Charles E W Bean, Diaries, AWM38 3DRL 606/48/1 - June - July 1916 - Part 3

30

July 7 or 8
Went round our support
lines behind & N. of Ploegsteert
with Butler ^& Casey. An awful trench.
Messines staring at us from /
opposite hill all / time.  A battery
of 4 whizz bangs started to
snipe us & drove followed us along
/ trench for a mile -
they must have had 20
shots at us - but we crouched
in / trench when we heard /
shell coming & tho' some burst
close they did no damage.

6      31
Thrown 40 yards. ]
It is quite new to see guns in
houses, rosegardens, haystacks,
factories etc.
Because quite sure today,
from certain statements, tt the
1^st Anzac is going to leave
2nd Anzac &  go (shorthand).

____________________________

July 7.
The last week has been too
much of a scramble for anything
exc. the above scattered notes.
I will try & get down the
narrative of events as we saw
them before they fade..
Ross & I came home with
Herbertson from the 6^th Bde raid
at about 5.20 on June 30^th. While
A messenger woke me up at
9.30, with a telegram from Col. Hutton
Wilson, asking if it would be convenient
for Ross & myself to come down to Amiens

6      32
that day - Friday, to Hotel Belfort.
I looked up the map & found we
cd start at abt 1 o'c. & arrive
by 5 p.m.
Our car took us down very
quickly although it is not as full
powered as some of the Press cars
& the driver is a little slip of a 
chap & rather nervous - However
he is very careful which makes
up for it.
We went thro Merville, & 
St Venant;  turned South to
Lillers (past a colliery district -
the only place in France where I
have seen strong looking men in
civilian clothes going about their
ordinary work) - up into a more 
hilly district - not high hills
but rolling down, where cultivation
was much less intense & population
less thick than in Flanders. St Pot

6       33
Fernes, St. Pol, & Doullens
were all, clearly, for the time
being centres of some sort of 

British activities. occupied by
some sort of Head Headquarters lesser or
greater.  There were British
policemen controlling the traffic
in all of them.  Further South
nearer to Amiens we found
a V all the side lanes packed
with strings of waiting motor
lorries.  At one point in a
country road a second road
crossed us at right angles.  There
was no village about nor any
sign of one - just a crossing of
two roads in open country ; but
there ws a policeman stream of
transport from the West coming
up the cross road, across our
road, & on towards the East.
Waggon after waggon with men

34
1st Divn (shorthand) 

6      35
riding the mule teams passed
across. There was a policeman
directing / traffic here exactly
as he might in Piccadilly or at
/ Bank.  He ws just / military
policeman in khaki with
a black brassard containing a red
MP 
(drawing) on his arm. But he ws
clearly intent on not having
tt stream of traffic
blocked. Seeing we were
officers he slipped us thro' the
first gap in / line of traffic tt
he could find, & we went 
on.  About 4.15 we came
suddenly over a hill into view
of Amiens Cathedral standing
up in the plain - the road ran
straight to it. ^Nearly All the roads
run straight out of Amiens -
made by / Romans I suppose.
The Press was all at the

6
36
Hotel Belfort - & John
Buchan & a French Officer
as well.  John Buchan is a 
natty natty little Oxford chap of
the British civil servant type -
I shd have put him down as
one of the highish officials of the
Foreign Office (& indeed he is
doing some sort of work there)
He is a director of Nelsons, the
publishers, & is in the Councils
of Cabinet Ministers - He has
seen Jellicoe's report & says
it makes quite clear tt /
Germans lost 2 if not 3 battleships
- one of the Pommern, the newest
& latest.
[* Of course this was wrong ]
She wasnt new or
late -  but that may
be my mistake
C.E.W.B.
16.11.1915*]
They were mostly out
when we arrived. but we had 
We were given Cadge as
our Press Officer.  The rule is
that you must always have a

6       37
11.30 [[shorthand]]
Night of July 5
28.
U 15 a 38.
U 8 a 9.2
N 36. d 2.7

___________________________________

Press officer with you - but,
granted this, you may go
anywhere.  They had, I understood,
a position in a communication
trench all ready for us near
Bray - not far from the
Somme & 1000 yds from / firing
line from wh to see / advance.
This sounded worth doing.  I
was looking forward to it & so
was Ross.  The Germans might
reply onto our trenches but
it would ^not be likely at
tt distance to be as far as
on the night of the 1st Bn raid.
We had an idea tt / big
bombardment wd last 24

hours ^or 12 at least & that we shd certainly 

see this.  Charteris & Col Wilson
had both given us & / press their
word tt we shd see any
battle.

6       38
Col. Wilson suggested

 that after
tea we shd go 
out & see /
line - so Coldstream  Cadge took
us out - to a point where we
could see / Bombardment.
You could not hear any sound of
it at Amiens.  The town ws
busy - mostly French troops
in it in their light blue uniforms.
We whizzed out along the
long straight 
road to [*ie. towards*] Albert -
past Querrieu the 4th Army Hqrs (shorthand)
- in a beautiful chateau,
with Park the big house just
showing thro / trees - the
sentries outside always saluted
with a slap! onto their rifles
as if to say "We are It!" -
along the same straight rd
until at a hilltop we noticed
tt the left hand side o / road
ws screened with xxxxx greenish

6      39

canvas   ( Drawing )

-  much the most efficient

screen I had so far seen

in France ; down into

another dip - up to a 

second similarly screened

hilltop. (the road like all

Roman roads led straight

over them). A number of 

few cars were drawn in

here to / roadside; so we

got out - & went between

an opening in / screen

into a wheat field.

Below us in a valley 

was Albert. The big church

tower rose above it with its ^gilded broken

figure
( drawing) 
leaning at

right angles

over the street.

A little beyond 

the town on the left

6           40
were some trenches wh
at first I thought must be
our front line trenches - but
Xxxxxxxx Cadge sd it ws
only a support strong point
or redoubt. Beyond this
were two woods lines of
hills in / distance, with
scattered woods here & there
long / crests.  The far woods
were all behind / German
lines.  To the right of 
Albert ws a whitish 
xx village clearly seen
up a valley - the village
of Mametz.  This was
German. Between it & us
a low lying corner of a ruin
under a wood was all tt
we could see o / village of
Fricourt.  The chimney of (I think)

Moutauban showed in the far

6     41
distance to the S.E.
We had heard so much of
the bombardment tt I was a
little disappointed. It did
not seem to be so very
much heavier than our
casual bombardment before
the Lone Pine attack at Anzac.
We could see the dust & smoke
of heavy shell on the far 
ridges all up / horizon
( drawing) Albert    German Shell
& an occasional shell from /
Germans near our batteries.
This is somewhat as I remember
it - Not heavier than many
a bombt. I had seen at Helles