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 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
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
We hope you enjoyed this book. We are an independent publisher dedicated to discovering brilliant books, new authors and great storytelling. Please join us at www.headofzeus.com and become part of our community of book-lovers.
We will keep you up to date with our latest books, author blogs, special previews, tempting offers, chances to win signed editions and much more.
If you have any questions, feedback or just want to say hi, please drop us a line on hello@headofzeus.com
@HoZ_Books
HeadofZeusBooks