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Home , August 1918, July 1918, June 1918, September 1918, SS Empire Ballad

Irish Voices from the First World War A blog based on PRONI sources

Painting of Atlantic convoy accompanied by [D1969/1]

July to

Once American forces entered the lines of the Front in , in full strength, the war was effectively in its last phase. The French, British and American forces worked as a unity under General from April that year. The Allies had possessed air superiority from the middle of 1917. German reserves were minimal and by early August, during the Amiens offensive German morale had collapsed. The Allies mopped up resistance in most fronts round Europe and the in August-September 1918.

Document 1: Good-humoured ballad of prisoner exchange, to The [D1969/1]

A poem published in Fortnightly (c.), a compilation published by internees in The Netherlands for their companions. The hero had been imprisoned in Böhmte Camp, Lower Saxony.

At Bohmte when the sun was hot I was drummin up burgoo in a pot When the Feld Webel said, ‘Your number, so You’re for Holland in the morning, oh’ I dropped me pot and spilled me burgoo And asked me chum, can this be true? Me appetite went and I started packin And at 7 next morning, I left for Aachen.

So farewell Bohmte, your gorse and peat Your smoky huts and cold damp feet Good-bye arbeit and cutting bracken I’m for exchange, I’m going to Aachen No more Stilly Stand, no more Straff No more sitting in the dark at the Gaff The train is off, the boys are singing Roll on for Holland, and Scheveningen

Prisoners-of-war revitalised after move to internment camp at Scheveningen, The Netherlands, 1918 [D1969/1] Document 2: Submarine warfare comes to Lough and Belfast Port shut down for some days, July 1918 [D3330/B/1/18]

The Port of Belfast was closed for a couple of days after the Carrickfergus-Isle of Man steamer noticed a submarine prowling in the North Irish Sea. Baird’s printers had been contracted to undertake publication of electoral registers on foot of The Representation of the People Act (1918) (the first official compilation made of registered voters) and Robert Baird went through the accounts. There is a curious reference to a detective constable reviewing the appointment of one Mrs Marion Browne, née Hobson, to the typing pool of the Telegraph: she may have been a cousin of Bulmer Hobson, formerly of the Irish Republican Brotherhood and on the run in County Down at the time.

Monday July 15th The port was closed at 5.30 p.m. and there were no sailings to and from Belfast. This was the first time for many months that the port has been closed and the rumour was that one of Legg’s steamers of Carrickfergus had encountered a submarine early in the day off the Island of Man. Mr W. Cassidy went on holidays. Another ‘big push’ of the Germans occurred today. They got across the but were subsequently repulsed by the Americans. This information came to hand by phone messages from the Exchange Telegraph Co. through Glasgow and the Fourth edition of the B.E.T. had a good account of it. News received of the sad death of Mr Thomas A. Armstrong, manager of the Sligo & Leitrim Railway. Mr Armstrong was on Lough Erne in a motor launch on Sunday evening and fell overboard. His body was recovered late this evening. R.H.H.B. remained in the house all day and was in frequent communication with the office. Letter received from the federation of Master Printers to say that the advice issued on for newspaper proprietors and master printers to hand in their notices to members of the Trade Association had been suspended, owing to conferences of representatives of employers and the executives of the & branches of the Trade Association to meet on Tuesday, July 15th. Miss Florence Faulkner, age 15, commenced work as junior lady clerk at 143 Fleet Street. She was introduced to Mr Illingworth by Miss Speers.

Tuesday 16th July The Port of Belfast again closed and a wire was sent to Mr Illingworth to say that no parcel would be received at Euston this evening from Belfast via Fleetwood. The train conveying the mail via Holyhead did not arrive in Belfast till 12.30. Account for the first list of voters under the People’s Representation Act of 1918. In the first instance had conversation with Mr Alexander re this account and in the second R.H.H.B. called at the City Hall and received the amended account from Mr Meyer. The total charge by W & G Baird was £2967.1.3 but the town officials made the amount £2967.16.2 being an addition to Baird’s charges of 14/11. The amount in duplicate was duly signed by Mr Meyer, and was sent by R.H.H.B. to Mr H.E. Pitman of the Stationary Office, . Quotation from Clondalkin that they wanted 5d per lb for paper on reels and a letter was sent to Mr R. Clapperton stating that if they will supply paper that W & G Baird was willing to pay 5d but they might as well charge 5s as 5d, as the Clondalkin Mill has been sending no paper. Marion Browne nee Hobson. This young lady has applied for a situation as typist in a Government Department and one day last week R.H.H.B. sent a document in her favour. A detective called today with a form of inquiry and was very much satisfied at what R.H.H.B. and Mr Poole said about Marion. Mrs O’Keefe and her daughter Eileen called and had a long chat with Mr J. McQuitty and R.H.H.B. It appears Major Baird is suffering from eczema and according to his sister, Mrs O’Keefe, is in a bad way. Mr J. McQuitty recommended that Major Baird should consult Dr Milligan of Ligoneil. R.H.H.B. visited Major Baird at about 6.30 pm. Mrs O’Keefe informed R.H.H.B. that her brother-in-law, Mr C. O’Keefe, late manager of the Provincial Bank of Waterford, had died within the last few days. It was as recently as Sunday, June 9, that General O’Keefe, Mrs O’Keefe, and family visited Mr C. O’Keefe at Waterford. Mr Alexander called and had conversation with R.H.H.B. and Mr Lynas re the printing of the register of voters and how he, Mr Alexander, wishes the list of claimants to be dealt with. Mrs Besson of the Royal Hibernian Hotel, Dublin, called and ordered advertisements per Mr Stewart of the Salthill Hotel, near Kingstown. This hotel has been recently taken over by Mr Besson. Mr Besson is a great friend of Mr Wayland, of Dublin…. … Fortwilliam Park. Had an enjoyable tea with Mrs O’Keefe, her daughter Eileen and Major Baird. The house, Avonmore, had been closed and there were no servants and Mrs O’Keefe was, as she described it, picnicking.

Document 3: Correspondence from Prisoners-of-War was constrained by camp authorities within strict limits [D1686/4]

The concept of ‘barbed-wire disease’ was formulated by German and British negotiators in order to facilitate transfer of long-term prisoners (exchanged man for man) into open residence in neutral countries such as The Netherlands. But the reality of depression among prisoners in P.O.W. camps is evidenced in the repressed pathos of communications such as that of James Fleming of Carrickfergus, emotionally strangulated by official censorship.

POW card to James Boyd junior, 13 unity st, carrickfergus, Sender 17641 Rifleman J Fleming, 12th Royal Irish Rifles Company 1-2, section 3890 Cassel 4th

Dear James, A few lines to let you know I am quite well & hoping you and all your people at Carrick are in good health, remind me to all the boys I know, I can’t say much about my present mode of life but you can understand it is not too sweet. I would like to hear from you very much did you ever go back to sea on the S.S. Glentaise. I’ve never had any letters from my people since I was captured. I will write you a letter someday but at present I am only allowed to write one per fortnight so the old people get it, your old chum, J Fleming.

Document 4: Journal describing voyage by new Head of Seamen’s Mission, from to , August 1918 [D1969/1]

Reverend Leslie C. Stevenson, Anglican Minister, of Ulster background (he had boarded at Portora, County Fermanagh) was appointed head of the Rotterdam Seamen’s Mission, Pieter de Hoogh Weg (street), in August 1918. His journal provides an evocative account of the rigours of cross-channel sea traffic as late as mid-1918, when predatory German U-Boats, though their threat had been reduced by the convoy system, air reconnaissance and mine barrages, remained a hazard. Two weeks after he learned the ropes at the Mission and in the city (food having become scarce and English and Irish civilian strays from the war thankful for Mission hospitality), Stevenson took charge of the Mission response to the arrival by train of weak and ill ex-Prisoners-of-War, claiming a clear distinction between the emaciation of former British prisoners and the rude health of German soldiers formerly confined in Britain.

Thursday, 22nd August 1918 Trouble and delay about passport, several journeys to London from Sussex, obtained it as Wadwich Vicarage, Sussex…Received a telephone message from London at 8pm telling me to catch a train at 6.15 am, next day at Carr Street Station…Caught the 8.48 pm train on Thursday evening; for London after great rush. Forgot pipes and tobacco. Letitia came with me and we reached Cavan St Hotel about midnight where we stayed the night. London very dark and dreary. Air raids & danger. (Hotel) awfully hot and stuffy & neither of us slept much. Got the 6.15 am train next morning for …Let saw me off. The train was full of working men, my carriage a 1st class room filled up. Three working men at once began to play cards…We passed Crayford before long where many…are at work in Munition factories etc. Later we passed Greenhithe and I saw the training ship, Arethusa, anchored quite near. Gravesend was reached about 9.45 am. And then followed a long weary time of passport examination and a very thorough search of all luggage by customs officials. Eventually I got on board the Kilkenny at 12 noon and before very long we began to move down the river. We anchored at 3 pm in the Black Deep at mouth of the Thames and did not sail until nearly midnight. About 2 am a number of destroyers joined the convoy…the Kilkenny and 8 other boats. I think we had ten destroyers as an escort and altogether we were a small fleet of almost 20 vessels….I went on deck at 4 am and could dimly see the other boats and here and there a dashing about. When the light increased it was most interesting to watch the movements of the destroyers – a fine sight. Right ahead of us were some minesweepers. We were going through a vast mine-field. At times we slowed down and dropped into single file. We turned this way and that way, following our leader, a destroyer. It was very wonderful the way the destroyer went steadily on turning from time to time, with nothing that I could see to guide her. We passed, I think, eight floating mines, at intervals, quite close too. These were mines that had broken loose from their moorings. I heard the sailor in the bow sing out, ‘Mine on your starboard, Sir’. The torpedo boats fired at these mines occasionally to try and explode them. I did not see one hit. Convoy and escort kept going ahead all the time and the last torpedo boat was supposed to deal with the mines still afloat when the other ships had passed on…Our speed was regulated by the slowest member of the convoy. Our escort left us when we were an hour and a half sail from the Dutch coast, which we reached at 2.30 pm and landed at the Hook of Holland. We felt very thankful to be safely across the in war time, with the danger of submarines and mines…A seaman told me that on the last trip one of the destroyers had been blown up by a German torpedo within sight of the Dutch coast…I got some food at 3 pm at Station restaurant, first meal since breakfast…as the train for Rotterdam did not start until 3.55 pm, Rotterdam was reached at 5pm….after a chat I came back to the Institute with Neilson and looked round the place, which is very fine indeed – spacious rooms, magnificently fitted up with everything of the best. Two excellent pianos, several billiard tables…I turned in at 10 very ready for a sleep as I had had none for two nights…(next morning) I went off with Neilson to get food tickets which are now required for almost everything. The food question is certainly a difficulty here. No tea procurable & soon coffee will be almost impossible to get. No eggs, very, very, little meat. If lucky can get some liver & stuff of that kind once a week or so. No rice or sago or anything of that nature. Fish is becoming rather hard to get too. Bread very inferior, rather black…Called at the Consulate…went to see some men (about 16), civilians who had just arrived from Rutsbeu in Germany, on their way to . It was very interesting talking to them, poor fellows, some of them had been in that camp since Sept & Oct 1914 and hardly knew what to do with their freedom. They cannot realise it yet. The journey from Rutskeu near Berlin took 33 hours. The train stopped at every little station. The men formed a very mixed crowd…one was from Manchster, one from London: had been in the book selling line in Leipzig, plays the violin…Another man looked exactly like a tramp, very rough with a black beard & only one leg…had been in & , doing anything. He rather fascinated me, a regular vagabond type, in spite of his wooden stump! …we asked them all to come up to the Institute that evening at 8pm…They came up…and we had a sing-song…A stewardess from one of the British boats was present and sang two songs in a hard, strained…voice. One was ‘Bother the Men, from the point of view of Mrs Pankhurst…

5th September I went back to see the train arrive. I shall never forget the sight. A train, the longest I have ever seen, she must have been a quarter of a long, winding its way slowly along the street for the line runs on the street at this particular place. Here was a train straight through from Germany, a German Red Cross train, with German Red Cross men aboard. In the first train of British severely wounded arrived in Holland from Germany. The work has been going on since then. At first there was practically no organisation in Holland for dealing with them. Things are different now. I could scarcely keep back my tears at the first sight of our dear boys. I walked along beside the train and talked to some of them. Some were singing ‘Are we down-hearted?’ and other well- known songs. Some looked very, very, ill and weak and it was as much as they could do to give you a smile. It took a long time to get them from the train and through the sheds to the two ships, The Sindora and the Iesland, which were lying just alongside the sheds. On the decks of these vessels there were a few ‘cages’ for those poor fellows who had lost their reason through sufferings and long confinement in prison. Every train had one or two of these sad cases. There was a large number of stretcher cases. And many men without a leg, or an arm. They were dirty and horribly shabby. No decent uniform or garments. It was pitiable. The bad cases were got to bed at once and I went round from 8.15 pam until 10.30 pm dong what I could to cheer them up and comfort them. The men, even the bad cases, were wonderfully happy & overjoyed being out of Germany. ‘This is a bit of heaven already’, one fellow said to me and his voice was so weak he could scarcely speak. ‘It is all like a dream to me’, said another, ‘I don’t seem to be able to understand it or realise it’. They were given food, smokes etc, through the agency of the Y.M.C.A. and made to feel as comfortable as possible. I met several Irish men, two from Belfast, one a sergeant in a Scotch regiment who was at school at Portora and knew Bristow, my brother! A very superior nice chap he was. Several men from south of and west, men in Connaught Rangers. A big sergeant from the south, over six feet, was very cheery, an old soldier, an R.C., tacked himself on to me. And we had a fine yarn and jokes galore, with a crowd standing round. One of his remarks I remember was ‘Now, your riverence, isn’t it the most reprehensible thing ye iver saw in your life, Germany sending us men away from prison in this condition?’ So like an Irishman getting hold (and a correct hold) of the longest words. It was a never to be forgotten sight that ship brilliantly lit by electricity and crowded with our men on their way to ‘Blighty’ – God Bless them all – one’s heart was full to overflowing and tears were very near my eyes all that evening. Just opposite the ships were the sheds, not a dozen yards away, full of Germans who had gone across from England a day or so before and whom the long train was going to take back to the ‘Fatherland’ on the morrow. They were standing about smoking many of them and looked in the pink of condition. So different to our men. Got to bed at 11.30 pam and was very ready to lie down.

Rotterdam Mission boat, Edith, operational in harbour 1917 and 1918 [D1969/1]

Document 5: Description of embarkation of ex-Prisoners-of-War on troopship bound for , Norfolk [D1969/1]

H.S. Jervis, who had edited the British Empire Fortnightly in , for several issues during 1918, made a final contribution to the entertainment of British internees in The Netherlands with this account of the repatriation of invalided former prisoners-of-war. The Dutch Red Cross nurses and orderlies took great care of the ‘cot cases’ in the course of the voyage.

…Most of the officers and NCOs interned in Holland have witnessed the departure of a party of invalids for home. The crowded station, the groups of officers, the crowds of NCOs and men saying goodbye to their friends, the band playing ‘auld lang syne’ and ‘the girl I left behind me’…The train steams out for Rotterdam, 30 officers and civilians and 120 NCOs and men make themselves comfortable for the two hour’s journey. Like everything else in Holland the journey is carried out in a leisurely way, and about two in the afternoon the train is shunted quietly alongside the Rotterdam docks. The old campaigners did not fail to make an al fresco meal on the train as the first meal on the hospital ship is usually dinner at six o’clock. Fifty yards away from the train the SS Sindoro is to be seen, a fine vessel of apparently 5000 tons, with a broad red band well above sea level, the remainder painted white; the ship seems well supplied with boats. The SS Zeeland, a much smaller with the same colouring lies aft, beyond her again the SS Rotterdam, Holland’s biggest steamship, at present unemployed. We are told to get on board, which we proceed to do. There is no red tape, no orders and consequently no counter-orders. The main dining saloon is rigged up as a sick bay for the cot cases, about 25 being accommodated there. Officers dine at two tables outside the cabins. The old hands made friends with the purser, found out the whereabouts of the bath and the barber’s shop, and dumped their belongings in single berth cabins, later obtaining permission to occupy the same. On the door of each cabin is marked the number of the lifeboat to which the tenant must repair on hearing four short blasts of the whistle. I took the precaution of finding the whereabouts of my boat and for the first time in my life of trying on the life saving belts. On the after-deck was a ‘cage’ for the unfortunates whose reason had given way under the strain of prolonged confinement…. At five in the evening a hospital train drew up alongside the wharf. It had come straight from Germany and brought its cargo of 200 pieces of shattered humanity back to civilization and possible recovery. They were quietly and expeditiously moved on board. Forty cot cases were brought on stretchers and the drawn features, the emaciated faces, the ghastly pallor of the men…would have brought tears to the eyes of a stoic…A sad procession of cripples came hobbling aboard on crutches and sticks, some of them helped along by the Dutch Medical Orderlies, all taken over with the same tender care by the Dutch nurses. Each man had his blue label pinned on his coat, a packet of cigarettes and a few flowers presented to him on arrival. Within an hour all are comfortably on board, the bad cases in bed and all rapidly devouring the slabs of bread, butter and jam handed to them. At six the officer’s dinner is serve, soup, a good helping of meat with two vegetables and fruit. The ‘boys’ are all natives of the Dutch East Indies and speak Malay. They can, however, understand an order for a drink given in English. Each officer is handed an order from the Dutch Foreign Office sanctioning his return to England and his Medical Report and is at liberty to go to bed when he likes…. Between three and four in the morning the ships went off down the canal and about five passed out of the mouth into the open sea…For those who were up at the time the Kurhaus and Scheveningen Pier were visible at seven. We hugged the coast till opposite Muiden then turned sharp west and made for old England. The voyage was peaceful and without incident….At five I was taken on deck by Dr Winckhause who was in Medical charge on the ship and was pointed out …my first glimpse of England in four years. We gradually approached the coast of Norfolk till we got within about seven , Cromer being the first visible town and at 9 pm we dropped anchor for the night. Each next morning we moved on slowly and dropped anchor in the Wash about ten miles from the coast…Two tugs came out gay with bunting, the baggage was taken on board, the cot cases and the others followed and we left the Hospital ships with the greatest gratitude to the Dutch nurses and doctors…we entered the River Witham, both banks of which are stone-faced. The whole local population was turned out and lined the banks for miles…

Fuel station, valley of Elah, , 1918, D1977/8

Document 6: Account of closing days of Campaign in Palestine against Turkish army [D1977/13]

The Egyptian Expeditionary Force was prepared by late 1917 to engage with the Turkish forces in the Middle East. The calibre of the ‘Turks’ was not underestimated by this phase of the war. These notes were drawn up by John Quee Graham, trooper, C Squadron, Staffordshire Yeomanry, Egyptian Expeditionary Force and cover especially the decisive battles of September 1918. Quee wished to rebalance the popular narrative, which dwelt mainly on the exploits of T.E. Lawrence, in order to point up the martial and organisational qualities of General Edmund Allenby. The stamina needed by campaigning troops in this torrid climate is emphasised.

In General Sir Edmund Allenby, afterwards Field Marshall, Lord Allenby, relieved Sir Archibald Murray, as commander-in-chief of the Egyptian expeditionary Force and had under his command eight infantry divisions and four cavalry divisions, the 4th and 5th Indian, the Anzac and one yeomanry division. I served in the latter, as well as several sections of armoured cars and artillery, compared to Western Front standards, this was a small force. Lord Allenby was the personification of the traditional British officer, tenacious and resolute, who possessed military judgement and the knowledge so essential for such a campaign as lay before him in Palestine and . In many respects he did not receive as much credit as was due to him owing to so much publicity and limelight being thrown on Lawrence and his . Colonel Lawrence performed a herculean task in harrying the Turks along the Hedjaz Railway and destroying their lines of communication with his unorthodox force, who knew every inch of the terrain they fought over, add to this the aura of mystery that hung around their leader and you will understand why so many people ascribe most of the honour of victory in the Middle East to their efforts, certainly they played their part the same as all the other troops that took part, but the real glory of achievement must go to Allenby and his staff who carried out some brilliant operations and saw them crowned with success. Our division had been holding a section of the Valley towards the Dead Sea end. A harsh barren land chiefly inhabited by snakes, hyenas, jackals and wild pigs, not to mention millions of mosquitos, during the scorching summer heat being so far below sea level it is one of the hottest places in the world. We were in the Judean foothills and on the opposite bank of the River Jordan the Turkish redoubts lay in the Hills of Moab. The floor of the valley, including the river banks, was a sort of Tom Tiddler’s ground, from a mile to two miles wide, where you might at any time surprise, or be surprised by, the enemy. Usually during daylight, early in the morning we went out on mounted patrols and very often were successful in bringing in prisoners who had been slow in getting back to their own lines. I mention this to give an idea of how fluid and mobile everything was on this front as compared to the Western Front where for months things would be bogged down and static. The Turks in their turn would come down on to the floor of the Valley at night when we had returned to our bank of the river. This lasted till September 1918 when we withdrew from the Valley, our place being taken by infantry and we started from Jericho westward across the waist of the country to Jaffa. We marched only by night through the Judean Hills until we reached the orange groves at Jaffa, in the early hours of the 18th. They afforded great cover for horses and men until 4.30 am, the following morning, September 19th when General Allenby launched his big attack on a ten or twelve mile front. First there was a very heavy artillery barrage put down, followed by an infantry attack which storm’d and broke the Turkish defences on a large scale and immediately the armoured car sections went through followed closely by the cavalry who immediately fanned out far behind the enemy lines. There was not much resistance at this stage except for snipers and occasional bursts of machine-gun fire from the Turkish rearguards trying to delay our oncoming troops but the 4th Indian Division, supported by the Yeomanry kept on ahead and when darkness fell, except for an occasional breather for both man and horse, there was no rest until we reached the entrance to the Musmus Pass, a narrow rock and sand-strewn gorge that led out on to the plain of Eschaielon better known as Armageddon. After a brief rest in the Pass we pushed on through the night until at daybreak we found ourselves on the famous plain which had seen so many battles all through the Ages. Two squadrons of Indian Lancers who spearheaded the Column had come under fire on entering the plain and made a successful cavalry charge, probably the last one that will ever be made, and had routed the troops who had attacked them, inflicting severe casualties. Our particular objective was the railway station at El Afuleh. When we got there we found a train that had been mauled by the Legionaires and got a mixed bag of German, Austrian and Turkish officers who had been going to when they were cut off by the British offensive. Our divisions were now astride the Hedjaz Railway which was one of the main objectives and having driven a deep wedge between the 4th and 8th Turkish Armies were then able to join up with Lawrence and wait for further reinforcements which were quickly on the scene. In the meantime the Anzac Division who had met with fairly heavy resistance had broken through to the Coast and so to the hills overlooking the city of Damascus and created havock on the remnants of the 4th Turkish Army who in their haste rushed into the Barada Gorge right under the Anzac guns and were practically annihilated. All the cavalry Divisions were now encircling Damascus and it was decided that Laurence and his men should enter it first, except for sniping there was no fighting in the city itself and so on to Beirut and Allepo. 75,000 prisoners had been taken with vast quantities of guns and war materials and by the middle of October the Turks sued for an armistice which was signed aboard the battleship HMS Agamenon on October 30th 1918. Thus was brought to a successful conclusion one of the most colourful and daring Cavalry actions in the annals of the British Army.

Squad of ANZAC cavalry, Palestine, 1918, D1998/1

Please note all the documents used in this blog have been edited for clarity and, in some cases abridged. For more information on the documents and PRONI’s sources relating to the First World War see our Guide to the Manuscript Sources for the Study of the First World War in PRONI.

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