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Ed 1 Nov 2016 1 Nov Ed The First World War Battlefield Guide: Volume 2 The Forgotten Fronts The First Battlefield War World Guide: The Forgotten Fronts Creative Media Design ADR005472 Edition 1 November 2016 THE FORGOTTEN FRONTS | i The First World War Battlefield Guide: Volume 2 The British Army Campaign Guide to the Forgotten Fronts of the First World War 1st Edition November 2016 Acknowledgement The publisher wishes to acknowledge the assistance of the following organisations in providing text, images, multimedia links and sketch maps for this volume: Defence Geographic Centre, Imperial War Museum, Army Historical Branch, Air Historical Branch, Army Records Society,National Portrait Gallery, Tank Museum, National Army Museum, Royal Green Jackets Museum,Shepard Trust, Royal Australian Navy, Australian Defence, Royal Artillery Historical Trust, National Archive, Canadian War Museum, National Archives of Canada, The Times, RAF Museum, Wikimedia Commons, USAF, US Library of Congress. The Cover Images Front Cover: (1) Wounded soldier of the 10th Battalion, Black Watch being carried out of a communication trench on the ‘Birdcage’ Line near Salonika, February 1916 © IWM; (2) The advance through Palestine and the Battle of Megiddo: A sergeant directs orders whilst standing on one of the wooden saddles of the Camel Transport Corps © IWM (3) Soldiers of the Royal Army Service Corps outside a Field Ambulance Station. © IWM Inside Front Cover: Helles Memorial, Gallipoli © Barbara Taylor Back Cover: ‘Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red’ at the Tower of London © Julia Gavin ii | THE FORGOTTEN FRONTS THE FORGOTTEN FRONTS | iii ISBN: 978-1-874346-46-3 First published in November 2016 by Creative Media Designs, Army Headquarters, Andover. The First World War Battlefield Guide: Printed by Williams Lea Ltd, Norwich. Volume 2 Text Copyright © John Wilson, Editor, and the Authors listed in the List of Contributors. Sketch Maps Crown Copyright © UK MOD, 2016 Images Copyright © Imperial War Museum (IWM), and as otherwise shown in captions. The British Army Campaign Guide to the Forgotten Fronts No part of this publication, except for short quotations, may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the permission of of the First World War the Editor and SO1 Historical Lessons, Warfare Branch, Army Headquarters, Warminster BA12 0DJ. The First World War sketch maps have been produced by Defence Geographic Centre (DGC), JFIG, Ministry of Defence, Elmwood Avenue, TW13 7AH, United Kingdom. They must not be reproduced without prior permission from DGC. DGC furnished Data is supplied in the format and condition provided and is licensed for the purposes specified in the Release Conditions. DGC accepts no liability for any error or omission in the Data, or for any loss, damage, claims, proceedings or costs arising from the recipient’s use of or reliance on the Data or from any modification or alteration to the Data or its format, to the full extent permitted by law. DGC accepts no liability for or arising from any elements of DGC furnished Data provided by third parties. 2-pdr Vickers Pom-pom on a flatbed railway truck in Mesopotamia © RAHT The views expressed in this Guide are solely of the Editor and of the contributing authors, and do not necessarily reflect official thinking or policy of either Her Majesty’s Government, the Ministry of Defence or the British Army. Copies of this Guide may be obtained from SO1 Historical Lessons, Warfare Branch, Army Headquarters. Edited by Details of the electronic version (as per the DVD associated with this Guide) Colonel John Wilson for internal Army and other Service or official use will be published on the Army’s Knowledge Exchange. Consulting Editor- Colonel Michael Crawshaw The typeface used is Myriad Pro Regular at 9/12pt. 1st Edition November 2016 iv | THE FORGOTTEN FRONTS THE FORGOTTEN FRONTS | v Foreword General Sir Nicholas Carter KCB CBE DSO ADC Gen Chief of the General Staff The Army has placed significant emphasis on the commemoration This book seeks to bring to life these ‘Forgotten Fronts’ not least of the 100th Anniversary of the First World War. There has been to enable us to place the Western Front in a broader context. much attention on the Western Front and particularly the Battle These campaigns will resonate with those who have fought of the Somme this year. However, we tend to forget that the War in our own recent campaigns. And there are some important was a world war and this year represents the 100th anniversary lessons that chime with the current character of conflict. of a number of very significant campaigns from 1916. The importance of agility, adaptability and constant learning; These include the British offensive in German East Africa, the insight and understanding of language, culture and geography; defeat of the jihadist Ali Dinar in Darfur by an Anglo-Egyptian the delegated and decentralised nature of grand strategy and force, offensives by Anglo-French forces in Macedonia, the the role of London in setting policy; the significance of allies; and Brusilov offensive in Ukraine, the withdrawal from Gallipoli, the of particular significance - the difficulty of realising successful capitulation at Kut, five battles on the River Isonzo in North East outcomes without a clear political strategy on the ground. Italy and closer to home the Easter uprising in Dublin. I commend it to you. vi | THE FORGOTTEN FRONTS THE FORGOTTEN FRONTS | vii Preface Colonel John Wilson The First World War was one of the greatest events in British hundred British soldiers of the Manchester Regiment were killed. history. The scale in time and distance, the reach, the cost in Those activities are recorded here. 1922 was chosen to mark the men, materiel and money, and the changes it wrought nationally endpoint, because this was the first point since 1914 when the and globally all show the greatness of it. Inevitably, the military British Army returned to some sort of pre-war stance, as the history will show the British Army at its best and at its worst. The timelines in the book show. As with the main campaigns of the chapters in this book which describe and analyse the campaigns war, the soldier-reader is given guidance on further reading. of the ‘Forgotten Fronts’ are merely an introduction to a part of that history. The book has not been issued merely to satisfy curiosity; indeed the intention is to provoke further curiosity and so to study war The battles on the Western Front are well known and properly more deeply. There is much to learn from these campaigns which recorded, not least in the earlier companion volume to this are closer to our modern experience than the great battles of one . The ‘Forgotten Fronts’ includes only one truly well known the Western Front. The chapter on Lessons Learned by Richard campaign - The Dardanelles, or Gallipoli. The fighting in the Toomey goes to the heart of this aspect, but the soldier-reader Middle East (except for T.E. Lawrence and the Arab Revolt), will find much in all chapters to engage him/her. Africa, Asia and the Mediterranean is little known in the public mind. And that is one of the reasons for publishing this book. The focus throughout is on the British Army. This does not The book is primarily aimed at the British soldier. Although mean that we think that only the British Army’s efforts are it is has been written largely without jargon there may be worth recording; but rather that we have chosen to bring to some terms or comments which will be better understood by the attention of modern British soldiers the activities of their soldiers than others. predecessors. The sacrifice of Empire Forces, of our allies whether from France, Russia, Italy, Belgium, the USA or elsewhere was The book goes beyond the Armistice of November 1918. The prodigious and awful; we seek no place in a hierarchy of grief 0.2 Statistics from the Great War Armistice ended the fighting on the Western Front, yet conflict and can only be eternally grateful for that sacrifice. There are did not cease. British troops found themselves fighting in Russia, separate chapters to record the efforts of our sister Services, the Imperial War Museum. Like the maps, the images provide invented campaign planning, but a study of these campaigns the Caucasus, on the Indian sub-Continent and Ireland. They in the air (Sebastian Cox) and on the sea (Eric Grove) in these an extra dimension - they bring the history to life. Photographs will show the need for a more nuanced interpretation. undertook peace-keeping duties in the Balkans, Turkey and faraway places. of a battlefield have a limited value; on the Western Front one Northern and Eastern Europe. A British army occupied Germany frightful shell crater looks much like another. The complexity of planning and executing the campaigns of and formed the first British Army of the Rhine (BAOR) and that The maps are all new and we are especially proud of the high over 100 years ago is all the more remarkable in the absence of unfamiliar story is told by Nick Weekes. standard achieved by the staff of the Defence Geographic There are few images of weapons; there are many images of men our modern means of communications. The only information Centre (Barbara Taylor and Martin Smithson) in drawing these and some of women. And there are images to illustrate the size technology advantage the staff officer had in 1915 over The post war action was sometimes bloody; Robert Johnson maps which are so important in a work of military history. The and complexity of the campaigns. Notice the orderly nature of Wellington’s army in 1815 was the telegraph, a very primitive describes how in one action in Iraq on 24 July 1920 over one book has been fully illustrated with images largely sourced from the field hospital on the Gallipoli Peninsula, the sorting office national only telephone service and the typewriter - strategic 0.1 Barrage prior to Messines 3 June 1917 (Papers of Major (DO) GB Wilson RGA) at Murmansk, the field workshops and kitchens in Russia and voice radio was a distant dream (nightmare) for commanders.

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