Charles E W Bean, Diaries, AWM38 3DRL 606/3/1 - March - April 1915 - Part 2

73      80

March 29. 30
the fifth (who still contrived to make the journey in a
reserved 1st 
the fifth (who would ^ managed still _^ to get into a 1st Class
class compartment in spite of the fact that
about 40 N. Zealanders were travelling
2nd on the same tickets) opened and
showed a picnic basket & showed us
 a mummy head, a mummy hand, &
some bits of painted coffin xx painted mummy
case. The former two they bought I
think for 1/6 & the latter they were given
in the _^ new tomb I mentioned above.
Jock & I bought some post cards
- had a bath & hurried tea - & managed
to get a compartment (a ladies'
compartment I'm afraid - but we
made pretty sure no one wanted
it) to ourselves. J. slept on one seat
& I on the other & we did not have a
bad night.
Tues. March 30. Reached Cairo abt. 7 a.m.
Taxied out to Camp.  J. had a bath at
the hospital whilst I had one at H.Q.,
& then br we had breakfast
together at H.Q. mess.
I picked up the details of Ian
Hamiltons review - Mena in morning
 

73        911
March 30
he reviewed 1st Australian Divn in the morning
& NZ&A Divn in afternoon; & everyone I
have heard speak about the two says that
although the Heliopolis review was much
more spectacular the Mena Camp
inspection was the more workmanlike.
The mail has gone so I had to wire the
facts.  They wont Col. White himself
very kindly summed them up for me, G
Murphy & others gave me a full description
afterwards. Col. White would have
wired Ian Hamilton meanwhile himself
to bring me back if he had known of
the review in time; but he only
heard of it rumoured on Saturday night
& settled on Sunday. It doesnt really
matter a fraction. But, with Col. Whites
approval, I am going down to Alexandria
tonight to see if I can call on Ian Hamilton
who has gone down there & also to
see for myself the French troops who
have landed there. All The Egyptian
papers this morning were allowed
to publish the fact that the French had
already been landing for 2 days, but 

73      10 12
March 30. 31
I was not allowed by the cable censor
to send it to Australia.
Wed. March 31.  Arrived at Alexandria & found
the Hotel Majestic full.  But the Savo  I managed
to get a room in the Savoy & found that
Ian Hamilton was staying there.  sent up my card
& was told he would see me this morning.
I saw him immediately after breakfast.
He told me that he believed a pressman cd do
the necessary press work in war better
than an Eyewitness. There are points a
pressman would notice of great interest to
the public & perfectly harmless which Eyewitness
is apt to miss.  He thought that as we
had this Eastern show in English hands the
Govt would let the people have a little more
information - or rather would give the journalist
a little more scope.  In France as one consequence
of 'that damnable system ", he sd, -not as "I don't mean
a system of conscrip compulsory service like
you have – they can simply tell the
people to go hang - they neednt  dont trouble
whether they need news or not. That
is the system I hope this war is going to 

73      11 13
March 31
root out of this world," he added. We
yarned for a bit in this strain. Then: "I wish
there had been one or two pressmen up there
in the Dardanelles on February 18^th," he said.
"It was a marvellous spectacle."  "You were
there, then," I said. "Oh yes, I went up there
at once - next xx They said there was an area
of clear free water & let me go right in there &
see it.  He I went in a small craft - not
the light armoured cruiser type in which I
came from England - the Phaethon - but
a smaller ship. The big ships were bombarding
& they seemed very much tied in - restricted.
The ships belching out every all the while from their big
guns, the black clouds caused by the explosions
over the forts - I shant soon forget it. We
had been there about an hour watching
the little minesweepers at work, - quite
small craft, with the shell from the forts
bursting right over them - when we got a
message from the [[shorthand]] to say she had
been mined & asking us to stand by
in case she sank.  The signal cd not be
made by wireless because their
gear was all shot away. Presently
we saw her coming down the Straits & I 

73      12 14
March 31
shall never forget the sight. All round her
as quite close came a small crowd of
minesweepers & destroyers. They were
quite very close, anxiously following her in
case she sank. Her crew were all standing
round the decks, perfectly steady, &
she was a little bit down by the head,
not very much, but they didn't know
what was going to might happen any moment.
Each instant we might have seen her
slip under.  However she didnt. They
got her to Lemnos & there she will
have a coffer dam built round her.
They will get her going & take her to Malta.
She should be all ready again in 6 weeks".
Sir Ian told me that the 3rd Brigade seemed very
pleased with their quarters at Lemnos.
"They were on a bare hill: (-when I say
bare - it had grass on it) & they didn't
want to come back to Egypt on any
account. They wd far rather stay where
they were."  He thought our men had
actually grown since they came to Egypt -
"plenty of work of a sort likely to
develop them, open air & a glorious 

73     13 15
March 31
climate" - so he too was impressed
by their physique.  "Of course they're
trained troops now," he said, "& disciplined.
and their officers know how to give
an order - they know that it doesnt
merely consist in making a suggestion.
It would do no harm if you put
that in your message", he added.
"You can say you asked me & I told
you."
I told him of the book the C'th Govt
wanted me to write. "Well, you know
I'll give you any help I can.  But
You cant begin writing it too early.
Do it now - write down everything
in your diary. You know I've been
through it once or twice myself; & I've
said to myself a hundred times afterwards
that I wished I had put kept a much
fuller diary. You omit to do so - &
then you find that when you want
a date you can't get it - it isnt there."
After seeing him I decided to get
back to Cairo at once in order to
 

16
The French troops seemed to be camping not in
one big _^ town camp like ours at Mena, but on
every spare bit of land all over the city.
They were on the beach at Ramleh, amongst
the sandhills - the breeze was whipping up a fresh
little sea & the air was beautiful there. The
huge black senegalese troops in dark blue with
fezzes seemed to be everywhere. They were more
strongly built than the Sudanese troops in
the Egyptian army, with heavy calves - not skinny
bony legs - much more the build of a European.
There were Zouaves in red pants, & grey jackets with a sort
of big yellow eye over the t ribs; French cavalry in light
blue jackets, red trousers; artillery in dark blue with a
red stripe down the trousers; the 226^th Regt in dark blue (?)
& the 175^th (a new one? from La Rochelle) in the new grey uniform
These French troops seemed to me of a fair size & very light &
fresh in colour.  Some _^ few were great big fellows, & a large proportion
had flaxen hair. I took no photos but just wandered through them.  I heard
one say - "Angliche - ils sont mieux habille ' que nous."  I had a yarn to some
on the rly stn.  They sd they had bn 2 or 3 days at Bizerta & then 12 days at Lemnos
where they saw our 3rd Brigade.  They thought our 3rd Brigade had left Lemnos
before them.  The 175^th came in the transport "Provence".
 73       14 17
March 31
wire out what he sd about the Australian
troops. I wanted first to see the French troops
at Alex. & then to see the old battlefield
of Abukir - and I found it cd just
be done. The French artillery was at
Mex & I first thought I could get out there
& see them -but these xxxrty after
waiting some time for a tram I realised
this would be a tremendous rush.  So
I decided to tram out to Ramleh, where
their infantry is; take the Abukir
train at 1 o'clock from Ramleh to
Mamurah (2 miles short of Abukir);
leave my bag & coat there at the station
& walk on to the coast, see the forts,
& back to Mamurah to catch the
5.16 train which just connected with
a train for Cairo at Sidi Gaba station.
This worked excellently. I carried some
chocolate & biscuits & a bottle of
ginger beer from Alex. & tramped with
it across the grass covered p sandy plain
peninsula to the fort which lies on the
sea coast about 2 miles along Abukir
Bay. Abukir Bay seems to get all its

73       15 18
March 31
importance as the nearest place where
troops can be landed to cut off Alexandria
- which city lies on a peninsula almost
cut off from the mainland by Lake
Macrotis.  If troops were landed at
Abukir Bay (the old Bolbitic mouth
of the Nile - the mouth being now reduced
to a mere trickle but the plain
behind being very fertile) they could
cut off Alex. with ease. Three
pretty strong forts have t were therefore
placed on the east end of Abukir Bay.
At the end of the E. point W. point of the
bay is Abukir fort - an old stone
fortress rearmed in the sixties but now
only inhabited by an Egyptian peasant
family who keep horses in the old _^ stone vaults
of the fault fort & fowls in the courtyard
behind the emplacements. This fort has
been made built with all sorts of bits
of earlier buildings - I saw the bases
of 2 fair sized columns in the sea
NE of the fort & part of one column;
Bits of the isolated marble blocks
were in the walls & also pink
granite like that from Assuan. But 

73    16 19
March 31
this was not the fort I walk to first.
On the shore of the bay about 2 miles
in (that is Eastwards) from Abukir point
is a sand hill much higher than the
rest covered with the remains of older
buildings & pottery all broken up till
they look almost like a large gravel.
On top of this hill is a fairly modern
fort with a moat & what used to be
a drawbridge. The moat is now ¾ full
of sand - in some parts quite full.
The fort _^ building is inhabited by a Nubian
negro & his family. It has been
rearmed with big Woolwich infants
which still peer out through the
Embrasures although the sand in one
case reaches nearly up to the gun
muzzles.
I climbed up there & round
to the leeward of the fort & there
lay back in the sand & opened up my
luncheon. There were some quite
pretty desert flowers growing in
bunches near me - low shrublike
flowers resembling those that used to
 

73     1720
March 31
grow in Mothers rock garden at Brentwood.
Two hundred feet below was the wide sweep
of the Bay - a fresh breeze driving the
sea in small waves upon the gleaming
white beach. A negro was cutting
reeds or some sort of desert grass
down amongst some date palms
at my feet. And far away to the
right the Western arm of the Bay
ran out to Abukir fort. This side of
the fort, in shelter was a fishing
village (the greeks there use boats of
almost exactly the old Roman shape,
with a bow bluffer than xxxxxx
a walnut shell). And Beyond the fort
I cd see two or three _^ low rocks of a
reef some hundreds of yards out
to sea; & then, allowing a gap of
perhaps a mile from the end of
the reef, a low rocky island. I
fancy it was somewhere there that
Nelson's battle was fought.
I gave The knippers from of the
black family at the fort followed me
out & camped about 10 yards away
during my lunch. I gave them the