Charles E W Bean, Diaries, AWM38 3DRL 606/221/1 - July - August 1918 - Part 1

AWM38
Official History,
1914-18 War: Records of C E W Bean,
Official Historian.
Diaries and Notebooks
Item number: 3DRL606/221/1
Title: Folder, July - August 1918
includes references to the 51st Battalion and
13th infantry Brigade.
AWM38-3DRL606/221/1

original
Original
DIARY NO. 221
AWM38
3DRL 606 ITEM 22[1]
DIARIES AND NOTES OF C. E. W. BEAN
CONCERNING THE WAR OF 1914- 1918
THE use of these diaries and notes is subject to conditions laid down in the terms
of gift to the Australian War Memorial. But, apart from those terms, I wish the
following circumstances and considerations to be brought to the notice of every
reader and writer who may use them.
these writings represent only what at the moment of making them I believed to be
true. The diaries were jotted down almost daily with the object of recording what
was then in the writer's mind. Often he wrote them when very tired and half asleep;
also, not infrequently, what he believed to be true was not so —but it does not
follow that he always discovered this, or remembered to correct the mistakes when
discovered. Indeed, be could not always remember that he had written
These records should, therefore, be used with great caution, as relating only what
their author, at the time of writing, believed. Further, he cannot, of course, vouch
for the accuracy of statements made to him by others and here recorded. But he
did try to ensure such accuracy by consulting, as far as possible, those who had
seen or otherwise taken part in the events. The constant falsity of second-hand
evidence (on which a large proportion of war stories are founded) was impressed
upon him by the second or third day of the Gallipoli campaign, notwithstanding that
those who passed on such stories usually themselves believed them to be true. All
second-hand evidence herein should be read with this in mind.
16 Sept, 1946.
C. E. W. BEAN.
AUSTRALIAN WAR MEMORIAL
ACCESS STATUS
OPEN

13^th & 51^st Bn
Aug 8 Domant to Blangy Tronville
spent the day there.
Aug 9^ marched to Morcourt.
Night there.
51 Bn. I Bde fose, ^verbal orders at 2.30 pm on Aug 10
after a conference with Corps. Bde ws at
Morcourt. It ws an attack for 9. 30 pm same
[*Aug 10.]
night. Bde Int. Offr & Bn I.Os went over. N of Somme.
No one at Div or Cops knew who held Gressaire wood.
Bns crossed Somme for first time abt
7pm. The Bde I.O after the orders had bn
issued ascertained definitely tt / Americans
were holding Gressaire wood. The Americans
were up to the XRds at the NE end of Gressaire 
wood & the wood N. of this was clear of Germs &
was possibly held.
[*pages 459-463   221*]

2
The tanks were to meet Bns. at / road bend
E of 17 Central. The tanks Bn commd came over
in / aftn & ws told tt his tanks must meet
an offr of 49 Bn there & then the offr of 49 Bn.
ws to give them / tip when to start. They were
only to go up & down / road & not fire - to
make a noise + overawe / Germs. They cd
fire a few grape shot down / road / first
trip - 49 Bn ws to go along Bray Rd & face
both N. & E. 50 Bn to go up thro Gressaire
Wood & up / road to abt 20 B 1.7. Then wheel
right & face E.
They as a matter of fact did a
movement opening out fan wise and
advanced across / open. It ws pitch dark.
51 Bn ws to send one Coy to from
watch NE exits of Steinham with 4 Vickers
& 4 Stokes guns. Lt Finlason took this
Coy out. He followed 50 Bn.
No barrage. It ws a night operatn
w no arty - & 4 Divl arty ws just pulling in. Some
o / guns were just in positn.
At 9.35 Louch went outside the Bde HQ
in Chipilly to listen for / rifle fire – &
at 10 came in & sd there was no noise at
all. At 50 Bn H.Q. no firing cd be heard either,
it ws dark as pitch - no wd coming back,
everyone out of touch w. / rear - & / Germs
 

3

were passing / woods. The Bns kept up on
/ high ground on / outskirts o / wood -/ 
top o / cliffs - & 49 Bn hit off between
/ woods to 18 central (or thereabouts). 51Bn
followed / others in & dug in on the steep
slope in 29A. Another Coy went into dugouts
in 29 B on / river side of / slope. The other
Coy followed 50 Bn across, & dug in as required
across the rds leading NE out of Etinhem. Finlason
trying to get contact w 5OBn struck a party
of Germans who ran. He ws trying to find /
50 Bn on / heights due E of Etinhem but
they were not so far down. He saw
a pty wh he took for 50 Bn. He called
to them & heard someone speak in German
& they dived one way towds the cliff & he / other.
[*Aug 11*] As day rose this coy moved down
towards Etinhem. The Vickers guns & TMs
were all in positn waiting to get /
Germans bottled. If 3 Div. had succeeded
/ Germs an Etinhem were completely cut off.
Finlasons Coy moved down at dawn to
out them off mop up / town & found
only one German - anything up to 300 Germs
were expected - & this one alone ws found.
No doubt Germans had got away in /
dark. There ws a partially destroyed bridge

3.a
betw Etinhem & / Mericourt spur.
B Coy then dug in betw / village & /
river around S. end of village. They were in
/ trees there very well hidden; And I in spite
of shelling of Etinhem they did not lose a
man in / two days. Abt dawn? it ws known tt /
3 Divn had failed
Abt 11 am ^Cpl. Coulter the Bde scout came in & said he had seen
Germs at were seen abt 32
Central - digging in. At Betw. then & 1p.m.
there was a continuous argument as to whether
these were Germans or no. Gen. Burgess saw them abt
12 & thought they were. Abt 12.30 Col. Christie went
up & he decided tt they were Germans.
This ws Aug 11.
That aftn, at once, Col Christie sent to
the Coy (Finlasons) to send out a patrol &
get what informatn he cd. This patrol
made it certain tt they were Germans. After
The positn ws rather anxious at tt time
on acct o / possibility of an attack
from the NE.
There was a German gun behind the
height in 9 central enfilading them right
up / trench. They were also being heavily
strafed from E of Bray (Ceylon Wood). That
morning a gun in Cateau Wood also ws
firing into them - Our batteries had got
on to him & this gun ws silenced in theg
by abt 2 p.m. Col. Williams 10 Bde of A.F.A.
was working with the 13^th Bde (it ws grouped w 11 Bde AFA)
Williams ws living w 13^th Bde & the liaison

4
was very good. One ^good senior offr in liaison is better
than a lot of juniors.
A shoot ws arranged - wh ws pretty heavy
-one battery getting right onto / Germs w HE &
shrapnel. By tt time / Germs had some cover in
their potholes.
Aug 14
Aug 12
& On the morning of Aug 12 the 3^rd Div (11 Bde)
had attacked & were working (at dawn) thro
Cateau Wood. At 11 am. a confce ws held at
13Bde HQrs in Chipilly valley & an attack ws
planned for tt night. It ws planned at first
for 11 pm & then postponed to 1 p.m. a.m. Divn
asked for this as a relief ws going on S. of the
Somme & they didn't want it strafed. It
was a pitch black night but fine.
After dark the Coy wh ws in dugouts
(C. Coy. Capt Harburn) on / cliff side moved
round / NE side of Etinhem & then down
towds / cemetery. He moved thro found some
old wire - & decided he wd go out beyond
it & lie up there so as not to be interfered.
with at Zero. They were not shot at
getting thro'. Blt The previous night
D Coy had gone in on B Coys left – & they
moved down & formed on C Coys
left - the road being / dividing line.
The barrage, wh had bn arranged
by / artillery coy Bde, ws an excellent one.
It was a battle / fighting of wh ws left to/ brigade

5
- the order being issued by Bde, & / command
only later (at 5 pm.) passing to Liaison Force.
This is / sort of fight wh a unit enjoys.
The 2 Coys went over with B Coy in support
in their old position. A Coy ws still up the sleeve-
^in Chipilly valley - in the 3Bn brigades the keeping of a reserve ws
a problem. The Coys got to their objve straight. The
Germans fought in places but / moment they
saw tt we were fighting they surrendered. A
184 prisoners were taken.
Of these one batch had bn overrun by
Bn. At dawn the I.O. Lt Joyce, going his rounds
saw a Sergt & 2 men ^under cover throwing lumps of mud at
some Germans in potholes missed by / attack-
in order to make / Boche come out. The Germans
had their heads down. The 1.0. vent down &
joined these three with the Scout who ws w him
- & they arranged tt / whole 5 shd get up &
rush for him together. They did this & / Germans
surrendered - 30 of them.
During / night / Germs had connected
their potholes in many cases & made
a fairly good ½ pln posts. They had also
dug holes right down to / river.
The line had gone to / river &
cleared / whole spur - they found no one
in / old German trenches near / top o / cliff
The total casualties for the 2 Coys were
5 men slightly wd.

6.
The 4.5 how. barrage on the ^2 steep re entrants
looking down on / Cliff tt of Bray (opp. La
Neuville) had driven / Germans there in
towds our line. The. intentn was to
block anyone from getting out o / Peninsula
to Bray or vice versa. Some Germs. there were
as a matter of fact bottled near / gully
head & they got in / way of the pln of
5O Bn wh ws going to mop these valleys
up & / line remained bent back along
/ top of / cliff. (They took 14 prisoners & 3 m.gs.)
Possibly 90 Boche got away here. They seem to
have bn heavy machine gunners.
The follg night Americans reld
57 Bn (13/14) and on night of 14/15 reld
50Bn. These Americans relieved 50 Bn by
one Coy from Etinhem; but it took all night.
When they reld 57 Bn they had a guide to every
post. Another guide took 10 offrs to their Coy HQrs.
From the Coy Hqrs they were shown over / line
by an ^Coy officer. They then came back to Coy Hqrs.
The Americang troops were then brought up by their
guides. The offers joined them & went out
to their separate posts w their guides
(This is our ordinary procedure but it took
much longer).
On 15/16 the 49 Bn ws reld by 34 Bn
wh had bn under 13Bde. 13 Bde ws to have gone 

7.
in again - but this ws cancelled. 3rd Div
ws brought across & 13^th Bde ws sent to
rejoin 4^th Divn at Harbonniers. An
American 132 Regt had bn attd to 4 Divn;
The Americans were at this time all withdrawn
& so the 13Bde ws sent back as reserve to
4^th Divn wh had 2 Bdes in the line. They
were in reserve all / time at Lihons.
July 31/Aug. 1.
This night 13Bde began to take over
from French. By Aug 6 they took over
from Hourges Domant (S. of the Luce) to V/B.
Bde xxxx ^told by Divn on 31^st July what ws going to
happen. Col Christie knew tt / night of July 31
(and / other C.O.). They were just told tt an attack
ws coming off & dispositions for / next 4 nights.
The nights of 1st & 2nd Aug everything ws all right.
31/1, & ½ 57 had one Coy in.
Night of 2/3 57 took over the line
of rt coy of 49 Bn wh brought them N of the
Luce, one Coy. N. & one S. Up to then /
Germs had not shown tt they had noticed
any difference. The m.g. Coys ran 3 g.s.
waggons across the horizon but undoubtedly
our men wd be more in sight than / French
If / French saw you walking in sight in / daylight
they wd fire a blank cartridge at you - they
fired at Gen Herring & their own Genl - a blank