Brittain, Vera, Diary, 15 April 1915

00000291-3.jpg
Description: 
Diary of Vera Brittain

Tabs

Case Study: 
From Youth to Experience: Vera Brittain’s Work for Peace in Two World Wars
Creator: 
Brittain, Vera
Source: 
diary
Date: 
15 April 1915
Collection/Fonds: 
Contributer: 
McMaster University Libraries
Rights: 
Vera Brittain estate; McMaster University has a non-exclusive licence to publish this document.

Identifier: 
00000291-3
Language: 
eng
Type: 
image
Format: 
jpg
Transcript: 

into a deep depression – oh! it seems so impossible that I shall ever see him again, least of all that he will ever come through to the end. There, it seems, must lie my future, buried in the fields of France.
The repairs to my teeth were not very serious so I discussed the war with Mr. Schmitt [?] He sympathised with Edward’s contempt for the officers in K’s army & said Edward seemed to him highly intellectual. He also said E. might never get out at all as he was convinced the war would end by the autumn. I told him of Daddy’s pessimism & that he thought the war would not end till Nov. 12 months, & he said he would be willing to take a bet with him, that it would end this year. We also discussed Neuve Chappelle. The dispatches about it were published to-day. That awful disaster was no victory! It was the result of a terrible blunder. The object was to get into Lille; there was nothing to stop them & the cavalry were ready only the infantry did not join them because – they were being fired upon by our own guns. It was due to a miscalculation; the infantry were supposed to take several horses to search a certain position, during which time the heavy artillery had to go on firing. Instead they searched the position much sooner but the guns did not cease so that for some hours our men were under fire from their own artillery. Either the mistake was not discovered until too late or it was impossible to get a message through. But we were responsible for over 4,000 of our own casualties. It is too terrible – this reckless waste of life, the only thing worth having in the universe! Naturallly this horrible truth does not come out in the dispatch – it would undoubtedly stop recruiting if men thought they were to enlist only to be shot down by their own guns -- but even in the dispatch French admits the engagement was a mistake. Roland is dreadfully near Lille. Someday soon, I suppose, they will