The Killing Ground

[crickhollow]

I have read the following bizarre account in other books but most recently it was quoted in ‘The Killing Ground’ written by Tim Travers.  The source of this account is given as Sir Edmund Brig Gen Sir J Edmonds, chief official historian and author of History of the Great War;

 

I heard him [Gough] complain that his troops had ‘no blood lust’, the officers ‘no spirit of the offensive’. Whilst I was having tea in the ‘B’ Mess of his headquarters he came in and said, ‘I want to shoot two officers’.  There was an astonished pause, and the A.P.M [Assistant Provost Marshal] said, ‘Beg your pardon, Sir, there are no officers under sentence’. Gough looked at him as if to say, ‘you fool’, and explained, ‘Yes, I know that, but I want to shoot two officers as an example to others’, And he got them.

 

Can there be any truth to this alleged incident? Hard to believe but the source quoted is:

Edmunds to G C Wynne, 17 February 1944, Cab 45/33, inside Cab 45/1140, PRO

[Loader]

Could Gough have been "over served" at the bar & it was the whiskey talking?
 

[David Filsell]

One of the truly  aggressive thrusters -l ike Capper - Gough rarely seems to emerge from anything with credit - politics (The Curragh), as an individual or as a soldier. From written evidence service in 5th Army was feared and hated. Although degummed after the spring offensives in which he was not ineffective, I have always wondered why he lasted so long. As far as I am aware the only biography is Farrar the Para's somewhat hagiographic piece of work.