Courage Without Glory: The British Army on the Western Front 1915

[Crunchy]

Courage without Glory: The British Army on the Western Front 1915. 
Edited by Spencer Jones 
Helion and Company Limited, Solihull UK, 2015, 448pp

 

    As Spencer Jones notes in his Introduction, within the welter of books on the Great War, 1915 is the forgotten year of the war on the Western Front. In contrast to the plethora of works on the Gallipoli campaign, little has been devoted to the British Army’s experience in France and Belgium during the same period, other than two volumes of the Official History written in 1927 and 1928, and a few works on specific battles, notably three studies of the Battle Loos published a decade ago.

 

    More influential, however, has been Alan Clark’s The Donkeys (1960), which delivered a seething and damning indictment of British generalship in 1915. Of rather dubious scholarship and shallow analysis it has, nonetheless, left an enduring public perception of the war. His much touted ‘German’ quote of British soldiers being ‘Lions led by Donkeys’, later admitted to be Clark’s own invention, still permeates and distorts the popular view of the war to this day.  

 

    While the British High Command made mistakes and contributed to the disastrous results, the reasons surrounding the failures of 1915 are far more more complex than Clark’s simplistic approach. This becomes abundantly evident in the fifteen studies contained in Courage without Glory: The British Army on the Western Front 1915. Based on solid, scholarly research of primary sources, together with fine analysis and evaluation, this excellent book provides a perceptive understanding of the issues involved, why 1915 was such an agony for the British Army, and how it addressed the enormous challenges confronting all armies at that time.  As such it delivers a finely argued and compelling corrective to the popular view that has been long overdue.

 

    Beginning at the macro level Jones leads off with a first class overview of the problems and difficulties facing the British Army throughout 1915. It is an Army reconstituting itself after the grievous losses of the previous year, expanding rapidly well beyond expectations and the resources available, and being woefully short of the professional experience, training, weapons and munitions required to fight a new type of warfare none were expecting.  We are then treated to a range of topics including the problems of supplying munitions to the Army, the expansion of the Royal Flying Corps, senior commanders, various studies of the battles fought including three little known actions, the experiences of particular territorial battalions, command in the Canadian division, and the operations of the Indian Cavalry Corps.

 

    Despite the diverse spread of topics, and being the work of many authors, several consistent themes run across these chapters. Rather than being Donkeys, numerous examples arise of senior officers analysing actions, drawing lessons, some wrong and others correct, and implementing innovative tactics as they struggled to deliver success with minimal casualties. Their views on the ways and means of overcoming the awful conundrum confronting them were divided, yet the desire to find a winning solution which gave the infantry the best chance was strong. Thus through trial and error, and suffering terrible losses for few gains, the Army experimented under difficult conditions with inadequate resources, lacking the technology and associated techniques needed to overcome a strong and determined enemy.  Yet these technologies and techniques were emerging, and remarkably quickly. While nascent in 1915, together with evolving tactics, they formed the foundation for the later developments and eventual success in 1918, when the British Army was the finely honed force it wasn’t in 1915. 

 

    Compounding the problem were the realties of operating as the junior partner in a coalition war. Relentless pressure from their French Allies to participate in offensives forced the hands of a reluctant British High Command that recognised the inadequacies of their force, the unfavourable ground over which the attacks were made, and the difficulties they faced. Yet it was a High Command that struggled with the problems facing it, was divided in its thoughts on the best way ahead, and repeated mistakes, which while easy to criticise in hindsight were not so evident to everyone in 1915.

 

    Being a compendium of work from several authors, the approach and style of the chapters differ, yet most are well written, interesting, and offer new insights. One gains the impression the authors chose their own topics, so rather than following an orderly progression from the political and strategic to the tactical, pulling together the threads of the developments as they occurred, there is some repetition of thought and issues, and we have two chapters addressing battles through the experiences of two territorial battalions. Nonetheless, this fine book delivers something for everyone whatever their specific interests in the Great War are, thus offering an appeal to a wide readership. 

 

    Congratulations to Helion for the uncluttered, coloured maps supporting the battle narratives, and for re-introducing footnotes at the bottom of each page. Both are a professional touch that many will appreciate.

 

    In summary, Courage without Glory is a comprehensive study from top to bottom of an Army in transition and adapting to the new challenges of industrialised trench warfare  As such it is a highly valuable and important contribution to a neglected period of the Great War that merits a place in one’s bookshelf.   

[PMHart]

Great review Chris. 

Pete

[paulgranger]

Coincidentally, this has just reached the top of my to-read list, and Crunchy's review is very timely.

[Fattyowls]

I've read about a third of the essays and they are all of a very high standard as Crunchy suggests. If I can remember which box I packed the book away in when I unleashed the builders on chez moi I'm going to read the rest of it, once I've got rid of all the dust.

 

Pete.

[laughton]

A few years later, this Canadian is reading the book. I initially bought the book in 2016 to get Chapter 8, which I have yet to read - up next!

 

Since 2016 my interest has expanded well past the Canadians, so I am giving this a full read. I am very impressed so far. As others noted, chapters I thought would be of no interest have been fascinating.

 

Without COVID I might never have taken the time to read so much. The backlog is shrinking fast.