How the War Was Won: Command and Technology in the British Army on the Western Front: 1917-1918

263 Pages·1992·2.1 MB·English

by  Travers

HOW THE WAR WAS WON

HOW THE WAR
WAS WON
Command and Technology in the British
Army on the Western Front, 1917–1918
Tim Travers
London and New York
First published 1992
by Routledge
11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
a division of Routledge, Chapman and Hall Inc.
29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2003.
© 1992 Tim Travers
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted
or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic,
mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter
invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any
information storage or retrieval system, without permission
in writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Travers, Tim
How the war was won: command and technology
in the British Army on the Western Front, 1917–1918.
I. Title
940.421
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
is available on request
ISBN 0-203-41741-0 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 0-203-72565-4 (Adobe eReader Format)
ISBN 0-415-07628-5 (Print Edition)
For Heather,
and for Jessica and Nicholas as
they start the great journey

Contents
List of plates ix
List of maps xi
Acknowledgements xiii
List of abbreviations xvii
Introduction 1
Prologue: Images of war 4
1 PARALYSIS OF COMMAND: FROM PASSCHENDAELE
TO CAMBRAI 11
2 A COMMAND DIVIDED: GHQ AND THE DEBATE OVER
TRADITIONAL VERSUS MECHANICAL WARFARE IN
EARLY 1918 32
3 CRISIS IN COMMAND: THE GERMAN SPRING
OFFENSIVES AND THE USES OF TECHNOLOGY 50
Part I: The ‘Michael’ Offensive, March to April 1918 50
Part II: The Lys and the Aisne, April to June 1918 91
4 COMMAND AND TECHNOLOGY IN ALLIANCE:
FROM HAMEL TO AMIENS, JULY TO AUGUST 1918 110
5 COMMAND VERSUS TECHNOLOGY: THE WAR OF
MOVEMENT, SEPTEMBER TO NOVEMBER 1918 145
6 CONCLUSION 175
Appendix 183
Structure of the BEF in France 183
Skeleton BEF order of battle of the Fifth and Third Armies
before 21 March 1918 183
Order of battle of the French troops which came to the
assistance of the Fifth Army up to 26 March 1918 186
Notes 188
vii
CONTENTS
Select bibliography 220
Unpublished sources 220
Printed sources 223
Secondary sources 224
Index 226
viii
Plates
Note: All of the plates can be found in one section between pages 50
and 51.
Plate 1 Sir Douglas Haig talking to Dominion journalists at the Château
de Beaurepaire, 7 September 1918. (Q. 11,276: reproduced
courtesy of the Imperial War Museum, London)
Plate 2 Panoramic view of the battlefield on Passchendaele Ridge,
showing state of country over which the troops had to
advance. 2 Canadian Division area, 14 November 1917
(CO.2265: reproduced courtesy of the Imperial War Museum,
London)
Plate 3 Cambrai offensive, 20 November 1917. Mark IV tanks standing
at a station before the offensive, waiting despatch to the
battlefield. (Q. 46,490: reproduced courtesy of the Imperial War
Museum, London)
Plate 4 Before the German March offensive. A 60-pounder battery
sergeant copying down instructions for S.O.S. lines. Monchy-
le-Preux, 18 March 1918. (Q. 10,895: reproduced courtesy of
the Imperial War Museum, London)
Plate 5 The German March offensive. British artillery preparing to pull
out of Omiecourt on 24 March 1918, having first set fire to
stores and huts. (Q. 10,797: reproduced courtesy of the
Imperial War Museum, London)
Plate 6 German prisoners waiting to be interrogated on 22 March 1918.
Near Bapaume. (Q. 8585: reproduced courtesy of the Imperial
War Museum, London)
Plate 7 Prisoners taken during the German offensive in a Prisoner’s
Cage. Near Albert, 31 March 1918. (Q. 10,847: reproduced
courtesy of the Imperial War Museum, London)
ix