Charles E W Bean, Diaries, AWM38 3DRL 606/8/1 - May - June 1915 - Part 12

102
Those who saw it all through say it ws a pitiful
sight - like watching a man die, slowly, fighting
for his life. I think there were only 50 drowned - 
they must have bn drowned in the engine
room mostly – she wd have her water tight doors
shut.

Since then we have had no ^large warship
at the beach Anzac. The Bacchante left us yesterday
& has not come back today. The Albion
went off at the same time injured. The Triumph 
is sunk & the rest have gone except
destroyers searching for submarines -  and
you can see those all day moving restlessly
abt the sea.

I believe they saw the torpedo that
was fired at them - whe saw it when it ws abt
100 yds away from the ship. They say the
Vengeance also had one fired at her -
but that it missed.

Wednesday May 26th.
Exceedingly quiet night & day on
the beach - as it has bn ever since May
19. A British Aeroplane flew over &
dropped two bombs behind Lone Pine
We cdn't see what was in the gully there,
but probably it was a reserve of Turks
This high explosive makes a nasty scream
- a high note - when it bursts so they say.

[*The German aeroplane 
flew over yesty.*]

103
There are no ships now watching either of
our flanks; there ws no searchlight last
night. All the transports have bn taken from
the anchorage & only a few trawlers, some
empty barges tied moored to buoys, & an
occasional storeship are left. When troops
come they are transferred to light destroyers
at Lemnos; stores are transhipped also.
Water is pumped from transports into trawlers at
Imbros, & brought by the trawlers to our water
pontoons. A few pinnaces & a torpedo boat
abt make up our ships now.
One can see a warship or two down
at the Point still.

The gun on the hills to the NE - up 971
somewhere - has the range of our beach to
a nicety. When any destroyer or other ship
comes in to a particular point near one of
the buoys this single gun (wh devotes its
attention to / beach is on to her in a
few seconds. The cable ship came in this
morning & they got straight onto her, & threw
three or four shrapnel onto her, when they
she steamed out again quickly.

Tonight at 4.15 with four destroyers
came in full of troops. A message was, I
believe sent from Imbros at 4.0 to say
they were coming but it did not arrive
until 5. In the meantime they got
the destroyers arrived & one of them

104
came straight in & anchored in exactly the
position in which the cable ship had anchored,
close to the barges. The gun immediately got
onto her & threw two shrapnel over her, one
or two short, & then 8 or 10 fair onto her. The
decks were packed with men - they cd only stand &
face it. They were falling like sheep & before she
got out 5 (1 seaman & 4 soldiers) had been killed
& 41 wounded. I had these figures from the doctor
on board. The men were reinforcements
& retu men who had been wounded & were
returning from Alex - about 2000 of them.
Afterwds it was a brilliant moonlight night. If the
destroyers had been told to come 4 hours later,
or even to avoid that dangerous berth this
wd not have happened. But like almost every
arrangement carried out by the outside
staffs it was criminally stupid - at
least that is my personal observation of
the work of the big staffs running this show.

About 2000 reinforcements & returned
woundeds came back last night & today.
There will be more convalescents back
very shortly, I believe.

One man who returned provided
a problem for the powers: there turned up
a man sent to "regiment unknown."
When Foote asked him what he was he
said he had had infantry training, but he
had enlisted in this show as an A.M.C.

105
man. "Only I 'ad a little difference with my
Colonel an' I had to be sent back - I didn't
want to go back - I came out to do my bit an'
I dont want to go back without doin' it – so I
came on here (he managed to get through somehow).
I'd like you to put me in the infantry if yer
cd, Sir." There's a pr Foote sd, "I suppose you
were sent back after court martial." "Yes, Sir."
"Well, I expect they'll put you under a guard
& send you home."
"I dont think they will, tho' " he
added told me. "You cant charge him with desertion,
exactly, when he comes to the back to / front."

What some

What are we doing all this while? I
wish I knew. Waiting for the Greek elections on
June 13? We are a containing force - they
tell us so from G.H.Q. and I suppose they are
right because at the time when we could have
gone forward they decided we were to stay here
& took two brigades away to the place where the
move was really to be made - used them up
pretty well & sent them back. The Turks are
now building us in all round, getting
their lines stronger & stronger every day; I
doubt if we could move out thro' the front
even if reinforced, today; they have 8 guns
in their firing line at Johnsons Jolly & our
howitzers say they cant get at them & our 

106
artillery 18 pdrs have no common shell. They
are making gridiron trenches in places where
their trenches were weak - & our job is
sitting & looking on. Our artillery ammunition is
pretty strictly cut down, we get about one half
hour of aeroplane in 3 days. The navy is
now out of it - we can scarcely expect them
to come out & be torpedoed day by day,
although there are warships visible down South
- possibly some of them are sham warships. Sixteen
of our guns are off helping in the push down
South -

We are a "containing"  force - i.e. we are
holding up one force of T.s whilst another force
of ours somewhere else does something. But
what is there any prospect of its doing? We
might with a shove have got our main
ridge but no force under 250,000 will
get Achi Baba. As far as I can see the
force down there is doing exactly what we
are - namely, allowing an army of
Turks to make itself ^each day tremendously
stronger in a strong position already naturally
strong.

May 27^th Thursday.
Turks shelled our 4th Bn. trenches
from their 3 emplacements on Johnstons
Jolly this morning for about 20 minutes
with common shell or high explosive at
abt 300 yards & made a hash of some

107
pretty good trenches. Thats where the next attack
I expect will come from. Their reserves are
behind there; & if they smash up the 4^th Bn
trenches they can make their attack agst
Quinns without fear of the fire from the 4^th wh
has been so deadly before. Quinns doesnt
matter so much. But the 1st Bde trenches
are our strength over there.

A good deal of sapping is going on all along
our line. A map of saps as they stand today
was made by Martin. I have a copy of it.

The aeroplane - the one wh looks like a Taube -
was over again today. Quiet afternoon - warm -
beautiful bathing.

Jack Butler looked in on me today - I was
just going up to inquire after him in case he had
been in the charge of the 13^th. But that ws the
2nd Squadron. His was the 2nd. He ws looking very
fit - had been in Popes & Quinns & was now on
Popes. He says they were attacked on the morning
of the 18^th.

The Bacchante has been absent the last
two days - we saw her last the day the
Albion was ashore. They say she left Lemnos
& has not since been heard of. I do hope
nothing has happened to her - the Triumph
& the Bacchante were our trusted old
mainstays.

The Majestic is said to have been sunk by
a submarine this morning at 6 o'c. off
Cape Helles. There are sd to be 2 submarines
but it is mere rumour that I hear.

108
Lind returned today from Alex after being - he was
in hospital there after his fall down the Novian's
hold. He says that Cairo & Alex people - not
British only but all oth nationalities - are being
extraordinarily kind. They are taking convalescents
to free the hospitals. Nearly all the big hotels are
now hospitals (including Mena still where there
are 400 convalescents under Springthorpe.)
But there have been ructions at Heliopolis where
Ramsay Smith & Barrett command - they
cant take more the 1600 & some of the nurses
are simply worn out so that he cd not recognise
them. The Fergusons are an example of what
private residents are doing. They are everyday
at the Hospital - Mrs F. cutting up bread &
food for 700 patients 12 hours a day; & the
doctor coming down after his work every at
the medical school every day to help her.

On the way from Lemnos to Alex. they
had an interesting little side show. It ws abt the
end of April that 6 large transports full
of wounded and sick, escorted by 3 destroyers,
a despatch boat, the dummy Tiger, &
the Duris called in at Smyrna. The dummy
Tiger made all the smoke she could from
her funnels. They went off Smyrna - not
to close in - then round to an empty
bay to the South of it and lay off at nightfall

109
& looked as if they were going to land - but didnt
fire at all; & at night steamed off ^to Alex. When they arrived
in Egypt the papers had a report tt a British force
had landed in Smyrna.

The dummy Tiger is an 18000 ? ton
Western Ocean liner w one funnel - cut off
(they say) by an oxy-acetylene flame in a more
or less straight line with upper works of canvas
& imitation canvas guns. She really is unrecognisable
at 3 miles - even nearer she is alright in profile
but nearer her stern & bow give her away. They
fitted a cruiser bow & stern onto her in outline
but it is only in outline - beams with a single
straight plating - & if she is close you can
see the difference ^if you look at an angle.

Diagram - see original scan
They say she cost £30000 to cut down
£26,000 to repair [[shorthand]]
[[shorthand]] Capt Dexter [[shorthand]]. Also he
told me of the course kept by the mine sweepers
in / old country. A friend of his - a tug owner
going up the narrow channel - & only xxx
aaaaaaa - would find merchantmen a couple
of 100 yds away anchored not daring to move.
He wdnt dare to go near them & they wdnt
dare to stir until daylight.

Moved into my new dug out this evg.
after being for 2 days Caseys guest. The
batmen were just getting dinner in front of

They do this
Like stage soldiers
sometimes -
round by 
the back & 
in again.

110

it when a shell burst up the valley & hit two of
them. It also wounded 4 mules and seriously wounded
an Indian. One of the batmen, Hatterick, was only
bruised by the pellet - it went thro' his clothes but
didnt go in. The other (little Riley) had only just
come ashore after being wounded in the old HQ.
on the beach. The first wound had been on his
penis. This time it went thro' his bottom & came
out again - only a flesh wound fortunately. He was
trembling all over but laughing. I think he'd
like to get out of it tho' now. They have been too
rough with him altogether, these Turks.

Bright moon. nearly full. No destroyer
searchlight of Nebrunesi but I believe a 
destroyer is there. One of the larger ones was
firing away manfully for us tonight from her
4in gun on our left flank. I daresay she
can do quite a lot of good. The Capt. of the
Canopus is on board a destroyer now -
I suppose he is commodore in our bay.
9 8.35 Fairly heavy rifle fire.
10.55 Rifle & machine gun fire by
enemy.

May 28^th Friday.
The firing in the Turk trenches last night
was due to the men in our 3^rd Bn who fixed
bayonets & marched walked up & down their trenches
& cheered - whereupon the Turk immedately
let off a hail of bullets so high, they sd, that

111
they cd not hear them - At least thats what Glasfurd
says. I shd have thought if they cdnt hear them
they must have bn directed another way, probly
at Quinns Post. We can hear bullets here 60 or 70
feet at least above our heads.

The second time we cheered they blazed again -
And must have wasted thousands of rounds. But
the 3rd or fourth time they seemed rather to tumble
to it. However this is only second hand.

This morning At 10.55 ^last night there was rapid firing
apptly by our own people.

This morning I saw Kenyon of the Mountain
battery carrying down a piece of shell - "Our
people say it ws fired from one of our batteries
& fell into Qui our trenches" he sd. "They say
it fell there at 7 & we didn't fire a gun until
10. I am taking at down to show Gen. Cunliffe
Owen."

We asked if it was one of the our shells -
"Yes, its a shell like ours alright," he sd.
We asked if it were one of our own shells fired
back at us
"No, the N.Zs had to 2 mountain batteries
two years ago at they didn't want, so they
sold them to the Turks," he sd. "Thats how
were getting them."
The Turks well know the demoralising effect of being fired on by your own guns & they