The Last of the Ebb: The Battle of the Aisne, 1918

by Sidney Rogerson, Malcolm Brown (Introduction)

In 1918, the Germans launched the Spring Offensive. Aware that American troops would soon be arriving in Europe, the Germans saw this as their last chance to win the war. If they could overcome the Allied armies and reach Paris, victory might be possible. The German offensive was initially a great success. Striking at the Allied line’s strongest point, the Chemin des Dames, they burst their way through and made quick progress towards Marne. However, the advance eventually stalled. With supply shortages and lack of reserves, this was to be the "last ebb" of the German war effort. Sidney Rogerson, a young officer in the West Yorkshire Regiment, describes the experiences of his battalion from the Aisne through to the Marne. Fighting under French command, the West Yorkshires were inadequately supported by artillery and practically without help from the air. The four tired divisions were forced to fight and run twenty-seven miles across wooded downlands and three rivers surviving on only emergency rations. In The Last of the Ebb, the author vividly conveys the great bravery and extraordinary resilience of the West Yorkshires, who were able to face up to the terrible ordeal of such a battle without loss of morale. Remarkably for a book of this period, an account by Major-General A. D. von Unruh, which gives the German perspective of the offensive, has been included.

Genres: Nonfiction, Military Fiction, History, War, World War I

147 pages, Hardcover

First published August 15, 1937

About the author

Sidney Rogerson (1894 - 1968) was enrolled at the University of Cambridge when World War I broke out. He departed to join the West Yorkshire regiment. After the war he went into public relations for British Industries and advised the War Office at the request of Winston Churchill

Reviews

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of my favorite reads is the original source, someone who was there and reports back first hand. This book is written by a young staff officer (who also wrote a book on his time on the Somme). This is almost the penultimate attack by the Germans before they begin the long retreat to defeat in November. But in May 1918, the British are about to suffer a terrible defeat first. The IXth British Corp, 8th, 21st, 25th and 50th Divisions, mauled by earlier German attacks, are sent to the quiet Champagne area to rest and refit. The Germans are going to attack here shortly, which will carry them to the Chateau Thierry region and the Marne. The Brits, under French command, are placed in the 1.5 mile ground between the Aisne River and the German lines. A tactical error plain to even a brand-new lieutenant. But the sector had been quiet and the French general was not going to give the Brits a chance to move to more favorable position. A beautiful area in springtime, the attack begins:

Not a gun was fired by the enemy, and his quietness dispelled any last lingering hopes we might have cherished. How that evening dragged! The minutes crept slowly towards zero hour. I had gone into the mess to inquire from Johns, our imperturbable mess corporal, whether he was all packed-up ready to move if necessary. I took a whisky-and-soda and was standing talking to him when suddenly whizz-plop! whizz-plop! Two German gas shells burst close at hand, punctual heralds of the storm. Within a second a thousand guns roared out their iron hurricane. The night was rent with sheets of flame. The earth shuddered under the avalanche of missiles, leapt skywards in dust and tumult.

Ever above the din screamed the fierce crescendo of approaching shells, ear-splitting crashes as they burst: all the time the dull thud, thud, thud of detonations--drumfire . . . Inferno raged and whirled round the Bois des Buttes. The dug-outs rocked, filled with the acrid fumes of cordite, the sickly-sweet tang of gas. Timbers started. Earth showered from the roof. Men rushed for shelter, seizing kits, weapons, gas-masks, message-pads as they dived to safety. It was a descent into hell. Crowded with jostling, sweating humanity, the deep dug-outs reeked, and to make matters worse, we had no sooner got below than gas began to filter down. Gas-masks were hurriedly donned and anti-gas precautions taken-the entrances closed by saturated blankets, braziers lighted on the stairs. If gas could not enter, neither could air-though the fact was that in small quantities both did. Mercifully that night was short in time however long it seemed, otherwise we could not have endured, crammed as we were into stinking, overcrowded holes, forty feet below ground, all the entrances sealed up and charcoal braziers burning, heaving to get a breath of oxygen through the gas-mask with its clip on nostrils and its gag between teeth. At first my heart thumped and my head swam distressingly, but I found if kept still I could just bear it.

Medical care varied greatly. Here is his account of a French medical station and its subsequent conversion to a British Field hospital:

The removal of some of Seeley’s Canadian cavalrymen from a schoolroom on the Somme which was being used as a French casualty station in March, had given me a good idea of the great gulf fixed between French and British methods of treating casualties, and a dressing-station we took over near Romery provided me with a reminder that made me thank Heaven I was fighting under British command. It also helped me to understand why the mortality among the French was so high. It was a long, wooden hut, black and gloomy, its windows cobwebbed, fly-bespattered and tight shut, its dry mud floor ankle-deep in blood-soaked, foetid straw, on which the wounded men were lying. One dresser, white-faced and harassed, a mere lad, who had still to complete his medical studies at the Sorbonne, was struggling mightily to attend them all at the same time, leaving one as another cried out; without the requisite knowledge, without experience, instruments, antiseptics or disinfectants, without even adequate food or drink for aching bellies or mouths parched by fever. Quite by chance I saw the same but a few hours afterwards. The straw had disappeared, the stamped floor shone with brushing, the sharp smell of antiseptics and the opened windows had ousted the rank decaying odour; and those sufferers who had not been evacuated were lying on stretchers covered with a blanket, two orderlies under the direction of an M.O. washing and dressing their Wounds. The contrast was so striking that it might have been designed to illustrate the progress of medical hygiene from 1870 to the present day!

Dublin, the battle cat:

Among the many survivors who entrained that day was one I was particularly, though admittedly sentimentally, glad to see. As the skeleton remains of the luckless, gallant 5th Battery drove into the station yard, Mickey O’Sullivan, their veterinary officer, brought with him old “Dublin.” “Dublin” was a character. He was a cat, large, black, and plebeian, and what he did not know about trench warfare was not worth knowing. Could he not tell which way a shell was coming, and to watch him was to have a shrewd idea of whether it was likely to burst close or not. If he did not move there was no need to worry. “Dublin” went right through the war, landing in France with the 8th Division on November 5, 1914, and leaving after the Armistice. He returned to die of old age many years afterwards in his native Ireland.

This book stands out because the author tracked down the German Staff Officer who planned the Aisne offensive and MG Von Unruh’s account of the German side is excellent. The Germans wanted to finish off the French and British before the Americans could arrive in force. Here is an account of an American supply depot captured by the Germans in this attack. The Germans had good cause to worry:

Our corps headquarters spent the night at Dravegny with the 78th Reserve Division, and there received the news of the great capture of stores at Fére-en-Tardenois, and particularly of an American dump of almost fantastic proportions. This gave us our first impression of the American Army. We realised with what prodigious resources of material the US. troops were supported. We were destined not long afterwards to make the acquaintance of fresh American troops in action west of Chateau Thierry and in the Bois de Belleau. There I was to see young regiments coming on in masses, exactly the same as earlier in the war I had seen the Russians advance. The difference was that unlike the Russians, the Americans were supported by a volume of fire we could never have concentrated owing to our diminished resources in ammunition.

That gigantic American dump was a disappointment. There was little we could do with the enormous quantity of valuable stores it contained. We certainly re-equipped our whole forces in the area with wagons, wagon-parts, horseshoes, harness, tools, and other necessaries, but we had ruefully to abandon the huge supply of ammunition with which we might have been able to win a large-scale battle. We could not carry it away because we had not the transport. The question of supply had indeed become acute. We had no mechanised columns, and our railhead was far away in rear.

3 Stars for this short, firsthand look at the 1918 battle of the Aisne. An excellent map of the battlefield also much appreciated.

[Gregg · Rating 4 out of 5]

To date the best book I have read on the First World War. It is true I prefer first person accounts and that is what you will find in, The Last of the Ebb: The Battle of the Aisne, 1918. This title is near one of the best of the genre, With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa, a classic personal account of the Second World War in the Pacific.

In The Last of the Ebb, you will follow the author as his depleted division is sent to a quiet section of the front for rest and rehabilitation only to find themselves, eventually, with 24 hours notice of a pending German attack. An overwhelming attack to be sure. Highly recommended.

[Harry · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book.
The story was told from a personal perspective, and the clear writing style is easy to follow.
The transition from the unsullied nature of the front line at the Chemin Des Dames to the chaos of the powerful phase of the Spring Offensive is told through the eyes of a British officer involved in the battle.
This book does cover the 1918 Aisne battle, and it's the only firsthand account of this battle that I've come across in my WWI reading.
The final chapter, written by the German General A.D. von Unruh was an unexpected gift, and offered insight into the thinking of the German High Command at that late point in the war.
This book very much does capture the "ebb and flow" of war, where individuals are subject to forces well beyond the control of not just individuals, but even nations and armies.

[Robert · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good first person account of the battle from the British point of view with a bonus chapter giving the German perspective from the German Corps level. Recommended for anyone interested in WWI especially that last year of 1918 but don't by any means limit yourself to just this book. My copy is the Greenhill reprint of the 1931 original edition and at least in this format it's a quick easy read.

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rogerson's works are good, easy, reads. As far as primary sources go, they are a little light on useful quotations. Rogerson comes off as a bit Junger circa Copse 125 and a bit Robert Graves. Worth the read, but it isn't going to help you in many papers.

[Gareth Owens · Rating 3 out of 5]

Poignant tale by someone who was there. Old-fashioned writin g style, but a fascinating first-hand account.

[Wanda]

23 SEP 2014 -- recommended by Aussie Rick. Many thanks!

[Lukas · Rating 4 out of 5]

A point of view from a high(er) ranking officer. Certainly was in harms way but not the front line, grenade tossing poilu. Very well written book - reads easy and quickly.