1915_ The Death of Innocence - Lyn Macdonald [361]
†Major the Marquis of Winchester was an officer of the 13th Battalion, the Rifle Brigade.
*The subsequent story of Joe Hoyles and the 13th Battalion, the Rifle Brigade, is told in the author’s book, Somme.
*The shops and cafés stayed open, by order of the Germans, on Independence Day the following year, but the population of Brussels retaliated by boycotting them, and shopkeepers colluded by asking outrageous prices of the few customers who were injudicious enough to enter them – fifty thousand francs for a cap in one case. The wearing of flowers was also forbidden, but the Belgians replied by wearing green leaves, the colour of hope, and went so far as to strip the blossoms of house plants in their windows so that only the green foliage was left. One lady went one better, to the admiration of her fellow citizens, and paraded the boulevards all day accompanied by her three little girls, one dressed entirely in yellow, another in red and the third in black.
*In the immediate aftermath of the liquid fire attack, Lieutenant Sidney Woodroffe of the 8th Rifle Brigade bombed his way out after his small detachment was surrounded and cut off, rallied his small party and led them back through a hail of fire to counter-attack. He was killed at the head of his men while attempting to cut a path through wire entanglements, and awarded a posthumous VC.
*Piper Laidlaw was later awarded the Victoria Cross for valour.
*Captain Walter Bagot-Chester recovered from his wounds and returned to the front more than a year later. He died of wounds on 23 March 1918.
*Kipling never recovered from his boy’s death and could never throw off his acute sense of guilt. Years later he wrote a bitter couplet: ‘If any ask us why we died/Tell them “Because our fathers lied”. ‘Ironically (because Kipling devoted much of the rest of his life to work on behalf of the War Graves Commission) John Kipling lay for many years in an anonymous grave. Recently (1992) his grave was identified and a new headstone bearing his name has been erected in St Mary’s Dressing Station Cemetery near Lone Tree.
Table of Contents
Cover
About the Author
Title Page
Copyright Page
Contents
Author’s Foreword and Acknowledgements
List of Maps
1915 The Death of Innocence
Part 1
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Part 2
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Part 3
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Part 4
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Part 5
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Part 6
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Part 7
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Part 8
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Illustrations
Bibliography
Author’s Note
Index
Footnotes
Part 1
Chapter 01
Page 4
Page 10
Page 12
Chapter 02
Page 26
Page 33
Chapter 04
Page 52
Page 53
Page 54
Part 2
Chapter 08
Page 108
Page 110
Page 111
Chapter 09
Page 114
Page 121
Page 128
Chapter 10
Page 131
Page 134
Part 3
Chapter 11
Page 161
Page 163
Chapter 12
Page 173
Chapter 13
Page 183
Page 185
Chapter 14
Page 199
Chapter 15
Page 217
Page 220
Page 221
Part 4
Chapter 16
Page 234
Page 236
Chapter 17
Page 248
Page 252
Chapter 19
Page 279
Chapter 20
Page 289
Page 293
Chapter 21
Page 305
Page 306
Page 307
Page 308
Chapter 22
Page 317
Page 319
Part 5
Chapter