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Detail from the Indian Memorial at Neuve Chapelle: the battles in which the Indian Corps fought. © 2013, John M. Shea
Field gun at the city of Verdun memorial statue. © 2015 John M. Shea
Children playing 'In the Dardanelles'. From February 19 to March 18, 1915, a Franco-British fleet tried to force its way through the Dardanelles to Constantinople. The Strait was defended by forts, some with modern German artillery. After a failure to break through on March 18, the Allies decided to invade, and in April, landed on the Gallipoli peninsula. Illustrated postcard by Pauli Ebner.
Detail from the Indian Memorial at Neuve Chapelle: interior. © 2013, John M. Shea
Chosen Boy, a 1918 watercolor by Paul Klee. From Paul Klee: Early and Late Years: 1894-1940. © 2013 Moeller Fine Art
"2. The 4th and Indian Corps are to capture Neuve Chapelle and to push on east of that village. . . .3. The Indian Corps will attack vigorously from the front on the La Bassée-Estaires road . . . The objectives are successively:-(a) Enemy's front and support trenches.(b) Road from Port Arthur round east side of Neuve Chapelle. . . . 4. The attack will be carried out by the Meerut Division reinforced by the artillery of the Lahore Division. . . ." ((1), more)
"Then hell broke loose. With a mighty, hideous, screeching burst of noise, hundreds of guns spoke. The men in the front trenches were deafened by the sharp reports of the field guns spitting out their shells at close range to cut through the Germans' barbed wire entanglements. In some cases the trajectory of those vicious missiles were so flat that they passed only a few feet above the British trenches. . . .. . . The Lincolns, against desperate resistance, eventually occupied their section of the trench and then waited for the Irishmen and the Rifle Brigade to come and take the village ahead of them. Meanwhile the second Thirty-ninth Garhwalis on the right had taken their trenches with a rush and were away towards the village and the Biez Wood. . . .There was bloody work in the village of Neuve Chapelle. The capture of a place at the bayonet point is generally a grim business, in which instant, unconditional surrender is the only means by which bloodshed, a deal of bloodshed, can be prevented." ((2), more)
"Another collection has been announced at school, for copper, again, but also for tin, lead, zinc, brass and old iron to make gun-barrels, field guns, cartridge cases and so forth. There is a keen competition between the classes. Our class, the fourth, has so far collected the most. I turned the whole house over from top to bottom. Grandma cried, 'The wench will bankrupt me! Why don't you give them your lead soldiers instead of cleaning me out!' So my little army had to meet their deaths." ((3), more)
"Br.-General Pinney hoped to be able to attack at 11.30 P.M. [on March 12, 1915], but the confusion of units was so great that battalion commanders asked for a two-hour postponement. . . . As [zero hour] approached, the men, exhausted after three days and nights continuously under fire, had fallen asleep, and could only be aroused by use of force, a process made very lengthy by the fact that this part of the battlefield was covered with British and German dead, who, in the dark, were indistinguishable from the sleepers." ((4), more)
"Early on the 13th March [1915] Sir John French wired to Lord Kitchener :- 'Cessation of the forward movement is necessitated to-day by the fatigue of the troops, and, above all, by the want of ammunition. The First Army is consolidating and strengthening its new line. Further plans are being matured for a vigorous offensive'. Subsequent enquiries as to the ammunition available showed, however, that if the offensive operations were resumed there would be a risk of depleting the supplies beyond the limits of safety, and on the 15th March Sir John French decided that for the time-being the idea of continuing the offensive must be abandoned." ((5), more)
(1) Excerpts from Indian Corps Operation Order No. 56, March 9, 1915. In early 1915, German troops and munitions were diverted from the Western to the Eastern Front to support operations — including the Second Battle of the Masurian Lakes — against Russia. Hoping to break through thinned German lines and seize higher ground to their east, French and British commanders Joffre and Sir John French planned a combined Anglo-French offensive that depended on the participation of a French army corps that was to be relieved by the British. The anticipated British division did not materialize, and the French corps was not made available. With inadequate forces, the French decided against an offensive. The British decided to move forward with one of their own with the Fourth Army Corps and the Indian Corps against the German salient at the village of Neuve Chapelle.
Military Operations France and Belgium, 1915, Vol. I, Winter 1914-15: Battle of Neuve Chappelle : Battle of Ypres [Second] by J. E. Edmonds, page 383, copyright © asserted, publisher: Macmillan and Co., Limited, publication date: 1927
(2) From an account by 'an eye witness' quoted at length in History of the World War by Francis A. March. The Battle of Neuve Chapelle began with a thirty-five minute bombardment of the German defenses at 7:30 AM on March 10, 1915. By 10:00 AM the British and Indian forces in the center had reached their day's objective, breaking through the German line to see open country before them. They waited for orders, which, when they came, told them to advance no further as there had been problems on either flank. On the left, the British had not fielded adequate artillery, and suffered heavy losses. On the right flank, the Gharwali Rifles had mistakenly turned to their right after leaving their trenches, and attacked — not the dazed and shocked troops they expected — but well-entrenched German defenders who had not been subject to any bombardment.
History of the World War; An Authentic Narrative of the World's Greatest War by Francis A. March, pp. 270, 271, copyright © 1918 Francis A. March, publisher: The United Publishers of the United States and Canada, publication date: 1919
(3) Entry for March 11, 1915 by Piete Kuhr, a then-twelve-year-old girl from Schneidemühl, East Prussia (now Pila, Poland). Eight months into the war, Schneidemühl had already been crowded with German refugees fleeing the initial advance of the Russians into East Prussia, Russian POWs taken at the Battle of Tannenberg, and German troops moving to the Eastern Front in increasing numbers. Airmen had died in training at the town's airfield. A POW camp had been set up. In November, Piete nearly died from the influenza epidemic which had run through the camp and struck the town. Shortly before her illness, she had stopped playing with dolls and begun playing with toy soldiers.
Intimate Voices from the First World War by Svetlana Palmer and Sarah Wallis, pp. 61, 62, copyright © 2003 by Svetlana Palmer and Sarah Wallis, publisher: Harper Collins Publishers, publication date: 2003
(4) The Battle of Neuve Chapelle began on March 10, 1915 with a thirty-five minute bombardment by British and Indian artillery. By 10:00 AM British and Indian infantry in the center of the line had reached their day's objective, breaking through the German line to see open country before them. But on either flank the advance had been stymied, and they held their ground the night of the 10th. Overnight, German defenders moved in, dug in, and were in position to halt a renewed offensive on March 11. March 12 began with a German counter-attack, one the British stopped before resuming their own offensive. The Germans stopped this in turn. Based on an overly optimistic understanding of the situation, the British planned a renewed attack for the night of March 12, but this was called off as it became clear the troops were disorganized and in no condition to attack. The British suspended their offensive. In the battle, each side suffered about 12,000 casualties. The Indian Corps Meerut and Lahore Divisions accounted for 4,047 of the British total.
Military Operations France and Belgium, 1915, Vol. I, Winter 1914-15: Battle of Neuve Chappelle : Battle of Ypres [Second] by J. E. Edmonds, page 146, copyright © asserted, publisher: Macmillan and Co., Limited, publication date: 1927
(5) On the night of March 12, 1915, Sir John French, commander of the British Expeditionary Force, expected to resume the offensive and continue the three-day Battle of Neuve Chapelle, but the demands of the battle on men and materiel forbade it. On the first day of the battle, when the British and Indian troops had broken through the German front line, the 18-pound guns had fired 129 rounds per gun. Britain was producing 7.5 rounds per 18-pounder per day, and the production rates for other caliber guns were comparable. No nation had been prepared for the rate at which artillery shells and other weapons and ordnance were being consumed in the war, but both France and Germany had responded more quickly. The shell shortage was particularly acute in Britain and Russia. Herbert Lord Kitchener was British Secretary of State for War.
Military Operations France and Belgium, 1915, Vol. I, Winter 1914-15: Battle of Neuve Chappelle : Battle of Ypres [Second] by J. E. Edmonds, pp. 149, 150, copyright © asserted, publisher: Macmillan and Co., Limited, publication date: 1927
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