced home in a snow storm.

54

March 3. 4 Tuesday. 
Wilkins ill with Ptomaine Poisoning - insisted
on going out before lunch as the day was very fine tho'
very cold.
I went with Buchanan to Hill 60 to
place the exact point reached by the attack of
4^th Bde of Aug 8^th. They themselves have never bn
certain of it. We went up Asma Dere & left
the horses in the first gully on the left, out of / wind.
Then we climbed the opposite height a little S. of

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Hill 90 - & on Hill 90, almost at once, we found
a cluster of Australians lying dead. The slope
shelved up slightly towds the hill on wh Zeki Bey
had told us the 11^th Regt.'s m.g. Coy had its guns,
- & ws abt 600 yds away - just a beautiful
m.g. range. The men lay _^in a bunch as if the m.g. had
got onto the head of the column. There were I4^th
Bn badges on two of the men; there were
several groups about. One man had a

bible - on it was written H. Wellington.

56

We cd find none on the N. slope of / hill
nor in the Asma Dere. After lunch we searched
the slopes N. of the Asma Dere. Imd. N. of the lower
slopes of the Hill 60 spur (i.e. the spur from Hill 100 to Hill 60)
there had bn a Turkish firing line. One man must
have fired 200 rounds. Clearly he ws firing at some
face attack coming over tt hill - he cdnt see our troops
in any attack exc. that days attack.
We crossed / Gully & on the low
scrubby end of / ridge, abt 700 yds N.E of Hill 100

(I shd say) found another group of our men who had