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Haig's Intelligence Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-03961-2 - Haig’s Intelligence: GHQ and the German Army, 1916–1918 Jim Beach Frontmatter More information Haig’s Intelligence Haig’s Intelligence is an important new study of Douglas Haig’s contro- versial command during the First World War. Based on extensive new research, it addresses a perennial question about the British army on the Western Front between 1916 and 1918: why did they think they were winning? Jim Beach reveals how the British perceived the German army through a study of the development of the British intelligence system, its personnel and the ways in which intelligence was gathered. He also examines how intelligence shaped strategy and operations by exploring the influence of intelligence in creating perceptions of the enemy. He shows for the first time exactly what the British knew about their opponent, when and how, and, in so doing, sheds significant new light on continuing controversies about the British army’s conduct of oper- ations in France and Belgium and the relationship between Haig and his chief intelligence officer, John Charteris. jim beach is Senior Lecturer in Twentieth-Century History at the University of Northampton. He is also Secretary of the Army Records Society. © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-03961-2 - Haig’s Intelligence: GHQ and the German Army, 1916–1918 Jim Beach Frontmatter More information Cambridge Military Histories Edited by HEW STRACHAN Chichele Professor of the History of War, University of Oxford, and Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford GEOFFREY WAWRO Professor of Military History, and Director of the Military History Center, University of North Texas The aim of this series is to publish outstanding works of research on warfare throughout the ages and throughout the world. Books in the series take a broad approach to military history, examining war in all its military, strategic, political and economic aspects. The series complements Studies in the Social and Cul- tural History of Modern Warfare by focusing on the ‘hard’ military history of armies, tactics, strategy and warfare. Books in the series consist mainly of single- author works – academically vigorous and groundbreaking – which are accessible to both academics and the interested general reader. A full list of titles in the series can be found at: www.cambridge.org/militaryhistories © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-03961-2 - Haig’s Intelligence: GHQ and the German Army, 1916–1918 Jim Beach Frontmatter More information Haig’s Intelligence GHQ and the German Army, 1916–1918 Jim Beach © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-03961-2 - Haig’s Intelligence: GHQ and the German Army, 1916–1918 Jim Beach Frontmatter More information University Printing House, Cambridge CB2 8BS, United Kingdom Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York Cambridge University Press is part of the University of Cambridge. It furthers the University’s mission by disseminating knowledge in the pursuit of education, learning and research at the highest international levels of excellence. www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9781107039612 © Jim Beach 2013 This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published 2013 Printed in the United Kingdom by Clays, St Ives plc A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication data Beach, Jim, 1969– Haig’s Intelligence: GHQ and the German Army, 1916–1918 / Jim Beach. p. cm. – (Cambridge military histories) Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 978-1-107-03961-2 (Hardback) 1. World War, 1914–1918–Military Intelligence–Great Britain. 2. Great Britain. War Office. General Staff–History. 3. World War, 1914–1918– Campaigns–Western Front. I. Title. D639.S7B33 2013 940.4085641–dc23 2013014366 ISBN 978-1-107-03961-2 Hardback Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this publication, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate. © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-03961-2 - Haig’s Intelligence: GHQ and the German Army, 1916–1918 Jim Beach Frontmatter More information To Sarah © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-03961-2 - Haig’s Intelligence: GHQ and the German Army, 1916–1918 Jim Beach Frontmatter More information © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-03961-2 - Haig’s Intelligence: GHQ and the German Army, 1916–1918 Jim Beach Frontmatter More information Contents List of figures page ix List of tables xi Acknowledgements xii List of Abbreviations xv Introduction 1 Part I 1 Organisation 23 2 Leadership 44 3 Personnel 62 4 Frontline 90 5 Espionage 115 6 Photography 143 7 Signals 155 8 Analysis 168 Part II 9 Somme 195 10 Arras 218 11 Third Ypres 239 12 Cambrai 262 13 German offensives 273 14 Hundred Days 303 © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-03961-2 - Haig’s Intelligence: GHQ and the German Army, 1916–1918 Jim Beach Frontmatter More information viii Contents Conclusion 320 Appendix 1 Identifications of German units at the Front, 1916–1918 333 Appendix 2 Contribution of sources to identification of German units at the Front, 1916–1918 335 Appendix 3 British assessments of German divisions on the Western Front, October 1918 337 Bibliography 339 Index 362 © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-03961-2 - Haig’s Intelligence: GHQ and the German Army, 1916–1918 Jim Beach Frontmatter More information Figures Fig 0.1 John Charteris and James Marshall-Cornwall in 1917. MIM page 2 Fig 1.1 GHQ I(a), 24 December 1914. Back row: L. O. Bosworth, Christopher Sandemann, William Blennerhasset; front row: Harry Goldsmith, Basil Bowdler, Edgar Cox. Private Collection/Bowdler Papers 27 Fig 2.1 George Macdonogh and Walter Kirke, 24 December 1914. Private Collection/Bowdler Papers 46 Fig 2.2 John Charteris and Richard Butler, GHQ’s deputy chief of staff, in 1917. Acc.633, Charteris Papers, MIM 53 Fig 4.1 ‘W. G. B.’, Bedford House, Ypres, 26 March 1917. Acc. 4063, Charteris Papers, MIM The sketch is annotated ‘Time 10pm any old night. “Are you quite sure it wasn’t here, old dear?” Whistling Rufus cross-examining our reports’.93 Fig 4.2 German prisoners taken by the BEF, 1916–1918. 98 Fig 4.3 Contribution of sources to identification of German units at the Front, 1916–1918. 104 Fig 4.4 Identifications of German units at the Front, 1916–1918. 105 Fig 4.5 Will Dyson, Interrogation of a Prisoner (1917). The sketch depicts Lieutenant J. J. W. Herbertson, one of I ANZAC Corps’ intelligence officers, examining a German prisoner in an officers’ dug-out at Montauban. ARTO2228, AWM 107 Fig 4.6 Identifications of German units at the Front attributed to documents, 1916–1918. 111 © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-03961-2 - Haig’s Intelligence: GHQ and the German Army, 1916–1918 Jim Beach Frontmatter More information x List of figures Fig 5.1 Christmas card from Cameron’s espionage staff, 1916. An agent is shown vaulting over the electric fence installed along the Dutch–Belgian border in 1915. His bag is marked ‘CF’, the code that preceded the reference numbers on Cameron’s reports. Kirke Papers/MIM 120 Fig 5.2 Coverage of Cameron’s networks, September 1915. 132 Fig 5.3 Agent reporting in GHQ intelligence summaries, March to October 1916. 140 Fig 5.4 Agent reporting in GHQ intelligence summaries, December 1917 to October 1918. 141 Fig 6.1 Photographic prints issued by RFC/RAF, August 1916 to September 1918. 150 Fig 7.1 W. M. Rumsey, Wireless Intelligence Hut Third Army HQ (1916). The sketch is annotated ‘Long and short waves sets with amplifiers’. Liddle Collection, University of Leeds 161 Fig 13.1 GHQ Intelligence, 5 January 1918. The American intelligence liaison officer, George Quekemeyer, is third from right in the middle row. Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives 274 Fig 13.2 British anticipation of the German offensive, March 1918. 282 Fig 15.1 Alan d’Egville, GHQ Intelligence Christmas card (1915). Kirke Papers/MIM 330 Fig 15.2 Alan d’Egville, GHQ Intelligence Christmas card (1917). Kirke Papers/MIM 331 © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-03961-2 - Haig’s Intelligence: GHQ and the German Army, 1916–1918 Jim Beach Frontmatter More information Tables Table 1.1 Personnel appointed to MI2(e)/MI1(e)/MI1(f ). page 25 Table 1.2 GHQ I(a) personnel, 1914–1918. 29 Table 1.3 GHQ I(a) analytical structures, 1915–1918. 29 Table 1.4 GHQ Intelligence sub-sections, 1914–1918. 30 Table 1.5 BEF intelligence establishments, 1916–1917. 36 Table 1.6 Canadian intelligence establishments, 1914–1915. 39 Table 2.1 Senior intelligence officers, 1914–1918. 45 Table 3.1 Senior General Staff Officers (Intelligence) in BEF armies, 1914–1918. 67 Table 3.2 Distribution of Intelligence Corps posts, August 1917. 74 Table 3.3 BEF Intelligence Corps officers from personnel files.
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