Charles E W Bean, Diaries, AWM38 3DRL 606/10/1 - June - September 1915 - Part 12

103
There ws a heavy bombardment at Helles
at 5.30 pm yesty & another today. I
walked up / hill to have a took but cdnt
make out a single shell burst - so
it looks as if T. ws attacking us. They say
he has withdrawn some of his guns from
there. I wonder if we are leaving Helles.
If not, how will they manage during /
winter.

Hear the Balkan League may come
in on our side. I'll believe it when I
actually see it.

The Turk for abt / first time did not
play / game in this last scrap. That is
to say he shot some of our men who were
obviously wounded & were rolling down
to try & get out o / way. I dont
think we can complain abt s.b.s being
fired on because stretchers of a sort not
unlike medical stretchers are regularly
used to carry food. But shooting wounded
is over the odds. At / same time we
all know tt, if men sham wounded it
may be justifiable. Our men certainly
were not shamming wounded, but
Turks have done so on various occasions
& we have shot all bodies within sight in
order to make sure. The Turks were steadily
shooting every body within sight - putting
a m.g. onto than if they continued to

104
move.

Heavy firing at Helles tonight - Wonder
if we are withdrawing there - almost
sounds like it. Poor chaps - it wd be an
awful operatn to carry out - & what a
dreary terrible waste of life tt whole
campaign wd have been.

Aug. 26. Thursday.

It is impossible to beat for crass
slothful stupidity the British officer of a certain
type. For example: Three days ago, they
having started a system of loading bombs onto
mules to they take to / lines, they naturally
got some of them kicking. The Indians lose
their heads as soon as this happens -
& on this occasion the mules started
kicking on the edge of the gully near /
bomb factory. One o / bombs ws on / mules was
exploded by / disturbance & in three
big explosions tt immediately followed
3 mules & 3 men were killed & 6 men
injured. The bomb factory & its stores
fortunately escaped.

What did / British officer do -
what would he do? except wait

105
until it happened again. There is no officer
in charge of / bomb factory - The mules
seem are still used for / carriage of
bombs & are still loaded by men who kick
them in / stomach. Tonight another
mule being loaded w bombs started
careering round, kicking, & finally fell
over - & I dont suppose the prize
idiot responsible will ever hear of it.

Upon my word these British make
you marvel. I don't wonder they didn't
get in 500 yds on the day of their landing
when they were supposed to get in 5
miles. A British regiment lost 2 majors
killed & 120 wounded men k & w by snipers in trenches
turned over to them by our men o / 14Bn who
can dig - in / course of one day when
our bns next door lost abt 15 or 20 at /
outside. Some of their men were found by
Arthur Maxwell to have filled their
water bottles w salt water. They were
pathetically grateful for a drink of water
- just like children & they wd implicitly
obey any of our men tt spoke to them
with decision - & generally call them

106
Sir. 
——
8.p.m - 9p.m. Spurts of firing on the left in the hills -
I can tell it by the box like knocking of the reports.
9.25 demonstration, clearly, at Walkers Nek. Light
crack of Mausers most peculiarly distinct.
——
Good deal of uneasy firing.

Great discussion w Gellibrand (other day on /
advisability of officers taking cover - There's a
gt deal to be sd for / old British ideal & agst
/ new German one. Officers may be saved, &
battles lost, thro' officers running for shelter & their
men having no confidence in them. G. & Glasfurd
were passing a group of men / other day.
A 75 ws throwing shells abt 2ce a minute
down the gully. It took abt 1 minute to
cross & in ½ minute you were right
in / track o / shell. The men were certainly
all wondering what these two brass hats wd
do - & / brass hats had to put it to
themselves: shall we go round - wh we
can do; or shall we go straight. They
went straight. The 75 just got them fair
in / gully centre & whizzed so close tt
Gelly felt he wanted to stand sideways.
But every man in tt group wd have in
his heart a respect for the staff - he wd

107
have bn cynical if they had gone round.
Isn't tt moral worth a lot?
——
Raining tonight. I think our hardships.
really will begin w / winter - tho' I must
say tt, by / way in wh / Tommies who came
here from elsewhere compare the previous
lot as enviable, I am not sure tt we havent
bn greater heroes than we were inclined to
think ourselves, I suppose you cant honestly
claim to be a hero if you have bn unconscious
of your heroism - & your hardship didnt
seem to you so outrageously hard as it did
to others.

Friday Aug 27. Abt a wk ago A Sq. 5 LHR under
Midgley went out abt 3.30am when moon set,
& worked across to Bird Trenches opp. Chatham's
Post. B Sq. under Johnson went along Coast line;
C in trench. They got within abt 10yds of trenches when
a Turk fired 6 shots. They lay low - crept another
few yards - sentry fired again. / Destroyer had
fired from Midnight to 3 at intervals, &
bombarded for 5 minutes at ¼ to 4 wh
ws Midgeley's signal - abt 4.15 Midgely
hurled in abt 38 bombs (he had 120 men) &
cleaned out trench. Got into trench; & as
reserves came up we shot them. Our
men returned before daylight & took only
had abt 3 men wounded (2 in our own

108
trenches). ^Maj. Wilson is in command of 5 LHR now
The expedn showed tt Turk trenches are very
firmly held along Gun Ridge, Turks must have lost
30 or so. They have made some sort of attack
agst Beach Post recently -
——
4 p.m. this afternoon a bombardmant started
of the country E of Susak Kuyu & I shd say of
the trenches on the knoll 60 spur. The bombardment
was pretty hot.

At 5 pm heavy rifle fire & Turkish shrapnel
all just outside the left of our line - from the Turks.
Evidently our attack going forward. I had meant
to get up for a bit this afternoon - so I went
to the top of Maclagan's Ridge. You cdnt see
anything except very warm shrapnel fire - the
Ts using their guns in 2 gun sections; the valley
beyond our left was full of the dust & smoke
& I think / attack must have got some way
tho / fire ws very fierce.

It eased at times but kept up pretty
well till 7 (dark or almost so) and even
now - nearly 10 - it is continual bombing
& rifle fire.

Our 19 Bn ws just there & I hear tt
wounded from 18 Bn, 19 Bn & Connaught
Rangers are coming to / beach. I hope the
19^th know something of Bombs.

109
Frid Sat. Aug 28. Went out to see what had
happened - it ws another attack by N.Z. on
knoll 60 with 18 Bn as 3rd line. Monashes
chaps were on their right but for some
reason not more than 2 shells in tt whole
bombardment were sent at / trenches opposite
Monash. The N.Z. Brigadier, Gen. Russell, told
me tt this ws so although he prayed them
to turn onto / trenches further N wh
4 Austrln Bde had to attack. As it
ws these trenches were not bombarded &
were of course ready / instant the 4^th
moved - & the 4^th ws very cut up (see.
small notebook for details)

Some of the N.Z. people - not all of them
- made me very angry by the way in wh
they said: I'm afraid (pulling a long face)
I'm afraid the Australians didnt show up
well at all!" I snapped back something which
shut one gentleman up pretty quickly. Capt.
Blair, Gen. Russell, Maj. Grigor – these sort of fellows
are different altogether & not such silly fools.
Went round knoll 60 trenches & made a map

Sund. Aug 29 To day went xxx round
the trenches captured by 10th L.H last night -
indeed this is the first day I've got thro my
programme in full. Went first to.
Temperly, N.Z. Inf. Bde, (Bde major), who gave
me a full a/c of what N.Z. had done
there. Then I had no idea that anything

110
had bn done like the fighting by Wellington
Bn. which took Chunuk w /  Glosters (good work
for raw troops like / Glosters) and on one lost
700 out of 750 men in holding it. Then
went out past the last foothill to Chunuk
on to / plain. Just going out from the
foothills near Gen Coxs H.Q. (6th Section) I
not to whom shd I meet but old Macmanamy,
2nd i.c. of the 19^th wh had bn connecting
up w / British. I was really sorry to
see him a major bec. a major has such
a damned poor chance of coming back
whole from a show like this.

After that I saw went on thro
commn trenches round to Susak Kuyu
where the 6th Ghurkas are & saw Alanson,
- Maj. Alanson - who commands them &
who ws this day recommended for the V.C.
for his work in getting to the summit
of the range & holding on there. He may
not get it an thro the technical objectn
that there is no one to bear out his story
- no one saw him there; all the other white
officers were k. or too badly w. to be asked
for evidence. However, the Dr. saw him go
out & saw him come back.

Our men have a tremendous
admiration for the little Gurkha - but
they say they dont mind getting up agst

111
New Zealanders or Ghurkas - but they
(and the N.Z. men too) do not trust the Tommy
- they all except the regular army but they
have not the slightest confidence in K's
army - nor have our officers. - nor have I.
The truth is that after 100 years of breeding in
slums the British race is not / same, & can't
be expected to be / same, as in / days of
Waterloo. It is breeding one fine class at /
expense all / rest. The only hope for it
is that these puny narrow chested little
men may, if they came out to Austr or
N.Z. or Canada, within 2 generations
breed men again. England herself,
unless she does something heroic,
cannot hope to.

Alanson ws telling me tt after a
fortnight in / trenches men "cant be got to
leave them - its / same w them all."
I sd I had seen our men 16 weeks
in / trenches without one days spell
leave those trenches & had never noticed
/ slightest alar trace of hesitation -
not on any occasion. (I have heard of
hesitation once in / case of a bn
largely consisting of young reinforcements
wh had to go out of dark tunnels w
a machine gun sweeping / mouth of
them & / dead & wounded tumbling
back & blocking the exit. The 6^th Bn d

112
did hesitate in going for German Officers trench
on the night of Aug 6/7 - altho 150 went out &
none got, thro.)
Alanson sd: th "The Australians (& I
expect he included N.Z. in that) are the best
troops here - I think we're all agreed abt
tt" he sd to / doctor and / doctor nodded.

Alanson told me tt his men wd go
from / trenches all right if they had all their
officers - but they lost them, at every charge.
And a British offr. in a native regt.
isn't wounded - he's killed. In their last
charge across the wretched piece of plain
wh we actually walked across for 2 days
after Aug 6, & robbed beehives at / neighbouring
farm - Monash tried to persuade / Brit.
bns next to him to occupy it then) - they
lost 4 officers killed out of 6 in the first
80 yds. If / British officers ^are gone the
men wont move follow. The officers are of course
sniped - by a Turk who can hit between /
shoulder bla shoulders - & they mostly
die outright. It is no joke being a British
officer of a Gurkha regt. When I saw /
pleasant youngsters (2 of the 4 the Bn now
has,) who have bn drafted in since, I ch
with their wide awake hats & short pants
going thro their lines I cdnt help thinking of them
almost as of men who have devoted themselves
to death - bec. thats what it is. Their