Charles E W Bean, Diaries, AWM38 3DRL 606/57/1 - August - September 1916 - Part 1

AWM38

Official History,

1914-18 War: Records of C E W Bean

Official Historian.

Diaries and Notebooks

Item Number: 3DRL606/57/1

Title: Diary, August - September 1916

Mentions Capt R Harwood, other war

correspondents, German prisoners and the

fighting of early September 1916.
 AWM38-3DRL606/57/1

Original
DIARY NO. 57
AWM 38
3DRL 606 ITEM 57 [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 Australian 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 writer’s 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 of writing, 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 war 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 usyally, themselves believed, them to be true. All
second-hand evidence herein should be read with this in mind.

16 September., 1946.
C.E.W. BEAN.
AUSTRALIAN WAR MEMORIAL
ACCESS STATUS
OPEN

14

57

13     1

Aug 29/30  To Sept 1916

Attack of Aug. 28/29/30                                
A storm down came up
v. black at 4 o'clock. It
brought down a balloon.
The French bombt wh ws
on for tt night  all tt day continued to
on into / middle of the storm, &
then ceased. It cleared later
by not thoroughly - the sky
was still dripping & showery.
I thought our attack
might be countermanded
but at 11 o'c. we heard
/ big guns behind us open,
so it ws clearly on. I
went out & stood by Charlie                     
- / big Gippslander at /
 

13     2
coffee stall; & as we
watched / lights it seemed
to us tt / attack had succeeded.
The German flares seemed
to have died out altogether
in / direction o / point
attacked although bunches
of green & orange & occasionally
red lights came from /
points where / flanks wd
be.
Next morning the boy
on / coffee stall told me tt a
man coming down had told him tt
the 13^th Bn had two goes at their
part of it & failed both times.
 

13     3
I went across to Divn
& later saw Capt. Harwood 16 Bn
(who had a bayonet wd. in
the knee) at / dressing stn
in Albert (13^th F. Amb.)
He said tt the artillery
barrage ws splendid - they
followed close up to it
- all in one line - & got
into the Trench NE of
Mouquet Farm.
They got in at 31, & 42
but not so far as 73.
Those the other side o / Farm
got either to 77 or 29. We
are not & never had been
at 59 before tt night, he 

sd.
 

4
The 13th did not get
up from 91 as far as 73.
 

13     5
There were plenty of Germans
in / trench, in shell holes
& in craters  dugouts &
common trenches. Our men
bombed them hard from
the parapet. We threw
bombs down / dugouts - in
one instance a German
threw a bomb up & wounded
/ man who was throwing
bombs down.
As we tackled one
entrance the Germans wd
be bolting from another
- or jumping out of shell
holes back into / trench.
We only took over a
weak force (there were perh.
 

13     6
600 in the 16th Bn.)
& they were not continuous
in / trench. The Germans
came back from 69 & 12
& began to attack with
their little long distance
bombs. We became broken
at 42 & Harwood &
 his men S. of 31 lost touch
w / party between 42 & 73.
H. sent orders across ⇡
for that party to retire &
some at any rate of it
got back - some may have
bn captured or killed.
In the Farm we rounded
up 50 prisoners & just as
we were preparing to
 

13     7
send them back a
machine gun opened from
/ outbuildings on the
N. end of the farm (or where
/ outbldgs had been).
The prisoners were lost &
we were driven out.
On the right the
13 Bn going for 36-66-95
found it hard to keep
up w / arty barrage
but they got to the
intermediate trench. When
they reached the far
trench the Germans are
sd to have bn all ready
standing up w bombs.-
The wounds are very
 

13     8
largely bomb & m.g.
The men are plastered
with mud - thick with
it - yellow-red paste
all scraped on as if with
a pallet knife.
One chap sd he
tried "14 bloody times to
scramble out of a crater
& fell back on his end
every time."  Tho
The attack went out
too weak. They are attacking
now xxxxx nearly as
big a front as we attacked
w a division when first
we came in. White
 

13     9
told me afterwds tt he
asked for it to be done
with 3 battalions but
Gen. Cox could only spare
2½. "I wish I had bn
strong - & asked for it to
be done by a whole
brigade," White said.
To take a defend
position wh / Germans
consider as important
as tt one you need
your men to be swarming
over it after / attack,
like flies. It is all very
well for Army Generals
to sit w their maps &
talk about attacking
w patrols. That is the