Western Front Virtual Tour — Stop 4: Ypres, Belgium

The Ypres Salient, of course is a major destination for any visitor to the Western Front and just jam-packed with notable sites to visit. We have organized this part of our tour in four parts, the town of Ypres, north of the town, down the Menin Road, and south of the town. We will begin and complete Stop 4 with the two most famous structures in the town.

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In 1914 the Germans wanted to seize the crucial Channel ports in France and flank the Allied forces in the famous "Race to the Sea." This meant that they had to capture Ypres first. In October the fight for the ridges and hills led to a concentration of forces by both sides. What quickly developed became known as the First Battle of Ypres. A salient was formed around the town — a huge bulge in the British lines that jutted deep into the German-held territory. The nearby territory was fought over for nearly the entire war, with the British Army never yielding the town despite dramatic back and forth movement of the front.

The Belgian Army occupied the sector north of Ypres from its canal up through Diksmuide to the coast at Nieuwpoort. The French Army also deployed substantial forces to Flanders. The Ypres Salient, then and today, however, is most closely associated with the sacrifices of the British Army in the Great War. The Tommies affectionately named the town "Wipers."

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From the Top: An early poster for battlefield tourism to Ypres; one of the last surviving veterans of the fighting in the Salient being escorted to the Last Post Ceremony (2005); St. George's Memorial Church, the Salient Museum at the Cloth Hall; "Some corner of a foreign field that is forever England," — a British Pub in Ypres.

The Menin Gate and the Last Post Ceremony

Nightly at 8 p.m. since 1928, traffic has been halted and the Last Post bugle call sounded under the Arch of the Menin Gate Memorial. This ceremony, conducted in the Flanders market town of Ypres is a defining experience for every pilgrim to the Western Front. The memorial recalls the sacrifice of the fallen soldiers of the British Empire in the defense of the Ypres Salient during the 1914–18 war. The names of over 54,000 missing service men are engraved on the panels of this memorial.

A committee consisting of local inhabitants arranged in 1928 for the nightly ceremony, which takes place, year in year out, in rain or snow or gloom of night. On stormy winter nights only a handful of visitors witness the event, but at the height of tourist season thousands may be present including veterans marching in formation and groups of school children from the contesting nations. Buglers of the local volunteer fire brigade are given the privilege to pay this tribute to the fallen soldiers. A fund was raised through contributions from local townspeople and later also from gifts by the British Commonwealth sympathizers in order to meet the expense.

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Buglers of the Ypres Fire Brigade and a Typical Crowd at the Last Post Ceremony

The sounding of the Last Post is the main token of gratitude by the Ypres inhabitants toward the nearly 400,000 Allied servicemen who fell in action in defense of the Ypres Salient. The numerous cemeteries and monuments in the area are silent witnesses to the tremendous loss incurred in defending an area ten by twenty miles. The dead and missing came from every Allied country: Great Britain, but also Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Newfoundland, India, Pakistan, Ceylon, China, France and its colonial Empire, the United States, Portugal as well as Belgium. Through the years the Last Post ceremony has become part of the daily life in Ypres. It brings to memory the long and tragic misery of the years of war and their aftermath. The ceremony was forbidden during the German occupation of World War II but resumed the very evening Canadian Forces relieved the town in 1944.

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The Chaplains of the AEF

The U.S. Army Chaplaincy was to be an integral part of the great mobilization of the American Expeditionary Force. By the end of the war the original 74 Regular Army chaplains and 72 National Guard chaplains had been joined by 2,217 more chaplains. Twenty-three of these chaplains died in the service of their country during this conflict — 11 of them were battle deaths. Twenty-seven chaplains earned the Purple Heart, four with Oak Leaf Cluster. Twenty-seven chaplains earned the Distinguished Service Cross and 18 the Silver Star. France, Great Britain, and Belgium also decorated American chaplains.

A Chaplain of the 33rd Division Administering to a Dead Doughboy

Chaplain Julius J. Babst's DSC citation exemplifies not only his actions but those of other chaplains as well.

Chaplain Babst displayed exceptional, bravery and devotion to duty by repeatedly going out from the first aid station of his battalion to care for the wounded and voluntarily exposed himself to terrific artillery and machine gun fire to administer the last sacraments to the dying. At imminent risk to his own life he worked to improve the conditions at the aid station and fearlessly conducted  burial services under fire.

Another chaplain, Coleman E. O'Flaherty, awarded the DSC posthumously, was eulogized by his commander, who said that the initial letters of the award really meant, "Died in the Service of Christ." The most famous chaplain to serve in World War I was Francis P. Duffy, a Roman Catholic priest from New York. Chaplain Duffy, whose statue stands in Times Square, NYC, was the senior chaplain of the 42nd Division. Before his unit went into battle, Chaplain Duffy always conducted services. He observed special holy days, even on the battlefield.

Once the fighting started, the sermons stopped. Chaplains, like Duffy, "traveled with the unit first aid stations and provided physical and spiritual care to the wounded and dying. They worked closely with the other noncombatants: the surgeons, ambulance crews, and stretcher-bearers."

From the Web site of the U.S. Army Chaplain Service

The Sport of the Trenches: Rat Catching

I imagine readers have probably wondered if the soldiers of the Great War had much time to exercise and indulge their sporting and non-lethal competitive instincts when serving in the trenches. Well, below is proof they did. In lieu of the cancelled 1916 Olympic Games (scheduled for Berlin, by the way) the boys spent their spare time tracking down their trench mates, Mr. Rat and his gazillion cousins, and sending as many as possible to the great Rat Hotel in the sky. I don't know what impresses me more about the photos below: the dedication, enthusiasm, and pride of the German and French rat-catching teams with their catches shown below, or simply the frightening number of the vermin. Rats were clearly in endless supply on the Western Front.

The Price of Glory: Verdun 1916 Reviewed by Bruce Sloan

The Price of Glory: Verdun 1916

by Alistair Horne

Published Originally by Macmillan, 1962

If you want to know about the Battle of Verdun, this is the book to read. It traces the ten months of the conflict, discusses the commanders, their tactics & strategy, and the heroic accounts of individual soldiers.

Maps are few but adequate to explain the strategy and progress of the battle, with most of the locations mentioned in the text noted.

Alistair Horne does a commendable job of setting the stage for the battle and explaining the events leading up to the German attack on the unprepared French. The massive German buildup of troops, equipment, and artillery went almost unnoticed:

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German Machine Gunners, Late Battle Period, Note Surrounding Terrain

Up to the time of the German attack, only seventy gun emplacements had been identified from the air, thus the French were never aware of the full extent of the artillery confronting them. . . over 850 German guns - including some of the heaviest ever used in land warfare — faced a motley collection totaling 270. . . most short of ammunition. Seventy-two battalions of élite, tough storm troops faced 34 battalions in half-completed positions.

Fort Douaumont was lightly manned and taken without a shot fired. It was then garrisoned by the Germans. However, a huge explosion occurred, thought to have been caused by Bavarian soldiers brewing coffee on upturned cordite cases using explosive from hand grenades as fuel. Most of the garrison was immediately killed, and those who manage to escape, uniforms in tatters and black-faced from smoke, were taken as French African troops and massacred by friendly fire.

The defenders of Fort Vaux dispatched their last pigeon, who, badly gassed, managed to reach Verdun, delivered its message, then fell dead. This gallant bird received the Légion d'Honneur, and was stuffed and put on display in a Paris museum.

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The foregoing two anecdotes are about forts, but the forts were strongpoints in a system of trenches, where most of the dying took place. Within ten months, over a relatively small section of earth, there were more dead per square yard than has probably even been known. Most were killed by artillery, while many were simply buried alive by the artillery bombardments or drowned in the craters created. Verdun was a watershed; neither army would be quite the same again.

Poor leadership led to the loss of Germany's last chance for victory in 1916 and the dismissal of the top commanders of both sides, Falkenhayn and Joffre. This was followed by the ascendance of Pétain and Nivelle.

The horror, extent, and lasting effects of the battle are too numerous and numbing to summarize here, so The Price of Glory is one of the few books I will read a second time.

Bruce Sloan

André Maginot, Verdun and the Maginot Line

André Maginot, Verdun, and the Maginot Line

by Christina Holstein

The Battle of Verdun was characterized by an intense ten-month bombardment that turned the battlefield into a sea of mud. Trenches, shelters, batteries, and communications were annihilated, yet Fort Douaumont survived. After the war was over, it was calculated that the fort had been battered by a minimum of 120,000 shells, of which at least 2000 were of a calibre greater than 270mm. Only the French 400mm and German 420mm shells succeeded in piercing the concrete carapace. After the war, French military engineers studied the strengths and weaknesses of Fort Douaumont and used their findings in the design of a new chain of concrete-covered underground forts that was specifically designed to prevent the Germans from ever again invading France from the east. This was the Maginot Line. [Named for the cabinet minister who most helped secure the approvals and financing for the fortifications.]

Maginot During the War

In August 1914, André Maginot, after whom the new fortress line would be named, was [already] a Member of Parliament for Bar-le-Duc. Immediately volunteering for service — despite parliamentary immunity — Maginot took the train to Verdun to join his regiment, the 44th Territorial Infantry, part of which formed the garrison of Fort Douaumont. A few days later the newly mobilized Territorials made camp in a clearing close to the country road from Douaumont village to Bezonvaux, little dreaming that in February 1916 the same road would be crossed by German soldiers on their way to the fort. The Territorials were a cheerful group, and Maginot’s memoir of patrols and ambushes among the villages below the fort is high-spirited and carefree. [Maginot was wounded and eventually demobilized in late 1914.] 

Monument on the Verdun Battlefield

Between Maginot and his comrades, going blithely to war in the blue jackets and red trousers of the French Army of 1914, and the filthy and exhausted men on both sides who fought so tenaciously for Fort Douaumont throughout 1916 there are two years of a type of warfare that no one could have imagined. For his service at Verdun and his industrious effort in support of French veterans and to improve the defenses of the nation, a monument to André Maginot was dedicated on the Verdun battlefield near the German high-water mark at Fort Souville in 1966.

Remembering a Veteran: Soldier Jean-Louis Rouly, 138th Regiment of Infantry, French Army

Soldat Jean-Louis Rouly, 138th Inf. Rgt.,
French Army, Near Souain, Champagne

Contributed by our friend, and great-grandson of Rouly, Olivier Pierrard (insert), one of the founders of the Battle of the Marne Museum at Villeroy. His ancestor saw action in all the hot sections of France, including Verdun and Artois, and finished the war in Italy in the Piave sector. He served 1913–19, survived his wounds, and received the Croix de Guerre.

Vera Brittain's Pilgrimage

One of the most memorable literary traditions of the Great War involves the postwar pilgrimage of VAD nurse and author Vera Brittain to the grave of her brother Edward on the Asiago Plateau. Author Francis Mackay  describes the visit in the excellent new addition to the Battleground Europe series, Asiago. Edward was killed in what is known alternatively as the Battle of Asiago or Operation Radeztky, part of an even larger action on the Italian Front, the Battle of the Piave in June 1918. Mackay describes both the action in which Edward fell and then Vera's postwar visit to his grave:

[The infantry assault began at 6:45 am on June 15th and several breeches were made in the British line.  Edward Brittain's] "A" Company had suffered severe casualties from artillery fire and was trying to hold nearly eight hundred metres of the line with (probably) only fifty rifles; an impossible task even when they were reinforced by the picquet platoon. Brittain, by now apparently the only unwounded officer in the company, appeared on the scene, returning from consulting with the French. Rapidly organizing a counter-attack group, which included some French soldiers, he led an attack which forced the enemy back. Some jumped out of the trench and ran back towards others coming through the wire. These enemy troops went to ground and opened fire on the Foresters, as did machine-gunners and riflemen on both sides of the wire. Brittain re-organized the defense of the trench, forming a flank with what troops were available. He apparently paused to observe the enemy, and was killed, possibly sniped by an Austrian officer. . . On the Allied right the Italian line [had been] breached, and the enemy penetrated about two kilometres towards the escarpment. They were held, but it took five days of bitter fighting to restore the line. In the centre the French beat off a mass attack with only minor casualties. The British were also attacked and the front line breached in several places, but after some hard fighting it was restored. Radetzky failed, and, after some bitter fighting, so did Albrecht. Conrad and Boroevic lost their last battles and the k.u.k. lost its will to win.

[Among the British dead was] Captain Edward Harold Brittain, MC, [who] was the adored elder brother of Vera Brittain. When war broke out the Brittain family had been living in Buxton and Edward sought a commission in the county regiment. He joined the 1 1/Sherwood Foresters in France, was wounded on the first day of the Somme, and awarded the MC. In 1914 Vera had been an undergraduate at Oxford but became a VAD Nurse after her fiancé, Roland Leighton, was mortally wounded with the 1/7 Worcesters at Hébuterne in December 1915. After the war she wrote Testament of Youth, married and was the mother of former Labour Cabinet Minister Baroness Shirley Williams.

After the Armistice . . .[many of the remains of A Company's casualties were re-interred] at Granezza Cemetery, near the southern end of the valley, and in the lea of Monte. Corno. This is a very quiet and peaceful place, and no less beautiful than the silent woods of the Barental Valley.

[Edward Brittain's] death was not more poignant than that of any other young officer or soldier but the eloquence of his sister's writing ensured that the anguish felt by his family and friends was recorded for future generations. She articulated for others not so gifted with words the agony of yet another death among those nearest and dearest to a family. After many years, Testament of Youth still has the capacity to move, as many of today's generation will testify.

How strange, how strange it is," I reflected, as I looked, with an indefinable pain stabbing my chest, for Edward's name among those neat rows of oblong stones, "that all my past years-the childhood of which I have no one, now, to share the remembrance, the bright fields at Uppingham, the restless months in Buxton, the hopes and ambitions of Oxford, the losses and long-drawn agonies of the War- should be buried in this grave on the top of a mountain, in the lofty silence, the singing unearthly stillness, of these remote forests ! At every turn of every future road I shall want to ask him questions, to recall to him memories, and he will not be there. Who could have dreamed that the little boy born in such uneventful security to an ordinary provincial family would end his brief days in a battle among the high pine-woods of an unknown Italian plateau?"

Close to the wall, in the midst of a group of privates from the Sherwood Foresters who had all died on June 15th, I found his name "Captain E. H. Brittain, M.C., 11th Notts. and Derby Regt. Killed in action June 15th, 1918. Aged 22" In Venice I had bought some rosebuds and a small asparagus fern in a pot; the shopkeeper had told me that it would last a long time, and I planted it in the rough grass beside the grave.

"How trivial my life has been since the War ! "I thought, as I smoothed the earth over the fern. "How mean they are, these little strivings, these petty ambitions of us who are left, now that all of you are gone! How can the future achieve, through us, the somber majesty of the past? Oh, Edward, you're so lonely up here; why can't I stay for ever and keep your grave company, far from the world and its vain endeavors to rebuild civilization, on this Plateau where alone there is dignity and peace?"

But when at last I came from the cemetery, the child, who had been playing with his father near the car, ran up to me holding out a bunch of scabious and white clover that he had picked by the roadside.

"For the little signorina," he said.

By permission of Francis Mackay

Western Front Virtual Tour — Stop 3: Brussels, Belgium

We presented this article on World War I sites in Brussels last year, but we thought we should republish it since it is an essential stop on a tour of the Western Front.

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The most impressive war monument in Brussels is this British Commonwealth War Graves memorial depicting Belgian and British soldiers standing side by side, built in appreciation of support given by Belgians to British prisoners of war. It is located at Place Poelaert.

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To the right of the massive commemorative arch at Cinquantenaire Park (inset) is the entrance to the fabulous Royal Museum of the Armed Forces and Military History. It covers Belgian military experience back to the Napoleonic Wars, but its Great War holdings are the stars of the show. Traveling pal Rachel Schweissinger is standing in the armaments section of the WWI hall; above is a Nieuport fighter on display in the aviation hall—one of many aircraft on display from the war. Plan on spending a half-day minimum here.

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Difficult to get to, but worth the effort, is the National Cemetery of Honor located at the former Tir National Rifle Range in the municipality of Schaerbeek. It is where executions were held during the war, the most famous being of Nurse Edith Cavell, who was shot here. While Edith's remains were sent home to Norwich, most of the other victims are buried on the site.

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There are a number of war-related monuments around Brussels. Here are three:

• The National Infantry Monument (covering WWI & WWII) is located near the Anglo-Belgian Memorial
• The national tribute to the war's carrier pigeons is located near the city's old fish market area at St. Catherine Place, which is now a restaurant enclave.
• Belgium's Unknown Soldier is buried at the foot of the Congress Column (Colonne des Congrés), the national monument of Belgium.

Photo Credits: Steve Miller, Tony Langley, and the New Old Contemptibles

Western Front Virtual Tour — Stop 2: Dinant, Belgium, on the River Meuse

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Dinant, Belgium, on the River Meuse is where French and German forces first fought each other on Belgium soil in the Great War. The town is dominated by a huge citadel built by the Holy Roman Empire. In August 1914 French scouts approaching from the south entered Dinant and discovered to their surprise that the fortress over the town had been abandoned by the Belgian Army. Meanwhile the German Army was sweeping down from the northeast.

On 15 August, the same day that Fort Loncin was destroyed at Liège, a contingent of French soldiers was sent to the citadel to prepare to defend the citadel and the valley below, down which they expected the enemy to be advancing. To their surprise, a battalion of German troops approached along the cliffs and entered the citadel from the rear. The French soldiers retreated and, unfortunately for them, ended up in a dead end gallery. All 80 men of the French contingent were killed along with 12 Germans. A monument marks where those first soldiers were cremated.

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Aerial View of the Town and Citadel

After an artillery duel followed, and the 8th Regiment of Infantry was ordered to take the town and citadel. Included in these forces was Lt. Charles de Gaulle, who was shot in the leg crossing the bridge across the Meuse. The attack succeeded, and the French regained control of the town and citadel. This was merely temporary, however, since the French Army was soon to engage in a broad retreat out of Belgium and northern France.

Dinant became part of the heritage of German atrocities later in the month when 674 civilians were killed in the fighting or executed for resisting or firing on the German forces.

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Monuments at Dinant

From the Top: "L'Assaut" by Alexandre Daoust, Memorial to 1,200 French who fell fighting around Dinant; Marker Where Lt. Charles de Gaulle Was Wounded; Memorial to 116 Belgians Executed at This Location, 23 August 1914

Remembering a Veteran: Lt. General Gérard Mathieu Leman

Last Friday in our Western Front article about Fort de Loncin, we mentioned that the commander of the Liège Forts, Lieutenant-General Count Gérard Georges Mathieu Joseph Leman, had survived the titanic blast at the fort and had spent the remainder of the war as a prisoner. Contributing Editor Tony Langley has pointed out to me that I was not quite accurate in that last detail.  

A Defiant-Looking  General Just After His Release from Captivity

The general was released from German captivity during the war itself due to ill health. He was turned over by the German authorities without conditions of parole or any other restrictions in December 1917. He returned to Belgian and Allied controlled territory, and while treated as a returning hero, he did not take on any military command afterwards, naturally due to his failing health.

The above photo shows the general's reception at Le Havre, France, then the seat of the Belgian government in exile.  It wasn't until after the Armistice that he was able to return to Liège, which was his home town.

The Passing of a National Hero, 1920

His death in 1920 was an occasion of state for Belgium, marking the passing of a national hero. Leman was a fascinating figure even before his 1914 heroics — a brilliant mathematician, royalist, and trusted military tutor to King Albert.  An excellent biographical sketch on him can be found at:

http://belgieroyalist.blogspot.com/2012/02/general-gerard-matheiu-leman.html

8 January 1918: Woodrow Wilson Proposes His Fourteen Points

On this day in 1918, President Woodrow Wilson first enunciated his Fourteen Points speech to Congress. After several efforts to articulate America's war aims, he appointed a committee of experts known as The Inquiry to help him refine his ideas for peace. In December 1917 he asked The Inquiry to draw up specific recommendations for a comprehensive peace settlement.

Wilson presented a program of fourteen points to a joint session of Congress on 8 January 1918. Eight of the fourteen points treated specific territorial issues among the combatant nations. Five of the other six concerned general principles for a peaceful world: open covenants (i.e. treaties or agreements), openly arrived at; freedom of the seas; free trade; reduction of armaments; and adjustment of colonial claims based on the principles of self-determination. The fourteenth point proposed what was to become the League of Nations to guarantee the “political independence and territorial integrity [of] great and small states alike.”

Clemenceau and Wilson 

He opened his address:

It will be our wish and purpose that the processes of peace, when they are begun, shall be absolutely open and that they shall involve and permit henceforth no secret understandings of any kind. The day of conquest and aggrandizement is gone by; so is also the day of secret covenants entered into in the interest of particular governments and likely at some unlooked-for moment to upset the peace of the world. It is this happy fact, now clear to the view of every public man whose thoughts do not still linger in an age that is dead and gone, which makes it possible for every nation whose purposes are consistent with justice and the peace of the world to avow nor or at any other time the objects it has in view.

We entered this war because violations of right had occurred which touched us to the quick and made the life of our own people impossible unless they were corrected and the world secure once for all against their recurrence. What we demand in this war, therefore, is nothing peculiar to ourselves. It is that the world be made fit and safe to live in; and particularly that it be made safe for every peace-loving nation which, like our own, wishes to live its own life, determine its own institutions, be assured of justice and fair dealing by the other peoples of the world as against force and selfish aggression. All the peoples of the world are in effect partners in this interest, and for our own part we see very clearly that unless justice be done to others it will not be done to us. The program of the world's peace, therefore, is our program; and that program, the only possible program, as we see it, is this:

Continue Reading the Fourteen Points Here:

http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/wilsonfourteenpoints.htm

Sources:  U.S. Department of State; History Today

The Somme Stations Reviewed by David F. Beer

The Somme Stations

by Andrew Martin Published by Faber and Faber, Ltd., 2011

Those silly little trains. I have seen photographs of them, and these, together with Jim's own vague accounts of working on the trains, caused the nightmares that I mentioned to you. The driver can hardly fit into the cab. His head pokes out of it, and I cannot help but picture them as pleasure railways, running at night-because they only do ever run at night-under a sky filled with fireworks. But the fireworks are bombs falling. . .[Jim Stringer's wife in a letter to a friend]

At least three kinds of readers will enjoy this book: those who like historical novels set in the Great War; those who read detective stories with at least one good murder in them; and last, but certainly not least, railway enthusiasts.

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Images of the Light Railroads of the War:

Carrying Troops; a Restored Baldwin Engine; What Happens to Such a Line When Enemy Artillery Zeroes In; the Doullens-Arras Line Today, a Nature Trail — the Father of Bob Reynolds (Kneeling in Blue Sweater) Commanded This Section During the War

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The Somme Stations, like the author's six previous novels, is part of his "Jim Stringer, Steam Detective" series which take place in an England of the early 20th century when large railway companies crisscrossed the country and provided transportation for millions of people. Detective Jim Stringer is employed by the North Eastern Railway in York, a city in northern England. Like many other employees of the railroad, when war breaks out he responds to the call for a North Eastern Railway Pals Battalion. They are formed and eventually shipped to the front, but not before one of the pals is found victim of a particularly brutal murder near their training quarters.

I had always assumed that men with similar backgrounds who joined up together in a Pals Battalion would be, well…pals. This is hardly the case with this group. The railway men, comprised of all branches and skills in their civilian work from track laborers to white-collar office employees, bring with them into the army all the resentments, prejudices, jealousies and class consciousness that thrived among them before they volunteered. These emotions inevitable play their part in forming the suspicions and fears of the men who are now under the cloud of harboring a killer of one of their own.

Since they have the experience, many of the men, including Jim Stringer, are assigned to building and running the narrow-gauge railroads to be used for bringing up ammunition, supplies, food, and men to the front lines at the Somme. They also transport wounded soldier to the rear. These light railways, a considerable improvement over mules and horses when working well, were actually 600 mm (1 ft 11 5/8 in) in gauge and used a variety of steam and gasoline locomotives made in Britain, France, and the United States. They usually ran at night and often at not much more than five mph. Few of the lines were permanent, since they often had to be moved, but by the end of the war some 700 miles of track had been laid and roughly 7,000 tons of cargo were being transported daily.

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It's in his description of the building and running of these railways that the author excels. His characterization of the firemen, the engineer drivers — the footplate men — and the guards is captivating, and his exciting account of a danger-fraught run to get a load of ammunition to its destination under heavy fire, when one enemy shell could have blown cargo and men to smithereens, brings the running of these wartime railways dramatically to the human level. In the background, of course, is the lurking mystery involving the unsolved murder. The appearance of a brutish military investigator from England who interrogates and harasses the men only adds to the atmosphere of tension and suspense.

Some of the characters we meet understandably speak with a thick Yorkshire dialect. This doesn't in any way hamper our reading but rather strengthens both atmosphere and character. We're also taken to places with such names as Kilnsea, Ilkley, Thorpe-on-Ouse, and Naburn Lock, and the railwaymen of course use the jargon of their trade: wheelslip, platelayer, warming the brake, and "moving the reverser back a notch." But the question hanging in the background at all times is "Who is the murderer?" This gets resolved by the end of the book in an intriguing climax (no spoilers here!).

You will enjoy this novel, both as a mystery and as a realistic glimpse into the harrowing lives of those who built and ran the light railways that played such a significant (but often ignored) role in the operations of the Great War.

David F. Beer

Aviation Art by François Flameng

François Flameng (along with Georges Scott) was one the most renowned illustrators of the Great War in France. He was a talented and respected artist in his own right for many years before the war and was a historical painter as well as a modern portraitist and decorator of public buildings. He was professor at the Academy of Fine Arts and honorary president of the (French) Society of Military Painters, as well as an officially accredited artist to the war ministry.  Aviation was one area that particularly drew his attention. Here are four examples from the collection of contributing editor Tony Langley.

Researching American Service and Sacrifice with the British Army

Contributed by Sidney Clark

That a large number of Americans volunteered for British and Commonwealth forces in the Great War is well known.  Much information is available online today , and here are some of the details I have been able to discover. This is a general introduction to the subject.  Roads Editor Mike Hanlon has promised to present a number of the specific cases under the "Remembering a Veteran" heading in future postings.

Lieutenant George Roy Weber:  116th Bn., Canadian Infantry, who died on 23 July 1917 Age 25, Son of Margaret Weber, of 3756 Hogarth Avenue, Detroit, Michigan, U.S.A. and the late Joseph E. Weber. Private J. A. Williams: 13th Bn., Canadian Infantry, Norfolk, Virginia, U.S.A., who died on 30 April 1917. Both Remembered with Honour, Vimy Memorial.

• Total American Burials in Commonwealth War Graves World War I Sites: 2,917

• Burials at Selected Cemeteries and Memorials                              

                       Site —  Total Casualties — American Casualties

    A      Villers-Bretonneux Military Cemetery —  1535 —   12 Americans

           Arras Flying Services Memorial —  990 —  10 Americans

           Vimy Ridge —  11169 —  245 Americans

           Menin Gate Memorial —   54406 —  177 Americans

           Thiepval Memorial —   72198 —  66 Americans

          Bertangles Communal —  1 —  1 American

• Oldest American Burial   50 years (1)

• Youngest American Burial Burials of 15 and 16 year old Americans in Commonwealth Cemeteries have been discovered, but we are rechecking the exact numbers. (Amended 1100 hrs PST, 5 Jan.)

Private John Reginald Love:  15th Bn., Canadian Infantry who died on 11 November 1917 Age 20, Son of Frederick Love and Emily J. (his wife), of 86 Charlotte Avenue, Detroit, Michigan, U.S.A. Buried with Honour Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery, Belgium.

• Selected Decorations to Americans

            Distinguished Conduct Medal  —  12

            Military Cross —  12

            Military Medal  —  59

            Distinguished Flying Cross —  1

Replacing the Pickelhaube: The M1916 Stahlhelm Helmet

The M1916 Stahlhelm Helmet

Contributed by Ralph Reiley

The M1916 Stahlhelm

The German Pickelhaube (spiked helmet) was found to be totally unsuitable for trench warfare. It was not durable in the rough conditions of the trenches, it was very expensive to produce, and it provided no real combat protection. In 1915 Army Group Gaede, named after the commanding general, was in position in the Vosges Mountains, near the Swiss border. General Gaede was alarmed about the high number of head wounds his soldiers were receiving, in his relatively "quiet"sector of the front. Growing frustrated with administrative red tape and lack of action, he had his own helmet designed and supplied to about 1,500 to his frontline troops.

Few examples remain, as most were melted down after the M1916 Stahlhelm was introduced. Gaede's helmet was very heavy at 4.5 pounds. It consisted of two parts, a soft leather and cloth skull cap that covered the head and a heavy steel plate, attached to the leather cap with rivets. The thick curved steel plate only covered the forehead area, with a long nose piece hanging down, similar to the Norman helmets of the 11th century. It only protected the front of the head, where the majority of wounds occurred. The helmet was less than successful, but it did have one feature that was later used in the Stahlhelm. It was made from a chromium-nickel steel alloy, that proved to be very strong.

The Steel Helmet of Army Group "Gaede"

After extensive testing for the optimum shape, the distinctive "coal scuttle" design was determined to be the best shape for protecting the head and neck. This design had its roots in a helmet popular in the 16th century. In February of 1916 the Stahlhelm was introduced in small numbers to the frontline troops engaged in the battle of Verdun. The resulting reduction in the number of head wounds suffered by the soldiers led to mass production of the M1916 Stahlhelm and the replacement of the Pickelhaube within a few months on the Western Front, and on the Eastern Front by mid-1917. When the new helmet was first introduced, the troops leaving the trenches turned their helmets over to the troops relieving them. It is not uncommon to see photographs from this period of soldiers in the same unit wearing both the Pickelhaube and the Stahlhelm, as supply could not meet demand for some time.

The basic helmet shell is formed from one steel disk and went through at least nine stamping stages before it reached its final shape. The rivets at the lower side skirts fasten M1891 Pickelhaube side posts to attach the M1891 Pickelhaube chinstrap. The helmet liner is held in place with three split rivets. The liner was made of a leather or sheet metal band with three leather tabs with pads attached to it, forming a very efficient internal sizing system. The liner was designed so that the helmet would remain one finger width away from the head at the sides and two at the top. This was to prevent injuries to the head by objects striking the helmet and denting it.

At the sides of the helmet are two large lugs, which served two functions. The first function was for ventilation and the second function was to support a heavy armored plate, called a Stirnpanzer. The plate was notched so that it could hang on the lugs and was secured with a leather strap that fastened at the back of the helmet. Issued along with this armored helmet plate was a set of sectional chest armor, called lobster armor by collectors, which weighed 35 pounds. It was thought that this armor would protect sentries and machine gunners who were more exposed to enemy fire than other troops. Generally, the soldiers threw the armor away at the first opportunity, as wearing the cumbersome armor in the trenches was of dubious value, making both the helmet plate and lobster armor quite rare today.

 

The M1916 Stahlhelm with Stirnpanzer

A soldier poses for the camera with M1916 Stahlhelm
with Stirnpanzer and body armor

The Stahlhelm came in several sizes, as did the Pickelhaube. The smallest size was 60, and the largest was 68, although some size 70 were made. The smaller-sized helmets, sizes 60, 62 and 64, had an extra step on the helmet lugs, to make up for their small size so that the helmet plate, which only came in one size, could be attached to all helmets. The size of the helmet is usually stamped somewhere on the inside skirt.

The M1916 Stahlhelm with Canvas Cover

In late 1916 a white helmet cover was tested for winter camouflage. It was not particularly successful. In February of 1917 a grey canvas helmet cover began to be issued to cut down glare on the helmet from the sun and moon. In 1917 the helmet was simplified by removing the Pickelhaube chinstrap mounts and attaching the chinstrap directly to the helmet liner. This helmet was designated the M1917 Stahlhelm. In early 1918 another variation was tested. Collectors refer to it as the telephone-operator helmet, or cavalry model, as it had a curved section removed from the side skirts to uncover the ears. The M1918 Stahlhelm design was intended to reduce blast injuries to the ears caused by the deep skirt. This modification did not seem particularly successful, and this M1918 helmet was not produced in large numbers.

The M1918 Stahlhelm, with various types of painted finishes

The Stahlhelm was painted field grey, until an order of the General Staff, dated 7 July 1918, ordered a camouflage paint scheme. The official camouflage pattern for new helmets was painted over a green or brown base coat. A colored lozenge pattern was used, with a black finger-wide stripe separating the green, yellow ocher, and rust brown camouflage colors. Helmets already in the field were to be painted in camouflage colors as well as local conditions allowed. Camouflage helmets also exist where the various colors are blended together, without the black striping. Camouflage helmets, despite the official order for all helmets to be repainted, are not common, and draw a higher price with collectors than standard field grey helmets.

Various camouflage patterns

The German M1916 Stahlhelm remained basically unchanged until it was replaced by the M1935 Stahlhelm. The armor plate support lugs were removed, the skirts were reduced in size, and the thickness of the steel was reduced, producing a much lighter helmet. It is interesting that the Kevlar helmet used now by the U.S. Army bears a striking resemblance to a helmet designed over 80 years ago. 

Western Front Virtual Tour — Stop 1: Fort de Loncin, Liège, Belgium

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When they attacked in August 1914, the Germans surprised the Belgians, overran the ring of forts at Namur in four days, and, passing through gaps between forts, rapidly occupied Liège on the Meuse River. When heavy guns arrived, the Germans reduced the surrounding Liège forts one by one using 21cm Skoda mortars and, later, 42cm Krupp "Big Berthas". Fort de Loncin, headquarters of the Belgian commander, General Gérard Leman, was one of the last to fall, being destroyed 15 August when its magazine blew up after being penetrated by a "Big Bertha" round. Over half of the fort's garrison of 550 men were buried beneath the ruins of the fort, which was never rebuilt in the inter-war period and remains a memorial to these Belgian dead. General Leman, incidentally, survived the blast, spent the remainder of the war as a prisoner of war, and was treated as a national hero afterward.

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Aerial View of the Triangular Fort

An early visitor described the damage:

We [could] not look at what was left of Fort Loncin. Literally nothing was left of it. As a fort it was gone, obliterated, wiped out, vanished. It had been of a triangular shape. It was of no shape now. We found it difficult to believe that the work of human hands had wrought destruction so utter and overwhelming. Where masonry walls had been was a vast junk heap; where stout magazines had been bedded down in hard concrete was a crater; where strong barracks had stood was a jumbled, shuffled nothingness.

Standing there on the shell-torn hilltop, looking across to where the Krupp surprise wrote its own testimonials at its first time of using, in characters so deadly and devastating, I found myself somehow thinking of that foolish nursery tale wherein it is recited that a pig built himself a house of straw, and the wolf came; and he huffed and he puffed and he blew the house down. The noncommissioned officer told us an unknown number of the defenders, running probably into the hundreds, had been buried so deeply beneath the ruins of the fort in the last hours of the fighting that the Germans had been unable to recover the bodies. Even as he spoke a puff of wind brought to our nostrils a smell which, once a man gets it into his nose, he will never get the memory of it out again so long as he has a nose. Being sufficiently sick, we departed thence.

War Correspondent Irvin S. Cobb, from Paths of Glory

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Who Were the Four Minute Men?

During World War I, the United States fought a war of ideas with unprecedented ingenuity and organization. President Woodrow Wilson established the Committee on Public Information (CPI) to manage news and solicit widespread support for the war at home and abroad. Under the energetic direction of newspaper editor George Creel, the CPI churned out national propaganda through diverse media. Creel organized the “Four Minute Men,” a virtual army of volunteers who gave brief speeches wherever they could get an audience — in movie theaters, churches, synagogues, and labor union, lodge, and grange halls. 

The Honorable Four Minute Men of Knox County, Tennessee

Creel claimed that his 75,000 amateur orators had delivered over 7.5 million speeches to more than 314 million people. CPI publications from the Four Minute Man crusade offered tips on developing and delivering a brief, effective speech—the predecessor to today’s “sound bite” or elevator speech. They also recognized diverse audiences, with reports of Yiddish speakers in theaters and work places, a Sioux Four Minute Man, and a speech called “The Meaning of America” delivered in seven languages. 

Sources: The History Matters, Library of Congress Websites

A Surprising Newspaper Headline from 1 January 1914

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On New Year's Day in 1914 there was simply no awareness in the United States that an unprecedented catastrophe was about to befall Europe, much of the rest of the world, and eventually America itself. Things were heating up on the border with Mexico for the Wilson administration. The president would eventually authorize expeditions into Mexico at Vera Cruz and to chase down Pancho Villa while the Great War was raging in Europe.