ENGLISH the Camp at Étaples

8 Text : Marie-Pierre Griffon

ENGLISH The camp at Étaples

became necessary to build an gion (the soldiers were Anglican, became sources of contagion. additional station. The injured the local women Catholic). In Étaples, a hospital was enti- were first received at rest posts These “fraternisations” resulted rely set aside for soldiers who before being taken to the camp in several illegitimate births had contracted these “special” in ambulances by British army in every social category of the illnesses. The epidemic also auxiliaries known as the “Khaki population. “Babies born from spread within the civilian popu- Girls”, who were quickly given these day- or month-long liai- lation and is one of the reason the nickname of “Cats qui sons were of course subjected why the Franco-British cohabi- gueulent” (screaming cats) by to gibes which the cocky and tation became a little less har- locals in Étaples. These young ever-alert locals of Étaples monious over time. In addition women, who also fulfilled the never missed an opportunity to venereal diseases and pros- role of cooks, typists, telepho- to make up,” wrote Pierre titution, other problems which nists for military staff etc, “eli- Baudelicque in his famous work tend to develop wherever there cited not even the slightest “Histoire d’Étaples. Des ori- are soldiers manifested them- astonishment from local inha- gines à nos jours”. These poor selves: the sale of alcohol, fights, bitants who, for the first time children were picked upon an increase in crime etc, even in their lives, were seeing and often subjected to insults: though in Étaples the soldiers women dressed in uniform”, “Va donc, espèce ed’monster rarely left their camp. explains Pierre Baudelicque, ed’batard d’inglé!” (Clear off Furthermore, the population was Photo: Pierre Baudelicque collection a history professor at the uni- you little monster and bastard of unhappy that its rights were being versity. Upon their arrival, in an Englishman) restricted, particularly in terms Étaples as elsewhere in the Pas- of movement (passes, ceasefires FraternizationFraternisation de-Calais region, the soldiers The “Black Plague” etc). Relations were stretched received a warm welcome from Prostitution clearly prospered even further when, on the occa- Local women and children...and English soldiers. the local population, “who saw and with it the “Black Plague”, sion of the mutiny at the end of them as allies determined to namely venereal diseases. This 1917, the soldiers left their camp TAPLES was a remarkable railway crossroads, as it was support the French fight, even curse was not immediately furious with rage, as a result of from here that the battlefields of the Somme and Artois if in reality Great Britain noticed due to the attention which local “Étaplois” were sub- Écould be reached. If you take into account the proximity had declared war to protest given solely to the war-wounded. jected to a week of hell… which of Boulogne-sur-Mer and the existence of extensive available against the German violation In France, the is still talked about even to land, you can easily understand why the British were so keen of Belgian neutrality”, adds big cities and this day. to establish themselves in this perfect strategic location. It Xavier Boniface, a lecturer at the most of the was here that the military had extended the largest British Université du Littoral. country’s base in France. In all probability, over a million men passed secon- through here between March 1915 and November 1918, and Illegitimate babies d a r y the base accommodated 60-80,000 soldiers at any one time. On occasion, romances deve- t o w n s loped between soldiers and local A huge camp was therefore set housed around twenty hospitals, women. There were marriages, up to store equipment, to pro- with 20,000 beds, to receive very few in fact (the figure of vide training for troops and full trainloads of wounded sol- just five is mentioned), perhaps to ensure their fitness. It also diers arriving here. It even because of the differences in reli-

It was only three weeks later that she began to VeraVera BrittainBrittain truly understand the meaning of war, and every day she was more and more horrified by the but-

A volunteer turned spirited chery of it all. In England, Malta, France and

c Étaples in particular, she learnt of the deaths

o c

paciﬁst of her friends, her fiancé, and later on, her bro-

c i

l ther. She found herself in the absurd position of

e d

Vera Brittain was born in 1893 into a wealthy English a working relentlessly to save lives, in particular

family. From an early age she refused to accept the res- e those of German prisoners, at the same time as i

o trictions placed on young women of the time, and envied t her brother was trying to destroy them! It was o h P

her younger brother who was able to leave the family at this time that her pacifism took root. She

home without getting married. A rebel by nature, she wrote and published her war diary from 1913 to talked of nothing else except her independence, her stu- 1917, entitled “Chronicle of Youth”, as well her dies and her career. Despite the disapproval of her father, “Testament of Youth 1933”, an autobiography in she succeeded in gaining a place at Somerville College, which, she says, she appealed more to the mind Oxford, where she fell in love with Roland Leighton, a than the heart. The story has been screened friend of her brother. The future seemed nothing but rosy in England in a very popular TV series. Vera for them when war broke out in 1914. “Carried away with Brittain became tirelessly involved in the paci- emotion and the glorious face of patriotism” (these were fist campaign during the inter-war years, and her words),Vera put her name forward as a volunteer and later campaigned for nuclear disarmament, the underwent training as an auxiliary nurse, once again Vera Brittain was a nurse in Etaples. Her involvement in the Great independence of the colonies, and the anti-apar- against the wishes of her father. War made her name as a militant and internationally famous pacifist. theid movement in South Africa. Text : Philippe Vincent-Chaissac 9

A mutiny beneath a veil of silence BRITISH cemeteries are dotted around the Pas-de-Calais, with most of them located on the Artois front. The largest cemetery is situated in Étaples, far from the trenches. The expla- nation is simple: Étaples was the base camp for the British, who had established several hospitals on the hill (nowadays occupied by buildings) overloo- king the old town.

“Étaples is the most painful of all the cemeteries. It is here that men killed slowly by gangrene and

gas, blind and with their lungs Photo: Claudine Lesage documentary collection destroyed, are laid to rest. They were buried ten, fifteen, twenty at a time”. In total there are 11,658 graves here, 800 of which fol- lowed the German bombardment Training in the Bull Ring, the scene of daily bullying and insults. The site was situated alongside the present-day military cemetery. in 1918. the views put forward in this book recollections of Lucien Roussel, where General Haig was readying cemetery. Nothing, of course, to The Bull Ring translated by Claudine Lesage who was 15 years old at the time, himself to launch the deadly indicate that the power of the What we do know is that this in 1990, including the fact that and who witnessed the British offensive at Passchendaele. Most British army had wavered here. cemetery situated above the a very large number of soldiers troops “attack the town like of the mutineers were killed there Allison and Fairley reaffirmed Canche river, on the road to deserted to live in the woods, real savages, pillaging and without having had the opportu- this. Pierre Baudelicque takes Boulogne, stood alongside a trai- marshland and dunes surrounding destroying everything before nity to explain exactly what hap- a more level-headed approach: ning ground, the Bull Ring, in the camp, as well as in the tun- them”. pened in Étaples, where a com- “the Étaples mutiny wasn’t the military camp at Étaples, a nels and caves dug in the chalky mission of enquiry identified the the only one. Others had compulsory stopping-point for all landscapes around Camiers. ring-leaders.“It is thought that taken place in Le Havre, in those who, having disembarked Among these deserters was a cer- A mutiny waiting to a dozen or so executions took Calais… and in Dover”. What at Boulogne, required training tain Percy Toplis, to whom Allison happen place”, Pierre Baudelicque is certain, however, is that cen- before being sent to the fronts in and Fairley attributed an impor- At the beginning, Brigadier wrote in his Histoire d’Étaples. sorship had worked effectively the Artois and Flanders. It was tant role in the sequence of events. General Thomson had wanted Other sentences were also and that the British silence had a veritable hell where men were According to Pierre Baudelicque, to convince people that this was passed. How many men were done its job. “The older bro- subjected to extreme discipline this man was certainly among just a fit of anger. However, it was executed? This is another ques- ther of my mother, who was and very hard training, and from the deserters and was one of the much more serious than that given tion that remains unanswered English, remained in Étaples where they left, with few regrets, agitators, but we should attach a that it lasted for six days. as the bodies of those shot throughout the war, and for the front. This was, in short, little less importance to his role Alongside the brutalities endured were taken back to England. never spoke of a revolt among psychological preparation which and actions. by the soldiers, and the death Nowadays, all that remains of the his colleagues”, adds Pierre could have been justified had it It appears that the revolt was of Corporal Wood, other factors Étaples camp is this impressive Baudelicque. not been so excessive that it led to partly triggered by a tragedy: the almost certainly contributed to a huge mutiny in September 1917 killing (by accidental gunshot this mutiny which had been sim- – a mutiny which Great Britain according to the official report) mering for some time. The ques- Abuse in the Bull Ring covered up with a veil of silence. of Corporal Wood, who was sur- tions that need asking are nume- prised by a military policeman rous. What information did the A six-day revolt while in conversation with a young soldiers have in their possession? Eye-witness accounts gathered from veterans, fifty or Even historians, who were woman from Aberdeen wearing a Did they know that there was also sixty years after the event, are edifying. Troops arriving aware of the facts from accounts WAAC (Women's Auxiliary Army talk of mutinies on the French in Boulogne immediately came under the control of the gathered from the local popu- Corps) uniform – a liaison which side? What influence was exerted dreaded Canaries (so-named because of their yellow lation, were unable to get to the was strictly forbidden. by the deserters who were acting armbands), who would make them walk all the way to very bottom of a story that the vast This was the straw that broke the as camp guards and who joined Étaples by forced march, with only a half a slice of bread majority of English, and more camel’s back for the soldiers of the the troops? Had pacifist and com- and a glass of water for sustenance during a brief stop widely the British, ignored until camp, who had had enough of the munist propaganda infiltrated the in Neufchâtel – a foretaste of what was in store for them 1978, the year a book by William treatment metered out to them by camp? once they arrived in Étaples. Cut off from the world, they Allison and John Fairley, entitled Brigadier General Thomson, the were the victims of both moral and physical abuse during The Monocled Mutineer, was camp commander – described as Mutineers killed in their entire training period. This breakdown of mental published. In the view of the his- a model of brutality and tyranny combat strength was etched on their faces. The poet Wilfred tory professor Pierre Baudelicque, – as well as by military instruc- The opening-up of the archives Owen, who viewed the Étaples camp as “an enclosure this work needs to be read with a tors and police. The entire camp will perhaps shed new light on where animals are left for several days before the final hint of caution. It was criticised was overcome by anger at the kil- this affair which ended on Friday carnage”, expressed this feeling, speaking of the blind in England, although it had the ling, which resulted in 3-4,000 14 September, the date on which look in the eyes of his fellow men, “expressionless, like a benefit of forcing an admission soldiers, mainly from Scotland, calm was considered to have dead rabbit”. The Bull Ring was the scene of every kind that this revolt, which lasted six Australia and New Zealand, stor- returned. This was made possible of bullying and insult on a daily basis. “I was wounded days, actually took place. It was ming through the doors and fences by the arrival of troops whose role twice but that was nothing compared with what I went a controversy at the time, is still a surrounding their billets. Their was to restore order, including through in Étaples”, wrote one veteran. “To tell the truth, controversy today, and will remain uncontrollable fury was targeted Bengal Lancers who only required I had experiences in Étaples that were as bad as those at so until 2017, the year in which at their “torturers”, as well as at a single order to open fire. Faced the front”, another added, “but nowhere did I feel such a the cloak of secrecy relating to French civilians, nurses etc, and with this impressive demons- strong sense of anger”. A sentiment that was even more military archives can be lifted. resulted in repeated beatings and tration of force, the mutineers legitimate given that the instructors who were putting For all that, the historian from rapes. returned to their ranks and were them through so much had never set foot in the trenches Étaples confirms the majority of Pierre Baudelicque highlights the soon moved to the Flanders front themselves.