Charles E W Bean, Diaries, AWM38 3DRL 606/91/1 - October 1917 - Part 1

AWM38
Official History,
1914-1918 War : Records of C E W Bean,
Official Historian.

Diaries and Notebooks
 

Item Number: 3DRL606/91/1
 

Title: Diary, October 1917
Includes references to Broodseinde.

AWM38-3DRL606/9/1
 

DIARY
Oct 18 -
(incl Oct 4)
 

No 91
D 41
 

Original DIARY NO. 91.
AWM38 3DRL 606 ITEM 91 [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 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.
AUSTRALIAN WAR MEMORIAL
ACCESS STATUS
OPEN
16 Sept., 1946 C. E. W. BEAN.
 

Oct 16 Day fine. cold.
Oct. 17. Day fine till 3. Night wet
warmer
Oct 18 Day fine. Night cold fairly
clear.
_____________________
1 as we. came up to / troops
in / sunken road another
plane - a german - came
over very low - not 1000 feet
I wd say. We stood still by 
a shellhole as he passed - his
gun started going popping but
not at us. He ws so low tt we
cd certainly have seen his arm
if he had waved it.
A little later _^when we were on / Ridge over came
another plane, low down - but

he was ours. He came over
half a dozen times or so before
we left, lower than any,
wheeling when he got a little
past our post Ridge top.
About when we were at / crater
I saw another going low over _^/ height S of
the Rly Cutting. He dropped a white
star flare. (I wondered if he were ours - but I
believe he ws German. Our patrols following / Germs
who retired tt afternoon sd tt he saw them, dropped
a white star, & brought arty on to them).
 

2
(written Oct 18 from here)
walk with Wilkins on
D 41 Oct. 15 (cont)

91
& crossed the railway
just where it enters the cutting 
- scrambled on past thro' the battered
hedge & across towards /
top o / Broodseinde
Ridge. The enemy ws
shelling / cutting w big
stuff shrapnel just before
& after, so we didnt wait
there but hurried towards
the S.S.E.
The ground was
a rounded hilltop, &
the actual summit ws
abt 200 yards away
to our left - a hedge
 

[sketch]
 

3
running along / skyline
itself. The Germans
started shelling over
with whizz bangs as 
we went. We cd see a
great thing like a notice
board over the hill - I
think it was a barn, xx
called Assyria, on the
next hill top really - wh
had bn the objective of
our 2 attacks by _^South of the Rly
on Oct 9 & Oct 12. I
daresay they could see
our movement from there.
We dodged from shellhole
to shellhole & xxx made
 

D41 4
forward a bit as the
shelling seemed to be
about 200 yds - 100 yds
behind us. We lay up
under a bank & 3
shrapnel shells burst over
/ hedge in front at / same
moment & the stuff
whizzed overhead, (but
too distant I daresay
to do more than tear your
clothes) A man dodged
along behind / hedge, showing
tt we had a line there,
& into another hole - "like
a rabbit" as Wilkins
said. A rabbit at / same
 

4a

^x Passing two officers of
the 2nd Divn lying beside
one another - within 6 yards
both dead.
 

D41 5
time, curiously eno', I 
was watching a rabbit
wh had come over / rly
& ws hesitating on / edge
o / bank - disturbed by
/ shells, I suppose.
We made our way
South along / crest ^x
which at once became
perfectly flat. The soil
was sandy, with shallow
shellholes; & a little
to in rear of us wandered
what looked like a battered
communication trench -
or support [trench shorthand].
The summit here
was entirely exposed to /
 

[sketch]
 

D41    6
Germans, & to our own
hinterland. On / hill
opposite us (the Keiberg)

[continuation of sketch]

the big barn (Assyria)
stood out exceedingly clearly. 
Behind that, I think it 
was, on the further hill,
wh ws obscured by a
shadow at / time, were
some red bldgs (I think
this is where they were -
Mooslede). Down / 
valley to / right of us,
most clearly visible
on a spur of our
 

D41 7
own ridge running down
towards Lille, & covered
with dark blue grey
trees, ws the silhouetted
the dark grey tower &
spire of Bercelaere Church.
——
We could not get off
the sky line - the summit
was so flat - & so /
only thing was to walk
down / length of it
southwards. A short sharp
shower came on from
the country behind us
& turned the shellholes
very greasy - I noticed
 

D41 8
tt they were greasy in
spite o / sandy nature
o / soil. It passed -
we made along / lines of
a trench, roughly - there
were two of our men lying
dead in it. A road
was crossing our front,
coming from Zonnebeke
up / hill; on the
top, near some tumbled
rubbish wh had once
 bn a house of Broodseinde,
where it ran into square across
another road - the road
running down / whole 
crest. We got onto this