Book Review - "Unbroken Glory" The Great War Story of Anson Battalion, The Royal Naval Division by Dr Robert Wynn Jones

 

This is Dr Jones’ second foray into the world of military history and as with his first book, “Soldiers and Sportsmen All”, the subject matter has a definite family connection for the author, as his paternal grandfather, Able Seaman Francis Wynn Jones served in both the Nelson and Anson Battalions of the Royal Naval Division, spending the final eight months of the war in captivity, having been captured on 23 March 1918, during the German Spring Offensive.

The author begins by explaining the raison d’etre of the Royal Naval Division and telling us something of his paternal grandfather, who in normal life was a Post Office clerk in London, although he hailed from Llandrillo in North Wales.

The book charts the formation of the Royal Naval Division, which immediately became known to some as “Churchill’s Private Army” or perhaps worse as the “Tuppeny untrained rabble” and explains the makeup of the various battalions, all named after Royal Navy heroes of the past and how, perhaps confusingly to those on the outside, the men all retained their naval ranks, ensuring that Able Seaman, Leading Stokers and Chief Petty Officers could be found far away from their usual maritime locations!

We hear about the training process for war, something that is vividly illustrated by letters written by Rupert Brooke, himself a member of Anson and later Hood Battalions and includes a hilarious description of the latter Battalion’s Christmas celebrations in 1914 at Blandford Camp.

A wider description of the war on the Western Front follows, with interesting comparisons of the arms, equipment and organisation of the combatant nations involved, as well as a good description of how life on the Western Front would have been for the typical British soldier in the dugouts and trenches along the front line – “either frightened to death or bored to tears” – as one contemporary account succinctly put it.

The bulk of the remainder of the book is taken up with descriptions of the various actions that the Division were involved with starting with the ultimately unsuccessful attempt to defend Antwerp, followed by the Gallipoli and Salonika Campaigns, before we return to the various campaigns on the Western Front that occupied the Division for the remainder of the war, culminating in the German Spring Offensive of 1918 and the Allied “Hundred Days” Offensive that resulted in the ultimate German collapse. The author vividly describes not only the Anson Battalion’s involvement but also the battles in the wider context of the war and has drawn not only from War Diaries but also from contemporary publications and letters from those involved.

The author has visited many of the battlefields himself and as any of us who have trodden the ground can testify, has found it often to be a profoundly moving experience.

The book concludes with an extensive and comprehensive series of maps, photographs and biographical sketches of men from the Anson Battalion, as well as a chapter covering the life of the author’s paternal grandfather (or “Taid) Francis Wynn Jones. Without wishing to give away too many “spoilers”, we last heard of Wynn, as he was universally known, ending the war in captivity but before this was confirmed, he had in fact been posted as “missing” on the Flesquieres-Havrincourt Salient on 23 March 1918 and it was not until over a month later on 25 April, that word was received that he was still alive and was being held in captivity.

The author’s description of his grandfather as an elderly man, whom he regularly met during his childhood in the late 1960s, is heart-warming and ends this book on a suitably optimistic note.

As with this author's previous military history volume, this is a well-research and fascinating read which I have no hesitation in recommending to you.

 

Available from www.amazon.co.uk 

RRP £9.99

softback, pp 314