Charles E W Bean, Diaries, AWM38 3DRL 606/68/1 - December 1916 - January 1917 - Part 3

3         20
how I think that Durrant,
their optimis always cheerful
colonel, may have given 
them something of his optimism.
He always refuses to be
doleful under any circumstances.
The Kaiser's "offer" of peace
is the talk of everybody. The 
spee talk with which he launches 
it puts peace quite out of 
the question - as Dyson says.
"If he'd only admit that 
militarism was wrong or had 
shot its bolt - that would be 
half of what the world's fighting
for & we cd forgive a great 
deal. But the beggar must 
announce that he offers the world 
peace because he has smashed 
it - that because might has

3          21
won, & because he has crushed 
little countries & defied 
the world successfully - therefore 
he is ready to make peace - 
and he puts the question 
of peace out of the question 
by his bloody preamble!"
The Kaiser always boasted 
that when Germany was in 
a position to give her peace to 
the world - as a strong man 
making an ordinance for 
a weak one - she wd grant 
it. It is a very clever 
move - just now when he is 
at the height of his success. 
Of course it is meant 
simply to split the allies.
Dec. 17th The French today yesterday 
got through the Germans at

3         22 
Verdun & made 7500 
prisoners. By the account 
posted up it seems clear tt
they got right through the 
German line - clean thro’.
Their patrols  marched
started around & went further 
& spiked & destroyed German 
guns before they had to 
come back (as we cd have
done no doubt at
Courcelette on Aug 4/5.)
I suppose they were not 
prepared to go further 
- probably had not the 
troops.
I went down with 
Kapp today to see the same 
German marine prisoner

3            23
who deserted to us near
Transloy the other day.  
Kapp has had him for 3 days  
& he is most interesting. 
He was certainly  telling 
us the truth for we tested him  
in matters connected w / 
Australians. He had heard  
tt  his regiment  bn wd be
opposite / Australians, he sd; 
for his Captain told them before 
going in tt / guides to take  
them in had just come  
back with abt 20 Australian  
prisoners taken by the 104th Regt.  
(There wd be the 12 of the 32 Bn ) 
abt wh Birdwood was so angry). 
The German newspapers had  
bn speaking abt / Australians  
some time back, he sd, & had

3          24 
remarked tt they were  
"dumm" to come in & fight  
the Germans as they had no  
quarrel w them. (This ws /  
comment on our Referendum  
& after November 5th).
The prisoner, told me  
who ws lying in a bed with in
the  Casualty Clearing Stn, with 
several  sick men from the German  
prisoners of war Coy sitting  
in / dark in front of a  
brazier.  No guard of any  
sort ws put over them. 
He told Kapp & me tt  
his rest billet was in Bertincourt
- about 5 hrs march from / 
trenches. The country ws quite 
pleasant abt there,  & the

3         25
hous street & paths were not  
too muddy. As they lay there  
at night before coming in a shell  
from a long range English gun  
suddenly came down &  
burst in / town at abt  
2.30 a.m. They all went 
down into cellars - "that  
shell wd nt save  you from 
/ shell, " he sd, "but from  
splinters it would." About 
18 or 20 shells fell into the town  
during  / next hour -  
They did not burst along /  
street. They did not hurt  
anyone in his company, but  
whether they they may have hurt some any in 
further off other coys he did not know. 
It was safer eno' to 
walk abt as far back at tt,

3            26
ordinarily; but you did 
not get into regular shellfire  
till you reached  about 
the region of Barastre or 
Bapaume. The road behind  
Bapaume ws pitted w 
big shell holes abt every  
20 yds. for 500 yds or so -  
but / Germans filled these in. 
They marched in parties 
at intervals thro Bapaume  
town; but it was not too 
It ws shelled every day,  
some part of it - of the batteries in front & behind it -  
but it was not too  
dangerous. 
Then you came down  
to the front trenches in the  
early morning. You cd  
move down their side o / 
long hillslope w impunity  
provided you were alone,

27 
X The Germans score heavily  
here. All this Reserve line system,  
wh is being so enormously worked  
upon, is far drier &  less  more  
comfortable than our smashed  
up filthy Switch Trench! We  
have no decent firm clear country for  
.5 miles behind the front line
 

3           28
but not in a party. The 
X Reserve trenches, 600 to 900  
yds behind / front, were  
some of them good & some muddy, 
bad  A great deal of work  
was going on in those trenches, on  
dugouts & so forth. 
The communicatn trenches
to the front line were so  
muddy as to be impossible.  
Men were said to have been  
drowned in the mud in  
the hollow road near  
Le Barque - three men were  
sd to have been found there. 
You could fall into a  
shellhole in the night & try  
to get out & never be  seen   
seen - until you were found 
drowned. 
He himself had helped 
to  pull two men out of the

3             29
mud - they came out without  
their boots - with nothing  on 
their feet. 
The 5th Grenadier Guard  
Regt was suffering badly from  
trench feet - one coy was  
reduced to an officer, two  
under officers & thirteen  
men (I think he said) -  
so he had heard. [This is  
probably a heavy exaggeration. 
Past the reserve support trenches  
you could not move in 
daylight - where he was,  
at any rate,  xxx it was  
impossible to move even from  
the support trenches by day.  
Orders were tt they had to be  
quite quiet. I
"If you did move from

3           30
them what happened?" I 
asked. 
The "Maschine Gewehr “ “would  
catch you", he said. 
"But supposing you had to 
move out. What wd you do - 
run?”  
‘No - that wd bring the 
Maschine Gewehr - you 
wd have to crawl as  
low as you could -  
"Kriechen" ‘, he sd. 
By day they saw the  
English sometimes, working 
in their trench; & sometimes
they did not know whether  
we came to /  trench thro 
a  commn  trench or over land. 
Sometimes our aeroplanes 
came over & they had to