Charles E W Bean, Diaries, AWM38 3DRL 606/9/1 - June 1915 - Part 2

I saw the Japanese Bomb mortar today. It is
a curiously small to fire a 4 inch shell bomb, but
the fact is tt / bomb stays out of its mouth & is
merely given a shove behind. There is a steel tail or
rod abt a foot long wh goes down / barrel. Betw.
this & / bomb is a plate wh takes the shove 
of the charge. It will carry from 150 to 450
yds.    

[Hand drawn Sketch - see original document] 

We have 6 of these things ^(2 out of action, 4 in) now put
(w bombs altogether) under a special
officer - actg. Sergt Brown o / artillery.
The whole Bomb service is being systematised.

G.H.Q has sent round special instructions
agst poisonous gases. I suppose they exp.
them to be used agst us.

9
Turkey before ws a traveller for Standard Oil. He has a
belief in the Turks; & his ambition is to go home to his people in
Canada as a Commissioned Officer. His actions on the first
day are told in my diary of it altho' I ^have only just found them
out from him. They are borne out, so far as I can test them by
Lt. Shout, & Lt. Street.

There ws a fierce

I went along with O'Gorman tonight to
the Indian Mountain battery XXI^st - where they opened
some port wine for us. Their mules are wonderfully
dug in & sheltered. They have not yet bn spotted by aeroplane.

The place has been full of spy rumours this
last few days. An engineer is sd to have bn arrested.
Certainly one Syrian has bn. He ws v frightened & sd
he was a graduate of Paris ^university & of French parentage
which he certainly was not. Nicholas spotted him at
once for an Armenian of Lebanon or some such
place & Peticol sd he certainly ws not a Parisian
graduate. So he had to go off home.

A man ws also seen the last 2 nights & 
tonight signalling south from Plugges Plateau. At least
that ws / report - / mountain battery people
said they saw it. It started F.S. & the went on with
numbers. Blamey thinks it is some of the artillery
people practising. He doesn't believe ^even in any single
mystery or ruse except the message a couple of nights before
the big attack abt "You Australia Bastads" - that
puzzles him. He thinks both the "Cease fire" ws some ruse &
the "Indian soldier" ruse by wh Popes ws nearly captured
were pure mistakes - I must say I can't quite think so. I
am sure "ruses" are exaggerated by our people, but the
Cease fire ruse occurred twice the same day at different
places. The Turks have so long bn fighting tt they must be up to
this sort of thing.

However as rumours and "Furfies" are
getting v. bad Blamey has asked me if I can get out

10
a Furfie's Gazette - with these Furfies so exaggerated as to laugh
them out of court.

Some cases of enteric - I believe 13 suspicious 
ones - have bn diagnosed at Lemnos. The flies are getting
very bad & dysentry has begun to appear amongst
the officers & men at D.H.Q.

The Indian battalions at Cape Helles were
tampered with. I am told some of the Mahomedans
there joined the Turks - at any rate the Indian
battery officers say they were unquestionably
tampered with - and were sent away from there.
They were Cox's Bde, & poor old Cox himself raised
one of these Madras Bns. They left the Gurkhas
however.

Hough says - for what his evidence is worth -
that on the night when we were to have made the Turks
waste their ammn. by pretending ourselves to attack
& marching our men round in circles with bayonets
fixed (like stage soldiers) in some units, each time 10 mins.
before the hour the T. let off a furious fusilade & spoilt /
trick. His reason ^for firing doesn't seem obvious. Seems much more
likely tt one of our officers had a watch 10 minutes fast &
set them off too early.

These Turks are bold fellows. Some of One of them
put his head into a new machine gun tunnel at Quinns Popes - the
men inside it hadnt any arms - they bolted for a rifle but
long before they got it the Turk had gone. However of course it
spoilt the use of the tunnel.

At Cape Helles they now have a rly, & 2-15 inch howitzers -
& the place is dustier than Mena camp.

Todays Furfie:  There's a rumour tt / Turks are treating our officers
& crew of AE2 very well. They say that AE2 saw a ship in the
Dardenelles, & ws preparing to sink it when it turned out to
be a refugee ship. She let it go, & the Turks are so pleased
that they are showing our officers & men the sights of Constantinople.

As we sat with the mountain gun fellows, the

Two columns showing
Rifle shots at Quinns
as heard at D.H.Q
10.17 pm. June 10^th 1915.
Ist Col.    2nd Col.
37            76
Prob. includes
abt 20 m.g
In.
(Two minutes)
Each column
one minute.
Before         After 
Bomb          Bomb
1                        -                                      51        .
2.                                                              52.      .
3.                                                              53       .
4.                      .                                       54.     .
5.                       .                                      55.      .
6                        .                                      56      .
7.                       .                                       57      .
8                        .                                       58.    .
9                        .                                       59.     .
10.                     - ) ? firing at                  60     .
11                       - ) Cape Hellas
12                      - )
13                       .
14.                      .
15.                      .
16.                      .
17.                       .
18.                      .
19                       .
20                      .
21.
22.                      .
23.                      .
24.                      .
25.                      .
26
27.                      .
28
29.
30.                     .
31                       .
32.                     .
33
34.                     .
35.                     .
36.
37.                     .
38                     .
39                     .
40                     .
41                      .
42                     .
43                     .
44.                    .
45                     .
46.                    .
47                     .
48                     .
49                     .
50                     .
              
                             

11
bullets whistling just outside, we heard a real crackle of
fire at Quinns. They had heard at the battery tt there ws to be
some attempt to draw fire from / T.s tonight. [But as a 
matter of fact / Ts. have now bn warned in their own
divisional orders not to waste ammn. The order says it
makes them seem afraid of us.]

Tuesday
June 8^th. That firing last night was another night attack by
us at Quinns - another petty little attempt & another failure.
The men are getting pretty sick of these little sideshows halfhearted
sideshows. I suppose Birdwood, if / truth were known, is not
alld. by his instructns from down south to attempt anything more
- though what will happen when the saps they & we are making
are broken I cant imagine. They are sapping towards us daily
& throwing out huge wire entanglements of a clumsy sort at
J. Jolly & Lone Pine - & we are sapping towards them.
Will it be a case of Quinns all along / line or must we
not do what we shd have done long ago & make a thoro'
job?

It was a quiet day yesty till 10.30pm. The N.Z.
people were preparing for a sortie from Quinns at 10.30.
What they wanted to do ws to destroy the strong works they had
helped to put up themselves on June 4-5 & get back as much
as possible o / material tt I saw that morning going in through
/ Quinn's trenches "to destroy / enemy's fire trench & works
facing / centre of Quinns, remove all material arms
ammunitn & if possible recover material lost on the 4-5 June."

Assaulting party 50 men to occupy trench & then cover

working party.

Working pty - 30 men in 3 parties: 10 to construct loophole to right
                                                                  10   "     "                 "              to left
                                                                  10 to remove all material, destroy
                                                                   all works lying betw. enemy's 
                                                                   trench & our own trench.
Also Pty to fill in trenches betw. our trench & enemy's.
Pty to throw bombs to accompany assaulting pty - to have
"hob" bombs
& to destroy enemys trench on each side.
Post to be fully manned - Reserves brought up to side of hill.

12
whole under Lt. Col R. Young.

10.30 The party left / trenches at 10.30; at 11 they Quinns reported they had
11.00  Several casualties from m.g. fire but were passing back stores
from T. trench.
12.15 Reported situtaion v. confused. Right pty had bn driven back.
Left party had sent back no reports for over an hour.
Additional pty of 20 men ^had then ^bn sent up to get in touch w
left party, to ascertain positn & report. They had not
succeeded in getting touch w / left pty,
1. am. This pty reported they were holding their own 20 yds of enemy's 
captured fire trench themselves, & had built sand bag traverses.
They were endeavouring to get communicatn w Quinns
thro' enemys work

[Diagram - see original document]

1.55 O.C. 3rd Section Col. Chauvel reported all three pties had bn driven in &
appeared to have done little owing to fire on flanks & front.
Also indicatns of counter attack.
2.30 O.C. Popes reported enemy advancing on left; but few
minutes later further report tt this ws not serious.
----
The intelligence people have seen a good deal of 
activity in the valley to / N. of us - around
Kuchuk Anafarta (where it looks as if they were
bringing their gun a bit west so as to get at / beach)
& to the E of the salt lake in the hills in / plain
where they are entrenching.
----
I believe the casualties in the above N.Z. attack
were Auckld Bn.    k              w.             m
                   Off.         1                                   1
                   O.r.         4               26              7   
                                ______________________                         
                                  5                26              8
but this must be verified.

69
and all sorts of things caught in the waterproof sheet
wh serves him for a roof.

Dinkum Oil published, with special Surrender
Edition, announcing rush of troops to accept Turk
aeroplane's offer.

When I returned from Popes at 7.30, had breakfast,
went to finished cable about my posit principles on
wh I obtain news, & reason why it cant always be in as
soon as if it were written from Imbros. Then I went to sleep.
Bazley woke me up at 12 am. & handed me a letter which
gave me something of a shock. It was from Maj. Ward at
Army H.Q & told me that it had bn decided to establish a camp
for war correspondents at K beach Imbros & ordered me to
present myself there as soon as possible.

For the European correspondents who want general
news of how the campaign is getting on this may be all very 
well. For our us me - it wd be just as good to be in Australia. 
I put the letter before Blamey & White, who saw the General
who saw Birdwood. Col. White afterwds told me tt our general
wd like me to make a memorandum in writing.
xxxxx attach it to the letter & send it in. I did so 
- & my memo is attached. I believe Gen. Legge instr
himself added a note, possibly Gen. Birdwood too.

The guns tt / Turks have bn putting upon
the NE corner o / Kilid Bahr Plateau are in casements
w iron doors. One o these doors ws left open / other
nigh evg. when / sun ws full on / place & gave it
away. Some think there are 8 guns there.

G.S.O                  Headquarters 1st Australian Divn IXL VXL
1st Australian Divn.                      June 27th  1915.

With reference to the instructions from General Headquarters th
I should move to Imbros, I would submit that, while, of course, I must take
any course that is laid down for me, it is quite impossible for me to do
at Imbros the work for which my Government appointed me.

(1) The Australian Government in the instructions given me durin
my interview with the Minister for Defence attached importance to two
points: (a) to having with this distant force a representative who could
satisfy the poignant anxiety of Australians for news of their own men -
their daily life, behaviour in action, their peculiar Australian interes
which could only be given by an Australian; and (b) to the special instruction
given to me to write after the war the history of the Australian 
part in the war, as a permanent record for libraries, schools and the
nation generally. In their speeches at the dinner given to me in Melbourne
before I left the Minister for defence and other ministers laid especia
stress upon the latter point.

(2) The category of news which my duties require me to obtain
has no relation to that required by correspondents responsible to news-
papers. I am paid and employed by my government for the above duties. I
have not attempted to sum up the general trend of the campaign except in
one or possibly two small references to events already long since publish
in England. I do not know, I do not want to know, and needless to say
have not attempted even remotely to touch on any future plans.

(3) The only news obtainable at Imbros would be of the general
movements of the whole force which interest most correspondents but which
I do not need and cannot obtain at Anzac.

(4) The news which I cannot obtain at Imbros is the details as 
to the life, scenes, bearing of men, scenes that will stir Australian pride
(there are plenty of such details told to the British people of their
soldiers) - which is what the nation I represent wants to hear.

(5) News from Anzac will get into the papers - from letters, returned
soldiers, third hand exaggerations from Cairo - only it will be as
it has already been, false news as to imaginary atrocities etc., often
distressing sometimes alarming. My duty to my Government has been to stea
-ily correct these distinguishing most carefully falsehood from truth.

(6) If I should make reference to general events the censor xx
has every word I write addressed straight to him and sees it before he
forwards it. I have no competitor, and the possibility of my thinking
of sending any news otherwise than through the censor would not, I imagine, be 
considered any more than in the case of any other official appointed by
the Government.

(7) For the purposes of the Australian History of the Australia
expedition I might as well be in Australia as in Imbros.

(8) The British have plenty of constant news from their own
"Eyewitness" of how their own troops behave and plenty of record of it
although their men are mostly within a few hours of their homes. Our 
nation has not one observer with its army 8000 miles from home to see and 
record similar things of its men except myself and if I had not been
present a feat such as the Helles charge of the second brigade (which
deserves to live as long as the nation exists) would have gone almost
unrecorded.

I would submit that my case is really quite distinct from that of
private correspondents or of British correspondents and trust the authorities
will see their way to let me remain with the Australian Force.

C.EW. Bean

13.
Everyone is vague abt the operation. The men don are
beginning to talk a little - "Why do they keep us or messing round
in these half-hearted jobs at Quinns? Why don't they do the thing
properly or not at all?" There's a good deal of justificatn
for this. Its all v. well to say down on / beach tt they ought 
to stay in / captured trench & not come back. You go up into
tt inferno for half an hour & see. The din of it got on
my nerves. I was glad to get away from tt end o / gully
altogether.

I went thro' the trenches from Courtneys to
4^th Bn with Freame - They are simply a rabbit warren
in Courtneys - tunnels leading in all dir several
directns. At one place we looked down ^a shaft & 20 ft below saw
a couple of hefty fellows dragging sacks of earth along a
gallery as if they were mine ponies. They came out o /
bowels o / earth to our front & moved back to / rear
slope o / hill I shd say - Probably there is a window
there for getting a rid o / earth they dig out.

Just N. of the 4^th Bn gap (where / wire is & where
Col. Maclagans old H.Q. were -) is a tunnel from / trench
with a T head & 3 small loopholes on / outer face o / hill
each chocked with a sand bag, or an old shirt. From Freame
crawled in there with me. They are sniper holes looking down /
valley to / N. of J. Jolly. (I took a couple of photos thro the
loopholes & two of Freame sitting inside them). I previously took
one of him below / hole out of wh he crawled or one near it)

At the 1st Bde H.Q. Col. Johnston saw me & told me if
I waited some shooting might come off - the gun at "C"
generally gave them a go abt this time. I put what 
he showed me mostly down in / sketch on p.2. He 
ws uncertain how many guns we still had agst us.

On way up valley I saw some of the 6^th. Bn or
The reinforcements were all out drilling - they drill 2
hours a day, rifle 2 x., bayonet ex. - cant practice the
attack in this confined space. Told Recruits were drilling
everywhere

68

Sunday, June 27.  Fair Was waked me by fairly
heavy firing from Quinns Post at 5.15 this morning.
Col White Got up - reluctantly - & found Col. White
already up at signal office talking to Brig adm.
Each ws brigade said that no l Turks had got out of the
trenches. "Only a demonstration, Bean," sd Col. White.
The last time I stayed at home bec. of a demonstration
was May 19 - so I went up. There was a bit of
shrapnel in the gully - it was full moon at 3.15 - 
I dont know whether that had anything to do with
it, but it was pure demonstration. I called in at
Monashes; - a message came in - no Turks out of
trenches in (N.Z.) 4^th section. Went up to Popes - Turks
were pumping shrapnel into side of west N.Z. hill (near
Turks old H.Q. (where there are two pines

[diagram - see original document] 
& the remains of the brushwood for the 
T. officers beds & a T. trench up / hill).  Had a yarn
to Col. Rowell & afterwds went down to see J. Butler &
2nd LH. camped in the valley.
On the way up I had seen a rather affecting little sight
- 5 young chaps, officers & others, kneeling, accepting
the communion from a priest the parson o / regt - on the path
there in / the bottom o / valley. Not far away lay a wounded
man in the doctors dressing stn, waiting for stretcher
bearers to take him down.

[A man ws wounded at Popes / other day by
a bomb wh dropped in Quinns (or rather in /
T. trenches in front of Quinns). Part of it whirled
across & hit him in / neck. It cut his jugular. He
ran around struggling for a time & had to be held
down, but died very quickly.]

Jack Butler was peacefully asleep in 
his dugout at the section H.Q. so I didnt
wake him. He gets bits of bombs, stray bullets

14
signallers are out practising. [Bomb throwing parties are now
going to start - practice 1st with stones, then w dummy bombs, 
then w real ones under practice conditions - so many per
unit in the bomb throwing lot (see Divl orders).] The men are very
doubtful o / value of some of these reinforcements & rather rub it
in - Reinfs. dont much like it but I daresay it does them good. The
last lot of reinfs is good ^material, they say, "young-old men" as one man
put it to me, "men of 30 or so - you know." But all want any amt
of drill.

Saw MacNaughton back from front, limping uphill - 
very puffed. His wound is not yet healed. MacKay is
back too - very lame; walks w stick. Says he wont stay if
Legge comes - L. is 5 yrs his junior.

Which Good new of Cass, but they say poor M'Nicoll is
very bad - The French surgeons cdnt get / bullet out & it
presses on some nerve near / bone o / let & gives him awful
pain when he moves. Hastie has gone on to Malta.

At the 6th Bn I saw a local topical paper edited 
written illustrated & issued by Sergt Maj. Noonan, formerly
in / Victorian State Audit (Spring St.). He had several
papers going on the Honorata & in Egypt; & his present
one - Snipers shots - is really very good indeed. There 
is a frequent kindly refere laugh at / reinforcements - 
e.g. Corpl: xxxxx "Have you got your rifle loaded?" Pte Jones - 
"Yes, sir, I think so; at least there's 9 in the tin box & one in 
the funnel."

They say a reinf. ws going round to / beach / other
day when one of our guns opened over his head: "They
blame / Turks for all this shrapnel," he sd, "why its 
us that begins it!"

I asked Blamey if I cd get Noonan to help me
with the proposed newspaper. I showed him "Snipers
Shots" & he showed to / General - It certainly is very 

67
[*Atrocity*]
All the same on walking down from /
trenches late last night I heard a man say to
another - standing yarning in / commn gully
[[shorthand]]

(Effect of periscope rifles - see Informatn
Circular this day.)

At Helles Col. Johnson of N.Z. Art. saw 
some o / French guns. They complained tt they were
only alld 50 rounds a day to play w (ours are
only alld 2, here & at Helles, at then w some discretion)
on June 20 for in 3 hrs French fired 25,000 shells
into 500 yds of front - first firing line, then supports, 
then reserves (one battery fired 2500 rounds - 4 guns).
Their infantry found Turks simply dazed. There
ws one officer who ws standing holding his glasses,
kneeling - unhurt, but quite dead, from shock.
They range w [[?raffales]]
[Hand drawn sketch, see original document]

[*Trenches
N.Z. near T.*]

The N.Z. trenches are now very near to
those o / Turk on the E. end of Baby 700. The
N.Z.ers have sapped forward & the place is almost
another Quinns.

Our men now bathe a bit at night,
& make a good deal of noise.

Our first high explosive 18 pdr ammunitn has arrived.
We fired 7 rounds into their parapets & made great
mess.

Sir Ian Hamilton ws ashore today. He landed
amidst one "hate" & left amidst another. As he was
waiting on the beach for the picket boat to take him out -
with his staff - a shell burst on / other side o / biscuit
boxes agst wh he ws standing. They tell me he ws / only
man o / lot that didn't duck.

Dropped by an aeroplane over Anzac 25/6/15. Blown by wind into Turkish lin
German Officers Trench. Tied by Turk to tail of bomb and thrown back into our lines.
Copy (much torn and smelly) published by our intelligence staff as folls:

Proclamation
to the
AngloFrench Expaditionary Forces.

Protected by heavy fire of a powerful fleet you had been able to 
land on the Gallipoli Pensinsula, on and since April 25th.

Backed up by those same men-of-war you could establish yourselves
at two points of the Peninsula.

All your endeavours to advance into the inner parts of the peninsula
have come to failure under your heavy losses although your ships
have done their utmost to assist you by a tremendous cannonade implying 
enormous waste of ammunition.

Two fine British battleships "Triumph" and "Majestic" have been
sunk before your own eyes by submarine boats, all protective means
against them being utterly insufficient.

Since those severe losses tonthe British Navy your men of war
had to take refuge and have abandoned you to your own fate!

Your ships cannot possibly be any hel to you in future since
a great number of submarines are re ared to suppress them.

Your forces have to rely on sea-transport for reinforcement and
supply of food, water, and every kind of war materials.

Already the submarines did sink several steamers carrying 
supplies for your destination.

Soon all supplies will be entirely cuttoff from your landed forces.

You are exposed to certain perdition by starvation and thirst!

You could only escape useless sacrifice of life by surrendering.

We are assured you have not taken up arms against us by hatred. Greedy
En land has made you fight under a contract.

You may confide in us for excellent treatment. Our country disposes
of amdle provisions; there is enough for you to feed you well and make you
cal quite at your comfort.

Don't further hesitate! Come and surrender!

On all other fronts of this war your own people and your allies' situation
is as hopeless as on this peninsula.

All news spread amongst you concerning the German and Austrian armies
are mere lies.

There stands neither one Englishman, nor one Frenchman, nor one Russian
German soil.

In the contrary, German troops are keeping a strong hold on th
of Belgium and on conspicuous parts of France since many a month.

A considerable  art of Russian Poland is also in the hands of the
Germans who advance there every day.

Early in May strong German and Austrian forces have broken through the
Russian centre in Galicia. Pryzemysl has fallen back into their hands
lately.

They are not in the least way handica ped by Italys joining your 
coalition but are successfully engaged in driving the Russians out of Galicia.

Theses Russian troops whose cooperation one m...... you look forward
are surrendering by hundreds and thousands.

Do as they do! Your honour is safe. Further f...... is mere stu id
loodshed!

The old Turk scribbled o / back of this in pencil some very filthy remarks about our wives 
& mothers. He added: "You think there are no true Turks left; but there are Turks - 
and Turks sons."