Charles E W Bean, Diaries, AWM38 3DRL 606/66/1 - November 1916 - Part 6

72 56
^himself scouting into Nomansland in
Pozieres. By himself.
These unsuccessful or
half succcessful attacks are
worse than any - for the
toll of officers is enormous.
There I saw the name of
Barber who only two days 
ago ws at the Corps Cage
looking after ^German prisoners. He
must have gone ^almost straight into this
fight been lost - he is missing.
Honestly, I dont think the
1st & 2nd Divns are up to
their old spirits - I dont think
they have gotten over Pozieres
Yet. I told one o / army
Generals today that I didn’t 
believe men were ever quite
the same after a frightful xx
 

72  57
bombardment such as they
get sometimes - but they
don't know what these troops
experienced. They were never
in or near Pozieres in those
days, & (through the stoppage
of my articles perhaps) the
knowledge of that battle never
probably got round.

November 20.
General Howse is over
here. I am sure I know what
all this means. They have been 
struck by the high very big
numbers of “Trench Feet” in
some of our battalions. Trench
foot is a stoppage of the
circulation - it is caused through
the cold & wet.  A man
 

72  58
sitting in a trench w his feet
in / mud, unable to move
or stamp the ground (because tt
at once makes a morass & /
trench is also almost too 
shallow for standing upright)
loses his circulation. The
boot, if laced normally, is
too tight. Putties shrink in
the wet and mud & act as
a tight bandage. Xx a
man gets no blood in his
feet & they become inflamed,
swollen, & sometimes 
mortify. This can be stopped
in decent trenches, like those
at Ypres, or Fleurbaix, by
providing rations of dry socks
every day , keeping / men only

one day in the front line,
letting them get out to warmth
 

 
72  59
& dry things in / support
line (& go in w / same); by
regularly rubbing in whale
oil - moving in the trenches, & so
on. Experience, good trenches,
& discipline avoid it, & the
Germans have practically none
— all their prisoners say so.
The British here have been
getting it; & we were at one 
time evacuating 500 men
a day, mostly with trench
feet, from the corps; 50 per
cent of them will not be back
till the summer, I am told - 
Gask of the 38^th Casualty Clearing
Stn said so. The D.A.Q.M.G of 
the army has sent round on
sheet of foolscap closely printed

with all the things tt have to be
 

60
Putties are not to be worn -
Socks may be pulled over
trousers - in the front
trenches.

[Hand drawn sketch - see original document]

72  61
done - warm dry shelters
in the support trenches, men to
take off their boots & rub their
feet dry & put on dry socks
(at least twice a day, this dry
rubbing) - men to move up
& down the bay o / trench
[Hand drawn sketch - see original document]
- what is the good of all this
when your support 
trench is as bad as
your front trench.
←
& your front trench is like this
- so thick that you pull your 
boots off in it! What is the good
of talking xx about the comfortable
shelters in support trenches, when support
trenches & reserve trenches & every
trench for 2 miles behind the firing
line is knee deep in mud?
The first thing is to get engineering
 

62

^X Nov. 30. ( later). Corlette, engineer
at Anzac, tells me that dugouts
are now being dug in the front line.

72  63
stores up and build decent
trenches but they wont do
That because they say we
are not going to hold the trenches
for long - at least that is 
the the infantry officers impression
of the reason why the trenches
are not improved.
Later (Nov 25).
^X [As a matter of fact they
are being improved. The
train is right up to Longueval
& this relieves the road traffic
enormously & they say tt in
a short time we shall have
The Decauville rly right
down to Factory Corner (at
least so White told Butler).]
Well, they have clearly
bn having an urgent conference
over all this. Sir Henry
Rawlinson has been away on
 

72  64
leave (or to confer) wh I 
suppose means tt the 
battle is to stop for / present.
Birdwood dropped this remark
when I was at tea at the Chateau
& then covered it up quickly
& said he supposed nothing
ought to be sd about it.
They are going to provide hot
coffee, & sausage rolls, at the canteen
right up near the Switch
Line or Railhead; & they 
are, incidentally , going to run
a little paper - “The Rising
Sun” It was Col. Tonbridge's
suggestion - he has a press
run by Harris of the “Evening 
News” of Sydney - a little 
Jewish pressman - down
there & he has suggested tt
it shd be made a Corps
 

72  65
periodical. We had a
Ctee meeting & I have 
undertaken to be Editor -
White said I cd have Smart
over ^to France in connection w this
whole question o / distribution
of news.
Nov. 21st. Spent the whole day
writing an article about 
Glasfurd & Howell Price.
These English take the
war in a real Christian spirit,
some of them; & that is meant
seriously. Sheldon, of the
Royal Engineers (a civilian
who was in the Special Reserve,
& only a boy but a Captain}
was talking over this the other
day. We had a little South
Australian or Queenslander
 

72  66
named Riley in  - no,
a Western Australian. He
ws in the 11 Bn & he ws
talking of the injustice of the
British & French causes in
this War. He said the future
historians wd blame us &
not the Germans. The Germans 
were perfectly right to sink the 
Lusitania, & shoot Miss
Cavell, & Capt. Fryatt (who
had the pleasant alternative
of either being sunk or
hanged, apparently) - we
were the atrocious ones; the
Germans wd make a 
reasonable peace now
if we wd let them (he wdnt
give the details of it when
I asked him if Australia
wd give New Guinea
 

72  66A
back - if Australia was
misled into it by Britain
- one could see tt ws his
argument) - & so on. He
sd the Germans were perfectly 
justified in breaking all treaties
in war time & using gas &
invading Belgium - & I
was rather up & down his 
throat. “You know it’s
unfortunate - I always seem 
to get into hot water over
this,” he sd, “wherever I
go -” He ws one of those
men who can always see 
the wrong in their own 
side, & because his own
people are not always 
right in what they say he
must therefore exclaim that

they are utterly & wholly