Charles E W Bean, Diaries, AWM38 3DRL 606/3/1 - March - April 1915 - Part 1

AWM38
Official History,
1914-18 War: Records of C E W Bean,
Official Historian.
Diaries and Notebooks
Item number: 3DRL606/3/1
Title: Diary, March - April 1915
Covers events in Egypt, interview with Sir lan
Hamilton, the "Battle of the 'Wozzer'” and the
trip to Lemnos.
AWM38-3DRL606/3/1
 

DIARY 3
March 25 1915  2
Original      DIARY NO 3.
AWM 38     3DRL 606 ITEM 3 [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, 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.
AUSTRALIAN WAR MEMORIAL
ACCESS STATUS
OPEN 

Morning Papers 23.   Evening papers 24

[*DIARY 3
March 25 1915
- Ap 20
2*]
73
Feb 19. Dardanelles Bombarded
Feb. 25
Mar:  1^st wk.  Gk Govt doesnt come in
Mar. 10  Neuve Chappelle.  ?Beginning of Brit hc.
Mar. 23. German officers & Turks attack Canal.
Mar. 27. French troops landing at Alex.
Mar 28.  Russians Bombard Bosphorus
Thurs Mar. 31.  News of our move
Frid. April 1.  Axxxx Cairo.
Sat. Ap2. 1st Brig moved
Sund Ap 3. 2nd " moved 

73
March 25.
1  3
Thurs. March 25^th.
Clearly we are not going to start for some
time. They are encouraging officers to take a few days leave &
New Zealanders are arranging excursions for their men to
Luxor. Johnston Col. Howse told me if J. liked he didn't
see why he shdn't get away for 2 or 3 days. I let J. know
sent Bazley down the Camp _^ this morning to let J. know.  J. jumped at
it - I went down to see him in the evening.  dined with
The battn was going out on _^ a night exercise but J
was very headachy & stayed in. He & Maj. Bennett & I
had dinner in their mess together when the bn. had gone.
Then J. walked up with me & we got leave from
Col. Howse at once.
On our way up found the engineers running
the water out of the Reservoir on the Hill near Mena
House. It was going in a big stream across the road.
There has been a bit of too much dysentery in camp the last
few days; & _^ as some of it is put down to this water the
water is being run off. I fancy very likely the flies
have something- to do with it.  Jock's lines are
splendidly clean. I saw his latrines, & nothing could
be better.
They are sending the venereal cases off to
Malta tomorrow. The men were rather disturbed as
they weren't told where they were going & suspected
it was back to Australia. They were ordered to 

73
March 25. 26
2  4
be supplied with their rifles & equipment -
an extraordinary order, it seems to me, for considering
they are men under an armed guard. With their
equipment in came at number of unused rounds
of ammunition; & some of them, in devilment,
got exploding this in the camp fires (a trick the
men in camp have got into lately) & firing it
into the air (so their C.O. came up & reported).
The Subaltern & 50 men guarding them had too big
a responsibility & so the field officer of the day
xxxx turned out with 20 additional men - The
rowdiness subsided. Sixty men had managed to
break the lines of this camp & got out into the
main camp - but they all came back.
Friday Mar. 26^th. Massey told me tonight
the composition of our army - an interesting one.
J. & I found the Luxor train chock full of
N. Zealanders & our own officers: 14 N.Z officers
& 43 N.Z. men were going up & you could
scarcely have got a place in the train. The
station master & traffic manager both told myself
& 2 other officers _^ 2 hours before starting that we couldn't get on the
train, but they found afterwards that we could.
However J & I decided to sleep in Cairo 

73
March 26. 27. 28
3   5
& go up next day. Slept at Continental - the first
time J. has been in a bed since leaving Australia.
Massey tells me that we were to use V as
a base - that possibly troops actually went there;
but that when S didn't come in, it was protested
that this implied that V belonged to Germany &
we withdrew.
Sat. March 27^th.  J. & I. took the day train
to Luxor - leaving 8.30, arriving 11.20. There were
three boys from the 5^th in the train. They had
saved up for it & got leave at last to visit Luxor.
They got 2nd class tickets; but they travelled 1st
class.  When the guard pointed this out they a nodded
as though they understood & gravely produced their
leave - written on a bit of official looking paper.
If The guard thought this must be alright & was
quite satisfied. He told the next guard & 
they were too polite even to look at their tickets
after that. Found 80 people in the Hotel.
Sund Mar 28. Went out with the three
boys from the 5^th to Karnak. One of them -
Roy - was very seedy; had eaten something
poisonous I think. They were all tremendously 

73
March 28
6    4
interested.  So was old Jock - particularly in
the symbolism of the old Egyptian religion
which appeals to him with his reading of theosophy.
He was constantly questioning old Youssef
Mohammed, our guide, about the meaning
of these symbols. We found a cross for example in
a column  In the after of hieroglyphics in
one of the tombs this afternoon - not a
Coptic cross but an Egyptian hieroglyph.
Youssef couldn't explain it.  The only
thing he expressed himself strongly
certain about was that it had nothing
to do with Christianity.  He protested with
some determination xxx xxxxxxx that it
had nothing to do with Christianity.
We saw the started across the river
rather late in the afternoon to see the
Colossi & ran straight into a hamseen,
- a violent wind from the desert to the
south with a blast constant blasts
which seemed to have just flung open
the door of a furnace. However we
pushed on through the storm; & it
quietened whilst we were looking at
the temple of Medinet Habu, (the best of 

73
March 28. 29
7    5
the lot in some ways) and old J. thoroughly
enjoyed his afternoon. After we had seen
each thing he liked to linger on and drink
it all in quietly. We spent some time
deciphering the inscriptions of Roman
tourists on the foot of Memnon's
statue when we on our way back; & finally
urged our donkeys to race home to
the river bank almost in the dark.
J. wrote home & I wrote my article. Both
missed the mail I fancy - it was
24 hours ahead of time.
Got a wire from Bazley to say Ian Hamilton was
inspecting Mena Camp troops on Monday - but the train for Cairo had then
left so I could not go back.
Mond March 29. Started not too early
& went over river up the desolate valley
of the Tombs of the Kings between raw
scarred hills not unlike the Khyber pass
only 10 times smaller - so Glasfurd told me
when last we were here. We saw the
tomb of Menepterah - the Pharaoh of the
Oppression - Seti I & I think Ramses II.
Then over the mountains (I photographed
J. on the edge of them) to Deir el Bahri
(where J was very much impressed) by the
way in which Thothmes had erased his
sisters inscriptions & also by a 

73
March 29. 30
8    6
fascination bas-relief showing the after way in
which the Queen of Punt brought offerings
to Queen Hatsupsut.  J. was very much
impressed by the extreme similarity between
all early formal carvings e.g. the Bayeux
tapestry & some of these battle carv pictures
of Ramses.
We had lunch on the step in the
pro-naos of the temple of Deir Medineh
between the pillars, with the basket between
us on the step. Then old Youssef came
& gathered up what we had not eaten &
drunk & sat down behind a pillar
about 3 yards in front of us, where
we couldn't see him, & polished
off & had his dinner too.  After that
we went on to the tombs of the queens
stopping at the newest tomb above
Deir Medineh where there were some
bodies in mummy rags & a lot of small
treasures. They gave us some of the
tiny "Answerers" & a bit of mummy
crag - as Joseph's brethren (who were
guiding round our friends of the 5^th Battn)
took them there too I rather fancy that
 

73
March 29
9    7
this was a regular part of the
performance - but the things were genuine
without any question.  Afterwards we
saw the tombs of the wife of Ramses I -
easily the best tomb we have seen.
I wouldn't let Joseph light any
magnesium wire in that tomb - it
would have spoilt the exquisite
colouring of the walls. I wonder the
Govt. doesn't put in electric light.
It is miserably shortsighted, because
unless light is put in xxxxx
no regulations on earth will
prevent the guides from using magnesium.
We saw the Ramesseum & then
the Colossi again - in order to make
sure of the inscription of Mr W^m. Boggie
of 1820 whose xxxxxx name lies squeezed
between those of two early Greeks.
We crossed the river with a party
of Light Horse officers. In their luncheon
basket I noticed, besides the remains
of lunch, a mildewed mummy
head & a mummy foot. That
night in the train our three friends of