Lyn macdonald 1915 the death of innocence (v5 0)

PENGUIN BOOKS 1915: THE DEATH OF INNOCENCE Over the past twenty years Lyn Macdonald has established a reputation as a popular author and historian of the First World War Her books are They Called It Passchendaele, an account of the Passchendaele campaign in 1917; The Roses of No Man’s Land, a chronicle of the war from the neglected viewpoint of the casualties and the medical teams who struggled to save them; Somme, a history of the legendary and horrifying battle that has haunted the minds of succeeding generations; 1914: The Days of Hope, a vivid account of the first months of the war and winner of the 1987 Yorkshire Post Book of the Year Award; 1914–1918: Voices and Images of the Great War, an illuminating account of the many different aspects of the war; and 1915: The Death of Innocence, a brilliant evocation of the year that saw the terrible losses of Aubers Ridge, Loos, Neuve Chapelle, Ypres and Gallipoli Her most recent book is To the Last Man: Spring 1918, the story of the massive German offensive that broke the British line and almost broke the British Army All are based on the accounts of eye-witnesses and survivors, and cast a unique light on the First World War All are published in Penguin Lyn Macdonald is married and lives in London 1915 The Death of Innocence Lyn Macdonald PENGUIN BOOKS PENGUIN BOOKS Published by the Penguin Group Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England Penguin Putnam Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA Penguin Books Australia Ltd, 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia Penguin Books Canada Ltd, 10 Alcorn Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4V 3B2 Penguin Books India (P) Ltd, 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi – 110 017, India Penguin Books (NZ) Ltd, Cnr Rosedale and Airborne Roads, Albany, Auckland, New Zealand Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd, 24 Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank 2196, South Africa Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England www.penguin.com First published by Hodder Headline 1993 Published in Penguin Books 1997 12 Copyright © Lyn Macdonald, 1993 All rights reserved The moral right of the author has been asserted The poems on the part-title pages are reproduced with kind permission of the Estate of Robert Service, John Murray (Publishers) Ltd, Sidgwick and Jackson, Literary Executor of the estate of Roben Nichols, the Estate of Patrick MacGill Except in the United States of America, this book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser ISBN: 978-0-14-196117-0 Contents Author’s Foreword and Acknowledgements List of Maps Part 1: ‘We’re here because we’re here, because we’re here…’ Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four Chapter Five Part 2: Into Battle: Neuve Chapelle Chapter Six Chapter Seven Chapter Eight Chapter Nine Chapter Ten Part 3: ‘This is the happy warrior – this is he!’ Chapter Eleven Chapter Twelve Chapter Thirteen Chapter Fourteen Chapter Fifteen Part 4: The Desperate Days Chapter Sixteen Chapter Seventeen Chapter Eighteen Chapter Nineteen Chapter Twenty Chapter Twenty-One Chapter Twenty-Two Part 5: ‘Damn the Dardanelles – they will be our grave’ Chapter Twenty-Three Chapter Twenty-Four Chapter Twenty-Five Part 6: Slogging On: The Salient to Suvla Chapter Twenty-Six Chapter Twenty-Seven Chapter Twenty-Eight Chapter Twenty-Nine Chapter Thirty Part 7: Loos: The Dawn of Hope Chapter Thirty-One Chapter Thirty-Two Chapter Thirty-Three Chapter Thirty-Four Chapter Thirty-Five Chapter Thirty-Six Part 8: The Dying of the Year Chapter Thirty-Seven Chapter Thirty-Eight Bibliography Author’s Note Index Author’s Foreword and Acknowledgements In the chronicle of the Great War the resonant names of great battles – Mons, Somme, Passchendaele – have echoed down the years But although the Battles of Neuve Chapelle, Ypres, Loos were far from insignificant and have received some attention from historians (and the Gallipoli campaign has received a great deal), 1915 as a year has been strangely neglected Looking back in harsh hindsight 1915 appears to be a saga of such horrors, of such mismanagement and muddle, that it is easy to see why it coloured the views of succeeding generations and gave rise to prejudices and myths that have been applied to the whole war But it was a year of learning A year of cobbling together, of frustration, of indecision In a sense a year of innocence Therein lies its tragedy The battles of the early months of the war in 1914 were not ‘battles’ in any sense that Wellington would have understood From the British point of view Mons, the Marne, the Aisne and the First Battle of Ypres were rather struggles for survival, and by January 1915 their names had already passed into legend The incomparable Regular soldiers of the original British Expeditionary Force had suffered ninety per cent casualties and to all intents and purposes it was no more The few who were left or had been hastily brought back from foreign stations held the line through the winter, together with the erstwhile ‘Saturday Afternoon Soldiers’ of the Territorial Force The line ran through the Flanders swamps The men who held it fought the wet; they fought the snow, the rain, the cold; they fought the floods and the mud Ill-equipped and with pathetically small supplies of ammunition, they fought the Germans And they waited – for the coming of spring, for the promised reinforcements, and for the better weather which would herald the start of the offensive that would surely break the German line and send them roaring through to victory The first months of 1915 were a time of hope, of wide-ranging plans and far-reaching ideas which were destined to end, at best, in stalemate and in another gallant litany of fortitude and loss – Neuve Chapelle, Aubers Ridge, Festubert, Gallipoli, Ypres (always Ypres!) and Loos By the end of the year all the old ideas of warfare had been swept away, although some of those responsible for the conduct of the war were slow to realise it It was the year that brought the new armies they called ‘Kitchener’s Mob’ into the fight, sent the Anzacs to Gallipoli, the Canadians to Ypres By the end of it there were some who already felt that the war had taken on a momentum of its own It was a long time before the lessons of 1915 were learned and applied, for it was cursed with partial victories which implanted the idea that in better circumstances, with more ammunition, more men, better communications, more detailed planning, with firm leadership and with a modicum of luck, the enemy’s resistance could be finally crushed Words like gallantry, endurance and patriotism have an old-fashioned ring about them which strikes discordantly on modern ears It is easy to dismiss the soldiers as gullible victims, the generals and their political masters as incompetent dolts, the nation as a whole as unprotesting sheep blind to the realities which, eighty years on, a generation that believes itself to be endowed with superior sensibilities is quick to appreciate and condemn To subscribe to this point of view is to show little understanding of human nature and the spirit of the times We cannot alter history by disapproving of it I hope that, by setting events in context, this book might add a little to the understanding of how and why things happened as they did As always, my intention has been to ‘tell it like it was’, to tune in to the heartbeat of the experience of the people who lived through it In the end it is the people who matter My thanks, as always, must go first to the Old Soldiers who have told me their stories personally, written them down, or often vividly described what happened as we stood on the battlefields during one of my many trips to Flanders in their company Many whose stories appear in this book have, alas, not survived to see them in print Time is running out, and it is all the more important that we should listen, and listen carefully, before the curtain finally falls on the generation who experienced the Great War that was the watershed of the tumultuous twentieth century and the bridge between the old world and our own It was a literate generation of inveterate letter-writers and diary keepers, and it is almost impossible to list the staggering number of people who have so very kindly sent me collections of letters, diaries, photographs, papers, belonging to their families or, occasionally, rescued from abandonment in antique shops The latter give me particular pleasure – Corporal Letyford’s diary, from which extracts have appeared in 1914 as well as in this book, is just one example I like to think he would have been pleased My thanks to Andrew Taylor, to Ian Swindale for Pte Harry Crask, to Dr R.C Brookes for Pte Bernard Brookes, Brenda Field for the memoir of Trooper Harry Clarke, R A Watson for Alan Watson’s diary, and to the many other people who have so generously endowed me with valuable contemporary written material and given me permission to make use of it It goes without saying that my archive of first-hand material, written and oral, will in due course (on my demise or retirement) be passed to the care of the Imperial War Museum for the benefit of future students and historians My thanks are also due to the Imperial War Museum, and in particular to Roderick Suddaby, Keeper of Documents, for his great interest and assistance in the preparation of this book and for making available unpublished material which makes a considerable contribution to its scope Also to my friend and colleague Mike Willis, whose knowledge of the photographic archive is second to none, for his invaluable assistance with the illustrations Many people have assisted in interviewing the Old Soldiers, and I must especially thank Barbara Taylor, Colin Butler, Chris Sheeran, and Eric Warwick Others have helped enormously with the research in parts of the world which were not immediately accessible to me I should like in particular to thank Elspeth Ewan in Scotland for local research in pursuit of extra information on Jim Keddie, Bill Paterson in Edinburgh, and Vivien Riches, who was my assistant a long time ago and who has maintained her interest since moving to Australia, where she found and interviewed the Australian veterans of Gallipoli My French and Belgian friends have, as always, taken a great interest and, by sharing civilian recollections, added another dimension to the story of 1915 Yves de Cock generously made available his research on the gas attack My friend Stephan Maenhout introduced his Tante Paula’ (Mevrow Hennekint née Barbieur) who told the story of her family in 1915 I must pay particular tribute to the senior members of my own muchloved French family, Pierre and Germaine Dewavrin, who have added so much to my understanding over the years, and whose recollections of 1915 appear in this book Colonel Terry Cave most kindly helped with information on the Indians; Peter Thomas of Ρ & O and Vivien Riches in Australia between them researched different aspects of the story of the Southport; and Lord Sterling, Chairman of Ρ & O, also deserves my gratitude for his interest and for his generosity to the Old Soldiers I must also thank Rennie McOwen and many readers of the Edinburgh Evening News who responded overwhelmingly to his request and showered me with unique photographs and personal recollections of the Royal Scots rail disaster Anne Mackay of the Scottish Music Information Centre took a great interest and went to considerable trouble to supply me with the words of The March of the Cameron Men’ which, to our shame as Scots, neither General Christison nor I could wholly remember Of all my books on the First World War 1915 has been the longest and most complicated to write (My publisher, Alan Brooke, remarked ‘It’s taken as long as the war itself!’) With the deadline looming the last few months have been trying for my family I must thank my husband, Ian Ross, for suffering almost in silence, for his constant interest and support, and for all the take-aways he brought home when there wasn’t any dinner! I have been blessed with colleagues over the years who have given unstintingly of their time, interest and support Some are mentioned above Tony Spagnoly is always available for interesting discussion and gave much appreciated help with the maps; and John Woodroff, my military researcher, deserves my warmest thanks for answering a million queries on corps, divisions, battalions and individual soldiers – plus many other topics – and he very occasionally took as long as five minutes to come up with the answer Last, but by no means least, I must thank my stalwart assistant Sandra Layson, not just for her competence and efficiency, but for her bright presence, her sharp appreciation, her support and sympathy – evidenced by the occasional tear over the ‘sad bits’ – and for a great deal of extremely hard work Lyn Macdonald London, 1993 List of Maps The Western Front 1915 The Front, Ypres to Vimy 1915 The Battle of Neuve Chapelle Neuve Chapelle: German positions, 11 March Neuve Chapelle: The line at the end of the battle The Ypres Salient 22 April 1915 Ypres: The Gas Attack Ypres: The Salient after Retirement Ypres: Bellewaerde and Frezenberg Ridge Aubers Ridge The Eastern Mediterranean The Gallipoli Peninsula Gallipoli: Helles and the Southern Sector Gallipoli: Gully Ravine, 28 June 1915 Gully Ravine: Final line July Gallipoli: Anzac Gallipoli: Suvla Bay and Anzac The Battle of Loos Loos, 26 September Loos, 14 October ... Book of the Year Award; 1914–1918: Voices and Images of the Great War, an illuminating account of the many different aspects of the war; and 1915: The Death of Innocence, a brilliant evocation of. .. supplies of ammunition, they fought the Germans And they waited – for the coming of spring, for the promised reinforcements, and for the better weather which would herald the start of the offensive... By the turn of the century the German Army possessed more of them than any other in Europe – and once they had taken up the idea they made the most of it Machine-gunners were highly trained, there