Charles E W Bean, Diaries, AWM38 3DRL 606/91/1 - October 1917 - Part 7

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I hope it will bring it
all back - when I read
it - vividly, to myself.
The Germans have
landed on / Island of
Oesel in / Gulf of Riga.
Their whole method 
seems to have been an
extreme contrast to
Gallipoli. They landed
2 divisions.
The day has bn
fine & / night cold
& fairly clear.
Oct 19. Writing
Murcoch & I thought
out set line outline for cable to

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D41
Hughes - First, the
results of this battle, a
big success on / whole ;
Secondly the certainty
tt we shd have no more
reinfts after a spring
offensive - probably 5
full divisions to start
it with, & only
3 afterwards. This
wd mean a certain
break up of one Divn
at the end o / offensive
-possibly 2, unless
recruiting improves.
Recruiting can only
improve by conscription or

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D41
by some special effort.
Conscriptn wd
make it possible to
keep 5 Divns going ; voluntary
recruiting, we think,
is most unlikely to
approach this. Therefore
it is conscription or /
break up of a division ;
& if one is broken up
it shd be now. That
wd (1) leave reinfts in
hand after / spring &
wd (2) solve / question
of keeping all Australian
Divns together.
At / same time if

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we are to have
conscriptn tried again
we must be able to
assure Australia tt
all / divns are together
under Australian offrs.
And if we are to 
keep / divns up by recruiting
voluntarily, we must 
even more by stronger
necessity, be able to
assure / people of this
advantage.
Therefore in any
event - 4 Divns or 5 -

we must try & get all
Divns together under an

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D41
Australian staff.
Gen. Birdwood's
hand will have to be
forced, to get that
staff. He is too loyal
to his old friends to turn
them out ; tho' he is
keener on appointing
Austrlns (when new
appointments have to be
made) than any one
else exc. perhaps
Gellibrand or Hobbs.
But Monash

for an Australian C. in C.
we cannot have. He
is not / man.
The purity & absence of
jealousy or political

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D41
intrigue in Birdwoods
administrn, is
worth anything. There
is no "eye-wash" - bluff
& humbug & insincerity -
in it ; & there is in
Monash's. White wd
do, but not Monash,
Besides we do
not want Australia
represented by men
mainly because of their
ability, like natural
& inborn in Jews, to

push themselves. Monash
& Rosenthal have
both tt quality, though

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D41
Monash does not
use it shamelessly.
Rosenthal does.
Birdwood told
Murdoch tt Rosenthal
wd get / next division,
Gellibrand next best
after him, he said.
Really, I wd almost
rather see Birdwood
dispensed with, than this
happen. Gellibrand, a
thousand times too proud
to push his own barrow -
a man who wd rather
pick crusts out o /
gutter than go begging &

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D41

claiming a step in
promotion - All /
force knows tt he is /
best man we have
for a division. All /
force expects to see him
in one, after Bullecourt.
Birdwood never gave
him one word of thanks
after Bullecourt ; never
spoke to his brigade about
it ; never patted them
once on / back...........

And Gellibrand is
/ one man, White barred,
who wd be fitter to
command the AIF than
Gen. Birdwood himself.

69

D41
Spent most o / day
going round amongst
the Salvage & Ordnance
officers begging for trophies
for the A.W.R.S.
Maj. Maxted has bn
splendid in backing us
up - & old Granter of
the 2nd Divn, & Viner
of the 5^th. Viner, Granter thro'
Maxted ; went up & got
us 22 suits of German
armour from Bavaria

House.
Maxted has given me
Corpl. Bailey for / Museum
Collecting Depot, a boy
as keen on it as Gullett.

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D41
who keeps me up to my
job.
The Germans have
carried out either 2 or
3 heavy gas shoots /
last few nights - 60
gas casualties last night
in the Corps & 150 the night
before I think it was.
This morning & last
night there ws heavy
bombt on both sides -
we gave them gas _∧ shell last
night.
Today since midday
/ Germans have bn carrying