1915: The Death Of Innocence

by Lyn Macdonald

By the end of 1914, the battered British forces were bogged down, yet hopeful that promised reinforcements and spring weather would soon lead to a victorious breakthrough. A year later, after appalling losses at Aubers Ridge, Loos, Neuve Chapelle, Ypres and faraway Gallipoli, fighting seemed set to go on for ever. Drawing on extensive interviews, letters and diaries, this book brilliantly evokes the soldiers' dogged heroism, sardonic humour and terrible loss of innocence through 'a year of cobbling together, of frustration, of indecision'. Over two decades' research puts Lyn Macdonald among the greatest popular chroniclers of the First World War. Here, from the poignant memories of participants, she has once again created an unforgettable slice of military history.

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

640 pages, Paperback

First published October 28, 1993

About the author

Over the course of her career Lyn Macdonald established a popular reputation as an author and historian of the First World War. Her books are They Called It Passchendaele, an account of the Passchendaele campaign in 1917; The Roses of No Man's Land,, a chronicle of the war from the neglected viewpoint of the casualties and the medical teams who struggled to save them; ,Somme, a history of the legendary and horrifying battle that has haunted the minds of succeeding generations; 1914, a vivid account of the first months of the war and winner of the 1987 Yorkshire Post Book of the Year Award; 1914-1918: Voices and Images of the Great War, an illuminating account of the many different aspects of the war; and 1915: The Death of Innocence, a brilliant evocation of the year that saw the terrible losses of Aubers Ridge, Loos, Neuve Chapelle, Ypres and Gallipoli.

Her superb chronicles of popular history were notable for their extensive use of eyewitness and survivor accounts, and she drew on oceans of contemporary letters and diaries as well as capturing the memories of a dwindling supply of veterans. In doing so, she cast a unique light on the experiences of the ordinary ‘Tommy’ in the wider context of the First World War, documenting the innocence of a lost generation and bringing to life the disillusionment, the questioning and the heroism of the men of the British Army. “My intention,” she said, “has been to tune in to the heartbeat of the experience of the people who lived through it.”

Reviews

[Al · Rating 4 out of 5]

MacDonald wrote a very good narrative of a year in the Great War. She covered the action on the Western front, as well as the action at Gallipoli, making the case for “The Death of Innocence.” Her descriptions of the first German gas attacks in 1915 had a significant sense of immediacy and horror. MacDonald achieved this through her extensive use of personal interviews and the use of written first person accounts; she quotes these veterans extensively throughout the narrative. I found her description of the troop train disaster in Great Britain involving the Royal Scots to be especially moving. The 7th Battalion lost 226 dead and 246 injured. What I find significant about the book is her extensive use of personal interviews, especially in light of the fact that the last living veteran of World War I died on 4 FEB 2012. In staff schools, we debate whether this war represented a Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA). This book exposes the conceit that an RMA is only a more efficient way to kill our fellow man. This was an truly exceptional look at World War I thru the eyes of the soldiers.

[Mac McCormick III · Rating 4 out of 5]

As its title suggests, 1915: The Death of Innocence by Lyn MacDonald is a book that is focused on the second calendar year of World War I. It is not however, an overall look at WW1 in 1915, it is more narrowly focused on the British in 1915. It doesn't really go into detail on the French, German, Russian, Italian, or Turkish parts in the war except as allies and opponents. Neither does it go into detail on battles in which the British didn't participate in. What 1915 does do is explore how the attitude towards, outlook on, and opinion of the British on the war changed over the course of the year through heavy use of primary source material. I enjoyed reading 1915; it is a compelling read and hard to put down but at the end I feel it fell somewhat short.

McDonald's take on 1915, as I mentioned above, is not a military history of 1915, it is more a social and oral history of the year. She uses her narrative to weave together excerpts from interviews, letters, diaries, journals, and memoirs to show how the British experience in 1915 changed their views on the war. You can't show that through the experiences of the high command and staff officers, so the vast majority of the excerpts MacDonald uses come from line officers, NCOs, and the common soldier - the Tommy. The excerpts graphically describe conditions in the trenches, behind the lines, and training to go to war. Through the eyes of Captains, Lieutenants, Sergeants, and Tommies, you see what happened during and the results of fighting in the battles of Neuve Chapelle, Ypres, the Dardanelles, and Loos. It's interesting to see how the compared and contrasted between the Regular Army, the Territorial Army, and Kitchener's New Army. As you read the book, you see the changes in the soldiers' outlook through the year; the outlook changes from one of enthusiasm and optimism to resignation and acceptance of the long slog ahead.

My main problem is that the end of the book leaves you hanging. The title includes "The Death of Innocence" but while you see innocence dying throughout the book, there is really only one paragraph of conclusion. I would have liked to have seen a bit of analysis. It would have been nice to tie things up and draw conclusions from the variety of experiences we read about. Regardless, this is a book well worth reading in conjunction with general and military histories of the war. Use those books to understand the war as a whole and the place of the battles in the war and use this book to help understand the experience of the men fighting the war. Had things been tied up better at the end in a conclusions chapter I could have given it five stars but I have no issue giving it four stars. I'm now interested to find out if there are books in a similar vein about the experiences of the other combatant countries' soldiers.

[Joe · Rating 5 out of 5]

An eminently readable review of the Great War in 1915. Macdonald does very good research ... going very deep into the major events of 1915. She covers not only the battles (with excellent maps), but also the preparation and aftermath. I particularly like her style of including quotes from participating individuals about the events she is covering. Not just from the officer corp , but also private soldiers, loved one's at home and civilians in the field.

However, it only covers the British efforts and for the most part only the Western theatre. Gallipoli is coered but only because of the major British involvement.

I would recommend this book and all others that Macdonald has written on the Great War.

[Greg · Rating 4 out of 5]

These are just great, great books. MacDonald does a great job relating the events of the war from the soldiers' perspectives, but without losing the overall situation. The more you know about World War I the better, but you don't have to be an expert to get a lot out of this book.

MacDonald covers the main events and battles primarily with recollections, interviews, and letters from soldiers and officers. She gives just enough background to know what's going on without boring you, and anecdotes never stray too far from the overall narrative.

My only possible complaint would be that because so much of the material is from letters home and from much later recollections of the war, it tends to be a bit rosier than the soldiers no doubt looked at all this death and destruction at the time (they weren't going to tell their wives and parents about all the horrors in their letters home, certainly). As a result, the British Army almost comes across as over-eager and naive. I'm sure if they'd been interviewed on the spot, their stories would have been different. When units are losing 75% of their men in advances made in broad daylight against fortified positions for no discernable objective, you know it wasn't all cheerio and pip pip.

Still, you can't entirely remove the horror of poison gas at Ypres, or officers ordered to make advances that they knew would fail, so you do get an appreciation of just how hard it had to have been for a bunch of volunteers to throw themselves into the breach again and again.

An excellent bit of history writing.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

For most Brits the First World War is Mons, First Ypres, Gallipoli, the Somme, and Passchendaele. The Western Front in 1915 is skipped over but the battles of Neuve Chappelle, Second Ypres, Aubers Ridge, Festubert, and Loos, where Territorial and New Army troops went into action for the first time, were once as well known here as were the others.

My great grandfather was at most of these battles. My mum recalls him being "a miserable sod" but reading what he went through you can see why. There were honestly times reading this book when I had to put it down and get my breath back or wipe tears away. Some passages will stick with me.

The only down mark is that sometimes the tactical picture gets lost (though that might reflect the chaos of the battlefield) and Robin Neillands' book The Death of Glory: The Western Front, 1915 makes a good companion for that purpose. But I'd recommend this book as the centenaries of these forgotten battles come round.

[Alice · Rating 4 out of 5]

I bought a stack of Lyn Macdonald's books in a charity shop, and I'm impressed over and over again by the way she interlaces firsthand accounts with a summary of what was happening in the war to give an overview that's historical yet personal. In this look at the first full year of the war, we visit the heroes and villains of the Western Front, the Home Front and Gallipoli.

[Brianna · Rating 4 out of 5]

The best thing about this book is there are so many first-hand stories from veterans, and they are joined together in a way, that despite the book's mass (and the book's detailed focus on a subject I didn't know that much about) I didn't get lost in the process.

[Steve Switzer · Rating 4 out of 5]

As always emotive and powerful writing from lyn on this one of the grimmest
years of a grim war
Lets you know what it was like for the footslogger and the general

[Grahame Howard · Rating 5 out of 5]

'You're interested in the First World War so I thought you might like this book.' My heart sank when the beloved handed over this large tome. At 600 pages I thought a quick scan through and that's going on the shelf as a reference. 'Thanks,' I said rather unenthusiastically. I started to read and was quickly drawn into this extraordinarily well-written story about 1915. The author manages to combine well researched and referenced historical fact with first hand interviews which makes it a very palatable mix of text-book and storytelling. As well as covering the events on the Western Front, there is useful background about what was going on at home and an educational section about the Dardanelles campaign which many texts seem to neglect.
I read it in a few days and learned a huge amount about the events of 1915 and WW1 in general. I can't recommend it too strongly for anyone interested in WW1.

[Rob Roy · Rating 3 out of 5]

The "Great War" is often overshadowed by World War II. This book covers the British campaigns of 1915, and their slow discovery of the horror that trench warfare was. The premise, is that at the beginning of 1915, there was optimism. At the end, the realization that there was a long and bloody road ahead. The author does not dwell on the generals strategy, but more on the lives of the individual soldiers and the war from their perspective. Particularly chilling was in one battle that an attack by one battalion was considered successful as no one retreated as was normal in a failed attack. The truth was that the battalion was wiped out to the man. If you are interested in World War I, then I recommend his book highly.

[Diana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read for background into what lead to World War I for a paper on Kaiser Wilhelm II for a German history class.

This book was about the first year of the actual war, during the Great War. Like World War II, the first year of the Great War was more about the build-up of troops and establishing supply lines with limited fighting. 1915 is when everything really kicked off, both sides had substantial amounts of troops trained and the war became real for many back home. I definitely want to give this a re-read at some point soon when I'm not having to stop and reference things for a paper since it broke my concentration so much. I will definitely be looking for more books by this author.

[Norm · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this book a lot more than the 1914 book, it has a lot more of the realities of war that I expected, though it still lacks the visceral punch of some I have read about the period. Good, not great.

[Dropbear123 · Rating 3 out of 5]

3/5 for enjoyment. 4/5 for info.

Didn't enjoy this as much as Macdonald's 1914 book. The writing is fairly enjoyable and the personal accounts were well chosen. Only the British perspective of 1915 on the Western Front and at Gallipoli (some Anzac accounts as well). Some stuff on politics and the home front which was a pretty good part of the book.

[Juniper Shore · Rating 3 out of 5]

Somebody gave me this book as a birthday present (which tells you something about my general outlook on life). There are so many histories of the Great War you could spend a lifetime reading them all and still have no idea what was going on. People at the time couldn't figure it out, either, and The Death of Innocence makes plain just how much of daily life in the trenches consisted of improvisation, experimentation, and desperate jury-rigging.

The book covers the usual recitation of events, but most of the focus is on the individual soldier in the front lines. The text is filled with quotations from letters and reports, trying to give a sense of what the average man saw on an average day. And this is the problem with the book.

Macdonald has obviously done a lot of research: she has information from everywhere, but she's trying to follow too many people at once. The reader gets lost in trying to keep up with a cast of millions. It might have worked better if the author focused on just a small number of men (as All Quiet on the Western Front did), which would allow us to build a personal bond with the individuals. There's also a tendency to get lost in details. The book could stand a good editing.

Still, allowing the eyewitnesses to speak for themselves is a refreshing approach, and the anecdotes are well told. (My favorite is the purple horse, with the improvised optical telegraph a close second. This is a good book to browse through, but a comprehensive history really needs to be told from a higher perspective, as Tuchman did in The Guns of August.

[Alex Habibi · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book. The title is a bit misleading; the book is not a narrative of First World War events in 1915. The focus is on the British experience, particularly Ypres, Loos, and Gallipoli. The author does a good job of showing how intertwined the failed offensives in the Dardanelles and the Western Front were. The only points I didn’t care for was the lack of synthesis. The author constructs a good narrative, but at times it just reads like summaries of battles. There’s not enough moments where she takes a step back and looks at how these battles fit into the bigger picture of the war. I would’ve liked to see how much British war strategy and war objectives changed from the initial optimism in 1914 to 1915 after the lines became more static in the West. I would recommend this book to people that already have a foundational knowledge of the First World War and its major figures.

[Les · Rating 3 out of 5]

By January 1915, the promise that the war would be over by (the previous) Christmas was of course by now an idle boast. 1915 would be the year of "nearly" moments, none more so than the costly Battle of Loos. It would also be the time when the valour and value of the forces from the,then, Empire would be proven; the Indians early in the year at Neuve Chapelle (another nearly moment) and the Anzacs at Gallipoli, another campaign where success was always felt to be just within reach but never attained. Arguably, the Allies were never going to win the war in 1915 but they could have lost it for the lack of manpower and munitions. Lyn Macdonald brings this year of disappointments and disasters to life in her own inimitable style.

[Guera25 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Based on the title, I expected an examination of the broad societal shifts and upheavals that resulted from WWI--the effects on the homefront, changing social mores, the scope and breadth of relief efforts, how the various belligerents perceived the war and their roles in it, how the war affected the social conscience.

What I got was a book full of boosterism for the ideals of the Good Olde British Empire and the troops, along with occasional smatterings of prim disapproval for the high command, who made decisions from the safety of their ivory towers. In other words, it's your average military history. Individual letters from certain soldiers were interesting, and it was exciting to follow their progress and learn their fates, but beyond that, there was nothing special.

[Tyler · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was the first book I've ever read about World War I and I was quite taken by the writing style and firsthand accounts from the soldiers. The devastation during the year was genuinely shocking to read about and the daily horrors of trench warfare were recounted in sometimes vivid detail. I was really surprised to learn about the British ammunition shortages and very much enjoyed learning about the Scottish and Indian troop's role in the various battles during 1915. This is definitely worth a read.

[Bill Taylor · Rating 3 out of 5]

History mainly through the participants -- in this case the British "Tommy" who did the suffering and fighting in the trenches of WW I

In this volume, the author focuses on the British experience in the first full year of the war, 1915. She provides narrative to link events and then (through copious quotes from journals, papers, diaries) allows the soldiers, leaders, and loved ones in England to tell of what they endured in the various major engagements both in N.W. France. S.W. Belgium, and the Gallipoli peninsula.

[Douglas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing read. Macdonald has captured the year 1915 in all its horror and confusion. Great first person accounts intertwined with a well paced narrative. All the important British engagements are covered from the battles of Neuve Chapelle and Loos, the second battle of Ypres and the Gallipoli campaign. Best book I have read that covers the entire year 1915.

[Barbara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent book on the second year of the war. Lyn Macdonald interspersed her narrative with extracts of letters, diaries, and reminiscences of participants, both officers and lowly Tommies. Really gave me a sense of the reality of the battles and the everyday lives of the soldiers.

[Gregory · Rating 3 out of 5]

A history of the British Army in 1915 from the perspective of the Tommy. First part is about Flanders and the second part is about Gallipoli. Lots of long extracts from British soldier's diaries and letters.

[Ginger Heskett]

I registered a book at BookCrossing.com!
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/14361023

[NDH · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lyn Macdonald got a lot of mileage out of her approach to popular history, and that’s a good thing. Although she wrote about a dozen books, including two on French cooking, five of her major works focus each on one year of the Great War:

1914, published in 1987
1915, published in 1993
The Somme (1916), published in 1983
They Called it Passchendaele (1917), published 1978
The Last Man (spring 1918), published 1998.

It was probably wise of her to spread out her publishing schedule over twenty years, although I suspect that she was under a great deal of pressure to get most of her interviews with veterans completed during the 1970s, by which time their numbers were no doubt in free-fall. After all, she could always supplement the interviews by reading diaries and memories at a more leisurely pace. In any case, she did the world a great service.

This book, 1915, I found valuable for providing a chronological structure to the major battles of the year; Neuve Chappelle, 2nd Ypres (first use of poison gas, a gift of the Teutonic mind…), Gallipoli (a gift of the British mind), Loos. She doesn’t get too deeply into the controversies of the day—I’d like to know more, for example, how labor problems and scandalous shell shortages were actually resolved—although she clearly has opinions and positions regarding which of the idiots in charge was responsible for which disasters, as well as an appreciation of the limits and difficulties with which those idiots had to contend. Communications would top my list. I suspect that the quintessentially British concept of “muddle through” must have its origins in WW1. Tragic, that.

One thing that struck me about the interviews and the memories of participants is that, despite how unutterably horrible it all was, one somehow gets the sense that the survivors ‘wouldn’t have missed it for the world.’ (See Gnr. JA Watson, p 530). Time heals all wounds. It certainly dulls the jagged edges of horrific memory. War must be kind of like childbirth…

And what old man wouldn’t warm up to being the center of attention, the object of a sympathetic and uncritical scripteur who offers a sort of immortality?

I’m always a bit skeptical about the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves, which is the central weakness of this form of popular history. At the same time, it does confirm one of Voltaire’s observations, to wit, “you were bored if there was no danger.” (Trpr W Clarke, p 576.)

One of the things I found quite enjoyable, impossible when her books were first published, was to access (on my iPhone) the Commonwealth War Graves Commission database (cwgc.org) to look up soldiers who’d died during the war to see if they really existed. I’m pleased to say that, although I only researched a handful, I found all but one of them (see p 393). Maybe someone can use the idea for a bit of post-graduate research.

In any case, my all time favorite ‘take-away’ from this book is found on p162.

“Vesper adest, juvenes. Consurgite!”

Find out what it means by reading this fine book.

[Eric Zadravec · Rating 4 out of 5]

1915: The Death of Innocence is, as the title suggests, all about 1915. Quite true to its title in this sense, as the narrative begins in late December 1914 and ends in December 1915. To be more specific, Macdonald primarily covers the British and Commonwealth First World War experience in 1915.

While there are some French and British civilian accounts, the primary source material is overwhelmingly from the British frontline soldier in 1915. The downside is that a wealth of different war experiences are not covered, and the war stretched far beyond the Western Front in 1915: Russians, Germans, French, Italians, Ottoman Turks, etc, etc. Not so much a complete narrative of 1915 then. The upside of the singular focus on the British soldier is an incredibly detailed and methodical coverage of their war experience in 1915.

As would be expected, "the death of innocence" refers to the hundreds of thousands of young men killed on the battlefields in 1914/15, albeit not directly. MacDonald instead charts 1915 as a pivotal war year, where the illusions of swift victory from 1914 were ground down under the stalemate of the Western Front, giving way to new and increasingly brutal forms of warfare. Chemical weapons, the mass expansion of artillery, and the solidification of the trenches in the west made the protracted nature of the conflict clear, just as the failure of the Gallipoli campaign reinforced that there was no swift path to victory - the war will ultimately be won by attrition. Equally did the combatant attitudes harden in 1915: the christmas truce was harshly condemned from the top of command, while the homefront learnt to hate the German as all that was evil and unholy.

Writing-wise, MacDonald uses large selection of primary sources from British soldiers in 1915 - diaries, oral interviews, and memoirs. One story that stands out is of British soldiers playing a concert for their German counterparts, only to drop artillery on their trenches after the Germans came to watch. Small stories like this highlight the range of experiences in the trench, from horror to humour to banality. In short, a full portrait of war.

Overall, this was an excellent, albeit dense read at times. The chronological style is rewarding to work through, although slow at times - less to the point than narrative history driven by singular events. Yet certainly a great addition to any history collection on the First World War.

[Brad Eastman · Rating 3 out of 5]

If, like me, you do not know (or care about) the difference between a battalion, a brigade and a regiment, this book is not for you. This is military history of the battles at Ypres in Belgium and Gallipoli (to a lesser extent) in the year 1915. The story is told chronologically from the memoirs, diaries and letters of front line troops. The description of battles are very granular, focusing on which units occupied which ridges, and positions on a battlefield. I thought this would have been more of a social and cultural history of the year, not such a military history.

I do thing Ms. Macdonald has done a great job of conveying the horror of trench warfare to ordinary soldiers. She writes in a very clear narrative style. As noted, this is a story of front-line troops, not strategy and politics. The book really succeeds in that regard.

[Alberto Tebaldi · Rating 2 out of 5]

I admit it's well researched into details, but just those extreme little details continuously cast about make the reading very heavy to digest.

[Frank Nooijens · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nederlandse versie gelezen

[Jonathan Carroll · Rating 2 out of 5]

Did not finish.

[Russ Spence · Rating 4 out of 5]

well worth a read for anyone interested in the horrors of the First World War, this collect veterans' recollections of some of the major campaigns of 1915, such as Gallipolli and uses them to illustrate just how terrible the war really was, all the more poignant because none of these veterans are around to share their tales.