Neuve Chappelle

DESCRIPTION: "For when we landed in Belgium, the girls all danced for joy, Says one unto the other, 'Here comes an Irish boy.'" The singer reports that the Irish won Neuve Chappelle. The Kaiser and Von Kluck lament that the Irish have arrived
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: war soldier battle derivative
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
March 10, 1915 - Start of the Battle of Neuve Chapelle.
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H526, p. 182, "Neuve Chappelle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dallas-TheCruelWars-100SoldiersSongs, pp. 220-221, "Neuve Chapelle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver, p. 78, "Neuve Chappelle" (1 text, tune referenced)
ADDITIONAL: Jerry SIlverman, _Ballads & Songs of WWI_, Mel Bay, 1997, 2008, pp. 174-175, "Neuve Chappelle" (1 text, 1 tune, which appears to be a direct copy of the Henry version)
Roud #8004
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "True-Born Irish Man (With My Swag All on My Shoulder; The True-Born Native Man)" (form)
NOTES [500 words]: Gale Huntington considered this to be an actual version of "The True-Born Irish Man." Given that the Henry text has only two verses, that strikes me as extreme. But it is clearly derived from that song.
The song describes Neuve Chapelle as a British victory. It was certainly a British battle, involving the British 7th and 8th Divisions, plus two Indian divisions. They attacked and smashed the equivalent of less than a German brigade, but then were stopped and the front stabilized. The battle had some effect on British morale (showing that the newly-arriving Territorial troops were solid), but British casualties were much higher than German; it was in no sense a victory for either side.
Forty, p. 286, describes how the Germans had made a salient in the British lines. "Sir John French [the commander of British forces in France] decided to scuff out this salient in the spring of 1915 and Haig's First British Army was tasked with carrying out the attack. At 7:30am on March 10 the British began their advance, supported by an artillery bombardment across the whole of the line. The initial progress was good; breaking through the front-line positions of Crow Prince Rupprecht's Sixth Army and capturing the village of Neuve Chapelle itself within a period of four hours. However, once the position was gained the British system of communication and supply broke down [which happened in almost all WWI battles; cf. Pope/Wheal, p. 338], allowing the Germans to counterattack on March 12. Although the British managed to hold their ground, further advances in this area were impossible and the battle ground to a halt on March 13."
Pope/Wheal, pp. 338-339, says the battle was "north of L Bassée and west of Lille, intended as part of a major Allied offensive in the Artois region in March 1915." The main attack was delayed because part of the forces were sent to the Dardanelles, The British went ahead in part to demonstrate their abilities. Four British divisions went after an area defended by a single German division. Pope/Wheal say that the British lost about 13,000 casualties (as did the Germans) and gained all of two square kilometers. They also used up 15% of their total artillery ammunition.
Von Kluck is General Alexander von Kluck (1846-1934), who at the start of the war was commander of the German First Army (the right flank element of the German force in France); his, more than anyone else's, had been the task of outflanking the French in 1914, and in this, he had failed.
Kluck continued in command until 1915, when he was wounded in the let and permanently invalided (Pope/Wheal, pp. 270-271), but he played no part in Neuve Chappelle (the real commander on the front by this time was simply defensive doctrine) and would not have been discussing it with the Kaiser. The Western Front was under what amounted to the direct command of the German commander-in-chief, Falkenheyn, who approved all plans and would have been responsible for any talks with Wilhelm II. - RBW
BibliographyLast updated in version 6.6
File: HHH526

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