Foreword (pp. xii–xv)
1. Precis notes by H. L. Birks for War Office battlefield tour in March 1935, in Tank Museum (E2006.342). Published as ‘The Tank in Action’, in Royal Tank Corps Journal (November 1935). A number of minor edits have been made.
2. ‘Tales of a Gaspipe Officer’ by ‘Despatch Rider’ (W. H. L. Watson), Blackwood’s Magazine (February 1916), p. 257. His service record in NA (WO 339/23425) shows he was evacuated home after being wounded in May 1915.
3. Steuben, pp. 31–2 – article by Leutnant B. Hegermann.
4. From Part Three in a series of articles entitled ‘Return to Hell’ by Henry Williamson in Evening Standard, 1 July 1964.
Chapter 1: A Vision of the World’s End (pp. 3–11)
1. Modern Flemish spellings are used here, but the British referred to Poperinge as Poperinghe, De Lovie as La Lovie and Ieper as Ypres.
2. Harvey Cushing, From a Surgeon’s Journal 1915-1918, London, 1936, p. 165.
3. Watson, A Company of Tanks, p. 104.
4. Bion, War Memoirs, pp. 26–8.
5. Bion, The Long Week-end, p. 124.
6. Gibbs, From Bapaume to Passchendaele 1917, p. 13.
7. Martel, pp. 20–1.
8. See Official History – Passchendaele, p. 138. This shows that 4,283,550 shells of all calibres were fired along the 15-mile front from 15 July to 2 August.
9. Baker-Carr, From Chauffeur to Brigadier, pp. 226–7.
10. War Diary of 184th Tunnelling Company, Royal Engineers in NA (WO 95/336).
11. Ibid.
12. Watson, A Company of Tanks, p. 118.
13. War Diary of 3rd Bn Tank Corps in NA (WO 95/106).
14. War Diary of 4th Bn Tank Corps in NA (WO 95/110). Note that the name Deborah is not recorded before November 1917.
15. Ibid.
16. Browne, pp. 105–6.
17. Watson, A Company of Tanks, p. 122.
18. Baker-Carr, From Chauffeur to Brigadier, pp. 238–9.
19. Anon., ‘The Wanderings of “D” in France’. This series of articles was published anonymously, but extensive research has enabled the author to be identified.
20. Official History – Passchendaele, pp. 177–8.
21. Report on Action of Tanks on 31st July 1917 in War Diary of Tank Corps HQ in NA (WO 95/92). A slightly different analysis of the figures is in Official History – Passchendaele, p. 179: ‘Of 117 fighting tanks which had gone into action, 77 had been ditched, bellied or had broken down mechanically, and 42 of these, including those receiving direct hits by shell, had become a total loss.’
22. Preliminary Report on Tank Operations on 31st July, 1917 in War Diary of Tank Corps HQ in NA (WO 95/91). This comment does not seem to have found its way into the final report.
23. Report of Action of Tanks on 31st July 1917 in War Diary of Tank Corps HQ in NA (WO 95/92).
24. Ibid.
25. Report upon the action of the Tanks in the battle of the 31st July, dated 14 August 1917, in War Diary of Tank Corps HQ in NA (WO 95/92).
26. Ibid.
27. Ibid.
28. War Diary of Tank Corps HQ in NA (WO 95/92).
Chapter 2: Temporary Gentlemen (pp. 12–18)
1. Gough, p. 193.
2. 6th Tank Battalion War History in War Diary in NA (WO 95/107).
3. Anon., ‘The Wanderings of “D” in France’.
4. Browne, p. 191
5. Anon., H.Q. Tanks 1917-1918, privately printed 1920, pp. 4–5. Although anonymous, this has been identified as the work of Captain Evan Charteris.
6. Ibid., pp. 5–6.
7. Ibid., pp. 7–8.
8. Bion, The Long Week-end, p. 121; sentences from ‘I heard’ to ‘one’s heart’ added from Commentary in Bion, War Memoirs, p. 206.
9. Macintosh, Men and Tanks, p. 13.
10. The Mark IV tank carried Lewis guns, whose ammunition was fed from a drum rather than a belt, and were therefore not machine guns in the strictest sense. However, this term was often used at the time, as it is in this book.
11. Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, entry by Graham M. Miller and Richard L. N. Greenaway, available online at Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand.
12. Angus Macdonald, George Macdonald, Gentleman – Sometime Farmer – Sometime Historian, unpublished biography.
13. Ibid.
14. Ibid.
15. Service record in NA (WO 339/29568).
16. Ibid.
17. Ibid.
18. Ibid.
19. Letter dated 26 August 1915 in Christchurch City Libraries (Archive 825).
20. Ibid.
21. Service record in NA (WO 339/29568).
22. Ibid.
23. The Press, Christchurch, 6 November 1916.
24. Service record in NA (WO 339/29568).
25. Anon., ‘The Wanderings of “D” in France’.
26. Service record in NA (WO 339/74665).
27. Macintosh, Men and Tanks, pp. 9–10.
28. Service record in NA (WO 339/80502).
Chapter 3: A Very Fine Lot Indeed (pp. 19–24)
1. Baker-Carr, From Chauffeur to Brigadier, p. 288.
2. Arthur Jenkin, A Tank Driver’s Experiences, or Incidents in a Soldier’s Life, London, 1922, p. 122.
3. Organisation of the Heavy Section of the Machine Gun Corps later known as the Tank Corps in NA (WO 158/804). The Heavy Branch was originally known as the Heavy Section.
4. Interview in Liddle Collection (278).
5. Watson, A Company of Tanks, p. 16.
6. Harold A. Littledale, ‘With the Tanks’, The Atlantic Monthly (December 1918), p. 836.
7. Details from service record in NA (WO 363); father’s obituary in The Cornishman and Cornish Telegraph, 29 May 1930; US Censuses; immigration/emigration records; Elizabeth A. Brennan and Elizabeth C. Clarage, Who’s Who of Pulitzer Prize Winners, Phoenix, Arizona, 1998.
8. Bion, War Memoirs, p. 8.
9. Bion, Commentary in War Memoirs, p. 201.
10. Birks, ‘Cambrai – The Attack on Flésquières Ridge [sic]’.
11. Letter from Charles E. Foot in City of Westminster Archives Centre (991/15).
12. Family recollection from Charles Foot.
13. Details from birth certificate, census records and The Bucks Herald, 9 December 1916.
14. Gibbs, Realities of War, p. 316. In an earlier book (The Battles of the Somme, p. 256) Gibbs describes a more upbeat meeting with a tank ‘skipper’ who referred to his tank as ‘my beauty’ – he is said to be a ‘young officer (who is about five feet high)’, which makes it fairly certain this was George’s tank commander.
15. Alan H. Maude (ed.), The 47th (London) Division 1914-1919 – By Some Who Served with it in the Great War, London, 1922, p. 64.
16. Letter in Tank Museum. In view of the critical comments I have elected not to identify the commander of Foot’s tank, or the author of the letter.
17. Interview in IWM Sound Archive (870).
18. Pidgeon, p. 105.
19. London Gazette, 14 November 1916.
20. War Diary of 4th Bn Tank Corps in NA (WO 95/110).
21. Service records, held by Ministry of Defence; family recollections.
22. Notebook of Captain A. G. Woods in Tank Museum (E1963.38.1). Evidence of their friendship comes from a studio photograph showing them together in August 1917, now in the possession of Russell Enoch.
23. War Diary of 2nd New Zealand Infantry Brigade HQ in NA (WO 95/3693).
24. War Diary of 4th Bn Tank Corps in NA (WO 95/ 110).
25. See Pidgeon, p. 168 – original source not identified, but widely quoted in contemporary accounts such as Gibbs, The Battles of the Somme, p. 264, and Captain Basil Williams, Raising and Training the New Armies, London, 1918, p. 217.
26. Official History – Somme, p. 366.
27. War Diary of 4th Bn Tank Corps in NA (WO 95/110).
28. Ibid.
Chapter 4: Dracula’s Fate (pp. 25–28)
1. Notebook and Diary of Captain A. G. Woods in Tank Museum (E1963.38.1), This is one of a number of documents that use the alternative spelling ‘Foote’.
2. War Diary of 4th Bn Tank Corps in NA (WO 95/110).
3. Service record in NA (WO 339/45302).
4. War Diary of 4th Bn Tank Corps in NA (WO 95/110).
5. Colonel H. Stewart, The New Zealand Division 1916-1919 – A Popular History Based on Official Records, Auckland, 1921, pp. 111–12.
6. The Times, 6 October 1916.
7. Official History – Somme, p. 430.
8. Service record in NA (WO 339/45302).
9. Letter from grandson of Second Lieutenant William Sampson in Tank Museum (E1972.81.2).
10. Citation in Supplement to the Tank Corps Book of Honour.
11. Service record in NA (WO 363). Glaister may have been one of those who stayed in the shell crater with Wakley and Foot, but the wording of his medal citation and the dates of his wound and treatment make it more likely that he mounted a rescue attempt from the British lines.
12. Official History – Somme, p. 432.
13. Gibbs, The Battles of the Somme, pp. 322–3.
14. Notebook and Diary of Captain A. G. Woods in Tank Museum (E1963.38.1).
15. The Bucks Herald, 9 December 1916.
16. The Times, 6 October 1916.
17. Citation in Supplement to the Tank Corps Book of Honour.
18. Service record in NA (WO 363).
19. Letter in Glaister’s file in Tank Museum (E2003.36).
20. Information from Shaun Corkerry and Stuart Nicholson in Whitehaven.
21. Letter in Glaister’s file in Tank Museum (E2003.36).
22. Service record in NA (WO 363).
23. Service record in NA (WO 339/45302).
24. Ibid.
25. Ibid.
26. Divorce file in NA (J 77/1702/2962).
27. The Times, 2 May 1921.
28. The Times, 8 May 1922.
Chapter 5: Of Knaves and Jokers (pp. 29–34)
Thanks to Cliff Brown and Ron Clifton for their assistance in Cambridge, and to Nigel Henderson, Lester Morrow and Robert Corbett in Belfast.
1. Photograph in possession of family.
2. Birth certificate, baptism register, census returns.
3. From Rupert Brooke, The Old Vicarage, Grantchester.
4. Census records; family recollections and photographs.
5. Riddell and Clayton, pp. 5 and 280–1.
6. Cambridge Independent Press, 23 April 1915.
7. Medal index cards.
8. CWGC records.
9. Riddell and Clayton, p. 29.
10. Adam, p. 195.
11. Riddell and Clayton, p. 30. He added: ‘Subsequent events proved that this estimate of the value of the 1st Cambridgeshires was hopelessly inaccurate.’
12. Ibid., p. 34.
13. Ibid., p. 44.
14. Ibid., pp. 48–9.
15. Adam, pp. 242–3.
16. Cambridge Chronicle, 12 December 1917.
17. War Diary of 1/1st Bn Cambridgeshire Regiment in NA (WO 95/2590/1).
18. Riddell and Clayton, pp. 74–5.
19. See Adam, Arthur Innes Adam 1894-1916 and In a World I Never Made, London, 1967, p. 46 by his sister Barbara Wootton.
20. Shown by consecutive entries in medal register in NA (WO 329/1775).
21. Census records.
22. Belfast Evening Telegraph, 15 December 1917.
23. Census records.
24. Service records in NA (WO 363); they had consecutive service numbers showing they joined up at the same time.
25. Medal index card.
26. War Diary of 13th Bn Royal Irish Rifles in NA (WO 95/2506/3).
27. Ibid.
28. Falls, The History of the 36th (Ulster) Division, p. 59.
29. War Diary of 13th Bn Royal Irish Rifles in NA (WO 95/2506/3).
30. CWGC records.
31. War Diary of 13th Bn Royal Irish Rifles in NA (WO 95/2506/3).
32. Date of transfer known from the single surviving page of his service record in NA (WO 363).
Chapter 6: The Sword of Deborah (pp. 35–39)
1. Photographs in possession of family.
2. Census records.
3. He gave this as his occupation in the 1911 Census, though in 1916 Wright’s Directory still listed him as a warehouseman.
4. Employer’s name given in Nottinghamshire Guardian, 22 December 1917.
5. Photographs in possession of family.
6. War Diary of 1st Bn King’s Own (Royal Lancaster Regiment) in NA (WO 95/1506/1).
7. Census records.
8. Family recollections.
9. Service record in NA (WO 363).
10. Medal index cards and service records for George and Charles Dimler in NA (WO 363 and WO 364).
11. War Diary of 9th Motor Machine Gun Battery in NA (WO 95/1038).
12. Ibid.
13. Watson, A Company of Tanks, p. 16.
14. Photographs in possession of family.
15. D Bn Battlegraph for 22 August 1917 in Tank Museum (E2006.1861).
16. Birth records for England and Wales.
17. Judges 5:31 in Authorised King James Bible.
18. Henry VI Part I Act I Scene 2. The Sword of Deborah – First-Hand Impressions of the British Women’s Army in France is the title of a book by F. Tennyson Jesse (London, 1918).
19. Names from War Diary of 4th Bn Tank Corps in NA (WO 95/110).
20. Service record in NA (WO 339/99800).
21. Names from War Diary of 4th Bn Tank Corps in NA (WO 95/110).
22. Macintosh, Men and Tanks, p. 13.
23. Coghlan, ‘Cambrai Day’.
24. Letter in the possession of Mme Bacquet, Cambrai.
Chapter 7: In Honour Bound (pp. 40–46)
1. Tank Corps Summary of Information for 5 August 1917 in NA (WO 157/239).
2. Fifth Army Intelligence Summary in NA (WO 157/213).
3. War Diary of 113th Infantry Brigade HQ in NA (WO 95/2553).
4. Service record in NA (WO 339/64664).
5. War Diary of Fifth Army HQ General Staff in NA (WO 95/520).
6. Ibid.
7. Ibid.
8. Ibid.
9. War Diary of 14th Bn Royal Welsh Fusiliers in NA (WO 95/2555/2).
10. Aussagen zweier englischer Gefangener vom XIV/R.W.Fus. in Militärarchiv, Freiburg (PH3/584).
11. Ibid.
12. Ibid.
13. War Diary of 113th Infantry Brigade HQ in NA (WO 95/2553).
14. CWGC records.
15. War Diary of Fifth Army Adjutant and Quarter-Master General in NA (WO 95/525).
16. Ibid.
17. Williams-Ellis, p. 77.
18. Browne, pp. 107–8.
19. Baker-Carr, From Chauffeur to Brigadier, p. 239.
20. Mitchell, p. 101.
21. Service record in NA (WO 339/64664).
22. Letter in The Daily Telegraph on 6 July 1934, from ‘George E. Mackenzie, Minister of Kirkhope, and late Lt., 153rd Bde., R.H.A., B.E.F.’
23. W. H. A. Groom, Poor Bloody Infantry – A Memoir of the First World War, London, 1976, p. 127.
24. Rorie, p. 147.
25. War Diary of 3rd Bn Tank Corps in NA (WO 95/106).
26. Aussagen zweier englischer Gefangener vom XIV/R.W.Fus. in Militärarchiv, Freiburg (PH3/584).
27. Browne, p. 107.
28. Watson, A Company of Tanks, p. 119.
29. Williams-Ellis, p. 77.
30. Brigadier-General J. Charteris, Memorandum: Prevention of Espionage and Leakage of Information, GHQ 27 December 1916. A copy is preserved in the papers of Sir John Monash in the Australian War Memorial (RCDIG0000617).
31. Watson, A Company of Tanks, p. 119.
32. Nominal Roll of N.C.O.’s and Men of the 14th Bn. Royal Welsh Fusiliers who embarked with the Battalion on Dec. 1st, 1915, in Bangor University Archives (BMSS/7060).
33. Medal index card.
34. International Committee of the Red Cross records.
35. Y Seren, 15 September 1917.
36. Cambrian News, 21 September 1917. The article says the letter was sent on 25 July, which must be a mistake as he was not captured until 26/27 July.
37. Marriage certificate, census records, birth/marriage/death records.
Chapter 8: Ray of Sunshine (pp. 49–55)
1. This was the usual spelling used by the British during the war, though the village is now generally known by its Flemish name of Sint-Juliaan. Langemarck is now properly known as Langemark Poelkapelle.
2. Baker-Carr, From Chauffeur to Brigadier, p. 251.
3. Order No. 91 in War Diary of 33rd Infantry Brigade HQ in NA (WO 95/1811).
4. This is the scheme outlined in Order No. 13 dated 17 August 1917 in War Diary of 1st Brigade Tank Corps HQ in NA (WO 95/98). Browne, p. 197 says ‘this plan was afterwards modified considerably, for what reason I do not know’.
5. War Diary of 7th Bn Tank Corps in NA (WO 95/100).
6. Undated report in papers of General Sir Ivor Maxse in IWM (PP/MCR/C42).
7. Fuller, Memoirs of an Unconventional Soldier, p. 154.
8. Ibid., p. 94; see also Fuller, Tanks in the Great War 1914–1918, p. xvi.
9. Lecture by Lt-Col. Baker-Carr on ‘The Employment of Tanks’ in Tank Museum (E2004.3211).
10. Baker-Carr, From Chauffeur to Brigadier, p. 252.
11. Letter from Ivor to Mary Maxse dated 20 August 1917 in West Sussex Record Office (WSRO), Chichester. Thanks to Tony Maxse for permission to quote from these papers, and to Rhodri Lewis at WSRO.
12. Letter from Leo to Ivor Maxse dated 11 September 1917 in WSRO.
13. The Times, 21 August 1917. The article appeared anonymously but the author is named as Beach Thomas in Browne, pp. 234–5. Douglas Browne says the story was based on interviews with men who had not taken part in the battle, since the actual participants were asleep, and says of the article, ‘those of us who had been there were unable to recognise a single detail’.
14. Williams-Ellis, p. 93.
15. Browne, p. 236.
16. Williams-Ellis, p. 93.
17. GHQ Summary of Information dated 28 August 1917 in NA (WO 157/23).
18. Browne, p. 195.
19. Stühmke, pp. 178–9.
20. 125th Infantry Regiment Stab Kriegstagebuch (i.e. HQ War Diary) in Hauptstaatsarchiv Stuttgart (M411 Bd 1082).
21. 51st Infantry Brigade Kriegstagebuch in Hauptstaatsarchiv Stuttgart (M410 Bü 938). The report is timed at 10.35 a.m. on 19 August 1917.
22. German trench-maps show the bunker slightly north of Vancouver as marked on British maps, but the accounts of the action make it clear they must have been the same.
23. Stühmke, pp. 180–1.
24. Divisionsbefehl (i.e. divisional order) issued at 9.30 p.m. on 19 August 1917, in 26th Infantry Division Kriegstagebuch Anlagen (i.e. appendices) in Hauptstaatsarchiv Stuttgart (M410 Bd 177).
25. 125th Infantry Regiment Stab Kriegstagebuch in Hauptstaatsarchiv Stuttgart (M411 Bd 1082).
26. 51st Infantry Brigade Kriegstagebuch in Hauptstaatsarchiv Stuttgart (M410 Bü 938). Report at the end of 20 August 1917.
27. Divisionsbefehl at 11.30 p.m. on 20 August 1917 in 26th Infantry Division Kriegstagebuch Anlagen in Hauptstaatsarchiv Stuttgart (M410 Bd 177).
Chapter 9: Crossing the Canal (pp. 56–61)
1. This is the date given in Anon., ‘The Wanderings of “D” in France’, but the War Diaries of 1st Brigade Tank Corps HQ and 4th Bn Tank Corps show they set out on the following day (i.e. 20 August).
2. Anon., ‘The Wanderings of “D” in France’.
3. Browne, p. 199. Elephant-iron shelters were built of heavy-gauge corrugated iron.
4. Anon., ‘The Wanderings of “D” in France’.
5. Ibid.
6. Browne, pp. 204–5.
7. Official History – Passchendaele, p. 202.
8. War Diary of 1st Brigade Tank Corps HQ in NA (WO 95/98).
9. War Diary of 4th Bn Tank Corps in NA (WO 95/110).
10. War Diary of 143rd Infantry Brigade HQ in NA (WO 95/2754).
11. War Diary of 11th Division HQ in NA (WO 95/1788).
12. Watson, A Company of Tanks, p. 133.
13. Browne, p. 217.
14. H.L.B. (i.e. Horace Leslie Birks), ‘The Brewery, Poelcapelle, October, 1917’, The Tank (October 1955).
15. War Diary of 4th Bn Tank Corps in NA (WO 95/110).
16. Watson, A Company of Tanks, p. 140.
17. Anon., ‘The Wanderings of “D” in France’.
18. War Diary of 4th Bn Tank Corps in NA (WO 95/110).
19. Anon., ‘The Wanderings of “D” in France’.
20. This is presumed because infantry accounts of the battle refer to the new D Battalion names and numbers rather than the former G Battalion ones. For simplicity, the tanks are generally referred to here by their new D Battalion numbers, and by the names with which those numbers were associated. Apart from D51, the other changes were as follows:
• Crew of D41 (name given in 33rd Infantry Brigade report as Devil) under Second Lieutenant Andrew Lawrie transferred to G24 Gridiron.
• Crew of D42 (associated with name Daphne) under Second Lieutenant Henry Sherwood transferred to G21 Geyser.
• Crew of D45 (associated with name Destroyer) under Second Lieutenant John Symond transferred to G30 Gazeka.
These details are taken from 4th Bn War Diary and D Battalion Battlegraph for 22 August 1917 in Tank Museum (E2006.1861). They do not give names for the four D Bn tanks which did not go into action (including D51).
21. Judd, ‘The Middle Years of the War’. Some changes have been made to punctuation, notably the omission of numerous exclamation marks.
22. Stühmke, p. 181.
Chapter 10: Into the Pillar of Fire (pp. 62–71)
1. Anon., ‘The Wanderings of “D” in France’. Smith refers to ‘twelve 125 h.p. Daimler engines’ but they were actually 105 h.p.
2. War Diary of 184th Tunnelling Company, Royal Engineers in NA (WO 95/336).
3. Judd, ‘The Middle Years of the War’.
4. War Diary of 48th Division HQ in NA (WO 95/2746).
5. Interview in IWM Sound Archive (7031). This recording was made when Jason Addy was on a visit to Cambrai in 1977 (see Chapter 39 below), and closely follows an account in Lyn Macdonald, They Called it Passchendaele, London, 1978, pp. 156–8. There are a number of inconsistencies in the account, hardly surprising so many decades after the battle. He names the tank commander who died as Lieutenant Knight, whereas the only officer to be killed on that date was Lieutenant Lawrie, whose name has therefore been substituted here for consistency. In addition, Addy gives their objective as Bülow Farm rather than Vancouver, and insists they evacuated two wounded men, whereas Jagger’s medal citation only refers to one.
6. Interview in IWM Sound Archive (870). The order of sentences has been slightly changed.
7. Bion, War Memoirs, p. 30.
8. War Diary of 4th Bn Tank Corps in NA (WO 95/110).
9. Census records; Maurice, p. 242.
10. War Diary of 33rd Infantry Brigade HQ in NA (WO 95/1811).
11. War Diary of 48th Division HQ in NA (WO 95/2746).
12. War Diary of 1st Brigade Tank Corps HQ in NA (WO 95/98).
13. War Diary of 48th Division HQ in NA (WO 95/2746).
14. War Diary of 11th Division HQ in NA (WO 95/1788).
15. War Diary of Fifth Army HQ General Staff in NA (WO 95/520).
16. War Diary of 11th Division HQ in NA (WO 95/1788).
17. Anon., ‘The Wanderings of “D” in France’.
18. War Diary of 11th Division HQ in NA (WO 95/1788).
19. War Diary of 6th Bn Gloucestershire Regiment in NA (WO 95/2758).
20. War Diary of 144th Infantry Brigade HQ in NA (WO 95/2757/1).
21. War Diary of 48th Division HQ in NA (WO 95/2746).
22. Ibid.
23. From Part Five in a series of articles entitled ‘Return to Hell’ by Henry Williamson in Evening Standard, 3 July 1964.
24. Stühmke, p. 182.
25. Anon., ‘The Wanderings of “D” in France’.
26. D Bn Battlegraph for 22 August 1917 in Tank Museum (E2006.1861).
27. War Diary of 144th Infantry Brigade HQ in NA (WO 95/2757).
28. Interview in IWM Sound Archive (7031).
29. Mitchell, pp. 118–19.
30. Interview in IWM Sound Archive (7031).
31. Maurice, pp. 243, 255–6 and 283–4.
32. Service record in NA (WO 363); emigration records for SS Kroonland.
33. War Diary of 48th Division HQ in NA (WO 95/2746).
34. Service records in NA (WO 364 and WO 374/41936), census records.
35. War Diary of 4th Bn Tank Corps in NA (WO 95/110).
36. Anon., ‘The Wanderings of “D” in France’.
37. D Bn Battlegraph for 22 August 1917 in Tank Museum (E2006.1861).
38. War Diary of 7th Bn Royal Warwickshire Regiment in NA (WO 95/2756/1).
39. War Diary of 48th Division HQ in NA (WO 95/2746).
40. Ibid.
41. Charles Carrington, Soldier from the Wars Returning, London, 1965, p. 101.
42. War Diary of 48th Division HQ in NA (WO 95/2746).
43. Ibid.
44. War Diary of 4th Bn Tank Corps in NA (WO 95/110).
45. War Diary of 1st Brigade Tank Corps HQ in NA (WO 95/98).
46. Watson, A Company of Tanks, pp. 140–1.
47. Vernehmung von 1 Offizier und 7 Mann der 12. Komp. D.-Batl. Tank-Corps, … 1 Offizier und 3 Mann der 18. Komp. F.-Batl. Tank-Corps, … dated 26 August 1917 in Militärarchiv, Freiburg im Breisgau (PH/3/585). The manufacturer’s number of D46 Dragon was actually 2058.
48. Nachrichtenblatt (i.e. bulletin) Nr. 36 dated 25 August 1917 in 2nd Battalion, 125th Infantry Regiment Kriegstagebuch Anlagen in Hauptstaatsarchiv Stuttgart (M411 Bd 1151).
Chapter 11: Deborah, the Dead Man and the Drummer (pp. 72–79)
1. Anon., ‘The Wanderings of “D” in France’.
2. See War Diary of Tank Corps HQ in NA (WO 95/92) and XVIII Corps Report on Operations of August 22nd 1917 in papers of General Sir Ivor Maxse in IWM (PP/MCR/C42).
3. War Diary of 48th Division HQ in NA (WO 95/2746).
4. D Bn Battlegraph for 22 August 1917 in Tank Museum (E2006.1861).
5. Service record in NA (WO 339/80499).
6. War Diary of 4th Bn Tank Corps in NA (WO 95/110).
7. Photographs from Royal Museum of the Army and of Military History (Nr Inv KLM-MRA 201530003 & 20608-sint-juliaan).
8 War Diary of 5th Bn Royal Warwickshire Regiment in NA (WO 95/2755/1)
9. Lieutenant C. E. Carrington, The War Record of the 1/5th Battalion, The Royal Warwickshire Regiment, Birmingham, 1922, pp. 55–6. A Subaltern’s War was originally published under his pen-name Charles Edmonds.
10. Report on Operations 22nd Aug: 1917 in NA (WO 158/839).
11. Service record in NA (WO 339/29568).
12. Anon., ‘The Wanderings of “D” in France’.
13. Service record in NA (WO 374/26074); Indian Army service record in British Library (L/MIL/9/485/135-46); nickname from Anon., ‘The Wanderings of “D” in France’.
14. Judd, ‘The Middle Years of the War’.
15. War Diary of 6th Bn Tank Corps in NA (WO 95/107).
16. Service record in NA (WO 339/53827).
17. War Diary of 6th Bn Tank Corps in NA (WO 95/107).
18. Official History – Passchendaele, p. 203.
19. War Diary of 61st Division HQ in NA (WO 95/3034).
20. War Diary of 6th Bn Tank Corps in NA (WO 95/107). For fuller accounts see John Foley, The Boilerplate War, London, 1963, and Tony Spagnoly and Ted Smith, Cameos of the Western Front – Salient Points Two, Barnsley, 1998.
21. Vernehmung von 1 Offizier und 7 Mann der 12. Komp. D.-Batl. Tank-Corps, … 1 Offizier und 3 Mann der 18. Komp. F.-Batl. Tank-Corps, … dated 26 August 1917 in Militärarchiv, Freiburg im Breisgau (PH/3/585).
22. Service record in NA (WO 339/53827).
23. Vernehmung von 1 Offizier und 7 Mann der 12. Komp. D.-Batl. Tank-Corps, … 1 Offizier und 3 Mann der 18. Komp. F.-Batl. Tank-Corps, … dated 26 August 1917 in Militärarchiv, Freiburg im Breisgau (PH/3/585).
24. Ibid.
25. Service record in NA (WO 339/53827).
26. Vernehmung von 1 Offizier und 7 Mann der 12. Komp. D.-Batl. Tank-Corps, … 1 Offizier und 3 Mann der 18. Komp. F.-Batl. Tank-Corps, … dated 26 August 1917 in Militärarchiv, Freiburg im Breisgau (PH/3/585).
27. Ibid.
28. Ibid.
29. Ibid.
30. Ibid.
31. Stühmke, p. 183.
Chapter 12: Failure is an Orphan (pp. 80–84)
1. War Diary of Fifth Army HQ General Staff in NA (WO 95/520).
2. War Diary of Tank Corps HQ in NA (WO 95/92).
3. War Diary of 11th Division HQ in NA (WO 95/1788).
4. War Diary of XVIII Corps HQ in NA (WO 95/952) – letter dated 22 August 1917.
5. Report dated 27 September 1917 in papers of General Sir Ivor Maxse in IWM (PP/MCR/C42).
6. Browne, p. 236.
7. Martel, p. 21.
8. XVIII Corps Report on Operations of August 22nd 1917 in papers of General Sir Ivor Maxse in IWM (PP/MCR/C42).
9. John Baynes, Far From a Donkey – The Life of General Sir Ivor Maxse, London & Washington, 1995.
10. CWGC records.
11. War Diary of 184th Infantry Brigade HQ in NA (WO 95/3063).
12. 125th Infantry Regiment Stab Kriegstagebuch (i.e. HQ War Diary) in Hauptstaatsarchiv Stuttgart (M411 Bd 1082).
13. Kampferfahrungen eines Kampftruppen-Kommandeurs aus den letzten Tagen (i.e. Battle experiences the commander of a combat unit in the last few days) dated 25 August 1917, in 26th Infantry Division Kreigstagebuch Anlagen in Hauptstaatsarchiv Stuttgart (M410 Bd 177).
14. Ibid.
15. Fernspruch Nr. 26 to Oberst Stühmke dated 24 August 1917, in 125th Infantry Regiment Stab Kriegstagebuch Anlagen in Hauptstaatsarchiv Stuttgart (M411 Bd 1102)
16. Watson, A Company of Tanks, p. 140.
17. Official History – Passchendaele, p. 202.
18. Williams-Ellis, pp. 92–4.
19. Major-General J. F. C. Fuller, ‘Summary of Tank Operations 1916-1918’, Royal Tank Corps Journal (March-June 1934).
20. From transcript of unpublished memoir dated 27 October 1933 by Private Frank Cunnington of 2/5th Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regiment (Sherwood Foresters), by courtesy of Julian Sykes.
21. Ibid.
22. Letter from Ivor to Mary Maxse dated 5 November 1917 in West Sussex Record Office. The original ends with a question-mark which has been omitted here.
23. Judd, ‘The Middle Years of the War’.
24. For more on Pond Farm, see this website: http://depondfarm.be/en
25. From Part Four in a series of articles entitled ‘Return to Hell’ by Henry Williamson in Evening Standard, 2 July 1964.
26. For details see service record in NA (WO 363) and R. K. R. Thornton (ed.), Ivor Gurney – Collected Letters, Manchester, 1991.
27. Copyright The Ivor Gurney Estate. Extracts are from his poem The Man in Gloucestershire Archives (D10500/1/P/4/98/13), which appeared in Michael Hurd, The Ordeal of Ivor Gurney, Oxford, 1978, pp. 103–5. Thanks to the Ivor Gurney Trust for permission to reproduce these extracts, and to Tim Kendall’s War Poetry blog for pointing out Ivor Gurney’s connection with the battle.
Chapter 13: The Dead Never Stirred (pp. 85–89)
1. Service record in NA (WO 339/29568).
2. The Times, 23 August 1917.
3. Macintosh, Men and Tanks, p. 127.
4. Anon., ‘The Wanderings of “D” in France’.
5. Beckenham Journal, Penge and Sydenham Advertiser, 15 September 1917.
6. Ibid.
7. Bion, The Long Week-end, p. 138.
8. Watson, A Company of Tanks, pp. 143–4. Watson refers to him as ‘the padre’ without giving his name.
9. War Diary of 4th Bn Tank Corps in NA (WO 95/110).
10. War Diary of 144th Infantry Brigade HQ in NA (WO 95/2757).
11. War Diary of Fifth Army General Staff in NA (WO 95/520).
12. War Diary of XVIII Corps HQ in NA (WO 95/951).
13. Vaughan, pp. 221–9.
14. Ibid., pp. 224–5.
15. Ibid., pp. 225–8.
16. War Diary of 4th Bn Tank Corps in NA (WO 95/110).
17. War Diary of Fifth Army General Staff in NA (WO 95/520).
18. Harry Vaughan is not believed to be related to Edwin Campion Vaughan.
19. War Diary of 4th Bn Tank Corps in NA (WO 95/110).
20. Vaughan, p. 228.
21. Ibid., p. 229.
22. Official History – Passchendaele, p. 207.
23. Williams-Ellis, pp. 94–5.
24. Watson, A Company of Tanks, pp. 146–7.
Chapter 14: The Bogs of Passchendaele (pp. 90–96)
1. Gough, p. 205.
2. Anon., ‘The Wanderings of “D” in France’.
3. Macintosh, Men and Tanks, p. 33.
4. The Times, 22 December 1938.
5. Butler, ‘Reminiscences of Salvage Work’.
6. Service record in NA (WO 374/10210).
7. Butler, ‘Reminiscences of Salvage Work’.
8. Supplement to London Gazette, 17 September 1917.
9. For a more detailed account, see Liddell Hart, The Tanks Volume One, pp. 211–13.
10. Service record in NA (WO 374/10210).
11. Butler, ‘Reminiscences of Salvage Work’.
12. Ibid.
13. Ibid.
14. Census records; service record in NA (WO 339/61434).
15. Family recollections.
16. Anon., ‘The Wanderings of “D” in France’.
17. Report dated 27 September 1917 in papers of General Sir Ivor Maxse in IWM (PP/MCR/C42).
18. Lieutenant-General Sir G. M. Harper, Notes on Infantry Tactics & Training, London, 1919.
19. Baker-Carr, From Chauffeur to Brigadier, p. 235.
20. War Diary of 1st Brigade Tank Corps HQ in NA (WO 95/98).
21. Anon., ‘The Wanderings of “D” in France’.
22. Maurice, p. 100.
23. War Diary of 4th Bn Tank Corps in NA (WO 95/110).
24. War Diary of 1st Brigade Tank Corps HQ in NA (WO 95/98).
25. Maurice, p. 259.
26. War Diary of 4th Bn Tank Corps in NA (WO 95/110).
27. War Diary of 5th Bn Tank Corps in NA (WO 95/111).
28. Service record in NA (WO 374/36122).
29. Maurice, pp. 96–7.
30. Handwritten note by Lieutenant Gerald Edwards in Watson, A Company of Tanks, p. 143.
31. War Diary of Fifth Army General Staff in NA (WO 95/520).
32. Official History – Passchendaele, p. 278.
33. Gibbs, From Bapaume to Passchendaele 1917, p. 292.
34. War Diary of 51st Division HQ in NA (WO 95/2846).
35. War Diary of Tank Corps HQ in NA (WO 95/92).
36. It appears Winston Churchill did not invent this memorable phrase, but he used it in a letter to Brigadier-General Sir James Edmonds dated 26 January 1938 in NA (CAB 45/200).
37. Anon., ‘The Wanderings of “D” in France’.
38. Coghlan, ‘Cambrai Day’.
Chapter 15: The Coming of Frank Heap (pp. 98–103)
1. Service record, held by Ministry of Defence.
2. War Diary of 4th Bn Tank Corps in NA (WO 95/110). This is presumed to refer to Frank Heap as no other arrivals are recorded over this period.
3. Photograph in possession of family.
4. Macintosh, Men and Tanks, p. 2. He wrote ‘X Battalion’ and ‘X Company’ but the correct names have been inserted here.
5. Ibid, p. 3.
6. The photos are captioned ‘Tank officers in camp at Poperinghe, 26th September 1917’ (IWM refs. Q 2897, Q 2898 and Q 2899). A letter in The Tank (January 1956) identifies the officers as (left to right) unknown (seated far left), Lieut. William Struthers (standing), 2nd Lieut. Frederick King (seated), Major Richard Cooper, Capt. Wilfred Wyatt, Lieut. Gerald Edwards and 2nd Lieut. Gerald Butler. Round table (left to right): Lieut Edward Sartin, Capt. David Morris, Capt. Hugh Skinner, 2nd Lieut. Harold Puttock, Capt. Christopher Field, 2nd Lieut. Daniel Stevens seated on ground, and 2nd Lieut. Horace Birks second from right.
7. Watson, A Company of Tanks, pp. 148–9.
8. Anon., ‘The Wanderings of “D” in France’.
9. See photograph of Deborah sent to Frank Heap captioned ‘Uriah’s bus’; also dinner menu in possession of Edward Glanville Smith’s family signed ‘Uriah (F. G. Heap)’.
10. Anon., ‘The Wanderings of “D” in France’.
11. War Diary of 4th Bn Tank Corps in NA (WO 95/110).
12. The Army List shows date of commission as 31 January 1917.
13. Service record, held by Ministry of Defence.
14. Bion, The Long Week-end, p. 133.
15. Belfast Evening Telegraph, 15 December 1917.
16. Letter from Frank Heap dated 26 November 1917.
17. War Diary of 4th Bn Tank Corps in NA (WO 95/110).
18. Interview in IWM Sound Archive (870).
19. Anon., ‘The Wanderings of “D” in France’.
20. The ‘flapper’ was an impractical device called the Ayrton fan, intended to dispel poison gas.
21. Macintosh, Men and Tanks, pp. 14–19.
22. Elles, A paper entitled Man power in construction of tanks in NA (WO 158/819) says: ‘The cost of a large fighting Tank is taken at £5,000.’
23. Organisation and supply of tanks, etc, 1915 to 1918 in NA (MUN 5/391/1940/7) Chapter 5.
24. Elles.
25. Gwyn Evans, ‘De-coding Mark IV Serial Numbers – Part One’, Tankette: Magazine of the Miniature Armoured Fighting Vehicle Association Vol. 49 No. 6 (2014). Thanks to Gwyn Evans for his help.
26. History of No 20 Squadron, Royal Naval Armoured Cars 1915-19 in NA (MUN 5/391/1940/5).
27. Macintosh, Men and Tanks, pp. 19–20.
Chapter 16: Heap’s Progress (pp. 104–110)
1. Census records; Yorkshire Post, 30 January 1925.
2. Burnley Gazette, 15 January 1890.
3. Burnley Express, 4 July 1908, and George E. Martin, Breezy Blackpool, Mate’s Illustrated Guides, 1899.
4. American Register, 17 May 1914.
5. Manchester Evening News, 13 September 1899.
6. National Probate Calendar (1925) shows his estate at death was £66,094-3s.
7. Blackpool Gazette, 31 January 1925.
8. George E. Martin, Breezy Blackpool, Mate’s Illustrated Guides, 1899.
9. Blackpool Gazette, 31 January 1925.
10. Family recollections.
11. Census and birth/marriage/death records.
12. Sale particulars in Yorkshire Post, 4 April 1925.
13. Photographs in possession of family.
14. Service record, held by Ministry of Defence.
15. The Times, 4 July 1911.
16. Ibid.
17. Archives of The Leys School.
18. From Inside of King’s College Chapel, Cambridge by William Wordsworth.
19. George E. Martin, Breezy Blackpool, Mate’s Illustrated Guides, 1899.
20. Photographs in possession of family.
21. Family recollections.
22. Photographs in possession of family.
23. Council minutes in King’s College Archives Centre (KCGB/5/1/4/7), p. 179. Thanks to Dr Patricia McGuire, archivist of King’s College, Cambridge.
24. Priestley, p. 16.
25. Service record, held by Ministry of Defence.
26. Ewing, pp. 5–6.
27. Service record, held by Ministry of Defence.
28. Ewing, p. 11.
29. Ian Hay, The First Hundred Thousand, Edinburgh & London, 1915, pp. 170–80. This was the pen-name of Lieutenant, later Major, John Hay Beith of 10th Bn Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders. The Prime Minister Herbert Asquith referred to ‘a tempest which is shaking the foundations of the world’ in the House of Commons on 1 March 1915 – see Hansard.
30. Major-General R. F. H. Nalder, The Royal Corps of Signals – A History of its Antecedents and Development (circa 1800-1955), London, 1958, p. 92.
31. Ewing, p. 31.
32. Priestley, pp. 9 and 29.
33. Maurois, p. 122. The US edition credits the translation to Thurfrida Wake.
34. Ibid., p. 115.
35. Ibid., pp. 124–6.
36. Ibid., p. 131. CWGC records show Major-General George Thesiger, commanding 9th Division, died on 26 September 1915, aged forty-seven, and is commemorated on the Loos Memorial.
37. Ewing, p. 409.
38. Ibid., pp. 64–5.
39. War Diary of 9th Division Signals Company in NA (WO 95/1756/2).
40. Photograph in possession of family.
41. Blackpool Times & Herald, 12 January 1918.
42. Service record, held by Ministry of Defence.
43. Ibid.
44. See headline in The Times, 16 September 1916.
45. Service record, held by Ministry of Defence.
Chapter 17: ‘The Best Company of the Best Battalion’ (pp. 111–115).
1. Interview in IWM Sound Archive (870). The order of some sentences has been changed.
2. Letter from Horace Birks dated 3 December 1954 in Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives (LIDDELL 9/28/64).
3. Service record in NA (WO 339/12569).
4. Macintosh, Men and Tanks, p. 64. He does not name Captain Walter Smith, but refers to him as ‘the second in command’.
5. Ibid., pp. 64–5.
6. Interview in IWM Sound Archive (494).
7. Diary and family tree in possession of family.
8. Cambridge University Alumni 1261-1900.
9. The Times, 1 December 1917.
10. The Times, 12 September 1958.
11. Dorking & Leatherhead Advertiser, 10 November 1928.
12. Marriage certificate.
13. Ibid.
14. Unidentified newspaper article in possession of family.
15. Marriage certificate.
16. Wandsworth Borough News, 24 April 1909.
17. Census and birth/marriage/death records.
18. Service record in NA (WO 339/12569).
19. International Committee of the Red Cross records.
20. Moody, p. 71.
21. War Diary of 6th Bn Buffs (East Kent Regiment) in NA (WO 95/1860).
22. Ibid.
23. CWGC records.
24. Moody, p. 108.
25. Rugby History Society website.
26. War Diary of 6th Bn Buffs (East Kent Regiment) in NA (WO 95/1860).
27. Ibid.
28. Moody, p. 144.
29. Service record in NA (WO 339/12569).
30. Ibid.
31. War Diary of 4th Bn Tank Corps in NA (WO 95/ 110).
32. Watson, A Company of Tanks, p. 183.
33. Letter from Major-General Henry Burstall, commander of 2nd Canadian Division, dated 11 April 1917 in War Diary of 1st Brigade Tank Corps HQ in NA (WO 95/97).
34. Watson, A Company of Tanks, p. 75.
35. Ibid., p. 81.
36. Anon., ‘The Wanderings of “D” in France’.
37. Watson, A Company of Tanks, p. 83.
Chapter 18: Redundant Oddments (pp. 116–121)
1. Fuller, Tanks in the Great War 1914-1918, p. xvi.
2. Watson, A Company of Tanks, p. 90.
3. Coghlan, ‘Cambrai Day’.
4. War Diary of Tank Corps HQ in NA (WO 95/91) – this was at Wailly on 21 July.
5. Service record, held by Ministry of Defence.
6. Ibid.
7. Col. K. W. Maurice-Jones, The History of Coast Artillery in the British Army, London, 1959, p. 161.
8. Captain J. E. E. Craster, Pemba, The Spice Island of Zanzibar, London & Leipsic, 1913, p. 15.
9. Ibid., p. 22.
10. Ibid., frontispiece.
11. Service record, held by Ministry of Defence.
12. With the Anglo-German Boundary Commission in West Africa 1912-1913 by Warwick Trading Co. in IWM Film Archive (MGH 2248),
13. Captain W. V. Nugent, ‘The Geographical Results of the Nigeria-Kamerun Boundary Demarcation Commission of 1912-13’, Geographical Journal (June 1914).
14. Hermann Detzner, Im Lande des Dju-Dju – Reiseerlebnisse im Östlichen Stromgebiet des Niger, Berlin, 1923, p. 350.
15. Service record, held by Ministry of Defence.
16. Official History – Togoland and Cameroons, p. 8 pic.
17. CWGC records.
18. The Times, 28 August 1914.
19. Sydney Morning Herald, 18 March 1915.
20. Service record, held by Ministry of Defence.
21. Official History – Togoland and Cameroons, p. 423.
22. Medical index card.
23. Service record, held by Ministry of Defence.
24. Swinton, pp. 220–1. This shows Major W. F. R. Kyngdon (Royal Artillery) commanded F Company.
25. Service record, held by Ministry of Defence.
26. Swinton, p. 274.
27. Major A. F. Becke, Order of Battle Part 4 – The Army Council, G.H.Q.s, Armies, and Corps 1914-1918, London, 1945, p. 267.
28. Swinton, p. 280.
29. Ibid., p. 286.
30. Ibid., p. 288.
31. See Movement Orders dated 22 October 1916 issued on behalf of the officer commanding the Heavy Section of the MGC and signed by Kyngdon, in War Diary of C Company Heavy Section in NA (WO 95/96/6).
32. Baker-Carr, From Chauffeur to Brigadier, p. 206.
33. Ibid., pp. 202–3.
34. Ibid., p. 232.
35. Bion, War Memoirs, p. 67.
Chapter 19: Out of the Salient (pp. 122–125)
1. Watson, A Company of Tanks, p. 75.
2. War Diary of 4th Bn Tank Corps in NA (WO 95/110).
3. For more on ‘Operation Hush’, see Admiral Sir Reginald Bacon, The Dover Patrol 1915–1917 Vol. 1, London, 1919, pp. 223–60.
4. Census records; US Army enlistment records; service record, held by Ministry of Defence.
5. C. D Baker-Carr, General Account of the Attack on and Capture of Poelcappelle in National Army Museum (2006-09-5-4-8-1).
6. Anon., ‘The Wanderings of “D” in France’.
7. See War Diaries of 1st Brigade Tank Corps HQ in NA (WO 95/98) and 4th Bn Tank Corps in NA (WO 95/110); Watson, A Company of Tanks, pp. 154–60; H.L.B. (i.e. Horace Leslie Birks), ‘The Brewery, Poelcapelle, October, 1917’, The Tank (October 1955); Coghlan, ‘Cambrai Day’.
8. Service record in NA (WO 339/99800).
9. Watson, A Company of Tanks, pp. 159–61.
10. Ibid., pp. 160–1.
11. Birks, ‘Cambrai – The Attack on Flésquières Ridge [sic]’.
12. War Diary of 4th Bn Tank Corps in NA (WO 95/110).
13. Birks, ‘Cambrai – The Attack on Flésquières Ridge [sic]’.
14. Anon., ‘The Wanderings of “D” in France’.
15. CWGC records; War Diary of 4th Bn Tank Corps in NA (WO 95/110).
16. Baker-Carr, From Chauffeur to Brigadier, p. 255.
17. Watson, A Company of Tanks, p. 222.
Chapter 20: High Days and Highlanders (pp. 126–130)
1. Macintosh, Men and Tanks, pp. 54–5.
2. Anon., ‘The Wanderings of “D” in France’.
3. Macintosh, Men and Tanks, pp. 72–3. He refers to ‘C’ Company, which was the later name of No. 12 Company.
4. Bion, The Long Week-end, pp. 151–2.
5. Watson, A Company of Tanks, p. 162.
6. Ibid., p. 166.
7. War Diary of 153rd Infantry Brigade HQ in NA (WO 95/2873).
8. Baker-Carr, From Chauffeur to Brigadier, pp. 260–1.
9. Training Note. Tank and infantry operations without methodical artillery preparation, from Third Army dated 30 October 1917, in Official History – Cambrai, pp. 348–54 and various War Diaries. The note says ‘Infantry should keep from 25 to 50 paces behind the Tank as it enters the wire, so as not to get entangled in any trailing strands.’
10. Notes on Tank and Infantry Training in War Diary of Tank Corps HQ in NA (WO 95/92).
11. Instructions No. 1 dated 7 November 1917 in War Diary of 51st Division HQ in NA (WO 95/2846).
12. Ibid.
13. Order No. 21 dated 15 November 1917 in War Diary of 1st Brigade Tank Corps HQ in NA (WO 95/98).
14. War Diary of 4th Bn Tank Corps in NA (WO 95/110).
15. Anon., ‘The Wanderings of “D” in France’.
16. Watson, A Company of Tanks, p. 163.
17. War Diary of 4th Bn Tank Corps in NA (WO 95/110).
18. Anon., ‘The Wanderings of “D” in France’.
19. Birks, ‘Cambrai – The Attack on Flésquières Ridge [sic]’.
20. Macintosh, Men and Tanks, pp. 82–3.
21. Account from History of Cambrai compiled by Major-General Sir Percy Hobart in Tank Museum (E2006.381). The account is anonymous, but clearly by Birks as the details are similar to his other descriptions of the battle.
22. Anon., ‘The Wanderings of “D” in France’.
23. ‘L.I.’, ‘Cambrai, 1917 – The Impressions of an Infantryman’.
Chapter 21: Into Hiding (pp. 133–137)
1. War Diary of 5th Bn Seaforth Highlanders in NA (WO 95/2866).
2. Watson, A Company of Tanks, pp. 167–8.
3. Ibid.
4. See V. T. Boughton, History of the Eleventh Engineers, United States Army, New York, 1926.
5. Macintosh, Men and Tanks, pp. 90–1.
6. Anon., ‘The Wanderings of “D” in France’.
7. Details in War Diary of Tank Corps HQ in NA (WO 95/92).
8. Macintosh, Men and Tanks, pp. 90–1.
9. Anon., ‘The Wanderings of “D” in France’.
10. Photograph from Railway Construction Engineers Collection in IWM (Q 46939).
11. Watson, A Company of Tanks, p. 169.
12. Baker-Carr, From Chauffeur to Brigadier, p. 265.
13. Proceedings of a Court of Enquiry in service record of Sapper Frederick Bird in NA (WO 363). The soldier who died was Private John McNally.
14. Macintosh, Men and Tanks, pp. 93–4.
15. Handwritten note by Lieutenant Gerald Edwards in Watson, A Company of Tanks, p. 169.
16. Macintosh, Men and Tanks, pp. 93–4.
17. Macintosh, ‘The Tanks at Cambrai’, p. 183.
18. Macintosh, Men and Tanks, pp. 95–6.
19. Watson, A Company of Tanks, pp. 169–71.
20. War Diary of 7th Bn Tank Corps in NA (WO 95/100) shows two companies arrived on 15 November and one company on 18 November. War Diary of 5th Bn Tank Corps in NA (WO 95/111) shows their tanks arrived on 17 November.
21. Official History – Cambrai, pp. 27–8. This total was made up 378 fighting tanks, fifty-four supply tanks, thirty-two wire-pulling tanks, and twelve others carrying bridging and communications equipment.
22. Macintosh, Men and Tanks, pp. 97–8.
23. Watson, A Company of Tanks, pp. 169–71.
Chapter 22: On the Silent Front (pp. 138–144)
1. See letter from Elles in NA (CAB 45/118): ‘Fuller and I, for instance, never visited the area except in trench coats and black goggles.’
2. War Diary of 1st Bn Royal Irish Fusiliers in NA (WO 95/2502/2).
3. Falls, The History of the 36th (Ulster) Division, p. 141.
4. Steuben, p. 41.
5. Hülsemann, p. 57.
6. Ibid., p. 58.
7. Ibid., p. 64.
8. Ibid., p. 58. The corporal is described as ‘baumlang’ – literally ‘as tall as a tree’.
9. War Diary of 1st Bn Royal Irish Fusiliers in NA (WO 95/2502/2).
10. Diary of Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig – copy in NA (WO 256/24). Entry for 18 November 1917.
11. Macintosh, Men and Tanks, p. 99.
12. Birks, ‘Cambrai – The Attack on Flésquières Ridge [sic]’.
13. Williams-Ellis, p. 102.
14. Letter from Elles in NA (CAB 45/118).
15. ‘L.I.’, ‘Some Reminiscences of a War-time Soldier III. – A Tank to the Rescue’.
16. Birks, ‘Cambrai – The Attack on Flésquières Ridge [sic]’.
17. Macintosh, Men and Tanks, pp. 99–101.
18. Hülsemann, p. 238.
19. Macintosh, Men and Tanks, p. 99.
20. Major Ward’s orders have not survived, but would probably have included this overview from the orders to D Bn dated 18 November 1917, in War Diary of 4th Bn Tank Corps in NA (WO 95/110).
21. War Diary of Tank Corps HQ in NA (WO 95/92).
22. War Diary of 1st Brigade Tank Corps HQ in NA (WO 95/98).
23. War Diary of 7th Bn Tank Corps, including History of 7th Tank Bn, in NA (WO 95/100).
24. D Bn Battlegraph in NA (MFQ 1/1384).
25. Operation Order No 5 Section by Captain D. A. Morris in Tank Museum (E1992.68.3). The order of some sentences has been some changed, punctuation added and capital letters removed.
26. Ibid.
27. Ibid.
28. Macintosh, Men and Tanks, p. 102.
Chapter 23: ‘Things Fall Apart’ (pp. 145–153)
1. The chapter title is a quote from The Second Coming by Ireland’s greatest poet, W. B Yeats: ‘Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold’.
2. Vernehmung eines Sergeanten und 5 Mann vom I/R. Ir.Fus … in Militärarchiv, Freiburg im Breisgau (PH3/558).
3. Ibid.
4. Ibid.
5. Ibid.
6. Hülsemann, pp. 65–6. This comment comes from Leutnant Johannes Langfeldt, ordnance officer of 2nd Battalion, 84th Infantry Regiment (see also below).
7. Steuben, p. 104.
8. International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) records.
9. Service record in NA (WO 364).
10. Census and birth/marriage/death records.
11. Vernehmung eines Sergeanten und 5 Mann vom I/R. Ir.Fus … in Militärarchiv, Freiburg im Breisgau (PH3/558).
12. Ibid., and service record in NA (WO 364).
13. Supplement to London Gazette, 1 January 1916, p. 57.
14. Service record in NA (WO 364).
15. Vernehmung eines Sergeanten und 5 Mann vom I/R. Ir.Fus … in Militärarchiv, Freiburg im Breisgau (PH3/558).
16. Ibid., and service record in NA (WO 364).
17. Vernehmung eines Sergeanten und 5 Mann vom I/R. Ir.Fus … in Militärarchiv, Freiburg im Breisgau (PH3/558).
18. ICRC records.
19. ICRC records show his rank as lance-corporal, though his medal index card (MIC) describes him as a private. The corporal in question could also be George Ball, who is shown as a private in ICRC records at the time of capture, though his MIC describes him as an acting corporal.
20. Census records, medal index card.
21. Census records, medal records, ICRC records, CWGC records.
22. Ibid.
23. Vernehmung eines Sergeanten und 5 Mann vom I/R. Ir.Fus … in Militärarchiv, Freiburg im Breisgau (PH3/558).
24. The court martial took place on 19 October 1917 – see record in NA (WO 71/611). Age from CWGC records, which show he is buried in Neuville-Bourjonval British Cemetery.
25. Ibid.
26. War Diary of 1st Bn Royal Irish Fusiliers in NA (WO 95/2502/2).
27. See record in NA (WO 71/611).
28. Vernehmung von 4 irischen Überläufern … der I./R. Dub. Fus … eingebracht am 18.12.17, westlich Ossus in Hauptstaatsarchiv Stuttgart (M33/2 Bü 583). The report includes the original text in English and says the spelling is unaltered from the original.
29. See Dahlmann, p. 348.
30. The dead man’s unit is given in a document entitled Bericht ueber die Wache vom 25.X. – 1.XI.1917 in Hauptstaatsarchiv Stuttgart (M 33/2 Bü 241). Rifleman Walker is named in the War Diary of 12th Bn Rifle Brigade in NA (WO 95/2121), and his service record in NA (WO 363) shows he was previously in the HBMGC. Further details come from ICRC records, and from documents and newspaper cuttings in the possession of his family. Thanks are due to Pat and Martin Tebbs, Carroll and Amanda Rushby, and Emma Gowshall for information about Rifleman Walker and his two brothers, who also died in the war.
31. Wedel, p. 158.
32. Two companies of 27th Reserve Infantry Regiment (RIR), plus the machine-gun company, were sent to Flesquières on 19 November, and transport was arranged to bring in the rest of 1st Battalion the next morning. The 2nd Battalion moved to Marcoing to be ready for deployment, and moved to Flesquières early on 20 November, adding substantially to the forces holding the village.
33. Dahlmann, pp. 353–4.
34. Hülsemann, p. 95. The description is by Hauptmann Wille.
35. Dahlmann, pp. 354.
36. Hülsemann, p. 89.
37. Fuller, Memoirs of an Unconventional Soldier, pp. 187–9.
38. Hülsemann, pp. 66.
39. Steuben, pp. 14–19.
40. Hülsemann, p. 95.
41. Steuben, pp. 36–7 and 88–92.
42. Hülsemann, p. 66. Leutnant Hegermann confirms in Steuben, p. 31, that his birthday was on 19 November. The anecdote about Thyra also comes from Leutnant Langfeldt, in Steuben, p. 71.
Chapter 24: To Shake Mightily the Earth (pp. 154–62)
1. Macintosh, Men and Tanks, pp. 102–3. He refers to ‘C’ Company, which was the later name of No. 12 Company.
2. See Williams-Ellis, p. 108 on Elles’ Special Order No. 6: ‘It was not the incitement to “do their damnedest” which the contemporary Press fathered upon him. That spurious fosterling he hated the worse, the more he perceived its popularity.’
3. Macintosh, Men and Tanks, p. 103.
4. Watson, A Company of Tanks, p. 172.
5. Communications 1st Bde Tank Corps in War Diary of 1st Brigade Tank Corps HQ in NA (WO 95/98).
6. Interview in IWM Sound Archive (870). The order of some sentences has been changed.
7. Isaiah 2:19, quoted in Rev. Neville S. Talbot, Thoughts on Religion at the Front, London, 1917. He was a co-founder of Talbot House, the celebrated rest and recreation centre in Poperinghe named after his brother who was killed in 1915.
8. Timings from Macintosh, Men and Tanks, p. 104.
9. Orders in possession of Brigadier Ben Edwards.
10. War Diary of 4th Bn Tank Corps in NA (WO 95/110).
11. Watson, A Company of Tanks, p. 172.
12. Macintosh, Men and Tanks, pp. 105–6.
13. Anon., H.Q. Tanks 1917-1918, 1920, p. 64. Although the book is anonymous, the same passage occurs in an article entitled ‘My Recollections of Cambrai’ by the Hon. Evan Charteris in Tank Corps Journal (November 1922).
14. Watson, A Company of Tanks, p. 172.
15. War Diary of 4th Bn Tank Corps in NA (WO 95/110).
16. Baker-Carr, From Chauffeur to Brigadier, p. 268 says this happened ‘at about half-past four, an hour and a half before zero’, but McTaggart (see Note 18 below) gives the time as 5.30 a.m.
17. Macintosh, Men and Tanks, p. 107.
18. McTaggart, ‘The Great Battle of Cambrai’.
19. History of 4th Tank Bn in War Diary in NA (WO 95/110) says the wire-crushers were from No. 10 Company, but Orders in War Diary say they were from No. 11 Company. This is confirmed because accounts by Edwards and Shaw (who were both in No. 11 Company) state they were in wire-crushing tanks.
20. Watson, A Company of Tanks, p. 173.
21. Handwritten note by Lieutenant Gerald Edwards in Macintosh, Men and Tanks, p. 113.
22. Anon, ‘Cambrai: A Tank Commander’s Impression’, Tank Corps Journal (November 1922). The article is anonymous but the identity of the author can be worked out from internal evidence. The E Bn Battlegraph (in Tank Museum) does not give a crew number for Elles II, and this is taken from the report of an action on 20 September 1917 in the War Diary of 5th Bn Tank Corps in NA (WO 95/111).
23. ‘L.I.’, ‘Some Reminiscences of a War-time Soldier III. – A Tank to the Rescue’.
24. Macintosh, Men and Tanks pp. 108–10. The original refers to ‘A’ and ‘B’ Company.
Chapter 25: ‘Now For It!’ (pp. 163–168)
1. Bion, The Long Week-end, p. 161.
2. Bion, War Memoirs, p. 47.
3. An Account of my Sojourn in France & Germany during the Great War 1917-1919 by Willie Pennie in IWM (11255). His account refers to ‘ten thousand guns’, which is what it must have seemed like, though the actual number was much smaller.
4. From History of Cambrai compiled by Major-General Sir Percy Hobart in Tank Museum (E2006.381). The account is anonymous, but clearly by Birks.
5. Macintosh, Men and Tanks, pp. 110–11.
6. This phrase is taken from ‘L.I.’, ‘Cambrai, 1917 – The Impressions of an Infantryman’.
7. Watson, A Company of Tanks, pp. 173–4.
8. 51st Division Report on the Operations S.W. of Cambrai in NA (WO 158/390).
9. Hülsemann, p. 243.
10. Strutz, p. 18.
11. Watson, A Company of Tanks, p. 174.
12. From History of Cambrai compiled by Major-General Sir Percy Hobart in Tank Museum (E2006.381). As in other accounts, Birks says they were working with ‘4th Black Watch’ but this must be wrong as this battalion did not take part in the battle.
13. ‘L.I.’, ‘Some Reminiscences of a War-time Soldier III. – A Tank to the Rescue’.
14. Lecture by Lt-Col. Baker Carr on ‘The Employment of Tanks’ in Tank Museum (E2004.3211).
15. Watson, A Company of Tanks, p. 166.
16. From History of Cambrai compiled by Major-General Sir Percy Hobart in Tank Museum (E2006.381).
17. Watson, A Company of Tanks, p. 179. These were probably D26 Don Quixote II and D31 Dolly II, which are shown on the D Bn Battlegraph in NA (MFQ 1/1384) in virtually the same location. The Battlegraph also shows D9 Damocles and D30 Dusky Dis II ditched nearby.
18. Rorie, chapter on Cambrai by Captain Robert Tennant Bruce, p. 165. The third tank was probably D30 Dusky Dis II.
19. Handwritten note by Lieutenant Gerald Edwards in Macintosh, Men and Tanks p. 113. His grandson Brigadier Ben Edwards, himself a tank commander, comments: ‘It may seem callous today to have used the body of a comrade in such a manner, but things were different then. My grandfather had lost his previous tank, and a member of his crew, to enemy fire at the Third Battle of Ypres, and they had to fight their way back over No Man’s Land on foot. No sane man would have wanted to repeat that. He well knew that to become static once committed to battle made the tank a magnet for bullets, usually resulting in the loss of the vehicle and members of the crew. It would have seemed acceptable to “ask” a comrade to make one final sacrifice when arguably he no longer needed his body, for the sake of eight crewmen, a tank, and the essential moral and fire support that each working vehicle gave to the infantry.’
20. Anon. ‘Cambrai: A Tank Commander’s Impression’, Tank Corps Journal (November 1922). See previous notes on this source.
21. Service record in NA (WO 339/57980).
22. File of Captain Leonard Johnson in Tank Museum (E1978.212).
23. File of Private Leonard Wray in Tank Museum (E2006.4328).
24. ‘L.I.’, ‘Some Reminiscences of a War-time Soldier III. – A Tank to the Rescue’.
25. Hülsemann, pp. 84–5.
26. Ibid., p. 85.
27. Account of Operations of November 20th. 1917 near Havrincourt in War Diary of 5th Bn Gordon Highlanders in NA (WO 95/2881).
28. McTaggart, ‘The Great Battle of Cambrai’.
29. Account of Operations of November 20th. 1917 near Havrincourt in War Diary of 5th Bn Gordon Highlanders in NA (WO 95/2881).
Chapter 26: Till the Last Man (pp. 169–177)
1. Hülsemann, pp. 66–7.
2. Ibid., pp. 71–2. Leutnant Herbert Mory was also captured, and never returned home: he died in West Yorkshire in 1919 aged twenty-three, and is buried at Cannock Chase German Military Cemetery in Staffordshire.
3. Ibid., p. 67.
4. Ibid., p. 68.
5. Steuben, p. 93. The order of messages is reversed in some accounts, but this version from his biography is taken as definitive.
6. Ibid.
7. Hülsemann, pp. 73–4.
8. Ibid., p. 74.
9. Ibid., pp. 74–5.
10. Ibid., p. 77. The additional information about Vizefeldwebel Jacobsen, and first names, come from ICRC records.
11. Ibid., p. 98. This was Leutnant Johannes Andresen, commander of No. 4 Company. Shoulder-straps were often removed for intelligence-gathering purposes, as they carried a number identifying the prisoner’s regiment.
12. Ibid., p. 104. This was Musketier Wilhelm Dose of No. 10 Company.
13. Ibid., pp. 82–3.
14. H.Q. Tanks 1917-1918, privately printed, 1920, pp. 77–8. Although anonymous, this has been identified as the work of Captain Evan Charteris. Both these reports relate to 20 November, but there is no indication where they took place, or which units were responsible. Charteris identifies the second informant as Lieutenant-Colonel John Brockbank, who was head of Tank Corps Central Workshops and Stores.
15. Captain D. Sutherland, War Diary of the Fifth Seaforth Highlanders, London, 1920, p. 138.
16. From History of Cambrai compiled by Major-General Sir Percy Hobart in Tank Museum (E2006.381). The account is anonymous, but from internal evidence the author can be identified as Gatehouse.
17. See Hague Conventions (1899 and 1907) on ICRC website.
18. Hülsemann, pp. 82–3.
19. Account of Operations of November 20th. 1917 near Havrincourt in War Diary of 5th Bn Gordon Highlanders in NA (WO 95/2881).
20. Brief narratives of some of the outstanding instances during operation by tanks of 1 Bde, 20-23 Nov 17 by Colonel C. D. Baker-Carr dated 26 November, in Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives (FULLER 1/3/7 1917).
21. Major F. W. Bewsher, The History of the 51st (Highland) Division 1914-1918, Edinburgh & London, 1921, p. 244.
22. McTaggart, ‘The Great Battle of Cambrai’.
23. Watson, A Company of Tanks, p. 175.
24. Handwritten note by Lieutenant Gerald Edwards in Watson, A Company of Tanks, p. 175.
25. Letter to official historian dated 11 October 1944 in NA (CAB 45/118)
26. Falls, The Life of a Regiment Volume IV, p. 168.
27. Nicholson, p. 148.
28. Telegram in War Diary of 5th Bn Gordon Highlanders in NA (WO 95/2881).
29. Strutz, p. 27n.
30. General Oskar Freiherr von Watter: Dem Gedenken eines großen Soldaten von den alten Kameraden der 54. Infanterie-Division des Weltkrieges, Hansestadt Hamburg, 1940, p. 84.
31. Major-General D. N. Wimberley, Scottish Soldier, unpublished memoir in IWM (PP/MCR/182), p. 87. Thanks to Neil Wimberley for permission to quote from this document.
32. Interview in IWM Sound Archive (4266).
33. Wimberley, Scottish Soldier, unpublished memoir in IWM (PP/MCR/182), p. 88; the section from ‘quite a lot …’ to ‘ …look like’ has been added from the IWM interview.
34. ‘L.I.’, ‘Some Reminiscences of a War-time Soldier III. – A Tank to the Rescue’.
35. Ibid.
36. ‘L.I.’, ‘Cambrai, 1917 – The Impressions of an Infantryman’.
37. Captain D. Sutherland, War Diary of the Fifth Seaforth Highlanders, London, 1920, pp. 138–9.
38. War Diary of IV Corps HQ in NA (WO 95/716).
39. Hülsemann, p. 130. This comment was made by Leutnant Johannes Langfeldt, 2nd Battalion ordnance officer.
40. Dahlmann, p. 364.
41. Ibid., p. 367.
42. Ibid.
43. Compiled from two letters published in The I.O.B. [i.e. Imperial Ottoman Bank] Gazette (January 1918). Koe does not say which tank he was in, but this can be worked from the evidence in his letters.
44. Brief narratives of some of the outstanding instances during operation by tanks of 1 Bde, 20-23 Nov 17 by Colonel C. D. Baker-Carr dated 26 November, in Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives (FULLER 1/3/7 1917).
45. Ibid. The report does not include tank names, which have been added from the D Bn Battlegraph in NA (MFQ 1/1384). In the case of D2, he gives the crew number as D16 but shows the commander as Second Lieutenant Wallace. The Battlegraph shows Wallace was actually in command of D2.
46. Ibid.
47. Macintosh, Men and Tanks, p. 113.
48. See message from 51st Division in War Diary of IV Corps HQ in NA (WO 95/716): ‘Tanks seen travelling E to W at Grand Ravine K.29.Central (7.30 a.m.)’.
Chapter 27: A Mountain to Climb (pp. 180–184)
1. War Diary of 6th Bn Black Watch in NA (WO 95/2876).
2. 51st Division Report on the Operations S.W. of Cambrai in NA (WO 158/390).
3. Macintosh, Men and Tanks, p. 110.
4. Watson, A Company of Tanks, pp. 183 and 174–5.
5. Anon., ‘The Wanderings of “D” in France’.
6. Interview in Liddle Collection (278).
7. Summary of Operations, p. 10 in War Diary of 1st Brigade Tank Corps HQ in NA (WO 95/98).
8. See Hotblack, ‘Recollections of Cambrai’.
9. Macintosh, Men and Tanks, p. 103.
10. D Bn Battlegraph in NA (MFQ 1/1384) shows D9 Damocles, D26 Don Quixote II, D30 Dusky Dis II, and D31 Dolly II were all ditched, in some cases with mechanical trouble, in the enemy front-line trench. D5 Dakoit II and D50 Dandy Dinmont were ditched in the third-line position known as Mole Trench, and D24 Deuce of Diamonds was ditched with mechanical trouble a little further on.
11. Service record in British Library (L/MIL/9/536/117-26) – this comment was made in 1924 when he was serving in the Indian Army.
12. Barrage map from 51st Division Report on the Operations S.W. of Cambrai in NA (WO 158/390).
13. IV Corps report Havrincourt – Bourlon Operations in NA (WO 158/318).
14. From History of Cambrai compiled by Major-General Sir Percy Hobart in Tank Museum (E2006.381). The account is anonymous, but clearly by Birks.
15. Interview in IWM Sound Archive (4024).
16. Birks, ‘Cambrai – The Attack on Flésquières Ridge [sic]’.
17. Macintosh, Men and Tanks, p. 115.
18. Bion, War Memoirs, p. 48.
19. Macintosh, Men and Tanks, pp. 117–19. He does not name the trench, but it can be identified from his description of the tank’s route.
20. From History of Cambrai compiled by Major-General Sir Percy Hobart in Tank Museum (E2006.381). The account is anonymous but is clearly by Birks, and does not name Morris, who was Birks’ section commander.
21. Service record in NA (WO 339/52089). The word ‘severe’ has been added from the following sentence.
22. From History of Cambrai compiled by Major-General Sir Percy Hobart in Tank Museum (E2006.381).
23. Anon., ‘The Wanderings of “D” in France’.
Chapter 28: The Crack of Doom (pp. 185–189)
1. Macintosh, Men and Tanks, pp. 119–23. The dead and wounded men have not so far been identified.
2. Watson, A Company of Tanks, pp. 183 and 179. He uses the initial ‘S.’ but it is clear who is being referred to.
3. Statement regarding circumstances which led to capture in Shaw’s service record, held by Ministry of Defence.
4. The I.O.B. [i.e. Imperial Ottoman Bank] Gazette, January 1918. Koe does not say which tank he was in, but this can be worked from the evidence in his letters.
5. Statement regarding circumstances which led to capture in Marris’s service record, held by Ministry of Defence.
6. Hülsemann, p. 253.
7. Maurice, p. 264. His service record in NA (WO 363) indicates he was in No. 10 Company, from which only two tanks were knocked out at this stage in the battle. The circumstances seem to fit what we know of D6 Devil-May-Care, commanded by Lieutenant Sydney Glasscock, who was killed.
8. Anon., ‘The Wanderings of “D” in France’. R. A. Jones was actually a second lieutenant (see service record in NA, WO 339/131917).
9. Letter to sister of Lance-Corporal Monks in possession of Richard Cousse. Thanks to him for permission to quote from this letter.
10. Macintosh, Men and Tanks, p. 131. Macintosh does not identify the tank or its commander, but his description of the location and circumstances makes it clear this was D41 Devil II.
11. See ibid, pp. 123–4. He names the section commander as ‘Captain Alphen, M.C.’ but the D Bn Battlegraph gives his true identity.
12. Letter in possession of family.
13. Maurice, p. 261. This does not identify Lance-Corporal Tolson’s tank, but he refers to ‘Mr Butler my Crew Commander at Passendale & Cambri [sic]’ in a letter in Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives (LIDDELL 9/28/63 1916-1963). Second Lieutenant Gerald Butler was commander of D32 Dop Doctor II.
14. See Watson, A Company of Tanks, p. 21.
15. Maurice, p. 102.
16. Ibid., p. 264. The connection with Field is shown in Watson, A Company of Tanks, p. 179: ‘F. and one of his sergeants had shown the utmost gallantry in collecting the wounded under fire and rallying the men.’
17. Macintosh, Men and Tanks, pp. 125–6.
18. Strutz, p. 46.
19. Narrative of Operations in War Diary of 7th Bn Black Watch in NA (WO 95/2879).
Chapter 29: Into the Hurricane (pp. 190–197)
1. Details from War Diary of 5th Bn Tank Corps in NA (WO 95/111) and E Bn Battlegraph (in Tank Museum). These do not give a crew number for Ernest, but this tank had the number E24 in previous engagements in September 1917.
2. Bion, The Long Week-end, p. 161.
3. Peel and Macdonald, p. 54. Macdonald wrote the second part of the book, which is quoted here.
4. War Diary of 6th Bn Seaforth Highlanders in NA (WO 95/2867).
5. Zindler, Auf Biegen und Brechen, pp. 236–8. In this translation a number of very short paragraphs have been run together, and some sentences now end with full stops where the original uses dots (…); some exclamation marks have also been omitted.
6. De Ruvigny’s Roll of Honour Vol. 3, p. 11. The section commander is not named but can be identified from the Battlegraph.
7. Of the tanks named in the report, the E Bn Battlegraph shows that E17 Edinburgh (Second Lieutenant Miles Atkinson killed), Egypt (Second Lieutenant George Testi killed), E18 Emperor II, E10 Endurance (Second Lieutenant Ronald Barringer wounded), WC Euryalus, and WC Exquisite (Second Lieutenant Thomas Wilson killed) all suffered direct hits. Only Eileen survived the battle and returned to the rallying-point, though it was destroyed in further fighting two days later. The total number of dead and wounded ‘other ranks’ is known, but not which tanks they were in.
8. War History of 5th Tank Bn, in War Diary of 5th Bn Tank Corps in NA (WO 95/111).
9. This combines two accounts of the incident: firstly a letter from Major A. H. Gatehouse to the Royal Tank Corps Journal in October 1935, and secondly an anonymous account (also apparently by Gatehouse) in the History of Cambrai compiled by Major-General Sir Percy Hobart in Tank Museum (E2006.381). Both name the officer as Second Lieutenant Atkinson, but this is inconsistent with the account of Atkinson’s death given by his section commander.
10. Bion, The Long Week-end.
11. Ibid., pp. 162–3. In the original, ‘breech’ is spelled ‘breach’.
12. Ibid., p. 164.
13. Ibid., pp. 165–6.
14. Daily Chronicle, 11 December 1917. The same report appears in Gibbs, Open Warfare, p. 101.
15. Dahlmann, Reserve-Infanterie-Rgt. Nr. 27 im Weltkriege, pp. 376–7.
16. Ibid., p. 382.
17. Falls, The Life of a Regiment Volume IV, pp. 168–9.
18. ‘Cambrai: A Tank Commander’s Impression’, Tank Corps Journal (November 1922). See previous notes on this source.
19. Unpublished autobiography in possession of family.
20. Letter in the possession of Mme Bacquet, Cambrai. As section commander, it seems likely that Homfray would have been in his only male tank – Ewen, commanded by Cohen. However, the events he describes seem more similar to the account of Ethel II, commanded by Quainton.
21. Bion, War Memoirs, p. 52.
22. Commentary in Bion, War Memoirs, p. 204. Bion gives a completely different account and says Quainton’s tank broke down just after the Grand Ravine and was destroyed by a direct hit, though no-one was injured. This version is inconsistent with the E Bn Battlegraph which shows that Ethel II progressed to the final objective and suffered a direct hit, but returned to the rallying-point.
23. Falls, The Life of a Regiment Volume IV, p. 169.
24. War Diary of 6th Bn Gordon Highlanders in NA (WO 95/2868/1).
25. Mackenzie, p. 132.
26. Hickey, p. 107.
Chapter 30: Green Fields Beyond (pp. 198–207)
1. Interview in IWM Sound Archive (7031).
2. Biographical notes from his son Ian MacNiven. Note that this anecdote is not specifically linked to Cambrai. John changed the spelling of his surname to MacNiven during the war.
3. See Bion, The Long Week-end, p. 162.
4. Family recollections.
5. Comment by Corporal Dave Drew of the Staffordshire Regiment, from ‘The Most Telling Hours of Young Lives’, a pooled dispatch by Colin Wills of The Sunday Mirror sent from Kuwait on 2 March 1991 during the First Gulf War.
6. Hülsemann, p.109, though this does not give his full name; also in Dahlmann, p. 373.
7. Ibid.
8. Hülsemann, p. 61.
9. Ibid., p. 118.
10. Ibid., p. 92.
11. War Diary of 4th Bn Tank Corps in NA (WO 95/ 110).
12. Wedel, pp. 168–9.
13. Dahlmann, p. 375.
14. Wedel, pp. 167–8.
15. Dahlmann, pp. 374–5.
16. Hülsemann, p. 125.
17. Photographs in possession of Jean Luc Caudron and Philippe Gorczynski.
18. Maurice, p. 102.
19. History of 4th Tank Bn in War Diary in NA (WO 95/110).
20. Anon., ‘The Wanderings of “D” in France’. Frank Heap was then a second lieutenant.
21. Belfast Evening Telegraph, 15 December 1917.
22. Watson, A Company of Tanks, pp. 176–7.
23. Ibid., p. 178.
24. This obviously ignores the Royal Flying Corps, which was above the battlefield.
25. Interview in IWM Sound Archives (4126). Hastie formerly commanded D17 Dinnaken, the tank that famously ‘walked up the High Street of Flers’ in the first attack on 15 September 1916.
26. Anglesey, p. 108.
27. Willie Pennie, An Account of my Sojourn in France & Germany during the Great War 1917-1919 in IWM (11255). He writes ‘a 100 yds’. I have added a dash after ‘camp’.
28. War Diary of IV Corps HQ in NA (WO 95/716).
29. Ibid.
30. War Diary of 1st Cavalry Division HQ in NA (WO 95/1097).
31. Interview in Liddle Collection (590).
32. War Diary of 4th Dragoon Guards in NA (WO 95/1112).
33. ‘L.I.’, ‘Cambrai, 1917 – The Impressions of an Infantryman’.
34. War Diary of 2nd Cavalry Brigade HQ in NA (WO 95/1110). The commander was Brigadier-General Desmond Beale-Browne.
35. Interview in Liddle Collection (590).
36. 1st Cavalry Division, private report in Diary of Sir Douglas Haig – copy in NA (WO 256/24). A note identifies the author as Major-General Sir Henry Macandrew, commander of 5th Cavalry Division.
37. Lieut.-Colonel Lionel James (ed.), The History of King Edward’s Horse (The King’s Oversea Dominions Regiment), London, 1921, p. 236.
38. Dahlmann, p. 375.
39. Macintosh, ‘The Tanks at Cambrai’, pp. 191–2.
40. Ibid., p. 192.
41. Recollection from Will Heap.
42. Orders dated 6 November 1917 in War Diary of 152nd Infantry Brigade HQ in NA (WO 95/2863).
43. Recollection from Will Heap.
44. Anon., ‘The Wanderings of “D” in France’.
45. Maurice, p. 102.
Chapter 31: Like a Boar at Bay (pp. 208–216)
1. Report on Operations in War Diary of 4th Bn Tank Corps in NA (WO 95/110).
2. D Bn Battlegraph in NA (MFQ 1/1384).
3. History of 4th Tank Bn in War Diary in NA (WO 95/110).
4. Report on Operations in War Diary of 4th Bn Tank Corps in NA (WO 95/110).
5. Watson, A Company of Tanks, p. 179.
6. War Diary of 6th Bn Seaforth Highlanders in NA (WO 95/2867).
7. Hülsemann, p. 118, from an account by Leutnant Bielenberg.
8. Report on Operations in War Diary of 4th Bn Tank Corps in NA (WO 95/110).
9. Ibid.
10. War Diary of 1st Brigade Tank Corps HQ in NA (WO 95/98).
11. War Diary of 6th Bn Seaforth Highlanders in NA (WO 95/2867).
12. Peel and Macdonald, p. 55.
13. Report on Operations in War Diary of 4th Bn Tank Corps in NA (WO 95/110).
14. Watson, A Company of Tanks, p. 179.
15. Harper, pp. 72–3.
16. Official History – Cambrai, p. 82.
17. Falls, The Life of a Regiment Volume IV, p. 169.
18. Hülsemann, p. 249.
19. War Diary of IV Corps HQ in NA (WO 95/716).
20. War Diary of 18th Infantry Brigade HQ in NA (WO 95/1615).
21. War Diary of 152nd Infantry Brigade HQ in NA (WO 95/2863).
22. War Diary of 6th Bn Gordon Highlanders in NA (WO 95/2868/1).
23. Falls, The Life of a Regiment Volume IV, p. 169.
24. Hülsemann, pp. 249–50.
25. Birks, ‘Cambrai – The Attack on Flésquières Ridge [sic]’.
26. Compiled from interviews in IWM Sound Archive (refs. 870 and 4024).
27. From account in the History of Cambrai compiled by Major-General Sir Percy Hobart in Tank Museum (E2006.381). The account is anonymous, but clearly by Birks.
28. Birks, ‘Cambrai – The Attack on Flésquières Ridge [sic]’.
29. Interview in IWM Sound Archive (4024). The timing is taken from his account in Hobart’s History of Cambrai, where he identifies them as the Ambala Cavalry Brigade, though this must be incorrect.
30. From account in the History of Cambrai compiled by Major-General Sir Percy Hobart in Tank Museum (E2006.381).
31. Watson, A Company of Tanks, pp. 180–1.
32. 51st Division Report on the Operations S.W. of Cambrai in NA (WO 158/390).
33. Official History – Cambrai, p. 88.
34. Ibid., p. 90.
35. Hülsemann, p. 53. This is from a report by Oberleutnant Nissen, adjutant of 3rd Battalion.
36. Hauptmann Dahlmann, Gefechtskalendar des Res.-Inf. Regts. 27, 1914/1918, Berlin, 1923, p. 33.
37. Hülsemann, p. 91.
38. Ibid., p. 92.
39. Coghlan, ‘Cambrai Day’.
40. Unpublished memoirs of Colonel Norman Dillon, then in B Battalion, Tank Corps, in National Army Museum (1987-03-9).
41. Fuller, Memoirs of an Unconventional Soldier, p. 188.
42. Hülsemann, p. 122. The officer who met Major Krebs was Leutnant Schulz, trench mortar officer of No. 3 Battalion.
43. Ibid.
Chapter 32: A Bitter Evening (pp. 217–222)
1. 51st Division Report on the Operations S.W. of Cambrai in NA (WO 158/390).
2. War Diary of 6th Bn Gordon Highlanders in NA (WO 95/2868/1).
3. Mackenzie, p. 133.
4. Peel and Macdonald, p. 66.
5. Nottingham Evening Post, 27 November 1917. The dispatch was sent on the previous day. A slightly revised version appeared in Philip Gibbs, Open Warfare, pp. 56–7.
6. Hickey, pp. 109–10.
7. From Scottish Soldier, an unpublished memoir by Major-General D. N. Wimberley in IWM (PP/MCR/182), p. 90. From the date and location given it is clear this refers to Deborah.
8. See Captain Bruce’s service record in NA (WO 374/10263) and Rev. Grant’s service record in NA (WO 374/28544). Despite the critical comments, in both cases an official investigation concluded: ‘… the [Army] Council considers that no blame attaches to him in the matter.’
9. Rorie, chapter on Cambrai by Captain R. T. Bruce, p. 170.
10. Macintosh, Men and Tanks, pp 128–9. He names the section commander as ‘Captain Alphen, M.C.’ but the D Bn Battlegraph gives his true identity.
11. Macintosh, Men and Tanks, pp. 129–30.
12. Ibid., pp. 131–2.
13. Photograph and note by Lieutenant Alexander Christie of Royal Garrison Artillery. Thanks to his nephew Jim Christie for this information.
14. The Times, 21 November 1917.
15. The Times, 22 November 1917.
16. The Times, 24 November 1917.
17. Service record in NA (WO 339/12569).
18. Carmarthen Journal, 7 December 1917.
19. Letter in possession of Charles Foot.
20. Ibid.
21. Cambridge Chronicle, 12 December 1917. His surname is misspelled ‘Chiverton’ in the article.
22. Card in possession of family. Some changes have been made to punctuation and capitalisation.
23. Belfast Evening Telegraph, 15 December 1917.
24. Nottinghamshire Guardian, 22 December 1917.
Chapter 33: The Chance Was Gone (pp. 223–231)
1. War Diary of 4th Bn Tank Corps in NA (WO 95/110) and D Bn Battlegraph in NA (MFQ 1/1384).
2. Handwritten note by Lieutenant Gerald Edwards in Watson, A Company of Tanks, p. 166.
3. Macintosh, Men and Tanks, pp. 137–8.
4. War Diary of 4th Bn Tank Corps in NA (WO 95/110) and D Bn Battlegraph in NA (MFQ 1/1384).
5. War Diary of 5th Bn Tank Corps in NA (WO 95/111).
6. Watson, A Company of Tanks, p. 190.
7. Diary of Sir Douglas Haig – copy in NA (WO 256/24).
8. Ibid.
9. Ibid.
10. Brigadier-General John Charteris, At G.H.Q., London, 1931, p. 270.
11. Captain Geoffrey Dugdale, “Langemarck” and “Cambrai” – A War Narrative 1914–1918, Shrewsbury, 1932, p. 109.
12. C. H. Dudley Ward, History of the Welsh Guards, London, 1920, p. 172.
13. Sir Douglas Haig’s Dispatch on the Battle of Cambrai in The Times, 5 March 1918.
14. Bion, The Long Week-end, p. 166. Bion says he was unaware of the story before reading about it in Haig’s Dispatch.
15. Hotblack, ‘A Cambrai Myth?’.
16. Arthur Conan Doyle, The British Campaign in France and Flanders 1917, London, 1919, p. 245.
17. Gibbs, Realities of War, p. 398.
18. Report on Operations in War Diary of 4th Bn Tank Corps in NA (WO 95/110).
19. Report on Operations, 20th: November, 1917 dated 28 November 1917 in War Diary of 5th Bn Tank Corps in NA (WO 95/111).
20. Summary of Operations in War Diary of 1st Brigade Tank Corps HQ in NA (WO 95/98).
21. Ibid.
22. Report on Operations in War Diary of 7th Bn Gordon Highlanders in NA (WO 95/2882/1).
23. Narrative of Events in War Diary 6th Black Watch in NA (WO 95/2876).
24. Appendices in War Diary of 8th Bn Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders in NA (WO 95/2865/2).
25. Account of Operations Before Cambrai in War Diary of 152nd Infantry Brigade HQ in NA (WO 95/2863).
26. Bion, War Memoirs, p. 65.
27. War Diary of 5th Bn Tank Corps in NA (WO 95/111).
28. Watson, A Company of Tanks pp. 195–6.
29. Official History – Cambrai, pp. 158–9.
30. Watson, A Company of Tanks, pp. 196–7.
31. History of 4th Tank Bn in War Diary in NA (WO 95/110).
32. Anon., ‘The Wanderings of “D” in France’.
33. Bion, War Memoirs, p. 58.
34. War Diary of 4th Bn Tank Corps in NA (WO 95/110).
35. Service record in NA (WO 339/23425). This gives the date as February 1917, which must be a mistake for February 1918.
36. Watson, A Company of Tanks, p. 221.
37. Interview in IWM Sound Archive (870).
38. 1st Cavalry Division, private report in Diary of Sir Douglas Haig – copy in NA (WO 256/24).
39. The Times, 24 July 1919.
40. 1st Cavalry Division, private report in Diary of Sir Douglas Haig – copy in NA (WO 256/24).
41. Anglesey, p. 158.
42. Diary, November-December 1917 by C. E. W. Bean – entry for 9 December 1917 (pp. 80–4) in Australian War Memorial (AWM38 3DRL606/94/1). The original contains a number of abbreviations and some shorthand characters, which have been expanded here.
Chapter 34: Sticking to their Guns (pp. 234–240)
1. From ‘The Meaning of Cambrai’, anonymous article in Tank Corps Journal (November 1922).
2. Der Englische Angriff bei Cambrai am 20.11.1917, report by Heeresgruppe Kronprinz Rupprecht dated 4 December 1917, in Hauptstaatsarchiv Stuttgart (M 33/2 Bü 73). The underlining is in the original.
3. Photographs in possession of Jean Luc Caudron and Philippe Gorczynski.
4. Rockstroh and Zindler, p. 97.
5. Wedel, pp. 297–307.
6. Zindler, Auf Biegen und Brechen, p. 244.
7. Ibid., pp. 246–7.
8. International Committee of the Red Cross records.
9. Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge records.
10. Third Army Intelligence Summary dated 25 November 1917 in NA (WO 157/158).
11. Auszug aus der Verlustliste des Feld-Artillerie-Regiments Nr. 108 in Militärarchiv, Freiburg im Breisgau (PH12/II/109).
12. Letter from Kameradschaftliche Vereinigung ehem. Angehöriger des F.A.R. 108 to Generalleutnant Freiherr von Watter dated 22 May 1932. A photocopy of this letter is in the papers of the late Gerhardt Remmel in the Historial de la Grande Guerre at Péronne. The original is apparently in the Hauptstaatsarchiv Stuttgart, but it has not been possible to locate this under the reference given. The final sentence is from Romans 13:7.
13. Letter from Reichsarchiv to Generalleutnant Freiherr von Watter dated 13 April 1928.
14. Wedel, p. 174 – this says Leutnant Müller was named by ‘various sources’.
15. Kamerad Hoischen (former Gefreiter in No. 8 Battery, 108 FAR), ‘Der Held von Cambrai’, Der Frontsoldat Erzählt No. 7 (1937).
16. Ernst Kleuker, ‘Vor Zwanzig Jahren: Der Leutnant von Cambrai’, Der Frontsoldat Erzählt No. 8 (1937). This is a somewhat loose translation that attempts to capture the spirit of the original.
17. Erwin Zindler, ‘Erziehungsarbeit an einer Infanterie-Division und ihr Erfolg in der Tankschlacht bei Cambrai’, Wissen und Wehr (1937), pp. 327–43.
18. Wedel, p. 166.
19. Anonymous, ‘More Light on Cambrai, 1917’, The Army Quarterly (October 1937), pp. 142–4.
20. Oration by Feldbischof D. Dohrmann in Trauerfeier fur den … Generalleutnant a.D. Oskar Frhr. von Watter on 25 August 1939, in Hauptstaatsarchiv Stuttgart (M 430/2 Bü 2309).
21. Hotblack, ‘A Cambrai Myth?’.
22. Ibid.
23. Ibid.
24. Captain E. W. Sheppard, ‘Mrs. Partington Again’, The Army Quarterly (April 1931).
25. The War Office (R.T.C.) Battlefield Tour took place on 25–29 March 1935. Notes from the visit are preserved at the Tank Museum, and were also incorporated into the History of Cambrai compiled by Major-General Sir Percy Hobart in Tank Museum (E2006.381).
26. Letter in Royal Tank Corps Journal (October 1935).
27. ‘The Legend of Flesquieres’, Royal Tank Corps Journal (November 1935). The article is anonymous but may well be by Hotblack.
28. Major A. F. Becke, ‘Cambrai, 1917. The Tanks at Flesquières on the 20th November’, Journal of the Royal Artillery (January 1941).
29. The Times, 4 September 1964.
30. Letter dated 3 August 1944 in NA (CAB 45/118).
31. Letters dated 4 July to 14 September 1935 (year given in covering note) in War Diary of Third Army HQ in NA (WO 95/367).
32. Letter dated 28 November 1944 in NA (CAB 45/118).
33. Letter dated 23 March 1944 in NA (CAB 45/118).
34. Official History – Cambrai, p. 59 (footnote).
Chapter 35: ‘The Fates Fought Against Us’ (pp. 241–246)
1. Fuller, Memoirs of an Unconventional Soldier p. 94; Fuller, Tanks in the Great War 1914-1918, p. xvi.
2. Service record, held by Ministry of Defence.
3. Cheltenham Chronicle, 16 August 1902.
4. Notes from Tony Rundell and Mary Baker-Carr.
5. The Times, 15 March 1928.
6. The Times, 13 April 1927.
7. The Times, 4 February 1928.
8. The Times, 14 December 1929.
9. Divorce files in NA (J 77/2651/2340 and J 77/2959/1442).
10. The Times, 16 December 1922.
11. Nicholson, p. 140.
12. Harper, Notes on Infantry Tactics & Training.
13. Baker-Carr, From Chauffeur to Brigadier, p. 73.
14. Ibid., pp. 269–70.
15. See Western Morning News, 16 December 1922; The Times, 16, 18 and 20 December 1922.
16. Fuller, Tanks in the Great War 1914-1918, p. 149.
17. Fuller, Memoirs of an Unconventional Soldier, p. 209.
18. Hotblack, ‘Recollections of Cambrai, 1917’.
19. Liddell Hart, The Real War, pp. 376–7. See also Liddell Hart, The Tanks, Vol One, pp. 141–3.
20. Letter dated 23 March 1944 in NA (CAB 45/118).
21. Official History – Cambrai, p. 280.
22. Summary of Operations by Colonel C. D. Baker-Carr dated 9 December 1917 in War Diary of 1st Brigade Tank Corps HQ in NA (WO 95/98).
23. Instructions No. 1 dated 7 November 1917 in War Diary of 51st Division HQ in NA (WO 95/2846).
24. Order No. 21 dated 15 November 1917 in War Diary of 1st Brigade Tank Corps HQ in NA (WO 95/98).
25. Notes on Tank and Infantry Training in War Diary of Tank Corps HQ in NA (WO 95/92).
26. Lessons from Recent Operations – Tank Corps, unsigned and undated report in Third Army file Cambrai: Narrative of Operations and Lessons Learnt in NA (WO 158/316).
27. See account in the History of Cambrai compiled by Major-General Sir Percy Hobart in Tank Museum (E2006.381). The account is anonymous, but clearly by Birks.
28. War Diary of 6th Bn Gordon Highlanders in NA (WO 95/2868/1); Mackenzie, p. 132.
29. Statement regarding circumstances which led to capture in service record of Second Lieutenant John Shaw, held by Ministry of Defence.
30. Robert Woollcombe, The First Tank Battle – Cambrai 1917, London, 1967.
31. Bryn Hammond, ‘General Harper and the failure of 51st (Highland) Division at Cambrai, 20 November 1917’, Imperial War Museum Review No. 10 (1995).
32. John Hussey, ‘Uncle Harper at Cambrai – A Reconsideration’, British Army Review (December 1997).
33. Hotblack, ‘Recollections of Cambrai, 1917’.
34. Watson, A Company of Tanks, p. 172.
35. Williams-Ellis, p. 109.
36. Tank Corps Summary of Information dated 27 November 1917 in NA (WO 157/240).
37. Preliminary lecture notes signed F.L.H. from RTR visit in March 1935, in Tank Museum (E2006.342).
38. From ‘The Meaning of Cambrai’, anonymous article in Tank Corps Journal (November 1922).
Chapter 36: A Peaceful, Unexceptional Place (pp. 247–253)
1. Birthday card in possession of Anthony family.
2. Letter dated 1 January 1919 in possession of Anthony family.
3. Ibid.
4. Letters dated 16 February 1919 in possession of Anthony family.
5. Ibid.
6. Photographs and letter dated 17 March 1919 in possession of Anthony family.
7. Photograph in possession of Heap family.
8. Album in possession of Anthony family.
9. Transcription of shorthand letter dated 10 April 1923 in possession of Anthony family.
10. Photograph in Tank Museum (2380-F3).
11. H. A. Taylor, Good-bye to the Battlefields: To-day and Yesterday on the Western Front, London, 1928, p. 165.
12. Steuben, p. 87 – account by Leutnant Ernst Albers.
13. CWGC records.
14. Cambrai East Military Cemetery contains the bodies of 10,685 German soldiers, as well as many from other countries including Britain, France and Russia. The mass grave contains 2,746 Germans, 2,307 of them unknown. The plaque listing known burials includes Major Fritz Hofmeister, but Hauptmann Soltau’s name is missing although he appears in the cemetery register.
15. CWGC records.
16. Letter dated 23 April 1930 – thanks to Philippe Gorczynski for providing this.
17. Nottingham Evening Post, 29 January 1918.
18. Nottingham Evening Post, 25 January 1918.
19. Thanks to Gwyn Evans for pointing out this connection.
20. See Gwyn Evans, ‘Rediscovery of the Gloucester Presentation Tank’, Transactions of the Bristol & Gloucestershire Archaeological Society 132 (2014), pp. 229–35.
21. Information from Gwyn Evans; photographs from Great War Forum.
22. Information from Johan Vanbeselaere.
23. Zindler, Und Abermals Soldat …, pp. 255–6.
Chapter 37: Varied Fortunes (pp. 254–259)
1. Documents in possession of family.
2. Ibid.
3. Service record in NA (WO 339/68648); notes and photographs from Gillies Archive (3900). Thanks to Dr Andrew Bamji for providing these materials.
4. The Times, 6 May 1972.
5. Unpublished biography by Paul Russell; information from Rev Ian Cohen.
6. Letter in Tank Corps Journal, September 1923.
7. Western Times, 14 August 1923.
8. The Times, 28 March 1985.
9. Service record (held by Ministry of Defence) and interviews in IWM Sound Archive.
10. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
11. Bion, War Memoirs 1917-1919 – see Sources.
12. Bion, The Long Week-end 1897-1919 – see Sources.
13. Macintosh, Men and Tanks – see Sources.
14. Review by ‘W.T.S.’ in Tank Corps Journal (February 1921).
15. J. C. Macintosh, Negligence in Delict, Capetown & Johannesburg, 1926.
16. South African Law Journal (1943), p. 307.
17. ‘The Wanderings of “D” in France (More especially of 12 Company) By a P.B.I. (attached)’, Tank Corps Journal (March–December 1921). P.B.I. stands for ‘poor bloody infantry’ and refers to the fact that Smith was previously in 17th Bn London Regiment.
18. Photographs in possession of family.
19. Recollections from family.
20. Watson, Adventures of a Despatch Rider – see Sources.
21. ‘Tales of a Gaspipe Officer’ by ‘Despatch Rider’, Blackwood’s Magazine (December 1915 to March 1916, and January 1917).
22. Service record in NA (WO 339/23425).
23. Watson, A Company of Tanks – see Sources. Originally published in Blackwood’s Magazine (May 1919 to February 1920).
24. Notes of interview by Dawn Lowe-Watson on 10 July 1976, in possession of family.
25. The Times, 21 December 1932.
26. Watson, A Company of Tanks, p. 296.
27. The Times, 21 December 1932.
28. Notes of interview on 10 July 1976, in possession of family.
29. Based on articles by Andrew Causey in The Illustrated London News, 4 September 1965, by David Cohen in Stand To! – The Journal of the Western Front Association No. 62 (September 2001), and in an unidentified local newspaper (in Tank Museum). Thanks to Lieutenant-Colonel Stephen May and Colonel John Longman of the Royal Tank Regiment.
30. Baker-Carr, From Chauffeur to Brigadier – see Sources. The book was republished by Leonaur in 2012 with a foreword by his great-niece Mary Baker-Carr.
31. Service record, held by Ministry of Defence.
32. The Times, 11 January 1949.
33. The Times, 10 January 1951, and various years to at least 1964.
34. Information on Cooper House, Laramie, Wyoming in US National Register of Historic Places Inventory.
35. Ulf Aschan, The Man Whom Women Loved – The Life of Bror Blixen, New York, 1987, pp. 135–6. The author, who was Blixen’s godson, does not give a source for the story.
36. Service record, held by Ministry of Defence.
37. See Jeffrey Meyers, Hemingway – A Biography, New York, 1985, p. 247. The source is given as an interview with Hemingway’s son Patrick.
38. Recollections from families.
39. Ibid.
40. Ibid.
41. CWGC records.
42. Ibid.
43. The Times, 16 October 1944.
44. Recollections from family, including unpublished biography by Walter’s daughter Joan Bullock (née Smith). Her source for the account of his death is not known.
45. Ibid.
46. Ibid.
47. Hull Daily Mail, 30 September 1940.
48. Recollections from family.
Chapter 38: Rosemary for Remembrance (pp. 260–265)
1. From Youth by Frances Cornford, a tribute to Rupert Brooke.
2. Service record, held by Ministry of Defence.
3. Taunton Courier & Western Advertiser, 10 August 1932.
4. Philip Richards, Between the Church & the Lighthouse – The History of Burnham and Berrow Golf Club, Worcestershire, 2001, p. 87. Thanks to the club president, Nick Brown, for his assistance.
5. Death certificate.
6. Recollections from family.
7. Service record, held by Ministry of Defence.
8. Recollections from family.
9. Service record, held by Ministry of Defence; Maurice, pp. 76 and 81.
10. Service record, held by Ministry of Defence.
11. Recollections from family.
12. Press release about sale of detention sheets by TracksAuction.com on 22 November 2013.
13. Maurice, p. 158.
14. George Macdonald, Gentleman, Sometime Farmer, Sometime Historian – unpublished biography by his son Angus Macdonald.
15. Ibid.
16. Ibid.
17. Service record, held by Ministry of Defence.
18. Blackpool Gazette & Herald, 11 October 1921.
19. Photographs and recollections from family.
20. Divorce file in NA (J 77/3285/369).
21. Photograph in Fell and Rock Journal (1988), p. 410.
22. Photographs and recollections from family.
23. Obituary by S. H. Cross in Journal of Fell and Rock Climbing Club (1958), pp. 192–3.
24. Cambridge Independent Press, 21 November 1919. His surname is misspelled ‘Chiverton’.
25. Photographs and recollections from family.
26. The quote is from Hamlet.
27. Service record in NA (WO 339/53827).
28. Marriage and death certificates, 1939 Register.
29. Photographs and recollections from family.
30. Medal index cards.
31. Death certificate.
32. Medal index card; RAF service record (AIR 79/2858); court martial register in NA (AIR 21/1A); Irish Army Census 1922.
33. Medal index card.
34. CWGC records.
35. Recollections from family.
36. Service record in NA (WO 339/64604).
37. The Times, 16 February 1972.
38. CWGC records.
Chapter 39: Weapon of Friendship (pp. 266–274)
1. From interview conducted at Hotel Beatus, Cambrai on 1 February 2015.
2. Sunday Times, 22 November 1977 – report by Ian Murray.
3. Michel Bacquet, La Bataille de Cambrai, Mallez Imprimeurs, 1977.
4. Jean-Luc Gibot and Philippe Gorczynski, En Suivant les Tanks, 1997; Following the Tanks translated by Wendy MacAdam, 1999.
5. From interview with Will Heap.
6. CWGC records.
7. Photograph in possession of Jim Christie.
8. See articles in Belfast Telegraph, 21 July 2008; Nottingham Evening Post, 29 December 2008; and Cambridge News, 26 January 2009.
9. Documents and photographs in possession of family.
10. Ibid.
11. War Diary of 4th Bn Tank Corps in NA (WO 95/110).
12. Service record in NA (WO 363).
13. Recollections from family.
14. Photographs in possession of Jean Luc Caudron and Philippe Gorczynski.
15. The number inside the cab was discovered by Ian Douglas.