The Forgotten General

[Herekawe]

This new book is a biography of Major General Sir Andrew Russell who commanded the New Zealand Division from its formation in Egypt until early 1919.

However Andrew Russell was much more than a General, over a long life time, he contributed significantly to his country, in peace and war.

Andrew Hamilton Russell (referred to Guy in the book for reasons I am unsure) was born 23rd February 1868 in Hawkes Bay - East Coast North Island. His family had a long military history with the British Army and his father and uncles had resigned their commissions to move to NZ as settlers. This book describes the hardships or life in early NZ. Both his father and uncle - short of capital - returned to England to marry brides with good "settlements" returning to NZ to raise families. Andrew's father moved his family back to England in the 1870's eventually settling in Switzerland. Andrew was educated in England, Harrow then Sandhurst passing in near the top of his intake and passing out with the Sword of Honor in 1887. He then did 5 years in the border Regiment, England, India and Burma before resigning his commission and returning to farm in NZ managing his family properties. He preferred the army, but with slow promotion prospects and little action - farming was an option open to him, he kept his interest in the military open by participating in the various volunteer corps and militia which were part of NZs embryonic defense forces.

He missed the Boer war being busy with farming and family, he had five children, one of his two sons Lt Col John Russell DSO (also a Sandhurst graduate) being killed in Lybia in 1942.

The treatment of the WW1 material in this book is very conventional and leans heavily on the common published sources which most Kiwi readers with an interest in the Great War will find fimiliar. Generally these are correctly referenced but there are many comments or statements in the book which maybe should be referenced - for example the author refers to the sacking of a general (p153) on 21st of July 1917 by Gen Haig for poor preperations for the coming Messines ridge attacks. This may be true, I don't know where the author sources this statement so I am not sure to which general he is referring.

As well Vennell's treatment of events can be quite careless, when describing the events of 15th Sept 1916 pp128-135 the capture of Flers by the 41st Division is not mentioned but the consolidation by the NZ Div is while the 47th Divison remained held up "outside" High Wood. It is as if the author has precis the work of other writers, but without appreciating the pieces he left out were important in the overall context.

Without (hopefully) being to pedantic there are many small errors which could have been detected by hard proof reading by someone fimilar with NZ participation in the Great War and these take some of the gloss off the book. Some examples would be...

Some will be fimiliar with the story of the 4th NZ Brigade - formed in 1917 as a sop by the NZ Government in response to British suggestions they should form a 2nd NZ division. Conscription was running well, but daunted by the number of casualities, the NZ Govt preferred to keep the units they already had up to strength and instead added 4th Brigade to the Division.The 4th Brigade had one major battle - 4th October 1917- but proved impossible to maintain in the field at a time when most other divisions were well undermanned and going to be downsized. In Feb 1918 4th Brigade was disbanded to top up the NZ Division (which reverted to 3 Brigades of 4 Battalions), and the remained formed into 3 entrenching battalions which along with the 15,000 reinforments in England provided a pool of often experienced replacements for the combat units. Despite mentioning the disbandment of the 4th Brigade in February 1918 , in August 1918 the author is still referring to a 4 Brigade Division (p203) and during the 100 days Russell is inspecting positions with Hart - "4th Brigade commander" (actually Rifle Brigade).

Dave Gallagher the All Black captain was not killed on Oct 12th - he DOW on October 4th. pg 178.

Maps are no better. On Pg 187 a map points to the location of the NZ Div area of operations at Hamel - unfortunately its the wrong Hamel, (Le Hamel) south of the Somme River - not near Beaumont Hamel on the Ancre. On Pg 202 the line showing the front line in November 1917 is either wrongly labelled (should be March 1918) or in the wrong place as it all the British gains since July 1916 are on the wrong side of it.

As previously mentioned some of the quotes lack context. On Pg 201 Vennell quotes directly from Glyn Harper's book Spring Offensive - "On the 21st August 1918 the NZ Div- in strenght equivalent to a British Corps of three divsions left the trenches....." Pg 122 (Pg162 actually) which Harper himself attributes to Burton "The Silent Division" Pg 298. I don't know if this quote is correct or not in terms of the size of the division relative to average corps in the BEF. Harper discusses relative average sizes of units in his book, which gives some context, which Vennell does not do. Thus the casual reader may go away with the impression that the NZ Div = any other corp in strength; the Canadians might dispute that?

Despite these comments I do not regret my purchase. Russell's life and his work after the war are well described which only increases the readers respect for him. While I personally would have like to have seen some more meat on the possibly contentious issues, his relationship with Chaytor, his relationship with Godley (unversially despised by NZers), and his health issues, particularly why he didn't relinquish demand of the Division and allow Chaytor to take his place, for the person with only a passing knowledge and interest in the Great War this book will be a good stocking stuffer for Christmas.

In the meantime I suppose we await a definitive biography of Russell.

James

[central]

The only thing i didnt already know was about his farming career at tunanui.....