September 2005

 

HOOGE

On 19 July 1915 the British recaptured Hooge which they had lost the previous month. Then, on the 30th, the Germans launched a fierce and carefully planned attack to regain it which included the first use of "liquid fire' (flame throwers) against British troops. So heavy was it that even without the use of the flame throwers, it would almost certainly have succeeded and the defenders of the14th (Light) Division were driven out. In his diary a staff officer at Cavalry Corps HQ accused them of panicking: one imagines that in a similar situation he would seriously have considered a similar course.

A number of counter attacks were made but like most hastily mounted ones ordered from above, they failed. It was therefore decided that a carefully prepared attack should be made to recover this important position. The task was given to Congreve's experienced 6th Division.

Prior to the attack, which was made on 9 August, various feints and demonstrations were made at different parts of the line to confuse the enemy as to where the attack would fall. From the 3rd the enemy was heavily shelled for an hour at different times each morning to lull him into regarding the real thing as just the usual 'morning hate." The artillery support was carefully prepared and no limit was placed on ammunition expenditure - an unusual event in those days.

On the morning of the attack the enemy was shelled from 0245 to 0315 during which the 16th and 18th Brigades formed up in the dark in no mans land which was between 75 and 500 yards wide. The leading men then crept forward as far as our artillery allowed. The assault went in at dawn and took the enemy by surprise. There was some fierce hand to handfighting but the position lost in July was recovered and remained in British hands. Over 130 prisoners and eleven machine guns were taken and some 500 German dead counted.

The attack was considered to be a model but success came at a price: the two brigades suffered a total of 2120 casualties, mostly sustained during a heavy German retaliatory bombardment of the position after they had been driven from it.

The 16th Brigade consisted of 1 Buffs; 1 Leicestershire; 1 King's Shropshire Light Infantry; and 2 York and Lancaster, the 18th 1 West Yorks; 1 East Yorks; 2 Sherwood Foresters; 2 Durham Light Infantry and 1/16 London. With the exception of the latter these were, of course regular units although by this time few of the originals were left and some of their replacements were considered to be of lower military quality. At this stage some regular brigades, eg the 18th, had a Territorial battalion attached to them.

HARSH DECISIONS byJ.P.Lethbridge

The German execution of Edith Cavell in October 1915 for sheltering British soldiers trapped behind German line was a brutal action. The publicity over it brought one huge batch of recruits to the British Army before conscription finally came. However our French allies could also be harsh on occasion.

To quote the Times Wednesday 3 November 1915:

German writers have sought to excuse the execution of Miss Cavell in Brussels by alleging that two German women, charged with a similar offence, have been executed by the military authorities in France. In the following dispatch by Mr W. Simms, the Paris correspondent of the United Press America, who has full access to the official records, completely disposes of this contention.

Paris November 2.

Although the French authorities refuse to be drawn into any controversy with Germany over such questions, they have given me permission to examine the complete records of the Ottille Voss and Marguerite Schmitt espionage cases with full authority to publish the facts. According to these records there is absolutely no similarity with the Cavett case as the following shows.

On February 27 last Secret Service agents arrested at Bourges a woman calling herself Jeanne Bouvier. She was provided with papers bearing this name but after being interrogated she confessed that the papers were fraudulent and that her name really was Off/We Voss. She was bom in the Rhine provinces of German parentage. She was unmarried and aged thirty three. For seven years before the war she had lived in the Agen region of Bordeaux where she had been giving lessons in German

 At the outbreak of hostilities she returned to Germany. Being out of work she accepted employment as a spy, whereupon she was sent to France, with orders to visit Nice, Montpellier, Marseilles and Lyons to report on important new troop formations, the frequency of railway military transports and direction of same, the sanitary condition of the army, and the number of the wounded; also the debarkation of troops at various ports, especially black troops. She was likewise instructed to particularly report on the state of mind of the population in regard to the war. She confessed further that she had been given four hundred francs (sixteen pounds) expenses money.

From February 3 to February 11 she travelled as directed then returned to Germany where she was given a hundred and sixty marks (eight pounds) as an expression of satisfaction with her work. On February 20 she returned to France on a similar mission having been provided with five hundred francs (twenty pounds) expenses money. Two days after her arrest at Bourges she made a full confession and was unanimously condemned to death by a Council of War on charges of espionage under Articles 197, 206 and 269 of the Code of Military Justice. On April 20 her application for retrial was rejected and on May 14 her appeal to the Chief of State for Clemency was refused. She was therefore executed on May 16.

Marguerite Schmitt, aged twenty five, bom at Thiaucourt, France, of French nationality, was arrested at the railway station in Nancy as a suspect on February 17. She had travelled via Switzerland from Anoux, near Briey, now occupied by the Germans. After a lengthy examination she confessed that the Germans had sent her to obtain information concerning the presence of British troops reported as being in the region of Nancy, also concerning ...regiments encamped between Bar Ie Due and St Menehould. A friend had put her into relations with the Germans. They had offered her money which she had at first refused but later accepted two hundred francs (eight pounds). The Germans took her by automobile to the Swiss frontier. She asserted that although sent by the Germans she had not intended to spy upon the French. It was her purpose to tell the Germans upon her return that she had been held by the French as a suspect. Her her presence at Nancy refuted this claim. In addition there was found in her possession a book of questions to ask prepared by a German officer. When tried before a court of war to all questions she replied simply ' I am sorry'. She was condemned to death on March 20 for espionage under Articles 206 and 64 of the Code of Military Justice and on March 27 she was executed.

 These two women were spies rather than being involved in an escape network. However the execution of a jobless German teacher and a fodish woman half Edith Cavell's age were brutal actions too. Did the 77mes really see no comparison between Edith Cavell and these two cases or was it reporting an unpleasant truth in as ambiguous way as it could.

 

BOOK OF THE MONTH August 1914 by Barbara Tuchman (list number 27), an excellent account of the outbreak of war: Bob.

 

 

 

 

The Bulletin of the Birmingham Branch of the WFA

Compiled by Bob Butcher