Charles E W Bean, Diaries, AWM38 3DRL 606/274A/1 - 1918 - 1941 - Part 1

AWM38

Official History,

1914-18 War: Records of C E W Bean,

Official Historian.
Diaries and Notebooks
Item number: 3DRL606/274A/1
Title: Folder, 1918 - 1941

Covers the breaking of the Hindenburg Line and

includes notes, sketches, cuttings, material on

the "corpse factory" and letters by Maj Gen E

Tivey and others.
AWM-3DRL606/274A/1

HIST. NOTES - Sept-Oct. 1915 No 274(A)

1^st SET

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, he could not always remember that he had written them.

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.
AWM38 3DRL 606 ITEM 274A [1]  

OPEN

Hindenburg Line

29 Sept 1918

(Monashs plan - Conference

with Americans before action)

AMERICANS WERE

AMAZED

[*Sun. 8/10/31*]

GEN. MACKAY TELLS

Brigadier-General I.G. Mackay

recalls that the Americans were amazed

at the tremendous grip which Sir

John Monash had of the situation in

September, 1918, when he was planning

the attack on the Hindenburg line.

"My own most vivid recollection

of him," said General Mackay this

afternoon, "is at a conference of 

Australian and American divisional

commanders just before that attack.

For upwards of two hours he addressed

the conference expounding

his plans for the breaking of the

German line and the subsequent push 

through.

"He went into details of the action

he expected from the artillery,

cavalry, infantry, engineers, pioneers,

road-makers, tanks, air force and

every other participant. His whole

plan of campaign was most precise

and logical and was set out without

reference to a single note.

"General Lewis, commander of the

30th American Division and a graduate

of West Point, told me afterwards

that this address was the finest 

thing he had ever listened to in

his life".

X File

29 Sept 1918

Hindbg Line

Anti Tank mines.

Jy 3 Aust Corps ms to 2 Aust D.

On 27 June a demonstn in use of 2" TM. Bomb as an

Anti-T. mine ws carrd out at Divn.

Ts were moved over grd sown w these mines (5' apart

in 3 lines) An ordy T. expld 3 fuses in trying to X

A Whippet explod one

An old tank dragged by anor ws put out of

actn by 1st mine struck.

Fuses were 107 pattern.

The Bombs are placed in grd flush w surface, only

fuse protruding, covered w rubber. Fuse then

covered w grass & rubbish.

Rept says: "I am of opinion tt a sectn o / front tt is mined

in this way shd have no fear of hostile Ts reaching

their front line."

2 Div asked its bdes if they wanted any

mines.

Jy 10. Answer for whole Corps:

None required as Ts can move anywhere on prest front.

Historical Notes.
From British Statistical Record.
Americans in France
Losses of
USA:        k.   35,560
           D of w 14,720
                        50,280      wd.  205,690
                                          Prs.     41480.
Cas in USA & Europe  325,876
Aust. Losses:
                    k            w          Pris^rs
Aust      59,330   152,171     4,084
From "Chronology of Wars"
Am. Decl war on 6 Ap 1917
1st Fighting tps in Fr. 25 June 1917  27 Oct in action 1st line.
"More tps" In F.L. 4 Feb 1918 (? was Toul sector then
taken over or merely extended?)
By July 2 over 1,000,000 embarked
13 Sept St Michel offensive launched
Reach Sedan 6 Nov.
July 18. Fr c/a. (2 American Divisions
with 11 or 12 French - check this) 

From Book 236
A/c given ^on the evening of 27th by Gen. Monash to Murdoch Gilmour myself on Sept. 28^th
Thee Canadians are on the outskirts of Cambrai.
The general line runs along / W side o / Canal. The 3rd Army got one Bn. across
first and has enabled xx a N.Z. Bde to cross, and they found 3 bridges at [Marcoing?]
not blown up. They have over 10000 prisoners. Haldane's Corps is working down that
spur and he is optimistic about reaching / extreme bend of / bend tonight. There is
still a big westward bend south of this. The 3^rd Corps is still west of Villers Guislain.
Today the 2^nd Army, a French Army & a Belgian Army attacked up north. Next
in order of sequence is the 4^th Army. As far as I know the 1st French Army will follow
the day after.
My orders are to force the passage o / canal and breach the Hind. Line
between Bellicourt & Le Catelet, with a view to passing through / gap and establishing
what may be called a bridgehead on the Eastern side of it & at the same time
exploiting N. & S. from / gap made, with a view to uncovering / crossing o / canal
so that down south I may uncover passages for / IX Corps, & northward for / 3^rd Corps
& / 3^rd Army.
While on / N. / 3^rd Army & / 3^rd Corps will make no attempt independent of my attempt
to cross / canal, on the South / 9^th Corps will try to cross independent of me at Bellenglise.
IX Corps are putting in / 46^th Div & 6^th Brit. Div. and will have the 1st and 32nd Divisions
up their sleeves. The 3^rd Corps are holding a 2000 yds. front — they are quite played out.
The 5^th Corps might cross at Vendhuille. I do not think / 3^rd Corps will try to cross.
The 13^th Corps with 4 Divisions is in reserve in the 4^th Army and not employed at present.
To enable me to accomplish that task they have given me the 27^th & 30^th American
Divisions and a good deal of the artillery belonging to / 3^rd Corps. I am placing /
27^th in / north & / 30^th Div in / south. Zero is 5.50 tomorrow morning.
Essential parts o / Plan: —
With Bad weather inexperienced troops I am not sure we can realise / whole
o / plan.
The trouble with the Americans is in their front line. The
The Americans do / first phase. 3rd & 5th Aust. Divisions exploit to / red line.
Total penetration to about 7000/8000 yards. Beyond that I have put down a
cavalry line because I have the 5th Brigade of Cavalry. The line runs west
of Brancourt. This is the least they must achieve — sure to go E of that
if they go at all. The black lines on / map are / eventual lines of advance -
American Corps, Australian Corps, IX Corps. The Americans have no artillery.
This far it is more a question of engineering and calculations than of fighting.
We have taken the first phase as though it were a set piece — attack under a barrage,
3500 yds to each division, barrage falling on dead-straight lines & we have (? for this)
17 field Artillery bdes & the barrage will come down 4 mins. in the start line &

Something missed.
?"In addition the 27^th Divns
Division is 900 yards behind
its Jumping off Line, &
the guns 1000 yards
behind that."
(? or ^x protective barr)

2
4 mins per 100 yards throughout. 15 mins pause after / line o / tunnel has been passed
to let people get through their breath.
There will be 8 Bns. in / front line & 4 in / 2^nd line. Those in / front line are assaulting
bns. The 4 in / 2^nd line are for mopping up the tunnel & Hind. line which are suspected
to be full of underground fortifications. Their orders are very strict - mopping up & nothing else -
on no account to join in / advance.
The American right Bdes went in in / following order:
       ↑
53       59
54      60.
They will attack in / following order:
Diagram – see original document                    
We have / American tank Bn. here & this gives the 27^th Div one more tank per Bn.
(5 per Bn); 30^th Div has 4 per Bn. I have a M.G. bn. of 192 guns which / Boche
has never had before. That is mg half o / resources of the 2 [Armies?]. This is only half
their Vickers Guns. 80 tanks will make the breach and these are included in the
mopping up tanks.
They have built (8 passages from) their tunnels into the trenches and sunken roads.
Orders are that no hole is to be left unguarded. I'm not very sanguine about these
orders being carried out.
Artillery:- The chief problem is very strong wire. In the last two days and all this
night we are cutting lanes with 6" hows; they are cutting lanes 2 per bn. front. With these
lanes and 80 tanks we hope the tanks will be able to lead the infantry through
The first phase will involve / capture of Bellicourt, Nauroy Le Catelet & Gouy.
As the green line is well beyond / E side of / canal xx it is necessary to
form defensive flanks & that is the function of these regiments: — 105th on / North &
117th on / South. They have also to exploit a little to N & S to get elbow
room (green dotted line). They also will have 8 tanks each for this purpose. xx That is
8 besides the 80.
We have a deeper penetration (4400 xx yds from / first phase) than we ever had
before. ↑ This gives a total range of 6300 yds. Much deeper at / N. end than on /
S. end — recuperators have to be used at / N. end Spring buffers at / S. end.
This is very difficult because divisions have to be given their own artillery afterwards & / divisions do not like having their own artillery.
There is all / time a regular counterbattery barrage going on. Murray
is coordinating / m.g. barrage in advancing bands. Each division reckons to fire
1½ millions rounds.

3
Now comes the problem. Having carried infantry 4000 yds, that enormous distance,
how are we going to get them further? We have to get artillery forward. We cannot do
that without roads. We had photos taken very low of all / area. With / Chief Engr I have
picked out 4 roads. As far as we can go up to the tape line these roads are complete,
xx and / bivouac lines where they spend tonight are ready.
Immediately after / assault tomorrow 4 doz strong groups of Engineers & pioneers
will follow / battle & spread themselves over / route. We will not bridge trenches but
fill trenches. Cut away wire & so on. If the trenches are no worse than I suppose
it will take 3 hours to complete this to / Le Catelet line, beyond which I assume
there is open country.
These 4 roads will be staked and marked tomorrow by notice boards in these
colours, so that if a bde is told it will have to march by / red xx road it will
see / red signboard.
The black and yellow roads will be the best & will be developed for mechanical
transport. The first effort will be to organise them for field artillery & infantry at a pinch
can go across country.
Tonight / four Austr. brigades with / reserve bdes. allotted to them have allocated
areas leading to their various routes.
Right (xxxx) (Cavalry) 

Black - 8^th Bde followed by 14^th
Red      15^th  "  
Yellow  11^th  "
(Cavalry) Blue 10^th  "    "   "   9^th
Left (Cavalry)
The reserve Bdes march on / outer route. The object is that as / battle
develops these bdes. will be on / outer sides of our salient.
Every one of these ^six brigades is accompanied by a bde of artillery. Instead of
these having to come out o / barrage they are tonight already camped with their infantry, -
horses, guns & all. They are not in the barrage. In addition to these six bdes.
each division has a mobile group of horse artillery - horse-drawn 60-pdrs and
horse drawn 6" Vickers naval guns. These will be used in counter-battery
work and can easily pull out.
3^rd & 5^th Divisions have to deploy on the green line and carry a moving
battle to / Red Line.
Zero 5.50. Green Line 9.30 about. First thing after the advance
Engineers go forward. Then the armoured car battⁿ from Tincourt comes
by the Yellow road and pushes its way through it if it can to / Green line.
In order to help it, it is accompanied by 8 whippet tanks. I am not very
sanguine that the armoured cars can do anything like what they did before.
I have told the armoured car ^battⁿ commander that I am not going to allow him
to run unnecessary risks. He is to go through xxx and seize any opportunity

4   8X
to get through; and if he can he makes straight through for the main Le Catelet Road
and makes for 3 three Divisional Hqrs and one Corps Hqrs that we know of, and the
railway junction at Bussigny. It would make the task of the Australian troops
very much easier.
x I have told you what are the brigades going next.
No Australian troops are to cross the start line until 9 a.m. This is to give
the roadmakers 3 clear hours before we allow anyone on its roads. The Engineers are
mostly Americans - 2600 ? Americans alone. Beside them there are about 1400 Australians
x2 2 Pioneer Bns and tunnelling Coys. Signal traffic will have to be allowed
After them will followed follow the Australian battle brigades, Australian
Reserve Brigades, American reserve brigades, each with artillery.
Each Australian brigade marches along with 12 tanks which have orders to
march in column alongside the roads but not in them. By the time 12 tanks have
been over a road (they have to go by the side o / roads) it should be a pretty good
mule track. 3^rd Division has also 3 Whippets and 5^th Division 8 Whippets. They will
send their Whippets through the green line at 9 o'clock. They have orders to engage
the Beaurevoir line, which is the only objective the Australian brigades have
In what I have said "Brigade" means complete brigade groups, - Engineers
89 m.g. companies, artillery complete.
It should take these four brigades two hours to reach the Green line from
the point where they start at 9 o'clock. Assuming that they can do this by 11 am
my orders are
Diagram – see original document

Positn at 11 a.m.