The Cauldron of War, 1914-1918: The Experiences of Robert Gardner, Mc Cambridge Classicist and Infantry Officer

By John Philip Jones

THE CAULDRON OF WAR, 1914-1918

Robert Gardner (1899-1972) was a member of a generation of highly-educated Englishmen who went to war in 1914: a war in which they suffered a horrifying loss of life. Robert Gardner was one of the survivors.

Before the war, after taking First-Class Honours in both parts of the Classics Tripos at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, he was awarded the much prized Craven Studentship that took him to Italy for two years to carry out research into aspects of Roman military history. Towards the end of his time in Italy, the outbreak of the First World War brought him immediately back to England. He was a Lancashire man and he was commissioned in the senior infantry regiment from that county, the King’s Own (Royal Lancashire Regiment). His battalion spent the winter of 1914-1915 training for war.

Robert Gardner went with his battalion to France in May 1915, and was with them when they fought in four major battles in which they suffered heavy casualties. His service was interrupted by a serious injury from an accident with a firearm, and although he was away from his battalion for fourteen months, he served for more than two years in the trenches. He was awarded the Military Cross, and was steadily promoted until, at the end of the war he commanded his battalion as a lieutenant colonel.

He took his battalion back to England in 1919, and with the rest of his men he was demobilized. Emmanuel College lost no time in electing him to a fellowship, He spent a long and productive career delivering university lectures and supervising students, and he also became Bursar of the College, with the responsibility for finances, investments and all business affairs. His life revolved around the College. He was a very popular figure, and one of the more distinguished public rooms in the College was named after him. He had a happy family life; he was devout, and remarkably abstemious.

During all the years after the First World War he maintained regular contact with the King’s Own, and although he lived in Cambridge he regularly attended regimental reunions in Lancashire. He retired in 1960, but this did not stop him from his regular association with the fellows and undergraduates of Emmanuel.
In the words of the Master of the College: ‘He was an Emmanuel institution, who for more than half a century represented a vital link with the past.’

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Aug 5, 2019
• ISBN: 9781796046816

John Philip Jones

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: JOHN PHILIP JONES He was born in Great Britain and has dual citizenship: American and British. He graduated from Cambridge University with the Economics Tripos (BA with honours and MA). After graduating, he began a long career in international advertising at J. Walter Thompson, at the time the world’s largest advertising organization. He worked in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Scandinavia and had responsibility for the advertising for many major international brands. In 1981, he joined the faculty of Syracuse University, New York. He taught graduate and undergraduate students and also spent much time researching the effects of advertising. This is a difficult field of study because of the problem of isolating the contribution of advertising from the effects of a large number of other influences on sales. With the cooperation of a leading market research organization, AC Nielsen, he developed a robust method of measuring the immediate effect of advertising. (This effect varies greatly, and only about one-third of advertising campaigns actually generate sales.) This work was of great interest to marketing companies all over the world and also to academics involved in marketing and advertising education. He became a full professor with academic tenure and was awarded the University Chancellor’s Citation for Exceptional Academic Achievement. He became emeritus in 2007. While actively engaged at Syracuse, he was also a visiting professor at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Australia, and the Copenhagen Business School, Denmark. For many years, he ran seminars in these universities every summer. He also addressed many international conferences and carried out consulting assignments for more than one hundred commercial clients and professional organizations. These were in forty different countries. He has published seventeen books on advertising, marketing, market research, and economics (available on amazon.com). His books have been translated into ten foreign languages. He has also published more than seventy articles in journals all over the world. In the United States, some of his work has appeared in the New York Times and the Harvard Business Review. He has always had an interest in military history. He has been a member of the Honourable Artillery Company, London, for sixty-five years. During his early years, he was an active officer in the Territorial Army. He is a member of the Oxford and Cambridge Club, London, and five years ago, he started a military history group for members, which is thriving.

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Copyright © 2019 by John Philip Jones.

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Rev. date: 08/02/2019

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Contents

Dedication

Tables

Maps

List of Plates

Foreword by Dame Fiona Reynolds Master of Emmanuel College, Cambridge

Preface

Chapter 1 The Red Rose of Lancashir

Chapter 2 The Regiments of the Red Rose

Misconceptions

PBI: The Poor Bloody Infantry

The Nine Regiments of the Red Rose

Chapter 3 Preparing For War

A Soldier’s Life: Discipline and Military Skills

Chapter 4 ‘The Fine Fighting Qualities’ Of 1/4 King’s Own

Aubers Ridge—Three Miles Too Far

Into Battle

Chapter 5 ‘An Adequate Defensive Trench System’

Chapter 6 Hors de Combat

August 1915 to September 1916: 1/4 King’s Own in Picardy, Arras and the Somme

The Bull Ring

Plates

Chapter 7 The Somme: ‘The Glory And The Graveyard Of Kitchener’s Army’

The Arrival of the New Army

1/4 King’s Own in the Trenches on the Somme

Chapter 8 From the Somme to the Ypres Salient

Last Days on the Somme

The Chain of Command

1/4 King’s Own in the Trenches

Chapter 9 ‘The Black Year of the War’

Arras and Messines

The Third Battle of Ypres

1/4 King’s Own: Courage, Frustration, and Sacrifice

Cambrai: The Battle of Lost Opportunity

Chapter 10 ‘With Our Backs To The Wall’

From Reclinghem to La Bassée

Operation Georgette, the Battle of the Lys

A Spirit of ‘Restrained Optimism’

1/4 King’s Own Marches into History

About the Author

This book is dedicated to the men of all ranks who served in the King’s Own (Royal Lancaster Regiment).

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This badge, with its striking heraldic lion, was given by King William III to the regiment (then known as the Fourth Regiment of Foot). The badge was used from the end of the seventeenth century to 1959, when the King’s Own became part of a series of regimental amalgamations. The badge, two inches long, was mounted on the front of all regimental headgear. (In the First World War, all ranks wore caps with a round crown and a peak.) For the NCOs and men, the badge was polished brass, but officers wore it in bronze. Officers also wore two regimental badges in bronze on the lapels of their tunics.

Tables

Table 1      Lancashire Regiments in 1914

Table 2      The Battle of the Somme: British Order of Battle

Table 3      Hierarchy of Command, 1916–1918

Table 4      1/4 King’s Own: Major Battles

Maps

Map 1      Festubert, 16 June 1915

Map 2      British Armies in the BEF, 1 July 1916

Map 3      The Somme, 1 July 1916

Map 4      Guillemont, 8 August 1916

Map 5      Ypres Salient, 16 October 1916

Map 6      Hindenburg Line and Nivelle Offensive, Spring 1917

Map 7      Wytschaete-Messines, 7 June 1917

Map 8      Third Battle of Ypres, 31 July to 7 December 1917

Map 9      Pilckem Ridge, 31 July 1917

Map 10    Lys Sector, April 1918

Map 11    Operation Michael, 21 March to 5 April 1918

Map 12    Lys Sector: Operation Georgette, April 1918

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Map 1 Festubert, 16 June 1915

South of the River Lys, the most important geographical feature is Aubers Ridge. This is ten miles long, and although only two hundred feet high, it dominates the low-lying country around it. It has a number of spurs and reentrants that provide excellent fire positions for defenders. Haig, commanding the First Army, launched attacks on the Ridge on 9–12 March, 9 May, and 14 May 1915. The only success was the capture of the village of Neuve Chapelle. British casualties totalled 41,169, killed, wounded, and missing. On 16 June, a further attack was made (indicated by the arrow) that again proved fruitless. This was the first battle fought by 1/4 King’s Own. The battalion lost 152 men. At the end of these four battles, the British lines stretched north from the La Bassée Canal, bent northeast parallel with Aubers Ridge and then turned north at Bois Grenier.

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Map 2 British Armies in the BEF, 1 July 1916

In preparation for the Battle of the Somme, which began on 1 July 1916, Haig organized a Fourth Army, under Rawlinson. The First and Second Armies were in place in early 1915, and the Third was organized in August 1915. 1/4 King’s Own remained in the Lys sector until January 1916, when they moved to Arras, where it was in the trenches for some months. They then marched south to the Somme and entered the line there on 31 July 1916, a month after the Battle of the Somme had begun.

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Map 3 The Somme, 1 July 1916

The Battle of the Somme began with the British infantry going over the top on 1 July 1916, after a seven-day artillery bombardment. The attack was made on a ten-mile front by Rawlinson’s Fourth Army. During the course of the bloody fighting, Haig organized a reserve army on Rawlinson’s left. This became the Fifth Army, commanded by Gough. Map 3 shows the disappointing outcome of the battle. The maximum advance reached five months after the first artillery shells were fired and was eight thousand yards—five miles—at the cost of 419,654 British casualties. It was appropriately named the ‘Graveyard of Kitchener’s Army.’

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Map 4 Guillemont, 8 August 1916

By the time 1/4 King’s Own began to take part in the Battle of the Somme, the ground where the fighting was taking place had been devastated. What had once been villages, woods, and roads had been churned up by continuous artillery fire. The battalion fought initially beyond the shallow Mametz Valley between Montauban and Trones Wood (marked by the first arrow). They then moved to trenches to the right, and on 9 August 1916 took part in a major attack from the village of Guillemont (marked by the second arrow). In this one-day battle, they suffered 271 casualties, including the commanding officer. Later, the battalion fought at Delville Wood, by which time they had been badly bruised, and morale had begun to suffer. On 13 September 1916, Robert Gardner returned to 1/4 King’s Own after an absence of fourteen months. At the end of this month, the battalion finally withdrew from the Somme.

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Map 5 Ypres Salient, 16 October 1916

The shape of the defensive lines in the Ypres Salient was governed by the high ground—little more than small hills—to the south, southeast, and east of the city. In October 1916, the front line was less than three miles from Ypres. At this time, the line swept back south of the city to reach the west of the Wytschaete-Messines Ridge. This was the scene of the important action on 7 June 1917.

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Map 6 Hindenburg Line and Nivelle Offensive, Spring 1917

The Germans made a successful withdrawal to the Hindenburg Line in February 1917. In the country they had evacuated, they destroyed bridges and roads, and most features were booby-trapped, which caused the British troops to move forward with great caution. The Hindenburg Line itself was extremely well engineered and shorter in length than the German line at the end of the Battle of the Somme. It was a serious barrier to any advancing troops. The map also shows the location of Nivelle’s abortive attacks near Rheims, north of the River Aisne, in April 1917.

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Map 7 Wytschaete-Messines, 7 June 1917

On 7 June 1917, a huge explosion under the German lines signalled the beginning of the brief and remarkably successful British assault on the Wytschaete-Messines Ridge. Its capture secured the right flank for Haig’s more ambitious attack on 31 July 1917, which was the prelude to the Third Battle of Ypres.

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Map 8 Third Battle of Ypres, 31 July to 7 December 1917

The Third Battle of Ypres, which began on 31 July 1917 and continued for four months, made painfully little progress and incurred horrendous casualties. It was like a repetition of the Battle of the Somme, except that at Ypres the wet weather and the continuous shellfire turned the battlefield into a nightmare landscape. The battle has always been regarded as the worst British experience of the four terrible years of the First World War.

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Map 9 Pilckem Ridge, 31 July 1917

Pilckem Ridge, a long low hill three miles north of Ypres, was where 1/4 King’s Own went into battle on 31 July 1917. It was a particularly difficult operation, mainly because of the terrain, which was churned up by shellfire. The first attack had to be repeated, but even so, little progress was made. The battalion was withdrawn on 3 August, having suffered 225 casualties. The Ypres salient was soon afterwards turned into a morass of rubble and mud.

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Map 10 Lys Sector, April 1918

This covered twice as much ground as map 1, where the front line west of the Aubers Ridge is shown as the most important geographical feature. In map 10, this front line is shown on a smaller scale at the bottom right corner. On 9 April 1918, Givenchy and Festubert in the south were firmly anchored by the Fifty-Fifth Division, in which 1/4 King’s Own was serving. In the north, near Armentières, the British line was also strongly held. The seventeen-mile line between the two British positions was held by three Portuguese divisions, which were thinly stretched. This part of the line collapsed as a result of the German Operation Georgette.

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Map 11 Operation Michael, 21 March to 5 April 1918

Operation Michael, the German assault on the Saint-Quentin sector of the British line, was launched on 21 March 1918. The German infantry achieved surprise and had a three-to-one superiority in numbers. (This is indicated by the large number of German divisions shown on the map.) The operation took an enormous bite out of the area occupied by the British Fifth Army, which was badly splintered, although many individual formations and units remained intact. With great difficulty and with the help of British and French reinforcements, Haig arrested the German advance on 5 April.

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Map 12 Lys Sector: Operation Georgette, April 1918

In Operation Georgette, the attacking German troops advanced for twelve miles through the positions held by the three Portuguese divisions. After the recent traumatic episode in the Saint-Quentin sector, the British had difficulty in blocking the German advance in the north. However, the two strong anchors south and north of the Portuguese line enabled Haig to concentrate on the German bulge. The German advance was halted on 30 April 1918. In this action, 1/4 King’s Own performed heroically and suffered 297 casualties, a higher rate of loss than the battalion had suffered in any of its other actions during the war.

List of Plates

Plate 1      Bolton School Soccer First XI, 1906–1907

Plate 2      Bolton School Cricket First XI, 1907

Plate 3      Emmanuel College Classical Society, 1911

Plate 4      1/4 King’s Own Officers, early 1915

Plate 5      The Ruins of Festubert, 1915

Plate 6      Étaples: the Bull Ring, 1916

Plate 7      Robert Gardner, Captain, 1916

Plate 8      Sketch of Beaten Zones of MMG Fire

Plate 9      Sketch of Trenches from Above

Plate 10    The Somme: Attack on Mametz, 1 July 1916

Plate 11    The Somme: Guillemont, August 1916

Plate 12    The Ypres Salient: Pilckem Ridge, 1917

Plate 13    Givenchy: 1/4 East Lancashire Regiment, 28 January 1918

Plate 14    Givenchy: 1/7 King’s Liverpool Regiment, 15 March 1918

Plate 15    1/4 King’s Own Dressing Station, Drouvin, May 1918

Plate 16    1/4 King’s Own Senior NCOs, 1918

Plate 17    1/4 King’s Own Regimental Officers, 1919

Plate 18    Robert Gardner, Lieutenant Colonel, 1919

Plate 19    Emmanuel College Fellows, 1928

Plate 20    Robert Gardner in Retirement, 1968

Foreword

by Dame Fiona Reynolds Master of Emmanuel College, Cambridge

Robert (‘Bobby’) Gardner was an Emmanuel institution, who for more than half a century represented a vital link with the past. From his arrival at Emmanuel as an undergraduate in 1908 until his death in 1972 at the age of 82, Emma was at the centre of his life, for he was one of the last generation of Cambridge dons who regarded their colleges, their colleagues and their students as an extension of home and family.

After graduating in 1911 with a First in Part I of the Classics Tripos, Bobby stayed on for a further year to take Part II, garnering another First, and then spent two years in Italy as a research student. This idyll was rudely interrupted by the First World War, in which he served with the Royal Lancaster Regiment and was awarded the Military Cross. Returning to Emmanuel in 1919 (having been elected a Junior Fellow even before being released from the army) he was appointed Bursar the following year, a clear indication of the Governing Body’s confidence in him. This was a confidence he amply fulfilled for the following 40 years; as a colleague later recalled ‘his annual Bursar’s statement moved every generation of new Fellows to admiration’.

Throughout his years at Emmanuel Bobby was President of many student clubs and societies, as well as looking after the finances of the Amalgamated Clubs. As a result he features in many annual photos, particularly those of the Cricket and Football Clubs and the Classical Society, almost always wearing a matching tweed waistcoat and jacket and looking remarkably alike whether the photograph was taken in 1924 or 1964. A gentle and self-effacing man, when the College paid him the unusual tribute of naming a room after him in his lifetime, he was too modest to refer to ‘The Robert Gardner Room’ as anything other than ‘the small new dining room’.

Bobby’s retirement from his University Lectureship in Classics in September 1957 did not lead to any diminution of his connection with Emmanuel. Indeed, the notice of his retirement that appeared in the College Magazine reported that he was expected to be ‘as active as ever’, and he became a Life Fellow of the College, continuing to hold the office of Bursar, as well as of Treasurer (‘and how much more than that!’) of the Amalgamated Clubs. ‘In short, we are likely to continue as much indebted as ever to his devotion and helpfulness in all aspects of College life; and we are thankful that this is so’. Bobby was also responsible during his ‘retirement’ for organising College hospitality, in particular the members’ Gatherings. Following his death in August 1972, many colleagues paid eloquent tribute to his character and abilities, but one of his former students spoke for all: ‘Life at Emmanuel will never be quite the same without him’.

Bobby and his wife Margaret (née Jotham) had two sons, Richard and John, who both followed their father to Emmanuel, and continue to be great supporters of the College. I am delighted that their younger son, John, has collaborated on this fascinating account of his father’s First World War experiences. The author, John Philip Jones, Emeritus Professor at Syracuse University, has done a wonderful job of reconstructing Robert Gardner’s wartime service and placing it in the wider context of his battalion’s history.

Bobby wrote many letters during the war, both to Emmanuel’s Senior Tutor, P W Wood, and to members of his family, and they are quoted from at length in this book. Throughout his correspondence Bobby’s personality shines through: his intelligence, quiet efficiency and level-headedness, and his wry humour.

His battalion suffered severe losses and most, if not all, of his fellow officers in the early years of the war lost their lives. That Bobby survived the conflict and returned to Cambridge was to Emmanuel’s enduring and inestimable advantage, and I am very pleased to have this opportunity of placing on record the College’s continuing indebtedness to Robert Gardner for the unstinting and devoted service he gave to Emma for so many years.

Preface

The nineteenth century was the British century, in the same way that the twentieth century was the American. Britain in the nineteenth century had the most powerful economy in the world, at least until the 1890s when its preeminence was challenged by Germany and the United States. The British Empire, ‘on which the sun never sets,’ covered a quarter of the world’s landmass. It was the modern equivalent of the Roman Empire, but much larger.

Britain’s loss of supremacy was the result of the First World War, a war in which Britain was on the winning and not the losing side. But Britain’s war effort had exacted too high a cost. The war was the first to be fought on an industrial scale. More than six million British men (and a few women) were in uniform. Seven hundred twenty-three thousand were killed or died of wounds. The sacrifice of wealth in manufacturing weapons and munitions was so vast that it cannot be accurately measured. To make matters worse, much of the capital equipment in British factories was run down and needed replacing. America, by contrast, which only entered the war in 1917, suffered far fewer casualties and ended with a greatly strengthened economy because of the profitable sale of armaments to Britain and France during the course of the war.

The highest price that Britain paid was in human casualties—in particular, the number of men who combined brains with the magnetic power of leadership. Ten percent of the casualties were officers: men whose personal qualities were sorely needed during the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s but were not there to pick up the reins. As a single example of the sacrifice of leaders, Cambridge University lost 2,162 men, mainly undergraduates in residence or men who had graduated during the five years before the war. Universities educated the intellectual cream of the population at a time when only 3 percent of eighteen-year-olds received an advanced education, and the proportion entering Oxford and Cambridge was a fraction of 1 percent. How many