Charles E W Bean, Diaries, AWM38 3DRL 606/49/1 - July 1916 - Part 2

11

round. However, when we I got down
 to Breakfast Ross told me he wanted
 to write a bit & sd tt Beach Thomas
 wd like me to go out w] him (he
 generally shares a car w Russell).
 Thomas asked me to show him where 
Cadle & Ross & I were yesty.
Gibbs w Cadle & Coldstream
were in a car just ahead of
 us. I guessed they were going to / same place. Reynolds Thomas
 & I followed. When we left / cars
 (near Becourt) we split into 
two parties. Some of the same
 artillery officers who were there /
 day before were still there. We
 passed Darling & Reynolds
Thomas & I decided to go
 on into Fricourt. Our trenches
 were not always easy to jump over,

11. 12
but we got down thro a gap in
our wire & found ourselves on
a smooth narrow stretch running
down / hill. There were two
lines of young apple trees - one on
each side of it & this narrow
strip running obliquely down / hill
between them. I had to pull 
myself wits together before I realised tt
this was a main road -
it had run down / face of /
hill opposite / German trenches
& had not been used for 2 years.
We crossed it & clambered
down towards the embankment
of another road running through 
the valley. Behind it were
already 4 howitzers - out in
/ open. Traffic was moving
along the embankment - just

11. 13
an ambulance or two & some
transport - going up into Fricourt.
A big shell or two burst in /
far lower end of Fricourt - but
no one worried at all - anymore
than they wd have done at Anzac.
There is no nerve-shattering effect from
isolated shells like tt. It is the
crash crash crash of shells all
round you tt breaks up all except
/ best nerves.
Before we realised it we
found ourselved cross passing
thro our own wire & across
what ws once Nomansland.
then in through / tangled shattered remnants
o / German wire to the dust heap
wh once was Fricourt.
It reminded one more of
a municipal dump than of

11.   14
anything else - heaps of tumbled
bricks & mortar with big
craters all through them some
about as big as a fair sized
room. Bits of wire from /
entanglement were thrown about
amongst these bricks or in / floor
o / trenches. The trenches were
deep & not revetted - the walls
stood by without support - just as
they used to at Anzac. We
jumped straight into them - there
wasn't / least danger really as
I don't think a single shell fell in
Fricourt while we were there , but
I felt safer w my head below
/ level of flying scraps if there
were any ; & walked along them.
The front trench was hardly
knocked about & broken down

15

Sketch, see original scanned document
 

11.  16

but not more than our trenches
between Steeles & Wire Gully at Anzac
when the 6 in how was playing 
on them. I should think it must
have bn very dangerous in /
trench itself. Some of the surface
works were broken in - for example
a dugout on the trench level, &
/ sides o / trench were battered
had fallen in in places. There was
a machine gun positn enfilading
the stretch of Nomansland North of the
road embankment.  The _∧ A m g. belt of
m.g. ammunition lay there
A m.g. belt lay there - used -
& two steel plates for observing -
Both glasses were broken in the periscope.
Three German scrapnel helmets
lay in / bottom o / trench
behind - one (wh Thomas picked

11. 17
up & gave to me) w a _∧ bullet hole
through it. The bullet had not gone into / chaps head
but had just grazed his
temple &_∧ then flattened itself agst /
roof o / helmet.
The trench, as I say was
fairly battered. But for  xx
the dugouts were not. For
the first time since leaving
Anzac I here saw a decent
dugout, deep & dug deep below
the trench side. They were The
entrance went down obliquely
about 10 steps & then at the
bottom was a fair sized room
in wh the tallest man cd stand
upright. I went into one close
to where we entered / trench.
There were 12 steps counting, the top

11. 18

Sketch of trench

See original scanned document

11. 19
There were 4, if not 6, wooden
bunks in it stowed like the bunks
of an emigrant ship.
Thomas & I went down there
& I should have liked to rummage
about much longer. The blankets
were tumbled about just as they
left them (or perhaps our men had
been there before searching for
souvenirs - but I dont think
so, because in the little box
cupboard let in to / wall
like ours in Gallipoli, were
3 or 4 bottles of a German
table water with a name like
Tannhaũser . There was the wrapper
of some small table game, & a
penny novelette.
The bunks were of white
wood roughly made, with matresses
of _∧ light hoop iron gridironed.

20
These dugouts seemed to be every
7 yards or so - & some I think had
two entrances.They certainly communicate
sideways ; & they showed not/
slightest trace of any disturbance from / bombardment.
The only sign of it I saw in any
was a bent rifle barrel, & tt had clearly
bn brought down from outside.
They were cut in / chalk so tt /
walls _∧ of one looked as if they had bn cemented.

11.  21

There were a lot of live bombs
lying about on the floor - stick
grenades almost all of them, as a
  Drawing -  to clip into
your belt. I had no matches
unfortunately. I rummaged amid
the corner & found a passage
leading right forward under the parapet,
shut off from the dugout by a partition
boarded w wood. At the far end of
it I could see light oozing thro'
some opening - so it clearly
opened in a sally post.
Thomas was anxious to get
on & so I had to come up before I
had half seen the place - we
walked along a little more trench
but I shd have liked to stay there half
the afternoon. As we left There was
a dead German lying in the shallow

11.  22
bit of trench - I think his head ws
bandaged ; & as we walked back
over / rly line & / road we saw
beside / embankment three our four
of our own men lying - I think they
must have bn shot during a partial
retirement - for we didnt take
Fricourt at / first attempt. Thomas ws
seemed very affected by this - he didn't like this being near it.
We climbed up / hill opposite
to our old positn of yesty. As
we went there arose from further S
the din of a tremendous bombardment
- bom -bom-bom-bom ! bom bom bom bom
very fast, salvoes run into one another
almost like the rolling of a kettle drum -
I have never heard it like tt before. It 
ws the French further S. The hills
shut it out from us.
Gibbs & the others Cadle and Coldstream
were sitting by our old observatn