Charles E W Bean, Diaries, AWM38 3DRL 606/154/1 - May 1917 - Part 1

AWM 38
Official History,
1914-18 War: Records of C E W Bean,
Official Historian. 

Diaries and Notebooks

Item number: 3DRL606/154/1

Title: Notebook May, 1917
Includes references to the 6th Light Trench
Mortar Battery, 6th Machine-Gun Company, 21st
Battalion, 3rd and 6th Infantry Brigades,
Bullecourt and the Hindenburg Line. 

AWM38-3DRL606/154/1

1
HINDENBURG
154 LINE.
6^TH LTM Bty.
6^th MG Coy
21st BN. 

Original
DIARY NO. 154.
AWM38
3DRL606 ITEM 154 [1]
DIARIES AND NOTES OF C. E. W. BEAN
 CONCERNING THE WAR OF 1914 - 1918
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 Sept., 1946.        C. E. W. BEAN
AUSTRALIAN WAR MEMORIAL
ACCESS STATUS
OPEN 

34
1 HINDENBURG
154 LINE.
6^th LTM Bty.
6^th MG Coy
21st BN. 

2 
Capt. Brown - adj of
 21st put onto 
carrying pty for 
1st Bde on May 4.
Lieut. C.V. Duncan  
34      3
21st. Horsburgh 
got to 2nd objve. 

L/c. Bott. on left 
flank.
Sergts Reilly & Baulch. 

L/Cpt. Hogg of working 
party making 
strong points. 

Sergt Hunt, if not wd
L/cpl Oliver "      "    " 

Pte McIntosh who acted practically as platoon communicator

Sergt. Winstanley

———
6 M.G.Coy. Lieut E.J. Bice. 
(saw also 4th Div) 

Sergt Hitchcock - who led 
 up disorg platoon
 Pte. A. McDonald, m gunner 
on 2nd objve.

34            4
(M.G Coy note Pte Bone went 
forward tho seriously
wd in lung)

T.Ms. Lieut. J.C. Robertson 
got German minnie to 
work.
Gray. probly on leave.
Cpt. Scholfield.
Sergt Roberts – as to 
what T.Ms div. 
(on control gun). 
Ptes Mitchell & O'Riley 
 (on rt – blew their gun up)
 ——————
22 Bn. 
Sergt Hayes     } 
  "     Watkins    }  left 
Pte Wilton L. Gunner & 
bombing 
Hughes (in position in shell 
hole covering sunken Rd)

5 
23rd Bn. Lt Maddell 
Lt Brewster

 in O.G.2 on 
 rt flank.   

Capt. Brown. Ad   

24PM. Capt. ^[[?TBE^]]Godfrey - senior 
Coy Commander. 
34       6 
Cpl. O'Neill - an old soldier 

L/cpt. Young (rifle gunner) 
 an old soldier 

L/cpl. Amers –in/c Lewis guns

L/c Riley - Lead man 
to 2nd objve   
23 Bn. Pte Parker –  
in/c of L. Gun 
working in part of 
our line at Tram 
Pte Hynes   
24 Bn. (Sergt^. Lang – Burial 
expert again).

207 Sergt Irving, a former 
tailor just up for 
commns, 
Cpl. W. Davidson.

34            7
Pte Primrose — laid tel line 
to Tram.  

Sergt Whitear _}  on tramway Comd. Coy 
Cpl Scales       ^} 
bombing on 
 both flanks.
L/Cpl. C.S. McLeish, L.g.
supporting tramline attack.   

Sent W.A. Elmore – O.G.2 
Cpl. W.T. West 
on right sector.   
Cpl. Smith – Tramway, 
 an old soldier.  

34            8 
TMs   May 3 
6 LTM Bg. Gguns.
Got into J.O trench  in 
nomansland where 3 guns on 
left & 3 on right (1 with 
2nd wave, 2 w 5^th wave) 
These alternately got to 
O.G.2 on rt.  

On left, 3 guns started
 w 2nd wave. 
These 3 guns had to 
create blocks on 3 
Bullect. trench U 28 A 
Central _^on both trench &  U 22 C 6.4. 
(Prob from X road) 
Germans opened  

34       9 
abt 10 mins before 
our barrage, right 
on the two Bns lying 
out & these got a 
bit mixed. Mostly 4.2s 
& mininwerfers from 
Bullect, Light & Med.   

At zero 3 guns 
jumped off on left —
Things were a bit 
mixed by then, & 
as soon as our arty 
opened ^at zero  a very heavy 
m.g fire opened. 
(The Germans had barraged 
for abt 4 previous 

mornings abt 3.30).
The L.T.Ms worked

34       10 
forward & on reaching 
wire found themselves 
in 1^st wave wh- ws then 
fairly thin — the distinction
betw the waves had gone
by then.   
We got into the wire 
& thro it in places.

(The marked m.g positn 
at 28B. 3½ 9½ ws 
the positn where the 
TMs thought they wd enter 
the wire.) 
Germans were 
standing up on parapets, 
sniping & shooting as 
cheeky as anything.

The Bn did not go on 
past this point & so 
LTM got into shell holes.