Charles E W Bean, Diaries, AWM38 3DRL 606/33/1 - 1915

AWM38
Official History,
1914-18 War: Records of C E W Bean,
Official Historian.

Diaries and Notebooks

Item Number: 3DRL606/33/1

Title: Notebook, 1915
Includes a few pages of notes on the Turkish
guns at Gallipoli.

AWM38-3DRL606/33/1
 

Records
anzac.
& ships guns either
to
4 pdr. In tunnels

Enemy's Guns.

Original DIARY No. 33.
AWM38 3DRL 606 ITEM 33 [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
 

Records

Enemy's Guns at Anzac.
Anzac 19^th may 4 6 [shorthand] opst us & ships guns either    
ashore or afloat. Either ships or forts.

3. field guns Gaba Tepe & 12 - 14 pdr. In tunnels
& knocked out by Bacchante.
2 4 in
2 [shorthand] on wine glass from [shorthand]
 

2 guns (1. 4 in 1. 3 in) 47 ~ 4 always there.

alway 2 heavy ( ~ 9 in) guns on 900 contour. Kili
Bahr
Lord Nelson [shorthand] things were.
———————
Gun Ridge guns always there - principally
mountain guns - sometimes 2 sometimes
4 often pushed [shorthand]

On May 19. Sykes N3 batty was laid betw. Popes & Quinns
The men on Dead mans Ridge had at
least 7 bullets in their back.
Oor Mtn gun all / time had nothing to do
exc. fire between Popes & Russells top.
At this time [shorthand] one 4.5 How batty.
We had abt 32 18 pdrs in actn, 12 [shorthand]
& one batty 4.5 Hows. (The 6 in Hows were
 not here then).
 

Scrubby Knoll - 2 - 4in & some 6 [shorthand]
[shorthand] at scrubby K.
C Batty (Bessell Brown [shorthand]) ws always
there & sand pit guns also (field guns) -
Afterwds they bought up some heavy
guns here.

Anafarta 105 W1 (3 field ps. 1 4.2 How 1 8in or 9in)
105 U 7
(We had one NZ batty on Russells top, 6 [shorthand] guns
on Russells Top X some firing from tunnels
at ^rt flank of infy line) They were shooting."
They cd take front of J. Jolly & Quinns.

Olive G. ws taken on by Hoyles & Burgess, & K. Tepe
by Hughes & Burgess.

Two 4.5 Hows on beach took Anafarta & Lone
pine all time. One on Plugges Plateau
(L.P. ^for J Jolly) & one in gully behind Gen Bridges
H.Q. They were afterwds shifted to left in
Aug. (Emplacements had bn made &
ranges taken [shorthand]).

Anafarta guns were in tunnels & fired
from 20 yds inside tunnels.
NZ Arty [shorthand]. 2 men stayed out
36 hours & saw these guns & the tunnels
made a sketch - quite early. Ships after
 

Then 17th Siege Batty
2 4in 2
4 6in 4
(9.2 never landed)
2 3pds Hotck.
7 Anti-Air 12 pdr. 4

First guns to go were an Aust. Batty }
from Helles wh [shorthand] }
& 4 mobile guns. }
 

this shot from N.
The 6in & x an 8 in at Baphali (X roads W of it)
& much later one 9.2. They supported
landings at Nibmnesi - sailors 1st [shorthand] took
8 gendarmes [shorthand] Second h N.Z. & took cut up
lines
They were on both flanks, higher up & had
Observatn from behind flank.
There were emplacements on 971 early but
no guns
6 in How \ 9.3 X5.
——
Towards end they increased Olive G. Gun Ridge,
Chunuk & a gt [shorthand] put in Sq. 93 genly at
existing emplacements.
——
Additions.

4.25
 

Every Inf. Bde had immediate support Night
or day [shorthand] on [shorthand] inf line & always loaded.
Also additional.
One gun wd [shorthand] at once
(Practices [shorthand])
[shorthand] Suvla w 31 guns
they as w 4.
 

15 ?
1 — 14.
16 — 18
19 }
20 } trunks
21 kitbag
23 - 26.
 

13.13
1.
22.
1. 4
22
——
1. 9. 6