Charles E W Bean, Diaries, AWM38 3DRL 606/26B/1 - April - May 1915 - Part 6

Col. M^cCoy met me there &
told me there was a gap in
/ line  straight in front, &
I was to put my battalion
in there & line / forward
slope - I took this to be / 
slope towards Gaba Tepe.
I had to fill the Gap between
the companies of the 9^th Bn
on my right & the 10^th on
my left.
This was a sudden
change. I put A, C, &
part of D, & had to collect
the other part down below &
push / others from below as
often as I cd get hold of
them.
Henderson sent me a

message back: "Been ordered
to advance 300 yds beyond
/ position you have assigned
to me."
I cd not find Jackson
near my machine gun. A
machine gun was near
German Officers trench, &
I was trying to find him.
I tried to get in touch with
him my coys, & wanted to
know where / firing line
was; & the 6^th Bn, wh ws
in rear of me was pushing
in. I was a sort of directing
post. As soon as I went
up, I crossed to see how
things were going. A
sniper got me in / ankle.

Maj. Blizard ws shot just
above / heart & seriously
wounded just abt / time
when Col. M'Cay spoke to
me.
[here Col. Elliott's narrative
ended; & Grills took it up].
We advanced (he sd) up
to about / positn o / present
line. We didnt know abt
digging in there. All we
knew was tt we were told
to advance.
[Note. It is worth while
remembering tt in this landing /
whole plan ws completely 
altered from / moment of
landing. The 3rd Bde tried to
carry it out partly by came  waiting

a moment on the second
ridge, & then pushing on (as /
2nd Bde landed) for the 3rd
ridge - the same story everywhere
-a senior offr wd come up
& say: "You cant dig in here,
xxx men; You have to go on."
The 2nd Bde had its whole
plan entirely y altered from
/ moment of landing - &
what happened at / Suvla
landing later really happened
here also - i.e. quantities 
of men who were landing 
went up into / fight without
any idea of what their objective
was, because none had bn given 
them. For a good portion of this
force no plan existed at all - it ws

wiped blank in / moment of
landing by Maclagans (proper)
decision - & they, virgin troops,
had to go into tt fight to guide
their actions by / light of
their own soldierly judgement - Nothing ever
ws more utterly uncalled for than
/ shallow conclusion tt the 
confusion o / first day ws
due to their going too far. The
2nd Bde was hauled from one 
flank to / other & pitched into
an unknown task - what shd
we say of such a situation for /
start of a battle in France? C.E.W.B.]
We were under shrapnel
fire all / time going across 400
plateau - it came from 971 & from
Olive Grove. The advance across

400 took us about one hour.
On / edge of 400 we came
to a Turkish trench, facing
across / plateau. We got
in there.
Diagram- see original scan.
There were
only abt 12
of us there. We stayed in there
a while sniping & got a 
few. We could see them
skirmishing from bush to 
bush. A 2 gun battery was 
firing on Boltons Green.
After we advanced across /
valley between J. Jolly & Lone
Pine, when we got up / other
side, we found another little
trench Turkish trench, a
snipers post wh could hold abt

4 or 5 men, wh was all
I had with me at the time.
The others were mostly at the
edge of 400. We could
there see two gun emplacements
half way up / hill with
guns in them firing. I
could see every shell being
fired, & the blue smoke, &
the results on Boltons Ridge.
(he means Green?) We cd see
these guns 700 yards away.
We tried to hit the men
operating them, passing from one
post to another. The people we
saw moving were in Khaki.
In / meantime a crowd had
advanced on / right & got their over.

Dead Mans Green ^(?The Wheatfield) - &
we could see the shells bursting
over them. It appeared to
me as though they had
advanced over that Green &
then had retired, & in retiring
/ guns gave them a bad 
time.
That was 11a.m.

About 1p.m they advanced 
again; & these same guns got
at them again & they seemed
to retire again, & these guns
got at them again. At 11am,
soon after I got there, I sent one
of / men back with a message
& in / message marked / positn
of these guns. At abt 12 noon
I did / same. At 1p.m. I did

/ same. No results & no reply
of our warships. Four messages
went back at this time. I 
wrote another message & then
thought I must inform HQrs.
& started to retire. We retired
over Lone Pine & then got up
on to  / forward Edge of 400
Plateau (?J. Jolly) - I went
about 50 yds along & found
8 3 boxes of the 5^th Bn machine
gun ammunition. They were
full of bullets We got hold of
these & were carrying them back.
As we were going back about
100 yards from / edge o /
ridge, a shell burst about
5 yds away & killed 3 or 4 men
lying behind a little knoll _ At /

same time I was knocked
over. After a few seconds
I got up. I was not hit.
I came a bit further &
saw a coy of the 6^th under
Maj Wells. I asked if he
knew where HQrs was. He
didn't know. I got back but to
find Bn HQrs. There was no
battalion. We saw 8^th, 6^th,
7^th, 9^th.. I slipped down some
20 to 30 feet of sand pit. Some
signallers picked me up. The
whole adjutant of 7^th, Henderson, handed
/ message in/to them. The telephoned
& / warships between 5 & 5.15
opened on to those guns & they
did not fire any more. They
were guns screened by brushwood.