Charles E W Bean, Diaries, AWM38 3DRL 606/80/1 - May - June 1917 - Part 1

AWM38

Official History,

1914-18 War: Records of C E W Bean,

Official Historian.

 

Diaries and Notebooks

 

Item number: 3DRL 606/80/1

 

Title: Diary, May -June 1917

Includes references to the 18th and 19th

Battalions, the 11th Infantry Brigade, Bullecourt,

gas shelling and the New Zealanders' attack at

Flers.

Original                 DIARY NO. 80

 

AWM38        3DRL 606 ITEM 80 [1]

 

DIARIES AND NOTES OF C. E. W. BEAN

CONCERNING THE WAR OF 1914 - 1918

 

The use of these diaries and notes is subject to conditions laid down in the terms

of gift to the Australian War Memorial. But, apart from those terms, I wish the

following circumstances and considerations to be brought to the notice of every

reader and writer who may use them.

 

The writings represent only what at the moment of making them I believed to be

true. The diaries were jotted down almost daily with the object of recording what

was then in the writer's mind. Often he wrote them when very tired and half asleep;

also, not infrequently, what he believed to be true was not so - but it does not

follow that he always discovered this, or remembered to correct the mistakes when

discovered. Indeed, he could not always remember that he had written them.

 

These records should, therefore, be used with great caution, as relating only what

their author, at the time of writing, believed. Further, he cannot, of course, vouch

for the accuracy of statements made to him by others and here recorded. But he

did try to ensure such accuracy by consulting, as far as possible, those who had

seen or otherwise taken part in the events. The constant falsity of second-hand

evidence (on which a large proportion of war stories are founded) was impressed

upon him by the second or third day of the Gallipoli campaign, notwithstanding that

those who passed on such stories usually themselves believed them to be true. All

second-hand evidence herein should be read with this in mind.

 

16 Sept., 1946.                                                               C. E. W. BEAN.

8                                           80

                             May 23 -26

                               1917

                             Visit to French

                            front.

 

June 24. 12.20pm. At

Brentwood (Chigwell Match).

Higgs came in & said you

could hear the guns

clearly. We went out into

the garden & from the first

I thought one could hear

the undercurrent of pulsation

of the guns in a bombardment

Presently came heavier bumps,

some quite distinct, though faint;

& there ws no doubt about it.

We were hearing a heavy

bombardment in France or

Belgium. I have heard it less

distinctly 10 miles from the line.

2

At this stage I was invited to visit the

French front - these are hurried notes often made

in the travelling car:- Bailly - 2 yrs

 

May 23. Interviewed

the two men of 16 Bn who

escaped from Marguion.

 

Then came down by car

with Southwell to Paris. G.H.Q 

suggested the car in a telegram

telling me to get a pass if 

I wanted ^to go by car  - I could

see White disapproved of

my going by car or

not by train.

 

Stayed At Paris I

went to the Maison de

la Preu, where they

a young man in

immaculate dress, & manicured

hands & a powdered face

(or face ^it was treated in some way anyhow)

told me of the proposed 

itinerary. It is nothing

like as complete as I had

hoped - not Verdun - just

two days out of Compieque.

One of these will take us 

to the country where the

French offensive took place.

May 24. Started early with Ross

Lyons, & Bruce (of Reuters) under

an old Cavalry Captain.

 

                                                 3

in Nomansland till Germans

went by March 17, in front of force at Laigeie

 

One House half France 1/2 German

 

Deep sandbagged trench

with village sones.

More wire than ws

"  loopholes

 

(shorthand) Germs tarbi

 

Subtropical molar

by rd ready to be carried

away.

 

German wattled trench

covered

 

Beautifully under

stores (shorthand)

Cemetery Wire

8                                 5

All metes gone from

Noyon Cathedral (Roman

Gothic) organ & bells.

 

Blue & white colours of

Joan of Arc. Bronze

figure (18 shorthand) left.

 

Place le Maestel

1st destroyed (shorthand)

Burnt

Cuigny - Magots

[[Novvac?]] joke.

Suzoys swms

picture

 

Railhead - rly

just being made

-small rly goes past.

Artillery (shorthand) lent 

to plough fields sold (shorthand)

Just 1800

killed down

6 

French are trying not to

damage St Quentins.

 

Germs blocked I canal &

turned water into valley of

Oise near La Fire.

French have the Basse

Plateau - Forest de Coney.

& then line runs round

to Cosonne - short of Laon.

The St Gobain ws v. difficult

& the idea ws to squeeze

Germans out.

 

8                             7

Little rly thro Tussy

just made - Broad guage

one line finished thro Gussy -

second line unfinished.

 

Prinz Eitel Friederich

Schauz - Faillouel

-(shorthand)

 

Hubertus Hans.

Beer drinking place.

 

St Quentins Cathedral

Wire visible on ridge to right.

Also practically point c Verman

where British line suds.

It is v. quiet.

 

Massif de St Gobain

Sketch        The first

                     French offensive

                     was on 16 April at

8                            8

Chaunz - well

screened - blown to

bits (shorthand)

 

(Palace de Justice.)

Soldatenheim blotted out

on 21st April-

They told people to stay

in Fauboney de Noyon -

then shelled suburb

where they were-

18 or 20 were killed.

More professional

Better Staff work

than ours

: Point de vue de

l'enemi ici.

Extinguish lights.

Gas:

Better screening.

German permits.

 

Germans blew down Chateau

de Coney tower as they sd it

gave observation. 20 tons of

dynamite blew it up.

8                      9

Generally - the French

front seemed extraordinarily

quiet. While we watched

about 10 miles of line

near St Quentin, southwards,

not one shell burst in

half an hour & I only

heard one gun - & that

may have been a bomb

at a school. We were

taken, by special request,

to Coney. The Germs

The old castle tower

there has been blown

down - the Germans 

destroyed everything within

a certain distance of

the Hindenburg line, which

seems to me to have been

why they eft Noyon -

(but they may have been

too hurried there).

8                      10

The road down to

Coney was screened -

& the only horizon was

only 2000 or 3000 yards

away. Our cars went 

down this road, into 

the village. I saw one

shell - a black H.E. universal

-burst in the air. But

the Germans and French

seemed otherwise almost

asleep - the place if 

it had not been blown

up by I Germans - might

have bn a ^beautiful English country

town on a fine summer

Sunday.

 

In I distance towards

the Foret de Gobain we 

saw a few big German

shells burst over part o I

battlefield - which there ws

as red & shattered as Bullecourt