On the Battle of Gheluvelt

From The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopedia

On the Battle of Gheluvelt is a letter written by Arthur Conan Doyle published in The Daily Chronicle on 22 july 1915.


On the Battle of Gheluvelt

The Daily Chronicle (22 july 1915, p. 6)

SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE

ON THE BATTLE OF GHELUVELT.

To the Editor Daily Chronicle.

Sir, — May I be allowed to make a few corrections in the account of the above battle which has been circulated by the Worcestershire county authorities? It is so near truth that it is a pity not to try to make it absolutely so. I think the emendations here suggested will be found to be correct.

The brunt of the attack in the centre fell, as stated, upon the 1st Queen's (Surrey) and the 2nd Welsh, in the neighbourhood of the village. On their immediate right was the 7th Division, the flank regiment of which, the 2nd Royal Scots Fusiliers (not "Royal Scots" as stated) occupied an awkward salient, which was broken by the German advance. The regiment which had fought splendidly for ten days and was reduced to 200 men was practically annihilated, and the 7th Division was exposed upon the flank, and fell back. The Welsh and Surreys made, as described, a magnificent resistance, but were finally driven from the village, when they had been reduced to a mere handful. Ninety Welshmen and sixty Surrey's were all who mustered that evening. This left a great gap in the centre of the line through which the Germans advanced. The situation was made more serious by the simultaneous injury which a single shell caused to General Lomax, of the 1st, and General Munro, of the 2nd Division (not "of the '7th,'" as stated). When the 2nd Worcesters were ordered to advance it was with the design of filling the gap between the village on the right and the trenches of the 1st South Wales Borderers on the left. This they most gallantly did, as described. They did not take the village, nor was it ever at any time regained by the British, but they captured the house nearest to their own trench and so made a bastion for their defence. After the action the British line was roughly restored on both sides, and the village faced by a semicircle of trenches. There are many smaller points, but I think that these larger ones represent the essential facts.

ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE.
Crowborough, July 20, 1915.