Goodbye to All That by Robert Graves – Summary

Soldiers often boasted of torturing prisoners. The narrator recounts two such instances of which he heard first hand, of a Canadian and an Australian who captured German prisoners but then killed them with Mills bombs instead of bothering with them. He recounts other instances.

The Allies had on their side Turcos, North African native infantry. A Turco soldier used to ask a British cook for a jam every day. When the cook tired of this, he told him to bring him a beheaded German and he'd get his jam – and the Turco soldier did.

A captain of a battalion of a Surrey regiment shares how his troops are so bad that during the last two battles he had to shoot one of his own men to get the rest out of the trench.

They discuss how arm drills are good for morale, and that divisions that do well at drills and have guts perform best in battle, even if drills aren't directly related to actual fighting. When men are able to continue the drill well despite confused or impossible orders from the officer, that is the mark of a good drill. 

Some thought that the synchronicity fostered in drills leads to loss of initiative, and therefore bad fighting. Others maintained that the cohesion formed in the drill was invaluable for fighting: in the noise and confusion of battle, it was working as a unit that is necessary for victory. Either way, they all agree that regimental unity was the best and only motive for fighting and that patriotism and religion were irrelevant. The average British soldier isn't fighting for ideals and in fact, hates patriotic sentiments but believes that Germany does hold them.

In addition, it was difficult to be religious. One sergeant, tired of reading newspaper stories about figures of Christ never got damaged during battle, had his platoon shoot a figure on a cross. British soldiers assumed Germans were pious when they were not. In addition, they did not respect military chaplains because they did not take part in the fighting. One colonel for this reason had got rid of four Anglican chaplains and had a Roman Catholic chaplain come in because they were obliged by their faith to be present at the field to provide support for the dying. They were brave. In addition, Roman Catholics gave comforting sermons and Anglicans gave irrelevant ones.

Robert Graves