Charles E W Bean, Diaries, AWM38 3DRL 606/14/1 - August 1915 - Part 2

Say / enemy showed signs of following
us up from / further side o / W
hills for our shell ws falling there
fast. Things were quieter by 7.30, but
I cdn't help wondering if we 
shd wake next morning & find
Suvla Bay evacuated. It is full
of transports & / enemys shells
burst right over it.
I went down to see Gen Birdwood
after dinner. He ws just looking over  /
list of officers killed. He ws particularly
sorry to lose Col. Brown, he told me.
He ws writing to his mother to say
what a splendid officer he ws. Other 
Colonels sometimes pulled a long face
 

& sd. "We've all these reinforcements
Sir & they cant shoot at all." Brown
wd say: Cant shoot my lad? Well
come along to this loophole & I'll teach
you - now then - - - - ". Col. Scobie
ws a most valuable officer too -
& poor old MacNaughton who is down
w dysentry - & B. thinks a lot
of little Smith.
B. told me he had two grave anxieties
- water, & the left of the line.
[shorthand] As to the
first the pumps had broken down for 3 hours & if
[shorthand] The 1st Austrln Divn wd
be in a parlous way. Luckily
we had found water on the left -
he had [shorthand] instructions to dig well
 

He had tried again & again to get a
reserve of water before we started 
on this show - but the old engine
wh ws sent from Egypt ws supposed
to carry [shorthand] 2400 gallons per
hr & cd only do 1800 & broke
down at that. He had asked for
300 RND men for fatigues & had
bn promised them, but so far they
had not come [shorthand] of the 1st Aust.
Div. simply cd not supply / men now
for fatigues.
Secondly as to the line. The
Turks were massed pretty thick
at Rhododendron & might
attack tonight. We held now
 

no part of the main crest, [shorthand]
[shorthand] He had asked
Godley & the [shorthand] of X111 but they
[shorthand] for it to be
thought of tonight. Besides, we
were just a [shorthand]
[shorthand]
[shorthand]
We had obtained a foothold
on / crest. The Ghurkas & /
Brit. had looked down onto
The Dardanelles - (-). [shorthand]
[shorthand], & motor cars going along
the road. And then the shells of
 

our own naval guns
got onto them & blew them
off the ridge. 30 men fell,
& the rest ran. It ws in the
dull light of [shorthand]
These things will happen in war!
The Brit. werent doing to
well - he ws afraid / new troops
werent too good in every way.
They were advised by him to make
a dash for it 1st day for
all they were worth like our men 
did at Anzac. "You will meet
oppositn"' he sd, "but go through
it w a rush like our fellows
did & get as far as ever you
 

can / first night."
There ws a bit of slowness &
muddle in / landing & they
didnt get along at all fast.
They have got the hill to /
N of Suvla - or half of it - along
/ top; & Chocolate Hills ; &
he told Sir Ian - you must 
get / hill when he asked his
advice : get / hill at /
back of Anafarta at all
costs - or they will bring
guns up there & command
Suvla." Sir Ian sd "but how
abt helping you - wont you
 

want help? "He sd - "no - dont
worry abt me - get that hill."
A terrier Bde, with the
9^th A.C. had turned out a failure,
he believed.
He sd tt of course our own
troops had not reached their
objective / first night. They
sd they cd do no more. Perh.
if Monash had reached his
objective The Ghurkas cd have
done so - but M. apparently
cd'nt.
[M's casualties are not
 

comparable to those of the
1st Australian Bde - Jacks
regt, III Bn, has lost 27
officers & 460 men if not more.
Luckily many o / men are
slightly wounded.
——
Quiet.
Aug.12. Thurs. Came up to Lone Pine
Trenches. Counter attack now
over except for an occasional bomb.
Went thro' trench. Turk head cover
extraordinarily good - rough pine
logs - not much knocked abt by
artillery - slightly broken here &
there.
Gave for first time splendid
view over T. communications. All the
 

stables for mules & dugout at
back of Jolly were deserted & there
ws a beer cask under a lean to
roof where they used to draw water.
The Ts. in Jolly dont know wh
[shorthand] & wh we havent. I saw
a man [shorthand] old Abraham looking
over some sand bricks at / side
I had often He spotted us & ws
quite excited - 3 of them put their
heads up. Col. Elliott took
10 shots at them right into their
posy - & I presently saw a man
running low into / tunnel.
I had often wondered if Ts. wear
their lines as bare as we do - well,
 

parts of this slope were worn white.
We cant yet see T.s at back of L.
Pine bec. hill is convex [hand drawn diagram - see original document]
& if we dont get the Jolly
they are sure to blow us up -
unless we blow them up. We
can see Ts. within 50 yds walking
abt, but cant get at them bec.
we have not / parapet low enough.
The place was terribly thick
w dead bodies - & those of
Australians cdnt be told from
those of Turks bec. the faces go so
black. Some of our men went a
little too far & still lie out there.
Turkish captured orders say tt we