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Headstones of Lance Corporal A. F. MacDougall and Private W. H. Hodge of the Canadian Corps, 54th and 50th Battalions, died March 1 and April 10, 1917, Cabaret Rouge British Cemetery. © 2013 by John M. Shea
View of the South African Memorial in Delville Wood, Longueval, France. © 2013 John M. Shea
Cavalry commander Manfred von Richthofen visits his wounded son, the more famous Manfred von Richthofen, wounded by gunner second Lieutenant A.E. Woodbridge on July 6, 1917 in a fight with an FE2b of 20 Squadron.
The Newfoundland Memorial in the Beaumont-Hamel Newfoundland Park pays tribute to the Newfoundland Regiment and its part on the opening day of the Battle of the Somme, July 1, 1916. © 2013, John M. Shea
A French Schneider 105mm L from La Musée de la Grande Guerre du Pays de Meaux, France. First put into service in late 1915, 1,300 of the guns were in service in 1918. A heavier weapon than the French 75, it was more effective against entrenched troops. © 2014 John M. Shea
"As we turned the bend of the road to go up the hill I stopped. The sight that greeted me was so horrible that I almost lost my head. Heaped on top of one another and blocking up the roadway as far as one could see, lay the mutilated bodies of our men and their horses. These bodies, torn and gaping, had stiffened into fantastic attitudes. All the hollows of the road were filled with blood. This was the cavalry." ((1), more)
"From where I was sitting in a half-dug German Reserve trench, the noise of the German machine guns was completely inaudible and, as I watched, the ranks of the Highlanders were thinned out and torn apart by an inaudible death that seem[ed] to strike them from nowhere. It was peculiarly horrible to watch: the bright day, the little scudding clouds and these frightened men dying in clumps in a noiseless battle." ((2), more)
"The day began well. We had scarcely gone to an altitude of 6,000 feet when an English patrol of five machines was coming our way. We attacked them by a rush as if we were cavalry, and the hostile squadron lay destroyed on the ground. None of our men was even wounded. Of our enemies three had plunged to the ground, and two had come down in flames. . . .In the evening we were able to send off the proud report: 'Six German machines have destroyed thirteen hostile aeroplanes.'Boelcke's Squadron had only once been able to make a similar report. At that time we had shot down eight machines. To-day one of us had brought low four of his opponents. The hero was a Lieutenant Wolff, a delicate-looking little fellow, in whom nobody could have suspected a redoubtable hero. My brother had destroyed two, Schäfer two, Festner two, and I three." ((3), more)
"At 5.30 a.m. [April 14, 1917], following a weak and scrappy barrage, the little force advanced. It was just daylight. The morning was misty and the ground soggy with the recent snow and rain. Over the first 200 yards some casualties were caused by machine-gun fire, but the Newfoundlanders on the right flank quickly surrounded and captured a troublesome strongpoint at Monchy windmill. With that secured they advanced on the Bois-du-Vert, the Essex moving in on the other wood to the left. The Germans were seen running back from their first trench and both this and a second trench further on were found practically deserted. After a pause, the two battalions went on in high spirits, meeting little opposition. At 7.20 a.m. the Essex telepohoned to Brigade HQ that the objective was taken. Observers in Monchy could see the Newfoundlanders digging in near some burning huts on the edge of a small copse — but that is the last that is known of them. The battalion never returned." ((4), more)
"Two days later, the 14th [April, 1917], the same orders for departure, and same counterorder, but on the 15th we left Aulnay for good. We passed through Jalons-les-Vignes, where I didn't see even a stump [of vignes (vine stocks)], and the regiment came to billet at the village of Isse, where we spent just one night. Finding myself in too tight a space in this encampment, I climbed onto a pile of fodder, where I slept rather badly, because there were thistles in large number and their little barbs pricked my skin disagreeably, which left a piercing recollection of Isse—the only one, by the way.The next day, April 16th, the regiment left Isse at dawn, to head for the front where the cannonade was raging." ((5), more)
(1) Second Lieutenant Alan Thomas's description of his entry into what remained of the village of Monchy-le-Preux late on April 11, 1917 during the Battle of Arras. The British were unprepared for their success on the battle's first day, April 9, that included the capture of Vimy Ridge and an advance of up to three and a half miles. Their limited action on April 10 gave the German defenders time to bring in reinforcements and strengthen their positions, and they inflicted many casualties on the British infantry that advanced into Monchy with two tanks. The British cavalry, that could have been put into the battle on April 9 and 10 had been positioned too far behind the front to be of use. They rode into Monchy behind the infantry, were slaughtered, and retreated led by riderless horses. After losing the village, German artillery subjected it and the British to a box barrage, laying down a rectangular pattern around the village, then shrinking the box.
Cheerful Sacrifice: The Battle of Arras, 1917 by Jonathan Nicholls, page 147, copyright © Jonathan Nicholls [1990 repeatedly renewed through] 2011, publisher: Pen and Sword, publication date: 2010
(2) Artillery subaltern Richard Talbot-Kelly writing of the April 12, 1917 advance of the 4th South African Scottish Battalion on the Chemical Works of Roeux, held by a strong German force with 30 machine guns. The Seaforth Highlanders and 1st Royal Irish Fusiliers had tried to capture it the day before. The Highlanders lost all 12 officers and 363 of 420 other ranks. On the 12th, the South Africans, rather than taking the road that had proven so deadly the day before, advanced 1,800 yards down a 'slope in full view of the enemy.' The British were unprepared for their success on April 9, the first day of the Battle of Arras, a day that included the capture of Vimy Ridge and an advance of up to three and a half miles. Some commanders seem to have tried to compensate for their inaction on April 10 with commands in the following days that were little short of criminal.
Cheerful Sacrifice: The Battle of Arras, 1917 by Jonathan Nicholls, page 163, copyright © Jonathan Nicholls [1990 repeatedly renewed through] 2011, publisher: Pen and Sword, publication date: 2010
(3) Three paragraphs from the chapter 'My Record Day', April 13, 1917, by Manfred von Richthofen. The baron was then flying an all-red Albatros D.III. His victims were two-seater planes, an R.E.8 and two F.E.2b, four of the six men killed and two wounded. Von Richthofen was flying over the battlefield of Britain's Arras Offensive. The British losses were so heavy the month was called 'Bloody April': 245 aircraft and balloons lost and 316 airmen killed or missing. The Germans reported 76 planes and seven balloons lost. Oswald Boelcke had been Germany's leading ace with 40 victories when he died on October 28, 1916. Von Richthofen's victories were numbers 41, 42, and 43.
The Red Air Fighter by Manfred von Richthofen, pp. 118–119, copyright © Lionel Leventhal Limited, 1990, publisher: Stackpole Books, publication date: 1999
(4) The Newfoundland and Essex Battalions had advanced into a German trap, were surrounded, and killed or captured on April 14, 1917 in the Battle of Arras, begun with significant success on April 9, and continued at great cost until May 17. The Newfoundland Regiment was among the few Dominion troops fighting with the British on July 1, 1916, the first day of Battle of the Somme. The unit had nearly been destroyed: Of the 752 Newfoundlanders who advanced, 26 officers and 658 men were casualties.
Cheerful Sacrifice: The Battle of Arras, 1917 by Jonathan Nicholls, page 165, copyright © Jonathan Nicholls [1990 repeatedly renewed through] 2011, publisher: Pen and Sword, publication date: 2010
(5) Excerpt from the notebooks of French Infantry Corporal Louis Barthas whose regiment was marching to the front to play a role in the Nivelle Offensive that began April 16, 1917. Nivelle had delayed the offensive — the 'same orders for departure, the same counterorder' that Barthas refers to first occurred on April 12 — in part due to bad weather. Isse is approximately 35km southeast of Rheims, France.
Poilu: The World War I Notebooks of Corporal Louis Barthas, Barrelmaker, 1914-1918 by Louis Barthas, page 309, copyright © 2014 by Yale University, publisher: Yale University Press, publication date: 2014
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