Charles E W Bean, Diaries, AWM38 3DRL 606/120/1 - 1919 - Part 1

AWM38
Official History,
1914-18 War: Records of C E W Bean,
Official Historian.
Diaries and Notebooks
Item number: 3DRl606/120/1
Title: Notebook, 1919
Includes references to New Zealanders at
Chunuk Bair, August 1915 and to the 9th, 25th
and 26th Battalions and 1916 actions.
AWM38-3DRL606/120/1
 

Some of Anzac Notes
(1) Raids - June/July/15
(2) And Chunuk Bair
15 prisoners.

Original
DIARY NO. 120.
AWM 38
3DRL 606 ITEM 120[ 1 ]
DIARIES AND NOTES OF C. E. W. BEAN
CONCERNING THE WAR OF 1914 - 1918
The use of these diaries and noted is subject to conditions laid down in the terms
of gift to The Australian War Memorial.  But, apart from those 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 the 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 constant 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

Note.
Typewritten copy
of following
at back of book
CWB.

Lt Col W.H. Hastings
92 Punjabis.
E.G.F.
Of this acct.
This part ↓ was
(obtained in Bosante, Turkey, March 1919 where
we found Hastings & Cunningham)
Account from :
Capt Hastings & Maj. Cunningham (2 in/c Well.)
later Col. 92 Punjabis
Capt Hastings xxxxxxx ws told to go to Gen Cox with Doddington.
Cox said to H : you go with Sutton & ∧accompany the Ghurkas &
Warwicks & D. with NZs.  H & D slept at Coxs head
& feet tt night - it was the only place in wh you cd get out
o / bullets. It got thro' / column of / warwicks & got with the Ambulance
of the Ghurkas & past it (w his batman) & found tt the xxxxxx ∧Amb. had lost
the Ghurkas. He went on ([shorthand])
He went to his right. He knew he wd _^∧strike the NZs that way. He went to / top - "I will keep
up tt way & get thro' to Malone & drop down from there. The two offrs were to
help Cox - when they got to Malone the column ws just getting to the top of
[shorthand] Cox.  When [shorthand] Malone [shorthand]

R1      1
[*Some of Anzac Notes
(1) Raids - June/July /15
(2) and Chunuk Bair*]
[*/ hill. From there H. cd see / Ghurkas & Warw. just struggling up to / farm. Malone ws in a shallow trench [shorthand].  Ghurkas - Warwicks [shorthand].
from / left of wh you overlooked / farm. the The fire from the rt (all from the rt) ws getting hot .Malone
[shorthand].
wdnt let Hastings go down to /
Ghurkas . He kept him there.*]
Rifle Bde. 15 prisoners.
1st NZ Bde. 1^st Wellington.
July 2 [shorthand] shelled Armentirres
in [shorthand] for our aeroplanes
bombing it - every 3 minutes for 4 hrs.
All same place near Church
Prob aft church wh ws not
an observtn Stn.
Keenan has been in to [[?]]
[[?]] since - sandbags.
Chunuk Bair: Cunningham says tt on top
of Ch. Bair there ws no scrub- limestone mostly not much
grass. A few shell holes not as big as in France
It ws just breaking light when Wellgtn. got on top.
Abt. 20 yds / other side, where
some men went, there _∧ws an old Turk trench - It ws
straight - untraversed.
Part of Hawkes B. Coy
ws on rt & Wellington
Coy. on left; _∧they went

Cunningham.
2in/c to Malone

R1      2                                                                    
over so; _∧but 971 enfiladed them.
Abt 80 or 100 _^of our men - 50 on _∧each flank got
over. The 50 on the left rt were seen
at once & k.
[^A man called (I think) McGurk xxxxx got ½ way Back with a bullet
thro his left foot and a compd fracture of right leg - he
pulled himself xxxxxx back over / ridge by his
hands & rt down to Bde HQ]
By 4 o'c. _∧we had been pushed out of this trench.] There had
been Not a shot as we went
up.  Maj Cox of Taranaki &
?Cunningham? put up flags. _∧They got a T. mg.
Sectn in a little _∧10 yds length of trench on our _∧side of / rise.
I think Col Malone put his H.Q in this. There this
Diagram - see original document
There had bn a
hard shelling.  The Naval guns
shelled to left of the flags. (They got into us)
The Welsh Pioneers on our right were
caught by the same m.g. from 971.

3
X
Hastings says this is a bit too strong.  The right kept
coming back.  He noticed tt They were not doing well but they were
very new troops. They suffered but were not annihilated.
They were completely new troops - The remains of /
less good portion of "K1".

Diagram - see original document

X Hastings says he thinks these went
in amongst
the W. Pioneers to steady them.

R1      4
We were shelled but not _∧much.  M.gs got the
Welsh Pioneers; / ground _∧was too hard for entrenching tools.
The W. Prs. broke, then _∧It ws impossible to hold. They were
practically annihilated in 10 minutes.  Had
no spades & picks.  We
were sheltered by a little
knoll.  The 7 Glos. were on our
left at same time as us.  They went
to left of ^xknoll.  The
Navy hit the Glos.  Probly
they had no flags & Navy
hit them chiefly.  They cdnt
get us from the right.  From our
right rear from Walkers R.
they fired at us a lot.
I _∧was sent back for reinfts abt
this time.  Maj Scholfield
brt up abt 130 Auck MR
from Sazli Beit Dere.
X  He brought them up to right
of Apex (?)

RI      5                                                 

They got right up to us.
Abt 9 in morning Turks started
counter-attack.  They ws were massing
on our rt flank in valley
& came up into the Old trench
(fairly by trench).  M.G. fire
kept us from getting over on
face of hill.  The Turks threw lots of bombs
w very long fuses. There wd be a perfect
fusilade of fire from the left & right flank
( behind B'ship hill.  The bombs
were coming being thrown back _∧by us.  Pretty well every
man there threw back 1 or 2 bombs.  They
had long fuses, 8 or 10 sec.
We had very shallow trenches, in
hard limestone soil. [You cd sweep your
trenches at Quinns.]  We wd
wait & when / shower of bombs
slackened in 2/3 minutes, everyone
would get bayonets fixed &

X1  Hastings says : Malone gave them / word for these
[*rushes & ws / moving spirit of / whole show.  He got up w
3 or 4 of / rushes - he wd leave his trench & be in w them .
Once at least he thought it ws all up - & sd so: "Come on -
They've done it this time - we may as well be in it". but the Ts.
were beaten.*]

Sketch (1) diagram - see original document
Sketch (11) diagram - see original document

X2 ^During the time we were up there the people on the left cd see
T.s bringing up reinfs.
X Well ^Bn consists of: W. Coast, Taranaki, Ruahine, Hawks Bay, Wr Pioneers
The way out of Malone's trench is shown by / dotted
line above.  You went first down into Sazli Beir
Dere under his fire from Walkers R. directn.  There were terribly
wd men there.  Thence (w them imploring you not to draw fire on them) you
bolted up onto the Pinnacle Ridge - & thence bolted under fire from 971 direction to / Apex.
They wd fire if they saw a bush move.

R1      6
run up (after a volley). We
had always to clear our trenches of dead before we
could get into them.
Malone - headed pretty well all these
rushes.  C. sd to him "You oughtnt to be here.'
Malone sd: "I'm an old man. You're only a kid! Get out
yourself!"  He had his bayonet
bent w a rifle bullet & ws
awfully pleased.
We wd run a few yds & Turks
wd run back. x 1  &  x 2

(_^In the morning the Turks had opened fire on us within
10 min of reaching top.  Rifle fire
first & m.g.
The 2 coys went over straight
away.  They wanted to know if
all shd go over. (X)
We cd have gone over on night
of 8th & put up traverses.
getting over apex
was hell even at
night - from there
you had to run gauntlet up hill.
But cd get up at night & cd have
gone over crest tt night)  (The

6a

Suvla Bay:  Note. Maj Ryan _^(Bly Control at Adana) who ws w
10 Divn at / Suvla Landing says tt when
they landed they sat down & got out their
maps to find out where they were. The
Col. of / Dublin Fusiliers ws one of these.  Someone
saw / Salt Lake & sd: There's / lake - we
must be at Suvla Bay.
Then they looked around for a hill
to take _ & made up their minds to
take / Hill towds Jeffersons Post.
But they all went for / same Hill.
He says tt / men were excellent
but tt / heads were appallingly bad.

R 1      7
men  over / crest were in sight
of Maidos.
Bomb attacks all day.

Raid Night of 2/3 Jul ^on abt Point 36 . C.17.c .8 .8 by 2nd NZ Inf Bde.
2nd Bn Well.  Regt carried it
out.  It ws under Lt Col. WH
Cunningham O.C. 2nd Well. Bn,
with Col. I. T. Standish  N Z F A.
& Capt. H Campbell 2nd NZ light
T M Bty.
2 offrs.  20 o.r.  & 2 Lewis
Guns of 2nd Otago Bn supported.
O.C. Raid  Lt HJD Sheldon 2 Well: O.C.
Lt K. Munro, 2/Lt  REW Riddiford,
2/Lt G R Jones. (4 offrs 108 or Raiding Pty.)
Braithwaites Remarks:- not nearly so successful as expected.
As soon as raiders appeared in Nomansland
they were fired on by enemys mgs
wh were not in Nomansland.
Arty Barrage too thin.  The interior of

8
Braithwaites Report

NB. This was out of view
of T.Ms who didnt
do badly.
TMs are under enemys
fire.

RI      9
 area assaulted ws not shelled
until last 10 minutes in order to
enclose prisoners.  This was a mistake
as it gave him time to get ready
smoke bombs & grenades.
Gap in wire cut by med. T.Ms
ws not big enough.  Raiding party cd only
get thro by 2s & 3s.  Enemy
bombed them in detail.  Enemys
m.g.s were trained on parapet &
were not in / trench - so tt no men
entered  trench.  Sheldon rightly decided to retire.
50 or 60 of enemy xtried to [shorthand]
the raiders up as they retired but
were kept back by Riddiford.

Time 10.55 pm.  2/3 July . Calm
night clear sky.  Parties went
out & lay in Nomansland abt
100 yds from our parapet.

R1      10

Enemys arty replied 10 mins
after ours began.  They barraged
trench from wh men came
out ( came by Tunnel in T88).  German
m.gs searched Nomansland.
Lt. Munro O.C. Communicn Post
ws k. by shrap. before bombt
lifted.
When bombt lifted they found
tt gap in enemys wire ws
zig zag abt 3- 6 ft wide
Loose wire on ground xx x
Left Bombing &  blocking Party
entered thro this.
Rt bombing party got  3 leading
men shot down as it began to advance.
Reorganised. Reached parapet 2
mins after Assaulting party.
When Assaulting Pty reached
parapet they were greeted w shower of bombs.
Some ^were hit.  Left Pty entered trench
but were met by a block in trench