Endnotes

1 Walter Baghout (1826—77), Lawyer and author of The English Constitution.

2 These totals need to be treated with some caution; the numbers for 1801 include the militia, who were not on the permanent establishment of the army. Also the figures include only the military in Britain. The numbers on campaign or stationed overseas on garrison duties have not been found. The argument remains valid though even on these figures. In 1801 at a time of war with Revolutionary France, if the army was double the census figure it would still amount to only 3.6% of the population. The 1851 census would allow the strength of the army to be three times the home establishment at 257,450 and 1.23%. Britain’s Army was tiny when account is taken of the political ambitions of the nation and the size of the armies of potential enemies.

(3 see also Chapter 7 for the views of Field Marshal Earl Wavell.)

4 cadre, a unit of the armed forces maintained at a minimum manning level, to allow for the recruitment and training of additional soldiers for war establishment strength.

(5 Cenotaph, from the Greek word, meaning empty tomb.)

6 This is a small exaggeration, The Royal Regiment of Artillery had learned from the events of the Boer War; indirect fire was in the process of introduction using the ‘clock card’ and field telephones, but old habits die hard. So it was on 1st September 1914, ‘L’ battery, RHA arrived to support the fighting at Nery, it did not flinch in the face of the enemy, Captain Edward Bradbury, Battery Sergeant Major Thomas Dorrell and Sergeant David Nelson earned their place in artillery legend for their heroism and determination, each was awarded the Victoria Cross. Bradbury was killed in the action, Nelson was commissioned, achieved the rank of major and was killed in action on 8th April 1918, Dorrell survived both wars of the twentieth century and died in 1971. ‘L’ battery now bears the title ‘Nery’ as its battle honour.

7 The present day job title equivalent would probably be Chief Executive Officer (CEO). A few years after the Great War, the railway employed more than 85,000 people.

8 The British Army adopted the hand grenade known as the ‘Mills’ bomb in 1915 and used the weapon for about fifty years, there is some doubt though that Mr Mills of Birmingham was the true and original inventor of the device, a very similar item was designed by a Belgian Army officer, Capt Leon Roland, I have not traced the outcome of a court case on the issue

(9 see Annex 1 for full list of army ranks)

10 Line of Communication: rear area formations needed to supply the front line units, run hospitals etc.

11 As a contribution to this appraisal of the war by a family member, Albert Lucas MM, who fought in France from March 1915 to October 1917, he was not enthusiastic about the Lewis Gun. The mechanism had numerous moving parts and unless kept scrupulously clean would jam, usually at a crucial moment. You try keeping the mud out of the breech of a gun when it’s pouring with rain, dark and under fire from the enemy! The ‘Bren’ (light machine gun) of WW II was a great improvement, he said.

12 see, ‘other men’s FLOWERS’ Pg 131, an anthology of poetry by Earl Wavell, it is a startlingly varied choice of verse worthy of more attention.

13 see, Henry IV, Pt I, Act I, Scene 3.

14 Gorget, originally the part(s) of a suit of armour that protected the throat of the wearer, usually a mounted knight. The British used and still use, the gorget patch as a distinguishing mark, described above, for officers. The German Army retained a metal gorget collar on a chain worn around the neck for their military police until as late as 1945. The military police are by tradition, in any army, even more heartily disliked than the staff.

15 The Lewis gun; an American invention made under licence in the UK by the Birmingham Small Arms Co (BSA). It was originally the weapon of choice for the nascent Royal Flying Corps.

16 The exception that needs to be recorded is the accidental death and injury of soldiers by ‘friendly fire’ an almost inevitable by product of modern high intensity warfare. There were also the 346 soldiers executed in France (291 were of the British Army, the remainder were from Canada, New Zealand, the West Indies and the Chinese Labour Corps), out of a total of over 3,080 sentenced for offences which carried a death sentence. This was a penalty not limited to desertion and cowardice, other crimes included mutiny, looting, sleeping on sentry duty and murder. The number killed or injured by friendly fire in the confused fighting of 1914–1918 will never be known, it is certain however that the number will be minimal by comparison with the casualties caused by enemy action.

(l7 There is some divergence of information, John Keegan cites a figure of 22 for Act II.)

18 Poliu, the French equivalent of a Private in the British army, literally translated it becomes ‘the hairy one’.

19 Comparing several sources gives some veracity to the figure for the number killed of 1.385 million, in a casualty total quoted by C.R.M.F Cruttwell of 4.385 million killed and wounded. The tidy total of 3.0 million injured should probably be treated with some caution; real life does not produce results such as this.

20 British totals for the Western Front (France and Belgium). Excludes those from imperial contingents, these details are for comparison of the effect on national populations.

21 German total for all European commitments, see paras below for further discussion.

22 n/c. No formations committed from armies under national command.

23 Number quoted at Versailles Conference, 1919.

(24 source, Daily Telegraph report)

25 For a time there was an additional big gun turret located on the centre line just aft of mid ships, of necessity the guns of this turret could only fire to port or starboard in broadside fire and was therefore of limited utility

26 Trials had been undertaken prior to the outbreak of war in 1914 to evaluate weapons suitable for aircraft use. The ‘Lewis’ light machine gun was specified for use by the RFC in 1914, availability was another issue though and the manufacturing and delivery of these guns in worthwhile numbers for service use was a lengthy and, for the airman, frustrating process.

27 Details of this adventure are described in Chapter 12, America.

28 John Lewis-Stempel cites a figure of 6,500 executions of Belgian and French civilians in his book Six Weeks.

29 Shrewd, a word now out of fashion but fitting exactly the character of Robertson: it means “keen witted in practical affairs, astute”, would that more of our leaders today applied such a talent to their responsibilities.