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

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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 
Cadge & Ross & I were yesty.
Gibbs w Cadge & 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
Ros 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 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 shrapnel 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
 

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[Sketch - See original 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
Tannhauser. 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.
 

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There were a lot of live bombs
lying about on the floor - stick
grenades almost all of them, as a
[sketch - see original document] clip to clip into
your belt. I had no matches
unfortunately. I rummaged round
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 port.
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
 

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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 xx
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 Cadge and Coldstream
were sitting by our old observatn