Charles E W Bean, Diaries, AWM38 3DRL 606/10/1 - June - September 1915 - Part 14

Capt Craig. ^X
Q M 15 Bn
 

123

thro' the head. In his hand was a bit of
paper & on it he had written his name
- Seroff or some such - of the 15Bn - a
man evidently of Russian descent. They buried
him there, the pioneers; & I got a photo o /
grave w my friend ^x standing by it.
I went on inquiring after the Bn
in wh / Brentwood men were – was told it
was the 4^th. Poor little chaps they struck
me as wretched little specimens of men
- dirty skinny rather spiritless. I saw
some of them bathing on the beach & you
could tell immediately they werent
Australians - they were tiny half formed
with small muscles & delicate white
skins - you cd tell our all Australians
at once by their immense physique.
I asked found the quartermasters
store of the 4 Essex Regt & asked if Charlie
Taylor - Capt Taylor- were still with
them. "Major Taylor?" he sd. "Why he's
in command." I was awfully pleased &
at once went off to find him. He ws
in the 15^th lines, & has for his adjutant
one Cooper, who turned out to be one of
the millionaires tt owns a half a great part of Sydney.
He was pleasant enough without
much in the way either of brains or
go - I should say and inclined to be
rather of the animal type. Old
 

May. 11. 1924
I think this was wrong - 
the huts at Anafarta
Ova may be mistaken for
Anafarta.
CEWB
 

124
Charlie was not an atom altered
since the I last saw him - very little since
his school days. They let him command his
bn for 6 months in England & then just
before it left gave it a retired colonel - 
a very lovable, brave old man but quite
on the shelf. When the regt landed at
Suvla on August 6 12 & was put in
on the left - on the "Razor Back" the
Col. insisted on taking the right in an
advance & sent Charlie off to lead the
left. Consequently there ws no one
with their reserves at all. They have
lost 4 or 5 officers k. The only remaining captain
is Morgan Owen, the old Oriel soccer Blue,
& / Bn has now 10 officers & 450 men
out of about 29 offrs & 750.
Charlie tells me the British
scouts were in Anafarta that
early in / proceedings, & were withdrawn
by old Stopford bec. he ws afraid they
cdn't get water there!
Monash today told me also tt an
officer who ws w him told him tt he
himself was in Anafarta ^x, & dug a trench
across the village; & so it probably was
the British that O'Gorman saw there
after all.
 

125
Well the problem of Gallipoli reduces
itself to - why cant the British fight.
Take one of these slum kids & turn him
into a different man by 9 or 10 years
hard training or even less - & put in
a set of N.C.O.s over him who have will
enough to make the stickers of the
army - the percentage who go into
action w their minds made up to stick
& who really make up the minds of the
other 90% who are simply going in to
do what somebody else does; give
him that training & those N.C.Os & he can
fight like the 29^th Divn did. But in a
years training he cant be turned into a
soldier because to tell / truth he's a
very poor feeble specimen of a man
- & it seems to be / British social formula
to make sure that he sticks there. In
a nation w only one class, like our
own, its in nobody's interest to keep
anyone else "in his place" - his place is
from his birth, the best place he can get
& keep. To my mind this war as far
as I have seen it is just Britains
 

126
tomohawks coming home to roost - the
great mass of English today are no more like
the Eng. who fought at Waterloo, than the
waterl Eng. of Waterloo were like / French or
/ Italians or / Spaniards. They have neither
/ nerve, / physique nor / spirit & self
control to fit them for soldiers.
There was a regular T. bombardment
at 5 o'c. They have tunnelled thro the
Abdul Rahman ridge at two points
[diagram-see original]

& run their
guns out
now & then
to fire into
the backs o / N. Zealanders on the Apex.
I think they really were doing this, 4 shells
at a time & had to turn their other guns
on all our batteries within sight in
order to keep us quiet, We've never
hit these tunnels tho they are large
enough in all conscience.
Well - I cdn't help wondering
when this firing ws on whether it was a
Bombardment before an attack - and,
if so, what the Tommies in front of us
wd do. Our men spend their time
praying for a Turkisht attack - they
know they can beat the Turk & wd be
quite content, if / Turk were firing
 

127
over their trenches, to sit down in in order to cover an attack, to
sit down in / bottom o / trench and wait
till / fire slackened or / first Turkish heads
appeared over / top o / parapet. But these
Tommies are nervous o / Turk. Charlie
told me he rather hoped there wouldnt be
an advance as he didn't quite know what
his men wd do. And that is the impression
of all our officers who have seen them.
Rapid firing broke out tonight twice
- once early, once abt 10 p.m.
Ross tells me he asked old Hughes
the Brigadier if he had seen me . "No, he
never comes near us" sd the old
man, "The War Correspt, I mean," sd
Ross. "Yes - I hate them the brutes," sd
Hughes.
The old pig. He smiles to ones face &
asks one to stop for dinner & what can he
do for one - & introduces one to all the
cousins, sons & rest of the family on his staff
- & then talks like this behind one's
back. As a matter of fact I went up to
see this aged snob before my wound
was well - struggling round on a stick,
at the risk of opening it up again, in
order to get details of the very fine
charge made by his men. Birdwood
told me when they sent this poor
old decrepit off on a hospital ship
 

128
that he fervently hoped he wdn't come
back. But I believe the old man escaped
from the doctors hands _^in Egypt & got away back before
they cd catch him. Schuler told me some sort of
letter was sent by to the medical authorities
abt him & they were very vexed when
they heard he had gone.
But fancy - if it is true - fancy having
to remove your ancient C.Os in this way.
Had an interesting talk with
Monash. He is an able C.O. but never
knows the facts abt his command.
The Tommies are letting letting the
Turks walk about in the open in the scrub
behind their trenches (the Turk's trenches that is)
& up & down a Commn trench quite enfiladed
by them. I asked Cooper how far away. He
sd - oh abt 8 400 yds!! And Morgan Owen
told me the periscope rifle ws no use - you
couldn't hold it steady. One sniper is making
that branch of the valley unlivable & they
cant find him. Chas. Taylor told me
he wished they only had an Australian
sniper with them - they had one at Suvla
& he was invaluable - Yes "If we
just had him to go amongst our fellows"
he sd.
 

Enemy's Strength.
Horkez Tepe & Central H.Q.
 

7^th  19^th May. }
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