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

13  20
get them short of Abbeville
Got a car & took Tangye,
intelligence officer (in Coutre-
Espionage work) there to
clear up a pigeon
message discovered under
a tree at Warloy. It
was in a little
[Sketch- see original document]
bright Aluminium 
carrier - clearly
very new - quite untarnished.
“Kein Meldung vor handen
Kastner
7.45”
“(No information to hand.”)
One of the men attached
to the Graves registration
 

13  21
unit had brought it in-
sd he had noticed it under
a tree while shaking the
tree for Apples. There was
an old magpie which
hung about there often.
It might have picked
the message up at a German 
prisoners cage about
200 yards away.
We went right to the
final authority in
such matters at G.H.Q.
The final authority didnt
seem to have a man in
the office room who
could speak German &
had to ask Tangye what
 

13  22
the message meant.
However - a staff officer
in red tabs - clever looking
enough - gave it as his
opinion tt it must be
a front line message. "No
agent wd think it worth
his while sending a negative
message like that”-  he sd
- wh does seem conclusive.
There ws another
curious incident / other
day. There Germs ws found
on a dead German a
scrap of paper addressed
to the “Maison de Brique”
asking the people there to
 

13  23
show the the bearer the
"road by which the
Australians went yesterday.”
The Maison de Brique was
searched for & was found
to be an estaminet
at a corner on the road
from Amiens to Contay.
The people there are
Belgians or strangers,
newly came since the war,
& they have the reputation,
amongst the farmers &
people about, of being
pro-German. They
 

13  24
are disliked by / population.
It is hand to fit an
explanation to this. But /
most probable one seems
to be: tt some Australian stragglers
in Amiens had got left
behind amongst / women
or / wineshops when their
units went to / front;
that the units women or
wineshops knew that the
Maison de Brique was on
the way (or in / direction)
wh / Australian troops had
 

13  25 

taken; & tt they had
written this out for /
men ^so as to enable them to
get a direction at these
X roads. The soldier
carring the message
may aftrwds have been
killed or captured &
the paper taken as a
souvenir or for sending
in ^to / German Staff. How else it came
into / hands of a
German Soldier in /
firing line is almost
impossible to say.
The G.H.Q. officer
 

13  26
with the red tabs, I
noticed, when Tangye's
pigeon message was
handed to him sd - "What -
is it a submarine thing?"
So evidently Submarines
have been dropping landing men
or messages on the coast.
I fancy they have done so
in England & Ireland too.
Aeroplanes sometimes
land men - & arrange to
pick them up one or two
months later. The French
some time last year, I believe,
 

13  27
put down 14 different
men. All except one
returned to their particular
rendezvous at / right date
- many weeks afterwds - &
were picked up, & brought in
We had one man who broke his
leg, poor chap, in being
set down. I don't know what happened
to him but I am told tt they are supplied
with a uniform.
Got back with Tangye
from this beautiful drive
at abt 2 a.m. We had
to go right to Moutreuil -
 

13  28
they brought him there
from Abbeville.
Sept 1st. (Friday).
Back to Becourt agn.
Saw the two Maxwell
boys in the 52nd Bn.
Arthur, who as Intell. officer
of his Bn is not allowed
by Col. Beevor to go out
& reconnoitre the line.
Not one of the company
officers of the 52nd will
have reconnoitred the line
either - or the place where
they are to go over the
next night (at 5.20 - as soon
as it is possible to see).
 

29
That is Beevor's fault.
 

13  30
except the Coy holding the line. ^X
Arthur tells me tt /
Bn holding / line at present
(47^th) has been there 12hrs
longer than ws intended
- They take in w them 2
days rations, & water, &
have to live on to till they
come out - so difficult is
it to victual the troops there.
[You approach / trenches
there straight down a hill
w / Germans looking into you]
The ration parties of
the 52nd, going up, last time,
used to get men buried by
shell - used to get thro'
sometimes when the