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

5 74
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 tell / 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
 

5 75
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 /
 

5 76
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 HQrs in Gouzeaucourt.
Gen De Lisle got away - fired at,
- they were having breakfast.
He 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
 

5 77
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 & Sims & I, tt our clear 
priority is to hold on, if all
can, & refuse to negotiate
until / German form of Govt
gives some guarantee for of its
promises being observed. That is
 

? xxxxx
5 78
Woodrow Wilson's policy
as far 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 55^th Bty was. They had
blown up their guns & were collected at the
Siege Park - Drove across to Aziecourt
le Haut - where the Siege Park
is. Down by the football ground,
 

5 79
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 me 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 ordered
 

5 80
the provisional order to blow
up / guns had bn given. One
officer broke 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 / chances o / war after
waiting for it for 4 years.
We met to a brigade of cavalry
trotting down / road through /
long long desolate moorland
wh ws last year the Somme
Battlefield. The Somme is all
grey & brown w a very little
yellow green tobacco stain in /
grass, this time of year; one
 

5 81
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 Empires Allies 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 Nov. 20^th when
 

5 82
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
fieldguns, still unreduced, the
cavalry was held back by 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 roads & railways &
 

83

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

5 84
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.