The Bulletin of the Birmingham Branch of the WFA

Compiled by Bob Butcher

July 2009

THE CAVALRY AT CAMBRAI

The cavalry have been criticised for being too cautious at Cambrai in November 1917 and thereby failing to exploit the initial success of the tanks. Indeed the Official Historian comments on the lack of the ' cavalry spirit' shown although he does concede that the cavalry commanders still had vivid memories of the effects of machine gun and sniper fire on mounted men in 1914.

The Marquis of Anglesey in his magisterial A History of the British Cavalry 1816—1919 Volume 8 examines this charge. He points out that places reported as being clear were not actually so because German machine gunners would emerge from dug outs and cellars after the tanks had gone on. And as a distinguished American officer remarked about an earlier French cavalry charge: 'You can't have a cavalry charge until you have captured the enemy's last machine gun'. In fact there were several small scale cavalry charges made during the battle, notably that by the Canadians, which incurred heavy casualties. This tends to bear out Anglesey's claim that had not Kavanagh the Cavalry Corps commander, acted cautiously by holding back from attempting to exploit areas mistakenly reported as being cleared, he may well have destroyed the cavalry arm for most of the British cavalry were involved.      It should be pointed out, however, that the Canadian charge mentioned above was executed by a single squadron and that its commander believed that as it had carried the enemy position any following cavalry would not have suffered heavy losses.

Bob Butcher

 

A GOOD TRY

On Friday 20 April 1917 the Manchester Evening Chronicle reported that:

Prison for DCM

Ypres Hero Sentenced for Stealing Postal Order

Herbert Levington, a discharged soldier of 190 Claremont Road, Moss Side, who won the DCM at Ypres, was charged at Manchester today with stealing a postal order for 4 shillings, while engaged as a temporary sorter at the Manchester General Post Office. After admitting the offence prisoner pleaded for leniency. He had been serving his country for eight years and had lost his right forearm in action in France.          He was in poor circumstances when he took the postal order. He asked not to be sent to prison as he would lose his pension of 14 shillings 6 pence a week. Mr Elliot who prosecuted said unfortunately this was not an isolated case as the man had made admissions in four other instances. The Stipendiary said:' I will do my best to save your pension in view of your record of service to your country. You must go to prison for three months"

Reading this article while searching for another I was initially near to tears. I then decided to check up when Levington had won the DCM. I found no record of it in R.W. Walker's monumental book Recipients of the Distinguished Conduct Medal 1914—1920 so either I somehow missed it; the newspaper got Levington's name wrong; or he was lying to attract

sympathy. Old newspapers are a wonderful source of information provided that one remembers that to quote a poet of this period:

No man can bribe the truth to twist

Thank God the British journalist,

 Considering what he will do un-bribed There is no reason to.

J.P.Lethbridge

 

THE DEBUT OF THE TANKS

A tank is walking up the High Street of Flers with the British Army cheering behind: ( Airman's message 15 September 1916).

Tanks first appeared on the battlefield on 15 September 1916 during the Battle of the Somme. They were the Mark 1s which were so slow that they often had difficulty in keeping up with the infantry, were scarcely bullet proof, were vulnerable to artillery fire and prone to mechanical failure or ditching.

Of the forty-nine taking part, seventeen were unable to reach the starting point; five were ditched after reaching the starting point (some were then disabled while immobile); nine broke down after reaching the starting point ( some being disabled while immobile); and nine were unable to keep up with the infantry but gave effective help in mopping up. Of the remaining fourteen, at least one crew got so disorientated that they fired on the British infantry.

Although there is an element of doubt about the Flers story, the tanks that did get into action rendered good service, so much so that despite the rather mixed results that day, Haig asked for a thousand more as soon as possible. It would be another year before he had sufficient to launch a mass attack with them although much of the delay in production was due to constant modifications demanded. In the meantime he used what tanks he did have in the despised 'penny packets'.

Haig did not believe that tanks in themselves were a 'war winning weapon', he thought that as an adjunct to the infantry they could reduce casualties.

Should Haig have used the tanks when he did or kept them back until he had enough for a mass attack? Could their existence have been kept secret? It seems to me that whatever he did, he would have been criticised.

Bob Butcher

 

DID YOU KNOW?

>that an army chaplain, the Rev W Studdart, was known as 'Woodbine Willie' because he was always handing out cigarettes to the troops;

>that a soldiers club started at Poperinghe by an army chaplain (padre), 'Tubby' Clayton, was called Talbot House after the brother of another padre who had been killed in action;

>in 1914 there were 117 army chaplains from three faiths but in 1918 there were 1455 representing eight faiths.

 

NOTE: Army chaplains, usually known as padres, held honorary commissions. They wore normal officer's uniform with black buttons and the clerical dog collar.