iv THE GREAT RETREAT ANNIVERSARY SUPPLEMENT, NAVY NEWS, MARCH 2008
Bapaume Bapaume
N
Hamel Hamel
Flesquieres Flesquieres
26th March 26th March
27th March 27th March
Le Sars Le Sars
21st March 21st March
DIVISIONALDIVISIONAL BOUNDARBOUNDARY
Thiepval Thiepval
Haplincourt Haplincourt
Havrincourt Havrincourt
Marcoing Marcoing
Courcelette Courcelette
Villers-au-Flos llers-au-Flos
Beaulencourt Beaulencourt
Ridecourt Ridecourt
Authuille Authuille
25th March 25th March Division Reformed Division Reformed
Barastre Barastre
Bertincourt Bertincourt
22nd March 22nd March
Martinpuich Martinpuich
Gueudecourt Gueudecourt
24h March 24h March
Ruyaulcourt Ruyaulcourt
Bouzincourt Bouzincourt
Pozieres Pozieres Treescault scault
FlersFlers
Le TLe Trransloy ansloy
23rd & 24th March 23rd & 24th March
Rocquigny Rocquigny
23rd March 23rd March
Aveluy eluy 23rd March 23rd March
23rd March 23rd March
Ytres Ytres
DIVISIONALDIVISIONAL BOUNDARBOUNDARY Cambrai 6mCambrai 6m
Albert Albert
Metz Metz
0 2,000 4,000 6,000 8,000 10,000 yards
“At the front all was chaos and
marina Continued from page iii
Thaer pleaded to headquarters for
● ‘This area ought to remain as it is’... German troops move through the ruins of Chaulnes, between St Quentin and Amiens, on March
confusion – scrambled regiments,
help. “You have your ammunition,
26 1918
scrambled companies,” the officer
now get it to the front yourself,” a
remembered. When Kübler’s
staff officer sneered. There was no
regiment was pulled out of the line
way Thaer and a handful of adjutants
on April 5, only 226 men of the
could physically move 2,000 rounds
original 1,300 were uninjured.
per battery. “What are these people in
their ivory towers thinking about?”
The balance sheet for the Royal
he fumed.
Naval Division was little better. One
Thaer had spent almost the entire
in three sailors or Royal Marines
battle hunkered in a dugout. The
was a casualty of the Kaiser’s Battle
telephone rang incessantly. The staff
– 6,000 men killed, wounded or
officers smoked incessantly. Dust
captured. Battalions were barely 250
and dirt drifted around the bunker
men strong.
incessantly, covering everything.
But numbers alone do not tell the
The air was indescribable. Every
story of the Kaiser’s Battle. There
now and then, Thaer briefly left
was also the unquantifiable – the
his subterranean existence behind
feeling among the Stosstruppen of
and stepped outside. All around
a victory unfulfilled and among the
the entrance to the bunker lay the
Tommies of a victorious defeat.
wounded, dead and dying. “These
“We had suffered a defeat,” wrote
fine, heroic men who died for us lay
the Royal Naval Division’s official
in front of me,” the officer wrote.
chronicler, Douglas Jerrold, “but
“Their faces and upper bodies are
there was the suspicion that we had
covered with coats as they await
yet been victorious.”
burial.”
Man for man and officer for
Elsewhere, the Landser satisfied
officer, the men of the Royal Naval
his most basic need: food. In the main
Division were convinced they held
road to Albert, Fritz Nagel and his
the edge over their foe – as warriors
comrades fell upon a British supply
and as human beings.
dump. There was condensed milk,
“Never was there more scope for
tea, cocoa, corned beef, sugar, bacon,
personal gallantry and initiative – the
butter, biscuits, countless packets of
hour usually found the man,” Jerrold
cigarettes, even rubber raincoats. For
wrote.
the first time in years, the men drank
“To bring a brigade, a battalion or
real cocoa, not Ersatz.
a company through a period such as
To most German soldiers, the
that which began on March 21 was a
world beyond the British front
feat of arms.”
lines was “a land flowing with
Marshalling the ‘great retreat’
milk and honey”, junior officer
of dead trees, poisoned oases, killed leaving behind their dead and generals “to draw the Germans into a “Instead, there is constant talk of
was indeed a feat of arms. Retreats,
Rudolf Binding observed. His men
for ever. wounded. trap”. Nonsense, said the men, who the area of land to be reached, and I
however, are not deeds worth
seized boots, leather jerkins, their
“This area ought to remain as it As March 26 turned to March 27, responded to their officer’s pep talk am left with the impression that the
celebrating.
horses gorged themselves on piles
is. No road, no well, no settlement the sailors and marines were relieved by blowing raspberries. “His little High Command lives, so to speak,
Within a month sailors and Royal
of oats and foodcake. The soldiers
ought to be made there, and every by soldiers from Lancashire and sent speech seemed to do a bit of good,” from hand to mouth.”
Marines would perform an even
slaughtered cows, chicken, pigeons.
ruler, leading statesmen, or president 2,000 yards to the rear to catch some recalled Banks. “At least it gave us a Leutnant Ernst Jünger only saw
more notable feat of arms which
They plundered the wine cellars
of a republic ought to be brought to sleep. bit of a laugh.” Valhallic glory in the great offensive.
would “give new heart” to the British
of French homes. Entire divisions
see it, instead of swearing an oath on The men began to settle down in Officers everywhere observed that The men had been possessed by
people.
simply broke off the battle to hunt
the Constitution, henceforth and for the ruins of Martinsart, when they their men had bucked up noticeably “the brazen spirit of the attack”. To
for food and liquor, possessed by a
ever. Then there would be no more were suddenly roused: the Germans – and enemy activity had died down; Jünger it was worth celebrating that
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
“craze to plunder”.
wars.” were through the Lancastrians’ lines. even the chatter of machine-guns “it needed a world in arms to bring
Anything seemed fair game. Near
Before dawn, a scratch force of and the roar of the howitzers. “The such a floodtide to a standstill”. In
Compiled by Richard Hargreaves.
Albert, Rudolf Binding found soldiers
THE TIDE STEMMED
sailors, Royal Marines and infantry enemy had exhausted his offensive time, Ernst Jünger would become the
With thanks to Katherine Phillips
driving cows through a street, others
struck back, sweeping through a and we had held him,” Capt Harold champion of the Stosstruppen.
at the Department of Documents,
hauled a red curtain torn down from FOE ROUTED “LIKE CHAFF”
wood at Aveluy. The attack stunned Horne noted with some satisfaction Hermann von Kuhl agreed with
Imperial War Museum, Capt
a drawing room behind them, and
the Germans who fled in disorder, in his diary. the young officer’s assessment.
Christopher Page at the Naval
others still swanned around in top THE ENEMY EXHAUSTED
some screaming, others scrambling Kuhl, Chief-of-Staff of Army Group
Historical Branch, and Paul Hederer,
hats. The streets of Albert “were
up trees in panic. At least 50 fell into
THE GAMBLE FAILS
Rupprecht, had shared his master’s
an expert on the Kaiser’s army.
running with wine”. A junior officer
As the German assault slackened,
British hands. Countless more lay misgivings about the attack, but the
In addition, the following books
stumbled out of a cellar and pleaded
so the resolve of the British soldier
strewn across the battlefield.
A MUDDLED OFFENSIVE
found much to admire in “one of
have been consulted:
to Binding for help. “I cannot get
hardened. Sgt Frank Cooper had
“It spoke volumes for the men,” the greatest feats of glory that the
Binding, Rudolf, A Fatalist at War
my men out of this cellar without
fallen back perhaps 18 miles,
wrote Hugo de Pree, full of praise.
THE BUTCHER’S BILL
German Army ever achieved”. The
Gough, Hubert, The Fifth Army
bloodshed,” he lamented.
carrying his machine-gun the entire
“Worn out with fatigue, after days of German soldiers’ deeds that March,
Haig, Douglas, Diary, held by the
At the height of the battle, Crown
distance. His company had simply
retirement in which there had been
The enemy had indeed exhausted his
Kuhl observed, deserved “the palm
National Archive, Kew
Prince Rupprecht drove across the
melted away. Now alone, with no
little cause for encouragement, they
offensive. By April 5, the Kaiser’s
of victory”. Herwig, Holger, The First World War:
Somme battlefield which was scarred
ammunition, he fell into an old trench
could turn on their pursuers and drive
Battle had run its course. That
Erich Ludendorff was convinced
Germany and Austria-Hungary 1914-
by two years of fighting.
near Thiepval Wood, where he found
them before them like chaff.”
evening, Erich Ludendorff ordered the
he did hold the palm of victory in
1918
Jünger, Ernst, Storm of Steel
In a hollow was a shot-up British
scattered infantry. There, he says offensive halted. His great blow had
his hand. He had smashed nearly 60
battery – field guns, howitzers, even
succinctly, “a stand was made”.
The fighting at Aveluy Wood was all enemy divisions. The British Army,
Middlebrook, Martin, The Kaiser’s Battle
inflicted nearly 180,000 casualties
Mimra, Robert, Batterie 4
some tanks, abandoned, the area
That stand was far more heroic
but the last action by the Royal Naval
on the British Army and brought in
he told his staff, was no longer an
Moore, William, See How They Ran
strewn with the cadavers of horses.
than the Midlander’s terse statement
Division during the March retreat; the
a haul of almost 100,000 Tommies.
effective fighting force. “What the
Müller, Georg, The Kaiser and his Court
There were freshly-dug graves of
bears testimony to.
exhausted sailors and Royal Marines
The German soldier had driven a
English and French had not succeeded Nagel, Fritz, Fritz
British airmen, marked with crosses
For as night fell on Tuesday, March
were pulled out of the line and sent to
huge bulge into the Allied line – but
in doing, we had accomplished – and
Reichsarchiv, Der Weltkrieg 1914-1918,
and cockades in red, white and blue.
26, the first German Stosstruppen
the rear to recuperate.
the line had held. And in holding
in the fourth year of the war,” he
Band 14, Die Kriegführung an der
There were no towns, no villages,
began to move across marshes in
David Polley and his fellow smugly proclaimed.
Westfront im Jahre 1918
that line, albeit with great difficulty,
Rupprecht observed. “Places have
front of the wood.
machine-gunners were mustered for Leutnant Joseph Kübler could
Rupprecht, Kronprinz von Bayern, Mein
the British and French soldier had
Kriegstagebuch
disappeared without a trace,” he
Sailors and marines dug in by a
roll call. The men were a sorry sight.
inflicted nearly a quarter of million
see little sign of victory and even
Schneider, Benno and Haacke, Ulrich,
noted in his diary. “They are only
road, their foe across a stream and
Unwashed, unshaven, their uniforms
casualties upon the Kaiser’s Army.
less glory. The Bavarian’s regiment
Das Buch vom Kriege 1914-1918:
identifiable from recently-erected
railway line.
soiled from a week of fighting and
The rest of the troops committed
simply ceased to exist. It had begun Briefe, Berichte, Erinnerungen
signs.” Gone too were the copses and
That night a small German
living rough. Their officers looked no
to the offensive were worn out and
the Kaiser’s Battle with 1,300 men.
Sellars, Leonard, The Hood Battalion
woods. The once-sprawling St Vaast
raiding party attempted to infiltrate
better. One carried his arm in a sling
demoralised.
British machine-gunners soon took
Stark, Rudolf, Wings of War
forest had been reduced to a handful
the British lines. There followed a
“and looked as though he should have their toll. A hill on the road to Amiens
Sulzbach, Herbert, With The German
Germany had played her last card.
of clusters of tree stumps.
“hectic” ten-minute “scrap” with the
been tucked up in bed”. Cpl George was strewn with dead and dying
Guns
The gamble had failed. To Crown
Thaer, Albrecht von, Generalstabsdienst
Every man should see this picture
two antagonists facing each other
Banks’ company paraded in a village
Prince Rupprecht, the failure had
Bavarians – “one of the most horrible
an der Front und in der OHL: Aus
of desolation, Rudolf Binding
barely ten yards apart. The men had
square, where its sole remaining
been all too predictable.
sights I saw in this war”. Every
Briefen und Tagebuchaufzeichnungen
reasoned.
no grenades, so each side brandished
officer tried to rally the men – who
“It strikes me that in none of
man had been reduced to plunder, 1915-1919
“There are miles upon miles of
firearms.
were convinced Britain would soon
the directives can a clear aim be
desperately raiding the haversacks
Toland, John, No Man’s Land
flat, empty, broken, and tumbled
The Britons held on. The Germans
be suing for an armistice. Nonsense,
identified,” he complained in his
of dead English for
stone-quarry, utterly purposeless and
slipped back across the stream,
said their commander. The retreat
diary.
bread as their own
useless, in the middle of which stand
was a grand plan dreamed supplies ran out.
groups of these blackened stumps
by Haig and his fellow
● “Shell after shell is rammed into the breach, salvo after salvo is fi red”... German guns supporting the March offensive
MMarch Offensive.indd 4arch Offensive.indd 4 220/2/08 12:26:010/2/08 12:26:01
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