Charles E W Bean, Diaries, AWM38 3DRL 606/40/1 - February - March 1916 - Part 5

 

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after it - & it ws true news; & /
4^th & 5^th Divns to go as soon after 
them as possible, I believe. The 
second has gone; the first is on its 
way; & daily there pass through 
Ismailia column after column of 
infantry for / desert; daily other 
columns pass in. The N. Zealanders 
went out last wk & they came 
back xxx yesty (the front trenches, 
I believe, are now buried in 
sand & only / railheads are held).
Today the 8^th Bde - (the yellow 
brigade  [Sketch- see original scan] whose colours I
had never seen before) passed 
this hospital. They seemed to 
me big men - & they mostly 
wore / British helmet - but 
they marched worse than any

 

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Australian or N.Z. troops I
have ever seen - on / wrong 

side o / road both sides &
from side to side of it, 

without step or bearing. It had probably
been a long march, but it 

didn't seem to me like our
first three divisions (1st 2nd & N.Z ).
There The work of creating 

a second corps has been
done with extraordinary 

rapidity - & it has had to be
done mainly by White & Birdwood 

- especially White. He has had
an extraordinarily comprehensive 

job - the creation of half the
officers of an army was only the 

most obvious part of it. They
formed the nuclei of the bns ’

by splitting the 1st. 2nd 3rd 4th &
 

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N.Z. Bdes into two & letting the 

man whom they appointed for 

C.O.  choose wh half he wd 

have. That put the two halves 

upon an equality at once.

All the new C.O.s were not good men,

but most of them are.

Among all these promotions 

there is none happier than that of

Gellibrand to the 6^th Bde. He 

had done wonders w / 12th Bn. 
Belly  ws too unconventional for

/ British Army. White, who ws at

/ staff college w him, has told me
 tt Gelly ws not known a bit to /

men there. He didn't ride; he didn't
shoot; he didn't play games. But 

White got to know him & anyone
who knew him at all saw at once
 

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tt he ws brim full of brains 
Well - I dont think he
got on over well in his bn 
- one of the Manchesters; &
when it ws disbanded & he 
ws told he cd become take up
his rank in another bn but 
must lose his seniority he
threw it up & started apple 
growing in his native Tasmania.
He had two years or so of it 
& made no great success up
to date - & / war broke out.
White who happened to know
where he was, & tt he ws 
acting as adjutant or secretary
to / Commandant in Tasmania 
or something, asked Bridges
if be cd wire to him, as he 
wanted. a D.A.Q.M.G.
 

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Bridges agreed. By / boat
following / wire Gelly arrived.He walked into White's room
apparently exactly as he had left his orchard - baggy old trousers,
soft white collar - or rather collar wh had once been
white; & a gleam in his old eye. White must have thought
"Goodness - have I made a mistake? What will Bridges
 think of my judgment" - but there ws nothing for it but to
take old Gelly in to /Genl. Bridges looked up – looked
first at Gelly & then very hard at White - & White left Gelly w
him. Ten minutes later, when Gelly came out, Bridges White
went in to / Genl. Bridges
 

 

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Looked up at him again."What regiment did you
say he belonged to?"  he grunted. White told him.
Bridges said: "Umph!" & that was all - but itws not long before heknew tt there was a verygreat deal in Gelly.Well, Gellibrand ws kept back a good deal in / early days in Gallipoli first by a row with Bridges over I don't know what;[*[Affairs of Mess of which Gelly was president. C.E.W.B. 18.5.25]
Gelly toldB.(whenspoken to abt mes)that he hadn't come to Gpoli Gallipoli as a mess President - or something of the sort]*]& secondly by the fact tt
some officers o  / Australian staff,  like Blamey, were senior to him (Blamey has
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brains too). When the 2ndAust. Divn ws formed Gelly

ws  under Blamey, who becameColonel. But there Legge got
to know him. And when the command o / 12 Bn became
vacant & old Gelly got it Ithink Legge must have missed
him. To Gelly it ws a hopehe scarcely dared to entertain
- to be Colonel  of a battalion."Its  / end of most soldiers
ambitions, in ordinary times"he sd to me - "we none of us
ever hope to go much further."I, knowing his utter
recklessness for his own safety(he ws hit in / second week
by refusing to eat his lunch- under cover, & ws nearly in tt beastly [[?ofr]]
original 1st Divl H.Q. where I saw White hit too, -
 

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- & ws nearly killed) & knowing tt his doctrine ws tt a Colonel who happens to command a bn during a really big battle must be killed(he told Col. Brand so) -I was hoping agst hope tt he wd get a brigade.And then, when the 6^th Bde became vacant,the appointment lay chiefly with Gen. Legge, who would look on Gelly as a BritishOfficer rather than /Australianhe really was & Legge is very much inclined tocry out Australia for Australians on very small provocation – & Gelly's chances
 

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might'nt seem too good. But
Legge, who usually, when asked to appoin recommend
an officer for a post, forwardsa string of a dozen names
only forwarded required one on this occxxxion: Three or twoTwo names, I think it ws,were put before him & he wsfree to choose add any others he cared to. But he choseGelly - & his letter picking him for /job came in Legges own handwriting, which was rather an indicationthat Legge didnt want anyone else to see his choice or tt it ws he who made it. ^XGelly is / right man.The other day he ws called[* ^X I think this may be unfair toLegge. C.E.W.B.He may not have wantedBlamey to see the letter.*]
 

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on to punish a man of his Bn who had over stayed his leave. The man came up at orderly room. " Well - have you had a good time ?" sd Gelly. "Yes, Sir." Sd  /astonished man.Enjoyed "Stayed out four days didn't you?"asked Gelly. "Yes Sir.""Did you enjoy them? Yes, Sir.""Well, I suppose you dont object to paying for it"says Gelly."No Sir" said the man."You'll have to pay a good bit you know. sd Gelly.
"Yes Sir," sd / man,"You don't mind that""No Sir" -

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 and Gelly made him pay 15 days screw on whatever it was -& the man ws quite content w a Colonellike that. The old chap has done wonders w /12th Bn wh had become very slack.Now he's a Brigadier one may hope t he'll survive / war, because he is a most loyal valuable servant o his country.There is some talk going around as to White filling up the A.I.F with British Officers.That talk ws bound to arise with everyone w his eye onsome post t he wants for himself in all this general post. But it is not a fair
 

 

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criticism. Legge came into White / other day &
made it. White said Now General, you say
were putting in too manyBritish officers. In / first
place what you mustnt forget is t we are not a
self contained force & we cant act as if we were.We have to go to them for
ordnance stores, &  we have to ask them for General
staff officers for some of ourdivns - & if tt is so we
can't have all take & nogive. If they say "we cant
when we go & ask them for a staff officer: We cant give
 

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you a ^senior staff officer but we'vea young chap here who would
make a 1st Class battalion commander - we cant
always refuse. They are doing a great deal for us & we have
to go on asking them to do it -
we cant forget that."And then xxxx lets take
the commands & see how many
of these British officers we have
brought in. There are 60Bn  commanders.  Well - of
those one is a British officer (I'm not counting Ross who
ws an officer lent by England to Australia long before / war
at our request)."Then take staff officers. In
 

 

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our old divn - the 1st Aust.Divn -  we have one Britishofficer, G.S.O.II. In the 2ndAust. Divn you were free tohave any one you wished& you yourself have two.Then as to the Artillery -So the first Australian Divn we had one British officer,Anderson, who ws lent byAustralia before /war; & we had an Engineer who
ws lent before /war; you
were free to chose an Australian
for your Engineers but you chose an English officer &
you have 3 or 4 other EnglishEngineer officers with you.
You had a brigade vacant other day & you chose
Gellibrand to command it -
 

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a British Officer -"
That quite silenced Legge.A few days later Legge himself had
a staff appointment -( S.S.O.2I think) wh needed filling.
He came in & sd.: "I want you to give me either Foster or. . . . .  (naming another Australian)"Both those men had been together posted
one or two days before, asxxxxxx everybody knew, to other appointments
"I'm sorry - You cant have either of those two" sd White.
"Its a pity" sd Legge - "Ishd much have preferred an
Australian Officer" -Clearly there ws something
coming. "Is there any one else youwd especially care for?" asked White
"Well if I cant get either Fosteror —— I shd like to get ——" an
 

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English officer.)As White says: If Birdwood ismost unfairly accused of favouringBritish officers it is most unfair.If / little man has a fault it istt he is always prepared to try aninferior Australian officer rather than a British officer who he knows wd be more competent. As far as Iam concerned, it doesnt matter one way or / other whether I'm blamed or not; but I can honestlysay tt I've tried to hold the balance as fairly xxxx as it is within /power of man to do." And I'm sure he has. Unquestionably he is right.[[Bgs?]] ought to be initialised before sent.Write Cassells & Smart.Acq.R.NZ. Sent to - N.Z. Paymaster
 
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If ^ ^an Australian Division gets into
a disaster thro using inferiortalent or inexperience it doesn't matter an iota that theinexperience or / talent wasAustralian. What /  [[?]]in action is competence, PreferablyAustralian competence; but anything rather than the incompetence; but anything[[?]]
The reorganisatoin has brought in another most difficult question. The A.I.F. has to be administered on this side o /water -& who is to do it?(Murray  & Campbell).[*Australia didnt undertaketo provide Army CorpsStaff.*]