Charles E W Bean, Diaries, AWM38 3DRL 606/98/1 - February 1918 - Part 2

84         9
Sat Feb 9. Working on a 
list of points for White, in
addition to a list from Treloar.
Saw White for over an hour this
afternoon.  He exhibited just
/ same wonderful quick grasp
& quick flashes of judgement
that he always has done.
The scheme abt / artists in
a few seconds he turned upside
down - cut it right away in
favour of a bigger better & clear
simpler one.

White ended by saying
tt he often wondered whether / 
best place for this force really
ws not in Palestine. There
are great reasons for it -
health, short transport, fewer losses.
Then he made me think
furiously by saying tt he was
still not decided as to whether it

84      10
cd not & might not be
arranged - he thought it
might be worth taking up &
tackling / proposal seriously.

To have us half way to
Australia at / end o / war
wd be an enormous advantage.
For one thing - no men wd stay
in Palestine; & we want them
all back in Australia.

Gelly told me today tt /
idea now ws tt / English
brigades shd be reduced to
3 battalions; that / same
shd happen to Austln battlns
brigades; but tt whereas the 
British wd keep their 4^th Bns
& make other Bdes w them, we
shd (after any losses) do away

84     11
with ours & draft / men
to / remaining three (It wd
be a great loss of esprit
but possibly unavoidable) -
rather than break up any 
division. The Canadians
will form the a second Corps,
partly out of their surplus battalions
xxxx It is a mistake on
our part if this hides from
Austlia the fact tt the force
division has really been
diminished.  When any
dimination comes, Australia
shd know it, & take / full
responsibility frankly.

A post of the 45^th Bn - 6
men - ws surrounded and

84         12
captd by / Germans without
firing a shot, Birdwood tells
me. The little mans voice
showed tt he was not
over-pleased with Gellibrand
in whose brigade the 45^th is -
so it seemed to me. (Gelly
has been detached to a 
m.g. school & knew nothing
of this post till we told him).
If so - it is another bit of 
Gelly's bad luck for he is 
improving tt Bde hand over
fist.

Sunday Feb.10.  Went
down w Cutlack to Rollencourt.
Heard there from the Correspts

84       13
that the British are piling up
troops in the Cambrai area - 
we saw guns on / way down -
Cutlack says 9 divisions have
gone down there - The major
commdg the army anti aircraft
batteries told White yesty tt
7 searchlights had bn sent there
also.  No sign on our Austln
front of any attack - but
an attack is expected down by
Cambrai on March 1st.

The 3rd Austln Tunnelling Coy
abt Loos also told Cutlack &
Wilkins tt an attack with Tanks
is expected there. Our 3rd
Tunnellers have been putting in
a wonderful system of

84       14
underground defences there -
the front & support lines are 
practically underground, w
many exits up to / line above
& strong concrete slabs tt can
be shut across the dugout
entrance shaft & m.gs. firing
up them. Wilkins tells me tt
our airmen have found 1000
German tanks concentrated
there - they cant say exactly
what / tanks are like but there
they are.

It is sd tt / Germans are
after / Loos coalfields (∧or so the
Paris Conference believes) & that
the main push will be at
Cambrai. Gough saw /

 xxxx
xxxxx
Russia & H Fyffe
Lytton & xx

84          15
Correspts / other day & told them
tt he thought we cd strike only
xx finish this war by crushing
/ Germans in fighting; but he 
went on to explain tt if /
Germans broke through even to Calais, our
routes & retirement to right to
/ sea were already xx well
laid down & plans prepared.

One notices at the same time tt 
our people have
 prepared other things (i.e.
seem to be making offensive preparatns
w tanks etc possibly for c-attack.)

Monday Feb. 11^th  Went with
Cutlack to see the one part o / 
front here tt I do not know -
in front of Wytschaete. The reason
one cd never see Wytschaete before
(or very little of it ) is tt it is on
/ Eastern slope o / crest.

84         16
We found the long slope on / other
side almost compl very much
unmarked by battle compared
w / country we fought in at 
Ypres or even w Messines.
The old fields were covered, of
course, w hoary grass. But
Here & there turnips grew still
grew. Col. McConaghy (∧now of the 54^th
Bn), cheery soul, whom we found
in "Prince Rupert" dugout (named
by us, not / German) told us tt
they had given them to / men 
sometimes when they (that is /
turnips) were young & slender;
& tt even now when they were 
old & very big they gave them 
to / horses.

The far E slope of this
long hill is crossed at
intervals by camouflage
screens on posts - to hide

84         17
movement. And along the
hill, at intervals down it,
run the various ∧fortified lines wh
our men have dug during
/ winter & wired.

These lines are quite
different even from what they 
wd have been a year ago.
They are now no longer
continuous lines of trenches.
Sometimes a shallow partly dug
trench exists / whole way; but
the garrison only holds certain
strong posts (deeper & better
lengths of the trench at intervals
in commanding positions, placed
so tt each one helps / other.
(This system was really used by 
/ Germans against us as long
ago as the Somme winter - we
cd tell later by / broken bottles

84        18
thrown out opposite on / parados of certain
parts ∧of trench where the posts were -
we adopted it later from them).

There are, in theory, three lines
of fortification here at Wyschaete
- the Divisional line, the Corps line,
& the Army line.  They each consist 
of three lines of trenched posts wired.
The three trenches in each line are
the Outpost line, the Support line,
& the Reserve Line.  The whole three 
in the divisional system are
garrisoned; but in the Corps
system behind it, though the troops
to garrison the line are near 
at hand - within ½ hour they
cd be in the trenches - they are
not camped in / actual trench;
even in / reserve line of the
Divisional system they are
sometimes camped in
neighbouring "pill boxes" - old