Charles E W Bean, Diaries, AWM38 3DRL 606/18/1 - October 1915 - Part 2

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We took over water supply on Tues. Aug 10

before that it came through in water tanks and petrol tins

filled possibly in Imbros
Navy supplied us with fire engine hoses & ^hand pumps

and we have been working with since on A beach.

More guns appear to be between W Hills

and Anafarta.

Ship now wrecked is breakwater.

          ______________

2 Hosp. Piers, 2 at A (pulled down)
Trestle at Kangaroo beach
Permanent pier, Trestle at Little
W Beach - strengthening w Cribb.
Permanent one should withstand sea.
           ______________
All pumping has been done under shell fire
& all building of piers under shell fire.
They shell mules & men.
Most of shelling comes from Anafarta & W
Hill
13 casualties - 4 k.

A man with his leg blown off.  Sat up and asked the doctor
 

7
for a cigarette. Able Seaman Atkinson.
said -  well Dr.,  I will have to sell peanuts now in 

Little Bourke Street for a living. Heard since
he was doing well. But was on duty nor appeared
on A beach.
we do our own unloading.
All engineering stores building material sand bags

timber, explosives etc.

———
Had a yarn w Gellibrand last night
& he told me tt M^cCay has left England for
Australia; the inference is of course that
he is hoping to come back in command
of a Division. Promotion was asked for
for Walker & was blocked, I believe -
This looks as tho' Walker's supersession
was contemplated. If so, it is one of
the ugliest jobs I have ever known.
M^cCay is a man I have some belief in
- more than most - owing to the thorough
way he went round his lines at Helles
after the charge on May 8 - not because
of the charge itself. There was glory to be
gained out of the charge. But there was
nothing spectacular in going round
under heavy fire tt night from end
to end of the firing line (as I believe be did)
& making sure all ws right.

 8
But if  one ask it comes to asking whether Aus

-tralia owes such a duty to him as to
make it just to Supersede little Walker
on his bike after all these months &
put M^cCay or Legge in - ∧the answer is tt it that cannot
even be thought of without making one
blush for shame. Walker has ^held a commanded
in this divn from the first day - and it owes
him more than it can think. He
spends 8 hours of the day in the trenches
- far more than Legge, more even than
Bridges The men have come to trust &
love him & xxx xxxx ∧the 1st Divn was never more
pleased than when Legge ws sent to
Egypt & Walker came back. Legge is
a capable man but without any hold
at all on the men - they don't look
up to him. He is not wanting in
courage but so far as I know but
he has not the same utter dauntlessness
& disregard for the existence of danger tt
Walker has & Bridges had. The men
don't respect him particularly - not more
than any other officer - wheras ∧not in the way they
do respect Walker & White.
xxxx The old 1st Divn
It gave one quite a shock
last night to realise - as Gelly sd -
that the 1st Australian Divn will 

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probably never be seen again - not
as a Divn of the same sort wh landed in
April. It is not so much tt the very
great majority of the men are recruits;
but the officers have mostly bn k or w
& of the ^old original divisional staff at Mena only
two are left. Malson & Glasfurd
(Foote came out to Egypt after we arrived).
White is now chief of staff of the Army Corps
w the temporary rank of Brig. Genl & will
probly be there permanently as Skeen has
typhoid - discovered shortly after he left here
w what ws supposed to be influenza.
Griffiths has a good post at Army Corps.
(Lesslie ws never ^even mentioned in Dispatches.
I can't imagine why). Blamey is on the
Ind Divl Staff - Gellibrand also; Smith
doing Army Corps Work; Austin, army Corps.
Col. House is now D.D.M.S. of the army Corps
- the army corps staff largely consists
of the old Divl. Staff wh ws much the
best any Divn possesses here.
Birdwood is now head of the A.I.F.
It used to be Legge but now there's a
second Divn. it has be given over to
Birdwood (who has White & Griffiths
on his staff) to manage the promotions.
The system is a far better one - White

 10
will absolutely safeguard the Australian ^service if
there were any safeguard needed.
They have not yet enough winter
Engineering stores at Anzac. They have some
Greek & Egyptian labour.
Quinn Lawrence & I yes
I asked Gelley Howse & Smith yesty
how the first ^second Divn compared w the first.
They seemed to agree (exc. Howse) tt the
men were - as raw material - quite as
good; Watson says better. But the officers are
not to compare w the first lot. Every one says
Burston is far too old; Holmes is pretty good;
Spencer Brown is energetic but probly to
old - also a man's mind, as well as
his body is inelastic at his age. Burston
is sd to be 59 but is put down by his
acquaintances as well the other side of 60.
The run of the regimental officers also
is bn not in the same street w tt of the
1st Divn. They are apparently picking out
some good ones on the bt Bde how,
but they were very far from being all of the
right sort when the divn arrived. xx
Dillon arrest Veniziles Sat.
Lawrence & I were arrested today.
As we went thro' the trenches held by the
Yeomanry on the Suvla flats below (S. of)
Chocolate Hill the men seemed to get

 11
suspicious of us - First a man shouted
out something to a Sergt  Major - then the
Sergt Maj. came along & took us to his
adjutant. We showed the adjutant our
G.H.Q. passes (allowing us to pass any
sentry,) wh of course are as much good
as a bit of waste paper & he let us past.
Presently we were held up again & pulled
back to an officer in a canary coloured
sweater who looked very suspicious of us,
tho he let us go. Finally we reached the
H.Q. of Middlesex Yeomanry & were
asking them some questions abt the 10^th
Divn wh. we wished to find, when their
C.O., an M.P – I think his name ws  Sir
Charles Wilson - pulle came up & sd
he as sorry he wd have to detain us.
We The Middlesex were having lunch
& gave us a very nice meal - but
the news of our identification wd
not come thro' although we told asked
them to refer to the 9^th Corps or to
Anzac where we were well known.
The telephone went slowly from regt
to brigade, bde to divn, divn to
Corps, corps to G.H.Q before we got
an answer. In the meantime our
torpedo boat for Imbros & the trawler 

 [*mistake for
^X Suvla] 

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also, had gone & there ws nothing
for it but to stop the night in ^x Imbros.
We asked to be sent down to the beach
to find meet the message there to save time
& were sent off under an escort of
4 bayonets wh rather riled me
considering they knew by now perfectly
well whom we were - at least they
ought to have, & cd have by a little
cross-questioning. At Bde regimental H.Q. we
had all the escort exc. one man
dismissed. At Div H Bde H.Q.
a little officer befriended us & showed us
a long way on our way - heard
afterwds he ws Wedgwood Benn M.P.
At the H.Q. of 2nd Mounted Divn
on Lala Baba we had tea w the
D. H.Q staff - nice fellows - & there our
release came. Of course the real reason
for the trouble ws tt G.H.Q had sent out
no list of passes to the Divns. & Corps,
They w but G.H.Q naturally threw it
on to us & sd tt altho' Sir I.H.
wanted concspts to go where they pleased
they ought to report at Corps H.Q.
before going into the fire trenches. 

 13
We had reported to Corps H.Q. at
Anzac, & to the APM there & told
him where we were going, &
came as far as the edge of the Anzac
territory w Birdwood himself.
We watched at 4. o'c a very successful
Strafe (as these English officers always talk
of a strafe where we talk of a Hate) by
the Glory (almost her 1st performance) & the
Prince George & some torpedo boat w other
in the Ejelmen Direction apt what is
now called the Pimple - the summit of
the Turkish end of the Razor Back Ridge
just N of Suvla, beyond Jeffersons Post.
The Turks have built a fort there &
our guns were getting onto this first &

the T. trenches. The Glory; 12 & 6in
took the fort & the howitzers the trenches.
The real sight of the day ws when the
Majestic Prince George burst a 12in
shell just outside her own gun muzzle
& seemed almost to go up in white smoke.
The shooting of howitzers & most of the
naval guns ws very good - right into 

 14
the trenches all the time Not a T. gun
replied. I know what they were doing
as well as if I cd see it. Every
T. gun ^within reach ws getting itself tuned onto
our front trenches opp. the Pimple,
waiting for our infanty to jump over.
But it never happened; at 4:45
the strafe ceased and the Ts. fired
a few odd shots at our gun positions.
Spent the night in the office of one of the
hospitals - had a long yarn w
Bracegirdle. He tells me one Coy of
R.E. were actually in Anafarta -
they are probly prisoners now, he says.
Thurs Oct. 7. Back by early trawler
to Imbros. Hear tt Venezilos
his resigned!
Frid. Oct 9. Beginning our move
into the correspondents Cottage
at Panaghia. A heavy storm
tonight - heaviest weather

 15
since we reached the Peninsula.
Down pour of rain.
Oct 9 - Sat.
Moved into new cottage. Hear
old Jock is promoted to Major!
The "Victory" came in with papers
from Salonica which state tt the French
have landed at Salonica - Chalmers
the owner of the yacht says the actual place
is 2 hrs E of Salonica. He says the
Greeks are very disturbed abt it.
They were keen enough on fighting
until the actual order came to mobilise
but the mobilisation came as a shock
& was very unpopular. There are a
certain number of writers in the Greek
press who are regularly bought by
Germany, & these have been
suggesting doubts whether the mobilisation
ws not a useless sacrifice. The
King ws The question ws "should
Greece stand by her treaty w Servia
or shd She repudiate it" & the King
was for repudiating the idea of helping
Servia whatever Bulgaria did.
Venizelos, who sees farther, knows
tt Greece has nothing to hope for