Charles E W Bean, Diaries, AWM38 3DRL 606/119/1 - Photostats - Part 2

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Hand drawn diagram - see original document

All Otherwise previously reconnoitred had been well cut by mortars.  But
it was French parties found that in the"borrow pit" in front of the
trench was wire on knife rests and also some pegged down, which had not
been cut by bombardment.  It had not been seen in reconnaissance
The three bayonet men of the inft trench party all were caught
in this.  Their officer, Lieut. Loughlin, reached the parapet
first. (The wire was 3 ft high & a serious obstacle.  By the time
they returned it had been cut & mats laid down).
As Lieut. Loughlin reached the parapet a German fired at
him over it, hitting him through the thigh. Loughlin fired back
with his revolver. The man was not noticed dead but was not x
seen again.
The trench parties (right and left) lined up to right
and left of Loughlin and Lieut Hyde on the parapet and all jumped
into the trench together.
The parapet was about 10 feet across the top at this
place. The trench was 9 feet deep. There was a fire step, and
the top of the parapet was levelled off fxr to permit of firing
over the top of it. No loopholes were noticed.
There was a parados. The parados was not so high as the
parapet, possibly 2 feet lower.  It was not continuous, but
seemed to be built up much as we build it with gaps at intervals
leading to the open country behind. There were ^no dugouts
in the parados although one dugout discovered by the left xxxx
party appears to have been a specially constructed chamber on
the rear side of the trench where the parados would be. The
xxxx men who saw it however distinguish between this/ ^construction and the
simple "Parados", and probably mean that where the parados formed
the back wall there were no dugouts dug into it.
The trench was floored like a house. There were no duckboards.
The fire trench was exceedingly clean and dry.
THE RIGHT PARTY. The parties, ^(led only by prismatic compass) struck the trench at exactly
the point, ^(A) where/they had always entered its ^replica in practise. This
was a long bay. There was no one in this bay. The right party 

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[*page*]
Capt. Garland, Defence Dept. 
Melbourne  116
Morning Papers sixth letter M6                 
Secretary Defence Melbourne morning papers sixth letter 1600
words The Great Bombardment ^A Diary of the Bombardment (break) How the attack was launched
xxxxx (break)  The Battle in the haze (break) Australian War
Correspondent Dean British Headquarters France July one (break)
Below me (comm) in the dimple beyond the hill on which I sit
(comma) is a small French town (full point)  Straight behind the
town is the morning sun (comma) only an hour risen (stop) Between
the sun and the town (comma) and therefore only just to be made
out through the haze of sunlight on the mists are two xxxxxxx
lines (dash) a nearer and a further (dash) of gently sloping
hilltops (full Point) On xxxx /^those hills is being fought on of the greatest
battles in history (break)
A few minutes ago  /^(comma) at half past six by summer time (n
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx this month at the
Riverxxxxxxx (comma) the British bombardment (comma) in
which had continued heavily for eight days (comma) suddenly
came in with a crash an as orchestra might xxxxxx ^enter on its
grand finale (full point) Last night some of us who were out
here drinking watched the British shells playing/^ up and down on the distant skyline
skylinexxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxlightningxxxxx (comm) running xx over it
from end to end as a player might run his the fingers of one
hand lightly over the piano keys (full point) There were three
or four flashes to the second (comma) here or there in that
horizon (full point) Night and day for eight days that had
continued (full point) xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx /^Within the last few minutes (comma) starting with two or
three big heart bangs from a battery near us (full comma) the noise 
suddenly expanded into a constant detonation (full point) It xx
was exactly as though the player began (comma) on an instant
(comma) to use all his keys at once (break) The play of giants (break
Now we ought to be able to see (comma) from where we
sit with our telescopes (comma) the bursts of our shells on
those distant ridges (full point) But I cannot swear that I see
a single one (full point) The sound of the bombardment is like 

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is like the sound of some xxxxx titanic xxx iron tank which come
giant xxxxxxxxxx has set rolling rapidly down an endless hill
(full point) We can hear the ^soft whine of scores of shells xwhine of xxxxxofxxx
hurrying all together through the air (full point)  Every five
minutes or so xxxx a certain howitser _/ ^[[(comma?]] tucked into some hiding
place xxxxx (comma) vents his periodical growl and we xx
can hear the huge projectile climbing slowly up his steep gradient
with a hiss like that of water from a fire hose (full
point) There is some other xxxxx ^heavy shell which xx passes us
also (comma) somewhere in the middle of his fight (full point)
We cannot distinguish the xxxxxxx report of the gun and we
do not hear the shell burst (semicolon) but xx at regular intervals
we can quite distinctly hear the monster making his way
leisurely across our front xxxxxxx (break)
We can distinguish in the uproar the occasional distant
crash of a heavy shell burst (full point) But not one burst can
I see (full point) The sun upon the mist makes the distant hill
crests just a vague blue / screen against the sky (break) within less
than an hour (break) There is one point on those hills where the two lines
of trenches ought to be clearly visible to us (full point) With
a good glass on a clear day you should be able to distinguish
anything as big as a man at that distance (dash) much more a
line of men (full point) Within less than an hour (comma) at xx
half past ten xxxxxxx ^the infantry will leave our trenches over
twenty miles of front and launch a great attack (full point)
The country town below us is Albert (dash) behind the centre ofx
the British attack (full point) One can see the tall battered
church tower rising out of ^against the mist with the gilded figure of
the virgin hanging at rightangles from the top like the arm of
a bracket (full point) On the hills beyond one can just make out
the woods of MAMETZ  ^FRICOURT behind the German line (full point) They are
in the background xxxx ^beyond Albert church tower (full point)
The white ruins of FRICOURT may be the blur in the background
south of xx ^them (full point) xx We shall be attacking Fricourt xxx
today (full point break)

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The Germans have not a single (quotes) sausage (
(unquote) in the air that I can see (full point)  The sausage
is the very descriptive name for the observation balloon (full
point)  We have twentyone of them xxxxx ^up (comma) checking the
sky ^as  / thickly  as a bacteriologist _/ ^{^}slide is specked with xxxxx ^microbes (full point)
The German used to have _/^a whole fleet of them looking down over us xxxxxx (full point But a week ago
our aeroplanes bombed xxxx them all along the line and eight
of them more or less (comma) in this xxxxxx  ent up
in flames w thin a single afternoon (break)
Seven ten A.M. (full point) Six of our aeroplanes 
are flying over very high in a wedgeshaped flight like that of
birds (full point) Single /^British aeroplanes have been coming and going
since the bombardment started (full point)  I have not seen any
German plane (full point) The distant landscape is becoming
fainter (full point) The flashes of our guns can bex seen all
at intervals all over the xxxxxx slopes immediately below us
and xxxx the blast is clearly shown by the film of smoke and
dust which hurries into the air (full point) The haze makes a complete
screen between us and the battle (break) The growing terror (break)
Seven fifteen a.m.(stop) Our fire has become xxxxx
noticeably hotter (full point) Some of us thought it had relaxed 
slightly after the first ten minutes (full point) I doubt if it
really did (dash) probably we were growing accustomed to the
sound (full point) There is no doubt about its increase now (
(full point) We can hear the crump crump crump of heavy explosions
almost incessantly (full point) I fancy our heavy trench
mortars must have joined in (break)
Seven twenty (stop) Another sound has suddenly joined
in the uproar (full point) It is the rapid detonation of our
lighter trench mortars (full point) I have never heard anything
like this before (dash) the detonation of the crowds of
mortars is as rapid as ^if it were the rattle of musketry could be (full
point) ∧Indeed If it were not for the heavy detonation one would put it
down for rifle fire xxxxxx (full point) Only eight minutes now
and the infantry goes over the parapet xx along the ∧whole line (break)

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Seven _/ ^twenty xxxxx seven (full point) / ^The Heaviness of / ^the bombardment has
slightly decreased ^(Full/ point) A xxxx Large number of guns must be altering
range onto the German back lines in order to allow our infantry
to make their attack xxxx / ^(full point) The hills are gradually
becoming clearer but as sun gets higher but the haze is far
too thick for us to see them go xxxxxxxxx over(full point)
Seventwentynine (full point) One minute to go xxxxxxxxx
(full point) I have not seen a single German shell burst yet
(full point) They may be xxxxxx firing on our trenches (semi
colon) They are not on our batteries (break)
 xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxSeven thirty two (full
point) Not a xxxx thing oxxxxs see through the mist (full
point) Only (dash) ^Seventhirtytwo (full point)Ever so distant (comma) but quite distinctly
 (comma) under the thunder of the bombardment I can
hear the sound of far off rifle firing ^(break⁾ (full point)
∧So they are into it (dash) and there are Germans ∧still left in those trenches xx (break)
spite of all their shattering (break)
Seven thirtyfive (full point) Under the Through the
bombardment I can hear the chatter of a machine gun (full
point) And there is a new thunder added (comma) quite distinguishable
from the previous sounds (full point) It is only the
last minute or so that one has noticed it (dash) a low
ceaseless pulsation (break)
It is the drumming of the German artillery upon our
xxxxx ^charging infantry (full point) Behind that blue screen they
must be in the thick of it (full point) God be with our men
BEAN

69/47 E7  13
[*5*]
Evening papers seventh letter E  7  
Secretary defence Melbourne evening papers seventh letter
2400 words Battle of the Somme (break) Fricourt and La
Boiselle (break) Account by an eyewitness (break) Australian 
War Correspondent Bean British Headquarters France July
three (break)
Yesterday three of us walked out from near the xxx
town of Albert to a hillside within a few hundred yards of
Fricourt (full point) And there all day (comma) lying amongst
the poppies and cornflowers /^(comma) we watched the fight of xxxxxxy that day
(d sh) the struggle around Fricourt wood and the attack on
the village of La Boiselle (break)
To call these places villages probably conveys the
idea of recognisable streets and houses (break) I suppose they
were villages once (comma) as pretty as the other villages in
the distance (comma) each with its red roofs showing out xxxxx
against its dark xxxx overshadowing woodland (full point) They
are no more villages now than a dustheap (full point) Each xxx
is a tumbled heap of broken bricks like the remains of a Chinamans
den after it has been pulled down by order of the xxxx ^local
council (Full point) Through this asheap xxxxxxxxxx runs a 
network of German trenches here and there breaking through
some still recognisable fragment of a wall (break)
It was by the might of two or three English soldiers
clambering up one of these jagged fragments and peering into
whatever lay beyond it (comma) that we know as we came in sight
of Fricourt that the village had already been taken (full point)
A string of men was winding past the end of the dustheap into
the dark wood behind it where they became lost to view (full
point) Somewhere in the heart of the wood was the knock knock
of an occasional rifle (full point) So the fight had gone on
to there (break)
In front of us was a long gentle hillslope
gridironed with trenches which broke out xxxxxx above the
green grass like the wandering burrow of a mole (full point)
The last visible trench was in redder soil and ran along the 

[69/47   14
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(2)                                                                                  
crest of the hill (full point) xxxxxxxx It passed through
or near to several small woods and xxxxxx clumps of trees
(dash) the edges of them torn to shreds with shellfire (full
point)  They stood up against the skyline (full point)  And in
one of them clearly visible was a roadside crucifix (break)
Our men had the whole of that slope right into
the trench at the top (full point)  All through the day we xxx
could see /^occasional xxx figures wandering about the old German trenches
(dash) probably some odd post established here or there there
behind the line of battle (full point) xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx All day
long odd men wandered up or down some part of the hillside
(dash) a man with a German prisoner coming down (comma) a
messenger or stretcher bearers going up (full point) xxxxxxxx
Now and then one could even see heads with our flat steel
helmets on them showing out from the red trench against the
skyline (full point)  So the fighting could not be severe at
the moment on the crest of the hill straight opposite to us
(break)
But we were clearly not holding the whole of that
trench along the skyline (full point) The right xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxshoulderx On its southern or right hand
shoulder the hill ran into Fricourt Wood which covered all
that end of it (full point) At bottom of wood standing out
against it was the dusty yellow ruin which once was Fricourt
(full point) Behind that end of the hill was a valley of
which we could see the gentle green slopes stretching away to
Mametz and Montauban (comma) both taken in the first half days
fighting (full point) The green slopes must have been covered
with the relics of that attack (full point) But the kindly xxx
grass (comma) the uncut growth of two years (comma) hid them
and the valley except for a few thin white trench lines might
have been any other smiling summer landscape (break)
When the wave of our attack swept through that country
the Germans in Fricourt village and wood still held on
(xixxx) full  point) xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx and just as they hel on so

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Another xixxxxx promontory was left jutting out into the wave
of our attack in a similar village on our right (dash) xxxxxx
La Boiselle (comma) where the main road for Valenciennes runs
straight out xfxxxx from our lines through the German front
(full point) xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ^We could see this / heap of yellow
brown ruins sticking up beyond the left xxxxshoulder of the
opposite hill much is Fricourt stuck up on its right (full
point)  There was a valley between them really but it could
only be guessed (full point)  Boiselle too had the ragged
remains of a xxxx small wood rising behind it (full point)
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx The foliage hung from the ragged
trunks ^stumps as the rigging droops from the ^broken masts xxxxxx of a wreck (break)
We were /^looking another way watching our troops trying to cr ep up to
the extreme right hand end of the red trench on the top of the
hill (full point) We could see them on the centre of the cretst
(comma) but here where the trench ran into the upper end of
Fricourt wood there was apparently a check (full point) They
Men were lined up /^at this point xxxxx not in the trench but lying down on.
the surface of a little /^on our side of it (full point) From beyond
that corner of the wood there treks out occasionally a chatter
of machinegun fire (full point) Evidently the Germans still
hung on there (full point) The bursts of machine gun must hav
have been against small rushes of our men across the open (full
point) I believe that one /^British unit of xxxx was attacking round in
this left hand corner of the wood while another was attacking
around the right of the wood (full point) The drive through 
the wood was going on at the same time (full point) Evidently
they were have some affect for out of the wood there suddenly
appeared a number of figures (full point) Someone thought they
were our men coming back until it was noticed that they were
unarmed and held their hands up (full point)They were a party
of the enemy surrendering and for the next quarter of an hour
we watched them being marched slowly down the hillside opposite
(break) The attack on La Boiselle (break) Our advance here

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seemed to be held up by some cause we could not see (full point)
German five point nine inch shell were falling just on our side
of Fricourt village and in a line from there up the valley xxx
behind our attack xxxxx (full point) It was not a really heavy
barrage (dash) just big black shell bursts at intervals on the
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
ground helped by fairly constant white puffs of shrapnel in
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx the air above them (full point)Just then
our attention was attracted in quite another direction (dash)
La Boiselle (break)
It had been fairly obvious for some time that La
Boiselle was going to be attacked (full point) While the rest
ofthe landscape ^before us was only treated to an occasional shell burst
(comma) heavy explosions had been taking place in this clump
of mins (full point) Huge roan coloured boquets of brick and
dust and ashes leaped xxx from time to time into the air and
slowly dissolved into a tawny mist which floated slowly over
beyond the edge of the hill (full point) It must have been a 
big howitzer shell or perhaps a very large trench mortar bomb
which was making them (full point) Gradually most of our xxxxx
artillery in the background to the left of us seemed to be
converging upon this village (full point) Suddenly xxxxxxxx
at a little before four there lashed onto the place the xxxxx
shrapnel from three or four batteries of British field guns
(full point) They seemed to be fired as fast as they could be
served (full point) xxxxxxxxxxx Shell after shell laid whip
strokes across the dry earth as swiftly as a man could ply a 
lash (full point) One knew perfectly well that our infantry xx
must now be advancing for the attack and that this hailstorm
was to make the garrison (comma) if any were left (comma) keep
its heads down (full point)But the shoulder of the hill xxxxx
prevented us from seeing where the infantry was going to issue
(break)
 In the turmoil /^which covered that corner we scarcely xx noticed that the
nature of the shelling had suddenly changed (full point) Our
artilliary shell bursts had gone much further up the hill xxxx
(dash) one realised that (semicolon) and heavy black clouds

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Evening Papers seventh letter E7   E7
Secretary Defence Melbourne evening papers seventh letter
words After Fricourt (break) In the German trenches
(break) A wonderful system (break) Australian War
Correspondent Bean British Headquarters France July two(break)
Yesterday from the opposite slope of a gentle
valley we watched Fricourt village taken (breakfull point)
This morning we walked down through the long grass across
what two days ago was _/ ^(quote) nomansland (unquote) into the /^old German
defences (full point) The grass has been uncut for two
years on these slopes and that is why there springs from
them such a growth of flowers as I have rarely seen (full
point) I think it was xxxxxxx ^once a wheatfield that we were walking
 through (full point) It is a garden of poppies cornflowers
/ ^and mustard flowers now (break)
Half way down the slope we noticed that we were
crossing a strange line which seemed to have been strangely
ruled through the wheatfield(full point) It was covered with
grass but there xxxxx was a line of baby apple trees on
each side of it (full point) It took one some seconds to realise
that it was a road (break)
We jumped across trench after trench of our own
(full point) at the bottom of the valley we xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
stepped over a trench which had a wire entanglement in
front of it (full point) It was an the old British front
line (fxxbreak) full point) The space in front of it had
been Nomansland (break)
Some of our men still lying face downwards where
shrapnel or rifle fire had cxxxght  ^caught them (full point) By them
ran another old road up the valley (full point) Beyond the
road the railway trucks were still standing as they have
stood for two years in what once was Fricourt village siding (full
point) In front of us The foundations of Fricourt village
stood up a little xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ^beyond against the dark shades of
Fricourt wood (full point) Immediately in front of us in 
front of this battered xx white xxx ash heap were the remains