Book Preface

PREFACE

My purpose for writing this book was to honor my grandfather by telling his story. In addition I wanted to impart to the reader the experiences, as well as the conditions of war, and what it was like trying to survive each day.

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The story is based on the World War 1 journal written by Captain Frederick G. Coxen, who served in the Royal Field Artillery (RFA) and the Royal Air Force (RAF) from 1905 to 1919.

On August 5, 1914, he was called into active duty when the British Parliament passed the General Mobilization Decree. He reported for duty at Newcastle upon the Tyne located in northern England, where he was assigned to the newly created 40th Battery of the 43^rd Brigade. By August 16 the brigade had been sent over to France as part of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF).

“World War 1 – An Unkept Promise” is a historical account of the following: the first battle of Mons, the first battle of Marne, the first Battle of The Aisne, the first and second battles of Ypres, and the battle of Neuve Chapelle. Each battle is represented as a chapter in the book and begins with a brief overview of the battle, intermingled with dramatic journal entries. This format helps establish a foundation for understanding the relationship between the journal entries and the battles they describe. Journal excerpts and other supportive documents are italicized and indented to assist with identification and clarity.

NOTE: All journal entries are quoted as they were written; some expressions, used one-hundred years ago, were in common usage, which would be deemed offensive in today’s society.

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The Story

Next Thursday, September 5th I'll be telling the story behind World War 1 - An Unkept Promise to the London branch of the Western Front Association. I'm trying to prepare myself since I've never talked in front of a large audience before.

I once took a public speaking class and they said to use very limited notes and speak from your heart and it will flow better. I hope it is true. My problem is I have Parkinson's and my mind is not the fastest processor in the world. It has also affected my voice so I'm concerned that I'll project so that the audience can hear and understand me.

Many of the selected journal entries will be read by a volunteer so that will help.

Next week will be very interesting and meaningful in so many ways. I'll keep everyone informed of how the events unfold.

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RFA Signalers

My grandfather, Captain Fred G. Coxen served as a Signaller in the 40th Battery, 43rd Brigade RFA during the early battles of the war. For those who are not familiar with this hazardous occupation, often they were called suicide squads. They were responsible for maintaining open communications between forward observation posts, trenches, and artillery batteries.

Early in the war field telephones were used, which were connected by wire and often wire between phones would be cut during a bombardment. Those Signallers on repair duty would be responsible for repairing the broken line by following the wire by crawling along the ground until they found and repaired the break.

Most of the time they traveled in pairs while shells were bursting all around them and the enemy used them for target practice.

Being a signaller was an important job for without open communication the guns were not allowed to fire. If it was too dangerous, they would resort to using semaphore flags to pass information, which was also quite dangerous if you can visualize an enemy sniper peering through a rifle scope at a person standing in the open swinging around a flag on a long pole.

If wires were cut during the night, they would following the line until they found the break. One signaller would tie a white rag to one end of the wire while they searched for the other end. When it was found, they would crawl back to the white rag and splice the two wires together. They would have to make sure that their repair opened the line by hooking their field telephone instrument to the line and using the buzzer or Morse Code key they would key in "OK" and wait for the return "OK". If it wasn't returned, it meant that there was a second break to be found and repaired.

Lights could not be used for obvious reasons so in the ink of night they would have to do the repairs by feel. During heavy shelling it was common for lines to be broken several times thus making it an unhealthy endeavor.

On one occasion my grandfather and his chum George were repairing a wire near a wooden fence post and a bullet pasted between their noses and logged into the post. Later my grandfather returned to the spot and dug out the bullet for a souvenir.

Most people think that being in the trenches would be the more hazardous than being in the artillery, and for the most part it was, especially when men would have to climb out of the trenches and run across "no man's land" while being shot at and shelled. However, the field artillery batteries were positioned not far behind the trenches to support them during an attack or when they were being attacked. For that reason, German artillery units would try and knock out the Allied artillery and of course the reverse was also true.

Read more about these courageous men in the "World War 1 - An Unkept Promise" now available on Kindle.

 

Big Event Coming Up

Looking forward to telling my grandfather's story to those attending the London branch of the Western Front Association.

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Imperial War Museum

The date and time has been set to hand over my grandfather's military documents to the IWM in London. This will be the final chapter in my book - taking my grandfather back to his home country.

I am to meet with the document curator at 11:00 am on Friday, September 6th. It will be the morning after I give my speech to the London branch of the Western Front Association so between these two events I'll be a basket-case.

On Sept 6th, 1914 my grandfather recorded the following:

September 6^th

We were advancing, occupied a position east of [the town] of VOINSLES [so that we could] cover advance of [the] 3rd and 5th Cavalry Brigades. [We] moved forward and occupied [ the] line [between] Le PLESSIS, and ANDNOY. 

I dismounted behind the house and went inside, there I first saw house sacked by the Germans, [and] everything was destroyed. Outside I saw one of the Coldstream guards, killed by shrapnel, poor chap.

I thought then, I wondered if this means the breaking of a woman’s heart, or had he little children. It was my first close contact with a dead man, and it set me thinking. My thoughts were all with my dear ones at home. I shall always remember that hour, my real first initiation into the horrors of war. I cannot say I was afraid, it all seemed so strange, but we were advancing that was our cry we’ve got’em on the run, and we are going to have our own back. – bivouacked south of VOUDNOY.[i]

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[i] Coxen, Fred G.

I Corps - Skirmish At Landrecies

I CORPS - SKIRMISH AT LANDRECIES

August 25^th, 1914

I Corps’s retirement route consisted of a meandering road, which crossed the River Sambre several times. It was jammed with a mass of humanity trying to escape the advancing Germans, including French soldiers, mixed in with vast quantities of refugees.

The British troops did their best to constrict their movement on the single lane road, while dealing with the unrelenting August heat. At best, the Corps could only maintain a two mile an hour pace, eliminating any chance of meeting up with II Corps at Le Cateau.

By evening, the fatigued troops reached their billet area outside Landrecies, while General Haig established his headquarters in the town.

The VI Brigade billeted in Maroilles, a town just a few miles away.  

 Refugees arriving in Landrecies reported seeing advance portions of the German III and IV Corps heading towards both Landrecies and Maroilles.

 With advanced warning, the British created defensive positions around both towns.

When the Germans secretly approached the British line at Landrecies, they received a verbal challenge. By replying in French, the Germans were able to slyly proceed close to the British lines before the British could respond. The two armies clashed, and at times there was savage hand-to-hand fighting. Finally the Germans retreated to the southern edge of the Mormal Forest.[i]

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World War 1 - An Unkept Promise  - available on 

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THE HISTORIAN HAS WRITTEN

Historian  Michael Paris, Emeritus Professor of Modern History has written the foreword for my book!!

All wars are terrible, but the Great War seems particularly so.  In 1914 almost a whole generation of very young men were thrown into a conflict for which they were ill-prepared.  Romantic tales of daring cavalry charges and valorous knightly combats on the field of battle were scant preparation for a war where death was on an industrial scale and came from the unseen sniper, the howitzer miles away, or a creeping cloud of poison gas.  Yet men endured in the squalor of the trenches, and some survived; survived to come home to the ‘Land fit for Heroes’ of the politicians promised.  But those that came home came with the unending memories of what they had seen and suffered.  Many could not even tell their closest loved ones of what they had endured and took their memories to the grave. Now their lived memory of the Great War is no more, the last veterans have passed on and we are left with only the flimsy evidence of their passing.  That is why now, almost a hundred years after the event it is so pleasing to have found an unpublished account of one man’s experience of that most terrible war.

Frederick Coxen was a professional soldier, enlisting in 1905 and serving until 1911 in the Royal Field Artillery.  But being in the Army Reserves he was recalled in 1914, and went on to serve until his final discharge in 1920. His war service makes for interesting reading – serving through the early battles of Mons, First Ypres and Neuve Chapelle, he saw a war of movement stagnate into a statis as trenches and barbed wire brought all movement to an end. Commissioned in the field, Coxen also served in home defence with an anti-aircraft battery, and later back in France, as one of the defenders of Paris.  At war’s end he was attached to the Royal Air Force, and ended his military career as a captain in February 1920. To have survived the war might well be considered lucky, but that sort of luck comes at a price, and for Fred it was to see the horrors of war close-up, his friends killed and injured and all the suffering that battle brings.  Fred lived a long and full life but as the memoir he wrote in …… demonstrates, his Great War experience

never left him.  Like so many veterans of 1914 -1918 war was a constant presence. 

These valuable memories might never have seen the light of day had it not been for Fred’s grandson and name sake, Frederick L. Coxen, it is through his tenacity and commitment that his grandfather speaks to us today. 

Michael Paris

Emeritus Professor of Modern History

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