Charles E.W. Bean, Diaries, AWM38 3DRL 606/55/1 August 1916 pt11
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a wounded man coming into
12 Bn Advanced H.Q,xx who sd "They must do
something with tt sniper—" &
kept on repeating it —
nerves, of course, but I
suppose he had been hit by
a sniper.
"Thank God for / mist"
said Halaban. Presently we
came down / hill a bit onto
the sunken road. There ws
no trench on the road - it
ran out onto / rd. The
trench entered the oppositecutting bank at / top &
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ran down / valley
so tt we were very quickly
out of all danger of snipers.
You could see from here
quite clearly the line of
our men working on their
trench out towards the 6 12th Bn.
about 40 yards out from
us. Some were standing in
the open - carelessly walking
about. Others were waist
or shoulder deep in their bit
of trench. The morning
mist was behind them -
fortunately - or the enemy
wd surely have had a
m. g. on them. I suppose
his next trench ws invisible
from there. Later we heard
half a dozen sniping shots
& I could not then see
any of our men. Perhaps
this sent them to ground. (over ½ doz. popn)
Joint 7 & 12 Bn
Aid post July 23 or 4
in Gunpits near Sunken Rd
Fisher M.O. 11 Bn away lying dn
Tozer " " 12 Bn } hit
Campbell " "7th Bn } "
Fisher ws away at moment
Tozer, Campbell wd.
Sergt Nimmis 17. amb. k.
Tozer bullet in over left eye into
brain through right ear.
127
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Digression 12 Bn in Aug 19 fight
? Aug 21
XII Bn. Got into cross trench
47-91 Saw Germans bolting
into further trench. Followed
them there - they cleared
from there also; went
on into Mouquet farm
and bombed dugouts - took
some prisoners there.
They went into one dugout
& saw some a m.g. down
there but cd nt bring it
away. Had previously
bombed up trench 55-48
- threw bombs (5.4.7.2)
into these. There were
screams & they went
straight on - (It
must have bn some of these
who came out afterwards).
Lt Hearps ws wd in M neck by one
new appt.
129
Leo Butler (Account
received from xxxx Maj. Rafferty)
ELA.B.
Leo.
Abt ^9 to 9. 15 p.m. on left flank of
B & C. Coy, holding with a small platoon of men
the left of the 12 Bns position. He had had a spell & was later to have
gone to / firing line when he was hit by a piece of shell.
If the relief had not bn coming in he wd have been off that post.
A man named Richardson ws killed
along side of him.
Corpl. Yanner picked Butler up
& carried him to where there ws a block in /
trench towards my dugout. Yanner ws
exhausted & had to leave him there. He arrived
in an exhausted state. He came & reported what
had happened. We sent out at once the stretcher
bearers & decided to bring him in. It is very difficult to
get people up & down there. We thought it wd be
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1 of our shells in Mouquet
F. & ws carried into dugout.
_____________________________________
safer to bring him in right away to / dugout.
2 S/Bs saps assisted by Tilley (Major
Raffertys batman) brought him in and
we sent along for the doctor straight away.
[*Sap blocked in 24th*] The S/Bs had to go right along in /
open and possibly tt is when Butler was hit a
second time.
Tilley found them and
guided them down. He (Butler) ws
v. calm & collected. He
complained of there being a lot
of blood on the stretcher under him. He asked
for a cigarette and smoked it.
Abt midnight or a little
later the doctor came & gave him something to
send him to sleep for a while. He sd he felt
all day tt something ws going to happen to him.
131
They wd not let him talk or let him know tt
they had sent for the Doctor. He was quite content
to take his chance & did not want to be attended to
while there were other wounded to be attended to.
The Bn came away abt 3am. & arrived
at / Pozieres
S/Bs volunteered to remain behind to bring
him down, as they cd bring him down under white
flag. The S/Bs said tt / Germans
would not interfere with them so long as they
had a white flag - in the day time.
He shook hands & sd he ws thankful for all
tt had bn done to him.
Capt. Williams 24
Bn evacuated him.
Capt. Johnson had gone up &
fixed him up in night. Capt.
Williams had promised to send him
along. Johnson had already been
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relieved & went up into / line thro' a
very heavy
barrage. Nearly every ?bed? that they came to,
wherever he came across a wounded
man he injected them -
Johnson stayed in Pozieres
till daylight - then went
to Becourt to tell them there so tt someone
wd take an interest in Butler.
Corp. Yanner. Asked for an exp.∧erienced A.M.C.
man & fresh s.b.s. as own
s.b.s were utterly worn.
Never expected Doctor to come up
Dr came up & / s.b.s
carried him down
He ws attached temporarily to C Coy. He had
decided to stay there & had asked to do so. The men
jumped at him at once. There ws something grand abt
him. Major saw him one day reading something. Major
asked him (it ws at Herissart) "Is that poetry?" He sd"
"No, its a New Testament. I promised my mother
I would read
[* a bit every day & I intend to keep that promise"*]
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Yanner had bn shell shocked
3 times already & had been
shivering at midday.
Bn runners running
all day & diving into dugouts
w sweat running.
Boy of 19 delivered operation
order
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Mouquet Farm
from point 60 - Friday 25 Aug.
135
Angus Butler 180 field Co. RE
8th Division
1st Army
Chateau Des Pres
S. of Beuvry.
1st Corps.
w Lillers
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136
Tues Aug 22 (Continued from
½ doz. pages back).
(The narrative goes back here, to our walk on the 10th
& the 11thBn front before we reached the sunken road)
CEWB 1927
I could not see any
German trench out through
the mist – only an almost
level hill brown hilltop. The
trench was pretty broken that
we were in; & I am afraid
under these circumstances I as
far as I am concerned
the chief idea is almost always
how soon shall we get to
decent cover - & the surrounding
country only forms a sort of
background to that idea.
We came, before we knew
it, right out on the sunken
[*xShd be East*] road 500 X yds xWest of Mouquet Farm. These
places are like a nightmare -
you scarcely recognise them
when you find them. It is like
coming on a man & finding him
skinned - you wd have to look
twice to see he was a man. The
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country has been flayed. There
ran the road alright - a straight
strip between banks.
Men were digging
across it further
up - there where our trench
came out on it - or were
digging near the banks of it there.
The 12th Bn had put in a pick
where they got to & the 11th had done
the same & they were working towards
one another. The 11th had started
late (or rather, not at all) & had
only, when ordered to go to their
objective, moved up the two
common trenches towards 91 & 01.x
[*xThis was in accordance with their orders*]
We descended the hill pretty
rapidly from the Sunken rd &
I realised tt we were out of the snipers
range at once. Only one German
whizzbang was skimming low over
head & bursting just down / hill.
Here we found / dugout of Maj. Rafferty
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who ws in command of C. Coy 12th
Bn. As we dodged into / German
dugout I heard a cheery voice
say "Hallo Charlie!"
It was Leo Butler. I was immensely
relieved to see him. I saw him a
few days before at Herissart & knew
he was with the 12th; & I dreaded
his being hit for Uncle Ted's sake.
Uncle Ted is wrapt up in Leo & his
health has been very bad for some
years. It was a scarcely bearable
wrench to them to let Leo come -
Angus was over here already.
It made me feel happy all day to
have seen Leo there after the fight.
He & I sat yarning in the half
dark of the lower steps of the shaft to the
dugout. It had been a very heavy xxxx night
- the German barrage falls down on
the support trench on that reverse xxxx slope
of the hill - it was Leos first
experience of action but he made
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little of it. He said their men
had got into the Farm (he hadn't
gone out) & bombed the dugouts -
& they carried a wounded
officer down into one - there ws
a machine gun in it. They
had to come out of the Farmx
[*xThis was to join up their line.*]
but had hung on quite close to it.
[Several people say they have found
the "farm" very hard to locate. But
they take some fallen timber
& debris to be the place].
Leo had to go off to ration
his platoon. Dick Casey & I
got some details on the map from
Rafferty & Lt Goode. Rafferty sd
that we had never held Pt. 55. (I
hear he is wrong - that the German
strong point is at 48.) Anyhow
/ Germans had a strong point in
that trench. Col. Robertson of the
9th agreed w this when we reached
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