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]] & 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, & narrow 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
'Drawing - see original document'
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 dugouts) -
Across the valley you 
presently see a green
hedge
'Drawing - see original document'
& 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^d.
& 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

31
'Drawing - see original document'
These [[ shorthand ]] are
in far better conditn
than any Pozieres [[ shorthand ]].
4    32
their [[ shorthand ]]
'Drawing - see original document'
We seem
to hold the
black [[ shorthand ]] - 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, brother
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 rights in
Pozieres & will do our
men their full justice
in the book he is commissioned
to write.  We spotted the
old Centre Way, near