103 Years Ago

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/archive/first-world-war/article4617559.ece

Wife’s emotion in identity case

On this day: Nov 19 1915

At Manchester Assizes yesterday George Parkin Hall, alias Herbert Dandy, a soldier, was found guilty of an offence against Mrs Dandy, of West Gorton, and was sentenced to three years’ penal servitude. It was alleged that he personated the woman’s husband, Sergeant Dandy, a soldier serving at the front, and having succeeded in convincing her that he was really Dandy, stayed with her for several days. Hall, aged 37, was dressed in civilian clothes, and pleaded “Not Guilty”. 

Mr F Brocklehurst, prosecuting, pointed out that the facts of the case were peculiar. Hall bore a resemblance to Sergeant Dandy, who went out to Egypt with the 8th Manchesters last year. He presented himself to Mrs Dandy at her shop in July last, and represented that he was her husband. She doubted him at first, but after he had explained that his looks had been altered by his lying on a battlefield unattended for 72 hours, and that he could not remember domestic details as he had lost his memory, and after her relatives had assured her that he was her husband, she believed him and cohabited with him for several days. Then she again doubted him, and ceased to acknowledge him as her husband. Later it became known that the accused was named Hall, that he had a wife in Manchester, and that he only enlisted this year. 

Mrs Dandy in evidence told how the prisoner called at her shop in July and said he was her husband. Owing to his changed appearance she exclaimed “Never,” but he explained that the cause of the change was what he had gone through whilst serving abroad. Sergeant Dandy had an abscess mark on his neck, but Hall said it had been filled in. Dandy also had tattoo marks on his arm, and the prisoner explained their absence by saying they had been burnt out. 

Upon being cross-examined, Mrs Dandy burst into tears and sobbed convulsively. She exclaimed, “I have had nine children in ten years. I have never known wrong in my life, and never thought of a man apart from my husband, and all after my poor husband is laid below.” 

After the verdict Hall pleaded for leniency on the ground that he has six children and had been in gaol 13 weeks. The Judge, however, declared that he had committed a most impudent and deliberate crime.

100 Years Ago

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/register/prisoners-terrible-plight-qxw3wkf6t

NOVEMBER 16, 1918

Prisoners’ terrible plight

I understand that, according to programme, the British Army is remaining stationary within its lines till the expiration of the six days from the signing of the armistice, which will expire at 11 o’clock on Sunday. The forward movement will then begin. Today German officers arrived at Mons for the purpose of putting railway and other facilities at our disposal for our advance.

The released British prisoners, who, having been merely turned loose from camps or left to their own devices, are pouring in on foot, mostly in a deplorable condition. They are generally dressed in a sort of prison uniform of black cloth, and wear German caps, having often little or no underclothing, though the cold is severe. They are terribly wasted and in an unwashed and unshaven condition, with untrimmed hair, and are sometimes a pitiable sight. They are being treated with the utmost kindness by civilians of the villages along the road in the area evacuated by the Germans, and, of course, as soon as they reach our lines they are helped to divisional rest camps or other havens by being given lifts in lorries. Nonetheless, many are said to be finding the journey on foot too much for them, even though they have less than a 10-mile walk, and I understand some have actually died on the road at the very moment of deliverance.

All alike tell the same tales of rough usage, hard work, generally in some war industry, with insufficient food, to which their condition bears ample witness. Some have aged and others shrunk to youths of half their real age, with thin, wasted limbs and fleshless bodies. It is a pity the whole civilized world cannot see these men side by side with German prisoners in our hands.

Some of those now liberated have been prisoners a long time. Many others were captured at Cambrai a year ago, and others taken in the La Bassée area last April, but even the seven months of treatment they have received has been enough to reduce the last to a state of utter emaciation and feebleness. There is every evidence that the German food shortage has, especially of late, been even worse than we have dared believe, but that, even so, British prisoners have been famished far beyond any other class of the population there can be no doubt.

103 Years Ago

Contextualising a certain short film

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/archive/first-world-war/article4538855.ece 

Fall of Osowiec reported The German main headquarters state that, aIthough no definite figures of the booty taken at the fall of Kovno are yet to hand, the number of prisoners is more than 20,000. More than 600 cannon were captured, many of which are modern heavy ones
Another Russian fortress is reported to have fallen into the hands of the Germans. The announcement is made from Berlin that Osowiec, has been occupied by the troops under General von Eichhorn after it had been evacuated by the Russians. There is as yet no confirmation of the event from Petrograd. Osowiec, though it ranked only as a minor fortress has, on three occasions at least, played a distinguished part in checking previous German invasions of Poland. Situated on the Bobr, with Augustowo to the north and Bielsk to the south, it defended the only good passage across the swampy valley of marshes through which the river flows.

THE GERMAN CLAIM.
Berlin, Aug 23. German official report: Marshal von Hindenburg’s Army. The troops under General von Eichhorn are further advancing east and south of Kovno. On the Bobr we occupied the fortress of Osowiec, which was evacuated by the Russians. North and south of Tykocin successful fighting took place. We captured Tykecin, taking 1,200 prisoners, among them 11 officers. Seven machine-guns also fell into our hands.
[The Wireless Press version of the communique gives the number of machine-guns captured as 77. It adds that “desperate Russian counter-attacks east of Bielsk failed, with very considerable losses to the enemy. We advanced south of this town.”]
ARMY GROUP OF MARSHAL VON MACKENSEN. The enemy put up a tenacious resistance between Razna and the Bug. An attack across the Bug above the Pulwa sector is progressing. Before Brest Litowsk the situation is unchanged. On both sides of the Lakes of Switjas and near Piszcza, east of Wlodawa, the enemy was defeated yesterday and driven north-eastwards. Reuter.
The Wireless Press reports the following from Berlin in addition to the above: The Army of Prince Leopold of Bavaria. Accompanied by stubborn fighting this Army group has crossed the Kleszczele-Razna line and is engaged in further favourable attacks. Three thousand and fifty prisoners were taken and 16 machine guns captured.
[Yesterday’s German official report stated that Prince Leopold’s Army group crossed the Kleszczele-Wysoko Litowsk railway on Saturday and captured over 3,000 prisoners and a number of machine guns.]

74 Years Ago

76 Years Ago

100 Years Ago

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/register/stand-by-unfix-bayonets-l0m8tjhhx

NOVEMBER 12, 1918

Stand by. Unfix bayonets

The British Army began its first battle of the war at Mons on August 22, 1914, and, by the grace of God, our troops stood in this same spot when the order came to cease fire. That the enemy had made up his mind that the end had come, our troops yesterday had ample evidence. On most of the front they marched and rode almost as they pleased. The news of the armistice was got forward to our far-flung patrols and batteries with great promptitude, and a great silence fell upon the land after 11 o’clock. There can be no harm now in saying that the message had been expected, and there had been ample time to signal the news beyond the points where telegraph and telephone cease. Our scattered troops were told to unfix bayonets and unload magazines and to stand to for further orders. No attempt was to be made to fraternize with the enemy. I believe there was some demonstrativeness on the German side, and I hear of German troops seen trying to break their rifles or throw them away. But, on the whole, the great tidings appear to have been taken pretty quietly. Amongst the troops in rest there was more jubilation. At headquarters close to the line parades had been arranged of all available troops as soon as the news was received, and at 11 o’clock the bugles sounded the “Cease fire” and the bands played the “Marseillaise” and “God Save the King”. Many then broke out into “Tipperary”, which the peasantry seem to imagine is our National Anthem, to judge by the respect with which they hearkened to the strains.

Shortly after 11 o’clock the roads presented an extraordinary scene. Refugees began to stream back in swarms. The Germans are manifestly anxious to show their good faith, for very shortly after the armistice dispatch riders were bringing into Corps Headquarters full details of the positions of all mines, booby traps, and leads, which had been sent over under the white flag by enemy commands.

The day is grey and drizzling, which does not conduce to outdoor demonstrations on the part of people who have suffered much, and many of whom cannot yet tell how many of their dear ones have fallen in the terrible struggle. Silent thankfulness is the prevailing sentiment today in the war area of Northern France.

The Times History of the War - The Armistice

The Armistice

This chapter examines the military collapse of Germany, the Turkish Armistice, Austria-Hungary follow, Germany's isolation, Prince Max of Baden makes overtures for peace, President Wilson's reply, Allied military conference in Paris, German armistice delegates arrive at Rethondes, the Armistice signed, its terms, reception in Germany and England

Read the full story

The Downfall November 10, 1918

Germany is utterly alone, beaten in the field by the foes she despised, with her sailors and with thousands of her soldiers in mutiny, her people in insurrection under the red flag, her destinies in untried hands

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100 Years Ago

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/register/these-fateful-hours-ktz75t9tk

NOVEMBER 9, 1918

These fateful hours

Marshal Foch has lost no time in answering Germany’s petition for an armistice. Yesterday morning the delegates presented themselves at the Allied Headquarters, and he handed them the conditions on which their request will be conceded. At the same time he informed them that these terms must be accepted or refused within three days. He also told them that the cool suggestion of their Government for an immediate suspension of hostilities pending this decision could not be entertained. It was put forward, Prince Max and his colleagues affirmed, “in conformity with humanity”; but the advantages it would have conferred are so patent that it suggests either sheer impertinence or the necessity to convince the German people that every possible loophole of escape has been explored. Every hour of immunity from the converging attacks which threaten to cut off the enemy’s retreat would be invaluable to them. No respite can be thought of until they have agreed, formally and irrevocably, to the terms. Stringent as these must be, it hourly becomes clearer that the German Government must submit to them or incur a terrible responsibility. The delegates have dispatched a courier to convey them to the Chancellor and the German High Command at Spa, and an urgent request that he shall be sent back as quickly as possible with the latest instructions.

The signs increase that peace on any conditions grows more and more vital to the enemy. The Chancellor, Prince Max, has just declared in an address to Germans abroad that in the fifth year of the contest, and “abandoned by their allies” — a not very generous complaint — the German people “could no longer wage war against increasingly superior forces”, and he confesses that “the victory for which many had hoped has not been granted to us”.

The signs of internal commotion in Germany are growing more serious. The chief naval ports are in the hands of mutinous sailors and soldiers and revolutionary civilians, while the movement is spreading inland. Want and the collapse of all expectations of victory and plunder excited by the “militarists” have excited dangerous passions among the masses. Anger against the Emperor is fierce. His abdication is being called for upon all sides.

100 Years Ago

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/register/rumour-and-suspense-q9hh0g5zf

NOVEMBER 8, 1918

Rumour and suspense

All the world awaits with eager desire news that Germany has taken the next step towards peace. Every hour that she delays increases her losses and her danger. The rumours which filled London yesterday that she had signed the armistice were manifestly premature, for they were circulated before the delegates could have reached their destination. A wireless message states that they left Berlin on Wednesday evening. The only official information as to the course of their journey is contained in Marshal Foch’s communication to the German Headquarters. It states that if they wish to meet him to ask for an armistice they are to advance to the French outposts by the Chimay-Fourmies-La Capelle-Guise road, where they are to be received and conducted to the place fixed for the interview. There they will be met by the Allied Generalissimo and by Admiral Wemyss, the First Sea Lord, who has been appointed to act with Marshal Foch as his naval associate. The terms are irrevocably fixed and are to take or to leave within a definite period, which we may assume from precedent to be three days from yesterday afternoon.

The capture of the western part of Sedan by the First American Army is a dramatic incident in the great advance of the Allies which has been sweeping forward since the close of last week. It looks as though the Germans had delayed their retreat from the Laon salient too long, and the rapid advance of the Americans disconcerted their plans. They may still extricate themselves, but their situation is obviously full of danger.

German newspapers publish accounts of ominous disturbances at Kiel, Hamburg, and Cuxhaven. A “Soldiers’ Council” has been formed at Kiel, the red flag hoisted on at least one battleship, the sailors have mutinied, troops sent to suppress them have joined them, the men are complete masters of the ships and the officers powerless. Some ebullition was inevitable once the rigour of “militarist” control had been mitigated, but there is nothing as yet to suggest that the movement is general. Public order has been preserved, though two or three officers have been murdered. At the same time it is clear the excitement among the working classes may become dangerous if their hopes of an immediate armistice and early peace are disappointed.

The Times History of the War - The Collapse of Germany

The collapse of Germany

This week's chapter examines the effects of the blockade, Ukrainian food supplies, war loans and national credit, submarine failures, socialism in the army, moral weakening of the people, Lichnowsky memoir, Herr von Kuhlmann and the peace offensive, fall of von Kuhlmann, Admiral von Hintze Foreign Minister, a ministry of failure, effect of the Battle of Amiens, Prince Max Chancellor, socialistic participation, effect of Cambrai, Main Headquarters demands peace, the Fourteen Points, socialist impatience, abdication of the Kaiser, the Armistice

The Socialists of Bavaria passed a resolution that Germany should be reconstituted into a people's State, and the Munich papers called on the Kaiser to give a shining exampIe to his people by sacrificing himself

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Abdication of the Kaiser November 11, 1918

I hear that the Kaiser with a suite of 10 gentlemen, in two court carriages, passed the Dutch frontier near Maastricht and close to Eysden this morning. Secrecy is observed concerning his movements

Read the full story The following news was transmitted on Saturday through the wireless stations of the German Government:

The German Imperial Chancellor, Prince Max of Baden, has issued the following decree: The Kaiser and King has decided to renounce the Throne. The Imperial Chancellor will remain in office until the questions connected with the abdication of the Kaiser, the renouncing by the Crown Prince of the Throne of the German Empire and of Prussia, and the setting up of a Regency have been settled. For the Regency he intends to appoint Deputy Ebert as Imperial Chancellor [our Hague Correspondent gives the foregoing sentence as, “He contemplates proposing to the Regent the appointment of Deputy Ebert as Chancellor”], and he proposes that a Bill should be brought in for the establishment of a law providing for the immediate promulgation of general suffrage, and for a constitutional German National Assembly which will settle finally the future form of Government of the German nation and of those peoples which might be desirous of coming within the Empire.

Berlin, November 9, 1918.

100 Years Ago

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/register/germans-and-belgians-mdgxx9x8d

NOVEMBER 5, 1918

Germans and Belgians

We are vigorously following up our success at Valenciennes by attacking the sectors on the south. We are reported to be making good progress everywhere, and taking considerable numbers of prisoners. At many places the German retreat is reported to be most disorderly, and the Belgians have been following them up with the greatest eagerness.

An interesting document has fallen into Belgian hands in the shape of a General Order to the 5th Bavarian Division, dated October 5, showing how at that date German troops realized the change in their situation. The Order says: “However regrettable the condition of the civil population of Belgium may be, the consideration of revictualling the German Army must come first.” It therefore orders all horses, vehicles, &c, to be requisitioned and used for Army purposes, and continues: “Officers and men must understand that their relationship to the civilian population has changed since the alteration in the general situation. Civilians must now be regarded as an enemy people with whom we are in a state of war, and it is strictly forbidden to give them any assistance whatever. Military requirements alone must be taken into consideration, and all products of the country must be utilized solely in our own interest and not in that of the people.”

This order, of course, gives the German soldiery carte blanche to loot and pillage as they please, and they appear to have been taking advantage of it in a way which neither the Belgian Army nor the Belgian people will ever forget.

I mentioned some time ago a story, which I declined to vouch for, of Germans leaving one of their own dead as a booby trap so placed that when the body was lifted for burial it would explode a mine. The possibility that this was true is increased by the fact that our Engineers have in two places found an apparent grave with a cross marked “unknown Englishman”. The position of the graves was suspicious, and on careful examination they were found to contain, not a dead British soldier, but a German mine.

Another example of German cunning is in furnishing machine-gun crews left to cover rearguards with civilian suits of peasant clothes, enabling them to make their escape as harmless farming folk.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/another-step-towards-victory-g23xlwf6m

NOVEMBER 3, 1918

Another step towards victory

Germany now stands alone. The last and greatest of her confederates has fallen away from her. The Austro-Hungarian Commander has signed an armistice with General Diaz, and it will come into force this afternoon. The actual terms will not be made public until tomorrow, but it is easy enough to surmise their general tenor. Clearly they must be of such a kind as to ensure the complete and effective isolation of Germany. The Power whose ambitions Germany used to prepare and provoke the world-war, and who has been throughout her ready tool and accomplice in the nefarious policy of aggression, abandons her and leaves her either to oppose single-handed the foes whom she could not defeat when at the head of a great coalition, or to submit to the terms which they may dictate to her. It is still far from clear which course she will take. Until, therefore, her surrender becomes a fact, the first duty of the Allies and of America is to redouble their efforts, both military and diplomatic, to enforce her acceptance of the victorious peace they are resolved to secure.

There is no doubt, of course, that the armistice with Austria entirely changes the military situation to the great advantage of the Allies. It opens the way for the execution of plans which are doubtless already prepared and can now be put into immediate execution. Nor is it only in the military sphere that this great event imposes fresh duties upon us. It demands new efforts in the field of diplomacy. As the time approaches when Germany must sue for an armistice or be crushed, the Allies and the United States must exert themselves more than ever to attain perfect clearness and unity, both as to the terms which they would be prepared to grant and on the subject of the peace preliminaries themselves. We presume that the present meetings at Versailles, where the leading soldiers and sailors of the Alliance have been in conference, have at least resulted in agreement upon the essential measures, naval and military, which are required to enforce the only kind of peace that the democracies will sign. That is the first, and for now, most important, business. The peace preliminaries follow, but here too there is no time to be lost in correlating our main ideas if there is to be no subsequent misunderstanding.

100 Years Ago

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/register/the-battle-in-flanders-t6bsnkwj0

NOVEMBER 2, 1918

The battle in Flanders

On the front of the Allied attack in the north which began yesterday we continue to push the enemy back upon the line of the Scheldt, while in the Valenciennes area we have forced our way so closely up to the southern edge of the city that you may hear tonight that Valenciennes is in our hands. The position of the Germans there must now be nearly intolerable. A characteristic item of the booty taken in the southern area was a party of four German ambulances which, having a legitimate load of wounded on the beds below, were laden above with booty plundered from the villages.

Pushing up behind our troops, our guns have been industriously shelling enemy troops and transport on the roads. On our immediate left the French troops had some trouble with strong positions in Anseghem Chateau. The place was full of machine-guns, and the Germans fought stubbornly, and it was not until after hand-to-hand fighting that they finally got possession. On the left of the French, American troops seem to have had the hardest fighting. The woods were strongly held, and protected with wire and machine-guns, but, working like old soldiers, the Americans made their way round, and those of the garrison who were not killed or escaped were made prisoners.

All this country is thickly settled, and the Germans last night had set a number of farms on fire, which kept the hours of darkness brilliant and made the advance of the French and Americans in the early morning very easy. In other farms and hamlets are large numbers of civilians, and the Germans, falling back, fought from and among the buildings in Boer fashion. We hesitated to use the guns because of the innocent inhabitants, and the infantry therefore had to go forward without artillery, and the work was done by individual fighting with rifle and bayonet.

The Germans, as they fall back, shell with gas the farms and villages where civilians are. Our men do all they can to protect civilians by giving them gas masks, which they strip from German prisoners, and are trying to make them get out of the area; but it is difficult to persuade civilians not to cling to shelters in cellars and so forth, which have so far proved their salvation, but where it is impossible for them to live always in their masks.

100 Years Ago

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/register/turkey-has-capitulated-q3lgvlpb3

NOVEMBER 1, 1918

Turkey has capitulated

At noon yesterday an armistice between the Allies and Turkey brought our campaigns in Syria and Mesopotamia to a happy and victorious conclusion. The one has ended with the brilliant capture of Aleppo by General Allenby, and the other by General Marshal’s capture of the entire Turkish force opposed to him on the Tigris, on the very day on which the armistice was signed. Turkey has thus yielded to an overwhelming military defeat in both Eastern theatres of war. Her Palestine Army has been entirely destroyed and a similar fate has befallen the limited forces she put into Mesopotamia. This point should be emphasized. Turkey did not surrender in consequence of events in Europe, though the collapse of Bulgaria hastened her decision. She hoisted the white flag because she had been conclusively beaten in the field, and could look for no help from her defeated confederates. In its later stages her overthrow has been almost exclusively the work of Great Britain, and it was fitting that she should tender her submission to a British Admiral, for it is the power of the Royal Navy which has made possible the splendid triumphs of the British and the Indian Arnies in the East. The full terms of the armistice are not yet disclosed, but they include free passage for the Allied Fleets through the Bosporus to the Black Sea; occupation of the forts in the Dardanelles and the Bosphorus necessary to secure their passage; and immediate repatriation of all Allied prisoners of war. The number of British and Indian prisoners in Turkish hands is said to be between nine and ten thousand.

Great Britain already holds Palestine, Syria, and Mesopotamia. The hour of Rumania’s rescue is at hand, and Allied command of the Black Sea should sound the death-knell of the Bolshevist tyranny in Russia. The Pan-German plot in the East is shattered, we think forever. The Baghdad Railway is in Allied hands. Whatever the future of Turkey may be, it is unlikely that Germany will again have any part or lot in it. The peoples of Arabia, Palestine, Mesopotamia, and Syria are delivered from the duress of centuries, and it is imperative that the remnant of the Armenian nation, whose sufferings no words can tell, shall be given equally full freedom at once.

The Times History of the War - End of Western Front campaigns

End of Western Front campaigns

The advance continued: fall of Ostend, capture of Thourout, German stand on the Selle, Douai entered, Germans evacuate Lille, Americans take Grand Pre, how the Selle was crossed, Germans abandon the Belgian coast, enemy stand on the Lys, Belgians in Zeebrugge and Bruges, German reserves exhausted, French advance between Oise and Serre, Valenciennes captured, the Battle of the Sambre, November 4, great German retreat, Maubeuge and Tournai taken, Canadians capture Mons, the Armistice, weapons and the war, German booby traps, air fighting, German views, the Kaiser abdicates

The enemy was now falling back along his whole battlefront, and throughout the following days, although the rain was incessant and imposed great hardships on our troops, the cavalry and infantry pressed forward with hardly a check, keeping close touch with the rapidly-retreating Germans. It was plain that the last days of German resistance had come

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100 Years Ago

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/register/influenza-no-improvement-tv85cqpm8

OCTOBER 29, 1918

‘Influenza’: no improvement

Our obituary columns this morning bear melancholy witness to the ravages of the great plague of influenza and pneumonia. Messages from one or two places in the country state that the epidemic is abating, but in London there is little or no sign of improvement. Yesterday the number of members of the Metropolitan Police Force suffering from influenza had risen to 1,410, and deaths to 30. Of the London Fire Brigade staff 117 are ill. At Hackney fire station seven men out of 11 are on the sick list. During the 48 hours ending at 7 o’clock yesterday morning 61 persons seized with influenza in the streets were taken to hospitals by the ambulance service. Several of the London borough councils are making a house-to-house distribution of leaflets advising people of the best preventives and giving instructions as to what to do in case a member of the household becomes afflicted.

During the week-end there were 57 deaths in Poplar from the disease, 12 of which occurred in institutions. The borough of St Pancras has been placarded with posters advising the public to keep warm and rest in bed on the first appearance of the symptoms of influenza. A gargle is recommended consisting of a saltspoonful of salt in half a glass of water, coloured purple with a weak solution of permanganate of potash.

At the London Hospital between 20 and 80 nurses — one-tenth of the total nursing staff — are away from duty, and many additional beds had to be provided for new patients during the week-end. At the Great Northern Hospital there are about 100 cases. Some 20 nurses are away from duty, and the staff is much overworked. Many girls from the clerical department are doing light work in the wards.

Among the deaths recorded in our obituary columns on page 1 today are 34 from influenza, pneumonia, or kindred diseases, including 12 deaths of soldiers. Of the latter nine are attributed to pneumonia, combined in two cases with influenza, and in one each with malaria and dysentery; two to influenza and one to meningitis following influenza and pneumonia. Of the other 22 deaths, 10 are attributed to pneumonia and influenza combined, seven to pneumonia, four to influenza, and one to pleurisy following influenza.

100 Years Ago

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/past-six-days/2018-10-19/register/the-agony-of-lille-lrx8zgssf

OCTOBER 19, 1918

The agony of Lille

From Our Special Correspondent. My visit to Lille was as wonderful an experience as any man could hope to have in a lifetime. Two or three hours before, an officer of the Liverpool Regiment, with his men, had gone into the town and made an official call on the Mayor. A small party of French and Belgian correspondents also made their way in, but I was the only Englishman.

The streets for miles were a surging mass of people, chiefly women and children, who had been waiting since the Germans had gone in the darkness of the early morning. A rumour spread that I was “the English General”, though whether Sir Douglas Haig, General Birdwood, or General Haking I do not know. It was useless to deny it, for who could argue with a hundred thousand people mad with joy, and on me was poured all the gratitude for its deliverance of the population which has suffered so much through four years. It was necessary to walk some miles through the streets, battling every yard through cheering, laughing, sobbing women and children, and a few men. I was showered and heaped with flowers and draped with Tricolour flags and streamers. Fifty times I must have saved babies, thrust at me to be touched or kissed, from being trampled underfoot. The women struggled to touch or kiss some part of a hand or cheek or clothes. Men fought to grip one’s hand. For mile after mile the crowd continued — one mass of shouting, cheering, weeping humanity — and the cries, hailing one as “saviour” and “deliverer”, mingled with shouts of “Vive l’Angleterre!” and the refrain “Nous avons tant souffert, mon general, nous avons tant souffert,” are things no man could ever forget.

But for the help of some men who made a phalanx round me, I doubt if it would have been possible to reach the Mayor’s residence. Finally even this phalanx became powerless, and from the Mayoralty a bodyguard of gendarmes was provided to take me back to the canal, beyond which my car was waiting. The car was heaped with flowers, and the chauffeur told me he had been kissed by more people that afternoon than in all his life before. It was a truly wonderful experience, which brought home, as nothing else, what the German captivity and their deliverance have meant to the people of France.

The Times History of the War - VCs of the War, 8

VCs of the War, 8

This week's chapter explores three commanding officers, engineers' fine deeds, crosses for courageous runners, farmhouse fights, territorials' exploits, back to Le Cateau, two Leinster regiments, saving the wounded, the Lancashire Fusiliers, a company sergeant-major, oversea soldiers and the cross, the Australian Imperial force, officers' fine acts, three posthumous honours, NCOs and privates, attacks on machine-gun posts, a bomber in a German trench, men from Ontario, an Army surgeon's cross, a wounded fighter, Lieut Lyall's great deeds, more Canadian heroes, further crosses for Zeebrugge, the decoration as a fighting barometer, a case of non-award, an analysis of the total awards

Four runners in succession having been killed in trying to deliver a message to a supporting company during the attack on Marou on October 20, Private Alfred Wilkinson, 1/5th Battalion Manchester Regiment (TF), volunteered for the desperate duty. The journey which he undertook involved exposure to extremely heavy machine-gun and shell fire for 600 yards, yet he managed to escape all perils and to deliver the message

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100 Years Ago

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/register/ostend-lille-and-douai-2xdjcbs9c

october 18, 1918

Ostend, Lille and Douai

British forces under General Birdwood entered Lille yesterday to the drumbeat of victory, and just before one o’clock Vice-Admiral Sir Roger Keyes landed at Ostend, whence the enemy had vanished. Later in the day Douai fell into our hands. When the new offensive began in Flanders on Monday, few expected that such great and dramatic results would be so rapidly attained. To the British public the recovery of the Belgian coastline will bulk even more largely than the fall of Lille. This country has suffered deeply as a result of the misfortunes which enabled the Germans to gain a foothold on the shores of Belgium. The ports served as lairs for their submarines and destroyers, and in the country behind them the aerodromes were built from which came the aircraft squadrons which so frequently bombed London and our towns and villages. We may well rejoice that the shores of Belgium are all but won back, and that never again will the enemy look covetously across the Straits of Dover.

It is no secret that until recently there seemed every probability that the Allies would find Lille a mass of ruins, another and a larger Bapaume. Apparently it has dawned upon the German Staff that they cannot seek peace with a flaming torch, and that their vile and wanton methods of destruction will only harden the hearts of the Allies against them. Their belated abandonment of practices of barbarism is the obvious outcome of the Allied protests, which should have been made in a more effective form long ago.
Meanwhile Sir Douglas Haig yesterday began a fresh attack on a ten-mile front between Bohain and Le Cateau, in which sector there has already been so much hard fighting. Should this new blow continue to develop, its results may be felt along the whole German front. One of its first consequences is that our troops have gained possession of Douai. On the other hand, the enemy are retreating in reasonably good order, and so far there is no sign of collapse and no visible prospect of a German military disaster.
The Germans have lost the war, and know it, but they are not yet close to breakdown. Their biggest danger is not the Allies. Germany might still resist for a long time, but not if behind a shortened front her civil population is in a state of revolt.

The Times History of the War - End of Near East campaigns

End of Near East campaigns

This week's chapter examines events preceding the collapse of Turkey, last campaign of the Russian Caucasian Army, effect of Bolshevist revolution, rivalry of Georgians, Armenians and Tartars, Turks Pan-Turanian ambitions, Germany's "new route to India", Turks at Erzerum, Kars, Batum and Tabriz, Germans at Tiflis, Nuri's advance on Baku, British intervention, events in Mesopotamia, replacing Russians on the road to the Caspian, Dunsterville's defence of Baku, helping the Nestorians, Baku reoccupied, Sir Percy Sykes's great march, German intrigues at Kabul, British at Merv, Persia's debt to Great Britain, Turks sue for terms, Enver and Taalat resign, armistice signed, through the Dardanelles to Constantinople, Russian Black Sea Fleet surrendered, plight of the Armenians

Every British officer in the Punjab regiment had fallen in the assault, and when the Bolshevists came on, the Indians were exposed to attack from three sides - frontally down the line, on the right flank by troops who had rallied apparently realizing our inferiority in numbers, and in the rear by a Bolshevist armoured train. The Indian officer of the Punjabi battalion put up a splendid fight and refused to retire without orders

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