Charles E W Bean, Diaries, AWM38 3DRL 606/95/1 - December 1917 - January 1918 - Part 2

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on [[gillibrand?]]. The 13th Bde

are xxpresent fairly close up digging

a 2nd line of reserve trenches

opposite the part where /

Germans broke through They

The rest of Divn is further

back near Haute Allaine.

The fear of a German attack

just here seems almost to

have vanished.

As we left for Amiens

the snow vegan to fall. It was

bitterly cold and bleak

Dec 17. We found tt / Censor

to whom I wished to introduce

Cutlack, had left the Hotel

du Rhin, Amiens, this very

day & gone back to / old winter

home at Rollencourt. We

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decided to start early & see

him next morning. However,

though we started at 8.30, we

punched a snow drift about

2 kilometres out along the main

road to Doullens, & spent

over an hour digging the ear wheels

out, backing & skidding & digging

out again, until nearly

10. Then a snow plough

came along, drawn by three

draught horses, just as we

got clear, & we had to dig

away through the big

snow bank which it pushed

aside. Abt 11 we got onto

the road & went back to

[[?]]. We decided to go

straight to Boulogue xxxxx - there is a

2 p.m. boat - a hopeless task

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we knew. What with punctures

mudguard catching in the chain,

& every sort of accident we

reached Boulogue about 8 xx

I left Cutlack there & came

back to the 5th Divn H. Qrs at Sawer.

At Boulogue I got the

Daily Mail, paris Edition; &

reading it over this night after

turning into bed, very cold, I

found Massey's account of the

fighting by which we reached

Jerusalem. While x negotiation

ws going on for / surrender o /

city, one of our columns,

debouching, ws met with heavy

m.g. fire from the mount of Olives

The mount was taken by a

splendid bayonet charge by

the Londoners.

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one cdnt help thinking as 

one read it, tt if only / full

meaning of that short sentence

or two impressed itself upon

/ world, there wd be no more

fighting. The war would stop -

it couldn't go on. The Mount

 - the Mount from which Christ

spoke the wonderful sermon of

brotherhood & charity & kindliness

 - the mount held by a nest of

active machine guns, & stormed

by a magnificent charge at /

point o / bayonet.

One can hardly read it without

feeling that the heaven is going to crack

& fall in like a broken ceiling. If

ever there were a shocking sacrilege

to a pure & wonderful idea -

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And afterwards, old women

& girls by the wayside strewed

palm leaves in front of Allenby as

he entered Jerusalem - I cant

while or speak the things one feels -

it chokes one--

Dec.18 The photographer ( the assistant

photographer who is a private but

whom I simply allow to photograph

as a substitute for myself though

 - it is illegal by the orders of G.H.Q.)

came down today & is to go

regularly round the 5th division.

They are lending an officer to go

round with him. Today they

simply arranged a programme.

Tomorrow they will go round &

get photographs in / snow.

Dec.19. I visited 60th & 58th Bns.

Young Mintoff of the 58th gave me

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the account of his fighting on

/ night on Sept 26 when he held the flank.

He is a very assertive

confident ebullient youngster,

but I suppose tt sort makes

/ best soldiers - a strong aggressive

type. He is a good fellow, too

Norman Marshall ^Colonel of the 60th who

rose from an original private in the 5th, is

a different type - not self assertive,

rather modest, careful, a good 

soldier, in / thick of all / fighting

up there himself without boasting

of it.

Col Toll, (Queensland) of the 31st Bn (whom I visited

Dec 19 The xxx 31st Bn (Col Toll)

yesty, was another man who w thro the

thick of both Fromelles & Ypres; But

he is full of the  xxxxx consciousness if it -

cant help telling you how he

walked up & down / parapet

at Fromelles after the men retired

in full sight o / Germans:  He

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must be a brave man; but

and an aggressive hard

fighting one too; but he

is not a type tt attracts one

as Norman Marshall does.

Old Elliott, Pompey Elliott,

the Bdier of the 15th Bde, is

another character of great

interest. He is regular

Napoleon - and an optimist. He

has little judgment; as they say -

he puts his big thumb on /

map (& his thumb covers

about 3 miles of country) &

says: My men will take that!

without realising tt he is

committing them to / work of

an army corps. He promises

enormous things for them. But

(as his own units say) with all

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his faults, he does keep his

Bde up to it in a wonderful

way. He has a tremendous 

drive. He is a simple as a

child - of all the portraits

I have taken w my camera

Pompey's was / only one wh

was posed - he struck a 

simple attitude at once.

He is splendid brave old

man (old! one comes to think

35 or 40 old in this war!) &

he led his brigade on Sept 27,

in Polygon Wood, up to / positions

wh he held they should have

occupied before.

Little Hobbs, commandg the

5th Austln Dvin, is one o / men

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in whom I was greatly

mistaken. I dont think him

a strong man - & yet he has

proved a splendid leader for tt

division. The change after McCay

ws something but not everything:

Hobbs has made great

division of it.

Peck, his G.S.O. I, who

ws adjutant of the 11 Bn when

it landed on / Peninsula,

is an regular Australian regular

soldier. He w a boy in 

the printing office of the to

some little South Country paper

run by Holman, now premier

of N.S.W. - the Cootamundra

Sentinel or Culcairn Herald

or some such name. He used

to have to dig out paragraphs

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in spasmodic efforts to keep

/ paper full during certain

critical periods of its slender

existence. Peck ws a rather

solitary boy, & so read poetry

widely; & in order to get into

the Australian Instructional

Staff he afterwds read logarithms

& Geometry, & history - & reached

(as they all have to) a very fair

standard of education before

getting on to the Staff as an

Officer. Col. Rolfe, like so many

other Austrln Officers, ws a 

schoolmaster. He had charge

o / Cadets in S. Australia &

Peck tells me tt he had a

wonderful hold upon boys.

Peck himself possesses one