Charles E W Bean, Diaries, AWM38 3DRL 606/44/1 - May - June 1916 - Part 8

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to send / letter.

June 3rd 1916  I xxxx
xxxxxx took Brooks &
Tony today down to the
lines of the 11^th Bn
where the raid ws made
/ other day - & incidentally
picked up / story o / raid.
The bombardment did
not start at 7.45 according
to them, but at 8.10.
Some bombardment
started at 7.45 for I heard it
& noted it, & an officer
from near / scene gave me
7.40 as / time also. I think
tt must have been / bombardment
before another raid wh /
Germans made further South
(not agst the 11^th Corps, I fancy, but
in the 1^st Army area). The night evening

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ws misty, but cd abt see
/ German trenches. German aeroplanes
had bn pretty constant over
our lines. At 8.10 a single
shrapnel shell (or smoke shell,
for it had a big smoke cloud)
burst over the Cordonnerie
farm ruins - abt 400 feet
up. A few seconds later, in,
like an orchestra crashed /
enemys artillery on the
salient where the Rue Delvas(?)
runs past / big crater into
/ enemy's lines - near /
southern end of our lines.
It was impossible to distinguish 
one set of guns coming in before
another. Some say there ws more
shrapnel at first, others that it
ws mostly 6 in (5.9) - what is sure
is tt it was 5.9 on the par central
part - & shrapnel on / flanks.
The 11^th knew of course tt some

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sort of attack ws coming - but
like xxx most other units when this
happens I fancy they expected a
real attack (i.e tt he wd try &
seize / line) not a raid - (tt he
wd enter / trenches & go back).
Anyway I suppose they are right
to prepare agst / more serious.
It happened tt tt very
afternoon they had had an attack a rehearsal
of what wd be done in case of
a bombardment o / trenches; the
men were to be withdrawn out
o / "strafed" areas onto / two 
flanks o / bombardment ; & /
moment / bombardment ceased
they were to form _^a line across / ground
behind / breach & rush move up to
to it close / gap.
This ws exactly what they
did. The bombardment continued
without ceasing, shell on shell,
(next book)

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Mr Hughes speech to the 1st Bde
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