The Great War from the trenches

World War I has often been described as the most pointless war in history, a judgment that is open to debate. Does any war have a point? Military historian John Keegan has devoted a book (A History of Warfare) to explaining why Carl von Clausewitz’s dictum (a favourite among early nineteenth century statesmen), that war is a continuation of politics by other means, was conceptually flawed. This book would add considerable weight to his argument.

The Soldier’s War draws on the letters, photos and diary accounts of British “Tommies” and officers on the frontline and support staff, including priests, ambulance men and sappers. It is an invaluable addition to the large body of research and study on the subject because it retrieves the voices of a lost generation whose message endures.

Van Emden has organised the book chronologically and prefaced each year with an account of the course of the war and political developments to give the reader a context for the accounts. This works well because it provides an interesting barometer of men’s emotions as the war wore on and the death toll rose to horrific levels.

Writing in early 1914 Private Charles Heare of the 1/2 Monmouthshire Regiment reflected the mood of robust patriotism and bravado: “… [O]ur landlord and landlady say the war is serious. We laugh and say we won’t see a clothesline in France never mind the front line and if we go and the Germans knew the 2nd Mons were coming out, they would give it [the war] up as a bad job….What a great holiday, all the boys say. It’s the best war we’ve ever been in.”

But as the war destroyed more and more young men who volunteered in their thousands as part of Kitchener’s Army (named after the recruitment drive launched by the secretary of state for war), the mood turned sombre and then desperate.

In 1916, Dennis Neilson-Terry, a second lieutenant, had this to say: “You have no idea how ridiculous this war is, you sit in a trench and wait and fire and send bombs over and shell and wait again, and bury a few men and sleep possibly and wake up and wait and shell and that’s all; …it isn’t warfare, it’s civilised savagery and barbaric civilisation to use an impossible expression and there seems no end…”

World War I was the world’s first “modern” war in that technology played a far larger role — including the use of chlorine gas by the Germans at Ypres and the first tank battles at Cambrai. That explains why generals on both sides, weaned on tactics and strategies of another era, were unable to break the deadlock. Thus, for four years the opponents hunkered down along a line stretching from the Dutch coast to the Alps, and shed blood fruitlessly over a sliver of territory that remained no-man’s land till the American entry into the war altered the balance of economic power in the allies’ favour.

In many places, this no-man’s land was just 100 yards apart, so that British and German soldiers often exchanged greetings each morning (and sometimes sent out warnings) before resuming hostilities.

As would be expected the conditions of trench life inured most men to violence, death and extreme discomfort (a World War I Tommy, it was said, was 80 per cent bored stiff, 19 per cent frozen stiff and 1 per cent scared stiff). Yet the experience did not brutalise their outlook, either to their comrades or the enemy.

There are accounts here of the famous “Christmas truce” of 1914 when soldiers on both sides scrambled on to no-man’s land to party and exchange gifts, a practice that was officially banned thereafter (but observed regularly in the breach).

Van Emden has also proved resourceful in getting together a collection of soldiers’ photographs, mostly taken by the famous VPKs (or Vest Pocket Kodaks) capturing soldiers’ daily lives. Photography was banned after 1915 as the conditions of war worsened, but this didn’t stop the soldiers. There is pathos in these photos but also a lot of the black humour that kept them going — such as naming their trenches “Paradise Alley” and “Hotel Strand”.

So what was this war all about? A Tommy, Private Frank Pope of the King’s Royal Rifle Corps, should have the last word in this 1917 doggerel titled “History of the war”:

“A trench/A Stench/Some scraps of French/Some horrible German vapours;/A Shell/A Yell/No more to tell,/Bar a paragraph in the papers!”

THE SOLDIER’S WAR
THE GREAT WAR THROUGH VETERANS’ EYES

Richard Van Emden
Penguin India
400 pages; Rs 1,450