146 AWARDED FOR VALOUR
lethality total drops first to a level equal to that of the previous year, and
then in the next quarter to less than half of the previous year. If anything,
the New Army learned very quickly how dangerous the battlefield was and
if these figures are any indication of their attitude, soon became less likely
to risk life in the name of glory. Future Prime Minister Harold Macmillan
observed that the physical reality of the modern battlefield made the heroism
of the past obsolete:
Perhaps the most extraordinary thing about the modern battlefield is the
desolation and emptiness of it all. Nothing is to be seen of the war or
soldiers – only the split and shattered treesThe glamour of red coats –
the martial tunes of flag and drum – aides-de-camp scurrying hither and
thither on splendid chargers – lances glittering and swords flashing – how
different the old wars must have been!^57
The new levies were, in fact, far from being as belligerent as the ‘war-
winning’ percentages suggest. Private Arthur Surfleet kept a diary of his
experience of the Somme, contrary to Army regulations. His regiment, the
East Yorkshires, took part in only two attacks, but the experience traumatized
the entire unit. In mid-October the regiment marched back up to the trenches
after a rest period in the rear. He described how they swung along the
roads singing ‘It’s a Long Way to Tipperary’ and ‘There’s a Long, Long Trail
a-Winding’until they entered the environs of the Somme. Then:
The whole lot of us had that characteristic depression which these parts
induce. I could not make out exactly where we were, but past, miserable
experiences in that sector told us we were too near to the enemy to be
pleasant and just about opposite that ominous blackness near Serre.^58
The training exercises that followed did nothing to inspire confidence.
Surfleet and his messmates did not want to be there. ‘I know all the lads
here will go wherever they are told in spite of the fear we cannot help, but
I don’t know anyone who would not welcome with open arms news of our
departure to some less devastated and dangerous part.’^59
Surfleet was not alone in dreading combat. According to Denis Winter’s
survey of the unpublished memoirs of Great War soldiers held by the
Imperial War Museum, ten expressed the same fatalism and ‘character-
istic depression’ for every one who embraced the war as a great game or
marvelous experience.^60 Nor did a whiff of cordite cure the malaise; two
weeks into the battle:
lily
(lily)
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