Tynecot war cemetery 220n.
Udall, Sgt. F.G., MM 249–50, 252
Unwin, Cmdr. 358
Vallender, Sgnr. 301–2
Vaughan, Pte. J.W. 271–3, 287, 292–3
Vimy Ridge 311, 530, 557
Walker, Major 118
Wallace, Col. 283–4, 289
Wallerstein, Brig. General 496–8
War Cabinet 31, 433
War Council 49–51, 53–4, 60, 142, 315–17
Warwick, Col. H. 474, 516, 535, 537, 560
Warwick, Margaret J. 494, 560
Waterhouse, Lt. Col. 75–6, 78, 486
Waterlow, Lt. A. 480–1
Watson, Gnr. J.A. (later Cpl.) 489–90, 530–1
weddings, servicemen 151–2
Welch Regiment, 1st Battalion 290
Wellesley, Lt. 212–13
Welsh Guards 474
Welsh Regiment 508
West Riding Brigade 299–302
West Yorkshire Regiment
1/5 Battalion 298–9, 307–8, 310
12th Battalion 541–2
Western front
deadlock 7–9, 15, 31, 34, 49
debate over 579–80, 589
new offensive 60–1, 216–18, 405
Westhoek Ridge 273, 282, 286
White, Bob 338
White, Lt. A.B. 501, 502–3
Wightman, Capt. 355
Wilhelm II, Kaiser 9–14, 26
Wilkinson, Brig. General 516
Willcocks, General, Sir James 66, 96, 103, 105, 108, 118, 132, 490–1
Williams, Able Seaman W.C. 356n.
Williams, Ben 525, 554
Williams, Lt. Col. 356–8
Wilson, Cpl. A. 298–9, 307–8
Winchester, Major the Marquis 403
Winnington, Major 122
Wir Barbaren (We Barbarians) 260–1
Wolseley, Sir Garnet 14
Wood, Field Marshal Sir Evelyn 397
Woodhouse, Col. 121–2, 128
Woodroffe, Lt. Sidney 427n.
Worcestershire Regiment
1st Battalion 30, 99, 105, 116, 121–3, 127–9, 131
3rd Battalion 395n.
10th Battalion 473–4
Worrell, Rfn. W. 157, 466–8, 484, 498–9, 523–5, 554–5, 597
Wynn, Lt. T.S. 164–5
Yatman, Lt. Col. C. 395n.
Yorks and Lanes Regiment, 1st Battalion 290
Yorkshire Hussars Yeomanry 179, 183–5
Yorkshire Regiment, 5th Battalion 156
Ypres, first battle 17
Ypres, second battle and Battle of Loos 491
British occupation 6, 176–81, 379–95, 405–6, 590
British withstand German attack 211–27, 232–57, 258–79, 324–5, 327
evacuation of civilians 276–8, 506–8
German offensive 182–95, 196–210, 278–9, 280–94
Zouave Wood 390, 424
*Notschrei Aus Den ArgonnenLiebeshandshuh’ trag’ ich an den Händen,
Liebesbinden warme meine Lenden,
Liebestabak füllt die Liebespfeife,
Morgens wasch’ ich mich mit Liebesseife,
Liebesgabendankesagebriefe,
Warmt der Liebeskopfschlauch nachts den Schädel
Seufz’ ich: ‘So viel Liebe – und kein Mädel!’
I wear love’s gloves on my hands,
Love’s leggings warm my thighs,
Love’s tobacco fills love’s pipe,
In the mornings I wash with love’s soap,
For loving gifts a thank-you letter,
Warm is love’s cap against my skull.
I sigh to myself: ‘So much love – and no girl!’
*The German expedition had been the Kaiser’s own idea. But his force had hardly set sail when word arrived that order had already been restored by a mixed force of British, Japanese and Russians. The situation was back to normal long before the German troops reached China. The Kaiser was furious.
*The old Emperor died the following March just before his ninety-first birthday, and in June of that year (1888), after his father’s sad reign of a hundred days, William became His Imperial Majesty Kaiser Wilhelm II.
*The Southport continued her leisurely progress and survived to do her bit for the war effort. She was requisitioned by the government in May 1917 and ran the gauntlet of German U-boats to bring wheat and foodstuffs from the USA and Canada to beleaguered Britain. She continued in government service until 1919, was sold to Greece, where she was renamed Tithis in 1923, and broken up in Italy in 1932.
*The unpronounceable Flemish name ‘Ploegsteert’ had quickly become ‘Plugstreet’ to the Tommies.
*This part of Belgium had been flooded in 1914 when King Albert of the Belgians had ordered the dykes to be opened to stem the German invasion.
*The 27th and 28th Divisions.
*General Joffre could think of many reasons why they should not and, when approached by the French War Ministry, flatly refused to spare a single man from his own armies. The components of the French division had to be found in North Africa, from a mixture of French Colonial troops.
*This was the pre-war custom, which was still in force in early 1915. As the war progressed and casualties increased the practice could not be maintained.
*They were termed ‘Nameless Cottages’ on British trench maps
*Whether or not he meant to mislead, the German prisoner had been misunderstood. A much smaller force of two Battalions was moving into the wood, although each one did belong to a different regiment.
*6 a.m. was by Berlin time, one hour ahead of Greenwich mean time used by the British Army.
*Haig’s order.
*The Germans who attacked the Worcestershires belonged to the 21st Bavarian Reserve Regiment. Their regimental history states, ‘During this advance Major Eberhard commanding the first Battalion was killed and his body was not recovered.’
*The 7th Division had been stopped well short of the Mauquissart Road and the British soldiers seen by the artillery observation officer were later thought to have been captured British soldiers passing, under escort, through the German lines.
*From the Rifle Brigade History. Sergeant-Major Daniels and Corporal Noble were both awarded the Victoria Cross.
*The practice of posting newly commissioned subalterns direct to service Battalions in training was discontinued in the summer of 1915 when young officers’ companies were formed and attached to reserve brigades for training purposes. Officer cadet Battalions were formed in 1916.
*‘Rise up, lads, evening is coming.’
*The Camerons renamed the wood during their tenancy and soon it appeared on British trench maps as ‘Inverness Copse’. In a matter of weeks they were pushed out of it in the Second Battle of Ypres. When British troops eventually returned, in August 1917, the copse had been reduced to a waste of splintered stumps.
*On 5 May, when the 5th Division was finally forced from Hill 60, they had suffered three thousand casualties and won four Victoria Crosses. Hardly a body was recovered, and Hill 60 today, still scarred and cratered by this and later battles, is in effect a mass grave.
*The man was Auguste Jaeger, then a private in the 234 Reserve Infantry Regiment. On 17 December 1932 he was tried at Leipzig on charges of desertion and betraying German plans to the enemy. He was sentenced to ten years’ imprisonment.
*It is a moot point whether they would have succeeded, or even tried, for, despite their mighty fire power, the Germans had insufficient reserves to make such a wholesale effort practicable. Their intention had only been to advance by bounds to a succession of limited objectives and to some extent they had been surprised by their own success and the cataclysmic effect of the gas on unprotected troops. But nevertheless, given their formidable fire power, situated as they now were within a stone’s throw of Ypres whose outlying houses were little more than two miles away, the position of the Allies in the salient was already all but untenable.
*There were now only two
French Divisions in the line – so few that they were referred to by the French Army merely as the Elverdinghe Detachment – with another two brigades on the coast at Nieuport (the Nieuport Detachment) and, although it would be unfair to say that they were the dregs of the French forces, they were not troops of the highest calibre. Both detachments were under the command of General Putz.
*The German line here lay on a gentle slope which two years later would be one of the bastions in their defence of Passchendaele beyond. After the war it was transformed into what became the largest and best-known of all British war cemeteries – Tynecot.
*General Balck, commanding 23rd German Reserve Corps, later wrote of the fighting of 23 April: ‘Unfortunately the infantry had become enfeebled by trench warfare and had lost its daring and its indifference to heavy losses and the disintegrating influence of increased enemy fire effect. The leaders and the brave-hearted fell, and the bulk of the men, mostly inexperienced reinforcements, became helpless and only too inclined to leave the work to the artillery and trench mortars.’
*Number 3 Canadian Advanced Dressing Station which had been obliged to move from Hampshire Farm to Wieltje on the 22nd, had been forced to evacuate again and re-open at St Jean.
*Hay’s comment was not quite fair. The Canadians had been awarded their first Victoria Cross. It was won in the aftermath of the second gas attack by Fred Hall, brother of Harry and Ed, who was a company sergeant-major in the 8th (Manitoba) Battalion. In the thick of the battle, as the battalion struggled to hold on and machine-guns sprayed the ground, Fred twice crawled out through the hail of fire to drag in wounded men who were calling for help. He made it the first time, and almost made it the second. As he lifted the wounded soldier into the trench Fred’s body was ripped by machine-gun fire. The Victoria Cross was awarded posthumously
*One of its Brigades had not yet arrived.
*According to German records three Howitzer batteries near Langemarck fired between them at least two thousand rounds that afternoon.
*This was effectively the end of General Smith-Dorrien’s distinguished military career. Shortly afterwards he was side-lined to a post in East Africa. He retired from the Army shortly after the end of the war and died, aged seventy-two, in 1930.
*Burnt Farm was later marked on British trench maps as Uhlan Farm.
*Vaughan’s wound finished his army career. After many months in hospital in England he was shipped back to recuperate in Canada where he received his discharge in 1916. Seventy years later, on 8 May 1985, as the guest of Princess Patricia’s Light Infantry, then serving in Germany, and on what he claims to have been the proudest day of his life, he was able to march through the Menin Gate in the front rank of his old regiment.
*From the Regimental History.
*‘Woolly Bears’ were shrapnel shells which burst in a cloudlike explosion. ‘Jack Johnsons’, nicknamed after a famous Negro boxer of the time, were high explosive shells which burst with a thick black cloud.
*Lt. Tennant’s body was never identified and he is commemorated on the le Touret Memorial to the Missing.
*Walter Malthouse’s grave is in Fauquissart Military Cemetery.
*In view of the fluid situation in the Balkans, with Bulgaria, Greece and Italy uncommitted and Russia cut off from the allies, the idea was visionary and had it been adopted when Churchill first mooted it in September 1914, when it would have met little opposition, it might well have shifted the focus of the war and possibly changed its course.
*The story of Bentham’s experiences and capture at Antwerp is related in 1914 by the same author.
*The two railwaymen, Tinsley and Meakin, were tried on charges of culpable homicide and found guilty. Meakin was sentenced to eighteen months’ imprisonment and Tinsley to three years with hard labour.
*It is ironic to reflect that Clement Attlee, future leader of the Labour Party, was slogging as an infantryman in Gallipoli as a result of Winston Churchill’s imaginative scheme to capture the Dardanelles. Twenty-five years later as Prime Minister in another war, with his verve and imagination undiminished by the years, Churchill led the nation to victory and was crowned with well-deserved laurels, while Attlee, working conscientiously in his shadow as Deputy Prime Minister in the Coalition Government, got little credit for the actual running of the country.
*The 7th Indian Mountain Artillery Brigade comprised the 21st (Kohat) Battery with one 4.7-inch gun and the 26th (Jacob’s) Battery with three 6-inch Howitzers. They were the first guns ashore at Galiipoli and were the only guns of the Indian Artillery to serve in Europe during the war.
*Both Commander Unwin and Able Seaman W. C. Williams were awarded the Victoria Cross. Williams, unfortunately, was one of the many casualties, killed by a shell fired from the Asiatic shore. His VC, the first to be awarded to a naval rating for over fifty years, was awarded posthumously.
*The Official Historian later wrote: ‘Thus died the very man who by his rank, his nerve, and his knowledge, would have been of priceless value to the troops in the southern area during that vital day.’ It was a telling point. In a conventional battle, Brigade and Divisional Commanders would properly have conducted it some distance behind the fighting line with the advantage of an overall view. At the Gallipoli landings, where there was no hinterland but the sea, so many senior officers were obliged to be at the front and so many were killed that the loss of the very people who would have been in a position to take decisions according to circumstances on the spot contributed decisively to the failure of leaderless troops to progress in the first vital hours in places where they could easily have done so and, as a result, had a significant effect on the long-term outcome of the campaign.
*Roulers is the modern Belgian town of Roeselaere.
*Lance-Corporal Sandy Gunn was killed in action on the Somme on 1 July 1916 and is buried in Serre Road, No. 2 Cemetery.
*They were Lieutenant-Colonel B. F. B. Stuart of the 3rd Worcesters, Lieutenant-Colonel E. Treffry of the Honourable Artillery Company, Lieutenant-Colonel R. G. Hely Hutchinson of the 4th Royal Fusiliers, Lieutenant-Colonel C. Yatman of the 1st Northumberland Fusiliers and Major H. E. R. Boxer, commanding the 1st Lincolnshire Battalion, who was killed.
*The 9th (Scottish) Division left for the front on 9 May, the 14th (Light) Division on 19 May, and the 12th (Eastern) Division on the 29th of the same month.
*After the war Douglas Jones became a well-known actor under the stage name of Aubrey Dexter, and appeared in many films and West End productions, including The Mousetrap. His last appearance before his retirement and untimely death was with Sir Laurence Olivier in The Entertainer.
†Major the Marquis of Winchester was an officer of the 13th Battalion, the Rifle Brigade.
*The subsequent story of Joe Hoyles and the 13th Battalion, the Rifle Brigade, is told in the author’s book, Somme.
*The shops and cafés stayed open, by order of the Germans, on Independence Day the following year, but the population of Brussels retaliated by boycotting them, and shopkeepers colluded by asking outrageous prices of the few customers who were injudicious enough to enter them – fifty thousand francs for a cap in one case. The wearing of flowers was also forbidden, but the Belgians replied by wearing green leaves, the colour of hope, and went so far as to strip the blossoms of house plants in their windows so that only the green foliage was left. One lady went one better, to the admiration of her fellow citizens, and paraded the boulevards all day accompanied by her three little girls, one dressed entirely in yellow, another in red and the third in black.
*In the immediate aftermath of the liquid fire attack, Lieutenant Sidney Woodroffe of the 8th Rifle Brigade bombed his way out after his small detachment was surrounded and cut off, rallied his small party and led them back through a hail of fire to counter-attack. He was killed at the head of his men while attempting to cut a path through wire entanglements, and awarded a posthumous VC.
*Piper Laidlaw was later awarded the Victoria Cross for valour.
*Captain Walter Bagot-Chester recovered from his wounds and returned to the front more than a year later. He died of wounds on 23 March 1918.
*Kipling never recovered from his boy’s death and could never throw off his acute sense of guilt. Years later he wrote a bitter couplet: ‘If any ask us why we died/Tell them “Because our fathers lied”. ‘Ironically (because Kipling devoted much of the rest of his life to work on behalf of the War Graves Commission) John Kipling lay for many years in an anonymous grave. Recently (1992) his grave was identified and a new headstone bearing his name has been erected in St Mary’s Dressing Station Cemetery near Lone Tree.
1915: The Death of Innocence Page 78