2015 - WW1 Battlefield Tour
Above: Somewhere over Kansas... 7:30 PM. 22 September 2015.
Above: Bored with with the daily Deux Magots routine at Wasatch Bagel in Park City, the Bishop, today, decided to breakfast at the mother ship in Paris. 23 September 2015.
Above: "Solex." Paris, France. 23 September 2015.
A new version? Who makes it?
Kind of like reviving the Indian?
Above: After dinner. Chez Andre. Rue Marbeuf, Paris, 8ieme, France. 23 September 2015.
Portland and Rudy.
Appetizers. Terrine and escargots.
Main: Poulet frites.
Above: Eiffel Tower from below. Paris, France. 23 September 2015.
Above: Standing mesmerized. ..agape... the Bishop contemplates the infinite. Where, he wonders, is this ship going? When? How can he board it? Paris, France. 23 September 2015.
Above: Rudy, Jr. and Portland atop Eiffel Tower. Paris France, 23 September 2015.
Looking east north east. Ecole Militaire at right. Place de la Concorde just over Portland's head.
Note: 16.6 K steps (circa 8 miles) today walking in Paris. Got to hotel from Eiffel Tower about 11:00 PM.
Went for 20 years with a drought of Paris visits. Have been there, now, 3 times in last four years.
I lived in Paris for 18 months between 1965 and 1968 while fulfilling an LDS mission.
;No better walking city.
Addendum:
Steve,
First, I thoroughly enjoy reading all your postings. Your writing is very down to earth
& very refreshing to read.
Secondly, turns out on the 15th Ernie Lombard & I drove our truck down thru Dinosaur on our way to Grand Junction for a funeral of a good friend. We almost crossed paths along the way.
Hope to see you on the road sometime.
Thanks for the stories.
Laos,
Boise, ID
Saw Everest- recently released- the balloon picture looks like the pictures in the
movie without the snow.
montage
Marina del Rey, CA
Family shots look wonderful so happy for you and Grandma !!!
Max; my grandson entered university of Arizona he got a Four your
scholarship for $26,000 without requesting pretty cool !!!
Mr z3,
Ojai, CA
Under the direction of British battlefield guide Bruce Cherry, seven of us tour goers, Mwah (sic), Rudy, Jr., Portland, 1%, Comic Mom, Karen Dinesen, and Darien entered a van which took us north from Paris to the battle fields of WWI.
Our focus would be on WWI - The Great War - from the British point of view. Today we would go to Mons, Belgium site of the first engagement of British troops with the Germans on 23 August 2014.
On the way north, today, we would stop at random WWI sites, mainly war cemeteries. But, our Odyssey would really start at Mons, this evening. In following days, we would follow the British retreat from Mons to Le Cateau, site of the largest scale British military engagement since the Boer War.
We would proceed in following days to Ypres, the salient obtained by the British Expeditionary Forces (BEF) in September once the retreat was consolidated an a northern "race to the sea" offensive was mounted against the Germans. The Ypres salient would mark the front lines, on the allied left, for four more years, until the Armistice in November 1918. Ypres, as a salient, with Germans on three sides of allied forces, was ground zero for some of the bloodiest battles of World War I.
Following Ypres, we would go the The Somme, where, in a 1916 battle, 60,000 British casualties (20K dead) would be suffered in one day...01 July 1916... the most dreadful day in British military history.
Our WWI Odyssey is planned over eight days.
Above: Above: British military cemetery at Tincourt Boucley, France. 24 September 2015.
One of the stones is in Arabic script and the other in Hindi. The British fighting forces of WWI drew from all corners of the empire.
Above: British military cemetery at Tincourt Boucley, France. 24 September 2015.
The landscaping and care for the World War I military cemetery's is astounding. Lawns are edged. Flowers aligning the graves are weeded. Stones are regularly maintained to erase erosion and disintegration.
Above: The Saint-Chamond Tank. Peronne World War I Museum. Peronne, France. 27 September 2015.
Tanks were introduced in World War I in 1917 late in the war.
Technological changes in fighting... tanks, the machine gun, better artillery, turned fighting on a grand scale into carnage never before experienced in warfare until WWI.
Above: Beginning a WWI battlefield tour, the Bishop surveys "centre ville" Peronne, France. 24 September 2015.
For almost the whole of the war Peronne was occupied by German troops. Between 1914 and 1918, almost 30% of the town's inhabitants became civilian victims of the war. Every day, the bells of the town hall ring out "La Madelon," a popular French song of the Great War.
Above: French military cemetery. Rancourt, France. 24 September 2015.
Above: German military cemetery. Rancourt, France. 24 September 2015.
Above: Australian World War I memorial. Rancourt, France. 24 September 2015.
Above: Monument marking the spot of first engagement of British troops against the Germans in WWI. Mons, Belgium. 24 September 2015.
From Left: The Bishop, Rudy Jr., Karen Dinesen, Portland, Comic Mom, Darien, 1%.
Above: Mons canal. Mons, Belgium. 24 September 2015.
Image is taken under Nimy Railroad Bridge (its raining lightly) at which point, 101 years ago, on 23 August 1914, British soldiers Maurice Dease and Sidney Godley performed acts for which they were awarded the Victoria Cross... the first VC's earned by British troops in WWI.
Dease and Godley were manning a machine gun after the previous crews were either killed or wounded. When Lt. Dease had been mortally wounded and killed, and the order to retreat was issued, Private Godley offered to defend the Nimi Railway Bridge, while the rest of the section retreated. Godley held the bridge single-handed under very heavy fire and was wounded twice. Shrapnel entered his back when an explosion near him went off, and he was shot in the head. Despite his injuries he carried on the defense of the bridge while his comrades escaped.
Above: Plaque under Nimy Railway Bridge, Mons, Belgium. 24 September 2015.
Above: Central square. Mons, Belgium. 24 September 2015.
Students were yelling slogans on the steps of the town hall in what looked to be some form of initiation rituals.
Above: Rainbow. Mons, Belgium. 24 September 2015.
Above: Gravestone of Maurice Dease, first UK soldier WWI VC winner for actions at Nemy Bridge in Mons, Belgium. St. Symphorien Military cemetery, Mons, Belgium. 25 September 2015.
The wreath is made of simulated poppies, UK symbol for WWI.
The remembrance poppy has been used since 1921 to commemorate soldiers who have died in war. Inspired by the World War i poem, "In Flanders Fields," after the first public use, and campaign for their use, by Moina Michael, they were initially adopted by the American Legion to commemorate American soldiers killed in that war. The practiced was later embraced by Commonwealth countries.
Germans used the oak sprig as their WWI symbol.
Above: Battlefield near Elouge, Belgium.... south of Mons. 25 September 2015.
Our group listens to battlefield guide Bruce Cherry tell the story of the First Battalion, 22nd (Cheshire) Regiment, 25 officers and 925 men, who stood firm on this battlefield in the face of overwhelming German opposition on 24 August 2015.
Only 7 British officers and 200 men survived the battle. The Cheshires are credited with saving the British 5th Division from disaster on the first day of the BEF retreat from Mons.
It would be another two weeks before the two retreating British corps would reach the Marne, just outside of Paris. Thereafter, coordinating with the new French 6th Army, the British would fight successfully the battle of the Marne and chase retreating German troops 50 miles back into Belgium, before both sides, tired, decided to dig in, creating the Western Front, which more or less would be the line that would separate the opponents for the four year duration of the war.
Above: Comic Mom, wearing TIMDT knit cap, at Le Quesnoy, France. Outdoor market. 25 September 2015.
Whaa???? No laundry at the Lille Carlton Hotel??!! Sacre Bleu. I have to buy 1% some underwear!
Above: Tour goers listen to Bruce Cherry recount the story of the liberation of Le Quesnoy, France on 04 November 1918. Here the group fast forwards four years for an aside while continuing its study of the BEF retreat from Mons in late August of 1914.
Bruce points out how elements of the New Zealand Division scaled the fortified walls of Le Quesnoy and captured it from a defending German garrison. The white, stone monument affixed to the fortress wall in the background marks the spot of the NZ troop breach of the wall.
To some extent it is a bit frustrating to try to put all the pieces of the WWI puzzle together... so deviations (from the 1914 British retreat from Mons, to the 1918 British offensive on the left) like this one seem as tiny puzzle pieces on an otherwise blank slate. There are so many sights... so many engagements... that occur just on the Western Front... a four hundred mile line reaching from the Flanders coast on the English Channel to Switzerland. Add battle history from other fronts... Eastern, Italian, Turkish, Caucasus, Serbia... and it is a wonder that any one person can "visualize" what actually went on.
Above: Sambre-Oise Canal at Ors, France. 25 September 2015.
Another deviation from the August 1914 BEF retreat. Ors. Sambre Oise Canal engagement. 04 November 1918.
Later, we are headed to Le Cateau, where an important battle, like Elouge, cited above, was fought as part of the BEF August 1914 retreat. However, the canal and the village of Ors, France is only four miles away from Le Cateau and worth a stop as it is the burial place of one of England's best known WWI war time poets, Wilfred Owen.
On 04 November 1918, the British 32nd Division crossed the Sambre-Oise canal on the bridge from which I capture the above image. Ors, France. In the face of strong opposition, during the assault, four VCs were won. Among the dead was the poet, Lieutenant Wilfred Owens. Owens was killed about a kilometer beyond where the image was taken, on the left side tow path.
War time poets such as Owens are controversial. Their mostly anti war tone has helped to shape much of the anti war attitude to WWI and subsequent wars that is spun through popular culture to this day.
Consider that Owens was only 25 when he died. So much literary skill at such a young age... agree with his tone or not.
Owen sample poetry:
Dulce et Decorum Est
Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned out backs,
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots,
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame, all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of gas-shells dropping softly behind.
Gas! GAS! Quick, boys! - An ecstasy of fumbling
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time,
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
And flound'ring like a man in fire or lime.-
Dim through the misty panes and thick green light,
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.
In all my dreams before my helpless sight
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.
If in some smothering dreams, you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin,
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs
Bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,-
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.
Wilfred Owens
Three statements by Owen:
"All a poet can do today is warn. That is why the true poet must be truthful."
"The people of England needn’t hope. They must agitate." Letter 19 January, 1917, shortly after arriving at the front line in France.
"I am more and more a Christian. . . Suffer dishonour and disgrace, but never resort to arms. Be bullied, be outraged, be killed: but do not kill." Letter to his mother, May 1917.
Above: Bumblebee on flower near Sambre-Oise Canal Bridge. Ors, France. 25 September 2015.
Above: Ors, France. 25 September 2015.
Image captured from cemetery where Wilfred Owens and two of four VC winners in Sambre Oise engagement are buried.
Above: Bishop observes fellow tour goers at mid Le Cateau battlefield monument honoring British Second Battalion, Suffolk Regiment, which fought valiantly against attacking Germans at Le Cateau, France on 25 August 1914.
Back to the BEF retreat!
Of the 40K allied men fighting at Le Cateau, 7,812 were injured, killed, or taken prisoner. Le Cateau was the largest battle fought by British troops during the two week long British retreat from Mons to the Marne, just outside of Paris.
Le Cateau is an iconic battle in UK military lore. Britain's professional army fought hard against a larger, well trained force. ... in this, the first significant British fighting on the continent in 100 years.
Smith-Dorrien, Ii Corps Commander, had been told by his superior, Field Marshal Sir John French, not to engage the enemy at Le Cateau, but to continue the retreat. I understand this as several times in my own banking/management career I took actions that I "knew to be right" counter to the wishes of a superior. You better win when you do this, but, it often causes resentment. French was livid after Le Cateau... but, he could do nothing. Smith-Dorrien was made a hero by the British press for his actions at Le Cateau.
Le Cateau bought the allies time to facilitate the retreat. The allies would regroup at the Marne in September and push the Germans back towards Belgium 40 miles.
The Battle of the Marne marked the point where Germany realized it had lost Paris, and hence the war. Notwithstanding, opposing armies engaged in trench, attrition warfare for 4 more years, after which the allies were victorious and armistice was signed in November 1918.
Addendum:
SUPER !!
Mr. Z3,
Ojai, CA
At Heathrow heading back to Chicago! Had a fun trip to France with Tony Tessier. Look forward to your pictomails of your current travels!
Teeny Tiny,
Chicago, IL
Above: Bishop observes Flanders Field WWI Museum in Ypres, Belgium. 26 September 2015.
Today, on our battlefield tour of WWI battlefield sights, "from the British point of view," we would visit various locations on the Ypres salient.
After the two week long retreat south from Mons, which started on 24 August 1914, the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) ended up on the Marne River, not 25 miles from Paris itself. French Chief of Staff Joffre realized that the threat to Paris of a German invasion coming through Belgium to the north was much greater than he had previously realized, so he rapidly cannibalized his armies on the French right to create a new army, the 6th Army, to head directly to the French left where they, joining with the BEF, would confront the two great German armies (1st Army - Von Kluck, and 2nd Army - Von Bulow) to save Paris. Troops, horses, and provisions were shipped by railway.
On 06 September 2015, The new, Sixth French Army, under the command of General Michel-Josef Maunoury, and the BEF, still under the command of John French, mounted a counter attack against the Germans at the Marne. Fortuitously, Von Kluck's troops, which under the Schlieffen Plan, should have encircled Paris from the east, turned West before reaching Paris, thereby exposing their right flank to the newly formed French Sixth Army. The allies at the Marne, in addition to having more troops, had the tactical advantage in the attack and stopped the German onslaught on Paris.
For over another month, well into October, occurred another series of battles which some historians call "The Race to the Sea." Each side would fight to gain access to the North Sea side corridor, the allies to ensure prevention of a German regrouping to sweep to their right for another assault on Paris, and the allies to prevent the same.
In October 1914, the BEF reached Ypres, Belgium, It was around this area that the BEF dug in. Lines which were to remain set for the remaining four year duration of the war were set.
Ypres was a salient where Brits were pounded from three sides, in 7 major battles, over the four remaining years of the war, after having pushed the Germans back from the Marne and the gates of Paris in September /October 1914.
Field Marshal Horace Smith-Dorrien, British UK Ypres Commander was fired in 1915 for advising the British War Council to give up the Ypres salient. Notwithstanding the likelihood of many lives being saved by ceding the salient to the Germans, the War Council felt that psychological damage to the war effort would occur by giving up turf previously gained. Also, the original lines of the salient included high points favored by BEF artillery leaders.
Ypres was ground zero for British action in WWI. Ypres holds a special place in British military lore. Not far from the English Channel, Ypres was close to home. All British soldiers wanted an assignment at Ypres. Sadly, too many got their wish. Over the course of the war, 325K British soldiers lost their lives at Ypres. Notwithstanding the likelihood of many lives being saved by ceding the salient to the Germans, the War Council felt that psychological l damage to the war effort would occur by giving up turf previously gained.
Above: Langemark German military cemetery. Langemark, Belgium. 26 September 2015.
Langemark cemetery is one of only four First World War German cemeteries in the Flanders region. In the whole of Belgium there are 13 First and Second World War German military cemeteries.
Oak trees above the graves remind that the oak leaf cluster, as the poppy is for the British, is the symbol of the German soldier.
40K German soldiers, who died in the Ypres salient, are buried in marked graves and trench graves at Langemark.
Above: Locale of first use by Germans of poison gas in WWI. Ypres salient. Belgium. 26 September 2015.
Patrick, battlefield guide, describes to our tour group, how poison gas was employed by the Germans.
The first use of poison gas came on 22 April 1915, at the start of the Second Battle of Ypres.
The Ypres salient ran for some ten miles and bulged into German occupied territory for five miles.
During the AM of 22 April the Germans .;poured a heavy bombardment around Ypres, but the line fell silent as the afternoon grew. Towards evening, at around 5:00 PM, the bombardment began afresh - except that sentries posted among the French and Algerian troops noticed a curious yellow-green cloud slowly drifting towards the line.
Puzzled, but suspicious, the French suspected that the cloud masked an advance by German infantry and ordered their men to "stand to" that is, to mount the trench fire step in readiness for a probable attack.
The cloud did not mask an infantry attack however. It signaled the first use of chlorine gas on the battlefield. Ironically its use ought not to have been a surprise to the Allied troops, for captured German soldiers had revealed the imminent use of gas on the western front.
The effects of the gas were severe. Within seconds of inhaling its vapor it destroyed the victim's respiratory organs, bringing on choking attacks.
As Patrick explained, releasing gas was not always reliable. The wind could shift... and often did. The Allies started using gas later in the war and found its use not always effective.
Within six months, crude respirators were issued to soldiers. Initially, soldiers discovered that masking their mouth and nose with a pad soaked in human urine would mitigate the effects of the gas.
Above: Hooge Crater British Cemetery. Hooge, Belgium. Ypres Salient. 26 September 2015.
There is a huge crater at Hooge which was the result of a massive explosion.
On 19 July 1915 the British decided to eliminate the concrete fortifications that the Germans were building with a limited but well-targeted attack.
The 175th Tunneling Company of Royal Engineers dug out a 57 meter long gallery over a period of five and one half weeks.
The 3rd Infantry Division then placed a 1,700kg charge of ammonal underneath the German fortifications.
The largest mine of WWI blew at 7:00 PM on 19 July 1915 leaving a nearly forty meter wide by six meter deep crater.
Hundreds of Germans, and a dozen Commonwealth soldiers who found themselves under the path of the fallen debris were killed during the explosion.
According to Patrick, folklore has it that the Hooge Crater explosion percussion was felt at 11 Downing Street, in London.
After the explosion, British troops stormed and took the area of the crater, but the crater area exchanged hands between the combatants several more times before the end of the war.
Hooge Crater was filled with water in the 1920's.
Above: Battlefield guide Patrick simulates the explosion of the Hooge Crater in WWI. Hooge Crater Cemetery, Ypres Salient. Belgium. 26 September 2015.
Patrick noted that underground mine explosions were an innovation of WWI. Entire coal mines in the UK were emptied of their miners who were recruited to join the Royal Corps of Engineers to facilitate the underground explosions.
Both sides mined from their trench positions to positions under the enemy.
Above: Hooge Crater today. Hooge. Ypres Salient. Belgium. 26 September 2015.
Above: WWI war debris exhibit. Hooge. Ypres Salient. Belgium. 26 September 2015.
Above: 1919 photograph of Hooge, Ypres Salient. Belgium. 26 September 2015.
Photo captured from a dirigible.
X marks the spot of the Hooge Crater.
Above: Our group inspects WWI trench system. Hooge. Ypres Salient, Belgium. 26 September 2015.
Above: Original WWI Lord Kitchener recruiting poster. Hooge. Ypres Salient. Belgium. 26 September 2015.
Herbert Kitchener was British Secretary of State for War, during WWI.
Unlike the French and German armies, the BEF army units were made up exclusively of volunteers - as opposed to conscripts - at the beginning of the conflict.
During the war, there were three distinct British Armies.
The "first" army was the small volunteer force of 400K soldiers, over half of which were posted overseas to garrison the British Empire. This "first army" was called the British Expeditionary Force (BEF), and was formed for service in France. Its soldiers became known as The Old Contemptibles.
The "second" army was Kitchener's Army, formed from the volunteers in 1914-1915 destined to go into action at the Battle of the Somme.
The "third" army was formed after the introduction of conscription in January 1916, and by the end of 1918, the army had reached its maximum strength of 4MM men and could field over 70 divisions.
Above: Lotus car. Ypres, Belgium. 26 September 2015.
From the sacred to the profane.
Above: "Last Post Ceremony," Menin Gate, Ypres, Belgium. 26 September 2015.
The ceremony is held nightly. On the night of our attendance... Sunday... there were at least 3000 people in attendance. Watching the ceremony was difficult but it is evident that WWI is not forgotten considering this attendance.
The buglers played "Last Post," and about 25 small groups deposited wreaths honoring a particular soldier whose name was introduced at the beginning of the ceremony.
All WWI Commonwealth casualty names are engraved on Menin gate.
Note Eton Mum's comments re Menin gate and Luke's participation below.
Addendum:
Thanks for sharing, much appreciated.
LaDoc and LaPsy,
Los Angeles, CA
Steve,
I couldn't attach it to my email but you will find this interesting: it is from the Summerfields School website, reviewing Our Boys Who Went To War. They are honoured every November 11th and their names read out in Chapel, as indeed are all those Etonians who died as well.
http://www.summerfields.com/Our-Boys-Review
Best wishes,
Eton Mum,
Palma de Mallorca
Steve, No doubt you and your fellow travelers will find the war trip and cemeteries most moving and interesting. When I was last there, with Luke in 2011, listening to the stories of all those many brave young Old Summerfieldians who lost their lives in the Great War, we could almost hear the dogfights overhead - so vivid were the fascinating commentaries.
Below is a picture of a contemplative Luke, aged 13. He planted a poppy cross at his great, great paternal uncle's grave at Meault Cemetery. Private John Humphries lost his life, aged 26, on 21st September, 1916 fighting with the Royal Warwickshire Regiment, 16th Battalion. The cemetery was designed by Sir Edward Lutyens and a haunting memory for me is the total peace and complete silence amongst those lines of cold stone graves where not even birdsong can be heard.
The Summerfields Red Choir was invited to lay a wreath and sing at several ceremonies but one of the most moving was that at The Last Post Ceremony, under the giant arch of The Menin Gate, Ypres, where the boys sang Crossing The Bar and The National Anthem- a reverend, sombre and truly humbling experience as we all stood together, heads bowed, with our private thoughts and prayers and remembered those who came from many distant lands, to die in the mud of Flanders. They will remain, immortalized, forever, their names carved in stone, "Lest We Forget".
Eton Mum
Palma de Mallorca
Above: Luke. Age 13. Ypres, Belgium... circa 2009.
Would have been wonderful to hear Luke's choir at Menin gate.
Blimey, someone is efficient!
It was great meeting you all. A real pleasure.
I hope that you are enjoying the rest of the tour and that the weather has improved.
My regular email contact address is [email protected] . This is my address for my other passion, rock'n'roll heritage. It makes a welcome change to come away from those sad 'silent cities' to the uplifting trivia of Beatle music!
Regards to all.
Bruce
Bruce Cherry
Managing Director
Access All Areas (GB) Ltd
Monumental Tours of Rock's Landmarks
www.londonrocktour.com
Telephone: Reservations & Operations: (+44) 07971 296 352
Marketing & Admin: (+44) 07887 703 725
More or less our WWI battlefield tour follows the path of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) from the time of their arrival in France in early August of 1914 to the Armistice, 11. November 1918.
The scope of the war is so extensive... the sights of the various battles so numerous... that it is impossible in just over a week to see even a fraction of what there is to see. Like aficionados of America's Civil War, WWI "junkies" seek out obscured trench lines, and study in great detail obscure skirmishes. But, we don't have time to use a fine toothed comb approach to study WWI. In eight days... we can only get an overview... with select detailed stories and explanations interspersed.
To date we have visited Mons, Belgium, and the spot where the first shot was fired by a British cavalryman at Von Kluck's troops advancing through Belgium.
We followed, part way, the August/September 1914 BEF retreat to the Marne seeing Elouge and Le Cateau, sites of significant BEF military engagement early in the war.
We didn't make it to the Marne, the end of the retreat where BEF and French forces stopped Von Kluck's advance. Nor, did we study the British engagements which happened in late 1914 and early 1915 in the "race to the sea."
But, we did join back with the BEF in Ypres, Belgium...where final trench lines of the Western Front had been set on the allied left and the German right after the "race to the sea." The Ypres salient saw, in seven major battles over the course of the war, some of the heaviest of Western Front fighting. In the Ypres salient we learned about the German soldier at a German military cemetery - Langemarck, the German introduction of poison gas in the 2nd Battle of Ypres (later also used by the allies) and underground mining/tunneling operations... Hooge crater.
We moved on to 1915 with our study today of the battle of Neuve Chapelle, the BEF's first engagement after the Western Front lines were set, in Spring 1915. We examined in some detail the Indian soldier's role in WWI through study of the battle of Neuve-Chapelle.
We have occasionally deviated from following the BEF timeline through the war by jumping ahead. For example...
We stopped at Ors, an otherwise unremarkable spot on the Sambre Oise canal, to learn about the British poets and their impact on British perception of the war. At Ors, we focused on Wilford Owen, who was killed on the tow path of the Sambre Oise Canal just one week before the Armistice, in November 1918.
We visited Le Quesnoy where New Zealand troops stormed the ancient city walls to capture 1000 Germans inside in October of 1918.
And today we jumped to July 1916, the time of Somme and Verdun, to look at a short, but bloody battle, Fromelles.
Above: Names on Indian Memorial, Neuve-Chapelle, Pas de Calais, France. 27 September 2015. Note Gobar Sing Negi's Victoria Cross.
Our group visited this memorial this AM. 27 September 2015.
The memorial lists the names of 4742 Indian soldiers with no known grave, who fell in battle while fighting for the British Indian Army in WWI. The memorial is located in Neuve-Chappelle as many Indian soldiers participated in the battle there.
Battlefield guide Patrick Mercer gave us an excellent lecture about Indian soldiers fighting in Europe. They were cold... they came to fight in cotton khakis, suitable for smug subcontinent weather, but wholly inadequate for cold, wet, Europe in Spring. They wore chappals... not boots. They were unused to British trench food... say, pea soup with horse meat.
Still, they fought with distinction.
At the unveiling ceremony for the memorial, in 1927, retired French chief of staff, Marshal Foch spoke:
Return to your homes in the distant, sun-bathed East and proclaim how your countrymen drenched with their blood the cold northern land of France and Flanders, how they delivered it by their ardent spirit from the firm grip of a determined enemy; tell all India that we shall watch over their graves with the devotion due to all our dead. We shall cherish above all the memory of their example. They showed us the way, they made the first steps towards the final victory.
— Marshal Ferdinand Foch, 7 October 1927[4
Indian prime minister, Nirendra Modi, visited the memorial in April, 2015 to lay a wreath. He is quoted:
"I am honoured to pay homage to the Indian soldiers here at the Indian Memorial at Neuve Chappelle. Our soldiers who fought in foreign lands in the Great War, have won the admiration of the world for dedication, loyalty, courage and sacrifice. I salute them."
— Prime Minister Narendra Modi, 11 April 2015[6]
Above: Rudy Jr. stands in field, site within battlefield of Neuve-Chappelle, WWI. Pas de Calais, France. 27 September 2015.
Gobar Sing Negi's VC was earned in the close vicinity to where Rudy Jr. stands in the image.
It is March 2015. Early in the war. The allies have been driven by the Germans to the Marne in September 2014 and have now fought back to establish an 800 kilometer long trench line that extends from Pas de Calais to the Voges. Its time for the allies to test the line... to try for a break through. The Battle of Neuve Chapelle was the first offensive launched by the British in the spring of 1915. The engagement began on 10 March 1915 and ended on 13 March 1915.
The battle began when British forces attempted to break through the German trenches at Neuve-Chapelle and capture the village of Aubers, less than a mile to the east... behind Rudy, Jr. in the above image.
In the opening assault, 342 guns barraged the trenches for 35 minutes, partially directed by reconnaissance planes flying overhead. The total number of shells fired during the barrage exceeded the number fired in the whole of the Boer War (a conflict fought in South Africa between British forces and South African revolutionaries in 1899-1902) - a testament to how much the nature of war had changed in less than fifteen years.
After the opening barrage, British and Indian infantry forces immediately moved in to attack the German trench line along a 4000 yard long front. British/Indian forces succeeded in the center, where the barrage had been effective, but quickly suffered 1000 casualties on the left, where the German trenches had been left undamaged.
Poor communication led to Corps commander Sir Henry Rawlinson, hearing of success in the center, but unaware of slaughter on the left, calling for a further advance. The called for advanced exposed the left flank of the British center and led to further casualties from enfilading German machine gun fire coming from the German right. Reserve troops were not in position to back up British soldiers and heavy losses in the now exposed center were suffered.
Some British soldiers were killed by their own artillery. This points out the problems of early communications in WWI. There was no wireless communication. Telephone wires had to be laid on the ground, and these, of course were susceptible to being broken by artillery and the general chaos of the fighting.
On 13 March 1915, the third and final day of the Battle of Neuve-Chapelle, British/Indian troops repelled a German attack and launched another of their own. They were forced to call a halt after less than two hours, however, as many units had been decimated. By the time the attacks were called off later that day, Allied forces had captured a small salient 2000 yards wide and 1200 yards deep, along with 1200 German prisoners.at the cost of 7000 and 4200 Indian casualties.
Neuve-Chappelle, an early WWI battle, foreshadows the immense and terrible scope of WWI on the Western Front in terms of casualties. In only two weeks, April 1915, the Allies will land on Gallipoli. Through the end of 1915... 8 months, the ANZACs will suffer 8000 casualties in Gallipoli... and the British slightly more. Yet, in only one three day battle of Neuve Chappele, on the Western Front, 11,000 casualties were suffered.
It will get worse.... much worse.
General John Charteris, director of military intelligence under British commander Douglas Haig, took another sobering lesson from the battle, writing that “England will have to accustom herself to far greater losses than those of Neuve Chapelle before we finally crush the German army.”
The above diary entry was posted by me on Facebook some three days ago. Chita's three comments responding to that diary entry via Facebook are germane (and appreciated).
Chittaranjan Gauba Neuve-Chapelle was especially significant because it showed that if done differently, assaults against trenches could succeed. It required a combination of artillery barrages and surprise to support attacking infantry. By learning this, Haig was far more successful than his predecessor, Sir John French. He could, of course, have learned more; Churchill had to point out that tanks were better at withstanding enemy bullets than "the breasts of brave men". It was not until Cambrai (1918) that tanks were used the way they should have been. Although Haig was popularly considered a hero for "winning the war", to many he still represents an outmoded and wrong-thinking class of commander who paid too heavily with the blood of others for successes which were too limited for the cost.
Chittaranjan Gauba John Charteris is a case in point. He had no formal training in or experience with intelligence, and (admittedly with the benefit of hindsight) his analysis and his strategic recommendations were largely over-optimistic. And he certainly was of the school which believed that high casualties were not only inevitable but necessary. Haig liked him, though, and kept him on for too long, despite a great deal of criticism of style and effectiveness.
Chittaranjan Gauba Oh, and just two corrections to note: it's of course Douglas Haig, not Alexander (that's the name of the U.S. general who was White House Chief of Staff during Watergate). Also, the name of the brave Victoria Cross winner from India who died fighting in this battle is correctly spelled Gabbar Singh Negi; both the citation and the memorial have it spelled wrong. BTW: Negi's old regiment, the Garhwal Rifles, "adopted" an annual spring fair named after Negi, held in the town of Chamba every year around his birthday (April 20). The regiment recruits every year at that fair, over one hundred years after his death. Negi was 19 years old when he earned his VC.
Above: Battlefield guide Patrick Mercer explains Battle of Neuve Chapelle fighting. Neuve Chapelle, France. 27 September 2015.
Original gunfire damage could be seen, close up, on original houses at right.
Our battlefield guide, Oxford educated, Patrick Mercer, OBE, served in the British Army for 25 years. He was a brigade commander in Northern Ireland and retired as a full Colonel. He has written ten books on military history and one of his favorite topics, Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes side kick, Dr. Watson.
Patrick's knowledge of his subject matter is prodigious. He is well prepared with an agenda each morning and shows sensitivity and flexibility for tour goer desires. We start off each day with a discussion of the strategic situation, move to the tactics of the particular, battle we are studying, and then, reduce further to a particular battle incident discussing actions and personalities of those involved. Patrick is as comfortable and apt discussing the ins and outs of the British War Council as he is pointing out the individual exploits of a VC winning soldier.
Patrick conveyed to us a number of war anecdotes that added texture to our understanding of the WWI. For example, he told us about how salt influenced the outcome of the war. In the early stages of the war, British artillery ammo was unreliable. The problem was identified as too much salt in the chips served in the 24 hour bars outside of the British ammo factories. Workers, on lunch break, or after hours, would frequent the bars. Eating with an abundance of salt led them to drink a lot. When they worked inebriated the quality control of the ammo suffered. War authorities reduced the amount of salt in the chips which led to less drinking, less inebriation, and an improvement in ammo quality.
Above: Flowers at a residence. Neuve Chapelle, France. 27 September 2015.
Above: 1% stands in Neuve Chapelle Church. Neuve Chapelle, France. 27 September 2015.
War damage could be observed on the exterior of the church.
Above: WWI German bunker. Neuve Chapelle, France. 27 September 2015.
Battlefield guide, Patrick Mercer explains bunker operations. Rudy Jr. and Portland look on.
Several pieces of loose war debris were found at this infrequently visited spot.
It seems amazing that war debris can still be found in spots such as this 100 years after the battles.
Above: Pheasant Woods, Australian WWI Military Cemetery, Fromelles, France. 27 August 2015.
The Battle of Fromelles, 19-20 July 1916, was a brief but bloody Western Front episode of WWI. Its purposes was to take pressure off the French and British in the Battle of the Somme, the iconic, major offensive started on 02 July 1916 some 50 miles to the south.
The fighting at Fromelles lasted twenty-four hours and resulted in a significant reverse for the British and the Australians, the latter seeing action on French soil for the first time. No new ground was gained as the battle was called off due to heavy casualties.
The great war on the Western Front was founded on heavy artillery and machine-guns and the figures from Fromelles show just how brutal it had become. The Australians suffered 5,500 casualties (2000 killed or missing and 3,500 wounded or taken prisoner), the British had 1,500 soldiers put out of action, and the German toll was 1,500 dead or wounded.
It is sobering to realize that the Australians, at Fromelles, lost in one 24 hour period, one quarter of the troops dead as during the entire eight month campaign in the (at least for Australians) Gallipoli engagements, 1915.
Above: Simon Fraser's statue at Memorial Park. Fromelles, France. 27 September 2015.
In the next three days after the battle of Fromelles, despite no official truce being proclaimed, Australian soldiers went out into no man's land to assist their wounded comrades. Their gesture is remembered in the statue, seen in the image, which stands at the center of the park. The statue was unveiled in July 1998 and dedicated to the "cobbers" of the Great War. A replica of Peter Corlett's statue can be seen in the gardens of Melbourne's Shrine of Remembrance.
Born in 1887, Simon Fraser was farming in Victoria when the war broke out. In 1915 he joined the 57th Battalion of the Australian Imperial Force. He fought at the Battle of Fromelles. His diary describes how, on the following day, he ventured out on to the battlefield to help the wounded. His bravery was the inspiration for the pictured sculpture. On 11 May 1917, during the Second Battle of Bullecourt, Sergeant Fraser was reported missing in action. His name is engraved on the Australian National Memorial of Villers-Bretonneux in the Somme.
Above: Fromelles Military Park. Fromelles, France. 27 Setember 2015.
Shot is of German bunker inside the military park. Many of the military parks and cemeteries we saw were bordered by corn fields. Not, also, the poppy decoration affixed to the side of the bunker.
Addendum:
Above: Karen and I stayed with a friend in Soignies-Casteau near Mons in 2011. He was stationed with NATO. Photo's are of a
monument relative to WW I and our host's house.
Spook,
Reston, VA
Steve,
When I read your blog about the Hooge Crater, it reminded me of the
Battle of the Crater from the American Civil War. You may find the
following article interesting:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Crater#Mine_construction
Take care & travel safely! Thanks for including me in your mailing list!
Art,
Dallas, TX
Steve,
You really get around! Appreciate reading about your experiences. Thanks.
Claude,
Redding, PA
Steve,
As usual, a great commentary.
WWI was an insane war that never should have happened, and it birthed WWII. So many young men died for appearances and protocol because a Duke and his wife were killed.
Basketball,
Pelham, NY
thanks Steve. i am trying to catch up with your around the world in 80 days :) do not sit in that lotus even if you could--you will have to be cut out of it .
Brand,
Venice, CA
Above: Vermelles British Cemetery, Vermelles, France. 28 September 2015.
Vermelles was in German hands from the middle of October 1914 to the beginning of December 1914, when it was recaptured by the French. The cemetery was begun in August 1915, and during the Battle of Loos, when the town chateau was used as a dressing station. There are 2134 First World War casualties commemorated in the cemetery. Most of the Commonwealth war cemeteries were located in hospital/dressing stations for major battles.
In the image, in the monument at rear, battlefield guide Patrick Mercer overviews with our group the war to date from the British point of view.
Through the spring of 1915, from their entry into the war in mid-August, 1914, the British Expeditionary Force (BEF), had not been a significant force in the grand scheme of the war. The allies, the French, on the Western Front, and the Russians on the Eastern Front had borne the brunt of the casualties.
Battle of the Frontiers - Mons, and the Retreat
In mid-August,1914, the British had their first engagement with the Germans, at Mons, part of the Battle of the Frontiers. The Battle of the Frontiers was a series of engagements along a line from Belgium to Alsace Lorraine, fought between the Germans and the French.
On the allied right - The Ardennes, Alsace Lorraine - the French were learning that their war beginning offensive efforts to break the German line were not effective due to intense, accurate German artillery, the surprising efficacy of new machine guns, and overwhelming numbers of German troops put into the field. On the allied left - Belgium - , the French and the BEF were learning that Germany had introduced into Belgium far more forces (three armies), with an eye on Paris, than first believed.
So began the two week long allied retreat towards Paris by the BEF and Lanrezac's French Fifth Army, and Joffre's creation of a new French Army, the Sixth Army, to join with Lanrezac and French (BEF) to challenge the advancing Germans at the Marne, not 30 miles from Paris itself.
Earlier on the tour, our group visited three locations where the British fought during the August retreat: Mons, L'Elouge and Le Cateau. These early war battles are viewed in a positive light by British historians and public perception, notwithstanding that all three battles were fought as part of a retreating action. Battlefield guide Patrick Mercer pointed out that, II Corps commander, Horace Smith-Dorrian, courageously, while in retreat, chose, against the orders of his boss, John French, to turn and fight the Germans at Le Cateau. While, British forces were mauled at Le Cateau, the battle resulted in a two day delay of the German march on Paris. Some historians believe that the subsequent fight at the Battle of the Marne might have resulted in a German victory but for the two day delay forced on the German troops by the British at Le Cateau.
Generally, In this early phase of the war, the BEF was not regarded highly by Joffre and his French commanders. They had difficulty in communicating with John French, who, himself, didn't seem to trust the French much, either. Also, the French felt French was more concerned about keeping his troops out of the fight than joining it. After the British retreat from Belgium, and before the battle of the Marne, French had argued to take his troops off the field all together, until such time as he could strengthen his force with more men, acquire additional artillery, and ensure better training. It should be remembered that the Brits started the war with a relatively small fighting force compared to the total French commitment in 1914. French may have had some reason to believe he wasn't ready to fight hard on a large scale. Notwithstanding, he and the five divisions of BEF troops with him, were critically needed by Joffre to bolster up the Allied left.
Joffre, a man not afraid of a fight, with backing from French's boss, British War Secretary Kitchener, cajoled French to fight along side his new Sixth Army at Marne to turn the German onslaught.
Marne, Race to the Sea, Solidification of Western Front Trench Lines
The First Battle of the Marne was fought 05-12 September 2014. Joffre, with British assistance, was successful in halting the German advance.
Post Marne, the BEF, joining with French forces, fought a series of engagements with the now retreating Germans in what is called "the race to the sea." Opposing armies tried, engagement after engagement, to gain access to (the Germans) or close off (the BEF and French) the Flemish corridor along the English Channel. An enterprising Belgian/Flemish farmer opened flood gates rendering much of the desired land underwater and therefore unusable for troop movement.
So, by the end of the year, exhausted opposing forces settled down to face off against one another into a trench line running north/south from Ypres, Belgium, in the north to east of Amiens in the south. While the Western Front would extend much farther south and east, as far as Switzerland, the BEF would do all of its fighting, in the next four years, along the Ypres to Amiens segment of the line... close to home, as it were.
Our group visited Ypres (topic of 26 September 2015 Picto Diary). The BEF fought hard at the first battle of Ypres, 19 October to 22 November 1914, regaining some of the respect they may have lost in the eyes of the French earlier in the war.
Trench Warfare Begins - 1915
The early WWI commanders found it impossible to assault enemy trench positions without their troops being decimated. Military tactics before WWI had failed to keep pace with advances in technology. The technology advances had allowed the creation of strong defensive systems... barbed wire, far more lethal and reliable artillery, and machine guns, which made crossing open ground extremely difficult. In time, however, technology began to produce new offensive weapons, such as gas warfare and the tank.
The soldiers on both sides were well dug in, even though they only had simple defensive systems in 1915. The trenches were over six feet deep, with the firing bases separated by solid earth traverses, a parapet in front and apardos behind, a fire step for men to stand on in action, wire or wood revetments holding up the sides, duckboards underfoot and simple drainage systems. Patrick noted that the Germans built far more extensive and buttressed trench systems than did the British. The British commanders, he said, didn't want the troops to get too comfortable... they wanted their troops out attacking Germans.
In front of the trenches there was a barbed wire defense of one or two "double aprons." Only high explosives and shells from high angle weapons dropped directly into the trenches posed pressing danger.
Though the Germans were well dug in, the situation was grim for them. They had hoped for a quick war. Now they found themselves embroiled in a two-front war, with two enemies - France and Russia - fully mobilized and another - Britain - slowly amassing her strength and relatively invulnerable behind her navy. German army chief, Erich von Falkenhayn's best hope now was for a negotiated peace with one of Germany's adversaries - preferably Russia - allowing Germany to concentrate on beating first France and then Britain.
The first significant efforts to break the German line were made by the French. The French had a winter of heavy fighting as they sought to test the limitations of trench warfare with a series of major offensives that started in December 1914 and stretched through 1915. The first French attack was on 17 December by the Tenth Army in the Artois region, with the objective of gaining control the heights of the Vimy Ridge that dominated the Lens-Doual plain, near Loos.
Further south, an offensive in the Champagne area opened up on 20 December 1914. The Fourth Army attempted to break through to the Mezieres rail junction The Fourth Army had amassed some 258K troops backed up by over 700 guns. The tactics at Champagne involved a heavy emphasis on trying to maintain control in the chaos of battle: thus the atillery fired to a schedule and the infantry went over the top in accordance to an exact timetable. Things never go according to plan and the guns and infantry found themselves completely out of synch.
The Champagne fighting was starkly attritional, as tactically significant positions were taken, lost, taken, and lost again. The French attacks segued into German counter- attacks of equal weight. Gradually, the battle mutated into a sort of outdoor charnel house with no side gaining advantage on the other.
Joffre wanted the BEF to take some of the pressure off the French as the French pursued these initiatives.
Yesterday, 27 September 2015, our group visited Neuve Chapelle, site of the first significant BEF attempt to take some pressure off of the French and break the German trench line, 10 March 1915. My account of that visit is in my Picto Diary - 27 September 2015.
Big Picture - through September 1915.
The Germans scored a big defeat over two Russian armies at the battle of Tannenberg, in Prussia, in late 1914. But, the Germans had to send two corps from the west, thus depleting potential strength at the Battle of the Marne, to enable German commander Hindenburg and his Chief of Staff Ludendorf to prevail in the east. War historians suggest that, had German troop levels been at full strength at Marne, Germany would have prevailed in what, otherwise, was a seminal Allied victory.
Notwithstanding difficulties at Tannenburg, Russia's mobilization efforts continue to build. With a population of 130 million, Russia will be able to mobilize an enormous number of troops. With no effective railroad system, however, mobilization takes more time than it did in France and Germany.
In response to Russian pressure, the British lead an effort in April 2015 to break through the Dardanelles, take Constantinople, and thereby open supply routes into the Black Sea to Russia. Joffre goes along but lets it be known that he considers the effort a fools errand and an unnecessary distraction and diversion from where troops are really needed, the Western Front. The Dardanelles foray is broadly known as Gallipoli, named after the peninsula where ANZACS, British, and French troops beach landed to fight the Turks.
The BEF traditional army of professionals, 400,000 strong (and not all in France) "The Old Contemptibles," (a name given to them by the Kaiser), has taken significant casualties. Britain begins to call up its Territorial Forces (TF), (close equivalent to US National Guard)... weekend soldiers. War Secretary Kitchener, doesn't really trust this group. He knows his army... but not the TF. This army is called "the new army," to differentiate from the professional army.
US stays out of the War. Wilson won the presidency by campaigning that he would keep the US out of war.
Allied efforts to date to breach the line....Artois/Vimy (French), Champagne (French), Neuve Chapelle (BEF) have proven unsuccessful... but, considerable knowledge has been gained including the growing use of air planes... first for reconnaissance and subsequently for combat. Major improvements in artillery strategy have been made. Necessity is the mother of invention... in warfare more than anything else.
Above: Our WWI battlefield tour group surveys a segment of the Loos battlefield. Loos, France. 28 September 2015.
Battle of Loos
As part of the French autumn offensive, the British were requested by Joffre to launch a full-scale attack on the widest possible front at Loos on 25 September 2015. John French believed he wasn't ready to undertake such an attack. The BEF lacked the guns and shells for a bombardment on such a wide front, with only 533 guns to carry out a 11,200 yard frontage of two strongly fortified German trench lines.
Once again cajoled by Joffre to fight, John French, in desperation decided to use a release of poison gas for the fist time.
Although the British had some early success, capturing the town of Loos, they could not break through the German second line. Also, there were problems in command and control... John French had held reserves too far back to deploy when needed, causing a loss of momentum.
The fighting lasted several days, but even as fresh British troops were brought into battle, so the Germans moved in their own reserves and the battle degenerated into the usual round of attacks and counter-attacks.
Final British casualties at Loos approached 60K, while the German losses stood at around, 20K.
The BEF is learning about continental warfare and what it will take to defeat the German... the hard way.
Above: John Kipling name engraved Loos Memorial - Dud Corner Cemetery, Loos, France. 28 September 2015.
John Kipling
Birth: Aug. 17, 1897
Death: Sep. 27, 1915
British Military Figure. Born the youngest child and only son of prominent author Rudyard Kipling and his American born wife Caroline Starr Balestier. Known to his family as Jack, he was plagued with severe near sightedness, and was deemed medically unfit for military service during the First World War. He managed to secure a commission in the Irish Guards, however, with the weight of his father's influence behind him. On his eighteenth birthday, Kipling was posted to France. Within six weeks, the Battle of Loos, part of a joint Allied offensive on the Western Front, was entered, engaging 54 French and 13 British divisions. The death toll at Loos was greater than in any previous battle of the war. Eye-witnesses reported seeing Kipling fall with a neck wound, but intense machine gun and shellfire made retrieval impossible. At the battle's end he was reported wounded and missing. His grief-stricken parents used every possible channel and every high-level contact at their disposal to obtain news about their son in the hope that he might still be alive, even if as a prisoner of war. It was not until 1919 that his death was finally accepted by his parents. In 1992, the Commonwealth War Graves Commission announced that the grave of an unknown Irish Guards Lieutenant in the St Mary's ADS Cemetery was that of John Kipling although the decision has been disputed. The Imperial War Museum in London mounted an exhibition to tell the story of John Kipling in 2007. Jack's story was told in the book "My Boy Jack?: The Search for Kipling's Only Son" by Tonie and Valmai Holt, which was turned into a play by David Haig and filmed for British television in 2007 with Daniel Radcliffe as John, David Haig as Rudyard Kipling, and Kim Cattrall as Caroline Kipling. (bio by: Iola)
Family links:
Parents:
Rudyard Kipling (1865 - 1936)
Caroline Starr Balestier Kipling (1862 - 1939)
Siblings:
Josephine Kipling (1892 - 1899)*
Elsie Kipling Bambridge (1896 - 1976)*
John Kipling (1897 - 1915)
Above: Corn stalk "demolition." Near Loos Memorial. Loos, France. 28 September 2015.
For me, the significant amount of mechanized farming going on was amazing. Observing large scale farm operations was a subtext of our trip to the WWI battlefield areas of northern France and Belgium. We also saw potatoes and sugar beets being harvested.
The farm fields were battle fields in WWI. War artifacts, and even occasionally war dead, are found regularly by farmers.
Above: Insect on headstone. Loos Memorial. Loos, France. 28 September 2015.
Above: Rudy Junior stands on WWI German bunker remnant while Portland captures an image. Loos Battlefield, Loos, France. 28 September 2015.
Above: Battlefield guide leads our group through the Hohenzollern Redoubt, a German strong point on the Hindenberg Line, Loos Battlefield. Loos, France. 28 September 2015.
The redoubt, in German hands through September of 1915, changed hands at the Battle of Loos.
Above: Mine crater. Hohenzollern Redoubt, Loos Battlefield, Loos, France. 28 September 2015.
Above: German mortar ammo. Found in our wanderings through Hohenzollern Redoubt. Loos Battlefield. Loos, France. 28 September 2015.
Above: Patrick Mercer, battlefield guide, observes fuse from tip of 18 pound British round found by Portland near Hohenzollern Redoubt. Loos Battlefield. Loos, France. 28 September.
Above: Headstone at Loos Memorial cemetery for F. Bowes-Lyon, brother to The Queen Mother and uncle to Queen Elizabeth II. Loos, France. 28 September 2015.
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission has changed the commemoration for Captain Fergus Bowes-Lyon, an uncle of Her Majesty the Queen. Fergus died in France during the Battle of Loos in September 1915 and, until now, had been commemorated by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission on the Loos Memorial as he had no known grave.
His grandson wrote to the Commission in November 2011 after having visited Quarry Cemetery, Vermelles. He produced contemporary evidence that his grandfather had been buried in the quarry and that a grave marker with his name on it was still in place at the end of the war. The Commission's grave registration documents were found to record his burial in the cemetery in 1920, but these documents were superseded by the final grave registration forms, dating from 1925, which do not include Captain Bowes-Lyon's name.
Under these circumstances the Commission has agreed that the evidence for Captain Bowes-Lyon being buried in the cemetery is sufficient to allow the erection of a named headstone within the cemetery. The special memorial headstone to Captain Bowes-Lyon is inscribed 'Buried near this spot' as there is no certainty about the precise location of his remains within the cemetery. The majority of the headstones in Quarry Cemetery, Vermelles, are, in fact, of this type as the cemetery remained in the front line after 1915 and suffered extensive shell damage before the end of the war. This made precise grave identification extremely problematic.
The headstone was installed in the cemetery earlier this year.
Addendum:
SUPER !!
Mr. Z3,
Ojai, CA
Thank you Steve and Chitta for bringing WWI battle history to life for me.
Nathans,
Massapequa, NY
In the 1950's, when I was a high school student, my chemistry teacher was a gray-haired gentleman who had survived a German WW1 chlorine gas attack, losing one lung (the other was probably damaged as well).
He told us that just before demonstrating how to make chlorine gas (he performed the experiment in front of the class) and carefully instructing us how to smell its odor without injury (you fill your lungs with air, hold your breath, slightly open the containing vessel, and take a slight sniff). One after another, in groups of three, we followed his instructions, with no incident. Then, one of the students didn't follow instructions, and immediately collapsed. The teacher caught him, so he wasn't hurt from falling, and it turned out that he hadn't inhaled enough to cause any permanent damage.
When you inhale or are in contact with chlorine gas it reacts with the moisture in your eyes, nose, throat, windpipe, and lungs to form hydrochloric acid. You can imagine what that does, and the resulting pain.
Ain't war exciting? Guns, ammo, and all that great stuff.
FeeNix,
Phoenix, AZ
Just be glad you were not there during WW1.
There, but for the grace of God, go all of us.
FeeNix,
Phoenix, AZ
Hi Steve!
Thanks for sending me the pictures that included you at Independence Pass. Somewhere I have a picture of me taken there in 1950, during winter, when four of us were driving straight through from Chicago to spend the night in Glenwood Springs before arriving the next morning at Aspen for a week's vacation. The Eisenhower Tunnel was not started until 1968 so the pass on top was kept open all year long, as best they could, with giant snow plows. We managed to follow a plow and stopped long enough to have our picture taken at the sign at the top back then. The snow was deep but we made it.
There was one single chair lift to Aspen's top in two sections. As I remember you had to get off at the top of Ruthie's run (skiing down from there if you wished) or get back on to get all the way to the top of Ajax. The only other lift was a T-Bar up Little Nell at the base. Three years later I was back at Aspen for two nights on my Honeymoon to introduce my bride from Nashville to the place, on a trip from Palm Springs to our apartment in Evanston, stopping in Sun Valley for four days and her first time on skis. Fortunately she loved skiing and became better at it than was I.
By the way I expect to be back on the slopes for a half day a couple of times next winter to prove I did a bit when I was 91. I have fun telling old friends in Nashville (where i will be giving a couple of talks next month on my Man- hattan Project experience) that I still ski. They typically express amazement with "You still ski?" My also typical response is "Well I get tired a little just walking across the street to the mailbox. But you know ... skiing is all down hill!
Regards, Manhattan, Park City, UT
Above: The Bishop, Portland, and Rudy Jr. standing in front of a potato harvester near Sucrerie Military Cemetery, Somme WWI battlefield, Oise (7 miles north of Albert, France), France. 29 September 2015.
Post WWI the Somme battlefield, formerly farm land, was so scarred that authorities were on the point of turning the area into a forest. French farmers, however, came back to their holdings and pleaded with authorities to have the land restored to its former state. This was done. Roads, lanes, copses, and forested areas now exist more or less in the same configuration as before the war. Battle artifacts are regularly unearthed by farmers using equipment such as that pictured. The artifacts are placed in designated areas by the side of the road and periodically picked up by government agencies who manage the French and Commonwealth cemetery network in the area. Our guide, Patrick, notes that artifacts are still regularly unearth 100 years later... and that, probably no more than 5% of the war debris that remains along the Western Front, has been retrieved.
The battle of the Somme, fought by the French and the British against the Germans, took place between 01 July 1916 and 18 November 1916 on both sides of the Somme River, on the Western Front, Oise, France. It was one of the largest battles of WWI, in which more than 1MM men were wounded or killed, making it one of the bloodiest battles in human history.
The first day of the Somme offensive, 01 July 1916, resulted in nearly 60K British casualties, greater than the total combined British casualties in the Crimean, Boer, and Korean wars. By the time the offensive ended in November, the British had suffered 420K casualties (60K dead).
A Franco-British commitment to an offensive on the Somme had been made during Allied discussions at Chantilly, Oise, in December 1915. The Allies agreed upon a strategy of combined offensives against the Central Powers in 1916, by the French, Russian, British and Italian armies, with the Somme offensive as the Franco-British contribution. The main part of the offensive was to be made by the French Army, supported on the northern flank by the Fourth Army of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF). But, the Germans struck first... not at Somme, but, at Verdun, 140 miles further south on the Western Front, in February 1916. French troops anticipated as part of the Somme offensive, had to be diverted to Verdun leaving the bulk of Somme fighting to the British. The Battle of the Somme is iconic in British military history.
Our tour started at Gommecourt at the far north end of the battlefield. Here, the British effort got off to a bad start. On the far north of the field, the British 46th Division, under the command of Major General Stuart-Wortley, was to break into the German third line and meet up with the 56th Division coming up from the South. Stuart-Wortly, noting the terrible casualty rate being suffered by his boys, called off the attack. This resulted in the 56th Division, which pursued its orders, suffering greater casualties than it would have otherwise been the case had 46th done its job.
Scandal. Enter Lt. General James Snow, Commander VII Corps, and Stuart-Wortley's boss. Snow is livid that Stuart-Wortley has not pursued his attack and cashiers his subordinate, mid battle, on the spot. Stuart-Wortley returns to Great Britain in disgrace, and the 46th Division is held in contempt by British soldiers throughout the campaign... until 1918, when they finally distinguish themselves in battle. Ironically, it was the 46th Division that had fought so well in capturing the Hohenzollern Redoubt at the Battle of Loos, in September of 1915, which battlefield we visited yesterday, 28 September 2015.
On a sunny, but windy and cool morning, our battlefield guide, Patrick, showed us tour goers, at the north end of the Somme battlefield, where the 46th and 56th British Divisions launched their assault at 6:00 AM on 01 July 1916. Patrick, ably, with passion, and in detail, told the story of Stuart-Wortley's shame. He took us to three vantage points to see the Gommecourt section of the Somme battlefield: a British forward artillery observation bunker, the spot pictured above, Sucrerie Military Cemetery, and Gommecourt Military Cemetery.
Note: Russia fulfilled its part of the agreement made at the 1915 Chantilly conference. In June 1916, she launched the Brusilov Offensive, her greatest feat of arms during WWI. It was one of the most lethal offensives in world history. Historian Graydon Turnstall called the Brusilov Offensive the worst crisis of WWI for Austria-Hungary and the Triple Entente's greatest victory. Victory came, however, with tremendous loss of life.
Russia would be out of the war in early 1918 with the take over by the Bolsheviks. The Bolsheviks consummated with Germany the treaty of Brest-Litovsk which ended Russia's participation as a member of the Triple Entente and hence her fighting. Following Russia's exit from the war, what seemed an opportunity for Germany to concentrate all her energies on the Western Front was rebuffed by the United States' entrance into the war.
With revitalized energy for the allies coming from the United States, Germany, exhausted, sued for peace. The war ended with the signing of the Armistice at Versailles on 11 November 1918.
Above: The Bishop. Serre Road #2 British Cemetery. Somme battlefield. France. 29 September 2015.
July 1916... a bit of context. Gallipoli, an Allied effort to force the Dardanelles, has been a fail... Allied troops were successfully evacuated from Gallipoli by January 1916. Many of the Gallipoli evacuees were redirected to nearby Salonica to mount a resistance to German assisted Austro Hungarian assaults on Serbia.
I spent two weeks touring the Gallipoli battlefield in June of this year (2015).
It is satisfying while I tour the Western Front to now be able to place the Gallipoli initiative in broader context. For example, Neuve Chappel was fought only a couple of weeks before the British/ANZAC Gallipoli landings in April of 1915. Loos was fought only a month after the mishandled landing at Suvla Bay in August 1915.
The failed Gallipoli invasion, urged by the Russians, and initiated by the British, cost 250K allied casualties.
Above: WWI battlefield tour group near Gommecourt, listening to battlefield guide Patrick Mercer describe 46th and 56th Division attacks at the north end of the Somme battlefield. 29 September 2015.
Above: Corner brasserie, Albert, France. 29 September 2015.
Our lunch spot today... and not atypical of many of the places we stopped to eat on our tour.
Lunch and dinner were our responsibility, not included in the cost of the tour. We ate serendipitously, often walking out of our hotel to look for the first decent place. Consequently, for the most part we ate pub (brasserie) food. Steaks, omelets, roast chicken and fries. Not bad.... not fine dining either.
Anyone taking a tour like ours who wanted to include fine dining would have to get a Michelin Guide and do some pre-planning.
Above: French WWI regular soldier uniform 1914-1915. Somme 1916 Museum, Albert, France. 29 September 2015.
It is amazing that French soldiers started fighting WWI wearing virtually the same uniform French soldiers wore during the Napoleonic period, 100 years previously. The uniform was worn in the Franco / Prussian war of 1870.
France introduced a new light blue, wool uniform - "horizon blue" in late 1915. British wore khaki and Germans wore a dull gray colored uniform
The Somme 1916 Museum occupies what was originally the crypt beneath the basilica. The crypt was used as an aircraft raid shelter in WWI. Alcoves show scenes of trench life during WWI. In addition to showing original uniforms, the exhibits have show-cases containing quantities of weaponry and other war materials rescued after the war from the surrounding fields and old trenches.
Above: Colt 45, 1911 ACP pistol found on the Somme battlefield. Somme 1916 Museum. Albert, France.
This fire arm is still widely used today. I shoot my own 1911 ACP periodically at a local firing range.
Above: WWI shrapnel shell fuses. Somme 1916 Museum. Albert, France. 29 September 2015.
Above: Albert Basilica. Albert, France. 29 September 2015.
During the systematic destruction of the town of Albert in 1914, the bell tower of the Basilica of Notre-Dame de Brebieres was at first spared, but after November 1914 it became the object of shellfire attacks.
The large statue of the Virgin holding up the infant Jesus on top of the tower was unharmed for a while. However on 15 January 1915, a shell hit the base, bending the dome that supported the statue so that it leaned over, hanging precariously at right angles over the town.
On 16 April 1918 the statue finally fell. Nicknamed the "leaning Virgin," the statue became the object of superstition among the soldiers.
The statue was restored to its rightful place after the war.
Above: Ulster Tower memorial. Somme battlefield. Thiepval, France. 29 September 2015.
Ulster Tower was built in 1921 using funds raised from fund raising activities in Ulster. It is a replica of another tower built on the estate of Lady Helen Duffenin in Clamboye, Northern Ireland, where soldiers from the 36th Irish division underwent their training.
The monument was erected in the memory of the Irish who fought in the Battle of the Somme and also commemorates all Ulster soldiers who died during the Great War.
Pre-war Ireland, part of the United Kingdom before WWI, was on the verge of a civil war. The strife was suspended when Britain entered the war. Irish troops joined in the British war effort and fought valiantly in WWI.
Post war, between 1919 and 1921 pre WWI hostilities broke out again in the Irish War of Independence, fought between British security forces in Ireland and the Irish Republican Army.
In the December 1918 election, The Irish republican party Sinn Fein won a landslide victory in Ireland. In January 1919 Sinn Fein formed a breakaway government and declared independence from Great Britain.
Conflict began when two members of the armed police force, the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) were shot dead in County Tipperary by IRA members acting on their own initiative. This is often seen as the beginning of the conflict.
The conflict escalated with IRA members ambushing RIC and British army patrols. The British government bolstered the RIC with recruits from Britain - the Black and Tans and Auxiliaries - who became notorious for ill-discipline and reprisal attacks on civilians.
The Anglo-Irish Treaty was signed on 6 December 1921. This treaty ended British rule in 26 counties of Ireland, and, after a ten-month transitional period overseen by a provisional government, the Irish Free State was created as a self-governing state with Dominion status. Six north eastern counties remained within the United Kingdom.
Battlefield guide Patrick Mercer, who served much of his career as a senior British military officer in northern Ireland, laments the loss of regimental traditions of the Irish regiments who fought in WWI. Northern Ireland WWI regimental traditions have been sustained.
Patrick, with years of experience as a military officer in Northern Ireland, feels that sectarian problems in northern Ireland have not gone away and will "rear their ugly head" in the short term.
The Balkans, where the fuse was lit for WWI, is another area where sectarian feelings seethes not far from the surface today.
Above: Monument to 18th Division, Thiepval, France. 29 September 2015.
There were three British armies in WWI. The storied professional army... the first fighters in WWI... "The Old Contemptibles." The new army made up of members of the Territorial Force (TF) and new recruits responding to Kitchener's "I want you" recruiting campaign. Finally, later in the war, was the conscripted army.
The 18th Division, memorialized here, was a "new army" division. The Somme was the first WWI battle where new army divisions fought.
By the end of the war, Britain had raised an army of over 4MM soldiers.
I don't have a count.... but, monuments like this are prolific throughout the Western Front areas we have visited.
Above: Close-up of "flash" or patch of the 18th Division of the new army on brass plaque of 18th Division Somme monument, Thiepval, France. 29 September 2015.
The 18th Division, made up of volunteers and Territorial Forces, was a newly created Division. It had no Divisional or regimental traditions in British military history. So, the Division had to come up with its own flash (patch). Look carefully... you can determine the connection of the flash to the 18th.
As British forces had been depleted by casualties in the 1914 and 1915 battles, the new army... poorly trained as it was, needed to step up to the fighting. The first test of the new army was at Somme.
Addendum:
Have you uncovered who won WW1?
Vegas,
Park City, UT
We. Just had s delightful evening with David A.
He gave me a copy of ADM Ashworth autobio
I was his aid for a year and it was great to talk about his father
Thanks for connecting us.
Cheers
D. Walker,
San Diego, CA
Hi Steve!
This is a long shot but does the name "Moe Berg" ring a bell with you? -- particularly connected with Les Deux Magots and the Sorbonne?
I am giving a talk in ten days to a WWll study group at Vanderbilt in Nashville, including a contact between Moe as a spy for the OSS and Werner Heisenberg (head of any atomic bomb program in Germany). Moe carried a pistol and a vial of cyanide with him at a meeting in Zurich and was directed to kill Heisenberg (and then commit suicide) in case he came to the conclusion that Germany was well advanced in any bomb program. The conclusion was negative and greatly relieved the Manhattan Project program in December 1944.
Moe graduated from Princeton in Modern Languages (spoke seven fluently) but because of his interest and talent in baseball he immediately joined the Big Leagues as short stop for Brooklyn. After that first of twelve seasons in 1923, he went to Paris for the off-season and supposedly signed up for 20 courses at the Sorbonne where he was conspicuous for reading ten different International newspapers daily.
I can imagine that he must have spent considerable time at Les Deux Magots!
A long shot I know but any pertinent comments?
Manhattan,
Park City, UT
Thanks for sharing, much appreciated.
LaDoc, LaPsy,
Los Angeles, CA
Dear Chitta. You are a wonderful addition to Steve's forum. I really appreciate your very thoughtful inputs even if I don't always agree with you.
Regards,
Nathans,
Massapequa, NY
....The thanks are truly to Steve, for his immense note-taking powers and for his patience in expending what must have been a lot of time and effort into transcribing those notes and posting all those details of his travels.
It's been a long time since I thought much about World War I battles. it was good to be reminded that there some things we should not forget.
Chita,
Vancouver, BC
Battle of St. Quentin Canal
The Battle of St. Quentin Canal, which began on 29 September 1918, was part of the 100 Days Allied Offensive that ended WWI.
British, Australian and American forces fought as a single combined force against the Siegfried Stellung of the Hindenburg Line. Australian, general Sr John Monash was commander.
The battle achieved all of its objectives, resulting in the first full breach by the allies of the Hindenburg Line.
Context. Spring/Summer 1918.
Russia. Ascendant Bolsheviks take Russia out of the war as of 03 March 1918 via treaty of Brest-Litovsk signed with Germans.
France. Worn and tired... but, recovering from the mutinies of Verdun in 1916. Still fighting. Field Marshall Foch is Supreme Allied Commander.
Britain. British army exceeds over 4MM troops and is a growing energy source to fight the war in the wake of French attrition and war weariness.
United States: Notwithstanding strong isolationist public opinion and Wilson's campaign promise to keep America out of war, US declares war on Germany April 1917. Decoded Zimmerman telegram, where Germans sought an alliance with Mexico, the proximate cause. (Battlefield guide Patrick Mercer says the Zimmerman telegram was "doctored.")
Germany: With fighting stopped on the Eastern Front, and before feared US fighting capability matures, launches 1918 Spring Offensive as a last ditch effort to win the war.
Context. Summer/Fall 1918
Rebuffing the German Spring Offensive, the Allies launch The Hundred Days Offensive, the final period of the First World War. The final Allied thrust began with the Battle of Amiens in August 1918 and includes the Battle of St. Quentin Canal, September/October 1918, which our tour group studies today.
Above: Monument for 46th (North Midland) Division. Bellecourt, France. 01 October 2015.
In our progressive tour of British and Commonwealth WWI battlefields battlefield guide Patrick Mercer has followed the ups and downs of the 46th Division.
We first studied the 46th at the battle of Loos where they were decimated in their bloody assault on the Hohenzollern Redoubt. September 1915.
We visited Gommecourt, where on the first day of the Battle of the Somme, 01 July 1916, the 46th Division was disgraced as its commander, General Stuart-Wortley, stopped, against orders, an assault on German lines.
Today, we visit Bellecourt... site of the Battle of St. Quentin Canal, Sept/Oct 1918, where the 46th achieved a measure of redemption from the "shame" of the Somme.
Above: Standing on original Riqueval Bridge over the St. Quentin Canal, battlefield guide Patrick Mercer educates 1%, Portland, and Rudy Jr. on how units of the 46th Division, on 29 September 1918, seized the Riqueval Farm bridge. Bellecourt, France. 01 October 2015.
The Riqueval Farm bridge engagement was part of the Battle of St. Quentin Canal. The bridge was the last bridge left intact across the St. Quentin Canal, an important feature of the German defenses along the Hindenburg Line. Capturing the bridge greatly assisted the forward flow of supports to complete the successful storming of the "Siegfried Position," inaugurating the last phase of the final Allied offensive which ended with the Armistice on 11 November 1918.
Redemption for the 46th!
Above: Brigadier General J.V. Campbell addresses troops of the 137th Brigade (46th Division) from the Riqueval Bridge over the St. Quentin Canal. 01 October 1918. File image.
To me this is a breathtaking image. It helps to make real the events, 97 years ago, about which we learn from Patrick Mercer as we stand on the very same bridge pictured here.
What was General Campbell saying? What were the pictured troops thinking? My mind has a hard time coming to grips with the notion that the battleground sights we are seeing on our WWI battlefield tour witnessed such conflagration.
Someone on the trip wondered if something was missing from life if you haven't physically fought for a cause. For a soldier, can the horror of war also be the apotheosis of life experience? Is there something important missing from the life experience if you haven't fought to the death and survived? Were the lives of the survivors seen in the image somehow enhanced? Ruined? Do war and human progress correlate? I don't think the answers to these questions are as easy as might seem, though in the wake of the millions of lives lost in WWI it might seem easy to make the case that there is no correlation.
Above: Battlefield guide Patrick Mercer's hand drawn schematic used for explaining to our group The Battle of St. Quentin. 01 October 2015.
Patrick's prodigious knowledge of the WWI battlefields and his, obvious, diligent preparation, turns what would otherwise be a tour of beautiful Belgian and French Flemish farmlands into a first row seat at a seminal historic event, which almost like none other event in world history, shaped the world in which we live today.
A qualified battlefield guide and historian makes all the difference on a trip like this. We have one.
Above: Tunnel entrance, St. Quentin Canal, Bellecourt, France. 01 October 2015.
In image, 1%, Portland, Rudy Jr., battlefield guide Patrick Mercer, and the Bishop.
St. Quentin Canal was commissioned by Napoleon I, linking the canalized Escaut River in Cambrai to the Canal Lateral a Oise and the Canal de Oise a L'Aisne in Chauny.
The canal, was a natural obstacle along the Hindenburg Line in WWI, goes underground into the tunnel at Bellecourt and exits four miles to the north.
Above: Looking west from memorial at American Somme cemetery. Bony, France. 01 October 2015
The memorial is directly over the mid-point of the underground portion of the St. Quentin Canal.
This is where (also Riqueval Bridge to the south) American, British, and Australian troops, beginning 29 September 1918 participated in a spearhead attack as a single combined force against the Germans along the Hindenburg Line.
The assault achieved its objectives resulting in the first full breach of the Hindenburg Line in WWI, in the face of heavy German resistance and, in concert with other attacks of the 100 Days Offensive along the length of the line. After the allied 1918, September attacks, bolstered by the fresh and eager doughboy troops, the Germans capitulated and sued for peace. The Armistice was signed on 11 November 1918.
Above: Monument to American Troops who fought in the Battle of St. Quentin. Bellecourt, France. 01 October 2015
Our trip has been organized to see battlefields where British/Commonwealth troops fought during WWI.
Still, it is fitting we end our battle field tour at a battleground where American troops fought along side with British and Australian troops late in the war.
Above: Terrines for lunch at buffet in Bellecourt cafe. 01 August 2015.
Lunch at an otherwise Spartan looking place on an isolated corner in Bellecourt was the best lunch on the trip.
In addition to the tasty terrines, shown above, were thistle artichokes in oil, couscous, coleslaw, hard boiled eggs, a local fish, and obligatory French fries.
Above: Former US Marine, 1% stands in Somme American Cemetery, Bony, France. 01 October 2015.
1%, some family members, and some friends (including Mwah [sic]) are on a tour of WWI battlefields in Belgium and France, reviewing the WWI principally from the British point of view. The Battle of St. Quentin is the only American WWI site we will visit as we complete our tour today.
Almost directly under the cemetery is the St. Quentin Canal, running left (south) to right (north) in the image.
Above: Battlefield guide Patrick Mercer, OBE, former British soldier, Member of Parliament, and author, stands near engraved schematic of Battle of St. Quentin on memorial at Somme American Cemetery. 01 October 2015.
Above: Rudy Jr. stands near recently harvested sugar beets. Bellecourt, France. 01 October 2015.
A sub theme of our trip could have been "large scale agriculture in northern France."
WWI battlefield trip epilogue to follow.
Addendum:
Thank you, Steve. The image itself seems to have been badly distorted during download but no matter.
As I heard almost sixty years ago, when I first read about WW-I, it's worth remembering that it came to an end largely because of "the collapse of the Macedonian Front" - the reason the German High Command gave the Kaiser when he asked why Germany had to sue for peace, as they were then urging. In September 1918, the almost-forgotten Allied "Army of the East" attacked through mountain passes considered impregnable, with such effect that Bulgaria capitulated. Allied forces could have driven straight up to Berlin - stopping them would have been only by withdrawing troops from the front in France, where of course the Allies - including the newly arrived Americans - had successfully withstood Ludendorf's offensives and had gone on to counter-attack, as you mention.
The WW-I fighting in the Balkans is in danger of being almost forgotten. There were years of almost inaction in that theatre, but as mentioned above it ended with a smashing victory - such a major one that it brought the war to an end.
Interestingly, that area is where Britain's only woman soldier in World War I fought. Her name was Flora Sandes (Irish, born in Yorkshire; her father was a clergyman). Flora was a volunteer ambulance driver who enrolled in the Serbian Army (after being separated from her ambulance and her volunteer unit during the fighting). As a Serbian soldier she rose to become a Sergeant Major, was severely wounded (by a grenade) in combat, but recovered (and was decorated). She retired with a post-war promotion to Captain. Strangely, Hollywood never made Flora's story into a movie. She may not have been an American but the ambulance unit she volunteered with had been raised and led to Serbia by an American, Mabel Dunlop. There's surely another great story there.
Cheers,
Cheeta,
Vancouver, BC
Hmmm . . . You feign concern about wind turbines killing birds, but ignore the massive bird kills by cats and the serious threat to entire bird species from climate change:
Earlier this month, a National Audubon Society report said that hundreds of bird species in the U.S. — including the bald eagle and eight state birds, from Idaho to Maryland — are at "serious risk" due to climate change. It said some species are forecast to lose more than 95% of their current ranges.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2014/09/15/wind-turbines-kill-fewer-birds-than-cell-towers-cats/15683843/
Your predilection for fossil fuels seems to have induced a fossilization of critical thinking. Let's hope it's temporary.
Best wishes for a prompt recovery.
FeeNix,
Phoenix, AZ
Great reading Steve.
Got back last night from bike meet 200km northwest of Tokyo. Spent a couple of nights at spa in the mountains, 2000 meters up. Took the 'elephant' sidecar, all 50cc of 2-stroke Honda. 1st or second gear up the 14km climb. Well, if Hannibal can do it so can I!!!
Malc,
Tokyo, Japan
What a beautiful job you do on history Thank you.
LaDoc and LaPsy,
Los Angeles, CA
Dear Steve,
This is an excellent description of one aspect of the War to end all Wars. Thanks for sharing it.
I wonder, of the 420,000 British casualties suffered at the Somme, does anyone know how many came from the Empire: Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand, South Africa, East Africa and so on? They made a huge contribution during the war.
Not surprisingly, it was the Germans who developed new strategies, tactics and weapons to avoid another war of static attrition. Blitzkrieg. Concentration of overwhelming force on a narrow front followed by rapid movement and envelopment.
Ciao
Bosco
Steve, I just wanted to thank you for taking the time and writing your blog. I am a big World War follower and your recent emails have been great.
best,
Phil,
Anchorage, Alaska
Just saw the first episode of Our World War on Netflix. The first episode is about the Battle of Mons, specifically the heroic actions of Dease and Godley at the bridge.
Rudy, Jr.
Salt Lake City, UT