Charles E W Bean, Diaries, AWM38 3DRL 606/17/1 - September - October 1915 - Part 4

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even if by painting it that way
I could rouse the blood & make 
/ pulse beat faster -& undoubtedly 
these men here deserve tt peoples 
pulses shall beat for them. But 
War Correspts have so habitually 
exaggerated / heroism of battles 
tt people dont realise tt / real 
actions are heroic. If you say
“The line went forward & not one 
man came back" that is really 
a thing tt can very seldom be 
sd of any but / most magnificent 
troops - but people say: "No of 
course they didn't - they were 
British soldiers & British soldiers 
dont run away." As a matter of 
fact everyone who has seen a battle 
knows tt soldiers do very often 
run away; th soldiers even 
Australian soldiers, have sometimes 
to be threatened w a revolver to 

28                                            
make them go on - in individual
cases. I have seen it happen 
once to an Australian N.C.O. 
whom Col. M'Cay threatened to 
shoot  - & I know MacNaughton 
of the 4^th Bn on Ap 26, &
Howell Price of the 3rd Bn on Aug 
8 & others have done / same
& it has done what they wanted 
it to do. If the men The Turks 
have to be threatened w machine 
guns from behind - I have seen 
it in their divisional orders.
There is / case of two o / finest 
fighters in / world, / Australian
(possibly / very best in / world) &
/ Turks (certainly one o / best).

Then there is / nonsense abt
wounded soldiers wanting to
get back from hospital to / 
front. I have asked / nurses,
I have asked / men, I have 
heard them discussing it - &                                

29                                       
everyone says - what everyone 
here knows - that it is not one
soldier in fifty tt wants to go 
back to / front. They dread it.
Not very many will actually 
shoot their fingers off to escape 
from / front but even this is not 
uncommon even among Australians
& it is probably less common 
w them than ^w most. There are men 
who want to get back to / front, 
great stalwart true Australians 
- but there are not many like them
in any army.

There is plenty of heroism 
in war - it teems w it. But
it has bn so overwritten tt 
if you write tt a man did 
his job people say: Oh, but 
there's nothing heroic in that!
Isn't there. You come here & see
/ job & understand it & get out
of your head / nonsense tt 

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is written about it. There is horror
& beastliness & cowardice & treachery
over all of which the writer anxious 
to please / public has to throw
his cloak - but / man who does 
his job is a hero. And the
actual truth is that though not
all Australians, by any means,
do their job there is a bigger 
proportion of them men in / Australian
Army tt try to do it cheerfully 
xxx & without the least show of
fear than in any force or army 
that I have seen ^in Gallipoli. The man who
knows war knows tt this is 
magnificent praise. The public
can never know it.

The war correspondent is responsible
for most o / ideas of battle wh / public 
possesses. For example - / public thinks
in black & white & nothing between - / public
thinks a retreat or a rout is a matter of 
simple cowardice; whereas if ever there
ws a case of mixed motives / ordinary 
retreat is one. A hundred men go

31
forward of whom, in / best of 
cases, perhaps twenty per cent 
wish they were not going forward at
all when they start - & 80 per cent 
before they get there. The remaining 20
per They cent are going to do / job 
or die simply because they are /
sort of men to whom life is not 
worth living on those terms.

After As / enemys trench is 
reached, & some o / 20 per cent are 
killed, the enemys machine guns 
(say) or a more find them out, or perhaps
they merely find realise tt not a quarter 
of their members are there; or it 
may be they take / trench or /
ground & hang onto it & /
enemy's shrapnel finds them out.
A moment comes when / weaker
men are ready to turn at all 
costs - there are wounded
men running back all / time.
The One man starts to run back -
perhaps 2 or 3 on either side 
start to run with him. The others 
coming up see them running back

32
 - and have not / remotest idea 
why they are running back. Perhaps
(it enters their heads) they are running 
away. Perhaps the trench has bn
found impossible to take. Perhaps 
they've bn ordered to retire. One
man coming up, or hanging on, 
shouts to / man who is getting
up to run: "What's up, Bill?" 
Bill may answer: "This is too bloody
'ot for me" - or he may and 
often does answer "Word passed  
along to retire!" The order to retire 
is sometimes no doubt attributed
to an officer who has bn killed 
"Captain Smith give the orders
to retire." It goes along / line -
"word passed to retire at once"
Every weak spirited man - & there
is always a sprinkling of them - 
taking it up w especial vehemence.
It needs a lot of grit in a 
man to say (especially if his 
officer has bn killed) "Retire be

33

damned! Who says we're to retire?
Pass along & ask who gave / order."
And yet strong men do that. They 
know the "order to retire" is
sometimes an invention & they 
are not going to be cheated out of
doing their job by any weak 
spirited being in / force. The 
success of an army like ours 
chiefly depends on what proportion 
of these strong independent minded 
men there is in it. And in / Australian 
force / proportion is unquestionably 
undoubtedly high - may amount
to 50 per cent or more. I have 
seen them going up against a rain
of fire & / weaker ones retiring
thro' them at / ^very same time - the two
streams going in opposite directions 
& not taking / faintest notice of one
another.

Well, this is / true side of war
- but I wonder if anyone wd 
believe me outside / army.
That be I've never written higher praise 
of Australians than is on this page, 
but / probability is tt if I were to 
put it into print tomorrow / tender

(after opp. page)
The Captain o / Cornwall (wh has come to
relieve Bacchante) was there; & it will 
he & his 1st Lieut. gave us an a/c o /
battle o / Falkland Is. wh I relate
further on.

Wed Sept 29. Tonight two officers
came back from G.H.Q. with Bartlett. I was
writing in the Mess tent when they told me Bartlett
was going home. "Lucky beggar," I sd - & presently
some mention came up of his return.
"Well, as a matter of fact he's not returning,"
they sd. "He's got the sack!"

Bartlett ws in Nevinson's tent
when I went in & told me to stay. It
was true. About a month ago he got
Murdoch the Australian "Sun" Correspt,
who ws going to London, to take home with
him a letter to the Prime Minister
putting the state of things here in a
somewhat crude light. It was a
brilliantly written letter - rather overstating
/ case as Bartlett always does, but
a great deal of it ws absolutely
unanswerable & badly needs understanding.
It made two assumptions (1) that the
Suvla-Sari Bair plan could never have
succeeded & cd have accomplished nothing
if it had succeeded - which I think is
false: it ws very difficult but contained
a distinct chance of solid success &
as far as Sari Bair is concerned was
within an ace of success at certain stages;

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Australian public, which only tolerates
flattery & that in its cheapest form, would
will me howl me out of existence.

One has some satisfaction in sticking
told them to the truth in spite of / prejudice
against it - / satisfaction of of fights
xxxxxxxxxx putting up a sort of
fight. But I have a suspicion tt I've 
spoilt my chances for ever of being 
some day tolerably well off.

News of a big move in France.

Monday Sept 27. Stayed in camp

& wrote all day. I wonder how tt 
big French move will affect our 
fortunes. May frighten Bulgaria -
but probably / Greeks are scrapping
w them already. The Greek is so 
vain of some supposed prowess tt
/ people wd plunge into war w 
Bulgaria w a very light heart. Their
General staff doesn't possess / same
illusions, fortunately.

French sd to have broken German 
front on a line of 50 kilometres,
ourselves over 5 miles (& gone in 
4000 yards); & / Russians are 
holding them. Bazley still at Anzac

Tues. Sept 28. To Anzac by /
torpedo boat. (see opp page)

Fighting at Krithia & Achi Baba
Ap 25. 6. 7. 8.
May 6. 7. 8.    May 28
June 4^th 5. 6 
June 12 Turk attack
June 25
July 6-12
Aug 6.

These were / chief 
attacks at Krithia. 
The French also 
made some on /
"Haricot" on other dates
-----

I hear from Col. Christian ^at Helles tt our 1st Batty
(regular Australian troops) has bn his 
mainstay & ws kept as counter battery 
(i.e. for firing on / enemy's guns) for 5 weeks
& ws always given by him any particularly 
difficult piece of work. Besides working
these guns our artillery men had to 
go into / trenches with their rifles on one
occasion behind / French - the Senegalese 
broke right back one night - and often
went up to snipe by special request.
Two men went off from / brigade during /
last attack - deserted - "to take part in 
an infantry charge" wh they did (on
Aug 6 & were both killed. On June 4 & Aug
6 & at other times our artillery men manned
light 12 pdr naval guns wh used to be taken
up to / trenches by night & dug in usually
behind a spur, enfilading / enemy's trench or
/ ground across wh he wd have to counterattack.
The gun wd sometimes be left there for a wk but always
had to be taken away in / end being shelled out by /
enemy or bec. it brought fire on / enemy. The Howitzer batty
35
[*is now manned from No 2 Batty. Xtian is very bitter abt / Divisional
staff but his reasons are largely personal. He says our guns no doubt have
often killed our own men but / French took still greater risks. Our guns
were always having to fire at night bec. / infantry called for them.  The 1st Bde moved up for 
Anzac on Sept. 30*]

Somme Py. Loos.  Berry le Bac.  Mezieres
Notre Dame de Lorette. Lille.  Maestricht.
Anvers. Reason - nearest to Maestricht.
Reason for [shorthand] - to cut only line to Verdun.

secondly that a landing at Bulair
wd have succeeded - & wd still 
succeed, wh is possible but is by no
means to be taken for granted. The 
R.N.D. people who visited Bulair 
on Ap. 25-7 & only drew one shot
from / concealed batteries there say it
is very doubtful whether even / 
whole force landed there cd have got 
across. They saw / place, a gentle
even green slope up from / sea
[Diagram- see original document]
- something of
this sort, as far
as they cd see -
wh cd not possibly
have been faced. The Ts. wd not fire
a shot until / troops actually 
landed. What / troops did ws to
make a small feint landing betw 
2 small islands on / opposite side
o / gulf - wh ws absolutely unopposed
- & come off again. The whole
corps cd have landed there but / 
country between there & Bulair 
ws very difficult.
On those two points - certainly

36
on / first, I have always thought 
Barlett ws quite wrong, & many
people who are far better strategists
than I have / same opinion.

However tt is a matter of 
detail. Bartletts letter ws worth /
consideratn of any man, & I've
no doubt it will be considered in
time. Several members o / Cabinet
asked him to write to them privately
- wh ws not a very loyal thing
of them to do, but then politicians
are not loyal.

He made one mistake - I
think.  He ought to have taken 
/ letter home himself after he had
written all he wanted to about the
battles of August. It ws difficult.
It wd ^have bn scarcely loyal to his 
employers to go home & leave
/ work here, & I don't know if
he wd have bn allowed to return;
unless he went I dont think / letter
cd have bn got through - / censors
wd not have passed it. So he decided
that / object ws worth any means.