Charles E W Bean, Diaries, AWM38 3DRL 606/9/1 - June 1915 - Part 3
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good indeed the serial begins "Bertrand sniped
battleships from his dugout on / beach..."
Wednesday June 9th
Stayed in to write diary till got a message at
3.30 p.m. from Col. Johnston (2nd ^Art Bde.) to say he had a
scheme on. A battery from in front was to pound the enemy's
Quinns trenches one way →; B. Brown ws to run a
gun into / firing line & pound them another way ↑
- just 10 shots & then down (They are only alld 2 shots per
gun about w a little discretion).
Phillips guns were to pounce on "C" - if he
opened.
The guns were very slow in opening - the
firing on the whole seemed to me scattered, & not very
good. Then "C" began. First there was a curious white
puff of smoke up wher over his positn - I thought it ws one
of our shrapnel; they Col. J. sd it might be a puff (i.e.
apparently a blast of powder meant esp. to mislead us).
He turned one of our guns on C. Presently quite clearly
from behind a break in the hillside otherwise quite
invisible came a small cloud of dust - just a tiny
whisp of it blowing away to / left. Our guns began to
pounce on it all of them straight away. It fired again -
& its shell had a curious light tired sort of rustle.
"Why that's Tired Tim!" cried Col. J." I'll swear tt's Tired Tim. He's
never bn there before. Wonder what they've moved
him there for!" Tired Tim is a smallish gun wh used
to fire at its very extreme range. It ws firing now from
a good deal closer - if this was Tired Tim. Presently
as well as T. Tim we noticed smoke dust whiffs
travelling from at least two other positions a
few yds to / left of it. They were firing at some
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of our guns in Shrap. Valley. Then came a dull report
& with it the whizz of a fairly loud shell overhead.
It exploded far back towards B. Brown with the
nasty shriek of a high explosive. They dont know exactly
where that chap is - he's prob. 4 in or 4.7.
Then over came a much more distant fellow still.
We heard his report ^coming from the N. - a soft dull one; then,
8 secs. later we heard the rustle of / shell coming
up passing overhead & away to / S. of us. Must be
nearly on / limit of his range now, I shd think.
The bursts of our guns showed you the valley at
"C" most clearly. The smoke sometimes swept right
up it. One cd never have suspected it otherwise.
Col. J showed me two more of their gun
emplacements on the extreme crest of 971 - quite
visible thro' a telescope.
- you cd just see / top o / black enclosure.
Also the observing stn under a bush on
Battleship hill.
Monitor arrived yesty & took a look round
Has bn firing today at Anafarta
Hand drawn diagram – see original
Thursday June 10 Nearly all day writing
this diary. Made one break to go down & photograph
Watson, the second i/c of the Divl. H.Q. signallers making
his pier. He started (by order) with trenches but is
now pile driving with an 8 in shell full of shrapnel
bullets & sand (weighing 3 cwt) as a pile driver.
The wind has been blowing fairly strongly today &
yesty, luckily off the shore. If it blew on shore
we shd lose our pants & the sapp he landing of
supplies wd be stopped. They say tt / other
day when / Triumph went down the steam launch
of one o / warships wh ws towing a pontoon full of
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mule carts dropped it & made straight for / Triumph.
The mule carts & pontoon went shore & were a
present to / enemy.
The other incident o / day was tt I noticed
the artillery headquarters people all w their glasses
and staring at the beach beyond / N. Zealanders. I asked
what it was. "Turkeys" they sd (tt is /
way / Indians say Turks). I got my glass & there
sure eno' behind some sandhills on / beach were
two men - crawling through / grass tuft - now standing
up, now kneeling. Anderson thought he cd see part of
a gun behind one heap sand hill. I noticed tt these
Turks were not good at keeping themselves hidden;
they didnt crawl on their stomachs - on / inside of
their hands elbows knees & big toes as Freame
does; they crawled on hands & knees erect. The
artillery people sd tt there had bn a lot more of
them but the destroyer had crept in & fired one shot
into them at them wh made them jump over / sandhill
& scatter in all directns - abt a dozen of them at
least. XX The destroyer fired no more guns at them tho'
she went in to look, & the our own guns tho' firing
weren't firing at them. However, they knew of / target - so
tt ws all right, tho' Harris wd very much have liked a
howitzer shot onto them. Anderson sent him down to N.Z
H.Q. to report what we had seen, tho' he was sure they
knew it & he hardly thought guns were required bec. by /
way / men were crawling they seemed to be under fire from
somewhere.
Tonight I had some light on / incident.
They werent Turks at all - They were N. Zealanders
Maj N.Z. had established a post far out down near /
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beach - I dont know why bec. it draws attentn to this flank,
but still it ws done. The Turks were trying to cut / post
off all day, but our guns kept them bck - Maj. Campbell
& the XXVI Mtn Battery was protecting them. "Have
they all survived?" I asked O'Gorman asked him.
when he ws up here today. "Well they were all there,"
ws / answer, "but I dont know if they are now bec. the destroyer
Pincher fired at them a shot at them."
I suppose / destroyer will be blamed - &
perh. she ought to be, for firing without asking But who
these people were. But ^why as a matter o / most ordinary
military precaution - why didn't / N.Z. people tell
/ Navy tt this party ws there?
The 4 in gun of unknown site (I think it was)
ws firing on / beach today. She didn't get / beach but
only / dugouts above / ^lower beach; & / whole beach
was st Army Corps people included was standing
roaring w laughter at seeing the men from /
dug outs bolting down to try & get / shell cases
whilst one hardened individual waved a
spade or something after every shot to tell / enemy
it was a washout.
Foster goes to the 2nd L.H. Bde tomorrow as
Bde Major. Lynch comes down here as Camp
Commandant, & until the Frenchmen go he will
share this dugout w me.
Very uneasy night at Quinns.
(see opp. p. 11)
Men get very to look on shooting snipers v. much
as they wd on shooting rabbits (plunk - bullet in sea punctuates
all this country every night). One chap ws shooting / other
day when Smith & Griffiths were up there. He ws just
firing when some one else ^from somewhere else fired & / chap
rolled over. "Now aint I an unlucky beggar " he sd "There's
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someone else gone and plugged him just as I had a ^ws getting a
beautiful shot shot".
Another fellow was describing a successful shot which
killed a sniper. "It was a beautiful fall" he sd describing how
/ man threw up his hands & his rifle ....
A lot of this sniping is indirect fire. The Our sniper
cant see what he is hitting but is laid on by a man w a
telescope just as a gun might be. "Come up 3 o.c. from
there" " A trifle down" - "a little right" so on. The 1st Bn
snipers from Jacksons post (where Arnott ws hit w
his m.g) have got 14 snipers in ten days in a snipers
trench on top o / Razorback. These chaps dont know
where / bullets are coming from. You can see them
discussing it. Then one is hit & a man pulls him
back by / heels. Finally they all clear.
Quinns is being strengthened as far as possible;
& I believe Popes has now 6 m.gs. to bear on it.
It is curios how / fight has come down to little
things. I hear even White discussing little plans for
effecting the scores over one or two men. I suppose
we have to keep them going. But I dont think this miserable
hole & corner scrapping at Quinns is improving / force.
The engineers were ordered off their bridge by
pier by the Army Corps people today when a
shell fell on / beach hundreds of yds away. They
didn't in / least wasnt to go. This sort of things - breaking
off work for / possible chance of a shell before any
shell has come near wont improve them either
if there is much of it. That sort of carefulness is
awfully catching.
No aeroplanes here for a wk. But I exp. they
want them badly at Helles. Our fleet ws to have kept
clear / right flank o / French from fire from / Asiatic
Shore - but now it cant do so. The French cant be having
too [[p?]] a time.
20
Friday June 11th.
4th A.M.C. (Col Beeston tells me) had had 6 men killed
& 36 wounded. For a unit not supposed to be in / firing
line at all that's not bad. I believe the 3rd A.MC. has had more -
& the stationary hospital.
2.10.am. Big explosion followed by heavy firing (seems
mostly to be ours).
Heavy gun shelled beach today (? 4 in) from a point further
round to W, I think, than ever before. Shells seemed almost to
catch hills from back - one remarkably close to Watsons Pier.
As we have had no aeropl. for over a wk I don't suppose
we know where tis gun is.
They say that 2 Divns have landed at Helles, & that losses
there in last attack were 4000-5000.
Heavy firing down south at Hellas tonight.
Last night the Mtn guns fired abt 20 star shells. the
Turks are putting out wire in front of their trench at
Johnstons Gully -
Hand drawn diagram – see original
great 5 foot framework rolled
out. I suppose our idea is to stop this night work
&, if they are out in front of trenches, turn on a Maxim.
Foster went to 2nd L.H.B. tonight as Bde Maj.
Monitor firing tonight this evg.
Sergt. Maj. Noonan was here this aft. noon & composed
the 1st issue of the Dinkum Oil. I can't say I even
helped him. All I did ws to hold the pen and write
clearly. He really has a very remarkable wit. The
thing is very good indeed.
Still windy - & cooler - fortunately N. wind
off the shore. Working all da A very quiet day
-12 shots a minute day; much more noise
tonight, abt 40 shots a minute all pretty loud as I
sit here & right [the next minute there were 4 bombs
& about 150 shots - thats the sort of night it is; but
I always reckon there's not much on at Quinns
unless other guns start firing]
Heavy gun fire at Cape Helles last night and today. Stated that reinfor
are coming to us as well as to them. Howitzer being placed -
Plugges Plateau - drawn up by men at dark.
the road on / W side (wh has all practically bn made since we
were here) came down close to / waters edge & a path
crosses where the E bank was lowest. (It was here the Brigadier Hasty,
Hogan, Monks & I with several signallers, started out during
for the fight of May 8. Further up on the right (E) behind a bluff was
where when 6th was camped.
Sketch
By this one ought to be able to refind the ground
whenever one revisits it. About 500 yds ^further over the heath
to the E of / Creek is what we called / Tommy's trench.
Going up / creek ^today we came to a trench wh seemed to be /
Tommy's trench. We went on from there another 250 yds
& reached a trench dip wh seemed to me to be where / sniping
used to take place _ There ws a bit of a cliff on / West.
The rest was shelving & half way up / eastern bank ws a
spring Two white parapets of trenches went
up / hill here & Bennett
Sketch sd it ws our firing line.
Sure eno' "Australian line" ws
written up against it.
We walked up it & to ^/ top
got up to see / xxx country thro wh
we had come that day. It ws most unfamiliar, Col. Mackay
sd he cd see the trees by the Tommies trench (abt 25 yds
behind us) but it didn't seem to me at all like. I ws
just thinking to myself: well, there's a curious
21
Sund June 13.
Morning paper art. 8 & evg. paper 8 finished.
Glasford & White are both ill & little Blamey
is really doing a big part of the field work
& office work too.
N.Z. exploded a mine today at ^4 o'c at Quinns under
a mine of the enemy's - haven't yet heard result.
The old Bauchante
turned up & gave
Kaba Tepe a shelling
quite like old times, this morning. I wasn't there up
unfortunately, to see it. I sort of heard it in my
dreams. At the same time the Dartmouth gave the
T. Headquarters (I believe tt ws / target) somewhere
to / N. of 971 a devil of a basting. Both of them
fired viciously during their short stay. They had 10
destroyers.
In the Afternoon the Monitor bowled up (if the
expression can be suitably applied to a flat iron) and
banged at the hills or valley to the North of us; & a
destroyer came right in to the Bay in front of the
salt lake & hammered both sides of the point
bay very hard - searching, I think, by the way the
shells went along the ridge. That same unknown gun -4 in -
shelling beach & bursting its shell splendidly.
xxxx A real aeroplane from Hellas - British
flew over us twice today - The second time she
dropped the bombs in the direction of the gully
beyond Quinns or the valley below it. All the men
here could see them fall - yellow looking things; &
a cheer went up from the beach when they
exploded. Nearly five minutes later the black smoke
of tt explosion floated over.
Heavy bombardment at Hellas today -
in earlier part of day on French side; later on
English side; most of last night also.
Our guns caught ^sight of a motor car on one of the
road at the back today or yesty & put a shrapnel over it. It
ran into its top speed & vanished.
3 articles off this morning & two more ready tonight. I've got clear of
history & am into the nice sketchy bit lighter stuff which one can reel
off faster. An 83 shot a minute night - Turks rather uneasy.
60
had bn green fields & flowers was white dust, shredded
grass roots, & line upon line old tea tangled telephone insulated
wire looking like the dead skin of a broken backed snake -
& line on line of dugouts. We walked to / hill where
Johnson had his mob H.Q. The view seemed to have gone -perh
the trees were in fuller leaf. Then we went up / ^Western stream
past the ^stone cottage w / red tiled roof & sat down near a
stumpy tree. I sd it wd be better to be close to a dug out
in case of shrapnel. Under / tree were numbers &
numbers of Turkish bullets. Gen. Prendergast came walking
past while we were there. He sd th a group of 6 men
there ws a dangerous invitation to / enemy - the bn
camped there used to lose abt 6 men a day - so he had
shifted them further back amongst some light tree scrub
& th, although v. sparse, spate prevented / shrapnel
from coming- they cant properly observe / bn & his brigade
altho' only one real scrap, June 4, had lost nearly 50
per cent ^on jetty, and then small daily losses.
The tree we were under (I had chosen it) ws
a particularly dangerous place. He ws having a communicn
trench dug right thro to / firing line - they put the shrapnel
up & down thick every day!
This ^(E side of stream) ws abt where the 5th were camped-
they were a little further on on the / other side, ^(W bank) under
a sort of bank formed by a higher level of ground ws
/ dressing slate - it is / dressing stn still.
Sketch Behind a low rise Sketch
some way ahead of it
was camped the 8th
& there ws a soldier
grave of a man
in (8th there amongst
abt 6 other of British Bns. On / right (E) above there ws the 5th
with Mathison's old dressing stn, a wh hole dug into / bank
wh the 7th made. Then the stream broadened, the banks flattened
22
an exquisite sunset over Imbros. Took 3 photos of it & one
good one of 4 in. shrap. burst near N.Z. point (N end of Beach).
Miners in one o / long saps - 3rd Bn - I think it is - say they
can hear the Turks mining underneath them. Q.M.S Noonan (who
runs the Dinkum Oil (True News) is in charge of a party working
on one of those saps.
McCay came in & had a yarn.
Foster very anxious to get the 2nd LHB together into
trenches (Infantry say the Turks say they cant face the
Australians but they dont mind the Light Horse) I heard a
L.H. Officer the other day asking an Infantry officer for a
fatigue to bury very dead men for him in the L.H. trenches!
The 2nd Bde [[(?]] are taking over a special half
section of No 2 Sectn - from Courtneys to the 1st
Bde H.Q.
Monday June 13 14
Last night we blew up the sap wh ws so close to
/ Turks. Mosely advised agst it until they were closer.
us The explosion x did not break the ground, & only a little gas
7 appeared to escape at our end - so presumably
it burst into / Turkish tunnel - but no one can
say exactly. The tunnel is too full of foul gas for anyone
to get into it, & they say this ^it will take a
month before anyone can do so & see what was the
effect.
The N.Z.^counter mine the other day was possibly
a success; their staff told me in a half hearted
sort of way that it was, which of course
leaves one w / impression tt it was'nt.
I was sure something ws on by the conferences
between White, the General, & the Engineers - but
even Blamey didn't know that it was
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The destroyer caught someone at Kaba Tepe : when she fired a
betwee number of mounted men got out & bolted as fast as ever their
horses wd carry them. It ws Parker ^now commds the right gun of Burgess's batty
who told me - he had seen it. I asked if our gun had damaged them
also. He didn't know - he had bn ordered to fire a couple of shots somewhere
& he hadn't know seen our gun fire. I sd it seemed to be right on
top of them - a couple of shots. "That ws probably our gun" he sd. "Of
course we didnt know what we were firing at - I expect th ws it".
The Turks also seem to have a H.Q. over on the plain
there wh the guns destroyer shelled.
On May 17. The head of their line was up across the end of a long
stream gully running parallel to coast.
One cd see / Indians on their flank
up this gully.
Hand drawn diagram – see original
Inland one cd see them
big works
recently
made on Kilid Piahu
on the yellow paddock
on top o / plateau.
The Turkish trench wh seemed to run not far from it is several
large communicatn trenches wandering exactly like mole hills
down towards it. The T. right turned back along / coast.
We went past the point & up into / Dardanelles into
Morte Bay. Some big gun - probably 8 in on rails - was throwing
up geysers of reddish earth.
The party consisted of Gen. Russell (why dont they give our
Brigadiers rank? - it means they are always junior to N.Z. men)
McCoy, Johnston (N.Z. Artillery), Cunningham, Gellibrand, Blamey.
Wallis, Maj. Davidson (1st) Young Cook (4th) a person, Maj. Bennett,
Maj. Anderson (our arty), Maj. Williams & others. Blamey, McCoy,
Bennett, the person, Wallis & myself started up towards our old
camp (we landed at W. Beach).
[There were few transports about, & a few submarines
& tbds & hospital ships. As we came round / point I saw a
great coppery green turtle back hull - like / back of a porpoise-
wh might have bn a submarine except it had a light tied
on top of it like the tiny hat on / old Majestic.
Blamey McCoy & our party went down / hill to near
our old camp. The ground was empty a dusty desolate, where there
23
coming off tho' he was up in the trenches at the
time.
We were wakened this morning by the Anafarta
gun firing a couple of shots ^shells which only missed
these dugouts by a few yards - one went through
Austins tarpaulin.
The navy seem to have tried to silence this
gun without success. A destroyer also went
in close and gave K. Tepe a good time from wh ^from / back
whilst our guns got our man this face. The
enemy have now two guns - so I
am assured a w of by Col. Maclagan I think
it was - on K. Tepe. This morning the
Bauchante & the Dartmouth
Went up to S. flank (round two snipers
trench) & it seemed a better policy to see Smith
of 12th Bn. They have some wonderful
trenches - I took several photos - you
cdn't see the fire trench until you were
right on top of it. I cdn't see it at all.
They often of late have seen / Turks
drilling in the hills this side of Achi Baba;
endless convoys moving down, the
the smoke of French guns can now be seen
on / left (looking from us) of Achi baba.
A destroyer was fight ^firing tody at the
back of K Tepe from close inshore & also
up as Pasha Dayd.
58
Malcolm Ross arrived today. It took him nearly
3 wks to get from Alex. here. His son ws hit about
the 4th day - some say blown out of a trench by a
shell. He doesnt remember it, any way - when
w a dozen men of our 4 Bde of whom only 7 were left
He wrote a splendid a/c, I believe, wh has bn sent to
"The Times" (June 6).
Atrocities (Ross's a/c.)
Ross says he came across two definite reports of
T. atrocities. A Queen Eliz. surgeon told him upon his son,
tt they had had a man on board (Ross's son saw him & asked
abt him) wh ws nailed to a
door & had his eyes cut out (probably Munster Fusiliers)
Oliver Hague met a Munster who sd he ws there when
they found him. (Burning also came into it somehow). This is
pretty definite.
(2) A nurse told him she had seen a case
of a man w his tongue cut out.
But Ross sd his son told him our men
killed / wounded - bayonetted men in trenches to make
sure - but then they were sd to have bn fired on by
wounded. Some of our men sd they had bn ordered to
make no prisoners.
Australians (no surrender)
Turkish doctors on Armistice Day told our
doctors tt / Australians wdnt surrender & had to
be shot.
Aircraft (lights out)
No unveiled lights after 9pm. till 4am. for
fear of aircraft bombs. (A.C. order)
Hosp. Med (Imbros)
Legge thinks / hospital sh be at Imbros &
(3) we might make a breakwater agst / winter on
agst shallow ground spit. The season breaks at
equinox.
Friday June 25. Went down to Helles today w a party of our
officers. Noticed that coast around mouth of small river south
of Kaba Tepe is very strongly entrenched line of trench
ran along coast from small sandy knob south of mouth of stream
& has bastions at intervals
Hand drawn diagram – see original
The British were further up the coast than when we last passed
24
Took several photos of our trenches - cd not see
them myself till a rifle ws put up. Saw Turkish
trench in process of being made - the corrugate /
parapet [[?]] & then boards over.
It makes a fine set of loopholes agst enfilade
fire.
Tues June 15.
Went round all the Australian guns except the
one in Caddy's Batty on Walkers Maclagan's Ridge with Col. Hobbs
today. He gave me a splendid look round- is kind, & very
keen & well up in his work; but I cannot think he is a really
good commander of artillery _Others - his own staff especially -
say he is, but I'm sorry - I cant believe it. All along he has
impressed me as being really xxxxx a man who, however
keen, could never get a real hold on men. You can only
go on your impression & that's my firm impression still
in spite of having tried to think otherwise.
The positn of the guns, and of the enemy's guns I
have written up in diary May 4 (p.19 black Diary) The Turks
have been shelling the Pimple (prob. because they know there's
tunnelling going on there) with ^an 8 in. guns somewhere ENE
-possibly at Kumkeui or on the Anafarta Rd. One shell
caught a machine gunner lying on a ledge inside /
trench by B. Browns battery & took off first his leg then
part of an arm then hit / ground & went off to somewhere
unknown over / back parados o / trench. The chap
ws not killed - he ws quite cheerful & ws obse telling
his mates tt he expected he'd get his living selling newspapers
when he got back.
Brown's Battery has had it v. hot at times thro'
being on the Pimple - (the reason why the 6th got it so
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