Charles E W Bean, Diaries, AWM38 3DRL 606/48/1 - June - July 1916 - Part 4

6                                   42
-but of course it had gone on
very much longer. One curious
thing we came back for was
that altho we were right
close up to some o / biggest
guns we cd  h hear
any except a very few - &
they were not loud.

We not loud  The balloons,
for / first time in my
experience, were all on
/ British side.
[Hand drawn sketch - see original]
Not a single German balloon
to be seen & about 18 of ours-

 

43
 

Extracts from

Extracts from 2nd Army Intelligence Summary

Newspapers
Information:
             

n 1st. ^ 2nd r(anzac.)                                         44
6  June 30.
Document captured E of Ypres.:
"You shd take great care
about / Canadians whom the
English have. They jump suddenly
into a trench & bayonet 5 or 6
or cut their heads off. God
keep you safe under / shadow of
His wings."
Prisoners didnt think Ens'
regular work ws done in our
trenches (abt Hooge) wh he had
seen - very much behind Germans in this
Germans were very
anxious to capture one of our
||| rapid T.M. guns. They had
orders to dig up anything tt might
be left of them in captured emplacements.

["Second Army Summary 22/6/18. An
announcement in a Saxon paper
indicates tt both the 13th Jaeger
Bn (XIX Corps) & the 25th Reserve
Jaeger Bn (XXVII R. Corps) were in
the Lille-La-Bassee Area on the 11^th
June (normal)"]
 

 6                                                    45
almost all of these were S.
of the Albert Rd; only 3
North of it. Brooks told us /
other day that / German
balloon he saw (/ day they
were destroyed) ws going up &
hastily being tugged down again).
We hurried back to
Amiens to dinner - abt
15 miles or perhaps &
the Colonel asked us if
we wd like to go out again
tt night. We jumped at it-
we shd see whatever from the bombt
whether an attack was likely
next morning.
It was a weird drive
out . We cd have no bright
lights - not even oil light
lamps during / last part.
About halfway out we came
upon infantry moving up thro'
 

6                                                                46
the dark. We threaded our
way slowly along beside
them - Some of them were singing
Tiperary; others were very
silent. I couldnt help wondering
what the officers were thinking.
They xxxxxx wd,
for a certainty, lose half their

numbers within the next
week - unless it ws all a
big bluff;  and it ws too far
gone for tt.
We went up to our
same position at Albert
behind the big guns. The
bombardment ws certainly
not intensive. There were
constant flashes on some
part o / horizon - 4 to 6 per
second - but I shd call it
a diffuse bombardment. It
was nothing like the picture wh
 

  6                                           47
we had obtained during /
raid of June 29/30 of
trees standing out agnst
flashes of shells & bombs.
[Hand drawn sketch - see original]
Date June 29/30.
Ross & I
both decided
on the 
strength of
this tt one
thing was pretty certain. They
could not be attacking next
day. The other pressmen had
spoken to us of last nights
bombardment being a most
beautiful sight.  Well I
daresay our ^sense of proportion
had been disturbed by the
bombardments we had lately
seen from underneath the
projectiles - here we were
far behind them. Also they
were probably mostly
 

  6                                               48
heavy shell. I saw little
shrapnel.
We got back at about
12.30 or a little later after
having nearly run into some
moving infantry turning off
/ road, & ourselves being
nearly run down by a great
lorry as soon as we had
stopped (we lit our tail
light after that.)

[*[July 1.]*]  Early next morning
XX I heard a rap
on my door. It was
Ross who had been knocking
very hard to wake me
(Each o / last two nights
I had spent at raids, but
had a very good sleep after
/ first raid). "Its 5 o'clock
& we've got to be down
stairs by 5.30," he sd; "Theyre
 

6                                                49
going to tell us something."
I hopped out & shaved.
Clearly the attack was on
after all. I shaved &
found / others downstairs.
Some of us had a cup of
coffee & a bun at a small
cafe' opposite. & then went
The cars were very
late. & Gibbs was angry
about this, I cd see. We can't
have started much before
6 o'c. We whizzed out along
the Albert road- &
as the cars began to stop at
the Screens at the same
old place I realised for
/ first time tt this ws /
place where / Colonel
intended us to see /
bombt. from. Mow
thoughts However, one
 

6                                                  50

thought, perhaps this is
only for the bombardment.
I daresay later they will
take us on to the Communicatn
trench & let us see /
infantry attack from there.
We got out & strolled to
/ knoll to / North o / road.
The Colonel said tt if we
clumped we shd probably
draw a shell; but this
seemed absurd - we were
behind our own big guns.
Gibbs Reynolds Thomas &
I stuck together & old Ross
came up later - we sat
on / parapet of an
old trench amongst /
mustard flower - or stood on
it.
Just before we got out
of our car the first three or
 

51
This is what is sounded like. 

[Hand drawn sketches - see original]

Or this

[Hand drawn sketches - see original]

6                                              52
four big guns went off
& then in came / others
with the banging as of a
hundred packing cases all
being bundled along at once.
Curiously enough we could
only hear the bombardment
N. of us - except for one
big howitzer (I saw
him afterwds - a big 12 in
chap on a  rly mounting
[Hand drawn sketch - see original]

in amongst
/ trucks
& carriages
on a siding). It was as
though four men with
two huge drumsticks
each were banging as
hard as they could the
sides of some huge iron
tanks.
The notes I put down at
 

   6                                              53
the time - & the diary article
which I wrote up from them
next day - give the account of
tt bombardment as we
watched it - & I have simply
not the time to repeat them.

[The article is simply expanded
from the more interesting
notes, filled out with my
recent memories of it, but
does not contain all the notes].

We came back from
It was not till we reached
the place, that I heard tt /
/ bombardment was only to be
for an hour, and that was
realised tt we could not
see the infantry go over. They
thought - the Colonel did - that
it might be difficult for us
to get back from /commn.