1. Although Foch acted from then on as General-in-Chief of the Allies, it was not until 14 May that his position was formalized and he was given that official title.

2. Despite pressure from General Gough and his friends, every request for a formal inquiry was subsequently refused. It was believed by many, not without reason, that an impartial inquiry into the circumstances which led to the retirement of the Fifth Army under General Gough might, in vindicating him, have laid the ultimate responsibility on the shoulders of the Government, which, for political reasons, had insisted on the extension of the British line and denied the reinforcements which might have enabled the Fifth Army to repel a major assault. As long as three months after General Gough’s dismissal, a member of the Army Council, Sir Sam Fay, made a significant entry in his diary: ‘July 3rd. Army Council Meeting. Question of Gough and retreat of March 21st discussed. No report from Haig. Considered that any report would lead to higher game than Haig, viz: War Cabinet and thinning of the line.’ As Duff Cooper was to put it succinctly in his biography of Haig (Faber and Faber, 1935), ‘… the Government would not dare to institute an inquiry which might so easily have ended by the prosecutor finding himself in the dock’. General Gough, alone of the Army Commanders, was not invited to the victory celebrations, nor did he receive the decorations awarded to the others. Not until 1937 was he awarded the GCB by King George VI. At the King’s own wish, he was invited to Buckingham Palace for a private ceremony weeks in advance of the official investiture. ‘After all,’ said the King, ‘he’s had to wait a long time, poor man. I don’t see why he should be kept waiting any longer.’ Handing the order to General Gough, the King remarked, ‘I suppose you can take this as a recognition of the gratitude of your country.’ (Quoted in Goughie: The Life of General Sir Hubert Gough, by Anthony Farrar-Hockley (Hart-Davis, MacGibbon, 1975).)

1. Lord Hankey, The Supreme Command 1914–1918, Vol. II (George Allen & Unwin, 1961).

1. ‘Half-pai’ means half-good – a corruption of ka pai, which means ‘good’ in the Maori language.

1. Schroeter was eventually sent to the Empress Augusta Hospital in Breslau, where he remained for three years. The doctors saved his arm. It remained paralysed but, as he later philosophically remarked, ‘At least I still had it.’

1. Quoted from The Roses of No Man’s Land by Lyn Macdonald (Michael Joseph, London, 1980; Penguin, London, 1993).