Chance and Chaos in War

Chaos umpire sits. 

And by decision more embroils the fury 

By which he reigns: next him high arbiter 

Chance governs all. 

John Milton,  Paradise Lost

American Soldiers on the March in Siberia
"The intervention in Siberia offers an example of perhaps the most complex of
 military operations — military operations other than war."

[Editor's note:  I found this excerpt in a study titled  "Adapting to Chaos: American Soldiers in Siberia, 1918-1920" by Col. G.Scott Gorman, USAF, ret. Col. Gorman is the Director of the Advanced Strategic Leadership Studies Program (ASLSP) and Deputy Director for Academics. at the U.S. Army's  School of Advanced Military Studies.  His observations presented here—I believe—don't just apply to World War I, but to all wars, including the ones going on right now. His paper, by the way, was presented in 1999, but his findings don't seem at all out of date.]

Like [a] forest, the military system is both complex and chaotic.'' The military system is made up of hierarchically-nested components, each dynamically interacting with one another to produce chaotic effects.  As an open system, the military system is subject to additional complexity as the result of interactions with the outside environment. The weather, the enemy, political relationships, and other external factors provide inputs that change both the qualities and the output of the military system.

Owing to these interactions, the military system is non-linear; the outcome of military operations is not necessarily proportional to the inputs to the system. Massive inputs are not always required to produce proportionally extensive results. Uncertainty is not only an initial condition in war, but is also a product of its dynamic action.  Not only is there uncertainty of information, but also uncertainty of effects. This uncertainty and unpredictability, a result or the complexity of interactions within and upon the military system, is inherently characteristic of military operations.  Traditional reductionist models inadequately account for the unavoidable uncertainty of complex military operations.

The dynamic nature of modern war adds to the complexity of military systems. Changing environments, changing missions, and changing opponents contribute to the chaos of current and future military operations. The environment of military operations continues to change temporally, spatially, and mechanically. Temporally, command and control conducted at the speed of light and weapons delivered at the speed of sound have contributed to the increased tempo of military operations. Spatially, the expanse of the battlefield has grown to cover the globe; in the future, there may be little distinction between the battlefield and the homefront. Recognizing the changing spatial dimensions of modern war and thc expanding array of possible military environments, military theorists and doctrine writers have replaced the word "battlefield" with the more inclusive "battlespace". 

Mechanically, technological innovations have produced quicker, deadlier, and more destructive ways of interacting within the military environment. The diversification of military missions has created additional complexity by adding both to the details (increasing the number of parts) and dynamics (increasing the number of interactions between agents) of the military system. Military agents must be familiar not only with more tools, but also with new and innovative ways of using these tools. As the system changes, so too does that of possible opponents. The "systems" opposing future military operations will consist not only of conventional military forces, but also of terrorists, computer hackers, economic: criminals, and even Mother Nature. Changes inherent in modern war have greatly increased the complexity of the military operating environment. . . Small changes in input result in dramatic and unpredictable changes in output. 

Col. Gorman included some interesting observations on a category of military operations called  Military Operations Other Than War (MOOTW), which we have seen a lot of since he wrote this article.  Three of his points jumped off the page for me:

• "In the future, there may be little distinction between the battlefield and the homefront." 

• "The identity of belligerents may be uncertain and the relationship between a specific operation and a campaign plan may be more difficult to define than would normally be the case in war."

• The failure to adapt to complexity leads to systemic failure in competitive environments. 

Then Major Gorman's 1999 66-page monograph on America's Siberian Expedition can be accessed HERE.

Folkestone, England, at War

Idyllic Folkestone

Located on the coast of southeast England overlooking the English Channel, Folkestone is today a pleasant resort with a population of 50,000, or so. The town proper is strung out along 2 miles of Dover's cliffs. Below, accessible by a steep road is the town's harbor.  In 1629,  with its location on the narrowest part of the English Channel, the local inhabitants obtained a royal license to build a port. From the beginning of the railway age, Folkestone developed both as a passenger port across the English Channel—Boulogne, France, lies just 26 miles  away—and as a high-class seaside resort. It has a long roster of celebrity visitors, including King Edward VII & Mrs. Keppel, and authors H.G. Wells, Charles Dickens, and Agatha Christie. Its port and location, though, would eventually guarantee that the town would play major role in the First World War, and its tourist trade put in abeyance.

During the summer of 1914, Folkestone would still have been bustling with holiday-makers promenading.   Since the extension of the railway, and the building of the Foord Valley Viaduct, Folkestone had become a popular holiday resort for the Victorians and Edwardians. When war came, the general feeling in the country was that a war would be over by Christmas and life would not be excessively disrupted. 

Commemorative Painting of the Arrival of First Belgian Refugees

Folkestone, however, would learn sooner than most of the nation that this was not to be the case. The town’s first connection with what was happening on European soil was on 20  August 1914, when the first of thousands of refugees from recently invaded Belgian  arrived in Britain via Folkestone.   By 5 September it was estimated that as many as 18,000 refugees had arrived at Folkestone Harbour,

Folkestone eventually welcomed over 65,000 Belgian visitors, and residents willingly took mon of them in, keen to be doing something for the war effort.  Around the town today can be seen evidence of the Belgian’s stay with streets and squares named after the new arrivals.  Middelburg Square sits at the heart of the town centre; Ingles Road and the surname Inglebrecht all stem from Belgian origins. The government helped share the refugees over the south of England, reserving The Grand Hotel to house members of the Belgian Royal Family.   After the war, many of these refugees returned home if they hadn’t married and settled in their host country.  

WWI Troopship Departing Folkestone

By the end of August 1914, Folkestone saw the first wounded soldiers returning from the Battle of Mons in Belgium.  70,000 British soldiers had faced a German army of over twice that size.  There were heavy casualties.  A report from the Folkestone Herald talked of the soldiers’ arrival causing great interest and excitement “The soldiers were conveyed in motor cars through the town to the camp, being enthusiastically greeted by the crowds in the streets.  Most of the men appeared to be slightly wounded and were able to walk with assistance.  They displayed great cheerfulness.”

These were the earliest of an estimated 10 million passengers who passed through Folkestone Harbour on route to or returning from Boulogne and the continent.  Many were soldiers, but also nurses and other staff to support the war.  Folkestone would gain fame as the primary "gateway to the trenches" for Britain during World War I.   A great percentage of these numbers were British Tommies departing for the Western Front and returning for their brief leaves home from the battlefields and back again.  The perilous trip—U-boats and mines were the principal dangers—took about 2 hours, one-way.   

Leave Troops Assembling for Their Return to France

Folkestone and its citizens were targeted by the enemy in both world wars.   On 25 May 1917, German Gotha heavy bombers carried out a devastating daylight raid on the town.The  A direct hit on Tontine Street—where civilians were queuing for holiday groceries—killed around 70 to 95 people and injured nearly 200, making it one of the deadliest single bombing events on the British home front during the war.

After the Armistice,  King Albert 1 of Belgium sent a message to Folkestone

Folkestone had earned the admiration not only of the Belgians, but also of the whole world: yes, the whole civilised world knew how the town of Folkestone had received them with such cordiality which would never be forgotten.

Aerial View of the Folkestone Harbour Today

In the Second World War— because occupied France was only about 22 miles away—the town experienced frequent long-range artillery shelling from enemy big guns, alongside high-explosive bomb drops and parachute mines that destroyed local shops, houses, and the town's gasworks.  Later, the town was targeted by dozens of V-1 buzz bombs.

Sources: Folkestone History Group; Kentonline; Disused-stations.org; Folkstonehistory.org

Chief of Staff Peyton March's Wartime Tragedy

 

The Son: Peyton March, Jr, (1897–1918)
As a Lafayette College Baseball Player

 

Army Chief of Staff General Peyton C. March was the most prominent active member of the American military to lose a son during the Great War. His second son, Second Lieutenant Peyton C. March Jr, still an undergraduate at Lafayette College, enlisted in the Aviation Section of the Signal Corps. Lt. March was killed in a military airplane training crash at Hicks Field in Texas on 13 February 1918. March Field (now March Air Reserve Base) in California was named in his honor the following month. He was buried at Arlington National Cemetery (Section 30, Site 1476). 

The Father: General Peyton March (1864–1955)
Army Chief of Staff

On 4 March 1918, General March assumed the position of Acting Chief of Staff of the Army and despite his undiplomatic managerial style, performed outstandingly for the duration of the war. Theodore Roosevelt wrote to General March—shortly before his own son Quentin was killed in France—“You have already drunk of the waters of bitterness; I suppose I shall soon have to drink of them; but whatever befalls, you and I hold our heads high when we think of our sons.”

Sources: Lafayette College Magazine,  Find a Grave, History.net

Jutland: World War I’s Greatest Naval Battle

 

Edited by Michael Epkenhans, Jörg Hillmann, and Frank Nägler

The University Press of Kentucky, 2015

Jon Tetsuro Sumida, Reviewer

Second Division at Jutland

Review originally presented in First World War Studies, 2018

This book presents 11 papers given by British/Australian and German scholars at a conference held in 2006 organized by the Militär Geschichtliches Forschungsamt (MGFA, now reconfigured as the Zentrum für Militärgeschichte und Sozialwissenschaften der Bundeswehr, ZMSBw) in partnership with the Otto-von-Bismarck Stiftung and Oxford University. It was first published in 2009, republished after revision in 2011 and the revised version published again in 2015–presumably to take advantage of the centennial of the battle that is its subject. The purpose of the collection, according to the preface, is "not only [to] take into account historical policy and diplomacy, historical strategy and operations, but … also attempt to approach the subject “from underneath” – that is, to take into account the politics of memory of the event …".

The articles can be divided into four groups: the Anglo-German naval rivalry (N.A.M. Rodger) and German operational and strategic planning (Frank Nägler) before the First World War; British (James Goldrick and Andrew Lambert) and German (Michael Epkenhans) operations and planning after the outbreak of war up to May 1916; the battle of Jutland described and analyzed from the German (Werner Rahn) and British (John Brooks) points of view; and the battle of Jutland remembered in Britain (Eric Grove), Germany (Jörg Hillmann, Jan Kindler) and more generally (Michael Salewski). The number of British and German contributors is roughly even (five to six). In terms of the article length, on the other hand, the balance is very heavily weighted in favor of the German contributions—248 pages to 83 or a ratio of three to one. 

The heavy emphasis on the German side of the ledger is understandable given the nationality of the primary conference sponsor (MGFA) and the three conference volume editors. Furthermore, much of the material offered on the German side is both interesting and will be new to English-language readers. Nägler and Epkenhans assess German operational assumptions based on comprehensive consideration of official documents. Rahn’s long narrative offers explanations of critical decisions by the German senior commanders during the battle—such as Hipper’s alteration of course to the south after sighting the British battle cruiser force and Scheer’s turning his fleet back toward the British battle line from which it had just escaped by desperate maneuver. In addition, Rahn’s documents include revealing after-action reports: Scheer’s "Tactical Lessons from the Battle of Jutland", and Hipper’s "Tactical Experiences of the Commanders of the Reconnaissance Ships", as well as personal narratives such as "Eyewitness Account by Johannes Karl Groth, Artillery Leader on board the Battlecruiser Lützow". Hillman and Kindler explore the German remembrance of Jutland productively. Regrettably, however, Salewski’s attempt to find greater meaning—or the lack thereof—in the happenings of the battle falls short of enlightening.

The British/Australian contributions cover what for English-language readers is for the most part familiar ground. Rodgers provides a recapitulation of the Anglo-German naval rivalry that takes into account new scholarship (up to 2009). Goldrick’s chapter provides a critical analysis of  British naval operations before Jutland. Brooks’s representation of the British narrative is largely confined to the activity of the battle cruisers and the tactical mistakes of Beatty, the commander of the main battle cruiser force. Andrew Lambert advances provocative views on the prominence of the Baltic in British naval strategic thought in what is by far the longest article by a British author, while Eric Grove offers a bare sketch of the protracted and indeed enduring controversy over Jutland in Britain in the shortest article in the book. Attentive readers of these articles will detect the survival of old controversies and the emergence of new ones even though the volume’s introduction avoids discussing the current state of the Jutland literature, which is attributable perhaps to prudence rather than dereliction.

Order HERE

Despite the efforts of the volume’s authors and their legion of predecessors, Jutland remains an enigma. To a degree this state of affairs is inherent to a battle that had been expected and from which so much was anticipated but also one which resulted in heavy losses on both sides and an inconclusive outcome. There is, however, a great deal that has yet to be learned about important things. The archival material known to exist for both the British and German navies is more than enough to fuel productive inquiry into technical and related tactical questions that bear directly on the mind-sets of the opposing commanders and their strategic, operational, and tactical motivation. More disciplined examination of the particulars that determined the basic narrative, not contemplation of secondary matters and the meta-historical, should be the order of the day for naval historians with serious intentions about their subject and their craft. Resolution of much of the mystery of Jutland is a difficult challenge to be sure but not an impossible one.

Jon Tetsuro Sumida

How Much Did Rommel Apply His World War I Book in World War II?

Lt. Erwin Rommel in the Early Days of World War I

I.  WWI and Infantry Attacks

Erwin Rommel (1891–1944) served as an aggressive and highly decorated German infantry lieutenant during World War I, earning Germany's highest military honor, the Pour le Mérite. He saw combat on the Western Front in France, in Romania, and on the Italian Front. We have earlier presented a number of articles about his Great Service on Roads to the Great War and they can be accessed HERE. 

In 1937, then Lt. Col. Rommel, an instructor at the Potsdam Military Academy, saw published his quasi-war memoir, written in the form of tactical case studies titled Infantry Attacks (German: Infanterie greift an). Its professed purpose was to share his lessons from the Great War and to be adopted as training resource for junior officers. It turned out to be—whether intended or not—a masterpiece of self-promotion. Coming from neither a traditional military family nor the Prussian aristocracy, he was not an army insider tabbed for high office.  Rommel's clear, direct writing style were perfect for his targeted readership, and his emphasis on aggressive leadership, speed, deception, terrain utilization, and shock troops was a perfect formula for erasing the dismal memories of trench warfare. The book became a bestseller that attracted numerous well-placed admirers, particularly Adolf Hitler, with whom he had crossed paths earlier. It's no accident that Rommel's first command in the Second World War was of Hitler's personal headquarters security.

In Africa

II. WWII Commands

While never quite achieving the zenith of leadership for the German Army, Rommel held an impressive string of commands, before accepting the poison pills of Hitler's henchmen.

• Hitler's Headquarters (1939–1940): Commanded the Fuhrer Headquarters security troops during the invasion of Poland.

• 7th Panzer Division (1940–1941): The invasion of France.

• Afrika Corps (1941–1942).

• Operation in Northern Italy (1943–1944).

• Commanded Defenses Along the Atlantic War (1944)

III.  How He Applied His Own Lessons in WWII

Infantry Attacks was a book about tactics, written through the eyes of a junior infantry officer. It does not address strategy or "big picture" issues like logistics, large-scale force maneuvering, supply, or combined arms operations. Consequently, there seems to be a noticeable correlation between the advice of Infantry Attacks and Rommel's most notable and legendary achievements during the Second World War. On the tactical level there were some notable achievements. However, on the larger scale, the results were not as impressive.

Rommel: The Desert Fox

Leading from the Front: Just as he commanded small infantry units at the point of main effort (Schwerpunkt) in WWI, Rommel constantly operated out of forward command vehicles or reconnaissance planes in WWII—earning his 7th Panzer Division the moniker "Ghost Division" because even his own high command often did not know his exact location or intentions. Later, as commander of the Atlantic Wall, Rommel was initially a "whirling dervish", rapidly energizing construction, touring the coasts, and motivating troops and French laborers.

Speed and Surprise: His infantry shock tactics (Stoßtruppen) relied on deep, rapid penetrations to disorient defenders and induce surrender rather than engaging in slow slugfests. He translated this tempo to armor highly successfully during the 1940 French campaign and the North African desert campaigns. His crossing of the Meuse River,  for example, will always, be an object of study at military colleges.  His later execution of the occupation of Italy in 1943 was remarkable as he quickly captured critical alpine passes and secured his communication lines, while disarming over one million Italian soldiers.

Psychological Warfare and Deception: Rommel routinely used feints, reconnaissance in force, aggressive positioning, and displays of overwhelming localized pressure to deceive enemies about his actual strength and make them feel surrounded or outflanked. While not especially admirable, he did show considerable insights into partisan resistance tactics and utter ruthlessness in suppressing them in Italy and the Balkans. In his final assignment, he was not listened to when he advised that the Allied invasion had to be stopped on the beaches within the first 24 hours, because the enemy's naval and air power would paralyze any deep-inland counterattacks.

Late Photo of Rommel with His Family

Rommel: The Limitations

Neglecting Logistics: Applying a junior officer's hyper-aggressive, fast-moving infantry mindset to entire Panzer armies caused severe logistical blind spots. Rommel frequently outran his supply lines and fuel trucks in North Africa because he prioritized operational momentum over administrative sustainability.

Command and Control Breakdown: His personal, decentralized style worked for a company or battalion, but at the division and army level, it often resulted in a reckless disregard for broader coordination and higher command directives. The "Ghost Division" nickname was not always meant as complimentary. His most notable failure in this regard occurred in the November 1942 Second Battle of ElAlamein, when his forward headquarters lost all contact with  his frontline units.

His Pessimism: Rommel grew progressively pessimistic about Germany's prospects in the war. This trait is totally absent in Infantry Attacks, which ends with the post-Caporetto operations in Italy, when Germany still seemed in a position to win the war. [Rommel served the entirety of 1918, when things turned bad for Germany, in a staff position.]  

Rommel’s pessimism began to manifest during the later stages of the North Africa Campaign. Hitler famously confided to Albert Speer that “Rommel has lost his nerve; he's become a pessimist." After the Normandy breakout by the Allies, he became almost openly defeatist and possibly a supporter of the 20 July assassination attempt. This cost him his life.

The Editor's Call:  

How closely did Rommel apply his First World War lessons?  From my readings of various sources, its seems like he did apply many of those lessons to the battlefields of the Second World War, possibly to a fault, and he did seem to have some blind spots. However, I remember a speaker at some long ago military conference who claimed that of all the notable generals of WWII, Rommel did "the mostest with the leastest."

Sources: Military History; HistoryNet; Military Strategy Magazine; Infantry Attacks by Erwin Rommel (highly recommended and can be ordered HERE.)

The Vauthier Borne Markers

Dedication of Marker #1 at Château-Thierry 
November, 1921

In our recent Lonesome Memorials #27 article (HERE) We mentioned that located across the road from the memorial is one of the demarcation stones that indicate Germany's deepest penetration in to France in WWI. One of our readers asked for more information on these markers, so this is what I discovered. By the way, the particular marker we referred to in the original article has a unique story.

These Vauthier Borne Markers (known in French as Bornes Vauthier or Bornes du Front) map out the Allied front line on 18 July 1918, marking the maximum German army advance before the final Allied counter-offensives. This network of landmarks was conceived in 1920 by French sculptor and war veteran Paul Moreau-Vauthier, who had served as a machine gunner and was wounded at Verdun. It gained sponsorship of the Touring Club de France.

Fort de la Pompelle (#50), Reims, Champagne

After a brief enemy occupation in August 1914, French forces, and later Russian, reoccupied the fort, protecting Reims for the entirety of the war.

The stones identify the army (Belgian, British, or French) that held that sector in 1918 and are engraved with the text "Here the invader was brought to a standstill 1918" in English, Dutch, and French. The stones were placed at locations selected by Marshal Petain and his staff and often occupy prominent positions usually on roadsides. Collectively, they delineate the line of 18 July 1918, the day French and American forces launched the first of the Allies 1918 victory offensives. The German Army gained no additional territory along the Western Front for the remainder of the war.  Needless to say, not all the markers were precisely located, especially where the front line experienced a series of attacks and counterattacks.  Moreau-Vauthier died in 1936 in a car accident at Ruffigny near Niort in Deux-Sèvres, and is buried in Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris.

 Stuivekenskerke (#11), Diksmuide, West Flanders

Site of an Important Belgian Army Observation Tower

Some Details:

Quantity: Originally, 240 markers were planned to stretch roughly 650 km along the Western Front from Nieuwpoort, Belgium to the Franco-Swiss border. Ultimately, 118 markers  were erected between 1921 and 1930 (96 in France and 22 in Belgium). Today, 93 survive after suffering damage during World War II.

Material & Size: Carved out of distinctive pink Alsace granite, standing about 1.3 meters (3.3 feet) tall.

Gear Engravings: The sides of each stone feature bas-relief carvings of standard infantry equipment, including a gas mask case, a water bottle, and hand grenades.

Design Elements: Each stone is topped with a military helmet resting on a laurel wreath. The helmet type varies depending on which Allied forces held that specific sector:

• French sector: Adrian helmet

• Belgian sector: Belgian Adrian helmet

• British/Commonwealth sector: Brodie helmet

At least two of the markers are particularly linked to the American War effort: 

Château-Thierry (#1)

On the banks of the Marne River, it signifies a major turning point during the Second Battle of the Marne. Located at the intersection of Avenue de Soissons and Avenue Jules. On 30 May 1918, machine gunners of the Third U.S. Division arrived on the opposite shore and prevented a crossing of the Marne River that would have threatened Paris. 

Flirey Marker (#68)
U.S. 89th Division Launched an Attack Here, 12 September 1918

This unique marker located in the Lorraine, on the south face of what was the St. Mihiel Salient. It stands .75 miles north of the village on D904. It is designated "Georges Washington" in recognition of the American service in the area. In the village proper is the Monument de la Lorraine à la Gloire des États-Unis symbolizing enduring Franco-American friendship.

I have thus far been unable to discover a comprehensive listing of the markers or a map.  If you know of such a resource, please post it in the comments below. 

1 October 2026 Update:

Reader ML has shared the url for an interactive map showing the location of all the markers including those no longer surviving.  It seems to be associated with the Dorman's memorial.  Thanks ML.

http://memorialdormans.free.fr/BornesVauthier.htm

Sources: American War Memorials Overseas,  Bassin de Pont-a-Mousson Tourisme; Wikipedia

A Dozen Photographs of Russia at War in 1916

Click on Images to Enlarge

The Dukhovshchinsky Regiment at a Performance at the Regimental Theater

A Hospital Nurse

Military Hospital Ward

 

Officers and Soldiers Leaving for the Front

In Memory of Military Service (Subject Unknown)

Captured Austrian Machine Gun

Transfer to the Southern Front

"At a Dugout. Wearing Gas Masks"

Rasputin's Corpse

Factory of the Russian Society for the Manufacture of Ammunition and Military Supplies

Tsar Nicholas II With His Family at the Train Station in Mogilëv 

Commander-in-Chief General Alexei Brusilov

Source: The Multimedia Art Museum, Moscow

Lonesome Memorials #28: World War One Memorial in Agawam Park, Southampton, NY

Click on Images to Enlarge

The Southampton Memorial Looking North

By James Patton

The village of Southampton, NY (2020 pop. 4,550, 1920 pop. 2,891) is located in the toney East End of Long Island. It’s a well-to-do community; the median household income is $214,032, and the median property value is over $4 million. For well over a hundred years, it has been a summer playground for the glitterati and the Wall Street wunderkinds. It has long been awash with old money, and lasting traces thereof endure, such as: (1) the imposing Gothic-style Catholic church that the robber barons built over a hundred years ago for their Irish household help, and is designated as a basilica, (2) The art museum, endowed in 1898 by Wall Street lawyer Samuel Parrish (1849–1932), which has over 3,500 works of art, (3) the 1879 Episcopal "summer chapel," situated on the dunes and featuring original Tiffany stained glass and (4) the imposing and atypical WWI memorial. Located in Agawam Park, it’s made of Indiana Limestone, features extensive stone carving, and was dedicated on 19 August 1923.

Battle Detail

The Art & Architecture Quarterly East End describes the memorial thusly: ‘[It]… consists of a platform slightly raised above its surroundings, the central portion three steps up and the side two steps.  In the center has been erected a temple of simple Corinthian style with nautical trophies–the dolphin, the trident and the anchor–for ornament, as suggested by the ocean setting of this ancient village.  The temple is roofed for shelter and on its interior walls are carved the names, rank and service of the Southampton men and boys who made the supreme sacrifice.  Here are also carved the shields of the various allies and on the exterior great eagle panels with the shields of Great Britain and France. In the center, on a platform of stone, on which is cut compass points, stands a commemorative altar of victory carved with the symbolic oak and laurel supported by rods and capped by conventional tin hats.

Tribute to Two of the Fallen of Southampton

The eight who gave their lives served in the 1st, 27th, 77th, 78th, and 79th Divisions, plus a sailor and a member of the British Royal Flying Corps. What is atypical are the wing panels, which bear the  names of all of the 325 men, women, and boys who served, although some of these names are now illegible.

Part of the Roster of Sotonians Who Served in the War

Other carved details include: the shields of the United States and New York State, the names of all of the major battles fought by Americans in the war, and daisy-chains of poppies. The sight lines were chosen so that in the south elevation, the temple colonnade frames both Lake Agawam and even the more distant Atlantic Ocean, although today mature trees block that far vista. The fountain and flagpole structures in front of the WWI Memorial were added later as the village’s monument to its fallen in WWII.

Altar of Victory

Elsewhere in the same park, there is also a Civil War memorial, which is a nautical-style flag mast, flanked by two naval cannons, two naval mortars and stacks of cannonballs. Across the street from Agawam Park is an additional monument to all of Southampton’s service members: The Veteran’s Hall. Built in 1911, for many years it housed the American Legion Post 432. The village acquired the property in 1985.

Recent State of the Memorial
Looking to Southeast

Although $284,000 of overdue repair work was performed on the WWI Memorial site in 2012, just six years later the structure had significantly deteriorated, and eventually had to be fenced off. A survey by an engineering firm estimated that $400,000 of new work was needed. Fundraising efforts began in 2021, but repeated grant requests were turned down. Ultimately, in December 2025, a “great Christmas present for the village,” was the award of a $675,000 preservation grant from the state to help fund the restoration. Through other efforts, the village has raised another $500,000, including both a $129,500 donation from the Southampton Association (which seeks to “foster the preservation of the character of our historic Village”), and $100,000 that was mostly raised at a gala. The village is “probably a little bit short still” of the current estimated cost of $1.2 million, but is close enough to proceed with the project, as donations are still coming in, and the village mayor has pledged that “the village can allocate more money for it”. We certainly hope so.

A Special Thanks to Dr. Susana Patton for these photographs.

Sassoon's Letter to The Times

Siegfried Sassoon was born into wealth and had led a privileged life before the war, with much hunting and cricketeering and some literary dabbling to pass the time. War brought something else out in him, though, and he fought with distinction with the 38th Welsh Division at the Somme. He earned the nickname "Mad Jack." In 1917 while on convalescent leave in England, advised by Bertrand Russell, he turned defiantly against the war. He tore the Military Cross ribbon from his uniform, tossed it in the River Mersey and sent this letter to The Times, where it was published:

Lt. Siegfried Sassoon.

3rd Batt: Royal Welsh Fusiliers.

July, 1917.

I am making this statement as an act of willful defiance of military authority because I believe that the war is being deliberately prolonged by those who have the power to end it. I am a soldier, convinced that I am acting on behalf of soldiers. I believe that the war upon which I entered as a war of defence and liberation has now become a war of aggression and conquest. I believe that the purposes for which I and my fellow soldiers entered upon this war should have been so clearly stated as to have made it impossible to change them and that had this been done the objects which actuated us would now be attainable by negotiation.

I have seen and endured the sufferings of the troops and I can no longer be a party to prolonging these sufferings for ends which I believe to be evil and unjust. I am not protesting against the conduct of the war, but against the political errors and insincerities for which the fighting men are being sacrificed. 

On behalf of those who are suffering now, I make this protest against the deception which is being practised upon them; also I believe it may help to destroy the callous complacency with which the majority of those at home regard the continuance of agonies which they do not share and which they have not enough imagination to realise

Sassoon was saved from a court martial for insubordination by the intercession of fellow Royal Welch Fusilier Robert Graves and was sent to Craiglockhart military hospital in Edinburgh to be treated for shell shock. There he met and encouraged fellow poet Wilfred Owen. Both Owen and Sassoon would return to the field, but their subsequent writings would emphasize the sufferings and sense of betrayal felt by the common soldiers of the war. 

Editor's Note:  We have published over a dozen articles over the years on Sassoon and his writings. [He's just a fascinating subject, who produced a lot of material about the war.] If you are interested you can find them HERE.

Meet the First American Produced Tank, the Model 1917 (M1917) – Video

Matthew from the American Heritage Museum at Hudson, Massachusetts, here gives an excellent introduction to the first American produced tanks, the M1917, a  U.S. licensed copy of the French Renault FT, a compact World War I tank that pioneered the classic turreted layout still used today. The US Government placed an order for 4,440 tanks to be built, but only 950 were produced before the order was cancelled. A handful of them arrived in France just after the Armistice.

Horrible Histories: The Frightful First World War

By Terry Deary & Martin Brown 

Scholastic, 2007

Commentary by Esther MacCallum-Stewart

Nonfiction books for children deal more explicitly with historical events and are often more subversive than their literary counterparts. The former are seen as having a duty to represent history accurately.  The desire to reappropriate history through the best stories spawned a revisionist history trend in children’s writing. Pioneered by Terry Deary’s Horrible History  series, these books aims to present “history with the nasty bits left in!”

Deary’s titles include The Rotten Romans, The Cut-Throat Celts, The Vicious Vikings, and, of course, The Frightful First World War. The series is immensely successful, appealing to the prurient sense of humor of young readers. The subversiveness of these texts lies in their deliberate attempt to provide alternative readings of history. In fact, the books are well-researched and carefully themed to coincide with Great Britain’s National Curriculum modules. They are informative while overemphasizing the “horrible” aspect of each book. For example, The Frightful First World War describes the army order instructing soldiers to urinate on their socks and then breathe through the material during a gas attack, but there is also an amount of more traditional detail, thinly disguised as terrible events.

Alfred Leete’s famous recruitment poster of Lord Kitchener is drawn next to the entirely prosaic information that he died by drowning when the HMS Hampshire hit a stray mine on 5 June 1915; the famous slogan has been changed to read “Your country needs YOU! But I need a lifeboat”. 

Order HERE

This irreverent approach has done much to encourage the study of history in younger readers and the books are popular with schools and libraries. The Frightful First World War is particularly interesting because it presents such an uncompromising view of the war. Deary says that “the truth is pretty nasty” and this no-nonsense approach does much to provide a realistic account of the war. At the same time, the need to present interesting and unusual facts means that the book is naturally alternative in its approach.

Source:  "If they ask us why we died", Children's Literature and the First World War, 1970-2005; The Lion and the Unicorn, April 2007

The French Military Mission to Poland

Charles De Gaulle in Poland, 1920

Following an April 1919 agreement, Marshal Foch dispatched a military mission to Poland in an effort by France to aid the nascent Second Polish Republic after it achieved its independence in November 1918, at the end of the First World War. The aim was to provide aid during the Polish-Soviet War (1919–1921) and to create a strong Polish military to serve as a useful ally against Germany. It was an advisory body consisting of about 400 French officers attached to staffs of Polish units at various levels. Although the French mission was small numerically, its effect was substantial in improving the organization and logistics of the Polish army. The French staff worked in parallel with a smaller British mission to Poland.

Its first commander was General Paul Prosper Henrys, previously the commander of French forces in the Balkans. The French mission commanded considerable respect and influence through the activities of its 400 officer-instructors. These men were entrusted with the task of training the officer corps in the art of military science and in the use of French army methods. Among the French officers was a future president of France, Charles De Gaulle, who was an advisor at the Polish infantry school and received Poland's Virtuti Militari for his service. 

French-Trained Polish Cavalry During the Soviet War

The French-Polish interface, however, was not without tensions and problems.  President Józef Piłsudski generally viewed the French Military Mission to Poland with a mix of  pragmatic necessity and professional skepticism, while publicly maintaining that Poland must rely on its own self-sufficiency rather than foreign strategic dictation. During the critical 1920 Battle of Warsaw, Piłsudski rebuffed attempts by Western advisors to take strategic control, preferring his own operational plans and famously appointing General Maxime Weygand [who was part of an Allied diplomatic mission, not the military mission] only as an advisor to the Polish Chief of Staff rather than placing him in command of Polish troops.

Some of the mission's most important accomplishments include:

• Unifying the Polish Army's disparate types of units, training methods, and equipment from the former German, Austro-Hungarian, and Russian origins into a single cohesive force.

• Assisting with the transit and subsequent integration of General Józef Haller's "Blue Army" (a 70,000-strong force formed in France) into the main Polish armed forces in 1919.

• Reorganizing the Polish general staff with the French system with standard section for operations, intelligence, and logistics.

• Advising on Polish strategy during the victorious war over Soviet Russia.

Piłsudski Decorating Foch

In gratitude, Polish leader Józef Piłsudski personally unpinned his own Virtuti Militari medal from his uniform to award Marshal Foch in 1921, who had unstintingly supported Polish independence. Foch was later awarded the prestigious Order of the White Eagle and, in 1923, was named a Marshal of Poland—becoming the only foreign national to ever hold that rank. France would maintain its mission to Poland through 1939.

What Are the Most Significant Finds of World War One Archeologists?

Last week, the wife and I were watching the excellent 4-part docudrama The Mummy of Tutankhamun that tells the story of archaeologist Howard Carter's long search for the Boy King's tomb. It was particularly engrossing for me since I had visited the Valley of the Kings site in 1989 and subsequently got to view much of the collection at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.  Given my interest in the First World War,  I naturally started asking myself:  "What about WWI + Archeology = ?"   I have a little feel for this since I've taken my WWI  battlefield tour groups to a few such sites over the years, but I've decided to do a little fresh "digging" myself.  Here's what I came up with. Of course, people have been exploring and excavating the war's battlefields probably before the Armistice came. What I've focused on here are fairly recent efforts.

Western Front

1.  The Carspach "Pompeii" Kilianstollen (Kilian tunnel)  (Alsace, France)

The Underground Shelter

The Discovery: In 2012, archaeologists excavating ahead of a road project near Carspach uncovered a collapsed 1918 German underground shelter. 

Significance: Often called the "Pompeii of the Western Front," the anaerobic, oxygen-deprived conditions preserved the remains of 21 German soldiers exactly where they sat when an Allied shell collapsed their tunnel. Personal items, boots, leather gear, and newspapers were left intact alongside the soldiers. The soldiers were reburied at the Illfurth German War Cemetery in Alsace.

2.  The Fromelles Mass Graves (Nord Department, France)

Sites of Original Burial and New Cemetery

The Discovery: Excavations led by archaeological teams at Pheasant Wood in Fromelles exhumed eight mass pits containing the remains of 250 Australian and British soldiers. 

Significance: Supported by over 5,000 recovered artifacts, modern forensic archaeology and DNA profiling successfully identified hundreds of previously "missing" soldiers, closing generations of uncertainty for families. The soldiers were reburied nearby at the new Pheasant Wood Commonwealth War Grave Cemetery in 2014.  A museum is also included at the new site. Roads Article

3.   Yorkshire Trench Systems (Boezinge, Flanders)

What the "Diggers" Found

The Discovery: In 1992, Amateur researchers, known as the "Diggers" working on an industrial site near Ypres Canal site in Boezinge uncovered remarkably preserved wooden duckboards and wall supports buried deep beneath agricultural fields.

Significance: The woodwork and structural integrity of this Flanders trench system survived better than almost any other site on the Western Front, revealing improvised engineering details overlooked by standard military records. Remains of 200 soldiers were discovered during the digs.  The Yorkshire Trench can be visited today, as it is fully restored and open to the public

4.  Dig Hill 80 Project (Wytschaete "Whitesheet", Flanders)

A Century Later, the German Strong Point Had Been Long Forgotten

The Discovery: In 2018 in anticipation of a new housing project,  a team
 of archaeologists discovered a well-preserved German strongpoint at a ridge top near the village.

Significance: The archaeologists had stumbled upon was unique; a piece of the formidable trench fortress that had remained virtually untouched since that the end of the war. Farm buildings had been incorporated into the defensive trench system to create an almost impregnable redoubt that was taken only in June 1917, in the Battle of Messines.

5. The Glory  Hole Tunneling Site (La Boisselle, Somme)

A British tunnel at 80 feet depth  (Iain McHenry/La Boisselle Study Group)

Discovery: In 2011 a three-year investigation was conducted  in an area of intense mining and counter-mining operations near the enormous Lochnagar mine crater.

Significance: Researchers mapped and explored approximately 7 kilometers of WWI tunnels and trenches buried between 12 and 30 meters deep. Several remains of fallen soldiers were discovered and turned over to their nation's authorities for identification and reburial.

Dardanelles

6.  The Gallipoli Anzac Sector Battlefield Survey (Turkey)

A New Zealand Representative Marks a Battlefield Trench

The Discovery: A five-year (2009–2014) joint Turkey, Australia and New Zealand Historical and Archaeological Survey of the Anzac Battlefield mapped thousands of meters of intact trenches, collapsed tunnels, and dugouts that were previously unrecorded or known only through flawed wartime maps. Hundreds of artifacts have been discovered, so far.

Significance: It proved that large-scale non-destructive battlefield surveys can map close-quarters combat environments (where trenches were often only 10 to 20 yards apart) without disturbing sensitive war graves. An interesting discovery was that Ottoman frontline kitchens were much closer to the trenches than Allied kitchens, meaning Turkish soldiers often had access to fresh hot meals.

Italian Front

Dead Italian Soldier Exposed by Melting Snow

7. Melting Alpine Ice Discoveries (Dolomite Alps)

The Discovery: Receding glaciers and melting ice in the Italian Alps have exposed high-altitude Austro-Hungarian and Italian frontline positions.

Significance: Archaeologists have found exceptionally preserved wooden barracks, clothing, snow goggles, personal letters, and even perishable organic waste like food rations and latrine contents, offering a direct window into brutal high-altitude mountain warfare. Roads Article.

Eastern Front

8. Veretyičiv Hill (Carpathian Mountains Slovakia)

2017 Survey Defining the 1915 Battlefield

Discoveries:  Researchers surveyed high-altitude combat zones like Veretyčiv Hill and Kobyla Hill. Metal detection and geophysical surveys here successfully mapped hidden Austro-Hungarian and Russian rearguard firing lines, foxholes, and shell impacts in heavily forested terrain.

Significance: Because of the scale of WWII fighting, WWI-oriented archeology is still quite rare.