Elegy

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by Andrew Roberts


  memorials to 12, 24, 203

  morale 9

  post-Somme action 24

  prepare for ‘big push’ 6–7

  training 22–3

  will writing 4–5

  Nivelle, Robert 223

  North Midland Division (46th) 154–7

  North Staffordshire Regiment (46th Division) 155, 157

  Northumberland Fusiliers (34th Division) 91, 125–8, 180–1, 183, 204, 209

  Norwich Engineers (34th Division) 135

  Nourrisson, Gen. 194

  Nunns, Captain Joe 14–15

  O’Gowan, Maj.-Gen. Robert Wanless 159

  Official History of the Great War (book) 118, 122, 158–9, 164, 194, 203–4, 247

  Operation Michael 81

  Ovillers 132–3, 153, 175, 180, 183, 201

  ‘pals’ battalions 49–51, 159–61, 202

  Parr, Cpl. James 250

  Parr–Dudley, J. H. 189–90

  Payne, Pte. Bert 123, 209–10

  Pétain, Philippe 223, 225

  Pleasantville training camp (Newfoundland) 23

  Plowman, Max 142

  Pollard, 2nd-Lt. Alfred 222

  poor quality munitions (British) 94–5, 96, 146, 249

  Pout, Pte. J. F. 131–2

  Pozières Ridge 44, 59, 60, 61, 67, 154, 218

  Price, LCpl. George Lawrence 227

  Probert, Maj. Ynyr 95–6, 187–8, 234

  Quadrilateral Redoubt 161

  Queen Victoria’s Rifles (1st/9th London Regiment) 85, 111, 117

  Quigg, Rifleman Robert 140

  rainfall / muddy conditions 104–5, 109, 145–6

  Raley, Capt. Arthur 5–6, 10, 14, 15–16

  RAMC (Royal Army Medical Corps) 105, 193

  Rawlinson, Gen. Sir Henry ‘Rawly’

  battlefield tactics 58–62, 67, 68–9, 235, 248

  and continuation of Somme offensive 217

  and French breakthroughs 195

  and German positions 45

  misinformation about successes 196

  and ‘pals’ battalions 49–50

  and timing of ‘Zero Hour’ attack 118

  Rees, Brig. H. C. 132

  Reid, Sgt. Charles 21

  Reynolds, David 249

  RFC (Royal Flying Corps) 72, 79, 88, 104, 234

  Ricardo, Lt.-Col. Ambrose 130

  Rifle Brigade (4th Division) 118–19

  Ritchie, Drummer Walter 140

  RMOs (Regimental Medical Officers) 208–9

  Robertson, FM Sir William 217, 231

  Rohr, Hptm. von 180

  Rowe, Cpl. Leonard Edward 159

  Rowsell, Capt. Rex 14

  Royal Engineers 52, 90, 101, 125–6

  Royal Field Artillery (97th Brigade) 107

  Royal Field Artillery (146th Brigade) 105

  Royal Field Artillery (147th Brigade) 98

  Royal Field Artillery (154th Brigade) 166–7

  Royal Field Artillery (161st Brigade) 170–1

  Royal Fusiliers (11th Battalion) 214

  Royal Fusiliers (2nd Battalion) 123–5

  Royal Horse Artillery 162

  Royal Irish Rifles (36th Division) 167–9

  Royal Welch Fusiliers (1st Battalion) 76, 102

  Rupprecht of Bavaria, Crown Prince 42, 79–81, 218, 221

  Russia 34, 35, 36, 76, 80, 217, 248

  ‘Russian saps’ 237

  Russo-Japanese War (1904–1905) 170

  Salisbury Plain 23

  Saltinstall, Pte. G. H. 159

  Sanders, Cpl. G. 140

  Sanders, LCpl. W. 141–2

  Sandys, Lt.-Col. E. T. Falkner 175–6

  Sassoon, Philip 74

  Sassoon, 2nd Lt. Siegfried 75–6, 77–8, 102, 109–11, 113, 117, 138

  Sauer, Otto 105

  Scarpe, Battle of the (1917) 238, 240–1

  Scheytt, Uffz. Paul 130

  Schwaben Redoubt 164–6, 196, 237

  ‘scorched earth’ policies 80

  Seaforth Highlanders (5th Battalion) 51

  Secret Intelligence Service 74

  Senescall, Pte. W. 130

  Serre 59, 95, 153, 159, 160–1, 196, 211–12, 231–2

  Serre Memorial 207

  Shea, Maj.-Gen. James ‘Jimmy’ 192

  Sheffield, Gary 63

  Sheffield Pals (11th Battalion) 160

  Shephard, Sgt.-Maj. Ernest 142–4

  Side, Corporal 142

  Siepmann, Harry 211–12

  Smalley, LCpl. C. 21

  Smith, Maj. Richard Spencer 44–5

  Smith, Pte. P. 203

  Snow, Lt.-Gen. Sir Thomas D’Oyly ‘Snowball’ 154, 155

  Soames, Lt. R. G. 130

  Somerset Light Infantry (4th Division) 162, 113

  Somme (river) 34, 41, 118, 153, 194

  Souastre 110

  South Staffordshire Regiment (7th Division) 106, 111

  South Staffordshire Regiment (46th Division) 155

  South Wales Borderers (2nd Battalion) 5, 10, 13, 21, 125, 136, 201, 215

  St John’s Road 5, 10

  Stahlgewittern (autobiography) 145–6

  Station Road 5

  Steele, Lt. Owen 9

  Stevenson, Frances 206–7, 224

  Stokes mortars 89, 164, 233

  Stuart-Wortley, Maj.-Gen. E. J. 154, 155, 237

  submarine attacks 224, 227

  ‘Sunken Road’ 162

  Sweeney, Pte. Daniel 184–5

  Switzerland 33, 34

  Tactical Notes 60

  Tagg, Pte. F. A. W. 163–4

  tanks 29, 57, 66, 220, 242, 246

  Taylor, Pte. C. F. 21

  Terraine, John 103

  The Battle of the Somme (film) 206

  The Donkeys (book) 28

  The Great War (TV series) 103

  The Man I Knew (memoir) 197

  The Normal Formation for the Attack (training pamphlet) 236

  The World Crisis (book) 138

  Thiepval 43–4, 61, 141, 154, 165, 166, 170–1, 196, 221

  Thiepval Memorial 205, 221

  Training Divisions for Offensive Action (tactical instructions) 60

  trench life (British) 46–7, 77–8

  Trenchard, Maj.-Gen. Hugh ‘Boom’ 72

  Turkey 33, 34

  Turnbull, Sgt. James 140

  Tyneside Irish (34th Division) 126–7, 178

  Tyneside Scottish (34th Division) 125, 127, 178–83, 204

  Ulster Division (36th) 67, 123, 164–9, 237

  United States 224

  Upton, Sgt. P. G. 190

  Vallée Martin 129

  VCs (Victoria Crosses) awarded 138–41, 166

  Verdun Offensive (1916) 36, 38, 40–1, 66, 72–3, 103, 217, 224, 226–7, 247

  Vignoles, Lt. Walter 176

  Vuillemot, Gen. 194–5

  War Memoirs (book) 245

  White, Capt. J. V. 189

  White, Lt. Malcolm 118–19

  Whitlock, Lt. Albert 125

  ‘whizzbangs’ 99, 131

  Wilhelm II, Kaiser 242

  will writing 4–5

  Williams, Pte. Frank 105, 106

  Williamson, Henry 132

  Wills, Sgt.-Maj. C. 130

  Wilson, Pipe Maj. John 178–9

  Wood, Francis Derwent 58

  Wrench, Pte. Arthur Edwin 51

  Württemberger 26th Reserve Division (German) 78–9

  Y Ravine 3, 10, 12–13, 19, 21, 24, 162–3

  Y Sap mine 125–7, 128

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  I should very much like to thank for all their help Sir Peter Ricketts for allowing me to work in the Duff Cooper Library in the British Embassy in Paris; Peter Hart and Belinda Haley at the Imperial War Museum Library and Archive; William Birch for historical research; Avril Williams for showing me the Great War graffiti in her cellars in Auchonvillers; my daughter Cassia Roberts for the story of Horace Iles from her trip to the Somme; the Commonwealth War Graves Commission for the wonderful work it does; David Ra
kowski for showing me the Glory Hole at La Boisselle; the staff of the London Library, where the First World War is still called ‘European War (I)’; John Lee and Zhelun Chen for reading the book at proof stage, and especially the historians Chris McCarthy and Simon Jones for their advice and for explaining the workings of the 106 fuse to me, using a Brooks’s Club bread roll.

  I would like to thank Anthony Cheetham whose idea this book was, Neil Belton, and Georgina Blackwell at Head of Zeus, as well as my agent Georgina Capel of Georgina Capel Associates, for their customary superb professionalism.

  This book is dedicated to John Lee in profound thanks for all the battlefield touring we’ve done together, and for all the completely invaluable help he has given me in this and others of my works. For this book alone we toured the Lochnagar Crater, Beaumont-Hamel British Cemetery, Thiepval Memorial to the Missing and the Thiepval Anglo-French Cemetery, Leipzig Redoubt, Pozières British Cemetery, Cléry-sur-Somme Nécropole Nationale, Dantzig Alley British Cemetery, Devonshire Cemetery Mansell Copse, Deutscher Soldatenhof Fricourt, Musée Somme in Albert, Orvillers British Cemetery, Schwaben Redoubt, Connaught Cemetery, Mill Road Cemetery, Newfoundland War Memorial Park at Beaumont Hamel, Y Ravine Cemetery, Hunters Cemetery, Hawthorn Ridge Cemetery No.2, Bapaume Post Military Cemetery, Serre Road Cemetery Nos.1, 2 and 3, Serre-Hébuterne Nécropole Nationale, Railway Hollow Cemetery, Sheffield Memorial Park, Railway Hollow Cemetery, Queen’s Cemetery, Luke Copse British Cemetery, Gommecourt Wood New Cemetery and Gommecourt British Cemetery No 2. I would also like to thank John’s wife Celia Lee and my wife Susan Gilchrist for showing such forbearance as we disappear so often and for so long over the years.

  I would particularly like to thank John for pointing out to me—just before I was moronically about to pick them up—that two 18lb and 6˝ shells lying on a track just off the Serre-Hébuterne road still had their fuses inside, and were thus part of the ‘Iron Harvest’ of unexploded ordnance.

  ANDREW ROBERTS

  January 2015

  www.andrew-roberts.net

  LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

  p. 4 PICARDY LANDSCAPE by Louis Welden Hawkins (Peter Nahum at The Leicester Galleries, London / Bridgeman Images).

  p. 8 MUD (Imperial War Museum).

  p. 11 GERMAN DUGOUT (Mary Evans Picture Library / Robert Hunt Collection).

  p. 13 GERMAN MACHINE GUNNERS (Underwood Archives / Getty Images).

  p. 18 BEAUMONT HAMEL (Windmill / Robert Hunt Library / UIG / Bridgeman Images).

  p. 29 ROYAL AIRCRAFT FACTORY FE2B (Imperial War Museum).

  p. 32 GENERAL SIR DOUGLAS HAIG (Imperial War Museum).

  p. 37 GENERAL JOSEPH JOFFRE (Philip Talmage / Mary Evans Picture Library).

  p. 39 GENERAL ERICH VON FALKENHAYN (Imperial War Museum).

  p. 42 CROWN PRINCE RUPPRECHT (Imperial War Museum).

  p. 50 GENERAL SIR HENRY RAWLINSON (Imperial War Museum).

  p. 53 GENERAL OFFICERS OF WORLD WAR I by John Singer Sargent (National Portrait Gallery).

  p. 59 18-POUNDER FIELD GUN (Imperial War Museum).

  p. 64 THE DECCAN HORSE (Robert Hunt Collection / Mary Evans Picture Library).

  p. 70 TOMMY’S EQUIPMENT (Illustrated London News Ltd. / Mary Evans Picture Library).

  p. 75 GERMAN DUGOUT (Robert Hunt Collection / Mary Evans Picture Library).

  p. 79 GERMAN TRENCH (Popperfoto / Getty Images).

  p. 89 TRENCH MORTAR DUMP (Imperial War Museum).

  p. 94 FRENCH 75MM FIELD GUN (Imperial War Museum).

  p. 100 6-INCH HOWITZER (Imperial War Museum).

  p. 107 THE APPLEYARD BROTHERS (Imperial War Museum).

  p. 112 BRITISH TROOPS ASSEMBLE (Imperial War Museum).

  p. 112 BRITISH TROOPS AWAIT ORDER TO ADVANCE (Robert Hunt Library / Windmill Books / UIG / Getty Images).

  p. 120 Lancashire Fusiliers (Hulton Archive / Stringer / Getty Images).

  p. 124 HAWTHORN RIDGE MINE (Imperial War Museum).

  p. 126 TYNESIDE IRISH (Imperial War Museum).

  p. 131 CAPTURED GUNS (Mary Evans Picture Library / Robert Hunt Library / Imperial War Museum).

  p. 137 GERMAN ARTILLERY (Imperial War Museum).

  p. 139 CAPTAIN ERIC BELL VC (David Cohen Fine Art / Mary Evans Picture Library).

  p. 156 GOMMECOURT AERIAL PHOTOGRAPH (Imperial War Museum).

  p. 163 Newfoundland Troops (Imperial War Museum).

  p. 165 SCHWABEN REDOUBT (Imperial War Museum).

  p. 168 ROYAL IRISH RIFLES (UIG / Getty Images).

  p. 175 FIRST CASUALTIES (Imperial War Museum).

  p. 179 PIPE MAJOR JOHN WILSON (The Fusiliers Museum of Northumberland).

  p. 184 PRIVATE DANIEL SWEENEY (Imperial War Museum).

  p. 189 WOUNDED SOLDIERS (Imperial War Museum).

  p. 191 MAJOR-GENERAL IVOR MAXSE (Imperial War Museum).

  p. 203 NEWFOUNDLAND MEMORIAL (The Rooms Provincial Archives Division, Newfoundland).

  p. 205 BELFAST MEMORIAL(John Baucher).

  p. 207 SERRE MEMORIAL (Tom Stoddart / Getty Images).

  p. 211 TOMMY IN A GERMAN HELMET (Imperial War Museum).

  p. 213 GOMMECOURT GRAVE (Imperial War Museum).

  p. 219 GERMAN PRISONERS OF WAR (Robert Hunt Library / Mary Evans Picture Library).

  p. 223 ALLIED CEMETERY AT FRICOURT (www.www1cemeteries.com).

  p. 225 HAIG’S FUNERAL (Imperial War Museum).

  p. 238 GERMAN SHARPSHOOTERS (Paul Thompson / FPG / Stringer / Getty Images).

  p. 240 SOLDIERS AT ARRAS (Popperfoto / Getty Images).

  About Elegy

  In 1916, the German army still occupied Belgium and much of northeast France, and had dug themselves deep into four hundred miles of trenches stretching from the North Sea to Switzerland. The British and French armies knew that a huge effort was needed to break through the German lines. The place chosen for the great offensive was the rolling countryside of Picardy around the River Somme. The date: July 1st.

  The British troops rose from their front-line trenches at 7.30am on a beautiful summer’s day, after a week-long bombardment that was supposed to destroy the German barbed wire and trenches. Before the sun went down, 57,471 of them were casualties. The wire had not been cut and the German machine gunners were waiting on their parapets. It was the worst day in the history of the British Army.

  Andrew Roberts evokes the pity and horror of that terrible day with a masterly grasp of the military realities that led to such a disaster. His moving book is above all the story of how tens of thousands of ordinary British, Irish and Newfoundland volunteers trudged stoically to their deaths.

  Reviews

  THE HOLY FOX

  ‘A biography of astonishing maturity and distinction.’

  Philip Ziegler

  ‘Mr Roberts’s narrative account of the crucial months grips and convinces.’

  Andrew Marr

  ‘It is quite a life, and in Andrew Roberts the life has found quite a biographer – elegant, sometimes funny, splendidly in control of his sources.’

  Norman Stone

  About Andrew Roberts

  ANDREW ROBERTS is a prize-winning historian and one of Britain’s most prominent journalists and broadcasters. His books include the critically acclaimed Eminent Churchillians (1994); Salisbury: Victorian Titan (1999), which won the Wolfson History Prize and the James Stern Silver Pen Award for Non-Fiction; Hitler and Churchill: Secrets of Leadership (2003), which coincided with a four-part BBC2 history series; Masters and Commanders: The Military Geniuses Who Led the West to Victory in World War II (2008); and The Storm of War: A New History of the Second World War (2010).

  Also by Andrew Roberts

  The Holy Fox

  It has been the misfortune of Edward Wood, 1st Earl of Halifax, to be remembered not for his very considerable achievements as a senior Conservative politician and diplomat, but as an architect of the policy of appeasement of Nazi Germany in the 1930s.

  A church-going, fox-hunting aristocrat, nicknamed ‘Holy F
ox’ by Churchill for his political guile, Halifax’s career in public life spanned the period from the end of the First to the conclusion of the Second World War. As Viceroy of India (1926–31), his deal with Gandhi ended the Civil Disobedience campaign before it could force the British to quit. His meeting with Hitler in 1937 was a milestone in appeasement, yet just days before the 1938 Munich conference, Halifax repudiated the policy and demanded the ‘destruction of Nazism’. By May 1940, it was he, rather than Winston Churchill, who was the choice for Britain’s war leader.

  Andrew Roberts has drawn on remarkable private documents to present Lord Halifax as an enigmatic, influential and much-maligned politician – above all, as a man whose self-knowledge, moral decency and patriotism led him to put the needs of his country before the glittering prize of the highest political office.

  The Holy Fox is available here.

  Jump to free preview here

  Eminent Churchillians

  The Aachen Memorandum

  Salisbury: Victorian Titan

  Napoleon and Wellington

  Hitler and Churchill: Secrets of Leadership

  What Might Have Been (Editor)

  Waterloo: Napoleon’s Last Gamble

  The Correspondence Between Mr Disraeli and Mrs Brydges Willyams (Editor)

  A History of the English-Speaking Peoples Since 1900

  Masters and Commanders: How Roosevelt, Churchill, Marshall and Alanbrooke Won the War in the West

  The Art of War: Great Commanders of the Ancient and Medieval World (Editor)

  The Art of War: Great Commanders of the Modern World Since 1600 (Editor)

  The Storm of War: A New History of the Second World War

  Love, Tommy: Letters Home, from the Great War to the Present Day (Editor)

  A Letter from the Publisher

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