Charles E W Bean, Diaries, AWM38 3DRL 606/122/1 - Notebook - Part 1

AWM38
Official History,
1914-18 War: Records of C E W Bean,
Official Historian.
Diaries and Notebooks
Item number: 3DRL606/122/1
Title: Folder, Notebook
Includes references to the 5th and 57th
Battalions, the landing at Gallipoli and Fromelles.
AWM38-3DRL606/122/1 

Original  DIARY NO. 122.
AWM38
DIARIES AND NOTES OF C. E. W. BEAN
CONCERNING THE WAR OF 1914 - 1918
3DRL 606 ITEM 122 [1]
THE use of these diaries and notes is subject to conditions laid down in the terms
of gift to the Australian War Memorial.  But, apart from those terms, I wish the
following circumstances and considerations to be brought to the notice of every
reader and writer who may use them.

These writings represent only what at the moment of making them I believed to be
true. The diaries were jotted down almost daily with the object of recording what
was then in the writer's mind. Often he wrote them when very tired and half-asleep;
also, not infrequently, what he believed to be true was not so - but it does not
follow that he always discovered this, or remembered to correct the mistakes when
discovered. Indeed, he could not always remember that he had written them.

These records should, therefore, be used with great caution, as relating only what
their author, at the time of writing, believed. Further, he cannot, of course, vouch
for the accuracy of statements made to him by others and here recorded. But he
did try to ensure such accuracy by consulting, as far as possible, those who had
seen or otherwise taken part in the events. The constant falsity of second-hand
evidence (on which a large proportion of war stories are founded) was impressed
upon him by the second or third day of the Gallipoli campaign, notwithstanding that
those who passed on such stories usually themselves believed them to be true. All
second-hand evidence herein should be read with this in mind.
16 Sep., 1946.     C. E. W. BEAN
AUSTRALIAN WAR MEMORIAL
ACCESS STATUS
OPEN 

3
1
5 Bn & 57 Bn
(& see diary
of Feb. 15.)
122 

2
15 Bde ws to take
Delaporte.
be thrown out by Engrs digging.
Prob . 1. ws due to barrage & m.g. & wd crawling back
2. due to m.g. xx came over rise.
Morning of 21st ws foggy &
pties working out for wd. (Whom
they cd not see during the 
night) were able to see men 
moving & brought in abt 50

In drains & creeks were
many wd men. A fair no.
on sides of R. Layes. There were not many
k. there - it did not seem to have a m.g.
firing up it - One man ws heard calling for s.bs
6 days after stunt. He had both arms broken but had opened haversack w. teeth.
& put his head into water drinking it. He ws rescued.

3
3
July 19
Salmon - 57 Bn
Hand drawn diagram - see original
1  Bodies outside our
wire.
2.  Line of them on
edge of a rise.
- very thick.
3.  Men who had
crawled into
sap & had to 

 4
This man ws walking abt
for 2 or 3 days in this
way. Germans let him
walk but of noticed where 
he fell & searched all Nomansland
betw him & our trenches with m.g.
& those who went out to
get him (men like Ross, &
Thorburn who went out) had
to turn back. (They were 
the Bavarians) After 3
days they blew him to pieces
with a bomb. 

3
5
S. ws engaged in getting in wd.
One man ws seen on July
20^th with the skin shot from
his forehead & hanging over
his eyes - or his eyes shot out -
near the German wire. He
ws walking abt with his hands
outstretched - going in a circle
& then wd flop down agn.
Germans did not fire at him
They cd easily have gone out
& got him. ^X

[One s.b. went out to get
another Australian. They got
him onto stretcher. Germans
shot the man on / stretcher
& shot one o / men bringing
him in - wd. both but they
got them in.]
Sergt Ross - was one of the
men on this stretcher but ws not hit. 

6
[*Ross was reduced several times & promoted
agn & reduced & promoted.*]
X (recommended many 
times.)
Ross drew m.g. fire _^ from a silent gun by
sitting on parapet & firing
5 rounds rapid, & then
when m.g. did not reply
he fired 10 rounds. The
German m.g. (a very annoying
one, 'Parapet Mick') opened
but R. finished his 10
rounds w / bullets
cracking all round him.
They cdn't see where the gun
ws firing from - it ws
firing from somewhere
behind the lines. (R had 
bn in the old 5^th)

Paddy R., when coming in from the
sap opp. Sugar Loaf xx in day
time, at least twice left the
sap after he had got thro the
wire, xx walked up / parapet,
stood _^ there & looked round & hopped down
into / trench.

3
7
Ross ^X lost his leg afterwds in
a _^ later raid on Sugarloaf - a most fearless
man. [He had bn told not to
go out w this silent raid, but
he sneaked out of some 
other part o / trench.]

Our s.bs tried getting in
wounded holding the stretchers
up  diagram - see original -  But this ws
ordered to cease as we were
getting casualties.

During night of 20/21
July our men were walking
abt Nomansland _^ (calling names of officers wd) as tho there
were no Germans. There
ws fire. Some wd might be dazed,
or asleep. So by day search ws
made w telescope & movement marked them down &
they went out next
night
& so on.

Abt 300 wd were got
in. Every one ws got in
whom there ws a chance of
saving. 

3
8
5 Bn.
Ap. 25.1915  (from Stewart.)
Fetherdos with A Coy. which
was sent imd after 6 Bn.
He was leading them abt
200 yds in front of our
final line of trenches,
opp. Johnsons Jolly &
Owens Gully, when he
was sniped. Flockhart
was with him - Fethers
fell dead & Fl. put his cap
over his face. Fethers
ws afterwds blown to
pieces by a shell.
C. Coy was well up 

9
3
to the left near Wire
Gully. When Saker ws
wd (in ankle) word ws
sent down for a platoon
& 1 platoon of DCoy ws
sent up at abt 11.30
under Levy.

Of B Coy at this time
½ had gone forward with
A; & ½ remained
under Luxton with ¾ of
D Coy under Carter & one
(lost) company of 1st Bn
waiting at bottom of
White Gully.  x

All these were sent
out abt midday - 1 pm.