Acknowledgements

In searching for personal accounts written by the men who fought in the March retreat I have scoured archive collections across the country and it is to those archivists, librarians and keepers of collections that I am most indebted. The National Archives at Kew has been a continual source of material, particularly in respect of regimental war diaries and the hugely rich source of letters and accounts that flowed between veterans and the Army Historical Branch post 1918. These accounts, apart from revealing what exactly took place and where, have provided a fascinating insight into the true nature of the fighting at a tactical level. Other sources of material have been found in the Imperial War Museum document and sound archive collections, the Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives and the Liddle Collection at Leeds. My thanks must also go to the curators of the various regimental museums which still hold material relating to the March retreat. Of these I am particularly grateful to the Rifles Museum at Winchester and the Royal Engineers Museum, Library and Archive.

I am also indebted to Nigel Lutt at the Bedfordshire and Luton Archive, the staff at the Surrey History Centre, the Hampshire Records Office and the Leicestershire and Rutland Record Office. Special thanks must go to Laura Dimmock and Tony Pilmer at the RUSI library in Whitehall who have responded so promptly to my many requests for obscure and out of print volumes. The library – which must rank as one of the best military libraries in the country – holds copies of practically every defence review and military journal ever published, a place where one can easily lose track of time!

In gathering information I am also indebted to the host of individuals who responded to my online requests via the Great War Forum, a number of whom went out of their way to help by providing me with material. Adam Llewellyn, Chris Baker, Colin Taylor, Mark Smith, Jim Ainslie, Martin Mcneela, Al Grey, Andy Pugh and Dave Risley were in particular of immense help. Thanks must also go to Damien Burke at the Irish Jesuit Archive in Dublin for providing a copy of the Father Henry Gill diaries and permission to quote from them.

As ever it is the personal accounts of the officers and men who fought during the March retreat that make this particular story possible; to these long gone individuals I extend my thanks and gratitude for chronicling their experiences and enabling later generations to share their battlefield experiences with them. In following in their footsteps during my journey along the Fifth Army front I was accompanied for much of it by my eldest granddaughter Alisha who became adept at spotting battlefield relics and programming the satellite navigation system. Our week spent together was one that both of us will treasure. I must also thank Dave Rowland, Paul Webster, Rob Howard and Bill Dobbs who clambered around the ruins of Fort Vendeuil with me and stumbled across fields in search of numerous long forgotten redoubts in the III Corps sector.

The German accounts have been provided by Sebastian Laudan in Berlin who, when not translating German unit histories, is a serving police officer. His tireless work on my behalf has not only enabled a more balanced view to be taken but has opened the door to the notion that the initial German advance in March 1918 was not always as straightforward as has often been suggested. To my editor Jon Cooksey – a notable and published historian himself – I must again extend my appreciation of his encouragement and enthusiasm. His incisive questioning and constructive appraisal of the text is always welcome and has added much to the quality of the manuscript.

The maps have been drawn by Rebecca Jones of Glory Designs in Coventry and as usual she made several suggestions as to how my rather crude sketches could be improved. Finally, I have made every effort to trace the copyright holders where any substantial extract is quoted. Where this has not been possible the author craves the indulgence of literary executors or copyright holders where these efforts have so far failed and would encourage them to contact him through the publisher.

Jerry Murland
Coventry
2014