The Great War's 101 Defining Events: Numbers 71–80

71–80

(click on image to enlarge)

This series will run every Friday on Roads to the Great War through its completion.

Remembering a Veteran: Elsie Janis, Doughboy Entertainer

In our monthly newsletter the St. Mihiel Trip-Wire, we have been running a monthly contest asking readers to identify a World War I veteran.  This month's entry was Broadway performer Elsie Janis. She spent six months touring the Western Front after America entered the war entertaining the troops. 

In a typical show Elsie would perform her standards and then invite some of the Doughboys on stage with her for a duet. The shows concluded with a group sing-along. The boys loved it all. She became known as the "Sweetheart of the AEF." Her shows became the model for the USO shows of the Second World War.

Less known about Elsie is that after the war she maintained her commitment to the fighting men. Charles Dillingham agreed to produce "Elsie Janis and Her Gang", a revue she created for out-of-work veterans, some of whom she had entertained during the war. Even though most of America didn't want to hear about the war anymore, "Her Gang" was a big success. She wrote about her wartime experiences in The Big Show: My Six Months with the American Expeditionary Forces and recreated them in a 1926 Vitaphone musical short, "Behind the Lines". She recorded the song “It’s A Long, Long Way to Tipperary,” making it her signature piece and helping popularize the tune in America.

The Kingston Centenary Project–100 Years of Sopwith and Hawker Aviation

By Kimball Worcester

The talented team of Sir Tommy Sopwith, Fred Sigrist, and Harry Hawker contributed significant planes to the British effort in the Great War. Their superior designs and innovations contributed to aviation progress for decades afterwards, into the present day. The Sopwith factory at Kingston on Thames produced the stellar fighter airplanes we all know so well from the Great War: the Pup, the 1 1/2 Strutter, the Camel, the Snipe, the Dolphin, the Salamander, to name some of the most noteworthy. 

In celebration of the 1917–2017 centenary of this contribution to military aviation history, Kingston Aviation is presenting an exhibition on 9 and 10 September at the Great Richmond Road factory, Ham. For us Great War students they will be featuring the Snipe, Dolphin, and Salamander of the later war years. 

For more information see http://www.kingstonaviation.org

In addition ~ please look into the daily newsletter researched and written by David Hassard at the Kingston Aviation Heritage Project http://www.kingstonaviation.org/100-years-ago/1917.html.

The newsletter is an exceptional, thorough, and detailed source for scholars of the Sopwith wartime production. David has been a great help in my research, and I urge you to sign up for his fascinating newsletter on the Kingston site.

Wars Without End, Battles Without Winners Reviewed by David Beer

Wars Without End, Battles Without Winners: France to Petrograd March 1918-December 1920

by Michael Kihntopf

Outskirts Press, Inc., 2017

Not long ago I was leafing through a list of books and noticed that one title was followed by this subtitle: A Novel/History. It seems the author wanted to make sure prospective readers were in no doubt they would be reading historical fiction. No such specification is needed for Michael Kihntopf's latest novel. His book is unambiguous in its title and provides in considerable detail the ongoing politics and fighting in the Baltic states and Russia in the years preceding and immediately following the Armistice. If you're unsure, as I was, about these tragic years in Germany, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and Russia and in towns such as Bialystok, Liegnitz, Libau, Mitau, Riga, and Narva, you will certainly gain some insights as you read this book. You'll also appreciate why Winston Churchill, in his noted history The World Crisis, titled the volume on this theater of combat "The Unknown War."

Freikorps Unit Support by a Captured British Mark-Series Tank

Four main German characters tie the novel together. One is Max von Kemper, a lieutenant in the Kaiser's infantry who has already survived some three years of fighting on the Eastern and Western Fronts. Kemper is a penniless remnant of a once aristocratic Junker family from East Prussia. Two machine gunners, Michael Boehm and his chum Otto Faltz, are hard-bitten "front line hogs" who easily become soldiers of fortune in the evolving Baltic wars once the Great War ends. The fourth person is Teresa Strumpf, an orphan from Essen who was a waitress in a beer hall before taking to nursing the wounded as a Sister of Mercy. Her one hope is to find a slightly wounded but wealthy patient who will fall in love and marry her.

We meet these four early in the novel as they awake in quite different places. Kemper has found "There is no place that is more comfortable than the bed of a professional prostitute." The two pals Boehm and Faltz painfully regain consciousness after an uproariously drunken night, Boehm finding himself sprawled over a table and Faltz "in the middle of the billiard table curled into a fetal ball." Only Teresa Strumpf awakens to a flickering candle and the cold reality of war as she prepares to go on her shift at two in the morning. Surprisingly, she has become an efficient—if disappointed—Sister of Mercy. The story hinges on the chance ways the four come together during varied peregrinations and crises, and their encounters are surrounded by considerable description of the military movements, brutal weather and murderous nature of the civil wars in northern Europe from 1918 to 1920.

The author is well versed in the complicated political and military involvements of the Baltic lands during these years. It's hard to remember that many of the combatants were volunteers, fighting more for rewards than convictions. Military units were fairly arbitrary and often changing. The Freikorps were part of the Bischoff Iron Brigade and were aided by the Hanoverians in fighting the Red Army, among whom is "the dreaded Latvian Corps." The men fighting in these units and sub-units form a motley band, dressed in various garb from various armies and quite prepared to plunder and kill wounded enemies. The conditions they tolerate, especially subfreezing cold and absence of food and supplies, are awful. If they do get paid, it might be in any one of numerous questionable currencies that seem to be available.

We learn all this and much more from Michael Kihntopf's novel, which in some ways is a chronicle of "The Unknown War." Sometimes I felt history trumped fiction in the plot, but our characters stayed true. Faltz is killed, "dying an inch at a time from gangrene and cold," but Kemper and Boehm, like Strumpf, in the end decide to move on in their mercenary ways to Constantinople, where they hope to get jobs in the ongoing war between the Whites and the Reds. As the final words of the book state, "The wandering continues."

David Beer

Remembering the Founders of the Jewish Legion

Cap Badge of the Jewish Legion. Widely

displayed but not authorized for Royal

Fusiliers uniforms until 1919. The motto is

קדימה Kadima (forward).

By James Patton

Vladimir Ze-ev Jabotinsky
Royal Fusiliers Officer

The story of the Jewish Legion begins with two Russian-born Zionists, Vladimir Ze-ev Jabotinsky (1880-1940) and Josef Trumpledor (1880-1920).  Jabotinsky was one of the leading Zionists in Russia, a delegate to the World Zionist Congress, a lecturer, a journalist, and what we call today a community organizer. In December 1914 he went to Alexandria as a war correspondent for the Moscow liberal daily Russkiya Vedomosti. 

He found in Egypt thousands of foreign-born Jews deported from Palestine by the Ottoman government. In particular he met Josef Trumpeldor, a decorated (Cross of St. George) Russian veteran of the siege of Port Arthur where he lost an arm and was imprisoned by the Japanese.  In March 1915, a delegation led by these two was received by Gen. Sir John G. Maxwell, where they presented a plan to raise an infantry unit from these deportees to fight the Ottomans in Palestine and the Levant. 

This was a problematic request. British Army rules at the time prohibited service in the Army by persons  not Crown subjects, like Jabotinsky and Trumpeldor.  Moreover, even though there were some British Jews in the mix, the government opposed the use of Zionists in the campaign in Palestine because the liberation of Eretz Yisrael from Muslim rule was not a diplomatic goal. 

Josef Trumpeldor
(Zionist Mule Corps Kit)

The Gallipoli campaign provided a solution:  service against the Ottomans on a different battlefront. It was proposed to Jabotinsky and Trumpeldor that their men form into an irregular supply unit to serve with the Indian Army Mule Corps. Trumpeldor agreed to this, Jabotinsky did not. So the Zion Mule Corps was formed, commanded by Lt. Col. John H. Patterson, DSO, a Zionist sympathizer, old East Africa hand and Boer War veteran recalled to duty. Trumpeldor was the second in charge and called "Captain". As irregulars, the men were supplied and paid by the British and wore British kit but without insignia.

Landing on April 27th after only four weeks of training and travel, 562 men served with distinction on the Cape Helles front, mostly hauling water. A Distinguished Conduct Medal was awarded to Pvt. M. Groushkowsky, who under heavy bombardment near Krithia on May 5th kept his mules from stampeding and despite being wounded in both arms, delivered the load. On a different occasion Trumpeldor was shot through the shoulder but refused to leave the field. Lt. Col. Patterson later wrote: "Many of the Zionists whom I thought somewhat lacking in courage showed themselves fearless to a degree when under heavy fire, while Capt. Trumpeldor actually reveled in it, and the hotter it became the more he liked it ..."

The Zionist Mule Corps were at Gallipoli until the end, returning to Alexandria on 10 January 1916. The unit was officially disbanded on 26 May. 

Lt. Col. Patterson

Meanwhile, Jabotinsky had gone to the UK to lobby the Jewish community for help with raising his fighting unit. The rule against foreigners serving was relaxed in late 1916 so Jabotinsky and about 120 of his followers, some of whom were Zionist Mule Corps veterans, were enlisted into the 2/20th (County of London) Battalion (Blackheath & Woolwich), which was being reinforced prior to redeployment to the east. Again there were objections to Zionist soldiers and Jabotinsky’s contingent was held in Home Service when the 2/20th sailed. 

Although the World Zionist Congress had proclaimed neutrality in 1914 (Jews were serving in many armies), Jabotinsky eventually convinced the renowned chemist and British Zionist leader Dr. Chaim Weizmann of the value of his plan. Weizmann had the ear of top British leaders due to his important contributions to munitions production, and in August 1917 the 38th Battalion, Royal Fusiliers (City of London) was authorized (hereafter ‘38/RF’), which was popularly called "The Jewish Legion". Over a thousand volunteered, including Jabotinsky’s group plus many Russians living in the UK.  Lt. Col. Patterson was again appointed the CO and Jabotinsky was made a staff lieutenant.

Once the Zionist movement was behind the plan, it gained momentum quickly. Another unit was raised in Canada, and in January 1918 it was designated as 39/RF, with a deployed strength of 1,720 (more than twice the size of a serving battalion) and most were Americans. The CO was Maj. J.A. de Rothschild, DCM, from the banking family, a French-born naturalized Canadian. 

And it didn’t stop there. A third unit was created in Egypt for Zionist deportees plus non-Palestinian Ottoman Jewish POWs, and over 1,000 were recruited again. This was designated as 40/RF, and still forming in November 1918 were 41/RF and 42/RF. After the war, Jabotinsky wrote of the 5,000 or so men who served in 38/RF, 39/RF and 40/RF: 34 percent were from the U.S., 30 percent were from Palestine, 28 percent were from England, 6 percent were from Canada, 1 percent were Ottoman Jewish POWs, and 1  percent were from Argentina. 

London, 4 February 1918, 38/RF on Parade, Col. Patterson Mounted at Left

Public reaction in the UK to the formation of 38/RF was mixed. Prejudice reared its ugly head as newspapers referred to the unit as "the Royal Jewsiliers" or "The King’s Own Tailors". To counter this disparagement, 38/RF was granted the "freedom" to parade with fixed bayonets in the City of London on 4 February 1918. Led by the band of the Coldstream Guards, they marched over eight miles past tens of thousands of cheering onlookers, were saluted by the Lord Mayor, and ended in Stepney where numerous dignitaries received them.  

In June 1918, 38/RF arrived in Palestine with the 31st Brigade, 10th (Irish) Division. They were immediately deployed to the Jordan Valley north of Jerusalem to oppose Ottoman counter-attacks.

In July 38/RF and the newly-arrived 39/RF were attached to Chaytor’s Force, commanded by the New Zealander Maj. Gen. Sir E.W.C. Chaytor and consisting otherwise of the Anzac Mounted Division, the 20th Indian Infantry Brigade and two battalions of the British West Indies Regiment, in total 11,000 men.  Besides various skirmishes, the Force participated in the Battle of Megiddo in mid-September 1918, widely considered one of the decisive victories on the Ottoman front. The objective of 38/RF and 39/RF was to capture the Jisr ed Damieh bridge and fords in a pincer movement to sever the line of communication between the Ottoman forces on the west bank and the Fourth Army at Es Salt, so that the Force could capture Es Salt and Amman. 

David Ben-Gurion

For his actions at the bridgehead, Lt. Jabotinsky was Mentioned in Despatches (he also received an MBE in 1919), and Maj. Gen. Chaytor later told the Jewish troops, “By forcing the Jordan fords, you helped in no small measure to win the great victory gained at Damascus.” 

Among the members of the Jewish Legion who would later become prominent Israelis were David Ben-Gurion, Prime Minister (1948-54, 1955-63), Yitzhak Ben-Zvi, President (1952-63) and Levi Eshkol, Prime Minister (1963-69). 

On 4 December 2014 the cremains of Lt. Col. Patterson were re-buried at Avihayli in Israel. PM Netanyahu said of Patterson and the Jewish Legion: "the first Jewish fighting force in nearly two millennia. And as such, he can be called the godfather of the Israeli army." 

Sources include: The Jewish Virtual Library, http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/index.html, and The Jewish Magazine, http://www.jewishmag.com/148mag/jewish_legion/jewish_legion.htm 

WW I Art Exhibit at the Smithsonian’s Air & Space Museum

By Tom Boltz

Our Contributor, Tom Boltz, Admires  Work by AEF Artist Harvey Dunn

The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum and the National Museum of American History are jointly exhibiting a collection of WW I paintings and other artifacts at the Air and Space Museum on the Mall in Washington, DC. Anyone interested in WW I and traveling to Washington, DC, in the next year will find a visit to this exhibit a rewarding experience. After last being displayed in the 1920s, the vast majority of this art collection has not been seen by the public since then. The exhibit opened on 6 April 2017 and closes on 11 November 2018, which corresponds to the official period of the United States involvement in the Great War 100 years ago.

The paintings were made by eight professional illustrators commissioned as U.S. Army officers and allowed to roam the American Expeditionary Force (AEF) areas of operation. Their mission was to illustrate the various activities, including combat, of the AEF. The paintings were then to be used to help the people back home understand the war experiences of the American soldier.  

Other exhibits contain examples of the WW I U.S. Army
military equipment and weapons seen in the paintings.

Also included in the exhibit are photos of limestone carvings made by
American soldiers on the walls of limestone quarries where they were stationed.

The Smithsonian’s WW I art exhibit will remain on display until 11 November 2018.

Remembering a Veteran: Lt. Levi Lamb, 9th Inf., 2nd Div., AEF

Lt. Levi Lamb

Prior to the Great War,  Levi Lamb was a star heavyweight wrestler, football lineman, and  track letterman for the Penn State Nittany Lions. Athletically, he is today best remembered as a starting tackle on the undefeated 1912 football squad.  After a few years as a teacher and athletic coach, he volunteered for the Reserve Officers Training Corps at Fort Snelling, MN, and earned a commission as an infantry officer.

Assigned to the 9th Infantry Regiment of the 2nd Division, he fought at Château-Thierry in June and July 1918. He was killed  in action near Soissons  leading his men onward, 18 July 1918,  the opening day of the offensive stage of the Second Battle of the Marne.  In August 1921, at his family's request, Levi Lamb's remains were returned home from France and buried at the Buck Valley Methodist Church Cemetery  in Fulton County, PA.

After the war, Levi Lamb's commanding officer, Col. John Samuel, wrote of him: "The regiment lost a courageous and gallant officer beloved alike by his fellow officers and men. His conduct during the battle, as in former engagements with his regiment, has been of the highest order and an inspiration to all about him."

He has been honored since 1952 as the namesake of Levi Lamb Fund athletic scholarship endowment at his alma mater. 

The 1912 Undefeated Penn State Squad; Levi Lamb, 3rd from left, Middle Row   

Teammate James "Red" Bebout, 5th from Left, Was Also Killed in the War While Serving with the 4th Division in the Meuse-Argonne Offensive

The Great War's 101 Defining Events: Numbers 61–70

61–70

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This series will run every Friday on Roads to the Great War through its completion.

The Case for Attrition from Aeon

Wars Are Not Won by Military Genius or Decisive Battles

By Cathal J. Nolan

British Gas Casualties, April 1918  [Wikipedia]

War is the most complex, physically, and morally demanding enterprise we undertake. No great art or music, no cathedral or temple or mosque, no intercontinental transport net or particle collider or space programme, no research for a cure for a mass-killing disease receives a fraction of the resources and effort we devote to making war, or to recovery from war and preparations for future wars invested over years, even decades, of tentative peace. War is thus far more than a strung-together tale of key battles. Yet, traditional military history presented battles as fulcrum moments where empires rose or fell in a day, and most people still think that wars are won that way, in an hour or an afternoon of blood and bone, or perhaps two or three. We must understand the deeper game, not look only to the scoring. That is hard to do because battles are so seductive.

War evokes our fascination with spectacle, and there is no greater stage or more dramatic players than on a battlefield. We are drawn to battles by a lust of the eye, thrilled by a blast from a brass horn as Roman legionaries advance in glinting armor or when a king’s wave releases mounted knights in a heavy cavalry charge. Grand battles are open theater with a cast of many tens of thousands: samurai under signal kites, mahouts mounted on elephants, Zulu impi rushing over lush grass toward a redcoat firing line. Battles open with armies dressed in red, blue, or white, flags fluttering, fife and drums beating the advance; or with the billowing canvas of a line of fighting sail, white pufferies erupting in broadside volleys; or a wedge of tanks hard-charging over the Russian steppe. What comes next is harder to comprehend.

The idea of the "decisive battle" as the hinge of war, and wars as the gates of history, speaks to our naive desire to view modern war in heroic terms. Popular histories are written still in a drums-and-trumpets style, with vivid depictions of combat divorced from harder logistics, daily suffering, and a critical look at the societies and cultures that produced mass armies and sent them off to fight in faraway fields for causes about which the average soldier knew nothing.

Visual media especially play on what the public wants to see—raw courage and red days, the thrill of vicarious violence and spectacle. This is the world of war as callow entertainment, of Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds (2009) or Brad Pitt in Fury (2014). It’s not the world of real Nazis or real war.

Battles also entice generals and statesmen with the idea that a hard red day can be decisive, and allow us to avoid attrition, which we all despise as morally vulgar and without redemptive heroism. We fear to find only indecision and tragedy without uplift or morality in trench mud, or roll calls of dead accumulating over years of effort and endurance. Instead, we raise battles to summits of heroism and generals to levels of genius that history cannot support. Though some historians might try, celebrating even failed campaigns as glorious. Prussia is wrecked, yet Frederick is the greatest of Germans. France is beaten and an age is named for Louis XIV, another for Napoleon. Europe lies in ruin, but German generals displayed genius with Panzers.

Whether or not we agree that some wars were necessary and just, we should look straight at the grim reality that victory was most often achieved in the biggest and most important wars by attrition and mass slaughter—not by soldierly heroics or the genius of command. Winning at war is harder than that. Cannae, Tours, Leuthen, Austerlitz, Tannenberg, Kharkov—all recall sharp images in a word. Yet winning such lopsided battles did not ensure victory in war. Hannibal won at Cannae, Napoleon at Austerlitz, Hitler at Sedan and Kiev. All lost in the end, catastrophically.

There is heroism in battle but there are no geniuses in war. War is too complex for genius to control. To say otherwise is no more than armchair idolatry, divorced from real explanation of victory and defeat, both of which come from long-term preparation for war and waging war with deep national resources, bureaucracy, and endurance. Only then can courage and sound generalship meet with chance in battle and prevail, joining weight of materiel to strength of will to endure terrible losses yet win long wars. Claims to genius distance our understanding from war’s immense complexity and contingency, which are its greater truths.

Modern wars are won by grinding, not by genius. Strategic depth and resolve is always more important than any commander. We saw such depth and resilience in Tsarist Russia in 1812, in France and Britain in the First World War, in the Soviet Union and the United States during the Second World War, but not in Carthage or overstretched Nazi Germany or overreaching Imperial Japan. The ability to absorb initial defeats and fight on surpassed any decision made or battle fought by Hannibal or Scipio, Lee or Grant, Manstein or Montgomery. Yes, even Napoleon was elevated as the model of battle genius by Clausewitz and in military theory ever since, despite his losing by attrition in Spain, and in the calamity of the Grand Armée’s 1812 campaign in Russia. Waterloo was not the moment of his decisive defeat, which came a year earlier. It was his anticlimax.

Losers of most major wars in modern history lost because they overestimated operational dexterity and failed to overcome the enemy’s strategic depth and capacity for endurance. Winners absorbed defeat after defeat yet kept fighting, overcoming initial surprise, terrible setbacks and the dash and daring of command "genius." Celebration of genius generals encourages the delusion that modern wars will be short and won quickly, when they are most often long wars of attrition. Most people believe attrition is immoral. Yet it’s how most major wars are won, aggressors defeated, the world remade time and again. We might better accept attrition at the start, explain that to those we send to fight, and only choose to fight the wars worth that awful price. Instead, we grow restless with attrition and complain that it’s tragic and wasteful, even though it was how the Union Army defeated slavery in America, and Allied and Soviet armies defeated Nazism.

With humility and full moral awareness of its terrible costs, if we decide that a war is worth fighting, we should praise attrition more and battle less. There is as much room for courage and character in a war of attrition as in a battle. There was character aplenty and courage on all sides at Verdun and Iwo Jima, in the Hürtgen Forest, in Korea. Character counts in combat. Sacrifice by soldiers at Shiloh or the Marne or Kharkov or Juno Beach or the Ia Drang or Korengal Valley were not mean, small, or morally useless acts. Victory or defeat by attrition, by high explosive and machine gun over time, does not annihilate all moral and human meaning.

This article was originally published at Aeon and has been republished under Creative Commons.

The Ultimate Solution to Trench Warfare

One result of America's declaration of war in April 1917 was the unleashing of the nation's creativity, or Yankee Ingenuity if you will. Here is a proposal from Hugo Gernsbacher, a Luxembourgeois-American inventor, writer, and editor of the journal, Electrical Experimenter.

Click on Image to Enlarge 

The journalists who wrote the accompanying article were both awestruck:

"Extraordinary as this proposition of running ships over the land is the strength of a man's latent desire to kill man is over-stepping, even now, all bounds of the imagination;" and skeptical:

"At once, of course, several objections to Dr. Gernsback's [sic] plan present them selves. First, there is the tremendous weight of the battleship from 10.000 to 30,000 tons. It is difficult to conceive how any wheels could be constructed which would prevent this mighty mass from crushing down into the earth and becoming as immovable as a fort. 

"There is, second, the fact that a ship is built for stresses in the water, and not for the gravitational pull on land.

"And there is, third, the fact that the battleships are armored only down to a certain part of the hull, and that the unarmored part would be vulnerable as a land boat. These objections Doctor Oernsback answers in his article in the Electrical Experimenter, but whether convincingly or not the reader must decide."

Sources and Credits: Richmond Time-Dispatch, 17 June 1917; found at the Library of Congress by Donna G.

From Dugouts to the Trenches: Baseball During the Great War Reviewed by Peter L. Belmonte

From Dugouts to the Trenches: Baseball During the Great War

by Jim Leeke

University of Nebraska Press, 2017

Picture the current New York Yankees coming out in uniform onto the field prior to a game against, say, the Boston Red Sox. Instead of running sprints or stretching, the players line up and are put through a military drill by an Army sergeant, using bats instead of rifles. Although such a scenario seems ludicrous today, it is precisely what happened in the spring of 1917 on the eve of America's entry into the war. This is just one of the many interesting episodes revealed by Jim Leeke in his new book on the state of professional baseball during the war years,in From Dugouts to the Trenches, his third book on the topic. The story is told from the point of view of team owners, league executives, sportswriters, government officials, and, of course, players.

Boston Braves Catcher Hank Gowdy on the Dugout Steps
with Giants Manager John McGraw
Gowdy Was the First Active Major Leaguer to Enlist in WWI

Yankees' co-owner Capt. T. L. Huston dreamed up the baseball military preparedness drill idea. Not all major league teams went along with the idea, although many American League teams joined in the scheme. The season started soon after the US declared war; the country and professional baseball were plunged into war, prepared or not. Leeke covers the immediate concerns over the draft and how this would affect baseball. Team owners and league officials seemed divided over the prospects for the 1917 season, and Leeke outlines their concerns. In fact, much of the book is a recitation of baseball's woes during the war years. Leeke covers the various disagreements between and among owners, league officials, and government functionaries. Pleasant episodes, such as the military service of ballplayers and the various charitable wartime enterprises supported by organized baseball, are also recounted, giving a full picture of baseball "at war."

Of great interest is Leeke's coverage of the wartime minor leagues, of which there were five: Classes AA, A, B, C, and D. According to Leeke: "Minor league baseball was no enterprise for the fainthearted. In the best of times, the leagues were hardscrabble, chaotic, and a good way to lose your shirt—and perhaps your hat and overcoat in the bargain" (p. 21). One by one, the various teams and leagues folded throughout the year, hampered by poor attendance and a drain of serviceable talent.

Some professional ballplayers left their teams in order to obtain work at various shipyards, steel mills, and ordnance plants. Men working these jobs were, of course, exempt from the draft; as an added bonus, the places of employment began to field pretty decent baseball teams with the talent obtained from the professional players. Although this was strictly legal, it opened the players up to accusations of "slackerism."

Leeke also covers the men who were drafted or joined the colors voluntarily. Many of them, as would be expected, played for Army or Navy service teams. Indeed, one Navy team, the Wild Waves, played "a class of baseball that the weakened Major Leagues were hard-pressed to match" (p. 122). Many men served in combat, while others served stateside or in support units.

The big blow to baseball in May 1918 was Provost Marshal General Enoch Crowder's edict that men must be engaged in some "useful" occupation or else face the draft, regardless of their draft number or exemption classification. This was dubbed the "work or fight" edict, and it was aimed at men who worked as poolroom or sales clerks, attendants, footmen, fortune tellers, elevator operators, and the like. Organized baseball waited to see whether the declaration applied to professional ballplayers. The final decision, promulgated by Secretary of War Newton Baker in July 1918, put ballplayers in the work or fight category. Leeke recounts the story of the resultant truncated and confused 1918 baseball season. A shortened season and rushed World Series were only some of the results of the turmoil.

In briefly summing up the military careers of some of the ballplayers, Leeke reminds us that they, too, were subject to the life-changing hardships of the service. Some men, such as Christy Mathewson and Grover Cleveland Alexander, never regained their prewar skills. Indeed, Mathewson's life was probably shortened by the rigors he experienced; he was accidentally gassed in a drill and died in 1925.

Baseball During the Influenza Pandemic of 1918

Leeke, a former journalist and baseball writer, has peppered the text liberally with quotations from contemporary newspapers. These effectively add to the narrative and reflect the flavor of the times. Thirty-two black-and-white photographs of the men in the narrative enhance the text, and the endnotes and bibliography are extensive and helpful.

From Dugouts to the Trenches is a wonderful complement to Leeke's previous two books on baseball and World War I. It will be a fine addition to the library of baseball enthusiasts and students of the American experience in the Great War.

Peter L. Belmonte

Don't Blame Me, I Didn't Kill You

An Italian Alpino finds himself surrounded by Austrian corpses. He notices one of of them, apparently a physician, who nevertheless joined in the recent attack, is staring at him.

It wasn’t me who killed you—and you were a doctor, so why did you go and take part in that nocturnal attack? You had a loving fiancée who wrote you letters, perhaps untruthful, but so comforting, and you kept them in your wallet. Rech took the wallet from you on the night they killed you. We’ve also seen her picture (a pretty girl—and someone made indecent comments) and photos of your castle and all the cherished possessions you had there. We piled everything in a little heap and sat around, ensconced in our bunker with a bottle of wine as reward for our toils and happy to have beaten off the attack. It wasn’t long ago that you died. You are already nothing, nothing more than a grey lump crumpled against the cliff, destined to stink.

Captain Paolo Monelli, Alpino


Quoted in:
The Beauty and The Sorrow: An Intimate History of the First World War
By Peter Englund

The Best World War I TV Dramatization — Ever!

First Shown on the BBC in 1974

By Diane Rooney

This absorbing 13-episode series captures the broad sweep of changes in three empires, Russian, Austro-Hungarian, and German, from the Revolution of 1848 to the abdication of Kaiser Wilhelm in November 1918. Its dramatic effectiveness, though, lies not in large scale battlefield scenes but in its character development, revealed in the dialogue, actions, and habits of the many principals. The decline and fall of these empires is revealed in nuanced detail, as viewers experience the increasing remoteness and disconnection of rulers from their people and their total inability to see, let alone embrace, change. They fossilize before our very eyes.

Episodes 10 to 13 deal specifically with World War I, each from a different perspective. "Indian Summer of An Emperor" (10) focuses on Franz Joseph, his relationship with Franz Ferdinand, and the assassinations in Sarajevo. "Tell the King the Sky Is Falling" (11) covers mobilization and the outbreak of war, with an emphasis on Russia. "The Secret War"(12) dramatizes Lenin's life in Switzerland and the machinations involved in bringing him back to Russia via private train through Germany. The last episode, "End Game" (13), looks at Germany in the last months of the war, up to Kaiser Wilhelm's abdication and arrival in Holland.

Although the series is nearly 40 years old it has held up extremely well because of the wonderful script, emphasis on character development and interaction, and amazing performances. My five favorites among the huge cast are Barry Foster as Kaiser Wilhelm, Curt Jurgens as Bismarck, Gemma Jones as Princess Vicky, Charles Kay as Tsar Nicholas, and Patrick Stewart as Lenin.

100 Years Ago: The Kerensky Offensive Is Launched

Kerensky Visiting the Troops Before the Offensive

The Kerensky Offensive, after Alexander Fyodorovich Kerensky, the Provisional Government's minister of war at the time, was the last Russian First World War offensive. It is, however, also called the Second Brusilov Offensive in some sources, after Russia's principal field commander, Alexei Brusilov. This operation was aimed not only at holding the Central Powers on the Eastern Front in coordination with the Allied forces in the west, but also at raising the morale of the Russian Army and the people's faith in the [new] government.

Some Details

Where:
Galicia, Central Europe, either side of Dniester River

When:
1 July 1917—3 August 1917

Forces:
Russian: VII, VIII, and XI Armies
AH/German:
German Army South,
Austro-Hungarian III and VII Armies

Commanders:
Russian: Aleksei Brusilov
German: Max Hoffmann and Felix Graf von Bothmer

Casualties:
Russian: Unknown
AH/German: 60,000

Notable for:
— First major Russian attack after the Tsar Nicholas II's abdication
— Defeat began the disintegration of Russian Army
— Triggered series of events culminating in the October Revolution

Despite its initial success, the desperate offensive ended as a catastrophe. Not only did it fail to achieve any of its goals, it also gave an unrecoverable blow to the Russian military and further undermined the Provisional Government's prestige, widening the gap between the ruling elite and general public. The event contributed to subsequent domestic unrest that eventually led to the seizure of power by the Bolsheviks.

Dead Russian on the Wire After the Initial Assault

The failure of the July 1917 offensive was a particular disappointment for U.S. President Woodrow Wilson. He had embraced the Provisional Government. Possibly this was naive on his part, but he had steered America into the war only after Tsar Nicholas II abdicated and, then, found himself aligned with whatever emerged—which turned out to be the Provisional Government. The roots of Wilson's predicament went back to events of five years earlier. In the 1912 presidential campaign Socialist Eugene Debs, Bull Moose candidate Theodore Roosevelt, and Democrat Woodrow Wilson, all espousing some form of progressive reform, garnered 75 percent of the vote. Wilson's formula of Progressivism that set him apart from his competitors had a strong dose of "bringing democracy to the world" ("making the world safe for democracy" in the 1917 formulation), rejecting monarchy and dictatorship in all forms, implying a particular abhorrence of tsarist autocracy. It must have been utterly unthinkable for Woodrow Wilson to join an alliance that included the most prominent anti-progressive on the planet. The Tsar's abdication and the emergence of Russia's Provisional Government solved his dilemma. He could now help win the war in the name of democracy and earn a place at a new-world-shaping peace conference, all without rubbing elbows with an autocrat.

Sadly, the Provisional Government, embraced by Woodrow Wilson, and especially its leading figure, Alexander Kerensky, quickly proved inadequate to the moment. The Kerenesky Offensive would clarify this. Within a year, Wilson would be ordering American troops to Archangel, Murmansk, and Siberia, presumably to help make the world safe for democracy.

The Great War's 101 Defining Events: Numbers 51–60

51–60

(click on image to enlarge)

This series will run every Friday on Roads to the Great War through its completion.

Key Locations at Belleau Wood

This month marks the 99th anniversary of the U.S. Marine assault on Belleau Wood, so I thought I could share a few things that will help you understand what the media has to say about it. These comments and the graphic I've constructed below are based my own observations and questions and observations I've had from tour members on over a dozen visits to Belleau Wood.

1.  It is bigger than most people expect; the map below covers over a square mile.  You can't see it all from one position.

2.  The attack direction (red arrows) is not north to south, but from the southwest to northeast. This is because the Marines were attacking the side of a salient created by the recent German push to Château-Thierry and the Marne river, which are southeast of Belleau Wood.

3. The American Cemetery is not shown on the graphic. It is just to the right of  of the last letter of the "Hunting Lodge" caption, but the wood is on a plateau and there is an abrupt drop-off down to the cemetery.

4.  The bottom illustration, C, by noted French artist George Scott, accurately depicts the wood at the end of the fighting. Following the battle of Belleau Wood, Scott traveled to the battlefield and interviewed Marine veterans of the struggle

Belgium's Clandestine Press in the Great War

German Occupying Troops on Parade in Antwerp

When the Germans invaded Belgium in 1914, very few Belgian newspapers succeeded in bringing their printing presses to a place of safety. Most journalists chose not to submit to censorship and stopped their activities. Nevertheless, the press, i.e. the censored press, remained the principal information and communication channel in the occupied country. However, other sources of information soon became available for the public.

The Belgian population found it difficult to bear the isolation from the world imposed by the occupier and remained hungry for information on the evolution of the conflict. The censored press, and the many rumors that circulated, could not meet this need. Thus, the rare Allied newspapers smuggled into the occupied territory sold at high prices. 

The first clandestine papers or “prohibited” papers that appeared in 1914 largely constituted a solution to this problem. In many cases they reproduced the articles of the allied press. La Soupe, which appeared in Brussels for the first time in September 1914 was probably the most conspicuous and prolific manifestation of this type of clandestine paper. Only a year later, it had succeeded in publishing more than 500 copies, mostly reproducing political declarations. The Revue hebdomadaire de la Presse française (or Revue de la Presse from 1917 onward) was another, more elaborate example.  Founded in Leuven in February 1915, it offered its readers in three or four issues per month a selection of articles from the major titles of the French press, sometimes supplemented with articles by its own journalists.

Satire of  German Governor von Bissing

In the first months of 1915, a second wave of clandestine papers arrived. No longer content to serve as an echo of the international press, they wanted to be the voice of the occupied country. La Libre Belgique was without doubt the most famous and probably the most representative newspapers of this second category. Its goal was to express and orient the state of mind of the occupied people by counterbalancing the demoralization of the population caused by the censored press. In spite of several waves of arrests, the catholic Brussels paper succeeded in publishing 171 issues between February 1915 and November 1918, of which certain had a circulation of more than 20,000 copies distributed in nearly all of Belgium. 

The success of La Libre Belgique was, however, exceptional. Most of the 77 known clandestine papers that appeared during the Great War were published for only a short period and with a limited circulation. Titles such as L’Âme belge, La Revue de la Presse, De Vrije Stem, or De Vlaamsche Leeuw did succeed in circulating during most of the occupation period, even if their numbers were not as high throughout the country as the ones of La Libre Belgique. The development of the clandestine press occurred mainly during the first part of the occupation. The repression, the material difficulties, and the fatigue of the war contributed to the decline of the phenomenon from 1916 onward.

De Vrije Stem Issue on Food Shortages

The struggle against the pro-German press took a peculiar turn in the north of the country where the Flemish movement founded several clandestine papers. Droogstoppel and De Vrije Stem, De Vlaamsche Wachter, and also De Vlaamsche Leeuw aimed at constituting a counterbalance against the activist censored press, which they considered an insult to the Flemish case

.

The Dutch-language clandestine papers were less numerous then their French-language counterparts: 14 Dutch-language titles and two bilingual, against 51 French-language titles. The statute making French Belgium's official language goes some way in explaining this, but the geography of the occupation probably also played a role. The occupation regime was particularly draconian along their lines of communication back to Germany and this encompassed more territory in the Flemish part of the country than in the francophone part. In fact, the majority of the clandestine papers appeared in the territory of the Generalgouvernement Belgien, in particular in Brussels and in a lesser degree in Antwerp. 

By Emmanuel Debruyne at Belgian War Press

Ray Rimell's Zeppelin Series Reviewed by Terrence Finnegan

Zeppelins at War! 1914–1915 

Albatros Productions, Ltd., 2014 

The Last Flight of the L31   

Albatros Productions, Ltd., 2016 

The Last Flight of the L32 

Albatros Productions, Ltd., 2016 

Purchase Here

Ray Rimell and Albatros Productions have packaged traditional history with a series of publications on zeppelins. His extensive research over the years has given impetus to capturing history through an extensive array of outstanding art work, detailed graphics, and original photographs. Zeppelins at War! 1914–1915, published in 2014, is a handy guide to the first zeppelins in combat. Rimell applies the research of his seven books to telling insightful stories of aircrew, missions, and new applications to aviation technology with torpedo glider-airborne guided missile test beds. The book is designed to acquaint a novice of aviation in the Great War to take interest and remain an advocate. 

Rimell and Albatros use modern graphics combined with ample research to give the reader comprehensive access to the history of the airship and assorted operational insight. A case in point is the story of zeppelin ZV (LZ20). One of two airships employed by the 8th Armee to provide aerial reconnaissance and aerial bombardment of Russian forces in the opening days of the war, ZV was shot down on 25 August during a daytime sortie. Rimell’s research on the captured aircrew reveals only one was able to make it back to Germany. The rest died in Siberia.  

Purchase Here

Airship employment on the Western Front also met with challenges from artillery fire. Zeppelins ZVII (LZ22) and ZVIII (LZ23) were both shot down during daylight missions on 23 August 1914.The three zeppelin losses prompted the German Armee Airship Division to reconsider zeppelin roles for daylight aerial reconnaissance. Rimell assesses zeppelin missions which now covered aerial bombardment functions in support of strategic objectives.  

The subsequent Windsock Datafile Specials The Last Flight of the L31 and The Last Flight of the L32 were published in 2016 to appeal to interest from the centenarian commemorations. The Last Flight of the L31 covers Kapitänleutnant Heinrich Mathy’s last sortie over England. An extensive biography of the German aviator is provided, giving the reader a very comprehensive understanding of the lesser known German Naval Airship Division and aviators. To make the monograph even more appealing, the other side of the story is given detailing the life of the Royal Flying Corp aviator, 2/Lt. Wulstan Joseph Tempest, flying a BE2c (4556) and shooting the airship down with incendiary bullets “pumping lead into her for all I was worth.” Likewise, The Last Flight of the L32, follows the same format as L31 with Oberleutnant zur See Werner Peterson and aircrew being shot down by 2/Lt. Frederick Sowrey, a member of the legendary Sowrey family flying for the Royal Air Force in the 20th century.

Purchase Here

Despite Rimell accessing an extensive body of work on zeppelins for his work, a major oversight has been in not reviewing probably the most definitive work, Heinz Urban’s Zeppeline der kaiserlichen Marine, 1914–1918. This rarely seen book published by the Zeppelinmuseum Meersburg in 2008, has a bounty of photographs covering all aspects of the airship and operations. Urban’s book has never been translated into English, which accounts for limited public awareness.  Access to a library copy is sadly limited in the United States via WorldCat. Present listings on the web show a purchase price of hundreds of euros.  

Ray Rimell’s and Albatros Production’s work is a credit to reliving military history through innovative applications of graphics and art design. It is a nice complement to the body of work telling the important story of the zeppelin’s contribution to aviation

Terrence Finnegan

The Centennial at the Grass Roots: Restoring Los Angeles's Victory Memorial Grove, Part II—Restoration and Re-dedication

[Part  I of this article was presented on 1 June   2017 on Roads to the Great War. LINK]

The Author with Friend Melissa Angert at the Re-dedication Ceremony

By Courtland Jindra

So with my last post I left off right before the cleaning and planting day at Victory Memorial Grove. I'll backtrack just a bit first. Our main team of Lester Probst of the Hollywood Post 43 of the American Legion, and Jan Gordon and Kimberly Ables Jindra of Los Angeles—Eschscholtzia Chapter of DAR (LAE-DAR), had to meet several times with the City of Los Angeles Recreation and Parks Department to obtain the necessary rights of entry permits in order to do work in the park. However, once we bent their ear—the department was extraordinarily helpful!

The Author, Kimberly Jindra (Author's Mom), and Lester Probst Brief the Volunteers

Probst coordinated the participation of Disney Salute, the veterans group within Walt Disney Studios. They brought in The Mission Continues, a veterans organization that does community projects such as park cleanups. The city council district office also offered to pitch in, but by that time the most the most urgent need for the project was the availability of a port-a-potty on site for the cleanup day.  The councilman's staff quickly obliged, free of charge.  

Volunteers Planting a Garden Around the Monument

On Saturday 3 June 2017, the various obstacles were brushed aside as volunteers from the aforementioned organizations came together and spent several warm, sunny hours participating in a community-based clean-up day. The Mission Continues and Disney Salute provided donations of supplies, trash bags, topsoil, plants, dedicated, hardworking military veteran volunteers and their families, plus water and pizza to hydrate and feed everyone. Oh, let's not forget the Saturday assistance of Recs and Park. Three crew members worked right along with us, providing tools and trash disposal!

Employees from Rosa Lowinger and Associates in the 
Midst of the Restoration

This did wonders for the park’s general state. Volunteers picked up dozens of bags of unsightly trash and organic litter. They swept walkways and pathways clear of debris, loose soil, and rocks. They fought soil erosion with plantings and rock stabilization. They applied fresh soil and mulch and planted hundreds of native and/or regionally compatible, drought-resistant flowering plants to attract butterflies and other pollinating insects to the grove and beautify the appearance of this honored place.

Close-up of the Restored Plaque

Then, from Tuesday 6  June 2017 through Friday 9 June 2017, professional conservationists from Rosa Lowinger & Associates completed the painstaking monument restoration plan. They removed over 40 layers of paint and graffiti from the monument, treated the bronze, and successfully restored it to its original, beautiful appearance.

Los Angeles Police Department Honor Guard at the Start of the Ceremony

On Flag Day, Wednesday 14 June 2017, exactly 96 years to the day from the original setting of the monument by the Southern California Daughters of the American Revolution and with the monument hidden under a handmade replica of the same service flag that concealed it before, we were FINALLY ready.

Kimberly and Courtland Jindra Welcome the Crowd

A heartfelt re-dedication ceremony was presented by the Los Angeles Eschscholtzia Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution. The event brought together the Los Angeles Police Department Honor Guard, music sung by the Santa Monica barbershop chorus group, The Oceanaires, period poetry, a Doughboy re-enactor from the Great War Historical Society, a bugler, and a wreath laying.

Philip Dye–Member of the Great War Historical Society

We had a nice crowd including neighborhood folks, community groups, Legionnaires, DAR, members including CA State Regent Beverly Moncrieff, R&P employees, and even the Honorable Henri Vantieghem, Consul General of Belgium. Segments from the original 1921 and dedication ceremony, as well as a “roll call” of historical biographies of each of the individuals commemorated on the plaque, were presented by various veterans group members and friends. DAR members laid carnations atop the monument at the reading of each biography. 

The Author and the Man Who Made the Restoration Happen
[Congratulations, Courtland—Well Done]

It seems as if I have been working on this project forever, but I know by looking at other memorial projects around the country that this one actually moved fairly quickly. However, in a way this has just started. The monument may be restored, but the project will continue with more plantings and care taking. The conservation of the monument and beautification of the immediate area has already inspired the neighbors in the vicinity to commit themselves and their children to taking better care of this space. The restoration of the historic flag pole is a goal that the Daughters of the American Revolution and the American Legion are willing to take on next. We also hope to try and replant some trees to replace those that have died through the years. This park will hopefully continue to be a site of reverence and remembrance as well as leisure for years to come.