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

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make them go on in individual  cases. I have seen it happen once to an Australian n.c.o. whom Co. M^cMay 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 I case of two o I finest fighters in I world, I Australian(possibly I very best in I world) &I Turk (certainly one o I best).Then there is I nonsense abt

wounded soldiers wanting to

get back from hospital to front. I have asked I nurses,

I have asked I men, I have 

heard them discussing it - &

                                  

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everyone says - what everyone here knows - that it is not one

soldier in fifty th wants to go back to I front. They dread it.

Not very many will actually shoot their fingers off to escape from I 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 I front, great stalwart true Australians-but there are not many like them i n any army.

There is plenty of heroism in war - it teems w it. But  it has bn so over written th if you write th a man did his job people say: Oh, but there's nothing heroic in that!

isn't there. You come here & seeI job & understand it & get out

of your head I nonsense th is written about it

 There is horror& beastliness & cowardice * treachery

over all of which the writer anxious to please I public has to throw

his cloak - but I 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 I Australian

Army th 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 th this is magnificent praise. The public

can never know it.The war correspondent is responsible

for most o I ideas of battle wh I public possesses. For example - I public thinks

in black & white & nothing between - I public

thinks a retreat or a rout is a matter of simple cowardice; whereas if ever there

ws a case of mixed motives I ordinary retreat is one. A hundred men go

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forward of whom, in I 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 I jo or die simply because they ae I

sort of men to whom life is not worth living on these terms.

After As I enemys trench is reached, & some o I 20 per cent are 

killed, the enemys machine guns (say) or a man ^ find them out, or perhaps

they merely find realise th not a quarter of their members are there; or it may be they take I trench or Iground & hang onto it - I 

enemy's shrapnel finds them out.A moment comes when I weaker

men are ready to turn at all costs- they are wounded men running back all I 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 - and have not the remotest idea why they are running back. perhaps

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(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 I man who is getting

up to run: What's up, Bill?"Bill may answer: "This is too bloody

'ot for me" - of 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 I 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 

officers has bn killed) "Retire be damned

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who says we're to retire.Pass along & ask who gave I 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 I 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 I Australian 

force I proportion is unquestionably undoubtedly high - may amount

to 50 per cent or more. I have seen them going up against a rain

of fire & I weaker ones retiringthro' them at I ^very same time - the two

streams going in opposite directions & not taking I faintest notice of one

another.Well, this is I true side of war

-but I wonder if anyone wd believe me outside I army.

that be I've never written higher praise of Australians than is on this page, 

but I probability is th if I were to put it into print tomorrow I tender

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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

old them to the truth in spite of I prejudice

against it - I satisfaction of xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx putting up a sort of

fight. But I have a suspicion th 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 th big French move will affect our 

fortunes. May frighten Bulgaria -but probably I Greeks are scrapping

w him already. The Greek is so vain of some supposed prowess th

I people wd plunge into war as Bulgaria w a very light heart. Their

General staff doesn't possess I sameillusions, fortunately.

French sd to have broken German front on a line of 50 kilometres,

ourselves over 5 miles (& gone in 4000 yards); & of Russians are 

holding them. Bazley still at AnzacTues. Sept 28. To Anzac by I

torpedo boat. (see opp page)The Captain o I Cormerall (wh has come to

relieve Bacchants) was there: & it will he & his had Lieut. gave us an a/c o I

battle of Falkland Is. wh I relate further on.

Wed Sept 29. Tonight tow officers comeback from G.H.Q with Bartlett. I was writing in the Mess tent when they told me Bartlettwas 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 go the sack!"Bartlett ws in Nevinson's tent

when I went in & told me to stay. Itwas 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

I case as Bartlett always does, buta great deal of it ws absolutely

unanswerable & badly needs understanding.

It made two assumptions (i) that the Suvla-Sari Basin 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 Sary Bair is concerned was ^ at certain stops within an ace of success;

 

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secondly that a landing at Bulair

wd have succeeded - & wd still succeed, whi is possible but it by

no means to be taken for granted. The 

R.N.D. people who visited Bulair on Apr 25-7 & only drew one shot

from I concealed batteries there say is

very doubtful whether even I whole force landed there cd have got 

across. They saw I place, a gentle

even green slope up from I sea

                  - something of

Sketch      this sort, as far

                   as they cd see-

                   wh cd not possibly

have been faced. The Ts. wdnot fire

a shot until I troops actually landed. What I troops did ws to

make a small feint landing bet w 2 small islands on I opposite side

o I gulf - wh ws absolutely unopposed-& come off again. The whole

corps cg have landed there but I country between there & Balair ws very difficult.

On those two points - certainlyFighting at Kuithia & 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.

There were I chief attacks at Kuithia. The French

also made some on I"Haricot" on other datesI hear from Col. Christian ^at Helles th our 1st Batty(regular Australian troops) has bn his mainstay & ws kept as counter battery (i.e. for firing on I enemy's guns) for 5 weeks& ws always given by him any particularly difficult piece of work. Besides working

these guns our artillery had to go into I trenches with their rifles on one

occasion behind I French - the Senegalese broke right back one night - and often

went up to snipe by special request.