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Text originally published in 1921 under the same title.
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Publishers Note
Although in most cases we have retained the Authors original spelling and grammar to authentically reproduce the work of the Author and the original intent of such material, some additional notes and clarifications have been added for the modern readers benefit.
We have also made every effort to include all maps and illustrations of the original edition the limitations of formatting do not allow of including larger maps, we will upload as many of these maps as possible.
THE FIFTH ARMY
IN MARCH 1918.
BY
W. SHAW SPARROW.
WITH
AN INTRODUCTION BY GENERAL SIR HUBERT GOUGH
AND NINETEEN MAPS BY THE AUTHOR
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Contents
INTRODUCTION
BY GENERAL SIR HUBERT DE LA P. GOUGH, G.C.M.G., K.C.B., K.C.V.O.
WHEN Mr. Shaw Sparrow first asked me to write an Introduction to his book, I refused, because I felt the subject was too personal to myself. Then I saw the following in the Morning
IN MEMORIAM,
To the glorious and undying memory of the Heroes of the Fifth Army who gave their lives for Britain, March 21st-22nd, 1918.
We thank God upon every remembrance of you.
Lest we forget.
After reading this remembrance I felt that my personal inclinations did not count, and that I owed it to the glorious and undying memory of my Comrades of the Fifth Army, living as well as dead, to help to throw on their heroism the light which has been so long withheld.
I write this Introduction, then, in a full regard of their Memories and in no sense of my own capacity.
On the shoulders of the officers and men of the Fifth Army was thrown practically the whole burden of holding up Ludendorffs powerful attack, one which was as carefully and ably organized in all its details as it was weighty in its physical and material resources. As Mr. Shaw Sparrow shows by his figures of the divisions engaged, the great and main blow was directed against the Fifth Army, two of Ludendorffs armies being employed on this task.
Thus, the fate of France, of Great Britain, of Europe, rested with those few men who composed the Fifth Army, and who, perforce scattered and unsupported, were worn and exhausted by strain and fatigue for nights and days in succession, yet still fought on against the numbers which tried to overwhelm their defence.
There may have been men who showed weakness, indeed there were, and some others made mistakes; but it must not be overlooked that though they might be British soldiers, they were also human beings. For no one to fail would have been beyond the power of human effort. And when we look at the picture in its broad lines and see the numbers of divisions engaged by all parties in the drama, then with no more than justice we can assert that no soldiers of any nation ever displayed so richly the military virtues of courage, endurance, and staunchness under a strain so long and so terrible.
We have been brought up to admire and praise the thin Red Line which so often stayed the foe. Never was the Red Line so thin as the Khaki Line which manned the long front of forty-two miles for which the Fifth Army was responsible on March 21, 1918. Mr. Shaw Sparrow discusses the reason for the thinness of our line herea thinness known to Ludendorffand makes some valuable and interesting observations.
The people of Great Britain, not to say those of all the Allies, owe the officers and men of the Fifth Army a debt of gratitude which neither words nor deeds can sufficiently repay.
Unfortunately, owing to a variety of causes, to some of which Mr. Shaw Sparrow refers, my countrymen, with few exceptions (confined principally to those bereaved ones who lost their dearest and best), have not shown an appreciation of the splendid deeds of these men.
This book throws some clear and true light on what they were called upon to do, and how they did it, and it is my sincere hope that my countrymen will realize from reading its pages the splendour and the achievement of the soldiers of the Fifth Army.
Mr. Shaw Sparrow has written a clear and powerful narrative. His book gives proof of much research, and he is in possession of valuable information which, I believe, will be mainly new to the general public. From the point of view of history, he writes clearly and lucidly of the broad outlines of the story, and of the several absorbing questions of military policy and strategy which centre round this tremendous battle. But he does not confine himself to the mere recital of the main events and their causes. He adds drama and reality to the tale by many personal anecdotes which vivify the story and give it life, enabling the reader to judge what manner of men these were who were called on to face the storm. The one would not be complete without the other.
Plans, organization of preparation, and the orders of the higher Commanders and Staffs of all forces engaged in a great battle, have undoubtedly an enormous influence, often a decisive one; but in this world we can never escape, least of all in a battle, from the human element. It is these touches which Mr. Shaw Sparrow has introduced into his book which make his whole picture so real and gives it such value. Whatever the plans may be, and whatever the preparations and orders, it is inevitable that the conduct of the officers and men actually engaged in a great struggle should be of the utmost importance. It was so in this case, and to a greater degree than is usual, for as a mere military problem on paper, the battle was prodigious. The troops of the Fifth Army were exposed in such scanty numbers to an attack so well organized and so formidable that, without exaggeration it can be said, they seemed to have no chance whatever of saving the situation.
Yet they did save it, and that they succeeded is due entirely to the truly wonderful and magnificent manner in which they fought and fought on. Courage to face terrific dangers for a few hours would not have sufficed. Their claim to honour rests on a much greater foundation than this, since they supported fatigue and exhaustion through days and nights, and yet maintained throughout their courage and their will to act.
We wonder how they did it. I can only surmise that it came from the great and gallant spirit that animated the Fifth Army, super-imposed on the virtues of honour and self-sacrifice which are the heritage of all our race.
Mr. Shaw Sparrow enables us in his pages to see glimpses of the magnificent human element on which depended in the last resort the safety of the Cause. It was this element that imposed strategical failure on Ludendorff. It maintained intact an ever thinning line, a line that perished, yet remained cheerful; kept it intact in front of the German masses which strove to surge forward and to submerge rapidly all the country beyond. These masses hoped to take Amiens and Abbeville, in order to pin us against the sea; they wished to take Paris also, and (perhaps the most potent influence of all) they yearned to end the war, in a victorious peace.
Let me say, too, that the Commander-in-Chief has added a footnote to his republished account of the battle, in which the fine temper of the Fifth Army is summed up truly and vividly:
![Walter Shaw Sparrow The Fifth Army In March 1918 [Illustrated Edition]](https://litark.com/uploads/posts/book/291199/walter-shaw-sparrow-the-fifth-army-in-march-1918.jpg)
![Walter Shaw Sparrow - The Fifth Army In March 1918 [Illustrated Edition]](/uploads/posts/book/291199/thumbs/walter-shaw-sparrow-the-fifth-army-in-march-1918.jpg)
