Charles E W Bean, Diaries, AWM38 3DRL 606/73/1 - March 1917 - Part 1

AWM38
Official History,
1914-18 War: Records of C E W Bean,
Official Historian.
Diaries and Notebooks
Item number:  3DRL606/73/1
Title:  Diary, March 1917
Refers to the Dardanelles Commission report,
Bapaume, Sir John Gillibrand and the recovery
of the buried diary.
AWM38-3DRL606/73/1

Diary March [shorthand]
73
74
Original    DIARY No. 73.
AWM38     3DRL   606   ITEM   73 [1]
DIARIES AND NOTES OF C.  W. BEAN
CONCERNING THE WAR OF 1914 - 1918
The use of these diaries and notes is subject of conditions laid down in the terms
of gift to the Australian War Memorial.  but, apart from these 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 contest 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.
16 Sept, 1946  C. E. W. BEAN
AUSTRALIAN WAR MEMORIAL
ACCESS STATUS
OPEN

74  1  Diary March [shorthand]
Took Col. Wright, Tomlinson Times & D. News & Sims, American
with Cadge (the Press Officer) up to the maze,
& to Oat Lane to see the country where
the fighting is going on.
The desolation behind the German
lines was dreadful - far worse than
behind our own.  Our heavy shells had
crumped the "Yellow Cut" - down as the shattered
shell dug out remains of a road, down by the
side of which we moved, in a manner
that made it a mere chain of pools
mud slime & great deep holes.  There
were dead Germans every here & there
unburied - & clearly our guns had
given the Germans an awful time;  no
wonder their morale suffered.  I saw
one man lying face downwards in a
shell hole _^in his full kit, half covered with
mud - evidently hit during a relief &
just left there.
We went about 800 yards down
to Oat Lane.  In a German dugout there
was Capt Butler of 3rd Bn (who had just

74
returned to his Bn after being twice wounded.)
He told us tt 500 shells had been pitched
into at the trench the day before - & he ws
clearly shaken:  the dugout had been
broken down by the Germans & only
the stairs remained.
In one dugout in Gird trench, _^a third
Bn. officer at / mouth of it told us, there
was a waterbottle hanging up on the
wall - by no apparent peg - just as
if stuck there;  & also some other object
(a bayonet, I think he sd).  They had
bn left there by untouched by our
men - no one dreamed of touching
them.  They did not even think it
wd be necessary to warn the
next people who came in - they wd
be sure to be wary.  In one
dug out, two _^thick electric wires were
found leading down stairs not
explainable as signal wires.  They
were cut, & two pounds of
dynamite found at / end of them.
The Germans had meant to blow up
tt dugout but had left it. 

74
The 5th Divn reports
that the Germans made another attack
agst Sunray trench 'Hand draw diagram - see original' at 8.15 last
night "in one thick wave!  They were
seen massing opposite (I think in N22)
& our arty barrage & rifle fire
beat the attack out.
The attack made agst the
1st Divn last night the night before last (March 1/2?) was
more important than previously
thought.  The Germans came out from
M6 to N2 in several parties
(apparently volunteers were called for -
all exc. the 4th Grenadiers & 5th Footsds
volunteered - but they knew to much, &
were detailed.  They were told
there were only small posts in
our the villages.  One lot ws to
push into Thilloy;  one into Ligny;
& one into Le Barque - the last
returning up the other side of Bapaume
road.  They moved off across Till
trench (wh seems to be lightly held, down

4
1st Bde had taken upon
advanced line of posts night
before - i.e. they had bn told to take
up an imaginary line.  They
dug in as best they cd -
but were not connected on
the 2nd night (naturally - & are
not connected yet.
It is not very safe to
go beyond Ligny at present.
The barrage on Oat & Wheat
trenches ws wo doubt to prevent
them interfering if it ws during
this attack tt it occurred.
Lesslie is very popular w
his Bde.  Smythe Walker & Gellibrand
are all popular officers.
They take it for granted here tt a
6th Div is being formed.  (I expect Wright
may have dropped a hint.)  They think
Gelly or Maclagan will get it - Gelly
I heard as favourite but both good men. 

74     5
the Bapaume Rd, xx xx & then over
the open to their objectives. The
right hand one ws met with
a heavy fire, swerved southwards,
& seems to have bn captured by the
2nd Bde.
The centre one met with
heavy fire;  it was in 3 waves.
A man in the 2nd wave sd tt
the 1st wave ws wiped completely out,
2nd wave came under heavy fire
& broke back, 3rd wave never left.
The Northern or Eastern party
got between two of our posts in the
fog but under heavy cross fire;
it pushed down & came on a 4th Bn
Company H.Qrs near Red Cut, in
N1 D 9.1. shot the sentry & bombed
the officers occupants as they came up
the stairs.  They captured the occupants
but in going off with them seem to have
lost their way in the fog, wandered
into a post of the 4th Bn (?) & were
all captured & the off prisoners released.
They _^The Germans captured apparently one whole
post & L . m. g. of abt 29 men last
night.

6
'Hand draw diagram - see original'
The maze angle
It roughly follows
the top of the hill
like this.

74    7
Back at 1st Divn for the night.
the Q mess there is very much
up against Anzac H.Q.  They want
to be told what is wanted of them, but
now how to do it.
In particular they criticise
the Anzac Light Railways.  They have not
moved 300 yds, they say, since
the retirement of the Germans.  They
wd have had the rails right up
if themselves allowed to do the work -
but they think Futrell does not keep
his men up to it (or rather their men
who are detailed to do it - pioneers
& Engineers;  and Hancock they
say was not considered good eno' by
the 1st Divn for its Engineers.  They
turned him out - he was at a
lose end & Anzac put him in to this
railway unit.
I had a look at the Maze
today.  It is like this.
Angle of Maze         
Lard trench
in here
'Hand draw diagram - see original'
It was the highest land
therefore strongly held.

74    8
11.45 p.m.  Gunfire as if during
a raid - or a short barrage.
The 1st Divn is being pulled out.
2nd Div & 5th Div each lengthen their
line.  Looks as if Gellys (shorthand)
March 4.  Spent day with 9th Bn getting
their account of the fighting.  There is no
doubt they were at the top of their form
after a fortnight's rest in Albert.  They
were to have gone out the night after the
evacuation for 4 days rest till Feb 28
or March 1 & then to have come in &
taken the Maze.  Wilder Neligan, their
2nd in Command is a keen chap - & 
an English gentleman of a sporting type.  But
Little White is a good confident fighter - an
Australian.  But Knightley is the man there who ws
telling me the literal unadorned truth.
He talks like an Englishman but with
some slight Australian accent - I
dont know which he is;  but he is game
& he tells the truth plain story without decoration.
The night is intensely cold -
freezing - it has frozen the last two
nights.  Nothing doing today.
Lesslie has found out that

74    9
one of his posts with a Lewis m.g.
disappeared on the night of March 1/2.
It was just to the north of the Bapaume
Road - abt 10 or 12 men of 3rd Bn.
'Hand draw diagram - see original'
They cd not be got at till
night.  On night of 2/3 it
was found they had disappeared.  Evidently
some_^one of the German parties rushed
them.
The man in the next post or
the next but one was to be relieved tt
night;  but it ws so foggy tt when /
relief turned up he kept of on with it
him and had 20 men in / post
tt night;  - (or he wdnt let the relieved
men go back).  The Germans foun
stumbled onto this post & lost heavily
The next post but one _^to the scuppered post - one on the right
of the Bap Rd ws scuppered also
-they were 5th Bn.  So the Germans
seem to have got 20 odd prisoners unless
any of our men were killed.
Had A letter from Judge Ferguson of
Sydney, enclosing a letter to the
Times complaining tt they had not

[*I haven't F's. letter here, but
on the whole I think he was probly right.
I have changed my view since then.  We
should have provided more
& more continuous news by
providing additional correspt.
C.E.W.B.
24.11.28*]

74    10
enough news in Australia about the
doings of Australians - a very exaggerated
statement.  I dont think he means it
to hit at me, but it does.  I fancy he is
right in saying tt / Australian papers
very often do not print my letters;  why
I dont know, except tt they now get them
for nothing.
Deep snow all over the ground this morng.
March 5.  Col. Nicholson, C.R.E. 2nd Aust
Div. asked me yesty to come up w him
& see the big stores they have captured
in the Bapaume Rd past Le Sars.  He
says tt the Pioneers in digging their
mile long tunnel past towards Gondecourt (meant
to go to front line but only taken abt
1000 yds to Bulls Rd) struck the
old French tunnel from Flers to
Eaucourt L'Abbaye. The long tunnel
ws not altogether a success - it
ws suggested by 4th Divn who
finally didnt go on with it except so as to
to put signal wires through it.
The men in the dugouts at
Eaucourt L'Abbaye, he says,
sd tt they cd hear other sounds of men.