How my passion for WWI evolved

This blog began me thinking about how I became interested in history in general and the Great War in particular. That interest has morphed into a memoir that looks at how the past, both personal and historical, turned an anxious kid and troubled teen into a successful storyteller and author of fifty books of historical fiction and non-fiction. The result is a new blog being published in weekly episodes. If you have enjoyed this blog and share my interest in the past, check out Lands of Lost Content.

Of course the results of my interest are still available through links on my website.

"An ecstasy of fumbling,"

 

"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. . . "

                                                                    Dulce et Decorum est.

                                                     Wilfred Owen

Tear gas casualties from the 55th Division in April, 1918.

Owen's poem is well-known, as is the story of the "first" gas attack at Ypres in April, 1915, but gas had been around and used by all sides well before Owen or Ypres.

The French were the first to use gas as early as August, 1914. They used grenades filled with tear gas, but the concentration was so low that the German soldiers didn't even notice. Two months later, the Germans tried something similar against the British at Neuve Chapelle, with similar results.

The first large scale use of gas (although here were tests carried out locally) was on the Russian front on January 31, 1915. In this case, the gas froze before it could vaporize and was ineffective. So, the first effective use of gas on  major scale was at Ypres.

The British, while screaming outrage at German use of gas, quickly developed their own program and used gas at Loos on 25th September, 1915. In this case the gas blew back on the British soldiers, hindering them more than the enemy. However, it did produce an extraordinary photograph of the advance.

The British advance through gas at Loos.

Like bayonets during the war and machine guns after, gas has a fearsome reputation, but artillery killed far more soldiers than any of those weapons. 

Gassed last night, and gassed the night before
Going to get gassed tonight;
If we never get gassed anymore.
When we're gassed, were sick as we can be
For Phosgene and Mustard Gas is much too much for me.

They're warning us, they're warning us,
One respirator for the four of us
Thank your lucky stars that three of us can run,
So one of us can use it all alone. 
                                               WWI Song

The Christmas Truce

What happened to them all in the next four years?

As dusk thickened on a cold Christmas Eve in 1914, some British soldiers noticed Germans putting small trees on the parapet of their trenches on the other side of no-mans-land. Some were illuminated with small candles. Most British soldiers had no idea what this meant, since decorating trees for the festive season was not yet common in Britain. Some even thought it was some kind of fiendish enemy trick. Then the Germans began singing.

Legend has it that the Germans sang Silent Night and this may well have been one of the carols they sang, but certainly not the only one. Eventually, they shouted across for the British to sing. The story goes that, since the British couldn't think of any carols, they replied with bawdy soldiers' songs. This seems unlikely and is probably a symptom of the British denial of sentimentality. In any case, songs were exchanged.

The next morning, more words were exchanged and a few brave souls, Germans initially in most reports, climbed out of their trenches. Others followed as curiosity at what the mostly invisible enemy might be like. Food, cigarettes and tobacco, the staples of most soldiers' lives, were swapped and photographs of home and family examined. Makeshift football (soccer) games were undertaken, although scorekeeping does not seem to have been very important.

As afternoon wore on, soldiers began to drift back to their own trenches. Some swore that they would not open fire the next day and some wildly optimistic individuals stated that this was the end of the war and soon they could call go home. Of course, the optimists were horribly wrong and the guns opened up with renewed fervor the next day—but what if they'd been right? What a Christmas that would have been!

All the best for our Festive Season to everybody.

"The Race to the Sea"

The III Corps added to the BEF in time for the First Battle of Ypres included Indian Army units like this Sikh Regiment.

While I have been on holiday the anniversary of the Battle of the Marne, which some regard as a pivotal battle in 20th century history, took place. The Germans who had already swung east of Paris, were over-extended and retreated, but only back the Aisne River. At the same time, the surprisingly fast deployment of Russian armies in East Prussia was stopped at the devastating Battle of Tannenberg. So the Russians were stopped for the time being but the Schlieffen Plan to beat France quickly had failed.

In late September and October a series of battles, later known erroneously as the "Race to the Sea", happened in Northern France as both sides tried to outflank the other. These battles were vast in scale and are only forgotten now because they were fought in places that were to become associated with much vaster battles later in the war—places who's names came to symbolize the horror of the Western Front: the Somme, Arras, Ypres.

The British Expeditionary Force had fought at Mons, Le Cateau, the Marne and the Aisne. The survivors of the original two army Corps had been reorganized and reinforced by a third Corps. A line of opposing trenches was forming. The French held south from Lens and Arras, the Belgians the stretch of their own country near the coast. The BEF was rushed north to fill the gap between, so did the Germans They met in mid-October 1914 in Flanders in the First Battle of Ypres. The main battle lasted from October 20 to November 22 and cost a total of around 200,000 casualties, among which were the heart of the pre-war British regular army.

Stay tuned, I'll look at this battle in more detail when the time comes.

Mons and after

The 4th Battalion Royal Fusiliers resting in Mons before the battle. I've often wondered who the hatless guy near the middle looking at the camera was and what happened to him. These guys look tired already and they're about fight a battle and then walk almost all the way back to Paris!

The French army is still retreating and the BEF still moving forward. However, it looks as if the BEF is going to have to handle Mons and the retreat without me. I'm off to the UK tomorrow and will have few chances to blog. Should be back for the Marne.

Interestingly, Mons on August 23 is probably the battle with the most mythology associated with it. The Angels and ghostly Agincourt bowmen were obviously created some time after the battle, but the idea that the Germans thought every British soldier had a machine gun is tougher to deny. The British did have fewer machine-guns and they did have the "Mad Minute", 15 aimed rifle rounds fired in a minute, which decimated the packed ranks of advancing German soldiers, but it's easy to tell the difference between machine-gun and concentrated rifle fire, so it's probably likely that the myth was put forward in the newspapers to make the British soldiers seem even better than they were.

The Guns of August

"Europe, in her insanity, has started something almost unbelievable. In such times one realises to what a sad species of animal one belongs. I quietly pursue my peaceful studies and contemplations and feel only pity and disgust." Albert Einstein, August 19.

The French on the way to Berlin.

August 1914 was one of the bloodiest months of WWI, yet the battles are (unless you're British and know about the relatively small engagement at Mons), much less well known to our cultural memory than the Somme or Ypres. This is probably different in France where most of the fighting took place (anyone want to guest blog on it?).

As millions of Germans flooded through Belgium on their way to Paris, to the south millions of Frenchmen headed for Berlin. The titanic struggles that resulted throughout the month contributed the first several hundred thousand casualties to WWI's toll. On August 22 alone, at Charleroi and in the Ardennes, the French lost 27,000 dead, 8,000 more than the British dead on the first day of the Somme in 1916.

The Germans on the way to Paris.

Meanwhile, the relatively tiny British regular army packed its bags crossed the Channel and heading optimistically into Belgium, totally unaware that the French Armies were disintegrating around them. On August 7, Kitchener, realizing that it would be a long war, called for 100,000 volunteers.  Within days of the call, men were being sworn in at  a rate of 100 an hour in London alone. According to The Times, there was little obvious excitement, "but there was an undercurrent of enthusiasm, and the disappointment of those who failed to pass one or other of the test was obvious."

WAR—August 4

King George, Queen Mary and the Prince of Wales after the declaration of war on August 4.

Britain sent a message to Germany repeating, as Prime Minister Asquith said, "the request made last week to the German Government that they should give us the same assurance in regard to Belgian neutrality that was given to us and Belgium by France last week." A deadline of midnight in Berlin (11 p.m. in London) was given for a reply.

It's unlikely that many people on either side thought the British ultimatum would have any effect. Things had gone too far. The ultimatum was a casus belli to justify Britain going to war. Bethmann Hollweg certainly thought so, he believed that the treaty assuring Belgian neutrality had the value of a "scrap of paper," and that Britain was going to war for her own interests.

Sir Edward Grey came very close to confirming this perspective in a conversation with the American Ambassador. He said, "The issue for us is, that if Germany wins, she will dominate France…she will dominate the whole of Western Europe, and this will make our position quite impossible. We could not exist as a first class State under such circumstances."

As 11 p.m. came and went, the British Government issued a statement: "Owing to the summary rejection by the German Government of the request made by his Majesty's Government for assurances that the neutrality of Belgium will be respected, his Majesty's Ambassador to Berlin has received his passports, and his Majesty's Government declared to the German Government that a state of war exists between Great Britain and Germany as from 11 p.m. on August 4, 1914."