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

24

Diagram - see original document.
View from Condė's - a French artilleryman there
old us tt he French there had seen a French tank take 50 prisoners
there w its m.gs.

8           25
Bruce, who came frm
S. Africa, is a Scotsman
representing Reuter;
a man with a fine
brain - very genial
- & a typical Scot; he sd
the trip had one defect
there was too mach
information & too few
drinks.
Capt Jaubert did us
very well anyway - 
a typical old French
aristocrat  & cavalry officer - very keen
on telling as how his
hounds "attack" the fox
or the deer & must

26
Rumpler Trench
[Diagram - see original scan]

8      27
stick to one fox ^once found & no
other or it shows tt they
lack breed & the nose to
distinguish.

At the Fort of Condė we
saw the lines where the
recent battle of Ap. 16, 17 &
18 occurred - The Germans
were forced to retire from
Conde onto their
Hindenbg line of
s wh they still hold a
good deal - Rumpler
trench - while the French
have part of it both to
right & to left of them.

? Apr   

8           28
I must not forget
that in our fighting last
week (I think it was
May 15, when / Germans
attacked) they put
5000 gas shells into
Noreuil & Noreuil
valley & caught abt
30 men. Some of these
were AMC men who
were attending to
wd. They cd not see
in their masks, so
took them off & simply
held the tube in their
mouth & tried to avoid
breathing thro' the
nose - a risky thing
to do.

8        29
May 26^th
Went to Maison
de la Presse with
where Masefield ws
going to see a collection
of pictures of the Somme
villages before ruin.
They had not been
able, however, to
collect them & are
only now advertising
for them.

The Italian offensive
has made some real
progress. The Italians
deceived / Germans
Austrians by attacking
first further North
& on May 24  put in

8          30
their real push & 
took 9000 prisoners -
Fighting still going on.

There is some
idea tt / French xxxx
xxxxx ? may strike again farther East?

Back to Querrien
where we are now for
/ first time in  a rest.
Bazley showed our
first review of my
book of Letters from France.
27 May, Wrote up the story of
the two ^16 Bn  men who escaped
from the Germans.
28 May. Went out to the
5^th Bde HQrs at
Rubempre. They were

8      31
having a waggon competition
between their waggo regimental
transport & cookers. The
General was going over,
so I went with him - he
provided the horse. It
was my first ride for
nearly two years & I
found myself as bad a
rider as ever, & very shy
about it.

Went on to lunch with
Murphy of 18^th Bn & he
gave me 18 Bns story in
the fight of May 3. I had
no idea before tt he ws
a Bathurst man.

From there to Col. Pye
19 Bn who gave me dinner
He - like most of them -
knows very little of what
happened. Gen. Smith told

8          32
me that on German
an officer in a Sam Browne
belt ws genly spoken of
as having given / word to
retire - none of our 
officers wear Sam Brownes
in action. But neither
Murphy nor Pye mentioned
it - so they evidently
dont attach any importance
to this yarn.

29 May. Went to
the X 4^th 3rd & 2nd Bns.

In the evening Ross arrd
from Paris.

30 May. Took Ross over
to the ground where the N.Z.
troops fought on the Somme
near Flers. He walked
me over it - they got
from in front of the Switch trench,

8       33
[Diagram - see original scan]

to the other side of Flers
in one day. The Germans
had a little trench in front
of the Switch line which
they "took in their stride" - 
That & the Switch were taken
by the 2nd Bde; the Rifle
Bde &xxx took the second
objective swinging a bit
to their left along the
(?) Bazentin - Flers Road (we
cd see / little trench they dug
there I fancy); then the
1st Bde went on thro the
left of Flers, well ahead
of any tanks (they had to

8        34
take the left half of
Flers up to from the road to
the edge o / village) -
& through to the ab country
imd. beyond where they
had to spread out & hold
the flanks for the troops
on either side who had
not come up.

High Wood, Ross says,
was not taken on this day
- or if taken was lost again
- so that there must have
been Germans almost
in the back of the N. Zealanders
who swung round & faced
more towds Eancourt
L'abbaye.

It ws v. interesting.
But the Somme field is

8          35
a desolate place nowadays;
with grass and
self sown wheat & mustard
covering it - but every
house dwelling empty,
not a man in the dugouts
or rusty huts. Here &
there you find some
old salvage unit in
some half forgotten camp
where one of our working
brigadiers lived through the
winter. In the rabbit
warren of dugouts & tunnels
S. of Flers where the
winter tramway head used
to be, & where the long
tunnel of the 4^th Pioneers
runs down to Bull's
Road, there is some