Boyd - Salute of Guns

M ost historians would agree that the First World War was an artillery war, at least on land: 58 per cent of British casualties were produced by artillery or mortar shells, compared to 38 per cent caused by rifle or machine-gun fire. Artillery was the decisive weapon, playing the major role initially in creating the stalemate on the Western Front and finally in breaking that deadlock and bringing victory. Yet the literary history of the war is dominated by the infantry and because literary sources dominate the public memory of the war a very significant element is over-looked. The re-publication of Donald Boyds Salute of Guns is a welcome opportunity to correct the neglect of the gunners war.

In 1931 Robert Graves called Salute of Guns the best record of Western Front fighting and there is no doubt about its literary merit. Boyd was after all a professional journalist working in the newsroom of the Manchester Guardian alongside Neville Cardus, Howard Spring and other well-known writers. It would be hard to find more compelling descriptions of what it felt like to endure gas or shell bombardments than those in They confirm the chronology and geography of Salute of Guns and, most importantly, the narrative of events. Although Boyd disguises the names of his fellow gunners, they can often be identified without much difficulty. For example, Major Nankivell seems to be Major H. M. Nornabell, Captain H. Jacoby became Captain Michaels and Captain Pilditch appeared as Captain Beecham.

Donald Boyd was born in Chapel Allerton, Yorkshire, on 11 April 1895. portrays the frustration experienced by new recruits in 1914, training with obsolete equipment (the 5-inch BL howitzer) and with little prospect of seeing early action. In Boyds case, he had to master horsemanship as well as gunnery. It is not surprising that life as a gunner recruit soon bored him and by the end of the year he had applied for a commission which was gazetted on 18 January. After training in Edinburgh and Sheerness he was posted to France in May 1915.

follow Boyds career once he arrived in France and joined XVIII Brigade RFA of the Lahore Division. Two Indian Divisions had been sent to France in 1914 and they had been heavily involved in the spring battles of 1915; replacements were required and wartime commissioned officers had to be accepted. For both the long-serving Regulars of the Indian Armys artillery and their eager volunteers this was a painful culture shock. Boyds experience in the Festubert sector has many parallels with Robert Graves account of life in the 2nd Battalion Royal Welch Fusiliers nearby at Laventie during the same period. The peacetime custom of taking no notice of newly-joined officers is still more or less kept up. It is relevant that 2nd RWF had returned from India not long before the outbreak of war.

In December 1915 the Indian troops were withdrawn from France but they left their artillery behind. The Lahore Divisions artillery was attached to the newly raised 3rd Canadian Division and moved north to the Mont des Cats, on the southern side of the Ypres Salient but as more artillery, shells and gunners became available, the BEFs artillery was expanded and reorganized. Boyds battery, 93 RFA, was divided into two and he found himself serving with a new commander in the new battery. Captain Conrad is the most vividly drawn character in the book and the chapters in which he appears are a very instructive study in leadership. Although a pre-war regular officer with the same Indian Army background as Boyds tormentors he was young enough to relate to his wartime subalterns. While rigorously maintaining the highest professional standards he was capable of joining, or indeed initiating, their horseplay in the evenings in the Battery Mess. He was just as sceptical about the higher command as his young officers and far more effective in evading their bureaucratic prescriptions.

The figure of Conrad was based on Captain Raymond Cotter who was twenty-six when he joined the Battery and therefore ten or fifteen years younger than a peacetime battery commander and only five years older than Boyd. Cotter had been commissioned from Woolwich in 1909 and had served in India until war broke out. As Boyd describes, his health broke down in late 1916. Cotter returned to England and was trained as an Ordnance specialist. However his health recovered sufficiently by 1918 for him to be posted abroad again, to another Territorial unit, 240 Brigade RFA of 48th Division in Italy, where he was awarded a Military Cross. After the war he remained in the Army and served in the Ordnance Branch in India as a major. It is impossible to tell how accurate Boyds portrayal of Cotter/Conrad is but it carries conviction and suggests the pre-war British officer corps was a less stereotyped organization than it sometimes appears. In addition, it is worth noting that one of the great strengths of Salute of Guns is the description of personal relationships within a small group such as a battery officers mess and their impact on individual and sub-unit morale and efficiency. Shortly after Cotter was invalided back to England, Boyd suffered his first nervous breakdown. One suspects that he would have lasted longer if Cotter had still been in command and that Cotter would have found ways of easing the strain on his junior officers.

Boyd brings home the stress of an artillery subalterns routine during the Battle of the Somme. His infantry counterpart faced the more acute risks of an attack over the top but if he survived would be rested after a few days. The gunner could expect to be rotated between duty as a forward observer in the front line, sharing the infantrys risks, or serving on the gun lines, exposed to German counter-battery fire. Rest would mean a few days at the horse lines but even then more shells had to be brought up to the gun lines every night. These were the strains that brought Donald Boyd to the point of collapse, though the breakdown did not occur until December 1916 when the division had left the Somme and was holding a supposedly quiet sector in the southern part of the Ypres Salient.

The Confidential Report on Case of 2/Lt. BOYD of 4 December 1916 which survives with Boyds records, substantiates the account in and is worth quoting in full.

This officer was perfectly fit and well up to 17th September 1916, on which date he was acting as FOO for 24 hours in a very exposed position N. of HIGH WOOD. Enemy fire was very heavy, and several shells burst close to him, one in fact within about 6 feet. On relief he was so obviously affected that his Battery Commander, Captain V. NICKALLS, ordered him to report sick, which he did. I was then prepared to send him to Field Ambulance, but as he thought he was improving I did not do so.

Since then he has carried out all his duties, but obviously with increasing difficulty. He is very easily tired physically and does not seem able to concentrate his attention long on any point. His reflexes are normal. He is troubled by a certain amount (not very marked) of Insomnia, and by terrifying dreams, usually dealing with fighting, which occasionally lead to his waking with a scream.

In my opinion he is suffering from a mild degree of TRAUMATIC NEURASTHENIA dating definitely from a shell burst which half buried him (17/9/16). The difference in him before and after that date was very marked to all who knew him. He has since never shirked his duties, though his battery commander has been careful to spare him as much as possible. This is, therefore, certainly not a case of an officer seeking to cover neglect or cowardice by a claim to be suffering from shell shock.

The diagnosis was changed to anaemia and by the end of the year Boyd had been sent back home on sick leave. His gradual recovery is monitored in the medical reports where he is marked Fit for light duties, Fit for Home Service and finally, in July 1917, Fit for General Service. A month later Boyd was back in France with 47th Division and now posted to B Battery, 235th Brigade RFA.