down to us from our ancestors.... It shows itself through unbreakable
adherence to the oath the soldier has made to his Fürsten und
Kriegsherrn!"
Presumably this particular oath did not belong to the category of
scraps of paper. Ninety-eight pages out of the hundred of which the
book consists are devoted to this sort of statement and exhortation.
But it is only fair to the reverend author to mention that, on the last
two pages, under the heading "_Im Krieg_," he enjoins consideration,
as a matter of "_Christliche Liebe_," for the people of the conquered
countries, ending by an emphatic warning that the soldiers should think
what would happen to their homes if the enemy were not imbued with the
same Christian spirit! Unfortunately, this not very exalted motive for
decent behaviour did not prove itself sufficiently vigorous to have any
effect on the people whose parsons had gloried in the "merriness of
war" four years earlier, when they thought that the fighting would be
over and their own side victorious in a couple of months.
When one passes beside or over miles of No Man's Land, such as looks
picturesque enough in Plate 42, one has to remember that one is not
seeing a miniature landscape of chalk hills, such as would delight any
youngster on Hampstead Heath, but seeing, perhaps, a garden, perhaps a
cottage home, an orchard, a piece of green meadow, turned into ruin by
the Huns. Surely the ghosts of these inanimate things must haunt, with
the ghosts of thousands of innocent men, the people who turned their
neighbour's country, animate and inanimate, from a joyful and living
reality into wilderness and a graveyard!
[Illustration: _PLATE XL._
THE DOUBLE CRASSIER.
_In front of the two long spoil heaps which went by this name the
opposing trenches were for a long time within a few yards of each
other. The Double Crassier was taken by us in the Loos battle of
September, 1915._]
[Illustration: _PLATE XLI._
A COMMUNICATION TRENCH.
_A British Communication Trench near Loos. The rising ground in the
distance is a part of the Lorette Ridge._]
[Illustration: _PLATE XLII._
"NO MAN'S LAND."
_Between Hulloch and Lens, a fair example of the destroyed pasture
land where the churned-up chalk was too near the surface for the
growth of the weedy vegetation such as appears in Plates XVII and
XVIII._]
[Illustration: _PLATE XLIII._
ARRAS.
_The central part of Arras seen from a height. The photograph shows
what a town looks like even when it is, compared to others, not very
badly destroyed!_]
VI.--ARRAS, VIMY, AND LENS
(PLATES 43 TO 50.)
Arras was in the possession of the Germans for three days in September,
1914, but they evacuated it in their retreat after the first battle
of the Marne. It was only by very plucky fighting, however, that the
French were able to keep them even a mile or two away, and for a long
time they remained at St. Laurent-Blangy, which is practically in
the north-eastern suburbs of the town. In October, 1914, therefore,
they were only a couple of miles away, and from this short distance
the centre of the city was bombarded severely by heavy artillery. The
beautiful Hôtel de Ville and the belfry were destroyed, and the centre
of the city generally much injured, as the view from above (Plate 43,
an official photograph) shows very painfully. In April, 1916, the
British being then in this zone, Arras was practically "cleared," the
enemy being forced backwards for six miles. In the offensive of March,
1918, the Germans succeeded in getting two miles closer in on the
south, but to the north the 1916 positions were held, and the enemy
was finally driven twelve miles away towards Cambrai in our August
offensive in 1918.
Outside the centre of the city the damage did not appear--when I
first visited it while it was still under occasional long-range
shell-fire--to be nearly so great as in the centre. Many houses were
standing and at least more or less habitable, if windowless, and a
few poor shops in the outskirts had started business. But published
statistics indicate that more than half the houses are damaged beyond
possibility of reconstruction. The cathedral, which is altogether in
ruins (Plate 44), is an eighteenth-century basilica, and is happily not
one of the glories of France. Some of the columns of the main arcade,
standing by themselves with a piece of architrave still remaining in
place, reminded one a little of the two beautiful Roman columns still
standing on the stage of the theatre at Arles. A notice stood beside
the ruins in 1918--I think it is still there--to the effect that it was
intended to leave them unrestored to form an enduring reminder of the
Huns. I hope it is not disrespectful for a great lover of French Gothic
architecture to say that probably this particular building may really
be more impressive in its ruined condition than it can ever have been
when it was standing.
It was really remarkable to find in 1919 that the half-ruined town was
already full of people going to and from the station, and obviously
doing their best to carry on in spite of the surrounding conditions.
We lunched at an hotel showing very many signs of dilapidation, but
obviously serving a very considerable number of customers--quite a
cheering sight.
I am not likely soon to forget a drive from Cambrai to Arras, on a
very dark night, by by-roads which our Engineers had not yet visited,
and while traffic regulations still prohibited even the very feeble
illumination which could be obtained from an official headlamp. But
the discomfort was much mitigated by the pleasure of watching a fine
display of miscellaneous coloured fires to the south of our line, due
to the discovery by our Tommies that the Germans had left large stores
of signal lights behind in their retreat!
On from Arras to Cambrai runs the road which is the continuation of
the Cambrai-Le Cateau road. It goes straight and level over fine
rolling uplands like a Scotch moor, but with grass and herbage
instead of heather, and (in 1918) with endless craters, trenches, and
entanglements, and no hills in sight except the ridges away to the
north left far behind.
The Vimy Ridge (Plate 45) rises at Bailleul, five miles north-east of
Arras, and continues in a north-westerly direction for about the same
distance to Givenchy.[20] It is steep on its eastern side and gently
sloping on the western, and the highest part of the ridge is about 200
feet above the lower land to the east. The height is not great, but is
amply sufficient to give the forces occupying it complete observation
over the surrounding country in all directions. I was on it first on a
brilliant afternoon in 1918, when the Germans were still trying to make
a stand a little east of Lens. Away somewhere in the direction of Douai
a great explosion was followed by a column of white smoke, brilliant
in the sunshine, and spreading out into a huge white flower 3,000 feet
above the ground--clearly a huge German "dump" blown up to prevent it
falling into our hands. Below us a battery of field-guns was pounding
away at the German lines, still only two or three miles beyond them. A
German 'plane came in sight, engaged in the singularly futile business
of dropping "propaganda" literature from a height which kept it out of
the reach of 13-pounders. From away over Lens, where under a dark cloud
the Germans were still trying, in despair, to avoid their Nemesis, came
the dull noise of the fighting. Behind the ridge lay the shell-marked
slopes up which the Canadians rushed in April, 1917, and from which
afterwards even the wild German push of a year later failed to move us.
In the distance behind the ridge towards the west stood the tower of
Mont St. Eloi, battered about in fighting from the fifteenth century to
the nineteenth; and having now again seen the Prussians on the soil of
its country, and surely rejoicing--even as inanimate masonry--when at
last "der Tag" had arrived, and the land had become once more its own,
with peace and victory not far away.
[20] Not to be confused with the Bailleul near Armentières, or the
Givenchy north of the La Bassée Canal, which were much more notable
places in the war.
The capture of the somewhat higher Lorette Ridge (a continuation of the
Vimy Ridge across the gap at Souchez) in 1915 was one of the finest
achievements of the French Army; the position was enormously strong and
most stiffly defended. The ridge, with its commanding observation to
the north, was held against all counter-attacks until the war was over.
The northern portion of the Vimy Ridge, however, which was taken at the
same time, could not be held. It was eventually taken by the Canadians
in April, 1917, under General Byng (now Lord Byng "of Vimy"), after
great preparations, for its possession by the Germans had put us under
much disadvantage. Mining operations on a very great scale formed part
of the scheme of attack. Plate 46 is a view of one of the largest
of the mine craters on the ridge above Neuville St. Vaast, near the
elaborate defences known as the "Labyrinth." The well-concealed German
gun-emplacements below the ridge (of which Plate 47 shows one of a
number at Thelus) had given us great trouble and caused much loss. They
were all taken with the ridge, and henceforth the guns from Vimy fired
in the opposite direction.
Over the country, _très accidentée_, west of the ridge one might
have thought oneself, in 1918, as in some queerly altered part of
England. At all the principal road-crossings men in khaki regulated
the traffic, everywhere were conspicuous public notices in English,
and in the villages the shops exhibited signs such as "Tommy's
House," "Entrée libre," or--very frequently--"Eggs and Chips." But
driving eastwards through this green and pleasant country and the
busy villages one came with startling suddenness and with a drawing
of one's breath upon the wilderness. Here, just as north and east of
Amiens, villages ceased to be; only disconnected bits of brickwork
and general ruin were left, very often not even so much, and nothing
but a large painted signboard with a name on it gave any indication
whatever of the site of a village. Gardens and fields were all one mass
of ragged, chalky shell-holes overgrown with hateful-looking weeds.
Trees had disappeared. Only the roads themselves had been engineered
into something like decent condition by the levelling up of shell-holes
and the clearing away to the sides of brick and timber débris. At a
later time the timber had been utilised either for construction or for
firing, and the bricks were being systematically cleaned and trimmed
and stacked for use in the reconstruction that has been continued since
with ever-increasing rapidity.
The villages--Gavrelle and others--on the Valenciennes road east
of Arras are practically blotted out, but the towns farther east,
which were out of the fighting area, are not much, if at all, damaged
structurally. But no doubt the Germans either destroyed or stole all
the machinery and industrial appliances they could lay their hands on,
in the benevolent desire to ruin French industry for the benefit of
their own, for which Lille and Tournai and Roubaix have had to pay so
dearly.
From Arras to Lens runs northward the ten miles of straight road,
crossing the Vimy Ridge on the way (Plate 48), down which our people
must have so often looked on the little town which, until the very end
of the war, resisted all attempts of our Allies or of ourselves to
enter it. The photograph was taken from outside Lens, looking towards
the ridge, which forms the higher ground in the distance.
Lens itself, a prosperous little town having in 1914 some 28,000
inhabitants, in the centre of the French coal-mining district, is one
of the many places which, unimportant even within its own country and
quite unknown beyond it, has now become a name familiar over the whole
world. It was occupied by the Germans in October, 1914, and was almost
continually fought for until the British finally entered it four years
later. It became eventually the centre of a very narrow salient which
covered even its suburbs, but the town itself, drenched with gas and
horrible to stay in, held out bravely to the end.
The town is destroyed as thoroughly as Ypres, and more completely than
any other place in France. Some idea of the state of Lens early in 1919
is given by Mr. Basil Mott's photograph (Plate 49), taken when it was
under snow.
The town is too large to be entirely wiped out, as the villages are,
and converted into chalk-pits and shell-holes. But standing on the
mound which once was the Church of St. Léger, or on any other point of
vantage, one saw in 1919 nothing but a waste of bricks and stones and
timber (Plate 50), with no semblance of standing buildings beyond the
sheds which had been put up in some space sufficiently cleared to allow
of their erection. If one had not seen so much appalling destruction
in so many places it would have been unbelievable that a town larger
than Bedford or Doncaster should be as entirely turned into small
fragments as if some gigantic harrow had been drawn across it.
In 1920 I found that a considerable amount of rebuilding had taken
place, although still by far the greater part of the town remained in
ruins.
To the west of Lens, northwards and southwards, the whole country is
given up to coal-mining. The mines, as everyone knows, were destroyed
wantonly, and with great thoroughness, by the Germans. It must be years
before they can be working fully again, but the French have not lost
much time in taking steps to reinstate them. Even while fighting was
still going on a few miles away, I found that in a large colliery near
Givenchy (Liévin), where an "Archy" section was at work, and where
the whole of the buildings and the pithead work were a mass of ruins,
pumping machinery was already at work, and the water pumped up was
being utilised in the neighbourhood.
In 1920 a good many of the pits were actually at work, and on the roads
one welcomed the familiar sight of miners going to and from their
work. The colliery villages (Liévin is nearly as large as Lens) had at
first sight a very deceptive appearance of substantiality, but closer
inspection showed that what seemed to be uninjured terraces of cottages
were nothing much more than bare and roofless walls. Later on one found
these ruins being blown up in order to clear the ground, as well as to
provide bricks for rebuilding.
General Haig adopted in this neighbourhood, in 1917, a system of
feint attacks which he describes as quite successful in their object,
although they had the disadvantage that they frequently prevented him
from denying German accounts of the bloody repulse of British attacks
which in fact had never occurred at all! The most noteworthy of these
feint attacks took place near Liévin, as to which he says:--
"On this occasion large numbers of dummy men and some dummy tanks were
employed, being raised up at zero hour by pulling ropes. These dummies
drew a heavy fire and were shot to pieces. The Germans duly reported
that an attack had been annihilated, and that rows of British dead
could be seen lying before our lines."[21]
[21] Despatches, p. 101.
From Lens eastwards towards Lille the surface destruction diminishes
rapidly. Trees have been cut down (probably in 1918), but cultivation
seems to have gone on uninterruptedly--for the benefit of the invader,
of course--during the war.
[Illustration: _PLATE XLIV._
ARRAS CATHEDRAL.
_Ruins which it has been proposed to leave in their present condition,
if they will stand, as a memorial of the once too near neighbourhood
of the Germans._]
[Illustration: _PLATE XLV._
THE VIMY RIDGE.
_This Ridge, between Arras and Lens, is several miles in length,
and over 200 feet above the surrounding country. Its possession
was therefore of extraordinary value for observation and artillery
purposes. We captured it in April, 1917, and the Germans were never
able to recover it. The very similar Lorette Ridge, taken earlier by
the French, forms a continuation of it some six miles long, towards
the north-west._]
[Illustration: _PLATE XLVI._
A MINE CRATER.
_One of the mine craters blown on the Vimy Ridge as a first step in
the attack which captured the Ridge in 1917._]
[Illustration: _PLATE XLVII._
AT THELUS.
_One of the German gun emplacements on the north of the Vimy Ridge
which, being outside our direct observation, made it so important that
the Ridge should be taken._]
[Illustration: _PLATE XLVIII._
THE ROAD TO LENS.
_From the Vimy Ridge (seen in the distance in the photograph) our men
could look straight along the four miles of road to Lens; but it was
eighteen months after the capture of the Ridge that they actually got
possession of what was left of the town._]
[Illustration: _PLATE XLIX._
LENS UNDER SNOW.
_The wilderness that was once Lens, as it appeared early in 1919._]
[Illustration: _PLATE L._
LENS.
_Later on in 1919 some sheds and temporary buildings were to be seen
wherever space had been cleared for their erection. Another visit some
months later showed that very much progress had been made in the way
of reconstruction, but of course, as a whole, the town is still a mass
of ruins._]
VII.--THE SOMME
(PLATES 51 TO 66.)
I have been able to traverse several times since the war the great
stretch of country in Picardy which is generally spoken of at home as
"the Somme"--country over which much of our hardest fighting took place
in 1916 and 1918, and where thousands of our brave men are now lying.
We became only too familiar with the names of places within it, which
might have peacefully remained for centuries more in the happy oblivion
in which they had rested for centuries past, had not the war waves
broken upon them and destroyed them while making them immortal. Much of
the country had been so completely devastated that there was nothing in
it or on it to show in a picture--nothing beyond an irregular expanse
of ground broken everywhere into shell-holes and covered over with an
untidy wild herbage of rank weeds. But the interest of this country to
all of us at home--and "at home" in this case more than ever includes
the homes overseas--is so close and so poignant that it is probably
worth while to add here some little description of the characteristics
of the great area which we call "the Somme," and the positions of the
places which we fought over.
In the thirty miles from Amiens to Péronne the Somme runs from east to
west in a narrow valley, with eight immense double bends round spurs
which project alternately from the higher country (some 200 feet above
the river-level) on the north and south. The main road eastwards from
Amiens lies south of the river, and rises gradually to the higher
level at Villers Bretonneux, about ten miles from the city, and then
continues dead straight and nearly level, till it drops again at Brie
(twenty-nine miles from Amiens), to the Somme valley, after the river
has taken its sharp bend to the south at Péronne, which is four miles
north of Brie. As one goes eastwards from Amiens the route becomes more
and more war-worn. At first the ordinary avenues of trees still stand,
farther on the trees become fewer and fewer, and finally disappear
entirely (Plate 51), and a region of total destruction is reached,
where only rough indications remain of the sites of the villages.
But in 1919 I found German prisoners at work filling up shell-holes
(the French and ourselves did not make prisoners dig front-line
trenches), levelling the ground, and clearing up generally, and some
reoccupation of land had already started, peasants and "store"-keepers
living in such temporary bungalows as they could construct. Somehow or
other the owners of different strips of land along the road seemed to
have discovered which particular strip belonged to each one, ploughing
was already going on, and cultivation had been started in quite a
number of places.
The river itself lies always too low down in its valley to be visible
from the road, from which the view to the north looks right over to
the high ground between the Somme and the Ancre. The Avre, coming from
Montdidier and Moreuil in the south, falls into the Somme close to
Amiens, and the Ancre, coming from Albert in the north, joins the main
river at Corbie, four miles north of Villers Bretonneux.
Albert is about eighteen miles north-east of Amiens by a straight
road through Pont Noyelles, which continues to Bapaume, eleven miles
farther. On the high ground between the Ancre and the Albert-Bapaume
road stood Thiepval and the German redoubts, and on the Bapaume road
itself Pozières, Courcelette, and Warlencourt.
In the angle between the Albert-Bapaume road and the northern bank
of the Somme every village and every wood became part of a tragic
history--Mametz, Contalmaison, Longueval, Guillemont, Combles, with
Trones Wood, Delville Wood, and the others. South of the Somme and
between the river and the road lie Hamel and Chuignes, while on the
main road itself, east of Villers Bretonneux, once stood the villages
of Warfusée (Lamotte), Estrées, Villers Carbonnel, and others, while
the town of Péronne--protected by Mont St. Quentin on the north and by
the Somme and a tributary on the other three sides--lies just at the
bend. South of the road and in the triangle between it and the Avre
lie the uplands on which, very generally, the French were fighting to
the right (south) of the British, and in which the village names are
therefore less familiar to us than those farther north.
* * * * *
The first battle of the Somme commenced on the 1st of July, 1916,
and lasted, with more or less quiescent intervals, until the late
autumn. British and French were fighting side by side--the British on
the northern half, from the Upper Ancre to the Albert-Péronne road;
the French to their right, facing Péronne, crossing the Somme, and
extending southward as far as Chaulnes.
The German defences in the north, which had been under construction for
more than a year, were enormously strong, the "first line" alone being
a maze of trenches half a mile wide.
Their position stretched southward from below Arras to Gommécourt,
and covered Beaumont-Hamel and the heights east of the Ancre valley,
crossed the Albert-Bapaume road two miles north of Albert, passed
eastwards through Fricourt, crossed the Somme some miles short of
Péronne, and then ran southwards west of Chaulnes. The story of the
fighting, both French and British, as it can be read even in Lord
Haig's official despatches, and still more in the unofficial accounts,
is a continuous record of episodes every one of which would have been
called Homeric in any other war, but which in this gigantic struggle
seem to have become ordinary events. The ordinary civilian of common
life from workshop or warehouse or office or studio turned out to be
in essence exactly the same being as the noble and adventurous heroes
of the stories and histories of our youth. And while he would grumble
seriously about his baths or his meat or his shaving facilities, he
would yet go into action cheerfully without hesitation, although he
knew well enough the horror of his own work and the great chance that
he might never return.
The village of Mametz (Plate 53), like nearly all the villages in "the
Somme," has disappeared; it was among those taken by the British on the
first day of the battle. It was in this attack that East Surrey men
are said to have gone forward dribbling footballs, some of which they
recovered in German trenches, in front of them.[22]
[22] O'Neill, "History of the War," p. 604.
The French on our right got within a mile or two of Péronne, but its
defences were too strong and it was not actually captured until 1918.