by Frank James Fox
London: Philip Allan & Co., 1920 / Charleston: Arcadia, Beaumont Fox, 2017. Pp. xiv, 235.
Illus., maps, tables. $19.00 paper. ISBN:0992890136
At Haig’s Headquarters.
A reissue, with additional material, of a book originally published in 1920, with the author given only as “G.S.O,” the initials standing for General Staff Officer, this is a contemporary account about the Great War. The author, Sir Frank Fox, a 42-year-old amputee with a crippled left arm and profound deafness, who had earned an OBE (Military) and a Mention in Dispatches for his service in Quartermaster General’s Directorate at General Headquarters of the B.E.F., the focus of this book. Combat is mentioned in only a general way and Haig barely at all but with reverence. Instead, Fox is concerned with the work of G.H.Q., its environment, logistical decisions and support of the Allies, horse rations, German thinking and decisions, and thoughts upon other aspects of the conduct of the war. It is a book for those versed in the war, not the neophyte.
Montreuil-sur-Mer is a small French town, about eighty miles from the north-south Atlantic coast of France. The only maps in the book-and the only ones needed-locate the town in far western France. A peaceful place, it was chosen as the BEF HQ partially because it is not near anything, giving it a constructive isolation from the world. This allowed the staff to concentrate wholly on their work, and as he stressed, frequently there were no other activities possible.
Written in early twentieth-century English, reading the text can be a bit of a slog which at times doesn’t even sound like the Great War, yet there are passages that give new insight to the support of the troops. For an Englishman, Fox makes the astounding statement, .” . . the actual final blow to the Germans’ hopes was delivered when the United States of America declared war.” Elsewhere in that chapter, Fox is quite complimentary about American troops.
The additional material consists of “Certain statistics appertaining to the period 8th August 1914 to 1st March 1919,” originally published by GHQ of the BEF in France.
I recommend reading G. H. Q for background information about the war effort that is generally not discussed elsewhere but with patience for its wordiness. The details discussed here are useful and supporting data to a better understanding of the conduct of the Great War.
Our Reviewer: Ron Drees is an archivist, retired from processing the collection of Dr. Michael DeBakey, the world-famous cardiologist at the Baylor College of Medicine. His interest in history dates back to junior high school with an emphasis on American military history, particularly the Civil and World Wars. He has written several reviews for Michael Hanlon's blog "Roads to the Great War", about the catastrophe that still shapes the world. His favorite WWI book is Margaret MacMillan’s Paris, 1919 which tells how the tragedy was compounded by setting the stage for even greater misery. He lives in Houston with his wife of 42 years, Lin, a retired librarian, and their Sheltie, Hannah. He had a grandfather who was a teamster on the German side in WWI, his first boss had been a Marine at Iwo Jima, virtually the only survivor of his company, and his brother-in-law had been at Inchon. Ron’s previous reviews include Imperial Germany and War, 1871-1918, Beneath the Killing Fields: Exploring the Subterranean Landscapes of the Western Front, Tirpitz and the Imperial German Navy, Between Mutiny and Obedience: The Case of the French Fifth Infantry Division during World War, The Kaiser’s U-Boat Assault on America, This Time Next Year We'll Be Laughing, 1918: Winning the War, Losing the War, After the Ruins: Restoring the Countryside of Northern France After the Great War, A Mad Catastrophe, Verdun: The Lost History of the Most Important Battle of World War I, July, 1914: Countdown to War, Dreadnought, Toward the Flame, A Memoir of World War I and The Trigger: Hunting the Assassin Who Brought the World to War.
---///---
Note: G. H. Q. is also available in e-editions; the 1920 hard back can sometimes be found in used book outlets.
StrategyPage reviews are published in cooperation with The New York Military Affairs Symposium
www.nymas.org