Charles E W Bean, Diaries, AWM38 3DRL 606/73/1 - March 1917 - Part 4

74    35

today - & the British & Indian

cavalry thro Achiet le Grand got

out at the back of the Beugny 

line - & the Germans have abandoned

the Beugny line.  Our cavalry is right

up to it - killed an officer & took

some prisoners in ∧or near Delsart Farm.  The

officer had an order on him showing

tt he ws intended to hold tt line

for several days.

     The Germans have begun to 

retreat before the French between Roye

& Noyon.  Boddy tells me tt our back

roads are full of big guns streaming

N. and not turning off to Anas.

     I believe we have saved 3

divns here already since l Germans

began to retire - the 29th & two others;

& of course two of ours.

     Gellibrand is commander of one

Adv. guard of all arms; & Elliott of

another - they have to keep active touch

w l enemy.

     I believe tt Bapaume today ws

like Manly on a Sunday - not a shot

ws fired at it.  The Germans are

 

 

74    36

 

clearly still moving their big guns.

Everyone has bn to Bapaume. Levy

came in & sd tt he saw Ger tt some o l 

houses had bn filled up w wood, tables,

chairs - & tar poured over them so

tt they wd easily burn.

     A message came from 4th army

tt some o l wells had bn found 

poisoned with arsenic.

German line has begun to retire in front

of the French.  Glorious weather.

 

March 19.  With Gellibrand in c. of the northern

part of the rear guard I knew we shd

see some pushing.  Our men are beyond

Vaulx & the other V. village near it -

I forget the name.

     Later went up with Baldwin

to Bapaume.  I took the car out

along the Northern road from Bap. first -

around one big mine crater - but we

were blocked by a second one, fair in l

middle o l road, around wh they had

not managed yet to make a track.

We returned to Bap.  In the main

square, when we turned into it, there

 

 

  74    37

were half a dozen motor cars.  The

statue in the centre o l square ws down &

l Germans had put a stove pipe across the

pedestal to look like an anti aircraft gun.

I left Baldwin & his man Shirley there -

the town still burning or smouldering - &

took the car on to the factory on the

Beugnătre Rd - where Gellibrands HQs

were.  I found the old man there in

a most palatial dugout - with ∧pink & white silk curtains

drooped & lining the walls - a ∧plush settee - & a blue

plush table cloth - all cut out of curtains

from some French house.  We had lunch

-him & his family of a staff & myself; &

the unselfish old chap gave me a German

map which he had longed, obviously, to

keep for himself: a real treasure, showing

the German idea of their old front &

ours & corrected (in true German style) up to

4pm. on Feb. 17 last.   Travers (of 26 Bn)

& Davies (22Bn) looked in, & Gelly took l

opportunity of my car being in Beugnătre.

It was certainly further than any motor

car had ever been towards l Germans.

The roads were wonderfully good compared

 74        38

to the Pozieres - Bapaume Toad - &

motoring along between green banks

& trees had a delightfully fresh feeling -

we passed group of our men in 

the remains of German dugouts by

l roadside - every dugout blown

down & l woodwork apparently taken

away.  xxx The trees in Bapaume 

cattle market have all been cut down

for some reason - & some o l trees

on the roads inland have been sawn

down & left - for some military

reason, I do not exactly know

what; probably to prevent us from

getting out of view of aeroplanes.

     We skirted round a crater &

passed T Avreuil on the left &

found ourselves blocked by a 

crater at the entrance o l tiny

village of Beugnătre.  It ws the first

time I realised how complete the

German demolition had been.  He

was blowing down every single

 house as he left the villages -

The side walls were blown out of

 

 

74        39

them & the roofs lay flat on the

ground.  Beugnătre had been utterly

destroyed.  He is doing it in order to

refuse us billets; & in order, perhaps,

to make the French people tired of the

war.  It is a sight which makes you

monstrously angry - this fat headed

wrongheaded race with its ∧fixed idea that the smallest

military need justifies any even the

greatest xxx civil destruction.  If I'm

not wrong, tho', he's very mistaken

in the French people.

     Well - we found Forbes in the one

scrap of a house wh is left at

Beugnătre - a redbrick place w a

gateway abt half way up on l right

hand side o l road.  The road ws

in bad condition here & l Germans had                                                                                                                                                           

clearly probably sd: let it remain so.

xxx I let l car go back w Travers

to Bapaume while Fowler, Gelly's

liaison officer & I, walked on to

see what we cd of the outposts.

We had passed Will Dyson, walking

back along l road, & he told us

74                    40

he had bn along & seen l cavalry 

patrols, past Vaux or Vraucourt.

Nearby the whole o l trees were newly

cut    sawn down on one side o l road here

past Beugnătre - just lying side by

side -

see hand drawn sketch

 

     Presently we passed the Beugny 

Ytres line of double trenches, just

occupied by our infantry.  Gelly

had had sudden orders to

put 3 battalions, in there instead

of one.  They were two fine

lines of [  ?] with good wire in 

front - but no dugouts,  The

men ∧21 Bn were just undercutting

small shelters in them.

     An observer who came w 

us from 21 Bn took as on very

keen indeed to show us ∧the post which he

had just observed a number of 

 

74         41

Germans from Noreuil or that neighbourhood

working over the top of the spur in front of

Queant across wh l rly runs.  The boy

was exceedingly anxious to show us - 

very anxious to know tt he got the place

 right.  "I shouldn't be satisfied if I didn't 

think it ws right", he sd several times,

I told him tt as far as I cd see it ws

exactly l place he had pointed out.  We

cd see Germans there too, in open order,

some of them, & others in close formation.

Some seemed to be working on l rly

on top o l hill - possibly they were

pulling it up.  A train had gone along

it.

     Gellibrand gave me a German map

a most interesting one - He wants it badly

but he thought I had more use for it, & so

I have,  He had just received contradictory

orders from Brigade - tt  he ws to send 3

Battalions in to the Beugny line - "That

must mean, for defence", he sd.  He ws

also to pull in his outposts from beyond

March 20 Vaulx, I believe, They sent

him a "priority" message to this effect

at a late hour changing all previous  [arrs?]

 

42

The traffic control men tried to keep l traffic in

single streams & let it thro' in blocks & for a bit They

succeeded.  But there were not eno' of them; &

while they were elsewhere, it double banked.  At abt.

11.  I walked up it - I ws wet through below l knees -

ankle deep in mud - There ws a thin trickle of infantry,

relieved, trickling slowly down thro' the block between

the 2 lines of traffic where there were two, wandering Threading in

& out where there were not.  There ws a solid block

of men, horses - wagons, led horses, big lorries,

tractors & heavy guns, for ¾ mile.  You wd find

them jammed right up agst one another facing one

another across l road.  The ∧Australian police were big fine

capable men - & they had some good men & some fair

rotters to deal with - I heard one tell a man on a 

mule to stop & latch on to a stuck wagon.  The chap took

no notice. " It wont do you any good if I have to pull you off" sd l policeman.  The man still rode on.  The 

policeman went up & jerked his reins ∧roughly, "Why dont

you stop when I tell you?" he asked. "I cant hold em" 

replied l man - "You bloody babe - you ought'nt to

be allowed out-" sd l policeman.  He let the

44

chap go bec. time ws too serious to waste.

I decided from what I saw tt there ws

no chance of my car getting out before dawn

-one was walking straight into l noses of mules in

l dark - all traffic one way ws stopped & so ws

most o l others.  So I told Baldwin I wd walk

home.  He prepared to stay but B Shirley

walked w me - we cleared the block & at

Pozieres got a lift & got home at 1.30 am

to find Bayley still working & a warm dinner

kept for me which we shared.

      The car reached home at 4.30am.

Osborne told me today the reason o l 

block.  It appears tt l army commander,

Gough, got away from his staff yesty for half

an hour or so up there.  He decided tt the

thing to do ws to push on & bombard the

Hindenburg line at once w heavy artillery.

He ordered every big gun he came across

onto the road, with the heavy tractors & lorries

(lorries had bn ordered off l road as it ws

known they cd not manage it):  no one in his

Anzac Corps ws informed though they controlled

l road - & this ws l result.

    The block ws stay [  ??] out next afternoon

the road ws shut for part of follg nights for repair

It took guns 2 days to get thro.

 

Written in border

 The 2nd Corps is going out;

5th Corps taking over;

& 50 guns are going 

out also

 

74        45

slight.  Our guns are sd to have punished

him (The [Hun?] in an order captured on

the officer k. in Desaulx farm says

tt his detachments are to try & deceive

us & inflict heavy casualties on us).

     He shelled Vaulx & Vraucourt at 

the same time.

     We withdrew to a line outside

Vaulx & Vraucourt.

     The British had much the same

experience in Croisilles.

     Later. We got into Beaumetz &

were put out there also in a 

well reinforced c- attack along l

rly after dark.

     We are getting close to l

Hindenburg line now & he can

 hit back.

     He may retire beyond the

Hindenburg line.  There are indications

of it; fires behind l line at Marcoing

& one or two suggestions in captured

orders.

     When we told the 4th army during

l winter tt 2 prisoners had sd there

 

 

46

ws to be a withdrawal to

the Cambrai line they wd not

believe it.  

'You always hear tt

whenever men are put to work

on new [?] behind l line " they

sd.

March 21    We took Beaumetz & then were

  March 22        turned out of it again.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

March 23.  We took Beaumetz again.

this morng.  We were to have gone for Norevil & 

Langatte tomorrow xxx morning, but the

attack has bn postponed.

     I came up to Bapaume to 

stay in the factory on the Benuatre 

Rd - a v. good deep dugout - where I 

am writing this in bed.  There are 4

of us xx in the bunks in this passage

-like rough ships bunks.  I went today

round Vaulx & Vraucourt.  Our

line is a series of picquets on roads

& in little posts down in front of

Noreuil (over the skyline of the contours from

it, I expect); & a series of supporting

posts behind it.  We saw one of