Voices of Silence : the Alternative Book of First World War Poetry

484 Pages·2013·1.96 MB·English

by  Noakes

VOICES OF
SILENCE
V O I C E S O F
S I L E N C E
T H E A L T E R N A T I V E B O O K O F
F I R S T W O R L D W A R P O E T R Y
V I V I E N N O A K E S
First published in 2006
The History Press
The Mill, Brimscombe Port
Stroud, Gloucestershire, GL5 2QG
www.thehistorypress.co.uk
Copyright selection and editorial matter © Vivien Noakes, 2006, 2013
This ebook edition first published in 2013
All rights reserved
© Acknowledgements on pages ix and x are a continuation of this copyright statement., 2013
Vivien Noakes has asserted the moral right to be identified as the editor of this work.
This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased,
licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the
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EPUB ISBN 978 0 7524 9610 8
Original typesetting by The History Press
In memory of my uncle
2nd Lt Richard Langley,
13th Bttn, Alexandra, Princess of Wales’s Own Yorkshire Regiment,
The Green Howards.
Reported wounded and missing, 27 September 1916.
Reported missing believed killed, 25 October 1916.
His name appeared on a German list of prisoners of war, 8 December
1916.
He died as a consequence of his wounds, 16 July 1935.
Contents
Acknowledgements
Introduction
How it Began
The Outbreak of War
1. Belgium and the Kaiser, ‘Call to Arms’, early training, the BEF leaves
for France
Early Months
2. Retreat from Mons, Kaiser’s ‘Scrap of Paper’, spy mania, Kaiser’s
ambition to invade Britain, the First Battle of Ypres, the Christmas truce
Autumn 1914 in England
3.
The role of women, flag days, Zeppelin raids
The New Armies go to France
4.
The Canadians, the New Armies begin to leave for France, trench life
Out of the Line
5.
Billets, letters from home, estaminets and concerts
Flanders, Gallipoli and the Mediterranean
6. The Second Battle of Ypres and first use of gas, Gallipoli, Salonika,
Egypt
Conscription, Protest and Prisoners
7. Loos, Christmas 1915, protests at home and abroad, the Derby Scheme,
conscription and conscientious objection, prisoners of war
The Royal Navy
8.
Life at sea, sinking of the Lusitania, the Battle of Jutland
The Royal Flying Corps
9.
Life, death and chivalry in the air
Verdun, the Battle of the Somme Begins
10.
The opening of the ‘Big Push’
Casualties of the Somme
11.
The first wounded, the dead and the casualty lists, grief at home
The Wounded in England
12.
Military hospitals, VADs, convalescence
Autumn and Winter 1916–1917
13. The end of the Battle of the Somme, winter 1916–1917, the maintenance
of morale in the line, Winston Churchill
Leave
14.
Days in ‘Blighty’
Spring and Early Summer 1917
15. Calls for peace, the Battle of Arras, the retreat to the Hindenberg Line,
the old battlefields
Red Tape and Rivalry
16.
Red tape, inter-corps rivalry, the Staff
Third Battle of Ypres (Passchendaele)
The missing and the dead, burials and the horrors of no man’s land, rain,
17.
winter 1917, fatigues and carrying parties, horses and mules, bombing
behind the lines, the end of the Battle of Passchendaele
America Joins the War
18.
Another ‘Call to Arms’, ‘Somewhere in France’
The Final Year
England in 1918, hardships, the German assault of 21 March 1918, near
19.
defeat and anxiety, the reversal, thoughts on post-war, the Kaiser
abdicates
Armistice and the Price of War
Joy and sadness, the survivors, reconciliation and hatred, the return of
20.
the dead and the grief of the living, victory celebrations, the Peace
Treaty, the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior, war memorials, In Memoriam
The Return to France
21.
Searching for graves, the next war
22. L’Envoi
Notes
Glossary
List of Authors and Illustrators
Bibliography
Acknowledgements
For any anthologist, the first and greatest thanks must go to the writers whose
work makes up the collection. The last survivor, Geoffrey Dearmer, died aged
103 in 1996; it was my great privilege to be at his hundredth birthday celebration
at the Imperial War Museum in 1993. But for these men and women, there
would be no Voices of Silence.
Catherine Riley’s Bibliography of First World War Poetry is indispensable to
anyone searching for poems of the Great War. For their generous help I am
grateful to: Colin Badcock; Emily Bird of the Commonwealth War Graves
Commission; Anthony Boden; Mark Brown; Adrian Gregory; Jill, Duchess of
Hamilton; Sally Harrower of the National Library of Scotland; William
Hetherington of the Peace Pledge Union; Dominic Hibberd; Nigel Jaques; Colin
Johnston, Principal Archivist of the Bath and North East Somerset Council;
Michael Meredith; Joe Mulholland; Allen Packwood of the Churchill Archive
Centre, Cambridge; Andrew Partridge; Robert Pike; Ann Riker; Nigel Steel; Dr
David Sutton, Director of Research Projects at Reading University Library; Bill
Turner; and Kevin Tye.
The staff of the following libraries have been most courteous and helpful: the
British Library; the Newspaper Library, Collindale; Friends’ House; the Imperial
War Museum Department of Documents and Library; the London Library; the
Royal Air Force Museum.
For permission to use material that is still in copyright I would like to thank:
Blackwell Publishing Ltd for ‘A Song of the Air’, ‘Reconnaissance’ and ‘Two
Pictures’ by Gordon Alchin, ‘From the Youth of all Nations’ by Henry Cecil
Harwood and ‘The Draft’ by A.P. Herbert; Mrs Anne Charlton for ‘Noon’ by
Robert Nichols; Mrs Peregrine Spencer Churchill for ‘Y Beach’; Jonathan
Cutbill for ‘Lieutenant Tattoon, M.C.’ by Edward Carpenter; Lord Elton for