Charles E W Bean, Diaries, AWM38 3DRL 606/90/1 - October 1917 - Part 1

AWM38

Official History.

1914 - 18 War: Records of C E W Bean,

Official Historian.

Diaries and Notebooks
Item number: 3DL606/90/1
Title: Diary, October 1917
Includes references to Passchendaele and
Pozieres.
AWM38-3DL606/90/1
 

DIARY Oct  14 . . . . ( incl Oct 4 )
NO - 90 
D 40

Original  DIARY NO. 90. 
AWM38 30RL 606 ITEM 90 [1] 
DIARIES AND NOTES OF C. E. W. BEAN 
CONCERNING THE WAR OF 1914-1918 
The use of these diaries 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, 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 such stories usually themselves believed them to be true. All 
second-hand evidence herein should be read with this in mind.
AUSTRALINA WAR MEMORIAL
ACCESS STATUS
OPEN

16th Sept., 1946.                                                                                 C. E. W. Bean    

 D40                       90        1 
to make absurd limitations
on our right to mention 
troops engaged - whether  tt /
enemy knew they were a division ws 
engaged, & took 1000 prisoners 
from it, made not / 
faintest difference. People 
in England write to the newspapers
complaining tt all / credit  
is given to Scottish Irish 
Australian & Canadian 
troops - & yet they will 
only grudgingly allow / 
English correspondents to 
mention Northamptons 
(there must be ten battalions 
wh cd be meant) or

D40                                    2 
Manchesters (there are over 
twenty) - perhaps two in  
a day, or three. Church 
had given some contradictory 
orders over this & the correspts 
struck & wrote nothing for 
several days. Faunthorpe 
ws hauled up by Charteris 
for not handling the situation 
"tactfully" (he ws on / side 
o / correspts) xx as a result,
Faunthorpe ws Church 
ws refused control  o / actual 
censorship, and restricted 
to administration; & 
simply to save Charteris' 
face, it seems to me. Faunthorpe  

D40                        3
was sacked. Maj. Nevill 
Lytton, who has made a 
great success o / Allied 
Press, ws put in his  
place.  x It was an affair 
which is most discreditable 
to the Regular Army & shows 
how unfit its products are  
for anything necessitating a 
wide outlook. There is nothing 
against Lytton, but Faunthorpe ws 
simply & solely a scapegoat.
Well - Haig saw / 
correspts, by the advice of 
Charteris I suppose. Lytton 
ws there. Charteris sat beside
Haig in / nicely furnished 

D40                                4
drawing room with gilt 
Louis XVI chairs - & tt 
great views from / windows 
over the plains towards 
Hazebrouck and St Omer. 
(Haig remembered meeting me at ( Cantay last year.) 
He asked sat down with 
us around him. He is a 
gauche, nervous man 
in drawing room functions, 
but here he had something 
to say & he ws at his best. 
He rubbed his hands, a sign
of nervousness, I thought;
but he spoke straight enough.  

D40                              5
He thanked / correspts for 
/ way they had helped /
national cause & then 
asked if there were 
anything he cd do to 
help them.
Perry Robinson of 
"The Times", who is always / 
spokesman, mentioned 
at once the matter of 
giving regimental names. 
Haig sd he thought it 
reasonable & turned to
Charteris:  It seems to me 
tt as soon as they are in
contact w / enemy their 
names can be given; the  

D40                              6
Germans know they're there 
as soon as they are in 
/ line." 
Charteris sd something 
abt it being desirable to keep 
/ enemy from knowing tt they
had gone out of line - 
& tt steps were being taken 
to allow divisions to be 
mentioned as soon as 
they were identified.
Haig sd ws asked by 
Lytton ^& others abt / difficulties of / mud - 
how far cd they be mentioned 
without cheering / Germans.
Haig sd he thought / 
simplest thing ws to tell the  

D40                        7
truth (from wh I am very
sure tt he has not been 
much consulted  in / 
censorship) - "It ws simply 
/ mud wh defeated us
on Tuesday ", he sd, "the 
men did splendidly to get 
through it as they did; 
but the Flanders mud, 
as you know, is not a 
new invention. It has a 
name in history - it has 
defeated other armies before 
this one & it is tremendously 
difficult to make even as
much headway agst it as 
the troops did... I certainly