Sorrows which came in battalions

AFTER THE FIASCO of Suvla Bay came recrimination and the search for a scalp on which to pin the blame.

This, at least, proved easy. The indecisive and somewhat geriatric Lieutenant General Sir Frederick Stopford was dismissed. It was proved that…

Gott strafe England

THE POWER OF MYTH was always one of the most potent instruments of war. All parties invoked untruth (propaganda was too stylised a term to describe exactly what was happening), but this week the Central Powers were the great fabricators. The war, they appeared to believe, was very nearly won…

Don’t duck, Fred

THE BLINDNESS OF commanders in confronting the catastrophe in Gallipoli is shocking to later generations. Every great exertion made by Britain and its allies had foundered, usually in ignominy and invariably with huge casualties. The aftermath of the early August offensive now rumbled on amidst…

Taking it and keeping quiet

THIS FIRST ANNIVERSARY of Britain going to war, on 4 August, was expressed more variously than in later generations. Solemnity, of course, played a part: Margot Asquith’s diary for 4 August described the service at St Paul’s, with her usual absence of charity as a badly managed…