Delanceyplace.com 09/12/06-Soldiers at the Front

In today's excerpt, keeping soldiers from retreating
from the front in World War I. Previous wars had
only hinted at the horrors that awaited soldiers in the trenches of this war, in which tens of thousands would die in single battles and there would be twenty-three million casualties in all. In the excerpt below, British and French officers sent soldiers into battles where they knew of the carnage awaiting them but did not believe any
alternative was available. On too many
occasions, the officers of each army would keep their soldiers in the fight by pointing their own guns at them:




"The [British] knew nothing of this as they set out. Their inexperience and ignorance of what lay ahead helped to keep their enthusiasm high. They had also been fortified--steadied, dulled--by extra rations of rum. (In some units they were given as much as they would drink.) To the extent that further motivation was required, it was provided by
by warnings that any man who failed to advance
would be shot by his sergeants. Such practices
were common and often backed up with action,
though the orders were never put into writing. Nor were any officers foolish enough to put into writing the orders they issued with respect to the taking of prisoners. For a number of the units attacking at the Somme, these orders were simple beyond possibility of misunderstanding: no quarter was to be given. Any Germans attempting to surrender were to be dispatched forthwith. ...



"Meaningless as it was, the last assault of 1916
brought an ominous if largely unnoticed
foreshadowing of the year that lay ahead. As they
moved forward to the trenches from which they
would once again have to throw their flesh against
machine guns, the French troops began to bleat like
sheep. The sound echoed all around. Baaaa, baaaa--
the one pathetic form of protest available to men
condemned to die. More than the fighting, more than any piece of ground won or lost, this was the sign of what was coming next."



G.J. Meyer, A World Undone, Delacorte, 2006,
pp. 385, 405.

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Barclays
www.barclaycardus.com
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