Charles E W Bean, Diaries, AWM38 3DRL 606/56/1 - August 1916 - Part 2

8    11
black bigh explosive shrapnel
(or rather grey - like the grey
of a Persian kitten) some 4.2 or
5.9 shell percussion shell &
some field gun shell - all mixed_
about 15 shell a minute I
dare say but it seemed like
30 - out the ^ part o / K trench along
which we shd have in 3 
minutes to pass. We went
along dodging from crater
to crater until the craters
were getting very small
& some of the shells were
bursting behind us -
Dick got a bit ahead but I
picked him up around a
bend of trench waiting.
"What do you think Beano?"

he said.
"I think its too hot to go

on.  How about choosing a

decent bit of trench & waiting?" 

8    12
We got into a good angle -

tho' shallow - but some o /
bursts were falling well behind
us.  "I vote we get back & go

round Centre way" - I sd.

"I think we'd miss it there."
So we jumped up & ran

along tt trench like rabbits

in & out of craters.  when

one shell ^was coming XXXXXXXXX

XXXX I took a dive for a

xxxxxxxxx crater - tripped

& fell headlong into it &

next instant there some

one crashed in on top 

of me - it was Dick doing

a similar dive.  Within

a minute we were in a better

cover positn well away

from it.  I noticed an artillery

officer & some pioneers

 

8    13

crouching bending down in a sap

waiting - they had told us

K trench was alright but

I noticed they didnt come

out into it themselves.

We took a breather &

then went round by /

tramway trench to the

Centreway.

In Tramway trench

was a dressing station -

12^th Bn.  The As we

got to it two lots of

men were clambering
up on the bank to join

some of two other groups

who were standing there in

the open up against the

sky.

They were stretcher bearers.

They were just setting out 

8    14

to carry their stretchers slowly

through the sta along a

path which would almost

certainly lead in about

straight through that barrage!

X I heard someone

somewhere - in the trench

I think - say "It's bloody

murder!"
Well - it was a 

days lesson to me in

stretcher bearing, that day,

We went our

long detour & then back

along Centre Way.  The

barrage was still on &

Centre Way seemed to

head straight for it.

"I begin to doubt if I
 

 

8    15
was right about ^this getting

round it,"  I sd to Dick.

But it did.  The trench

was very open - blown open

& tumbled in - but the pioneers

were improving it.  It led past

the ^Church & very close to that

barrage - 20 yards

away from it in some parts. 

But / German is so consistent

& so accurate that altho'

shells burst up to within

20 yds to the right of us - in

/ direction of K trench - none

burst overhead.  I may We

came in past under / shoulder

of tt barrage as if it had

bn a solid thing.  About

20 men were filing along our

trench & there were Pioneers working. 

8    16

on deepening it.  Some of them had

stopped work in certain parts &

were keeping low - I suppose

fragments had bn flying;  but I

saw no man touched.  although

I cut my nose w my XX pince-

-nez in ducking onto a telephone

wire from a near burst.  That

was the only blood I saw spilt.

I always feel surprised

when I get alive out of Pozieres -
I don't pretend to be brave. I
want very much to write the
history of this war & its seems
to me that every time one gets
into those hot corners I wonder
if I am not really doing the
wrong thing. However, I
had resolved to understand
/ country out on that left.
Going back this morning in

/ car w Dick past the 

8    17

ruins of La Boiselle I resolved

-I will go to Pozieres once

more, with the official

photographer, to get the

pictures the Australian records

seem to need.  And that will

finish the job.

That day - on my

reaching the camp in the wood -

Bazley told me that Jack

was at Warloy - a few miles

from Contay.  I thought my

heart sank with a thump -

not back to the front again

-there had been casualities

amongst medicos - had they

posted him to a battalion? (I

know he wanted the 3^rd Bn)

But When it turned out he was

at the Special Cases hospital

8     18
(for abdominal & chest wounds)
I breathed ^freely again.  I

got the X 7th Field Amb. (now

in the Chateau) to let me

sit on the front seat of one

of their ambulances &

we went to Warloy with

a load of poor damaged

chaps - some, at least, had

seen all the war they

wanted to.  A French porter

begged a ride part of the

way - he was in blue

grey uniform like all their

workers & made a trip

for some purpose twice a

day from Albert to Contal-

-Maison.

"Our people are very

8    19
tired - very tired of the war",
he sd. "The soldiers want
it to end."  (He obviously quite frankly
was speaking his own feelings
too) The Germans are
harder", he said (a

word that meant seemed to mean "tougher"

too).  "They are more 'brute'

than we."  It ws curious

to listen to a Frenchman

admitting this without the

admitting this without the
least diffidence - The Germans
say the same of the French.
The prisoners tell me they
find the British "Zieher" -
tougher.
Stayed the night at
Warloy with old J. Bla
arranged the next. 

8    20
Wednesday August 23rd
Write my diary at

Jock's all the morning.

Lunched with White

who sent his car for

me;  & later rode drove with

him to 2^nd D.H.Q.

he ws anxious to

find out the "make"

of the land on the 

ridge behind Thiepval.

were we on the crest

yet?  which was the

commanding feature?

In this war of trenches

(tho it is beyond tt now)

-of shelters & holes in /

Earth - it is a little

difficult to realise the

lie of the land - where