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 4th. Poor little chaps they struck
me as  wretched little specimens of men
- dirty skinny rather spiritless. I saw
some of them, batting on the beach & you
could tell immediattely they werent
Australians - they were tiny half fomed
with small muscles & delicate white
skins - you cd tell our all Australians
at one by their immense physique.
Id found the quartermasters
store of the Glssex Regt & asked if Charlis
Taylor - Capt Taylor- were stll with
them, Major Carglor? be sd tober hes
as command! I was awfully pleased?
at once coent off to find, him. He wa
in the 15h Tives, & has for his adjutant
one cooper, who turned out to be one of
thencllionanes owns a gg
poydney,
He was pleasant enough without
much in the way Teither of brains or
90 I should say and inchid to be
of the animal type. Ald
 

May 1. 1914
I think this was widg
anafasta
an te ne ate fe
the buto
500
Co
Ca
 

124
Charlie was not an atome altered
Since I last saw him - very little since
his school days. They let him command his
on for 6monts in England & then just
before it left gave it a retired colorel.
a very lovable, brave oldman but quite
on the shelp!. When the regt landed at
Suola on August E12, & was put in
on the left. - on the Razor Back? the
Col. insistes on taking the right in an
advance & sent Charles off to lead the
left Consquently there us no one
with their reserves at all. They have
lost 4brD officers &. The only remaining captain
is moyan ower, the old Ofiel soccer Phie,
FT Bn has now 10 officers & 450men
out of about 29 offs & 1750.
Charlie tells me the British
scouts were in anefarta the
carly in 1 proceedings, & were withosson
by old, stappord bee. he as apaid t
edn't get water there!
Monash today to to me also th an
oficer who ws w him told him to he
himself was in Anefarta, + day a tranck
across the village, & so it probably was
the Britest that O Gorman saw there
after all.
 

25
well the problin of Calhpoli reduces
itself to + why cant the British fight.
Take one of these slum kids & turn him
into a different fow by 900 10 years
hard training or even ress - a putin
a set of m.Co. o over him who have with
enough to make the slickers of the
army - the percentay whogo into
action wy their mend made ago to steck
& who really make up the minds of the
other 90/0 who are simply going in Co
do what somebody else does. give
him that training & those N.C.Oso he can
fight tike the 29th Dion did: But in a
years toamning be cant be tarmed into a
soldier because to lett I truth he a
very poor feeble specimen of a man
-& it seems to be 1 Birtish social formala
to make sure that he sticks there. In
a nation wonly one class, like our
own, its in nobody's interest to keep
anyone else "in his place - his place is
from his berth, the best place he can get
+ keep. To my mind this war as far
as I have seen it is just Briteis
 

126
tomohawks coming home to roost the
great mass of English today are no more like
the Eng. who fought at Waterloo, than the
Eng. o waterloo were like (Trened or
I.Italien or 1spantards. They have neither
Inere 1 physigus nor 11 Spirit & self
control to fit (them) for soldiers.
Ther was a regular T Combardmut
at 50/C. They have unnelled that the
Abdil Rahman ridge as
two points
I roe their
pund out
90
now&then
to fere into
the backs of N. Zealanders on the Apex.
It think they neally were doing thiy, (4 shells
at a time (& had to turn their other guns
nall our batteries within sight in
order to keep as quiet, were never
hit theis tunnels, tho they are large
enough in all consciens.
well I cdng help wondern
when thes ferig wo on wheter it wees a
Bombandment before an attack and,
if 50 what the commed in front of us
woel do. Our men 15 pead teir tin
prayin for a Turket attack - They
know thy can beat the tark & wdbe
tent
quite
o1 turk were firi
 

in order to cover
wer their trugke, to set dowin an atrack, to
sit down in 1 bottom 61 trench and wdid
tell I fire stacking or first Turkish heads
appeared over (top of paripiel. But these
tonnaices are I wervaw O L Tark Charlie
tehe rade hep thee wouldat be
an advance as he didn't quite know what
his men ad doand tha is the impression
of all our officers who have stew then.
Rapig fiy broke and waht) twice
and early once ato 10pm
Ross tell me he asked old Hughe
the Bgigadier if he had spen me No he
never comes near us sd the old
man,. The War Correspt, I mean! sd
Yes. I hate tem the brates sd
RUss
Huyhes.
Te old py. He smites to onesface
asks one to stop for dinner & what can be
do for one o introduces one to all the
consed, son's & rest of the family on his staft
& then talks like this belind ones
back. As a matter of fact I went up to
see this aged snot before my wound
was well & strayby round on a steck,
at the oisk of opening it ap again, an
order to get detail of the very fine
chargemade by his men. (Birdwood
totome when they sent this poor
old decrepit offon a hospital shy
 

126
that he ferventhy hoped he wdns come
back. Bat I believe the old man rocaped
from the doctors hands away back before
they ad calch him. Schales told me some sort of
letter was sent t to the medical authoribl
abl himthey
were very vexed when
they heard, he had gone.
But fancy - (if at is true - faney having
to remave your ancient C.O in this coaly
Had an interesting tak with
Monash Heis an able C.Q, but never
knows the facts, abt his command.
The tomness are lettirg the
Turks woalk about in the open in the Scrub
behind their trenches (the Turks truche that is)
& up & down a Commn truch quite cufiledy
by them. I asked cooper how far away. He
Sd-oh abt $400 ydo 11 and morgan own
told me the periseope reply ws no use - you
couldn't hold it sleady. One sniper (is making
that branch of the valley unlivable + they
cant find him. Chas. Taylor toto me
he wished they only had an Aushalian
emper with then - they had one at suola
& he was invaluable- Es It we
just had him to so amongst our fellows
hesd
 

M
Harys Shn
 

ry tryce
 

191E 2
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