Charles E W Bean, Diaries, AWM38 3DRL 606/59/1 - September 1916 - Part 1

AMW38

Official History,

1914-18 War; Records of C E W Bean,

Official Historian

 

Diaries and Notebooks

Item Number 3DRL606/59/1

Title: Diary, September 1916

Includes letter from Bean's cousin, Mrs E

Burgess, regarding a zeppelin raid, mentions W

M Hughes and conscription, British Officers,

Bean's stay in London and naval action in the

North Sea.

 

AMW38-3DRL606/59/1

Australian War Memorial

RCDIG1066823

 

Original  DIARY NO. 59

AWM38                    

3DRL606 ITEM 59 [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 the 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 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 has 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 events. The constant falsity of second-hand

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

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

 

1
*Monquet Farm taken night of 16/17 or morning of 17 Sept.*
Hand drawn map -see original
Ginchy taken.
Sat 9 Sept. NE of Poz. we took another
600 yds of trenches-
Sund. 10 Sept. (Canadians I [[suppose?]]
Germans. C. attacked feebly
NE of Pozieres last night

Sept. 13. Big French advance
Sept 15 Big British advance
Last night unsuccessful
attack S E of Thiepval
"by considerable forces"
wh carried the
Wunderwerk but
probly ws meant to go
further.
Today advance from
Pozieres has reached
Martinpuich. I suppose
we cdnt very well get
Courcelette by day
without getting the Thiepval
summit - because the
works on the hill there
look into Courcelette.
But Martinpuich is screened by hill.
 

10                       2
*59* circled
After 2 days writing at Amiens
Sept 8th. Came by train from
Amiens to Calais Etaples, Boulogne,
Calais; waited 3 hrs there
& thoroughly enjoyed it. Lunched
at the Restaurant des Suisses
off a nice omelette & bread &
butter - strolled into the old
town where I last came four
years ago when I brought
father & mother across the
Channel on their way to
Contrexeville - when the pater's
headmastership was for the first
time in 35 years broken by illness.
Train to Hazebrouk. There
a car met me & brought me
quickly through Steenvoorde
to Abeele. Bazley had been
hanging on by his teeth to a
billet for me - he simply
didn't shift my things when
Maj. Churchill told him the
billet was for someone else; t
when it looked inevitable he
went to Maj. Smith & told him
that I particularly did not
 

10          3
want to be billeted with some
others (whom I had told Bazley
I wanted to avoid). Smith
sd: "Why did you come to me?"
"You can do it," sd Bazley.
& Smith did.
Sept. 9th.  The whole day clearing up
correspondence - Anzac Book
& private: We have no
mess at this place. We
have all our meals at a
temporary Restaurant run
by some Flemish refugees
in a big linoleum hut. We
have our own little
group at the tables -
Smith, Herbertson, Griffiths
& I. Herbertson, good chap,
has stuck to our little four
ever since he came to
Anzac, rather than join the
English mess which most
of the Anzac corps officers
belong to. He hears a good
 

4
The Canadians are sd
afterwds to have lost xxxx  66-95. I
don't know if it is true. But any
troops in / world cd have bn shelld
out of it if the Germans decided to do it

Hand drawn map-see original

The 49th held the double
line, & some say [[?]]
& the Canadians
(w the 52nd) had the
dotted line also
The part apptly
taken is the
shaded.
 

10                5
deal of Australianism, I'm
afraid - but Griffiths & Smith
are such extra good fellows
that he sticks to them gladly. He's
a fine straight Anglo-Scotsman
himself; very much narrow in his
bringing up & very much
broadened by the war.
Kapp came up with the
news (from prisoners, I believe)
that the Germans have taken
the advanced trench on the
ridge which our 13th Bde
won & kept agst 3 counter attacks
I thought it wd be taken
unless the Canadians advanced
themselves within a few
days. It is so exposed tt it
cd be pounded to pieces
& I daresay tt is what happened.

 

The Germans claim to
 

10                        6
have beaten the Romanians
at Turtakai, abt 20 miles
from Bucharest. I expect
it is true.
As we come of from Albert
a few of us have noticed
New Zealanders xxxx  moving
up. They have to join
abt Delville Wood, tomorrow
I think. There is some
possibility (at any rate it
is entertained) of a real
push thro' this line I
believe - a push by the
Cavalry. Philip Gibbs thinks
they will get thro' - he knows
their spirit. They are regular
cavalry - the only old regulars
left, almost; they have had
nothing to do for over a year
except dig trenches
 

10                   7
for other people. The Life Guards
were burying, the Grenadier
Guards helping to dig trenches
for us - part o / time at
Pozieres. They feel it
is up to them to do - anything
when their chance does come.
I was having almost
all my meals with /
Correspondents. Ross,
of all men, looked in - &
glad I was to see him. The
N. Zealanders are just going
into the line - Maoris as
Pioneers. Ross has bn eaten
out of his billet by fleas
& bugs for the last three
nights & so he brought his
General & Aide de Camp
to Amiens - Hotel Belfort.
 

10                        8
Phillip Gibbs told Russell Ross
tt it was Russell who
objected to my having more
"privileges" than they.
He started talking about it
one day; they sat on him
the next day. But little
Hutton-Wilson must have
seized on this objection to
bolster up his nervousness
abt my despatches.
Russell is not a bad
chap - but rather then
all round, I fancy - both
his friendship & his brains.
A very different man from
Gibbs or Thomas or Perry
Robinson.
The result of it all
has been to stir up Hutton
 

9

13th Field Amb. had
35 S.bs. hit during last
show.
The S.bs say they are
alright so long as they
are carrying something - 
it gives them something to
think abt.
cof. the stragglers sent
back during this battle.
They gave them a tin of water,
- anything - to carry
back from the dumps.

^x I didn't flatter myself with the belief that I was of much importance
to the nation. I meant that they knew my face & person as
well as
Asquith's
CEW.B.
1927

The break up of
3rd Divn.

The Sam Browne Belt.
 

10                     10
Wilson to get onto me about
my status. He has definitely
decided tt I am not a
captain - wh merely means
tt I lose all sorts of
small advantages wh went
with the title - I have to
wait for 1 hour with civilians
to get my passport visé - &
if I go anywhere although
the miserable War Office knows
me as well as it knows
Mr Asquith, & the Army a
great deal better ^x.
                   ______
There has  been talk for
3 weeks about the necessity
of breaking up our 3rd Divn.
A division is a living unit -
a body with hands & limbs.
All of which have to be moved by
nerves just as a human
 

10                          11
body has to be; & therefore
it is a pity  to break it
up if is like carving up
a man. The a living
tree. The branches which
you ^once chop off are not
the same thing as the ^branches on tht living tree
branches. It takes time
for the new branches to
grow on the old tree, &
for the dead lopped off
branches to grow be grafted
into the  a new tree.
It is a xx  crying pity to
break up a living division
if you can avoid it.
But Mr Hughes is very
anxious to have conscription
adopted in Australia
against the wishes of his party