Charles E W Bean, Diaries, AWM38 3DRL 606/58/1 - September 1916 - Part 3

19a
The scene here at this  time (abt.
9 am.) was extraordinary.
The Red X AM Medical people couldnt
deal with cases in the dug out
because it was too deep & awkward
to get stretchers down it.
Generally they attend to them in
the trench if there are not many.
Now, as there was a rush of men,
they were attending to them in the

trench & in the open behind

the trench.
(Whole of soil is brown _∧ red craters. Blackened
tree stumps 600 yards away).
Hand drawn sketch-see original
Pozieres
Prisoners

19   20
[* Whizzbang shell bursting in ground.*]
About 70 - of these
6 of a party of 8 had to
be shot because they
wd not move quick
enough. Abt 50 were
outside bde H.Q. where
the dressing stn was
over wh / surgeon in
charge most improperly
placed a Red X flag.
The Germans seemed to range
on this tho I doubt if
they cd see it. (They also
used indirect m.g. fire

on our K trench.)
While the prisoners
were waiting outside /

 

20a
The stretcher bearers were
coming straight across country
to this place & carrying dressed
patients straight across country
from it - (to the right of the
sketch on the last page the 
route ran thus)
Just at this moment, up
came the German prisoners ; -
along the trench, they came,
from Kay trench. There were
about 60 of them - tall fellows in
grey uniform without accoutrements
some in caps & some in helmets
- rather handsome but not
very erect.  They sat down
Hand drawn sketch- see original

in bunches where our
stretcher bearers were sitting.
Presently a whizz bang shell
burst just this side of them,
in the ground. Several
others had whizzed over
& burst beyond. Then there
was a crump or two behind us
I looked round & this is what I saw
Hand drawn sketch-see original
right behind us directly on the line of the *

19   21

trench at / Aid post
I was talking to them &
several shells burst
uncomfortably near -
Just as they were hurried
off one man ws hit &
instantly killed. A
little later as they went
past Kay's dump a 
shell exploded amongst
them & killed 8, tho
none o / guards were hit,
fortunately. Our men

all this day walked 
most of their way entirely
over the open, at any
rate behind / lines.
The stretcher bearers
[*trench*]

 

22
The Germans were putting
their barrage on the trench
(as they had done several
times before, during the morning).
I personally did not wait _∧ for much
longer more but finished a conversation
with a prisoner & went below.
But it was a wonderful sight
to see the stretcher bearers &
A.M.C. men lounging about
there as if it were Martin
Place Sydney, doing their

work steadily, talking.
passing on the prisoners.
The prisoners were being
hurried off as I left, & were
very clearly keen to go -
clambering over the craters under
their guard - they bunched
rather like sheep - & that is

how a shell killed 8 of them -
One of our parties would have
gone in file & wd not have had
more than 2 or 3 hit.
They tell me that a notice
has been issued that the V.C. will

19   23

& runners came habitually
across / open - indeed
Kays trench & Park Lane
were heavily shelled.
One half caste Australian
runner sent back from
Morrell shot 3 snipers
(so he sd) w his revolver
on his way back & 
dropped his message
in doing so. He
returned at once - half
a mile - & got the
message re-written &
reported with it.

Sept 4. I have decided to
see this business through
& get up North afterwds

24

not in future be given for acts
of gallantry but only for acts
which help to win a battle.
If that is so, then the G
stretcher bearers are out of it,.
This stupid fiddling with the
Victoria X does not detract
from the acts which do not
get it - they stand unchanged
by War Office  or G.H.Q or any
one else in the world. It is

The Victoria X that suffers. If
this class of action is cut
out from recognition by the
Victoria Cross, it is the cross
which becomes a poorer thing
- not the a cheaper_∧ class of decoration -
not the act which fails to win it.

19   25

as best I can, by train.
last evening we sent
out a patrol to discover
whether there were any of
our men in the position
NW of the Farm which they
reached yesty. The patrol
found two wounded men
there & came back with them.
They said that our men
were out in front of them.
Other patrols, I understand,
which went out about the
same part, never returned
- either killed or captured.
The aeroplane reported no

signs of any one there this

morning, nor in the farm,
nor in 42. The trench from

42 to 73 had men in it,
but whether they were British
or Germans was not known.

 

25a 
a few
men in here
(prob Germans)
Hand drawn sketch-see original

19   26

It was a good trench.
We have dug a deep
trench at Lorenzo's front during
the night - 6 ft deep now.
The Germans are thick opposite
the right hand corner of our
line. Johnston, who is
just going out, got leave
to fire off his remaining
4.5 howitzer shells at them.
The Canadians last night
were led into a wrong
bit of line - not into
59 - 42. Personally I
doubt if 59 - 42 is
ours at all.
It is extraordinarily
difficulty to get exact news
of this part.

 

27

4 patrols of 5 1Bn.
from sap beho. quarry + 77.
/ has not returned.
2 others returned had 
7 wd. out of 8 (4 in each).
4^th patrol brought in 2 wd
who reported they had left coy
pretty well dug in. They had bn
crawling thro shell holes all day
This is all tt is known.
Germ ( 1^st Gd. Res. Regt.
ans :   ( 4th Gd. [[shorthand]]

19   28

Yesterday the French
advanced 1/½ miles on a
very wide front & got into
Combles. The British got
Gillemont & got into Ginchy.
A Zeppelin was brought
down in London.
This mornings report :
Line just sent in. From left :-
77 & 81. 77 _∧ above quarry 55. 59 _∧chain of posts bending to E
(avoiding 48.) 01.03.94
(Germans in 48)
(stop)Canadians are sd to
have bombed to 73.36.65.95
(From 59 along rd to 01 )   R 78L 93½
                                                 4 back to old
                                                   line.
03-36 by 5 2nd.
N.B. Line next to us on
left has never bn held
by British (or Germans)
at all - or only for short
 

19   29

space of time. Skyline
trench up wh _∧ smoke bombers go
is generally altogether
empty.
Lt Holland - the " Smoke"
officer, who has bn to
other parts of / line
tells me tt there is no
part of it wh has bn
bombarded as ours
has . There is no other
part, he says, where
for 1½ miles at a stretch
the whole surface o /
country has bn removed
by shellfire as you
see it from Munster Alley
 

29a

As our 4^th Division left today I
came down to the 13^th Field amb.
where Gerry Bailey kindly said
they would put me up. In the

afternoon I walked up with him to
see the prisoners. They were a very fine
stamp of men, by far the     6^th, 7^th [[?]]
finest Germans I have           6th Coy.
ever seen - the only                1st Guard
troops I have ever                    Res. Regt.
seen taller even                        9^th coy had bn
than our own men,                  there
They didn't seem so hard
as our boys - pink & white & some
of them weedy.
Very few had been actually in
the farm. But from what I could
make out from our intelligence
officers, they had several dugouts
on the West side of the Farm -
communication underground. The
entrances were in shellholes & they had
to crawl into them. They knew very

 

19   30

to Skyline Trench. "No
troops have had to stand
the shelling wh your troops
have had to stand," he
told me today.
At point 23 there are
two m.gs. kept in a big dugout
Sept. 4. 
? 5th At 5 o'c 6 Germans
attacked the farm as
2 Coys but ran up
against our barrage
& had to turn back.
Prisoner came in &
gave himself up.
[[shorthand]] dont think 
theyre in the farm.
little about them. R platoon lived there
by night day in the dugouts but by day night
they got out into craters ([[?]])
in front. They day got out at 10 pm

30a

& came in again at 6 am.
They were still in the craters
when our bombardment started.
I asked a man They thought the bombardment
wd last 15 minutes but it
lasted only 5.
"Were our men on you quickly?"
I asked.
"Yes very quickly" one sd.
"What - soon after the shellfire"
"They  came with the shellfire"

they said, "right behind it". they said
The garrison was lying in the
shellholes. [others were certainly
taken in the dugouts They may
have come there underground].
Another German from the
Eastern part sd our men

were not on them so very
quickly. As a matter of fact
Lorenzo (who had a H.Q very close
up to his part o / front) told me
that the 49^th got in to the trench
at the first time of asking but had
to bomb the Germans who showed

 

19   31

a lot of fight. On the left the
Germans bombed their way
back into their trench & our
men had to jump out & get
into craters. When the Germans
had bombed up some distance
our men in the craters suddenly
jumped back again & into
them with the bayonet.
(This wants confirming. Lorenzo
says that there were 400 or 500
dead in & in front of the trenches
his men took : The Germans
c. attacked 3 times - the 3^rd
time this morning _∧ of Sept 5 at 5 a.m.
they came out into the open and

the 49th had some very good
shooting which cheered the men
enormously ].
The Canadians have taken
most of our line so I went
up to Pozieres in the evening
(after seeing the prisoners)
in order to find out definitely
how the line ran. Ambulances
go right up to Pozieres & one waits
by the tramway. Thence I went by / tramway
to K Dump & so to Rail trench.
[*A prisoner _∧ guardsman sd : We have orders not to fire on the Red X
so long as the British do not - the British have not been 
firing on it up there.*]

31a   19

Yesty morning the 
52nd - were counter attd.
49th were attacked
this afternoon
abt 5 p.m.
In barrage they have
sometimes sniped
our S. bearers but
not so as to make
an attack on them.
I asked a German Guardsman : Can't you see our
men moving about?
"Oh yes." several of them said - "we saw
your reliefs taking place."
"Why dont you shoot." I said
"We dont shoot at one or two" they sd.
"It is more peaceful. If we shot at them there

be no rest. We leave the artilllery to shoot at
them."
Not quite the attitude you expect

of Guardsmen.

 

32
Col Lane & Col. Buchanan(13^th Can.
Bn). were in the 52nd H.Q. Lane gave
me the Line of 52nd Bn.(entirely

based on Maxwell's reports) :
R 28 c. O.4 - 1.3
- 3.4 - 63 - 66 -
95. Little Duncan Maxwell
had just reported, however, that
Between 0.3 _∧ 24  & 94
Germans have bn shelling
the line heavily.
Maxwell was cut off
from the Canadian
bombers but they dont

think there are any
Canadian Germans
in the trench. It wd be
held by a line of posts.
201 - 01 - 91 - 59
- 55 ( avoiding 48) above

Hand drawn sketch-see original
4 quarry to 81 -
[* They have sniped a fair number
all the same*]