front line positions, and there is an indication that Dalton was in action with American troops around this period. In a letter to his American cousin, Frances O’Brien he said that he had the opportunity of fighting alongside United States troops, and in a tribute to their bravery said it was ‘glorious’ to see how the American soldiers fought.48 On 29 June 1918, the Commandant of the VII Corps Lewis Gun School recommended Dalton as ‘a good instructor’.49
In his 4 August letter to his cousin, Dalton wrote that he had received two weeks leave to go home to Ireland, and that he was about to transfer to the Royal Air Force (RAF), as he believed nothing could equal the difficulties and dreadfulness of an infantry soldier’s life. As indicated above, while stationed in Palestine, two of his fellow officers had transferred to the air force, and he may have considered following in their footsteps. Flying also probably appealed to his spirit of adventure. It is unclear if Dalton pressed ahead with an attempt to transfer to the RAF – certainly, he remained in the infantry until demobilized, but in his later army service in Ireland, he would show a keen interest in military aviation and have an appreciation of the value of air support in military operations.
On 10 August, word came through that the 6th Leinsters battalion was to be disbanded. Later in the year, officers and men would go to other regiments such as the Connaught Rangers, while others, including Captain Dalton, transferred to the 2nd Battalion of the Leinsters. Meanwhile, in the latter part of August, Dalton went home to Ireland for a badly-needed two-week break. On 1 October, Dalton officially joined50 the 2nd Leinsters who were in Belgium at this period, taking part in combat operations as the war ground to a close. Once again, Dalton was deployed with a fighting unit. Lieutenant Francis C. Hitchcock of the 2nd Leinsters recorded in his diary for 4 October that heavy rain fell all day and a new draft of officers arrived.’51 It is likely that Dalton was part of this draft. (Hitchcock would later turn his diary into a book, Stand To: A Diary of the Trenches, 1915–1918.52 It remains one of the best memoirs to emerge from the Great War, written with humour and empathy, and giving a most vivid day-to-day account of life as a junior officer in a time of war.)
The battalion moved to Ypres on 5 October. The British II Corps, in alliance with French and Belgian forces, was preparing a major assault on the German lines. The 2nd Leinsters were now part of the 88th Brigade of the 29th Division of II Corps. Hitchcock noted in his diary for 5 October: ‘At 5 p.m. the battalion paraded and moved off for Ypres for another offensive. It was raining heavily when they paraded and marched off.’53 On 13 October the battalion moved into position in trenches for the attack the following day. There was a heavy fog as the attack went in. Dalton’s battalion, 2nd Leinsters, was deployed among the advance troops of the 88th Brigade, fighting in the Ledeghem sector near Courtrai. Details are unavailable of Dalton’s role in the attack. During the fighting on 14 October, two members of the battalion carried out actions that would later win them the Victoria Cross, the highest British award for valour. They were men who Dalton would get to know quite well: Scots-born Sergeant John O’Neill, from Airdrie, Lanarkshire, and Private Martin Moffat, from Sligo. The liberation of the village of Ledeghem by the 2nd Leinsters and other elements of the 29th Division was still being commemorated annually in recent years by local dignitaries and members of the Leinster Regiment Association.
Deployment to Germany
Dalton went on sick leave for the first three weeks of November 1918.54 Meanwhile, after four long years the war was finally drawing to a close. Lieutenant Hitchcock recorded in his diary for 10 November that he and men of the 2nd Leinsters were marching to a rendezvous at the village of Arc-Anière when the Brigadier came galloping up to call out: ‘The War is over! The Kaiser has abdicated.’55 On the following day, 11 November, the Armistice came into force. As the war ended, all over Europe and further afield, one can imagine how parents and loved ones of combatants experienced an enormous sense of relief. Among many there was probably also a sense of anti-climax, as they wondered what had been achieved by such carnage. From later in November, until the following January, Captain Dalton was stationed in northern France. He was with the ‘L’ Infantry Base Depot (IBD), Calais.56 Hitchcock also spent some time at an IBD in Calais, in August 1918. In his memoir, he described the depot as being located ‘on the high ground overlooking the old historical town of Calais’. Accommodation was in tents, around which deep trenches ran at intervals in case of an air raid. The camp had suffered some direct hits ‘and numerous casualties’. There was an officers’ club where meals were provided.57
As Captain Dalton found, there was a social side to life in the depot. Among Dalton’s papers at the National Library in Dublin is a programme for a dinner dance at the ‘L’ IBD, Calais on 3 January 1919. Listed on the programme for the evening are some of the popular dances of the day – including the Waltz, One Step, Veleta and Lancers. On the back of the programme, a number of officers signed their names, with regiments also given – they include Irish regiments, the Royal Dublin Fusiliers and the Leinsters, and English regiments such as the Essex and the Suffolk.58 No doubt, the end of the war added to the festive atmosphere. A few days later, on 6 January, Dalton entered Germany to serve with the 2nd Leinsters, as part of the Allies’ Army of Occupation of the Rhineland.59 (The occupation was mandated by the Armistice, and was carried out by French, Belgian, American and British troops.) In early 1919, Dalton was with a unit of the 2nd Leinsters stationed in a quiet rural village called Dhunn, about eighteen miles northeast of Cologne. This was in the outpost area occupied by the 88th Brigade. Lieutenant Hitchcock, who had been stationed here for a period and departed before Dalton arrived, found the area depressing. Platoons were billeted in ‘very dirty isolated farms’. It was also ‘bitterly cold and rained continually’.
Lieutenant Hitchcock was delighted to get orders to leave this bleak area peopled by hard-working farmers. He noted that, before departure, they received official news in December of the award of two Victoria Crosses to the battalion.60 The following month, January, somebody had the idea of gathering together, for a photograph, members of ‘D’ Company of the battalion who had been awarded decorations for bravery. The picture was taken outdoors, in a field or garden with a row of tall trees in the background. It is a most remarkable photograph and still survives as a treasured memento in the possession of Emmet Dalton’s daughter Audrey. It shows Dalton and Captain John Moran, both recipients of the Military Cross, with the two winners of the Victoria Cross, Sergeant O’Neill and Private Moffat.
While Dalton was stationed at Dhunn with ‘D’ Company, 2nd Leinsters, he spent time in training and exercises, which no doubt helped to further develop his military expertise. On 14 February 1919, Dalton drew up Operation Orders for the company as part of a battalion exercise involving an advance on the ancient town of Radevormwald.61 (Although Dalton had been promoted to Captain or acting Captain, he describes himself as ‘Lieut. J.E. Dalton’ on the handwritten document, and commanding officer of the company.) ‘D’ Company was to form the advance guard of the battalion advance, and he deployed elements of the company in various roles, in accordance with British military doctrine, outlining the relevant map references. Second Lieutenant Dorgan, with numbers 1 and 2 Sections and a Lewis Gun, was to be in the lead, acting in a ‘Point’ role. Flankers would be provided by no. 3 Section, while Lieutenant Johnson and no. 14 Platoon would form the Vanguard. The Main Guard would consist of two Platoons under the O.C. and his second in command. There would also be Connecting Files, provided by a Section, while two runners, Private Hart and Private Martin Moffat VC, would report to the Battalion HQ and act as Liaison. Experience in such exercises involving the deployment of infantry forces during military manoeuvres would, no doubt, come in useful when Dalton went on to become a senior officer in the National Army during the Irish Civil War. The experience would have been especially relevant as Dalton deployed his forces for the advance on Cork following seaborne landings in August 1922.
While stationed in the Cologne region, Emmet Dalton had a poignant task to fulfil. He went in search of a grave – the last resting place of a close friend, a fellow Irish officer who had been wounded, captured by the Germans and then died as a prisoner of war in October 1918, just before the Armistice. John Kemmy Boyle was, like Dalton, a northside Dubliner, and a fellow student at O’Connell
