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

2  39
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 about yesty. (the front trenches,
I believe, are now buried in
sand & only / railheads are held).
Today the 8^th Bde - (the yellow
brigade [Diagram - see original document] 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
 

40
Australian or N.Z. troops I
have ever seen - on / wrong
side o / road  - on 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 & NZ ).
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 &
 

2  41
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 are not good
men; but most of them are.
Among all these promotions
there is none happier than tt of
Gellibrand to the 6^th Bde. He
had done wonders w / 12th Bn.
Gelly 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
 

42
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.
 

2  43
Bridges agreed. By / boat
following / wire Gelly arrived.
He walked into White's room
apparently exactly as he had left
his orchard - baggy old trowsers,
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
 

44
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 it
ws not long before he
knew tt there was a very
great 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 told
B. (when
spoken to
abt. mess)
that he hadn’t
come to Gpli
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
 

2  45
brains too). When the 2nd
Aust. Divn ws formed Gelly
ws under Blamey, who became
Colonel. But there Legge got
to know him. And when
the command o / 12 Bn became
vacant & old Gelly got it I
think Legge must have missed
him. To Gelly it ws a hope
he 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 and ws nearly in tt beastly old
original 1st Divl H.Q. where I saw White hit too, -
 

46
& 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 British
Officer rather than / Australian
he really was & Legge
is very much inclined to
cry out Australia for /
Australians on very small
provocation - & Gelly’s chances.
 

2  47
might not seem too good. But
Legge, who usually, when
asked to appoin recommend
an officer for a post, forwards
a string of a dozen names
only forwarded required one on
this occasion: Three or two
Two names, I think it ws,
were put before him & he ws
free to choose add any others he
cared to. But he chose
Gelly - & his letter
picking him for / job
came in Legges own handwriting,
which was rather an indicatn
that Legge didn’t want any
one else to see his choice or
tt it ws he who made it.^x
Gelly is / right man.
The other day he ws called
[* ^X I think this
may be
unfair to
Legge - C.E.W.B.
He may
not have
wanted
Blamey
to see the letter.*]
 

48
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" -
 

2  49
and Gelly made him pay
15 days screw or whatever
it was - & the man ws
quite content w a Colonel
like that. The old chap
has done wonders w /
12th Bn wh had become
very slack.
Now he's a Brigadier
one may hope tt 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 on
some post tt he wants for
himself in all this general
post. But it is not a fair
 

50
criticism. Legge came in
to White / other day &
made it. White said
“Now General, you say
we're putting in too many
British officers. In / first
place what you mustnt
forget is tt 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 our
divns - & if tt is so we
cant have all take & no
give. If they say "we cant
when we go & ask them for
a staff officer: We cant give
 

2  51
you a ^senior staff officer but we've
a 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 60
bn 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
 

52
our old divn - the 1st Aust.
Divn -  we have one British
officer, G.S.O.II. In the 2nd
Aust. Divn you were free to
have any one you wished
& you yourself have two.
Then as to the Artillery -
In the first Australian Divn
we had one British officer,
Anderson, who ws lent to
Australia 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 English
Engineer officers with you.
You had a brigade vacant
/ other day & you chose
Gellibrand to command it -
 

2  53

a British Officer -"
That quite silenced Legge.
A few days later Legge himself had
a staff appointment - (G.S.O.2
(I 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, as
xxxxxx everybody knew, to other appointments.
"I'm sorry - You cant have
either of those two" sd White.
Its a pity" sd Legge - "I
shd much have preferred an
Australian Officer" -
Clearly there ws something
coming. "Is there any one else you
wd especially care for?" asked White
"Well if I cant get either Foster
or —— I shd like to get ——" an
 

54
an English officer.)
As White says: If Birdwood is
most unfairly accused of favouring
British officers it is most unfair.
If / little man has a fault it is
tt he is always prepared to try an
inferior Australian officer rather than
a British officer who he knows wd
be more competent. As far as I
am concerned, it doesnt matter
one way or / other whether I'm
blamed or not; but I can honestly
say 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.

Bps ought to be initialed
before sent.
Write Cassells & Smart.
NZ. ^Acq. R. Sent to - N.Z. Paymaster
 

2  55
If ^an Australian Division gets into
a disaster thro using inferior
talent or inexperience it doesn't
matter an iota that the
inexperience or / talent was
Australian. What / men want
in action is competence; Preferably
Australian competence; but anything rather than incompetence.
The reorganisatn 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 undertake
to provide Army Corps
Staff.*]