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
diagram - see original document
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 Arras.
diagram - see original document
I believe we have saved 3
divns here already since / Germans
began to retire - the 29^th & two others;
& of course two of ours.
Gellibrand is commander of one
Adv. guard of all areas; & Elliott of
another - they have to keep active touch
w / 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 / 
houses had bn filled up w wood, tables,
chairs - & tar poured over them so
tt they wd easily burn.
A message came from 4^th army
tt some o / 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 /
middle o / 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 / square ws down &
/ 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
Beugnâtre 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
4p.m. on Feb. 17 last. Travers (of 26 Bn)
& Davies (22 Bn) looked in, & Gelly took /
opportunity of my car being there to send
Travers up to see Forbes in Beugnătre.
It was certainly further than any motor
car had ever been towards / 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
/ roadside - every dugout blown
down & / woodwork apparently taken
away.  xxx The trees in Bapaume 
cattle market have all been cut down
for some reason - & some o / 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 Tavreuil on the left &
found ourselves blocked by a 
crater at the entrance o / tiny
village of Beugnâtre.  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.  Beugnatre 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
Beugnâtre - a redbrick place w a
gateway abt half way up on / right
hand side o / road.  The road ws
in bad conditn here & / Germans had
clearly probably sd: let it remain so.
xxx I let / 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 / road, & he told us
 

74  40
he had bn along & seen / cavalry 
patrols, past Vaux or Vraucourt.
Nearby the whole o / trees were newly
cut sawn down on one side o / road here
past Beugnatre - just lying side by
side -
[hand drawn sketch- see original document]
 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 trenches 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 us 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 / 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 / place he had pointed out.  We
cd see Germans there too, in open order,
some of them, & others in close formatn.
Some seemed to be working on / rly
on top o / hill - possibly they were
pulling it up.  A train had gone along
it.
Gellibrand gave me a German map
- a most interesting one - He wanted 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 arrangements.
 

42

[shorthand] The traffic control men tried to keep / 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 / 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, horse - waggons, led horses, big lorries,

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

them jammed right up agst one another facing one

another across / 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 waggon.  The chap took

no notice. "It wont do you any good if I have to pull you
off" sd / 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 'im" 

replied / man - "You bloody babe - you oughtnt to

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

74  43
We left Gelly abt 6, - wh wd bring us to Pozieres
abt 7 pm - before dark, where the road ws better.
But after passing / last big crater near Le Sars we
ran into a block. It had been half raining & half
snowing, & / road ws slush. I got out to see what
had happened. A big lorry has stuck & its wheels dug in -
A tractor broug Two light cars had tried to pass it &

each stuck in the soft road side. A tractor caterpillar
bringing down a big gun tried to up came down - I went up & asked
him to - & pulled / lorry out, & / two cars - & then
on / way back got stuck himself. Another caterpillar w
a big gun broke down on / other side o / road a few yds
from him - a signal lorry broke down further up. Officer
of 2nd Div H.Q> & I worked for 3 hours getting the traffic
gradually along - then a police traffic officer came & took charge.

After 5 hours in blinding rain, I left / car & walked to Pozieres & got a
lift back by 1.30 a.m. [shorthand] Herberton brought me in bed.
March 20. News tt we are in
Noreuil
Later - the Germans threw us
out of Noreuil. A patrol reported
/ place clear. We advanced to
occupy it when they put up a
pretty heavy barrage. 150 men &
6 mgs were in the village. We
had abt 150 casualties, mostly
 

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 / noses of mules in
/ dark - all traffic one way ws stopped & so ws
most o / other.  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 Bazley 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 / 
block.  It appears tt / 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.
[* The 2nd Corps
is going out;
5^th Corps
taking over;
& 50 guns
are going 
out also. *]
They He ordered every big gun he came across
onto the road, with the heavy tractors & lorries
(x lorries had bn ordered off / road as it ws
known they cd not manage it):  no one in the
Anzac Corps ws informed though they controlled
/ road - & this ws / result.
The block ws straightened out next afternoon
the road ws shut for part of follg nights for repair
It took / guns 2 days to get thro.
 

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 /
rly after dark.
We are getting close to /
Hindenburg line now & he can
hit back.
He may retire beyond the
Hindenburg line.  There are indications
of it; fires behind / line at Marcoing
& one or two suggestions in captured
orders.
When we told the 4^th army during
/ winter tt 2 prisoners had sd there
 

74  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 trenches behind / 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 Noreuil & 

Langatte tomorrow b morning, but the
attack has bn postponed.
I came up to Bapaume to 
stay in the Factory on the Beunatre 
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