RIDDLE OF THE PLANS
But any thoughts of invading Germany via the Frisian
Islands were soon abandoned. In 1915 Childers was sent
as an intelligence officer aboard the seaplane carrier
HMS Ben-My-Chree to the eastern Mediterranean and
in the spring of that year the decision was taken to
launch instead the ill-fated Dardanelles campaign which
itself led to the disastrous landings at Gallipolli.
By January 1916 the Allied armies had evacuated
Gallipolli having suffered 56,707 dead and 123,598
wounded in the nine-month campaign.
So it was back to the stalemate of the Western Front
and on 1 July 1916 the infamous first day of the Battle of
the Somme was fought, in which the British Army
suffered 19,240 killed before breakfast.
Could Childers’ plan to invade via the Frisian Islands
Above: Maldwin
Drummond at
his desk.
Above right: The
yacht Asgard
which Erskine
Childers used to
bring guns into
Irelandhave prevented this? Maldwin Drummond, OBE, thinks
it might have helped:
‘The republication of my book is keyed to Churchill’s
remark about the British Army “forever chewing barbed
wire”, referring to the stalemate in the trenches.
‘I believe that Churchill and Fisher’s plans to seize
Borkum would have diverted and split the German
efforts and could have well succeeded and shortened the
war.’
But, unfortunately for the poor bloody infantry who
marched towards the German machine-gun lines in wave
after wave, The Riddle of the Sands, although it was
read by most of the commanders of the Great War,
remained the thing which frustrated its author
the most – a work of fiction.Maldwin Drummond is an author, yachtsman, soldier and trustee of the
Manor of Cadland in the New Forest. He is also a director of Southampton
Harbour Board and was heavily involved in the creation of the Sail Training
Association.
He has also been a leading light in the Maritime Trust, the Warrior
Preservation Trust and is a younger brother of Trinity House.
He lives with his wife Gilly on the Cadland Estate and is a member of the
Royal Yacht Squadron and the Royal Cruising Club.
In the 1960s Maldwin went to look at Erskine Childers’ yacht Asgard,
which was up for sale at a boatyard in Anglesey. ‘As it turned out she was a
little too large for us, but while we were there we were told she had shifted
on the ways and as she did so a rifle fell out of the lining!’MALDWIN DRUMMOND
BOB AYLOTTCB ARCHIVE