Charles E W Bean, Diaries, AWM38 3DRL 606/86/1 - August 1917 - Part 4

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We had tea with [[?]]

H Qrs of No 3 section in their

cellar off the cellar avenue

-& from there I  got a photo

of the Esplanade - both ways.

The germans snipe down it.

Once in the Avenue, further

on, Dyson had gone out of 

some Exit, " This way up I

think ", he sd. I looked out

where he stood. I thought I

recognized a certain sandhill

not far beyond - It was the 

German post on 1 other

side of Yser. Dyson ws

standing quite nonchalantly

in view of it. "  It's quite

easy, when you get used

to it " he sd afterwds.

By the rly stn an

old train is standing, engine                                                    

trucks & all. It has

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been there for nearly 3

years, where the battle

caught it. ( The germans

once had 1 French right

back to 1  Yser, I believe,

 but the French regained

their hold on across the river mouth

later - at least so Churchill 

says. )

I looked in on the 

54^th Btn on my way home.

Their H Qrs were at a 

small seaside place between

Coxyde Bains & La Panne.

The only officer in ws an

English subaltern attached

to them. He told me th it

ws true th 3 guns had

bn knocked out. The german

shelling on 1 guns began

at 8 a.m. & they were

firing on and off all tt

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day & on the next ^ ^day too with

their remaining gun. There

was no real shelter, for

tho^, the men lay down

between shots as much

as possible they had only

shallow dugouts - no

deep ones exist there,  on

the flats.

We came back this night. Old

Boddy did wonderfully well

to 1 car. He is getting quite

expansive now he has bu to 1

Australians a [[?]] Year, or nearly.

He even sets up for a bit of a 

dog - & will answer back if

his leg is pulled. He found 

a spring o 1 car broken when 

he turned at the shelling oil

dunes. He got a piece of wood,

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cut it to 1 length o l spring

with a chisel & jury - rigged

the thing to signal wire.

Then he said thought he wd go

off & have a quiet pipe & watch

1 shelling. So he strolled off to

a sandhill well at 1 side,

& ruminated. He saw

burst after burst - but at last

a shell came wh did not

burst. It sang along - & then

he looked up & saw it coming

straight at him from 1 dunes.

He sprawled aside - & it

plumped onto 1 sand abt

5 yards away from him.

fortunately it lay there unburst.

It must have hit on a 

sandhill & ricochetted off

it. He was looking at this

strange visitor went another

37

The different sections of Tunnellers go up

for 48 hrs at a time, 3/5 [[? ]] being always in.

It is a principle that tunnellers shd be

camped back out of shellfire_ in thorough rest

The tunnellers used to bathe in the 

sea up at Coxyde until the germans saw

& shelled them. They bathe safely from their present camp.

La Panne is the place where the Belgian

King is living _^ very simply, in a seaside house a

few doors from our Tunneller's mess. The

place was till lately half filled with Belgian

people of fashion, or their wives. But they have

mostly gone; & the streets are a moving 

mass of British infantry today.

The French & Belgian hospitals are

still there. As these have full of ^many wounded

French & Belgian airman in them the

aeroplanes returning before dark along

the coast line often come low down &

sometimes turn all sorts of somersaults

to cheer their friends. They sometimes land

on the beach or just skim it. One _{^ ^{English plane}} came down

there this morning I saw the crowd running,

to it - & they took out the observer, dead, with 

a piece of shrapnel in his back.

The French & Belgian nurses have a sort of 

costume that women wd choose for themselves - designed

to be attractive. It is very nice for the staff officers, & young

officers whom one saw about there constantly, but scarcely so good

for the patients, I shd say. The girls were often pretty & attractive & one has 1 idea tt they do not mind 

being found " killing. " for the work of war one wd rather the Australian & English nurses every time.

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shell came singing & he

looked up & found it

coming straight for him

only turning round &

 round as it came,

wobbling around its point.

It flopped onto 1 sand about

10 yards away from  [[?]].

There the twins lay peacefuly

side by side - two 5. Cjs.

Boddy retired at this

stage. He ws very thankful

he had mended 1 spring of

his car.

The car carried us

home, damaged tho' it

was, in 2 hours. ^ ^{A fine day but} Two heavy

rain showers passed us, going straight

for the [[?]]. as we went.

Aug. 14. I told Gen. Birdwood

today that the Tunnellers 

had told me that Gen Harvey

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had been enquiring of them

weather they wanted to go back

to 1st Anzac. They had answered

te of they were better looked after

by their own people in 1 matter

of rewards - Mulligan sd te

it seemed as if G.H.Q. wanted

to present them going back - as

tho' there were some proposal

in 1 air & G.H.Q wanted to

put them off it.

Birdwood told me te tt 

is Exactt what there is. The 

Australian foot ( after Murdochs

& my suggestion, I suppose )

has wired saying te it desires

all its troops, as far as possible,

brought together under Gen.

Birdwoods command. ( So 

Hughes has adopted all Murdochs

cable & I cant help thinking te

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his motives may not be so

Entirely selfish as Boys made

out. )

Mulligan told me, without 

a moments hesitation, tt

the five Australian Divisions 

were 1 hardest ^ ^{best workers} te they had

worked with; the Scottish

next; & the 1st British

Divn next. But our men

always seemed keen to learn

1 work & then to take an interest

in it.

I found a letter from 

[[?]] to say te 1 

Australian Press Assoen

had asked for ^ ^{to be allowed} a correspondat

to be  at the front_ They

wanted him to deal with

A.I.F. matters. Hughes

had said agreed & made

41

x Aug 20. The other concept.

is probably only coming

like Murdoch.

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application straight

to the war office thro'

the Colonial office.

If this means working

in competition it is a 

pity. R ^ ^competition is best out of 

war correspondence. ^x

[[?]] at Cassell

( where the British Press now 

are ) tells me te my

wire abt the necessity to

think carefully & seriously

whether New Guinea ought

not to be returned to Germany 

if she is a democracy -

& whether it is worth 10,000

Australian casualties -

did not go. He held it 

up as it was political G

no political telegram can go 

from G.H.Q.

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Aug. 15. The guns

were very audible

on Aug. 13 ^?14 ( Evening )

about Lenn in the South. 

The Hazebrouche people

had stories of Lens ^^{La Bassu} - but

I think it ws  really Lens

The day before, Aug 12, 

was the fighting about

Glencorse wood, when

I believe, the British

got the edge of the wood

but could not keep 

it - or perhaps are

there still. It may enable

our 1st Aust. Divn gunners

to man their guns again.

They were camouflaged

and left there until

some such advance.

Kingsmith, who gave

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me their story the other 

day, has bn killed by

a big shell. Yonny

East, who ws also

giving me the story, ws

lying in I same dugout.

The shell went in behind

the dugout & blew 

upwards. East ws

just outside I crater

& ws not hurt.

The 2nd Divn. Arty 

say te one of their drivers

ws [[ ? ]] up on a mule

when the mule clean

disappeared, body, head,

ears, in the mud in a 

shell hole. The man

standing on its back

managed to keep alive 

in the mud, but lost