Footnotes
The British Army
1. Adapted from Groom W, A Storm in Flanders, pxii
The Great War – a very brief history
1. No Dominion had an obligation to provide troops for anything other than its own defence. However, the cry of Mother Britain would be answered by them anyway.
Remembrance, memorialisation and the Commonwealth War Graves Commission
1. The New Zealand authorities did not grant this option.
Tour One: The Somme
1. These timings are a rough guide and do not include any travel time between stops.
2. Serre was to be the hinge on which the push northwards swung. Those troops attacking further south of Serre would either hold or continue on deep into German-held territory.
3. However, the German machine gun prowess should not be overstated. In this section of the line the Germans actually had relatively few machine guns. Machine guns were best as enfilade weapon; that is they were designed to cover large areas predominantly from the side. What this highlights then is just how poor the British situation was if such German defences could cause so much damage.
4. Although not technically in the Somme region, but for the historical purpose I count it as so.
5. Billy McFadzean was awarded the Victoria Cross for his act of selfless heroism. His body was lost, perhaps obliterated during the shelling of that day, and so he is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial, Pier and Face 15 A and 15 B.
6. Much of my account is based on the work of Martin Middlebrook. I cannot recommend his book on the Somme enough. He and his wife have also published an excellent battlefield guide to the Somme, The Middlebrook Guide to the Somme Battlefields, Pen & Sword Books, 2007.
Tour Two: Ypres
1. Perhaps as you enjoy a refreshing Duvel or Jupiler in the Grote Market after a day’s battlefield touring, you might like to muse not just on the Tommies whose footsteps you are walking but also those, like Napoleon, who have been to this place too. In 1940, Adolf Hitler, upon the capitulation of French forces, travelled across France and Belgium to meet with many of his generals and to visit sites of interest to him from the First World War. On 1 June he visited Ypres and walked through the Menin Gate. The huge beer industry was largely a consequence of the collapse of the medieval wool trade.
2. Nineteen mines were blown, five were not used and one was abandoned. One exploded in 1955 during a thunderstorm, killing a cow, near Plugstreet, where there are three others as part of the Bird Cage cluster. Another is under La Petite Douve Farm, south of the Island of Ireland Peace Park; this one was found by the Germans and abandoned by the British. Another is by Peckham.
3. Focused artillery bombardment on specific German defences, across a much shorter section of front, followed by infantry advance and sustained defence of newly captured positions before beginning the next stage of assault, allowing guns to be brought forward for a new assault.
4. This may be as high as 450,000 Allied and 410,000 German.
5. Remember that with the entry into the war of the United States, the Allies had potentially a ready supply of millions of new troops on the horizon. The German army was becoming perilously devoid of quality soldiers. In essence, the Allies could afford high casualty rates, the Germans could not.
6. You may come across reference to a Fifth Battle of Ypres, 28 September – 2 October, 1918. This was part of the Allied drive to victory and a plan put into operation by the newly installed Generalissimo of the Allied Armies, Marshal Ferdinand Foch. However, it was short lived and halted for a while (no surprises!) due to bad weather. Some action continued on until mid-October. Generally, it is not recognised by most historians as the Fifth Battle – given its relatively slight duration; the battle as a part of the general Advance in Flanders, September to November 1918, is a more apt designation.
7. In the case of St Martin’s, the spire was made significantly higher than that of the original.
8. These timings are a rough guide and do not include any travel time between stops.
9. This museum is somewhat controversial in the battlefield tours community. Some guides are unhappy with the entrance fee. However, for the first time visitor, this place still delivers the best example of what it was ‘really like’ and those of us who pride ourselves on being ‘experts’ probably need to remember that and cease our pomposity!
10. i.e. they could have been reinforced for defensive purposes, then additional trenches added, then a need to alter line of sight, then captured and defences reversed… etc, etc. You get the point: trench warfare could be confusing and it is appropriate that it still confuses us now.
11. Certainly not at all German positions, however. Concrete bunkers were only really present on any large scale from 1917 onwards. Many German soldiers would not agree that they lived in luxury!
12. (Van Emden, 2005, p. 102.) Given the nature of this book I have endeavoured to limit the number of direct citations so that they do not get in the way. Only when I have quoted at length, or wish to pass on a particular piece of information from another source, have I used them. All details of the sources which I have consulted (and would recommend to the reader) are referenced in full at the end of this book.
13. A useful time to speak to the group on the coach microphone, explaining the significance of the journey you are now making – i.e. away from the front line, back toward Ypres and then towards the relative safety of Poperinge. You are making the journey that many Tommies hoped they would get to make when they were stationed at the front!
14. (Luard, 1930)
15. Other criteria are accepted too; but in the case of this example the soldiers will have died on active service and their relatives will have taken up the option of repatriation and burial.
16. (Campion Vaughan, 1982, pp. 184-185) To my mind, the best memoir of the war.
17. Nine times out of ten this is open; however, inexplicably – or so it seems – it can be closed. Be prepared that you might be unlucky. Also, sometimes the doors are closed but not locked, so do make sure that you try them!
18. Thirty-five murderers were shot, such as C.C. Wang of the Chinese Labour Corps, who was executed here on 08/05/1919. In 2012 a new, non-original, post replaced one that had been in the courtyard for many years. The previous one was thought to be that to which Wang was tied.
19. Though not the youngest soldier buried in the Salient. John Condon is buried in Poelkapelle Cemetery and is listed as being 14 years of age. However, this is disputed. There are claims that he was 18, that the body buried there is not him and there are counter claims that he was actually 13!
20. In a most moving visit to Langemark, one of my students (a boy from England) had a German relative buried in the pit. In recent years work has been done to identify the soldiers in this mass grave and so far 17,000 have been named. If you are interested, the boy’s relative was called Heuck and you will find him on the panel. It was a remarkably sobering moment.
21. A selection from the brilliant Some Desperate Glory (Campion Vaughan, 1982), pages 221-232. I urge you to buy this book. The above reading will take approximately ten minutes; this may seem like a long time to hold a group’s attention but I have never read this and not had the group in absolute silence, waiting on every single word. When you finish reading, I would recommend just walking away from the group and meeting them back at the coach; hugely powerful. Also, the names that Vaughan mention above can be found, along with many more, on Panel 23 to 28 and 163A of the Tyne Cot Memorial.
22. A much disputed claim. The cottages were long destroyed by 1917 and Tyne Cot appeared on British trench maps as a term for the area before then too. Some speculation suggests that there was lettering on an old barn or that it was named after the river by British map-makers; all is conjecture.
23. I have taken the decision to leave out an individual story to tell at Tyne Cot, simply because there are so many and, by this stage of a long day, many of your group will want some quiet time to walk the cemetery and think through the day (and they may be sick of your voice!). If you would like a story then one of the most often told is that of the Moorhouses and it is of personal importance to the author as both were old boys of the school I attended. Lieutenant Colonel Harry Moorhouse was in command of the 1/4th Bn KOYLI. His son, Ronald, was a captain in the same unit. Ronald was shot leading an attack on 9 October. He was brought back to HQ where his father insisted on trying to find a doctor to treat him. As he left his dugout, Harry was shot and killed. Both father and son died within half an hour of each other. You can find their names on panel 108-111.
24. Do make sure that this is pre-booked by yourself or your tour company. I have eaten at numerous locations in central Ypres with school groups and have never had a bad meal. An ideal time to book for would be 1800 or 1830.
25. Until the 1980s timings were 2000 in winter months and 2100 in summer months.
26. The church was originally founded by Countess Adela in 1057 and it is she who is buried in the crypt. Her marriage to Baldwin V of Flanders would produce a daughter, Mathilde, who would go on to marry… William “the Conqueror”, Duke of Normandy.
27. Both taken from the 1941 American print version of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf, pp 213- 215.
28. The Treaty (1919) limited the German Army to 100,000 men, forbade an Airforce and union with Austria, limited the size of the Navy and took land and overseas possessions. Germany also had to pay £6.6 billion (a reduced figure from the original, according to one index now worth £22 billion) the much adjusted figure was finally paid off on 23 October 2010.
29. It always intrigues me as to what the farmer ’s insurance bill looks like!
30. In a startling coincidence, Mullingar is the home town of Lieutenant Maurice Dease, first VC winner of the war. He is buried in St Symphorien CWGC Cemetery in Mons.
31. See http://fatherdoyle.com/ for more on the life of this remarkable man. Doyle was killed during Third Ypres on 16 August 1917.
32. I am indebted to Winston Groom for bringing Griffith’s story to my attention in the brilliant A Storm in Flanders (see further reading), upon which I have based much of this Hill 60 information.