Charles E W Bean, Diaries, AWM38 3DRL 606/132/1 - August - September 1917 - Part 4

12
40
told me tt / Germans had
turned onto them very heavily
tt morning - & had hit
one dugout - badly wd one
man & killed another. Gullett
ws talking at this time to a
sergt outside / mess room.
He joined us as we left. The
sergt ws a friend of his - a
late reinforcement ; & the
man who ws killed tt
morning ws another - only
four days at / front; such
a kind fine gentle chap,
he sd; white haired before
his time - a man without
the least of a quarrel in
him - one who wd not
hurt a mosquito if he
cd avoid it.
We went past
Sanctuary Wood - not

12
41
thro' it because these woods
- all waterfilled shellholes & fallen
trunks & scraps of stumpy
branches & bushes are sort
of natural entanglements,
too difficult to get through quickly;
& one rather dreads what
one may meet there, unburied
men or the ugly debris of
war.  We walked round
past Dormy House (once at
Bn H.Q., in full view of
Hill 60.) & up to a ridge
from wh far to our left
we cd see green trees
(German country there)
& straight ahead a
brown bare ridge, with an
abandoned tank on it, &
a stump of a blockhouse
or something which they
sd was Stirling Castle. We

42
Hand drawn diagram - see original

12
43
found the 3rd Bty on
the front slope of this ridge
on the left o / track — the track
our guns had followed; &
some ploughed up ground
down / dip ahead, & /
brown ridge on / horizon
perhaps 800 or 1000yds
away
Hand drawn diagram - see original
Stirling Castle ws still in
possession o / Germans
when our guns came over.

12
44
The observation onto them
was from there; but the
m.g. fire ws indirect fire
from further to / right than
this sketch shows.
We found all the
offrs of 1^st 2nd & 3rd Btys,
except a couple of the 1^st Bty,
down in a dugout in
on trench near the 2nd Bty. 
There ws a shell hole
abt 4 yds from / mouth o /
dugout - a big new one - &
two in / trench, fair in
it near / guns.  The
Germans had bn giving them
a dreadful time tt day -
on top of nearly  a month
of it. East ^ws down there,
East who only 2 wks before

45

^xAs we went back the
Germans turned 3, or 4 batteries
of 5 . 9s onto xxx English battery
positn near Dormy House
which we had passed on /
way up. This ws 3 times
repeated but we skirted
well round / left of the
bombt.

12
46
had bn in a dugout w
Maj. Kingsmill & found himself
lying on / edge o / crater of
a shell wh blew Kingsmill
away out of existence. Poor
chaps — they have had /
Casualties of infantry &
have to stay there week after
week & see / infy go in & out
again time after time. They'll
have them broken if they
dont relieve them soon. They
say / bties ought to be kept
60 over strength . (10 ^additional now are
authorised in the A.I.F. & 60 or
50 extra to the D.A.C., wh is
something to provide reliefs). 
As we left old Hurley &
Gullet Wilkins & Dyson
there — Hurley is going /
right way to get his stuff.

12
47
Wilkins took a picture o /
place where the ^101st battery was.
As Gullett & I came away it
started to pour as heavily
as ever I have seen it in
France – floods of it.  Poor
old photographers. I hope
they come to no harm.
We went to the old 3rd
Div. H.Q. to dine with Cuttack.
On our way there we picked
up Gen. Maclagan and
Duncan Maxwell & Kemmis -
 It burnt broken down in
their car. The Genl. had
bn to a performance of
some concert troupe at our
No 1 Tunnelling Coy. It turned
out tt he (w the 4th Divn) is
now at the Ravelsberg,
not the 3rd Div.; so he asked

48

x Sept 3.
As a matter of fact it wd
have come over probly if
there had not bn discovered
what Col. Reynolds tells me
was an "astonishing" defect
in the construction o / planes.
One of the pilots is sd to have
fallen & bn burnt o / way to / coast

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49
us to dine instead. They have
had German planes over
of recent nights.  Gen.
Maclagan says tt it is
very trying to hear him up
there burring & droning round;
then hear him shut off his
engine: he must be planing 
down – then whurr –
whurr - urr – & you
wonder where the bomb is
going to fall and — Crash!
Somewhere about – & the
beggar is up & off again.
Aug 27  more rain - 
poor old photographers.
Our 67th Sqn cannot
come over in this weather. x
All day drawing up
a complete scheme for

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50
collection & care of trophies,
photos, sketches etc for submission
to White — largely on Gulletts
experience.  Gullet & I thrashed
it out this morning.  We are to
bring all the preservation
side under our own people,
& leave the publicity side to Smart.
Also a scheme for photos
_∧& record titles to submit to G.H.Q.
Arranged with Griffiths,
who grasped it in an instant,
for an officer for our trophy -
photo - cinema section.
White grasped the scheme
also surprisingly quickly.
Saw in one instant the
reason for it; & vastly
improved it by withdrawing
the preservation section
entirely from the High
Commrs office & putting it

Aug 30 1
Aug 31 Frid.
Sept 1 Sat.
^__ 2 Sunday
^__ 3 M Stopped at Folkestone .
^__ 4 T Leist & Power ) - News of Riga! G. Engs. & Reserve
Sept 5 W Hoograf
Sept 6. Th. Lombres 
Sept 7 F Murdoch re Liaison
change of offrs 
[*bombs
of London 
on 4 & 5th*]
Gullett re self - see White.  [*White on what we do.*]
Sept 8 Sat xWith Gullett to 3rd Div.
Sept 9. Sun 26 Bn. 4 [shorthand]
Sept 10. M With Montreuil
Sept 11 T  22 & 23 Bns & Cassel. News of Russian Civil War
[shorthand]
Sept 12. W Letters at Hazebk. Saw [shorthand]
Hot day. First cool autumn night.
Sept 17  The red flare. Lens. Lagniot
Sept 18. The German flare barrage.
The menin Rd.
The Dickeb. Rd by night
Gullett [[?]]
28 Bn on
track of 3 Bde
at at Poz.
2.30 all o.k.
11.45 Rogers
>[shorthand] -50 yds [shorthand]
11. Tape line laid.
Sept 19. Raining
12.10 rain stopped. v muddy
5.30 Bombt
quickening up
12 Bn [shorthand] 2.10.([shorthand]1.30)

Hand drawn diagram - see original

13 Th
14 F
15 Sat.

100 in 4
100 in 4.
100 in 6
100 in 8

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openly & explicitly under Treloar,
wh I had not thought he wd
do.
I am to go to England
for a day or two, perh. with
Gullett, & see it through in
order to arrange matters
with Smart.  Griffiths will
do everything else.
Brig Gen Game, superintendent Chief of Staff
of the xxx Royal Flying Corps. told
Butler today that without wishing
to butter up / Australians at all
he thought it was generally agreed
that while all the R.F.C. ws good,
& the Canadians & other oversea
men especially so, there ws
none who ws quite So useful
as the Australian. It ws their
self reliance that made them

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52
so valuable - the young
englishman was extraordinarily
game , but he was the not
so self reliant.
[Two days later Gen. Trenchard _^the G.O.C. RF.C. told Gen.
White exactly / same thing abt
the Canadians - that they were
the best of all so clearly in the Flying Corps].
Gen. Trenchard has
been having xxxxx some
negotiations with White
about our Flying Corps. He
made several concessions
in a manner wh sd - "I am
prepared to give you so much
but the Corps – your Flying
Corps – remains mine " – &
White sd it ws very clear tt
he was not had no intention to let the
Australian Flying Corps be
considered as any thing else
than a wing of the R.F.C. –