Charles E.W. Bean, Diaries, AWM38 3DRL 606/52/1 July 1916 pt3

16 l.
 

69   16m
32
Nomansland became very
wide - 500yds apt 200
further up. And the R. Leyes
crossed it at an angle.

The Bde ws to
have crossed this
as in this sketch.
But instead, when m.gs opened on
the men from the Sugar Loaf Salient
they seem to have sheered to the
right. One officer told me he didn't
think they really knew much abt
what they had to do or where they
had to go - but it is hard to
say how far it is true. They seem to
have got into the river
channel x there a
m.g. probably opened
on them from the base.

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o / salient firing straight up
/ stream. There were big shell craters
along / stream & many got into
these. Those who tried to get
[*?*] in to the S.W. o / stream went
straight into m.gs. Elliott
thinks there were 5 m.gs
in tt salient firing at them.
A very few distraught men -
quite broken up & wild &
almost beside themselves,
came in from this part of
Nomansland in / morning after
/ nights shelling & m.g. fire:
Only 1800 of the Bde reported in /
morning, but there may be more.
The wounded can be seen crawling
into shell craters by / river &
we are to try & get them in tonight.
As usual s. bs were very short,

69   18
& lots of wd. are left in Nomansland,
But the tale of missing is getting
smaller. It is not quite / disaster
which at first appeared. I shd say we
lost something between 4000 & 5000.
As Mackay ws busy I
went round all three Bde H.Qs.
Poor old Tivey looked quite over
done - w eyes like boiled gooseberries.
He had been up for two nights &
had bn thro his trenches today (quite
a fair no. of men were lost in
our trenches this morning by
German shelling). The one thing
he seemed anxious to assure himself
of ws tt his Bde had bn tried so
hard & had done as well as /
bdes in Gallipoli. "They Men who were at Anzac sd tt /
shell fire in Gallipoli ws childsplay
to this," he told me – & I've
no doubt it was. Another

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8^th Bde man told me tt a Gallipoli
Officer who ws in / action at Lone Pine
told him tt even then they never had
any shelling like this. And Tivey sd
to me simply - "1700 - thats about
"as heavy as some of the brigades
"lost at the Landing, isnt it?" & so it ws.
Well- from what I've heard - the
8^th Bde tho' it did come back right
fought as well as most o / Anzac
troops ever did.
Elliott Pope of the 14^th Bde rather disgusted
me by / boastful way he talked
- I think he had bn refreshing
himself after / strain. "Well - we
were / only Bde wh didnt come
"back till we were told to," he
sd w meaning. He ws rather
contemptuous abt Elliott & the
15^th Bde.
Old Elliott ws dead asleep

69   
20
when I called– but McClay McCay came
in a woke him up. When Elliott came
out I felt almost as if I were in /
presence of a man who had just
lost his wife. He looked down &
cd hardly speak - he ws clearly
terribly depressed & overwrought.
McCay was also, I thought;
anxious abt an order wh he
& Elliott had given for xx 2 coys
o the 58^th Bn to support between
the 14^th Bde & / British. The British
M^cCay explained, reported at 9pm
tt they had captured the cap
o / Salient - & so Elliot - w his
full approval - sent in 2 coys of
58^th to fill in / gap - an impt.
point if / gap had existed. The
men went thro / long grass and
low scrub & were going finely

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when m.gs got them & laid
most of them out. McCay explained
to me tt they had to be put in to tt
gap as the 61st Divn reported
tt it ws in. As a matter of
fact it never had the cap o / salient,
- by wh our people understood
the part shaded here.

If the 61^st got anything it
got the part shaded in
← this drawing. I believe
it also got in on /
right, where there ws little
opposition.
Our men went crawled over /
parapet at 5.45 - before /
bombt ended - & they had
infantry fire on them at once.
They went forward when /
bombt lifted at 6 & the m.gs

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started.
I wrote a cable calling it
an "attack" & saying / losses were
"severe". I took this to Amiens
(arriving there at 8.15 pm-) & I believe
the Censor passed it. He wdn't
have the bombdt described as
"heavy" "intense" as 4th 1st Army
objected tt there never ws an
intense bombt. The other pressmen
(or rather Russell) had bn up to
1st Army H.Q. so I suppose he
got his telegram off before me.
H. Wilson got him to censor it to
see tt I did not say anything wh
disagreed w 1st Army. They say
tt / official communique calls
it an "important series of trench
raids" - What is the good of
deliberate lying like that? The

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Germans know it ws an attack
- they have numbers of our wounded
as prisoners. We have abt 100 unwounded
& 30 wd. prisoners. (I ws told 250
but I believe this is wrong).
One feature ws / way our working
parties of Infantry & Engrs dug
the Commn trenches. There were
two for the 15^th Bde. They were

 to have started at
a partially made
Sap at A but
at the last moment the
61^st sd they wanted this,
so the 15^th dug at A1. They had
30 casualties in / little working
pty on this sap alone. They also
built dug one at B - but as /
troops did not go across the river
this party ws working right out

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in front "in the air." The
Germans deluged nomansland
w 5.9 shell.
The 14^th Bde had one good
sap on either flank (I think -
& the one on the left got thro.
It ws a really good deep trench
in parts. The 8^th Bde had
one & had many casualties from
m.g. fire (I believe).
What is the result of it -
What did White say?
We wanted (tho / men didnt
realise it ws only this - or not rather
some of them didnt, I know) - we
wanted to make / Germans think
we were attacking there – so tt he
wd hold his troops there;
As a matter of fact we
proved to him (what he wdnt

X written Shireton in case this
book were stolen - It was Contay.
Corps H.Q.
 

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know otherwise) tt we xxx
intended nothing serious - he
ws in doubt until we attacked;
We have now given him /
information. He could now if he wanted
withdraw half the men who are on that front
And we have put out of
action a fine division.
Returned to Shireton Contay by
10 p.m. Would have gone to
Albert but when I asked White
he sd it ws to be tomorrow night. It ws to have
been tonight but we got it put off in order to have the
arrangements complete. At / same time / French make a big attack, (a
little later in the evening) further South
The 1st army told the correspts
tt / Australians did quite well &
wd have held on if the 61st
Divn had done so - The 61st
Divn, they sd, were rather second