Charles E W Bean, Diaries, AWM38 3DRL 606/78/1 - May 1917 - Part 3

4    24

heard him groaning 

& went out to grab

him.  The Sergt Lay

went out without a

rifle.  The One German

ws getting back to

Sunken Rd so

Lay cut him off

& came up to him w /

German standing

on guard (a youngster

of 18).  Lay sang out

to him & walked up

& took his rifle from

him - & brought him

in a prisoner.  The

other 2 men got out

& collared the 3 men

in / post.

The Germans were

4    25

reported at 2.10

near rd wh leads

into our [shorthand] x & Sunken Rd to left.  They

were dispersed by

arty which ws very

quick - called up

by buzzer.

1st time they probly

acted on German

green SOS wh ws

same as ours (didnt

burst into 2).

I went up to the Hindenburg
line with Shirley to get

some photos & see the lie of

the ground.  The commn [shorthand]

up is fairly good, though

very strait, & narrows in parts.

There were a few dead men

by the side of it before we

reached the embankment,

4    26

& 20 or 30 between there

& the trenches.  The

sap here runs along / side

o / road with a green

slope on one side & a 

green valley on the other

[Hand drawn sketch, please see original]

The embankment has

been fairly badly

bombarded (but not

so heavily by any

means as / trenches

wh / Hun cdnt stand in

unless he had deep dug out) -

Across the valley you 

presently see a green

hedge

[Hand drawn sketch, please see original]

& two rows of wire in

4    27

front of it - & you

realise tt that hedge is

the one lining the roads from

the Star towards

Bullecourt.  The

trench becomes awfully

bad & he must be

able to see you at

abt. 1200 yards from his

trenches near the Bullecourt

Cross roads in 22 c & d

but although bullets do

go over I fancy very

few of them are snipers

bullets.

Our men speak

of the barrage ^on them coming in

& out as often dreadfully

heavy - but not as bad

as Pozieres.  It was a 

quiet day when we were

there - only once when

we were walking along

/ front [shorthand] he put over

20 black [[?TT.E.]] shells which

4    28

burst very close

overhead but are abt

as much use (as

our men say) as a sick

headache.

The O.G.2. trench

was not so much knocked

abt as O.G.1 exc. near

the road.  The German

was putting a few big

shells close to / [shorthand]

while we were in the

8th Bn HQrs.

We got photos of

Embankment, wire (2),

trench, Riencourt (2), &

the Sunken Road (one inside

it, one over the top) - &

several of the [shorthand].

When we got back we heard

tt Birdwood had told the

4th Divn tt they were to go

up north to II^nd Anzac.

Birdie ws describing it

afterwards to Gough - he

sd tt the faces of the

brigadiers at once dropped

4    29

-became about a

yard long.  The 11^th Divn

is to be sent N. at once in

place of the 5^th.  Hobbs

told Birdie tonight exactly

what / men were thinking.

They have this 11 Divn on

one side of them wh has

had 3 months absolute

rest;  they have just heard

tt the guards (wh have not

had as heavy fighting as

they, nor as continuous)

are being pulled off out for

a 7 weeks rest.  And they

are getting, as they say, pretty

well "fed up".  The German

wireless quotes what some

prisoners of the 3rd Aust. Inf.

Bde (probably 11 Bn) sd when

they were captured near

Louverval (i.e. 11 Bn) - tt /

rations had recently bn

4    30

cut down etc . . .

[Therefore the 11 Bn prisoners,

or one of them, probly

did talk

the poor old 1st Divn

is to be put in at once

again to replace the

11th -

The British in Bullecourt

today, holding the

oblong (or parallelogram

or whatever they call it)

tried to bomb towards

the W side of Bullecourt.

The Germans counteratt (shorthand)

& drove them right down

to the W. corner of Bullect.

there ws a lot of shellfire

-the Germans trying to

help their bombers by

local shelling, I fancy;

& the British got back

their (shorthand/trenches)

31       32

(drawing across two pages)

These (shorthand/trenches) are

in far better conditn

than any Pozieres (shorthand/trenches).

We seem

to hold the

black (shorthand/trenches) - but

this is not quite

clear.

_________

Telegram from Smart to say

Hughes in with majority

wh appears on the flyleaf

of this diary.

German prisoners

were under / impression

tt it ws we who had

attacked yesty night.

This bears out Huns story

tt I ws told.

4    33

May 10 1917.  Met

Masefield & Aladin

at La Boiselle & took 

them over the Pozieres

battlefield.  Dyson &

Russell kindly put us

up - Aladin & I

slept in the same hut

with Dyson, Russell,

& Dave Lindsay, bother

of Norman Lindsay, who

is Dyson's batman.

Aladin is a brilliant

old chap.  Full of humour

-a great contrast to

the quiet, shy, retiring

Masefield - with his

English ways & complete

sincerity;  I didnt see

4    34

the genius in old

Aladin until Dyson

pointed it out - a

most entertaining

companion.  Dyson

himself has a good grasp

of men.  Masefield is so

retiring that by half way

through / evening it was

Aladin who was

entertaining us.

Masefield insists

on Australia having

her full sights in

Pozieres & will do our

men their full justice

in the book he is commissioned

to write.  We spotted the

old Centre Way, near