Matched with His Hour: Faces of Britain at War

Now, God be thanked Who has matched us with His hour. . .

Rupert Brooke

Herbert Asquith

Tommies Near the Front

Vera Brittain

King George V

Admiral Sir John Jellicoe

General Lord Kitchener

T.E. Lawrence

Edith Cavell

Major-General Allenby

Edward Thomas

General Smith-Dorrien

Sir Edward Grey

J.R.R. Tolkien

David Lloyd George

Major Mick Mannock

HMHS Plassy

Contributed by Kimball Worcester

I came across this fascinating needlework while trolling the Internet for something completely different. Plassy served as a troopship (HMTS) but also significantly as a hospital ship (HMHS).
She was a P & O ship designed for passenger service, was launched in 1900, and served throughout the war. In 1924 Plassy was sold and scrapped at Genoa.

See this fascinating short film of King George V aboard the Plassy in 1917 reviewing the nurses and staff:
http://www.criticalpast.com/video/65675049922_hospital-ship-Plassig_King-George-V_King-talks-with-nurses_staff-is-reviewed

A Truly Beautiful Example of a Sailor's Handwork

Postcard of HMTS Plassy

Detail of the Rather Good Embroidery Work

Inspired by the Great War: The Lincoln Shrine of Redlands, California

The Lincoln Shrine in Redlands, California, was a gift to the community from British immigrant Robert Watchorn. Watchorn was drawn to the oil business and made a fortune wildcatting and founding his own business. An admirirer of Lincoln, Watchorn was a devoted family man. He married Alma Jessica Simpson in Ohio in 1891. They had two sons, Robert Jr., who died in infancy, and Emory Ewart, who was born in New York City in 1895. Emory Ewart graduated from Hollywood High School in Hollywood, California, in 1913. Watchorn shared his admiration for Lincoln with his only surviving child. 

A frequent visitor with his parents to Europe, Emory was trapped in Germany for a brief period of time in 1914 when the conflict that would become known as the Great War broke out. Sharing his father’s affinity for Great Britain, the young Watchorn looked forward to American involvement in the war. In the summer of 1916 he completed officer training at Monterey, California. When President Woodrow Wilson convinced Congress to declare war on Germany in April of 1917 “in order to make the world safe for democracy,” Emory Ewart volunteered for the U.S. Army Air Service. After completing ground training at Berkeley, California, he sailed aboard the SS Aquitania for Europe. Before entraining for his final destination in Italy, he was able to enjoy a ten-day leave in Paris. In a letter later published in the Los Angeles Times, he wrote “Paris is like the smile on the face of the badly wounded.”

Caproni CA-3 Bomber Flown by American Pilots

The Italian Front in World War I witnessed incredible suffering. After three years of bloody trench warfare with Germany and Austria, Italy was on the verge of suing for peace. Italy’s allies — Great Britain, France, and the United States — rushed in reinforcements to bolster Italian morale. Included among these reinforcements was a contingent of several hundred American pilot trainees, under the command of then congressman, later New York mayor, Fiorello La Guardia. Although her army was not enjoying much success, Italy’s strategic aviation was widely regarded as being the best in the world in 1917. In particular, the tri-motor Caproni biplane bomber was highly respected. The United States, by comparison, had no military aviation and despite expending millions of dollars, very few American-produced aircraft would see service in the war. What America did have was tens of thousands of eager volunteers, including 21-year-old Emory Ewart Watchorn.

Lt. Emory Watchorn, USAS

After months of flight training in Foggia, Lt. Watchorn received his gold Royal Italian Air Force wings in the summer of 1918 and was assigned to the 13th Squadriglie (squadron). Based in Padua, Lt. Watchorn and his Italian comrades flew day and night bombing missions against Austrian airfields, railroad yards, and troop concentrations. On a night mission, Lt. Watchorn’s center engine was hit by anti-aircraft fire. He would receive a commendation for coolly executing a perfect emergency landing, saving his crew and the plane. The arduous flying conditions, open cockpits, and extreme cold took a toll on his health. Soon after Armistice Day, he contracted a severe case of pneumonia. He recovered, however, and returned to California in triumph. Two years later, a recurrence of his health problems developed into blood poisoning. After a two month struggle, Emory Ewart died at the age of 25 on 10 July 1921. Robert and Alma were devastated by the loss of their only surviving child and always felt that his death was a direct result of his service to his country.

Padua Airfield, Where Lt. Watchorn Served

Seeking a way to memorialize their fallen son, the Watchorns eventually settled on the concept of building the Lincoln Memorial Shrine in their winter home of Redlands. That vision became reality in 1932, when the one-room octagonal building opened. In 1937, fountains and limestone walls bearing Lincoln quotations were added to the octagon. Over the following decades, an ever-increasing wealth of acquisitions required additional space. Thanks to the generosity of Lincoln and Civil War enthusiasts throughout Southern California, more than one million dollars was raised and in 1998 two beautiful wings were added to the original octagon.

It is a unique facility — the only such museum and archive west of the Mississippi River dedicated solely to the study of Abraham Lincoln and the American Civil War. By placing the shrine in his adopted home of Redlands, Watchorn knew this monument of ideals would be available to the increasing number of people moving into Southern California. It was “accessible yet secluded,” he said.

Thanks to regular contributor Courtland Jindra for bringing this to our attention.

Article contents from the Lincoln Shrine website. (Corrections posted 12 May 2016.)

Trial by Gas: The British Army at the Second Battle of Ypres reviewed by David F. Beer

Trial by Gas: The British Army at the Second Battle of Ypres

by George H. Cassar

Potomac Books, 2014

Far, far from Ypre-es I long to be,  Where German snipers can't get at me,  Damp is my dug-out, cold are my feet,  Waiting for whizz-bangs to send me to sleep.

(WWI soldiers' song)

If there was anywhere that resembled hell during WWI, the Ypres Salient surely would be it. Cassar's book makes this abundantly clear by its thorough description of the geographical nature of the Salient, the combatants' lives and deaths there, and what he labels as the "weapon of horror" — gas. He also looks closely at the military actions that took place in April and May of 1915 and thus gives us an unusually precise view of the Battle of St. Julien (1–4 May), the three movements of the Battle of Frezenberg Ridge (8–13 May), and the final Battle of Bellewaarde Ridge (24–25 May), which represented the last effort of the Germans to capture Ypres and throw the British out of the Salient.

Informational Kiosk at Langemarck
Cemetery Just South of the Gas
Release Point on 22 April 1915

Despite the German failure to gain control of the Salient, the successful British, Canadian, and French resistance might be considered little more than a Pyrrhic victory. The battles themselves, plus defending the highly vulnerable Salient from then on, cost at least 100,000 dead whose graves are marked by over 100 military cemeteries. Much of this cost might have been avoided if the British had early abandoned what was a rather useless projection into German lines and fallen back to a straighter and more easily defended front. Why didn't they? Both emotional and political factors came into play. Too much blood had soon been invested in the area, and, after all, Ypres was the sole town in Belgium that the Germans didn't control. Thus the Salient became a permanent and dreaded "open graveyard" for British troops.

Germany had experimented with liquid benzyl bromide, similar to tear gas, early in the war to no effect. Thus, despite the Hague treaties and considerable ethical revulsion, a much stronger agent, chlorine gas, was developed. This was lethal, but Dr. Fritz Haber, the scientist responsible for its development, justified its use with the argument that it would save lives by bringing the war to a faster end. This gas would initially cause breathing problems and burning in the eyes, nose, and throat, but longer exposure would destroy the lungs and cause a hideous death (graphically described in Wilfred Owen's poem "Dulce et Decorum Est"). And this is what the Germans let loose on Thursday 22 April.

We learn much in this book about the development and delivery of gas as a terrifying weapon, plus a lot about the initially feeble methods used to counteract it. (Handkerchiefs soaked in urine didn't help much.) Frightening as it was, however, and ghastly as the wounds and deaths caused by it were, gas was never to become the decisive factor in the war that Haber had imagined. However, this book gives us a vivid account of the first use of gas and how its victims suffered, and these images hover threateningly in the air and in our minds as we then read Cassar's accounts of the fighting that ensued before the Second Battle of Ypres concluded a few weeks later.

A considerable amount of Cassar's text consists of minutely described actions during Second Ypres. For instance 34 pages are devoted to one day of the fighting at Frezenberg Ridge on 8 May. Thirty pages describe the actions involving the withdrawal and close of the Battle of St. Julien, 1–4 May. Divisions, brigades, regiments, battalions, and companies are all meticulously identified, and the part each played in the action is recounted. Names of officers and men frequently appear, and supporting excerpts from letters and diaries bring personal immediacy to events.

Site of Kitchener Wood Near St. Julien Where Canadian Forces 
Plugged the Gap the Night of 22–23 April

Much of what transpired during these few weeks was to be typical of the conduct of the war in general: the ill-advised charges into the face of overwhelming artillery, the prodigal waste of life in shocking numbers, the sacrificing of partially trained troops, the hardship of trench life, and the pain and cries emanating from no-man's-land-all haunted by the possibility of the death-dealing gas wafting in.

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Trial by Gas is an interesting and detailed read, well supported by a solid bibliography and notes. Only the quality of the maps lets the book down — they are too sketchy, much in them is too miniscule to read easily, and they are often lacking information one would like to have. Also, no scale for the maps is given — to an innocent beginner, the Salient could stretch across five, 50, or 500 miles. Nevertheless, by the end of the book we have come to a considerable understanding of the Second Battle of Ypres, which, as the author states,

. . .
was not a major engagement like the Somme or Passchendaele in terms of duration, losses, and units involved, but neither was it a minor affair…Second Ypres was, for its size, one of the most murderous battles of the war. Indeed no battle in 1915 was bloodier, fought under harsher conditions, or, for that matter, more pivotal (p. 253).

David F. Beer

Liberty Bell of Louvain

8 May 1916: Catastrophe at Fort Douaumont

By Christina Holstein

At German-occupied Fort Douaumont enormous amounts of ammunition of all types were stored in the fort, some of it in magazines but much of it simply stacked up wherever space could be found. The troops, grown careless of the danger and glad to be inside in relative safety, smoked, read, heated food and coffee, played cards, and sat where they could, even on cases of explosive. Heavily armed with rifles, ammunition, and grenades, they moved about the corridors, brushing against one another in the crowded and ill-lit passages.

Fort Douaumont During the Battle

In such conditions an accident was bound to occur sooner or later, and it was during an offensive in early May, when the fort was especially crowded, that the inevitable happened.

The War Diary of 5th Division records that on the evening of 7 May units of the 12th Grenadiers and the 52nd Infantry Regiment involved in the sector between Thiaumont Farm and the area to the south of Douaumont village had been relieved and had withdrawn to the fort. Seriously wounded survivors of the previous day's fighting filled the fort's infirmary to overflowing. Less seriously wounded and sick troops found what rest they could in the corridors, where they were joined by fresh men from the 8th Leibgrenadiers going up to support the operation planned for the following day.

At 6:10 a.m. on 8 May, 5th Division received news of a serious explosion and fire in Fort Douaumont. Knowing how many men were in the barracks and fearing the worst, medical assistance and breathing apparatus was immediately dispatched to the fort, together with a company of pioneers. The artillery was ordered to be on the watch for an enemy attack, which, to the surprise and relief of the Germans, never came.

Immediate Aftermath of the Explosion

Throughout the morning and afternoon a thick cloud of smoke hung over the fort, veiling, in the words of Walter Beumelburg, the author of the Reichsarchiv volume on Douaumont, "the fearful things that had happened underground."

The exact cause of the terrible explosion that occurred in the early hours of 8 May has never been established. The commonest speculation is that careless heating of coffee or food may have ignited the flamethrowers, which were stored on the lower floor of the fort in the same area as a depot of hand grenades and the remaining French 155mm shells. Whatever the cause, at around 4:30 a.m. panic broke out in the fort. The fort's medical officer, Dr. Hallauer, 3rd Sanitäts-Kompanie, III Corps, who was on duty in the infirmary at that time, heard cries for help and terrified shouts of Die Schwartzen kommen ("The blacks are coming."). Before he could get help, three frightful explosions shook the fort and all the lights went out. There was a terrible roar. A mighty blast ripped through the fort, blowing the doors in and shaking the infirmary. Hallauer was thrown back against the wall and stunned. When he staggered out into the corridor again he was met by a thick cloud of sulfurous smoke through which came cries and moans. Grabbing his gas mask, Hallauer opened the oxygen canisters and got the ventilator going. Stretcher-bearers helped him to carry some of the surgical patients out of the thick yellow smoke in the operating theater and into another room where breathing was easier. Despite wearing his mask, Dr. Hallauer fainted. He was dragged away by two pioneers, who found him unconscious on the operating table. When he came round several hours later the full extent of the catastrophe met his appalled eyes.

The explosion had occurred in the southeastern sector of the fort on the lower corridor, where a large number of French 155mm shells were still stored. In this part of the corridor a hole two meters deep had been torn in the floor and had filled with water. Some meters farther on, the roof had fallen in and debris blocked the corridor. The roof of the pioneer depot had been blown out. A massive stone staircase  been ripped away by the blast and huge shell splinters were scattered in the rubble. In the main corridor relief troops from the 8th Leibgrenadiers — mostly young recruits — sat around, too stunned to move, while all around them lay other men, shocked, wounded, and driven mad.

Dr Hallauer's subsequent report to the commandant of the fort showed the terrible extent of the catastrophe. The corridors were filled with rubble and bodies, some of them terribly mutilated. Arms, legs, and torsos lay among smashed equipment. Many of the bodies were split open. In many places the dead were thrown on top of one another three or four deep. Against the end walls of some of the corridors on the lower floor smashed bodies were squashed together and heaped up, and it was clear that the force of the explosion had traveled down the narrow corridors like a bullet from a gun and hurled them against the wall at the end. The bodies were without exception black and covered in gunpowder. Smoke and fumes filled almost all the corridors and barrack rooms, particularly on the lower floor. Some of the rooms were empty, but in others the iron bedsteads had been hurled together into a heap, the bodies of their occupants catapulted out into the debris and rubble. Many of the dead were in a crouching position, some with their arms raised as if to protect themselves. In the rooms in which doors and beds were apparently little affected by the blast the dead were lying in bed as if asleep or sitting up wearing their gas masks.

Hallauer found hardly anyone who could help him with the injured. One doctor was dead and the others were either injured or too shocked to be of any use, as were nine of the stretcher-bearers and nurses. Nevertheless, he managed with the help of men of the 8th Leibgrenadiers to bring a number of survivors outside and to clear some of the main corridors of the bodies filling them. Rescue work was hampered by the fact that to get from one side of the barracks to the other, rescuers had to go outside into the ditch under fire. Later, help also came from units of the 24th Infantry in Caillette Wood and Brulé Ravine.

Some survivors did manage to totter out of the fort. In Hassoule Ravine to the northeast of the fort, Lieutenant Klingenberg saw men staggering toward him wearing German uniforms but without helmets or weapons. With faces and hands black with powder, singed hair and eyebrows, and torn uniforms all they could do was stammer "Douaumont. . .terrible." Clouds of thick black smoke were rising from the fort. Fearing a successful assault by the French, Klingenberg ran toward the fort, noticing as he did so an entrance completely blocked by the bodies of men who had obviously fought with one another to get out into the fresh air. With other officers, he pulled away the sandbags protecting the barrack rooms on the gorge side of the fort and let fresh air flood in. As many men as possible were dragged outside, but the lack of gas masks meant that it was a long time before all the rooms could be checked for injured and the blocked corridors cleared of wreckage and rubble.

Injured Men Receiving Care

The fact that the fort was so crowded meant that losses were exceptionally high. In the corridors and rooms near the center of the explosion men were killed by the blast, suffocated by clouds of smoke, died under the rubble or were burned to death in the scorching heat. Several days after the explosion, the death toll was put at 679 identified officers and men and 1800 injured. Hallauer himself put the death toll at between 700 and 800 but admitted that the bodies were so mutilated as to make any proper identification impossible.

The frightfulness of it all left the survivors stunned. In the following days Hallauer noted (among other conditions) shock, confusion, agitation, loss of speech, convulsions, and cases of raving madness. The fearful image of mass annihilation underground, the piles of mutilated corpses, the screams and groans of the wounded, and the ravings of the insane had all raised the level of terror to unbearable heights. As Beumelburg wrote "Es bleibt uns nur der hoffende Glaube, dass em schnelles Vergehen die Furchbarheit milderte" ("We can only hope that death came quickly to lessen the horror.").

Fortunately for the rescuers, the French artillery, as if unaware of the magnitude of the explosion inside the fort and despite the thick clouds of smoke rising over it, remained fairly quiet, so the grim work of rescue and repair could go on undisturbed. The physical destruction inside the fort and the clouds of gas and smoke which filled the corridors and barrack rooms meant that it was some days before the 23rd Pioneers could get on with the awful work of dealing with the dead. Some of them were buried outside in an enormous crater left by the explosion of a 420mm shell, but the task of taking all the hundreds of bodies outside was simply too much for the exhausted garrison. In addition, French shelling while the work was being carried out caused further losses. It was therefore decided to bury the dead in Artillery Shelters I and II on the Rue du Rempart and to wall up the entrances. Heavy shelling soon blocked access to the bunkers, leaving the vast majority of the victims of the explosion under tons of stones and rubble, where they still lie.

Dr. Hallauer's official report of 10 May attempted to reconstruct the events leading up to the explosion. Recalling a strong smell of flamethrower fuel in the fort on the previous day, he surmised, first, that an accident had ignited the inflammable oil and, second, that the resulting fire had given off thick clouds of smoke and soot. Some troops were burned and many others, their faces blackened with soot, ran in panic for the stairs and ladders to the upper floor. Seeing the black apparitions, German troops on the upper floor mistook them for black French soldiers and, fearing an attack, threw grenades at them. It was that, Hallauer believed, which may have caused the explosion of the French 155mm shells which, in turn, ignited a large store of hand grenades and detonators in the pioneer depot.

The Memorial Inside the Fort Today

Terrible though it was, the explosion had no effect on the course of the battle. Within hours, specialist officers examined the fort to see whether it would continue to resist the French bombardment or whether it should be evacuated and blown up. Despite the magnitude of the blast, they found that Fort Douaumont was still worth holding. In fact, the physical damage suffered by the fort was far less serious than its effect on German morale. Until the explosion occurred, Fort Douaumont had been regarded as a safe haven for troops in the sector, but news of the disaster on 8 May spread swiftly far and wide. From that moment on, in the minds of the German troops in the sector, the reassuring presence they affectionately referred to as "the hill" really did become "the coffin lid."

Believing that a success in the field would lift morale, the commander of 5th Division, General Wichura, ordered the unsuccessful operation of 7 May in the area to the south of Douaumont village to be attempted again by the same regiments, even though they were worn out by the previous fighting and the explosion. The operation was fixed for 12 May. Despite vigorous artillery preparation and the use of gas, it was once again unsuccessful. A third attack using the same troops but without any artillery preparation was then ordered for the early hours of 13 May, but it was called off before the exhausted German troops had time to show whether or not they could have carried it out.

The explosion of 8 May caused major disruption to German operations in the sector. It also brought about a belated realization that the loss of the fort would have serious consequences. Fort Douaumont's importance as an observatory, command post, supply depot, and reserve position were so overwhelming that its possession was indispensable to control of the sector north of Verdun. 

From: Fort Douaumont by Christina Holstein; reprinted by permission of the author and publisher. Available at Pen and Sword Books, Ltd.

Remembering a Veteran: A Moving Obituary Appears in Punch, May 1916

LIEUTENANT ALEC JOHNSTON

A brother-officer attached to the King's Shropshire Light Infantry writes from the Front:—"I thought you would like to hear some details of the death in action of Lieutenant Alec Johnston, who used to write 'At the Front' in Punch. I knew him well and we were rather especial friends.

"On the night of the 21st of April the Battalion, which was resting at the time, was suddenly ordered to attack some six hundred yards of trenches which the enemy had taken two nights previously. Johnston's Company was in the centre, and, after the O.C. had been severely wounded just before we attacked, Johnston led the Company and captured the position most gallantly with the bayonet. He then went on himself and personally reconnoitred the ground up to the German line. He found them massing for a counter-attack and came back and gave warning. When the enemy attacked they were driven off with heavy loss. He was indefatigable all night consolidating the recaptured position, exposing himself on top all the time in order to move about more quickly.

Above and Stronger Than His Wish to Live — His Wish to Do His Duty
Lt. Johnston's Grave at Essex Farm Cemetery, Ypres

"At dawn, he sent the only other officer then remaining unwounded to the safest part of the trench, saying that when it got too light to stay on top he himself would get into 'the first old crump hole.' He stayed up too long, and was shot through the heart by a German sniper.

"He was a general favourite and loved by his men. He had done more dangerous patrol work than any two other officers in the battalion, and the hotter the situation the cooler he got.

"The way he used to write his articles was very characteristic of the man. I have seen him lying flat on his face in a tiny dug-out no bigger or higher than the underneath of a small dinner-table, in the front line trench, dashing off the first half of one of his quaint articles to Punch. He would have to stop in the middle and crawl out on patrol up to the German wire, have a scrap out there with a Bosch patrol at a few yards' range, stay out for two or three hours, and crawl back, soaked to the skin and covered with mud, to finish his article in time for the post.

"His name had already gone in for distinction, and if he had lived he certainly would have had a decoration conferred for his work in this last show.

"As you probably know, his articles were awfully appreciated by every one out here, and in his quaintly witty way he caught perfectly the spirit 'at the Front.'"

Punch, 17 May 1916

Verdun: Crossroads of Liberty

Today, I will be escorting my Verdun Battlefield tour group on walking tour of the city itself.  One stop I think the first time visitors will be surprised to see will be this memorial near the train station.

The Voie de la Liberté marks two famous wartime lines of communication. The marker on the right indicates the route of the World War II  712-mile road of liberation from Utah Beach in Normandy to Bastogne in the Ardennes forest. The marker the left is at the northern terminus of the Voie Sacrée, the 38-mile road from Bar-le-Duc that was so critical to the French defense of Verdun in 1916.

In both cases, the length of both roads are marked by an identical marker placed every kilometer.

Helpful Kiosks on the Western Front

Photographed by Our Contributing Documentarian, Steve Miller

A few months ago I presented some interesting interesting informational kiosks from some favorite sites on the Italian Front. Today I'd like to show you some that I found particularly informative or helpful. Steve Miller in his travels has regularly photographed these kiosks and shares his collection with us. When I started leading tours a quarter of a century ago, nothing like this was available. You had to find your way with a Michelin map and Rose Coombs's guidebook, which was a lot stronger on the British Army sites than the French or American sites. In some cases you may need to click on the image to read the fine print. In others I've extracted some of the English language commentary for easier reading.

Beaumont Hamel, Newfoundland Memorial Park, Somme

Comment:  Simple multilingual poster that shows the key sites of 1 July 1916 and the later advance of the 51st Scottish Division that secured the area.

Craonne, Chemin des Dames

Comment:  This little former village was chosen by fate to be an important battlefield in 1814, 1914, and 1917.  It is also immortalized in song. Today it is the  closest  thing in France to what an American would call a ghost town.  It has a nice map of the former village and some basic information in French and English.

Eparges Spur, St. Mihiel Salient

Comment: One of the greatest mining sites of the war, Eparges has a scale almost beyond comprehension. Although the text is only in French,  the images and graphic map tell much of the story of the fighting on the ridge. Also pictured is Maurice Genevoix, the noted French author, who recorded the sheer awfulness of the fighting at Eparges before being wounded in April 1915.

Fleury Village, Verdun

Comment: A thriving farm village of 422 in 1914, in the summer of 1916 Fleury found itself at the head of the ravine that provided the most direct access to Verdun for the German Army. It changed hands 16 times and was (as the photos above document) utterly leveled. Today it is the most famous of Frances "Villages Detruit." The kiosk gives some interesting details in the English-language section.

The Vimy Ridge Memorial as Art

Comment: Canada has done a fabulous job commemorating their 1917 victory at Vimy Ridge. The site is filled with helpful kiosks and staffed by well-informed young Canadians. This particular panel focuses on the artistic merits of the monument.  Below are some of the details from the English language sections. 

In the future, we will share some of kiosks from the American battlefields of 1918 from Steve's collection.

WWI Danger: Airplane-Eating Cows

Contributed by Mike Cox

Curtiss Jenny:  Particularly Toothsome for Cows

They appeared to walk around aimlessly, looking innocent until the right opportunity presented itself. Then, moving as quickly as they could, they struck. Soon, the unguarded flying machine’s two linen wings had been ripped to shreds — an airplane that had cost Uncle Sam $5,465.

At least twice during World War I, these destroyers of government property succeeded in grounding Army training planes at Dallas’s Love Field. Who instigated these home-front attacks on American aircraft? Trench-coated German saboteurs? Disloyal Texans bent on hampering the war effort? Draft dodgers venting anger at the government? Nope, cows. Not seditious cows, not even mad cows. Just hungry cows.

“The discovery that Texas cattle will eat the wings of an airplane…is one of the reasons why a general order to ‘Stick to the machine, no matter what happens’ is impressed upon every cadet aviator training in Texas,” the Associated Press reported from Dallas in June 1918. The plane that Texas cattle found so tasty was the Curtiss JN-4D, or Jenny. First flown in 1914, the Jenny had wings made from linen stretched over a wire-supported spruce frame.

To make the wings airtight, the Curtiss company painted them with cellulose. Army aviators called cellulose “dope”; for cattle, it was dinner if they could get it. The cellulose, the AP noted, “softens under their tongues, and the cattle in their eagerness to obtain it will chew the expensive linen planes to pieces to extract the…flavor.”

Cows, however, are still a threat to aircraft.  In 2013, some Indonesian cows forced this Boeing 730 of Lion Airlines off the runway while the pilot was trying to land.

Mike Cox is a chronicler of Texas history with a particularly strong interest in the Texas Rangers.  Try Mike's latest work Gunfights & Sites in Texas Ranger History at Amazon.com

The Ottoman Endgame Reviewed by Bryan Alexander

The Ottoman Endgame: 
War, Revolution, and the Making of the Modern Middle East,
1908 – 1923

by Sean McMeekin

Penguin Press, 2015

November 1914: Proclamation of Holy War Read in Constantinople

I came to The Ottoman Endgame in my quest to explore the global reach of WWI — i.e., everything beyond the Western Front. Sean McMeekin's latest book is perfect for this purpose, as it describes the conflict from the Ottoman empire's perspective. The results are impressive: an exciting, well-told, and illuminating narrative history.

This focus requires a somewhat broader perspective than a 1914–1918 battlefield account. McMeekin reaches back to 1900–1914 (indeed, begins in the late 1800s) in order to set up the "sick man of Europe" problematic, and to introduce the crucial Balkan Wars. He also continues the tale beyond 11/11/1918 as he views the Turkish story as bound up with the Russian Civil War, and, of course, carried on through the Turko-Greek War (1919–1922) and Kemal Atatürk's founding of today's Turkish state. There's also a strong if understated pointer to our time, as the book's last line reminds us — "Outside Turkey's borders, the War of the Ottoman Succession [see below] rages on, with no end in sight." (495)

And what a tale unfolds! Students of the First World War are familiar with the fact that it brought down so many empires; McMeekin gives us a front-row seat for the spectacular crash. We see intrigue, betrayal, ambition, disaster, epic struggle, and many, many battles. Not only is the Ottoman Empire destroyed and replaced with a constellation of states still unsettled (to put it mildly) today, but also the Russian Empire collapses into revolution and civil war, Israel's founding starts to move, and the whole, more familiar drama of the Western Front transpires.

A crucial argument in the book is to consider the Ottoman story as not a sideshow, in T E Lawrence's terms, but as "central to both the outbreak of European war in 1914 and the peace settlement that truly ended it." A second claim is that the Ottomans fought better, smarter, and harder than their enemies and much of posterity have given them credit for. Those are ultimately very persuasive arguments, especially given the close connections between the Ottomans and Russia ("Russia, always the prime [external] mover in Ottoman affairs", 286), for the former point.

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Ottoman Endgame offers some intriguing perspectives on the first World War. It suggests reviewing the Middle Eastern theater (plus the Macedonian and Russian) as a War of the Ottoman Succession (xx, 483). There's the possibility of WWI breaking out in 1912, as the great powers maneuvered around the First Balkan War, which makes for a fascinating counterfactual. McMeekin, no fan of T E Lawrence, nevertheless picks up Lawrence's call for the British to land in the Ottoman realm, not at Gallipoli, but at Alexandretta (173ff), arguing that such a campaign might have been far more effective for the Entente than the disaster (or, from the Ottoman perspective, glorious victory) of Gallipoli. Speaking of Gallipoli, the book raises the possibility that a Russian attack on Constantinople (which had been promised) during the Entente's bloody campaign might have collapsed the Ottomans as early as 1915 (216ff). Speaking of Lawrence of Arabia, McMeekin falls squarely into the skeptic's camp. Ottoman Endgame portrays Lawrence as a bungling tactician, "an ineffective liaison officer" (416), a bag man for British imperial cash (according to "a Bedouin sheikh...'He was the man with the gold,'" 361), a maker of myths about himself. Two days after the fall of Damascus, to which his only contribution was to be chauffeured into town afterwards in a Rolls-Royce sedan (the Blue Mist), Lawrence asked [General] Allenby for permission to return to England, where he returned to begin composing his own legend (404n). McMeekin lets us revisit and understand familiar events in new contexts. The Allied attempt on Gallipoli makes more sense considered alongside the other Ottoman battles at the same time, in Suez, Mesopotamia, and the Caucasus. The Young Turks and their maneuvers are more rational in their domestic setting. Sykes-Picot (or Sazonov-Sykes-Picot) appears more ramshackle that I recall, as well as more centered on Russian aspirations. British prime minister Lloyd George comes off as a dangerous fumbler. The Armenian genocide occurs in the midst of several military campaigns, rather than on its own. Ottoman Endgame also draws attention to under-appreciated or simply forgotten aspects of WWI, such as the Battle of Dilman (1915), which helped the Russians drive deeply into the eastern empire (227), and Wilhelm Souchon's brilliant escapades with the SMS Goeben. I was impressed that a second great battle took place in 1915 on the world historic site of Manzikert, almost a thousand years after the first one.

Turkish Troops En Route to the Suez Canal 1914

The first Ottoman attack on the Suez Canal doesn't get nearly enough attention; I completely missed that there was a second one, in 1916; McMeekin wants us to consider the latter as "the decisive turning point in the British-Ottoman war" (343). McMeekin also would like us to consider the scarcely ever mentioned Macedonian Front as "the real catalyst of defeat for the Central Powers "(394), which I'm not fully convinced by, but enjoy thinking through.

I'd forgotten that the Versailles process raised the idea of putting the United States in charge of big swathes of former Ottoman territory (420ff). The epic, intercontinental carve-up of the Russian Empire by the Germans and Ottomans, often neglected in favor of the epic 1918 Western Front battles, was very well presented. I was also pleased to see the author make the case once more for the vital importance and skills of Russia's one-time foreign minister Sergei Sazonov (example: 185-6) (this was a key point of McMeekin's previous book on WWI and Russia).

I was disappointed at some omissions and topics underplayed. The entry and rapid exit of Romania into the war was very significant in 1916 and had huge implications for the Balkans, but it barely receives a mention (ex: 326). More important, Austria-Hungary is barely mentioned (cf 370), which is strange, given its huge role in the Balkans, not to mention in kicking off war in 1914. On the Ottoman side I hoped to learn more about culture and society, such as public opinion, attitudes toward the war, etc., but this is more of a diplomatic and military history.

The Ottoman Endgame is well grounded in archival work, especially on the Turkish side.

One all too rare virtue, though, made me love this book the more — its maps. Oh, what a delight to read a history liberally speckled with maps! Each one is placed precisely where it is most germane. Every one is easy to read. Nearly every single geographical detail in the text is clearly apparent on the relevant map. Publishers and authors, please learn from this book's example!

Overall, I strongly recommend The Ottoman Endgame for every WWI reader, as well as for anyone curious about the modern Middle East, and for anyone interested in fine historical nonfiction.

Bryan Alexander

This review first appeared on Goodreads on 30 March 2016. Bryan Alexander also blogs on Future Trends in Technology and Education at http://bryanalexander.org/

Remembering a Veteran: Albert I, King (and War Hero) of the Belgians

Contributed by Tony Langley

Albert I succeeded to the Belgian throne in 1909 and ruled until his death in 1934. He was the third king of the Belgians to reign since the independence of the country in 1830. Like many of the ruling family, he was a devout Catholic, but he was also a social progressive pushing for universal suffrage and for linguistic equality between the two language groups making up the country.

His reign is mostly associated with the Great War, during which virtually the whole of Belgium was occupied by the Germans. Constitutionally at the head of the armed forces during time of war, he led the country through these difficult times while gaining an international reputation for heroism and integrity. He was idealized in the written and illustrated Entente and Allied media during the war, while at the same time being mistrusted by war leaders and politicians. Both Britain and France feared that Albert I might make a separate peace with the Germans. That is why his government and military were never informed about or participated in any of the great Allied offensives until at the very last months of the war. The Belgian overall strategy was to wait out events and hope for the best.

This was borne out by events, and Albert I returned to a liberated Belgium, welcomed as a returning hero, ever steadfast in his resolve. After the Great War his stature and personal integrity were unquestioned. An avid mountaineer and rock climber, he died in an accident while climbing in 1934.

In the postwar years, towns and cities in many countries vied to erect public monuments commemorating the war. Even Paris has an equestrian monument of King Albert. This particular monument is one of many in Antwerp that were built during this period. The second photo shows details of the side groupings of Belgian soldiers and mourning families. Dedicated in 1930 in the presence of the king and queen themselves, it was of a grand design in the realistic school, one of the more ornamental and imposing monuments to the Great War in Belgium.

The official title is "Monument for the Dead." It was designed and sculpted by Belgian artist Edward Deckers.

TL

Royal Mail's Centenary Stamp Issue

The Royal Mail, formerly referred to as the General Post Office (GPO), played a huge and highly important role in delivering mail to and from the troops in the field. Less known is that the GPO contributed 12,000 of its employees to its own Pals Battalion. Of the 12,000 GPO employees in the Post Office Rifles, 1,800 were killed and 4,500 wounded. The Royal Mail has been delivering a spectacular year-by-year release of new WWI Centenary issues. Here are the latest with the artists and some details on the content.

POPPIES, HOWARD HODGKIN

In May 1915, Canadian military doctor Major John McCrae wrote a short poem titled "In Flanders Fields," which drew upon the image of delicate poppies and spoke with the voice of fallen soldiers, calling on their comrades to continue the struggle. The verses helped to turn the flower into a symbol of remembrance throughout the English-speaking world. Poppies, an abstract work by London-born artist Howard Hodgkin, was inspired by poppies from Normandy and was executed as a carborundum print. Hodgkin won the Turner Prize in 1985 and was knighted in 1992. 

"ALL THE HILLS AND VALES ALONG," CHARLES HAMILTON SORLEY

In his four-stanza work "All the Hills and Vales Along," Charles Hamilton Sorley depicts troops singing as they advance toward the front line. As the poem marches on, the pastoral imagery gives way to an ever bleaker expectation of death. On 13 October 1915, 20-year-old Sorley was serving as a captain in the Suffolk Regiment when he was killed by a sniper. This poem was found in his kitbag and published posthumously. Sorley was later commemorated on a stone in Poets’ Corner at Westminster Abbey, dedicated to 16 leading First World War poets. 

RIFLEMAN KULBIR THAPA

Rifleman Kulbir Thapa was serving in 2nd Battalion, 3rd Queen Alexandra’s Own Gurkha Rifles, when his unit attacked German lines on 25 September 1915, the first day of the Battle of Loos. Though wounded and separated from his battalion, he was able to reach the German front line. Finding an injured British soldier nearby, Kulbir stayed with him all day and night, before carrying him to safety the next morning. Despite his injuries, he then returned to the German trenches and rescued two fellow Gurkhas. For these selfless acts of heroism, Kulbir became the first Nepalese Gurkha to be awarded the Victoria Cross. 

CAPE HELLES, GALLIPOLI, TURKEY

In this image, British photographer Ernest Brooks captures a British soldier at a comrade’s grave at Cape Helles in an evocative sunset silhouette. Brooks was particularly keen on using silhouettes, as by rendering soldiers less recognisable, their outlines came to symbolise unknown soldiers. Cape Helles, on the southern tip of the Gallipoli peninsula, had witnessed bloody fighting on 25 April 1915.

LONDON IRISH RIFLES’ FOOTBALL FROM LOOS

On 25 September 1915, the first day of the Battle of Loos, this football was booted out of British trenches by Private Frank Edwards. Kicked across no-man’s-land by Edwards’ comrades in 1st Battalion, London Irish Rifles, it became entangled in German barbed wire as British soldiers overran the enemy position. Though disapproved of by his officers, Edwards’s action may well have offered a welcome distraction to men faced with a dangerous advance through heavy fire. Preserved in the London Irish Rifles’ Regimental Museum since the war, the football underwent special conservation treatment in 2011.

"THE KENSINGTONS AT LAVENTIE," ERIC KENNINGTON

Painter and sculptor Eric Kennington joined the London Regiment in 1914 but was wounded and discharged in 1915. During his recovery he worked on "The Kensingtons at Laventie." Painted in reverse by applying oil paint to a sheet of glass, this extraordinary picture depicts Kennington (left background in a black balaclava) and several identifiable comrades resting in a ruined village after an exhausting spell in the trenches during the winter of 1914–15. A complex composition, the painting honours the fortitude and solidarity of ordinary soldiers.