Charles E W Bean, Diaries, AWM38 3DRL 606/179/1 - 1915 - 1917 - Part 3

59  25
No 2 Aust C.C.S.
During / liveliness before Messines
the C.C.S. had bn at Sarbris just
on a year.
The rly had bn bombed before,
& horselines - during / end o / 
Spring.
After Messines the liveliness
continued; on 22nd July abt
10 p.m. on a moonlight night a
German aeroplane flying over
from S. dropped 5 bombs along
/ road - 60 or 80lb. torpedoes making
a crater 10 ft deep - & the last
two fell in / camp. The second
k. 22 horses & wd 20; the third
hit a house & k. some civilians;
the fourth hit the cemetery; the
 

26
 

The tent ws
blown to ribbons &
the little bell serving
tent on wh it dropped
ws never found.
 

59  27
5th hit / end of a tent full of 18
acute pneumonia cases. 2 attendants
& 4 patients were k. One of these
patients had had a piece of 15lb. weight
from a shell shooting at / balloons
fall 6 in. from his stretcher tt morning
- "a miss is as good as a mile" he
sd. The orderlies had run out o /
door to see what had happened & it fell right
on them. The nurse of tt ward ws in /
next ward at / time. Another
nurse ws on duty in another
ward right alongside / bomb -
Another two were on duty in
other parts o / hospital.
The one from / tent next to /
bomb, Sister King, had a
torch - wh ws lucky as all /
lights were out by / cutting
o / cable. She went into / tent
where the bomb had fallen. The
place ws pandemonium
she ws trying to grapple a sell shock
 

59  28
patient - all / patients were up
& walking abt. Another Sister came
along to / tent - Sister Derrar.
The patients were then all
brought to the dressing room, &
there / other two sisters were on
duty helping to fix / men up.
A quarter of an hour after
/ first plane, two more German 'planes
came sailing nearby & dropped a no. of
bombs but / work went on.
Sister King
Derrer
Dracon
Cawood,
won military
medals.
Sergt Fitzpatrick & Sergt.
Bunn were ^N.C.Os - on night duty -
They went to the tent to help after
/ explosion. Bunn has gone to
/ Indian army w a Commission.
One civilian - a little girl - had
a blood vessel cut in / back o /
 

59 29
leg & nearly died. One old lady
of 70 or so came in w a broken
leg. Abt 40 civilians came in tt night
During this period numbers
of civilians used to come in
In / middle o / trouble two
big Australians walked into the
Dressing room, crowded already, one
carrying a brother little boy hit thro'
/ face & / other carrying his sister
& dumped them down in /
middle, both howling - / little
girl ws v. badly hit.
One Shell shock patient w
acute pneumonia ws wandering
delirious out on / duckboards
w a cut over his eye.
———
At a later stage abt 10.30 am
one morning a shell fired at
a balloon, wh had bn pulled
down, went through the MOs
 

59 30
tent when he ws not shaving,
& did not explode.
Another day they were
shelling / rly line (& hit it 4 times)
(one of the crossing points ws
sent through the shelter tent for
walking cases 180 yds away.)
The stuff falling on / roof rather
scared some o / abdominal
patients, but the nurses went
abt their work exactly as usual.
———

No 1 Aust Cas. Clearing, betw
Bailleul & Outerstein ws shelled
with 12 - 9.4 shells two of
wh (fortunately duds) fell in
the camp.

———
In No 1 just after Messines,
at Bailleul, the day / King ws
at Bailleul, a bomb ws dropped
 

59 31
in the hospital & Sister Pratt, who
had gone out to get a drink of
water for a patient, ws hit
in / shoulder. It ws just
light - / Germans had dropped
Several bombs & she ws standing
up in a bell tent.
On a/c of bombing & shelling
the CCS had to shift from Bailleul.
The night before / King came
3 o / sisters who were billeted
near / club were cut abt by
glass owing to a bomb being
dropped very close to the
club. Over 100 bombs
were dropped in one night
around Bailleul - the planes
so low tt you cd see them.
————
No 3 C.C.S. was up by
Proben near the British CCS
 

59  32
& shortly after / move a bomb
ws dropped right into their
camp - k. one officer at
mess, an R.A.M.C. man, attached.
———
The Germans bombed all
our hospitals at this time - it
is sd tt one of our bombs accidentally
hit a German hospital at
Roulers, & this ws their reply
They bombed Remy siding, &
hit one tent w German prisoners
in it & killed 15. There ws
a number of casualties there.
They had to knock off
work for / time being - The
germs attd / French Hospitals
also in / N., & are sd to have
machine gunned them.
———
The hospital wh suffered in
Bailleul ws the 11^th C.C.S. (British)
wh had 24 k & 70 wd. abt / same
 

59 33
twice as our No 1.
This ws connected w
Messines - not w / retaliation
The death roll ws
eventually 35. No 11 ws often shelled.
It ws sent to Godersvaersveld.
The hospital casualties have
bn almost entirely by bomb.
 

34
 

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43
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42
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44
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41
 

59 35
42 Bn

4^th Oct:
The 42 Bn ws for 2nd objve
(as opposite). They pushed across
Zonnebeke x in front o /
line of shell holes held by
9 Bde. They closed up to get
/ tail o / Bde clear o /
Zonnebeke. The barrage when it
came down made them
close up & get forwd.
42Bn came across / Zonnebecke
on / rly & swung to / left - all
bns did / same. The bridge to left
ws not put up till next day
by 3 Div Pioneers.
The front ws not 150 yds 
from the German front - & Germ
ws throwing flares (Column halted
every time flare went up) The
 

59  36
German ws also throwing
some of his petrol flare shells on
a hill to / right. The German
did not seem to see the 11 Bde.
; but after 11 Bde ws in positn
he opened on 7^th Bde very
heavily for 10 mins & then
/ barrage extended to the
11 Bde.
The Bde had to lie in
positn for 5 hours. Many men
pulled their oil sheets down
& went to sleep. When /
barrage came down every man
stood up & lit a cigarette -
The German barrage came
down on the 11 Bde but they pushed
forward & only a corner were
caught. By zero the Bde ws
not 50 yds in depth.
On zero / first oppositn