Charles E W Bean, Diaries, AWM38 3DRL 606/94/1 - November - December 1917 - Part 7

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from our Bourlon salient,
on to a line already prepared
The Divns had carried out their
first retirement last night, 
through a line of outposts.
The German had followed quickly
today, altho' we had left
the same sort of automatic guns
& booby traps as at Gallipoli.
We were digging in a switch
across part of the Hindenburg
line, & N of Havrincourt wd
hold / Hindenburg Support line.
Of course this news is a
great blow. But it may win
our Referendum if they tell the truth.
The Correspts. have bn trying to
indicate lff / truth as far as they could
in this fighting.
It seems tt 3 things
went wrong.
1st - there were not
enough troops behind the break
 

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through - no reserves. The
French ^5^th Corps were not used - were
told they wd not be wanted.
2nd - the Cavalry during
the all important hours of
the first morning were held
back in nervousness as to
Hesquieres not being taken
tho all / country around
it was.
3rd - The 7^th Corps (where I
went to find our 4th Divn, at
Catelet) told us tt S. of the
attack the 55^th Divn had
bn in from Oct 3rd; & it &
the 12^th (?) were holding
20,000 yds of front as 
the crow flies - probly 26000
by the line itself. The 7 Corps
warned / army, &  the next
Corps, & the 29^th Divn tt /
 

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Germans were concentrating
guns - & were laughed at.
Then, Friday last (Now 30^th?)
the Germans suddenly pushed
thro this miserably weak line
& got behind 29^th Divn &
reached its ^advd tt [[?]] in Fouzeaucourt.
Gen De Lisle got away - fired at,
- they were having breakfast.
Hq ran & escaped; his CRA
ws hit thro / foot & captured - &
recaptured later apparently; &

the GSO killed. All clerks &
papers were taken - the biggest
haul / Germans ever had from
/ British.
Only 2 Divl artilleries
& 2 (?) heavy batteries were
behind the 7^th Corps. Of the
Australian heavies one battery
 

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had to blow up its guns
& leave then w / Germs 400 
yds away!
Our 4th Divn we found just
moving in thro / dark at
Haute Allaine. Gen Maclagan
is hoping still tt it need not
be used. That wd make, he 
thinks, a lot of difference
w / Referendum - if they
are not put in. If they are
put in he thinks it stands
little chance.
Back to Amiens to dinner,
We agree, more or less, Phillip
Gibbs & Louis & I, tt our clear 
priority is to hold on, if all
can, & refuse to negotiate
until / German form of Govt
gives some guarantee xxx of its
promises being observed. That is
 

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Woodrow Wilson's policy
as afr as one can read it.
If we hold to tt, / German

people will surely see tt we
are earnest & determined &
will come to / conviction tt
they must have a hand in
/ making of peace themselves
if it is to be arrived at - And
so we shall get a democratic
Germany, wh ^wd remove / one
great menace to / peace o / 
world.
Staying at the Hotel du Rhin.

Nov Dec .7. Went up to the 7^th Corps
& found a very courteous & kindly
pair of R.A Officers who found
for me where the 55th Bty was. They had
blown up their guns & were collected at the
Siege Park - Drove across to Agiecourt
le Haut - where the Siege Park
is. Down by the football ground,
 

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near / road, on wh were a
number of dishevelled looking guns
saved from the wreck, ws a group
of men in Australian hats around
one who ws flinging two pennies
off a kip - "two up". A sergt.
& another N C.O. were standing by them.
They directed me to a kitchen
where there was a very sleepy tired
out cook - a decent looking
chap but played out, somehow.
There were three empty whisky
bottles by him probably from
the officers mess in a little patched
up miserably small hut
next door. Somehow / men
all seemed to be very
depressed - they must have been
through something more trying
than one realises - a scramble
for their lives, running for miles
after holding on long after xxxx
 

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the provisional order to blow
up / guns had bn given. One
officer [[?]] up of heart failure
on tt retreat - they were
scattered all over / place; but
of 41 missing all except one
turned up. That man ws a
splendid chap - a signaller.
They don't know yet where
he is.
The comment of the day & hour
here is tt / Cavalry missed
one o / chance o / war after
waiting for it for 4 years.
We met a brigade of cavalry
trotting down / road through /
long long desolate moorland
wh ws last year the Somme
Battlefield. The Somme is al
grey & brown w a very little
yellow green tobacco stain in /
grass, this time of year; one
 

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twelvemonth has bn eno" to
transform it from a brown mud
wilderness into a great moorland.
And / cavalry trotting down /
road seemed as stern and sad as
the scenery. Their faces were rather
set & I thought they looked self-
conscious & were feeling that they
had missed the xxxxx [[?]] chance for
them.
They blame themselves poor
chaps. "You know, we have come
to think of limited objectives, of
the next hill & the next mound of
earth instead of the horizon & the 
wide plain." Also they have sent
a number of their best officers into
the infantry & the staff & obtained
infantry officers who applied for
cavalry jobs. Their staff is very
senior as there has been little
promotion among them.
And so on No. 20th when
 

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the xx infantry & tanks passed
Flesquières on either side, xxx
& the cavalry was standing in masses
just a mile or two away from it,
waiting to go through - when Phillip
Gibbs & others walked over / hill
past Flesquieres w impunity -
just because there were still a German
Major in Flesquieres with three
or four machine guns & four
fieldpieces, still unreduced, the
cavalry was held back bu order
from some cavalry General.
The Canadian cavalry
disobeyed orders & went through
& some of the British followed;
& they are sd by German
prisoners to have got into
Cambrai or Cambrai station.
The ^Cavalry had orders to go beyond
Cambrai to certain points on
the road & railways &
 

83


1. Walkers [[?]]
2. Watts [[?]]
3. An [[avenue?]].

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break them up as completely
as they could.
If any got to Cambrai, they
stayed. The British Cavalry - the
famous regiments with glorious
names like the Greys whom
we met trotting with their horses
half covered in yellow mud
down the straight Roman road
across that brown moorland -
they were held hesitating
for 2 or 3 all important hours
- & the chance was gone.
I went from Bates' Battery
- who are very done up - to the
68th squadron A.F.C. at Baizieux
Oswald Watt, their major, was away,
lecturing at the Army HQrs at Albert
to 200 offrs & N C Os on the cooperatn
of aircraft & infantry. Little Turner,
their adjt., persuaded me to stay
the night. Watt had given his
youngsters a night off in Amiens.