by Peter Rees
The article ‘A Compact Body of Men’ was published in The SMH, 29 March 1915.
See AWM38 3DRL 606/116, diary entries on 8, 13 February 1915; 14, 15, 31 March 1915; 1, 3, 5 and 8 April 1915 for his problems of gaining accreditation.
Bean’s assessment of Blamey was drawn from his book Two Men I Knew, p. 96.
See AWM38 3DRL 606/116, diary for Bean’s entries on sailing to Gallipoli, 10 April 1915, and references to his brother Jack, 3 and 15 April 1915.
Bean’s account of the battle of Wazzir was drawn from AWM38 3DRL 606/116, diary entry, 2 April 1915.
The reference to the Coptic Archbishop of Cairo owning the brothels was drawn from correspondence from historian Sir Ernest Scott to Bean, 12 April 1934, citing Lord Stamfordham to Sir R. Munro Ferguson, 28 May 1916; AWM38 3 DRL 7953/16, part 3.
14—Digging in
See AWM38 3DRL 606/116 for Bean diary, 25 April 1915, regarding the landing.
See AWM38 3DRL 606/116 for Bean diary, 15 April 1915, for his thoughts on not having full accreditation.
Bean’s details of breakfast aboard the Minnewaska were drawn from his book Anzac to Amiens, p. 84.
The account of the landing was drawn from Bean’s Official History, Volume I, The Story of Anzac, 1921, pp. 258–9, 134.
See PRO CAB45/233, Dardanelles Commission Papers, and AWM38 3DRL 606/249.39 regarding debate around the landing location.
The landing was not where the mistakes of the first day ended. Despite the Australians’ early overwhelming superiority in numbers, the cautious 3rd Brigade commander, Colonel Ewen Sinclair-MacLagan, decided to dig in on the Second Ridge. He believed, mistakenly, that Turkish numbers were greater. Thus an opportunity to advance to the objectives of Hill 971 and the Third Ridge against a vastly outnumbered enemy was lost. As Bean noted, Sinclair-MacLagan did not know that on both the Third Ridge to the east and the Main Ridge to the north were parties of Australians under vigorous leaders who, in accordance with their original orders, had ‘kept going’ towards their objectives. As he wrote later, the decision to dig in at the Second Ridge and to withdraw all the advanced parties to the firing line was the action ‘which most influenced the day.’ See Anzac to Amiens, pp. 91–9; and Harvey Broadbent, Gallipoli: The fatal shore, Viking, Camberwell, Victoria, 2005, chapters 3 and 4.
See AWM38 3DRL 606/116 for Bean diary, February 1916, regarding White’s advice to Bridges on withdrawing.
See AWM38 3DRL 606/116 for Bean diary, 2 June 1915 and 28 April 1915, on the dangers he faced and the primitive conditions.
Blamey’s warning to Bean is noted in AWM38 3DRL 606/116, diary entry 28 April 1915.
See AWM38 3DRL 606/116 diary entry, 29 April 1915 for Bean’s comments on New Zealand and Australian troops.
The SMH reports on the scarcity of information were published on 29 and 30 April 1915.
See AWM38 3DRL 606/116 for Bean diary 3 and 8 May 1915 on the problems of getting his cable out.
Bean’s observations on Ashmead-Bartlett’s influence were published in The SMH on 9 May 1931.
See Bean, Anzac to Amiens, for his comments on the misconceptions around the landing.
15—Sideshow
See AWM38 3DRL 606/116 diary entry, 31 January 1915, for Bean’s account of his lunch with General Monash, and his entry for 4 March 1915 regarding the 4th Brigade training.
Bean’s comment about Monash’s methodical approach is quoted in P.A. Pedersen, Monash as Military Commander, Melbourne University Press, 1985, pp. 52–3.
For Godley’s views on Australians, see David W. Cameron, Sorry Lads, but the Order is to Go: The August Offensive, Gallipoli 1915, UNSW Press, Sydney, 2009, p. 23.
For Godley’s views on Bean, see Peter Stanley, Quinn’s Post, Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 2005, p. 83.
Monash’s views on Godley were drawn from Carlyon, Gallipoli, p. 237.
Hamilton’s comments on Godley were drawn from the Hamilton files 7/9/1–10, Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives, King’s College London.
See AWM38 3DRL 606/116, diary entry, 3 May 1915, for Bean’s account of the 2 May 1915 attack and the effect on Monash.
See Bean, Official History, Volume VI, The AIF in France, 1942, p. 205, for comments on Monash and the front line. Also, regarding this matter, see Peter Pedersen, The Anzacs: Gallipoli to the Western Front, Viking, Camberwell, 2007, p. 73. Also see Official History, Volume I, p. 597.
See Bean, AWM38 3DRL 606/116 diary entries 4, 5, 6 and 8 May 1915 for details of life at Gallipoli.
See Bean’s book Anzac to Amiens, pp. 290–1, 294, regarding Krithia.
The McNicholl note was written on 20 February 1933, and was found in the files of Dudley McCarthy held by the National Library of Australia.
See AWM38 3DRL 606/116 diary entry, 3 April, 1915, regarding casualty expectations.
The Bulletin article was quoted by Arthur Bazley in Canberra Collection, pp. 236–7.
16—Boosting a reputation
The description of General Bridges’ actions was drawn from the Official History, Volume II, The Story of Anzac, p. 129.
The account of the shooting of Bridges was drawn from Bean’s press cable, 21 May 1915, AWM38 3DRL 8039/6.
See Pedersen, Monash as Military Commander, p. 80, re relations with General Harry Chauvel.
See AWM38 3DRL 606/116 diary entry, 17 May 1915, for Bean’s account of Villiers-Stuart’s funeral.
White’s assessment of Bridges is drawn from Bean’s book Two Men I Knew, p. 75. Also, Bean’s comments were sourced from Official History, Volume II, p. 130; and Volume I, pp. 66–7.
Bean’s regard for White was sourced from Pedersen, Monash as Military Commander, pp. 53, 54.
See AWM38 3DRL 606/116 diary entry 18 May 1915, regarding the Turkish attack.
Bean’s comments about his change of attitude towards the Turks was drawn from Official History, Volume II, p. 162.
See AWM38 3DRL 606/116 diary entry 24 May 1915, regarding the truce for burial of the dead.
General John Monash’s comments were sourced from F.M. Cutlack (ed.), War letters of General Monash, Angus & Robertson, Sydney, 1934, pp. 37, 38.
See AWM38 3DRL 606/116 diary entry, 29 May 1915, for Bean’s account of the incident with the dead Turk.
General Godley’s praise of Monash’s men, and other Monash letters referred to in this chapter, were sourced from the Monash papers at the National Library of Australia, series 4, Personal and official letterbooks 1915–1918, folders 940–948, Box 128.
Gellibrand’s account of his conversation with Bridges was drawn from comments he wrote following publication of Sir John Monash’s book The Australian Victories in France in 1918, which are filed in A.W. Bazley’s archive, AWM 3DRL/3520 1/143.
Material relating to the issue of General Monash’s role in the landing was sourced from Geoffrey Serle, John Monash, Melbourne University Press, 1982, p. 215. Further details are to be found in battalion diaries for 25–26 April 1915: https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/AWM4/23/
Serle, in his book John Monash, refers to Monash’s criticism of Bean on p. 227.
Bean 17—The non-combatant
General Monash’s comments about casualty lists were drawn from Monash letters, pp. 48, 49.
See AWM38 3DRL 606/116 diary entries on 15 and 21 June 1915, regarding Jack Bean’s wounding, and the general danger sniping posed.
See AWM38 3DRL 606/116 diary entry17 June 1915, for Bean’s criticism of Smith’s reporting.
Bean’s comments on Ashmead-Bartlett’s reporting were drawn from AWM38 3DRL 8039/6.
General Monash’s letter on 22 June 1915 was sourced from War Letters of General Monash, p. 52.
For the letter from Private John Sloan to his mother, 4 July 1915, see AWM PR00035.
See AWM38 3DRL 606/116 diary entry, 26 June 1915, for Bean’s criticism of the Imbros order, and his diary for 7 June 1915 regarding the Dinkum Oil.
See AWM38 3DRL 606/116 diary entry, 5 April 1915, for Bean’s comments on ‘t
he bright side.’
See AWM38 3DRL 606/116 diary entry, 4 July 1915 for Bean’s views on the drawbacks of Imbros, and 6 and 7 July for the official attitude towards Ashmead-Bartlett.
Quotes from Ellis Ashmead-Bartlett in this chapter were drawn from Fred & Elizabeth Brenchley, Myth Maker, Wiley, Milton, 2005, see pp. 119, 120, 121.
Bean’s comments about Ashmead-Bartlett’s entertainment value were sourced from a letter he wrote to Hamilton, 10 May 1931, Hamilton files 7/9/1–10, Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives, King’s College London.
The arrival of Peter Schuler is drawn from his book Australia in Arms, Fisher Unwin, London, 1916, pp. 8, 9.
See AWM38 3DRL 606/116 diary entry, 20 July 1915, for Bean’s account of Schuler’s arrival.
See AWM38 3DRL 606/116 diary entry, 26 July 1915, for Bean’s assertion of his non-combatant status; 17 May, 2 June and 24 July for being shot at; 10 July 1915 for his reflections on Bible reading.
18—Brothers in arms
Bean’s account of the meeting with Monash was published in the Sunday Sun, Sydney, 11 October 1931.
The account of plans for the attack was sourced from David W. Cameron, The August Offensive, Big Sky Publishing, Newport, 2011.
See AWM38 3DRL 606/116 diary entry, 6 August 1915, for Bean’s account of Lone Pine and being shot.
Further details of the fighting were sourced from Bean’s book Anzac to Amiens, p. 148.
For the account of the charge of the 3rd Light Horse Brigade at the Nek, see Bean, Story of Anzac, Volume 2, pp 617–633.
See AWM38 3DRL 606/116 diary entry, 31 January 1916, for Bean’s assessment of Sir Frederick Stopford.
For Schuler’s comments regarding Bean, see Australia in Arms, p. 10.
Letter, McCarthy files, National Library of Australia, 15 August 1915.
The quote from General Cox to the Dardanelles Royal Commission is cited in Pedersen, Monash as Military Commander, p. 94. For problems encountered during the action, see also pp. 95 and 102, and for Monash inviting Bean to tea, see p. 106.
See AWM38 3DRL 606/116 diary entry, 8 August 1915, for Bean’s critical assessment of Monash. Also see The SMH, 26 August 1915.
19—General failure
The accounts of the arrival of the new troops from the 5th Brigade’s 18th and 19th Battalions and their involvement in action are drawn from Official History, Volume I, pp. 739–44, and following pages.
See AWM38 3DRL 606/116 diary entry, 22 August 1915, for Bean’s thoughts on the 4th Brigade, and 23 August for reference to Colonel Chapman.
For further background for this chapter, see Tony Cunneen, ‘Slaughter of the Innocents, The Destruction of the 18th Battalion at Gallipoli,’ Australian Army Journal, Volume VII, no. 2, August 1915.
Articles by Bean on the fighting appeared in The SMH, 2 September 1915, and 14 October 1915.
Bean’s criticism of Russell and Powles appeared in Official History, Volume II, p. 744.
Monash’s criticism of Stopford was quoted in Younger, Keith Murdoch, pp. 59, 60.
See AWM38 3DRL 606/116 diary entry, 30 August 1915, for Bean’s criticism of Monash.
See Monash papers, NLA series 4, personal and official letterbooks 1915–1918, folders 940–948, Box 128, 3 June 1915, for his views on the poor quality of British troops.
For Bean’s praise of the Australian troops, see his report, dated 15 August, Commonwealth Gazette, no. 120, 30 September 1915.
See AWM38 3DRL 606/116 diary entry, 29 August 1915, for Bean’s thoughts on slums and the British race.
20—The workhorse and the gadfly
Hamilton’s reports were quoted in Younger, Keith Murdoch, p. 58.
See The Herald, Melbourne, 25 August 1915, for Bean’s account of the fighting at Lone Pine.
The censorship restrictions that Bean faced were drawn from Official History, Volume XI, 1941, p. 216n.
The quotes from Keith Murdoch and assessment of his approach to journalism were drawn from a paper by Peter Putnis, Professor of Communication, University of Canberra, ‘Keith Murdoch: War-time Journalist, 1915–1918,’ Australian Journalism Review, Vol. 33, No. 2, December 2011.
The Hamilton diary entry, 10 October 1915, was drawn from Brenchley, Myth Maker, p. 163, and the Murdoch remarks to the Dardanelles Commission from p. 164.
Ashmead-Bartlett’s diary entry for 7 September 1915 is quoted in Younger, Keith Murdoch, p. 64.
Ashmead-Bartlett’s comments about Bean’s physique are quoted in Brenchley, Myth Maker, p. 168.
See AWM38 3DRL 606/116 diary entry, 26 September 1915, for Bean’s remarks about Ashmead-Bartlett, and his own frustrations about doing his job; also the entry for 29 September 1915 regarding news that Ashmead-Bartlett had been sacked, and Bean’s further thoughts on the problems he faced in reporting; and 30 September 1915 for his views on The Age and The Argus, and possible future arrangements for journalists in wars.
Arthur Bazley was interviewed by Phillip Knightley for his book The First Casualty, Quartet Books, London, 1978, p. 431.
See AWM38 3DRL 606/116 diary entry, 2 October 1915, for Bean’s thoughts on Ashmead-Bartlett’s brilliance, and 24 November 1915 for his thoughts on C.P. Smith and Phillip Schuler.
The Lloyd George quote on Murdoch was sourced from Younger, Keith Murdoch, p. 65.
The extract quoted was drawn from Keith Murdoch, The Gallipoli Letter, Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 2010.
See AWM38 3DRL 606/116 diary entry, 17 October 1915, for Bean’s analysis of where the campaign had failed.
Bean’s thoughts about the ethics of the letter were in a letter, Bean to John Hetherington, 6 May 1958; quoted in Younger, Keith Murdoch, p. 74.
See AWM38 3DRL 606/116 diary entry, 2 November 1915, for Bean’s discussion with White, and 16 December 1915 regarding the theft of his camera.
Arthur Bazley recounted the story of Bean writing a cable for Malcolm Ross in an article in The Canberra Times, 31 August 1968.
See AWM38 3DRL 606/116 diary entry, 30 December 1915, for Bean’s experience of the SS Aragon, and 31 December 1915 for Bean’s thoughts on his diaries.
Of all the corps commanders Monro consulted, Birdwood was the only one to oppose evacuation—because of the ‘blow to our prestige in the East.’ When Bean learned of this nearly a year later he rejected the logic. Instead, he thought there had been ‘a sort of moral victory’ in losing only a handful of men. (Bean diary, 5 October 1916.)
21—A question of discipline
See AWM38 3DRL 606/116 diary entry, 21 January 1916, for Bean’s account of returning from France to London, with following entries regarding Keith Murdoch from 31 January 1916, and his views, later in the chapter, on conscription. Regarding the incidence of venereal disease, Jack Bean told his brother that of those he had examined on enlistment less than 1 per cent had VD, whereas in London at the time, the incidence had risen to 10 per cent of those examined. While Jack’s enlistment figures did not reflect the extent of VD in prewar Australia, they nonetheless were an indication of the spread of VD among the troops. With some hyperbole, The Argus would assert on 4 October 1917 that VD was ‘a worse enemy than Germans.’ By war’s end, 55,000 Australian troops would have contracted VD. See Marina Larsson, An Iconography of Suffering: VD in Australia 1914-18, thesis, University of Melbourne, 1995.
See AWM38 3DRL 606/116 diary entry, 9 June 1916, for the Murdoch letter to Bean.
Reference to Bean’s hospitalisation was sourced from The SMH, 24 April 1916.
See AWM38 3DRL 606/116 diary entry, (undated) February 1916, for Bean’s account of meeting Bazley in the street, and 12 May 1916 when Bazley told Bean he wanted to finish the war with him. Also, undated entry regarding Bean’s conclusion that the British staff in Egypt hated the Australians; entry 13 May 1916 on saluting; entries 3 and 4 April 1916 regarding the Australians going to France; undated entry February 1916 on his views about the AIF becoming a distinct Australian army, and 25 April 1916 for Robertson’s response to this. Bean’s comme
nts on White are from undated entries in February–March 1916, while his account of the man overboard was entered on 31 March 1916.
22—Counting the bullets
See AWM38 3DRL 606/116 diary entry, 25 April 1916, for Bean’s account of his first Anzac Day.
The Ashmead-Bartlett bullets quote appeared in The SMH, 9 May 1931.
The reference to the troops’ attitude to religion is drawn from Michael McKernan, Here is Their Spirit, University of Queensland Press, 1991, p. 30.
See AWM38 3DRL 606/116 diary entry, 4 June 1916, for Bean’s comments on Padre Dexter, and 1 June for his assessment of Andrew Fisher. See entries for 2, 3, 4 and 14 June 1916, and 8 July 1916 regarding his problems with the matter of photographs.
See AWM38 3DRL 606/116 diary entry, 7 June 1916, for details of the Australian raid and the deaths of the German prisoners, and coverage of the matter in the Official History, Volume III, p. 251. Also, The SMH, 14 June 1916.
See AWM38 3DRL 606/116 diary entry, 16 June 1916, for White’s comments about Murdoch and the Gallipoli letter.
The honours list was published on 13 July 1916.
23—A new prism
See AWM38 3DRL 606/116 diary entry, 1 July 1916, for Bean’s reference to the opening of the Somme fighting; 3 July 1916 regarding Fricourt; also 13 July 1916 regarding the fighting on the Somme, and defence of Arthur Bazley; and 8 July 1916 for his criticism of the use of Australian troops. (Bean diary, 1 July 1916.)
Bean’s comments on the amorality of the merchant class were sourced from his book Letters from France, Cassell and Company, London, 1917; article dated 23 May 1916.
24—A monumental folly
See AWM38 3DRL 606/116 diary entry, 20 July 1916, for Bean’s account of Fromelles throughout this chapter.
For further background, see Bean, Reveille, 30 June 1931.
The Pompey Elliott lecture was given in Canberra, 18 July 1930.
Bean’s assessment of the debacle was drawn from Official History, Volume III, p. 350.
Green’s comments were published in The SMH, 19 July 1919.
Details of the preparations for the attack, and when the first Australians went over, were drawn from the 15th Brigade diary, 19–20 July 1916, AWM.