Charles E W Bean, Diaries, AWM38 3DRL 606/120/1 - 1919 - Part 4

R1
36
carried on till retirement.
all our w. & k were
brought in exc. 3 -
one w in legs, others prob. K.

R1
37
On 2 July H.Qrs 1st Anzac &
1 & 2 Aust Divns were placed
under orders to move S. at
24 hrs notice.
At midnight 3/4 July 2nd
Anzac took command of
part of line.
4th Aust Divn & 1^st & 6^th Bdes
remain w them until relieved.

We 1st Anzac took over from 24 Divn
front 28/U8.a 4.1 to
28/N 36 a 6.1.   on 4 July.

July 1/2 Two raids 9 Bn, & 1 Bn wellington  
July 2. Raid in each sector but
on left pty unable to get in
thro m.g. fire.
11 Bn on right got in &

38

R1
39
counted 50 dead Germans.
only one found alive - [[shorthand]] k.
Centre party ws 4 Aust. Inf. Bde -
6 offrs. 83 or. They met a hostile
patrol of 10 or 12 in nomansld
at moment when main bombt
ws beginning. Patrol ws
forced back into our fire
& all k (?).
Great diffy in crossing
wire;  so our scouts & some
of wd. threw themselves on
wire & let others go over them.
Enemy fought - but trenches were
entered. Officers lost but NCOs
carried on. Thought tt
51 of Enemy K.
July 5/6 Dummy Raid (under 24 Divn).
On June 30 gas ws liberated
by our _^NZ left Divn for 20 mins.
while 41st Divn Raided.
During this week we lost

R1 
40
The 25^th & 26^th Bns
also had a raid - up near
messines on the night of
June 29/30. The party ws
under Capt Page who
ws wounded - proby by a
blow back from a M.T.M.
but ^who went right through with
the raid.
They killed abt 15 Germans
& only 2 were taken
Prisoner. [[shorthand]] of our men were
wounded.

 53 and 54 

trench is shown by the dotted
down into Heit Dere under
[[?sotion]]. There were terribly
(with them imploring you not to
b up onto the Pinnacle Ridge -
from 971 direction to the Apex.  
a [[buah?]] move.

41

Brought by Dillon to 
Bailleul

counted for 10 fr.
which I collect

[*Typed from
notes in front
of book *]
58
APPENDIX TO BOOK 120.
(Notes made during Mr. Bean's visit to Gallipoli, 1919).

CHUNUK BAIR.

Account from Capt. Hastings (later Colonel, 92nd Punjabis),
and Major Cunningham (second in command).

Capt Hastings was told to go to General Cox with
Doddington. Cox said to Hastings - "You go with Sutton
and accompany the Ghurkas and Warwicks, and Doddington with
the New Zealanders".  Hastings and Doddington slept at
Cox's head and feet that night - it was the only place you
could get out of the bullets. Hastings got through the
column of the Warwicks and got with the ambulance of the
Ghurkas and past it (with his batman), and found that the
ambulance had lost the Ghurkas.  He went on (their
hospital had lost touch with the rest of the column). He
went to his right.  He knew he would strike the New
Zealanders that way.  He went to the top - "I will keep
up that way and get through to Malone and adrop down from
there".  The two officers were to help Cox - when they got
to Malone the column was just getting to the top of the
hill.  From there Hastings could see the Ghurkas and
Warwicks just struggling up to the farm. Malone was in 
shallow trench from the left of which you overlooked t to
farm.  The fire from the right (all from the right) wa 
getting hot. Malone would not let xxxxxx Hastings go
down to the Ghurkas. He kept him there.

Cunningham says that on top of Chunuk Bair there was
no scrub - limestone mostly - not much grass - a few shell
holes not as big as in France.

It was just breaking light when Wellington got on top,
About 20 yards the other side, where some men went, there
was an old Turkish trench. It was straight - untraversed.
Part of Hawke's Bay Coy. was on right and Wellington Coy.
on left - they went over so; but 971 enfiladed them.
About 80 or 100 of our men - 50 on each flank - went over.
The 50 on the right were seen at once and killed.

(A man called (I think) McGurk got half-way back with
a bullet through his left foot and a compound fracture of
the right leg - he pulled himself back over the ridge
by his hands and right town to Bde. H.Q.)

By 4 o'clock we had been pushed out of this trench.
There had been not a shot as we went up. Major Cox. of
Taranaki, and (?) Cunningham put up flags. They got a
Turkish M.G. section in a little 10-yds. length of trench
on our side of the rise. I think Col. Malone put his H.Q.
in this.
Diagram - see original document

[* xxx *]

There had been hard shelling. The naval guns shelled
to the left of the flags (they got into us). The Welsh
Pioneers on our right were caught by the same M.G. fire
from 971.
We were shelled but not much. M.G.'s got the Welsh
Pioneers; the ground was too hard for entrenching tools.
The Welsh Pioneers broke. It was impossible to hold.
They were practically annihilated in 10 minutes.
(Hastings says this is a bit too strong. The right
kept coming back.  He noticed that 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 the less good portion of "K 1". 

59
2.
Had no spades and picks. We were sheltered by a little
knoll.  The 7th Gloucesters were on our xxxx left at same
time as us. They went to left of knoll. "Knoll" is summit
of Chunuk Bair.

'Diagram -see original document'

The navy hit the Gloucesters.  Probably they had no flags and
navy hit themchiefly. They could not get at us from the
right.  From our right rear from Walker's Ridge they fired at
us a lot. I was sent back for reinforcements about this
time.  Major Scholfield xxxx brought up about 130 Auckland
Mounted Rifles from Sazli Beit Dere.  (Hastings says he thinks
these went in amongst the Welsh Pioneers to steady them). He
brought them up to right of Apex(?)  They got right up to us.
About 9 in the morning Turks started to counterattack. They

were massing on our right flank in valley and came up into the
old trench (fairly big trench). M.G. fire kept us from
getting over on face of hill. The Turks threw lots of bombs
with very long fuses. There would be a perfect fusilade of
fire from the left and right flank behind Battleship Hill.
The bombs were being thrown back by us. Pretty well every
man there threw back 1 or 2 bombs.   They had long fuses - 8 x
or 10 secs.   We had very shallow trenches in hard limestone
soil. (You could sweep your trenches at Quinn's).   We would
wait and, when the shower of bombs slackened in two or three
minutes, everyone would get bayonets fixed and run up (after
a volley). We had always to clear our trenches of dead
before we could get into them.
(Malone, Hastings says, gave them the word for these
rushes and was the moving spirit of the whole show. He got
up with 3 or 4 of the rushes - he would leave his trench and
be in with them. Once at least he thought it was all up -
and said so: "Come on - xxxx they've done it this time - we
may as well be in it." but the Turks were beaten).
Malone headed pretty well all these rushes. Cunningham
said to him - "You oughtn't to be here!" Malone said -
"I'm an old man. You're only a kid! Get out yourself!"
He had his bayonet bent with a rifle bullet and was awfully
pleased.   We would run a few yards and Turks would run back.
The people on the left
During the time we were up there the people on the left
could see Turks bringing up reinforcements.
In the morning the Turks had opened fire on us within 10
minutes of reaching the top. Rifle fire first and M.G.
The 2 Coys. went ever straight away. They wanted to
know if all should go over.   Wellington Bn. consists of
West Coast, Taranaki, Ruahine, Hawke's Bay, Welsh Pioneers.
We could have gone over on night of 8th and put up
xxxx traverses. Getting over Apex was hell even at night -
from there you had to run the gauntlet up hill.  But could
get up at night and could have gone over crest that night.
The men over the crest were in sight of Maidos.
 Bomb attacks all day.

60
3
'Diagram - see original document
 

The way out of Malone's trench is shown by the dotted
line above.  You went first down into Sazli Beit Dere under
fire from Walker's Ridge direction. There were terribly
wounded men there.  Thence (with them imploring you not to
draw fire on them) you bolted up onto the Pinnacle Ridge - 
and thence bolted under fire from 971 direction to the Apex.
They would fire if they saw a bush move.
                                            
SUVLA BAY.
NOTE. -
MajorRyan (Railway Control at Adana), who was
with 10th Division at the Suvla landing, says that when they
landed they sat down and got out their maps to find out where
they were. The Colonel of the Dublin Fusiliers was one of
these. Someone saw the Salt Lake and said - There's a
lake - we must be at Suvla Bay!"
Then they looked around for a hill to take - and made up
their minds to take the hill towards Jeffreson’s Post. But
they all went for the same hill.
He says that the men were excellent, but that the heads
were appallingly bad.