Free Weekly Digest

Berets, canned crab, royal bed pans and festival photos

This is your free weekly round of up of my history world. There are snippets of this weeks’ content, images from We Have Ways 4, and news of what is to come for subscribers next week.

This Week

On Monday I wrote about the fact that the Race to the Sea didn’t exist, and explained how the French fought near Arras in 1914, long before the British launched an offensive in this sector two and a half years later…

The First Battle of Arras

With the arrival of Prince Rupprecht’s Bavarians, and the detraining of de Maud’huy’s units, the next phase of the race to outflank the enemy by either side was about to begin around Arras. The stampede to the coast was reaching France’s equivalent of South Wales with its rich coal supply, as well as dense railway networks that could be crucial for any further operations. Logistics don’t sound sexy, but its more important than anything in war, and railways delivered food, equipment, shells and bullets to men in the fighting line.

On 1st October, the French read on the situation was wildly optimistic. In fact, the Germans had passed Bapaume. Fog hadn’t helped. Aerial observation on 30th September revealed nothing but thick cloud covering the entire Second Army front. So far as French HQ was concerned they had a new formation landing, which would carry out a new offensive on favourable terms before the Germans were present in force in front of them. In actual fact, Rupprecht was 24 hours away from launching an attack on the Arras sector.

Additionally, the Germans had sent a new corps far to the south, where it was about to launch another offensive on the weak point of the French line south of the Somme. The grand plan, if it could be pulled off, was to trap hundreds of thousands of French troops strung out between Compiègne, fifty miles north of Paris, and Arras. In short, the Germans were about to launch two large scale attacks at the same time.

Barbot’s division was supposed to finish detraining by noon, along with another division under the command of an artillery officer named General Fayolle. Barbot was ordered to take up major road junctions in front of Arras, form a line and dig in. Beside him, Fayolle was appalled at his instructions. He was to be sent out towards Douai with vague orders for his army to ‘either emerge to the south, or to defend itself against attacks on its left.’ He wasn’t even entirely sure who his superior was at that moment. ‘I don't know under whose orders I am,’ he complained.

The French could be facing complete a catastrophic turn of events. ‘Surprise was everywhere, the units had been engaged haphazardly. They had no indication of the enemy, their objectives were not defined… From the army general to the simple section leaders, no one knew what to do...’

Read the full article to find out all about General Barbot, and why he was so highly thought of.

On Thursday the latest instalment of After Hours landed.

On the Road

This weekend we are all gathered in a field next to Silverstone race track for We Have Ways 4. Today I’m going to be talking about how Japan’s fate was sealed in 1944.

Wrong War Steve looking dapper and taking a shift on the GWG stall…

That rubber chicken has seen some sights this weekend…

Mr Fisher working his way through a massive queue of autograph hunters…

Lots of interesting talks about all aspects of the war…

Exciting stuff around every corner…

Strong WW1 Tshirt game…

Far too many excuses to spend money!

Next Week

Stand by for some written content on both Saipan and Peleliu; also, I’ll be away in Belgium exploring the 1914 battlefields and so there will be updates from there too…

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