Charles E W Bean, Diaries, AWM38 3DRL 606/8/1 - May - June 1915 - Part 9

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indifference Is it was something abnormal - it

didnt seem to affect his thoughts in the least. He

took his staff, as you know, into places that made him

very uncomfortable indeed, & he didnt understand

at times.
"But he turned out not only a commander free

from any sort knowledge of fear, but a great soldier -

I think you may call him a really big soldier. Looking

back on it now for example on the events of that first

day when as you know things were often touch & go

& people were very inclined to be jumpy, he kept

a level head in a wonderful manner. I we ^Even in the

light of all that that we know now I do not think

that there was a single disposition which we made

that first day which cd have been made better. Urgent

Requests were coming in from all I all day long for 

reinforcements - Urgent demands from every unit which went

up. We even had requests from company commanders

who had got separated lost from their battalions -

"We cannot hold on unless immediately reinforced."

The general wd simply receive each message,

consider it, & decide to give reinforcements here,

to refuse it there. Nothing was able to disturb him -

And you know his manner was a great help in

that time. If we had had someone who when an urgent

request for help came in had said: "Dear me - Now we

"must help these fellows - where can we get it from -

"the 3rd Bn has gone up - what is there on the left...."

it would have made everyone much more jumpy than

his "Um - tell 'em they've got to stick it." All through

those first three or four days we were there were

some very touchy moments and many people were

inclined to be anxious - but the general kept a

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level head; all thro' it he was one of those who took

a steady view consistent view.
We "There were probably some in Australia

who thought that the general lacked some of the

necessary qualities of leadership; well, he

was lucky in that his first command was the

command of a division. G A brigade is really

the last command in which an officer comes into

intimate touch with his men. The divisional

commander they know little of except at a

distance. Bridges probably would ha was more

successful as a commander of a division than he

wd have bn as commander of a brigade. He

was a lacked just the little added human quality

which would have made him a big man, but

he was a big soldier - he proved himself stands out by a

head & shoulders bigger than any soldier Australia

has produced. He cw Gen. Birdwood has told me

how he came to value his advice & to depend

upon it. He was always thinking & he was

independent enough to think for himself. When

I was a youngster I asked myself what

constituted a great mind? and I came to the conclusion

that it was the sort of brain that begins where others

leave off; which, when it comes to a question on

which others have tho been thinking does not say: "They

"have thought it out & thy say that this is the solution."

"& yes is content with that. It seemed to me a great

"mind would go on there and whe think ahead for

"himself" - well that was the sort of brain the general

had. xx And he was a strong man, strong enough to hold

impress his view when others held differently.

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I stayed up this night until to send a wire to

Australia with this appreciation of the general. Tomorrow

is the truce - & I am going round the lines with

Col. White. The truce begins at 7 tomorrow & ends at

4.30 for burying dead. 

Monday- May 24. There was considerable

gun fire up to 7 o'c. this morning from the ship

opposite Kaba Tepe & from our batteries. Before 7

it stopped & the truce began. Some of our men walking

about were shot dead at 7.40 - but some say

2, others say 4; certainly 2 were shot. The

probability is they were shot by a sniper who was

out by himself & either had not heard of the truce or

was out in this time. If a Turk had been shot I daresay

the firing wd have begun at once. We drew their attention

to it, & no more men were hit. 
The orders to our men were that only stretcher

& burial parties were to go out - mostly A.M.C. men;

all others were to keep their heads below the parapet.

With the enemy Col. xx. The agreement was that there shd be no reconnaissance,
sketching, photographing; no work done- ^no digging nor moving of 
troops during the day. The The delimitation party, with

Col. Skene a member of it, was to go down thro' the 

middle of the lines. We were to take their dead to

half way cover the ground up to half way to their

lines, they were to cover their own half - neither

to cross it. We were to give them the rifles from

the dead in our half minus the bolts (they sd

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they wanted to bury their dead w their arms - (as a

matter of fact we knew they wanted their arms; they

cd collect all the rifles & accoutrements in their

half. What we wanted was to have their dead buried

so as to improve the battlefield of life in the trenches.

Some of our men were actually sick with the stench;

I know it was bad eno' on May 19 - it must have been

awful by today today.) xxxxx
[*The 9th Bn ^had sent out ^during the night before parties to collect

all I Turk rifles they cd - altogether they got 130. The men sd they counted

250 
dead 
in this 
part.*]
When Col. White & I got up into the trenches it

may must have been about 8.30. The burial

parties had long been out. Men wer A line of unarmed

sentries with white flags was standing on the halfway

line thro' the scrub. The blue Some of them were in bright

blue uniforms with black skull caps - most of them in

khaki. Here & there was an officer in top boots.

 

Hand drawn diagram, see original document

White kept to the strict letter of the agreement -

xx at least as strictly as you cd expect anyone to do.

We went thro' the lines of the 11^th & 10^th - he showed me the

xxx ridges on our right & the importance o / ridge

w / green field where the two main gullies join

or rather wh spreads over the top of a corner of 400.

Hand drawn diagram, see original document 

As far as I cd see it is like

this but I must go there again

to ascertain. Col. White had a

pleasant word for everyone

& they for him. He made everyone

keep his head down below the

parapet & look thro' the loopholes

-indeed most of the men were in this section were obeying

the order. One Engineer cap officer was on the

parapet walking abt. White jumped down his

throat - told him what sort of an example he ws giving

to the men - & told the Bde H.Q. to send him down to

D.H.Q. later. The only fault in the officers genly seems

to be that they dont all get amongst their men and

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supervise as much as they ought to. Some

do, but some, good fellows too, are content to see

a thing started or get amongst the men doing a job

occasionally & not continually. I have noticed

this is one v. good bn. too, the 5^th.
They lob The 2nd Bn sap ws very nearly

finished- abt 3 yds from the 3^rd. Officers had

stopped men working & some o / men grumbled a

little at it - One man ws carefully digging a bit 

& throwing the ear & getting rid of the earth not along

the parapet. White let him dig on. The Enemy 

had been digging energetically in parts until

they were stopped, & they were making loopholes

all day at all points here & there along all the

line. Their attention was sometimes drawn to this.
In the 2nd Bn lines Col. Brown (the one

who was so nervy in the 3^rd Bn - he had a few

days rest & has turned out a splendid Colonel.)

showed us xx Johnson's Jolly very clearly.

The dead were very thick indeed opposite there; but

thicker still opposite the 4^th Bn - to the right of

the break in their line, Here the Turks were simply

pulling their dead down to the edge of the gully on

but thickest opposite Courtneys. Opposite Courtneys

or opp. our 1st Bn a ridge runs out a little

way - You see it from the 4^th Bn (to from the right

of the break in their line where you can see to the left)

on the one side 

Hand drawn diagram, see original document

& from Quinns or Courtneys on the other. Here

Hand drawn diagram, see original document           

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they had simply pulle our men were shovelling

Turkish dead into a short abandoned Turk trench -

& the Ts. were dragging their men to the edge of

the gully opp. Courtneys & shovelling them over
- where they lay as we saw them 20 or 30 together

in a crevice. So much for "burying them with 

their arms". [Further down this same slope today

there are 2 tents - quite exposed to Quinns

but perfectly safe bec. you cant put your

head up there.]
At this point we got out of the territory

of the 1^st Austrln Divn & into that of the 4^th

Inf. Brigade. The poor old 4th certainly

has the worst bit of country to hold.

Our 1st Bn has a beautiful field of fire

of abt 50 yards - the 4th near the break

has not so much - but on the whole our divisions

line has a splendid field from left to right.

At Courtneys & Quinns however things are

different. We are higher than the Turks opp.

us & therefore have to get up fairly high to fire

at them; but at our left & left rear are

Turkish trenches higher still on Baby 700 -

& if our men get their heads up these

enfilade them.

Hand drawn diagram, see original document

 

x Still wrong. The Razor Back 
I think is Dead Man's R.,
& the gully the Bloody Angle.
C.E.W.B. 15/12/21
76. 

The trenches at Courtneys are pretty deep.

But in Quinns where the Turks come within

close range of us they say they cant make

them deep as we may have to get up on

the parapet at any time.
I had never been in Quinns at all -

It is a perfect rabbit warren. It is 

connected now with Courtney's, but not

with the tunnel connecting Courtneys with

Quinns was blown in by a shell & you

they only connect thro' the support trenches.

They cdnt work at it today, but will open it up

as soon as now they can.
Quinns post is the extreme left of our

line along this part. After we dont hold a continuous

line at the end of the big gully - we hold the right

S. Eastern edge of it up to within 20 yards of the

end. Then comes one of the forked in which gullies

in wh the main gully ends; then come thru little

ridges III down from the plateau (the tiny one

locally know as the Razor Back, Deadmans Ridge

& Pope's Hill - the Turks hold the first two & we

the last; then comes the northern fork off the

gully - with the New Zealanders across the

other side of it. The tops of both of these ends of

the fork are held by the Turks., So that the

positn at / end of the gully may be represented as

like the mouth of a bottle. We hold both

sides o the mouth & a little stopper (Popes)

[*x This is wrong. The Razor Back is not a

ridge at all, but the end of the gully

stretching between Deadmans Ridge & Quinns.*]
 

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right in / middle. The Turks hold a line

stretching across all three just outside of ours

Hand drawn diagram, see original document

Really the New Zealand side is curiously

bent back - it runs up a ridge from the sea

on our left and then is bent back at a sharp angle

along the plateau bordering on the gully

Hand drawn diagram, see original document

like this. The trenches on our part of

this plateau - in the bent back part -

are an extraordinary maze - I dont

quite know the meaning of them. But the

right front trench commands the gully & the

opposite slope in case the Turks ever got

down it & there is a very useful well

concealed machine gun on the edge & some
Hand drawn diagram, see original document

very well concealed guns - I shd scarcely

have know there were guns there at 10

yards away. The end of these trenches

is an extraordinary razor back ridge

the top of wh is too narrow to walk on

wh connects the plateau above the 

beach with the plateau on wh / N.Zs are.

Hand drawn diagram, see original document

 

78.

Quinns is a most extraordinary little

rabbit warren - quite unlike our other trenches.

It was originally a post taken on the first

day by Major Rankine (^of 14^th) who ^X held it for 4 days

as a little isolated work on the edge of the hill -
at the end of our line. The 4th Bde did not know

where the left right o / N.Zs was at this time - they

didn't know how big / gap ws on their left; &

every evening snipers used to creep down / gully

behind Popes Hill & get inside our lines. Jess told

me he knew for certain of 6 having bn killed there.

When the N.Z.s were found they were not as far

on as they now are.

^[*X This was from Col. Monash
& is incorrect. NZ & 1^st Bde.

started Quinns. Then Jacobs 1st Bn.

Then 14^th & 15^th abt Ap. 28^th. *]

^xMaj Rankine held this post for 4 days. 

On one occasion in 5 minutes he lost 25 men.

He gave over at / end of tt time to a relief

under Capt Quinn o / 15^th. It was abt this time

when / parts o / line were being named & this

part ws called Quinn's, but I am told it

certainly shd have bn called Rankine's.
[*Rankine really seems
to have done v. little. The 14^th
tried to dig in & lost men.*]

Popes Hill ws xxx taken by Col. Pope

who landed earlier than most of his Bde,

& took this hill w many casualties. It is

a shoulder running up on / south side o / Northern

fork o / end o / big gully.    

Hand drawn diagram, see original document

& we hold a trench on it abt as drawn here.

Our communications up / valley are pretty safe at

this end safe because / Turks cant look over / top to fire

down it without exposing themselves badly.

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Popes looks up hill at them. There are two

lines of trenches within biscuit toss of it across

the tiny shallow upper end of / gully between it

& Dead Mans Ridge, & / Turks are on Dead
Mans Ridge.

Hand drawn diagram, see original document

They dont hold the               

front o / two lines o

trenches - in fact I think this one ws built

in order to the foremost line of trenches here

was dug by our men during their attack

on Baby 700.
Popes is at present under command

of Lt Col Rowell 3rd L.H; Quinns

under Lt. Col. Cannan (15^th Bn) & Courtneys

under Lt Col. R.E. Courtney o / 14^th Bn.

Monash tries to give his troops rest 24 hrs

rest in every 48; or even longer. Monash

works on the principle of trying to have half

the men in his firing line & supports always fresh.

He has a most awkward corner to deal with

where it is a real strain on the men & I daresay

he's right. But it seems to me a great deal

more work might be done on Quinn's post.

It is easily the worst place in our line.

The fire trench is shallow; the parapets

very low - & they look very thin; & the

tunnels thro' wh you grope your way

from one trench to another are simply

a rabbit burrow - you can scarcely

get thro some of them. In one Trench