Charles E W Bean, Diaries, AWM38 3DRL 606/15/1 - August 1915 - Part 1

AWM38
Official History,
1914-18 War: Records of C E W Bean,
Official Historian.
Diaries and Notebooks
Item number: 3DR1606/15/1
Title: Diary, August 1915
includes reference to 15th and 18th Battalions,
New Zealand Infantry Brigade, Hill 60 and Apex
blockhouse

AWM38-3DRL6O6/15/1

DIARY

15
Original         DIARY No. 15. 
AWM 38       3DRL  606  ITEM  15  [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 writers mind. Often he wrote them when very tired and half asleep:
also, not infrequently, what he believed to be true was not so - but it does not
follow that he always discovered this, or remembered to correct the mistakes when
discovered. Indeed, he could not always remember 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 by the second or third day of the Gallipoli campaign, notwithstanding that
those who passed on said 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

11 Aug Hill 60 
21

Cant & Otago _^MR. attacked. Auck (knocked
abt & Wellington held inner line of 
trenches. Maj. Hutton ws hit crossing flat
During night Turks
came up abt 2.30
300 of them 
extraordinary
proceedings

18th Bn
on Aug 22.

Diagram - see original

1st line took trench without trouble
then went along trench to left
Turks started bombing.
Prob. 4 m.g.s on left
(Capt Goodsell)
Maj. Lane got into N. extension
of this trench on N slope of hill

15    2
The 18th Battalian
moved about 2.30 & attacked 6.30
seem to have struck commn trench
all right & to have been bombed from 

parallel 

trench.
Diagram - see original

They
got
heavy 
m.g.
fire from
left flank.

I was in trench 36 hours
later. 50 men still in -
naturally nervous. Officer
in glasses cheering them - good chap.
Capt. Goodsell lead first line. Trench was
150 yds from where they started.
C D held by our troops
18^th to clear all trenches to A B.
Pushed out abt 3 platoons to left
to keep off attack from this direction.
Maj. Macpherson CO. D Co. k.
Capt. Banfield C.O. A Co. k.
L^t. Leslie. k. 

L^t Donaldson k.          Capt. M'Kean w
L^t. Moore k.                  L^t Rafferty w
L^t. MacLaughlin w.

3

(Hill 60 - see next page)
were to join up with our left -
- they were to sweep up plain to
W Hills & our left ws to pivot
round & join up w them about
Susak Kuyu.  I went out & got
into some trenches of 13 Bn where
I could get an
excellent view of
the ridge across the
Kaiajik Dere.

Diagram - see original

T's running from 
S. end of trench

Red flag in trench on end

of spur.

Some in 2nd trench
Scrubby hill
off our ridge
over wh our men
went (after 2nd hill they had to come
down under fire) The first was the
ridge on which our trenches were) & over

wh the supports retreated when T.
shells fell in Kaiajik gully.
 

4
Sat Aug 21:   No voice owing to laryngitis - Went
out to Monash to see  battle in wh British →
(Notes taken at time :- ) 

2. Bombardment
2. 30. --- intensifies 
3.0 British I think have started
3.15 Brit line marked by T shorthand
can see lines coming along
3.20 our men getting over hill 
(drawing T fire)
to get into positn
3.30 A big shell falling exceedingly close
to us but closer to Ts.

[*In margin*]
3.30 Our men start - fine rush 
down hill
3.45 few rush up other side and
into T trench
4. Some shells fall in our own trench trench we have taken
? Brit of T
[*In margin*]

4.15 Shells fall in gully where our
reserves supports are & stop. Come
running back.
4.30 men who have come across plain
& wheatfield are storming up
hill far beyond our men.
4.45 2nd line advancing across plain
to left near poplars

5

5pm T's creeping along rt portion of
trench opp whilst our red flag is in left
I can see them - a mixture of Aust &
NZ & Tommy standing well up in trench
Turks cautiously creeping along other
part.
5.3 Heavy firing on plain
More men advancing on right also
5.10 T's running down behind next 
spur. 

Diagram - see original
Troops still
coming across plain
5.15 Firing far away to right with dropping
bullets 5.25 fighting still hard.
7 Maj Grigor reports tt Cant & Otago
are in enemys trench to south
of commn trench. They are hard
pressed there w bombs. Their
right is on commn trench.
Hants w Herring & ? 13^th are

6

behind N.Z clearly never supported.
Indians are on flats to our left - held
to shrapnel up by heavy fire. Russell tells
Herring & Hants to go for trench
ahead of them & to rt of N.Z.

Diagram - see original
Capt Rose & m.g. touching up India
Turks on flat beyond Knoll 60.
Gun steaming - hissing
more oil & water.
75 gets onto us.

Diagram - see original
Rose presses handles &
button himself. Fires
all round plain. Big fire
near Suvla - Fire near N.Z. M. R.
As I came home along the bed of

7

the Aghyl Dere (wh they call the "sap"- it
will be pretty sappy when the rain comes
wh Woods says is due on Aug 25) the
crickets were chirping. The moon was up,
an occasional wounded man stumped
back or ws carried along - Fires were
burning over / hills behind us - I cd see
/ glare of one near Suvla Bay -  One
big grass fire (so / boys tell us) ws
burning in / place where our wounded were
lying - near the trench where / red flag
ws waving.
I can't hear of the 13^th. 250 of them,
250 of 14^th, & digging party of 15^th were
to have gone out but 15^th party never got
word to move so far as I heard - Yet
I saw them take 2 or 3 trenches I
am sure - 1 dummy wh they

Much Later.
I am pretty sure
I was looking at N.Z.
on Hill 60 - not, as
I thought at the time, 
on the 4^th Bde, which
was farther right
 

8
simply kicked their feet into or lay down
on parapet of; one w white sandbags
into wh I myself saw 7 or 8 rush.
The trench NZ were in afterwds ws not a 
trench w white sandbags but one w earth 
parapet. Their right was at an angle o /
trench
Diagram - see original
wh then split into two - in the lower of 
these two - amongst behind a lot of straw on
parapet were T's. They saw me looking 
at them & one of them had a pot at my
telescope at about 400yds. The earth
flicked over me (he saw me making the 
loophole). I cant help thinking this ws
/ trench I saw our men get into at
same time as I saw Ts getting out of the
lower end of it. Later one cd see either
Ts retreating up / other side o / hill or
our men rushing it.
xxxxx
& later still Turks creeping into the

This was an order begun by which
Gen. Russell began to write 
in my book - then, finding his
message-forms he wrote it on
one of them
C.E.W.B.
25/5/23
 

9
O/C Hants=
you must hang on till dark and
then reinforce NZ^rs in
the trench on your le

————————————

gully beyond this hill - a bit of a
creek like the Aghyl Dere
Diagram - see original
It ws impossible to see how far / Brit
had got in / valley - from time to time
one saw figures advancing thro / dust
o / bullets & shrap. Shrap particly 
heavy on _^plain SW. of Choc. Hills
Gen Russell ordered Hants &

Later
This is wrong. they were ^x
to go to the left of NZ.
(see order, partly
written, on last p.)

Ready

? 19^th 1 Coy 18 →
 

10

Australians to go for trench ahead
of them i.e rt. of N.Z. Aust-Brit trenches
& _^whole to take commn trench. This they
wd do after dark.
At 10.15 immensely heavy rifle
fire broke out lasting 5 minutes & then
dying away until 10.35. There were
bombs also (Maj. Grigor had abt 25
but 200 were being sent to him)
& 2000 more in reserve. I shd say
it ws either a counter attack or this
trench being rushed from the S. as
no bullets went over.
As I ws coming in the 5^th Bde
(19 & 18 Bns) were going out - immense
cheery chaps & ever so buoyant,
& lusty. It did one good to see them.
As I came up to Army Corps gully