Charles E W Bean, Diaries, AWM38 3DRL 606/8/1 - May - June 1915 - Part 17

151

O'Gorman took / telescope. The figure _∧had moved again &

he swore it ws a cow. But I It ws too thick for a

man. Presently he became much more interested 

- it ws two men. And so there were. This time they

had long red coats & blue pantaloons. They were

doing everything but looking at / cows - pointing to

/ trees, & to / hills where we were, & to / sea.

[* We cd also
see 80
vultures
sitting in
several
rows along

/ beach -
Thought they
were men
at first till

saw one flap
its great
wings & fly.

The attention
o / General
was called to

them / other
day. *]

We told / N.Z. Headquarters on / way back.

They had seen them. "We are going to move a gun to get

onto them tomorrow," they sd. "They are not working

hard eno' to justify their existence."

The Turks are very jumpy tonight. Whenever

one of our big Japanese mortars goes off they

fire heavily. When Dick & I were up in the

1st Bn. trenches the T.s were firing all night -

6 or 7 men must have bn blazing at the 1st Bn

loopholes. They didn't hit a single man there all night.

Our gaspipe loopholes are rather a success.

Sometimes / Turks wave a spade to signify

hits or misses, as we do at the butts. You

can sometimes see when they are at their

loopholes because they dont blind them.

↑

June 3. Thursday. Have worked all thro the

last 3 or 4 nights & worked last night

until 2 o'c. or a little later. Walker (Murphy's

batman) brought me some splendid candles from

the Navy - he's a curious chap - wanders

round from battleship to destroyer submarine

trawler supply ship & always finds his

 

152

feet (when sent out to get stuff for the mess).

Austin has let me have temporarily some unwanted

blankets for the walls - and I have a good big

case for the table - biscuit boxes to sit on & 2 biscuit

boxes & 2 ammunitn boxes for cupboard - so it

makes home life a pleasure.

The Doris came over today escorted by

3 destroyers, like so many outriders, (or like the

policemen that used to escort the old judge & myself

on circuit) & blazed about 50 6 inch shell

into Anafarta - the nearer one - where the

Turks have got a supply station. They have cut a

deep road thro' the main ridge opposite us

almost due East of the 4th 4th Bn. thro wh

came mules &  xxxx even men on horses - evidently

their main communicatn. The guns blaze at

it occasionally.

[* ? Or Blenheim
or Talbot (?)

I cd see
3 or 4
cattle to the
right of
Anafarta
village today,

to the right
of the pine
wood. There
seems to be

a graveyard
beyond the
right o /
village &
in front of it. *]

Tonight whilst I ws with Blamey a

signal came in tt dogs had bn heard baying

in front of our lines. They are clearly using these

for patrols - as Blamey sd - one of those peace

tricks, wh never work in war.

Blamey is working a ruse tonight - a

deep deception - lost losing a notebook

belonging to a regimental adjutant, with

a faked map in it & some letters about

harmless subjects.

[* (Some figures, calculatns

etc were also put in)

The book ws duly lost
by a patrol - it contained

two love letters to Maj. Massey

A notebook, a map of our right 

w two lines in pencil: &

My dear Colonel, You
go in tonight. When you see

/ ground I am sure
you will agree tt

2 bns are quite
sufficient to hold it *]

Maj. Bruce o / mountain battery

ws killed yesterday - a great fellow, I believe.

He had bn a father to some of our men - a fine

kindly man. He wore a beard. He ws walking

up a communicatn trench - had made way for

the general ^& gone on - & a bullet took him from behind

through the neck & head.

 

153

One of the 20 tunnels that we are making came

out on the surface where it wsnt meant to today - &

I believe had to be abandoned - It ws between Courtneys

& the 1st Bn. One of our drives is already 60 feet in.

It is curious seeing them working - The one brilliantly

lighter place in the trench is the inside o / tunnel.

They thought they cd hear Turks working in the 1st

Bn lines / other night - but I think it ws our own

tunnel they heard. They arranged to work & stop & work

again & so on for some minutes, so as to test it. I

did not hear / result.

At 10 pm. some fierce firing by / Turks.

Some Howitzer ammunitn has bn

arriving - 2000 rounds, I believe; also some

sandbags. Our men are making a solid wooden

pier.

Three men were smothered in a dugout

today - it fell in.

The Turks have one 6 in howitzer (?) &

one 9 in firing agst the right of our line.

The 6 in is from the South direction - in the

plain, probably. The 9 in behind / main ridge

due eastwds (so Hough tells me).

Hough says tt he ws called up to

listen to a Turk last night who ws

making a weird noise. The trenches are

50 yds away there - / nearest they come on /

right (They have had no bombs but an

aeroplane dropped a bomb on them & killed

one man in / latrines). The man ws a 

sentry - & it turned out he ws only singing. He

Hough described had stopped - they cd only

 

154

hear them talking & laughing when Hough came 

up. But he asked: ws it like this? - & they sd.

exactly - thats right. In The man had bn singing - some

sentimental song or love song. "Take me from these

Hills" - or something.

I wonder why / enemy does not try

& - well I wont put it down here.

White has got the D.S.O. - & McNichol -

Well - by Jove - they deserve it.

Austin ws on E14 & B11 (Holbrook)

the other day. Of course they make nothing

of their feat. The awkward part is they

say o' course we [[shorthand]]

& the place is simply bristling w guns of

every sort. B11 has no latrine. They

have to come up to perform the functions

of nature. They cant do it in deep water

anyway - the valve wont work agst / 

pressure. One of our submarines ws in /

N. Sea when / Commander wanted to

perform one of these functions. He decided

well - I'll come up & chance it. He came

up - & there ws the Maintz - the German

cruiser, fair in his periscope. He sank her.

That is how the Maintz ws sunk.

The B11 saw a German submarine,

one o / big new ones, off Smyrna. She ws 2

mile away at / time. She tried to catch her

but / German saw her before she came up &

as the Germans are now very big & fast she

 

155

escaped.

The worst of these submarines is tt /

Germ Turks (who have bn asking "why doesnt

Germany do something for us") will now

have their answer - Here they sink. the

Triumph, (wh caused us all tt trouble)

before our eyes!

The two sailing ships wh turned up &

wandered for 2 days off this port and were sd

to have bn torpedo boat destroyers in disguise

are now sd to have bn German depot ships

sailing under / Dutch flag with petrol stores

& containing parts for three submarines in

parts - There is ^sd to be a captured schooner in

Lemnos - I wonder which if there is a 

grain of truth in it. Another furfie: Two

German submarines sd to have bn

captured in nets. Another I pay no

attentn to these yarns now.

Several rumours tt British are going to make

a 30 hrs naval bombardment down S.

June 4th Friday.

Early this morning xx about tt we saw the Swiftsure creeping

along / horizon from the E of Imbros. Evidently

she had come that way to avoid the submarines.

At about 10.30 the Vengeance (! or one of the P of W. class)

followed by the Triumph were seen steaming out

from Imbros towards Cape Helles     

Hand drawn diagram - see original document

First xx two destroyers; then 5 tbds

in line abreast; then the Vengeance; then 2 more

tbds; then another swarm; then the Swiftsure; finally

2 tbds & (I think) the Blenheim. At 11 began a

[* Turks attacked down S. yesty

& lost very heavily. This was

a throw in for our counter attack. *]

 

156

tremendous bombardment - ^sound like a waggon carrying a ^couple of huge

empty water tanks bumping along an strong uneven road out

in some station in the hills hill station - I went up to /

shoulder o / hill where one cd see Achi Baba & Kaba

Tepe & from there you cd see shells bursting

Hand drawn diagram - see original document

at a point ^on a line I shd say about making a right angle

from Achi Baba to the coast.

Bombardment still going on at 12.20.

Ships soon afterwards left.

They returned again in the afternoon for a time - They

seem only to be using their big guns. Why? Is it that the

first bombardment was not effective. Some of our staff

say they can clearly see a battery firing on near slope of a

hill just across Kaba Tepe valley - Blenheim was firing at

this slope but I could not see the battery; others cd see the flash

Three aeroplanes out at the same time down there - our

men spotted them & as usual are looking out for duel.

But all three are ours.

[* Heard afterwards they fired 8000 shells altogether

of Helles, xxx land & sea. "There's a growl if we fire

500," says someone. *]

The stories abt ^the German submarines being caught

are clearly untrue - at least all of them haven't been; for

 

 

Hand drawn diagram - see original document

Sketch of G.O.T. night of June 4/5

made by Freame

157

Wykeham H.

Freame.

Hand drawn diagram - see original document

Positn of offensive 1 Bn., Ap.25 (From Freame)

 

[[shorthand]]

 158

we have had another submarine scare amongst the transports

& the Swiftsure & Vengeance (or Canopas) were clearly taking

precautions against them.

Arthur Maxwell, who is a trooper in the 3rd L.H.

tells me that from Popes on. the morning when the Triumph

went down he saw the submarine many minutes before

it fired at the ship. He was sitting in his dug out & saw

a flashing object moving thro' the water. It was flashing

like a helio & it moved slowly. There seemed to be the wake

of some craft around it. He mentioned it to his mate

in the dug out, but the latter sd he had seen it already

& it was only a biscuit tin. This half satisfied

Arthur & he went on with some other business. The

flashing thing continued its movement. Then the

Triumph began firing at something in the water - & the

explosion took place. The periscope - for of course it was a 

periscope - sank from view. Later it came up in apparently

the same place  - they cd see the disturbance of the surface

for some distance around it - it was slowly moving

off westward. The destroyer cdn't see it & Arthur & Duncan

wanted to shout & tell them. Presently one of them dashed

towards it but it & went right over the place, where but it had

disappeared. Afterwards for a short Afterwds for a short while it

came up again.

I got the tip - dropped very quietly - that there

might be something doing out at shxx at abt 11 o'c. tonight

Later I was told that this was to be opposite; Quinns

& also 1st Battn - but that it was very secret. I happened

to tell Bazley that I would be out part of the night.

"Is Anything going on in the trenches, Sir?" he asked. I

sd not that I knew of. "Oh its only they're talking down

there of an attack tonight - an infantryman told

them that they were going to take the trenches opposite

Quinns." So that is the way secrets are kept. It

 

159

was just the same in Melbourne - Later on an engineer

officer told me that there was something on in the 1st Bn.

June 5: Sat. I have been working night & day to try & get

square with articles & diary. But It is almost

impossible on account of interruptions - the people that

will come in and talk ^& talk as though I had nothing to do -

whereas very few people in camp have so much.

I wanted this night for work. However as Quinns is

always interesting & there seemed some prospect of a

bit of excitement I decided to go up. It was worth it.

I left the Beach about 10.30 p.m. & walked up to the old

4th Bde H.Q. Now the H.Q. of the _∧3rd section, under Col. Chauvel.

The plan as far as I know, was that as the

British & Fr. were attacking down South we were to

create a sensation on a small scale here. The only thing

was that the attack down south came first & our movement here

afterwards. The 9th Bn was to send out a few platoon to occupy

bayonet snipers in a trench Kaba Tepe way (after basting by a destroyer);

[*x No -
see Page*] 

the 1st Bn. was to make a rush with 100 men agst German Officers

trench (so called bec. 2 German Officers were supposed to have been seen

here the day of the armistice - (Price of the 1st Bn. tells me that his

brother of the 3rd Bn who cd speak German, spoke to one - but not here)

& destroy the machine gun or machine guns in it; fifty were to

go for this trench & 50 for a marines trench nearer to our lines

in front of Courtneys which the Turks fill every night & to bayonet

the occupants & return both parties were to return; &

the New Zealanders were to take the trench facing No 1 section

of Quinns - In this last N.Z. attack the assaulting

The parties were to be.

1 off. 2 N.Cos. 30 men  (33) Canterbury

1 off. 2 N.Cos. 24 men   (27) Aucklandd.

60 altogether

Quinns post ws I believe held by Auckld. with a half co.

& local reserve of Canterbury. Local reserve - remainder of

Canterbury.

 

160.

I reached walked up the valley in the _∧pitch dark - the moon was not yet

up. There was a rattle & clink and a laugh of talking men just in

front of me up. The Indian provision carts coming _∧back down the white road

were almost on top of you ^me before you ^I saw them - about 20 of

them - the first carts I had seen working at Anzac. They supply

the depot in Monash gully from which quartermasters of battalions

draw their stores with Turkish snipers firing from Dead Mans

Ridge all the time. As I got higher up the gully I thought

I could hear the thump thump of snipers bullets upon the

bags of the traverses. And Col. Chauvel told me when I got in

that the snipers keep up their firing down the valley all

night now - lay on during the day time.

There was a light shining dimly in Col. Chauvels big

dug out when I got there. It was like a fair sized old

fashioned room with p broad flat beams laid parallel

across the ceiling dark ceiling - ships _^the planking from some

barge that had gone ashore & been broken up. The light was

shaded by a big _^flat wooden _^biscuit box - it glowed thro' the the box

ws set up on end & the lamp set into _^lantern placed in it - you cd see

the light dimly through the grain of the thin wood at the 

back. They had had the unguarded light naked a few

minutes before. But a sniper had seen the glare of it on the

sandbags which jut bey of the _^rear wall wh juts beyond the

door & had put half a dozen shots one after / other xxxxxx

into / corner sandbag at / top left hand corner. So out

of fairness to / signallers just outside they shaded /

light & / sniper turned elsewhere.

Col. Chauvel ws there, & Col. Johnston o / New Zealand

Infantry brigade, Farr of the Chauvel's staff captain & several

others. It was The talk was about all sorts of subjects 

- particularly - How were we doing at Cape Helles?

I said the shells seemed to be bursting tonight exactly

where they were bursting this morning. There was the

usual crack crack thud of snipers along the trenches

high on the hilltops above us & the occasional thud of a

nearer shot finding its mark in the valley.

XX At one a particular moment the shooting

at the valley head seemed to increase a little. There was

a shot, then two or three shots together, then a few more.

Col. Chauvel said "Hallo - I expect that's