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

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if she breaks her word w her 
ally - Germany can give her nothing 
& / only countries from wh she can 
hope for anything, France Italy & 
Britain, will of course have nothing 
for her if she breaks her word to Servia. 
[For Venizelos positn see the "Messager" 
of Oct. 5] amongst my papers].
So much for Greece.  France seems 
just to have sd: "I am going to land", & 
landed.  The French got a tremendous  
reception, I hear.  But / Greeks seem 
to be against it nevertheless.
So much for Greece.
She may be in / wrong now.  But how 
has our diplomacy bungled in allowing 
this state of affairs to be brought about. 
I ws talking to Graves, / other day, who 
ws consul in Bulgaria for sometime & 
certainly knows /∧near East very well.  
xxxx And this is practically / history 
o / present problem as he explained it. 
Before / Balkan war Bulgaria 
bargained w Servia & Greece for common 
action on certain terms.  Amongst 
those terms one was tt Bulgaria 
(wh ws to march agst Constantinople) 
ws to have Uskub & Monastir & 

First thing heard on landing 
ws tt Gen Walker had bn wounded. 
^XAnd abt Leane's Trench

7
certain parts of Macedonia where 
population ws purely Bulgarian, 
whilst certain other parts over wh 
they cd not agree were to be referred 
after / war to / arbitratn o / Czar.
The war ws made & did not 
go quite as expected.  Bulgaria had 
to get Servian ∧heavy artillery to help her 
at Adrianople; and as Bulgaria 
ws fully occupied in front of Adrianople 
& Chataldja Servia marched into 
/ disputed parts of Macedonia & 
occupied them and into / undisputed 
Bulgarian parts of S Macedonia as well.  
When / war came to an end 
Servia sd to Bulgaria.  You have....
Few days ago
5 LH. on right got [[shorthand]]
from 94^th Regt.
32 Divs.
10 A.C.
[shorthand] at Sarykamisch.
Frid. Oct 154th       
Oct 11.  Tuesd to Frid Oct 14.  
Came over to Anzac by torp. boat 
& spent most of next 3 days getting 
information abt. April 25 - 28 ^x 
 

Leanes Trench Attack  Aug 5/6
diagram, please see original
Winzar
S.B of 11^th crawled out at 11am on his stomach at X 
tied rope round wd. man & got him dragged in. cd see 
him moving thro perisc. He was rif & hit thro' leg and 
recovered.  He went round seeing tt other Australians 
were dead or wd before he finished).

18
Went up to Col. Antill - now Comdg. 
3 L.H. Bde - today, & found his line 
part o / country enormously improved.  
There is a continuous trench now 
thro from No 1 outpost to Hill 60, I 
believe - Gen. Godley went thro it a 
few days ago.  The 1^st L.H. hold 
No 1 outpost & Destroyer hill, with 
the 1st Regt in Reserve on Old No. 3. 
diagram, please see original
The 3rd LHB then takes on 
& holds sugar loaf to Rhododendron.
diagram, please see original 
(wh is tunnelled) 
& round to Cheshire 
Ridge.
We have two of 3 commn trenches 
our No 1 towards Destr. Hill, all built 
by 1st L.H. Bde since last I ws 
here.  Up the Sazli Dere No 2 
our road runs well above / bottom

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o / stream, at a gentle grade, 
crossing it on tressles like a mountain 
rly - (the same has happened to 
Bridges Rd).  In fact we seem to 
have numerous built roads all over / place 
so as to avoid / streams.  Only the 
54 Divn they tell me has piled its 
parapets up so tt / enemy can 
knock them 25 yds w every shell.
The 3 LH Bde has bn spotting 
enemy m.gs.  Yesty they opened w 
a howitzer on one, on Bat'ship 
Hill & every time howitzer fired our 
m.g. kept Ts from removing it. 
Abt 4th St  You wd hear Bang - 
Crunch!! r- ta-ta-ta-tap ..... I 
noticed it yesty.  It annoyed / 
Turks & they opened - it blew 
their m.g. into / air at the 4th 
shot, col. Antill says.  They opened 
fire w a m.g. on B'ship H. wh 
we have bn searching for for a long 
time.  Today we turned howitzers on 
to this but they cdn't hit it.
Young Hughes who is 
Antill's bde Major ( tempy.  Captain)

The Bde has had over
2500 men.  It has now
650.

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ws a Rhodes Scholar (elect).  Gave 
it up - came as pte - ws made 
officer, Staff Captain when Macfarlane 
went away; & now, when Antill 
ws promoted, took his place as Bde 
Major.  They have only 4 officers in 
Bde who left Aust. with it - 8^th 
has 2, 9^th none, 10^th 1, & Antill.  
Also one Doctor, I believe.
Antill says tt on Aug 7 
the Bde bombardment stopped at 
4.25.  The change took place at 
4.30 by carefully checked watches.  
Johnstone o / artillery ws over to 
see him some time ago & ∧Antill asked
why arty didn't support him.  
Johnston sd "delighted if we'd 
known of it".  Apptly programme 
ws changed & J. never got the 
changed programme.
Antill says there were at least 
3 m.gs. on Snipers Rest - at least 
6 ∧firing on the Nek.
Glasgow says there is no 
chance of the Turks getting in opposite

[Glasgow
He hopes they'll try it.  What 
wd it matter if 1000 or 2000 got 
thro?  He says, - what wd it 
have mattered at Popes?  we 
shd simply have captured or 
killed / lot.  Even now if 
they got thro / lines o / 54^th 
- why let them.  What's / difference 
- we can hold.
I sd what if / Germans 
brought their big artillery thro?
Why? we've got our ships' guns. 
too. If only we had / observatn 
- tt's all we want.  My But I 
wish we had got / top o / ridge 
- we ought to have had tt.
And / argument went off 
abt Sari Bair.  He thinks if only / 
Suvla lot had got w. Hills we shd 
have had Sari Bair.  Monash, he 
thinks, did splendidly - Cannan 
told him / men were absolutely done, 
wanted to dig in wherever they 
stopped - they were weak - they hadnt 
/ stuff in them.
My word he's an officer w a 
heart.  

21
Destroyer - Rhodo - Cheshire Ridge 
- none at all.  His men are fit 
now tt they are getting good diet 
& canteen.  He gives them 4 hours 
hard digging a day to keep them fit.  
When a new comer (there is a 
4th Bde Sqn. in his Rgt, wh is 
now abt 450 strong) grumbles 
about wanting to fight the old 
hand next him says "Fightin' - 
you'll bloody well soon get your 
fill of fightin' - you go on 
diggin' if you take my advice".  
He lets them know tt if they dont 
dig a fair amt in their 4 hrs they'll 
be put on to dig 8 - so they 
make a good job of it & they know 
its good for them.
[Glasgow & Bruno White - now 
Brig. Gen & Chief of Staff of Army Corps], 
were once both bank clerks in 
same town in Queensland.  White
 sat for his Artillery exam & Glasgow 
became a pte in / local corps.]
The 2nd L.H. Bde who have ∧dug good 
trenches on / right have ballotted

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as to whether they wanted to go away 
& decided not to.  They have dug themselves 
winter quarters & are afraid of some 
other bde coming into them.
The 3rd Bde are making winter 
quarters in their wonderful trenches 
- the undergrd Australian trench 
wh is I believe a development of 
our own.  But the 3rd Bde does 
not want to dispense w its holiday, 
altho' we hear very varying accts 
of Mudros - Health of troops is 
not good there.
I hear the wound Genl Walker 
recd on Oct. 11 is not serious.  
He ws looking thro m.g. positn in 
the Black Hand trenches (looking S. 
at T. trenches opp. Leanes Trench,
& onto the Knife Edge, a southern 
Extension of Snipers Ridge, when 
a shot came thro & hit / man in 
front of him (who ws leaning on / m.g.) 
thro' / arm, & hit him thro the 
arm (a nasty wound) & side - bullet 
remained in but didnt pierce the 
intestine (see for details my cable 
of date, but it ws probly a snipers

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shot - one sniper is always firing 
in there & there ws no steel plate -
/ hole ws very wide tho' / place 
ws a tunnel & supposed to be 
secret].
A few days before Walker ws 
lying in his dug out at 4pm & 
batman just bringing him tea when 
4.2 shell from Beach came thro 
roof & exploded inside the side of 
dug out just 3 ft above Gen's head.  
It blew a hole wh it took 20 sand 
bags to fill in / earthen wall - 
it broke the 6 x 4 beam above / genl's 
head - one half dropped as if 
on hinge & must have passed within 
inches of his head - other ws slewed 
round, galv. iron roof ws bent
over it on 3 sides like an inverted 
U & earth tumbled thick onto Genl. 
Servant who ws just entering w tea 
shouted tt / Genl ws hit - a doctor 
who ws next door w / ADC (where 
/ explosion sounded not so very 
close - as is / way) ran in, lifted 
the hinging beam, & out called / 
General - only ∧/ red rims of his eyes being visible
 

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thro / dirt.  " There's nothing wrong 
w me!" he sd as he crawled 
out & stood up - but he ws 
badly bruised, worse than he admitted, 
& cut slightly also.  He showed 
no signs o / shock - but when 
a shell from / Frenchman passed 
next day or day after, whizzing 
past down / gully, & everyone 
in voluntarily ducked, the Genl 
ducked too - It is / first time 
he had bn seen to do so
Genl. Hobbs has bn given tempy 
command o / division.  Everyone 
wd have liked Gen. White but I 
suppose he has a bigger job 
where he is - the divn is only 1 ½ 
Bdes. now / others being still at 
Mudros (1st & 2nd).
The 3rd LH 
There have bn one or two
little affairs on / rt lately.  The other 
day a Turk ws suddenly seen 
coming in on the beach from K. Tepe.  
Our Beach Post wh fired at him &
 

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hit him.  The man ws unarmed & 
the fellow who fired on him - strictly 
agst all rules as well as agst 
common sense - shd have bn 
court martialled.  It ws in / sight 
of ad / Turks who seeing what 
ws happening fired at / man also.  
Our shot had hit him & he fell 
& crawled into / side o / beach 
where / Ts fired at him till sunset 
but never hit him.  At sunset 
we sent out a party of 4 
[*all from 5th L H.*]s.bs. & Ts abt 20 men as a 
covering party.  To do this   
The covering party went out & 
lay down & / s.bs. went 
forwd & just as they got to / 
man found 4 s.bs. coming 
from opp. direction.  The Turks 
had done exactly / same.  Our
s.bs. fell flat & the covering 
party advanced & beat off / 
Turks & got / man & carried 
him back after dark.  But 
he wdn't speak - so much so 
tt we thought he ws dumb.