About the Great War Society
The Great War Society, incorporated in 1986, is committed to the study of the First World War and
subsequent world events associated with that cataclysm and their importance for our lives today. The journal
of the society, Relevance, is published quarterly. Annual seminars are held at various locations throughout
the country, bringing together members, guests, and renowned scholars to discuss the events of the Great War
in more depth. Information about our seminars and special events like our annual Armistice-Veterans Day
commemorative will be available on the website, announced in Relevance and distributed in mailings.
The Great War Society is a California nonprofit corporation and is exempt from income taxes under section
501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Contributions to the society are deductible to donors on their
federal and state income tax returns. Also deductible are $30.00 of annual membership dues.
Board of Directors:
A Message from Our President
NEW VISION - NEW MISSION - NEW RESOLVE
Thanks again to everyone who joined the Society or renewed your
membership over the past year. It is now time again to renew your
membership. A printed form is included with this issue of
Relevance, or you can fill out the membership form on our Website
and then pay your dues using PayPal.
One of the important things we achieved this year in the category of
preservation was the donation TGWS made to the National World
War I Museum in Kansas City, Missouri, through the purchase of a
$1,000 brick placed in the Museum's Walk of Honor to recognize Mr
Mr.
Frank Buckles, America's last surviving Doughboy who was featured
in the Spring issue of Relevance (Volume 18, Number 2). Just
before the start of the Seminar at the Museum in September we
hosted a brief and moving ceremony with members of Mr. Buckles's
family who live in Missouri.
Announcing a New TGWS Project: A flyer is included with this
issue describing the Relevance PDF Project. We need 40 people to
sign-up so that all of the back issues become available electronically!
Dana Lombardy, President
Diane B. Rooney,
Director of Marketing
Thomas F. Olson, Secretary
Robert C. Denison, Treasurer
Salvatore Compagno,
President Emeritus
East Bay Chapter Chairman
Jack P. Creighton,
Director at Large
Robert J. Rudolph,
San Francisco Chap. Chairman
Herbert P. Stickel,
Director at Large
Robert H. Warwick,
Membership Chairman
George E. Young, Jr.,
Director at Large
Communicate with Us Through:
Email: [email protected]
Website:
Final Note: Apologies to everyone about the early renewal form that
appeared in the last issue of Relevance. This was a printer's error as
it should have been a repeat of the Seminar registration form to give
people a last-minute chance to attend the event in Kansas City.
Everyone who used that form and renewed early was credited with
payment for the next year (2009-2010), and this copy of Relevance
should not include the renewal sheet for you.
Please renew your membership. Together we can make a difference!.
Dana Lombardy, President
The Great War Society
www.the-great-war-society.org
Mail: Inquiries, Membership and
Submittals for Relevance:
The Great War Society
P.O. Box 18585
Stanford, CA 94309
Annual Membership:
$49 - Receive Printed Version of
Relevance (four issues)
$39 - Quarterly Online Download
of Relevance (four issues)
Payments accepted online at our website
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In This Issue
Michael E. Hanlon, Editor
Kimball Worcester, Assistant Editor
Tony Langley, Contributing Editor
Contents
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5
About The Great War Society
Our organization, Membership, Directors and President's Message
Theme Article -- A Hobbit on the Somme: J.R.R. Tolkien in the Great War
O'Brien Browne
Images of the Western Front permeate the battlefields of Middle-Earth
15
Theme Article -- Charles De Gaulle in the Great War
Compiled by the Editors
Adversity prepared him for the challenge of 1940's defeat
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Theme Article -- David Ben-Gurion in and about World War I
Anne Steele
Israel's first prime minister served in the Jewish Legion of the British Army
22
From The Great War Society's Website-- Lindbergh's Gesture
Editor Michael Hanlon
Commentary on Lindy's Flyover of the Flanders Fields Cemetery
23
List of Eleven -- Still With Us
Eleven words popularized during the Great War
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26
27
Centerpiece -- Aftermath: Once the Soldiers Left: Flanders Fields, 1919
Wartime Humor -- "Poor Old Maggie!" by Bruce Bairnsfather
Contributed by Bairnsfather scholars Tony and Valmai Holt
Verdun: The First Air Battle for the Fighter: Part II
Jon Guttman
Escadrille Américaine Emerges and End Game
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36
39
Who Were the Four-Minute Men?
From the History Matters Website
Worcester's Flying Circus: Theme Article -- Gabriele D'Annunzio (1863-1938)
Assistant Editor Kimball Worcester
Passed by the Censor -- E. Alexander Powell: Churchill in Antwerp
Contributing Editor Tony Langley
Continued on Page 4. . .
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Contents - Continued
42
Trivia Challenge -- Where Was Winston?
Churchill beyond the Dardanelles
43
Reviews -- Literature, Films, and New Media
Jolie Velazquez, David Homsher, Len Shurtleff
Colonel House & President Wilson; the Italian Front; Hervey Allen: and the Imperial German Navy
47
Orden Pour le Mérite: Notable Recipients
Compiled by the Editors
Prussia's highest military honor during the First World War
48
Documentary History
A typical Doughboy's paybook
COPYRIGHT©2009 The Great War Society
From the Editor:
This issue of Relevance concludes Volume 18 of the journal, the first full annual volume produced by my editorial team.
In late 2008 I was approached by The Great War Society's new president, Dana Lombardy, and asked to assume the
editor's role. At that time, our membership was declining and our Board felt that part of the problem was that Relevance
was not sufficient in itself, either in the quality or quantity sense, to attract new members or hold on to the existing
members. For a certain percentage of members--those who do not have access to the Internet and are unable to attend
chapter meetings or our national seminars--a subscription to Relevance is all they receive for enlisting in The Great
War Society. I was given the challenge of producing a 48-page quarterly journal that captured the endlessly interesting,
multi-faceted character of the seminal event of our times, the First World War.
Working within a limited budget, I was being asked to produce a publication that was polished, well-written and highly
illustrated. Because of my earlier work on the Society's online newsletter, The St. Mihiel Trip-Wire, I was able to
promise Dana that I could fulfill these objectives. I had already tapped into the large body of individuals doing serious
research and writing on the war. I knew, therefore, I could attract well done articles for the journal. More important,
however, I had already assembled a group of editors to help assure the level of quality that was expected with the newest
version of Relevance. They had already been working with me at the Trip-Wire, so I invited them to join me at the
journal. Happily for me, they accepted my invitation. I would like to introduce them to the readers now, since they will
be continuing with us for the foreseeable future. Kimball Worcester is our Assistant Editor. She has been an editor for a
number of military history works, including the popular Ghosts series by renowned photographer Phil Makanna on
aircraft of the World Wars. I have asked her to contribute a regular article on aviation in the Great War for the journal.
Tony Langley, our Contributing Editor, grew up in New Jersey, but now lives in Antwerp, Belgium. He operates his own
Website, The Great War in a Different Light, where he displays thousands of the images of the war he has discovered in
the magazines of the period and hundreds of firsthand accounts by observers and correspondents published during the
hostilities. Tony contributes most of the images you see in each issue, as well as a regular column "Passed By the
Censor." Below are photos of the team that will continue bringing you Relevance.
MH
Our Editors
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A Hobbit on the Somme: J.R.R. Tolkien in the Great War
O'Brien Browne
I've always been impressed," [Tolkien] once said, "that we are here, surviving,
because of the indomitable courage of quite small people against impossible odds.
-- Carpenter, J.R.R. Tolkien
Perhaps no other war has produced such an
illustrious array of writers as World War I. Out
of this fiery cataclysm names like Robert Graves
and Wilfred Owen have become etched into our
perceptions of what constitutes "war literature".
But ironically, the most famous and widely-read
writer to emerge from this conflict -- J.R.R.
Tolkien -- is almost never associated with it.
The vast majority of people know little of
Tolkien's combat experiences. Yet it is arguable
that the war had a major creative impact on him
for the themes which make his novels so vivid -brooding evil arising out of the East, a grand
alliance of the forces of the West, a nightmarish
lunar landscape filled with armies and the
engines of war, intense comradeship -- are the
very things he experienced firsthand in World
War I.
Lt. J.R.R. Tolkien
For of all of Tolkien's grand themes, friendship,
male friendship fortified by warfare, stands out
prominently; the memory of this camaraderie
jumps out at modern readers in Tolkien's
foreword to the second edition of The Lord of
the Rings when he writes in a jarring, standingalone sentence, "By 1918 all but one of my close
friends were dead."
Smoke and ash drifted across the torn and
shattered ground. Faces, dead faces, peered up
with lidless eyes from dank pools of stagnant
water. Black flying objects screeched
downwards, bringing terror and death to the
soldiers huddled below while on the horizon the
sky blazed red-orange with flame, and the earth
heaved and shook.
The desolate fields Tolkien's Middle-Earth find
their origin in the cratered fields of France. The
journey of four Hobbits from the Shire marching
off to war mirrors that of Tolkien and his three
young friends from England marching off to
war. The two are bound by lived experience.
This is the fictional world described in J.R.R.
Tolkien's immensely popular trilogy, The Lord
of the Rings. But it was also the awful reality of
the Western Front in the First World War.
5
Lost in the dreamy worlds of love and his own
rich imagination, following the long twisting
roots of ancient languages among the ivycovered walls of university, Tolkien could
observed, as if from afar, the slowly escalating
tensions between the nations of Europe, which
finally exploded into all-out war in 1914.
Although the accepted image is that young
European men dashed madly and gladly to the
colors of their respective nations in order to not
miss out on a war which was expected to be over
by Christmas, many greeted the war with
indifference, horror or mix-emotions For his
part, Tolkien decided to complete his studies
first and then join up, graduating with a firstclass degree in 1915. This was primarily a
financial decision because Tolkien, as his friend
Gilson wrote, "…has always been desperately
poor…" and his only salvation for survival after
the war was to find a job in academia . After
struggling so hard to better himself, Tolkien did
not welcome war, which symbolized "the
collapse of all my world" as he said. But he
would do his duty, and now it was time to go to
war.
Early Years
In 1892 John Ronald Rules Tolkien was born in
Bloemfontein in what is now South Africa
where British troops would be fighting their first
major 20th century war nearly a decade later.
His father worked as a banker there, but his
mother, who suffered from the effects of the
African climate, took John and his younger
brother Hilary back to England in 1895. Here,
Tolkien was crushed to learn that his father had
died of rheumatic fever.
At school, his linguistic gifts blossomed and he
excelled at Latin and ancient Greek, before
devouring German, Gothic, Welsh, Finnish and
other languages which fascinated him. Tolkien
was a member of his school's cadet corps, riding
with a territorial cavalry regiment in 1912; to
excel both physically and mentally was no
contradiction in this intensely romantic,
unabashedly nationalistic era. Tolkien made best
friends with Christopher Wiseman, Geoffrey
Bache Smith, and Robert Gilson, who together
founded the Tea Club, Barrovian Society or
TCBS, named after their meeting place, the
Barrow Store. Tolkien began writing serious
poetry and creating his own languages, including
one he later called Qenya. He also wrote tales of
Faërie - stories, "histories" as he called them, of
Elves and Dwarves and heroic men; he came
across the term Middle-Earth and many of the
names for his characters, such as Earendel and
Gandalf, from his readings of old Scandinavian
epics.
To War
Upon graduation, Tolkien was accepted into
Oxford University, and majored in Old English
and Germanic languages while writing poetry
and working out the structures of his invented
languages - languages that would later be spoken
by the beings and creatures inhabiting the
Middle-Earth of his books. He was also engaged
in developing a relationship with Edith Bratt, his
childhood sweetheart.
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On 28 June, 23-year-old Tolkien quickly made
up his mind and "bolted", as he put it, into the
army, enlisting in the Lancashire Fusiliers, no
doubt desiring to be close to his dear friend
Geoffrey Smith, now commissioned as a 2nd
Lieutenant, but perhaps also because the unit
was full of Oxford men. Perhaps because of his
language expertise Tolkien was trained as a
signals officer in Yorkshire, responsible for
battalion communications with headquarters. He
learned map reading, message-sending via
carrier pigeons, and field telephone operation.
He memorized the art of "station call signs" tactical voice communications with letters or
digits representing companies, platoons and
sections - and also a variety of signal flags,
flares and lamp lights, as well as when and how
to use his "runners," soldiers whose job it was to
carry - often under fire - hand-written notes to
headquarters.
Like most inchoate soldiers 2nd Lieutenant
Tolkien found boot camp dull, army bureaucracy
intolerable and most of his commanding officers
insipid. "War multiplies the stupidity by 3," he
humorously wrote. But in training camp, a more
subtle transformation was occurring within him.
Britain's first all-volunteer army had thrown
together men from all walks of life and from all
social classes, and Tolkien later recalled that
developed "a deep sympathy and feeling for the
'tommy', especially the plain soldier from the
agricultural counties." In socially stratified
Britain, Tolkien the Oxford man would have
never had anything to do with such
"commoners".
Tolkien disembarked on 6 June 1916 at Étaples
from where he and the 11th Battalion,
Lancashire Fusiliers, under the command of
Lieutenant-Colonel Laurence Bird, were
transported by train to the great British
communication and supply center to Amiens and
billeted near the front lines. The battalion was
transferred to 74th Brigade, 25th Division for an
upcoming offensive on the Somme. Tolkien was
assigned to 'A' Company.
Neither he nor his men where aware of it, but
they where about to involved in the greatest
attack in the history of the British army up to
that time, the "Big Push" as army planers
referred to it, a summer offensive designed to
break through the Germans lines in the rolling,
chalky countryside near the Somme River. After
a massive artillery barrage, the planners
believed, the Germans would be so dazed,
battered and or killed, that the British army
would simply walk over No Man's Land, capture
the German trench system and from there strike
out to roll up the rest of the enemy's forces
before breaking out into open ground. If
successful, the planners reasoned, the war could
be brought to a close.
On 2 June 1916 Tolkien received this
embarkation orders. He and Edith had married
shortly before, and he visited her for the last
time. Tolkien had little hope that he would ever
see her again because he later remembered,
"junior officers where being killed off a dozen a
minute. Parting from my wife then … was like
death."
Enlisted Men of Tolkien's Unit, the 11th Suffolks
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The Battle of the Somme dragged on, and the
killing continued. Throughout July and into
August, Tolkien's and the 11th were yanked in
and out of the line several times. Yet Tolkien
somehow found a moment to think about
Smith's plea and the TCBS. In mid-August he
wrote back to G.B. Smith, describing how he
had gone out into the woods near where his unit
was camped to sit and think in the warm
summer's night air. "So far," Tolkien wrote his
friend, "my chief impression is that something
has gone crack." He felt empty with the loss of
Rob Gilson, and he believed that his death had
dealt an irreparable blow to the TCBS, a group,
Tolkien wrote, that had been "…destined to
kindle a new light…" Tolkien's and the 11th
were engaged in hard fighting at Thiepval Wood
several times, a heavily contested area,
especially a section of the German line known as
the Schwaben Redoubt. Here, Tolkien, with
eight runners under his command, was assigned
to battalion HQ. Contrary to the myths that
surround WWI military operations, this was not
located in some splendid villa with a charming
wine cellar miles away from the front, but was
in the frontline trenches itself. While the battle
stormed about him, Tolkien had to ensure that
July 1, 1916 - the day of the opening attack -was a poet's morning of bright, golden sunshine,
grass and wild flowers rustling gently in a faint
breeze. It had rained the night before, and
freshness was everywhere. Green life still
stubbornly grew among the rusting barbed wire,
battle gear and the rotting bodies of the dead.
Tolkien joined up with the 11th Battalion around
the 20 July, after they had already seen hard
fighting against entrenched German positions at
Ovilliers. But luckily, both Tolkien and the 11th
had not taken part on the disastrous opening day
of the battle in which 60,000 British soldiers
fell, 20,000 of them killed. His unit had been
held in reserve, watching the lines of British
wounded and German prisoners stream pass,
listening intently to the shells exploding, and
murmuring rumors to each other about going
into action soon. Although elements of the 11th
were already fighting, Tolkien was often kept
back to act as the communications officer for the
battalion. But on the 14th, he slogged up into the
front line through the battered remains of the
village of La Boisselle. Tolkien and his men
carried rolls of telephone wire signal flares and
lamps to maintain communication with HQ, as
the 11th attacked German trenches around
Ovillers. Here, as everywhere along on the
Somme, the fighting was fierce. 'A' Company's
commander was killed, just one of the 267
casualties the 11th had suffered in two weeks of
fighting. Tolkien was made battalion signal
officer in command of several noncommissioned officers and privates. Around this
time, Tolkien received at letter from G.B. Smith,
who had just come across Rob Gilson's name in
a newspaper listing soldiers killed in action. "I
am safe," he reassured Tolkien, "but does that
matter? Do please stick to me, you and
Christopher. I am very tired and most frightfully
depressed at this worst of news. Now one
realizes in despair what the TCBS really was. O
my dear John Ronald what ever are we going to
do?"
8
Tolkien Friend Robert Gilson, KIA
Map of Thiepval Ridge Battlefield
Schwaben Redoubt, Regina and Zollern Trenches Shown
vital battlefield information went out to his
superiors, simultaneously coping with his
runners being wounded or killed, telephone lines
being severed by hostile or friendly fire.
Bravely, Tolkien did his duty. "Our signalers
were splendid," during these intense fights,
pointed out Major Smyth, writing in the
Lancashire Fusiliers' Annual 1917.
One of the many clichéd images to emerge from
the Great War is that of the soldier-poet
composing verse in the filthy trenches. Tolkien,
however, did recall writing some of his stories
"…in grimy canteens, at lectures in cold fogs, in
huts full of blasphemy and smut, or by candle
light in bell-tents, even some down in dugouts
under shell fire. It did not make for efficiency
and present-mindedness, of course, and I was
not a good officer…" But he vividly
remembered such occasions were rare. "You
might scribble something on the back of an
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envelope and shoe it in your back pocket," he
wrote later, "but that's all. You couldn't
write…You'd be crouching down among flies
and filth."
And still the Battle of the Somme ground on. In
late October, Tolkien and his men were involved
in heavy fighting to take a German trench line
known as "Regina Trench", located at times a
mere 200 yards away from the British lines. 400
men of the 11th attacked, with Tolkien stationed
at Battalion HQ at Zollern Redoubt. Indicative
of much of WWI warfare, this was a short,
sharp, brutal and costly - to the attackers -operation, meticulously planned and timed and
choreographed in perfect movements of action.
As the official history relates, the attack began at
precisely 12:18 p.m. with an artillery barrage as
waves of British soldiers rushed toward the
German trench. "After 1 ½ minutes," the history
continues with precision, "the barrage lifted, and
ubiquitous enemy of all, striking all soldiers
regardless of nationality: lice. Suffering from a
fever of 103, he was sent back to the UK in early
November, diagnosed with "trench fever" or
pyrexia, akin to typhus and spread by infected
lice. Little understood at the time, army higherups looked askance at soldiers suffering from
this illness, assuming they were trying to shirk
their duties. But this was a vicious, debilitating,
sometimes deadly disease causing rashes,
headaches, fever, bodily weakness, and pain in
the back and legs.
again after a further 1 ½ minutes, on to Regina
Trench, where it remained for three minutes;
finally lifting to about 200 yards beyond. Our
waves," the history relates, indifferent to the
irony of friendly fire, "kept close to the barrage
and suffered a good many casualties from it."
Still, the artillery was effective enough to catch
the Germans by surprise and many were killed
and wounded and many surrendered. One of
Tolkien's signalers, the battalion history
recounts, was hit while carrying a pigeon basket he joined the 160 other men who were
casualties, among them many officers knocked
out while crossing No Man's Land.
For the average soldier, however, trench fever
was a "Blighty" wound - a mild, non-fatal
wound ensuring that the victim would be sent
back to Blighty - soldier's slang for Great
Britain, to recover. Such wounded men were
congratulated by their envious comrades; when
he heard about Tolkien's condition, G.B. Smith
immediately wrote, telling him to "stay a long
time in England…I am beyond measure
delighted…"
Arriving home aboard the steamer Asturias,
Tolkien spent the rest of the war in at Hornsea
hospital, Harrogate Sanatorium and other army
facilities. Only in September 1918 was he
deemed capable of active service, although twice
in 1917 had he informed the War Office that he
was fit for duty. Thus thanks to lice, English
literature was enriched.
11th Suffolks in Action
As in all WWI battles, little actions produced
little heroes and one of Tolkien's runners was
awarded the Military Medal . For Tolkien and
the 11th, this was the last of the fighting in the
Battle of the Somme and they were loaded onto
buses and driven to the village of Vadencourt for
leave.
Back at the front, Tolkien was sorely missed.
Although Tolkien often dismissed his war
service with typical English self-depreciation,
when he was sent home to hospital, the 11th
Battalion's adjutant pressed a note into Tolkien's
hand to give to his doctors. "Lt-Col Bird," it
read, naming Tolkien's commanding officer,
"…values the services of Lt Tolkien very
highly." Tolkien was a good officer.
After surviving about four hellish months in and
out of the trenches in one of WWI's deadliest
battles, Tolkien finally succumbed to the most
From his hospital bed he wrote out the legends
and stories that filled his mind. As the trench
fever slowly recurred and then went into
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Century. Tolkien's writings deal in a large
measure with death and killing, fear and terror,
the marshalling and clash of armies and the
mystical intensity of friendships-all classic war
literature themes. By claiming the contrary,
Tolkien was playing intellectual games with his
contemporaries, and above all with the critics
who searched in vain for allegory in his works,
something he despised. Yet no writer can
divorce himself from the fires of his own
experience for if he did, he would have nothing
to write about. Indeed, in an off-guarded
moment, Tolkien once admitted that his stories
had been "wakened by philology on the
threshold of manhood and quickened to full life
by war."
remission, Tolkien wrote an unpublished elegiac
piece dealing with Rob Gilson and G.B. Smith
and worked on his stories, eventually published
under the title The Silmarillion. In addition, he
further developed his intricate Middle-Earth
languages. Throughout 1917 and 1918, Tolkien
was in and out of hospital, but whenever well
enough, he continued to fulfill his military duties
in various camp positions around England,
which resulted in him being promoted to full
lieutenant. Also, his first son, John, was born in
this year.
With the war's end in 1918, and his recovery
from his illness, Tolkien worked as an associate
professor at the University of Leeds, before
moving on to Oxford where he became a full
professor at the comparatively young age of 32.
Two more sons, Michael and Christopher named after Christopher Wiseman -- came along
in the meantime. In 1925, he was elected
Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford University,
and there he remained for the rest of his working
life, a world-renowned philologist and a writer
of curious tales.
Tolkien had entered WWI with a mind of fertile
fantasy forged by Victorian values only to learn
that there are few things more disturbing than
having your dreams or nightmares confirmed by
reality. He had left the soft green country of his
homeland and, after a few hours' train ride and
marching, entered a hellish landscape of fire,
smoke, noise and rot where airplanes screeched
across the sky, machine-guns clattered like teeth
in a skull, yellowish poison gas snaked across
the land and tanks clanked and lumbering,
crushing everything in their paths. These images
were stamped upon Tolkien's impressionable
mind, a mind already working out the chronicles
of Elves, Orcs and Men.
Creating Middle Earth
The experience of war heightens the emotions,
intensifies imagery, deepens the sorrows,
broadens the soul: all vital to a writer whose
essential job is to wander through the fields of
memory and experience to create a work of art.
Actively a part of and yet swept along by the
forces history, the soldier-artist struggles, strives
and sacrifices not only for his companions, but
to a higher ideal, be that nation or friendship or
art itself.
"I do not think that either war [WWI or II],"
Tolkien famously said in 1960 when speaking of
his books, "had any influence upon either the
plot or the manner of its unfolding." Tolkien was
being supremely coy. Despite his obfuscations,
war permeates his Middle-Earth just as it
permeated Europe in the first half of the 20th
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It is irresistible to note how the four friends of
the TCBS are reflected in the four Hobbits of
The Lord of the Rings. Their long journey from
the verdant fields of the Shire to the barren
wastes of the evil land of Mordor neatly mirrors
the TCBS's journey from green England to the
ruined wastes of Northern France. Endlessly
marching, they leave the West, that beacon of
hope, to battle the dark power in the East, much
as real life British soldiers did. As with the
TCBS, as with men in arms and has with the
four Hobbits, the only thing that binds them is
their profound friendship.
British Troops Preparing to
Attack on Thiepval Ridge
One of the great attractions of Tolkien's MiddleEarth are the realistic landscape descriptions and
the detailed maps he created showing his
imagined lands - skills he had learned and honed
in map-reading and drawing courses at Army
signalers school. Furthermore, much of
Tolkien's world - Hobbit holes, trolls' caves,
underground dwarf cities such as Moria, Elf
kingdoms under the earth -- mirror the
subterranean existence he experienced on the
front lines in France, living in trenches and in
deep dugouts.
A case could even be made for uncovering the
characteristics of the TCBS member in the
Hobbit's personalities, the rebellious G.B. Smith
as Pippin, for instance. Sampson Gamgee, a wellknown Edwardian doctor who invented gamgeetissue, used in surgery, definitely lent his name
to Tolkien's character Sam Gamgee, who
himself was a composite of the men he had
fought side by side with. "My Sam Gamgee,"
Tolkien remembered, "is indeed a reflection of
the English soldier, of the privates and batmen I
new in the 1914 war, and recognized as so far
superior to myself."
A vast array of Tolkien's imagery could have
been lifted from a WWI battlefield guidebook.
There are the Dead Marshes, for instance, "a
place where the dead lay underneath a noxious
film of stagnant water; the "Noman-lands" arid
and lifeless; the land before Mordor, "choked
with ash and crawling muds, sickly white and
grey […] and pocked with great holes … The
largest […] rimmed with ridges of broken rock";
Hobbits Frodo and Sam take cover in a cratermuch like a shell hole - with a high ridge "and a
foul sump of oily many-coloured ooze lay at its
bottom." Mordor's fumes recall WWI mustard
gas while the ash and white and grey mud, for
instance, the "gurgling mud," of Tolkien's
Middle-Earth, is the sucking deadly mud of the
Somme, where the chalky ground had been
pulverized by artillery barrages. "The Dead
Marshes," Tolkien freely admitted, "and the
approaches to the Morannon owe something to
Northern France after the Battle of the Somme."
Tolkien's love of huge and heroic battles, such
as "The Fall of Gondolin" in The Silmarillion,
the Battle of the Five Armies in The Hobbit, or
the great war which brings about the end of the
Third Age in The Lord of the Rings directly
have their origins in the epic Battle of the
Somme, which also witnessed heroic deeds and
the death of the good and the brave. Much has
also been written about Tolkien's use of themes
found in myth, such as the concept of
predestined fate or the tragic death or rebirth of
heroes -themes quite common among soldiers.
12
But it would be dangerous to make such simple
linkages between the real and the fictional.
Some assume, for example that the Orcs, a cruel
and brutal race, represent the German soldiers
whom Tolkien and his men fought. But Tolkien
was too sophisticated and cultured for such
simplistic symbolism. Indeed, as he wrote to his
son in 1941, "I have spent most of my life, since
understood not this war nor why fate should lead
them to such a pass."
Just as Tolkien's trench fever recurred in
debilitating waves, so does Frodo suffer from
painful fits long after the wars of Middle Earth
have drawn to a close, leaving him lying prone
on his bed. "I am wounded," he tells Sam,
"wounded; it will never really heal"-a sentiment
many physically or emotionally scarred soldiers
can share.
I was your age, studying Germanic maters (in
the general sense that includes England and
Scandinavia). There is a great deal more force
(and truth) than ignorant people imagine in the
'Germanic' ideal." And as for the Orcs
themselves, Tolkien explained, "I think the orcs
as real a creation as anything in 'realistic'
fiction…only in real life they are on both sides,
of course…In real (exterior) life men are on both
sides: which means a motley alliance of orcs,
beasts, demons, plain naturally honest men, and
angels."
Significantly, the destruction of the Dark Lord's
empire in The Return of the King is powerfully
reflected in reality as WWI swept away several
kingdoms -- Czarist Russia, the Ottoman
Empire, Imperial German, and the AustroHungarian Empire. More than this, just as an age
passes in Tolkien's books, so did the world
Tolkien's generation had once known --the
progress and hope and enlightenment of the
Victorian and Wilhelminan ages - vanish in one
of history's most destructive wars.
Again and again in his books, Tolkien writes
soldiers' credos, and soldiers' laments. "I wish it
need not have happened in my time," Frodo tells
Gandalf, whose response any soldier could have
penned: "So do I," responds the wizard. "And so
do all who live to see such times. But that is not
for them to decide. All we have to decide is what
to do wit the time that is given us." Later,
Gandalf observes that "Many that live deserve
death. And some that die deserve life. Can you
give it to them?"
In other passages, Tolkien's details reveal his
military training: the Hobbits' backpacks -much like a soldier's kit -- replete with rolled
blankets, cooking pans, spoon and fork,
tinderbox and a small store of salt - an exquisite
detail which any soldier would appreciate; the
skill a which Sam makes a smokeless fire; how
the men of Gondor, like army engineers, collect
stores, build bridges and construct defensive
works. Moreover, the wide range of emotions
the characters feel - the love and rage, the terror
and joy, the despair and the hope -have been felt
by soldiers throughout the ages, as well as the
hunger, the thirst, the exhaustion and the
discomforts of men on the march. There is
compassion as well: Aragon, essentially the
commander and chief, looks on the farmers and
townsmen of his army - a direct allusion to the
Pals units of the WWI British Army -- "with pity
in his eyes" and, in an image recurrent in WWI
writing and poetry, sees how "they walked like
men in a hideous dream made true, and they
Ultimately, the impact of the war on Tolkien's
works was obvious to those whom knew him
best, to ex-soldiers. Tolkien's close friend and
fellow Oxford scholar, C.S. Lewis, author of the
Chronicles of Narnia books and a WWI veteran
himself, recognized the war in Tolkien's writing.
The conflict that dominates The Lord of the
Rings, Lewis pointed out, "has the very quality
of the war my generation knew. It is all here: the
endless, unintelligible movement, the sinister
quiet of the front…the lively, vivid
friendships…" And in 1944, there is a rare
glimpse of Tolkien admitting the effect of war
on himself, writing to his son Christopher, who
was serving in the Royal Air Force "…I hope
that in after days the experience of men and
things, if painful, will prove useful. It did to me."
13
Selected Readings: "A Sunlit Picture of Hell," by
O'Brien Browne. Military Heritage, December 2003;
Carpenter, Humphrey. J.R.R. Tolkien. Boston:
Houghton Mifflin Company, 2000 and The Letters of
J.R.R. Tolkien. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company,
2000; Garth, John. Tolkien and the Great War. Boston:
Houghton Mifflin Company, 2003.
real happy ending in Tolkien. His characters are
put to great ordeals from which they emerge
transformed. Frodo, for instance, is physically
and mentally scarred, his life forever altered by
what he has gone through, the things he has lost.
He is one of the walking wounded. By not
killing Frodo off, ex-soldier Tolkien is telling us
that the pain of death is momentary, but the pain
of life is long-lasting and cuts deep. The trick is
not merely survival, then, but how one survives.
Tolkien had experienced pain all his life-the
early deaths of his parents, financial hardships,
the war: his memories must have been awful at
times. Thus, like many of us, he retreated into
his mind, and found there a land of heroes,
beauty and great deeds. And when war came to
his four Hobbit heroes, Frodo, Sam, Merry and
Pippin, Tolkien could not bring himself to let
them die; he had lost friends in a real war and he
wasn't about to loose any more in a fictional one.
But still, the memories remained. "I can see
clearly now in my mind's eye," Tolkien recalled
as an old man, "the old trenches and the squalid
houses and the long roads of Artois, and I would
visit them again if I could…" . He never did,
except in his books.
For Death and Glory
The popular image of WWI "war literature" is
exemplified by the sarcastic irony of writers like
Siegfried Sassoon, or the tragic compassion of
Wilfred Owen. Paul Fussell's powerful and
immensely influential, "The Great War and
Modern Memory," brilliantly crystallized these
themes. Fussell's subtle, multi-layered
arguments have been grossly misconstrued by
academics, modern novelists and even film
makers, but his ultimate point is that the
romantic epic suffered a fatal wound in the
"stupid" and "senseless" First World War.
Tolkien, however, shows us that this is a
misconception. In stark contrast to the
disillusionment and anti-war sentiment of the
post-war period, Tolkien unabashedly kept alive
the tradition of war as a noble and romantic
ideal. He not only rejected modernism but
revived the heroic epic along with concepts of
Faërie and pastoral romanticism in English
literature. In so doing, Tolkien -- one of the most
unique and influential writers of the 20th
Century - has sold millions of copies of his
books around the world, and he is easily the
most widely read writer to emerge from the
inferno of WWI. Despite what the poets and
academics tell us, the romantic epic lives on
with vigor and dash in Tolkien's cavalry charges,
beautiful princesses, lush green vistas and
shimmering enchanted forests.
The war changed Tolkien. It injected loss and
sadness and pain into his writing. It made his
descriptions more poignant, more real. Mordor
could not have existed had Tolkien not
experienced it first hand on the Somme. But the
war taught him to value positive things as well,
such as pity, heroism, loyalty and the meaning
of friendship - themes which run throughout all
of his works. "May God bless you, my dear John
Ronald," Rob Gilson had written Tolkien from
the trenches shortly before he was killed, "and
may you say the things I have tried to say long
after I am not there to say them." Tolkien said
them, and through his memories and through his
words he paid homage to his little group of
dreamy, ambitious friends who had gone off to
fight in the Great War of their times. And his
books have enriched all of our lives.
But creativity has its costs. Like many exsoldiers, Tolkien downplayed, suppressed,
ignored and even outright denied the effects of
the war on him. "One War is enough for any
man," he told his son. Yet its affects stayed with
him all his long life. In 1940, writing to his son
Michael who had volunteered to fight in WWII,
Tolkien hinted at the things he had lost in the
First War, "I was pitched into it all, just when I
was full of stuff to write, and of things to learn;
and never picked it all up again." There is no
14
Charles De Gaulle in the Great War
Compiled by the Editors
Born November 22, 1890, in Lille in the north of
France, near the border with Belgium, Charles
De Gaulle was the second son and the third of
five children of a well-to-do but conservative
family with roots in the minor nobility. His
father was a headmaster at a Jesuit School in
Paris teaching philosophy and literature.
1915, he was wounded a second time in the
fighting at Mesnil-les- Hurlus. Once recovered,
he rejoined his regiment first as company
commander then as aide to the colonel. He was
wounded a third time during the battle of
Verdun, at Douaumont, in 1916. Left for dead,
he was given a "posthumous" mention in army
dispatches. He was, in fact, captured and
received hospital treatment in Mainz before
being imprisoned in various locations, including
the fortress of Ingolstadt in Bavaria.
The young De Gaulle decided on a military
career and was accepted into the École Militaire
(Military Academy) of St. Cyr in 1908. He
graduated in 1912 and was commissioned as a
second lieutenant in the 33rd Régiment d'Arras
infantry regiment commanded by Colonel Henri
Philippe Pétain, a future hero of the Great War
and, later, leader of the Vichy Government in
the Second World War.
After five failed escape bids (between May and
September he was interned successively in
Osnabrück, Neisse then Sczuczyn, before being
transferred to Ingolstadt in October 1916, then to
the Rosenberg camp in July 1917, to the military
prison in Passau in October 1917, back to
Ingolstadt in November 1917, to the Wülzburg
camp in May 1918, and finally to the prisons of
Tassau and Magdeburg in September 1918), he
was not freed until the armistice. His
companions in captivity included Major Georges
Catroux, who would become a general in the
Free French Forces of World War II, journalist
Rémy Roure and Mikhail Tukhachevsky, a
future marshal of the Red Army and victim of
the Stalinist purges. He made use of his time in
captivity to extend his knowledge of Germany
and to read German authors. He also gave
lectures, mainly on strategic and geopolitical
aspects of the course of the war.
De Gaulle After the Armistice
He was released following the Armistice and
returned to his family in December. From 1919 to
1921, de Gaulle was seconded to Poland where he
took part in the formation of the new Polish army
which fought surprisingly well and victoriously
against the Red Army.
Shortly after war was declared in August 1914,
Lieutenant De Gaulle was in action with Charles
Lanrezac's Fifth Army stationed in the north
east. He was wounded on 15 August at Dinant,
evacuated and hospitalised, and was not fit to
return to the front until October. On March 10,
15
Dinant on the Meuse
Lt. De Gaulle Was Wounded on the Bridge to the Right
On his return to France, he married Yvonne Vendroux on April 6, 1921, in Calais. His son Philippe
was born on December 28th of that year. Captain
De Gaulle became a lecturer at the Saint-Cyr
military academy, before being admitted to the
École Supérieure de Guerre (staff college) in
1922. He spent a period in training, first in Trier
then at the headquarters of the French Army of
the Rhine in Mainz in 1924. On May 5th his
daughter Elisabeth was born.
The French Military Mission to Poland
The French Military Mission to Poland was an effort
by France to aid the nascent Second Polish Republic
after it achieved its independence in November 1918, at
the end of the First World War. The aim was to provide
aid during the Polish-Soviet War (1919-1921), and to
create a strong Polish military to serve as a useful ally
against Germany. It was an advisory body consisting of
about 400 French officers attached to staffs of Polish
units at various levels. Although the French mission was
small numerically, its effect was substantial in
improving the organization and logistics of the Polish
army. It worked in parallel with a smaller British
Mission to Poland.
He served in increasingly important positions in
the interwar period. In 1934 De Gaulle published
his book Vers l'Armée de Métier (The Army
of the Future), in which he set out his ideas for
a new military strategy based on small, mobile,
professional units to replace the static, trenchbased tactics of the First World War. He
opposed the construction of the Maginot Line,
arguing the money would be better spent on
troops and armaments. In 1940, of course,
Destiny was awaiting him.
Its first commander was French General Paul Prosper
Henrys, previously the commander of French forces in
the Balkans. The French mission commanded
considerable respect and influence through the activities
of its 400 officer-instructors. These men were entrusted
with the task of training the officer corps in the art of
military science and in the use of French army manuals.
Among the French officers was the future president of
France, Charles De Gaulle.
Compiled from the Heroes on File and
DeGaulle.org Websites.
16
David Ben-Gurion in and about World War I
Anne Steele
David Ben-Gurion's primary education was
in rabbinical schools in his native Poland, where
he studied the Bible, the Talmud, and books
of prayer all in the original Hebrew. By age
12 he had become a "disciple" of Theordor Herzl,
the "Messiah" of a new secular faith, "Zionism."
By his teens he was organizing training sessions for
Jewish youth to equip and inspire them to go to
Palestine. This became the mission of his life.
Harassed and arrested by the Tsarist authorities,
he barely escaping a sentence that would have
sent him to Siberia, in 1906 he finally decided to
join the migration to Palestine where he would one
day become Israel's first Prime Minister.
There he found a land of desolate waste far from
the land of milk and honey described in the
Bible. The Jewish immigrants were inspired and
enthusiastic, but few had the skills needed to
survive on the land. Most died or left in
frustration and despair.
In spite of his intellectual background David was
determined to be a farm worker. It was
disturbing to him that Jewish farmers preferred
Arabs to Jews as workers, believing that they
were more compliant and hardier. Soon he
became an itinerant laborer developing abilities
he never thought of back in Poland. Like most
settlers he caught malaria, and was told that he
wouldn't survive. But he refused to quit.
He organized efforts to reform the conditions of
workers, fighting against the rich foreign
Zionists who had sent the money that supported
most of the immigrants. He saw politics as
necessary to achieve his idea of a "Jewish
national movement." While a confirmed
socialist, he joined and became a leader of a
party that could only be described as
communistic. While not convinced that was the
desired future for Palestine, he was successful in
adding the political independence of the Jewish
people in Palestine to the party's platform.
David Ben-Gurion in Uniform
After working for Jewish landlords for about a
year, he founded a settlement made up only of
workers. There he developed the additional goal
that security should be the responsibility of the
Jews themselves, not the Arabs, Circassians or
Turks who provided it everywhere else in
Palestine. This was a radical idea -- the Jews had
never carried arms and were reluctant to do so
under any circumstance. He founded a secret
organization to acquire and store arms. Deadly
confrontations occurred, but the Jews slowly
became convinced that they could stand up for
themselves. This idea was the beginning of what
was to become the Judeo-Arab struggle that is
still with us today.
17
Instead of escape, Ben-Gurion called on the
Jews to continue to live in Palestine as an
integral part of the Turkish Empire. In
November 1914 Ben-Gurion and Ben-Zvi
submitted a proposal to the Turkish commander
in Jerusalem to raise a Jewish Legion attached to
the Turkish army. The Turkish military council
in Jerusalem approved the project, and the first
40 Jewish volunteers began their training. Jamal
Pasha, the supreme commander of the Turkish
army in Palestine and Syria, who instigated
severe persecutions of Zionists, however, soon
canceled the authorization. Many Jews were
subsequently imprisoned. He then threatened to
deport Jews who were not Ottoman citizens,
causing a rush for citizenship.
In 1910 he became a journalist in Jerusalem
in order to lead the movement to make Hebrew
the national language. He crusaded to unite the
Palestinian Jews. He had few readers, maybe
350 out of the 70,000 Jews in Palestine, but
some of them were foreign Zionists and his
principle was unvarying: Zionists needed to be
in Palestine, not living comfortably abroad.
When the Ottoman Empire began to crumble,
Jews thought that this would give them more
influence in their own affairs. Ben-Gurion
campaigned for integration of Palestinian Jews
into the Turkish Empire. To carry this out he
sought to become knowledgeable in Turkish
laws, and even to aspire to become a member of
the Turkish Parliament. This would allow him to
become influential regarding Jewish
immigration. In 1911 he enrolled in
Constantinople University to study law. While
there he conformed to the cultural standards of
the day, including the wearing of a fez. BenGurion, born David Grin (Gruen), had adopted
his new name after the medieval historian Yosef
ben Gurion, known as the "Hebrew Josephus."
Ben-Gurion worked to organize his secret arms
organization, Hashomer, into a Jewish militia for
the defense of Palestine and the people and
property of the Jews. The Turks came to believe
that this was a fifth column of the British.
In December 1914 Zeev Jabotinsky, who later
was to help form the underground organization,
Irgun, and Joseph Trumpeldor, a former Tsarist
officer, raised the idea of the formation of a
Jewish unit to participate in the British military
effort to conquer Palestine from the Ottoman
Empire. This was done in the hope that this
would further the effort to encourage the British
to support a Jewish homeland in Palestine.
Volunteers left Palestine for Alexandria. By
the end of March 1915, 500 Jewish volunteers
from Egypt, who had been deported there by the
Turks, started training. Ben-Gurion opposed this
effort on the grounds that it would only be a
transport unit (Zionist Muleteer Corps) utilized
somewhere besides Palestine and that it might
give cause for the Turks to carry out reprisals
against the Jews who remained in Palestine. In
fact, the unit was sent to Gallipoli.
In the summer of 1914 he sailed on a Russian
tramp steamer back to Palestine. David BenGurion, having successfully completed the threeyear course in two years was accompanied by
his lifelong friend, Yitzhak Ben-Zvi, born
Itzhak Shimshelevitch, later to become Israel's
second president. Attacked by a German
warship, they somehow escaped to land at Jaffa,
then the main port, now a suburb of Tel Aviv.
They were confronted with a chaotic situation.
The Jews were desperate. Famine was growing
and there was a general exodus of Jews fleeing
in panic to Europe and Egypt. Zionist leaders
called upon the Jews to support the Allies. To
Ben-Gurion, however, "the Allies" included
Russia, which reminded him of anti-Semitic
despotism and pogroms.
18
Ben-Gurion held to his opposition because he
believed that Jews from Palestine should fight in
Palestine. The British opposed the participation
of Jewish volunteers on the Palestinian front for
political reasons. The Mule Corps was
disbanded in 1916.
2. The community must be organized within a
socialist framework, and 3. The Hebrew
language will be the cultural bond of the Zionist
society. He was disappointed, as only about 100
Jews joined. However, one recruit was a young
girl from Milwaukee, Goldie Mabovitch, who
later as Golda Meir, was to become Prime
Minister of Israel. To gain a wider audience he
wrote two books, Yizkor (In Memorium), and
Eretz Yisrael (Land of Israel). Neither had a
large readership, but among influential Jews
they added to his reputation.
In the summer of 1915 the Turks discovered a
Hashomer arms cache. This gave strength to
their suspicion of a fifth column. Ben-Gurion
and Ben-Zvi were arrested and expelled from
Palestine, all the while protesting their loyalty to
Turkey. The expulsion order stated, "Expelled
forever from the limits of the Turkish Empire."
They were put on a ship for Alexandria, and
from there they sailed for the United States.
His realization and major disappointment was
that the main obstacle to achieving a Jewish
homeland was the Jewish people. They were
indifferent; they had rival interests; they
quarreled; and they doubted that his goal could
really be achieved.
Settling in New York City, they decided that
Turkish support for Zionisn was hopeless, and
that they should support the British. They
became active in the American Labor Zionist
movement and, together with Samuel Bonchek,
one of the founding members of the then newly
established Farband (Jewish National Workers
Alliance), they traversed the length and breadth
of America, recruiting volunteers for the Zionist
cause. Ben-Gurion quickly learned that most of
the Jews he met were Zionists in name only.
They had no intention of going to Palestine.
Significantly, in the year 1916, Dr. Haïm
(Chaïm) Weizmann, created a product,
synthetic acetone, which made possible the
continuous production of munitions. This was to
give him great influence with the British
government and lead to the Balfour Declaration.
He founded He Halutz (The Pioneer)
organization to recruit young Jews. He
evangelized on his three principles: 1. The
settlement of the land is the only true Zionism,
Contemporary New York Times Headlines
19
In August 1917, the British, desperate for troops
and now able to overcome their previous
objections, announced the formation of a Jewish
regiment. The soldiers of the 38th and 39th
Battalions of the Royal Fusiliers, made up
almost entirely of Jews from Britain, Russia, the
United States and Canada and, later, the 40th
Battalion, composed of Jews from the Ottoman
provinces of Palestine and other areas, served in
the Jordan Valley and fought the Turks some 20
miles north of Jerusalem. These units were
collectively called the Jewish Legion. It was
identified by a uniform with a Star of David.
Orders were given in Hebrew. The Legion,
under the English flag, was to be the first time in
modern history that Jews were to fight as a
group, possibly in the hope of eventually
regaining their own land. The Zion Mule Corps
and the Jewish Legion helped lay the foundations
for the Israel Defense Force 30 years later.
gesture; she has recognized our existence as a
nation and has acknowledged our right to the
country. But only the Hebrew people can
transform this right into tangible fact; only they,
with body and soul, with their strength and
capital, must build their National Home and
bring about their national redemption.
The Jewish Legion (Hagdud Ha'ivri,
Gdud Ha'ivri) marched also under the Blue and
White flag. Among the thousands of
Legionnaires were 120 former muleteers, a large
contingent of Russian Jews from London, and a
mixture of foreign nationals from Allied and
neutral nations. Eventually, 150 American
Jewish volunteers joined the Jewish Legion, as
well as a further 1,000 Palestinian Jews. A
prominent Legionnaire was the father of a future
premier, Yitzhak Rabin.
By this time the United States, France, and other
great powers had endorsed the Balfour
Declaration. The British were wary of the
reaction of the Arabs. They were somewhat
assuaged by signing a treaty of friendship with
Prince Feisal, which was drafted by T. E.
Lawrence. Ben-Gurion had no illusions about
the reality of this treaty.
On Nov. 2, 1917, in what is now known to
history as the Balfour Declaration, British
foreign secretary, Arthur James Balfour, wrote a
letter to Lionel Walter Rothschild, a leader of
British Jewry:
On December 5, 1917, Ben-Gurion married
Pauline (Paula) Munweis, whom he met at a
Trotsky lecture. A few months' later, BenGurion sailed for Palestine while Paula was
pregnant with their first child.
His Majesty's Government view with favour the
establishment in Palestine of a national home
for the Jewish people, and will use their best
endeavours to facilitate the establishment of this
object, it being clearly understood that nothing
shall be done which may prejudice the civil and
religious right of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political
status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.
After the Balfour Declaration, Ben-Gurion called
for volunteers to liberate Palestine from the
Turks. With America now in the War, BenGurion could concentrate on liberating Palestine.
Ben-Gurion and Ben-Zvi themselves enlisted on
April 26, 1918, in the 39th Battalion of the Royal
Fusiliers. When a train carrying a group of
volunteers passed through Bangor, Maine, it was
flagged down to enable a crowd lining the tracks
to see and embrace the Legionnaires. The
volunteers wore the Magen David on their khaki
uniforms and had their own blue-white banner
with the inscription, "If I forget thee, O
Jerusalem."
There was a strategic basis for this policy in that
Britain hoped to win over Jewish public opinion
to the side of the Allies. They also hoped that
pro-British settlers would help protect the
approaches to the Suez Canal, a vital link to
Britain's South Asian possessions. Underlying it
was the influence of Dr. Weizmann. In gratitude,
David Lloyd George, the British prime minister,
authorized the declaration.
In England, the day before embarking for Egypt,
the Jewish Legion marched through London's
Jewish quarter. The Jewish Chronicle reported:
"...thousands of Jews and Jewesses marched
merrily together with the 'Judeans' from the
Tower whence the march began after they had
been addressed by Colonel Patterson, who rode
at the head of the picturesque Jewish troops."
Ben-Gurion clarified the declaration through his
Zionist eyes:
Britain has not given Palestine back to us. Even
if the whole country were conquered by the
British, it would not become ours through Great
Britain giving her consent and other countries
agreeing . . . Britain has made a magnificent
20
serve in this force. The anti-Zionist British
military administration disbanded the Legion in
1920, leaving only the 38th Battalion, stationed
in Palestine.
On August 28, 1918, Corporal Ben-Gurion
arrived at the Tell-al-Kabïr camp in Egypt with
the Jewish Legion. The units were given orders
in Hebrew. Unfortunately, Gen. Allenby, leading
British forces in Egypt, was opposed to the
Balfour Declaration and refused to allow the
Jewish Legion to move from Egypt into
Palestine Ben-Gurion came down with
dysentery, and his unit never saw combat.
By 1921, all that remained of the Jewish Legion
was a mixed Arab-Jewish militia headed by
former Legionnaire Eliezer Margolin. When antiJewish riots in Jaffa left 13 Jews dead, Margolin
led armed Jewish militiamen into the city to
protect the Jews. For this breach of discipline, he
was forced to resign. This effectively marked the
end of the Jewish Legion.
The British commanders were often anti-Semitic
and tried to keep the Jewish Legion out of the
fighting. The 38th Battalion was kept out of the
fighting in Palestine until June of 1918, when
they arrived from Egypt and were stationed in
Sarafend camp. They were then sent to relieve
the Grenadier Guards in Jaljulya, and then
attached to the 60th division and sent to the
Jordan valley, where they formed a key pivot of
the British line along the Melhallah rift. On
September 19, 1918, the battalion crossed the
river at Umm Es Shert. They advanced and held
Es Salt in what later became Transjordan. In the
fighting in the Jordan Valley, more than 20
Legionnaires were killed, wounded, or captured,
the rest came down with malaria, and 30 of this
group later died. The Legion then came under
the command of Major General E.W.C. Chaytor.
Earlier--immediately after the war--Ben-Gurion
realized that the Jews couldn’t depend on the
British to protect their rights unless there really
was a “national home” for the Jews in Palestine.
Thus he immediately switched back to politics
and ignored his military obligations, which
resulted in his court-martial and reduction in
rank. His focus was to construct political
institutions that would be able to implement the
Balfour Declaration and lead Jews to stand up
for themselves and ultimately to the creation of
the State of Israel. His first step was the
organization of Histadrut, the Confederation of
Labor. In 1920 this was the only political
“party” in Palestine, and Ben-Gurion was its
general-secretary.
Besides various skirmishes, the Legion also
participated in the Battle of Megiddo, widely
considered to have been one of the final and
decisive victories on the Ottoman fronts. General
Chaytor told the Jewish troops: "By forcing the
Jordan fords, you helped in no small measure to
win the great victory gained at Damascus".
After successfully participating in the liberation
of Damascus just before the end of the war, the
Judean Regiment was pared down from three
battalions to one. The remaining Legionnaires
faced open discrimination from the British
military authorities. Britain announced it was
establishing a permanent army of occupation in
Palestine but turned down a large contingent of
American Legionnaires who volunteered to
Now Ben-Gurion’s life was that of a labor
leader: organizing workers, negotiating wage
increases, calling strikes, and finding jobs for his
workers. This allowed him to travel all over
Palestine, becoming well known throughout the
country.
Books about David Ben-Gurion
Ben-Gurion, The Armed Prophet (1967)
Michael Bar-Zohar, Prentice-Hall, Englewood
Cliffs, New Jersey
21
Memoirs - David Ben-Gurion(1970) compiled
by Thomas R. Bransten, The World Publishing
Company, New York and Cleveland
22
Still With Us: Eleven Words Popularized During the Great War
1. A-1
On top form. By 1916 the British War Office had created an ABC system of
classification for the Department of Recruiting. Each category was then graded
on a scale of 1 to 3. A-1 men were fit for general service overseas.
2. Balloon (Goes Up)
The beginning of just about any enterprise. Originally referring to an observation
balloon sent aloft to tell gunners to begin firing.
3. Conk-Out
Slang for stopping, failing, passing out or dying. Originated in the American Air Service,
"conk" being the last sound a reciprocating engine makes before it ceases operating.
4. Chatting
Conversing in an informal manner. Lice were sometimes called chats. Soldiers who
spent many an hour removing them from the seams of their clothing passed the time in
discussions with their mates.
5. Crummy
Synonymous with lousy. A reference to the eggs of the lice being like crumbs of bread.
6. Cushy
Slang for nice, or comfortable, from Urdu "kushi" for pleasure. One of many AngloIndian Army words popularized in WW1.
7. D-Day
First used September 12, 1918 by the U.S. First Army for the opening of
St. Mihiel Offensive.
8. (In a) Funk
Dejected mood; to shrink from. Funk holes were excavated storage openings on
the walls of trenches where soldiers could retire when not on duty.
9. Gone West
To die; fail; decline. Go west towards the setting sun.
10. Mockup
A near full-sized, non-working model of a new design. Derived from practices in
World War I's bustling aircraft industries.
11. Trench: Coat, Fever, Foot, Mouth, etc.
No explanation should be needed.
23
Background: A Balloon About to Go Up and
the First D-Day, September 12, 1918
Aftermath
24
Once the Soldiers Left
25
Wartime Humor
"Poor Old Maggie! She Seems To Be 'Avin' It
Dreadful Wet at 'ome"
Bruce Bairnsfather is known for creating the character Old Bill and is best remembered for drawing the most famous cartoon of
the First World War, "If you know of a better ole go to it". Bairnsfather was also a skilled caricaturist and political commentator.
The popularity of his anti-hero came to the notice of the Establishment (who initially thoroughly disapproved of the old codger's
degraded type of face and the very type which the Army is anxious to suppress) and gave the Warwickshire Regiment Captain a
unique title: Officer Cartoonist. His Fragments from France cartoons depicted life in the trenches as it really was dirty, wet,
dangerous and uncomfortable but being met with stoical humour. These cartoons were published in the Bystander and had an
astronomical effect on the magazine's circulation. The War Office Intelligence Department was forced to recognise Bairnsfather
s potential for morale raising and agreed to a request from the French for him to do as much to raise the Poilu's spirits as he had
lifted Tommy's. Then the Italians wanted him to heighten their country s awareness of their struggle against the Austrians along
the Isonzo and the American Propaganda Department invited him to their sector in Alsace-Lorraine. This cartoon is presented
courtesy of Bairnsfather Scholars Tony and Valmai Holt. Order their book on the father of Old Bill and their outstanding
battlefield guidebooks at: http://www.guide-books.co.uk/bairnsfather html.
26
Verdun: The First Air Battle for the Fighter
Part II: Escadrille Américaine Emerges and End Game
Jon Guttman
Four Early Fatalities of the Escadrille Américaine with
Escadrille Commander Capitaine Georges Thénault
James McConnell, Kiffen Rockwell, Thénault, Norman Prince, Victor Chapman
two weeks he left the hospital, and in eight
weeks he was back at N.65, reporting for duty!
The next day, while Navarre was claiming his
eighth victory, Nungesser scored his fourth over
an LVG. He would account for three more
enemy planes by the end of the month.
Part I of this article, in which Jon Guttman introduced the
reader to the innovators and tactical and technological
breakthroughs of early air combat and the opening of the
Battle of Verdun, was presented in the Summer 2009
issue of Relevance, Volume 18, No. 3.
By April there was as much a battle going on
above Verdun as on the ground, although both
armies and their attached air arms stood in a
bloody deadlock. Charles Nungesser burned a
balloon on April 2. More remarkable than his
braving a barrage of anti-aircraft fire deep in
enemy lines to eliminate his target was the fact
that while test-flying an unstable Ponnier M.1
biplane on January 29, he had lost control and
crashed, breaking both legs, smashing and
unhinging his jaw, piercing his palette and
suffering internal injures. Nobody had expected
him to survive the night, but four days later
Nungesser was hobbling around on crutches, in
27
Two events of some significance occurred
beyond Verdun on April 9. A pilot ferrying
Fokker E.III 210/16 to Fl. Abt. 5 got lost and
landed twice to ask directions before straying
into British territory, where he suffered engine
failure and landed at Rensecure. Taking pilot
and plane intact, the British tested the latter at
neaby St. Omer and at Upavon, learning all
about Fokker's interrupter gear. Soon the Allies
would be introducing similar systems of their
own, ending the myth of Eindecker invincibility.
E.III 210/16 can still be seen in the London
Science Museum.
Late in April a new French scout, the Nieuport
17, reached the front. The Nieuport 16, with its
110-hp engine on a Bébé airframe, had proven
nose-heavy and tricky to handle. Gustave
Delage's solution was to redesign the airframe
with more wing area-14.75 square meters
compared to the Bébé's 13.3. The plane also got
a synchronized .30-caliber Vickers machine gun,
using Alkan-Hamy interrupter gear. The
horseshoe-shaped cowling of earlier Nieuports
was replaced by a circular one faired smooth to
the fuselage sides, further streamlined by a cône
de pénétration attached to the engine shaft rather
than to the propeller, so that it remained
stationary instead of spinning. Transparent
cellon panels were installed in the upper wing
center section to improve the pilot's view
upward.
Also on April 9, Capitaine Georges Thenault left
C.42 to take command of a new squadron that,
aside from him and his deputy, Lieutenant
Albert de Laage de Meux, was to be made up
entirely of Americans who, in defiance of their
country's neutrality, had joined the Foreign
Legion to fight for France on the ground and
later in the air. Officially formed on April 16,
N.124, soon dubbed the Escadrille Américaine,
commenced operations at Luxeuil-les-Bains in
the relatively quiet Lorraine sector.
By April 28, Max Immelmann had pulled ahead
of Boelcke with 14 victories, but Boelcke
evened the score again that day. Having recently
returned to Sivry from a visit to the Oberursel
engine factory, he was patrolling toward Verdun
when he saw three Caudrons under attack by
another Fokker until it was forced to disengageand subsequently credited as shot down to a
crew of C.53. Boelcke attacked and drove one of
the Caudrons down in French lines near Vaux,
wounding Sous-Lieutenant Paul Fabre.
Offically designated the 17, but often referred to
as the "15-meter" Nieuport, the new scout
proved far more amenable to the 110-hp Le
Rhône 9J, as well as the 120-hp 9Jb. A later
version, using a fuselage rounded with stringers
called the 17bis, used the 130-hp Clerget 9B or
9Z engine. The French encountered some
problems with cracks in the cowling, which
sometimes necessitated cutting the bottom away
outright replacement with a 16's cowl until a
more flexible mounting was perfected. The cône
de pénétration was eventually abandoned.
April 30 saw four Fokkers claimed by the
French, including one by Chaput of N.31 for his
third victory and one by Lieutenant Albert Louis
Deullin of N.3 for his fourth-the latter, falling
south of Douaumont, was probably Rittmeister
Erich Graf von Holck, attached to an artillery
spotting detachment, Flieger Abteilung
(Artillerie) 203, killed while engaging some
Caudrons. His death was witnessed from afar by
a Silesian-born two-seater pilot of Kagohl 2 who
had once flown with Holck as an observer on the
Russian front, now longing to fly single-seaters
himself: Leutnant Manfred Freiherr von
Richthofen. The next evening the man who
would later make that transition possible for
Richthofen, Boelcke, spotted a French plane,
hastily took off from Sivry and shot the intruder
down within two minutes for his 15th victory.
Interestingly, in Richthofen's autobiography, The Red
Battle Flyer, he does not mention his flying service at
Verdun, but writes extensively about his service there in
1915 as a dispatch runner and telephone duty officer.
28
The first Nieuport 17s were allegedly sent to
N.57. Sergent Louis Coudouret may have flown
one when he sent an LVG two-seater crashing
near Hermeville on May 4, the first of six
victories he would score over Russia and the
Western Front. Sous-Lieutenant Jean Chaput
transferred to N.57 from N.31 on May 7 and
demonstrated his mettle anew nine days later by
severely damaging an Aviatik over Esparges.
Lieutenant André Bastien forced an enemy plane
down in its own lines the next day, and Adjutant
Léon François Acher did the same on May 19,
although he was badly wounded in the fight.
Lieutenant Charles Dumas sent an Aviatik down
to crash near Eparges on May 21.
On May 11 an air accident took the life of the
mastermind behind France's fighter effort up to
that point. Having turned down offers of a
bomber command or a joint fighter and bomber
command, Commandant de Rose had convinced
the military authorities that the French fighter
arm should have a free hand to preemptively
seize control of the air over any critical area of
the front, taking on defensive or escort roles as
secondary options as needed. Upon his return to
the Verdun sector, he was doing a demonstration
flight for the Ve Armée's new quartermastergeneral when his Nieuport suddenly crashed.
In the months to come the Nieuport 17 became
one of the war's ubiquitous fighters. In addition
to the French, the British used it extensively,
although they usually replaced the synchronized
Vickers with a Lewis gun above the wing on
their own Foster mounting. The Duks factory
built Nieuports for Russian use and NieuportMacchi built them for the Italians. The Belgian
1e and 5e Escadrilles were equipped with
Nieuport 17s in 1917. American volunteers in
N.124 and other French escadrilles flew them in
combat, and later U.S. Army Air Service pilots
trained in them. Even German aces such as
Hermann Pfeiffer and Paul Bäumer were known
to fly captured Nieuport 17s at times, as did
Austrian ace of aces Godwin Brumowski.
De Rose's death was a terrible loss to the
Aéronatique Militaire, but it would continue the
process that he started, expanding the fighter
force within larger and larger organizations over
the next two years. As it was, his provisional
groups had at least stalemated the Eindecker
units above Verdun, as Nieuports and MoraneSaulniers, flying in flights of six or more, used
their numbers to cancel the advantages of the
Fokkers' interrupter gear.
The Nieuport 17 was sometimes called the Superbébé
or the "15-metre" because its wing area comprised
15 meters, an expansion over the size of the Nieuport 11,
The Nieuport 17
29
fabric panels that might otherwise be vulnerable
to their backblast. Le Prieur himself arrived at
Lemmes aerodrome to oversee their installation,
accompanied by Sergent Joseph Henri Guiguet,
a pilot from escadrille N.95 of the Camp
Retranché de Paris who had been testing Le
Prieur's rockets. Besides Guiguet, seven pilots
had volunteered to participate in this dangerous
but historic mission: Capitaine Louis Robert de
Beauchamp and Lieutenant Georges de Boutiny
of N.23; Lieutenant Jean Chaput of N.31;
Lieutenant André Dubois de Gennes and
Adjutant Lucien Barault of N.57; and SousLieutenant Charles Nungesser and Adjutant
Henri Réservat of N.65.
On May 18 Caporal Kiffin Rockwell, firing only
four rounds at point-blank range, shot down an
LVG in flames near Thann for N.124's first
aerial victory. Upon hearing the news in Paris,
Kiffin's brother Paul rushed over to Luxeuil with
an 80-year-old bottle of bourbon whiskey. After
Rockwell had drunk a shot, squadron mate
Victor Chapman suggested that each pilot
thereafter be "entitled to one slug" of the "Bottle
of Death" after downing an enemy plane. The
next day, N.124 was ordered to transfer to
Behonne, to support Général Robert Nivelle's IIe
Armée near Verdun. Now blooded, the
Escadrille Américaine was fully "in the war."
May 19 was also a milestone for the French
themselves, as Sous-Lieutenant Nungesser
scored his eighth victory over an LVG, while
Navarre brought his to ten with an Aviatik
downed near Chattancourt, where its crew was
taken prisoner. Navarre's triumph at being the
first French "double ace" was dampened on that
same day, however, by the combat death of one
of his closest friends, N.65 commander SousLieutenant Georges Boillot.
The day before, while French fighters eliminated
four German two-seaters--including one more by
Navarre--Capitaine Philippe Féquant, escorted by
two N.65 Nieuports, reconnoitered the right
bank of the Meuse to pinpoint the enemy
balloon nests. Five Fokkers of Fl. Abt. 62
attacked the trio, and the German leader sent one
of the escorting Nieuports crashing into French
lines with its pilot, Sergent Georges Kirsch,
wounded--Hauptmann Boelcke's second victory
of the day and his 18th overall. That
notwithstanding, Féquant brought back the
necessary intelligence and with clear skies the
next morning, the eight fighters set out as
planned.
On May 22, General Nivelle launched a
counteroffensive to retake Fort Douaumont. The
effort involved unprecedented coordination with
the air service and its fighter arm. The Groupe
des Escadrilles de Chasse, commanded since de
Rose's death by Capitaine Auguste le Révérend,
was tasked with attacking any German
reconnaissance plane that ventured over or near
the front lines. It was also to supply volunteers
for a multiple attack against eight German kite
balloons, or Drachen, that could observe the
French preparations from their nests north of the
Meuse River. For that purpose, the fighters
would be equipped for the first time with a new
weapon invented by naval Capitaine de Vaisseau
Yves Le Prieur. Six to eight "rocket torpedoes"
were mounted in tubes on the struts of Nieuport
11s and 16s, with aluminium sheathing over the
Guiguet's balloon at Sivry, 30 kilometers
northwest of Verdun, was arguably the most
dangerous-its location on hills that gave the
Germans an unobstructed view of the valley and
both sides of the Meuse made it of great
strategic importance, and its heavy anti-aircraft
artillery defenses were bolstered by Boelcke's
fighter flight. Quickly spotting his target,
Guiguet dived to what he thought a close enough
range and fired all eight of his "torpedoes" as
power winches swiftly pulled the balloon down
to 1,000 meters altitude. One missile chanced to
30
strike home and Guiguet's Nieuport 16, N978,
was violently thrown into a spin as the gasbag
exploded into flames. Recovering, Guiguet made
a beeline for Allied lines, pursued by several
German fighters but returning unscathed. The
Drachen's observer, Oberleutnant Friedrich von
Zanthier, was less fortunate, being killed in the
attack.
Between Moirey and Grémilly, several of the
other French "torpilleurs" were having mixed
fortunes. De Beauchamp destroyed his Drachen
east of Flabas, but de Boutigny's firing system
failed. Chaput and de Gennes burned their
balloons northwest and northeast of Ornes,
respectively. Nungesser destroyed his target
northwest of Gincrey and Réservat burned his
just north of Gincrey, but Barault's rockets
missed. The N.65 pilots were intercepted near
Étain by German fighters, which Nungesser
drove away, but as they resumed their
homeward flight Réservat's Nieuport was
disabled by several bullets fired from the
ground. Forced to land, he was taken prisoner
and his plane recovered intact along with four of
the rockets, a secret weapon no longer.
German Observation Balloon
May 22 had also seen the French claim nine
enemy airplanes, including an Aviatik over
Malancourt by Sergent Weston Bert Hall, for the
newly arrived N.124's second victory. On May
24, Lieutenant William Thaw surprised a Fokker
E.III and brought it down north of Vaux.
Capitaine Thenault was leading de Laage, Thaw,
Chapman and Rockwell on the second patrol
that morning when they encountered 12 enemy
planes over Étain. Instead of watching for
Thenault's hand signal, the overzealous
Chapman prematurely dove at the enemy,
followed by Rockwell and Thaw. Chapman
claimed a Fokker out of control before another
wounded him in the arm. Rockwell's windscreen
was hit and his face was lacerated by glass and
bullet fragments, but he claimed an enemy plane
before returning to Behonne, his fuel almost
exhausted. Thaw also claimed a Fokker before
A few hours after the balloon attack, the 36e,
54e, 74e and 129e Régiments d'Infanterie
launched their main assault. Even with their
aerial "eyes" temporarily removed, however, the
Germans knew something was in the offing after
having undergone a heavy artillery barrage for
the past several days. Consequently, instead of
being "softened up," they stiffened their
defenses enough to stop the French just short of
Fort Douaumont.
Although the French failed to achieve their
ultimate strategic goal, the airmen had carried
out their mission admirably, destroying six out
of their eight assigned targets. The one sour note
was the loss of Réservat, but he escaped from
Germany on March 19, 1917.
31
his Lewis gun jammed and he came under fire
from two Aviatiks, which put a bullet through
his left elbow and his fuel tank. Gliding over the
lines, Thaw pancaked near Fort Travennes, and
was hospitalized with a broken arm.
Gervais Raoul Lufbery arrived at N.124, to be
followed by Clyde Balsley and Charles
Chouteau Johnson on the 29th, Lawrence
Rumsey on June 4, and Dudley Hill on June 9.
On June 17 Chapman was on a lone foray when
he spotted two enemy two-seaters, one of which
he forced to land near Béthincourt, though it was
not confirmed. At that point the two-seaters'
three Fokker escorts pounced on the lone
Nieuport, severing its right aileron control rod
and creasing Chapman's skull. He fell into a
spin, but by grabbing the ends of the control
rods and controlling the stick with his knees,
managed to land safely at Froidos aerodrome.
Although Rockwell believed that Boelcke had
wounded Chapman, it was another German
rising star, Leutnant Walter Höhndorf of KEK
Vaux, who claimed a Nieuport in French lines
that day for his sixth of an eventual 14 victories.
There was, however, a second French casualty
that day that might just as possibly have been
Höhndorf's victim. At 0600 that morning
Navarre, in concert with Sous-Lieutenant
Pelletier d'Oisy of N.69, had shot down a twoseater, but soon afterward Navarre came down
in French lines near Samogneux, severely
wounded.
Victor Chapman After He Was Wounded
Valuing their fearlessness enough to overlook
their insubordination, the French promoted
Caporaux Chapman and Rockwell to sergent, in
addition to which Chapman received the Croix
de Guerre, Rockwell the Médaille Militaire and
Croix de Guerre with palm, and Thaw made a
Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur. Chapman
was back in action within 24 hours, but with
Rockwell ordered to hospital for 15 days and
Thaw convalescing even longer, Thenault called
for a replacement from the reserve pool of
American volunteers. Later that day Sergent
German Aviatik
32
On June 18, Capitaine Thenault was leading
Prince, Rockwell, and Balsley on a dawn
mission to protect reglage (artillery spotting)
aircraft when they encountered a large German
formation north of Verdun. Balsley closed to 50
meters on an Aviatik, only to suffer a gun jam
and find himself in a crossfire from four enemy
planes. One bullet struck him in the right thigh
and fragmented, sending splinters into his
intestines, kidneys and lungs. After falling
12,000 feet in an inverted spin, Balsley, by using
his hands to work his crippled leg, managed to
level out and landed between the lines, where his
plane caught on barbed wire and flipped over.
At that time Navarre was the leading Allied
fighter pilot with 12 victories, a record outdone
by only two Germans, Boelcke and Immelmann.
A succession of events would prevent his adding
any further to his tally. Navarre had always been
a mercurial individual whose relentless combat
activity had undoubtedly taken a psychological
toll that nobody, let alone he, fully understood at
the time. While he was convalescing, however,
his mind was pushed over the edge by news that
his twin brother Pierre, recovered from his own
wounds and eager to return to action, had fatally
crashed during a training flight at GDE on
November 15. Although released from hospital
to rejoin N.67 on January 31, 1917, Navarre's
behavior became increasingly erratic until April
9, when a violent altercation with Gendarmes
(military police) led to his arrest and his
subsequent committal for further care for what
was judged to be a mental breakdown. Navarre
resumed active service in the air in September
1918 and also became a pilot for the MoraneSaulnier firm, but on July 10, 1919, he was
killed when his Morane-Saulnier AI monoplane
crashed at Vadelaincourt aerodrome.
Sent to hospital at Vadelaincourt, Clyde Balsley
was out of the war. On June 23, N.124 suffered
its first fatality during a fight with five German
aircraft northeast of Douaumont when Chapman
was shot down, credited to Leutnant Wintgens
of Fl. Abt. 6.
Although its members flew continuously to
avenge Chapman and Balsley, N.124 was unable
to log its next confirmed victory for more than a
month-and that was claimed by an unexpected
guest. On June 22, Charles Nungesser had
downed two Aviatiks over Lamorville but crashlanded near his victims with a broken nose and
jaw, a dislocated knee and bullet fragments in
his lip. Nungesser was soon bored with his third
visit to the hospital, and, since N.65 had posted
him on enforced sick leave, on July 14 he flew
to Behonne and attached himself to N.124's
roster. Although he needed a heavy cane to
hobble to and from his Nieuport 17, a week later
Nungesser shot down an Aviatik and sent its
Fokker escort fleeing for home.
Nungesser's success seemed to revive N.124's
fortunes. On the 23rd Bert Hall was attacked by
a Fokker E.III, but he turned the tables and sent
it crashing between Fort Vaux and Damloup. On
July 27, Lieutenant de Laage downed an Aviatik
between Ornes and Bezonvaux, and on the 30th
French Ace Jean Navarre
33
Sergent Lufbery shot down a two-seater near the
Forêt d'Étain, possibly killing Oberleutnante
Oskar Illing and Hermann Kraft from Kasta 33
of Kagohl 6. Avowedly driven by the desire to
avenge the death of his friend and prewar flying
mentor, Marc Pourpe, in a flying accident on
December 2, 1914, Lufbery got his second
installment the next day, downing a two-seater
over Fort Vaux.
be a prime piece of hokum when it's finished."
In spite of his rough edges, even Hall's harshest
critic, N.124 historian Paul Rockwell, admitted
that he did good work for the squadron-including the destruction of an enemy
photographic plane northeast of Douaumont on
August 28.
N.124 concluded its operations over Verdun in
fine style on September 9, when Adjutant
Norman Prince teamed up with Lieutenant
Victor Regnier of N.112 to down a Fokker over
Fort Rozeiller. Elsewhere, Rockwell attacked a
two-seater, hit its observer with his first burst
and pursued it down to 4,000 feet before two
intervening German fighters forced him to
disengage. French ground observers
subsequently confirmed the crash of his second
official victory.
On August 4, Lufbery teamed up with another
future ace, Adjutant Victor Sayaret of N.57, to
destroy a two-seater over Abancourt, killing
Unteroffizier Peter Engel and Leutnant Otto
Maiwald of Fl. Abt. 34. On the 8th, 'Luf'
approached an Aviatik from below and behind,
emptied his Lewis gun into it and sent it down in
flames, killing Unteroffizier Georg Gering and
Leutnant Max Sedlmair of Kasta 36, Kagohl 6.
Flying Over the Verdun Battlefield
Columns of muddy smoke spurt up continually as high
explosives tear deeper into this ulcered area. During
heavy bombardment and attacks I have seen shells
falling like rain. The countless towers of smoke remind
one of Gustave Doré's picture of the fiery tombs of the
arch-heretics in Dante's "Hell." A smoky pall covers the
sector under fire, rising so high that at a height of 1,000
feet one is enveloped in its mist-like fumes. Now and
then monster projectiles, hurtling through the air close
by, leave one's plane rocking violently in their wake.
Airplanes have been cut in two by them.
Sgt. James McConnell, Escadrille Américaine
For his impressive string of successes, Lufbery
was awarded the Médaille Militaire and Croix
de Guerre with palm. A globetrotting man of the
world before the war, Lufbery pursued his
vengeance with a cool maturity that contrasted
with his more idealistic, often rash squadron
mates. In addition, he exhibited remarkable
endurance, flying at altitudes of 18,000 feet
three or four times a day without ill effect.
Further, as Pourpe's former mechanic, Lufbery
personally involved himself in keeping his
aircraft in peak condition. A later N.124
member, Edward Hinkle, recalled that "Anyone
would rather have a secondhand Lufbery
machine than a new one, anytime."
Transferred back to Luxeuil, the Escadrille
Américaine had earned its laurels and, more
important, become a propaganda bonanza for the
French-as well as an embarrassment to President
Woodrow Wilson's policy of keeping the United
States neutral. Although N.124's pilots often
rankled at the exaggerated and even fictional
exploits the press attributed to them, they
approved of the imaginations they were stirring
back home, inspiring other Americans to join the
French air service via the Foreign Legion and
fueling public sympathy that they hoped would
ultimately draw their country into the war on the
Allied side.
The next N.124 member to score over Verdun,
Bert Hall, was becoming increasingly unpopular
with the wealthier, more idealistic pilots who
made up the bulk of the escadrille, who found
his language ungentlemanly and suspected him
of cheating in poker. They also applied Hall's
penchant for telling tall tales to his character in
general, except for Lufbery, who once told Hall,
"I like a good yarn, true or not," and wryly
remarked of Hall's ongoing diary, "I'll bet that'll
34
Amid the continued fighting in and over Verdun,
the success of the temporarily grouped
escadrilles de chasse led to the French decision
to form permanent groupes de combat that
would allow four or more escadrilles at a time to
be shifted to achieve local air superiority over
contested sectors of the front. The first such
units, organized on October 16 and officially
commencing operations on November 1, were
GC.11, made up of N.12, N.31, N.48, and N.57;
and GC.12, consisting of N.3, N.26. N.73, and
N.103. In the following months the latter group,
commanded by Chef de Bataillon Antonin
Brocard, would adopt a common insignia by
which to identify its aircraft. The stork, which
nested in the chimney tops of Alsace-Lorraine
and symbolized France's determination to
liberate that region from German occupation,
had already graced the sides of N.3's Nieuports.
Now aircraft of the other escadrilles would also
display storks in different attitudes of flight.
By that time, the struggle for Verdun had fallen
into stalemate and would remain so until its
officially declared conclusion on December 18.
Even as a battle of attrition, it fell short of
German hopes, with French dead listed at
543,000 but their own side faring little better
with more than 434,000 fatalities. In the air, it
set a rough pattern for the war as well, of
German quality of aircraft and tactics being kept
on the defensive by the mobilization of more
Allied air assets in larger organizations. That
pattern was repeated to the northwest on July 1,
1916, when the British launched their own
offensive over the Somme, commencing a new
surge in the development of air-to-air warfare.
This article is an excerpt from Jon Guttman's
The Origins of the Fighter Aircraft published in
July 2009 by Westholme Publishing. It can be
ordered at Amazon.com or from the publisher at
1-800-621-2736.
Who Were the Four-Minute Men?
During World War I, the United States fought a war of
ideas with unprecedented ingenuity and organization.
President Woodrow Wilson established the Committee
on Public Information (CPI) to manage news and solicit
widespread support for the war at home and abroad.
Under the energetic direction of newspaper editor
George Creel, the CPI churned out national propaganda
through diverse media. Creel organized the “FourMinute Men,” a virtual army of volunteers who gave
brief speeches wherever they could get an audience—in
movie theaters, churches, synagogues, and labor union,
The Honorable
lodge, and grange halls. Creel claimed that his 75,000
Four-Minute Men of
amateur orators had delivered over 7.5 million speeches
Rimersburg, Pennsylvania
to more than 314 million people. CPI publications from
the Four Minute Man crusade offered tips on developing and delivering a brief, effective
speech—the predecessor to today’s “sound bite.” They also recognized diverse audiences, with
reports of Yiddish speakers in theaters and work places, a Sioux Four-Minute Man, and a speech
called “The Meaning of America” delivered in seven languages.
From the History Matters Website.
35
A Personal View of the War's Aviation from Our Assistant Editor
Kimball Worcester
At War: GABRIELE D'ANNUNZIO (1863-1938)
D'Annunzio and His Pilot Lt. Natale Palli Before Departing for Vienna
vision for Italy's place in the modern world and
was instrumental in inspiring and promoting the
Fascist movement in Italy. D'Annunzio's stature
as poet and celebrity well before 1914 helped
propagate his modernist rightwing politics
throughout the country. D'Annunzio saw joining
in the war not only as a splendid way to achieve
even more personal glory and adventure, but
also to complete Italy's territorial destiny by
vanquishing the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Italy
declared war on Austria-Hungary on May 24,
1915, and D'Annunzio promptly joined the
Novara Lancers as a lieutenant, assigned to the
headquarters of his friend the Duke of Aosta,
commander of the Third Army. Italy's neutrality
since July 1914 rankled irredentists such as
D'Annunzio - entry into the war on the Allies'
side was D'Annunzio's goal, which he promoted
vociferously. Only by defeating AustriaHungary could the future of a fully united Italy
be assured.
Airplane flight coincided neatly with the dawn
of the 20th century and instantly came to
exemplify "modernity." Other quite modern
concepts in ferment around 1900 were the everrising nationalist movements of Europe, of
which the Italian peninsula was a fervent part,
and futurism, the literary and artistic movement
worshipping dynamism, the machine, and war,
which was founded in Italy. Although a united
country since Garibaldi (after a fashion), there
remained parts of the northeast of Italy that were
still in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The Great
War and Italy's participation on the Allied side
gave hope to the Italy irredentists that victory
over the Central powers would provide Italy
with her deserved expansion northeast.
Gabriele D'Annunzio served many roles in
Italy's entry into the modern age: futurist, poet,
playwright, theorist, political incendiary,
propagandist, and aviator. He combined his
interpretation of Nietzsche with his passionate
36
As it became clear to D'Annunzio that cavalry
was not likely to be involved in much of
anything in the Great War, he moved to the 77th
Infantry by October 1915 and spent months in
the trenches at the Carso. He never lacked for
courage in any of his military endeavors. Indeed,
he suffered a number of wounds, including the
loss of his right eye in an emergency landing
accident on the water at Grado in January 1916,
and received medals of real prestige, including
the gold Medaglia al Valore Militare and
L'Ordine Militare di Savoia.
On this August morning, the fourth year of your
hopeless convulsion has ended and the luminous
year of our full power begins. The Italian
tricolour appears to you suddenly as an
indication that destiny has turned.
Destiny is turned. It is turned toward us with one
iron certainty. Late is the hour that Germany
drags you down, humiliates you and infects you.
... As our faith was strong, here our aviation
predominates and predominates until to the end.
The victors of the Piave, the victors of the Marl,
feel it and know it, with a spirit that multiplies
the suddenness of our strike. But, if suddenness
were not enough, the number would be enough;
and this said for those who are used to fight ten
against one.
D'Annunzio could hardly not have been drawn
to flying, given his nature and need for
notoriety. He had flown with Wilbur Wright in
1908. Once Italy joined the war in 1915
D'Annunzio tried the areas of combat most
suited to his flamboyance, the cavalry and a
torpedo boat. Later he joined the air service's
87th fighter squadron, whose poetic epithet was
La Serenissima ("The Most Serene" - the name
of the Venetian Republic, 697 - 1797). His most
famous exploit as an Italian aviator (although he
himself did not fly the plane; he was a little busy
for piloting) during the war was the flight over
Vienna (Il volo su Vienna) on August 9, 1918.
The mission involved nine Ansaldo SVA-5
aircraft. Only D'Annunzio's plane was a twoseater, and it needed an extra fuel tank attached
to enable it to make the 625-mile round trip.
All the planes on his mission returned safely,
with the exception of one that made an
emergency landing behind Austrian lines.
D'Annunzio was afterwards awarded L'Ordine
Militare di Savoia.
Subsequent exploits included the "Buccari Joke"
(La beffa di Buccari) in February 1918, when he
led three small torpedo boats to make a
statement by attacking Austrian shipping in
Buccari Bay. This may be remembered as a
joke, but it was a dangerous one, and this kind of
daring and commitment appealed greatly to the
Italian populace, especially when the war was
not going well for Italy. D'Annunzio also
exploited another incident for the glory of both
himself and Italy. This occurred during an action
on the Timavo River in May 1917 instigated by
D'Annunzio and resulting in an utter fiasco with
almost a full battalion wiped out. D'Annunzio
turned it into a personal propaganda triumph,
though, having held in his arms the dying Major
Randaccio and proclaimed a funeral oration in
his honor on the spot.
He dropped on Vienna half a million leaflets
deploring in rococo language Austria's
subservience to the Germans and predicting
Austria's imminent demise, as well as another
message suggesting the leaflets could just as
easily have been bombs raining down on the
populace. D'Annunzio's brilliant self-promotion
once again shone the spotlight on his beliefs and
personification as a modern Italian leader:
37
D'Annunzio's later years, till his death in 1938,
were spent in some rivalry with Mussolini,
whose growing power D'Annunzio looked upon
with some incredulity. D'Annunzio, however,
was still something of the grand old man of
Italian Fascism and was granted a princely title,
Montenevoso. D'Annunzio opposed the alliance
with Hitler, presumably because he hadn't lost
his dislike of being under the thumb of Germans.
And having seen Italy on the side of the
victorious Allies in 1918 he was perhaps lucky
to die before the tragedy of Italy's military
association in the Second World War.
The illustrious poet/aviator survived the war to
continue his rendezvous with Italy's destiny.
D'Annunzio's nationalistic amour propre was
deeply aggrieved by the accommodations in the
Versailles Treaty that allowed the predominantly
Italian Dalmatian port of Fiume to remain under
Austrian control. His response was to participate
in a military takeover on September 12, 1919
and to become Fiume's Duce under its protoFascist Charter. D'Annunzio and his colleagues,
including the syndicalist De Ambris, who wrote
the Charter organizing the state around ten
corporations, commenced to rule Fiume
independently, to the growing frustration of the
Italian government, until January 1921. Here we
have the first operating Fascist political system.
D'Annunzio put Fascist ideology to work well
before Mussolini or Hitler, but the ramifications
for him personally were not positive as the
Italian government had to evict him from Fiume
to enforce the provisions of the Treaty of
Rapallo, which gave Fiume the status of a free
state.
SOURCES:
http://www.gabrieledannunzio.net/
english/eroe_finale.htm
http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/
Gabriele_D%27annunzio
http://www.acepilots.com/wwi/ ansaldo.html
Bosworth, RJB. Mussolini's Italy, Life under the
Dictatorship, 1915-1945. New York: Penguin
Press, 2006
38
Churchill in Antwerp
E. Alexander Powell, American Journalist
From 'Fighting in Flanders'
When I returned that evening to the Hotel St.
Antoine from the battle-front, which was then
barely half a dozen miles outside the city, the
manager stopped me as I was entering the lift.
and the Diplomatic Corps are leaving for Ostend
by special steamer at seven in the morning. It
has just been decided at a Cabinet meeting. But
don't mention it to a soul. No one is to know it
until they are safely gone."
"Are you leaving with the others, Mr. Powell?"
he whispered.
I remember that as I continued to my room the
corridors smelled of smoke, and upon inquiring
its cause I learned that the British Minister, Sir
Francis Villiers, and his secretaries were burning
papers in the rooms occupied by the British
Legation. The Russian Minister, who was
"Leaving for where? With what others?" I asked
sharply.
"Hadn't you heard?" he answered in some
confusion. "The members of the Government
39
While lunching with Sir Francis Villiers and the
staff of the British Legation, two English
correspondents approached and asked Mr.
Churchill for an interview.
superintending the packing of his trunks in the
hall, stopped me to say good-bye. Imagine my
surprise, then, upon going down to breakfast the
following morning, to meet Count Goblet
d'Alviella, the Vice-President of the Senate and
a minister of State, leaving the dining-room.
"I will not talk to you," he almost shouted,
bringing his fist down upon the table. "You have
no business to be in Belgium at this time. Get
out of the country at once."
"Why, Count!" I exclaimed, "I had supposed that
you were well on your way to Ostend by this
time."
It happened that my table was so close that I
could not help but overhear the request and the
response, and I remember remarking to the
friends who were dining with me: "Had Mr.
Churchill said that to me, I should have
answered him, 'I have as much business in
Belgium at this time, sir, as you had in Cuba
during the Spanish- American War.'"
"We had expected to be," explained the
venerable statesman, "but at four o'clock this
morning the British Minister sent us word that
Mr. Winston Churchill had started for Antwerp
and asking us to wait and hear what he has to
say."
At one o'clock that afternoon a big drabcoloured touring-car filled with British naval
officers tore up the Place de Meir, its horn
sounding a hoarse warning, took the turn into the
narrow Marche aux Souliers on two wheels, and
drew up in front of the hotel. Before the car had
fairly come to a stop the door of the tonneau was
thrown violently open and out jumped a smoothfaced, sandy-haired, stoop- shouldered, youthfullooking man in the undress Trinity House
uniform. There was no mistaking who it was. It
was the Right Hon. Winston Churchill. As he
darted into the crowded lobby, which, as usual at
the luncheon-hour, was filled with Belgian,
French, and British staff officers, diplomatists,
Cabinet Ministers and correspondents, he flung
his arms out in a nervous, characteristic gesture,
as though pushing his way through a crowd. It
was a most spectacular entrance and reminded
me for all the world of a scene in a melodrama
where the hero dashes up, bare-headed, on a
foam-flecked horse, and saves the heroine or the
old homestead or the family fortune, as the case
may be.
En Route to Antwerp, October 1914
The troops deployed to Antwerp were marines and sailors
from the 63rd Royal Naval Division, commonly known as
"Winston's Little Army" because it was founded in
September 1914 by Churchill, First Lord of the Admiralty.
40
An hour later I was standing in the lobby talking
to M. de Vos, the Burgomaster of Antwerp, M.
Louis Franck, the Antwerp member of the
Chamber of Deputies, American Consul-General
Diederich and Vice-Consul General Sherman,
when Mr. Churchill rushed past us on his way to
his room. He impressed one as being always in a
tearing hurry. The Burgomaster stopped him,
introduced himself, and expressed his anxiety
regarding the fate of the city. Before he had
finished Churchill was part-way up the stairs.
public was permitted to learn that the Sea Lord
had been in Belgium.
Had it not been for the promises of
reinforcements given to the King and the
Cabinet by Mr. Churchill, there is no doubt that
the Government would have departed for Ostend
when originally planned and that the inhabitants
of Antwerp, thus warned of the extreme gravity
of the situation, would have had ample time to
leave the city with a semblance of comfort and
order, for the railways leading to Ghent and to
the Dutch frontier were still in operation and the
highways were then not blocked by a retreating
army.
"I think everything will be all right now, Mr.
Burgomaster," he called down in a voice which
could be distinctly heard throughout the lobby.
"You needn't worry. We're going to save the
city."
Whereupon most of the civilians present heaved
sighs of relief. They felt that a real sailor had
taken the wheel. Those of us who were
conversant with the situation were also relieved
because we took it for granted that Mr. Churchill
would not have made so confident and public an
assertion unless ample reinforcements in men
and guns were on the way. Even then the words
of this energetic, impetuous young man did not
entirely reassure me, for from the windows of
my room I could hear the German guns quite
plainly. They had come appreciably nearer.
The first of the promised reinforcements arrived
on Sunday evening by special train from Ostend.
They consisted of a brigade of the Royal
Marines, perhaps two thousand men in all, well
drilled and well armed, and several heavy guns.
They were rushed to the southern front and
immediately sent into the trenches to relieve the
worn-out Belgians. On Monday and Tuesday the
balance of the British expeditionary force,
consisting of between five and six thousand men
of the Volunteer Naval Reserve, arrived from
the coast, their ammunition and supplies being
brought by road, via Bruges and Ghent, in
London motor-buses. When this procession of
lumbering vehicles, placarded with
advertisements of teas, tobaccos, whiskies, and
current theatrical attractions and bearing the
signs "Bank," "Holborn," "Piccadilly,"
"Shepherd's Bush," "Strand," rumbled through
the streets of Antwerp, the populace went mad.
"The British had come at last! The city was
saved! Vive les Anglais! Vive Tommy Atkins!"
That afternoon and the three days following Mr.
Churchill spent in inspecting the Belgian
position. He repeatedly exposed himself upon
the firing-line and on one occasion, near
Waelhem, had a rather narrow escape from a
burst of shrapnel. For some unexplainable
reason the British censorship cast a veil of
profound secrecy over Mr. Churchill's visit to
Antwerp. The story of his arrival, just as I have
related it above, I telegraphed that same night to
the New York World, yet it never got through,
nor did any of the other dispatches which I sent
during his four days' visit. In fact, it was not
until after Antwerp had fallen that the British
About the Siege of Antwerp: By October 3, 1914 the German Army was close to forcing the abandonment of
the city. But the arrival of detachments from the Royal Naval Division and Winston Churchill's burst of energy
helped restore the situation. Their arrival helped prolong the defense for at least two days, allowing the
evacuation of the Belgian Army and most of the British contingent to the south where they met other British
forces sent in the relief effort. The combined forces all headed for Flanders. King Albert's troops formed a line
on the River Yser and the British group under General Rawlinson would play an important role in the First
Battle of Ypres. Antwerp surrendered on October 10. About 1,500 men of the Naval Division escaped to Holland
and found themselves interned for the duration.
41
The Great War Society Trivia Challenge
Where Was Winston?
Winston Churchill participation in the Gallipoli Campaign is his best remembered service in the First World War. W.C., however,
was his usual creative, industrious and, sometimes, accident-prone self as he was in every other period of his life. This month's
Challenge focuses on his actions before, during and immediately after the war.
1. In 1898 W.C. fought in on of the last great battles of
the 19th Century, the Battle of Omdurman. In what
country did this take place?
2. W.C. was first elected to parliament in _______ .
3. At the outbreak of WWI, what office did W.C. hold?
4. On the eve of war (July 28th), Churchill made a
critical decision regarding the Home Fleet. What was
it?
5. In September 1914, W.C. suffered his first war
disaster when three ships of the "Live Bait Squadron"
were sunk by a single German U-boat. Name the
three Royal Navy ships and the German U-boat.
10. Lawrence of Arabia participated in a conference
convened by W.C. to correct some of the damage
done to Middle Eastern affairs at the Paris Peace
Conference. When and where was that
conference held.
11. While out of office in the 1920s W.C. wrote a
six volume history of the Great War titled:
12. At the outbreak of World War II, W.C. was
reappointed to the same position he had held at
the start of the First World War. What message
announcing his return was sent to the forces?
Bonus Challenge:
6. In October 1914 Churchill personally escorted naval
ground forces to what Belgian city?
7. Throughout the Gallipoli campaign W.C. clashed
with this First Sea Lord (Top Admiral) and
eventually both resigned their offices.
8. After W.C. served in the trenches, Lloyd George
appointed him to what office?
9. Immediately after the war W.C. relied on this noted
military air pioneer to help preserve and reorganize
the Royal Air Force.
44
What unit did Lt. Col. Winston Churchill
command on the Western Front in 1916?
42
Reviews: Literature, Films, New Media
Godfrey Hodgson's Study of an Intriguing Partnership
Woodrow Wilson's Right Hand:
The Life of Colonel Edward M. House
Reviewed by Jolie Velazquez
This political biography is a great read for those interested in American international diplomacy during the era surrounding World
War I. Mr. Hodgson falls into the camp of biographers who love their subject, and while the reader would like to know much more
about the personal relationship between the academic President Wilson and the wily backstage manager of his foreign policy, we do
find out why Edward House was so admired by many of the leading figures in both American and European power circles.
House retired from business in middle age to take part in shaping social and political policies. He
cut his teeth on rowdy Texas politics during the time of prairie populism and was instrumental in
electing governors and senators, though he always refused to accept an appointment or run for
office himself. When he decided to take on national issues, he found Woodrow Wilson to be the
candidate he most wanted to work with since they already shared many of the same ideals. His
initial help in getting Wilson elected led to a greater role on Wilson's team. How their political
relationship rapidly developed into a warm friendship is still a mystery in this book, and one of the
reader's few disappointed expectations.
This political biography is a great read for those interested in American international diplomacy
during the era surrounding World War I. Mr. Hodgson falls into the camp of biographers who love
their subject, and while the reader would like to know much more about the personal relationship
between the academic President Wilson and the wily backstage manager of his foreign policy, we
do find out why Edward House was so admired by many of the leading figures in both American
and European power circles.
House retired from business in middle age to take part in shaping social and political policies. He
cut his teeth on rowdy Texas politics during the time of prairie populism and was instrumental in electing governors and senators,
though he always refused to accept an appointment or run for office himself. When he decided to take on national issues, he found
Woodrow Wilson to be the candidate he most wanted to work with since they already shared many of the same ideals. His initial
help in getting Wilson elected led to a greater role on Wilson's team. How their political relationship rapidly developed into a warm
friendship is still a mystery in this book, and one of the reader's few disappointed expectations.
House was Wilson's primary civilian advisor on all politically touchy subjects, such as making cabinet appointments, and for all
purposes he ran foreign affairs, the president's greatest weak spot. Even Secretary of State Robert Lansing deferred to House's
judgment. Prior to the outbreak of the war, House engaged in a clandestine "shuttle diplomacy" mission to prevent hostilities. (The
Kaiser later mentioned its near success.) Once the war began, House and Wilson turned their energies to creating their plan for
peace, the Fourteen Points and the League of Nations. Lines are blurred as to who contributed more to this effort, but it was certainly
a collaborative endeavor.
Hodgson saves his best narrative for the 1919 Peace Conference in Paris, and the eventual breakup of the House/Wilson relationship.
The details add a lot to one's knowledge of what went on behind the scenes at the negotiations and make a wonderful addendum to
Margaret Macmillan's book on the conference. And with so much material at hand to analyze, the author goes into every theory
about why the friendship cooled. (Hint: Edith Wilson looms large.) It is clear, however, that a clash in styles was inevitable: House's
more pragmatic and tactful handing of issues at the conference grated against Wilson's haughty idealism to the point where
accusations and apologies were exchanged for the first time.
43
The book is meticulously researched, and the style is easy on the brain while still explicating profound issues. It gives credit to a
unique individual whose personal charm, modesty, and intelligence were needed at the point this country was taking a lead role on
the international stage. House's involvement with every important diplomatic issue of his day was disparaged by "Edith's camp" of
memoirists and historians for many years, so we are grateful to Hodgson for delivering a different and thoughtful perspective on the
Wilsonian era.
Woodrow Wilson's Right Hand: The Life of Colonel Edward M. House, Godfrey Hodgson, Yale University Press, 2006, ISBN:
978-0300092691
Mark Thompson's History of the War on the Italian Front
The White War: Life and Death on the Italian Front, 1915-1919
Reviewed by Len Shurtleff
The White War: Life and Death on the Italian Front, 1915-1919 is a well-crafted and thoroughly researched overview of Italian
participation in the Great War, a subject too often ignored by English-speaking historians. The author details the military events on
the Italian Front from the opening of the war there in May 1915 through the armistice of November 4, 1918. He also traces the main
outlines of Italian politics including character sketches of the principal military and civilian actors and the often ham-handed Italian
diplomacy of the war. (For a detailed and scholarly analysis of Italian diplomacy see The Legend of the Mutilated Victory: Italy,
the Great War and the Paris Peace Conference, 1915-1919, James Burgwyn, Greenwood, 1993.)
While the Italian public was overwhelmingly anti-Austrian in the weeks leading up to hostilities, there was no popular groundswell
of popular opinion favoring war. Italy had been a member of a Triple Alliance with Germany and Austria-Hungry dating back to the
1880s. Seeking to increase its territory, the Salandro government refused to go to war in August 1914. Instead, it opened negotiations
with Vienna and Great Britain and France, seeking to expand Italia Irredenta, the reclamation of allegedly Italian territories in the
Tyrol, Trieste, Gorizia, Istria, and Dalmatia. While Vienna balked at handing over territory, France and Britain promised everything
the Italian irredentists desired and more, including lands in Turkish Anatolia.
Italy was militarily, politically, and economically unprepared for war. Its army was ill trained, ill
equipped (particularly in artillery), and badly led. As a largely agrarian nation it lacked heavy
industry. Nonetheless, in May 1915, Italian forces cautiously advanced across the Austrian frontier
in the Tyrol and on the Carso Plateau northwest of Trieste. There the front became static for some
29 months as Italian casualties mounted during 12 major battles along the Isonzo River. The
stalemate was not broken until October 1917 when combined Austrian and German forces pushed
the Italians back 150 kilometers in the Battle of Caporetto.
The Caporetto defeat provided the catalyst needed to spark a reorganization of the Italian war
effort. The Italian high command was purged, treatment of soldiers vastly improved and new
financing made available for expanded domestic munitions production. A year later, with help from
England, France, and America, Italy defeated her Habsburg enemy.
The White War: Life and Death on the Italian Front, 1915-1919, Mark Thompson, Basic Books,
2009, ISBN: 978 0 571 22333 6.
Trivia Challenge Answers
1. Sudan
5. HMS Aboukir, HMS Hogue, HMS
Cressy and U-9
2. 1900
9. Hugh Trenchard
10. Cairo, 1922
6. Antwerp
3. First Lord of the Admiralty
11. The World Crisis
7. Admiral John (Jackie) Fisher
4. To move the fleet to its wartime
anchorage in Scotland
12. "Winston is back."
8. Minister of Munitions
Bonus Question: Churchill commanded the 6th Battalion, Royal Scots Fusiliers
44
Hervey Allen's Account of His Service in the AEF
Toward the Flame
Reviewed by David Homsher
Anthony Adverse author Hervey Allen's account of his experiences as an infantry lieutenant showed that one man's battle role was
so insignificant that the war aims faded into the background. Once in action, the individual's struggle to survive eliminated all other
considerations. In most cases, success depended on a combination of fortunate circumstances, seldom on skill. Allen's graphic
account of service in the 28th Division, Pennsylvania National Guard, AEF, and the vicious battle
for Fismes and Fismette during the Aisne-Marne offensive of 1918 is very lucid. The five-day fight
for Fismette was said to have been the worst five days of fighting by the American Expeditionary
Forces. Allen describes the Fismette massacre in horrendous detail. This book is very candid in its
observations and formed a basis for some of Allen's later war stories.
Allen's story covers only a few weeks in the summer of 1918, during which American troops
attacked German positions in Fismette and were virtually annihilated. It wasn't a crucial action-the
Germans gained nothing by their momentary victory-and it shed no particular glory on the
Americans who fought in it. But it is a convincing picture of the American war-the new, untried
troops moving anxiously through country they don't know, uncertain of where the enemy is, where
their supporting troops are, or even what they are expected to do. Troops move, bivouac, move
again, attack and are attacked, without ever knowing quite what is happening. What they do know
is the immediate physical scene in which they live and fight and die; the village, its river and
bridge, a stone wall, a hill. Allen's narrative has the virtue that all good battle memoirs have: it
makes real the part of a war that one man, fighting, sees.
Allen's book is listed here mainly for the sense of its ending. In the last episode, Allen and his men are sheltering from the German
shells and gas in a dugout in the village of Fismette. The shelling stops, and Allen realizes that an enemy attack is about to begin and
tries to marshal his men to cover the hilltop over which the Germans come.
Not surprisingly, few accounts exist of what it was like to be on the receiving end of a flamethrower attack. Can there be a narrative
more memorable than the concluding paragraph of Hervey Allen's appropriately titled Toward the Flame, one of the notable
memoirs of the Great War? Allen, better remembered (though mostly forgotten today) as an historical novelist, was a first lieutenant
in the American 28th Division, a National Guard unit from Pennsylvania. At Fismette on the Vesle River in August 1918, storm
troops swept over Allen and his company:
Suddenly along the top of the hill there was a puff, a rolling cloud of smoke, and then a great burst of dirty, yellow flame….It was
the Flammenwerfer, the flame throwers; the men along the crest curled up like leaves to save themselves as the flame and smoke
rolled clear over them. There was another flash between the houses. One of the men stood up, turning around outlined against the
flame-"Oh! My God!" he cried. "Oh! God"
Hervey Allen's Toward the Flame, a war novel of exceptional interest originally published in 1926, should be considered a classic
of war, but it is not. It was, however, reissued by the University of Nebraska Press in 2003. Toward the Flame, Hervey Allen,
University of Nebraska, 2003, ISBN: 978-0803259478.
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Terrell D. Gottschall's Biography of Tirpitz's Rival
By Order of the Kaiser: Otto von Diederichs and the Rise of the
Imperial German Navy, 1865-1902
Reviewed by Len Shurtleff
The author examines the professional career of Vice Admiral Otto von Diedrichs, the conqueror of Tsingtao and professional rival of
Alfred Tirpitz, father of the German High Seas Fleet. More than a simple biography, this examination of Diedrichs's career
illuminates German naval policy and the decision to build a "risk fleet" designed to confront Royal Navy supremacy.
Diederichs participated in nearly every step in the evolution of German naval development from 1865 to 1902. He took part in the
strategic and operational development of the Kaiserliche Marine, served in the Franco-Prussian War, was involved in European
military interventions in Asia, and engaged in a bitter interservice rivalry with Tirpitz over the strategic development of the navy
prior to the Great War.
Diederichs made his reputation by occupying Kiao-chou in 1897 while commanding the German East Asia squadron. Leased to
Germany by treaty in 1898, the port of Tsingtao was developed into a major naval base with two artificial harbors, 60 berths, a dry
dock, armory, chandlery, and impressive big-gun coastal defenses, as well as a railway system connecting it to Peking. After leading
his squadron to Manila to protect German interests in the Philippines during the Spanish-American War, Diederichs returned home
to head the German naval staff (Admiralstab der Marine) with the aim of turning that staff into the naval equivalent of the army
Great General Staff.
This new job brought him into conflict with recently appointed naval secretary Alfred von Tirpitz,
whose 1897 Naval Law mandated the construction of a battleship fleet to confront the Royal Navy.
Diederichs, on the other hand, wanted to avoid antagonizing Great Britain and driving her into the
hands of Russia and France. He strongly favored less aggressive action: creation of a cruiser force
for commerce raiding and the constriction of strong fixed coastal defenses along the German Bight
and Frisian Islands. Since both Tirpitz and Diederichs had direct access to Supreme War Lord
Kaiser Wilhelm II, they crossed swords repeatedly during the Kaiser's frequent vacillations.
Ultimately, however, Tirpitz triumphed, emaciated the naval staff, and forced Diederichs's
retirement in 1902, after having passed a new Naval Law. This law called for the construction of 38
dreadnought battleships, three battle cruisers, three heavy cruisers, and seven light cruisers by
1920. But, as Diederichs had argued, this never-completed program only incensed the British.
Moreover, the High Seas Fleet was incapable of preventing a devastating British blockade in 19141918 and wholly inadequate to confront the 21 Royal Navy dreadnoughts and three battle cruisers
in service by 1914.
Also of interest to American readers will be Diederichs's involvement in the Spanish- American
War. The presence of him and his squadron at Manila following Dewey's victory there aroused American suspicion of German
intentions in the Philippines. Diederichs, of course, had no instructions to seek German concessions in the archipelago. But Germany
was nonetheless on the march in Asia and the Pacific, already having occupied Marshall Islands, Samoa, and, most recently,
Tsingtao (remembered today mainly for its still-popular brand of beer). Germany was to gain by treaty with Madrid in 1899 the
Spanish Marianas, Caroline Islands, and Palau. Diederichs was heartily in favor of imperial expansion, but he foresaw disaster in
confronting the Royal Navy.
By Order of the Kaiser: Otto von Diederichs and the Rise of the Imperial German Navy, 1865-1902, Terrell D. Gottschall, U.S.
Naval Institute Press, 2003, ISBN: 978-1557503091.
Recently Received: Ira Jones, King of Airfighters (Mick Mannock), Frantz Immelmann, Casemate; Immelman: Eagle of
Lille, Casemate; Michael Mortlock, The Landings at Suvla Bay, 1915, MacFarland & Company; Martha Hanna, Your
Death Would Be Mine, Harvard Univ. Press; A.P. Herbert, The Secret Battle, Frontline Books; Jon Guttman, Pusher Aces
of World War I, Osprey; Karsten Piep, Embattled Home Fronts, Rodopi; Col. Terrence Finnegan, Shooting the Front
(Aerial Reconnaisance), NDIC Press; Stephen Skinner, The Stand (Frank Luke), Schiffer; Russell McGuirk, The Sanusi's
Little War, Arabian Publishing; James Cockfield, With Snow on Their Boots (Russian Expeditionary Force), St. Martin's;
Nelle Fairchild Hefty Rote, Nurse Helen Fairchild: WWI, 1917-1918, Create-a-Book.
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Orden Pour le Mérite
The Orden Pour le Mérite was Prussia's highest military honor during the First World War. Popularly referred to as
the "Blue Max" it was for officers only. Almost one-third were awarded to generals and admirals. Many of the
recipients, however, made notable and remarkable contributions to Germany's war effort. Some of them later played
major roles in World War II.
Some notable recipients are show above: (From the top left) Paul von Lettow Vorbeck was the highly successful
German guerilla commander in East Africa. Oswald Boelcke developed the basic rules of combat for fighter pilots
(Dicta Boelcke). Erich von Ludendorff was awarded the second Orden Pour le Mérite of the Great War for actions
during the siege of Liege. Herman Göring was decorated as a flying ace.
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Documentary History
A Typical Doughboy's
Paybook
Great War Society member Kenneth Rogers
provided his father's paybook for the war. It
has a wealth of the sort of information
genealogical researchers find invaluable. His
father, also named Kenneth, was a Private First
Class with Battery B of the 12 Field Artillery
[2nd Division, AEF]. He enlisted in the
Regular Army on May 26, 1917 in Troy, New
York, receiving serial number 128602. He
served overseas and returned to the U.S. on
June 8, 1919. He elected to pay $6.50 per
month for $10,000 War Risk Insurance. He
received a one-time clothing allowance of
$26.57. His monthly pay as a Private First
Class was $36.60. He sent a $15.00 per month
allotment home to his family. After deducting
his insurance payment and allotment, his net
monthly pay was $15.10. First Lieutenant
Roger Stockwell of the 12th Field Artillery
signed the record as did Rogers. Kenneth Jr.
has provided biographical information on his
father with entries from his war diary at the
Society's Website:
http://www.worldwar1.com/dbc/kr_bio.htm.
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