Charles E W Bean, Diaries, AWM38 3DRL 606/126/1 - 1915 - 1917 - Part 1

AWM38
Official History,
1914-18 War: Records of C E W Bean,
Official Historian.
Diaries and Notebooks
Item number: 3DRL606/126/1
Title: Notebook, 1915 - 1917
Includes diary entries for August 1917 and
references to the 49th, 50th and 51st Battalions,
the landing at Gallipoli, Brig Gen R A
Carruthers, Maj Gen E G Sinclair-MacLagan
and Pozieres.
AWM38-3DRL606/126/1

2
Very Important
Notes of xxxxxx
re Landing
& June 28, Leanes?
& Pozieres
See also other
.Env.

Original
Diary  No. 126
AWM38
3DRL 606 ITEM 126 [ 1 ]
DIARIES AND NOTES OF C. E. W. BEAN
CONCERNING THE WAR OF 1914 - 1918
The use of these diaries and notes 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 then in the writer's mind.  Often he wrote them when very tired and half asleep;
also, and not infrequently, what he believed to be true was not so - but it does not
follow that he always discovered this, or remembered 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 on 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 

2
126
Very Important
Notes of xxxxxx
re Landing
& Jun 28, Leanes
& Pozieres.
See also other
.Env.

12
51st BN at Mouquet Fm.
Under 24 prisoners
as yet known.
Lt Halverson ws
wd 9 times before they got him.  He lay & rolled over from Shellhole to Shellhole
until he cdnt
do any more.

Diagram - see original document

Dead bodies of 57 Bn
found here
exactly on
objective by
Graves
Registrn
Union
during
1917.

1
50 Bn. Ap.27
Messines
49 Bn. Noreuilx
Mouquet &
Messines.
See also other END of Book.
39 2nd Echelon
G.H.Q.
Col. Founthorpe.
2/ Lt Owen Thomas.
A .I. F.
m.g.s _–  Commn of Beach7.
12

2      2
50 Bn.
9th June.
Gap between 13 & 12 Bdes
of abt 450 yds on rt of
13 Bde.
1.50p.m. 50 Bn ordered
to reach front line as
soon as dark – then
capture & consolidate.
uncaptured part of green
dotted line - Odd trench, &
push posts to Odd Support.
51st held dotted line on left.
45 on rt.
A British ^Arty Offr & an
Airman reported Odd
trench unoccupied.  Patrols of
50Bn showed this wrong.

2      3
The gap had bn incorrectly
stated as 450 yds. It ws
650 yds.
No of men available
for attack ws 283. (They
had been doing fatigues for
the original advance - &
one o their carrying pties
ws in / trench & dumped its
stuff & met / attacking
troops as it went back
- under Lt O'Donoghue
who ws k. in the 2nd attack).
A Jumping Off x line ws
selected 300 yds from Odd trench
& Bn ordered to attack in
2 lines at 10.30pm.
Bn H Q 200 yds behind

4

June 9th.

Capt. Clark M.C.
13Bde & Lt Loudon, 50
Bn. who were laying
out / tape ∧in daylight were both
hit.  Clark ws laying
out tape on Black line for
/ big original attack on
June 7.  They had finished
/ job & Loudon ws hit
coming in.  On second third
occasion ∧(9 June) xx Lt Rogers
was hit. in arm.  Maxwell laid it.
on second night
Hunt ws to lay tape but
got lost & there ws none.
 

2      5
J. O. line.  No arty preparatn
Attack to be Silent.
When attack began Germ
arty imd. shelled behind
JO line, rifle & m.g.. fire
broke out from Odd trench w
m.g. fire from concrete
blockhouses at Bde
Boundaryline Crossing
Odd trench on rt; also
block house at 0. 28. c. 7. 3.
Also apptly m.g. fire from
Delporte & Deconink.  It
ws found all along the line
tt / Arty fire prior to June
7th had not cut wire eno'.
There was no arty for /
attack at all – 

2      6
They knew tt there ws a
road in front o / wire &
the trench shortly beyond tt.
They hit / road - under
m.g. fire from the block houses
- one in the farm in 28C 6.5,
wh shortly shut  up for
some reason , wft tho' he
ws there next morning.
(The crew tried to get away
next mg.  The 50th D Coy, hit
one o / crew, sniped him
outside / door, & no others
came out all day.) The
next night the 50 Bn arranged
to have L.G. firing at him
from front & bombers from /
side.  The bombs bounced
off the blockhouse but it 

Diagram - see original document

2      7
kept him quiet & he
got away in / early morning.
It ws in one o / old
gun emplacements -
concrete w wire netting
over / top .]
They had to file thro
the wire – this ws / reason
for / rest of Bn not
getting in ; abt 30 men
got in.  There were Germans
down in gully to rt & in
blockhouse in front.
Capt Churchill Smith
flung his men back in
a defensive flank to 51st
Bn.  xx
The Germs did  not
come at Smith's Coy during 

2      8
night.  Next day those
in / gully  were trying
to get runners down to
/ rear.  These men were
sniped.  The Germs. w /
m.g., having had one
man sniped trying to get
away,  tried to signal
w flags, standing outside
/ door - got 6 or 7 bullets
at him at once.  D Coy
was sniping all day
at the Germans in /
valley.  The Germans
held Odd trench with
posts - one v. strong
one in bottom of gully.