Old Contemptibles Great War Site

The March By Road

 The March by Road

The horses seemed to resent the way they were crowded, more than the men ; and not a few waggons were seriously damaged by the animals, many of which had rarely travelled except in a padded horse-box. The troops who marched by road had the easier time, as may be judged from an officer’s letter which was allowed to pass the censor :

EUROPE’S MOST VEXED FRONTIER

Ever since Charlemagne’s time there have been disputes over the possession of Alsace-Lorraine and other territories lying between France and Germany. In 1914, as may be seen above, that part of the frontier which now runs along the borderland of the Saar province and down the Rhine, excluded most of Lorraine (Moselle Department) containing the towns of Metz, St. Avoid, Baarge­mand, Bitsch, Zabern, etc., and the whole of the modern Departments of Upper and Lower Rhine, containing Hagenau, Strassburg, ScWettstadt and Miilhausen. These areas, restored by the PeaceTreaties, were those lost by France in 1871.

THE CONTEMPTIBLES AT MONS

THE CONTEMPTIBLES AT MONS

Whereas it is true that for the greater part of four years the burden of this country’s defence rested 
upon the shoulders of men who, prior to 1914, had received no military training, it is equally true that 
but for the magnificent fighting qualities of the original Expeditionary Force of regular troops the 
voluntary army would not in all probability have crossed the Channel. The Retreat from Mons 
must live in history. A story of heroism, it is imperishable.

DESPITE the excitement of mobilisation, and the upheaval of daily life caused by the departure

of the reservists, one question was upper­most in the mind of nearly every French­man : Will the British stand by us ? Will they send us that military aid whichmay help us to defeat the gigantic war-machine now threatening our country ?

The French Notion

For the French could recognise British intervention only in the shape of British troops ranging up alongside their own Army in their own land. The idea that our Navy had, from the very first day of mobilisation, begun its watch and ward over the Channel ports of France, formed only a part of their comprehension of war.

Great was their relief, therefore, when on Sunday, August 9th, two transports were seen steaming into Boulogne Har­bour, where they spifedily disem­barked the ad­vance-parties of a British force. We were committed ! And the French knew well enough that once we had taken hold, we should not let go until the end. The bulk of the troops followed on the 12th and 13th, and by the 17th the last details were on French soil.

 The embarka­tion of the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Divisions at Southampton, that of the 5th Division in Dublin, and their convey­ance across the sea by night, had been carried out in masterly fashion and without the loss of a single life or a ton of stores. All the main convoys had crossed within the space of forty-eight hours, each taking eight to twelve hours for the journey. So effective had been the measures adopted to ensure secrecy that not a whisper of the landing of a British Army in France had reached the German General Staff—a wonderful achievement on the part of the often-maligned War Office. 

 The embarka­tion of the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Divisions at Southampton, that of the 5th Division in Dublin, and their convey­ance across the sea by night, had been carried out in masterly fashion and without the loss of a single life or a ton of stores. All the main convoys had crossed within the space of forty-eight hours, each taking eight to twelve hours for the journey. So effective had been the measures adopted to ensure secrecy that not a whisper of the landing of a British Army in France had reached the German General Staff—a wonderful achievement on the part of the often-maligned War Office. The precautions taken in England had extended to the erection of huge canvas screens in Southampton docks to prevent troop-trains being seen or counted as they steamed alongside the transports. On August 14th Sir John French, with his personal staff, crossed in H.M.S. Sentinel to Boulogne, where he landed amidst scenes of intense excitement.

Once landed, the British troops became the object of a demonstrative welcome such as will never be forgotten by the survivors of the British Expedi­tionary Force. The French people were swept by a wave of enthusiasm that knew no bounds. Food, drink, dainties, and flowers were showered on the men as they marched from the quay­side at Boulogne to the rest camps awaiting them.

 FIRST BULLETIN

Wearers of the Kilt

What seemed to appeal to the inhabitants was ” the geniality and fine physique of the men, and their gentleness to women and children ; the cavalryman’s care of his horses ; above all, the High­landers… .” The badges and num­bers of the men were begged for keepsakes, a n d homely delicacies were pressed upon them in return. Many a Highlander was of the opinion which Alan Breck ex­pressed to David B a 1 f our: ” They’re a real bonny folk, the French nation.” 1 And the Scots were amused beyond bounds, if not actually em­barrassed, when they were naively asked what sort of clothing they wore beneath the kilt.

At Havre, iden­tical scenes were enacted; at Rouen, where the bulk of the mounted troops were disembarked, the reception was just the same. Never, so it seemed, in any land, could such a welcome have been accorded to foreign visitors. In the countryside behind the port these demonstrations of friend­liness continued unabated, until they reached their climax in the area of concentration in the vicinity of Maubeuge.

To that area the troops were con­veyed by train, all the heavier vehicles and mechanical transport moving by road. The journey was not comfortable, for the French troop-trains crawled at an incredibly slow pace, while the accommodation for men and horses in the covered goods-vans was much inferior to that to which the British soldier had been accustomed, either at home or in India. It suddenly dawned on the Army that the familiar inscrip­tion of ” HOMMES 40.CHEVAUX 8 “ on every French waggon had a literal meaning which was not expressed by the word ” Comfort.”

Earl Kitchener of Karthoum

Martrys

 ” Horse-coping “

The Medical units were the last to be completed at Tweseldown, Aldershot. There was the usual ” horse-coping interlude, in which ex-Regular N.C.O.s carefully ” shed ” horses of which they did not approve and ” attracted ” others they coveted.

Such was the bulk of that huge army which, about the time when it ceased to be voluntary, and the majority of its original formations had been trained and sent abroad, numbered over seventy divisions. But the story would be in­complete without mention of one of the finest branches of the Service, the Territorial Cavalry or Yeomanry. There were over fifty Yeomanry Regiments : some were found so efficient on mobilisa­tion that they made their way to Flanders immediately as single units ; but in the main their field of opera­tions lay in Egypt and Palestine. In the long run, many had to serve on foot.

The Kitchener Armies has this tribute : ” The story of the first three New Armies -is a story of muddle which evolved into method ; of a confused  crowd of men who settled down into an army ; of enthusiasm which, starting with a crudely cold douche of lack of arms, lack of uniforms, lack of quarters, lack of officers, dirt, overcrowding, vermin, and terrible weather conditions … continued to be enthusiasm, and gave a splendid foretaste of the spirit which was to carry these troops over a winter in the trenches of 1915 and the ordeal of the Somme which ensued.”

The news of the fall of Namur, of the retreat to the Marne, did not frighten the youth of the English-speaking peoples. The effect was the very opposite. During the first three months, when the position of the British Ex­peditionary Force was very serious, the depots of the Army proper, the Terri­torial drill halls, and the new recruiting stations opened to receive those who answered Lord Kitchener’s special appeal, were choked with recruits. The organisation, rapidly expanded, and in many cases extemporised, failed to keep pace with the enthusiasm generated, apparently, by the precarious stalemate imposed by the Flanders winter—for excepting the fortunate recovery of the line across the Aisne, there was no forward movement to give even the appearance of an easy or rapid victory.

None of the million-and-a-half men who enlisted between August ist, 1914, and May 1st, 1915, can possibly have supposed that they were devoting themselves to an easy and pleasant adventure. If anything, they derived some slight advantage from their ignorance of military life, and every­one’s ignorance of modem war. But many knew and calmly accepted the idea that large numbers of them would have to face wounds and death before they reached the Rhine.

 Martyrs For a Mirage

Not for gain did they go ; certainly not for the money they were offered, not for loot, which did not exist on those highly civilised but stricken battlefields, not for racial or national animosity even, for only later did the idea filter in among them that Great Britain would anyhow have had to fight on her own account. They went from a possibly mistaken, but real, sense of obligation to treaties and civilisation as they under­stood it, and a sporting sentiment that Germany was not playing fair.

Those who served in these civilian armies, or watched them grow, will regard them as little short of a miracle. One thing they taught which can never be forgotten : a comradeship which transcended every distinction of class, money, trade, profession, ability. Not only does something of this still survive in ex-Service organisations such as the British Legion and Old Comrades’ Associations, even Twenty Years After: one may still meet its ramifications in private life. I know of a famous London music critic who struck up a friendship with an engineer and a clerk in his unit. That friendship was cemented by service on the Somme, in which the trio never shirked danger, and earned the respect of their com­rades for their pluck. On demobilisa­tion they set up house together. In­separables, they share the same roof to-day.

                                     READY TO SLAY AND TO BE SLAIN

The 1st Wandsworth Battalion, still in mufti, on the march behind their Commandant, F. A. N. Webster, and his Adjutant, E. J. Earp (grey horse), 
during training. Responding heroically and trustfully to what the rulers of the country told them was their duty, these gallant men were but 
a tiny section of the vast civilian legion which was to toil amidst death for the best part of four years beneath the grey skies of Flanders or the 
bright ones of the Near East.

Old Contemptibles Story

 MONS-EN-CHAUSSEE IN PEACE-TIME                                         

The fact that this view shows the same section of street as in the previous picture, is a grim indication of the amount of havoc wrought subsequently 
to March, 1917. Indeed, the church depicted in the earlier photograph was shattered almost immediately afterward, and the new one, visible above, 
was erected upon its site. Notice also the absolute replacement of the buildings upon the left of the street. After the Allied advance, Mons-en-Chausste 
again came in for punishment during the last German Somme offensive, in 1918.

 Lord; Kitchener considered that the Territorial Army could never be quite the force he required ; so while it was making its remarkable effort, there had been interposed between it and the first eight divisions of the original Expeditionary Force, the New or Kitchener’s Army. By November this was scheduled to include four armies of six divisions each :

The First Four New Armies

First Army : 9th Scottish, loth Irish, iith Northern, 12th East Anglian, 13th Western, and 14th ” Light “ Divisions.Second Army : 15th Scottish, 16th Irish, 17th Northern, 18th Eastern, 19th Western, and 2oth ” Light.” Third Army : 21st Northern, 22nd Western, 23rd chiefly Northern, 24th Eastern, and 25th Northern and Western.Fourth Army: 30th Lancashire, 3ist Yorkshire, 32nd Northern, 33rd mainly London, 34th. Northumbrian, and 35th Bantams,” while the 36th Ulster Division was largely composed of Lord Carson’s Volunteers.At the end of 1914 there was as yet no mention of a Fifth New Army, though some of the elements were in being.  The necessity to mix and transfer troops from one formation to another destroyed the unity of the 37th Division, whereas the 38th remained largely a Welsh one. The 39th, 40th, and 41st were the last listed of the New Army Divisions. The 9th Division was the first of Kitchener’s Army to entrain for the Western Front, on a May morn­ing of 1915, while the band blared ” Tipperary.”The 12th Division chose for its em­blem the black spade ; thus, its con­cert party became famous as the ” Spades ” and beguiled many a weary hour for the troops, as well as adding substantial sums to the regimental institutes and funds.

 In the early days of recruiting, en­thusiastic applicants had to be turned down because they were under 5 ft. 4 in. in height. The 35th ” Bantam ” Divis­ion was accordingly formed to meet their case. On arriving in France early in 1916, it was placed “under instruction” from huge Guardsmen I Orders were issued that the parapet was not to be lowered, but that two sandbags were to be placed upon the fire-step. OnThe necessity to mix and transfer troops from one formation to another destroyed the unity of the 37th Division, whereas the 38th remained largely a Welsh one. The 39th, 40th, and 41st were the last listed of the New Army Divisions. The 9th Division was the first of Kitchener’s Army to entrain for the Western Front, on a May morn­ing of 1915, while the band blared ” Tipperary.”The 12th Division chose for its em­blem the black spade ; thus, its con­cert party became famous as the ” Spades ” and beguiled many a weary hour for the troops, as well as adding substantial sums to the regimental institutes and funds.In the early days of recruiting, en­thusiastic applicants had to be turned down because they were under 5 ft. 4 in. in height. The 35th ” Bantam ” Divis­ion was accordingly formed to meet their case. On arriving in France early in 1916, it was placed “under instruction” from huge Guardsmen I Orders were issued that the parapet was not to be lowered, but that two sandbags were to be placed upon the fire-step. On hearing of these, one of the smallest of those doughty heroes is reported to have remarked : ” Per’aps we could fight the ruddy Germans on stilts ! “

The 40th Division, which also con­tained a Bantam element, has a uniqueachievement credited to it in the Divisional History. A nervous bugler greeted an inspecting General with the ” Last Post ” instead of the General Salute…