Herbert Sidebottom

Herbert Sidebottom was educated at Manchester Grammar School and Balliol College, Oxford, where he obtained a first class honours degree. He became a journalist and between 1895 and 1918 was leader-writer and military correspondent for the Manchester Guardian.

After leaving the Manchester Guardian Sidebottom worked for The Times, The Sunday Times and the Daily Telegraph. Herbert Sidebottom died in 1940.

Primary Sources

(1) Herbert Sidebottom, The Manchester Guardian (18th July, 1916)

To expose human flesh and blood to the malignity of machine-guns is not scientific war but the untutored valour of the savage. What we seem to need for operations of this nature is some kind of armour which would enable the attack to get to close quarters with the defence without suffering such heavy losses. The defence is in effect wearing armour - the armour of a wall of bullets from their machine-guns besides the wall of masonry. The attack should have armour too, and as in those close operations the support of heavy artillery is out of the question the real parallel is not with anything known in field operations but with street fighting.