As early as my very first glimpse of the Western Front – with my parents, more years ago than I care to remember – I have been working up a significant debt to a band of like-minded professionals, enthusiasts and academics. Over the years they have been unearthing, sometimes quite literally, old, new and at times arcane facts about the Western Front. Their fields of endeavour span armies and regiments, tactics, weapons, engineering, genealogy, geology, archaeology, museology and history – to name but the most obvious. It behoves me to thank as many as possible within the space available.
Perhaps the first candidate for acknowledgement is Dr Paddy Griffith, formerly of the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, with whom friendly ‘tactical’ sparring has led to significant results. Simon Jones, formerly of the Royal Engineers and King’s Liverpool museums, has frequently helped with questions of gas and mining. Colonel John Downham, Colonel Mike Glover, Jane Davies, Gary Smith and Peter Donnelly have provided access to many specific texts and objects from the collections of the North, South and East Lancashire regiments as well as the Manchesters, Liverpool Scottish, King’s Own and Lancashire Fusiliers. Colonel Martin Steiger and Captain John Cornish have been unfailingly supportive in their respective roles with the Duke of Lancaster’s Own Yeomanry and 14th and 20th Hussars. On the other side of the Pennines John Spencer of the Duke of Wellington’s Museum and Keith Matthews at York Castle have been similarly helpful. Further south I have had fruitful correspondence with Ian Hook of the Essex Regiment Museum and Andy Robertshaw at the Royal Logistic Corps – both former colleagues at the National Army Museum. At the Imperial War Museum, London, Manchester and Duxford, many staff past and present have been of great assistance, most notably David Penn, Fergus Read, Mike Hibberd and Martin Boswell.
I should also like to thank Major Norman Bonney, who was keen to help at an early stage with his extensive experience of grenades and explosives, as was the late Anthony Carter with his remarkable knowledge of bayonets and units. Martin Windrow, Richard Dunning, Gerry Embleton, Julian Sykes, Ray Westlake and Paul Hannon have all given practical assistance at different times – not least with illustrations and contacts. Many of the members of the Western Front Association and Great War Society have similarly been most helpful over the years, and for these the name of Geoff Carefoot must stand in symbolically for the many. Sniping expert Martin Pegler, formerly of the Royal Armouries, is now proprietor of Orchard Farm at Combles on the Somme – one of several bases from whence research has been conducted. Last but not least in this list is David Wollweber, my patient travelling companion along that long, continuous and still controversial battlefield – the Western Front.
Dr Stephen Bull
2010
French troops man a trench in cold weather. Both wear animal fleece, hair side inward, tied with a cord around the body; a brazier is also visible, foreground left. (Author’s collection)