Charles E W Bean, Diaries, AWM38 3DRL 606/169/1 - September - October 1917 - Part 1

AWM38
Official History,
1914-18 War: Records of C E W Bean,
Official Historian.
Diaries and Notebooks
 Item number: 3DRL606/169/1
Title: Notebook, September - October 1917
Includes references to the 25th and 27th
Battalions, Malt Trench, Lagnicourt, Bullecourt
Broodseinde, Passchendaele and Warlencourt.
 

AWM38-3DRL606/169/1

Original
DIARY No. 169.
AWM38
3DRL 606 ITEM 169 [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 Sep., 1946.                   C. E. W. BEAN

AUSTRALIAN WAR MEMORIAL
ACCESS STATUS
OPEN
 

49
1
27 Bn.
20 Sept. jumped off from
forward slope of Westhoek Ridge
abt 150 yds in rear of furthest outpost.
Tapes were laid in front of trench
System on crest & Bn jumped
off in 4 waves - 1 Coy frontage got to
J.O. positn abt 3.am.
25 Bn were in front / being for
1st Objve. 27 ws up on it ^almost in Hannebeek mud. Shelling
ws fairly heavy but no barrage
 

49
2
came on to 27 Bn. His shelling became
lively abt jump off time.
25 Bn had gone no distance before
they saw Germans - 30 prisoners were
on Westhoek Ridge within 10 mins of Zero
They were in odd shellholes abt 50 yds
beyond British front line.
We were well in front of German
Barrage - it moved up after the Bn
& At Albert Barrage; Redoubt during the
second halt the Germ Barrage
 

49
3
very nearly coincided with ours.
27 Bn ws for the 2nd objv. The
mud ws met on Hannebeek as soon as
they started; it ws a belt of shellholes
100 yds wide round wh they had to
pick their way.
On 1^st objve most of line had
moved too far left. This was corrected.
[28 Bn which ws for green line
formed up behind Westhoek & moved
up abt time when 27 Bn jumped off
from Red line; they went thro' 27 Bn on blue
 

4
Diagram. See original document

49
5
line later. Very few Germs. were seen
between these objectives; but when Bn
reached the Cross Roads on rt of Blue line
there ws a row of blockhouses facing them
about 50 yards away. Though these
were just in 1 barrage line, ^intermittent m.g. fire
ws coming from there - & A Coy rushed the
blockhouses & obtained /
L^t Lapthorne & some others pushed straight →
[altogether 9 m.gs. were taken; 2 were
brought out & sent to base].
 

49
6
forward, put smoke bombs into /
back o / dugouts, & / Germ. gave
up. They thought / smoke bomb ws
gas. The m.g. had bn firing thro'
an embrasure.
[They included an N.C.O. who
ws pushed on by Col. Slaney from H.Q. to Wertheimer at Bde H.Q.
& who sd there were 9 heavy mgs in these
dugouts & tt / enemy wd debuss  beyond
/ butte at Polygon Wood.]
The fringe of our barrage ws a
little ragged & forward troops in Albert Redoubt
 

7

※ This screen ws afterwds punched into / door
way by a shell - it ws the Coy HQ of Lieut McCann,
which had to be shifted.
Two 4.2 guns were onto this dugout, & got 4
direct hits running within a few minutes.

49
8
& the above mentioned ^※ dugouts had to
work in the fringe of our barrage. This
ws not bad; the barrage ws very good
this day. ^※ This probly saved us from his
getting the m.g. out - he wd have hd 8 mins.
That m.g. could have enfiladed left flank
of 27 Bn & 5 Bde.
There was a wicker screen ^※
only covering the entrance of this Pill box
& the Germans had this covered from
Polygon Butte by anr. m.g. One man
 

49
9
ws wd there when they played onto it.
A marsh ran into / ∧ left centre o / 
line betw. Iron X & Albert Redoubts.
There were some enormous shell holes at
Albert redoubt in one of wh ws the
signal station. There ws one battered
concrete positn (abt 1 in 4 of these all
thro were smashed) - but / rest ws
wicker revetted trenches mostly smashed
up with broken down undergrd dugouts.
 

49
10
We took shell holes & joined them
up - S P on either flank a little
in rear of front posts; & joined up
w 12 Bn on right.
A S.P. ws afterwds built by 7th F.Coy
on the height a little in right rear & ws shelled
by one or two of our 9 in guns. [There ws
one heavy gun firing short all / time through
/ barrage].
During Sept 21 the Blue line ws