Diary Henry Arthur Goddard 1918 - Part 1

182/4
B.M. O'Connor
late Scout Dept 
64 Telwyn Street
Paddington
 

Front cover of diary ~ see original

R.M.S. "ORMUZ."
"The Secret Corps
Ferdinand Tuohy.

(1)
an exasperating refusal to depart
from what was writ out in
out-of-date staff manuals, i.e. '
to adopt the latter to incessantly
changing circumstances', a

vicious craving for starting

files and putting everything on
paper, thus avoiding responsibility;
blind obes obeisance to Army
tradition and routine; feminine
inter-departmental jealouses; the
desire for personal aggrandizement,
a grim resolve to do nothing
original; the rule of the
unimaginative obstructionist
looking on at the war over his
roll top desk, all combined to
prevent our being first in the
field in this vital matter.

2
This is no sweeping indictment
of General Staff Officers as a whole.
Quantities of them will probably
agree with what I have written.
Many of them, including three
Staff Officers under whom the
writer served, were so disgusted
with the sluggishness, red-tape,
and inefficiency of staff work in
the field, that they preferred to
go and command fighting units;
and each of the trio was killed.
Numberless brainless duffers
with the magic words p.s.c.
after their names were always
available to fill the places of
such men. And yet those
letters p.s.c. meant little or
nothing, so far removed in every
minute detail, was the late
war from any that had gone
before it, and been duly "crammed"
at Camberley and [[?Omaelte]] 

3
Yet these were the men, their
minds saturated with horses
and dogs and the Pytcheley and
the Moors, who were the elected
of England, to do do her greatest
thinking in her greatest hour.
It was difficult at times
to restrain the cancerous suspicion
that some, at least, were
not particularly anxious that
the war should end too soon
quickly. Rather than promote
young and keen temporary
officers, just there for the
duration, and with no axes
to grind, or careers to carve
out, the War Office drained
Bath and Cheltenham of
its last retired regulars - even
if he had to be pulled out
of a bath chair - and scoured
the Indian Hills for similar, but faded mortals

4
to sheme out our battles in
France
x x x x x x
It is far from the writer's purpose

to develop a sneer at the

expense of the regularly turned
out s  regular-turned-staff-officer
If there were fools on the staff,
and there were; if there were
"outsiders", and there were; if
there were chocolate soldiers officers,
and there were; if there were
'dug-ins", and there were - taken

as a body of men into whose
safe-keeping had been

committed the lives of millions
of others, their compatriots,
officers on the General Staff

worked as hard as most
others in the war. They worked,
most of them, to the very
best of their ability . . . to

the best of their ability. 

5

according to the tenets of General

Staff Organ organization

originally drawn up shortly

after the Crimean war, every

staff officer must be able to

carry out the functions of each

and any other or any of the

four branches of the General

Staff, viz. Operations (planning

operations against the enemy),

Intelligence (finding out all

about the enemy) Adjutant-

General's Branch (general control

of the troops, Quarter-master-Generals

Branch (supplies). The system

further ordained that staff

officers were to rotate from one

of these appointments to the

6

other, which is not far short

of asking a man in civil life

to be one day a lawyer, the 

next day an actor, the next

a clergyman, and the next a

butcher. Still this was the

system which governed our

battles in France. No specializing.

No matter how brilliant a

Staff Officer might be at

Intelligence work, he was

liable, the next day, to be 

counting carcases at Havre

and vice versa. While there

was a war on, these staff

officers had to be trained in

the various branches of staff

work. . .

x   x   x   x   x

Is the system of caste V brain

to endure? Has it been a

triumph in the past

5

them to hesitate, especially

at Lamotte - At first

rumour transferred to it

the very dramatic work

done by other troops on 

the Harbonnier line

The work done by Gough,

Grant & their two

assistants, Harvey and

Bosanquet, were passed

over and by the Prime

Minister even - a very

noteworthy fact.

The force came into

 6

position early on the

morning of the 24 and

was ordered to take

post on the BARLEUX-

BIACHES road ready

for counter attack
Gen Haig in his report on

position 25 March says

"The Frenc Forces were

increasing rapidly and on 

this day our allies assumed

responsibility for the

battlefield south of the

Somme with general

7

control of the troops

British Troops operating

in that sector.

Grants (Careys) Force

entrenched from Marcelcane

to west of Lamotte

It was not till evening of

29^th that Carey took over

from Grant who returned

to his own work

200,000 troops - British

Isles

6 8

61 Division (only a remnant)

was brought up in buses on

28 - General Colin Mackenzie

G.O.C.

9^th Bde on ∧ 29^th afternoon of 30^th (33 Bn)

at 5pm made an

attempt to recapture the

old Army line between belunejr Aubercourt

& Marcelcane - we

reformed hench with

Col McKenzies right

but were held up

before we reached Aubercourt.

8

Death Grips producing

a mortal fatigue, a

prostration not to be borne

without great effort by the

very bravest

Quese who fought against

Hielier in our 18 Div speak

of the Second Somme battle

as perhaps the mightiest

most overpowering assault

in military history.