Charles E W Bean, Diaries, AWM38 3DRL 606/86/1 - August 1917 - Part 1

AWM38
Official History,
1914-18 War: Records of C E W Bean,
Official Historian.

Diaries and Notebooks

Item number:  3DRL606/86/1

Title:  Diary, August 1917
Includes references to various artillery units, the
12th Battalion, the 2nd Tunnelling Company and
the third battle of Ypres.

AWM38-3DRL606/86/1

Original
DIARY NO. 86.
AWM 38
3DRL   606   ITEM 86 [1]

DIARIES AND NOTES OF C.  W. BEAN
CONCERNING THE WAR OF 1914 - 1918
THE use of these diaries and notes is subject of conditions laid down in the terms
of gift to the Australian War Memorial.  but, apart from these terms, I wish the
following circumstances and considerations to be brought to the notice of every
reader and writer who may use them.
These writings represent only what at the moment of making them I believed to be
true.  The diaries were jotted down almost daily with the object of recording what
was then in the writer's mind.  Often he wrote them when very tired and half asleep;
also not infrequently, what he believed to be true was not so - but it does not
follow that he always discovered this, or remembered to correct the mistakes when
discovered.  Indeed, he could not always remember that he had written them.
These records should, therefore, be used with great caution, as relating only what
their author, at the time of writing, believed.  further, he cannot of course, vouch
for the accuracy of statements made to him by others and here recorded.  But he
did try to ensure such accuracy by consulting, as far as possible, those who had
seen or otherwise taken part in the events.  The contest falsity of second-hand
evidence (on which a large proportion of war stories are founded) was impressed
upon him by the second or third day of the Gallipoli campaign, notwithstanding that 
those who passed on such stories usually themselves believed them to be true. All
second-hand evidence herein should be read with this in mind.
16 Sept, 1946  C. E. W. BEAN
AUSTRALIAN WAR MEMORIAL
ACCESS STATUS
OPEN

[Hand drawn sketch - refer original document]

8 
1917
Aug 10-21
86 arty at Ypres
Tunnellers  etc.
M^r & M^me Delecluse-Hemery
Rue d'Aire 84   Hazebrouck

1
Aug 10. (cont). Yesterday This morning
5^th Army again went for
the Black Line near
Shrewsbury Forest, Inverness
Copse etc - & got their objectives
except Inverness Copse.  They
are not altogether satisfied
w / result.

8
2
Aug 11.  Came with Dyson,
Malcolm Ross, & Herbertson (as
photographer) to see the 2nd Aust.
Tunnelling Coy in the Dunes. They
had moved to  ha
We missed our way by
a misdirection out of Steenvorde
& wandered off towards Watou.
Here we found the roads in a
hopeless condition - The Somme
in winter was the only thing
I have seen worse.  Endless Long strings
of motor lorries parked beside the pave
in mud out of which you
wd have said it ws impossible
to drag them.
The road became blocked
ahead of us.  After ½ hour we
turned back to go round 6 all
miles - & found after a mile
the road blocked behind us also.

8
3
In an _^another ¾ hour we got clear.
Major Mulligan o / 2nd
Tunnelling Coy is putting
us all up.  He says that
the Australians & N.Z. Divns
are much the best workers
tt they ever had with them
on fatigue - & tt G.H.Q. know
it.  When he was pointing
to / amt of work the Coy
had done _^shortly after its arrival in
 France & claiming tt it ws
not so bad in comparison
w what ws done before - the
G.H.Q people sd: "Oh, but you
had Australians to work for
you."  The Scots are the
next best, & then the 1^st British
Divn.  The 66^th he thinks very
little of.

8
4
When / Germans attacked
at Lombaertzyde, our lines
(those originally retaken by /
French after a German thrust
tt / Yser) were on / near
side of a curiously flattened
circle of sand in the dunes
- the Germans being on / far
side.   
Hand drawn diagram – see original
The French had put
immensely
strong wire
on their 
side.
This ground
used to be
part of
a most famous golf links.
Our company ws sent up
to try / experiment - the sd French
sd mining cd not be done here
(they used to cut & cover). Mulligan
sd it could.  He was made by

8
5
G.H.Q to put down some test
tunnels on / beach in / rear.
Gen. Harvey (G.HQ) came &
approved - & they started.  The
Director of Mining of the 4th
Army was very hopelessly
unsympathetic - he ws an
R.E. officer & therefore not very
skilled at this work.  He told started by
_^telling Mulligan tt this ws a "dud"
Company because its _^officers had no
decorations.  (If they had lived
at G.H.Q they wd have bn
covered w them - as he was).
They put in two tunnels - one
under the Black Dune, &
another for a dune near / sea.
They had to begin far back
(their beginning near / sea got
heavily strafed & they had to go
further back).  They had worked

8
6
round under / ridges on
/ right nearly to under our
front line - & on / left
were heading for a German
concrete dugout in nomansland under
wh they had to pass - when
the _^German attack started happened
Of the two _^British Colonels there,
Tollemache of the Northamptons
ws taken wounded;  the other,
of the K R R ws seen to go up to
fight to / end.  Searle or some such name,
( (shorthand) )  They say
that his revolver being finished
he went up to fight w his
fists.
[*Expanded later*]
([De Grut, Away when wind reported 
(Going to take out tamping.  Baz shaken.
(Lights out - waited put in prop
(drive from another tunnel to
(blow Germs while someone guarded

8
7
(workings.  D.G. & a Brit offr.
(sat there - D.G. listening on
(geophone when Germs blew.
(James fell in v [[injured?]] offr by leg.,
(but not De G.Finally both De G got
(out & brought help but cdnt
(extricate R E man.  Finally
(sent two men who got him out
(but deaf - memory gone - broken.]

There ws very heavy
rain on our way up
today & when we
arrived.  La Pauve was
running with water -
Every time one thinks
of those poor chaps out
in the Salient - Every
storm tt comes seems
to sweep straight
over there.

 7A
Hand drawn diagram – see original
 

8     8
Photos:
1. French cut & cover
2. Do Broken in by shell.
3. Entrance to dugout Tunnelled
dugout. [[f/d?]] cover 20 ft
(Left Reserve Tunnelled dugouts)
150 ft 6 x 4 gallery &
8 stair - inclines
2 tiers of bunks
1)
2) men in front of Entrance
3 men in front of another Entrance
4 Open pan much like of 
(shorthand)
5 No 3 Sectn mess - in cellar at
N.
6 The Pier End Nieuport
7 Same as 8 looking N
8 Nieuport looking N S
9 Same as 10 from rear
10. No 3 Section Mess at Nieuport
1:  No 3 Sectn Mess Nieuport.
2 Nieuport Rly Stn in (shorthand)
3 View in French cut & cover.
4)
5)   Shells in Dunes.
6)