THE GREAT RETREAT ANNIVERSARY SUPPLEMENT, NAVY NEWS, MARCH 2008 iii
es Leutnant Ernst Jünger’s regiment. British troops.
nt The men moved about their assault The situation was sufficiently
trenches waiting for the signal to
Order of th
e Day
desperate for Capt Harold Horne to
art storm forward. An NCO stood in
he front of Jünger’s foxhole, urging him
We are ag
be dispatched from V Corps’ training
ain at a
ut, to take better cover as the British
enem
crisis in th school back to the front line – if he
y is aiming at the destr
e w
ar. The
e’s counter-barrage began.
I feel that ev
uction of the British Ar
could find it.
eryone in the Ar my.
ng “An explosion cut him off,” Jünger
muc
He trapsed across the Somme
h depends on the ex
my, full
y realising ho
er
w
le recalled. “He sprawled to the ground,
each one of us, will do his utmost to prev
tions and steadf
battlefield of 1916: Albert,
astness of
Martinpuich, Pozières. The lanes and
rs missing a leg. he was past help.” The
from attaining his object.
ent the enem
y
roads of the Somme were filled with
ng officer dove for another dugout. As stragglers trying to find their units,
to clumps of earth and dust were tossed
– F
wn around the German trenches, Jünger Comm
ield Mar
including several sailors and marines
andin
shal Sir Dou
g Off
ve watched powerless as his company
icer,
glas Haig
British Expediti
hoping to re-join the Royal Naval
onary F
orce
Division.
ar. was decimated. Horne rounded them up, grabbed
is And then the English barrage a breakfast from a field kitchen,
subsided. The officers drew their against the stream of carts and vehicles plus an ample supply of biscuits and
4 pistols, nodded at each other or struggling back from the fi ghting, each chocolates to keep the men’s morale
he engaged in small talk. Sporadically one crammed with casualties, “lying up, and set off towards the Ancre
sh mortar fire falling short kicked up motionless, pale and bloody looking,” where the Royal Naval Division
hs mud. Jünger’s comrade handed him a he recalled. “I had seen many wounded had earned its baptism of fire on the
rs water bottle. He took a long swig, then before, but not in such an awful parade, Western Front 18 months before.
g. tried to light a cigar. Three times the one vehicle after another without end.
sh air pressure blew out his matches. The sight shook me up.” After four days of battle, the German
ve “I sensed the weight of the hour,” spearheads had driven the Royal
ot he recalled. “The mood was curious, Even as the mist thinned, the Allied Naval Division back almost 15 miles,
ge brimming with tension and a kind of air forces did not offer battle. Rudolf beyond the village of Flers where the
es exaltation. The noise of battle had Stark found he had time to follow the tank had made its debut in the autumn
become so terrific that no-one was at fi ghting beneath him. of 1916, to the charred, battle-scarred
all clear-headed.” “Below us a battery is firing, infantry remnants of woods and copses around
nd It was now 9.40am. The barrage are advancing to storm. Columns take the village of Martinpuich.
ut. began to creep forward. In the cover in trenches and behind rising Dubliner David Polley stumbled
ok German trenches, whistles sounded ground,” he recorded in his diary. through the remains of Delville Wood
wn and trumpeters blew the historic call: “Everywhere I see flashes – smoking, – or Devil’s Wood as many men
leap up. flaming mouths of cannon.” preferred to call it – dead on his feet.
id It was an exhilarating moment. Some German aircraft swept “We were beginning to feel the
le “One division after the other breaks low over the British lines, strafing strain of the past few days, for the lack
so through in a gigantic leap,” enthralled anything which moved, “pumping of sleep pulls a man down quicker than
he junior officer Wilhelm Held wrote to lead into the trenches,” David Polley most things – nerves were almost at
of his brother. “Across No Man’s Land, recalled. “Others paid full attention to snapping point,” he remembered.
ut into the first enemy trench!” our observation balloons, which they The sight of the canteen raised
es brought down in flames.” morale in a flash. Polley and his
Richard Tobin sheepishly left comrades lined up and waited for
ost his dugout. He had no orders and For the moment the battle was out of their cuppas.
an wandered into Havrincourt Wood in the hands of men like Albrecht von Suddenly a staff officer rode up in a
of search of the rest of the Steadies. The Thaer. It was almost peaceful in his rage. “His face was purple and his eyes
ly Hoods were not there. They had been IX Corps headquarters as the months literally bulged,” Polley remembered.
sent up to the front. Tobin walked of preparation and planning paid off. “He harangued us: ‘What the hell are
down a plank road built through the “Everything runs like a film,” he you men doing? Can’t you see the
en copse by British troops. He found no noted in his diary. Boyish excitement enemy advancing?’”
ert Hoods. He did find confused soldiers seemed to grip these otherwise The gunners never enjoyed their
in coming back in dribs and drabs. None reserved General Staff officers. cuppas; they poured the tea into a
he knew where the Hood Battalion was. “We feverishly try to follow things ditch and headed for the front line.
ay through the field binoculars,” Thaer With not a little bitterness, Richard
nd Machine-gunner Sgt Frank Cooper was continued. “We can see little of our Tobin sank into a trench on the Ancre.
of also struggling to find his comrades. advancing infantry. Smoke and dust “It was a trench we knew of old,” he
he Today was his 22nd birthday but the hide too much.” recalled. “We had started to retreat
All former factory worker from Walsall on March 21 and here we were back
did not feel like celebrating. The war After a day of supreme effort, Herbert in the trench we had started to attack
d. had already cost the lives of his two Sulzbach sat on a limber and compiled from on November 13 1916 – back
his best pals. his diary. “I’d like to write volumes to the Somme battlefields, these old
my, The Royal Marine found not about this day; it really must be the battlefields.”
ed stragglers but an avalanche of British greatest in the history of the world. So Yet like David Polley, Tobin
soldiers pouring back from the front the impossible thing has been achieved; realised the ‘great retreat’ was just that
line. Cooper’s commander tried to the breakthrough has succeeded!” – a retreat, a withdrawal. The British
his buttonhole a few of the retreating Fritz Nagel rested beneath the truck soldier did not flee in the face of his
his Tommies. The Germans have broken which carried his anti-aircraft battery foe – there was “always a company,
he through, they told him. We’re falling into battle. Around were scattered the always a battalion standing facing the
dy back. bodies of a dozen or so Tommies, their enemy, ready to fight.” What wearied
The commander of 190 Machine- pockets ransacked, their letters home the men was not retreat but the return
ne gun Company could not fight the tide. and playing cards lying in the mud. of “the old trench ding-dong” with no
ed He ordered his marines to withdraw Nagel picked up a handful. Perhaps, end in sight. Still, Richard Tobin and
● A British supply dump and
air and dig in with their four guns when a he thought, I could write to the families
ammunition depot goes up in fl ames
his fellow Hoods were defiant. “We
er, target presented itself. when all this was over. had a little joy in our hearts because
As the Royals withdrew, the
whole of this dreadful march, we were
although we had not won, we had not
ng officer spied the outlines of German Sgt Frank Cooper had little idea
shelled, shelled, shelled, and if there
been beaten.”
he Stosstruppen moving through the mist where he was or where he was going.
can be monotony in the expectation
nt to the right. The machine-guns “let He watched a BEF fi eld kitchen go
of death, then the very din of battle INEXORABLE MARCH
w fly”. Brrt. Brrt. Brrt. They fired no up in fl ames. He fl eetingly caught
stood in the road near the army’s
m more than a handful of belts before sight of German soldiers advancing.
THE GREAT RETREAT
became monotonous.”
headquarters and watched “an endless Sullen Frenchmen and women
the figures vanished. Once again, the And he found some of his gun team
DISCIPLINE BREAKS DOWN
stream of men, horses, motor cars,
w Royal Marines picked up their guns had simply vanished in the chaos of
motor lorries, ambulances, mules,
‘THIS DREADFUL MARCH’
stared at the retreating soldiers, barely
hiding their contempt. They offered no
ist and headed westwards. retreat. “I don’t know what happened
‘LAND OF MILK AND HONEY’
artillery and other limbers, and guns
to them,” he remembered, “and I never
moving past. Wretched mud-stained
WITHDRAWAL NOT FLIGHT
aid, no food, no shelter.
“They were frightened and accused
At Le Cateau, the sun had pierced the saw them again.”
Not beaten, yes, but would the
soldiers limped along, often without us of having let them down,” recalled
mist sufficiently for Leutnant Rudolf The rest of the Royal Naval Division
storm troops ever falter, ever stop,
equipment or rifl es.” The English were indeed dreadfully Polley. “We, in turn, were not as polite
Stark to take to the French skies in his had begun Thursday March 21 holding
the retreating Britons wondered. The
At 8pm on the twenty-second, the stubborn adversaries. They were also as we probably should have been.”
personalised Pfalz D III fighter – he the line between Flesquières and
German advance seemed relentless,
telephone at Haig’s headquarters rang. extremely weary adversaries. The The local populace’s mood was
had painted a purple nose and a purple Marcoing. By nightfall it had been
inexorable, unstoppable. To Royal
It was a breathless Hubert Gough. men were tired, hungry. Rations had probably not helped by acts of
band behind the cockpit. driven back a couple of miles.
Naval Division brigade commander
T “Parties of all arms of the enemy are run out. Communications had broken vandalism by the retreating army.
From several hundred feet, Stark The sailors and Royal Marines
General Hugo de Pree, the sight
through our reserve line.” The German down – telephone lines had been cut Desperate for somewhere to rest,
could see the ground steaming and had fared better than many of their
of Stosstruppen jinking across the
rs Army was in open ground. off, runners failed to make it back to Polley and his comrades forced their
smoking “from a thousand shell comrades that fateful Thursday.
battlefield was terrifying but also
The news troubled Douglas Haig, headquarters or, if they did, they failed way into locked barns and crashed
holes”. The thick layer of haze below Twenty-one thousand British soldiers
intoxicating, mesmerising. Wherever
es, a man normally unperturbable, to fi nd their comrades when they down on the straw.
prevented the airman from gaining an fell into German hands on the fi rst day
the German advanced, he sent Very
eir unfl appable. It was time to remind the returned to the front. Machine-gunners To the Dubliner it seemed the
idea of progress on the ground. It also of the Kaiser’s Battle. At least 7,000
lights racing into the sky as signals to
British soldier what he was fi ghting struggled to carry their weapons over entire British Army was on the move
prevented the enemy air force from more lay dead on the battlefi eld.
their gunners and commanders. “As
to for, the fi eld marshal reasoned. “We the cratered terrain. Mortar teams – westwards.
harassing him. There was a brief scrap And so the breakthrough, as Herbert
far as the eye could see” the enemy
d, are again at a crisis in the war,” he told simply buried their weapons and Perhaps not all the British Army,
with a handful of Sopwith Camels, Sulzbach enthused, had indeed
was advancing, in lines two or three
ny his men in an order of the day. “The fought as foot soldiers. for this was a fighting retreat, not
but in the mist, friend and foe lost succeeded. But at a far greater price
deep, de Pree remembered. “Troops
nd enemy is aiming at the destruction of It was the regulars, the veterans flight.
contact. than any German leader predicted.
in the rear at once poured through the
ot the British Army. I feel that everyone of 1914, not the men who responded Near the village of Beaulencourt,
Germany’s dead numbered 10,000,
gap, and in a few minutes our fl ank
d,” in the Army, fully realising how to Kitchener’s appeal, or those south of Bapaume, Polley marvelled
THE TERRIBLE FOG
her wounded that Thursday three
was turned at that place.”
much depends on the exertions and conscripted, who maintained some at the defi ance of the artillerymen.
times that fi gure, and punctured the
What Hugo de Pree did not realise,
d. steadfastness of each one of us, will do semblance of order, morale and above “All along the roadside, the big
lines of Fifth and Third Armies were,
or perhaps did not appreciate, was that
ak THE HUN’S LOYAL ALLY his utmost to prevent the enemy from all discipline in battle. guns were in action, the gunners
they were not broken, and nor were the
the scale and speed of the German
ot attaining his object.” “I reckon it was our RM sergeants working like fi ends and pouring
men holding them.
advance was also its nemesis. The
,” The fog masked everything this At his headquarters in the Hotel that kept us going,” Cpl George Banks with perspiration,” the Irishman
Stosstruppen were quickly exhausted.
ne terrible Thursday morning. Hubert Britannique in the Belgian health remembered. “They were regulars remembered.
Too much had been asked of the
30 Gough stared out of his offi ce window BREAKTHROUGH resort of Spa, Wilhelm II and his – good men – who kept walking up Polley and his fellow machine-
ordinary soldier. He could only give
he into the garden. He could just make entourage toasted a great victory with and down the firing line, waking up gunners joined in the battle before
his all for so long.
en out the faint outline of a tree 40 feet THE KAISER REJOICES champagne. The Kaiser’s Battle had the lads.” orders inevitably arrived to fall back
The vast organisation supporting
away. His eyes in the sky were useless. evoked the Kaiser’s very worst traits: Not all could be roused, however. once more. The sailors left some
him broke down. Dedicated for years
d’s They weren’t in the sky. They sat on BACKS TO THE WALL arrogance and hubris. “The battle is “One lad fell asleep,” Sgt Frank ammunition boxes behind. Their
to a war of stagnation, it simply could
ng airfi elds. There were no telephone won,” he proclaimed loudly. “The Cooper recalled. “We could not wake offi cer called for volunteers to recover
not cope with a war of movement.
er calls from the front; the bombardment March 21 was only the beginning. At English have been utterly defeated.” him up.” Cooper’s company simply the munitions. Two men stepped
The howitzers and field batteries of
d, had seen to that. It had also seen to the dawn on the twenty-second, on came So utterly defeated, in fact, that if an left their comrade behind and hoped forward and headed eastwards. They
Albrecht von Thaer’s corps had to
is messengers who could not fi nd their the Stosstruppen once more – again English delegation came to Spa to sue the advancing Germans would look never returned.
move three miles west to keep up
of way through this milky cloak. Hubert shielded by the guardian angel of for peace “it must kneel before the after him. His exhaustion was the rule,
with the advance of the Stosstruppen.
he Gough had called on the Almighty to Nature as mist covered the battlefi eld. German standard, for it was a question not the exception. “We were all dead By dark on March 23, the Royal Naval
It was a demanding task i n
support the Allied cause, but Even when it cleared at mid-day and here of victory of the monarchy tired,” wrote the Midlander. “I think Division had lost all contact with
itself, but with all the
this Thursday morning, he British guns were presented with over democracy.” some did not care what happened.” 47th Division on its right. German
supply columns diverted
lamented, “the stars in their clear targets, the impetus rested As ever, Wilhelm II had jumped In three days of battle, machine- infantry had smashed an Army
to support another
courses seemed to be fi ghting with the Germans. And again the the gun. Albrecht von Thaer’s gunner David Polley had retreated infantry brigade in its rear and, as
part of the front,
for the Germans.” men of the 63rd Royal Naval Corps was bludgeoning its way almost a dozen miles. darkness enveloped the
there was nothing
Division fared better than most forward slowly, too slowly. “Days and nights came battlefi eld, there was
to move the piles
It was late morning before of the British Army, pushed “The English are not Italians and went without marked an almighty explosion
of ammunition.
Flak gunner Fritz Nagel back only another couple of or Russians, but dreadfully difference,” he recalled. which rocked the ground
The guns were
began moving up to the miles. stubborn adversaries,” he “On, on, all the time and lit up the night; the
starving.
front line to support the Hubert Gough’s Fifth recorded in his diary. “God until at last we linked ammunition and supply
advance. His battery Army was disintegrating, give us a great success!” up with the retreating dump at Ytres had been marina Continued on
laboured to make headway however. A young captain ● ● infantry and during the blown up by retreating page iv
◆
MMarch Offensive.indd 3arch Offensive.indd 3 118/2/08 10:44:528/2/08 10:44:52
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