Charles E W Bean, Diaries, AWM38 3DRL 606/19/1 - October - November 1915 - Part 5

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& / bomb thrower as instructors to 6th Bde.

(2nd Lt Ramsay).
Sep 13  began parades - 2hrs in morning, 9-11
Rifle exercises, manual.
Sept 2.  Col. Bennett evacuated.
Sept 8.   Maj. Sass (who had bn hit in
knee w 75 ) wound festered -
evacuated.
Capt. W.J. Rowland (4 reinfs) in charge.
Sept 15. Capt. C.S. Coltman  (Bde. m.g. officer)
took command.
Sept 16. V. heavy rain during morning. All
tents flooded. Camp site moved ¼ mile.

Bde did an attack one day
near Sarpi Camp (its camp)
quite up to Mena form - tho’
flanks had to move at different speed.

Gen ws v. pleased. Col Cass Acting B.M.
----
Street 1st Bn. A/c of Ap 25^th.
On Ap. 25 Street ws wit somewhere
abt Chessboard. Scobie ws hit there
across bridge of nose while walking
abt inspecting firing line. Richardson
ws there. Shout & Freme were on
left. New Zealanders came up abt
4 to 4.30 - Col. I think ws k. before
they got up there.

Then came conflicting messages
Retire. Gurkhas on left, dont shoot.
Sent to verify “retire” message but

[Sketch - see original scan.]

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cdn't trace. ^They did a lot of damage. Men wd hear message
stop. Someone shouted “Tommies
in sight o / right - cheer up lads” -
Probly some exuberant spirit.

Shout asked me 2ce to reinforce
him - sent Freme once - we held
on tt night - ws hit by shrapnel
after dark, & w 2 wounded men 
landed down abt 200 yds N of
Cane's dressing stn on beach.

Going up again got a bullet in foot
- men were getting hit coming up to
Canes dressing stn on beach.

[Sketch]

(Direction of Canes stn from Positn).

We were shot from left wh ws higher
than we were. We were on inland
slope - just before we joined Scobie
we cd see it from plateau.

Swannell came w us practically
to Scobies line. Got There ws a 
gt deal of firing. Swannell gave
word fix bayonets - we charged
abt 50 yds - m.g. opened from 
high grd on left. We saw no Ts. As
soon as we got down m.g.
cd be heard swishing low over us.

We advanced perh. 100 yds after tt.

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Tues Nov. 2  Had a yarn w
White last night over wl matters in 
genl. He ws charming as usual. We
both notice tt / Australians here can
be picked out on / instant by their
faces - a little hard, but / strong, lined,
individual faces wh men get who
stand & think by themselves. The Australn
discipline is for orderliness - to get any or rather our going forwd in
battle operatn through in an organised
manner. The British discipline 
has a different reason - to make
men go forwd bec. they are told to do
so.  Our men we have to send forwd
trusting to quite a diff. principle - we rely on
/ strong independent willed men carrying on
/ weak ones - there are always both in 
any force only we have a big proportn o /
strong ones who are not going to retire
just because some one else retires or says
retire, but think for themselves - is it a
genuine order?

White sd tt when he ws at / staff
college he could tell as clearly as
in noonday / determinatn of a man
by watching him at / hunt.  There ws
/ man who set his face jaw & went for it
- who, if he had a good horse, always
led. Always, behind him, there wd be a
man who went where that man went,
rode close behind over kee fences,

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taking / jumps where he took them.
The front o / field wd consist of these
leaders each w a small bunch of
followers - both sorts on / best horses.

Then a gap.

Next came a similar lot of leaders
determined to go, but on poorer horses.
After them was a similar attendance of
men hanging onto them - also on second rate 
horses.

Then another gap.

Lastly a third bunch who were not in
/ hunt for / love of it at all, but bec.
it ws / thing to do . They were men who
after a while wd come to White &
ask him (his father ws a great horseman
& had practically brought up C. Brudenell
White up on horseback) to ride their
horses for them as they were developing
a habit of baulking at jumps.
White cd only afford an old £10 a year
remount, so he ws glad o / chance.
"And horses are just / same too," sd
White. "Some horses will always refuse
to lead - they will follow a stronger
horse & it is almost impossible at
times to force them to jump where you
want them to - they will swerve to follow
through where / stronger horse goes. I have
bn knocked clean out o / saddle by
another mans horse doing tt. The mans

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horse jumped straight into mine & the
riders foot caught under mine just
as he ws rising fast - and ^/ next thing I knew ws
tt my foot ws over my horse's
neck...."

White holds tt evidently wanted
to say give me / benifit of an idea
wh had bn strongly impressed on
him. "What I have seen since the war Suvla," I
had sd, "has is making me a socialist" -

"It's not making me tt," he sd,
"but I'll tell you what I shd like to tell
/ people of Australia - what, if I get /
chance, I shall tell them some day - 
& tt is tt they are right in / main thing;
they may be wrong in other ways details but
- I'm no politician as you know, & but I'm
sure they're right in this - in giving
every man a chance, a good equal
chance" - I

The talk drifted a bit. "There's
one other thing I'm very much
impressed by," he sd "- & tt is tt
there ought to be some real ministerial
responsibility. You know, as I say, tt
I am no politician - I have no politics
as a soldier - but I'm sure to there shd
be some sort of ministerial responsibily
enforced by something stronger than the

44
anger of a few newspapers. A politician
says to himself "Oh, thats only /
Conservative Press" or "/ Liberal Press"
& if he's callous it doesnt affect him
at all. Take the case we know of - we
know tt Winston Churchill is responsible
for / deaths of at least 25 per cent o /
men who have fallen in Gallipoli - about as
directly responsible as if he had shot them. Well -
what happens to him - Hanging is / proper
punishment but what happens A man like
tt ought to be hanged as surely as any
criminal - but what does his responsibility
mean." "He's wrecked his career,"
I sd - but I know what White meant.
you cannot pretend tt these ministers
act w responsibility - not even /
legal responsibility attaching to a
trustee. Impeachment ws / old
method of making them feel their
responsibility & it is still I
believe / only legal method.

"Look at these medical scandals,"
sd White " - what everyone in talking
about - the unpreparedness, the
muddle at Mudros - they were all
/ scandal tt is attributed to /
medical authorities wh they are talking
so much about. Do you think our
medical officials are really those

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chiefly responsible? I'd like to ask
some of these people tt talk about it
- I will someday - what they would
do in similar case. If they were part
of a city - Kalgoorlie or Broken Hill,
say, & they were suddenly transported
out into the turned out of their city &
transported into the back country
& all dumped down in / bush & told
they had got to live there a certain ages
together - I'd like to ask which of
them cd do it? wh cd draw up out of
his head / sanitary regulatns, the
city council bye laws, organise / whole
city sewage drainage & cleaning 
& disposal of garbage & water supply
and / whole working healthy regulatn
of a city out of his own head on /
spur o / moment? And yet tt is
what they expect these medical men
to do. To It is not Why were not
all these arrangements all made &
/ regulatns there ready. Its not / army
medical authorities who are
responsible for tt.

"I have asked again &
again - I begged Millen, when he
ws minister - to be allowed to

46
draw up a scheme for a force leaving
/ country; not a scheme binding any one
but to send troops away, in d not tt
in any possible degree - but a scheme
wh wd be ready there in case a
contingency arose in wh troops were
sent away; so tt / system wd be
there ready made if / contingency
arose - & / Govt o / day cd say "We
will adopt it" - or "we will not" - just
as it liked - that had nothing to do w
me. What I asked ws tt / scheme
shd be prepared in case /
contingency arose, as it has
arisen.

"What happened? They
just reached a stage at wh, at
/ outbreak of this war if I had
died suddenly there wd have be
no scheme at all. The whole thing
shd be on paper - as cut & dried
& clear & accepted by everyone as is
/ timetable in a raceweek - so tt every
on knows ^tt / wh moment mobilisatn is do
decided on the two o'clock train ceases
to run for a fortnight ..... I shd like
tt scheme to be known to / people - as
familiar & accepted as / holiday

A scheme - mobilisatn
medical etc.

Our system then right w essential
training.

But – better training for officers.

Ministerial responsibility.
Eg. for ordnance
plans etc.

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arrangements - not in order to make
/ people militaristic - I dont want
militarism but just as part of their lives
organisatn so tt if war comes they know what
to do & to expect....

"I begged of Millen to let me work
out such a scheme, I asked Pearce....
But they I am sure our citizen system is
right; w / cadet drills tt we have - every
part o / time properly used on essentials - 
& with, say, ten days continuous camp
for / men, we cd do it. We cd have /

"The men ^wd be fit to start on / instant tt they were
mobilised?" I asked -
"Yes - if / instruction were right.
There wd have to be some changes, but
/ system is / right one I am sure. We
shd have to have a far more thorough
training of officers.

"We cd get bright chaps from /
competitn amongst / cadets," I said.

"Oh yes - I've not / least fear as to /
brains being - adequate," he sd - "but
they'd have to put in longer time. And
employers wd have to understand
tt if a man were an officer he must
be allowed his afternoon off regulary
for / work as part o / regular system."

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& so on.

I can well believe tt White - tho'
he didn't say so - got nothing out of Millen
wh that gentleman thought inconsistent w
his security as a politician - / one object
on wh he kept his eye ^glued even after /
war broke out. All politicians tend
to be tt way. I dont believe A. J. Balfour
keeps an eye only on his own safety but
he's one of a very very few. To do
Andy Fisher justice I don't think he
does either.

Weather cooler again. They
say Munro has gone to Egypt? Trouble
there? or Salonica? or what?

A warship has bn banging abt
20 ^big shots, one every 10 seconds, probly
into some camp on / back slope of
Gun Ridge - poor old sleeping Turks;
Gen. Owen says they get 150 shells to
our 10 just at present. The

Gen. Owen says the Ts. have now
70 guns - abt. - opposite bearing on us; we
have 104. We have now a fair
mastery of fire & he says our
guns have easier & better positns
than theirs. There are abt 16 Turk.