Charles E W Bean, Diaries, AWM38 3DRL 606/43/1 - April - May 1916 - Part 4

4  36
front of pretty well a divn -
you run out your line & bury
it; & w this instrument wh
gives you a magnification of 1000
times (so they say) you can hear
clearly any conversatn. They
can even hear our messages
on metallic circuit. They think
we can hear theirs also (I don't
personally believe we can - unless
it is kept secret from me) &
they have prac. no telephones in
their frontlines at all. What
messages we have get now are
in cipher - or at any rate
not clear eno' to be distinguished.
I believe we are practising
working w lights. You cant
use flags here.
Then there are these
poison gas attacks - w all
sorts of mixture of shells &
bombs - I saw a section of a
 

^x I learnt definitely (a year later at Ypres)
that this was a hoax played by a signaller 
at Anzac.  C.E.W.B.
1925.
 

4  37
Xylyl shell (I believe it was)
today in shrapnel in what looked
like little round ^ flat tins of apple jelly.
The only telephone mystery
we had at Anzac was on
May 17 when, at midnight,
the Turks managed somehow or
other to "hook in" to our wire
between the 3rd Arty Bde &
one of the batteries out on the
right - near Browns Dip
or somewhere. I had Gordon
o / 1st Divn Signals in today 
to lunch & he told me tt
he had had to go out tt night
& investigate - & after
messing abt for hours he
cd find no trace of how it
ws done - but it must have
^x bn someone "hooked in" with
our lines.
He tells me tt when
Tinkler (1st Bde Signal
 

4  38
Officer) came round here first,
he ws being shown round /
trenches when he looked over
& there were 3 or & 4 Germans
right out in front of their trenches
working. He asked / man
who ws on guard why he didn't
shoot. "Not allowed to" sd
/ man! "By gum - give me
your rifle" sd Tinkler & had
a blaze at them at once.
The next instant a voice
came from a dugout &
a major issued demanding 
"who fired tt shot?"
Tinkler said he did -
the Germans were out working
in front o / trenches!
"Oh but if you we fire at them
they'll start firing on us!"
sd the major - or words
to tt effect!
I told little Brass this
 

4  39
today & he defended / Major's
attitude. I cant see it a bit -
useless you think your troops
are inferior, or at least tt /
Germans are as good as they.
It doesn't go w our men,
any way.
Gordon is apt to pull /
long bow - so / story will
have to rest there until I
get it confirmed by Tinkler.
I must say tt in /
lines o /  7th Bde / other day
one of men sd as we
were passing "you get put
under open arrest if you
shoot at a German here!" &
he meant Maj. Butler to hear
it. But there seemed a fair
amt of shooting going on &
Devonshire sd tt they only stopped
them from shooting Over the
parapet.
 

4  40
Saw Col. Warren yesty of the
5th Arty Bde. He is a throat
& nose specialist from Sydney.
When the new Establishment ws
adopted in Egypt our 3 arty
brigades in the 2nd Divn had to
expand to 4 Bdes, & to provide
an extra battery each in a div 
? to bring / Bdes up to 4. Then
a howitzer Bty ws added to
Each Bde - & the men
of the Divl Ammn. Column
were put straight into this
without warning. They fired
a few time in Egypt -
& when there ws & a gas scare
in Egypt ( as Joh / other day
(as Johnson sd) "Well - all / guns
blazed off & we didnt hit 
our own trenches - that's
something!"
The taking of the D.A.C.
for howitzer batteries left
 

4 41
the D.A.C. to be recruited
from all / men who cd be
scraped together at the base in
Cairo - men w all sorts of
reasons for being there - 
infantry, light horse, A.S.C.
everything. They were a
hairy lot, Warren sd - not
a salute in / bunch at
first. Johnson put him w
them to shake them together,
& there they were at this
pretty little French village -
LeBois Sec - Sec Bois -
shaking down wonderfully -
They kept to / side o / road when
out on column in first class
style.
The Cairo people, Warren
heard, had a rumour abt
tt / Australians had made
such havoc in Marseille tt
 

His Evidence was Quite unreliable
See later diaries C.E.W.B.
1925
 

4  42
it had needed 4000 French
troops to march them thro'
/ city. There's not a scrap
or tittle of foundation for
this. The Australian crime
here is not heavy & /
divns are behaving splendidly
on / whole - drink is / cause
of 85 per cnt of o / trouble
there is. The N.Z . Divn
played up a bit in Aire
(wh ws put out of bounds
to them) & Hazebrouck
Their C.Os are ridiculously
uneven - 4 men got a
few days punishment for
breaking out of their billets
after hours & breaking in
to a farm house
Williams,  the P.M. ^x
who told me this, is perhaps
a bit down on / New Zealanders.
He told me tt  / C.O. of the 3rd
 

43
 

1 Platoon 20^th - [shorthand] changing over
 

1/4 - 8. [shorthand] - 10.20
 9.50 lifted
1/0 - c/ "[shorthand]"
1hr 35 [shorthand]

Safety alley
Queen St
Over Top

Pte Stewart
[shorthand] evacuated.

4 44
Bn had bn giving ridiculous
punishments & he has bn
commenting on them. He sd
he didnt know "who / man
was" - but he forgot tt
only a few weeks ago he
spoke about little Howell-Price
to me, & to my surprise told
me tt he had no opinion of
him; & he knew then tt Howell
Price ws O.C. of the 3rd Bn,
because xx we were discussing
the matter
Lieut. N. Blanchard [shorthand] B
Capt. - Hoskings C badly [shorthand]
Lieut JW Connor B
slightly
B [shorthand]
Lieut Harper slightly wd . C.
Lt Barlow [shorthand] wd B.
Lieut S.C. Francis B
Corpl Kearns B coy unwound
 

45
 

30k

70w

6. 1 offr. 1 Sergt OShea & Stewart }
2 Jewess }

Austin }

Jewess & Austin & Stewart.
Queen St 

Safety Alley.
[shorthand] 
 

4 46
May 4^th. Came out to 5^th Bde
H.Q.  to fix up / bookplates of
B Coy 17^th Bn who had lost
them. Went up after dinner
to the H.Q. 19^th Bn off Shaftesbury
ave. to see Col. W. Mackenzie
& also to see what / trenches
were like here at night.
xxxx As my guide & I got were
xxxx walking up to / back o / trenches one heard
across the fields - Armentiers
direction - the crackle of
distant wheeled traffic, & constant 
rattle of it. It ws / divisional
train taking its load of food etc
up to / dumps ^from which they
wd be carried by train
or by hand to / trenches.
A machine gun - two,
3 of them, were constantly
barking chattering away
in front of us. As we entered /
 

4  47
 sap a long line of men ws
sitting down / side of it; &
others were winding into it,
each two w a big board for
revetting / side of a trench
- a sort of big hurdle to hold
/ trench walls up. (These are
anchored back by wire &
have wire netting frames.)
The Germans were sniping
onto / trench at one place.
A bullet ricked off / parapet
about 6 feet from me.
The other night they hit two
men going up it - through
one man's abdomen & into 
thro' / abdomen o / man
following him, so i'm told.
We were constantly
challenged. Finall Found the
Bn was shifting its H.Q.
Lieut Marshall took me
round to Mackenzie who ws