Charles E W Bean, Diaries, AWM38 3DRL 606/72/1 - February - March 1917 - Part 1

AWM38
Official History,
1914-18 War: Records of C E W Bean,
Official Historian.
Diaries and Notebooks
Item number: 3DRL606/72/1
Title: Diary, February - March 1917
Describes the actions of 24 February and
mentions the 9th, 10th and 12th Battalions,
Gird Support Trench, the Maze and Malt Trench.
AWM38-3DRL606/72/1

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Original  DIARY No. 72
AWM28  3DRL 606 ITEM 72 [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 iaries 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 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

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Feb 25.    
Our people have 
been pushing on thro' the 
night into Butte,
Wheat & Oat trench. Bayonet
the Maze - on the
right the German is
holding Atom trench ^& Heaven trench tho the
5^th Divn is holding Meteor
trench (?) The other Divns
have met the Germans
at Bodies of Germans
are holding out at
Luisenhof Farm & at M 17 B
9. 5 & one or two other
parts.
It is a very thick

17      3
fog, - wonderful
how the weather has
favoured them.
I went up with
Baldwin to 1st Divn
(taking Kapp to the Corps
Cage as interpreter -
(he insisted on bringing
his gramophone as
well as an enormous
valise - or rather he sd
he'd leave the valise
behind if I insisted 
& take the Gramophone
-which I wouldn't do wouldn't let him)
At about 2pm Baldwin

17       3
& I reached High
Wood & went up by
the duckboards to
where we cd see
something. There ws
nothing but empty
shelled country until
we came to the right
of Eaucourt l'Abbaye
when we saw the German
barrage beginning. Baldwin
got quite a good photo
of 3 of their shells with
some observers looking at it, & one
of our small party going
towards it on the
duckboards. By the 
time we reached the

17      4
10 Bn H.Q.rs at
Hexham Rd we were
pretty well in it.
The 10^th & 9^th had
gone on in tt order.
10 Bn on night of 23/24
got the noticed extraordinary
quietness & got a
patrol into the Hook.
& found it empty.
[The 2nd Divn noticed
same - next morning
put up dummies -
Germans didnt shoot, so
men got up & looked
over; & they were not
shot at - That evening

17      5
they too pushed out
patrols].
On evening of 24^th the
10^th & 9^th went over
- 9^th into Maze, where
trenches were deep & revetted
with brushwood up to
the firestep - the passage 
behind the firestep being
Diagram - see original document
4 ft deep
below the
firestep.
There were Germans - die hards
in Luisenhof Farm, &
Germans between 5^th & 3^rd
Bde.

17        6
By the morning our
people were dug in
some way in [shorthand]
- but fog had held them
up. It ws planned to
go forwd under cover of
fog at 1 p.m. but fog
lifted then began to lift
just then & the advance
had to be made in
daylight. The German
m.gs. killed 2 officers of
10 Bn & wd. 2 (Collison
ws killed)
They rushed the German 
posts - going forwd in

7
^X It has struck me most
forcibly tt our chance, if
we do attack, is to
attack on either flank
of this move - at 
Transloy & Arras, when
we have guns.
Blamey when I saw
him sd exactly / same.
17       8
two lines, riflemen
1st, bombers next. They
killed all men in one
post but took some 2
prisoners who had 
trench feet.
I believe prisoners say
tt their officers have told
them they are to go
back to the Cambrai
line in 5 stages -
to be there by March 27.^x
The 10^th & 9^th reached
Oat & Wheat trench & some
of 10 Bn got into Malt by
mistake & came back
when they found /
mistake out - Patrols

9

I have described the
scene in the cable I
sent today - it ws as
crater pitted an area as
I ever saw - perh. the worst in extent.
17      10

are in Malt where

they aeroplanes say the enemy are

strong near Bapaume Rd;

& I believe patrols are

in Le Barque & Ligny;

& 2nd Div not far from

the Grevillers line - their

patrols were moving 

along Malt trench looking

for a place to get thro

the wire wh they sd

(probly exaggerated) ws

20 yds thick.
I went on to 12 Bn

H.Q. ^x The Germans had

quite a nasty barrage

of 4.2 & 5.9 (or bigger)