Sketches, charcoal in the crucible

The fortunes of war.

Above - Belgian refugees. The sketches in Carrick's book appear to be dated around the Summer of 1918 and Carrick's battery was certainly positioned around the town of Ypres at this time. The second great German offensive in the Sring of 1918 'Georgette' had been launched in an attempt to divide the B.E.F. from the French and drive the British army north into the sea. Refugees who had already suffered five years of war clogged the roads with what little of their posessions they could carry before the German advance. The woman who leads the group is wearing wooden clogs. Tragically in 1940 the same scenes were repeated as the German army finally succeeded, driving the B.E.F. to an evacuation at Dunkirk.

Left - 'Eight in a Loaf, More Prisoners Taken', a later sketch showing the changing fortunes of war over a period of months as, by the Summer of 1918, the British and Imperial forces in turn went on to the offensive and advanced eastwards. German moral was finally broken and many German soldiers were simply surrendering.