From PRI.org: British Army museum makes room to remember forgotten war fighters: the army's horses
Near 100 years after their last major use in combat, the British Army museum is taking time to remember all the horses that were vital in war through the years.
ome call them the forgotten heroes of war, but a new exhibit in London seeks to pay tribute to the millions of horses who died serving in battles over the centuries.
Within seconds of stepping into the War Horse exhibit at London’s National Army museum, visitors are transported to the lush green fields of Devon.
The pastoral scene is also featured in the children’s novel and play that inspired the exhibit. “War Horse,” written by Michael Morpurgo, opens when a horse appropriated from a Devon farm is shipped off to the front.
Morpurgo said it all began when he met a WWI veteran of a cavalry regiment in his local pub. Morpurgo asked him what he did during the war.
“And then he said something wonderful. He said ‘I was there with ‘orses.’ And he said it like that 'with ‘orses.' And then he just started talking,” said Morpurgo.
The new exhibit traces the use of horses in war down the centuries through WWI. Curator Pip Dodd said they were critical and not just for charging into battle.
“The horse really was the motorized vehicle — the helicopter and the transport ship and plane of its day. They were hugely important,” said Dodd.
There are also reminders of the grueling, often deadly conditions the animals endured even before they reached the battlefield.
One room recreates a ship’s hold, complete with creaking boards. Dodd said the demand for horses in WWI was enormous.
“In the first 12 days the British army bought up about 120,000 British horses from farms and from bus companies, but there weren’t enough or good enough to be army horses so they had to look further afield, “ he said.
They looked to the United States.
More than 300,000 horses and mules were sent over on transport ships, many dying en route. Those that made it were then shipped out and into battle.
The video opening the exhibit recreates moments of horror and violence.
Morpurgo heard about it firsthand from the veteran he met, but what really touched him was the former soldier’s intense bond with the horse who carried him to the front lines when Morpurgo was 17 years old.
“ 'He was terrified. They were all terrified,' he said. All his pals were terrified but they couldn’t talk about it. They absolutely could not talk about it. And he must not talk about it, he knew that. So the only person he could talk to — and he used the word person — the only person (he) could talk to was (his) horse. And (he) would go to the horse lines at night when (he) was feeding them, and (he) would stand by them and (he'd) stroke the neck and (he) would whisper into his ear and (he) would tell him stuff (he) could never even mention to (his) pals because they were all going through it anyway,” Morpurgo recounted.
The author’s book and play, like the exhibit, focus on the warriors who never chose to go into battle and never knew what was was coming.
Of the 1.2 million horses used by the British Army, nearly half died. For Morpurgo, it is a vivid reminder of the cost of war.
“Roughly the same number of men and horses died in the First World War. So they did this thing together. It was extraordinary courage, loyalty, horror all together. But they didn’t do it apart. They were supporting each other,” he said.
Curator Pip Dodd admitted to being moved by what he discovered during his research.
“Of course the vast majority of horses that served are now completely unknown and unknowable and anonymous and there were millions of them and so somehow we wanted to pay our respects really so we came up with the idea of this mirror box,” he said.
The box, surrounded by mirrors, is filled with dozens of cutout horses. The mirrors reflect off each other, multiplying the number into infinity.
Of all the horses used in war, only a handful returned to Britain. The rest were sold overseas as riding horses, work horses or for their meat. Morpurgo said that's almost unforgivable.
For him, the horses of war are heroes just as much as the soldiers who relied on them.
Steven Spielberg plans to release a film version of War Horse in December.
Monday, October 31, 2011
World War 1 – books published in late 1914
From the Tower Project blog: World War 1 – books published in late 1914
We’ve just started to catalogue books published at the end of 1914. It’s noticeable how fast and how completely the outbreak of the First World War came to dominate the books published. Since about 1907 we’ve noticed several pamphlets on the arms race, and glossy brochures about Britain’s new warships, but by the end of 1914 every shelf in the bookshops must have been filled with books about the war.
Books published in late 1914
Some of these are so out of date as to be of no practical use: the book entitled ‘Cold steel’ has a chapter on dealing with ‘savages’ which I think would be useless when faced with an enemy armed with guns instead of spears. The author of a book on the treatment of wounds explains that his advice is based on experience of the Boer war.
Poetry is famously important to our understanding of the first world war, but the poetry published in late 1914 was centred on one theme: patriotism. The titles say it all:
With the Season's Greetings
Poems of war and battle
The flag of England: ballads of the brave and poems of patriotism
England, my England, a war anthology.
The Union Jack.
War songs.
Sunday, October 30, 2011
Rare World War One token turns up at Birmingham antiques fair
From Birmingham Mail: Rare World War One token turns up at Birmingham antiques fair
IT was a token gift from royalty designed to bring some festive cheer to soldiers serving at the front.
Now, nearly a century on, a rare cigarette tin which travelled to the trenches of the First World War has been snapped up by a collector at a Birmingham antiques fair. The metal tin, which was one of thousands sent to serving soldiers and sailors by Princess Mary to mark Christmas 1914, has been discovered with its contents intact.
It contains two perfectly preserved packets of cigarettes bearing the inscription “Her Royal Highness the Princess Mary’s Christmas Fund 1914”, along with a Christmas card.
The rare find was among an estimated 100,000 items at the Antiques for Everyone fair at the NEC, which started on Thursday and runs until tomorrow.
It was bought for the princessly sum of £100 by antiques enthusiast Duncan Phillips on the first day of the fair.
Duncan said: “When I saw it on the stand I thought it was too good to miss and I couldn’t resist.
“It is very, very rare to find one of these tins with all the contents inside, as the cigarettes would have usually been smoked.
“It has a Christmas feel to it to mark the festive season, but the fact it has cigarettes inside shows how attitudes to smoking have changed over the years.”
The only daughter of King George V and Queen Mary, Princess Mary was just 17 when war broke out in July 1914.
The teenage royal pledged to send a Christmas gift to “every soldier afloat and every sailor at the front” out of her own money, but when it became clear further cash was needed, she lent her name to a public fund.
Donations came flooding in to the fund, and tins were dispatched to the armed forces, which included a Christmas card. The card reads “With best wishes for a happy Christmas and a victorious new year.
“From the Princess Mary and friends at home.”
IT was a token gift from royalty designed to bring some festive cheer to soldiers serving at the front.
Now, nearly a century on, a rare cigarette tin which travelled to the trenches of the First World War has been snapped up by a collector at a Birmingham antiques fair. The metal tin, which was one of thousands sent to serving soldiers and sailors by Princess Mary to mark Christmas 1914, has been discovered with its contents intact.
It contains two perfectly preserved packets of cigarettes bearing the inscription “Her Royal Highness the Princess Mary’s Christmas Fund 1914”, along with a Christmas card.
The rare find was among an estimated 100,000 items at the Antiques for Everyone fair at the NEC, which started on Thursday and runs until tomorrow.
It was bought for the princessly sum of £100 by antiques enthusiast Duncan Phillips on the first day of the fair.
Duncan said: “When I saw it on the stand I thought it was too good to miss and I couldn’t resist.
“It is very, very rare to find one of these tins with all the contents inside, as the cigarettes would have usually been smoked.
“It has a Christmas feel to it to mark the festive season, but the fact it has cigarettes inside shows how attitudes to smoking have changed over the years.”
The only daughter of King George V and Queen Mary, Princess Mary was just 17 when war broke out in July 1914.
The teenage royal pledged to send a Christmas gift to “every soldier afloat and every sailor at the front” out of her own money, but when it became clear further cash was needed, she lent her name to a public fund.
Donations came flooding in to the fund, and tins were dispatched to the armed forces, which included a Christmas card. The card reads “With best wishes for a happy Christmas and a victorious new year.
“From the Princess Mary and friends at home.”
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
A lost Canadian soldier finds a final resting place after 92 years
From Global News: A lost Canadian soldier finds a final resting place after 92 years
OTTAWA – It’s a song she’s played hundreds of times, but on Tuesday the military’s most well-known lament will take on new meaning for bugler Ann Gregory.
It’s then that The Last Post will ring out in Sailly, France marking the final goodbye for a Canadian soldier lost to his family and to time 92 years ago.
“It’s a piece that touches people like Amazing Grace does,” says Gregory, who is a bugler in the Governor General’s Foot Guards. “To me, the reveille at the end is like the person ascending to heaven.”
Nearly a century after he died in one of the First World War’s bloodiest battles, Private Alexander Johnston of Hamilton, Ont. will receive a military funeral and his Canadian descendents, including Gregory will be there to say goodbye.
“I think it is very appropriate for someone related to him to pay their last respects,” she says.
The family connection was unearthed when a First World War battlefield became a construction site, disturbing the remains of Johnston in July 2008. After realizing it was a Canadian soldier, National Defence set to work to uncover his identity.
It was detective work that took three years and lead to Don Gregory, Ann’s father.
“I was kind of their last hope in this respect and it worked out very well obviously,” says Gregory, an Ottawa man that spent most of his career in the Royal Canadian Air Force.
Using military records and artifacts found with the body, National Defence investigators were able to narrow down which battalion the unknown soldier belonged to and determined he was one of two people.
Gregory was the final link. He shares mitochondrial DNA with Johnston, who turned out to be his great-uncle. It’s a strain of DNA that ends with him.
“It’s almost unreal, the odds against them coming down to be able to make a positive identification after 90-odd years,” says Gregory.
The discovery has reopened a buried chapter in family history.
“It wasn’t talked about very much in the family but that is an understandable thing because in the First World War, everyone lost somebody,” says Gregory.
For the Johnstons it was Alexander, a 33-year-old who was conscripted in January 1918. The timing lined up with the 100 days campaign, one of the bloodiest of the war.
The campaign lasted from Aug. 8, 1918 to the end of the war on Nov. 11, 1918.
“The Canadians broke through (the German lines), but they paid a terrible price,” says Tim Cook, a First World War historian at the National War Museum. “It is the most intense period of the war: 45,000 Canadians lost their lives during that time.”
Cook says the battle was vicious as soldiers moved out of the trenches and advanced over open ground straight into heavy shell power.
The entire war took 60,000 Canadian lives and saw 600,000 men enlist from the young country.
Johnston died on September 29, 1918 in the Battle of the Canal du Nord, a mere six weeks before the guns went silent.
“It continues to haunt this country and many Canadians,” says Cook. “This is one case in our ability to put a name to a face, and a face to a body, where we have the chance to reclaim a part of our history.”
For the Gregory family it’s a chance to honour a man they never met, but who was loved and cherished by generations past.
“Being a family member you can’t be detached. I’m obviously going to feel some emotion and I expect to,” he said, adding that at the very least he will feel emotion on behalf of his grandmother, Johnston’s sister.
Gregory also said the military funeral, which is expected to be attended by residents of nearby French villages, is a fitting closure for someone who paid the ultimate price.
For his daughter Ann, playing The Last Post always invokes feelings, and this time it will be a challenge to stay detached enough to keep it together when playing. Still, she hopes the rite of passage has the same impact for her family as it has for others in the past.
“It releases emotions and helps the families move on in some ways,” she says.
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Passchendaele: Appeal launch for Welsh battle memorial
From BBC News: Passchendaele: Appeal launch for Welsh battle memorial
An appeal has been launched to commemorate soldiers from Wales who were killed in one of the most notorious battles of World War I.
Some 70,000 British soldiers, including hundreds from Wales, died in the Battle of Passchendaele in Ypres, Belgium.
The Passchendaele Society in Belgium wants to raise 60,000 euros (£52,000) for a Welsh memorial.
Organisers hope it will become a memorial to all Welsh soldiers who died in the Great War.
The appeal was unveiled at an event close to where many of the Welsh soldiers came to grief in Langemark, near Ypres.
It featured the North Wales Rugby Choir, who also performed a concert later in the day with proceeds going towards the appeal.
Retired police officer Peter Jones, who is co-ordinating the appeal in Wales and was in Belgium for the event, said it was important to remember the Welsh soldiers who had made the ultimate sacrifice.
"I think Passchendaele was one of the main symbols of the Great War with the bloodshed and the appalling conditions. It's very worthwhile. Everybody else has got a monument out there - the Irish and the Scottish - but we don't have anything at all," he said.
"On the Somme in France there is a memorial for the Welsh but not here.
"There is a lot of support for it. Whether that support will be converted into cash we will have to see."
Passchendaele Society secretary Erwin Ureel said his group was not the only one in Belgium looking to mark the contribution of the Welsh.
"This was something we had been thinking of for a number of years - we wanted to do something for the Welshmen," he said.
"We discovered that in Langemark, other people were also looking at doing something so we got together and decided to support a new project.
"We wanted to raise a memorial in the shape of a Welsh dragon similar to the one at Mametz Wood [to the 38th (Welsh) Division in the Battle of the Somme]."
Dreadful muddy conditions
The Battle of Passchendaele, also known as the third battle of Ypres, saw hundreds of thousands of casualties on both sides.
It is notorious not only for the number of deaths, but also the dreadful muddy conditions in which it was fought.
Mr Ureel said: "I think Passchendaele was one of the main symbols of the Great War with the bloodshed and the appalling conditions.
"Passchendaele conditions were worse than the Somme. There were the stories of the mud, the clay and the rain.
"It also became an everyman's war because in 1916, conscription was introduced. There were a large number of conscripts by the time of Passchendaele."
Welsh language poet Hedd Wyn was one of the most high-profile Passchendaele casualties.
He died at the battle of Pilckem Ridge and posthumously won the 1917 National Eisteddfod chair six weeks later.
An appeal has been launched to commemorate soldiers from Wales who were killed in one of the most notorious battles of World War I.
Some 70,000 British soldiers, including hundreds from Wales, died in the Battle of Passchendaele in Ypres, Belgium.
The Passchendaele Society in Belgium wants to raise 60,000 euros (£52,000) for a Welsh memorial.
Organisers hope it will become a memorial to all Welsh soldiers who died in the Great War.
The appeal was unveiled at an event close to where many of the Welsh soldiers came to grief in Langemark, near Ypres.
It featured the North Wales Rugby Choir, who also performed a concert later in the day with proceeds going towards the appeal.
Retired police officer Peter Jones, who is co-ordinating the appeal in Wales and was in Belgium for the event, said it was important to remember the Welsh soldiers who had made the ultimate sacrifice.
"I think Passchendaele was one of the main symbols of the Great War with the bloodshed and the appalling conditions. It's very worthwhile. Everybody else has got a monument out there - the Irish and the Scottish - but we don't have anything at all," he said.
"On the Somme in France there is a memorial for the Welsh but not here.
"There is a lot of support for it. Whether that support will be converted into cash we will have to see."
Passchendaele Society secretary Erwin Ureel said his group was not the only one in Belgium looking to mark the contribution of the Welsh.
"This was something we had been thinking of for a number of years - we wanted to do something for the Welshmen," he said.
"We discovered that in Langemark, other people were also looking at doing something so we got together and decided to support a new project.
"We wanted to raise a memorial in the shape of a Welsh dragon similar to the one at Mametz Wood [to the 38th (Welsh) Division in the Battle of the Somme]."
Dreadful muddy conditions
The Battle of Passchendaele, also known as the third battle of Ypres, saw hundreds of thousands of casualties on both sides.
It is notorious not only for the number of deaths, but also the dreadful muddy conditions in which it was fought.
Mr Ureel said: "I think Passchendaele was one of the main symbols of the Great War with the bloodshed and the appalling conditions.
"Passchendaele conditions were worse than the Somme. There were the stories of the mud, the clay and the rain.
"It also became an everyman's war because in 1916, conscription was introduced. There were a large number of conscripts by the time of Passchendaele."
Welsh language poet Hedd Wyn was one of the most high-profile Passchendaele casualties.
He died at the battle of Pilckem Ridge and posthumously won the 1917 National Eisteddfod chair six weeks later.
Hopes of locating Australian sub lost off PNG in 1914
From Radio Australia: Hopes of locating Australian sub lost off PNG in 1914
An Australian organisation hopes the wreck of a World War One era submarine can be located in PNG (Papau New Guinea) waters before the centenary of it's loss.
The Australian submarine AE-1 sank off the coast of Rabaul in September 1914, just at the start of the war, with the loss of all hands.
It's exact location has remained a mystery ever since, but AE-1 Incorporated, a group of interested Australian including retired Navy personnel and descendants of the crew, hopes new technology and money to fund a renewed search will help find the wreck in time for the 100th anniversary of the sinking in 2014.
This is their website:
http://www.ae1.org.au/AE1-Memorials.php
An Australian organisation hopes the wreck of a World War One era submarine can be located in PNG (Papau New Guinea) waters before the centenary of it's loss.
The Australian submarine AE-1 sank off the coast of Rabaul in September 1914, just at the start of the war, with the loss of all hands.
It's exact location has remained a mystery ever since, but AE-1 Incorporated, a group of interested Australian including retired Navy personnel and descendants of the crew, hopes new technology and money to fund a renewed search will help find the wreck in time for the 100th anniversary of the sinking in 2014.
This is their website:
http://www.ae1.org.au/AE1-Memorials.php
Monday, October 24, 2011
24 October 1915: This day in Marine Corps History
The Marine Corps Recruit Depot was moved from Norfolk and established at Parris Island, South Carolina.
Thursday, October 20, 2011
Reconstruction of the WWI Battle in Ukraine
From English Russia: Reconstruction of the WWI Battle in Ukraine
This is an interesting story about Russians who re-enacted a battle that took place in 1916.
I can't share it here, but I advise you to check out the link above.
This is an interesting story about Russians who re-enacted a battle that took place in 1916.
I can't share it here, but I advise you to check out the link above.
A Melodic Emblem Falls Out of Tune
From the New York Times: A Melodic Emblem Falls Out of Tune
PARIS — Since 1856, the four major bells atop the northern towers of the Cathedral of Notre-Dame have rung every 15 minutes, without fail. They rang for the end of World War I and the liberation of Paris in 1944. Most recently, they chimed in honor of the victims of 9/11.
They even have names, taken from various French saints: Angélique-Françoise, Antoinette-Charlotte, Hyacinthe-Jeanne and Denise-David.
Nevertheless, in 2012 they will be melted down and replaced by nine new ones, intended to recreate the sound of Notre-Dame’s original 17th-century bells.
The replacement of the bells, which is mentioned without fanfare on a placard inside the church, has caused a small but very Parisian ruckus. Some consider the 19th-century bells unrivaled witnesses to French history, made famous by Victor Hugo’s “Hunchback of Notre-Dame,” and an indestructible part of French heritage.
For the Rev. Patrick Jacquin, the rector of Notre-Dame and initiator of the project, the point is authenticity. “We don’t destroy the bells,” he said. “We only intensify the sound of Notre-Dame.”
Bells, cast from a bronze alloy, may look indestructible, but they do not last forever. They can wear down and fall out of tune, which is what some “campanologues,” or bell experts, say has happened to the bells of Notre-Dame. “This is one of the most dreadful sets of bells in France,” said one expert, Hervé Gouriou. “They are damaged and badly tuned.”
But for some ardent defenders of French heritage like Xavier Gilibert, a 37-year-old director of a nongovernmental organization, the bells are not only a symbol of Paris but also a worldwide heritage.
“They rang at fundamental moments of our history,” Mr. Gilibert said. “They are going to disappear, and no one will know about it.”
The replacement of the bells in a $3.5 million project is part of a face-lift in preparation for the cathedral’s 850th anniversary next year that includes a renovation of the obsolete and energy-intensive lighting system and renowned organ.
Not all the bells will be replaced. The great 1681 “Bourdon Emmanuel” bell, which hangs in the south tower and is considered one of the most beautiful in Europe, will be preserved. It rings for major religious celebrations, popes’ visits, presidential funerals and commemorations. When Pope John Paul II died in 2005 at the age of 84, the Bourdon Emmanuel rang 84 times.
Despite the concerns of those like Mr. Gilibert, only the Bourdon Emmanuel is considered by experts to have important historical significance. The smaller bells were cast in the 19th century, which many French historians consider to be recent; their metal is of low quality, and they produce a disharmonious sound, the experts say.
Before the revolution, Notre-Dame had 20 renowned bells that pealed atop the northern and southern towers of the building. But after the revolution in 1789, all the bells save one were melted down to make cannons, as the revolutionaries destroyed all religious symbols and even held propaganda meetings in the cathedral. (About 80 percent of the bells across France disappeared after the French Revolution.) “Until 1856, the remaining bell served only as an alarm,” Father Jacquin said. “The church rang only to alert people, including for epidemics.”
Revolutionaries confiscated the Emmanuel bell but never destroyed it. It was put back in the southern towers at Napoleon’s behest in 1802.
In 1856, Napoleon III offered four bells to Notre-Dame — the ones in place today — to celebrate his son’s baptism and to replace the ones lost in the revolution. Father Jacquin’s hope is to recreate the original, 17th-century layout of the bells and “retrieve the harmony and harmonics of the bells that existed before 1789,” he said. He is working from an archive left by Eugène Viollet-Le-Duc, a famous 19th-century architect.
Mr. Viollet-Le-Duc, who restored the cathedral between 1845 and 1865, also wished to recreate the church’s ancient harmonics. He rebuilt the belfry, making holes in the walls of the church and building beams to support the new bells. But the project was abandoned.
The new bells, Father Jacquin said, will have the same weight and diameter as the ancient ones and are designed to produce the same notes. They will ring as they rang throughout the ancien régime, with deeper resonance and a lower tone than today. (A sample of the new sound is available on the Notre-Dame Web site.)
Father Jacquin will soon ask for bids from the last four remaining bell makers in France. Last month, he went to the United States, “where people are interested in bells,” he said, to find sponsors for the renovation, which is also getting money from the state.
For Fernando Gabrielli, 48, an outspoken critic of Mr. Jacquin’s bell project, the destruction of the iconic bells is a crime.
“They are the music of the world,” he said in an interview.
Mr. Gabrielli, a Brazilian jazz singer who settled in Paris 11 years ago and calls Notre-Dame “my cathedral,” has led a Web crusade to denounce what he called “a major scandal,” raising an alarm about the destruction of the current bells in songs and videos posted on YouTube. He filmed himself singing a cappella next to the bells while they were ringing and even wrote a letter to the pope on his Facebook page. “My very dear Benedict XVI,” the letter read, “it pains me immensely to face the risk of losing these treasures of France forever, which are so very dear to me.”
Ghislaine Avan, 47, a choreographer and dancer, uses the bells of Notre-Dame for the voice mail tone on her cellphone.
“The bells are a resonance, a song, a vibration,” Mrs. Avan said. “Changing them is complete nonsense.”
But some experts say that renewal of the bells is a creative act, not just a replication of the past. Philippe Paccard is the owner of the Fonderie Paccard, the oldest bell foundry in France, which was created in 1796. “Tradition dictates that bell makers never renew bells in an identical way,” he said.
Mr. Paccard’s father built the world’s largest free-swinging bell in Newport, Ky. He also made the carillon at the University of California, Berkeley, and the bells of St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York. His company also designed the bells of the Sacré-Coeur Basilica in Montmartre, which are known to be the largest in France.
“Bells are like human beings,” Mr. Paccard said. “They live and, one day, they fade.”
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
UK: Three First World War medals stolen in burglary
From Milton Keynes Citizen: Three First World War medals stolen in burglary
A 61-YEAR-OLD woman was the victim of a burglary which saw three First World War medals and other items were stolen from her Bletchley home last Tuesday.
Between 1pm and 4pm the burglars smashed open the rear patio door of a house along Lennox Road to gain entry.
On returning home, the 61-year-old found her house completely ransacked and a number of items stolen including a pink iPod, a black HP laptop computer, individual gemstones, 100 euros in cash, a silver Nikon camera and three medals.
The medals were marked “WW1 - THE BATTLE OF SOMME”, and had the multi coloured bar across them. One of the medals was round and silver with a picture of cavalry on it and the name FW ORGLES written down the side of each.
PC Emma Bell from Milton Keynes station said: “The medals being stolen is very distressing for the victim as they are a family heirloom, which she hoped to pass down to her grandson.
“I am appealing for anyone who saw any suspicious activity along Lennox Road on Tuesday afternoon to contact police.
“I would also like to hear from anyone who has been offered medals or other items fitting the above description.”
Anyone with information about the incident is asked to contact PC Bell via the Thames Valley Police via the 24-hour Police Enquiry Centre on 0845 8 505 505.
If you don’t want to speak to police or leave your name, please call the Crimestoppers chairty on 0800 555 111.
A 61-YEAR-OLD woman was the victim of a burglary which saw three First World War medals and other items were stolen from her Bletchley home last Tuesday.
Between 1pm and 4pm the burglars smashed open the rear patio door of a house along Lennox Road to gain entry.
On returning home, the 61-year-old found her house completely ransacked and a number of items stolen including a pink iPod, a black HP laptop computer, individual gemstones, 100 euros in cash, a silver Nikon camera and three medals.
The medals were marked “WW1 - THE BATTLE OF SOMME”, and had the multi coloured bar across them. One of the medals was round and silver with a picture of cavalry on it and the name FW ORGLES written down the side of each.
PC Emma Bell from Milton Keynes station said: “The medals being stolen is very distressing for the victim as they are a family heirloom, which she hoped to pass down to her grandson.
“I am appealing for anyone who saw any suspicious activity along Lennox Road on Tuesday afternoon to contact police.
“I would also like to hear from anyone who has been offered medals or other items fitting the above description.”
Anyone with information about the incident is asked to contact PC Bell via the Thames Valley Police via the 24-hour Police Enquiry Centre on 0845 8 505 505.
If you don’t want to speak to police or leave your name, please call the Crimestoppers chairty on 0800 555 111.
Monday, October 17, 2011
Virginia to honor Army chaplain killed in 1918
From FayObserver.com: Virginia to honor Army chaplain killed in 1918
The remains of Thomas McNeil Bulla rest in a small family cemetery in Vander.
On the moss-covered tombstone, which stands roughly 5 feet tall, a weathered engraving identifies Bulla as a second son and a man of God. No mention is made of his military service outside a small American Legion marker on the grave.
Bulla died in France in 1918 after being wounded during what historians have called America's bloodiest battle of World War I.
At the time, Bulla's family was notified with a simple telegraph delivered nearly two months after his death. His sacrifice earned him no awards or recognition.
But on Monday, the 93rd anniversary of Bulla's death, the Cumberland County native will be honored as a World War I hero in Virginia, where he will posthumously receive that state's highest award.
Bulla, a first lieutenant in the Virginia National Guard, was wounded in the Battle of the Meuse and died from loss of blood two days later.
But Bulla was different from most of the more than 26,000 American soldiers to die in the battle that pitted American and French troops against Germany's 5th Army.
That's because Bulla, despite spending most of his time on the front lines, did not carry a gun.
An Army chaplain who volunteered for service years earlier, Bulla carried first aid kits and a canteen of water, treating wounded soldiers physically and spiritually as he helped them to the rear of the battlefield.
Historical accounts and letters to Bulla's family reveal the 37-year-old chaplain was routinely warned about his proximity to danger but he refused to stay in the rear as other chaplains did.
Bulla's ministry caught the attention of commanders and fellow soldiers alike.
One letter to Bulla's parents recalls a heavy bombardment of the town of Vauthiermont in northeastern France. As bombs burst and soldiers throughout the town braced against shrapnel, Bulla sat calmly at an organ leading other soldiers in singing the hymn "Nearer My God to Thee," the letter says.
Back in North Carolina, the tales of Bulla's time in France were largely lost to his family as siblings and parents passed away.
William Bulla, a nephew and his closest relative, said he knew little of his uncle before 1999, when Virginia dedicated a highway marker outside First Presbyterian Church of Emporia, where Bulla led a congregation before heading to war.
"I had just briefly heard of him," William Bulla said. "I just knew he was a devoted Christian man who was killed in France and buried here a couple of years later."
In the years since, family members discovered the letters to Bulla's parents, which brought a better understanding of his sacrifice.
There also has been a push to recognize Bulla by the Virginia National Guard, which dedicated a chapel at Fort Pickett, Va., to him earlier this year.
Those efforts will culminate in the ceremony Monday, to be held at Bulla's former church in Emporia.
"It is long past time to honor the deeds of this soldier who sacrificed his life that other men might live," said Virginia National Guard historian John W. Listman Jr.
Listman called it fitting that the Virginia National Guard correct the omission made after Bulla's death and recognize the chaplain for "his dedication above the call of duty."
William Bulla will receive the Virginia Distinguished Service Medal at Monday's ceremony. He said he will then return the medal to officials, who will display it either in Emporia or at the Fort Pickett chapel named in honor of his uncle.
The remains of Thomas McNeil Bulla rest in a small family cemetery in Vander.
On the moss-covered tombstone, which stands roughly 5 feet tall, a weathered engraving identifies Bulla as a second son and a man of God. No mention is made of his military service outside a small American Legion marker on the grave.
Bulla died in France in 1918 after being wounded during what historians have called America's bloodiest battle of World War I.
At the time, Bulla's family was notified with a simple telegraph delivered nearly two months after his death. His sacrifice earned him no awards or recognition.
But on Monday, the 93rd anniversary of Bulla's death, the Cumberland County native will be honored as a World War I hero in Virginia, where he will posthumously receive that state's highest award.
Bulla, a first lieutenant in the Virginia National Guard, was wounded in the Battle of the Meuse and died from loss of blood two days later.
But Bulla was different from most of the more than 26,000 American soldiers to die in the battle that pitted American and French troops against Germany's 5th Army.
That's because Bulla, despite spending most of his time on the front lines, did not carry a gun.
An Army chaplain who volunteered for service years earlier, Bulla carried first aid kits and a canteen of water, treating wounded soldiers physically and spiritually as he helped them to the rear of the battlefield.
Historical accounts and letters to Bulla's family reveal the 37-year-old chaplain was routinely warned about his proximity to danger but he refused to stay in the rear as other chaplains did.
Bulla's ministry caught the attention of commanders and fellow soldiers alike.
One letter to Bulla's parents recalls a heavy bombardment of the town of Vauthiermont in northeastern France. As bombs burst and soldiers throughout the town braced against shrapnel, Bulla sat calmly at an organ leading other soldiers in singing the hymn "Nearer My God to Thee," the letter says.
Back in North Carolina, the tales of Bulla's time in France were largely lost to his family as siblings and parents passed away.
William Bulla, a nephew and his closest relative, said he knew little of his uncle before 1999, when Virginia dedicated a highway marker outside First Presbyterian Church of Emporia, where Bulla led a congregation before heading to war.
"I had just briefly heard of him," William Bulla said. "I just knew he was a devoted Christian man who was killed in France and buried here a couple of years later."
In the years since, family members discovered the letters to Bulla's parents, which brought a better understanding of his sacrifice.
There also has been a push to recognize Bulla by the Virginia National Guard, which dedicated a chapel at Fort Pickett, Va., to him earlier this year.
Those efforts will culminate in the ceremony Monday, to be held at Bulla's former church in Emporia.
"It is long past time to honor the deeds of this soldier who sacrificed his life that other men might live," said Virginia National Guard historian John W. Listman Jr.
Listman called it fitting that the Virginia National Guard correct the omission made after Bulla's death and recognize the chaplain for "his dedication above the call of duty."
William Bulla will receive the Virginia Distinguished Service Medal at Monday's ceremony. He said he will then return the medal to officials, who will display it either in Emporia or at the Fort Pickett chapel named in honor of his uncle.
Sunday, October 16, 2011
The real Downton Abbey: how Highclere Castle became a World War I hospital
If you visit the link below, via your computer, yo ucan see a video of Lady Carnarvon talking about the Castle and how it was converted into a hospital during WWI.
From The Telegraph: The real Downton Abbey: how Highclere Castle became a World War I hospital
hospital stay could be a grim affair for officers wounded in the First World War. But not for those who were sent to Highclere Castle, the stately home known to millions as Downton Abbey in the hit ITV costume drama.
Soldiers were nursed back to health on fresh linen sheets, propped up on fat down pillows so they could gaze out over a beautiful country park. Silver service dinners were followed by a game of cards in the library while sipping a glass of beer, naturally from the house's very own brewery. A butler was even on hand to pour the convalescents a nip of whisky before dinner.
As in the television series, Highclere Castle was a pleasant place for recuperating officers during the Great War. Some, understandably, stayed for months.
Lady Carnavon tells The Telegraph how her predecessor Lady Almina converted Highclere Castle in a 'Military Home Hospital' in the early years of the First World War.
'Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey - The Lost Legacy of Highclere Castle' by Lady Carnavon is published by Hodder and Stoughton.
From The Telegraph: The real Downton Abbey: how Highclere Castle became a World War I hospital
hospital stay could be a grim affair for officers wounded in the First World War. But not for those who were sent to Highclere Castle, the stately home known to millions as Downton Abbey in the hit ITV costume drama.
Soldiers were nursed back to health on fresh linen sheets, propped up on fat down pillows so they could gaze out over a beautiful country park. Silver service dinners were followed by a game of cards in the library while sipping a glass of beer, naturally from the house's very own brewery. A butler was even on hand to pour the convalescents a nip of whisky before dinner.
As in the television series, Highclere Castle was a pleasant place for recuperating officers during the Great War. Some, understandably, stayed for months.
Lady Carnavon tells The Telegraph how her predecessor Lady Almina converted Highclere Castle in a 'Military Home Hospital' in the early years of the First World War.
'Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey - The Lost Legacy of Highclere Castle' by Lady Carnavon is published by Hodder and Stoughton.
Thursday, October 13, 2011
Yobs smash First World War memorial to pieces
From Daily Mail Online: Yobs smash First World War memorial to pieces
This sorry sight is the result of mindless vandalism which police are calling a 'crime against our Armed Forces'.
The First World War memorial was knocked over on Friday night, leaving lumps of stone scattered across the grass where people would normally stand to pay their respects.
Villagers in Prestbury, near Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, where the structure has stood proudly since 1920, have placed a £1,000 bounty on the heads of those responsible.
They are now desperately trying to raise funds to get the structure repaired in time for Remembrance Sunday on November 13.
Sergeant Mark Stephens, from Gloucestershire Constabulary, said the cost of the damage could be as much as £5,000.
He said: 'This is a crime against the men and women of our Armed Forces who have in the past, and continue in the present day, to pay the ultimate sacrifice in the service of their country to ensure the freedom and liberty we all enjoy.
'This will have a significant impact on not only the residents of Prestbury, but also the wider Cheltenham community.
'It is particularly poignant as we are so close to Remembrance Sunday when a great many people attend the Prestbury service held at the memorial to honour those who have fallen in service of our country.
'You can rest assured that I will ensure every possible line of inquiry is fully investigated to determine how this damage occurred and, if it were malicious, to bring those responsible before the courts.'
Prestbury Parish Council will debate the matter at a meeting tonight.
Malcolm Stennett, parish council chairman, said: 'It's really horrendous.
'It's terrible when you think that our troops are out fighting at the moment, getting killed and injured, and people are going around desecrating a war memorial.
'It must show an extremely low intellect and I hope the police are able to bring the culprits to book.'
The Reverend Daniel Papworth, of north Cheltenham team ministry, added: 'It is sad and distressing to see the damage and local people are understandably shocked.'
This sorry sight is the result of mindless vandalism which police are calling a 'crime against our Armed Forces'.
The First World War memorial was knocked over on Friday night, leaving lumps of stone scattered across the grass where people would normally stand to pay their respects.
Villagers in Prestbury, near Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, where the structure has stood proudly since 1920, have placed a £1,000 bounty on the heads of those responsible.
They are now desperately trying to raise funds to get the structure repaired in time for Remembrance Sunday on November 13.
Sergeant Mark Stephens, from Gloucestershire Constabulary, said the cost of the damage could be as much as £5,000.
He said: 'This is a crime against the men and women of our Armed Forces who have in the past, and continue in the present day, to pay the ultimate sacrifice in the service of their country to ensure the freedom and liberty we all enjoy.
'This will have a significant impact on not only the residents of Prestbury, but also the wider Cheltenham community.
'It is particularly poignant as we are so close to Remembrance Sunday when a great many people attend the Prestbury service held at the memorial to honour those who have fallen in service of our country.
'You can rest assured that I will ensure every possible line of inquiry is fully investigated to determine how this damage occurred and, if it were malicious, to bring those responsible before the courts.'
Prestbury Parish Council will debate the matter at a meeting tonight.
Malcolm Stennett, parish council chairman, said: 'It's really horrendous.
'It's terrible when you think that our troops are out fighting at the moment, getting killed and injured, and people are going around desecrating a war memorial.
'It must show an extremely low intellect and I hope the police are able to bring the culprits to book.'
The Reverend Daniel Papworth, of north Cheltenham team ministry, added: 'It is sad and distressing to see the damage and local people are understandably shocked.'
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Great War wreck found
From Sydney Morning Herald.com: Great War wreck found
A BRITISH ship sunk in World War I with about 200,000 ounces of silver, worth $US19 million ($19.5 million) at today's prices, has been found in the North Atlantic, a treasure-hunting company says.
Odyssey Marine Exploration said it found the wreckage of the SS Mantola, which sank on February 9, 1917, after being torpedoed by a German submarine, and would begin recovery operations next year.
The Florida company said it discovered the shipwreck about 2500 metres beneath the surface and just 160 kilometres from the SS Gairsoppa, believed to be the most valuable shipwreck ever, with about $US210 million in silver. The firm said it had an agreement with the British government allowing it to keep 80 per cent of the value of anything recovered from the wrecks. It said the British Ministry of War Transport paid an insurance claim in 1917 of £110,000 for silver that was on board the Mantola when it sank.
Advertisement: Story continues below UNESCO estimates there are about 3 million shipwrecks worldwide, with billions of dollars in sunken treasure and priceless knowledge that can be recovered from the depths of the ocean, including copper, silver, gold and zinc deposits still to be discovered.
A BRITISH ship sunk in World War I with about 200,000 ounces of silver, worth $US19 million ($19.5 million) at today's prices, has been found in the North Atlantic, a treasure-hunting company says.
Odyssey Marine Exploration said it found the wreckage of the SS Mantola, which sank on February 9, 1917, after being torpedoed by a German submarine, and would begin recovery operations next year.
The Florida company said it discovered the shipwreck about 2500 metres beneath the surface and just 160 kilometres from the SS Gairsoppa, believed to be the most valuable shipwreck ever, with about $US210 million in silver. The firm said it had an agreement with the British government allowing it to keep 80 per cent of the value of anything recovered from the wrecks. It said the British Ministry of War Transport paid an insurance claim in 1917 of £110,000 for silver that was on board the Mantola when it sank.
Advertisement: Story continues below UNESCO estimates there are about 3 million shipwrecks worldwide, with billions of dollars in sunken treasure and priceless knowledge that can be recovered from the depths of the ocean, including copper, silver, gold and zinc deposits still to be discovered.
Saturday, October 8, 2011
On travel til Wednesday
I'm visiting elderly relatives in Box Elder, SD who do not have internet.
Will try to sneak out now and again to an internet cafe to post, but more than likely will not be posting until Wedneday.
Will try to sneak out now and again to an internet cafe to post, but more than likely will not be posting until Wedneday.
Thursday, October 6, 2011
Sarkozy challenges Turkey to face its history
From Reuters: Sarkozy challenges Turkey to face its history
(Reuters) - French President Nicolas Sarkozy, on a brief trip to the Caucasus, urged Turkey on Thursday to recognise the 1915 massacre of Armenians as genocide, threatening to pass a law in France that would make denying this a crime.
Visiting a genocide memorial and museum in Yerevan, Armenia, with Armenian President Serzh Sarksyan, Sarkozy challenged Turkey -- which is seeking membership of the European Union -- to face up to its past.
"The Armenian genocide is a historical reality. Collective denial is even worse than individual denial," Sarkozy told reporters.
"Turkey, which is a great country, would honour itself to revisit its history like other great countries in the world have done."
Armenia was the first stop on a two-day trip to the region by Sarkozy, who is keen to raise his profile on the international stage before an April presidential election. He visits Azerbaijan and Georgia on Friday.
France is opposed to Turkey's bid for EU membership and his comments on the sensitive subject are likely to be viewed as unwelcome meddling by Ankara.
Turkey denies the deaths of Armenians in 1915 was genocide. It says both Christian Armenians and Muslim Turks died in large numbers as the Ottoman empire collapsed.
Sarkozy suggested that the French parliament might consider a law making denial of the deaths of Armenians as genocide a crime, similar to the French law against Holocaust denial.
FROZEN CONFLICT
While in the region, Sarkozy will try to encourage Sarksyan and the president of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, to resolve a conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, a mainly Armenian-populated enclave in Azerbaijan.
France plays a leading role in the Minsk Group of countries from the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), which is trying to resolve the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Armenian-backed forces wrested Nagorno-Karabakh from Azeri control after the Soviet Union collapsed. When the conflict ended in a cease-fire in 1994, 30,000 people had been killed and about 1 million had been driven from their homes.
During a three-hour visit to Georgia, Sarkozy will also urge Georgia to improve relations with Russia, reviving memories of his mediating role when the two countries went to war in 2008.
Sarkozy's success in brokering a cease-fire in that conflict guarantees a warm welcome in the capital Tbilisi, where he will meet President Mikheil Saakashvili and address a crowd in the central Freedom Square.
Sarkozy will urge Saakashvili to look beyond the countries' differences, including over how they interpret the cease-fire terms, and rebuild trust in relations with Moscow.
Each side accuses the other of acting provocatively and sabotaging relations. Moscow has angered Tbilisi and the West by recognising Georgia's breakaway Abkhazia and South Ossetia regions as independent states.
In Moscow on Thursday, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev met Abkhazia's new president and signed legislation ratifying treaties that enable Russia to operate military bases in the two separatist regions for at least 49 years.
It was not clear whether Sarkozy would discuss Russia's bid to join the World Trade Organisation which Georgia, as a member, could block. Moscow hopes to complete its entry to the 153-member trading body this year.
HOPING TO BOOST RATINGS
Sarkozy mediated the 2008 cease-fire on behalf of the European Union as France held the bloc's presidency at the time.
That ended the war over Abkhazia and South Ossetia, but Georgia says Russia has violated the terms by not withdrawing troops to the positions they held before the war.
TV images of Sarkozy addressing jubilant crowds will do him no harm as he tries to improve his poor ratings before the two-round election on April 22 and May 6. An opinion poll on Tuesday put Socialist Francois Hollande well in the lead.
Sarkozy will also promote business during his visit to the region but officials gave no details of any planned contracts.
French oil group Total said last month it had made a major gas discovery at Azerbaijan's Absheron block in the Caspian Sea. French companies could also be in the running to help extend the Baku metro, or subway.
(Reuters) - French President Nicolas Sarkozy, on a brief trip to the Caucasus, urged Turkey on Thursday to recognise the 1915 massacre of Armenians as genocide, threatening to pass a law in France that would make denying this a crime.
Visiting a genocide memorial and museum in Yerevan, Armenia, with Armenian President Serzh Sarksyan, Sarkozy challenged Turkey -- which is seeking membership of the European Union -- to face up to its past.
"The Armenian genocide is a historical reality. Collective denial is even worse than individual denial," Sarkozy told reporters.
"Turkey, which is a great country, would honour itself to revisit its history like other great countries in the world have done."
Armenia was the first stop on a two-day trip to the region by Sarkozy, who is keen to raise his profile on the international stage before an April presidential election. He visits Azerbaijan and Georgia on Friday.
France is opposed to Turkey's bid for EU membership and his comments on the sensitive subject are likely to be viewed as unwelcome meddling by Ankara.
Turkey denies the deaths of Armenians in 1915 was genocide. It says both Christian Armenians and Muslim Turks died in large numbers as the Ottoman empire collapsed.
Sarkozy suggested that the French parliament might consider a law making denial of the deaths of Armenians as genocide a crime, similar to the French law against Holocaust denial.
FROZEN CONFLICT
While in the region, Sarkozy will try to encourage Sarksyan and the president of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, to resolve a conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, a mainly Armenian-populated enclave in Azerbaijan.
France plays a leading role in the Minsk Group of countries from the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), which is trying to resolve the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Armenian-backed forces wrested Nagorno-Karabakh from Azeri control after the Soviet Union collapsed. When the conflict ended in a cease-fire in 1994, 30,000 people had been killed and about 1 million had been driven from their homes.
During a three-hour visit to Georgia, Sarkozy will also urge Georgia to improve relations with Russia, reviving memories of his mediating role when the two countries went to war in 2008.
Sarkozy's success in brokering a cease-fire in that conflict guarantees a warm welcome in the capital Tbilisi, where he will meet President Mikheil Saakashvili and address a crowd in the central Freedom Square.
Sarkozy will urge Saakashvili to look beyond the countries' differences, including over how they interpret the cease-fire terms, and rebuild trust in relations with Moscow.
Each side accuses the other of acting provocatively and sabotaging relations. Moscow has angered Tbilisi and the West by recognising Georgia's breakaway Abkhazia and South Ossetia regions as independent states.
In Moscow on Thursday, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev met Abkhazia's new president and signed legislation ratifying treaties that enable Russia to operate military bases in the two separatist regions for at least 49 years.
It was not clear whether Sarkozy would discuss Russia's bid to join the World Trade Organisation which Georgia, as a member, could block. Moscow hopes to complete its entry to the 153-member trading body this year.
HOPING TO BOOST RATINGS
Sarkozy mediated the 2008 cease-fire on behalf of the European Union as France held the bloc's presidency at the time.
That ended the war over Abkhazia and South Ossetia, but Georgia says Russia has violated the terms by not withdrawing troops to the positions they held before the war.
TV images of Sarkozy addressing jubilant crowds will do him no harm as he tries to improve his poor ratings before the two-round election on April 22 and May 6. An opinion poll on Tuesday put Socialist Francois Hollande well in the lead.
Sarkozy will also promote business during his visit to the region but officials gave no details of any planned contracts.
French oil group Total said last month it had made a major gas discovery at Azerbaijan's Absheron block in the Caspian Sea. French companies could also be in the running to help extend the Baku metro, or subway.
Book Review: Gallipoli, by Peter Hart
From The Economist: A terrible beginning
Gallipoli. By Peter Hart. Oxford University Press; 560 pages; $34.95. Profile; £25. Buy from Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk
HERE is a marvellous, ghastly book. The story is well known. In the spring of 1915 an Allied expedition comprising troops from Britain, France, Australia, New Zealand, Newfoundland and India attempted to capture the Gallipoli peninsula. The objective was to gain control of the Dardanelles Strait, and then to press on and take Constantinople. The operation was supposed to remove Turkey from the first world war at a stroke. But the result was a bitterly contested stand-off that lasted for eight months. The Allied forces were evacuated at the end of 1915, after both sides had suffered appalling hardships and losses.
The Gallipoli campaign, Peter Hart argues, was doomed from the start. Planning was a matter of wishful thinking, if not outright fantasy. No serious attempt was made to understand the strength of the Turkish army, the nature of the terrain or the numbers of Allied troops. Nor could anyone conceive of logistical support required to make a success of the operation. “Thanks to political interference, lethally combined with the bullish optimism of generals who saw only opportunities, the Gallipoli campaign was launched into a void that guaranteed failure.” The Western Front was the place where the war would be won; Gallipoli was merely “a futile and costly sideshow”, exacerbated by “lunatic persistence in the face of the obvious”.
In this section
Punchline
From yardsticks to metre rule
The first cut is the deepest
»A terrible beginning
The bold standard
Reprints
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Related topics
Mustafa Kemal Ataturk
Turkey
Culture and lifestyle
History
World history
What makes Mr Hart’s version so bracing is his method. He is a specialist in oral history at London’s Imperial War Museum, and this book, like others he has written or co-written, gains richness and texture from the use of first-hand testimony. A kaleidoscope of impressions and perceptions tumble before the mind’s eye, constantly shifting from the general to the particular, the political to the personal. A Turkish soldier describes a scene, and his account is immediately followed by that of a British or Australian soldier describing the same event. This helps make the overall picture far more vivid and compelling. The diversity of voices also captures something of the immediacy, terror and illogic of war, although the book is neither confusing nor chaotic.
Three testimonials stand out. There is a brief sketch by Lieutenant Norman King-Wilson of the operating room aboard HMHS Caledonia, “a veritable stinking, bloody shambles, where patients were brought up on a stretcher and left waiting for their predecessor to be taken down, then rapidly chloroformed, placed on the table, a leg or arm whipped off in a couple of minutes, by a circular incision, one sweep of the knife and the bone sawed through, the limb thrown into a basket with many others, awaiting incineration.” Then there is the damning summation of General Sir Charles Monro, sent in late to assess the Allies’ prospects: “The positions occupied by our troops presented a military situation unique in history… The force, in short, held a line possessing every possible military defect.”
Lastly there are the words of Kemal Ataturk, first president of modern Turkey and previously, as Lieutenant Colonel Mustafa Kemal, chief architect of the Allies’ torment at Gallipoli. In 1934 he unveiled a memorial dedicated to “Those heroes that shed their blood and lost their lives” at Anzac Cove. The inscription reads: “You are now lying in the soil of a friendly country. Therefore, rest in peace. There is no difference between the Johnnies and the Mehmets to us where they lie side by side here in this country of ours. You, the mothers, who sent their sons from faraway countries, wipe away your tears; your sons are now lying in our bosom and are in peace. After having lost their lives on this land they have become our sons as well.”
Gallipoli. By Peter Hart. Oxford University Press; 560 pages; $34.95. Profile; £25. Buy from Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk
HERE is a marvellous, ghastly book. The story is well known. In the spring of 1915 an Allied expedition comprising troops from Britain, France, Australia, New Zealand, Newfoundland and India attempted to capture the Gallipoli peninsula. The objective was to gain control of the Dardanelles Strait, and then to press on and take Constantinople. The operation was supposed to remove Turkey from the first world war at a stroke. But the result was a bitterly contested stand-off that lasted for eight months. The Allied forces were evacuated at the end of 1915, after both sides had suffered appalling hardships and losses.
The Gallipoli campaign, Peter Hart argues, was doomed from the start. Planning was a matter of wishful thinking, if not outright fantasy. No serious attempt was made to understand the strength of the Turkish army, the nature of the terrain or the numbers of Allied troops. Nor could anyone conceive of logistical support required to make a success of the operation. “Thanks to political interference, lethally combined with the bullish optimism of generals who saw only opportunities, the Gallipoli campaign was launched into a void that guaranteed failure.” The Western Front was the place where the war would be won; Gallipoli was merely “a futile and costly sideshow”, exacerbated by “lunatic persistence in the face of the obvious”.
In this section
Punchline
From yardsticks to metre rule
The first cut is the deepest
»A terrible beginning
The bold standard
Reprints
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Related topics
Mustafa Kemal Ataturk
Turkey
Culture and lifestyle
History
World history
What makes Mr Hart’s version so bracing is his method. He is a specialist in oral history at London’s Imperial War Museum, and this book, like others he has written or co-written, gains richness and texture from the use of first-hand testimony. A kaleidoscope of impressions and perceptions tumble before the mind’s eye, constantly shifting from the general to the particular, the political to the personal. A Turkish soldier describes a scene, and his account is immediately followed by that of a British or Australian soldier describing the same event. This helps make the overall picture far more vivid and compelling. The diversity of voices also captures something of the immediacy, terror and illogic of war, although the book is neither confusing nor chaotic.
Three testimonials stand out. There is a brief sketch by Lieutenant Norman King-Wilson of the operating room aboard HMHS Caledonia, “a veritable stinking, bloody shambles, where patients were brought up on a stretcher and left waiting for their predecessor to be taken down, then rapidly chloroformed, placed on the table, a leg or arm whipped off in a couple of minutes, by a circular incision, one sweep of the knife and the bone sawed through, the limb thrown into a basket with many others, awaiting incineration.” Then there is the damning summation of General Sir Charles Monro, sent in late to assess the Allies’ prospects: “The positions occupied by our troops presented a military situation unique in history… The force, in short, held a line possessing every possible military defect.”
Lastly there are the words of Kemal Ataturk, first president of modern Turkey and previously, as Lieutenant Colonel Mustafa Kemal, chief architect of the Allies’ torment at Gallipoli. In 1934 he unveiled a memorial dedicated to “Those heroes that shed their blood and lost their lives” at Anzac Cove. The inscription reads: “You are now lying in the soil of a friendly country. Therefore, rest in peace. There is no difference between the Johnnies and the Mehmets to us where they lie side by side here in this country of ours. You, the mothers, who sent their sons from faraway countries, wipe away your tears; your sons are now lying in our bosom and are in peace. After having lost their lives on this land they have become our sons as well.”
Monday, October 3, 2011
Divers survey Scottish graveyard of first world war submarine disaster
From The Guardian: Divers survey Scottish graveyard of first world war submarine disaster
An underwater war grave containing the victims of one of the worst British naval disasters of the first world war has been surveyed for the first time so it can be preserved in the middle of a windfarm.
The two K Class submarines were destroyed on 31 January 1918 during the so-called battle of the Isle of May, in which 270 lives were lost. The two submarines were sunk and three more damaged along with a surface cruiser.
But no enemy ships were involved in the sinkings, 20 miles off Fife Ness on Scotland's east coast. The deaths were all caused by a series of night-time collisions within the British fleet.
So embarrassing was the incident that even though one officer was court-martialed, the facts were not generally admitted for more than 60 years, until after the death of the last survivor.
Jim Rae, secretary of the Scottish branch of the Submariners Association, said: "It was an absolute bloody disaster from the beginning. The K Class submarines did not have a very impressive record. You can see why those who served in them were known as the suicide club."
The submarines proved far more lethal to their crews than to the enemy, so much so that the K was said to stand for Kalamity. Driven by oil-fired steam turbine engines, they were large and cumbersome, too slow to keep up with surface ships, hard to manoeuvre and stifling for their crews. Of the 18 that were built, none were lost in action but six were sunk in accidental collisions.
In January 1918, as British warships steamed north from Rosyth to join their fleet at Scapa Flow in the Orkneys, they were accompanied by two flotillas of the submarines. The first two subs found themselves bearing down on two minesweepers and changed course. The third, K14, veered to starboard to avoid colliding with them but performed a complete circle as its rudder jammed.
That brought it back into line just in time to be rammed by the last submarine in the group, K22. A battlecruiser, HMS Inflexible, then ploughed into K22.
The first ships in the convoy turned back to rescue the submarines and steamed straight into the chaos. A cruiser, HMS Fearless, rammed K17, another of the subs, sinking it within eight minutes. Then two further submarines, K4 and K6, collided. To complete the disaster, a destroyer then carved through the survivors of K17, killing many of those who had been left in the water. The entire 59-man crew of K4 was lost and all but eight of K17's.
The Royal Navy hushed up the catastrophe and it was not until 2002 that a commemorative plaque was erected on a cairn in Anstruther, the nearest village on the coast, though even that does not refer to the cause of the loss of life. The Submariners' Association does, however, now hold an annual commemorative service.
The site of the two sunken submarines, 100 metres apart and about 50 metres down, has long been known, but the wrecks have now been surveyed by divers from the specialist marine consultants EMU. The area is the proposed site for an offshore windfarm, known as the Neart na Gaoithe project, developed by a company called Mainstream Renewable Power.
The project aims to generate 450MW of renewable energy and may eventually provide enough to power 325,000 Scottish homes. The developers claim it will offset more than 400,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions each year, and contribute towards the Scottish government's target of generating the equivalent of all the country's energy demands from renewable resources by 2020.
An underwater war grave containing the victims of one of the worst British naval disasters of the first world war has been surveyed for the first time so it can be preserved in the middle of a windfarm.
The two K Class submarines were destroyed on 31 January 1918 during the so-called battle of the Isle of May, in which 270 lives were lost. The two submarines were sunk and three more damaged along with a surface cruiser.
But no enemy ships were involved in the sinkings, 20 miles off Fife Ness on Scotland's east coast. The deaths were all caused by a series of night-time collisions within the British fleet.
So embarrassing was the incident that even though one officer was court-martialed, the facts were not generally admitted for more than 60 years, until after the death of the last survivor.
Jim Rae, secretary of the Scottish branch of the Submariners Association, said: "It was an absolute bloody disaster from the beginning. The K Class submarines did not have a very impressive record. You can see why those who served in them were known as the suicide club."
The submarines proved far more lethal to their crews than to the enemy, so much so that the K was said to stand for Kalamity. Driven by oil-fired steam turbine engines, they were large and cumbersome, too slow to keep up with surface ships, hard to manoeuvre and stifling for their crews. Of the 18 that were built, none were lost in action but six were sunk in accidental collisions.
In January 1918, as British warships steamed north from Rosyth to join their fleet at Scapa Flow in the Orkneys, they were accompanied by two flotillas of the submarines. The first two subs found themselves bearing down on two minesweepers and changed course. The third, K14, veered to starboard to avoid colliding with them but performed a complete circle as its rudder jammed.
That brought it back into line just in time to be rammed by the last submarine in the group, K22. A battlecruiser, HMS Inflexible, then ploughed into K22.
The first ships in the convoy turned back to rescue the submarines and steamed straight into the chaos. A cruiser, HMS Fearless, rammed K17, another of the subs, sinking it within eight minutes. Then two further submarines, K4 and K6, collided. To complete the disaster, a destroyer then carved through the survivors of K17, killing many of those who had been left in the water. The entire 59-man crew of K4 was lost and all but eight of K17's.
The Royal Navy hushed up the catastrophe and it was not until 2002 that a commemorative plaque was erected on a cairn in Anstruther, the nearest village on the coast, though even that does not refer to the cause of the loss of life. The Submariners' Association does, however, now hold an annual commemorative service.
The site of the two sunken submarines, 100 metres apart and about 50 metres down, has long been known, but the wrecks have now been surveyed by divers from the specialist marine consultants EMU. The area is the proposed site for an offshore windfarm, known as the Neart na Gaoithe project, developed by a company called Mainstream Renewable Power.
The project aims to generate 450MW of renewable energy and may eventually provide enough to power 325,000 Scottish homes. The developers claim it will offset more than 400,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions each year, and contribute towards the Scottish government's target of generating the equivalent of all the country's energy demands from renewable resources by 2020.
Saturday, October 1, 2011
KAISER’S CHIEFS PREDICTED RIOT
From the Peterlee Mail: KAISER’S CHIEFS PREDICTED RIOT
HARTLEPOOL’S location on the North Sea coast made it a fall guy target for the German Navy in the First World War, a new book by a renowned naval and military author reveals.
Bryan Perrett’s ‘North Sea Battleground: The War at Sea 1914-18’ investigates how the North Sea became “the principal battleground between the navies of Britain and Germany” during the conflict and details a raid on Hartlepool that was not as straightforward as it may have seemed.
Germany’s military leader Kaiser Wilhelm II and his senior commanders were convinced that attacking North Sea coastal towns would cause panic among their inhabitants.
They thought people in Hartlepool and the rest of the North-East’s seaside towns would realise their coast could be reached and breached, leaving them in danger from marauding soldiers coming ashore to murder them in their beds.
This fear, the Kaiser’s chiefs believed, would cause the British to lose their stomach for the fight and revolt, leading to an early end to the war in Germany’s favour.
Employing their new strategy, the German Navy launched an attack on Hartlepool on the morning of December 16, 1914, while at the same time sending ships to attack Scarborough and Whitby to the south.
It was the first time that Britain had been subjected to a serious attack from the sea for centuries and made Hartlepool the first place on mainland Britain to be shelled by the Germans in the First World War.
In total, 118 people died, with 32 of them being women and 37 children.
Buildings crumbled as more than 1,000 shells rained down on the town during the surprise 40-minute attack by three heavy German cruisers.
Targeting Hartlepool would have seemed logical to the townsfolk, who may have assumed the two gun batteries at Heugh and Lighthouse on the Headland, along with a third at South Gare, were an obvious target for an invading enemy looking to disarm the town’s defences protecting extensive industrial and dockland areas.
But the lack of military installations in either Scarborough or Whitby made their attacks somewhat baffling to a population unaware that the Kaiser was simply trying to put the wind up them.
The German plan was a no holds barred attack on the three seaside towns with no regard for civilians, who were considered fair game along with property.
The only thing out of bounds to the German troops was property belonging to the Royal Family, with the Kaiser being grandson of Queen Victoria.
Standing between the attacking Germans and the people of Hartlepool that morning was Lieutenant Colonel Lancelot Robson, a Hartlepudlian who had served the town both as Mayor and soldier, having been commissioned as a gunner 40 years before and recalled into service at the start of the war.
Alongside Robson stood his elite band of troops, who were highly regarded in the British military for their ability to hit moving targets – ships – at long distances in all weathers.
Both Robson and his men were to benefit from the interception of German signal code books by British Intelligence and were at their posts before dawn on that filthy winter morning as sea swells rose and the German commander, Admiral Franz Hipper was warned that his lighter ships would not cope with the rough conditions.
But Hipper refused to back down and three ships headed for Hartlepool.
Thanks to the German signal code books they were to be intercepted by four British Navy ships before a shoot-out at sea as Hartlepudlians hurried to work and school.
Perrett’s book, which is published by Pen & Sword, has a hardback cover price of £19.99. ISBN 184884450-6. For more information logo on to www.pen-and-sword.co.uk
HARTLEPOOL’S location on the North Sea coast made it a fall guy target for the German Navy in the First World War, a new book by a renowned naval and military author reveals.
Bryan Perrett’s ‘North Sea Battleground: The War at Sea 1914-18’ investigates how the North Sea became “the principal battleground between the navies of Britain and Germany” during the conflict and details a raid on Hartlepool that was not as straightforward as it may have seemed.
Germany’s military leader Kaiser Wilhelm II and his senior commanders were convinced that attacking North Sea coastal towns would cause panic among their inhabitants.
They thought people in Hartlepool and the rest of the North-East’s seaside towns would realise their coast could be reached and breached, leaving them in danger from marauding soldiers coming ashore to murder them in their beds.
This fear, the Kaiser’s chiefs believed, would cause the British to lose their stomach for the fight and revolt, leading to an early end to the war in Germany’s favour.
Employing their new strategy, the German Navy launched an attack on Hartlepool on the morning of December 16, 1914, while at the same time sending ships to attack Scarborough and Whitby to the south.
It was the first time that Britain had been subjected to a serious attack from the sea for centuries and made Hartlepool the first place on mainland Britain to be shelled by the Germans in the First World War.
In total, 118 people died, with 32 of them being women and 37 children.
Buildings crumbled as more than 1,000 shells rained down on the town during the surprise 40-minute attack by three heavy German cruisers.
Targeting Hartlepool would have seemed logical to the townsfolk, who may have assumed the two gun batteries at Heugh and Lighthouse on the Headland, along with a third at South Gare, were an obvious target for an invading enemy looking to disarm the town’s defences protecting extensive industrial and dockland areas.
But the lack of military installations in either Scarborough or Whitby made their attacks somewhat baffling to a population unaware that the Kaiser was simply trying to put the wind up them.
The German plan was a no holds barred attack on the three seaside towns with no regard for civilians, who were considered fair game along with property.
The only thing out of bounds to the German troops was property belonging to the Royal Family, with the Kaiser being grandson of Queen Victoria.
Standing between the attacking Germans and the people of Hartlepool that morning was Lieutenant Colonel Lancelot Robson, a Hartlepudlian who had served the town both as Mayor and soldier, having been commissioned as a gunner 40 years before and recalled into service at the start of the war.
Alongside Robson stood his elite band of troops, who were highly regarded in the British military for their ability to hit moving targets – ships – at long distances in all weathers.
Both Robson and his men were to benefit from the interception of German signal code books by British Intelligence and were at their posts before dawn on that filthy winter morning as sea swells rose and the German commander, Admiral Franz Hipper was warned that his lighter ships would not cope with the rough conditions.
But Hipper refused to back down and three ships headed for Hartlepool.
Thanks to the German signal code books they were to be intercepted by four British Navy ships before a shoot-out at sea as Hartlepudlians hurried to work and school.
Perrett’s book, which is published by Pen & Sword, has a hardback cover price of £19.99. ISBN 184884450-6. For more information logo on to www.pen-and-sword.co.uk
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