Death on the Somme: A Reflection on the Eve of the Battle's Anniversary—A Roads Classic

Whether a man be killed by a rifle bullet through the brain, or blown into fragments by a high-explosive shell, may seem a matter of indifference to the conscientious objector, or to any other equally well-placed observer, who in point of fact is probably right; but to the poor fool who is a candidate for posthumous honours, and necessarily takes a more directly interested view, it is a question of importance.  He is, perhaps, the victim of an illusion, like all who, in the words of Paul, are fools for Christ's sake; but he has seen one man shot cleanly in his tracks and left face downwards, dead, and he has seen another torn into bloody tatters as by some invisible beast, and these experiences had nothing illusory about them: they were actual facts.  Death, of course, like chastity, admits of no degree; a man is dead or not dead, and a man is just as dead by one means as by another; but it is infinitely more horrible and revolting to see a man shattered and eviscerated, than to see him shot.  And one sees such things; and one suffers vicariously, with the inalienable sympathy of man for man.  One forgets quickly.  The mind is averted as well as the eyes.  It reassures itself after that first despairing cry: "It is I!"

"No, it is not I.  I shall not be like that."

And one moves on, leaving the mauled and bloody thing behind: gambling, in fact, on that implicit assurance each one of us has of his own immortality.  One forgets, but he will remember again later, if only in his sleep.

Dead German Soldiers, Mametz Wood,
Somme Battlefield

After all, the dead are quiet.  Nothing in the world is more still than a dead man.  One sees men living, living, as it were, desperately, and then suddenly emptied of life.  A man dies and stiffens into something like a wooden dummy, at which one glances for a second with a furtive curiosity.  Suddenly he remembered the dead in Trones Wood, the unburied dead with whom one lived, he might say, cheek by jowl, Briton and Hun impartially confounded, festering, fly-blown corruption, the pasture of rats, blackening in the heat, swollen with distended bellies, or shrivelling away within their mouldering rags; and even when night covered them, one vented in the wind the stench of death.  Out of one bloody misery into another, until we break.  One must not break.  He took in his breath suddenly in a shaken sob, and the mind relinquished its hopeless business. The warm smelly darkness of the tent seemed almost luxurious ease. He drowsed heavily; dreaming of womanly softness, sweetness; but their faces slipped away from him like the reflections in water when the wind shakes it, and his soul sank deeply and more deeply into the healing of oblivion.

From: The Middle Parts of Fortune: Somme and Ancre, 1916 by Frederic Manning (1882–1935)

Remembering a Veteran: Capt. A. H. “Harry” Cobby CBE GM DSO DFC+2 , Leading Australian Flying Corps Ace

World War One Air Ace and Hero

By James Patton

Arthur Henry “Harry” Cobby (1894–1955) was born in Prahran, Melbourne, one of four sons of Arthur E. S., a tram conductor, and Alice Cobby (née Nash). Harry was educated at University College, Armadale, Perth.  At age 18 he received a militia commission in the 46th  Infantry (Brighton Rifles), based at Elsternwick, Melbourne and was later transferred to the 47th  Infantry, which was disbanded in early 1914. 

After the First World War began he was eager to join the new Australian Imperial Force (AIF), but his employer, the Commonwealth Bank, refused to release him. Two years later circumstances had changed, and in October 1916 he was allowed to join the Australian Flying Corps (AFC), despite having little prior experience with aircraft. He was posted to the AFC Central Flying School at Point Cook, Victoria, where he completed his training in December 1916 with just 30 minutes of solo flying in his log. Still a 2nd  lieutenant, he was then assigned as a founding member of No. 4 Squadron, AFC, which would go on to claim 199 victories in the skies over the Western Front, the most of any AFC squadron.

No. 4 arrived in England in March 1917. More training ensued, as well as type familiarization.  By December, having learned to fly the Sopwith Camel, they were in France. Although their training had ended, Cobby—who at this point had just 12  solo hours himself—said that the squadron was made up of novices. He later admitted to being so nervous about the prospect of going into combat that "if anything could have been done by me to delay that hour, I would have left nothing undone to bring it about."

In February 1918, he got the first of his claimed 29 kills (plus 13 balloons, which were not counted as kills by the AFC), which proved to be the highest score achieved by a member of the AFC. Two Australians flying Sopwith Triplanes with with the Royal Naval Air Service had higher scores, Capt. Robert Little (1895–1918) with 47 and Maj. Roderic “Stan” Dallas (1891–1918) with 39. Both were killed within six days of each other in 1918. 

By May 1918, Cobby was an experienced combat airman, having flown extensively against various enemy aircraft, including von Richthofen’s Flying Circus (he shot down two JG.I  Albatros V’s),  and participated in low-level attacks during the March offensive. 

On 25 May 1918, Cobby, already a flight leader, was promoted to captain. Described as "an imp of mischief," he personalized his Sopwith Camel by decorating it with caricatures of comic actor Charlie Chaplin and adopting various flashy paint schemes, although he claimed that these were "not for conceit, but for safety," as he wanted to avoid being shot down by his own side. He again scored two kills in one day on 30 May near Estaires, an Albatros and an observation balloon, and repeated this feat the next day. Earlier he had been responsible for No. 4's first balloon kill—at Merville earlier in May. These large observation balloons, nicknamed Drachen (dragons), were a valuable target and thus well protected by fighter cover and anti-aircraft guns.

He was recommended for the Military Cross (MC) on 3 June 1918 in recognition of his combat success and for being a "bold and skilful Patrol Leader, who is setting a fine example to his Squadron." The award was upgraded to a Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC) on 2 July. He never actually got an MC.

Cobby shot down three German aircraft on 28 June and was recommended for a bar to his DFC, highlighting his triple-ace tally of 15 victories. On 15 July 1918, he and another pilot engaged five Pfalz scouts near Armentières, Cobby accounting for two of the enemy aircraft and his companion for one. The Australians were then pursued by four Fokker Triplanes but managed to evade them. This action earned him a second bar to his DFC, the citation noting that he had scored 21 kills to date and had "succeeded in destroying so many machines by hard work and by using his brains, as well as by courage and brilliant flying." The two bars to his DFC were both gazetted on 21 September. 

Meanwhile, on 16 August, Cobby led a bombing raid against the German airfield at Haubourdin, near Lille, the largest aerial assault by Allied forces up until then, resulting in 37 enemy aircraft being destroyed. The following day he led a similar attack on Lomme airfield and was recommended for the Distinguished Service Order (DSO).  Gazetted on 2 November, the citation read "The success of these two raids was largely due to the determined and skilful leadership of this officer."

In September, Cobby returned to England to be an instructor. His exploits had been widely reported in Australia. At the Commonwealth Bank, reports of his courage and flying prowess were met with pride. Cobby, in writing to the bank’s house organ Bank Notes, was more modest about his successes. He said that he was, "more to be congratulated on being alive than doing anything special, as the whole AFC strive after good results, and of course some go west, and those that live reap the benefits of the whole."

Portrait at the Australian War Museum

Cobby led the AFC fly-past over London on ANZAC Day 1919 before his return to Australia in May 1919. Still widely  known at home, he became the face of the AFC, and a William McInnes portrait of him was commissioned for display at the new Australian War Museum. The Commonwealth Bank, in recognition of his distinguished war service, had letters of welcome sent to him from each of its state branches. The bank claimed that his great successes were not unexpected "for we were all well aware that his temperament and courage eminently fitted him for distinction as a daring and successful aviator."

In 1921, he became a founding member of the Royal Australian Air Force  (RAAF). He was a full-time flying officer, commanding No. 1 Squadron, and eventually rose to the rank of wing commander in 1933 before reverting to reserve status in 1936. 

He joined the Australian Civil Aviation Board as it’s Controller of Operations. As such, he had responsibility for aircraft inspections, licenses and airworthiness certificates, maintenance of radio and meteorological services, and RAAF liaison. The board was reorganized as the Department of Civil Aviation in November 1938, and he was eventually made redundant. Throughout this period he had been a regular contributor to aviation magazines such as Australian Airmen and Popular Flying. Later, in 1942, he published High Adventure an account of his WWI service. 

In  September 1939, the RAAF called back him back to active duty as a group captain. He was first assigned to head up recruiting, then given an area command. He was promoted to air commodore in July 1943. On 7 September of the same year, he was traveling as a passenger on a PBY Catalina when it crash-landed near Townsville, Queensland. Although injured, he helped rescue two other survivors and was recommended for the George Medal for his "outstanding bravery," which was gazetted on 10 March 1944. Also, in the 1944 Birthday Honours, the king made Cobby a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE).

In August 1944 he was appointed air officer commanding, 1st Tactical Air Force, the only RAAF combat command of its size (25,000 men) in the war. This role he found to be increasingly untenable due to his getting orders from the RAAF High Command, the U.S. 13th Air Force, and even U.S. Gen. Douglas MacArthur’s Southwest Pacific Area Command. Cobby likened his position to that of the farcical Gilbert & Sullivan character The Duke of Plaza Toro.

In April 1945, based out of Morotai Island (today a part of Indonesia), Cobby faced the resignations of eight of his best pilots, including the RAAF’s leading ace, Group Capt. Clive Caldwell DSO DFC+1 (1911–1994), who was also the leading WWII ace in the P-40. He was the commander of the RAAF No. 1 Fighter Wing, which was made up of three squadrons of the highly prized Spitfire XVCs.  Caldwell and his pilots were annoyed at flying dangerous operations against what they considered to be "senseless unimportant ground targets." Known as the "Morotai Mutiny," the episode resulted in Cobby being relieved due to "low morale." After additional complaints and a drawn-out investigation, he was cashiered in August 1946. 

World War Two Air Commander

Australian historian (and former RAAF pilot) Alan Stephens PhD OAM has written: “No Australian airman's experience better illustrates the tensions between 'command', 'leadership' and ‘heroism’ … the qualities that make a hero do not easily translate into those needed by a commander, although they are likely to engender leadership." Stephens also described Cobby’s cashiering as "a personal and institutional tragedy that a genuinely great figure in RAAF history had to end his career in such circumstances.” 

That notwithstanding, in 1948, as recognition for his wartime service to the U.S., Cobby received the U.S. Medal of Freedom (a non-military award, superseded in 1962 by the Presidential Medal of Freedom). The citation states that  from September 1944 to January 1945, he displayed "exceptionally sound judgement and far sighted planning...and materially assisted in support of the operations in the Philippine Liberation Campaign."

Meanwhile, he had rejoined the Department of Civil Aviation, where he was a regional director (1947–54) and  director of flight operations until he was stricken at work and died in Melbourne on Armistice Day 1955. He was still a national hero and was accorded full military honors at his burial.

The Committee on Public Information (CPI) — America's Mighty Propaganda Machine — CSPAN Video

Deeds Still Remembered for Good or Ill: Ten WWI Recipients of the Pour le Mérite

The Pour le Mérite, known informally during World War I as the Blue Max, was the Kingdom of Prussia's highest military order until the end of World War I. The original regulations called for the capture or successful defense of a fortification, or victory in a battle. By World War I, the oak leaves often indicated a second or higher award of the Pour le Mérite. Although it could be awarded to any military officer, many of its most famous recipients were the pilots of the German Army Air Service (Luftstreitkräfte), whose exploits were celebrated in wartime propaganda. It was awarded 1,687 times in the First World War. This included 122 awards with the additional oak leaves.

• Lothar von Arnauld de la Perière, German U-boat commander for sinking 194 ships, totaling 453,716 tons of Allied shipping, the most by any submarine commander in history. 

• Oswald Boelcke is important as a pioneering figure in the history of aerial warfare, particularly for his contributions to the development of fighter tactics during World War.  "Dicta Boelcke" is the foundational set of rules for aerial combat. (Photo: Bottom Right)

• Hermann Göring, was decorated as an ace pilot in June 1918, later Reichsmarschall, head of the Luftwaffe, and second in command of Germany's Third Reich. War criminal. (Photo: Bottom Left)

• Ernst Jünger, novelist and the last living holder of the Pour le Mérite at the time of his death in 1998.  Wounded 14 times during the war.

• Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck, who led German forces in the guerrilla campaign in German East Africa. One of Germany's greatest postwar heroes.  (Photo: Top Left)

• Erich Ludendorff, German general of World War I; awarded the Pour le Mérite in August 1914, one of the earliest World War I awards, for the siege of Liège.  (Photo: Top Right)

• Manfred von Richthofen,  the top-scoring ace of World War I.   As the "Red Baron" has posthumously received mythic status throughout the world.

• Erwin Rommel, the future "Desert Fox" distinguished himself on multiple fronts of the war, especially at Caporetto in 1917.

• Hans von Seeckt, brilliant staff officer in World War I; awarded the Pour le Mérite in May 1915 and the oak leaves in November 1915 for contributions on the Eastern Front. After the war, he was instrumental in surreptitiously rebuilding the postwar German army.

The British Empire and "World War"

Comments by John Bourne, Birmingham University, in THE OXFORD HISTORY OF MODERN WAR, 2000

The [Great War] began in the Balkan cockpit of competing nationalisms and ancient ethnic rivalries. Hopes that it could be contained there proved vain. Expansion of the war was swift. . .

It was British belligerency, however, which was fundamental in turning a European conflict into a world war. Britain was the world’s greatest imperial power. The British had world-wide interests and world-wide dilemmas. They also had world-wide friends. Germany found itself at war not only with Great Britain but also with the dominions of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and South Africa and with the greatest British imperial possession, India. Concern for the defence of India helped bring the British into conflict with the Ottoman Empire in November 1914 and resulted in a major war in the Middle East. 

Most important of all, perhaps,  Britain’s close political, economic, and cultural ties with the United States of America, if they did not ensure that nation’s eventual entry into the war, certainly made it possible. The American declaration of war on Germany on 6 April 1917 was a landmark not only in the history of the United States but also in that of Europe and the world, bringing to an end half a millennium of European domination and ushering in ‘the American century’.

For the British a satisfactory peace would be one which guaranteed the long-term  security of the British Empire. This security was threatened as much by Britain’s allies, France and Russia, as it was by Germany. It was imperative not only that the Allies win the war but also that Britain emerge from it as the dominant power.

Forgotten Canadian War Artist: Mary Riter Hamilton

Gun Emplacements, Farbus Wood, Vimy Ridge

Mary Riter Hamilton was a Canadian painter, etcher, drawing artist, textile artist, and ceramics artist who spent much of her career painting abroad. She produced the largest known collection of First World War art—over 300 works.  

Mary Riter Hamilton (1867–1954) About 1912

"I came out because I felt I must come, and if I did not come at once it would be too late."

So wrote Mary Riter Hamilton in 1922. The Canadian artist had just completed a two-and-a-half-year solo expedition to Europe's postwar battlefields. In that time, she created more than 300 paintings and drawings, the largest known collection of First World War art.

She embarked on this artistic and historic mission in order to bear witness, to ensure that future generations would remember the devastation and the overwhelming loss caused by the Great War.

Memorial for the Second Canadian Division in
a Mine Crater near Neuville St. Vaast

The Artist Working at Ypres in 1919

When the First World War ended, the Amputation Club of British Columbia—the predecessor to the War Amps of Canada—commissioned Hamilton to portray the postwar battlefields for its magazine, The Gold Stripe. She set sail for France and Belgium at the very moment when most were leaving the former battlefields for home.

In late April 1919, Riter Hamilton stepped foot on Vimy Ridge for the first time. 

Trenches on the Somme

The Sadness of the Somme 

By 1921, more than two years after she arrived on the battlefields, Riter Hamilton had reached a breaking point. She was physically and emotionally depleted. She suffered from rheumatism and mental anguish and was poor. She had also become silent—her letters to friends and family back home had come to a full stop.  

"I fear I must give up for a time," Riter Hamilton wrote that year, "my heart has given out of air." 

In 1923, Hamilton suffered a nervous breakdown. She struggled with deep fear and paranoia and was consumed with worry about the fate of her paintings. She was determined to bring them home to Canada, yet didn't have the funds to do so. With money earned making hand-painted women's scarves, Hamilton at last managed to return to Canada in 1925 and began the search for an institutional home for her battlefield works. The next year, she donated the collection to the Public Archives of Canada in Ottawa, now Library and Archives Canada, where they remain to this day. 

 Lens-Arras Road

Sources: The Conversation, 8 November 2020; CBC Website, 11 November 2021; Library and Archives Canada

Paths of Glory by Irvin S. Cobb

Paths of Glory

 By Irvin S. Cobb
Aeterna, 2024 

Irvin S. Cobb

Not to be confused with the Humphrey Cobb novel of the same title later turned into a 1957 motion picture directed by Stanley Kubrick and starring Kirk Douglas, this work was first published in 1915. This Paths of Glory is a revealing series of firsthand impressions of the opening weeks of the Great War in Belgium, Germany, and France written by Saturday Evening Post correspondent Irvin Shrewsbury Cobb (1876–1944). 

Cobb traveled by taxi, staff car, train, and horse-drawn carriage behind the battle fronts in the late summer and fall of 1914. Despite German suspicions, he was given remarkable access. He interviewed any number of German officers; Belgian, French, and English war prisoners; German, Belgian, and French civilians and medical personnel, as well as American diplomats and consular officials in Belgium. 

While he is careful not to accuse the Germans of committing atrocities against civilians, he does detail the destruction of life and property in reprisal for alleged Belgian armed civilian resistance, the legendary francs tireurs so feared by German soldiers. His depiction of the ruins of the Belgian university city of Louvain is particularly evocative. 

In  summary, Cobb describes Belgium as "That poor little rag doll, with its head crushed in  the wheeled tracks…" Not surprisingly, he finds many Belgian civilians to be morose, demoralized, and hungry. Some even  then were beginning to starve. 

. . . We were not in the town of Battice. We were where the town of Battice had been, where it stood six weeks ago. It was famous then for its fat, rich cheeses and its green damson plums. Now, and no doubt for years to come, it will be chiefly notable as having been the town where, it is said, Belgian civilians first fired on the German troops from roofs and windows, and where the Germans first inaugurated their ruthless system of reprisal on houses and people alike. Literally this town no longer existed. It was a scrap-heap, if you like, but not a town. Here had been a great trampling out of the grapes of wrath, and most sorrowful was the vintage that remained.

 

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In language that must have shocked contemporary American readers, Cobb reports on the almost unending parade of  blood-soaked wounded streaming back from the fighting front and the heroic efforts of exhausted German, Belgian, and French medical staff to cope with the carnage. He also visits and vividly describes the ruins of the Fort de Loncin and other defensive works destroyed by heavy-caliber German and Austrian siege guns, views the front from a German observation balloon, visits an artillery battery, and reports on German civilian attitudes toward the war. Even in the fall of 1914 Germans were publicly discussing the possible annexation of Belgium, as well as absolute German domination—political and economic—over the European continent. 

Escorting Convoys—The U.S. Navy's Critical Role in World War One

Click on Convoy Image to Enlarge

The duties of antisubmarine patrol and escort required primarily a small vessel of light draft, good sea-keeping qualities, and preferably high speed. The destroyer was especially suited for the work, but since the number available was inadequate to meet the demands, they were supplemented by converted yachts, revenue cutters, gunboats, small cruisers, etc. The first American men-of-war to reach Europe was a division of destroyers that arrived at Queenstown on 4 1917. This place was selected as a base of operations on account of its proximity to the focus of traffic lanes to the waters of Great Britain and northern France. As the war progressed, there were established similar American main bases at Brest and Gibraltar, and smaller bases on the west coast of France.

Destroyer USS Allen and Troopship SS Leviathan
Destroyers Played a Key Role in the Convoy System

During the first few weeks of American participation, the method of protection to shipping in the war zone was by patrol. Each destroyer was assigned a certain area within which it cruised with the object of forcing any submarines in that area to remain submerged and thus hamper the facility of its operations and favor the safe passage of surface vessels proceeding singly. This method proved to be extremely inefficient because of the small force which could be assigned to the work and the very large area to be covered.

A Troop Convoy Approaching Brest, France

Meantime plans were formulated to put the convoy system into effect. As is well known, this system involved the formation of a large number of merchant vessels into one group and the escort of that group through the war zone by antisubmarine vessels. It was not adopted earlier principally because of a shortage of war vessels to serve the tremendous amount of shipping passing through the danger zone. It was due to this fact that the American naval aid was at first so important, that American destroyers and other suitable vessels were available in fairly sufficient numbers to place world shipping on a convoy basis at a very acute crisis. This was true especially of the destroyers which necessarily had to form the keystone of the whole convoy system.

A Gun Crew at Their Station in the U-boat Zone

While the convoy system was a defensive measure, it was established as a matter of sheer necessity. Offensive measures would have been generally preferred as being the surest way in which to defeat the submarine campaign, but no offensive means had been sufficiently developed at that time to promise any considerable success, and the severe losses which were being incurred in the spring of 1917 left no other than a defensive alternative. To a degree the convoy system was an "offensive-defensive" in that the escort vessels were prepared, upon an attack being made on their convoy, to instantly take the offensive against submarines and endeavor to destroy them with gunfire or depth charges.

Principal Destroyer Base, Queenstown, Ireland

From the beginning, the convoy system was a great success. It was put into effect gradually, and by the end of July 1917, more than 10,000 ships had been convoyed and only one-half of one percent of them lost. Ultimately practically all shipping was placed in convoy, and the low percentage of losses under this system was maintained until the end of the war. The very fact of its success created a strong tendency to make the escorts of destroyers and other small vessels more numerous, thus constantly absorbing the reinforcements of small craft for this semi-defensive work rather than for more offensive measures, such as hunting. By July 1917, there were 34 American destroyers with their tenders based on Queenstown, and 17 converted yachts and 9 minesweepers were based on the Bay of Biscay French ports for the purpose of keeping that coast clear of mines and giving escort to local convoys. As more destroyers became available, they were assigned to Brest, and at that port there was gradually assembled a force of approximately the same size as the Queenstown organization. These two detachments were the principal American anti-submarine forces employed in Europe for the protection of the sea transportation of the American Army. Their work was, of course, augmented by British and French forces.

View of a Convoy from an Escort Ship

Another very important American detachment was that at Gibraltar, the "gateway" for more traffic than any other part in the world. Gibraltar was the focus for the great routes to and from the east through the Mediterranean, and from it extended the communications for the armies in Italy, Saloniki, Egypt, Palestine, and Mesopotamia. The Allied forces based here were chiefly British and American, though French, Japanese, and Italian vessels also assisted. The American contingent comprised cruisers, gunboats, revenue cutters, antiquated destroyers, and yachts, ultimately aggregating about 41 vessels, with a personnel of nearly 5,000.

Leave Party from the USS Great Northern

The duty of escorting convoys was extremely arduous. The small vessels had to keep the sea for long periods and maintain the same speed as the convoy regardless of weather conditions. Many convoys had to be met as far as 300 miles from the coast. The great extent of the ocean combined with the comparatively few (about 12) submarines which the Germans could maintain continuously on station prevented frequent attacks by enemy submarines. Many escort vessels went through the entire war without a hostile submarine, but this was due in part to the fact that the submarines preferred to leave the protected convoys alone and to expend their efforts in the less dangerous work of attacking single ships of which one or more usually straggled from each convoy.

American Lives Were Lost When the USS Tuscania—
Part of a British Convoy—Was Sunk

Usually the escort vessels went through the cycle of proceeding to a port in Europe where empty ships were made up into convoys, scouting the approaches of the port, forming up the convoy and getting it started westward, escorting it through the danger zone and dispersing it, scouting for and picking up an inbound convoy, escorting it eastward through the danger zone, and protecting it during the period when detachments separated to go to respective ports. This usually occupied three or four days, after which the escort vessels would proceed to their home port for a few days of rest and repair, preparatory to another cycle of operations.

Doughboys Heading Over

During the period at sea, it was principally hard work and hardship with no wild adventure, although expectations were keyed up by the frequent radio reports of submarine positions and operations, S.O.S. signals from vessels which had been attacked by submarines, and other similar information. A destroyer was frequently detached and sent ahead or astern of the convoy to drive down a submarine which had been reported. When vessels in the vicinity were torpedoed, one or more destroyers would be sent to rescue the personnel, taking them off the sinking steamer or picking them up from their boats. Not infrequently, a submarine would hover about a convoy for several days awaiting an opportunity to attack, even though its presence was known to the escorting vessels, and a number of attacks were made upon convoys after which the submarine escaped successfully in spite of barrages of depth charges from the destroyers.

Aboard Ship

The most successful operation of American escort vessels during the war was the capture of the U-58 by the United States destroyers Fanning and Nicholson. This occurred in November, 1917, when an American destroyer division was escorting an outward bound convoy of eight empty ships toward its point of dispersal, with instructions to meet subsequently an incoming convoy. After the usual preliminary scouting off the port, the destroyers were patrolling the vicinity and giving instructions with a view to having the merchant ships take their formation promptly. While the Fanning was thus engaged, the lookout sighted a periscope in such a location as to seriously endanger the merchant ship Welshman. Immediately, the Fanning's helm was put over and the difficult task undertaken of reaching a position immediately over the submarine whose periscope had disappeared. The Fanning made a wide and rapid turn and depth-charged the place where she estimated the submarine to be. The Nicholson also joined the attack and dropped another depth charge ahead of the Fanning.

Flotilla of Navy Destroyers Guarding a Convoy

Eagerly the sea was scanned for evidence of success in the usual form of oil patches, air bubbles or pieces of wreckage, but none were seen. For 10 or 15 minutes, everything was quiet and it appeared that the submarine must have been missed, but at that time she came to the surface apparently undamaged and was immediately fired upon by the guns of the destroyers. Suddenly the submarine's conning tower opened and officers and crew filed up with their arms overhead shouting Kamarad. Of course, the gun fire was immediately stopped. The submarine had surrendered, but soon afterward she began to sink, her sea valves having been purposely opened. The crew was rescued from the water by the American destroyers. It was subsequently learned that although the depth charges had not exploded sufficiently close to the submarine to do her any material structural damage, the concussion had wrecked her motors, making it impossible to control the vessel while submerged. The German captain then had the alternative of sinking until the water pressure crushed the vessel or to blow the ballast tanks, rise to the surface and surrender. He first attempted to stay under water but upon reaching the critical depth of 200 feet with the boat still descending rapidly, he decided to take his chances on the surface.

USS Agamemnon Returning Part of the
26th Yankee Division

During the 18 months of war when American vessels escorted convoys through the war zone, 183 attacks were made by them upon submarines, 24 submarines were damaged and two known to have been destroyed. A total of 18,653 ships were escorted carrying vast quantities of freight to the armies in France and the civilian population of the Allies, as well as more than 2,000,000 troops.

American Doughboys Returning Home Aboard the
Battleship USS Louisiana

The principal burden of this stupendous work fell upon the destroyers, whose very efficiency created never ceasing demands for protection to the endless stream of vessels passing the great focus of the allied lines of sea communications. Few of the millions of soldiers, sailors, and civilians, who were met far at sea by these comparatively tiny craft will ever forget the sense of great relief and security given by their mere presence. The thousands who witnessed attacks upon submarines or who were rescued from stricken vessels will have an even more vivid recollection and a better comprehension of the highly important work of the destroyers. The fact that not a single American soldier, en route to France under the protection of the United States Navy, was lost through submarine attack, is very largely due to the efficient and unremitting work of the American destroyers. (See Note 1.)

Note 1.  There were some losses of American troops en route to France. See our article on those losses HERE. 

Source:  American Naval Participation in the Great War (With Special Reference to the European Theater of Operations) by Capt. Dudley W. Knox, Naval History and Heritage Command

Twelve Legends & Traditions of the Great War

Buckingham Palace, 11 November1918

1.  11th Hour, 11th Day, 11th Month 

Hostilities ended at this time, day and month in 1918.  November 11th is the date of Armistice/Remembrance/Veterans Day. 

The Angel of Mons, by Marcel Gillis (1897–1972)

2.  The Angel of Mons 

A legend of heavenly intervention grew around the survival  of the British Expeditionary Force after their first battle, August 1914. 

Sydney, Australia, 25 April 2023

3.  Anzac Day, 25 April  

The first day's landing at Gallipoli is celebrated as a national holiday in Australia and New Zealand. 

Film Depiction of the Christmas Truce

4.  Christmas Truce of 1914 

When troops spontaneously ceased fire and met in No-Man's-Land to exchange greetings and gifts and to play football.

5.  The Leaning Virgin of Albert 

When a steeple-top statue of the Virgin and Child at the Albert Basilica (France) was knocked askew, soldiers believed the war would end when she fell, which she did in 1918.

6.  The Red Baron 

Manfred von Richthofen, greatest air ace of the war is an internationally recognized archetype of personal excellence.

7.  Red Poppies 

Symbol of the Great War and veterans; developed in response to Canadian John McCrae's poem "In Flanders Fields". 

8.  Taxicabs of the Marne 

Drafted into delivering troops to the front at a critical moment, the taxis of Paris embodied French determination in 1914. 

9.  Toc H (Talbot House) 

At Poperinghe, a town just in the British rear near Ypres, was founded as refuge of peace and fellowship for the troops of any rank. Its doors are still open today.

10. Unknown Soldiers 

The war produced so many casualties and missing that some countries selected a single "Unknown" to represent all of their fallen. More than 50 countries have such memorials today.

11. The Voie Sacrée 

The only supply road kept open by determined French engineers during the Battle of Verdun in 1916 is now commemorated as the "Sacred Way". 

12. Last Post at the Menin Gate

Nightly at 8 p.m. since 1928, traffic has been halted and the Last Post bugle call sounded under the arch of the Ypres, Belgium, Menin Gate Memorial, which lists the names of over 54,000 British missing from the nearby battles.

This List Is not Intended to Be Comprehensive

Historian David Stevenson on Why the War Ended So Suddenly — Video

 

The Mysterious Loss of the USS Cyclops

One of the mysteries of the war is the disappearance of the collier USS Cyclops.  The 540-feet-long and 65-feet-wide vessel was built in Philadelphia and commissioned on 1 May 1917. The ship was a Proteus-class collier and could carry 12,500 tons of coal while making 15 knots with her twin screws. Prior to World War I, the collier supported U.S. warships in European waters, off the Atlantic seaboard and in the Caribbean as a unit of the Naval Auxiliary Force.  

The Cyclops's final mission was to transport 9,960 tons of coal from her home port in Norfolk, Virginia, to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and bring back 11,000 tons of manganese ore. She departed on 9 January 1918 and arrived in Rio on 28 January, where she stayed for two weeks unloading and loading cargo. On 15 February, 309 souls departed for Bahia, Brazil, the only scheduled stop before Baltimore, Maryland. Two days later, at 1800 on 22 February, the ship embarked for Maryland; she was expected to arrive on 13 March. The last known location of the Cyclops was an unplanned stop made at Barbados on 3 March, with 1,800 nautical miles (nm) to go on a 4,844 nm journey.

Click on Map to Enlarge

Last Voyage of USS Cyclops

Somewhere and sometime afterward, Cyclops disappeared with all hands. Numerous ships sailed to locate the collier, as she was thought to have been sunk by a German submarine. Her wreck has never been found, and the cause of her loss remains unknown. Later records, however, indicated there were no German U-boats in the area during the time frame:

Many other theories have arisen over the years, including:

1. Poor seamanship by Captain Worley, who was described as a very indifferent seaman and a poor, overly cautious navigator.

2.  Improper storage of the manganese ore or overloading.

3.  Catastrophic engine or hull failure which resulted in rapid sinking before lifeboats could be deployed.

4.  Cyclops had a history of trouble with extreme rolls.

5.  Storm conditions in combination with any of the above

The wreck of USS Cyclops has never been discovered and the mystery of its sinking never resolved.

Sources:  Articles from the National Museum of the U.S. Navy, U.S. Naval Institute, and the U.S. Naval History Foundation

More World War One Etymology

"Tank" (n.2): An armored, gun-mounted vehicle
moving on continuous articulated tracks, late 1915

I've discovered a website that's full of fun.  It's called Etymonline.com.  It provides the history, evolution, and popularization of words, and I've discovered it has nice discussions of some of our favorite WWI-connected words and expressions. Here are some of my favorite World War I entries.

1.  Boche (n.)

"German soldier in World War I," 1914, perhaps from French slang boche "rascal," applied to the Germans; a word of unknown origin. Another theory traces it to French Allemand "German," in eastern French Al(le)moche, altered contemptuously to Alboche by association with caboche, a slang word for "head," literally "cabbage" (compare tete de boche, French for "German" in an 1887 slang dictionary). None of the French terms is older than mid-19th c.

2.  cootie (n.)

"body louse," 1917, British World War I slang, earlier in nautical use, said to be from Malay (Austronesian) kutu, the name of some parasitic, biting insect.

3.  conk (v.)

as in conk out, 1918, coined by World War I [American] airmen, perhaps in imitation of the sound of a stalling motor, reinforced by conk (v.) "hit on the head," originally "punch in the nose" (1821), from conk (n.), slang for "nose" (1812), perhaps from fancied resemblance of the nose to a conch (pronounced "conk") shell. Perhaps also imitative: Compare Greek konk, a syllable representing the sound made by a pebble striking the bottom of the (metal) voting urn [William Smith, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities].

4. home front (n.)

also homefront, 1918, from home (n.) + front (n.) in the military sense. A term from World War I; popularized (if not coined) by the agencies running the U.S. propaganda effort.

The battle front in Europe is not the only American front. There is a home front, and our people at home should be as patriotic as our men in uniform in foreign lands. [promotion for the Fourth Liberty Loan appearing in U.S. magazines, fall 1918]

5. gold-brick (n.)

"gold in the form of a brick," 1853, from gold (adj.) + brick (n.). Meaning "shirker" is from 1914, World War I armed forces slang, from earlier verb meaning "to swindle, cheat" (1902) from the old con game of selling spurious "gold" bricks (attested by 1881).

6. scrounge (v.)

"to acquire by irregular means," 1915, an alteration of dialectal scrunge "to search stealthily, rummage, pilfer" (1909), which is of uncertain origin. OED reports it probably altered from dialectal scringe "to pry about." Or perhaps it is related to (or a variant of) scrouge, scrooge "push, jostle" (1755, also Cockney slang for "a crowd"), which are probably suggestive of screw, squeeze, etc. Scrounge was popularized in the military during World War I, frequently as a euphemism for "steal." Related: Scrounged; scrounger; scrounging.

7. S.O.L.

initialism (acronym) from shit out of luck (though sometimes euphemised), 1917, World War I military slang. "Applicable to everything from death to being late for mess" [Russell Lord, "Captain Boyd's Battery, A.E.F.," c. 1920]

8.  strafe (v.)

1915, "punish, attack, bomb heavily," picked up by British soldiers in colloquial or humorous use, from German strafen "to punish" (from Proto-Germanic *stræf-) as used in the slogan Gott strafe England "May God punish England," current in Germany c. 1914–16 at the start of World War I. The word was used in English at first for any kind of attack; the meaning "shoot up ground positions from low-flying aircraft" emerged as the main sense by 1942, during the next war. Related: Strafed; strafing.

9. tank (n.2)

"armored, gun-mounted vehicle moving on continuous articulated tracks," late 1915; a special use of tank (n.1).

In Tanks in the Great War [1920], Brevet Col. J.F.C. Fuller quotes a memorandum of the Committee of Imperial Defence dated Dec. 24, 1915, recommending the proposed "caterpillar machine-gun destroyer" machines be entrusted to an organization "which, for secrecy, shall be called the 'Tank Supply Committee,' . . ."

In a footnote, Fuller writes, "This is the first appearance of the word 'tank' in the history of the machine." He writes that "cistern" and "reservoir" also were put forth as possible cover names, "all of which were applicable to the steel-like structure of the machines in the early stages of manufacture. Because it was less clumsy and monosyllabic, the name 'tank' was decided on."

Tanks first saw action at Pozieres ridge on the Western Front, 15 September 1916, and the name quickly was picked up by the soldiers. "Tank-trap" attested from 1920.

10.  toot sweet (adv.)

"right away, promptly," 1917, American English, representing U.S. soldiers' mangled adaptation of French tout de suite "immediately, at once" (de suite = "in sequence"),

Bonus Entry:

World War (n.)

attested by 1898 as a speculation.

If through fear of entangling alliances the United States should return the Philippines to Spain, Mr. Page asserted that the predatory nations would swoop down upon them and a world war would result. [New York Times, 16 December 1898]

Applied to the first one almost as soon as it began in 1914 ("England has Thrown Lot with France in World War"—headline, Pittsburgh Press, 2 August 1914). World War I was coined 1939, replacing Great War as the most common name for it; First World War, World War II, and Second World War all also are from 1939.

Old English had woruldgewinn, woruldgefeoht, both of which might be translated "world war," but with "world" in the sense of "earthly, secular."