Charles E W Bean, Diaries, AWM38 3DRL 606/284/1 - July 1916 - Part 2

6/47   (2)
of the rusted wire which had once been the maze in front of
[*10*] the German line (break) The German defences (break)
We found fragments of that wire in the bottom of
the trenches themselves (xxxxx semicolon) Lengths of it
were lying amongst the shatterd buildings behind the lines
(full point) The British shells and bombs must have tossed it
about as you would toss hay with a rake (full point) xxxxxx
In the tumbled bricks ruins behind the lines you simply
stepped from one crater into another (full point) xxxxx
Into many of those craters you could have placed a fairsized
room(full point) One big shell and two unexploded bombs x
like huge ancient cannon balls xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
lay there still half covered with rubbish (break)
Through this rubbish heap xxxxxxxxx were scattered
odd fragments of farming machinery (d sh) here an old
waggon wheel (dash) there a plough share or a xxxx portion of
a harrow (dash) in another place some old iron press of
which I do not kno the use (full point) The rest of the village 
was like a deserted brickfield or the remains of some
ancient mining camp (dash) I do not think there were three
fragments of wall over ten feet high left in the place (full
point) And in and out of this debris wandered the German
front line (break)
We jumped down into those trenches where some
shell had broken them in (full point) They were deep trenches
and narrow such as we had in Gallipoli (full point) Back
from them led xxxxxxx narrow deep winding communication
trenches which curiously enough in the parts where we saw xxx
them seemed to have no supports to their walls such as xxxxxx
all trenches in the wet country further north must have (full
point) Here and there some shell burst. had broken or shaken
them in and the bottom of them was full of fragments xxxxx
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (break)
As they were left (break)
As We made our way along the front line we found xxxxx
(comma) every ten yards or so (comma) a low square timbered

6/47      (3)
opening below the parapet (full point) It was square and timbered
[*11*] (full point) A dozen wooden steps led down ^and forwards into some
dark interior far below the parapat xxxxxxxxxx (break)
We clambered down into the first of these
chambers (full point) It was xxxxxxxxxx exactly as its xxxxx
occupants had left it (full point) On the floor amongst some
tumbled blankets and odd pieces of clothing (comma) socks
for the most part (comma) were lying xxx scatterd German
stick grenades like a grey jampot with a short handle (full
point) The blankets had come from a series of bunks which
almost filled up the whole dark chamber (full point) They
were made roughly of wood (comma) in pairs one over another
(comma) and packed into every corner of the narrow space
with as much ingenuity as the berths in an emigrant ship
(full point) There xxxxxx  were I think six of them in that
first chamber (full point) Exxxxx Inlet into the wall at
the end of one set of bunks was a wooden box doing service
for a cupboard xxxx (full point) In it was a penny novel
(comma) a part of a gas helmet and three or four bottles of
xxxxxxxxxxx a German table water (full point) At least one
of these was still full (full point) So the garrison of Fricourt
was not as hard put to it for supplies as some of the
German prisoners with whom I spoke the day before (full point)
They had told me that for three or four days no water could
be brought to them up their communication trenches owing to x
the British bombardment (break)
Where they had waited (break)
I expect that the garrison of Fricourt had been
almost entirely in those dugouts during the bombardment
(full point) The chambers seemed to have more than one
entrance in xxxxxx some cases and one suspects that they
led into one another xxxxx also underground (full point)
From the one which I have just described an underground
passage led forward beneath the parapet xxx to a door opening
into Nomansland (dash) you could see the daylight at the
end of it (xxxxxxxxx) (break)
 

6/47     (4)
[*12*] The fire trench was battered in places out of
recognition (full point) But here and there we came across
a bay of it which the bombardment had left more or less untouched
(full point) There were the slings of cartridges
still hanging up against the wall of the trench (full point)
There were the two steel xxxxx plates through which they had peered
out into Nomansland (comma) the slits in them half covered by
the flap so as just to give a man room to peep through them
(full point) There was the machinegun platform with a long
empty belt still lying on it (full point) There was the xxx
periscope xxxxxx standing on its spike which had been stuck
into the trench wall (full point) It looked out straight xxxx
across Nomansland but both mirrors were gone (break)
As  e xxxxxxxxx picked our way through the
brick heaps there came towards us a British soldier with
a fixed bayonet (comma) and an elderly bareheaded man (full
point) The elderly mans hair was cut short and was grizzled
(full point) He had not shaved for three days (full point)
He was sstout but his face had a curious grey xxxx tinge shot
through the natural complection as it were (full point) His x
lips were tightly compressed (full point) He looked about him
firmly enough but with xx the  openeyed xxxx gaze of a wild animal 
which seemed to lack all comprehension (full point) X It was
the face of a man who was witless (full point) He wore the
uniform of a German captain (break)
xxx He was one of the men who had been through that
bombardment  BEAN