Remembering the Tommies

The 1914 Original BEF Shortly After Arriving

Unlike France, Russia, Germany, and Austria-Hungary, Great Britain entered the First World War with a small, volunteer force. It believed it could rely on the Royal Navy for most of its contribution should general war come. But the war that came in 1914 seemed to be a land war on the European continent. War Minister Gen. Horatio Kitchener quickly apprehended that major increases in the British Army were needed. A mass volunteer army was recruited at his recommendation. They became known as "Kitchener's New Armies."

As the professional British Army was devoured in the futile 1914 and 1915 campaigns, the new units trained, fated to have their main entrance onto the stage of war on 1 July 1916 at the Somme. Alas, even the mighty recruiting effort of Kitchener proved insufficient to the demands of total war. Eventually, the nation turned to conscription to bring the war to its conclusion.

Recruiting Poster from Mid-War Period

● "Tommy" as a name for British soldiers came from the name in the sample paybook given to new recruits in Wellington's time: Thomas Atkins.

● The original 1914 British Expeditionary Force was composed of six infantry and one cavalry division. totaling 150,000 men.

● 5,704,416 Tommies from the United Kingdom (Great Britain & Ireland) eventually served in the war.

● About 2,670,000 volunteered, of which 1,186,000 had enlisted by 31 December 1914.

● About 2,770,000 were conscripted.

● 724,000 Tommies were killed; 2,000,000 were wounded; and 270,000 were POWs.

● Besides the regulars, the British Army overseas was supplemented by "Territorials," volunteer reserves, originally  intended for home defense, but who could opt for "Imperial Service" overseas.

● "Pals" battalions were special units of the British Army composed of men who enlisted together in local recruiting drives, with the promise that they would be able to serve alongside their friends, neighbors, and work colleagues ("pals"). By one count, there were 643 Pals battalions. 

A 1917 Illustration from The Sphere Depicts WWI's Tommy
As He Is Remembered Today

Canada's Golgotha

"Canada's Golgotha" is a 32-inch-high  bronze sculpture by the British sculptor Francis Derwent Wood, produced in 1918.  During the Second Battle of Ypres, rumors circulated that a Canadian soldier had been crucified on a Belgian barn door, a story the Germans denounced as propaganda. Whether truth or fiction, "Canada's Golgotha" illustrates the intensity of wartime myths and imagery.  Its first display in 1919 provoked an angry diplomatic exchange with Germany, which demanded details to back up the story. The crucifixion remains unproven. Today the statue is in the collection of the Canadian War Museum.

Remembering a Veteran, Capt. T.C. Montgomery, AEF, District of Paris

Captain Thomas Carlisle Montgomery, AEF, had a most interesting war. A lawyer in civilian life, he was commissioned as an infantry officer, but was reassigned to the the Headquarters of the Lines of Communication for Pershing's forces.  This led to his spending most of his WWI years in Paris.  Monty as he was known (but apparently as Carl for his mother)  wrote over 100 letters, typically weekly, typically Sundays, that chronicle detailed observations and constitute a diary in their entirety. The letters give a unique rear-echelon view of the wartime experience. They have been collected by Monty's nephew Merrill Boyce at the blog:  https://montyatwar.com/

In this early section from the series, we find Lt. Montgomery on his was to France.

On board S.S. Carpathia – at sea 
Sept. 30, 1917 

RMS Carpathia

Dear Mother —

This is our tenth day at sea and we are supposed to dock tomorrow or the next day so this might be on its way back to you soon.

Our destroyer escort met us yesterday afternoon and I think everybody felt better to see them coming over the horizon and very quickly thereafter get up to and take a position around us. Our ship is one of a bunch of fourteen coming over together all of which mount from 1 to 5 guns and we’ve also had a cruiser escort but, now that we are in the real submarine zone, all protection is welcome and the destroyers very comforting. 

Monty in Paris

I left Port—New York—the day I expected—Sept.10th—but also, as I thought, didn't come directly over. We went to another port where we waited on board ship for over a week for the convoy to assemble. There we officers were allowed to go ashore two days after first giving our word of honor not to attempt to communicate with friends or relatives. There are a bunch of troops aboard besides some 75 of us unassigned officers and the enlisted men certainly looked envious when we went to shore and they couldn't go. Felt sorry for them but they couldn't all be trusted not to give information which might have endangered all of us.

This ship is, as you may know, English—a Cunard liner, being the one which picked up the Titanic survivors several years ago. The officers and crew are typically English and have been an interesting type to me.

There are four of us to a stateroom and I consider myself lucky in my roommates. The senior is a prominent Boston lawyer of 43—Stackpole—and a Harvard law man. One of the others is also a Bostonian and a Harvard man of about my age while the third is a Yale man from New Haven of about the same age. 

Luckily we were quite congenial and also all fond of bridge so I have killed a lot of time very pleasantly at bridge. We have an hour conference on some military subject every morning, an hour of French and half an hour of physical exercise in the afternoon. The rest of the day is at our disposal and there's nothing much to do but read and play bridge. We also have a boat drill about once a day at the sound of the steamer’s whistle all running to our stations with life belts. It has become so much a matter of habit now that I believe if we were torpedoed we’d all go to our stations with very little excitement. 

The weather got rough the second day out and lots of the fellows were seasick but luckily I escaped. Didn't feel any too easy the first day of rough weather but after getting by that day, was all right. It calmed down a couple of days ago and is very smooth today.

Tell Kate I’ve lived in the sweater she gave me almost ever since coming aboard—it has been most useful. It will be hard to go back to a stiff collar and blouse when we land.

Two Columbians [i.e. Columbia University graduates] are on board who know Kate and Frank—Dr. La Bruce Ward and Captain Chisholm of the Engineers.

Three days later—as I write we are drawing up to the dock at Glasgow. Have been on deck since breakfast watching the hills of Bonnie Scotland. 

The next day—Didn't write any further yesterday as scenery was too interesting and I stayed on deck until we docked. Am now in Glasgow getting up town from the ship last night, and we go on to London tonight. Am very glad we got this opportunity to see Scotland for it has been most interesting. We are the first American troops to be in Glasgow and are a sight for the natives. They welcomed us with open arms and you hear expressions of good will from all sides. Haven't done any sightseeing yet but expect to go out on a tour this afternoon. Will write you again in a day or two when I find out where I’m to be.

Love to all, 

Carl

From:  Lieut. Thomas C, Montgomery,
Inf. - U.S.R. - American Expeditionary Force.

The AEF Keeps Fighting After the Armistice—in Northern Russia

An Eyewitness Account of the Battle of Toulgas

From: The History of the American Expedition Fighting the Bolsheviki Campaigning in North Russia 1918–1919

The Bolshevik whose frantic rearguard actions during the fall campaign had often been given up, even when he was really having the best of it, merely because he always interpreted the persistence of American attack or stubbornness of defense to mean superior force. He had learned that the North Russian Expeditionary Force was really a pitifully small force, and that there was so much fussing at home in England and France and America about the justice and the methods of the expedition, that no large reinforcements need be expected. So the Bolsheviks on Armistice Day, 11 November, began their counter-offensive movement, which was to merge with their heavy winter campaign. So the battle of 11 November is included in the narrative of the winter defense of Toulgas.

Toulgas was the duplicate of thousands of similar villages throughout this province. It consisted of a group of low, dirty log houses huddled together on a hill, sloping down to a broad plain, where was located another group of houses, known as Upper Toulgas. A small stream flowed between the two villages and nearly a mile to the rear was another group of buildings which was used for a hospital and where first aid was given to the wounded before evacuating them to Bereznik, 40 or 50 miles down the river.

The forces engaged in the defense of this position consisted of several batteries of Canadian artillery, posted midway between the hospital and the main village. In addition to this "B" Company, American troops, and another company of Royal Scots were scattered in and about these positions. From the upper village back to the hospital stretched a good three miles, which of course meant that the troops in this position, numbering not more than five hundred were considerably scattered and separated. This detailed description of our position here is set forth so specifically in order that the reader may appreciate the attack which occurred during the early part of November.

On the morning of 16 November, while some of the men were still engaged in eating their breakfasts and while the positions were only about half manned, suddenly from the forests surrounding the upper village, the enemy emerged in attack formation. Lt. Dennis engaged them for a short time and withdrew to our main line of defense. All hands were immediately mustered into position to repel this advancing wave of infantry. In the meantime, the Bolo [sic] attacked with about 500 men from our rear, having made a three day march through what had been reported as impassable swamp. He occupied our rearmost village, which was undefended, and attacked our hospital. This forward attack was merely a ruse to divert the attention of our troops in that direction, while the enemy directed his main assault at our rear and undefended positions for the purpose of gaining our artillery. Hundreds of the enemy appeared as if by magic from the forests, swarmed in upon the hospital village and immediately took possession. Immediately the hospital village was in their hands, the Bolo then commenced a desperate advance upon our guns.

At the moment that this advance began, there were some 60 Canadian artillery men and one Company "B" sergeant with seven men and a Lewis gun. Due to the heroism and coolness of this handful of men, who at once opened fire with their Lewis guns,  the advancing infantry was forced to pause momentarily. This brief halt gave the Canadians a chance to reverse their gun positions, swing them around, and open up with muzzle bursts upon the first wave of the assault, scarcely 50 yards away. It was but a moment until the hurricane of shrapnel was bursting among solid masses of advancing infantry, and under such murderous fire, the best disciplined troops and the most foolhardy could not long withstand. Certain it was that the advancing Bolo could not continue his advance. The Bolos were on our front, our right flank and our rear, we were entirely cut off from communication, and there were no reinforcements available. About 4:00 p. m. we launched a small counterattack under Lt. Dennis, which rolled up a line of snipers which had given us considerable annoyance. We then shelled the rear villages occupied by the Bolos, and they decamped. Meanwhile the Royal Scots, who had been formed for the counterattack, went forward also under the cover of the artillery, and the Bolo, or at least those few remaining, were driven back into the forests.

The enemy losses during this attack were enormous. His estimated dead and wounded were approximately 400, but it will never be known as to how many of them later died in the surrounding forests from wounds and exposure. This engagement was not [only] disastrous from the loss ofmen but was even more disastrous from the fact that some of the leading Bolshevik leaders on this front were killed during this engagement. One of the leading commanders was an extremely powerful giant of a man, named Melochofski, who first led his troops into the village hospital in the rear of the gun positions. He strode into the hospital, wearing a huge black fur hat, which accentuated his extraordinary height, and singled out all the wounded American and English troops for immediate execution, and this would undoubtedly have been their fate, had it not

been for the interference of a most remarkable woman, who was christened by the soldiers "Lady Olga."

This woman, a striking and intelligent-appearing person, had formerly been a member of the famous Battalion of Death, and afterwards informed one of our interpreters that she had joined the Soviets out of pure love of adventure, wholly indifferent to the cause for which she exposed her life. She had fallen in love with Melochofski and had accompanied him with his troops through the trackless woods, sharing the lot of the common soldiers and enduring hardships that would have shaken the most vigorous man. With all her hardihood, however, there was still a touch of the eternal feminine, and when Melochofski issued orders for the slaughter of the invalided soldiers, she rushed forward and in no uncertain tones demanded that the order be countermanded and threatened to shoot the first Bolo who entered the hospital. She herself remained in the hospital while Melochofski with the balance of his troops went forward with the attack and where he himself was so mortally wounded that he lived only a few minutes after reaching her side. She eventually was sent to the hospital at the base and nursed there. Capt. Boyd states that he saw a letter which she wrote, unsolicited, to her former comrades, telling them that they should not believe the lies which their commissars told them, and that the Allies were fighting for the good of Russia.

At daybreak the following day, five gun boats appeared around the bend of the river, just out of range of our three-inch artillery, and all day long their ten long-ranged guns pounded away at our positions, crashing great explosives upon our blockhouse, which guarded the bridge connecting the upper and middle village, while in the forests surrounding this position the Bolo infantry were lying in wait awaiting for a direct hit upon this strong point in order that they could rush the bridge and overwhelm us. Time after time exploding shells threw huge mounds of earth and debris into the loopholes of this blockhouse and all but demolished it.

Here Sergeant Wallace performed a particularly brave act. The blockhouse of which he was in command was near a large straw pile. A shell hit near the straw and threw it in front of the loopholes. Wallace went out under machine-gun fire from close range, about 75 yards, and under heavy shelling, and removed the straw. The same thing happened a little later, and this time he was severely wounded. He was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal by the British. Private Bell was in this blockhouse when it was hit and all the occupants killed or badly wounded. Bell was badly gashed in the face but stuck with his Lewis gun until dark when he could be relieved, being the only one in the shattered blockhouse which held the bridge across the small stream separating us from the Bolos.

For three days the gun boats pounded away and all night long there was the rattle and crack of the machine guns. No one slept. The little garrison was fast becoming exhausted. Men were hollow-eyed from weariness and so utterly tired that they were indifferent to the shrieking shells and all else. At this point of the siege, it was decided that our only salvation was a counterattack. In the forests near the upper village were a number of log huts, which the natives had used for charcoal kilns, but which had been converted by the enemy into observation posts and storehouses for machine guns and ammunition. His troops were lying in and about the woods surrounding these buildings. We decided to surprise this detachment in the woods, capture it if possible and make a great demonstration of an attack so as to give the enemy in the upper village the impression that we were receiving reinforcements and still fresh and ready for fighting. This maneuver succeeded far beyond our wildest expectations.

Company "B," under command of Lt. John Cudahy, and one platoon of Company "D" under Lt. Derham, made the counter attack on the Bolo trenches. Just before dawn that morning the Americans filed through the forests and crept upon the enemy's observation posts before they were aware of any movement on our part. We then proceeded without any warning upon their main position. Taken as they were, completely by surprise, it was but a moment before they were in full rout, running panic-stricken in all directions, thinking that a regiment or division had followed upon them. We immediately set fire to these huts containing their ammunition, cartridges, etc., and the subsequent explosion that followed probably gave the enemy the impression that a terrific attack was pending. As we emerged from the woods and commenced the attack upon upper Toulgas we were fully expecting stiff resistance, for we knew that many of these houses concealed enemy guns. Our plans had succeeded so well, however, that no supporting fire from the upper village came and the snipers in the forward part of the village seeing themselves abandoned, threw their guns and came rushing forward shouting "tovarish, tovarish," meaning the same as the German "kamerad." As a matter of fact, in this motley crew of prisoners were a number of Germans and Austrians, who could scarcely speak a word of German and who were probably more than thankful to be taken prisoners and thus be relieved from active warfare.

During this maneuver one of their bravest and ablest commanders, by the name of Foukes, was killed, which was an irreparable loss to the enemy. Foukes was without question one of the most competent and aggressive of the Bolo leaders. He was a very powerful man physically and had long years of service as a private in the old Russian Army, and was without question a most able leader of men. During this four days' attack and counter attack he had led his men by a circuitous route through the forests, wading in swamps waist deep, carrying machine guns and rations. The nights were of course miserably cold and considerable snow had fallen, but Foukes would risk no fire of any kind for fear of discovery. It was not due to any lack of ability or strategy on his part that this well-planned attack failed of accomplishment. On his body we found a dramatic message, written on the second day of the battle after the assault on the guns had failed. He was with the rear forces at that time and dispatched or had intended to dispatch the following to the command in charge of the forward forces: 

"We are in the two lowest villages—one steamer coming up river—perhaps reinforcements. Attack more vigorously—Melochofski and Murafski are killed. If you do not attack, I cannot hold on and   retreat is impossible. (Signed) FOUKES."

Out of our force of about 600 Scots and Americans we had about 100 casualties, the Scots suffering worse than we. Our casualties were mostly sustained in the blockhouses, from the shelling. It was here that we lost Corporal Sabada and Sergeant Marriott, both of whom were fine soldiers and their loss was very keenly felt. Sabada's dying words were instructions to his squad to hold their position in the rear of their blockhouse which had been destroyed.

It was reported that Trotsky, the idol of the Red crowd, was present at the battle of Toulgas, but if he was there, he had little influence in checking the riotous retreat of his followers when they thought themselves flanked from the woods. They fled in wild disorder from the upper village of Toulgas and for days thereafter in villages far to our rear, various members of this force straggled in, half crazed by starvation and exposure and more than willing to abandon the Soviet cause. For weeks the enemy left the Americans severely alone. Toulgas was held.

100 Years Ago: Whither Alsace and Lorraine?

French Troops Occupy Strasbourg

Alsace, except the Belfort district, and Lorraine had been annexed by the German Empire on 14 August 1870. Article 2 of the Treaty of Frankfurt (10 May 1871) provided Alsace-Lorraine inhabitants could choose French nationality up to 31 October 1872 but would in that event be obliged to leave the country. After that time, they would become Germans.

During the Great War, approximately 250,000 residents of Alsace-Lorraine were mobilized in the German army. They served mainly on the Eastern Front. The law of 5 August 1914 allowed some of them to gain French nationality by signing an act of engagement in the armed forces for the duration of the war. The majority of them were sent to North Africa and the overseas territories, some becoming workers in the weapons factories. 

Georges Clemenceau and Raymond Poincaré Visit Alsace

Those who chose to fight on the Western Front often took on an assumed name to avoid retaliation. The situation is also complex for civilians, sometimes interned in German or French camps on the suspicion that they were too Francophile or Germanophile.

From February 1915, a committee was tasked with looking into all the administrative, religious and school problems that would arise were Alsace-Lorraine to be reattached to France. On 6 October 1918, it was decided that the “Recovered Provinces” would be occupied by French troops in the same way as the liberated French departments.

On 17 November, the French army entered Mulhouse. The president of the Republic, Raymond Poincaré, born in Lorraine, and Clemenceau were hosted in Lorraine and Alsace from 8 to 10 December 1918. They bestowed the French marshal’s baton on Pétain on 8 December 1918 in Metz.

Petain Receives His Marshal's Baton in Metz, December 1918

After the initial joy, unease arose when Clemenceau opted for rapid assimilation, without taking into account the specifics dear to these populations, or even their language, which was not French. Lorraine became the French department of Moselle, while Alsace, was divided into Upper Rhine and Lower Rhine. Around 110,000 German residents were evicted, while the problem of “mixed” families emerged. Again, the Alsatians and some of the Lorrains were asked to choose between the French and German nationalities. They were divided into four categories, each with a specific identity card.

Source:  French Army Museum Blog

President Trump's Armistice Day Speech: 11 November 2018

Suresnes American Cemetery, France
11 November 2018

President Trump on Behalf of the American People Presents a Flag to Major General William Matz, Secretary of the American Battle Monuments Commission

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Thank you. Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you very much. Please.

Major General Matz, I want to thank you and everyone at the American Battle Monuments Commission for doing just an absolutely fantastic job.

Exactly 100 years ago today, on November 11th, 1918, World War I came to an end. Thank God. It was a brutal war. Millions of American, French, and Allied troops had fought with the extraordinary skill and valor in one of the bloodiest conflicts in human history.

We are gathered together, at this hallowed resting place, to pay tribute to the brave Americans who gave their last breath in that mighty struggle.

Earlier, Melania and I were deeply honored to be the guests of President Macron and Brigitte at the Centennial Commemoration of Armistice Day. It was very beautiful and so well done.

To all of the French military leaders and dignitaries in attendance with us now: Thank you for joining us as we honor the American and French service members who shed their blood together in a horrible, horrible war, but a war known as the Great War.

We are also joined by many distinguished American military leaders. Thank you to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Joseph Dunford. Thank you, Joe. Thank you. Army Chief of Staff, General Mark Milley. Thank you, Mark. Supreme Allied Commander Europe, General Curtis Scaparrotti. General, Thank you. And Air Force Commander Europe, General Tod Wolters. Thank you. Thank you, General.

Thank you as well to the members of Congress who have joined us: Ralph Abraham, Anthony Brown, John Carter, Paul Cook, Henry Cuellar, Richard Hudson, Bill Huizenga, Dutch Ruppersberger, John Rutherford, and Steve Stivers. Thank you all very much for being with us. Thank you very much. I know you wanted to be here very badly. We appreciate it.

In the United States, Armistice Day is now enshrined as Veterans Day. We have a number of amazing veterans with us today, including six veterans of World War II:

James Blane. James? Where is James? James, thank you. Thank you, James. Frank Devita. Thank you, Frank. Thank you very much. You look so comfortable up there, under shelter — (laughter) — as we’re getting drenched. You’re very smart people. (Laughter.) Pete DuPre. Pete, thank you very much. Gregory Melikian. Thank you, Gregory. Steven Melnikoff. Thank you. Thank you, Steven. And Jay Trimmer. Thank you. Thank you, Jay. Thank you.

You look like you’re in really good shape, all of you. (Applause.) I hope I look like that someday. You look great. America is forever in debt, and we are forever in your debt. And we really appreciate you being here.

We’re also joined by another very special guest: a 13-year-old boy from the United States named Matthew Haske. Matthew is in the eighth grade, and he worked and saved all of his money for two years to make this trip to France. He wanted to be here in person to honor the American heroes of World War I. Matthew, thank you. You make us very proud. Where is Matthew? Matthew. Matthew. (Applause.) Thank you very much. You’re way ahead of your time, Matthew. Thank you.

On this day, in the year 1918, church bells rang, families embraced, and celebrations, as you know, filled the streets like never before, in towns throughout Europe and the United States.

Suresnes Cemetery Outside of Paris is the Final Resting Place
for 1,500 Americans

But victory had come at a terrible cost. Among the Allied Forces, more than one million French soldiers and 116,000 American service members had been killed by the war’s end. Millions more were wounded. Countless would come home bearing the lasting scars of trench warfare and the grisly horrors of chemical weapons.

During the final battle of the war, over 26,000 Americans lost their lives and more than 95,000 were wounded. It was the single deadliest battle in United States history. Thank of that — 26,000 Americans lost their lives in a battle.

Here on the revered grounds of Suresnes American Cemetery lie more than 1,500 U.S. service members who made the ultimate sacrifice in the First World War. Among those buried here are legendary Marines who fought in the Battle of Belleau Wood.

In that treacherous forest and the surrounding fields, American Marines, soldiers, and Allied Forces fought — and they fought through hell — to turn the tide of the war. And that’s what they did — they turned the tide of the war.

It was in that battle that our Marines earned the nickname “Devil Dogs,” arising from the German description of their ferocious fighting spirit. John Kelly knows that name, “Devil Dogs,” very well, John. Right?

Earlier this year, President Macron presented an oak sapling from Belleau Wood as a gift to our nation — an enduring reminder of our friendship sealed in battle. We fought well together. You could not fight better than we fought together. Sergeant Eugene Wear from Hazleton, Pennsylvania was one of the Marines at Belleau Wood. Eugene raced straight into a barrage of enemy fire, like no one has ever seen before, to bandage his friend’s wounds and carry him back to safety.

Months later, Eugene was mortally wounded. He passed away one day after Christmas. His mother would come right here to mourn by the grave of her precious son. She loved him so much. She was one of the thousands of American moms and dads whose beloved children found their final resting place on the hillside of Suresnes.

Each of these marble crosses and Stars of David marks the life of an American warrior — great, great warriors they are — who gave everything for family, country, God, and freedom. Through rain, hail, snow, mud, poisonous gas, bullets and mortar, they held the line, and pushed onward to victory — it was a great, great victory; costly victory but a great victory — never knowing if they would ever again see their families or ever again hold their loved ones.

Here are the words of a young soldier named Sergeant Paul Maynard from a letter he wrote only a few days before the end of the war: “Dear Mother, I think of you all at home, and I know if I am spared to get back, that I shall appreciate home more than ever, [ever] before. It will seem like heaven to me to be once more where there is peace and only peace.”

On November 11th, 1918, Paul died in the final hours of battle, just before the end. No, sadly, he did not make it. He was among the countless young men who never returned home. But through their sacrifice, they ascended to peace in heaven. Rest in peace, Paul.

The American and French patriots of World War I embody the timeless virtues of our two republics: honor and courage; strength and valor; love and loyalty; grace and glory. It is our duty to preserve the civilization they defended and to protect the peace they so nobly gave their lives to secure one century ago.

An Army Chaplain Gives the Benediction

It is now my great honor to present Major General William Matz with an American flag, as a symbol of our nation’s gratitude to the American Battle Monuments. The Commission has done such an incredible job. And, General, we very much appreciate it. Today, we renew our sacred obligation to memorialize our fallen heroes on the soil where they rest for all of eternity.

Thank you very much. And, General, this is a great honor. Thank you very much. (Applause.)

Thank you all. God bless you. This has been a wonderful two days we spent in France. And this is certainly the highlight of the trip. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. (Applause.)

Captured Germans (British POW Camps in the First World War) Reviewed by James Patton

Captured Germans 
(British POW Camps in the First World War)

by Norman Nicol

Pen and Sword Military Books, 2017

German Prisoners Before Transport to England

I selected Captured Germans to review because I knew absolutely nothing about the subject. Having grown up in the shadow of WWII, my childhood reading included the POW classics such as The Trojan Horse, The Great Escape, The Colditz Story, Maybe I'm Dead and The One That Got Away, to name some. I learned that the POW experience in WWI Britain was different. The camps were not nearly as big, many were country houses, schools, or old factories, and the populations numbered in the dozens rather than thousands.

The Preface is worth a read. Nicol relates how he got started on this project by trying to research a photograph of three German officers in the doorway of a building that turned out to be mislabeled.

Eventually he goes on to wax philosophical: "It is a dark side of history, and for reasons that have never been fully resolved, many of the locations used to intern civilians and combatants during the First World War have been lost in time." There is no one document that records every location that was used. The intention of Nicol's project was to record where these camps were.

It was never the intention to make comparisons how each country apportioned its benevolence … nor was there any intention … to judge how Britain treated those in internment, but one can never compile a document such as this without emotive issues being touched on. Without this, I was informed by an academic, my work would have no intrinsic value, as it would not contribute to the great historical debate. If my endeavours have not added anything to the 'academic argument', it will not cause me to have sleepless nights.

The 20-page introduction is a gem. Nicol begins with a fascinating recap of the history of POWs, a subject that I knew nothing about. He then explains how the detention scheme was organized in the UK and how it evolved from totally unprepared to highly complex. By 1918 there were 521 "camps" throughout the country, and this doesn't begin to tell the story, as there were hundreds of parties of POWs detached for farm or construction labor who were billeted in groups of a dozen or so in small communities. Last, Nicol gets into the statistics, of special interest to an analytically oriented person like me.

The rest of the book is a compilation, admittedly not complete, of the locations where Germans, Austro-Hungarians, Turkish, and Irish nationalists were interned in the UK. This list runs for 358 pages, and while a lot of it is just location data, there are some stories about the history of a site as well. One in particular that stuck with me involved three German officers who escaped and somehow managed to arrange to be picked up by a U-boat, only to have the navy botch the job.

Finally, Captured Germans is a reference book, useful to those who want to locate these sites, perhaps even visit them, but not suitable for a long weekend's read.

James Patton

Updated: World War I Commemorative Brochures from the U.S. Army Center for Military History

The Army has released three more volumes in their new series of WWI brochures that will eventually cover the entire war.  Here's a list of what is available now. The works are very informative and well illustrated, using Signal Corps photos and official U.S. Army artwork from the war. They  can be downloaded as PDF documents at no charge from the address at the bottom of the page.  Now available are the works covering the Punitive Expedition through the Meuse-Argonne Offensive.

Click on image to enlarge.

https://history.army.mil/html/bookshelves/collect/wwi-cb.html

In the Doughboys' Own Words: Armistice Day 1918

From In Their Own Words at the Doughboy Center

False Reports

. . . The night of November 8 was indeed a wild one. It was on this night that the first report, or rather the false report, of the signing of the Armistice was received. Parades formed immediately: Flags appeared from every window and from all balconies. The cafes and restaurants were crowed to capacity. Everybody seemed happy. The next morning, however, the real facts were learned and the spirits of the people somewhat damped.

Sgt. Albert Haas, 78th Division, 

In Vichy, France, recovering from wounds

Diary 

11 November 1918: The AEF's Happiest Day

Again stern orders were given to roll our packs for a final drive. It was now twenty minutes to eleven, November 11th, 1918. We fell in line and marched onward.

We had had no official word yet that the armistice was to be signed. In fact we had heard so often about Germany's peace talk that we paid no attention to wild rumors. 

Exactly at eleven o'clock, came the message from Marshal Foch's headquarters, the "Armistice was Signed." Instantaneously wild shrieks, shouts and yells of thousands and thousands of voices could be heard. The night had been a thing of horror! Daylight brought her joyful tidings to thousands of wearied fighters! Visions of home and dear ones, of transports homeward bound, waiting for the boys who answered the call of their country - the boys in khaki - the Yanks! 

Pvt. Mathew Chopin, 356th Inf., 89th Div

Letter

As noon approached, we became conscious of an unusual quietness all around us. Firing of all kinds had almost entirely ceased. The Germans were not firing even a machine gun, though our artillery continued to send over a shell now and then. The Germans occupied the crest of the ridge along the river, and if they had had sufficient numbers, could easily have cleaned us up. After eleven o'clock, all firing ceased entirely, not a sound any where. Soon everyone was talking about it. No word had reached us yet. 

A wounded fellow from our company was discovered, down near the river bank, where he had laid since before daylight. Getting a stretcher, McDermott and I went to him and dressed his wound. He was shot through the hip, and just about unconscious, as a result of his exposure to the cold. We wrapped him in a blanket, and laid him on the stretcher. 

While we were getting ready to take our wounded man to the rear, a runner appeared' with the official news that an Armistice had been signed. Most everybody let out a few healthy yells, but I did not. For one reason, didn't feel much like yelling. I had some difficulty getting three more fellows to help me carry the stretcher. The one I did get had to stop every few minutes and rest. I kept urging the necessity of getting the fellow under medical care as soon as possible, for he was badly in need of attention. As we had to go back along the river bank to where we had crossed during the preceding night, I had a good opportunity to see just what we had done, and the hazardness of our undertaking. 

Pvt. Clarence Richmond, 5th Marines, 2nd Division

Diary

On November 11, the authorities deemed it advisable to keep all men off the streets and accordingly issued orders that all patients were to be confined to their quarters. Across the street from the Globe Hotel was a large bulletin board. About noon, a large printed poster was hung there which soon attracted eager and interested groups of people. After reading, they gave vent to their feelings in various ways. Some wept; some shouted for joy; some tossed their hats in the air and embraced their comrades. Little children and older men and women ran along the streets shouting 'Fini La Guerre.' In the evening a band appeared and judging from the general appearance of of the instruments, they had not been usd for some time. It was also quite evident that those playing them had not had a great deal of preliminary practice. The band passed in front of the hotel and we were able to recognize, by use of a little imagination, that they were trying to play The Star Spangled Banner. We appreciated the effort and applauded. 

I thought of what had happened in the past two months, of what I had experienced in that short time and was swept by a peculiar and indescribable feeling. I was glad. Glad that the war was over, glad for those people who endured four years of misery and hardship, and who were now to know better conditions. I though of home and how the folks at home felt when they received the same good news; of other folks whose loved ones would not come home, and what the stopping of fighting meant to them. It was the end of the most terrible four years of warfare the civilized world had ever known.

Sgt. Albert Haas, 78th Division, 

In Vichy, France recovering from wounds

Diary 

GREAT DAY !!! THE WAR HAS ENDED !!! 

PEACE HAS COME !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

While we were eating mess, a French soldier came running by waving a flag and yelling "Finis la guerre!" Later, an official communication affirmed the great news. We are all overjoyed ... 

Sgt. Edwin Gerth, 51st Artillery

Diary

On Monday at 11:30 am when the sound of cannon boomed the joyful news that the longed for peace had come ... The French seemed stunned at first--they couldn't in a moment throw off these four years of horror and grief. But [we in] the Red Cross turned out strong. [Outside, in the street], a drum appeared from somewhere ... and in a moment the crowd was singing the Marseillaise. So many people were crying that it was a little difficult. Then a procession formed ... If you could have seen me marching between a Tommy and a wounded Poilu, the latter helping me carry the flag with his good arm. A French boy scout carried the French Flag. The whole of Paris seemed to join in the parade. You never saw anything like it.

Elizabeth Ashe, American Red Cross

Memoir, Intimate Letters from France & Extracts from the Diary

Somebody came out waving a white flag. An American officer stepped forward to greet the German. Then the German kids started coming down. We celebrated that day with the German soldiers. They came down and we mixed all up. Some of them could speak English and we could speak German. . . They were glad to see it over with, too.

Gene Lee, USMC, 51st Company, 2nd Division

Interviewed at age 104, 7 November 2003

Nov 11: Fighting stopped.We hardly knew what to do with ourselves for a while it seemed rather queer to not hear the screech of a shell or the sharp reports of rifles and machine guns. Tents were pitched in a nearby field the farmers furnishing straw to floor them with and we could have fires, smoke or anything else after dark.

On the morning of Nov 17th we started on a hike for Germany with the French making about 15 miles to a place called Dikilvenue where the company slept in a brewery and in the morning started on another hike to Borsbeke where we stayed for two days. 

Pvt. Robert L. Dwight, 148th Infantry, 37th Division 

Letter

FINALLY CAME NEWS of the Armistice. Somehow we could not believe it was true the war was actually over. Then, on Dec. 7, we saw a beautiful sight. Here came a passenger train flying U.S. flags. We climbed aboard. We were leaving German territory. I had been in a prison camp only 58 days, but felt as if I had been there 58 years. 

Pvt. Charles Dermody, 132nd Infantry; 33rd Division

Prisoner of War at Rostatt, Germany, at time of Armistice

After the Armistice, those of us not involved in the Occupation were encouraged to seek educational opportunities. I studied French at the Sorbonne. Later on, this training led to Douglas MacArthur appointing me to the faculty at West Point. It changed my life completely.

Lt. Ralph Smith, 4th Division

                                                                                                                                                               1989 Interview

Letter 

10 November 1918: Capt. Harry Truman's Letter to Bess

Capt. Harry Truman, Battery D., 129th F.A., 35th Division

[Somewhere in France]

Dear Bess:
November 10, 1918

. . . I am still holding down a place in a quiet sector and I'm getting fat on it. Also that helmet is not going to make me baldheaded, at least I don't think so.

The Hun is yelling for peace like a stuck hog, and I hope old daddy Foch makes him yell louder yet or throttles him one. Throttling would be too easy. When you see some of the things those birds did and then hear them put up the talk they do for peace it doesn't impress you at all. A complete and thorough thrashing is all they've got coming and take my word they are getting it and getting it right.

This has been a beautiful Sunday--the sun shining and as warm as summer. It sure made me wish for Lizzie and five gallons of gas with her nose pointed down Blue Ridge Boulevard and me stepping on the throttle to get there quickly. I wonder how long it will be before we do any riding down that road. Easter? Maybe, if not sooner. Heinie seems to be about finished. Just to make the day interesting one of their planes came over and shot down one of our sausage balloons and came near getting shot down himself. I shot away about five hundred rounds of high explosive shells myself. Not at the plane but at some Hun machine guns about seven miles away. I don't know if I hit them, but I have hopes as I laid the guns very carefully. A Hun plane dropped some bombs not far from my back yard last night and sort of shook things up. They made him run home in a hurry too. There is a big railroad gun about a kilometer behind me that shoots about every fifteen minutes and I heard one of the boys remark that "There goes another rolling kitchen over to pulverize Jerry." The projectile makes a noise like a wagon going down the road when it goes through the air, so the remark was very good.

Harry and Bess Were Married the Same Day the
Versailles Treaty Was Signed, 28 June 1919

I have been censoring letters today and it is some job. I had no idea that there were so many accomplished liars in any organization on earth as I have in mine. They are eternally trying to get by the censor with some big tale of their heroism and accomplishments in this war and they do it too, sometimes, especially if they put in something nice about their commanding officer and the part he took in the tale. Usually though I have to tear 'em up or send them back when they tell too much or stretch the truth even beyond literary license. Some of them write very good and very interesting letters and some of them do not. It is a job to censor them and when my lieutenants get too far behind I help them out.

I hope the base censor doesn't laugh at mine as I sometimes have to at theirs.

Hope I get that letter tomorrow. Also hope the Hun signs the peace agreement. Write as often as you can to one who thinks of you,

Always,

Harry

Source: Truman Presidential Library

How Finland Gained Its Independence

From "The Baltic States from 1914 to 1923: The First World War and the Wars of Independence,"  Lt. Col. Andrew Parrott, Baltic Defense Review, No. 8, 2002

The Eduskunta, Finland's Parliament, Was Weakened
During the Civil War

In the aftermath of the First World War five new states were created out of what had been Tsarist Russia on the shores of the Baltic Sea. In the north, the Republic of Finland emerged as an independent state after just over a century as the Grand Duchy of Finland.

Fundamentally, Russia [by 1917] was weak. The collapse of the tsarist regime and the rise of the Bolsheviks provided a narrow window of opportunity for those wishing to escape from Russian domination. In the context of Eastern Europe at the time, Russia was weak but Germany was militarily strong. In a wider context, though, Germany was politically, militarily, and economically weak and the Allies were strong. At the end of the First World War, the Allies had no wish to allow the Germans, defeated in the west, to profit from their success in the east.

German weakness offered opportunities to the Baltic states. The growth of national identity in the Baltic states might be seen not so much as a strength but as a source of determination for exploiting the weaknesses and opportunities that arose. There is no doubt that the intervention of the Allies gave strength to the Baltic states, but this was essentially a by-product of other concerns. The Allies had no wish either to see the Russian Bolsheviks or Germany prosper. Generally it can be said that, exhausted after the First World War, the Allies had no wish to fight the Bolsheviks. They did, however, support the White Russians and others opposed to the Bolsheviks and in this circuitous way gave strength to the Baltic states.

As a Grand Duchy and not part of Russia proper, Finland enjoyed considerable autonomy, including the maintenance of its own military units, although as Finnish nationalism developed, the tsar sought to increasingly weaken Finnish autonomy and assert Russian control. The territory of the Grand Duchy of Finland was not directly involved in fighting during the First World War, and the impact of the war was mainly an economic one. 

Of course, Finland had no option but to follow Russia into the war, and while some areas of the economy suffered badly, others prospered. The forestry industry with export markets in the United Kingdom and western Europe was badly hit, but the metalworking, chemical, and textile industries all prospered in satisfying the demands of the Russian war effort. Thousands of Finns too were in the Russian armies, involved in the defense of Finland as well as more distant operations.

The February 1917 revolution in Russia caused the collapse of the Russian war effort, leading to economic hardship for many in Finland, and fueled the process of progress towards independence. The Russian Provisional Government believed they assumed the tsar’'s rights with respect to Finland, but a majority in Finland believed that with the abdication of the tsar the Russian Provisional Government could make no claim to being the supreme authority in Finland.

On 20 March 1917 the Russian Provisional Government proclaimed the restoration of Finland’'s constitutional rights, rights that over a long period of years had been increasingly ignored by an ever more authoritarian tsarist regime. The more liberal Mikhail Stakhovich replaced von Seyn, the much-disliked Russian Governor General, and many political exiles were allowed to return. Elections for the Finnish parliament, the Eduskunta, had taken place in 1916, but parliament was not allowed to meet until March 1917, when a new Social Democrat government was formed and took office on 27 March 1917. The new government was immediately confronted with both internal law and order problems and external problems regarding its relationship with the Russian Provisional Government. With regard to the internal problems in a number of towns, worker’s militias had formed and these sometimes found themselves confronted by civil guards recruited from among the bourgeoisie, often supported from Germany. In 1914 some in Finland had looked to Germany for support in the struggle for independence, and significant numbers of Finns had received military training in Germany during the course of the war.

On 18 July 1917 the Eduskunta approved an act making Finland independent in all respects except foreign affairs and defense. The Finnish cabinet was evenly divided on the issue but—controversially—Stakhovich, on the instructions of Kerensky, head of the Russian Provisional Government, voted against the measure, dissolved the Eduskunta and called new elections for October. The Social Democrats lost their overall majority in the October elections but did not accept the validity of the elections, regarding the Russian Provisional Government as having no right to dissolve the parliament. In the turmoil, exacerbated by the events of the October Revolution in Russia, a Central Revolutionary Council was formed on 8 November 1917 and called a general strike for 14 November 1917.

The strike and the violence that accompanied this strike alienated many Social Democrats. In the absence of any clear lead from Russia, the Eduskunta voted in a government headed by the champion of Finnish rights P. Svinhufvud, who presented to the Eduskunta a declaration of Finnish independence on 6 December 1917. Svinhufvud met Lenin in Petrograd on 31 December, and was told that Russia would recognize Finnish independence and the right-wing government in Helsinki. Finland slid toward civil war in January 1919.

In Finland the war of independence was more of a civil war than in the other states. The Russian Bolsheviks recognized Finnish independence at an early stage and did not openly play an active role in events in Finland. It was therefore left to Finnish Bolsheviks, who might or might not have sought a renewal of union with Russia, to dispute the style of government of Finland with the White Finns. Without doubt, the Germans contributed in large measure to the victory of the White Finns. Since the civil war in Finland took place before the end of the First World War, the Western Allies played, essentially, no role in the independence of Finland. The Finnish Civil War was fought between the socialist Reds and the non-socialist Whites, supported by Germany, in the newly sovereign state. The conflict lasted from late January until mid-May 1918 and resulted in a White victory. The war began as an offshoot of the October Revolution.

A Finnish aristocrat, Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim served as
cavalry commander in the Imperial Russian Army during the
First World War. After the Russian Revolution, he commanded
Finnish White forces in the Finnish Civil War of 1918.
He served as the head of state of independent Finland in 1918–1919

On 18 January, General Mannerheim, charged by the government with establishing a military headquarters, left Helsinki for Vaasa to establish such a headquarters, since both Helsinki and Tampere were largely under the control of the Red Guards, as the worker’s militias had become. On 19 January the government asked Germany to return to Finland the Finnish Jaeger battalion that had been fighting for Germany. Five days later they demanded the removal of the 40,000 Russian troops on Finnish territory and requested help from those countries that had recognized Finland. The next day the government formally constituted the Civil Guards as the state force responsible for law and order. 

The civil war started on the night of 27 January when Red Guards formally took control of Helsinki and established a revolutionary government. By the beginning of February a front line ran north of Pori, Tampere, Lahti, and Lappeenranta with the Red Guards in control of all the major urban centers. The Whites, however, were better organized and equipped and more united.The Whites received significant reinforcement when the Finnish Jaeger battalion arrived back in Finland on 25 February 1918. The Germans also provided very significant assistance to the Whites. In March German naval units landed on and occupied the Aaland Islands. 

On 3 April a German expeditionary force commanded by General Count von der Goltz landed at Hanko on the southwest coast and started to advance on Helsinki. A few days later another German force landed at Loviisa and advanced north toward Lahti to cut the railway line between Helsinki and Petrograd. At around the same time, White forces advancing from the north captured Tampere. Helsinki fell to the German forces of General von der Goltz on 13 April 1918, and two weeks later prominent members of the Red Guards and leaders of the Revolutionary Government fled to Russia. On 16 May Mannerheim led a victory parade through Helsinki. On 18 May the Eduskunta met and appointed Svinhufvud as regent with the same powers as those previously vested in the tsar. Still expecting a German victory, Svinhufvud sought to create a monarchy for Finland from within Germany. These plans came to nought with the collapse of Germany and the withdrawal of German troops from Finland, and Svinhufvud resigned being replaced by Mannheim as regent in late 1918. Mannerheim had resigned in May in protest at the degree of influence being allowed to the Germans, and on being appointed regent had to be recalled from London where he had been engaged on an unofficial mission to improve relations between Finland and the Western Allies.

Execution of Finnish Reds, Losers in the Civil War

New elections to the Eduskunta were held in March 1919, and the Eduskunta elected Professor K. Stahlberg as first president of the Republic of Finland on 25 July 1919. In July 1920, Finland started peace negotiations with the Bolsheviks, once it was clear that the White Russians, who were opposed to Finnish independence, had been defeated. Agreement was reached at the Treaty of Tartu signed on 14 October 1920, and by the terms of this treaty the Petsamo district, giving Finland access to the Arctic Ocean, was ceded to Finland. Tsar Alexander II had promised this area to Finland in 1864, in exchange for two districts in the Karelian Isthmus that Finland had ceded to Russia. The tsar had not kept his word, though, and it was left to the Bolsheviks to honor the promise made by the tsar over half a century later.

Recommended: A Hundred Years After the Armistice, from the New Yorker

From: New Yorker, 5 November 2018

With Photos and Illustrations from Steve Miller

By Adam Hochschild

For millions of soldiers, the First World War meant unimaginable horror: artillery shells that could pulverize a human body into a thousand fragments; immense underground mine explosions that could do the same to hundreds of bodies; attacks by poison gas, tanks, flamethrowers. Shortly after 8 p.m. on 7 November 1918, however, French troops near the town of La Capelle saw something different. From the north, three large automobiles, with the black eagle of Imperial Germany on their sides, approached the front lines with their headlights on. Two German soldiers were perched on the running boards of the lead car, one waving a white flag, the other, with an unusually long silver bugle, blowing the call for ceasefire—a single high tone repeated in rapid succession four times, then four times again, with the last note lingering.

Monument Near La Capelle Where the Delegation Was Met—
"Here Triumphed the Tenacity of the Poilu "

By prior agreement, the three German cars slowly made their way across the scarred and cratered no man’s land between the opposing armies. When they reached the French lines, they halted, the German bugler was replaced by a French one (his bugle is in a Paris museum today), and the German peace envoys continued their journey. At La Capelle, flashes lit up the night as the envoys were photographed by waiting press and newsreel cameramen, then transferred to French cars. Their route took them past houses, factories, barns, and churches reduced to charred rubble, fruit trees cut down and wells poisoned by retreating German troops. “It appeared to me that the drive was intentionally prolonged in order to carry us across devastated provinces and to prepare us for the hardest conditions which the feelings of hatred and revenge might demand,” one of the German passengers later wrote. The envoys next boarded a railway carriage that had once belonged to Napoleon III, who was forced to surrender most of Alsace and part of Lorraine to Germany in the Franco-Prussian War.

This monument marks one of the most significant events of the
First World War—the place where the four cars carrying the German plenipotentiaries responsible for negotiating the Armistice arrived 
on 7 November 1918 at 8 p.m. and 20 minutes.

Finally, the train pulled into a clearing in the forest of Compiègne, near another train occupied by an Allied delegation headed by Marshal Ferdinand Foch, the Allied commander-in-chief...

(Photos from Steve Miller)

Read the full article here:

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/11/05/a-hundred-years-after-the-armistice

100 Years Ago: The False Armistice

False Armistice
By William Bryk
Presented in the New York Sun, 10 November 2004

Published 7 November 1918

Few recall the premature celebration of victory in World War I, the False Armistice. By Friday, 7 November 1918, the war seemed nearly over, with newspapers reporting Allied advances. At 11:56 that morning, the New York agency of United Press—later known as United Press International—received a cable from France. Filed at 11 a.m. Eastern Standard Time, apparently signed by UP's president, Roy Howard, and its foreign editor, William Philip Sims, the message reported that Germany had signed an armistice.

This was untrue. According to A.J. Liebling, Howard had lunched with Vice Admiral Henry B. Wilson, commander of the American naval forces in France, on 7 November. Admiral Wilson told Howard that a friend in the U.S. Embassy had just telephoned him that an armistice had been signed. Under UP procedures, Sims had to approve and sign all cables from France, but Sims was in Paris. Howard was in Brest with, he believed, the scoop of a lifetime. He forged Sims's name and gave the message to the telegraphers who, assuming that Howard was a responsible newspaperman whose cable had been passed by the censors, transmitted it. In turn, UP general manager W.W. Hawkins in New York assumed Sims had seen and approved it. As Liebling observed, if Sims had seen it, Sims might have made Howard confirm his facts.

Hawkins submitted the cable to American military censorship, which assumed the story's veracity on the presumption that French military censors must have approved it and passed the cable within three minutes. Then it was released to the UP's subscribing newspapers, which began printing extras: GERMANY GIVES UP, WAR ENDS AT 2 P.M.

Roy W. Howard
(U. of Indiana Photo)

Before the papers hit the street, the news was picked up by stockbrokers on the Stock Exchange floor, where trading stopped around 1 p.m. The news spread as fast as telephone lines could carry it. Church bells rang, sirens sounded. At the Equitable Building, 120 Broadway, an anti-aircraft gun on the roof fired blank shells. Judge Learned Hand closed the federal courts, and the state and municipal courts never came back from lunch.

Department stores closed. On the doors of Brill Brothers was posted, "Too Happy to Work: Come Tomorrow" and at Rogers Peet "Who can work on a day like this? Gone to celebrate—open tomorrow." The streets were suddenly packed with wildly cheering people. Fifth Avenue was jammed from curb to curb from Washington Square to the Plaza Hotel and people linked arms into enormous snake dances up and down the street. Thousands crowded into St. Patrick's Cathedral, kneeling and weeping with joy as they offered thanks.

Up at Carnegie Hall, James Gibbons Huneker, long-time critic for the original New York Sun, was attending a concert of the Boston Symphony Orchestra under Pierre Monteaux. Cheering suddenly exploded outside, and into the hall surged the news that the war was over. There was a shuffling of scores, Monteaux raised his baton, and the BSO burst into the national anthem and "The Marseillaise" as the audience rose to their feet and roared out the lyrics. After that, according to Huneker, Franck's Symphony in D minor and Schumann's Manfred Overture were something of a comedown.

At the Knickerbocker Hotel, Broadway and 42nd Street, the enormous crowd in Times Square drew a distinguished guest onto the second floor balcony. He waved an American flag at the crowd, which, recognizing him, began cheering. Then the day's greatest tenor flung back his head, and Enrico Caruso sang "The Star-Spangled Banner."

Many later remembered 7 November as a blur of people waving handkerchiefs and flags and total strangers shaking hands and embracing for sheer joy.

At the New York Evening Sun, the editors, unable to corroborate the story through their Washington and European reporters, mistrusted the UP's assurances "that there was no doubt of the authenticity of the news." They obtained an official denial of the story from Secretary of State Robert Lansing at 2:15 p.m., but no one in the street wanted to believe it. The UP even alleged that the State Department's information was stale. When the competing Associated Press, unable to confirm the rumor, denied it, an angry mob attacked the AP's offices at 51 Chambers St. In Times Square crowds destroyed copies of the Evening Sun and other newspapers that carried the official denial.

Published 10 November 1918

The following morning's Times called the UP's cable "the most flagrant and culpable act of public deception" in the history of journalism. The Evening Sun noted with quiet pride that it had not published the false report as fact.

Three days later, on 11 November 1918, the Germans really did sign an armistice, effective at 11 a.m., which some still commemorate with two minutes' silence. Howard survived this mistake to become one of the nation's major publishers; he took over the old New York Sun on 4 January 1950.