Thursday August 1st, 1918
Did not go sick. Work on bayonet course. Hard march there and back. No parade in afternoon. G.H. Thompson takes flu. Wrote home.
German War Aims
Today, Frank is feeling better and worked on the bayonet course. Meanwhile the officers and NCO across the Brigade are being lectured on ‘German War Aims’ by the Earl of Denbigh. This is one of a series of lectures that the Earl is giving, both at home and on the Western Front, throughout the spring and summer of 1918.
His motivation is clear. He is concerned that both soldiers and the general population don’t know why they are at war. This isn’t a new concern but very much front of mind to the powers that be. After all the country has now been at war almost four years and has experienced huge setbacks during Germany’s Spring Offensive. Consequently, earlier this year, Lloyd George spent some time articulating the Allies’ war aims.
Denbigh takes a different tack – highlighting the threat to Britain and its empire of Germany’s war aims. In a speech he made in the House of Lords in early May 1918, Denbigh called attention ‘to pacifist activities in the country and the general ignorance regarding German War aims and the causes of the war‘.¹
The Message
A speech he made a month earlier to the ‘Salford War Aims Committee, was reported:
‘Lord Denbigh, who spoke upon ‘Germany’s War Aims’, said that in the midst of the tremendous attack now going on the western front, which had brought home to everybody in this country the fact that we were fighting for our very lives, it was more than ever necessary to understand that we should not have won the war merely if we held the enemy upon the western front. The causes of the war went far deeper than that.
The dangers in the Near East – Turkey, Russia and the Mediterranean – were just as bad as upon the western front. If we were so foolish as to countenance any peace proposals which Germany might put forward, giving up Belgium and France provided she was given a a free hand upon the eastern front, and if Germany remained a military power with the aggressive tendencies she had today, it would not be long before we saw the end of the British Empire.
The main idea of the present war was to manoeuvre for position from which Germany could destroy the British Empire as a necessary preliminary to obtaining the domination of the world. The great German scheme of a Central Europe with the Baghdad Railway was intended to provide that German money, influence, and trade should permeate the whole district,and hamper and kill, as far as possible, trade with every other country to the great advantage of Germany, and to aid also German designs upon Egypt, the Suez Canal, and our Eastern possessions.’
To some extent, he is saying that Germany wants what Britain already has or has its own designs upon.
The Earl of Denbigh
The speaker on Germany’s War Aims is the 9th Earl of Denbigh. He and his wife had seven daughters and three sons. His two younger sons have both been killed during WWI – one at the Battle of Jutland in 1916 and the youngest, a year later, at Passchendale.†
His family, Fielding, is one of the most ancient in Britain, based in Warwickshire since the 15th century and elevated to the peerage in the 17th century.
The Observer dug up a strange reference to the Earl’s ancestry when introducing his speaking engagements in April 1918: ‘Curiously enough, he is descended from the reigning house of Austria – the Hapsburgs, and his ancestor came to England about the time of Henry III…..The original name of this family at that time appears to have been Rheinfelden – hence Fielding.’³
What is interesting, is that this ‘connection’ to the Hapsburgs, had been emphatically debunked in 1901 and the family was subjected to some ridicule as a result.º Why would the Observer dig up this old chestnut and put it in print? Does it add or detract weight to his message? Could it be an olive branch to the Austro-Hungarians? Is this Lord Northcliffe’s propaganda bureau at work?
13th (Service) Battalion War Diary – 1st August 1918 – Haudricourt
Training as per programme (Appendix No 3 of War Diary for July 1918). Major JS Smylie proceeded on leave. Capt (Adjt) LA Turvey returned from leave. The Earl of Denbigh lectured to all officers and NCO of the Brigade on ‘German War Aims’, a most instructive interesting lecture, thoroughly appreciated by all. The following NCO were mentioned in Despatches in the London Gazette of June 3rd, 1918, published in the Times of June 12th, 1918:- 5836 Sgt Arnold DAG, B Coy, No 16267 L Sgt Kay AE B Coy and 5861 Cpl Lyons J D Coy. 2Lt JH Hodges and 1 OR are struck off the effective strength on admission to hospital with effect from 31-7-18.
References & Further Reading
¹ Article in The Guardian, May 9th, 1918, p5
² Advertisement in The Guardian May 1st, 1918, p1
³ The Observer, 7th April, 1918, p3
† Earl of Denbigh on Wikipedia
º ‘Studies in Peerage and Family History‘ by John Horace Round, MA, 1901
* Caricature of the 9th Earl of Derby, by Spy, Vanity Fair, 1894. Wikipedia, Public Domain