Charles E W Bean, Diaries, AWM38 3DRL 606/10/1 - June - September 1915 - Part 4

26
Monday July 4
This morning I believe there ws quite
a bombardment on the hill above us. We shelled
6 batteries o / enemy & they replied. Down
South 13 heavy batteries were shelling our troop the allies.
There were several bursts of fairly heavy
rifle firing last night - so much so tt I went up
to Blamey & asked if anything were doing -
but it was only nervousness. The Turks are 
very nervous this last few days - since our
little ^feint attack last week.
[After tt attack Shout went out scouting 
at night & found seven of our dead actually
on the edge of their trench. A Turk ws
trying to take the kit off some of them when
Shout came up - so they are clearly short of kit.
We have had our own bullets fired back at us - well
we have fired T. bullets back at them too.[[Shorthand]]
By the bye the Ts. must surely have some
information of our doings. The other day when
one of our guns ws to have opened in a concealed
position from a tunnel the moment / mouth o /
tunnel ws opened before / gun cd fire they
put two shots down it!]
The sensation o / day ws / opening up
of a new gun. We are getting some new
guns too, but th 6in or 4.7 or something
for wh Hobbs asked a long time ago; but
they had a surprise for us this morning. Shortly
after breakfast there ws a noise like a

27
as tho' / sky were a gigantic piece o brown paper
& someone ws tearing it. They tore it down towards
/ sea & then plump! & a geyser rose near a 
tug off / beach. I thought it ws something gone wrong
w the 6 in gun at Kojadere that had hit Coffee on the
head in our kitchen two days before without really
injuring him. But presently down came / same
noise again & it went into / sea - this time
^shorter abt 40 yds beyond & outside / end o / pier.
Three minutes later it shortened again & went
in off the point o / beach S of / pier & outside
of it. Cunliffe Owen sd it ws a 6in gun on Kilid 
Bahr Plateau - but this explosion in / water
blew out onto / beach the back of an 11.2in
shell. Then / gun moved in again- clearly to
reget the beach or the pier. But this time she
hit / hilltop. She raised an  There ws a huge crack
& then for about 10 seconds things ^:X: were dropping
in / sea - all over / anchorage within ¼ mile
o / beach raising ^big white splashes. One wondered
when they wd finish dropping. After you thought
they were at an end something wd still come 
down. Then They hit / hilltop four times -
/ last time further back & / sones things 
dropped in / valley by HQ. The I saw
one of them on / roof of a dug out - a
stone weigh abt twice as big as your fist -
^:X: [Anderson, the Brigade Major o / Artillery,
who ws watching it w me wondered if it

28
were some new form of shrapnel - "some new
frightfulness, I suppose" he sd. That wd jolly soon stop them
landing stuff in this anchorage at all," he sd. But it ws just stones.
Presently a message came in tt a warship w 2
funnels & 2 masts had bn shelling seen by an aeroplane
firing betw Maidos & Chanak - that ws clearly her.
She ws evidently trying for either the pier or / 
beach. Probly Turgut Reis or Barbarossa.
She fired at 20 shells in all & one man
ws wounded by a stone - cost £2000.
The other day a shell landed in / dentists
dug out & covered / hillside w false teeth.
We want dentists badly - now tt they let thro' men
whose teeth arent perfect. The NZ people have a
corps of them but we havent. A man who breaks
his teeth is useless on biscuits - & has to go back to
Alex to get some more (N.Z. dentist now at Imbros
- just setting up - but probly cant look at a
tenth o / work) and w our base in its present 
condition it wd be as good to send him to Alex
Australia.
We are now losing abt 100 men a day
- today in both divns it ws nearer 150, - almost
entirely by sickness. Yesty it ws 53 by
sickness & 7 by wounds in N.Z.A; abt the
same in our divn. If they cd be got back in
3 or 4 days - as ought to happen - it wd be
alright. But as things are it means a 
month.
We exploded a mine under
German Officers Trench at 10.30 on Saty

29
night. It ws as a matter of fact not quite
under the trench - abt 6 ft short of it I fancy - 
& we didnt put in a very big charge. It made
/ Turks fire a lot but otherwise had no
effect. I suppose / hard work ws worth it
- it might have bn needed.
A huge smoke ws seen to go up into /
air at / back of Achibaba yesty evg. Some
It ws clearly an explosion - some thought a French
shell, mine, others thought the Turks had hit some
French ammunitn - & this ws right.
The Turks have again & again bn attacking our
positn recent gains & those o / French & have
lost enormously - 15,000 to 20,000 are the estimates -
at Helles. This is just playing our game.
Today I sailed for Imbros - a huge
waste of time. Wasted all / morning trying to catch
the ferry (trawler ---) wh I ws eventually told
by / seamen had started. Went back to my
dug out & half an hour later saw / trawler
start. Eventually got / torpedo boat at abt
4.15 pm. The service of transports ws all disorganised
by / appearance of a German submarine (either the
German, Fritz, wh ws seen by our destroyers in / 
Straits of Gibraltar, or the Austrian - Otto). They 
base at Constantinople. One of them torpedoed / 
French transport Carthage wh sank in 3 
minutes ; & today she turned up at Anzac
first one side of a transport, then / other side 
of it. The trawlers were all out after her w nets
- tt is what happens when they get in these long

30
[*18 Fr. planes went over HQ Chunuk tody.*]
lines - came out from Imbros in them. Also theres
a net across Imbros Harbour - wire rope, I believe.
As we came out on / little torp. boat, w
a torp. in each tube, we met a seaplane flying
low, w three destroyers, Chelmer, ?Ribble
& Pincher, chasing below her like hounds
under a falcon.  She turned & back they all 
came. The torp. boat had seen a dest submarine 
six wks before, when first they came out
here - saw a periscope & a conning tower 1½
miles away. We also passed the monitor.
The Navy wd not come out to fire this
mg. when asked - I dont blame them. I daresay
it ws part of the scheme.
[I believe the Turk trenches we capture 
now at Helles are splendid - sprinkled w lysol,
deep, [ the trench w bunks for / men, iron
loopholes?  & boxes let in every here & there for
used cartridge cases. Very different from when we
first arrived.]
The torp. bt land us a G.H.Q. Imbros.
There I met Col. Ward. He ws very nice. He sd
to me - "You can see we cant have you all
scattered - we must have you together" - but I
cant see, all / same. So long as all my stuff
goes straight to / censor & only to / censor I
cant see how it makes it simpler or safer or
in anyway better for me to live at Imbros.
My stuff is simply addressed to / censor &
no one else - so it cant get past without
his seeing it, even by mistake.

31
It ws too late to get out to / correspts
camp (Ross had gone there earlier) so I
camped at the Asst. Camp Commandants
camp. The Asst. Camp Commdt is Capt Wilson
of the Royal Scots association, 5^th Bn, a
dear old chap - led D Company - both his
officers were killed k. or wd. & he wounded. [I met him
next day on a white Donkey bringing some
money back (Australian silver to pay his men - 
it passes here) from G.H.Q. I ws admiring the 
Donkey. He sd: "Yes theyre a richt if ye onla
treat them weel....." & then he told me how as
a boy "he cd never no lift a stick to an animal - I
wd always rather pull a handfu' o 
something for them ta eat. An' ma little
gerrls - they have a pony - a Shetland - no
she ws no a Shetland but an Iceland pony
- & she's no clever but the farmers on
whose ground she feeds says theres no
animal so clever as that pony where she
her own comforts concairned - well - they
will to no let me raise the whip to her...."
& so on. I sd afterwds: well,   this will
be an interesting show to have been on if
we come through it. He sd "Yes - but by
the looks of things I dont think I've a great
chance of coming thro' it." Poor old chap -
only 3 of the original officers in his battalion
left & the strength only 290 out of 1200.
I hope they keep him as camp commandant.
He's done his bit. He's 50 & a family man.

July 9
[[shorthand]]
32
This night [we had our dinner kindly
provided - myself & some Australian officers
- by Lieut. Cairns of the Printing Section.
G.H.Q.] I slept with these same officers in
an empty tent in the Camp Commandants
Camp. There was something flat about
the air - it ws like lemonade without the
tingle (as one officer sd - like beer out of a 
cup). It really ws as if part o / background
- the grit in it - were missing. It ws
/ stillness.^x The bugles in the camp were new -
& a dog barked that night!
^x without the crackle of musketry always present.

Tuesday July 6.
Went down for a bathe - & no shrapnel.
Our 1^st Bn enjoying itself - no work - the
men very quiet (had a concert last night)
but quite happy. Theyve been here a week
- they thought it wd be 3 days, but I
expect submarine & weather have kept
them. The 16^th Bn arrived this morning.
I found the correspts camp under some
elm trees with the camp of the officers of a 
Manchester Battalion. Ashmead Bartletts tent
was there with his kit - but no tent for me.
Accordingly I walked over to General H.Q. & then
in the first tent I inquired in, the H.Q. mess, I found
Capt. Maxwell. He was exceedingly nice - gave me a glass
of beer - I dont often drink beer but I did enjoy that one - &
had a long yarn. He said he had hardly had to censor my
work at all - that it was much the most complete after all
that had been done here. The reason for rounding the

^:X: Ross was a splendid old fellow 
& a most loyal friend - but he

was hard-bitten in some ways &
didn't regard Bartlett quite as a 
friend - an acquaintance of a few hours, as
he was then. C.E.W.B.
17/12/1921.
33
rest of us up was in order to round up Ashmead
Bartlett. They weren't at all satisfied with his proceedings
& wanted to have him thoroughly under control - & so made
the rule apply to the lot of us. I must say its an infernal
waste of time. Maxwell told me that Ian Hamilton
wants my despatches published in London (or he himself
suggested it and I.H. agreed subject to my approving). I had
done far more work than anyone else, he said, and
he had never had a correspt. who had given him so little
trouble - all of which was very good hearing. He had
altered one or two small points in my despatches where
they were not correct - which was a good job.
I walked back to the Correspts' camp & found
Ross there outside the batmens' tent. A-Bartlett was 
over at Helles. Several officers of the Manchester Regt
were there & I asked if I might have a cup of tea.
Their Colonel told his batman to make me tea, which
I took with Ross. His batman looked after me very well.
I went with Ross afterwds to have a bathe.
On our way we passed the men of the 16^th sitting down
& being lectured on / history o their regt - 150 of them
are original men & 450 reinforcements. He gave them
the lecture undiluted both as regards being fired on
by what he said were our own guns - & as to the
behaviour of the Portsmouth Bn.
It was too late to bathe then as we had to get along
to G.H.Q. to dine with Mr Cairns the printer who makes the
maps. He has an awful a collection of litho plates with
sketches from the very beginning. Ross & I dined with him &
afterwds had a chat with Maxwell - I was rather surprised
that Ross told Maxwell everything that A-Bartlett had
told him^:X: - how he wanted us to join in protesting
that we were not to be bear-led. I wdn't think of
protesting, but I don't think I'd give him away either.

34
Wed July 7. Breakfast with Ross after a bathe.
A-Bartlett told us how he had seen this 
campaign was going all wrong & had been home to 
tell people he knew there (I forget whether he sd
at the War Office or in Parlt) exactly how things were
going. It seemed to me to be typically & exactly the
thing tt a war correspondent ought not to do.
But I am bound to say I think he's a competent
man, tho' certainly inaccurate. He put his finger 
straight on the crucial point in Anzac. "I
havent been up there since the second day," he
sd. "But is that place at / head of Shrapnel
Gully still open?" Of course he may have got
it from somebody else - but it was smart of
him to have his finger on tt one spot.

I caught the torpedo boat (Lloyd^x ws
travelling by her & an English Major) at 10am.
- by the skin of my teeth, getting a warships
steamboat to take me across.

[* ^x An Intell. offr 
George Lloyd 
now Govr
of Bombay*]
As we got to Anzac the English Major
was very much impressed . "I suppose there's
been nothing like it in history," he sd.
Diagram - see original document
Here we were on the whitish
patch just hanging onto the
side of the cliff - we had worn the place white
ourselves. We saw shrapnel bursting over Quinns as we got close.
It was a scorching hot day & I was
fit for very little after getting into Anzac. Old 
J. came down & had some dinner with me.

35
Thurs. July 8  I was extraordinarily limp today
- I dont know why. It was very hot & relaxing.
Jock came down & I picked him up at ordnance.
While He came up & lunched w me. After lunch
we heard someone pretending to cry outside; &
some laughter. We looked out & there was a fire -
the first I have seen in Anzac. A waterproof
sheet over a dug out was blazing - some chance
thrown match had lit it - and the inhabitants
were trying to put it out, banging at it with
bushes as you wd a bush fire. One man was
patting it with a damp towel. "Put out that
light, you men!" came a stern voice from
the opposite hill. They got it out before half
the sheet ws burned.
J. tells me Col. Bennett of the 4^th had
a shell burst over him / other day wh damaged 
his hearing & half stunned him. When he
came to himself / first thing he realised
was tt he ws looking for his head & saying
"Where is my head?"
A man ws watching some fellows
being buried w / parson by them. "Poor
buggers" he sd. "Do you call them that?" the
padre sd - "I call them heroes."
"Well - we just calls 'em buggers -
poor buggers!"
I went up with Jock & got the history
of the 3rd Bn during the first three days. MacConaghy
who is in command of the Bn for the present