Charles E W Bean, Diaries, AWM38 3DRL 606/48/1 - June - July 1916 - Part 7

6

78
up. The 25 & 26 are I believe
still in the trenches; & part
of / 2nd Bde, I fancy. 24th
Divn is taking their places.
The NZ sector has bn extended
to take our old 6th Bde
sector, & the 4th Divn will
reach up to them - the N.Z.
guns are in place now.
We looked in at the 9th Bn
today. They had bn told to
prepare for a route march.
In / afternoon early we saw
them off - to St. ^Omer. They
didn't seem to know it ws /
real thing.
Transport is / gt

diffy. Things simply have to
be their own way. The men are
also a bit soft after trench
work for weeks & months.
When coming back we

79

Hand drawn diagram - see original document
6

80
met near Outersteen a
pack of fellows in every
pattern of running things
running towards us down /
road like a big paperchase.
They were Australians. They
must be training for some
raid - Two heavy officers
brought up / rear, solemnly
trotting.

_______________________________
By the bye - Griffiths showed
me the papers in those two
cases of political interference 
- one by Hughes & one by Fisher -
which I thought had occurred.
Fisher's letter on behalf of Reynolds
was a very fair manly one
"God forbid tt I should do
anything wh wd increase
your difficulties - but it struck
 

6

81
me that he did not do one
thing wh is generally done
by many under / same circumstances 

& that is - blame his
superiors."  & so on.  The
latter was referred by Birdwood
to Walker & It ws decided 
to give Reynolds another chance.
In the case of Billy Hughes
constituent who wanted
to be sent back to Australia,
Hughes simply sent on the
man's letter (wh ws quite
a proper thing to do). The
staff made inquiries &
found tt / man ws in
hospital & / matter ws
left there. Nothing was done
on this letter.
Griffiths also tells me
tt although everyone is a
bit against Legge, Legge is
 

6

82
a very able administrator
& a clever man. Griffiths
says Legges one idea (so he
thinks) is " What is good for

Australia?". He doesn't
think Legge is always out
for himself so much as but
for his country.

July 10.  Down to Vignacourt.  Germans raided NZs at Mushroom last night or night before. Left "many dead".

July 11. Trench [shorthand] 2nd Anzac not success.

___________________________________________________________
(Story of July 2 continued) 
we walked along this trench
until the wood of Fricourt
(we had thought it ws a much more
distant wood) came in sight, ^& round
/ edge o / hill we began to see
the yellowish stumps o / blgs
of Fricourt standing up agst
 

83
The white shapes under
the wood are the buff -
coloured ruins of Fricourt  ⇢
In front of them a trench leading
up the hill. 

Two Trucks standing in what
had bn Fricourt station, or ⇢
Siding. It was Nomans land &
I suppose they had stood there
for 2 years ever since the
station staff hurried off on /
approach o / - Astrns' - or
since / Germans, using / French
rly lines after their rush on Amiens,
but had to dig in & go to
ground hurriedly on / approach
o / allies turning movement in
October 1914.
 

6

84
the dark shadows of the woods interior
 

Hand drawn sketch - see original document

Men were going into the wood
& others were peering over
some of the Northern ruins into
the ^further interior of the village.
One's heart was
lightened as it is when one
arrives at a cricket
match & finds that your
own team has got a
real good start of the other
side - 180 on the board
only one wicket down.
Clearly we had taken
Fricourt.
 

6
84A

Cadge suggested tt we shd
move along our trench a
little - so we walked along
the parapet & round /
corner o / hill where we cd
see up towards Montauban
& Mametz wood.
There were some men
walking about in / long
grass ahead of us - odd
onlookers, I thought. One
party of them was lying
down in the parapet
of the trench or sitting
on it. (The trench was
cut like our Gallipoli
ones, deep & narrow &
winding & the sides of it
were not revetted- but
were simply of red earth
just as in Gallipoli.
We lay down near these
 

6

85
chaps - or sat on the parapet.
One of them had a telephone &
was apparently also passing
orders at times to someone
with a telephone in a dugout
in the trench. Evidently they
had installed their telephone
in some deserted dugout off
this communication trench.
Some sort of signallers, I
thought. They were in
communication with two
people - & it gradually
became clear tt some of them
were observing & passing
observations back to infantry.
Down the opposite slope
o / hill ws coming a party
of prisoners - ^or rather along a road
wh ran up / bottom o /
valley. I watched them
step outThe observers
 

6
86
(one or two officers & at least
one man or N.C.O. were looking
thro' telescopes) were watching
the upper corner of Fricourt
Wood.
"What are those men there?.
sd one.
"They're our's I suppose!"
"But they're coming this way
aren't they - they're coming
back."
"They've got their hands up
- they're prisoners."
I was trying to get my
glasses onto the point described
- Ross saw them, but I didn't.
While I was doing so I heard
fragments of conversation - 
not very clearly.
 "Our men fired on them

 - some of 'em dropped - "
"Sent 'em back again-"
 

6

87
"They weren't having any."
"Telephone to Major . . . . &
say. " Another big lot of
prisoners is coming in."
I was searching /
skyline o / hill opposite to
try & make out / position of
our front line; when I
turned my glass off it there
were prisoners - a big batch,
perhaps a hundred, coming
slowly down / opposite
hill. Whether some others
were shot & turned into /
wood again, or whether that
referred to some incident
earlier in / day I don't
know. But x I have put
things down exactly as I
remember them.
Our men had the
whole slope o / hill opposite
 

88
Hand drawn sketch - see original document

 
6

89
us N.E. of Fricourt - right to
the wood on / top - wh they
called Shelter wood. Occasionally
one saw them in a red trench
on / hilltop but I am not
sure tt they had / whole of
this. It seemed to run to /
corner of Fricourt Wood; &
just where it entered
Fricourt Wood there were
some men lying not in /
trench but outside of it.
 

hand drawn diagram - see original document

I sat listening to the 

Colonel w / observation

party talking about

Shelter Wood, Lozenge 

Wood -- & The Poodles & trying to

make out what these places 

were ("Our infantry is still

held up near the Poodles by

that machine gun!") the colonel