Charles E W Bean, Diaries, AWM38 3DRL 606/8/1 - May - June 1915 - Part 13

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have played several clever dodges. One was -
every time a certain howitzer of ours fired to
fire one of their own guns into Quinns post. The
Artillery observation officers – or Col. Johnson I think it
was - proved this to the General. They went to a positn
from wh they cd see where the howitzer shell burst -
in quite a different part of the line. ^But As soon
as ever it fired some small gun over opposite the
3rd Bde fired also - following it shot for shot. When
it stopped the Turk gun stopped. Presently Col. J.
said "well - we'll see if he goes again." He had the
howitzer fired & the little Turk followed at once
a little late this time. The report always followed
the howitzer report - pom - pom. Her shell went
onto Quinns, and Quinns was a place from
wh frequent reports used to come back tt we were
being fired into by our own guns.
A new gun with a whistling shell -
probably 4 in - perhaps 8" - opened today on
the ship in harbour firing percussion shells
The Newmarket (fleet sweeper) was in harbour
with a load of biscuits or something in a
barge alongside - brought I fancy from
Imbros. The 6^th shell got fair into her.
I hear the destroyers yesty were new
ones - wh bought those troops who are
into shrapnel fire. They werent warned
bec. no one here was warned of their
arrival until after they had arrived.
It cost a loss of 46 men - that piece of
 

113
Staff work.
The sniper too is causing us heavy losses -
He is sd to have got 33 men yesterday up shrapnel
gully,  & 42 today on the N.Z.. beach amongst
the 3rd L.H. If so it is sheer carelessness for on
that beach they have a communicatn trench
wh avoids the sniper. They cd see these men
quite clearly today & got onto one of them
whilst he was performing the offices of nature
at 1500 yds. He hopped into his trench in a very
lively manner.
I rather fancy the destroyer which is near
the commodores ship here got in on those
snipers tonight. During the whole day these
little ships have been active - taking as far
as possible the part of the main big fleet. This
destroyer was blazing away last night too - &
today at 9.am. when the Newmarket was
hit she stood in & replied. We look on their
little guns as toy guns from here – but after all
they have 3 4 inch guns in this class of destroyer
- & that is a much bigger gun than our
field gun; probably it fires a 30lb shell.
Later in the morning at 11 a.m. they
brought up the old cruiser Doris, escorted
by two destroyers - one on each side of her
always keeping abt 200 yds ahead -
rather like a judges escort of troopers. She came
 

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slowly round the bay & out to the point & back agn
to the South without firing. Perh. the gun of the
enemy cdnt be seen. But abt 3.15 the destroyer
put in again & fired. She has a range buoy there
& steals up to it (it looks like a great fishermans
float) Later still two trawlers at 5 p.m. two
destroyers trawlers 705 & 323 came across from
Imbros with store barges on their lee sides (i.e. from
this gun) The destroyer with another waited side
by side near this buoy like two little sisters
cheek by cheek watching for the enemys gun to
open fire, but it never did so. I fancy they have
located it. Our guns located two of theirs just above
the top of the man gully the other day & blew both
of them out; they blew one into the air the first
day & the other was taken away; they blew the
other onto its side the next. They cd see the T. gunners
working - breast high  they cd see them from the
breast upwards. The next day the second gun
was brought back. a they got leave to go for it &
knocked it onto its side.
Yesterday they were told that masses
of infantry cd be seen behind  moving behind
the olive grove directn. By the time they got
the positn the infantry had of pr disappeared if
they were ever there but numbers of carts cd
be seen just stringing behind a hill. The carts
also disappeared but after them came some
mules. They got onto the mules. An officer
on a white horse came up & the mules went
 

115
for all they were worth down behind a ridge.
They must have lost some. They also got the
6 in. howitzer onto a gun emplacement behind
K. Tepe today.
The guns agst us today are probably
not more than X8.
To start with there were abt 96
apparently seen or known of in Gallipoli.
The Intelligence people were wonderfully
accurate after all. They put
4 guns (emplacements for 9) at K. Tepe.
(Possibly there were only 2 here)
2 up the valley behind (East of) our position.
(these were there - perh. 3.)
4 guns at Kojadere wh certainly were there.
4 guns (if I remember right) on 972.
(these were much lower down the
ridges - but otherwise they are right)
4 over below Pasha Dagh in the ruins.
(These may be the ones at Olive Grove)
There were others on the Coast further
S than Kaba Tepe & others at Maidos.
& below Kilid Bahr - 8 & 10 at a
point S. of Kilid Bahr & 4 in
Kereves Dere. This may all be
right.
Today we here hardly seem to have more

than 8 guns agst us - at one time we had 16
probably.
The Turks seem now to be digging
 

116
in on every side - going to besiege us
in fact. To attack us will be playing
our game, so perh. they wont do that.
They are apptly doing a lot on the Kilid Bahr
plateau, & at one or two places on the
shore of the Dardanelles behind it - &
at Boghalit. It looks as tho' they
feared we shd get across the Peninsula
but wanted to make Kilid Bahr plateau
a regular Gibraltar. The British have
advanced a bit - & so have the French -
down South.
Our gunners till me their whole
staff has a tremendous belief in Col. Hobbs.
He is nervy & doesn't show to advantage, they
say, at D.H.Q. But he's strong eno' when
at work.
I must put down a few additional
points White & Casey have told me at
various time abt the General (Bridges):
When first White he & White got
ashore they started almost at once for the
right. It ws abt 7 o'c. then & the plan had
bn changed - M^cCay being sent in on the
right by Col. Maclagan instead of on
the left. The Gen. & White wanted to see
why this was & how it modified things.
Accordingly they started down xxx /
beach & over Queensland Knoll. There
 

117
they saw some of our 2nd Bde climbing
the first ridge opposite. The Gen. asked if
the enemy were there - & presently found
the enemy ws not. So he for rounded on
the men going up / hill & asked them why
on earth they didn't go up the easy country
way on the flat. He save them, a great dressing
down. Later Then he went on over the neck
behind Col. M^cCays H.Q. & the first thing
he saw there was our men coming back
- "oh yes the beggars were coming back"
sd Col White when he told me. The Gen.
waited till he was sure things were alright
on the right & then went across to the left
to have a look there.
The next day, in the early afternoon
he went out to 400 hill. He first worked
up the nearer side of it getting men out
of gullies & hollows,  & Swearing at them,
calling them all sorts of things. They looked
at him very shamefacedly  &  went on.
Then be walked right up to the trenches
Whilst he ws standing amongst them &
collecting them 5 or 6 of them, were killed
hit quite close to him.
Having got them together he walked
up to the firing line more on the right
- abt the trenches of the 4^th or 6^th. He
stood behind the trenches looking about
 

118
and one man sd: "for goodness sake come
down here sir - you'll be hit for certain."
The Gen. looked down at him & simply sd:
"Be damned." Presently he walked on &
got down into the little shallow trench of the
day. He stayed there a bit - & consented
on urgent advice to keep low as he
left it. But he hadnt gone 12yds before
he stood straight up again.
He ordered the 4^th to straighten 
up its line by sending up 2 platoons.
But he never waved his hand (so Casey
says) as Simpson thought ^he did. The straightening
up was somehow - perh. thro' treachery -
mistaken for a general advance & so
the 4^th charged, all by itself. Glasfurd
saw this, I believe.
The day ws exceedingly quiet & hot
We have bn getting a fair number of T.
prisoners lately, mostly deserters.
Two men, Armenians, came along / beach
from Gaba Tepe way the other day running
for dear life, the T.s potting at them. Two
came in the day of the Armistice - jumped
down into one of our trenches from a burial
party.  we cd h It wasn't regular but we
cd not hand them back - they wd have bn
shot. I saw 13 coming in the next day before
 

118 ½

yesty. They are used for fatigue, & it seems to be
alld. abt without guards now - some of
them at any rate. Simpkin had one today
who ws carrying a tremendous load. Our
men & the navy give them cigarettes, & the
Indians give them chupattis.
Lots of men were in bathing today.
I heard someone say "Go!" & saw a race
of 4 from a barge to the shore; but in the
afternoon a shrapnel burst just in tt place.
- some men were bathing just a yard or two
in shore of it - & that second race was the
quicker.
Bd. The big destroyer ^Pincher put in very close
to shore just opp. Fishermans Hut tonight.
She had a man in the crow's nest; & she didnt
man her gun, I suppose because she
was under rifle fire but crept closer &
closer, waited a certain time - them banged
in one shot & got out. I think she must
have been after those snipers. The man in
the crows nest was not hit, but I expected
to see him fall all the time.
A mail came in - & with it the
papers. In the Argus there was an article
from Chas. Smith which caused me to
think a lot. It was utterly different from
the way he used to talk to me in Cairo.
I didn't expect him to back my article
 

119
up in public but I also didn't expect him
to let me down. And this article clearly does
so - it doesn't mention my article
specifically but anyone who read it wd take
it to refer to it & to state rather indignantly
that there was no justification for it.
He makes a statement about the visit of
the 2nd Contingent to Colombo which he
himself told me was not true - he told me
& was the first to tell me that it was
a bit of a scandal & that there were
numbers of men ashore in spite of what
Col. Monash might say. There was no
necessity to say anything about it -
but there seems to me to be less necessity,
when you do mention it, to mislead the
public by stating what you know to be
false. Jimmy Green is another who
came to me privately ^at any rate gave me to understand
that what I was right in what I wrote - &
who I see has written an article for the
papers in the which he takes the other side.
These friends of mine - if its not my
article they're referring to (which of course
they know as well as I that every one will
assume it is) might have the pluck just
to make that point clear. But if they
hunt with the hounds there'll be no more
running with this hare. Senator Pearce
quoted from a letter from General Bridges
 

120
about the. . The same article. Senator
Pearce said it "was not so much Capt
Bean's letter" he ws referring to. I don't
believe that was what Bridges said because
he was a straight man & he told me that
to write to letter, & told me afterwds
that the only thing he saw to object to in it
was the discrimination between Maadi (Light
Horse camp) & Mena. He told me at the
time when he wrote that letter that it was
not my letter that was wrong but the use
that was made of it - there was no "so
much" in what he sd to me; & I dont
believe there can have bn in what he sd to
Senator Pearce.
Tonight a party from our 9^th Bn
went out on to the ridge S.E of their lines
with the trench overlooking Gaba Tepe; &
news came back that they had bayoneted
6 snipers & taken one prisoner. Whilst
I ws writing this a dark form appeared
in front of the dugout - outlined agst
the Sea. It had a fixed bayonet &
carried 2 rifles. It was part of the

guard sent down w / prisoner. They
inquired / way & then
passed along in front of my dugout
- the 4^th tall form w skull cap being
tt o / prisoner.
This battle has followed / usual

[* at the same time a

a destroyer went close

into K. Tepe. & fairly basted it.*]