Charles E W Bean, Diaries, AWM38 3DRL 606/80/1 - May - June 1917 - Part 4

8  36
small section of
English salvagers. The
tunnel will I suppose
fall in.  We wandered to
Flers village where one fraction o / church
still remains where the padre's books were
to Flers valley, - xxx
scattered around the ruins of his
house.  ^The war is punctuated by
the smell of dead horses
& the whole field - from
the Maze to Fricourt
is covered haunted with
sickly smell of
dead - half buried
men, I fancy - a huge
cemetery of them.
The Graves Registration
people are ^gradually going over
it & hundreds of little
white crosses are all
over the valley of
La Boiselles. I dont
 

8  37
fancy they will find
many of our people.
Pozieres is & the winter
trenches are to one vast
^Australian cemetery but they
have been shattered &
buried too often by shells
for much to remain,
& the mud of the winter
covered most of those
Thousands of men can
go for and very few
graves remain - there
are only a few dozen
crosses to mark about
1000 dead New Zealanders.
M
 

8  38
May 31st.
Came North with
Ross & Bazley to 3^rd
Aust. Divl Hqrs. The
papers spoke of 23
German aeroplanes
having bn downed, &
heavy artillery fire -
wh made us think /
bombt might have
begun. But we found
the front fairly quiet
- at least, we cd hear
little from Steenwerck.
The first sign was -
the daughter o / family
at Headqrs, who knew
 

8  39
Ross, told him tt /
Mayor had notified
them tt they must all
have strips of paper
pasted across their
windows by tomorrow.
Also, Bailleul
has bn shelled by a
big german gun -
a naval 9.4.
We have some monsters
1- 15 inch on a train, &
2- 15 inch on ordinary
carriages wh took
4 tractors to pull them
up / hill today.
St. is crowded
 

8  40
with troops - NZ,
3rd  Australian Divn,
4^th  Aust. Divn, Tommies.
Saw Dined with General Monash
& he told me that
our corps were at present
Diagram - see original document
Later moves I cant write
here.
The Germans Xxxxx they
say, have put new guns in. They know
what is in / air - they are
expecting us to attack - the
prisoners say so; &
 

41
After dinner we saw
one of their planes
put down a balloon -
very pretty work. They
feinted with another plane
first ^further north & deceived our
guns wh did not notice /
second plane.
 

8  42
we are not at all
certain tt they are
not retiring.
We are laying down
a big sleeper road near
Wulverghem - for lorries,
& any sort of traffic.
But Monash tells me
tt / rlys are behind
hand - so much so tt
it ws they wh delayed
this show up to / present.
and they are still not
ready & he says. X
June 2. Wrote all
day - except for a
long yarn w little
 

Maj. S.S. Bulter
 

8  43

Schuler after lunch.
He is going to marry /
little Russian countess
in Egypt after / war.
Well then Peter adds
constancy to his other 
good points.
COs of 11^thBde.
41 Board Q.
42 Woolcock Q.
43 Bulter S.A.
44 Mansbridge W.A.
June 2. Went round the 3 Brigade
commanders in / morning; in
afternoon lunched with McNicoll;
& went on to the line via Hyde
Park corner & "The only
way." It is tremendously
altered since it was Butler & I
were round here last July
when the whizzbangs chased
 

8  44 

us. They were making Hyde
Park corner quite fairly nasty 
with 4-2. And we saw them
burning a Farm near the road -
pouring 8 in after 8 in into it.
We happened to hit off a
straf of our Corps guns at 3
p.m. - there is a Tremendous
concentration - these hedges
give such a chance. The
German had bn making things
fairly lively - & killed the burial
officer on his bicycle.
They We called in at the
Catacombs - where Col. Davies Henderson
was - rather shallow dugouts
(considering they are in a hill) -
dug by our tunnellers lately.
Then on to 38 Bn Hqrs at
the advanced is Estimanet. We
went by "The only way" wh wd
hardly recognise itself as a trench.
When Butler & Casey & I were here
it ws scarcely safe to move in
by day time - we were told we
cd take our chance. Now it is a
good deep sandbagged trench - Down
near the end it began to be very
knocked abt - great breeches
in it as you get them in these
sandbagged lines; & by the
 

45  8
time we got to the
front line we saw
that it had clearly
been heavily strafed
very lately. There
ws scarcely a mans
track over the newly
sprinkled dust. We went
along & found one
Lewis Gunner of 41^st  Bn.
machine gunner reading
a paper novel in a
length of covered trench - abt the
only dugout bit we saw
- he told us we cd probly
find / trench officer to /
right. We went I suppose
150 yds of ragged shattered
trench & found no one; then
we went the other way
frequently having to climb
over shattered parapet
well in view o / German
- until we came to
a bit of a stream between
Seaforth Farm & Donnington
Hall - with a broken down
bridge wh I did not attempt
to cross. On xxx our way back we
found a second man w our
m-gunner - So that made 2 men in abt
300 yds. He will be there till / bombt finishes
we went up to the top of Hill 63 (Heath Trench)
[* June 2. at 3 p.m. a heavy bombt began.
at 6.16 by my watch a huge explosion in Messines.
at 6.45 intense bombt of the "Beak",  N of Douve.
(View at 6.16 pm Heath Trench)
2/6/17*]
Diagram - see original document
 

47
[Of course the Germans know
all abt our offensive. The latest is
that Several Germans have lately
escaped from our miserably
carelessly guarded gangs in
the back area. Two of these
are known to have crossed our
front trench. They were in
German Grey uniforms. They
lay up by day & made their way
by night. Altho' the back area is
thick w troops the front is so
thinly held tt there is practically
no guard obstacle there at / moment.
[*Germans
getting
away
one
shot
in
N.M.L.
Line so thin *]
One of these
two ws shot in
Nomansland
but / other got
across & back
to / Germans.
The Germans
have long
expected this
attack &
have now (so prisoners say)
defined / limits of it. They
have lately shortened up their
army boundaries, the 6^th
army taking up to the mouth
of the Douve River.]
 

8  48 

on our way back. It
was a wonderful view. The
German ws throwing nothing,
so we cd observe at our ease.
We kept quiet & low (Bazley &
I) & could have stayed all
night. There were 3 English
officers sitting up on the bank
behind - silly fools, showing
how brave they were, as Jackson
sd when I told him, & giving /
trench away.
The Messines Ridge w
opposite us - very diff from
when I last saw it. Messines
town battered & the trenches turned
to areas of brown dust with
little squares & triangles
here & there (marked G. on my
sketch) where there ws nothing
to bombard - and a green
Nomansland. Our bombt had
began & heavy shells were going
into Messines; at 6.15 there was
a huge explosion there - just beyond
Messines - I wondered if / German
had cleared & blown / place up.