Charles E.W. Bean, Diaries, AWM38 3DRL 606/55/1 August 1916 pt9

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The Chalk Pit had so
some of showed signs of 
the recent fires there. It was
burnt out (& blown up) either
twice or three times. All sorts
of debris lies thinly covering
/ ground — barbed wire reels,
curly iron stakes for the entanglements,
burnt charred tins. New sandbag
dugouts have begun to spring
there again.
It was light now, but 
there was a mist & you
could only see 300 or 400 yards.
All else beyond was hidden by the
white weather curtain of vapour. 
We strolled up the road towards
Gibraltar (The Cement House)
& about halfway there got
into The Centre Way which ran past it. 
The trench was a little broken
down by shells & often expanded
into craters, but it was good on

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Parts pretty good
Parts very good indeed 

you can tell by the clear
cut stones, & the village
pond. In Pozieres there
are only 3 portions of
bldgs traceable & none of 
them properly can be sd to stand
even partially
As we went thro the village part I
said to Dick: [[?do u?]] "You'd think they
will have great trouble in resurveying
the boundaries here after
/ war-"
"I dont think they'll attempt it"
he sd.
"No I suppose they'll really
build their village somewhere else –
this ground is so full of debris."
Then he wondered in La Boiselle
later, whether  We wondered
whether it wouldnt pay better for
the inhabitants to keep their town
as an Exhibition. It is more
shattered then La Boiselle – there
there are at least 3 or 4 houses
(in bits) the foundation of the Church, wh

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/ whole. The enemy ws throwing
little shell about the landscape
– quite negligable.
As we passed the Church
I noticed tt it ws not so
perfect as I thought / other
day. I had had an idea of a
bit of wall still standing, but
there is apparently none – only
a mound of stones — (this size
↓ about compared w / figure
of a man)

one of the 3"bldgs" in Pozieres.

The trench had bn dugout
constantly in / village here
but of course it is
always being smashed in.
& is abt knee deep in many parts.
I recognised a [[?dung?]]manure heap
– an ordinary farm yard
dungheap of straw & stable
manure – which / trench
passed thro' ; but otherwise

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there was nothing at all
to be recognised — only
craters craters craters of
new turned earth – exactly
like a ploughed field.
As we went further –
the trench pretty good now –
I looked over & saw
that the surface there, NE of
the tram line trench, ws not
so smashed up. The tramline
itself is broken into lengths,
twisted, turned, bent back –
But some 
way beyond
it you get
into an
area where
there is 
still some
grass or weeds
growing –
& a few 
thistles &
 

Trench
The Tramway.
where the shellholes begin to
be less in area than the undamaged

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surface ; so that what you
see is the waste surface of the
earth - rather brown (I suppose with
scattered dust) but still flat —
with hundreds of shell holes in
it      like this. In
the most of this
Pozieres area there is no undamaged
surface at all — not one half
of a square foot, so far as I
could see.
The centre way led into
an old German trench which
was narrow & well revetted
with hurdles. And here you 
can see all tt is left of 
the Gardens of Pozieres —
the green painted iron front
railings are down there holding
up a short portion of the side
of the trench

Dugout entrance

There 
are odd
bits of
doors &
woodwork

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behind them brought in for/
same purpose, I suppose.
Presently we came to the old
bell with
a bit of
camouflage
(whisps of 
(straw or
(hay twisted int
into a string
net or wire
netting over
it to hide it.

The 1Bn H.Q. had had a shell
into it since last I ws there
 — just into the doorway. I
suppose tt ws what hit
White (the observing officer) & / other
artillery officer there.
The Colonel of 1st Bn was 
asleep — so we inquired /
way up to the 10th Bn. H.Q.
It was along O.G. 1 — very
much broken down – & it

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seemed a devil of a distance.
Still, the trench was not a
bad one as trenches go
in this area – about 5 ft deep
where it was not broken in.
We came upon the 10 Bn
signallers fixing up a wire
along / trench – of course it
had broken in / night. And
there lying in / bottom o / trench,
just as they had fallen / night
before, were three men of the
10th Battalion – One poor chap
had had his tunic & shirt
torn bare by some piece of
shell & you could looked down
past the bare white skin of the
chest almost to his back bone —
his whole body had been ripped
open — He was bent back
almost double as if he had
taken stricknine — I cant bear
to think of these things.  Another
had his skull broken in just
like an eggshell. A third

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lay peacefully there like
a wax figure on wh the
dust has long settled —
 

waxen, drawn, thin white 
lips slightly opened & eyes
shut — almost as if he
were lying leaning against
the wall o / trench w both
arms thrown out listlessly.
Others tt we came across
you could hardly tell for 
dead — they might have been
living men sleeping on / floor
o / trench — & indeed the
living were sleeping just
near to them. To were lying
dead just outside 10^th
Bn H.Qrs. There were a
number of the 10th here also,
sleeping in pozzies dug into / side o / trench.

As we Later when we 

left 10 Bn H.Q. we had to

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duck back along O.G. 1 & into
O.G.2 . Just where the two
comma trench reaches O.G.2
another short runs out of OG2
into  ; [?where?] in this
was lying a man – I thought
he ws a live man ; but on
a second look one saw at once
tt he was dead.  One as always several times
kept coming on them like this ——
it wd be w a shudder tt
one realised tt, poor chaps,
they had bn killed.
One is apt to think tt
it is callous of the Bn to leave
these men lying about. But
the living are worn out by
the morning – And if a ma
The dead are dead. The wounded 
they risk their lives for hourly – all
/ time.  As we were going up tt

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trench we saw two or three
men standing up on the bank
at / side handling a stretcher.
They were carrying a b a
wounded man ; [[?]] as there
ws no room in / trench for
carrying him they took him
over the open. There were
not many shells about
at this time. But there were
some all the time.
We went down into the
10 Bn H.Q. dugout. In a 
sort of a shelf-like cranny on /
left of entrance was the
adjutant. He was awake ;
next to him on / other side of / inlet was a man
asleep – Maj. Redberg, who
has commanded the 10 Bn since
Col. Weir left the day before. Weir
is a dear old chap —  & was

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the last of our original C.Os
left — but his age has put him 
past service. He can go back to
Australia with real honour.
From the first words the adjutant
said – or more from / tone in wh
he said then – I was sure that
the 10^th Bn had come back from
the it took last night.  It had.
The C.O. had a string of little maps
but the adjt complained that they
could not get news as to
what had happened or why.

I must say it has struck
me ever since tt the C.O.
ought not to have bn asleep at
that hour.  The whole operation
hung on his battalion — it had
gone in & come back (or some
had come back; some may
still have been out) ; I dont
know how tired he was & what