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

were either relieving troops or
reinforcing - & so £5 had been
offered for a prisoner - Enver
Pasha wanted badly to know
what we were doing - it is
expressed as his wish.
Had dinner with Carter ^5Bn in ^old fire
trenches behind Lone Pine trench
Cd hear tremendous bombardment
at Achi Baba - & saw our
shrapnel well over N shoulder
whipping Achi the valley into dust
abt 8pm.
Hand drawn diagram - see original document
 

Hear we lost
4000 in this
fighting at Helles.
Aug. 13 Friday Quiet -
They say T.s recaptured part
of a trench down S - attacking
there; and tt we have 2000 of
them cut off unable to retreat
but unwilling to surrender.

British shell still falling on
W Hills, & T shell near Suvla Beach.

Can hear bubble of T. fighting
tonight away to N - As O.G. says
like water boiling in / distance.
We also had a couple of heavy bursts
opposite us. They put some
nasty shell into Lone Pine. One
fell into a trench & made a
 

complete annihilatn of 4 men.
5 Bn went in, 3 Bn, I believe,
came out.
Sat. Aug 14.
Sounds of fairly heavy fighting
down South. We here are having a
peaceful time again. They have a few
new guns agst us.

They are starting to shy rockets at
us now. Last night on Gun ridge there
exploded something w a sound like our
Japanese bombs. Tin top bent by explosion
like paper; Brass rocket top, screwing
into wooden stand 

Hand drawn diagram - see original document
 

5pm.
5 o’c onwards to 7.30 Enemy bombarding
L. Pine from  w 75 m/m, 8.2, & 6 pdr.
8.30p.m. Turk [[shorthand]] breaks out.
Abt 8 T. shells at once bursting over Suvla,
- Brit. no further forward.
11 p.m. Abt ten minutes ago as I was
talking to Casey a long rumble. It
sounded like explosion - but I thought
& so did White tt it ws earthquake .
Ten minutes later a similar rumble.
The generals lamp shook.

We have finished burying the
T. dead in the sap L. Pine. There
seems to be less smell today. They
Say we can still look right over /
Ts behind Jolly, but T.s are
digging fast. They have a watertight
system - no one dept or section
knows what any other is doing - so
 

Hand drawn diagram -  see original document
 I suppose J. Jolly doesn't really know
what has happened at L Pine - at any
rate doesn't realise wh trenches are
ours.

Aug. 15. Sund.
12.40am. Our guns firing - seem to
have upset Ts. Constant rifle fire -
[This really ws a fierce bombing of Lone Pine -
something tremendous - but it came to nothing]
We sent away 20 snipers [[shorthand]] for 9^th
Army Corps - & others for guides - 100 altogether

Organisation of sniping under
Grace - Mungo Mack has it [[shorthand]].
[[shorthand]] 28 men - alld to choose
any good shot he liked. He got them
into positns & sniping by enemy almost
ceased. We can bring a mule
train up / valley now in day time.
All we have to do is to turn on the
snipers first - they fire into holes
& loopholes & keep enemy quiet -
When Grace went things got bad
 

for a day or two - Enemy knew
at once. But Mack soon got them
down again. (Grace was k. in N.Z attack,
I believe)_x

Aug 16th Night before last Turks
rolled out a big bird cage
affair filled w inflammables
wh burnt for 2 hrs. Prob a flare

I hear the British have now
landed 4 divisions up N.
The 54 (?); 55 (?) 9^th & 12^th (?)
They were shelled almost from /
word go - The men ^after landing stood
abt w T. shell bursting on them;
officers asked adjutant "Where
are we to go - what are we to do?"
He didn't know - so they were
just shrapnelled.

They got the last knoll at N.
end of hill N of Suvla Bay
 

last night 
Hand drawn diagram  - see original document
& by a charge got as far as X. They are
v. badly off for water & are getting it in
carts from / beach - The weather hs
bn hot & they want to drink a gt
deal. They Turks still have the Dervishes
well betw. us & Chocolate Hills
Monash is entrenched & so are
T.s opp. him. He had a bad
Shrapnel Gully ^where you had to run to get up to him
but it is pretty right now
& snipers cleared out.
I hear a man named
Allison led / Ghurkas in their
gt charge to / top of 971 or [[shorthand]] -
whichever it ws they reached;
& then 3 naval shells landed
 

amongst them & hit 71 of them.
T. artillery ws on them also.
Our arty got / Turks badly
on / Saty behind Lone Pine & on
rear slope of Chunuk Bair. At
Lone Pine they cd be seen pushing
their men up whilst our shells
knocked them out.
At 9.30 am On Frid. Aug 13 the transport
Royal Edward, carrying Hampshire
Regt & details (or acc. to others
600 stevedores for Mudros or
Suvla) ws torpedoed when
on her second day out from
Alex, not far from / Gk
islands. Those on another
transport 5 miles away
 

saw a gt wave lift up under
her stern to abt 2ce the
height of her funnel, &
subside. They noticed her
sinking by / stern - & then go
straight up on her stern -
& then dive stern foremost.
She went down in 4 minutes.
The other transports knew the
Hosp - Ship Soudan ws a
little behind so they signalled
to her, & she sd later that her
at 11 xx tt the boats of the
R. Edward were all round
her. She picked up betw 400
& 500 & another 70 were
picked off / neighbouring Greek
island by a trawler. They say
 

tt nearly 1000 lives were lost.

Aug - 20 still practically no
change in situation. De Lisle
has been given command of
9 A Corps vice Stopford, Stellenbosched.
(I hope if any one ever
edits this diary they'll tone
these things down - the expressions
are often forcible for / sake of
brevity). The Tommies were stopped
by want of water as much as
anything. But K.'s new army is not
being favourably compared by British
officers here w our men.
Our men are sufficiently hard on
their water bottles – But K's fellows
drink theirs in a quarter of an
hour & then run abt with their
tongues hanging out for / rest o /
day.
Holmes w / 17^th & 18^th arrived today