Charles E W Bean, Diaries, AWM38 3DRL 606/56/1 - August 1916 - Part 1

AWM3S

Official History,
1914-18 War: Records of C E W Bean,
Official Historian.
Diaries and Notebooks
Item number: 3DRL606/56/1
Title: Diary, August 1916
Refers again to Lt E L A Buter; mentions 14th
Battalion and Mouquet Farm fighting in the last
week of August 1916.

AWM38-3DRL6O6/56/1
 Australian War Memorial RCDIG1066820

Aug 22

to 29

1916

ginal    DIARY NO. 56

AWM38  3DRL  606   ITEM 56 [1]

DIARIES AND NOTES OF C. E. W. BEAN

CONCERNING THE WAR OF 1914 - 1918

The use of these diaries and notes is subject to conditions laid down in the terms

of gift to the Austrlian War Memorial. But, apart from those terms, I wish the

following circumstances and considerations to be brought to the notice of every

reader and writer who may use them.

These writings represent only what at the moment of making them I believed to be

true. The diaries were jotted down almost daily with the object of recording what

was then in the writers mind. Often he wrote them when very tired and half asleep:

also, not infrequently, what he believed to be true was not so - but it does not

follow that he always discovered this, or remembered to correct the mistakes when

discovered. Indeed, he could not always remember that he had written them.

These records should, therefore, be used with great caution, as relating only what

their author, at the time, believed. Further, he cannot, of course, vouch

for the accuracy of statements made to him by others and here recorded. But he

did try to ensure such accuracy by consulting, as far as possible, those who had

seen or otherwise taken part in the events.  The constant falsity of second-hand

evidence (on which a large proportion of the wars stories are founded) was impressed

upon him by the second or third day of the Gallipoli campaign, notwithstanding that

those who passed on such stories usually themselves believed them to be true. All

second-hand evidence herein should be read with this in mind.

16 Sept., 1946        C.E.W. BEAN

AUSTRALIAN WAR MEMORIAL

ACCESS STATUS

OPEN

13

56

Aug 22

to 29

1916

[*34 Divn

103 [[shorthand]]

near La Bonnelle

or after 

Northumber. Fusiliers

(Tyneside Irish)*]

8    1

[*Bell

Courc.

Courc.

Shell 

Mouquet F

O.G.I

& shell

& wire

Shell burst

near Brinds Rd

3 Shells

in barrage

on Brinds Rd Ridge

2 of La Boiselle

Crater*]

Pipers
[[?Selkoute]]
Item ambulance
&  crater of Cas Coms
10 Chalk Pit.
Panorama
From Poz. SW
2 From S.W. Pozieres IV.
Bapaume Rd ⇣
⇡ Concrete House
Church
Brinds Rd.
S.Bs
S. Bs
S. Bs.
[[shorthand]]

[*List of photographs taken by Lt. E  Brooks at Pozieres  28/8/16*]

2

Aug 22 (continued later)

-----
Aug 26 4.45 am.
6 am  Bombardment.  6 Bde Bns

Had to follow the lifts, S & SW.

of Mouquet Farm

21st Bn attacked from 
about 33 a 81 to b.55 with B
Coy 22nd Bn on their left who 

went out from 81 S.W. (Skyline
trench) to form a defensive flank
[*OC Killed

Capt HE Smith

Capt RG Smith 21st Bn → brother

in

23 Bn

k. also)*]

The seem to have gone over

their objective - ? 33 a 54.77.27 (27D. 31)

& then bunched a bit abt 50-100

yds in front of it & lost from

m.g. fire while they were

coming back.

Reports 6.20am

"Line occupied from

27 to 100 yds East of 77.

Point 54 found to be very 

strong  & heavy artillery have

not reached it. Consolidatn of

isolated shell craters now proceeding at 6am

3

This first c-attack ws

from left. Guns 

were turned on &

nothing came of it.

8        4

6.28 am Enemy c-attack feared.

6.50  21 Bn reports tt they are

at 77 & in front of 54. Increased

artillery action required at 

once on green barrage line 47-42

westward of Mouquet Farm.
Diagram - see original scan

7am. 21 Bn (by pigeon). We have

been stopped and driven back at

various points. Enemy is now

shelling & lines v. heavily. Barrage

wanted 54. I have manned

1st line as strong as possible as

enemy appears to be advancing

in some strength.

7.40 21 Bn report they are 

at 77 in front of 54. Increased

arty action required at once from

line Mouquet F. Westward.

7.20 line now held runs 31-27-

near 77 south of 54 to S.W.

5

R27d ½ 5½

R27d 12

A Coy 22 Bn went in 93 strong

B ------------------------78 strong

8      6

21 Bn  7.20am Enemy reinfg.  from

54 towards 42. Barrages bn asked

for. As enemy has been seen

about 27. No inf. as to

22nd Bn detachment. Small

parties of advanced troops

are still occupying shell holes

& endeavouring to hang on &

supplies are being kept up

but carrying pties now

dwindling owing to casualties.

Shelling still severe.

(31 was lost later (near E of Mouquet

Farm). 

7.40am  21 Bn. Reinfts  

arrived. 54 is held by m.g.

& is very strong. Unable to 

state positn of our men as

nearly all officers are casualties.

Are now firing on enemy in left

flank 14 to 54 where enemy are

7

We had 31 but were

driven back out of it.

Forbes says we are 

back in the Quarry

He told the Int. officer of the 14^th

Bn that he had no men

forward of the Quarry.

The two aeroplane observers

have seen his men in shellholes forward.

8        8

seen in some force. We

have asked by wireless for

Stokes ammunition - enemy

also reinforcing from point 27.

----

Enemy seem to have c. attacked

Diagram - see original scan

from left first (or rather

massed for c. attack) and

on right later. (This is very

indefinite.)

The tramway now runs 

up to K trench & there is a

dump by the cemetery.

----

8pm. Aeroplane reports we

are almost exactly where 

we thought we were.

Diagram - see original scan

I believe there are 

Germans still in 27.

We have not 77 or

54 but go up to near

them both.

8         9

August 22 (continued)

the whizzbang shell burst 50

to 80 yards to our left, & I

ducked.

the next

I was ashamed of myself

the next minute. The man

on the side of the trench stood

up there with his back to 

that little spitting shell as

if it were no more than

rain. They didn't any of

them even trouble to look 

round. About 5 fragments

of small size hissed past

us & they took no more notice

of it than if a small boy

were throwing mud. They

were busy about their job -

getting a heavy burden

along over / crest to /

right place. 

They were stretcher 

bearers - Australian

8       10

stretcher bearers. They had
their white flag there - I

had often heard of their work

here before. But, by Jove, i never

saw it as we saw it tt 

morning.  It was if They have 

been the same since the day 

we landed in Gallipoli.

We were in K. trench

now. We went down for a

moment to Cam. Robertsons

H.Q. (9 Bn) and then on.

Casey suggested tt we should

go along K trench - I  

thought Centre Way, because

I don' t like K - it peters 

out & catches the barrage

in the open.

We went along it K. 

It became shallower &

shallower - & as we 

went the enemy just

happened to turn on his

barrage some way ahead

of us. He was throwing ugly