Charles E W Bean, Diaries, AWM38 3DRL 606/284/1 - July 1916 - Part 1

AWM38
Official History,
1914-18 War: Records of C E W Bean,
Official Historian.
Diaries and Notebooks
Item number: 3DRL606/284/1
Title: Diary, July 1916
Typescript diary of the bombardment - copies of
three letters to newspapers regarding the Battle
of the Somme, particularly the attacks on
Fricourt and La Boiselle.
AWM38-3DRL606/284/1

6/47 Capt. Garland, Defence Dept., 
Melbourne

Morning Papers sixth letter MC M6

Secretary Defence Melbourne morning papers sixth letter 1600

words. A Diary of the Bombardment break) How the attack was launched 

xxxxxx (break) xxx Battle in the haze (break) Australian War

Correspondent Bean British Headquarters France July one (break)

Below me (comma) in the dimple beyond the hill on which I sit

comma) is a small French town (full point) Straight behind the

town is the morning sun (comma) only an hour risen (stop) Between

the sun and the town (comma) and therefore only just to be made

out through the haze of sunlight on the mists are two xxxxxx 

lines (dash) a nearer and a further (dash) of gently sloping

hilltops (full point) On xxxx/those hills is being fought one of the greatest

battles in history (break)
A few minutes ago/(comma) at half past six by summer time a

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (comma) the British bombardment (comma) x

which had continued heavily for eight days (comma) suddenly

came in with a crash an as orchestra might xxxxxxxxxxxx enter on its

grand finale (full point) Last night some of us who were out

here xxxxxxx watched the British shells playing/up and down xx the distant skyline

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (comma) running xx over it

from end to end as a player might run xxx the fingers of one

hand lightly over the piano keys (full point) There were three

or four flashes to the second (comma) here or there in that

horizon (full point) Night and day for eight days that had

continued (full point) xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx/Within the last few minutes (comma) starting with two or
three big heart bangs from a battery near us (comma) the noise

suddenly expanded into a constant detonation (full point) It xx

was exactly as though the player began (comma) on an instant

(comma) to use all his keys at once (break) The play of giants (break)

Now we ought to be able to see (comma) from where we

sit with our telescopes (comma) the bursts of our shells on

those distant ridges (full point) But I cannot swear that I see

a single one (full point) The sound of the bombardment is like

6/47 (2)
is like the sound of some xxxxx titanic iron tank which some

giant xxxxxxxxx has set rolling rapidly down an endless hill

(full point) We can hear the xxxxxxxxxx soft whine of scores of shells

hurrying all together through the air (full point) Every five

minutes or so xxx a certain howitzer/(comma) tucked into some hiding

place on our right (comma) vents his periodical growl and we xx

can hear the huge projectile climbing slowly up his steep gradient
with a hiss like that of water from a fire hose (full 

point) There is some other xxxxxxxxxxxx heavy shell which xx passes us

also (comma) somewhere in the middle of his flight (full point)

We cannot distinguish the xxxxxxxxxxxx report of the gun and we

do not hear the shell burst (semicolon) but xx at regular inter

vals we can quite distinctly hear the monster making his way

leisurely across our front xxxxxxxxxxxxx (break)

We can distinguish in the uproar the occasional distant

crash of a heavy shell burst (full point) But not one burst can

I see (full point) The sun upon the mist makes the distant hill

crests just a vague blue/screen against the sky (break) Within less

than an hour (break) There is one point on those hills where the two lines

of trenches ought to be clearly visible to us (full point) With

a good glass on a clear day you should be able to distinguish

anything as big as a man at that distance (dash) much more a 

line of men (full point) Within less than an hour (comma) at xx

half past ten the infantry will leave our trenches over

twenty miles of front and launch a great attack (full point)

The country town below us is Albert (dash) behind the centre of

the British attack (full point) One can see the tall battered

church tower rising against the mist with the gilded figure of

the virgin hanging at right angles from the top like the arm of

a bracket (full point) On the hills beyond one can just make out

the woods of Fricourt behind the German line (full point) They are

in the background beyond Albert church tower (full point)

The white ruins of FRICOURT may be the blur in the background 

south of them (full point)xx We shall be attacking Fricourt xxx

today (full point break)

6/47
(3)

The Germans have not a single (quotes) sausage (

(unquote)in the air that I can see (full point) The sausage

is the very descriptive name for the observation balloon (full

point) We have twentyone of them in the air up (comma) specking the

sky/as thickly as a bacteriologists/slide is specked xxxxxxxx with microbes (full point)

The German used to have xxxxxxxx a whole fleet of them looking down over us (full point) But a week ago

our aeroplanes bombed xxxx them all along the line and eight

of them more or less (comma) xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ent up

in flames within a single afternoon (break)

Seven ten A.M. (full point) Six of our aeroplanes

are flying over very high in a wedgeshaaed flight like that of

birds (full point) Single/British aeroplanes have been coming and going

since the bombardment started (full point) I have not seen any

German plane (full point) The distatnt landscape is becoming

fainter (full point) The flashes of our guns can bex seen xxx

at intervals all over the xxxxxxx slopes immediately below us

and xxx the blast is clearly shown by the film of smoke and

dust which hurries into the air (full point) The haze makes a complete

screen between us and the battle (break) The growing terror (break)

Seven fifteen a.m. (stop) Our fire has become xxxxx

noticeably hotter (full point) Some of us thought it had relaxed

slightly after the first ten minutes (full point) I doubt if it

really did (dash) probably we were growing accustomed to the

sound (full point) There is no doubt about its increase now (

(full point) We can hear the crump crump crump of heavy explosions
almost incessantly (full point) I fancy our heavy trench

mortars must have joined in (break)

Seven twenty (stop)  Another sound has suddenly joined

in the uproar (full point) It is the rapid detonation of our

lighter trench mortars (full point) I have never heard anything

like this before (dash) the detonation of these crowds of

mortars is as rapid a/s if it were the rattle of musketry would be (full

point) Indeed If it were not for the heavy detonation one would put it

down for rifle fire xxxxxx (full point) Only eight minutes now

and the infantry goes over the parapet along the^whole line (break)

6/47
(4)

Seven/twenty xxxxx seven (full point) The
xxxxxxxx /Heaviness of/the bombardment has

slightly decreased/xxxx(full point) A large number of guns must be altering

range onto the German back lines in order to allow our infantry
to make their attack xxxx/(full point) The hills are gradually

becoming clearer xxx as sun gets higher but the haze is far

too thick for us to see them go xxxxxxxxxxxx over (full point)

Seventwentynine (full point) One minute to go xxxxxxxxxx

(full point) I have not seen a single German shell burst yet

(full point) They may be xxxxxxxx firing on our trenches (semi

colon) They are not on our batteries (break)
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Seven thirty two )full

point) Not a sign thing can we see throught the mist (full

Point Only (dash) Seven thirty two (full point)^ Ever so distant (comma) but quite distinctly
(comma) under the thunder of the bombardment I can

hear the sound of far off rifle firing xxxxxxxxxxx (break)

So they are into it (dash)
and there are Germans still left in those trenches xx (break)

spite of all their shattering (break)

Seven thirty five (full point) xxxxxxxx Through the

bombardment I can hear the chatter of a machine gun (full

point) And there is a new thunder added (comma) quite distigguishable
from the previous sounds (full point) It is only

the last minute or so that one has noticed it (dash) a low

ceaseless pulsation (break)

It is the drumming of the German artillery upon our

advancing charging infantry (full point) Behind that blue screen they

must be in the thick of it (full point) God be with our men

BEAN

6/47
Evening papers seventh letter E 7 E7

Secretary defence Melbourne evening papers seventh letter

2400 words Battle of the Somme (break) Fricourt and La

Boiselle (break) Account by an eyewitness (break) Australian
War Correspondent Bean British Headquarters France July

three (break)

Yesterday three of us walked out from near the xxx

town of Albert to a hillside within a few hundred yards of

Fricourt (full point) And there all day (comma) lying amongst

the poppies and cornflowers/(comma) we watched the fight of xxxxx that day

(dash) the struggle around Fricourt wood and the attack on

the village of La Boiselle (break)

To call these places villages probably conveys the

idea of recognisable streets and houses (break) I suppose they

were villages once (comma) as pretty as the other villages in

the distance (comma) each with its red roofs showing out xxxxxx

against its dark xxxx overshadowing woodland (full point) They

are no more villages now than a dustheap (full point) Each xxx

is a tumbled heap of broken bricks like the remains of a Chinamans
den after it has been pulled down by order of the xxxx local

council (Full point) Though this asheap xxxxxxxxxxxx runs a 

network of German trenches here and there breaking through

some still recognisable fragment of a wall (break)

It was by the sight of two or three English soldiers

clambering up one of these jagged fragments and peering into

whatever lay beyond it (comma) that we knew as we came in sight

of Fricourt that the village had already been taken (full point)

A string of men was winding past the end of the dustheap into

the dark wood behind it where they became lost to view (full

point) Somewhere in the heart of the wood was the knock knock

of an occasional rifle (full point) So the fight had gone on

to there (break)

In front of us was a long gentle hillslope

gridironed with trenches which broke out xxxxxx above the

green grass like the wandering burrow of a mole (full point)

The last visible trench was in redder soil and ran along the

6/47
(2)

crest of the hill (full point) xxxxxxxxxx It passed through

or near to several small woods and xxxxxx clumps of trees

(dash) the edges of them torn to shreds with shellfire (full

point) They stood up against the skyline (full point) And in

one of them clearly visible was a roadside crucifix (break)

Our men had the whole of that slope right into

the trench at the top (full point) All though the day we xxx

could see/occasional figures wandering about the old German trenches

(dash) probably some odd post established here or xxxx there

behind the line of battle (full point) xxxxxxxxxxx All day

long odd men wandered up or down some part of the hillside

(dash) a man with a German prisoner coming down (comma) a

messenger or stretcher bearers going up (full point) xxxxxxxx

Now and then one could even see heads with our flat steel

helmets on them showing out from the red trench against the

skyline (full point) so the fighting could not be severe at

the moment on the crest of the hill straight opposite to us

(break)

But we were clearly not holding the whole of that

trench along the skyline (full point) xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx On its southern or right hand

shoulder the hill ran into Fricourt Wood which covered all

that end of it (full point) At bottom of wood standing out

against it was the dusty yellow ruin which once was Fricourt

(full point) Behind that end of the hill was a valley of

which we could see the gentle green slopes stretching away to

Mametz and Montauban (comma) both taken in the first half days

fighting (full point) The green slopes must have been covered

with the relics of that attack (full point) But the kindly xxx

grass (comma) the uncut growth of two years (comma) hid them

and the valley except for a few thin white trench lines might

have been any other smiling summer landscape (break)

When the wave of our attack swept through that country
the Germans in Fricourt village and wood still held on

(xxxxxxxxx full point) xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx And just as they held on to 

6/47
(3)

Another xxxxxxx promontory was left jutting out into the wave

of our attack in a similar village on our right (dash) xxxxxx

La Boiselle (comma) where the main road for Valenciennes runs

straight out xxxxxx from our lines through the German front

(full point) xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx /We could see this heap of yellow

brown ruins sticking up beyond the left xxxxshoulder of the

opposite hill much as Fricourt stuck up on its right (full

point) There was a valley between them really but it could

only be guessed (full point) Boiselle too had the ragged

remains of a xxxxx small wood rising behind it (full point)

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx The foliage hung from the ragged

xxxxx stumps as the rigging droops from /xxxxxx broken masts of a wreck (break)

We were/ looking another way watching our troops trying to creep up to

the extreme right hand end of the red trench on the top of the

hill (full point) We could see them on the centre of the crest

(comma) but here where the trench ran into the upper end of 

Fricourt wood there was a parently a check (full point) xxxx

Men were lined up/ at this point not in the trench but lying down on

the surface a little/ on our side of it (full point) From beyond

that corner of the wood there broke out occasionally a chatter

of machinegun fire (full point) Evidently the Germans still

hung on there (full point) The bursts of machine gun must xxx

have been against small rushes of our men across the open (full

point) I believe that one/ British unit xxxxxx was attacking round xx

this left hand corner of the wood while another was attacking

around the right of the wood (full point) The drive through

the wood was going on at the same time (full point) Evidently

they were having some effect for out of the wood there suddenly

appeared a number of figures (full point) Someone thought they

were our men coming back until it was noticed that they were

unarmed and held their hands up (full point)They were a party

of the enemy surrendering and for the next quarter of an hour

we watched them being marched slowly down the hillside opposite

(break) The attack on La Boiselle (break) Our advance here

6/47
(4)

seemed to be held up by some cause we could not see (full point)
[*8*]

German five point nine inch shell were falling just on our side

of Fricourt village and in a line from there up the valley xxx

behind our attack xxxxx (full point) It was not a really heavy 

barrage (dash) just big black shell bursts at intervals on the

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

ground helped by fairly constant white puffs of shrapnel in

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx the air above them (full point)Just then

our attention was attracted in quite another direction (dash)

La Boiselle (break)

It had been fairly obvious for some time that La

Boiselle was going to be attacked (full point) While the rest

ofthe landscape/ before us was only treated to an occasional shell burst

(comma) heavy explosions had been taking place in this clump

of ruins (full point) Huge roan coloured bouquets of brick xxx

dust and ashes leaped xxx from time to time into the air and

slowly dissolved into a tawny mist which floated slowly xxxx

beyond the edge of the hill (full point) It must have been a 

big howitzer shell or erhaps a very large trench mortar bomb

which was making them (full point) Gradually most of our xxxxx

artillery in the background to the left of us seemed to be

converging upon this village (full point) Suddenly xxxxxx

at a little before four there lashed onto the place the xxxxxx

shrapnel from three or four batteries of British field guns

(full point) They seemed to be fired as fast as they could be

served (full point) xxxxxxxxxxxxx Shell after shell laid whip

strokes across the dry early as swiftly as a man could ply a

lash (full point) One knew perfectly well that our infantry xx

must now be advancing for the attack and that this hailstorm

was to make the garrison (comma) if any were left (comma) keep

its heads down (full point)But the shoulder of the hill xxxxx

prevented us from seeing where the infantry was going to issue

(break)

In the turmoil/ which covered that corner we scarcely xx noticed that the

nature of the shelling had suddenly changed (full point) Our

xxxxxxxxx shell bursts had gone much further up the hill xxxx

(dash) one realised that (semi colon) and heavy black clouds

6/47
Evening Papers seventh letter E 7 E 7

[*9*] Secretary Defence Melbourne evening papers seventh letter

words After Fricourt (break) In the German trenches
(break) A wonderful system (break) Australian War

Correspondent Bean British Headquarters France July two (break)

Yesterday from the opposite slope of a gentle

valley we watched Fricourt village taken (xxxxxxx full point)

This morning we walked down through the long grass across

 the what two days ago was/ (quote) nomansland (unquote) into the/ old German

defences (full point) The grass has been uncut for two

years on these slopes and that is why there springs from

them such a growth of flowers as I have rarely seen (full

point) I think it was xxxxxxx once a wheatfield that we were walking
through (full point) It is a garden of poppies cornflowers
/and mustard flowers now (break)

Half way down the slope we noticed that we were

crossing a xxxxxxxx line which seemed to have been strangely

ruled through the wheatfield (full point) It was covered with

grass but there xxxxxx was a line of baby apple trees on

each side other of it (full point) It took one some seconds to realise
that it was a road (break)

We jumped across trench after trench of our own

(full point) At the bottom of the valley we xxxxxxxxx

stepped over a trench which had a wire entanglement in

front of it (full point) It was xx the old British front

line (xxxxxxxx full point) The space in front of it had

been Nomansland (break)

Some of our men still lying face downwards where

shrapnel or rifle fire had xxxxxxx caught them (full point) By them

ran another old road up the valley (full point) Beyond the 

road the railway trucks were still standing as they have 

stood for two years in what once was Fricourt xxxxxx siding (full

point) xxxxxxxxxxxxx The foundations of Fricourt village

stood up a little xxxxxxxxxxxx beyond against the dark shades of

Fricourt wood (full point) Immediately in front of us in

front of this battered xx white xxx ash heap were the remains