Deborah and the War of the Tanks
Page 51
26. Ibid.
27. Ibid.
28. Macintosh, Men and Tanks, p. 102.
Chapter 23: ‘Things Fall Apart’ (pp. 145–153)
1. The chapter title is a quote from The Second Coming by Ireland’s greatest poet, W. B Yeats: ‘Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold’.
2. Vernehmung eines Sergeanten und 5 Mann vom I/R. Ir.Fus … in Militärarchiv, Freiburg im Breisgau (PH3/558).
3. Ibid.
4. Ibid.
5. Ibid.
6. Hülsemann, pp. 65–6. This comment comes from Leutnant Johannes Langfeldt, ordnance officer of 2nd Battalion, 84th Infantry Regiment (see also below).
7. Steuben, p. 104.
8. International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) records.
9. Service record in NA (WO 364).
10. Census and birth/marriage/death records.
11. Vernehmung eines Sergeanten und 5 Mann vom I/R. Ir.Fus … in Militärarchiv, Freiburg im Breisgau (PH3/558).
12. Ibid., and service record in NA (WO 364).
13. Supplement to London Gazette, 1 January 1916, p. 57.
14. Service record in NA (WO 364).
15. Vernehmung eines Sergeanten und 5 Mann vom I/R. Ir.Fus … in Militärarchiv, Freiburg im Breisgau (PH3/558).
16. Ibid., and service record in NA (WO 364).
17. Vernehmung eines Sergeanten und 5 Mann vom I/R. Ir.Fus … in Militärarchiv, Freiburg im Breisgau (PH3/558).
18. ICRC records.
19. ICRC records show his rank as lance-corporal, though his medal index card (MIC) describes him as a private. The corporal in question could also be George Ball, who is shown as a private in ICRC records at the time of capture, though his MIC describes him as an acting corporal.
20. Census records, medal index card.
21. Census records, medal records, ICRC records, CWGC records.
22. Ibid.
23. Vernehmung eines Sergeanten und 5 Mann vom I/R. Ir.Fus … in Militärarchiv, Freiburg im Breisgau (PH3/558).
24. The court martial took place on 19 October 1917 – see record in NA (WO 71/611). Age from CWGC records, which show he is buried in Neuville-Bourjonval British Cemetery.
25. Ibid.
26. War Diary of 1st Bn Royal Irish Fusiliers in NA (WO 95/2502/2).
27. See record in NA (WO 71/611).
28. Vernehmung von 4 irischen Überläufern … der I./R. Dub. Fus … eingebracht am 18.12.17, westlich Ossus in Hauptstaatsarchiv Stuttgart (M33/2 Bü 583). The report includes the original text in English and says the spelling is unaltered from the original.
29. See Dahlmann, p. 348.
30. The dead man’s unit is given in a document entitled Bericht ueber die Wache vom 25.X. – 1.XI.1917 in Hauptstaatsarchiv Stuttgart (M 33/2 Bü 241). Rifleman Walker is named in the War Diary of 12th Bn Rifle Brigade in NA (WO 95/2121), and his service record in NA (WO 363) shows he was previously in the HBMGC. Further details come from ICRC records, and from documents and newspaper cuttings in the possession of his family. Thanks are due to Pat and Martin Tebbs, Carroll and Amanda Rushby, and Emma Gowshall for information about Rifleman Walker and his two brothers, who also died in the war.
31. Wedel, p. 158.
32. Two companies of 27th Reserve Infantry Regiment (RIR), plus the machine-gun company, were sent to Flesquières on 19 November, and transport was arranged to bring in the rest of 1st Battalion the next morning. The 2nd Battalion moved to Marcoing to be ready for deployment, and moved to Flesquières early on 20 November, adding substantially to the forces holding the village.
33. Dahlmann, pp. 353–4.
34. Hülsemann, p. 95. The description is by Hauptmann Wille.
35. Dahlmann, pp. 354.
36. Hülsemann, p. 89.
37. Fuller, Memoirs of an Unconventional Soldier, pp. 187–9.
38. Hülsemann, pp. 66.
39. Steuben, pp. 14–19.
40. Hülsemann, p. 95.
41. Steuben, pp. 36–7 and 88–92.
42. Hülsemann, p. 66. Leutnant Hegermann confirms in Steuben, p. 31, that his birthday was on 19 November. The anecdote about Thyra also comes from Leutnant Langfeldt, in Steuben, p. 71.
Chapter 24: To Shake Mightily the Earth (pp. 154–62)
1. Macintosh, Men and Tanks, pp. 102–3. He refers to ‘C’ Company, which was the later name of No. 12 Company.
2. See Williams-Ellis, p. 108 on Elles’ Special Order No. 6: ‘It was not the incitement to “do their damnedest” which the contemporary Press fathered upon him. That spurious fosterling he hated the worse, the more he perceived its popularity.’
3. Macintosh, Men and Tanks, p. 103.
4. Watson, A Company of Tanks, p. 172.
5. Communications 1st Bde Tank Corps in War Diary of 1st Brigade Tank Corps HQ in NA (WO 95/98).
6. Interview in IWM Sound Archive (870). The order of some sentences has been changed.
7. Isaiah 2:19, quoted in Rev. Neville S. Talbot, Thoughts on Religion at the Front, London, 1917. He was a co-founder of Talbot House, the celebrated rest and recreation centre in Poperinghe named after his brother who was killed in 1915.
8. Timings from Macintosh, Men and Tanks, p. 104.
9. Orders in possession of Brigadier Ben Edwards.
10. War Diary of 4th Bn Tank Corps in NA (WO 95/110).
11. Watson, A Company of Tanks, p. 172.
12. Macintosh, Men and Tanks, pp. 105–6.
13. Anon., H.Q. Tanks 1917-1918, 1920, p. 64. Although the book is anonymous, the same passage occurs in an article entitled ‘My Recollections of Cambrai’ by the Hon. Evan Charteris in Tank Corps Journal (November 1922).
14. Watson, A Company of Tanks, p. 172.
15. War Diary of 4th Bn Tank Corps in NA (WO 95/110).
16. Baker-Carr, From Chauffeur to Brigadier, p. 268 says this happened ‘at about half-past four, an hour and a half before zero’, but McTaggart (see Note 18 below) gives the time as 5.30 a.m.
17. Macintosh, Men and Tanks, p. 107.
18. McTaggart, ‘The Great Battle of Cambrai’.
19. History of 4th Tank Bn in War Diary in NA (WO 95/110) says the wire-crushers were from No. 10 Company, but Orders in War Diary say they were from No. 11 Company. This is confirmed because accounts by Edwards and Shaw (who were both in No. 11 Company) state they were in wire-crushing tanks.
20. Watson, A Company of Tanks, p. 173.
21. Handwritten note by Lieutenant Gerald Edwards in Macintosh, Men and Tanks, p. 113.
22. Anon, ‘Cambrai: A Tank Commander’s Impression’, Tank Corps Journal (November 1922). The article is anonymous but the identity of the author can be worked out from internal evidence. The E Bn Battlegraph (in Tank Museum) does not give a crew number for Elles II, and this is taken from the report of an action on 20 September 1917 in the War Diary of 5th Bn Tank Corps in NA (WO 95/111).
23. ‘L.I.’, ‘Some Reminiscences of a War-time Soldier III. – A Tank to the Rescue’.
24. Macintosh, Men and Tanks pp. 108–10. The original refers to ‘A’ and ‘B’ Company.
Chapter 25: ‘Now For It!’ (pp. 163–168)
1. Bion, The Long Week-end, p. 161.
2. Bion, War Memoirs, p. 47.
3. An Account of my Sojourn in France & Germany during the Great War 1917-1919 by Willie Pennie in IWM (11255). His account refers to ‘ten thousand guns’, which is what it must have seemed like, though the actual number was much smaller.
4. From History of Cambrai compiled by Major-General Sir Percy Hobart in Tank Museum (E2006.381). The account is anonymous, but clearly by Birks.
5. Macintosh, Men and Tanks, pp. 110–11.
6. This phrase is taken from ‘L.I.’, ‘Cambrai, 1917 – The Impressions of an Infantryman’.
7. Watson, A Company of Tanks, pp. 173–4.
8. 51st Division Report on the Operations S.W. of Cambrai in NA (WO 158/390).
9. Hülsemann, p. 243.
10. Strutz, p. 18.
11. Wa
tson, A Company of Tanks, p. 174.
12. From History of Cambrai compiled by Major-General Sir Percy Hobart in Tank Museum (E2006.381). As in other accounts, Birks says they were working with ‘4th Black Watch’ but this must be wrong as this battalion did not take part in the battle.
13. ‘L.I.’, ‘Some Reminiscences of a War-time Soldier III. – A Tank to the Rescue’.
14. Lecture by Lt-Col. Baker Carr on ‘The Employment of Tanks’ in Tank Museum (E2004.3211).
15. Watson, A Company of Tanks, p. 166.
16. From History of Cambrai compiled by Major-General Sir Percy Hobart in Tank Museum (E2006.381).
17. Watson, A Company of Tanks, p. 179. These were probably D26 Don Quixote II and D31 Dolly II, which are shown on the D Bn Battlegraph in NA (MFQ 1/1384) in virtually the same location. The Battlegraph also shows D9 Damocles and D30 Dusky Dis II ditched nearby.
18. Rorie, chapter on Cambrai by Captain Robert Tennant Bruce, p. 165. The third tank was probably D30 Dusky Dis II.
19. Handwritten note by Lieutenant Gerald Edwards in Macintosh, Men and Tanks p. 113. His grandson Brigadier Ben Edwards, himself a tank commander, comments: ‘It may seem callous today to have used the body of a comrade in such a manner, but things were different then. My grandfather had lost his previous tank, and a member of his crew, to enemy fire at the Third Battle of Ypres, and they had to fight their way back over No Man’s Land on foot. No sane man would have wanted to repeat that. He well knew that to become static once committed to battle made the tank a magnet for bullets, usually resulting in the loss of the vehicle and members of the crew. It would have seemed acceptable to “ask” a comrade to make one final sacrifice when arguably he no longer needed his body, for the sake of eight crewmen, a tank, and the essential moral and fire support that each working vehicle gave to the infantry.’
20. Anon. ‘Cambrai: A Tank Commander’s Impression’, Tank Corps Journal (November 1922). See previous notes on this source.
21. Service record in NA (WO 339/57980).
22. File of Captain Leonard Johnson in Tank Museum (E1978.212).
23. File of Private Leonard Wray in Tank Museum (E2006.4328).
24. ‘L.I.’, ‘Some Reminiscences of a War-time Soldier III. – A Tank to the Rescue’.
25. Hülsemann, pp. 84–5.
26. Ibid., p. 85.
27. Account of Operations of November 20th. 1917 near Havrincourt in War Diary of 5th Bn Gordon Highlanders in NA (WO 95/2881).
28. McTaggart, ‘The Great Battle of Cambrai’.
29. Account of Operations of November 20th. 1917 near Havrincourt in War Diary of 5th Bn Gordon Highlanders in NA (WO 95/2881).
Chapter 26: Till the Last Man (pp. 169–177)
1. Hülsemann, pp. 66–7.
2. Ibid., pp. 71–2. Leutnant Herbert Mory was also captured, and never returned home: he died in West Yorkshire in 1919 aged twenty-three, and is buried at Cannock Chase German Military Cemetery in Staffordshire.
3. Ibid., p. 67.
4. Ibid., p. 68.
5. Steuben, p. 93. The order of messages is reversed in some accounts, but this version from his biography is taken as definitive.
6. Ibid.
7. Hülsemann, pp. 73–4.
8. Ibid., p. 74.
9. Ibid., pp. 74–5.
10. Ibid., p. 77. The additional information about Vizefeldwebel Jacobsen, and first names, come from ICRC records.
11. Ibid., p. 98. This was Leutnant Johannes Andresen, commander of No. 4 Company. Shoulder-straps were often removed for intelligence-gathering purposes, as they carried a number identifying the prisoner’s regiment.
12. Ibid., p. 104. This was Musketier Wilhelm Dose of No. 10 Company.
13. Ibid., pp. 82–3.
14. H.Q. Tanks 1917-1918, privately printed, 1920, pp. 77–8. Although anonymous, this has been identified as the work of Captain Evan Charteris. Both these reports relate to 20 November, but there is no indication where they took place, or which units were responsible. Charteris identifies the second informant as Lieutenant-Colonel John Brockbank, who was head of Tank Corps Central Workshops and Stores.
15. Captain D. Sutherland, War Diary of the Fifth Seaforth Highlanders, London, 1920, p. 138.
16. From History of Cambrai compiled by Major-General Sir Percy Hobart in Tank Museum (E2006.381). The account is anonymous, but from internal evidence the author can be identified as Gatehouse.
17. See Hague Conventions (1899 and 1907) on ICRC website.
18. Hülsemann, pp. 82–3.
19. Account of Operations of November 20th. 1917 near Havrincourt in War Diary of 5th Bn Gordon Highlanders in NA (WO 95/2881).
20. Brief narratives of some of the outstanding instances during operation by tanks of 1 Bde, 20-23 Nov 17 by Colonel C. D. Baker-Carr dated 26 November, in Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives (FULLER 1/3/7 1917).
21. Major F. W. Bewsher, The History of the 51st (Highland) Division 1914-1918, Edinburgh & London, 1921, p. 244.
22. McTaggart, ‘The Great Battle of Cambrai’.
23. Watson, A Company of Tanks, p. 175.
24. Handwritten note by Lieutenant Gerald Edwards in Watson, A Company of Tanks, p. 175.
25. Letter to official historian dated 11 October 1944 in NA (CAB 45/118)
26. Falls, The Life of a Regiment Volume IV, p. 168.
27. Nicholson, p. 148.
28. Telegram in War Diary of 5th Bn Gordon Highlanders in NA (WO 95/2881).
29. Strutz, p. 27n.
30. General Oskar Freiherr von Watter: Dem Gedenken eines großen Soldaten von den alten Kameraden der 54. Infanterie-Division des Weltkrieges, Hansestadt Hamburg, 1940, p. 84.
31. Major-General D. N. Wimberley, Scottish Soldier, unpublished memoir in IWM (PP/MCR/182), p. 87. Thanks to Neil Wimberley for permission to quote from this document.
32. Interview in IWM Sound Archive (4266).
33. Wimberley, Scottish Soldier, unpublished memoir in IWM (PP/MCR/182), p. 88; the section from ‘quite a lot …’ to ‘ …look like’ has been added from the IWM interview.
34. ‘L.I.’, ‘Some Reminiscences of a War-time Soldier III. – A Tank to the Rescue’.
35. Ibid.
36. ‘L.I.’, ‘Cambrai, 1917 – The Impressions of an Infantryman’.
37. Captain D. Sutherland, War Diary of the Fifth Seaforth Highlanders, London, 1920, pp. 138–9.
38. War Diary of IV Corps HQ in NA (WO 95/716).
39. Hülsemann, p. 130. This comment was made by Leutnant Johannes Langfeldt, 2nd Battalion ordnance officer.
40. Dahlmann, p. 364.
41. Ibid., p. 367.
42. Ibid.
43. Compiled from two letters published in The I.O.B. [i.e. Imperial Ottoman Bank] Gazette (January 1918). Koe does not say which tank he was in, but this can be worked from the evidence in his letters.
44. Brief narratives of some of the outstanding instances during operation by tanks of 1 Bde, 20-23 Nov 17 by Colonel C. D. Baker-Carr dated 26 November, in Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives (FULLER 1/3/7 1917).
45. Ibid. The report does not include tank names, which have been added from the D Bn Battlegraph in NA (MFQ 1/1384). In the case of D2, he gives the crew number as D16 but shows the commander as Second Lieutenant Wallace. The Battlegraph shows Wallace was actually in command of D2.
46. Ibid.
47. Macintosh, Men and Tanks, p. 113.
48. See message from 51st Division in War Diary of IV Corps HQ in NA (WO 95/716): ‘Tanks seen travelling E to W at Grand Ravine K.29.Central (7.30 a.m.)’.
Chapter 27: A Mountain to Climb (pp. 180–184)
1. War Diary of 6th Bn Black Watch in NA (WO 95/2876).
2. 51st Division Report on the Operations S.W. of Cambrai in NA (WO 158/390).
3. Macintosh, Men and Tanks, p. 110.
4. Watson, A Company of Tanks, pp. 183 and 174–5.
5. Anon., ‘The Wanderings of “D” in France’.
6. Interview i
n Liddle Collection (278).
7. Summary of Operations, p. 10 in War Diary of 1st Brigade Tank Corps HQ in NA (WO 95/98).
8. See Hotblack, ‘Recollections of Cambrai’.
9. Macintosh, Men and Tanks, p. 103.
10. D Bn Battlegraph in NA (MFQ 1/1384) shows D9 Damocles, D26 Don Quixote II, D30 Dusky Dis II, and D31 Dolly II were all ditched, in some cases with mechanical trouble, in the enemy front-line trench. D5 Dakoit II and D50 Dandy Dinmont were ditched in the third-line position known as Mole Trench, and D24 Deuce of Diamonds was ditched with mechanical trouble a little further on.
11. Service record in British Library (L/MIL/9/536/117-26) – this comment was made in 1924 when he was serving in the Indian Army.
12. Barrage map from 51st Division Report on the Operations S.W. of Cambrai in NA (WO 158/390).
13. IV Corps report Havrincourt – Bourlon Operations in NA (WO 158/318).
14. From History of Cambrai compiled by Major-General Sir Percy Hobart in Tank Museum (E2006.381). The account is anonymous, but clearly by Birks.
15. Interview in IWM Sound Archive (4024).
16. Birks, ‘Cambrai – The Attack on Flésquières Ridge [sic]’.
17. Macintosh, Men and Tanks, p. 115.
18. Bion, War Memoirs, p. 48.
19. Macintosh, Men and Tanks, pp. 117–19. He does not name the trench, but it can be identified from his description of the tank’s route.
20. From History of Cambrai compiled by Major-General Sir Percy Hobart in Tank Museum (E2006.381). The account is anonymous but is clearly by Birks, and does not name Morris, who was Birks’ section commander.
21. Service record in NA (WO 339/52089). The word ‘severe’ has been added from the following sentence.
22. From History of Cambrai compiled by Major-General Sir Percy Hobart in Tank Museum (E2006.381).
23. Anon., ‘The Wanderings of “D” in France’.
Chapter 28: The Crack of Doom (pp. 185–189)
1. Macintosh, Men and Tanks, pp. 119–23. The dead and wounded men have not so far been identified.
2. Watson, A Company of Tanks, pp. 183 and 179. He uses the initial ‘S.’ but it is clear who is being referred to.
3. Statement regarding circumstances which led to capture in Shaw’s service record, held by Ministry of Defence.