Charles E W Bean, Diaries, AWM38 3DRL 606/87/1 - August 1917 - Part 2

10 9
tower - for development.
Wilkins is to be attached to
me.
Numbers of men &
N.C.Os of our Flying Corps were
on / boat today coming
across. The only A.F.C.
officer I saw was Wilkins, who was
found colour blind &
so became photographer. It
is curious tt as Hurley has
spent the last 5 years
almost entirely in / South
Polar region, Wilkins
has spent / last 3 with
Stefanssons Expeditn
exploring for / Canadian
Govt / known continent
on the N. side of Bass Baffin's
Strait.
MacGregor, who was
 

10 10
Birdwood's A.D.C. in Imbros
& Anzac has came over
yesty to take Dr Crespigny's
place & came from Boulogne
with me.

Aug 22.  The Italians & French
have made started offensives in wh the
Italians have captured 7000
prisoners & the French abt
4000 (?) figures.
The British made an
attack at Inverness
Copse wh failed.
The German aeroplane
raids are getting serious -
almost every night they
raid somewhere abt, & / latest
thing is tt a labour camp of
a British Labour Bn, near Borre, or Merris, ws
bombed & 40 k & 60 wd
 

11

Ones bed is to be sunk
still further so as to
bring it abt on a level
w / ground.
 

10 12
2nd army has sent out
an edict that all tents
in their area must have
a sandbag parapet round
them 18 inches high. This is
clearly because the present
low spread of the fragments,
when a bomb bursts, is
so deadly. Churchill is going
to have all our tents slightly
dug in, & then a low parapet
put round just between /
flies & / tenrope.
Unless a bomb
[sketch-see original document]
falls on you it ought
to keep you safe.
Officers & men are
going to cellars much
more readily - & very wise
to do so. The Germans
took up this cellar life long
 

10 13
ago on / Somme. In
Vaulx "Grand Place" there ws
a notice that on appearance
of "feindliche flieger" - enemy
fliers - a whistle or
something wd go, & troops
were to take to the
cellars. at once I suppose
it has come to stay now -
the war is going more &
more into / air & we
must expect a raid
somewhere about every
possible night.
Butler came back
tonight - good chap. He
had heard one shell go, /
other day, & ws going 
from his room to look for 
George, his Melbourne 
batman, when the
 

10 14
second one burst next
door, blew / big passage
window at his side in tiny
fragments into / opposite
passage wall & flung him
agst / wall half stunned
& simply peppered w glass
chips. He says tt /
crash of the falling
house was almost louder
than tt o / shell.
After dinner the guns
began to go. Chernside
got up & said very sensibly
"To the cellars, now, all of
you." We were going there
when Churchill called me.
We went out to the
front door; & there, high
up in the blue black sky,
in the crossed beams of
 

10 15
two searchlights, was a
little misty grey moth -
the German. He wheeled
round towards / North like
a hunted thing, the planes trying to shake off
the searchlights; trying to but
they followed him for
perhaps five minutes -
Then they had a lost him. Later
we (in the cellar we heard
a hum closer & closer, &
shrapnel pinpoint flashes
appeared in / sky overhead.
From the cellar we heard
4 or 5 bombs drop somewhere.
No civilian has bn killed
in Hazebrouck owing to their
going to cellars.
Half of Salonica has been
burnt down but theres very little
about it in the papers probably
owing to the Greek censorship.
 

10 16
Aug 23. Took Hurley & Wilkins
up to Hill 60. There
ws not a shell fell near
us all / way, either
going or returning. They
arranged with Col. Shellshear
& Blake to go up & stay a
few days.
Later Hurley met
Blake, Lieut Blake of the
105^th Bty, who ws with 
him in the Antarctic;
- a scientist by interest
& profession, not a gunner;
& he told him there wd be
a "straf" on in 3 days
time wh he cd go up &
photograph. Hurley arranged
to go up & live w them
two or three days, returning
in time for the big a
 

^X he lives in the old
Hill 60 mine tunnels -
 

10 17
review o / 2nd Divn
which Haig is to told in
3 or 4 days time.
Reviews are generally
the forerunners of something
more; but it may only
mean tt they are ready.
Shellshear ^X told us tt
he was the son of a Sydney
University lecturer - & his
brother, who ws in England
at / outset o / the war, is
doing the most delicate
scientific work for the Govt British
army. He saw him in the
Arras region / day before
where he is experimenting
with wireless.  He has been
noticing tt we have
a good deal of informatn 
from German wireless lately
 

10 18
Intelligence gets reports
"German wireless message
states that such & such
division must rehabilitate
its honour by attacking & retaking
/ trenches wh it relinquished
to / enemy .." .. & so forth.
Shellshear says tt we
now know whenever
a German aeroplane goes
up to observe for a
German battery - we know
what battery it observes
for & talks to; & that
we know tt it is up the
moment it leaves its
aerodrome. The arty
gets messages that the
German guns battery at
such - & such a map location
are going to shell open
 

10 19
fire, & is ordered
to shell them before they
begin!
The Germans don't
know qee probably
quite how much we know;
but they when one of our
planes goes up to observe
for a big gun shoot &
the guns are getting ready,
we have sometimes noticed
that / Germans crash down
upon those guns ten
minutes before they are
due to fire / first shot.
So they evidently have
some thing means o / the same sort
themselves.
On our way back
we had just reached the
car at Vormezeele when