Charles E W Bean, Diaries, AWM38 3DRL 606/66/1 - November 1916 - Part 1

AWM38
Official History,
1914-1918 War: Records of C E W Bean,
Official Historian.

Diaries and Notebooks

Item number: 3DRL606/66/1

Title: Diary, November 1916
Reports conversations with his brother, Dr John
Bean, Lord Birdwood and Sir Brudenell White
and his visit to Montauban; mentions death of
Brig Gen D J Glasfurd, trench feet, interviews 
with German prisoners, and the photographer, Lt
H F Baldwin.

AWM38-3DRL606/66/1
 

Original DIARY NO. 66.
AWM38 3DRL 606 ITEM 66 [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 usually themselves believed them to be true. All
second-hand evidence herein should be read with this in mind.
AUSTRALIAN WAR MEMORIAL
ACCESS STATUS
OPEN
16 Sept., 1946. C. E. W. BEAN
 

Diary No. 66

Note to Bean from CBB White
re Glasfurd's death.

IF NOT DELIVERED WITHIN 7 DAYS RETURN TO
AUSTRALIAN WAR MEMORIAL 
P.O. BOX 345
CANBERRA CITY, A.C.T., 2601
 

72.
1916 1/0
Nov 6 to 1
Nov 26
 

72/29

My dear Bean
I can find nought
against this.
Once again I would
with a departure from
my principle - as to 
the mention of individuals.
I w^d like you first to say 
a word of Glasfurds going
out. Both before & during
the war I have frequently
disagreed with him. He
was a professional soldier
of wise service & older in
years than I and he
 

12/29
P.T.O
naturally disliked serving
under what the British
mind still regards as a
"Colonial". But from this
he changed wholeheartedly
Of all the men I have 
ever served with - he was
the most wholehearted in
his devotion to duty. I
have never known him to
criticize an order & in all 
the time I was with him
I never knew him to
think of himself when
any duty lay before him.
Yours. C.B.B. White  12/11
 

As D met (Director
of Mil. Training)
in Australia he
gave of his best &
did much to put
traing on a properly
organized basis

BW

72/29
 

72 1'A'
November 6^th 1916.
[Written Nov. 20^th]. It was
not yet clear, this day, where
the line had got to in yesterdays
fight. Lt Col. Walker is in command
of the 7^th Bde temporarily. He 
may be a brave man but
he is a very crude coarse
one - I wonder if he is the
sort of man to tell the truth
to the authorities as to where
his men have got to, even if
he suspects it. Some C.Os
are not frank - out of a
mistaken idea that they must
not admit a failure by their
battalion at any cost - or 
else because they will not
 

72 2'A'
Eno'- for a moment to be
nothing at all remarkable.
"Wait a bit," Jock said - "its
gone for the moment."
And sure eno', in half 
a minute there spread over
the sky to the South East the
most extraordinary flush
that I have ever seen -
The whole of the high clo lofty
fleece of clouds there began
to grow suddenly rosy pink
- brighter & brighter until
you could have seen to
read by the light & it
still seemed to grow.
Up through this flush
there grew a narrow 
ribbon of much paler
light like the ray of
some yellow searchlight.
 

72 3
It flashed thro' my
mind: "Has the German
got some fresh devilry -
some new form of gas or liquid
fire - has he invented something
for setting the world in flame,
& are we present at the first
trial of it?"
De Crespigny told me
afterwards tt / same thought
occurred for a moment to him
& I have no doubt it did
to hundreds.
As we watched, in the 
middle of the ribbon  of light
there grew two very bright shadowy
lengths - cigar shaped. For 
the moment the same thought
came to every one - two
Zeppelins, by Jove (and
 

72 3'A'
the ribbon a searchlight -
this was reported from the
somewhere officially, too}.
But the ribbon was too ruddy.
The Zeppelins died out, flushed 
up, died out again.
And then, up & down
that streak of light across the
sky there began to move,
very swiftly, waves of
water. They travelled at great
speed up the length of it, one
after the other; & then waves
just as fast moved across it
at right angles to the others.
There was no question at all
- they were waves of water;
exactly like the ripples on a 
pond when you throw a
stone in, but travelling at
fearful speed.