CRE commander Royal Engineers (engineer commander in a division)
Crump German heavy shell
CSM company sergeant major (ranking as warrant officer class 2)
DAA & QMG deputy assistant adjutant and quartermaster general (subordinate administrative staff officer)
DAD MS deputy assistant director of Medical Services (subordinate medical staff officer)
DADOS deputy assistant director of Ordnance Services (the senior ordnance officer in a division)
DAQMG deputy assistant quartermaster general (subordinate administrative staff officer)
DCM Distinguished Conduct Medal
DSO Distinguished Service Order
FGCM Field General Court Martial
Flying pig type of trench mortar bomb
FOO forward observation officer
GHQ general headquarters (headquarters of the BEF, established at St-Omer in the autumn of 1914, moving to Montreuilsur-Mer in 1916)
GOC general officer commanding (the commander of a brigade, division, corps or army)
GS General Service, as in GS wagon
GSO general staff officer
GSOl general staff officer 1st grade (Lt. Col.). In a division, its chief of staff
GSO2 general staff officer 2nd grade (Maj.)
GSO3 general staff officer 3rd Grade (Capt.)
Jack Johnson German heavy shell (named after the famous black heavyweight boxer, 1878–1946). See Coal Box.
KCB Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath
L of C lines of communication
MC Military Cross
MG machine gun
MGGS major general General Staff (chief of staff of an army)
MGRA major general Royal Artillery (senior artillery officer in an army)
Minnie from Minenwerfer, German trench mortar
MM Military Medal
MO medical officer
MS military secretary
NCO non-commissioned officer
OC officer commanding (properly used for officers commanding companies and platoons or their equivalents in other arms, though sometimes blurred with CO [qv])
OR other ranks: private soldiers and NCOs, as distinct from officers
Pipsqueak small-calibre German shell (see whiz-bang)
QM quartermaster (the administrative staff officer to a battalion or equivalent: in the British army always an officer promoted from the ranks)
QMG quartermaster general
RAMC Royal Army Medical Corps
RAP regimental aid post (the first link in the chain of medical evacuation)
RE Royal Engineers
register to adjust artillery fire onto a target
RFA Royal Field Artillery
RFC Royal Flying Corps (became RAF on 1 April 1918)
RGA Royal Garrison Artillery
RHA Royal Horse Artillery
RMO regimental medical officer (generally a lieutenant or captain RAMC). Often simply MO
RQMS regimental quartermaster sergeant (ranking as warrantofficer class 2 in a battalion or equivalent, the quartermaster’s principal assistant)
RSM regimental sergeant major (ranking as warrant officer class 1)
RTO railway transport officer
SAA small-arms ammunition
SB stretcher-bearer
SIW self-inflicted wound
SOS Save Our Souls: the close protective target on which field artillery was laid when not otherwise engaged
stand to from ‘stand to your arms’. The period at dusk and dawn when troops were required to man their battle positions to repel an attack
TM trench mortar
TMB trench mortar battery
Toffee Apple type of trench mortar bomb
VC Victoria Cross
Whiz-bang small-calibre German shell (see ‘Pipsqueak’)
WO warrant officer
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
So many individuals have helped me during the research for this book that it is impossible to thank them all by name. However, I owe a particular debt to Major General Jonathan Bailey, Hugh Bicheno, Dr John Bourne, Clive Priestley and Lieutenant Colonel Les Wilson for their advice and assistance. My PhD student David Kenyon unearthed valuable information on the actions of the cavalry around High Wood on 14 July 1916; Alexander Caldin carried out useful research on trench newspapers and the backgrounds of senior officers, and Corinna Holmes and Frank Turner collated quotations for copyright clearance, which may not have been the most exciting of tasks.
As ever, I am grateful to Rod Suddaby and his team at the Department of Documents, Imperial War Museum; the staff of the Liddle Collection at the Brotherton Library, University of Leeds; the librarians of the Joint Service Command and Staff College, the Royal Military College of Science and the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. This book could scarcely have been written at all without the kindness of the librarian and staff of the Prince Consort Library at Aldershot, and the forebearance of their dogs.
Arabella Pike of HarperCollins gave wise strategic direction, and Kate Johnson dealt efficiently and sensitively with a myriad of tactical details all too easily overlooked in large, complex engagements. Amanda Russell tracked down the photographs. Last, but emphatically by no means least, my wife Lizzie worked tirelessly gleaning information from books and archives. She also helped me through those impossibly bleak moments, more frequent in this than in any other book I have written, when the nature of the subject matter had me staring across my Hampshire garden through a mist of tears.
For permission to quote from material to which they control the copyright I am grateful to the following. Sheila Barnett for the papers of A. J. Arnold, David S. Chambers for the papers of Guy O. Chambers, Betty Morris for the papers of A. V. Bullock, Alan Debes and the grandchildren of the Reverend T. H. Davies for the war diary of the Reverend T. H. Davies, Jon Wickett for the diaries of Stapleton Tench Eachus, Eric Foakes, John Foakes and Amanda Foakes for the papers of H. Foakes, George Fortune and Kathleane Peake for the account of George Fortune, the Trustees of the Imperial War Museum for the correspondence of Field Marshal Sir John French, A. Gaskell for the diary of C. H. Gaskell, Elizabeth Robinson for the diaries of Ron Ginns, Dr Patrick Ottaway for the papers of Lieutenant General Sir Thomas Hutton, Margaret Cruft for the papers of the Reverend Pat Mc Cormick, Andrew Paton for the Scott Macfie Papers, Daphne Crabtree for the diary of Cyril Thomas Mason, Paul P. H. Jones for the memoirs of Percy Hughes Jones, Anne Stobbs for the diaries of Roland Brice Miller, Diana Sellors for the diaries of the Reverend John Sellors, Auriol Ingram and Jackie Ingram for the letters of Arthur Smith, Lieutenant Colonel Bill Stanford for the letters of H. M. Stanford, Colonel Richard Brook and the Board of Trustees of the Chevening Estate for the papers of the Earl Stanhope, Dorothy Shotter and Nick Shotter for the diaries of William Shotter, Phil Morgan for the letters of Percy Smith, Pamela McCleary for the letters of Bill Sugden, Lieutenant General Sir Hew Pike for the diaries of R. H. D. Tompson, and Colonel Jolyon Jackson for a letter of W. C. C. Weetman.
I acknowledge the permission of the following publishers to quote from works whose rights they control. Pen and Sword Books Ltd for the Marquess of Anglesey The History of the British Cavalry, Brewin Books Ltd for Charles Arnold From Mons to Messines and Beyond, Armand Colin for Stéphane Audoin-Rouzeau 14–18: Les Combattants des Tranchées, Sir John Baynes and the late Hugh Maclean for A Tale of Two Captains, Pen and Sword Books Ltd for John Bickersteth (ed.) The Bickersteth Diaries 1914–18, Pen and Sword Books Ltd for C. P. Blacker Have You Forgotten Yet?, Penguin Books for P. J. Campell In the Cannon’s Mouth, Robert Hale for William Carr A Time to Leave the Ploughshores, The Naval and Military Press for Peter Chasseaud Topography of Armageddon, The Irish Academic Press for Terence Denman Ireland’s Unknown Soldiers, Jonathan Horne for his edition of the Reverend Charles Doudeney’s papers, The Best of Good Fellows, The Naval and Military Press for Charles Douie The Weary Road, The Colonel of the Royal Welch Fusiliers for James Churchill Dunn The W
ar the Infantry Knew, Her Majesty’s Stationery Office for Sir James Edmonds Military Operations…, Lionel Leventhal Ltd for Cyril Falls War Books, the family of William Fisher for Requiem for Will (ISBN 09531061 01, published at Boughspring, Wyesham Road, Wyesham, Monmouth, Gwent, NP5 3JU), Pen and Sword Books Ltd for Brian Bond (ed.) Staff Officer: The Diaries of Lord Moyne (then Walter Guinness), The Naval and Military Press for Rowland Feilding War Letters to a Wife, The University of Indiana Press for A. Lytton Sells (trans, and ed.) The Memoirs of fames II: His Campaigns as Duke of York 1652–1660, Pan Macmillan for J. M. Craster (ed.) Fifteen Rounds a Minute … Edited from the diaries of Major ‘Ma’ Jeffreys and others, Gill & Macmillan Ltd, Dublin for Tom Johnstone Orange, Green and Khaki, Tom Burke (Chairman, Royal Dublin Fusiliers Association) for his article on Lieutenant Tom Kettle in The Blue Cap Vol. 9 Sept 2002, H. H. Sales for Bernard Livermore Long ’Un – A Damn Bad Soldier, The Naval and Military Press for John Lucy There’s a Devil in the Drum, John H. F. Mackie for Answering the Call: Letters from the Somerset Light Infantry 1914–19, Mainstream Publishing for In Flanders Fields (poem In Memoriam, Private D. Sutherland by Ewart Alan Mackintosh), Pan Macmillan Ltd for Harold Macmillan Winds of Change, Serpent’s Tail for Frederic Manning Her Privates We, The Society of Authors as literary executors of John Masefield for The Battle of the Somme, Pen and Sword Books Ltd for John Masefield The Old Front Line, A. P. Watt Ltd on behalf of Mrs A. S. Hankinson for R. H. Mottram The Twentieth Century: A Personal Record, Pen and Sword Books for Captain Harry Ogle The Fateful Battle Line, The Random House Group Ltd for Ian Ousby The Road to Verdun published by Jonathan Cape, Oxford University Press for John Bell and H. Owen (eds) Wilfred Owen: Selected Letters, Pen and Sword Books for Ernest Parker Into Battle, PFD on behalf of the Estate of J. B. Priestley for Margin Released: A Writer’s Reminiscences and Reflections (Copyright the Estate of J. B. Priestley 1962), Christopher Reith for John Reith Wearing Spurs, Pen and Sword Books for Donald Richter Chemical Soldiers, Colonel John Sainsbury for The Hertfordshire Yeomanry, Faber and Faber for Siegfried Sassoon Memoirs of an Infantry Officer, HarperCollins Publishers, Australia, for May Tilton The Grey Battalion, Pen and Sword Books Ltd for William Turner The Accrington Pals, Eland Books, 61 Exmouth Market, London EC1R 4QL, for the 2000 edition of William Woodruff The Road to Nab End, The London Stamp Exchange for Edward Underhill A Year on the Western Front, Chrysalis Book Group for Aubrey Wade The War of the Guns, Naval and Military Press for C. Dudley Ward History of the Welsh Guards.
Despite my best endeavours I have failed to track down all copyright holders. I apologise to those concerned, but if they contact me through HarperCollins Publishers I will make appropriate recompense and ensure that an acknowledgement is inserted in any future edition of this book.
INDEX
The pagination of this electronic edition does not match the edition from which it was created. To locate a specific passage, please use the search feature of your e-book reader.
Ranks shown are generally the highest attained.
Abbot, Pte S. B. 572
Abraham, Pte A. J. 339–40
Accrington, Lancashire 82, 137
mayor of 82, 83
Adams, Pte Bernard 293–4, 312 323, 360, 460–61, 462, 543–4
Adams, George 543, 594
Addison, Lt Col A. J. B. 582
aerial warfare
aircraft 371–5, 481
German air force 374
RFC volunteers 374–5
see also Royal Flying Corps (RFC)
Africa 14
Agate, Lt James 360
Agincourt 22
Ahrendfeldt, R. H. 484
Ailey, Private 292
Aisne, first Battle of the (1914) 32, 366, 379
Aisne River 17, 32, 141, 254, 264, 365, 438, 590, 629
Al Kantara 560
Alanbrooke, Field Marshal Lord (Alan Brooke) 120, 122
Alberich Operation 50
Albert 40, 242, 494, 545
Albert-Bapaume road 40, 227
Albery, Pte William 557
alcohol 328–34, 406
Alde[burgh] River 23
Aldermaston marches xxi
Aldershot 112, 113, 117, 124, 143, 147, 75, 377, 25
Alderson, Lt Gen. Sir Edwin: Pink and Scarlet, or Hunting as a School for Soldiering 216
Ale Alley 240
All Quiet on the Western Front (film) xix
Allason, Maj. Gen. Bannatyne 229
Allenby, Field Marshal Sir Edmund 40, 52, 64, 209, 210, 214, 231–2, 496
Allenby, Lt Michael 214
Allied Supreme War Council 215
Allies
air superiority on Germany’s ‘black day’ 69–70
attack strategy 34
casualties at the Somme 47
plan for 1917 48
May 1917 conference 54
successful blockade 69
Alsace 25, 27
Alsatians 271, 542
American Civil War (1861–5) 266, 483
Amiens 26, 67, 68, 194, 433, 592, 593
battle of (1918) 221, 372, 431
‘Amiens dispatch’ (1914) 139
Ancre region 526
Ancre River 23
Andrew, L/Cpl I. G. xxvi, 147, 148, 349, 628
Anglesey, Marquess of 440, 447, 626
anniversaries 601–2
Anslow, Lord 626
Anzacs 13, 14, 43, 59, 60, 70, 174, 180, 183, 184, 198, 210–11, 213, 347, 348, 458, 459, 460, 483, 560, 624
Australian: 174, 180, 213, 459, 483, 624
casualties in France 13
friction with British contingent 14
capture of Pozieres 43, 180
third Ypres 59
loss of morale 60
in Allied counteroffensive (8 August 1918) 70
and Birdwood 210–11
mutiny (1918) 347
involvement in Etaples mutiny 348
and British field punishments 560
Australian Corps 69, 180
3rd Australian Division 383
4th Australian Division 6
Australian Field Artillery 196
New Zealand Defence Force 195
New Zealand Division 174, 180, 571
Apennines 14
Appleford, Sgt 286
Arakan, Burma 14
Archard, Gunner Victor 433, 559
Archbold, Pte 494
Ardennes 14
Argonne forest 18
aristocracy 626
Armenian massacres 511
Armenderes 275, 361, 596
Armentieres road 295, 591
armistice xxiv, 72, 274, 613–18
Army, Second Lieutenant 269
Army Act (annual) 555, 561
Army and Religion, The (1919 report) 522
Army Board 200
Army Council 106–7, 130
Army in India Efficiency Prize 114
Army List 89, 131
Army of Occupation 617–18
Army Order 340 (3) 368
Army Temperance Society 115
Arnold, Pte Alf 479, 523
Arnold, Lt C. B. 70, 375, 433–4
Arnold, Sgt Charles xvi, 423–4, 541, 556
Arnold-Forster, Mark 106
Arras 3, 16, 19, 21, 39, 349, 550
battle of (1917) 52–3, 148, 198, 209, 210, 274, 409, 428
Artois 16, 18, 19, 39, 52, 228, 249
Ash Ranges, Surrey 4
Ashby, Kathleen 162
Ashcombe, Henry Cubitt, 2nd Baron 626
Ashcombe, Lady Maud 626
Ashford, Pte Roy 298, 523–4
Ashurst, Sgt George xxv, 129, 336–7, 357’ 378, 388–9, 458, 590, 595
Asquith, Herbert 577
Asquith, Herbert Henry 28, 35, 45, 49, 78, 107, 225, 577, 607
Asquith, Lt Raymond 45, 78, 629
Atkinson, G. C. L. 356
Attlee, Clement 356
Au Bon Gite 57
Aubers Ridge 23, 35, 36, 519
Aubrey Camp 349
Auchonvillers 494
Australian Imperial Force Burial Ground (Flers) 627
Australian Official History xxi, 59–60
Austria-Hungary, Austro-Hungarians 28, 44
Aveluy Wood 226
Avesnes 21
Maj. Gen. Babington, J. M. 195
Badrick, Pte Jack 543
Badsey, Stephen 435
Bailleul 494
Bainbridge, Maj. Gen. 221
Bairnsfather, Capt. Bruce 17, 48, 319, 544
Baker, 2nd Lt 9
Balaklava, battle of (1854) 109
Bangors Park, Buckinghamshire 626
Bannerman, 2nd Lt R. R. B. 199
Bannick, Gunner Robert 196
Bapaume 3, 47, 200, 452
Bapaume road 40, 44, 154, 188
barbed wire 266–72
Barber, Corporal 539
Barbusse, Henri 102–3, 493
Baring, Lt Col the Hon. Guy 46
Barker, Pat xvii Barnard, Tom 355, 356
Barnett, Correlli xvii
Barrie, Alexander 311
Barrow, Lt George 115
Barry, Revd F. R. 510
Barter, Maj. Gen. Sir Charles 216–17
Bartov, Omer xviii
Battles Nomenclature Committee 44
Bavaria, Bavarians 542, 543
Bayencourt 315
Baynes, Capt. Rory 123, 159, 492
bayonet men 8–9
bayonet-fighting 345, 380, 381–5, 436, 536, 547, 551
Bazentin le Petit Wood (Somme) 219, 600
Beadle, 2nd Lt F. W. 440, 441
Bean, Dr Charles 60, 180, 195
Beanell, Nurse 481
Beatty, Admiral Lord 620
Beaumont 24
Beaumont Hamel 40, 181, 290, 458, 513
Becordel 219
Bedford, Earl of 22
Bedson, Sapper 464–5
BEF see British Expeditionary Force
BEF Times, The 607, 608
Behrend, Lt Arthur 373, 405, 414–15, 417, 448, 538–9, 588
Bell, Private 471
Belleau Wood (Chateau-Thierry) 68
Bellevue 268
Bennett, Winifred 200
Bergson, Henri 27
Bermondsey, London 98, 133
Bcrnafay Wood 28 1
Bcrrington Park, Herefordshire 626
Berry, Private 295
Bertrancourt 305