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Passchendaele

Page 49

by Paul Ham


  55. Ibid.

  56. Ludendorff, ebook, locs. 151, 163.

  57. Ibid., loc. 151.

  58. Quoted in Wolff, p. 86.

  59. Prior and Wilson, ebook, loc. 758.

  60. War Cabinet Papers, 10 April 1917.

  61. Simkins, ebook, loc. 393.

  62. Sheffield, ebook, loc. 3599.

  63. Ibid., loc. 3595.

  64. Spears, p. 605.

  65. Bean, Chapter IX, p. 351.

  66. Wolff, p. 90.

  67. Herwig, p. 322.

  68. Spears, p. 507.

  69. Doughty, pp. 354–5. Some historians claim that Nivelle’s offensive was a ‘limited success’, but elsewhere argue that the capture of a few miles of terrain was of little military value in a war of attrition.

  70. War Cabinet Papers, 25 April 1917.

  71. Herwig, p. 320.

  72. Ibid.

  73. War Cabinet Papers, 23 April 1917.

  74. Stevenson, p. 157.

  75. Quoted in Hattersley, p. 444.

  Chapter 5: The Bloody Salient

  1. Edmonds, p. 23; see also Woodward, p. 73.

  2. See Ham, 1914, Part 4, chapter 41.

  3. Ibid.

  4. Chapman, p. 187.

  5. See Ham, 1914, Part 4, chapter 41.

  6. Haig, p. 73.

  7. Conan Doyle, https://archive.org/details/ahistorygreatwa00doylgoog.

  8. Monash, ebook, Ch. 10.

  9. Ibid.

  10. Simplicissimus, 19 June 1917.

  11. McNab, p. 197.

  12. Wipers Times, p. 215.

  13. Wipers Times, p. 223.

  14. Gordon, p. 42.

  15. http://www.bl.uk/world-war-one/articles/military-structures-and-ranks.

  16. Simkins, p. 14.

  17. Officers’ Training Manual, p. 124.

  18. Campbell’s bloodthirsty lessons seem to appeal to some military specialists. See, for example, Paddy Griffith, Battle Tactics of the Western Front: The British Army’s Art of Attack, 1916–18, pp. 71–2, and Rob Engen, ‘Steel Against Fire: The Bayonet in the First World War’, Journal of Military and Strategic Studies, Spring 2006, Vol. 8, Issue 3.

  19. Engen, ‘Steel Against Fire: The Bayonet in the First World War’, Journal of Military and Strategic Studies, Spring 2006, Vol. 8, Issue 3, p. 19.

  20. Livermore, pp. 46–7.

  21. Graves, p. 195.

  22. Collins, ebook, loc. 1137.

  23. Engen, ‘Steel Against Fire: The Bayonet in the First World War’, Journal of Military and Strategic Studies, Spring 2006, Vol. 8, Issue 3, p. 15.

  24. King, p. 101; Liddell Hart, p. 219.

  25. Officers’ Training Manual, p. 126.

  26. Allfree, private papers, diary; see also Aldington’s account, p. 209.

  27. Butler, p. 333.

  28. Ibid.

  29. Graves, p. 159.

  30. Allfree, private papers, diary.

  31. Ibid.

  32. Hind, private papers, memoir.

  33. Lewis-Stempel, p. 75.

  34. Skirth, private papers, memoir.

  35. Bourne, J., ‘The British Working Man in Arms’, in Cecil and Liddle (eds), p. 336.

  36. Holmes, ebook, loc. 244.

  37. Ferguson, Norman, p. 100.

  38. Holmes, ebook, loc. 339.

  39. JSTOR paper, ‘The Armed Forces and the Working Classes’, p. 595.

  40. Quoted in Holmes, ebook, loc. 244.

  41. Roy, R. H. and Foot, Richard, ‘Battle of the Somme’, Historica Canada, 21 December 2006 (last edited 4 March 2015), www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/battle-of-the-somme.

  42. JSTOR paper, ‘Not Glamorous but Effective: The Canadian Corps and the Set-Piece Attack, 1917–1918’, p. 429.

  43. Haig, p. 186.

  44. Seabrook private papers, postcard, 25 May 1917.

  45. Mackenzie, pp. 179–80.

  46. Ibid., p. 180.

  47. Ibid., p. 186.

  48. McNab, p. 51.

  49. Thomas, p. 20.

  50. Ibid., p. 18.

  51. Holmes, ebook, loc. 5489.

  52. Graves, p. 239.

  53. Nicholson, p. 291.

  54. McNab, ebook, loc. 639.

  55. Ibid., loc. 608.

  56. Ibid., loc. 691.

  57. Richard, M., ‘The Weapons and Equipment of the British Soldier at Passchendaele’, in Liddle (ed), p. 339.

  58. McNab, ebook, loc. 695.

  59. Ibid., loc. 697.

  60. Simkins, p. 13.

  61. Griffith, P., ‘The Tactical Problem: Infantry, Artillery and the Salient’, in Liddle (ed), p. 69.

  62. Leinberger, p. 30.

  63. Bostyn (ed), p. 183.

  64. Sheffield, Forgotten Victory, p. 99.

  65. Campbell, private papers, memoir, p. 10

  66. Ibid., p. 20.

  67. Ibid., p. 25.

  Chapter 6: The Mines of Messines

  1. Wynne, p. 262.

  2. Bostyn (ed), p. 13.

  3. Stanhope Papers, quoted in Holmes, ebook, loc. 4092.

  4. Passingham, pp. 30–33.

  5. Prior and Wilson, p. 57.

  6. Ibid., p. 59.

  7. Bean, p. 588.

  8. Ibid., p. 600.

  9. Davies, ebook, loc. 1188.

  10. Beumelburg, p. 6.

  11. Ibid.

  12. Ibid.

  13. Edmonds, p. 42.

  14. Allfree, private papers, memoir, p. 71.

  15. Ibid., pp. 72–3.

  16. Ibid., pp. 76–7.

  17. Prior and Wilson, p. 56.

  18. Allfree, private papers, memoir, p. 103.

  19. Ibid., p. 105.

  20. Ibid.

  21. Yoxall, private papers, letter to mother, 1 June 1917.

  22. Ibid.

  23. Ibid., 5 June 1917.

  24. Edmonds, p. 47. See pp. 46–9 for full details of the barrage used at Messines.

  25. Yoxall, private papers, diary, 3 June 1917.

  26. Yoxall, private papers, letter to mother, 5 June 1917.

  27. Yoxall, private papers, diary, 3 June 1917.

  28. Ibid., 4 June 1917.

  29. Ibid., 3 June 1917.

  30. Bean, p. 589.

  31. Quoted in Prior and Wilson, p. 61.

  32. Bean, p. 591.

  33. Davies, ebook, loc. 394.

  34. Ibid., loc. 407.

  35. Grieve and Newman, p. 35.

  36. Holmes, ebook, loc. 2722.

  37. Grieve and Newman, p. 35.

  38. Davies, ebook, loc. 915.

  39. Edmonds, p. 37.

  40. Ibid.

  41. Ibid., note, p. 39.

  42. Ibid., p. 60.

  43. Ibid., note, p. 60.

  44. Sir Douglas Haig, ‘4th Despatch (1917 Campaigns), 25 December 1917’, www.firstworldwar.com/source/haigcampaign1917despatch.htm.

  45. Davies, ebook, loc. 1584.

  46. Quoted in Sheldon, p. 4.

  47. Ibid.

  48. Edmonds, p. 55.

  49. Herwig, p. 321.

  50. Quoted in Sheldon, p. 26.

  51. Bean, p. 593.

  52. Quoted in Sheldon, p. 14.

  53. Edmonds, p. 62.

  54. Ibid.

  55. Bean, p. 594.

  56. Ibid.

  57. Bean, p. 594.

  58. Bean, p. 595.

  59. For the official British history of these and other battles during Third Ypres, see Edmonds, pp. 61–8. For the best account of the German experience at Messines, see Sheldon.

  60. Quoted in Johnstone, pp. 290–1.

  61. Quoted in Sheldon, p. 23.

  62. Ibid., p. 7.

  63. Ibid., p. 12.

  64. Ibid., p. 5.

  65. Ibid., p. 9.

  66. Edmonds, p. 71.

  67. Yoxall private papers, letter to mother, 8 June 1917.

  68. Ibid., 9 June 1917.

  69. Edmonds, p. 73.

  70. Bean, p. 618.

  71. Edmonds, pp. 79–8
0.

  72. Bean, p. 621.

  73. https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/30215/supplement/7905.

  74. Bean, p. 625.

  75. Bean, p. 624.

  76. Skirth, private papers, pp. 116–28.

  77. Ibid.

  78. Edmonds, p. 87.

  79. Sir Douglas Haig, ‘4th Despatch (1917 Campaigns), 25 December 1917’, www.firstworldwar.com/source/haigcampaign1917despatch.htm.

  80. War Cabinet Papers, 11 June 1917.

  81. Edmonds, p. 87; Sheldon, p. 315; Vandiver, F., ‘Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig and Passchendaele’, in Liddle (ed), p. 35.

  82. JSTOR paper, ‘The Psychology of Killing’, pp. 239–40.

  83. Ludendorff, ebook, loc. 493.

  84. Rupprecht, My War Diary.

  Chapter 7: A Fatal Delay

  1. Gollin, p. 448.

  2. War Cabinet Papers, CAB 27/6, 7th Meeting of Committee on War Policy, 19 June 1917.

  3. War Cabinet Papers, CAB 27/6, 2nd Meeting of Committee on War Policy, 12 June 1917.

  4. Ibid.

  5. Ibid.

  6. Ibid.

  7. Haig, 14 June 1917.

  8. Ibid.

  9. Ibid.

  10. Haig to Robertson, 17 June 1917, quoted in Terraine, The Road to Passchendaele, pp. 138–9.

  11. Ibid.

  12. Ibid., pp. 139–40.

  13. Haig, p. 239.

  14. The following discussion is based on the Minutes taken by Cabinet secretary Maurice Hankey, Haig’s diary, Lloyd George’s memoir and various secondary sources; see Terraine, Lloyd George, Wolff, Haig’s Diary.

  15. Wolff, p. 142.

  16. Lloyd George, p. 363.

  17. War Cabinet Papers, CAB 27/6, 7th Meeting of Committee on War Policy, 19 June 1917.

  18. Ibid.

  19. Ibid.

  20. Lloyd George, p. 366.

  21. War Cabinet Papers, CAB 27/6, 7th Meeting of Committee on War Policy, 19 June 1917.

  22. Lloyd George, p. 367.

  23. War Cabinet Papers, 16 March 1917.

  24. War Cabinet Papers, CAB 27/6, 7th Meeting of Committee on War Policy, 19 June 1917.

  25. War Cabinet Papers, 15 June 1917.

  26. War Cabinet Papers, CAB 27/6, 7th Meeting of Committee on War Policy, 19 June 1917.

  27. Lloyd George, p. 367.

  28. Ibid.

  29. War Cabinet Papers, CAB 27/6, 9th Meeting of Committee on War Policy, 20 June 1917.

  30. Lloyd George, p. 375.

  31. War Cabinet Papers, CAB 27/6, 9th Meeting of Committee on War Policy, 20 June 1917.

  32. Ibid.

  33. Lloyd George, p. 378.

  34. War Cabinet Papers, CAB 27/6, 9th Meeting of Committee on War Policy, 20 June 1917.

  35. Edmonds, p. 101.

  36. Wolff, p. 149.

  37. War Cabinet Papers, CAB 27/6, 10th Meeting of Committee on War Policy, 21 June 1917.

  38. Lloyd George, p. 367.

  39. JSTOR paper, ‘Lloyd George’s Premiership: A Study in “Prime Ministerial Government”’, p. 9.

  40. War Cabinet Papers, 27–28 June 1917.

  41. Wolff, p. 145.

  42. Haig, Diary (Blake edition), pp. 240–1.

  43. War Cabinet Papers, 13 and 20 July 1917.

  44. Lloyd George, pp. 391–4.

  45. Ibid., p. 385.

  46. Ibid., p. 391.

  47. Farrar-Hockley, pp. 71–2.

  48. Ibid., p. 165.

  49. Robbins, p. 33.

  50. Ibid., p. 16.

  51. Ibid., p. 33.

  52. Ibid., p. 33; see also Beckett, Chapter 4 and p. 85.

  53. Beckett, p. 85.

  54. Prior and Wilson, p. 70.

  55. Edmonds, p. 17.

  56. Beckett, p. 39.

  57. Edmonds, p. 131.

  58. Quoted in ibid.

  59. In Sheffield (ed), Leadership and Command, p. 90.

  60. Sheffield, Haig, p. 228.

  61. Frankfurter Zeitung, 1 July 1917.

  62. Quoted in Macdonald, p. 87.

  63. Rupprecht, II, pp. 195, 199.

  64. Ibid.

  65. Jones, p. 233. Though here he refers to the Somme, the description is apt.

  66. Prior and Wilson, p. 72.

  67. Hagenlück, H., ‘The German High Command’, in Liddle (ed), p. 51.

  68. Ibid.

  69. War Cabinet Papers, 30 July 1917.

  70. Rupprecht, II, p. 232.

  71. Werth, G., ‘Flanders 1917 and the German Soldier’, in Liddle (ed), Chapter 20.

  72. Dearden, private papers, diary, p. 50.

  Chapter 8: August 1917

  1. Ibid.

  2. Hind private papers, memoir, p. 56.

  3. Macdonald, p. 95.

  4. Dearden, private papers, diary, p. 75.

  5. Wilkinson, private papers, letter.

  6. Dearden, private papers, diary, p. 71.

  7. Bewsher, p. 198.

  8. Hind, private papers, memoir, p. 216.

  9. Van Bergen, p. 184.

  10. Allhusen, private papers, memoir.

  11. Ibid.

  12. Ibid.

  13. Ibid.

  14. Ibid.

  15. Beumelburg, p. 7.

  16. Allfree, private papers, memoir, p. 124.

  17. Ibid., p. 130.

  18. Allfree, private papers, diary, p. 137.

  19. Ibid., p. 138.

  20. Ibid., p. 146.

  21. Ibid., p. 143.

  22. Ibid., pp. 140–1.

  23. Ibid., p. 146.

  24. Ibid.

  25. Ibid., p. 149.

  26. Hagenlück, H., ‘The German High Command’, in Liddle (ed), p. 51.

  27. Quoted in McNab, p. 74. See also Von Kuhl’s chapter on Flanders.

  28. See Sheldon for a good explanation of the German concept of ‘flexible defence’.

  29. Dearden, private papers, diary, p. 72.

  30. Quoted in Sheldon, p. 43.

  31. Quoted in ibid., p. 59.

  32. Beumelburg, p. 10.

  33. Bostyn (ed), p. 15.

  34. Dearden, private papers, diary, p. 75.

  35. War Cabinet Papers, 20–21 July 1917; see also in Edmonds, p. 105–6.

  36. Edmonds, p. 106.

  37. Quoted in Terraine, Douglas Haig: The Educated Soldier, p. 336.

  38. Beumelburg, p. 10.

  39. Bostyn (ed), p. 21.

  40. Beumelburg, p. 10.

  41. Kuhl, pp. 121–2.

  42. Hagenlück, H., ‘The German High Command’, in Liddle (ed), p. 52.

  43. Beumelburg, p. 10.

  44. Ibid.

  45. Prior and Wilson, p. 88.

  46. Fifth Army intelligence reports, quoted in Prior and Wilson, p. 88.

  47. Edmonds, p. 136; see also Haig’s diary, 25 July 1917.

  48. Beumelburg, p. 10.

  49. Campbell, private papers, memoir, p. 80.

  50. Quoted in Sheldon, p. 54.

  51. Macdonald, ebook, loc. 2149.

  52. Edmonds, p. 151.

  53. Macdonald, ebook, loc. 2149.

  54. Ibid., loc. 1954.

  55. Ibid.

  56. Bostyn (ed), p. 23.

  57. Ibid.; see also Edmonds, p. 156 (note).

  58. Macdonald, ebook, loc. 2149.

  59. Quoted in Sheldon, p. 56.

  60. Quoted in Edmonds, p. 24.

  61. Edmonds, p. 152.

  62. Ibid., p. 157, plus note.

  63. Quoted in Wolff, pp. 198–9. See alternative translations: http://www.casinapioiv.va/content/accademia/en/magisterium/benedictxv/1august1917.pdf; and https://repository.library.nd.edu/view/370/838948.pdf.

  64. The Times, quoted in Wolff, pp. 198–9.

  65. Ludendorff, ebook, loc. 1802.

  66. Campbell, private papers, memoir, p. 91.

  67. Quoted in Edmonds, p. 170.

  68. Edmonds, p. 171.

  69. Macdonald, ebook, loc. 2377.

  70. McCarthy, p. 11.

&
nbsp; 71. Yoxall, private papers, diary, 2 August 1917.

  72. Daily Mail, 2 August 1917.

  73. Allfree, private papers, diary, p. 130.

  74. Ibid., p. 165.

  75. Ibid., p. 166.

  76. Ibid., pp. 170–1.

  77. Wolff, p. 169.

  78. Macdonald, ebook, loc. 2211.

  79. Prior and Wilson, p. 97.

  80. Wolff, p. 170.

  81. Robertson, II, pp. 250–1.

  82. Ibid.

  83. Lee, J., ‘The British Divisions at Third Ypres’, in Liddle (ed), p. 217.

  84. Haig, 10 August 1917.

  85. Campbell, private papers, memoir, p. 111.

  86. Ibid., p. 101.

  87. Ibid., p. 104.

  88. Ibid., p. 105.

  89. Ibid., p. 112.

  90. Ibid., pp. 117–18.

  91. Quoted in Terraine, The Road to Passchendaele, p. 228.

  92. Prior and Wilson, p. 102; Falls, History of the 36th (Ulster) Division, p. 116.

  93. Prior and Wilson, p. 102.

  94. Bostyn (ed), p. 39.

  95. Ibid., p. 42.

  96. Ibid., p. 43.

  97. Haig, 17 August 1917.

  98. Bostyn (ed), p. 44.

  99. Falls, History of the 36th (Ulster) Division, p. 116.

  100. Lee, J., ‘The British Divisions at Third Ypres’, in Liddle (ed), p. 218.

  101. McNab, p. 96.

  102. Haig, 16 August 1917.

  103. Ibid.

  104. Ibid.

  105. Prior and Wilson, p. 105.

  106. Gough, ebook, loc. 142.

  107. Bostyn (ed), p. 33 (note).

  108. Quoted in Macdonald, ebook, loc. 2413.

  109. Wohlenberg, p. 302–3.

  110. Ibid.

  111. Quoted in Macdonald, ebook, loc. 2605.

  112. Gold, letter to The Spectator, 17 January 1958.

  113. Fletcher, C. R. L. and Atkinson, C. T., ‘The Flanders Battleground’, Army Quarterly, Vol. I, October 1920, p. 155.

  114. Sir Douglas Haig’s Despatches, Full Text, December 1915 to April 1919, https://archive.org/details/sirdouglashaigsd00haiguoft.

  115. Hussey, J., ‘The Flanders Battleground and the Weather in 1917’, in Liddle (ed), p. 147. Hussey’s excellent essay draws on admirable graduate research by Philip Griffiths, a geography student at Birmingham University.

  116. Ibid., p. 143.

  117. Ibid., p. 148.

  118. Ibid. See also Sir Douglas Haig’s Despatches, 1917, Full Text, December 1915 to April 1919, https://archive.org/details/sirdouglashaigsd00haiguoft.

  119. McNab, p. 99.

  120. Edmonds, p. 209.

  121. Ibid.; see also Wolff, p. 197.

  122. Bostyn (ed), p. 31 (note 31).

  123. McCarthy, p. 27.

  124. Quoted in Edmonds, p. 177.

  125. Edmonds, p. 177.

  126. Edmonds, p. 210; Sheffield, Forgotten Victory.

  127. Rupprecht, Diary.

  128. Edmonds, p. 209; Wolff, p. 197.

  129. Kuhl, II, p. 114.

  130. Ludendorff, p. 92.

 

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