Ed 2 June 2015 2 June Ed The First World War Battlefield Guide: Volume 1 The Western Front The First Battlefield War World Guide: The Western Front The Western Creative Media Design ADR003970 Edition 2 June 2015 The Somme Battlefield: Newfoundland Memorial Park at Beaumont Hamel Mike St. Maur Sheil/FieldsofBattle1418.org The Somme Battlefield: Lochnagar Crater. It was blown at 0728 hours on 1 July 1916. Mike St. Maur Sheil/FieldsofBattle1418.org The First World War Battlefield Guide: Volume 1 The Western Front 2nd Edition June 2015 ii | THE WESTERN FRONT OF THE FIRST WORLD WAR ISBN: 978-1-874346-45-6 First published in August 2014 by Creative Media Design, Army Headquarters, Andover. Printed by Earle & Ludlow through Williams Lea Ltd, Norwich. Revised and expanded second edition published in June 2015. Text Copyright © Mungo Melvin, Editor, and the Authors listed in the List of Contributors, 2014 & 2015. Sketch Maps Crown Copyright © UK MOD, 2014 & 2015. Images Copyright © Imperial War Museum (IWM), National Army Museum (NAM), Mike St. Maur Sheil/Fields of Battle 14-18, Barbara Taylor and others so captioned. 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 the Editor and SO1 Commemoration, Army Headquarters, IDL 26, Blenheim Building, Marlborough Lines, Andover, Hampshire, SP11 8HJ. The First World War sketch maps have been produced by the Defence Geographic Centre (DGC), Joint Force Intelligence Group (JFIG), Ministry of Defence, Elmwood Avenue, Feltham, Middlesex, 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. 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 Commemoration, Land Forces Directorate, Army Headquarters. Details of the electronic version (as per the DVD associated with this Guide) for internal Army and other Service or official use will be published on the Army’s Knowledge Exchange. Acknowledgement The Publisher wishes to acknowledge the assistance of the following organisations in providing the text, images, multimedia links and sketch maps for this volume: British Commision for Military History I Defence Geographic Centre, Joint Forces Intelligence Group Fields of Battle: Lands of Peace 14-18 I Imperial War Museum Land Warfare Centre I National Army Museum Cover Images The R.F.C. 1917. © NAM British Mark IV female tank during trials, 1917. © NAM Troops in training jumping over a trench, 1916. © NAM Poppies and Cornflowers © Julia Gavin THE WESTERN FRONT OF THE FIRST WORLD WAR | iii The First World War Battlefield Guide: Volume 1 The Western Front The Thiepval Memorial, Somme Battlefield. Barbara Taylor Edited by Major General (ret’d) Mungo Melvin CB OBE 2nd Edition June 2015 iv | THE WESTERN FRONT OF THE FIRST WORLD WAR Preface Lord Astor of Hever It is one thing to discuss the theory of warfare in the war, but also serve to remind us of its harsh realities, not seminar room, but quite another to study its practicalities least the huge personnel and materiel costs to all the on the ground. The British army has enjoyed a long and nations involved. Study of this conflict, moreover, reveals distinguished tradition of visiting former battlefields for much about the human spirit. Shortly before his death commemorative and training purposes. Before the First at the Battle of Third Ypres in August 1917, one of my World War, for example, Major General Henry Wilson forebears, Esmond Elliot, a subaltern of the Scots Guards directed his Staff College students to run across the wrote: ‘… the Battalion has probably got to do a raid. The ploughed field at Mars-la-Tour (near Metz) - emulating whole of my Platoon volunteered for it, which pleases the Prussian cavalry, who boldly charged the French me awfully’. Elliot was but one of the so very many of his guns on 16 August 1870 in von Bredow’s famous ‘death generation who laid down their lives for King and country. ride’. Later generations of soldiers inspected not only this battlefield, but also the greatly many more of the First In closing, I commend this Battlefield Guide, thanking and Second World Wars, where their own grandfathers Major General Mungo Melvin and his expert team of and fathers had fought. Therefore, as we now mark the authors, cartographers and designers who have put it centenaries of the First World War, it is entirely fitting that together. I am delighted to be associated with it. the Army should publish this new guide to the principal battles on the Western Front. I am pleased to see that it includes not only those involving primarily British Empire and German forces, but also other equally significant battles in which the French and, later, United States armies played predominant roles. I am in no doubt that this publication will provide a useful and welcome source of reference for all those taking part in the major commemorations, in military training events and in civilian educational visits. In addition, the Guide should also stimulate further research and reflection not only on the generalship, tactics and technologies of the THE WESTERN FRONT OF THE FIRST WORLD WAR | v Foreword Professor Sir Hew Strachan Today’s visitor to the Western Front sees a landscape that overlooks the Île de France, runs along the Chemin des has been permanently changed by the fighting of the Dames to Champagne, executes a right-angled turn on First World War. The signs are everywhere, unmistakable the Meuse at Verdun, and then extends south along the and harrowing. But they are not trenches and shell Vosges into the foothills of the Alps. holes. The farmers of northern France and Flanders have returned their land to the production for which most The role of the British Expeditionary Force is inexplicable of it is so well adapted. What the eye falls on is less the without reference to this broader strategic context, even evidence of how the war was fought in 1914-1918 and if the relatively featureless ground to which it was tied can more how it has been commemorated since. In the 1920s make the tactics of the war even harder to explain. Rises the line of the front was transformed by the continuing of a few metres, at Hill 60 (near Ypres) or Passchendaele, work of the Imperial (now Commonwealth) War Graves came to possess a significance which can now only be Commission. The tourist requires effort and imagination easily grasped at Messines, Vimy and possibly Thiepval. to look past the cemeteries and memorials, which now dominate the built landscape, to the vestiges of the This ground witnessed some of the most intense and fighting, particularly in the summer when crops and protracted battles ever fought by the British army. Indeed undergrowth obscure even those that remain. to call them battles in the sense used in 1914 trivialises them. Simultaneously British soldiers waged war in Italy, Most of the Western Front was held by the French army, the Middle East and sub-Saharan Africa; nor did the the de facto senior partner in the alliance until at least mid fighting end in 1918, as Britain intervened in Russia and 1917, and the equal of the British until the war’s end. What confronted rebellion and resistance on the ‘southern arc we now think of as its sector (although it too suffered at of empire’, from Egypt to Afghanistan. Gains measured Ypres and Arras) extends from south of the Somme to the in hundreds of yards on the Western Front were set in Alps, and is marked by more conspicuous geographical the context of a global war. At first blush such a struggle features than that of the British. The ground rises as it seems incomprehensible today. This Battlefield Guide is the place where understanding can begin: the Western Front was the war’s pivotal theatre, and its tactical and operational underpinnings conditioned the whole war. vi | THE WESTERN FRONT OF THE FIRST WORLD WAR Contents Preface Lord Astor of Hever iv Foreword Sir Hew Strachan v List of Maps viii General Key for all Maps ix Introduction Mungo Melvin 1 The Principal Commanders, 1914-1918 9 Introduction to the Second Edition Mungo Melvin 10 The Battles 1. The Battle of Mons, 23 August 1914 Mungo Melvin 13 2. The Battle of Le Cateau, 26 August 1914 Spencer Jones 19 3. The First Battle of the Marne, 5-12 September 1914 Tim Gale 25 4. The First Battle of the Aisne, 12 September – 15 October 1914 Frank Baldwin 31 5. The First Battle of Ypres, 19 October – 22 November 1914 John Lee 37 6. The Battle of Neuve Chapelle, 10-12 March 1915 Michael Orr 45 7. The Second Battle of Ypres, 22 April – 25 May 1915 John Lee 51 8. The Battles of Aubers Ridge and Festubert, 9 & 16-27 May 1915 Michael Orr 55 9.