CHESTERFIELD WFA

Newsletter and Magazine issue 29

Patron –Sir Hew Strachan Welcome to Issue 29 - the May 2018 FRSE FRHistS Newsletter and Magazine of Chesterfield

President - Professor WFA.

Peter Simkins MBE

FRHistS The next Branch meeting is on Tuesday May 1st where our speaker – making his first ever visit to our branch - Vice-Presidents will be Jonathan Steer who will compare and contrast

Andre Colliot the BEF that fought at Mons in August 1914 at the start of the war, with that which fired the final shots at Professor John Bourne BA PhD FRHistS Mons in November 1918

The Burgomaster of Ypres The Mayor of Albert

Lt-Col Graham Parker OBE

Professor Gary Sheffield BA MA PhD FRHistS

Christopher Pugsley FRHistS

Lord Richard Dannat GCB CBE MC DL

Roger Lee PhD jssc www.westernfrontassociation.com

Branch contacts Tony Bolton (Chairman) anthony.bolton3@btinternet .com Mark Macartney The Branch meets at the Labour Club, Unity House, Saltergate, (Deputy Chairman) Chesterfield S40 1NF on the first Tuesday of each month. There [email protected] is plenty of parking available on site and in the adjacent road.

Access to the car park is in Tennyson Road, however, which is Jane Lovatt (Treasurer) one way and cannot be accessed directly from Saltergate. Grant Cullen (Secretary) [email protected] Grant Cullen – Branch Secretary Facebook http://www.facebook.com/g roups/157662657604082/ http://www.wfachesterfield.com/

Western Front Association Chesterfield Branch – Meetings 2018

Meetings start at 7.30pm and take place at the Labour Club, Unity House, Saltergate, Chesterfield S40 1NF

January 9th Jan.9th Branch AGM followed by a talk by Tony Bolton (Branch Chairman) on the key events of the last year of the war 1918. Councillor Steve Brunt (a member of the WFA) will also be present to tell members about Chesterfield Borough Council`s plans for a WW1 2018 Commemorations Group.

February 6th Tim Lynch `The Unknown Soldiers - the BEF of 1918` By 1918 the BEF was mostly made up of conscripts as it launched the most successful campaign in its history. How did an army many regarded as “shirkers” fight so effectively? Tim Lynch is a freelance writer and battlefield guide. This talk is based on research into his own family’s part in the Great War. March 6th David Humberston, Chairman of the Leicester Branch, will be making his first visit to WFA Chesterfield to talk about `Women Spies in The Great War`

April 3rd Peter Hart making his annual pilgrimage to Chesterfield. His presentation will be ` Not Again` - the German offensive on the Aisne, May 1918.

May 1st Making his debut as a speaker to the Chesterfield Branch will be Jonathan Steer who will compare and contrast the `BEF at Mons in 1914 with the BEF at Mons in 1918`

June 5th Rob Thompson – always a popular visitor to Chesterfield Branch. "Running Out of Road. Supplying the BEF During the 100 Days Offensives. 1918". This is a new talk dealing with the logistical and supply problems the BEF had as the end of the war approached (BEF needed Armistice as much as Germans).

July 3rd Dr. Graham Kemp. "American Expeditionary Force" – the story and experiences of the AEF, 1917-18. Talk covers the training of the new Army from the States to France. Taking in the experience, the hardship and humour. It looks at their first action at Belleville wood, and then turns to the success and tragedy of ‘Argonne Wood.’ It reveals the way the US Army contributed to the ending of the war and why afterwards US turned its back on Europe. August 7TH Peter Dennis is an artist who lives in Mansfield but he has made a name for himself as an illustrator for the Osprey series of monographs on The Great War (as well as other conflicts from ancient times to the present) Peter will explain how he carries out his researches for technical accuracy. He will also bring some of his original artworks for members to view. September 4th John Beech. “The Great Escape”. John needs no introduction to Chesterfield members as he rarely misses a meeting. In September 1917 a group of POW German officers escaped from where they were being held (now on the site of the University of Nottingham). Using his meticulous research, John will tell this story. October 2nd Making a welcome return to Chesterfield will be our former Chairman / Secretary, Peter Hodgkinson, who will explain the Battle of Selle in October 1918. November 6th Bryn Hammond. Another leading light in the field of historical research, study and publication on the Great War, Bryn will discuss `The 500 piece jig-saw: Tank – Other Arms Cooperation in the First World War. December 4th Rounding the year off in style will be Dr Phylomena Badsey on "Auxiliary Hospitals and the role of Voluntary Aid Detachment Nurses during the First World War"

2 Issue 29 – list of contents

1 Meetings and Speakers Calendar 2 Contents Page & Upcoming WFA Events (advert) 3 Personal Note from the Chair - 22 4 & 5 Secretary`s Scribbles 6 & 7 Anzac Day in Chesterfield 8 `Backs to the Wall` - new WFA mug (advert) 9 Chesterfield WFA Branch – Book Discussion Group 10 & 11 Be part of Chesterfield Community Poppy Cascade (advert)

12 & 13 Nottinghamshire Local History Fair (advert)

14 Worksop armed Forces Day (advert)

15 Nottinghamshire Remembers the Great War (advert)

16 – 42 Branch Meeting - April - Peter Hart

42 – 44 The RAF`s Founding `Father`

45 – 50 From the Media

51 – 52 The Munitions Crisis – part 11

Any opinions expressed in this Newsletter /Magazine are not necessarily those of the Western Front Association, Chesterfield Branch, in particular, or the Western Front Association in general.

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A Personal note from The Chair (22)

Quite a bit has happened since my last Note from the Chair. Possibly the most significant development has been the launch of the Book Group which I am delighted to say has been very enthusiastically received my members. Andrew Kenning has got the ball rolling by arranging the first discussion meeting for July at the Labour Club when Tim Travers 1992 book How the War was Won is to be the topic. Like many writers from the old Empire; Tim is Canadian, his book is not without controversy which makes it an ideal first subject. For those who may for whatever reason find getting into Chesterfield in the evening difficult I am going to suggest to Andrew that we offer an alternative service whereby we invite comment on the book to be posted or emailed prior to the group discussion. Responses received will then be considered at the discussion and feedback given. If anyone wishes to take up this idea please let either Andrew or me know. If anyone has a particular book they would like to see discussed by the Group again please speak up and let us know. My thanks are also due to Jon-Paul Harding and other members who represented the Branch at the recent Chesterfield ANZAC Day commemorations, a 5am dawn start at Spital Cemetery and an 11am ceremony at the town’s war memorial was a big commitment, so thanks again. In common with all other organisations the Western Front Association will have to comply with the new General data Protection Regulations which come into effect on 25 May this year. For those of you who have notified the WFA of an email address you will shortly receive an email asking you to confirm that the WFA may hold and use your address, I understand that the email will have a hyperlink which means you will just have to click a box to register your agreement. For those who either do not have an email or who have not advised the WFA of it, will receive a prepaid reply form in the next issue of Stand To. It is important that you confirm your consent as otherwise we will be obliged to remove your details from our database which presumably would result in you not receiving your Bulletin and Stand To. Elsewhere in this Newsletter Grant will explain how this will affect the non WFA members who receive this Newsletter. Please don’t blame us for this inconvenience it is a matter of the law of the land presumably intended to protect you from unsolicited emails, why then do I think I will still be receiving SPAM along with phone calls from India?

Tony Bolton

Branch Chair

4 Secretary`s Scribbles Welcome to the May 2018 edition of our Branch Newsletter and Magazine. Our April meeting saw the Branch achieve its highest ever attendance for a monthly meeting – just short of 50 turned up to listen to the ever popular Peter Hart. On behalf of your committee I thank you for your continued support. As has been advised in previous correspondence the Book Discussion Group, having achieved excellent support from members, will be going ahead. The first meeting will take place on Thursday 19th July from 7pm until 9pm at our usual venue. Although we have achieved enough interest to get the project off the ground, membership is still open. Full details are shown elsewhere in this Newsletter. Wednesday 25th, Anzac Day, was a busy one for Committee member, Jon-Paul Harding. Up at the `crack of dawn` - well pre-dawn - as he attended the 5 am Commemorative Ceremony at Spital Cemetery, then, suitably refreshed Jon-Paul took joined myself and others at the Chesterfield War Memorial where he laid a poppy wreath on behalf of our Branch. A report on both ceremonies is elsewhere in this Newsletter. On Tuesday night we have our May 2018 meeting, welcoming Jonathan Steer to the Branch. Jonathan was a colleague of our Branch Chair Tony Bolton on the Birmingham University`s MA course and his topic `BEF at Mons in 1914 with the BEF at Mons in 1918` will draw upon his researches as he compares the BEF that went war with that which ended the war. Interesting I am sure and a presentation which deserves a good audience. The Branch will be participating in the Local History Day in Mansfield on Sunday May 13th. We found the previous one in Worksop a couple of years ago a good event for taking the WFA to the wider public, indeed we signed up several new members at that event. – Full details of venue, times etc. are also in this Newsletter. We will also be participating at the Worksop Armed Forces Day on Saturday 30th June 2018. We attended the first such event organised by Worksop Royal British Legion and were pleased to be invited to participate again – again full details elsewhere in the Newsletter. Not shown on the advert but confirmed at a meeting of Worksop RBL last Thursday night will be - subject to the weather being OK on the day - a flypast just after 11am of the Lancaster bomber of the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight. Now, for a boring but absolutely essential bit of information for EVERYONE in receipt of this Newsletter. As Tony has mentioned in his notes new EU data protection legislation which effects all WFA becomes law on May 25th. The existing Data Protection Act 1998 will be superseded by the General Data Protection Regulations (EU) 2016/679 and the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003. What does all this mean…and how will it affect us? Well, all organisations need to obtain consent from their members to continue to hold data on them and to obtain consent to communicate (electronically and otherwise) with these members. This requires specific `opt in` actions as opposed to inviting people to opt out if they don`t want to be communicated with.

5 The position is complicated for the WFA because all WFA members are members of the `national body` and not members of individual branches. As such every branch (and our branch is no exception) will obviously have data in some form or another on members as well as data on non-members who just turn up at the odd meeting. What, therefore, will the WFA be doing? The WFA (not the Branch) will be sending the first of what is likely to be a number of electronic communications to those members for whom e mail addresses are held. Secondly, an insert will be published into the next issue of Stand To! (due out in mid- June). This will explain the situation (in a similar manner to the previous electronic communications) and ask those members who have not consented to do so via a pre-paid envelope which will be provided. Although this mailing via Stand To! will be after the 25th May (the date on which the legislation comes into effect) it will save the WFA several thousand pounds in not undertaking a separate postal mailing. By these two methods the national database will gather which members have given consent. Details of the consenting members will then be provided to branches by Sarah in the WFA office. As in the past, branches will be supplied with this by postcode area. As before, there is no such thing as branch "catchment areas" and branches can theoretically contact all WFA members to invite them to branch meetings. We would not, however, expect branches to have major changes to the postcodes they include in their mailings (postal or electronic) although this may be a suitable time for branches to review which postcode areas they wish to target, as obtaining unnecessary data should be avoided in view of this legislation. I am aware that there are a number of folks with whom we correspond with – and indeed who attend meetings - who are not actually members of the WFA. These non-members are obviously `invisible` to the WFA nationally and a form incorporating the WFAs privacy policy and an `opt in` consent will be sent out shortly to cover these people. The WFA and we, as a Branch, do not want to lose contact with anyone, member or otherwise and we will do everything we can to make sure that (a) the law is complied with and (b) make every effort to obtain consent from members and non-members alike. The WFA recognises that this is a complex matter and has (in my opinion unnecessarily) increased the administrative burden on WFA Central and branches alike. Like so many laws coming forward nowadays it seems ill thought out, impinging harshly on societies and charities who pose little or no threat to the right of the individual to privacy and protection of data held. As Tony Bolton alludes to in his notes will this stop the cold calling from China, India etc., the spam e mails and the junk postal mail? I think not. Anyway – rant over! Hope to see as many of you as possible on Tuesday night. Enjoy the read of this Newsletter / Magazine.

Grant Cullen – Branch Secretary – 07824628638 – [email protected]

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Anzac Day – April 25th 2018 It was an early start for Branch Committee member Jon-Paul Harding who attended the dawn Service of Commemoration at Spital Cemetery, Chesterfield. This was organised by a splendid local history organisation known as `Friends of Spital Cemetery`. There are 43 Commonwealth War Graves Commission internments, 35 from The Great War, 8 from the Second World War. The 35 includes one lady, Staff Nurse Anne Veronica Fletcher, of the Territorial Nursing Service, who died on Thursday, March 14th 1918. The remaining are all servicemen, including three who had served at Gallipoli, who had succumbed to wounds or illness. At 05.00hrs, there was Commemoration of The Fallen when the names of all servicemen and Nurse Fletcher who lie in the Cemetery were read out. This was followed by `Last Post` being played on the bugle by Barry Telfer. Following the minute`s silence there was `Reveille` and the service concluded by all assembled singing `Abide with Me`

Almost six hours later we all assembled outside Chesterfield Town hall for a Commemoration Service at the town`s War Memorial. With the Lady Mayor, other council officials and members of the public in place, the ceremony began with a group of ex servicemen from the Royal British Legion, The Sherwood Foresters Association and the Royal Engineers Association, parading their colours.

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The ceremony began with a prayer by the padre and then, in accordance with Australian tradition there was a laying of wreaths on the War Memorial. This was led on behalf of the town by the Lady Mayor, Councillor Maureen Davenport, followed by that of the Chesterfield Branch of The Western Front Association, which was laid by Branch Committee Member, and Chesterfield resident, Jon-Paul Harding. Further wreaths were laid on behalf of the ex-services associations

Barry Telfer, originally from Chesterfield, but now resident in Australia then played `Last Post` on the bugle before a minute`s silence was impeccably observed.

Barry then sounded `Reveille` before Parade Marshall, Rob Nash brought proceedings to a close by dismissing the colour party and the accompanying ex-servicemen. The Friends of Spital Cemetery and Chesterfield Borough Council, particularly Councillor Steve Brunt are due praise and thanks for recognising Anzac Day and organising these two ceremonies which took place in such a dignified manner. At the going down of the sun, and in the morning, We Will Remember Them

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BACKS TO THE WALL

'To commemorate the 1918 Spring Offensives, the Western Front Association has commissioned a Limited Edition bone china mug featuring part of Sir Douglas Haig’s ‘Backs to the Wall’ Order of 11th April 1918. '

Price: £14 (+£3 p&p)

Available from the eShop on the WFA website

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Chesterfield Western Front Association Book Discussion Group

Due to the encouraging response the WFA Book Discussion Group will be going ahead.

The first meeting will be held on Thursday July19th 7pm – 9pm at the Chesterfield Labour Club Meeting Room. We would suggest attendees make a voluntary donation (suggested £3) to defray the cost of the room hire.

Those who responded to the questionnaire chose,

` How the War Was Won` by Tim Travers Published by Pen & Sword under ISBN 1 84415 207 3. The cover price is £7.99

Although the book is `only` 187 pages, do not underestimate its length as it is set in small 9 point print. Please let me know if you have trouble getting a copy.

My vision of this Book Group is that it will be fun, inclusive and not an `academic competition`. In the initial stages a `moderator` might ask individuals for their opinions. Obviously, we will need a couple of meetings to establish a good format. Please let me know of any ideas you may have.

Nearer the time of the meeting it may be useful to contact me on [email protected] with aspects you would particularly like discussed so we can e mail these to all members for their consideration. I suggest an agenda be circulated before the meeting then we will know when topics are coming up and we won`t have too much repetition. We should also discuss if individual members would like to lead a meeting in turn.

Best Wishes,

Andrew

Andrew Kenning [email protected] mob 0795 803 1782

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April 2018 Meeting

Branch Chairman Tony Bolton opened the meeting in front of a full house. After Binyon`s Exhortation, Tony welcomed our guest speaker for the evening, the irrepressible Peter Hart, always a welcome visitor to the Branch. In keeping with our topics for 2018, Peter`s subject was The Battle of the Aisne, 1918. 27 May – 6 June 1918: the (Third) Battle of the Aisne, 1918. A small and tired British force, sent to the Chemin des Dames in exchange for fresh French divisions that went north, was struck and virtually destroyed as part of another German offensive, Operation Blucher.

Not Again! - The German Offensive on the Aisne, May 1918

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1917 had been a bad year. 1918 would be worse. The men of the North East were right in the middle of the fighting from start to finish. These seemingly ‘ordinary’ men from villages and towns across Durham and Northumberland were not helpless victims being marched to slaughter by incompetent generals. They were soldiers! True they were fed up to the back teeth and scared witless a lot of the time, but they fought on regardless. One such was Corporal Laurie Rowlands, of the 15th Durhams.

“The truth is every man Jack is fed up and not a single one has an ounce of what we call patriotism left in him. All that every man desires now is to get done with it and go home. I have lost pretty nearly all the patriotism that I had left - it’s just that thought of you all over there, you who love me and trust me to do my share in the job that is necessary for your safety and freedom. It’s just that that keeps me going and enables me to ‘stick it’. “

Countless men such as Corporal Rowlands would play their part in the greatest series of victories ever won by the British Army.

 Most awful and tragic year of the Great War.

 Scale of the fighting on the Western Font exceeded anything that had gone before

 Continental warfare on an epic scale

 The year when the Allies for a time appeared close to defeat, backs to the wall

 But it was also the year that resulted in the ultimate British victory, greater than Waterloo or Trafalgar.

 Ended with the British Army having a realistic claim to being the dominant military force.

 1918 – A very British Victory

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Situation April 1918

Kaiser, Hindenburg & Ludendorff

 The German offensive of March 1918 was a gigantic failure.

 Ludendorff intended to win the war outright, before the Americans could join in

 Offensives always had a vague set of strategic priorities and the success of the initial operations against the Fifth Army in March 1918 had distracted Ludendorff into a drive on Amiens intending to drive a wedge between the British and French Armies.

 The Michael Offensive was a failure.

 Germans had taken 1,200 square miles, but ground was irrelevant unless it contained strategic objectives or features of great tactical significance.

 Much of this ground wasteland created during their retreat March 1917 to Hindenburg Line. 19

 All that had been gained was a 40 mile deep salient vulnerable to attack from the French driving in from the south or British from the north.

 Offensive had been intended to shatter the British; they were not shattered.

 British suffered 178,000.

 French suffered 92,000

 Allied total loss of about 270,000

 The Allies lost 1,300 guns, 200 tanks, over 2,000 machine guns and 400 aircraft but these were a statistical irrelevance - material losses made good within a matter of weeks.

 Germans themselves had lost 239,000 men.

Expended huge amounts of their scarce resources. Every one of the millions of shells fired into the Allied lines was digging into their finite stock of raw materials.

The real issue was simple: the war went on and unless the Germans could force a decision before the summer they were going to lose

 Ludendorff determined to strike his next ‘decisive’ blow in Flanders

 Genuine strategic targets: Hazebrouck rail centre & Channel ports of Dunkirk and Calais

 Throughout the March battles Haig had never let his attention drift from Flanders.

 Nevertheless British Divisions had been sent from his northern Second and First Armies to relieve the gigantic pressure on the faltering Third and Fifth Armies on Somme. Of 56 divisions no less than 46 had already been involved in the defensive battles.

 Operation Georgette commenced on 9 April 1918.

Many of the North-East men caught up in the German Spring offensives were painfully inexperienced. Private Albert Bagley of the 1/6th Northumberland Fusiliers had watched in horror as one of his pals was hit.

“Poor boy! He was groaning something awful. Looking into his face I saw he was a boy called Phillips. A corporal came up and said, “Come on lad, do you want the Jerries to get you, come on, buck up!” All he replied was, “Oh mother, mother!” till he was calling at the top of his voice. His condition got worse, until at last he fell back - all over within 2 minutes of receiving the fatal bullet. Private Albert Bagley, 1/6th Northumberland Fusiliers” 20

When they came under heavy fire it was sometimes almost unbearable.

“The volume of firing got so fierce that at last flesh and blood could not stand against it any longer. As if by some instinct every man threw himself down flat, burying their faces in the soil as best they could for protection. I was lying flat and wondered how long I would be like this, for the soil was sticking to my lips, and I felt a tickling sensation under my face. Raising my head as high as I dare, I saw that the tickling was caused by a beetle worming its way. How I wished then that I was a beetle! Private Albert Bagley, 1/6th NF”

 But in the end the German offensive failed

 Hazebrouck rail junction now within reach of long range guns but not put out of action.

 Had failed to cut off the Second Army troops in the Ypres Salient.

 Failed to reach the all-important Channel Ports.

 All they had gained was land; another ugly salient bulging into the Allied lines and vulnerable to counter-attack at some point in the future.

 British had not been thrown out of the war; the Americans were still coming.

 Ludendorff was running out of time and options.

German Plans

 Germans had gone quiet but were clearly still planning something.

 Allied High Command thought Germans would try again in the Somme region, striking towards Amiens or Paris.

 British Army had borne the strain and been badly battered in March and April.

 Foch approved a scheme to gain a little flexibility in the overall Allied order of battle. Approved the rotation of the worst hit British divisions into one of the currently quietest sectors on the Chemin de Dames Ridge where incorporated as the XI Corps into the French Sixth Army commanded by General Duchêne.

 The divisions represented a roll call of pain from the battles they had collectively endured on the Somme and Flanders: the 8th, 21st, 25th and 50th Divisions.

 Stuffed full of inexperienced drafts lacking experienced NCOs and officers that could bind them together in action.

 Relieved French Divisions would then form a General Reserve for deployment by Foch as and when required. 21

 Sensible - only one thing wrong with this plan – the Chemin des Dames was the location chosen for the next German offensive.

 Ludendorff dusted off Operation Blücher, one of the alternative schemes prepared earlier in the year.

 German Seventh and First Armies were to smash into French Sixth Army along the Chemin des Dames ridge with the aim, at least in the first instance, of reaching the line of the Aisne River.

 Underlying intention was to draw in the Allied reserves before launching a new assault in Flanders, code-named Operation Hagen set to commence in July. Hagen was to achieve a complete breakthrough and overall victory.

 Once again the Germans began their meticulous preparations; moving in the divisions and all-important artillery that would provide the driving force for the offensive.

 3,719 Guns

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German Heavy Artillery

 Not just brute force.

 Principles devised by Lieutenant Colonel Georg Bruchmüller

 Aim was to suppress the defenders, to prevent the artillery and machine guns from firing, and to cow the defending infantry so that they were incapable of a coherent opposition.

 Importance of preparation - guns calibrated and brought up covertly to reduce or eradicate the necessity to register their targets.

 Aerial photography to identify British batteries, machine gun posts, communications and command - the muscles, nerves and brains of the British defence.

 Bombardment fired in carefully controlled phases designed to play upon different types of targets and by constantly switching between them promote additional chaos and confusion in the British lines.

 Gas shells of particular importance to incapacitate or render helpless

 When German infantry emerged then a creeping barrage, advancing in bounds just ahead of the infantry.

 Assault troops to stay as close to the barrage as possible, to hit the British infantry before they could emerge from dugouts.

 Stormtroopers

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German Stormtroopers

 German Army had invested considerable effort in developing infantry ‘stormtrooper’ assault tactics

 All soldiers were to undergo special training in these new tactics, but in addition many infantry battalions were sieved to extract all their fittest and most experienced soldiers who then were formed into special stormtrooper units.

 Armed mainly with rifles, light machine guns and stick hand grenades and accompanied by flamethrowers and light mortars

 Received intensive training in infiltration. They would attack across No Man’s Land, moving quickly on the heels of the creeping artillery barrage, sweeping through the British lines, bypassing any centres of resistance, penetrating as deep as possible with the ultimate aim of over-running the British artillery batteries before they even knew they were under threat. Above them were the Schlachtstaffeln - tough two-seaters armoured against ground fire and carrying machine guns and small bombs.

 Behind them would come the heavily armed support troops, surrounding any centres of resistance.

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 Finally, the ordinary infantry would occupy the captured trenches, checking all dugouts were clear and finally over-running any remaining British redoubts with the assistance of forward artillery units.

 BUT:

 Pressing requirement for fresh blood for the stormtrooper formations was gradually stripping the normal German Army units of their best men.

 Stormtroopers not originally been intended as elite – all the divisions were meant to be retrained. But the pressure of war meant that the existing trained stormtrooper units had to be restocked after each costly battle with fresh drafts taken from other formations. There was no time for anything else.

 German Army was falling into the trap of weakening the huge majority of its ordinary infantry divisions for the sake of an elite few formations.

State of the British

 Typical was the 150th Brigade of 50th Division

 Brigadier General Hubert Rees was commanding what was left of his Brigade.

 They had lost 1,133 men on the Somme and a further 1,091 on the Lys a couple of weeks later.

 In the meantime he had received assorted drafts from home, topped up with a few men detached from 40th Division, until he had a brigade fighting strength of some 2,500 men.

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 He hoped that this time they would have time to rest and rebuild as they took up their positions on the Californie plateau. This was a steep sided bluff feature rising up from Craonne and continuing as the Chemin des Dames ridge, which stretched 25 miles to Compiègne.

 In front of the ridge was the valley of the Ailette River while some 4 miles behind them was the Aisne River and the associated canal.

Aisne Canal

The commanders of the 50th Division were burdened with the further anxiety that they were fully aware that the division was not in a condition to take part in a great battle and required time to recuperate. As Brigadier Rees commented.

“The company officers were completely untrained, almost without exception. The simplest orders were misunderstood, whilst the frontage allotted to the division, some 11,000 yards, reduced the forces available for defence to a minimum.”

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 Although considered quiet in 1918, the Chemin des Dames had in the past been one of the great slaughterhouses of the war, passing between French and German hands, until captured at great cost by the French in 1917. Now it was being passed over to British custodianship for the first time.

 General Duchêne commanding the French Sixth Army (and hence the British XI Corps) was simply determined, regardless of any concept of defence in depth, to hold onto the front lines running along the Chemin Des Dames.

 This left the bulk of his forward troops terribly exposed to the devastating German artillery fire that could be expected as a matter of course when the Germans attacked.

 Even worse, if the line should break a substantial portion of the retreating garrison would be trapped up against the Aisne river immediately behind them.

As the British soldiers took over from their French Allies it is unfortunate to report that their attitude was as parochial as ever and they missed no chance to poke fun at their gallant French allies. In this Captain Sydney Rogerson was a notable culprit as one of his colleagues noted

“Captain Philip Ledward, Headquarters, 23rd Brigade, 8th Division We got some fun with the aid of Rogerson, a rather fatuous West Yorks officer who was attached to divisional headquarters, out of the French orders for the relief. The phrase, “en cas de bombardment on se couche” lent itself to subsequent quotation and became a brigade joke. The sector was renowned for its quietude. The French boasted that they had had three casualties in two months, and the trenches and dugouts were in wonderful condition. We had at brigade headquarters a splendid deep dugout ‘en cas de bombardment’, but we lived in quiet attractive little rooms at ground level.”

But despite such secure physical conditions, it was evident that the convalescing divisions were in no shape to hold the line against any determined German assault.

By Sunday 26 May it was apparent Germans planning something big. The ‘fatuous’ Captain Sydney Rogerson and other old hands spotted the signs

“We hadn’t been there a week when we noticed that things were far too quiet. We began to be a little suspicious. Our little heaven began to show signs of a serpent entering into it. We noted that the Germans were doing no patrolling. When the German artillery had scored a direct or anything like a near hit on a gun emplacement, the shelling would stop. In other words we had a pretty shrewd idea that they were registering their targets. “

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Predictably the Germans had clung to that hoary old principle of war - always do what your enemy least wants you to.

Intelligence firmed up during the day and a message came from the French headquarters that the Germans intended to attack at dawn on 27 May.

In the line to the right of the 50th Division were the 8th Division and at the Headquarters of 23rd Brigade under the command of Brigadier-General George Grogan the strain was tangible.

Captain Philip Ledward “There was an ominous silence of the German guns all night, but ours kept banging away. Grogan made a pretence of going to bed, but I sat up reading Blackwood’s magazine, with my watch on the table in front of me. It was a hot still night and the feeling of suspense and tension was, speaking for myself, very acute. I haven’t now the faintest notion of what I was reading.”

In the same headquarters Captain Rogerson was making his final preparations for the battle. Even his cheery nature was a little depressed at the thought of what lay ahead of them.

“We were a very miserable lot of people because we realised we were going to be for it again. I packed up a pack with a bottle of whisky, a pair of boots, a shirt and other things hoping by that that I would preserve myself against tomorrow as far as I could. “

One of those in front line was Captain Hugh Lyon of the 6th Durham Light Infantry Captain Hubert Lyon 6th DLI.

He made all the necessary preparations to defend their positions but at the same time he took action to reduce the possible intelligence value to the Germans when they were over-run – as appeared almost unavoidable.

“At about 10.30pm came the message which dispelled all doubts as to the nature of the coming blow. I wrote out my orders with my signallers munching chocolates at my side and transferred my headquarters to the most accessible corridor of the dugout, leaving Wilson behind to burn all my maps - which he did at imminent risk of suffocation. All that was necessary to convert our already prepared defensive measures into an active defence was done in about an hour. I then went round the men, who seemed cheery and confident, and saw that they understood their orders. 28

I thought their cheeriness sufficiently marked to mention to our headquarters and sent down a message, “All serene; men as cheery as cuckoos!”

Cheery or not, for many of his men there would be no dawn on Monday 27 May once the German gunners got to work.

German attack 27 May 1918

Bombardment opened up at 01.00 stretching along 24 tortured miles; spraying shells at an unprecedented rate down on the French and British front. Effects were almost beyond comprehension. Captain Hugh Lyon was in the middle of it.

“At 1am exactly came the beginning of the German bombardment, following the fire of our guns as a roar of applause might follow a single speaker, drowning and obliterating it in a moment. I had a lance corporal at the head of my dugout who reported a great concentration of trench mortars and aerial torpedoes on the front line. I went out to him occasionally, but there was nothing else I could do till the time of the attack came. Our dugout was the target for one or two ‘heavies’, but was not damaged, tho’ the concussion was considerable.”

As usual the shells reached back behind the front line, carefully picking out the various elements of command and control that the British and French forces would require when the assault came – as it must.

Brigadier Rees “At 1am some forty or fifty shells burst simultaneously on my headquarters and so began a bombardment of an intensity which I have never seen equalled in the war. Our own guns were smothered under it and very few were firing half-an-hour after it began. My telephone connection with the 4th East Yorks was destroyed almost at once, also all lines to the artillery. “

As the shells crashed down all around the 23rd Brigade headquarters it seems that there was an atmosphere of barely suppressed chaos.

Captain Philip Ledward “Brigadier Grogan ran out of his room with his boots in his hand and that look of consternation on his face which always appeared in moments of this kind – he used to look as if he were on the point of bursting into tears and I’m not sure that he wasn’t either, for he was very emotional. He exclaimed, “By George, it’s true!” We called all the clerks, servants and runners and all of us went down into our deep dugout.” 29

Present in the same dugout was Captain Sydney Rogerson who found little to amuse him as the highly-tuned German barrage of shells rained down around them. It seems fair to say that all thoughts of his prior witticisms on the general subject of “en cas de bombardment on se couche” were driven from his mind.

“A thousand guns roared out their iron hurricane. The night was rent with sheets of flame. The earth shuddered under the avalanche of missiles, leapt skywards in dust and tumult. Even above the din screamed the fierce crescendo of approaching shells, ear-splitting crashes as they burst. All the time the dull thud, thud, thud of detonations and drum fire. Inferno raged and whirled round the Bois des Buttes. The dugouts rocked, filled with the acrid fumes of cordite, the sickly-sweet tang of gas. Timbers started: earth showered from the roof. Men rushed for shelter, seizing kits, weapons, gas masks, message pads as they dived for safety. It was a descent into hell.”

Down in the dugout conditions soon became desperate. As if by some primeval instinct most men seemed to whisper rather than talk deep below ground level.

“Crowded with jostling, sweating humanity the dugouts reeked, and to make matters worse headquarters had no sooner got below than the gas began to filter down. Gas masks were hurriedly donned and anti-gas precautions taken – the entrances closed with saturated blankets, braziers lighted on the stairs. If gas could not enter, neither could the air. As a fact both did in small quantities and the long night was spent 40 foot underground, at the hottest time of the year, in stinking overcrowded holes, their entrances sealed up and charcoal burners alight drying up the atmosphere – suffocation rendered more complete by the gas masks with clip on nostrils and gag in the teeth.”

The gas was not to kill: it was to cause every possible form of nuisance to the key personnel of the British Army in carrying out their duties. Everything was made more difficult, everything was more uncomfortable; everything was more tiring and stressful – it was an embuggerance

The barrage went through its phases until the stormtroopers burst out of their trenches at 03.40.

30

All along the 8th and 50th Divisions fronts the divisional, brigade, battalion and company headquarters had no idea what was going on.

After receiving various confused reports Captain Lyon of the 6th DLI emerged from his shallow frontline dugout to check for himself.

“I had been reckoning on the customary pause before an infantry line can follow a barrage. But the German tactics here were to place their advance troops almost in the skirts of their barrage, thus giving the defence no time to recover. When I came out into the open I found to my dismay and surprise files of Germans immediately in front and level with our line on the right. I got down my few men as best I could to face these two fronts. The Germans were coming on leisurely, meeting with little or no resistance. The air was full of their planes, which went before them and swept the trenches with machine guns. A few tanks had broken through and were by now well behind us. The defence seems to have crumpled up completely: the intense bombardment, heavy beyond all precedent, split the defence into small isolated groups of sadly shaken men, who fell an easy prey to the first German line. A large number must have surrendered without any resistance. Our own position became almost at once untenable. A heavy machine gun fire was opened on us from our left rear, showing that the enemy would soon be all round us, so I decided to get back while I could and withdrew my men as fast as possible.”

As he moved back he ran into the German barrage again. Even when he found his battalion headquarters they were themselves in a state of confusion.

This kind of dilemma was being repeated up and down the line as individual commanders at every level found that with their telephone communications severed they had to decide what to do: stay in safety or risk it outside. Brigadier Edward Riddell commanding the 149th Brigade resolved to join the men in the trenches: he did not get far.

“My brigade headquarters were at Centre D'Evreux about 300 yards north-east of the 151st Brigade headquarters. I decided to leave my own headquarters and join General Martin with a view to holding the trenches about our own headquarters as a last ditch. It was all hands to the pumps. General Martin and I ran towards the 5th Northumberland Fusiliers. We had only gone a few yards when a shell burst on our left. I felt a terrific blow in my face and saw Martin roll over. I went to him. He was quite dead. I walked on half dazed, with a great hole in my face into which I could put my hand, but I did not feel much pain. I could not have my wound bound up as the bandage would have prevented me from giving orders.” 31

Should they stay or should they go: either way it seemed they were damned.

Meanwhile Captain Lyon of the 6th Durhams had reported to his battalion headquarters that their front had been comprehensively broken. Their Colonel decided to gather together everyone he could and fall back in turn towards their brigade headquarters. En route Lyon was detached with 20 men to join a reserve company of the 5th Durhams in making another stand.

“Men were being hit on every side now and an aeroplane flying low added to the hail of bullets. Some of the men crept into a dugout in spite of my language, and I found very few still with me. When we came to the road I crossed it unhurt, but of the others who tried nearly all were wounded or killed. I found some cover, where three or four men followed me - all but one wounded. By now I saw Germans all round the hill and looking up I saw half-a-dozen of them 10 yards away, shouting and raising their rifles. The wounded men were shouting at me to surrender, and indeed I saw nothing else for it – so I just stood up and in a minute we were prisoners.”

All along the British front the Forward Zone had been over-run and the infiltrating Germans were penetrating right through and pushing ever onwards.

Trapped deep in the underground warren of 15th Brigade headquarters Second Lieutenant Walter Harris was becoming increasingly desperate to find out what was happening to his trench mortar teams. Yet the noise of copious numbers of shells bursting above them was a powerful disincentive.

“I got a message from the brigadier to report at his dugout. He told me that the enemy were advancing, I was to go through the dugouts and collect all the men I could find. He said, “Now, there is only one thing left, to stand and fight! Lead your men towards the front line and put up the best show you can!” I saluted and left him. I gathered about twenty men composed of cooks, clerks, runners, signallers and all those who are attached to brigade headquarters. “

Rushing back through the underground corridors of their headquarters dugout, Harris finally emerged to lead his motley crew into a trench.

“The whiz of bullets greeted us as the enemy swept the parapets and I knew they were not far away. We had only gone about 20 yards towards the front line, when, leading the way around a traverse, I ran straight onto a bayonet with a very small German behind it. He had the advantage of me and I immediately put my hands up. Almost at 32 the same moment a whole crowd of Germans appeared above my head walking by the parapet. One of them lobbed a bomb into the men behind me - I saw the three next to me had escaped injury, but the remainder I never saw again. The Germans disarmed us, passed us along the trench for a short distance and then made us get out on the top. Across the country as far as we could see were German infantry.”

Meanwhile at the headquarters of 151st Brigade only minimal reports had reached Brigadier Rees. The deafening silence from other front line units, neighbouring brigades and the French left him in an impossible command position. He had minimal information on which to base a rational plan. He knew from a rare surviving underground telephone line that the 5th Yorkshires on Californie Plateau were fighting hard, but the reports he was getting gave little hope that they could hold out for long.

His brigade was being overwhelmed. In the previous two German offensives, bad as they were, they had been reserve or support troops moving into the battle and then carrying out a fighting retreat. This time they were in the front line, right where the sledgehammer fell. This was very different: his brigade was facing annihilation. Now it was simply a question of whether Rees and his headquarters staff could escape. As they were soon well behind the onrushing German front line.

“Unfortunately, in crossing the road, we were seen by a German on horseback, who trotted up, shouting to us to halt. We ran into a barbed wire entanglement and struggled through it, whilst the man on the horse emptied his pistol into us, without effect. Running away on the other side, I thought we had come off rather well, but almost at once, we ran into a line of transport carts, right across our front. There was nothing left to be done then except ask the nearest man where his officer was.”

Rees had finally run out of luck. Yet there was one more astounding twist to his tale. He and two other staff officers were ordered to get into a car and without explanation were driven to Craonne.

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“I imagined that we were being taken to see some corps commander, thought it was deliberately humiliating and made a remark to this effect. The German staff officer with us overheard it and said, “When you reach the top you will see His Imperial Majesty, the Kaiser, who wishes to speak to you!” When we approached, the Kaiser was apparently having lunch, but stepped forward on to a bank and told me to come and speak to him. He asked me numerous questions with regard to my personal history and having discovered I was a Welshman said, “Then you are a kinsman of Lloyd George!” Presently he said, “Your country and mine ought not to be fighting against each other!”

Even the 50th Divisional Headquarters at Beauriex was over-run.

Captain Albert Odell, 50th Division Headquarters Signal Company

“I worked trying to mend breaks as fast as the Bosche made them. One shell fell two yards off, but only the fuse went off, which was as well. Returning at 9, I found some lorries just finishing packing in the village, and at the Chateau the last of the Signal office staff about to decamp. The two men ran in to say they had been driven off the lorry by the Boche, when shots we could hear. So with the Boche having 200 yards start we did a cross-country run to the nearest bridge. He shot too high with his machine guns so we got clear. As either lorry got away, we were completely destitute of kit, and I had to write Ada urgently for a number of things. Fortunately my thin underclothing arrived after the show. “

34

Once the remnants of the British forward troops had managed to get themselves back across the Aisne they paused to take stock. Several of the bridges along the Allied front had not been demolished or were still reasonably passable by the infantry and it was evident that the river would not be a serious obstacle to the Germans. To the left the French XI Corps had been thrown back in equal measure and there was great difficulty in establishing a coherent defensive line. As ever the Germans were feeling at the open flanks of the neighbouring divisions to widen the gap and generally add to the confusion.

In amidst the festering chaos units were able to retain their cohesion and fought it out to the end. Amongst these were the 2nd Devons. Captain Ulick Burke was putting his life on the line defending the bridge at Pontavert.

That morning he watched as the retreating scraps of various Allied units fell back across the Aisne.

“Out of this haze, right on top of you appeared the Germans: you started shooting like hell. But unfortunately it turned out to be our gallant friends, the French fleeing in pyjamas and god knows what, I never saw such a rabble in my life, shouting and gesticulating - everything was finished! The order was to stay put as long as we could - we were not to retire! We stayed where we were. We were on two small hills. We shot and shot and shot till the fellows in the trenches could hardly hold their rifles. “

Their Lewis guns certainly cut a swath through the advancing Germans who continued to offer tempting targets as Corporal Leat remembered.

Last Stand of the 2nd Devons

“We had two Lewis guns and these opened fire, sweeping down great numbers of Germans, while the men in the trenches maintained rapid fire continually at the waves 35 and waves of the enemy who still continued to approach. In their front wave they had riflemen. These approached to within nearly 50 yards of our trenches and then took cover. From somewhere behind their first wave there was another which bombed us with rifle grenades, and, after this had continued for some time, during which we had suffered heavy casualties, the riflemen, who had been taking cover and getting ready for the assault, suddenly jumped up and rushed at us. The boys kept blazing away and this attack was beaten off.”

Soon the battalion had lost all cohesion and small groups of isolated Devons were left fighting on, many of them hopelessly cut off. Amongst them was Private Borne

“Lads were falling right and left, but I had a capital weapon in the Lewis gun, which I was firing steadily at the German hordes. I looked about and I seemed to be all alone. Still, I kept on firing at them. Then, when the enemy waves were about a 100 yards away, things got a bit too warm, so I picked up the gun, ran back about a 100 yards and had another go.”

The situation had moved beyond desperate but the Devons had been told to defend the Pontavert bridge and most of them seemed to have had no idea of retreating.

Colonel Anderson-Morshead had been unequivocal,

“Your job for England, men, is to hold the blighters as much as you can, to give our troops a chance on the other side of the river. There is no hope of relief. We have to fight to the last!”

Even when the Germans had in effect bypassed them they continued the unequal struggle. The Colonel himself was killed but Captain Ulick Burke and his men fought on regardless.

“About five to twelve the Regimental Sergeant Major came to me and said that he couldn’t locate any of the other companies. As far as we were concerned there were twenty-three of us; we had just about 200 rounds of ammunition left. They were coming on: I said, “Right three men go out and strip any of the dead you can find of their ammunition!” We went on firing until all the ammunition was gone. We held on till about half past twelve when the only ammunition left was six rounds in my revolver. Suddenly I said, “Charge!” I was wounded in the legs; about nine machine gun bullets up my legs and they charged with the sergeant major. Twenty-three men charged against nearly ten thousand Germans. That finished us. “

The Devons had finally ceased to slow up the German advance. It had been at a terrible cost. Their colonel lay dead and most of his officers and men were dead, wounded or lost into captivity. 36

As the Germans pushed forward the fragments of British troops were forced further and further back from the river. Time after time they found their impromptu defensive positions swiftly outflanked by the Germans, compelling an equally rapid retreat if they were not to be captured.

Amongst them was Private William Parkin of the 50th Machine Gun Battalion who had managed to get across a light railway bridge over the Aisne.

We just broke cover and ran for the railway embankment. It was a short distance, but he got most of us. The chap running next to me dropped with a shocking hit in the back of his head. As I jumped for the embankment, I felt such a blow on my left side that I felt sure a 6” shell at least had hit me. Actually it was only a bullet. The blow completed my jump and literally threw me towards and over the embankment. I saw my tin hat go flying in the air. The bullet had cut the strap, caught the brim and away it went. The bullet had also chipped my jaw and I lost two good lower teeth. The embankment down which I was thrown gave me full cover from further enemy fire. I lay unconscious for what must have been a short space of time. Coming to, I felt no pain and all was quiet and peaceful. I was alone, perhaps the only survivor of my group. Jerry had evidently knocked off for tea! I felt my left hand fingers were poking into and hurting my right eye. Impulses to move it brought no response, so I angrily pushed my left hand away. Then – oh the pain! My left shoulder and neck were a ball of fire. I was staggered to see the left side of my tunic was smothered with blood.”

Parkin was eventually evacuated to safety drenched from head to foot in blood. He was lucky to survive as he had a nasty throat wound, shattered shoulder blade, smashed collarbone and of course his facial injuries.

Meanwhile the remnants of the 8th Division had fallen back from Roucy Hill to Treslon Ridge. Here they were soon over-run and Captain Philip Ledward found he was required to set an example of courage under fire.

“A few moments afterwards the Germans swarming over the ridge. I lay down and watched through my field glasses. I recall the swinging strides of a German machine gunner as he came over the top, plumped his light machine gun down and began to fire it. The next thing his bullets were hitting the ground all round me, and for the first and only time in the war I was seriously frightened of bullets. At that moment Grogan came up and I had to stand up. He asked me why I was not mounted and told me to get my horse and stay on it! He was quite right too. That I had ever dismounted was clearly due to cold feet. For the next two hours I rode backwards and forwards about the

37 ridge. Why the Germans did not pick us off one by one by deliberate aimed fire I simply can’t imagine. “

Back they went. Time ceased to have any meaning and many of them had attained a dream like state where rational thought and decisions are rendered almost impossible.

Lieutenant John Nettleton, of the 2nd Battalion, Rifle Brigade was amongst the scattered bodied of troops that tried to establish another line of resistance.

“A German field gun battery galloped up to the top of the ridge, unlimbered and opened fire on us. Being fired at by guns over open sights was a new experience - and a shattering one! The shells arrived with such a vicious ‘whizz’ and each one seemed to be aimed at you personally. I was not the only one who found it unnerving. Everyone did and the whole lot of us just broke and ran. This was the only time I saw a real rout. It was just panic flight; with each man, including me, thinking of nothing but saving his own skin.”

Once out of the German gun sights they began to recover their self-possession. Soon they were on yet another ridge. One more ‘last stand’. But many of the men were effectively ‘broken’ by their experiences - physically and mentally drained. The masses of new drafts that filled the ranks had no experience of war and the lessons of the training grounds were of little value. There was a decreasing willingness to expose themselves to more danger than was necessary.

“If you put yourself in a position to fire at the enemy, you also put yourself in a position where he can fire at you – and most of the men had had enough of being shot at for the time being. You had to take small groups of half-a-dozen men and bring them forward inch by inch. Only those men who were almost within touch would come and they came forward slowly, step-by-step as though they had wooden legs. “

The German offensive had been startlingly successful, ripping a hole some 35 miles wide and up to 12 miles deep on the first day. Next day the rout continued.

Captain John Wedderburn-Maxwell of the 36th Battery, 33rd Brigade, Royal Field Artillery was trying to hold back the Germans as part of the next viable line along the Vesle River. The Germans to were suffering.

“I had the most wonderful shooting because looking out across the valley you could see the German hordes, literally hordes, pouring from one wood to another. I was within comfortable range and I had the most tremendous shooting into these masses in the woods where they were all congregating. Suddenly the German batteries opened on

38 me! They’d come up following their infantry, found them being beaten up by me, they saw my guns and in came their shells.”

They pulled out and the Vesle line was soon over-run. As far as the Germans were concerned they were on their way to the Marne River.

 The French Army began to truly appreciate the trials Gough had experienced as they retreated towards various lines of defences that, although carefully drawn on the map – the Paris Line One and Paris Line Two - were conspicuous only by their absence on the ground.

 General Duchêne appealed to Pétain for help and Pétain went cap in hand to Foch.

 Beauty of having Foch as Supreme Commander was then revealed, for Foch once again, as he had with Haig the previous month, stood back from the argument. It was Foch’s considered opinion that the Aisne offensive made no strategic sense and therefore must be a diversion and Foch therefore decided to await events before releasing any of the Allied reserves. Of course Foch was right – Ludendorff did ultimately intend to strike the ‘real’ blow in Flanders.

 Yet strangely, while Foch retained his sense of perspective under pressure, Ludendorff made the cardinal error of abandoning a perfectly sound strategic plan to pursue the chimera of tactical advantage.

 As he gazed at his maps he became obsessed with the scale of the gains – perhaps if he reinforced the assaulting divisions then they could drive on across the Marne to Paris.

 Perhaps they could win the war at a stroke?

 Ludendorff fell for his own trap and started to move in reinforcing divisions – even from Flanders - to take advantage of the success of the Aisne offensive.

 Strategic imperatives were being subordinated to tactical success on the ground.

At first the German advance continued unabated, crushing the opposition as their troops swept forwards to the Marne. Yet as the German tactics were unchanged, so it should be no surprise that as the French reserves began to arrive so the situation slowly began to stabilise. As the Germans grew weaker; so the French grew stronger.

 By 30 May the Germans had punched forward some 40 miles to reach the Marne

 Captured some 50,000 prisoners and 800 guns.

39

 But even as they invested ever more troops in the offensive, so the French resistance stiffened and the law of diminishing returns exerted its inimitable pressure.

 The Germans were thrashing around, entranced by visions of triumphal marches through Paris, but slowly tied down by the French.

 In an ominous sign of the future two American divisions would be amongst those reinforcing the French at Château Thierry. It would soon be over, apart from the usual skirmishing which would splutter on fitfully into early June.

In the meantime, what remained of the four British divisions of XI Corps had been reduced to little more than a leaderless rabble. They had been weak even before the German blow was struck but now they had all but disintegrated.

Lieutenant John Nettleton,

“The 8th Division had ceased to exist as a division. There was no organisation and no orders. When you found men straggling about, you attached them to your little group and just wandered about the countryside, sitting on a hilltop till you were pushed off and then wandering back to the next one. The Army Service Corps left dumps of rations and ammunition at prominent points like crossroads and as you wandered by you helped yourself to what you needed.”

Eventually they got had away from the German pursuit, their units all but irrelevant to the main battle as French reserve formations moved forwards to fill the gaps..

For the British Army the worst was over. That did not mean that there was not a great deal of suffering before them; but the corner had been turned. Soon it would be the British handing out the beatings; the British would show the Germans just how to attack – and win.

THE WIDELY ACCLAIMED ‘tactical successes’ of the three great German offensives had in fact brought the Germany Army almost to its knees.

 The windfall of extra divisions from the Eastern Front had been almost expended and what remained lacked many of their best men. 40

 The absence of a consistent strategic focus in the German offensives was increasingly evident and the series of salients that Ludendorff had punched into the Allied lines merely

 Stretched the German supply lines to their limit

 Elongated the length of the overall German front

 Left them hostage to the likelihood of either a devastating series of counter-attacks or a humiliating voluntary withdrawal in order to straighten the front and give a shorter more solid defensive line.

There was of course another perspective.

 The German attacks had rocked the Allies to their core.

 Forced them to unify under Foch as the single commander-in-chief, they had even forced the British and French to assist each other directly by sending troops to threatened sectors.

 Attack on the Aisne, which had brought the Germans appreciably near Paris, and French politicians began to lose their nerve. In the resulting hysterical outbreak everyone and everything about the military situation was questioned.

The Germans still had reserves to call upon, more desperate offensives to make - but each successive offensive brought them closer to complete exhaustion, and every week seemed to bring news of new American divisions coming into the line.

After their attacks had manifestly failed to rupture the British line the ‘worm’ turned and launched a major counter-attack on 8 August.

 This was the beginning of the end.

 Germans had no answer to the All Arms Battle.

 Although stemmed the initial breakthrough, the focus of Allied attacks swiftly shifted to other sectors of the Western Front.

 Never allowed the Germans to settle, to regain balance, to establish a strong line all along the front.

 Allied dominance in materiel was such that the guns did not have to be painstakingly moved: there were enough guns and ammunition stacked all along the front to back up an attack almost anywhere. This was impossible in previous years.

 Not just a matter of tactics; it was the merciless application of superior resources. 41

 Whatever obstacles they put in front of the advancing Allies were overcome in grand style.

 There was no let-up in the pounding till the German Army was falling apart at the seams.

 From top to bottom their morale was comprehensively undermined. They knew there was no stopping the Allied advance.

It was a very British Victory!

Peter concluded to very warm applause by all present and went on to field a number of questions from the audience. Following the drawing of the raffle, Branch Chair Tony Bolton wound up proceedings, again thanking Peter for his efforts.

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The forgotten Scot who was the RAF's founding father

Sir David Henderson's proposal for a separate air service covered just seven pages of a memorandum to Prime Minister Lloyd George

As the Royal Air Force celebrates its centenary, there are calls for a Glaswegian to be recognised as its "founding father."

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Lt-Gen Sir David Henderson had a distinguished career in the Army, fighting with the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders in the Zulu and Boer Wars and the Sudan. But his pivotal role in establishing the RAF in the final year of World War One has largely been forgotten.

It was his proposal, in a seven-page memorandum, which persuaded Prime Minister David Lloyd George to combine the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) - a branch of the Army - and the Royal Naval Air Service into a separate air force. Sir David wrote in July 1917: "It is difficult to indicate any method of overcoming the present illogical situation of divided responsibility in aeronautics, except by the formation of a complete department and a complete united service dealing with all operations in the air, and with all the accessory services which that expression implies."

Within four months Parliament passed legislation to establish the world's first independent air force, the RAF.

Chief of the Air Staff Sir Stephen Hillier is keen to ensure David Henderson is not forgotten

But many histories ignore Sir David's role and credit the first head of the RAF, Viscount Trenchard, as its father. The officer now carrying out that role, Air Chief Marshall Sir Stephen Hillier, Chief of the Air Staff, disagrees.

A former Kilmarnock Academy pupil who has now swapped fighter jets for a Whitehall desk, he said the work done by his fellow Scot, Sir David, is still to be seen in today's RAF. Sir Stephen said: "He was here in Whitehall in 1917 and 1918, at those critical stages of the formation of the Royal Air Force, if you like, navigating his way through the bureaucracy. “And his principles are very much at the core of the Royal Air Force. “Having been born and brought up in Scotland myself, I'm keen to ensure David Henderson is not forgotten in our 100th anniversary year."

Sir David wrote that if the war continued beyond 1917, a united independent air service was a necessity.

Aerial combat

And it was Sir David's vision which made that happen, according to Professor Tony Pollard of Glasgow University.

Prof Pollard said: "The resources were being over-stretched; aerial combat was becoming an accepted form of warfare. 43

"Prior to that, they had simply been taking planes up with cameras to photograph the enemy.

"And then they start to have to shoot one another down, because you don't want photographs taken of your positions.

"So we get aerial combat, we get aerial bombing, and it becomes so advanced so quickly that it's quite clear we had to have another service."

In 1911, aged 49, Sir David learned to fly in a Bristol Boxkite aircraft

Sir David was born in 1862 into a fairly affluent Glasgow family. His father was a joint owner of a Clydeside shipbuilding business. He entered Glasgow University at the age of 15 to read engineering but left without graduating and went to the Royal Military College Sandhurst. Over the next 30 years he would serve in most of Britain's foreign campaigns. Sir David first recognised the potential of aircraft when he saw balloons being used for reconnaissance at the siege of Ladysmith during the Boer Wars at the turn of the 20th Century. He learned to fly in 1911, aged 49, under the pseudonym Henry Davidson and became the first head of the Royal Flying Corps when it was formed as a branch of the Army a year later.

Dugald Cameron has campaigned for Glasgow to honour Sir David 44

Prof Dugald Cameron, of Glasgow School of Art, an expert in Scottish aviation, said it was the fact that Sir David could fly which was vital when he challenged the War Office to establish an independent air service.

Senior military figures had initially resisted the idea, but the way the Germans took the war to the air changed their view. Prof Cameron said: "From 1915 the Imperial German Air Service were bombing Britain.” First of all with the Zeppelins and then in 1917 with the Gotha bombers and other bombers on the east coast towns and then London." And when London was getting attacked from the air - the first time our shores had been breached - the Navy, the traditional defenders of our coast couldn't do it," he said. Prof Cameron has painted many of the exhibits on show at Glasgow University in a display marking the RAF's centenary - what he called "the photographs which were never taken".

Dugald Cameron has painted a series of works "the photographs which were never taken"

He said the exhibition, in the chapel dedicated to the memory of students and alumni who died in combat, was a fitting way to highlight Sir David's place in aviation history.

Prof Cameron said: "He was a very great man indeed, and Glasgow should be really proud of him.

"I have tried over the years to get the city to take more interest and recognise and honour General Sir David Henderson." 45

From the Media……

The men who had millions of lives in their hands

Foch and Haig meet again: Eric Becourt-Foch and Lord Astor remembered their military ancestors

In the commemorations of World War One there have been many stories from the descendants of those caught up in momentous and awful events.

These personal accounts, remembering the faces in grainy photographs and names on headstones, are usually of ordinary soldiers who fought in the trenches. But a ceremony in London this week brought together descendants of two of the most iconic commanders from the war, the decision-makers whose orders sent millions into battle. This latest war commemorations mark the point 100 years ago when a French marshal, Ferdinand Foch, was made supreme allied commander on the Western Front.

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His great-grandson, Eric Becourt-Foch, was at the ceremony along with Lord Astor, grandson of one of most famous figures of the war, Field Marshal Douglas Haig. The ancestors of these two men sent colossal armies into battle, with casualties on a scale not seen before or since. They literally had the fates of millions of lives in their hands.

Were they distant from the suffering of the front-line soldiers? Mr Becourt-Foch said his great- grandfather had his "own share of sacrifice" and their family has never been sheltered from the loss of war. Within the first month of the war his only son had died in battle. On the same day in August 1914, his son-in-law, Mr Becourt-Foch's grandfather, was also killed. His grandson, Mr Becourt-Foch's father, fought and died with the Free French in North Africa in World War Two.

Eric Becourt-Foch said that his family had many wartime losses

"It cannot be a good thing. But we were attacked by the Germans, we had to defend ourselves," he said. The ceremony in London was held at the statue of Marshal Foch near to Victoria Station - and marked the stage in the war in 1918 when the Western allies switched to a single, co-ordinated command to take on the Germans.

Mr Becourt-Foch says that when his great-grandfather went to receive the baton of field marshal from King George V, the conversation was in French. Foch, now in charge of British forces, spoke little English, but King George V was able to speak French. They knew that the Germans would try to divide the allies, strategically and militarily, so Mr Becourt-Foch says his great-grandfather had to keep British and French forces together, "whatever it costs".

Marshal Foch spoke in French to King George V when he took over command 47

The connection continued after the war. Marshal Foch was a pall bearer at the funeral of Field Marshal Haig in 1928. His grandson, Lord Astor, says there was a strong mutual respect between the two commanders. "He cried all the way through the funeral."

Haig's reputation has been under constant revision, following the historical cycle of being revered, reviled and then rehabilitated. His name became associated with the terrible casualties of battles such as the Somme. "I accept mistakes were made - but they learned from their mistakes and they built on them and we won the war in the end," said Lord Astor.

Lord Astor says his grandfather Lord Haig was "revered" in his lifetime by his soldiers

"We defeated the most powerful army in the world, the German army, and we should record that with pride. "A lot of the focus has been on the problems - Passchendaele and the Somme - but we also should focus on the victories." He defends his grandfather's approach to the war - as he commanded an army of two million men. "He was accused of not being defensive enough, but what was the alternative - to sit in the trenches? You had to try and break out somewhere." The posthumous criticism of Haig hurt his family. "My mother was very affected - she was only eight when her father died - and she was shaken by some of the stories about him. "But by the time she'd died, a lot of that had changed," he said.

Haig on the Western Front in 1916 48

Lord Astor says his grandfather was highly respected by his soldiers and later criticism failed to recognise how much he was admired at the time. "He was revered in his lifetime. When he died, there were two million people on the streets of London." The soldiers who had served under him lined the routes of his funeral, he says.

"They wouldn't have done that if he was unpopular," adds Lord Astor.

Both Mr Becourt-Foch and Lord Astor emphasise the need to maintain the partnership between British and French military forces.

But now, says Mr Becourt-Foch, there is also "strong reconciliation" with Germany.

And while diplomatically stepping around the Brexit debate, he says the era after World War Two has helped to build "European unity".

The two families' names remain synonymous with World War One.

The Haig Fund used to be printed on remembrance poppies. In towns and villages across France there are thousands of streets named after Foch.

As the commemorations approach for the last stages of the war, Lord Astor says: "I think my main reason for remembering is for all the dead, there were very few families that didn't lose a member."

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Missing Lancashire Fusiliers Gallipoli Victoria Cross loaned to museum

Cuthbert Bromley was one of six Lancashire Fusiliers soldiers who won the Victoria Cross on the same day

The last of six Victoria Crosses "won before breakfast" by the Lancashire Fusiliers during the Gallipoli landings has been reunited with the other five. The Fusilier Museum in Bury was searching for the medal for a centenary exhibition to start on 25 April. It owned two, was loaned three and has now been handed the remaining VC, won by Maj Cuthbert Bromley, which was last heard of in the 1980s. Maj Bromley's nephew Nick (see below) handed the medal to the museum. The `Six VCs Before Breakfast` exhibition will be the highlight of the museum's special programme over the weekend of 25-26 April - the first time the VCs have been displayed in one place.

Nick Bromley's family has loaned the medal to the museum

Staff traced Maj Bromley's family through genealogical research after first appealing to find the medal in January 2014. The major, who was temporarily promoted from captain, received Britain's highest award for bravery along with Cpl John Grimshaw, Pte William Keneally, Sgt Alfred Richards, Sgt Frank Stubbs and Capt. Richard Willis for their actions when the 1st Battalion Lancashire Fusiliers landed at Gallipoli in Turkey on the morning of 25 April 1915. 50

The battalion lost more than half of its men as they landed on W Beach, which was later renamed Lancashire Landing.

In total, 18 men from the Lancashire regiment were awarded the VC during World War One

On 13 August 1915, returning to the Gallipoli peninsula aboard the troopship Royal Edward, he was killed when the ship was torpedoed in the Mediterranean between Alexandria and Gallipoli, by the UB14. Maj Bromley was honoured in his local church, St Leonard's, Seaford and had a road named after him in the East Sussex town.

All six medals will be displayed until 16 May.

Details of the Lancashire Fusiliers Museum in Bury can be found here :- https://www.fusiliermuseum.com/

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The Munitions Crisis – part 11 Sylvia Pankhurst , her daughter Christabel, Miss Annie Kenney, Mrs Flora Drummond and other prominent suffragettes were prime movers in this new crusade. On July 18th 1915 these ladies headed a great Women`s War Pageant in which thousands of women demonstrators marched for miles along London streets through rain and mud , escorting a deputation to meet with the Minister of Munitions, David Lloyd George, to express their welcome of the National Register and to offer their services to help the country. Whilst voicing the demand of women to be permitted to take part in war work, Mrs Pankhurst also put in a plea for wage conditions which would safeguard their standard of living and prevent them being treated as seated labour or exploited by manufacturers. In reply the Minister gave them a guarantee that they should have a minimum wage for time work and should receive for piece work the same rates as were paid to men. These conditions applied with dedication and diligence by the Ministry had a permanent effect upon the women workers working in this country. For, although the 51 emergency work upon which they were engaged was only temporary, and the regulations in which the agreement was embodied applied only to women engaging on what had previously regarded as men`s work, yet a standard was set up which could not easily be set aside after the conflict was ended. In the War Office establishments, and the metal and chemical industries, which by mid-1916 were engaged in munition production to the extent of at least 75 per cent of their total output, the women and girls employed rose from 82589 in July 1014 to 340844 by July 1916. By the armistice in November 1918 the grand total of women employed on work directly or indirectly to Government order was 1,587,300. These figures give some indication of the immense growth of the effort made by women on behalf of the nation during the war. The difficulties which had to be overcome to secure the admission of women workers on this scale into branches of industry which had previously been a male preserve, were, of course, immense, but they were just a part of the general problem of dilution of labour. During the opening months of 1915, the Board of Trade made a series of efforts to draw supplies of labour to the established armaments firms from other engineering companies. This was in accordance with the War Office policy of giving its contracts only to the recognised munition firms and was based upon the assumption that outside companies were doing only civilian work. The results achieved were very meagre, partly because it transpired that many of these companies were devoting a part at least of their energy to sub-contracts for munition production, partly because they resented most intensely the proposal to filch away their best workmen and demanded as an alternative that they should themselves be given War Office contracts to execute. A further difficulty was that the workmen themselves were unwilling to leave their homes and take up work in a distant part of the country for a strange concern. It soon became clear to the authorities that the transference of labour could only be achieved by compulsory measures. In one respect, indeed, many outside firms intimated that they would welcome compulsion. They were tied up in contracts they had entered into for civilian commercial work and although they were anxious to assist the government they could not break these contracts without incurring penalties. If, however, the Government would either give them statutory release from these obligations, or would take over their works under the system of Government control as laid down in the Defence of the Realm Act, this difficulty would be surmounted. The government sought legal advice and it was found that the existing powers were not adequate for this matter and the outcome was the new Defence of the Realm Act which came before the Commons on March 9th. That measure authorised the government “to require any work in any factory or workshop to be done in accordance with the directions of the Admiralty or Army Council given with the object of making that factory or workshop, or the plant or labour therein, as useful as possible for the production of war material” And it further provided that, “whereby the fulfilment by any person of any contract is interfered with by the necessity on the part of himself or any other person of complying with any requirement, regulation or restriction of the Admiralty or Army Council that necessity is a good defence to any action or proceedings taken against that person in respect of the non-fulfilment of the contract in so far as it is due to that interference” Owing, however, to the persistence of the War Office in clinging to its traditional policy of dealing only with the established munition firms, comparatively little use was made of these powers prior to the establishment of the Ministry of Munitions. Quite the most difficult problem in regard to labour was that of securing their wholehearted cooperation in the urgent task of munition production – by sticking in the same workshop, keeping good time, working steadily and avoiding strikes; and in particular by consenting to those relaxations of their trade union rules which would make possible an extensive dilution of skilled by unskilled workers, and a considerable use of overtime in an emergency. 52 When the first drafts for the new Defence of the Realm Act were under consideration, as submitted on February 26th, it was at first proposed to insert clauses which would have made it illegal under penalty any strike or lock-out in any company engaged on the construction of war material and which would have provided compulsory arbitration in the case of all disputes. However, it was decided to see what could be done to achieve the same end by a voluntary agreement with the Trade Unions. Accordingly, on 17th March 1915, a representative meeting of Trade Unionists was summoned to, `…..consult with the Chancellor of the Exchequer and the President of the Board of Trade on certain matters of importance arising out of the recent decision by the Government, embodied in the Defence of the Realm (Amendment Act), to take further steps to organise the resources of the country to meet naval and military requirements` The Conference was held in the gloomy boardroom of the Treasury, with the gilt throne of Queen Anne at one end of the room. There was a tradition that once upon a time it had been occupied by Kings and Queens who came to discuss their finances with the Lords of the Treasury. The last sovereign who sat upon it was the first Hanoverian George. Since he spoke no English and the Lords of the Treasury understood no German our sovereigns ceased to go through the formality of attending these meetings at the Treasury to arrange their finances, and the once glistening and plush throne now had a sad look of tarnished and torn neglect about it. The room was so crowded with representatives of workers in many trades that some of them had to lean against this rickety throne of the last of the Stuarts. Arthur Balfour (left), who had been Prime Minister between 1902 and 1905, and who would in May 1915 become First Lord of the Admiralty, was in attendance. Over his long political career he had addressed many an assembly largely composed of working men, but this was his first experience of sitting down to confer with them on a basis of equality. So far, he had only talked to them; now he was talked to by them. It was reported that the expression on his face was one of quizzical and embarrassed wonder. He was surprised to find the working men’s representatives talked so well and could articulate their points. They put their points clearly and succinctly, wasting neither time nor words whilst on the other hand there was just a note of aggressiveness in manner and tone to which he was not quite accustomed from such quarters. For the moment it almost quelled him, and he was silent throughout and he did not quite recover his composure until after they left. Balfour was known to like new experiences, but not this sort. This was a portent which had for the first time appeared in threat quarter of the sky where he had shone for a generation, and it came uncomfortably near. His ideas of Government were inherited from the days when Queen Anne was on the throne. They were only changed to the extent that the fact of her being the last occupant constituted a triumph for the subject and thus modified the Constitution in a popular direction. But this scene was fundamentally different. He saw those stalwart artisans leaning against and sitting on the steps of the throne of the dead queen, and on equal terms negotiating conditions with the government of the day upon a question vitally affecting the conduct of the Great War. His detached and enquiring mind was bewildered by this sudden revelation of a new power and that he must take time to assimilate the experience.

To be continued