Charles E W Bean, Diaries, AWM38 3DRL 606/36/1 - December 1915 - January 1916 - Part 1

AWM38

Official History,

1914-18 War: Records of C E W Bean

Official Historian.

Diaries and Notebooks

Item Number 3DRL606/36/1

Title Diary, December 1915 - January 1916

Includes references to the Turkish bombardment

of Lone Pine.

_{AWM38-3DRL606/36/1}

Diary 25   1

Book Dec 30/15  Book

36      Jan 31/16    36
Original DIARY No. 36
AWM38  3DRL 606 ITEM 36 [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 condition 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 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

New No
Book
36

1
Diary 25   
Book Dec 30/15  Book
36      Jan 31/16    36
Thursday Dec 30th
Had a beautiful 
bath this morning - But the
real dream of a bath was the
one those hospitable Navy people 
- Gibbs (Commr) & Grace (Capt) gave
me on the Arragon Grafton - A bath & 
clean things, they knew, was
what we wanted more than
anything else; they sent
us down to their good old
hot tub room where we had
boiling hot fresh water;
Gibbs gave me fresh clothes
(while my own were washed)
& Grace sent us down powdered
soap in little packets which
made a glorious lather &
didnt get into your eyes.
Oh that navy is hospitable -
The Mars carried across abt
2300 Australians one night

2
& 2000 the next - & her little
crew (150) spent all night giving
them hot cocoa; while the 100 ! officers
whom the wardroom entertained
fairly wiped the ship clean of
brawn. My word but we do owe
some good things to the navy -
real brawn - with the pips whiskers
in it, too, as somebody said.

The pup who was adjutant on
the Aragon told me, when I sd I
wanted to find Gen. White at the
Anzac H.Q. _^& that I thought Anzac H.Q. had gone to Alex sd. "Anzac Headquarters
are at Porteanos - You’ll see Gen.
Godley - That's whom you'll see."
So I went off with Bazley &
my artists to the South Pier
by the morning ferry; the
artists it was miles to walk
- over the hill, across a ferry

3
where the Gks were coining
money. On the other side we
walked straight into the 2nd Bde
H.Q. & heard that Anzac H.Q. had
gone, after all - sailed on the
Cornwallis two days before
leaving only two or three clerks
& the A.P.M. So Col. Foote &
Hastie took charge of me &,
like the good old friends they
are, the First Divn put me
through all my difficulties
in no time.

As I can’t find White, I'll
have to write the preface to the
Anzac Magazine myself -
I'd get the High Commissioner
to do it but I dont want
any of it to be written out
of Anzac, or at least the
Dardanelles.

Went on the Aragon
again this afternoon to _^fix my passage.

4
One doesn't like to criticise any
institution where people are so
kind to you as they have been here
to me. But I have not the slightest
doubt that it is does not make good for good 
staff work to have people as the Headquarters
in such luxurious surroundings
as to eating drinking & other
sorts of comfort - & so far from
the scene of action as is the
case with the staff on the Aragon.
Certainly A very keen conscientious 
man - such as some few of them
I believe are - can sustain it
without his work suffering; but
unquestionably many in the
Aragon are not keen or 
energetic but are glad of a soft
job. One cant help having
more than a feeling when
one gets amongst neat red
tabs & shiny boots and
Sam Brown belts that

5
the more imposing the 
officer looks the less use he 
is - & our old 1^st Divisional
staff living with the mud over
its boot tops & the seats
wearing out of its pants is
doing incomparably better & 
finer work for the British
race than most of the _^brushed & polished
gentlemen who whose seem to
look rather down their noses
when the battered boots &
much worn gaiters come
along the decks on one of
their rare (& not much relished)
visits to this abode of luxury.
To the real good honest workers
aboard this must be rather
galling.

Came off & finally settled

6
up the destination of
my small army.

Barker & Crozier go to 2nd
Divn H.Q. - we happened
to see Leyshon White & he
took them along. Old Crozier
bundling along with his
beloved oil paints & canvas
looked about as much unlike
a soldier as he sheep well could.
Ted Colles came to 1st Div^l H.Q.
Griffin to 1st Divl H.Q. who will
take him to Egypt where Ross
has gone. I sent him off in
a bumboat to find out from
the Dunluce Castle where
Ross actually was -  & the
bumboatman charged £1 for a
two or three hours row!
Their ordinary earnings wd be
abt 2/- a day here, I expect.

2nd Divn H.Q. ws then
on the beach or rather just 
above it -
 

x No. To the wireless
Stn near Watson’s Pier.

y & ran from N. Beach to Anzac
Cove & delivered / message
by wd of mouth
C.E.W.B
16.6.24
 

7
At 2nd Div H.Q. I saw _^Capt Watson
of the 2nd Divl Signallers - &
he tells me that the last signal
they were to have made - to
[x] the N.Z. H.Q. at No 1 or No 3 post
was found impossible to send.
They cd get no answer.
They tried again -  cd get still no 
answer. Eventually they gave
up ^[y] - & told the wireless to
close down - picked up their
instruments, & trotted round
the tram line by round Ari Burnu point
at a slow jog trot. They thought
the N.Z. line had probly been
cut by / Turks; as a matter
of fact they found later tt one
o / last parties, coming down,
had cut / line as it went,
thinking it useless any longer

8
The signallers finding their
heavy instruments made it
difficult to run dropped to
a walk. Watson walked too,
just ahead of them. On the  pier
they found Littler _^CO. of the beach
parties - & as far as I know
they were actually / last to leave
Anzac Beach. Littler ws last into / boats.

At Suvla the 9th Army Corps
Commander. Maj. Gen. Byng
went ashore, & came off last -
though it ws scarcely his place.
However - he's sd to be a very
thorough sort of officer.

The times at which the 
last posts o / line were
evacuated at Anzac seem to 
have been right to the second.