Charles E W Bean, Diaries, AWM38 3DRL 606/84/1 - August 1917 - Part 4

37
BB 3rd Bty Cost 
3 k & 11 wd in the stunt.
(of drivers only
1 Cpl. carrying ammun k.
1 man wd.)
 

7 38
officers & Walker. - 9 k. 11 wd]
2 doctors k . at Zillebeke
before the stunt
_____________________
Audley Parker 3rd Bty ws a medical orderly
in 1^st Divn (from Quensland,
Southport - in Bank there) to 3rd FA Bde.
at Anzac. When two detachments
of 7^th Bty were wiped out at
short interval, he walked up
& asked to be taken on as
a gunner. This ws done -
He contd as gunner, commissioned
at Fleurbaix. He ws k.
22nd July. at the battery wh
ws in action, registering for Ypres.
___________________________
Dr. Nicholson an instance of good driver
- picking up odd sandbags, water
cans or dropped ammunition,
[shorthand]
etc.
I wd sooner have left the 6 or 7. . . .
? than any other. . . . 
 

7 39
It looked like a turn to finer
weather this morning. The clouds
were higher & there was an
occasional sign of a rift. But
after lunch a storm came down
heavier than ever - & the
crops are mostly now lying flat
- more than half, any way, I
should say.
Maj. Gen. Trenchard, commdg
the Air service in France, ws
in to lunch with the Hon. Maurice
Baring - the latter rather a crude
coarse looking person - Trenchard
sd tt / great difficulty in / air
ws to know whether another
machine was or ws not German.
Our airmen constantly attack
our own machines - not
often fatally ; but sometimes
they cause them to crash. A couple
 

7 40
of weeks ago a machine flying
of over another aerodrome -
not its own – attacked a
machine below it - 
chased it down to within 100
feet o / ground ; caused it to
crash & killed its occupants;
went off to its own aerodrome
& reports tt it had brought
down a German machine; a
second message ws recd.
from the attacking machin
pilot airmen tt / German
machine had British colours.
Trenchard sd tt next
year it will be very difficult
for our people to photograph
at 8000 feet as they do now.
They cd do it at 20,000
ft as well as / German (? are
our photos at tt height as good ^as theirs)
but the artillery say the photos
 

7 41
are not sufficiently accura
detailed at tt height &
so we have to give them
8000. But next year it
may cost us 4 or 5 planes
every day, & we cannot
afford it.
He sd tt at / height
of our air - supremacy - /,
beginning o / Somme Battle -
we were losing 4 & 5 machines
a day (I think tt was / 
number - anyway far more
than / public thought).

White tells me tt Haig
ws down here a few days
ago & ws xxxxx asking
him what cd be done in /
case of the desertions of from the
4^th Aust. Divn - These desertions
he sd were serious. White
 

7   42
sd "Yes, General, very."
Haig asked what cd be done,
White sd tt the Australian
Govt wd never, he thought,
agree to have these men
shot. They had an objectn to any
form of death penalty even in peace.
Haig sd quickly. Well,
suppose if it goes on the I
may have to ask them to
with draw their troops.
White flushed up - but
he kept a curb on his tongue
& didn't say "You don't
dare to do it!" which is
what he had it in mind
to say.
Haig - who had ripped
this out in anger, before he
thought, came back to /
subject. "Well, do you
think there is any other way
you can suggest," he sd.
 

Aug 5.
 

 7 43
White sd tt if these men
when ^caught were brought into companies
to be worked in / line - it
wd have / right effect.
They were mainly trying to get
away from shells - & they
did it successfully.
White ws under /
impression tt they wd be
shot in any army except
/ Australian. I sd tt they
wd not in / German army.
(Butler bears this out - he
says it has increased desertion,
but ws a reform introduced,
he thought, to suit / Socialists)

Aug. 5^th. I met White brought in today, at
lunch, one of the most few intellectual
looking men I have seen in /
 

7 44
army - a Colonel Robertson,
who is GSO 1 under Gen.
Harrington on the 2nd Army
staff. He had his leg crushed
at St Eloi & now has a
steel plate inst. of a bone
there. He ws away for a year.
He had a real nice
face, a bright eye, & a good
forehead ; so it ws no
surprise when White sd tt he
passed in first to / Staff College 
in Whites year - 1906.
Now this chap is only GSO 1.
He ws away for a year it is true;
but why has he not got on
further than that.
White ws talking of Haig
yesty & saying he ws impressed
by some of his qualities. "Can
he pick his subordinates ?" I
asked. White shook his head.
 

7 45
Plumer is probly / best
of them. Gough a driver -
a man of boundless energy
& enthusiasm ;  but not a
great general. Rawlinson
- apt to let x G.H.Q down
so. some of them think. Haig
goes a great deal by what
he is told ^ - by Gough, for example; & Gough will
always crab any man
whose name is suggested to
him : "Damned fool of a
fellow" - "What could you expect
with a bloody idiot like that
in charge" - & so on. 
I told them at lunch of
the German 'plane with
British markings which
turned its m.g. onto men
around Zillebeke lake - &
White sd tt still he thought
 

7 46
Trenchard ws right - the
Germans didn't use our
markings. "You think it ws
one of ours wh mistook his
positn?", I asked. He nodded.
"You heard of what happened to
Goughs HQrs," he sd, "the
advanced HQrs he ws having
built up at Fremicourt ? An
airman came down over one day
& saw it & flew over it
& simply riddled the huts
w bullets. Luckily no one
was in the place - but it
ws one of our airmen. When
he came down they arrested
him & it turned out he
had quite lost himself.
He thought he ws over /
German lines."
It ws one of Goughs
 

7 47
characteristics to try &
put his H.Qrs up in places
miles ahead of where any
other Army Commdr would.
He x ws having these built
up at Fremicourt where
our old Div. Arty HQrs were,
ahead o / town. We saw
/ camp commandant in
Albert one day. He ws putting
off his visit to / new
HQrs (then being built) till
next day. "The Germans
were shelling it last time
I was up there," he sd.
I believe Gough had to
give up / idea. When he
came up North here he
immediately tried to put
his HQrs again up
within 7 or 8 miles of the