Day One: 4 August 1914 in Detail

 (Translated from French Sources.)

Brussels Headline, 4 August 1914

Preparatory actions for the implementation of the Schlieffen Plan are undertaken by the German Army: it enters Belgian territory to seize the bridges over the Meuse. England issues an ultimatum to Germany and then decides to mobilize on the night of 4–5 August.

France

-  At 8.45 a.m., the Minister of War  telegraphs to the general-in-chief, to the generals commanding the covering corps, and to General Sordet, stipulating the prohibition of entering Belgian territory.

-  Joffre ordered the 7th CA to occupy the Alsace balloon, without going down into the plain.

-  The Chamber of Deputies meets. Viviani denies that any French aviator has committed an act of hostility. The laws necessary for national defense are passed unanimously.

-  A detachment of German cavalry enters Blâmont and Frémonville, a company of infantry crosses the French border at Homécourt.

-  As the intervention of the English is probable, Messimy sends instructions to the commanders of Boulogne, Rouen and Le Havre, in anticipation of landings in these ports.

-  Dubail, commander of the 1st Army, receives the order to prepare an offensive in Haute-Alsace, to be executed by the 7th CA and the 8th DC, on the Thann-Mulhouse front.

Kaiser Wilhelm II Addresses the Reichstag, 4 August 1914

Germany

Sir Edward Goschen, Ambassador of England, gives von Jagow the text of the ultimatum, which is rejected.

An exceptional Reichstag session is held in the White Room of the Berlin Palace. Kaiser Wilhelm II reads a speech that all deputies listen to while respectfully standing silent. Its most famous part is:

You have read what I said to my people the other day from the balcony of my castle. I repeat now that I no longer know any parties. I know only Germans. And in order to testify that you are firmly resolved without distinction of party to stand by my side through danger and death, I call upon the leaders of the different parties in this House to come forward and lay their hands in mine as a pledge. 

England

England sends a formal notice to Germany regarding Belgian neutrality. State Secretary for Foreign Affairs von Jagow replies that the violation of Belgian territory is a fait accompli.

As a result, the mobilization of the metropolitan forces was ordered on the night of 4 to 5 August  (two days after France).

Russia

The supreme command of the Russian armies is entrusted to the Grand Duke Nicholas Nicholaevich.

Africa

The French colony of Algeria is bombarded: at 4 a.m., at Bône by SMS Breslau, as is Philippeville at 5 a.m. by SMS Goeben.

Belgium

From 4–20 August, the Belgian Army was isolated against the 1st and 2nd German armies. Too weak to fight them, she tries to delay them as long as possible by avoiding being run over.

-  At around 8 a.m., two German DCs (2nd and 4th divisions) and the 34th Infantry Brigade crossed the Belgian border. They avoid the fortified position of Liège, pushing toward. the Meuse at Visé. They find the bridge destroyed and the crossings  of the Meuse guarded by the 2nd battalion of the 12th line regiment, which stands up to the attacks. These divisions are the vanguard of an army drawn from the CAs of Aix-la-Chapelle and the Eupen camp, under the command of General von Emmich.

-  At 9 a.m., the House of Representatives acclaims King Albert.

-  Around 10:30 a.m., the first Belgian soldier is killed, in Thimister, on the road from Liège to Aix-la-Chapelle: it is the cavalryman Antoine Adolphe Fonck.

-  The Belgian minister of war asks the French military attaché to immediately prepare the collaboration and contact of the French troops with the Belgian army.

-  The 3rd and 4th Divisions are ordered to destroy all bridges, tunnels, and structures in the Meuse and beyond.

Bridge at Huy Demolished

-  The 9th battalion of German infantry threatens to cross the Meuse at the ford of Lixhe, located 600 m south of the Dutch border, and guarded by companies of the 25th RI.

-  In Visé, the German infantrymen equipped with machine guns opened an intense fire on the defenders of the western outlet of the bridge. The fort of Pontisse pulls to the east side of the Visé bridge and farther north toward Navagne where large gatherings are reported. The Belgian forces were threatened with being turned to their left at Lixhe and had to fall back around 5 p.m. on Milmort, behind the line of forts at Liège. The Germans, annoyed by the fire from Fort Pontisse, stayed the night on the right bank, the two DCs near Mouland and the 34th brigade at Berneau.

-  The other German brigades reached farther south the front of Berneau - Herve - Louveigné - Stoumont. The 9th DC stops at Poulseur.

At 6 p.m., the 12th of the line withdrew from the Visé bridge and two regiments of Uhlans crossed the Meuse, followed by two regiments of hussars. A German column enters through Gemmenich into Belgian territory.

First German Troops to Enter Belgium

Following these violations of the territory, King Albert I launched an appeal to the powers guaranteeing the treaty of 1839, France, England, and Russia:

The Belgian government regrets having to announce to Your Excellency that this morning the armed forces of Germany have entered Belgian territory in violation of the commitments which have been made by treaty. . . The King's Government is firmly resolved to resist by all means in its power.. . . Belgium calls on England, France and Russia to cooperate, as guarantors, in the defense of its territory. . . There would be concerted and joint action aimed at resisting the forceful measures employed by Germany against Belgium and, at the same time, guaranteeing the maintenance of the independence and integrity of Belgium in the country. 'to come up. . . Belgium is happy to be able to declare that it will ensure the defense of its strongholds.

The same day, England let it be known that she would help Belgium with all her might.

France and Russia in turn make known their willingness to respond to the call and to cooperate with England in the defense of Belgian territory.

Source: Sambre-Marne-Yser Website

Episode 18 of BBC's Great War Series

 

Fat Rodiziako Has Sent Me Some Nonsense

Hagia Sophia and Atatürk's Legacy

 

Hagia Sophia, Istanbul

by Aykan Erdemir

The re-designation of this iconic building as a mosque was not just a sop to the Turkish president’s Islamist fans but another blow at the memory of the statesman whose legacy haunts and frustrates him.

Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan held the first Muslim prayers since 1934 in Istanbul’s sixth-century former Byzantine church, Hagia Sophia, on 24 July, marking the building’s re-conversion into a mosque.

As recently as March 2019, Turkey’s Islamist leader publicly opposed demands from his supporters to alter the status of this World Heritage Site, which Turkey’s founding father, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, had transformed into a museum in 1934.

Erdoğan's U-turn on Hagia Sophia results in part from his need for a political stunt to boost his party’s waning popularity. More important, it reflects his ongoing struggle with Atatürk’s legacy, which exerts surprising influence despite Erdoğan’s consolidation of power and continues to inspire calls for a more secular and pluralistic democracy.

It is ironic that in a country of 84 million citizens, the biggest obstacle to Erdoğan’s Islamist ambitions continues to come from a man who died in 1938. The enduring legacy of Atatürk, the architect of the modern, secular Republic of Turkey, has so far proven unbeatable.

So much so that Erdoğan, who once insulted Atatürk as a “drunk,” has since then felt the need to pay respects, albeit tactically. The ongoing battle between Turkey’s two longest-serving presidents, separated by more than seven decades, will impact not only on the prospects for secular democracy in Turkey but also in other majority Muslim polities.

For over four decades, first as a youth wing member of an Islamist party in the 1970s, then as the mayor of Istanbul from 1994 to 1998, then as prime minister between 2003 and 2014, and finally as president since then, Erdoğan has pursued his dream of dismantling Atatürk’s secular republican legacy.

On the one hand, Erdoğan has overseen an ambitious social engineering project, using all instruments of the state, namely the 140,000-strong Directorate of Religious Affairs, compulsory religious education in schools, and sectarian indoctrination in state-run media, to mould what he has described as a “pious generation.”

On the other hand, he has worked meticulously to erase Atatürk’s legacy, whether it is secular reforms or institutions. Erdoğan has gone so far as to tear down dozens of public structures around the country, from stadiums to airports, that monumentalized Atatürk’s name.

By 2015, Erdoğan’s increasing consolidation of power emboldened one of his lawmakers to declare the end of a “90-year commercial break with the 600-year [Ottoman] empire.” This was a reference to Turkey’s republican era as an interval in the Ottoman caliphate that Erdoğan would presumably restore.

To the president’s disappointment, however, under his rule, the young have grown less religious and more anti-government, inflicting an embarrassing defeat on him in the 2019 municipal elections. Atatürk’s secular legacy has proven more resilient than the Islamists expected.

Hagia Sophia, Interior

The transformation of Hagia Sophia into a museum in 1934 was one of the cornerstones of Atatürk’s cognitive revolution. Ottoman Sultan Mehmet II had converted what was then the world’s greatest church into a mosque after his conquest of Constantinople in 1453, as a symbol of Muslim domination of his empire.

By reversing this highly symbolic act and by turning Hagia Sophia into a museum for all citizens to cherish, regardless of their faith, Atatürk challenged the sectarian hierarchies of the Ottoman era. It was also a gesture of peace and goodwill not only toward neighbouring Greece but also to other Christian nations that the Ottomans had fought for centuries. . .

From: "Erdogan’s Target in Hagia Sophia Stunt was Atatürk’s Legacy,"  Balkan Insight, 4 August 2020

Full article at: 

https://balkaninsight.com/2020/08/04/erdogans-target-in-hagia-sophia-stunt-was-ataturks-legacy/

Château-Thierry and the Arrival of the Yanks

Today Looking South: Place de l'Hôtel de ville in Foreground;
River Marne in Distance

The name of Château-Thierry, more than any other French town, will always stand out in American World War I history. Château-Thierry will always be an American shrine in France—not the old Marne city alone or chiefly but rather the American battlefields that surround the city. Château-Thierry still occupies a major position in our national military traditions, for it was there that General Pershing's forces first participated in a critical battle and first figured in a large offensive. Château-Thierry is a little town so picturesque that its smiling aspect has tempted many a traveler to break his journey on the way from Paris to Champagne.

Before the Great War

Today Looking West: Ruins of Ancient Castle; Saint-Crépin Church; AEF Memorial on Hill 204 in the Distance

In the late years of the western Roman empire, a small town called Otmus was settled on a site where the Soissons-Troyes road crossed the Marne river, today 65 miles northeast of the Eiffel Tower as the crow flies. During the 8th century, Charles Martel kept King Theuderic IV prisoner in the castle of Otmus. At this time, the town took the name of Castrum Theodorici, later transformed in Château-Thierry (Castle of Thierry, Thierry being the French or early Roman language translation of Theuderic). Later, as the castle was enhanced, it was to give the town its greatest renown. From Castles.nl: 

Château-Thierry Castle, locally known as Château de Château-Thierry, lies on a hill in the town with the same name in the Aisne department in France. The first fortification at this site was built around 720 by the Frankish ruler Charles Martel as a residence for the adolescent Merovingian king under his control; Thierry IV (Theodoric). The settlement and name of the town originated from this fortification. In 1060, Hughes Lambert leveled the top of the hill. The castle of which we see the present-day ruins was founded in the 12th century by the Counts of Champagne.

 

A Surviving Porte of the Castle

 

Château-Thierry Castle was rebuilt between 1220 and 1230 by Theobald IV, Count of Champagne, and until 1285 fell under the Lords of Coucy. After that date the castle was part of the royal domain, and then ceded in the early 15th century to Louis I, Duke of Orléans. After his death in 1407 the castle returned to the royal domain. During the 15th and 16th century the castle was adapted to the use of firearms. The town and castle were taken by the English in 1421 and in 1544 by Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor.

The Duchy of Château-Thierry was later given to the Bouillon Family, who left it without proper maintenance, causing the castle to fall into ruin.

Dominated on the north by the ruined towers of the ancient castle, the town lies closely nestled in a valley, between the wooded sides of which winds the River Marne. Approaching from the east, the Marne bends sharply upon passing the town, as if to avoid a bare knoll known as Hill 204, which bars its direct course to the west. At no point more than 70 meters wide, the river is too deep to be forded. The Marne meanders through a lovely valley walled in by two parallel ranges of hills. East of the town the crests of these lie about two kilometers apart, a narrow plain stretching along the base of the hills on the southern bank. South of the town the valley expands to a greater breadth. The valley slopes ascend from the northern banks of the Marne to a plateau about 500 feet above the river.

Château-Thierry Market, 1879 by Léon-Augustin Lhermitte

Château-Thierry, a small market town with a population of 8,000 in 1914, still bears signs of it regal heritage. It is an attractive town of stone buildings whose winding streets, rise terrace-like above the other, paralleling the river. Below the edge of the plateau, the ancient chateau, with crenellated and bastioned walls, rears itself above the trees and gardens which surround it. From the old castle, a wonderful panorama of hills, ridges, valleys, rivers, towns, villages, and hamlets is seen. Along the main boulevard at the level of the river there are many lovely houses with walled gardens. The steeple of 15th-century Saint-Crépin church is still the tallest structure in the town. Château-Thierry was once the home of the poet and writer of fables, Jean de la Fontaine.

There are four roads that radiate from Château-Thierry: one up the north bank of the Marne, one to Soissons, one to Fere-en-Tardenois, and one to La Ferté and Paris. Because of it riverside and crossroads position Chateau-Thierry has been a strategic location historically and has seen many battles  and sieges before the Great War. It was was captured by the English in 1421; by Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, in 1544; and by the duke of Mayenne in 1591.  The town was sacked during an  important battle  in 1814. The Battle of Château-Thierry saw the Imperial French Army commanded by Emperor Napoleon attempt to destroy a Prussian corps led by Ludwig Yorck von Wartenburg and an Imperial Russian corps under Fabian Wilhelm von Osten-Sacken. The two allied corps managed to escape across the Marne River but suffered considerably heavier losses than the pursuing French. This action occurred during the Six Days' Campaign, a series of victories that Napoleon won over Prussian field marshal Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher's Army of Silesia. A century later, another Germanic army would approach the town.

Château-Thierry During the First World War

Prewar Street Scene in Château-Thierry

September 1914

On 2 September 1914, the town was almost encircled by the Germans. While the German batteries posted above Courteau  were firing on the railway station across the river and the Place-du-Champ-de-Mars, their troops debouched by the Essommes and Paris roads at about five in the afternoon. The French fell back at 11 p.m. On 3 September, German troops pillaged the town. On the 9th, the Franco-British troops relieved the town.

May–July 1918

Three days into  the third German offensive of 1918, rapidly advancing German forces were approaching Château-Thierry and only minimal French forces were available to defend the town and the bridges crossing the Marne. On 31 May, machine gunners from the U.S. 3rd Division were placed at the disposal of the French commander, who was defending the town, which was in danger of being outflanked. They were hardly out of the trucks when they were rushed into the battle in support of the French Colonials. At 9 p.m. on 1 June   the Germans, under cover of night, and protected by a dense smoke screen, counterattacked, creeping along the riverside toward the great bridge, the defense of which had been entrusted to the Americans, with orders to hold it until the Colonials, who were fighting on the far side of the river, should fall back. This they did until the last of the French troops had passed over, when they withdrew. When the Germans debouched in front of the bridge, the latter blew up, and the few who had succeeded in crossing before the explosion were taken prisoner by the Americans, who had calmly posted their guns on the south bank of the river. 

An American Soldier Surveys the Damage to 
Château-Thierry from the South Bank of the Marne

This action was actually the first of four operations, that historians sometimes aggregate, sometimes selectively pick or ignore, to label the "Battle of Château-Thierry." In my reckoning, there were Four Battles at Château-Thierry.

1. The Defense Along the Marne River at Château-Thierry (3rd U.S. Division)

2. The Ongoing Struggle for Hill 204 (two French divisions; elements 3rd and 28th U.S. Divisions)

3. The Battle for Belleau Wood (4th Marine Brigade and 2nd Engineers, 2nd U.S. Division; elements 3rd U.S. Division)

4. The Capture of Vaux (3rd Brigade, 2nd U.S. Division) 

By the completion of these four elements on 18 July 1918, Château-Thierry had become the place that made the world aware that the United States' commitment to winning the war was wholehearted and included a willingness to sacrifice American lives in pursuit of that victory.

For Armistice/Veterans Day: America's Unknown Soldier: A Visual History (A Roads Classic)

Between Shells at Château Thierry
George Matthews Harding

America's Unknown Soldier By Steve Miller

Escape Artist: the Nine Lives of Harry Perry Robinson

by Joseph McAleer
Oxford University Press, 2020

David F. Beer, Reviewer

History is replete with individuals who led extraordinary and influential lives yet who are largely unknown today. Harry Perry Robinson (1859–1930) is one of these, and this book seeks to remedy that oversight (xiii). 

HPR in 1896 While in America

Joseph McAleer's book opens with the above lines and then gives us a splendid biography of a remarkable man who, among many other accomplishments, was the oldest correspondent on the Western Front during the Great War. The book's title notwithstanding, Harry Robinson wasn't an escape artist in the Houdini sense but a man with an irresistible urge for one adventure after another—and with the journalistic ability to write about them all. With such material at hand, author McAleer is able to present a fascinating and detailed life which at times reads like the "ripping yarns" I remember being absorbed in as a lad many years ago. 

Harry was the youngest of six children and the son of an English clergyman who became a chaplain in the Indian Army. To say the family was gifted and eccentric might be a bit of an understatement: as the author points out, each of them is probably worth a biography. Harry graduated from Oxford in 1882, and then, unlike the rest of the family who were "imbued with the spirit of the Empire and service to Queen and Country in India" (12), Harry lit out the other way, seeking adventure in the United States. He later referred to his decision thus: 

. . .it seems to be the fashion in England to divide the utterly good-for-nothing members of a family between America and the Church, as two fields in which no kind of fool could help getting on (13). 

No fool, Harry did very well in America. He traveled widely, particularly to the come-and-go gold rush towns of the Dakotas and Idaho and made a name for himself as a reporter for the Minneapolis Tribune. A major reporting assignment on the opening of the Northern Pacific Railway's route from Minnesota to the Pacific Coast not only won him further distinction as a reporter but also forged a lifelong bond between Harry and the railroad industry. In a few short years he had not only become an American citizen and the editor and publisher of the Northwestern Railroader but was also somewhat of a political force for the railroads. He published a novel and some short stories, married well into a publishing family, and was "akin to a celebrity in Chicago and Minneapolis" (115). 

Then, as the 19th century drew to a close, Harry gave it all up and returned to England! Reasons for this are unclear, although author McAleer probes the possibilities. Yet it wasn't long before Harry had reinvented himself as an English book publisher and continued to travel and write fiction. He never felt he had enough money and apparently did not enjoy the best of health. However, when war broke out, at the age of 55, and despite now having a second wife and a son, Harry wanted nothing more than to go to the Western Front as a reporter—and he went.

War Correspondent

Working as a "special correspondent" for the Times under the auspices of Lord Northcliffe, Harry was soon in Belgium witnessing the German invasion and the fall of Antwerp—and barely escaping with countless refugees to Holland. His accounts of the long evacuation by foot are detailed and vivid: 

People died along that road and babies were born. And still the procession moved on, always at foot's pace, flowing like some thickly congealed liquid: motor-cars, horse-drawn vehicles, carts dragged by dogs or pushed by hand, cattle and goats and other farm animals, dogs innumerable, old men and toddling children, richly dressed women and beggars, the lame, the sick, and the dying. (192) He had never seen such horror and returned to England to recuperate. But in January 1915 he resumed his duties in Amsterdam and then was sent to Serbia, which at that time was enjoying a lull in the war. He wrote to his son: 

A lot of houses in Belgrade have been knocked to bits by Austrian guns; but the Serbians fought so well that they have got over 60,000 Austrian prisoners. Since the rest of the Austrians ran away out of the country there has been very little fighting, except shooting at each other across the river, but it will very soon begin again. (194)

Harry was amazed at the liberty given the Austrian prisoners by the Serbians. They were free to work at a variety of occupations, such as cab drivers, waiters, painters, or carpenters, and their officers had "absolutely nothing to complain of except idleness".(196) The irony of this situation was not lost on Harry: 

That the enemy who ravaged and outraged as the Austrians did and who systematically made use of… brutal weapons should be treated with kindness which the Serbians show towards their prisoners is a striking illustration of the Southern Slav character. (196)

HPR (Top Center) with Fellow War Correspondents

Occasionally Harry was recalled home for various reasons, but he never stayed long. He returned to Amsterdam but then was put into khaki and assigned as a reporter to the British General Headquarters. He was now writing for both the Times and the Daily News and became good friends with Philip Gibbs who was reporting for two other papers. They often discussed the nature of war reporting and censorship and were quite aware of the criticism war reporting often met at the hands of a comfortable public back home. Meanwhile, Harry's health problems—such as indigestion and lumbago—continued to bother him. 

At the end of June 1916 the correspondents moved to Amiens to be closer to the forthcoming battle on the Somme. For propaganda reasons Harry could not report all the details of the slaughter although he certainly saw it. In 1917 he wrote The Turning Point: The Battle of the Somme, a well-received book in which he didn't hold back on describing the dreadful sights of destruction and death and their aftermath: 

The work of gathering the dead and preparing them for burial was still going on. Some still lay where they had fallen, full length with their heads toward the German trench… Others, laid in orderly rows and being very gently and reverently handled, were side by side along a narrow open piece of ground…I think the most horrible figure of all was a man-part of a man-who lay flat upon the earth, and there was nothing of him above the shoulder blades. War in its details is a gruesome thing. (208-209)

So much of Harry's unusual life is described in the 368 pages of Escape Artist that it is impossible to touch on it all in a short review. He was knighted due to his war coverage and became Sir Harry Perry Robinson. He returned to England but spent much time in the south of France due to health problems. In 1923 he accompanied Lord Carnarvon to Egypt and to the much-anticipated opening of part of Tutankhamun's tomb, filing stories to feed the growing "Tut-mania" and for the first time truly experiencing the feeding frenzy of the international press. (270)

Before he died in December 1930, he created somewhat of a storm by arguing in an article in the Times, "No More Olympic Games," that further games should be cancelled. His reasons are amply detailed and described in the book, as are all the fascinating events of Harry's incredible life.

I don't think I've ever enjoyed a memoir as much as I enjoyed this life of Harry Perry Robinson. The book is a "keeper" that I intend to read more than once. Author Joseph McAleer has done us a great favor by so ably bringing this complex and intriguing character to life again.

David F. Beer

West Virginia at War

Wheeling, WV, News Register, 3 April 1917

After the May 1915 sinking by the Germans of the Lusitania, an unarmed English passenger liner with many Americans aboard, West Virginians and other Americans turned against Germany. State colleges discontinued German language courses during the war, while several counties held ‘‘loyalty meetings.’’

World War I had already embroiled the imperial powers of Europe in conflict for three devastating years before the United States declared war on Germany 6 April 1917. Immediately afterward, West Virginia's Governor John J. Cornwell made this statement "It is the duty of every good citizen to aid his country in every way possible, the least of which is to aid the soldiers of his country in the discharge of their duties and to submit to any temporary inconvenience without complaint." West Virginians must have listened to the governor's message because they served in the war at a higher ratio than any other state. Those who were not able to participate in the armed conflict abroad, contributed to the war effort at home as both men and women of all ages and races were involved with the Red Cross, Defense Council, canning clubs, or the growing of victory gardens. However, most of these men's and women's accomplishments have gone unnoticed because World War I is overshadowed by World War II, as World War II is more widely discussed, studied, and written about. Despite this, strategies and equipment of World War I such as trench warfare and airplanes were adopted in World War II, as were ration books and liberty loans. World War I set the precedent for World War II, as did the patriotism, loyalty, and bravery demonstrated by our very own West Virginians who were involved.

Train with West Virginia Draftees Departing for
Camp Lee, VA, September 1917

West Virginia mustered 58,000 soldiers for World War I, suffering about 5,000 casualties including dead and wounded. The state’s two National Guard regiments had previously been mobilized for the 1916 Punitive Expedition in Mexico. They were reorganized as the 150th and 201st Infantry Regiments, under regular army command in the 38th Division. About 27,000 West Virginians who reached the war zone were deployed across the Western Front, but others participated in the 1918 Italian Campaign and the ill-fated Russian Expedition of 1919. Between May 1917 and September 1918, three drafts were held in West Virginia.

West Virginia’s casualties included 1,120 killed in action, 691 killed in training, and many wounded. Many others died of influenza and other diseases, often in camps on American soil. Among the dead, notables included aviator Louis Bennett Jr., who served with distinction with Britain’s Royal Air Force, and Capt. Timothy Barber of Charleston, who organized a volunteer ambulance unit prior to gallant service as an army surgeon. Although no Medals of Honor were awarded to West Virginians during World War I, many received decorations from European allies. Sgt. Felix Hill and Marine Pvt. Raymond White, both from Moundsville, received the French Croix de Guerre. Many West Virginia soldiers lie buried in U.S. military cemeteries in France. 

On the home front, World War I mobilized citizens and industry at unforeseen levels. Prior to U.S. involvement, many Americans questioned the Wilson administration’s move toward war. Some newspaper editors voiced pro-German sympathy, while opposing the British naval blockade of neutral shipping to Germany and its allies.

Massive Ordnance Plant at South Charleston

On 29 August 1916, Congress had authorized the building of the Naval Ordnance Plant to be located between U.S. 60 and the railroad in South Charleston, West Virginia. The plant took two years to build, as it was rather large, spanning the distance of 900,000 square feet, and it began operating in May of 1918. According to Secretary of Navy Josephus Daniels, this naval base was the first in U.S. history to be placed away from sea waters; however, West Virginia's natural resources of coal, oil, and gas combined with its "moral environment and splendid citizenship" is why Congress chose the location of South Charleston. Military equipment such as armor plates, gun forgings, and projectiles for battleships and cruisers were all manufactured at the plant and were used by the U.S. Navy in World War I. During the war,  the Nitro gunpowder plant was built as part of the war effort, though it did not see production before the end of the war. Nitro, a Kanawha Valley community created by the war, experienced a fleeting wartime population boom of 25,000 and remains a major industrial center today.

During WWI, West Virginia was the second largest coal producing state in the United States, with a total of 79 million tons in of coal in 1917 and 81 million tons of coal in 1918.  Coal was heavily produced throughout the state especially in the locations of New River and Pocahontas, as it was used by the Navy to fuel ships. Additionally, coal was vital a resource utilized by the state and the nation to fuel the steam engines of railroad locomotives, as well as for steel production and for the heating of public and private buildings. Soldiers who had returned home from serving overseas were sent by the State Council of Defense to report to coal fields about the need for increased coal production. Even though experienced miners were drafted into the war, coal operators still managed to increase the tonnage the state normally produced to support the war.  Miners at various mining companies also grew war gardens. The United States Coal and Coke Company grew a total of 1,500 gardens at 12 mines and the monetary value of products estimated totaled $200,000.

Statewide food and coal rationing went into effect during the war. Men and women volunteered as Red Cross personnel, while ‘‘Four-Minute Men’’ raised millions in Liberty Bonds sales across the state.  After the war was over and both the miners and coal operators returned to peacetime civilian life, labor unrest began to erupt with a series of complicated events, known as the Mine Wars.

Lt. Louis Bennett, Jr. of Weston Flew with 40 Squadron
of the RAF and Shot Down Three Aircraft and Six Balloons Before Being Killed in Action

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                                                                                                             

When the troops returned home after the Armistice, organizations such as the reunion for the 80th Division of Veterans were created to give veterans a sense of refuge and solidarity, while organizations such as the Gold Star Mothers helped mothers cope with the grief of losing their sons in war. Memorials were also built to honor both white and African American soldiers from West Virginia. Through these organizations and memorials, the stories of World War I live on. The last living American veteran of the war was Frank Buckles, a Charles Town, WV, resident. Buckles, who enlisted at 16 and served as an ambulance driver in France, died on 27 February 2011. He was buried in Arlington National Cemetery with full military honors.

Sources: The West Virginia Encyclopedia; West Virginia Archives Online Exhibit

Episode 17 of BBC's Great War Series

 

"Surely We Have Perished"

The Green Corn Anti-Draft Rebellion

By Nigel Anthony Sellars from the Encyclopedia of Oklahoma

Triggered by opposition to World War I and the draft, this tenant farmers' revolt broke out in three counties along Oklahoma's South Canadian River in August 1917. While antiwar sentiments fueled the Green Corn Rebellion, it actually grew from long-standing grievances many tenants held against local landowners, businessmen, and state and local authorities. The farmers were particularly angered over the growing control of land by small numbers of wealthy landholders who often resorted to rampant land speculation and outright fraud to obtain property. Speculation and falling crop prices had by 1917 forced over half of Oklahoma's farmers into tenancy.

As a result, many tenants and small landowners joined the state's Socialist Party and affiliated organizations such as the Oklahoma Renters' Union. The Socialists proposed expanding the public domain, enacting a graduated land tax, and creating a cooperative marketing system, but some tenants grew frustrated with the political process and turned to night-riding and to direct action techniques copied from the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). The IWW, however, refused to allow tenant farmers to join, because they were not wage workers.

Instead, many tenants joined the Working Class Union (WCU), formed in New Orleans but based in Van Buren, Arkansas. The WCU soon claimed thirty-five thousand members in Oklahoma, although the number is questionable. With the collapse of cotton prices when World War I began, WCU membership rose. It grew more in 1915 when farmers violently opposed a campaign promoting cattle dipping to control the tick-borne "Texas fever." WCU members alleged the chemical dips actually sickened and killed cattle, and they began a campaign of dynamiting dipping vats and destroying the property of county officials.

The WCU grew dormant when cotton prices rose in 1916, but American entry into World War I revitalized the organization. Farmers saw the conflict as "a rich man's war, poor man's fight," and throughout the summer of 1917 the WCU planned its opposition to the new federal Conscription Act. In early August hundreds of men—white, African American and American Indian—gathered at the Sasakwa, Oklahoma, farm of John Spears, an aging Socialist. The men planned to march to Washington and end the war, surviving on the way by eating barbecued beef and roasted green corn, the latter giving the rebellion its name. The rebels began burning bridges and cutting telegraph lines on 3 August, but they soon faced hastily organized posses, which halted the revolt. Three men died in the conflict, and more than four hundred others were arrested. Of those, 150 were convicted and received federal prison terms of up to ten years.

Bridge Over South Canadian River Dynamited by Rebels
(With Little Effect)

After the rebellion failed, the Oklahoma Socialist Party disbanded. State and federal authorities utilized the revolt in their efforts to suppress the IWW, although neither it, nor the Socialists, had any official part in the uprising. Several years later the events of August 1917 were memorialized in a novel, The Green Corn Rebellion, by Oklahoma-born author William Cunningham.

Wartime Lithographs from France

Soldiers Charging in the Moonlight
Alphonse Grebel

Civilian Deportations from the North
Jean Louis Fairground

Three Exhausted Soldiers
Théophile Alexandre Steinlen

French and Colonial Soldiers Charging
A. Tolmer and Cie

President Wilson Refereeing a Boxing Match
as War Leaders Look On
Camille Boiry

Verdun Under Fire
Albert Robida

Poilu
Charles Toché

Marianne, Symbol of France, Dismissing the Grim Reaper
Lucien Jonas

Source: Library of Congress Collection

Remembering a Veteran: Katherine M. Harley, Scottish Women's Hospitals (KIA)

By James Patton

Katherine Harley, née French (1855–1917), was the younger sister of Field Marshal Sir John French, the first commander of the British Expeditionary Force. The family was of Irish origin—the father a serving navy officer based at Chatham in Kent. He died in 1865, and the mother was adjudged insane in 1867, so the younger children were raised by distant relatives. An older sister was Charlotte Despard (1844–1939),  a socialist suffragette and Irish patriot.

Katherine married a cavalry officer associate of her brother, who died in the Second Boer War. They had a daughter named Edith. His family was from Shropshire, so Katherine went to live at his family pile in a sort of dowager household. Not inclined to be a homebody, in 1910 she joined the National Union of Suffrage Societies (NUWSS) and also became an active member of the Church League for Women's Suffrage. In contrast, Charlotte Despard was a member of both the more militant Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) and the Women's Freedom League.

By 1913, Katherine’s NUWSS had grown to nearly 100,000 members. Katherine suggested holding a Woman's Suffrage Pilgrimage to demonstrate how many women wanted the vote. Historian Lisa Tickner said "A pilgrimage refused the thrill attendant on women's militancy, no matter how strongly the militancy was denounced, but it also refused the glamour of an orchestrated spectacle."

The pilgrims set off on 18 June 1913. There were three predetermined march routes: Newcastle to London, Carlisle to London, and Land’s End to London.

Katherine prescribed that they should wear a uniform of white, grey, black, or navy blue coats and skirts, with white or matching blouses. Hats were to be simple, and only black, white, grey, or navy blue. There was a red, white, and green shoulder sash.

Most pilgrims traveled on foot or on bicycles. Wealthy sympathizers used cars or carriages. The intention was not that each individual should cover the whole route. It was said that the pilgrimage succeeded in "visiting the people of this country in their own homes and villages, to explain to them the real meaning of the movement." The pilgrims were accompanied by baggage trucks, and cars picked up those suffering from exhaustion.

An estimated 50,000 pilgrims reached Hyde Park in London on 26 July. The march was regarded as a counterpoint against the violent methods employed by the WSPU. The proceeding were as much a demonstration against militancy as one in favor of women's suffrage. Many bitter things were said of the militant women.

PM Herbert Asquith stated that the demonstration had "a special claim" on his consideration and stood "upon another footing from similar demands proceeding from other quarters where a different method and spirit is predominant."

Katherine Harley (L) at a Military Review in Salonika (IWM)

At the war’s outbreak in 1914 Dr. Elsie Inglis (1864–1917), a suffragette colleague of Katherine, decided that women's medical units should be allowed to serve on the Western Front. With financial backing from the NUWSS and the American Red Cross, Dr. Inglis formed the Scottish Women's Hospitals for Foreign Service Committee, known as the "SWH." Over War Office opposition, the SWH sent a women's medical unit to France three months after the war started, which included Nurse Katherine Harley. By January 1915 the SWH had staffed an Auxiliary Hospital with 200 beds in the 13th-century Royaumont Abbey.

In April 1915, with French support, Dr. Inglis sent a group, including Katherine Harley, to Serbia, where they established field hospitals, dressing stations, fever hospitals, and clinics. In the summer of 1915 some of the advanced SWH units, including Dr. Inglis, were captured, but with the help of American diplomacy they were released in February 1916.

Meanwhile the SWH had moved with the "new" Serbian army to the Salonika Front. Katherine commanded an ambulance section, with her daughter Edith serving beside her. Wanting to be based closer to the front so as to shorten travel time Katherine purchased property in Monastir, near to the Serbian army headquarters, an obvious target for Bulgarian gunners. On 1 May 1917 she was having tea in her parlor with Edith and an American friend when a shell exploded close by, blowing out her windows. Katherine was killed by the storm of glass fragments. She was 62.

Katherine Harley's Burial Site in Salonika

Although she was neither French nor a soldier, the French general Maurice Serrail (1856–1929), who was the theater commander, ordered a full military funeral for Katherine, and the British allowed her burial at their military cemetery on Lembet Road in Salonika (Thessaloniki). Her grave is unique to Commonwealth War Graves Cemeteries in that it is double-sized and bears a non-issue headstone with a cross on top. She is honored in the inscription as “Madame Harley.” The inscription also reads, in English and Serbo-Croat: “On your tomb instead of flowers the gratitude of the Serbs shall blossom there. For your wonderful acts your name shall be known from generation to generation.”

Elizabeth Crawford again: "Not an easy colleague, and not one happy to take orders, she was killed by a shell at Monastir, where, as one woman doctor laconically noted, she had no need to be." For her service to France, Katherine was awarded the Croix de Guerre.

Sources: Spartacus Educational; Shropshire Remembers

Why Cavalry Reconnaissance Failed in August 1914

All armies entered the war with large bodies of cavalry. In 1914, reconnaissance was exclusively the realm of the horsemen, although cavalry had additional missions related to being a mobile strike force. In the opening campaigns, all sides made extensive use of cavalry as forward reconnaissance elements and flank security and counter-reconnaissance forces. In Belgium and France, the Germans weighed the largest portion of their horse soldiers to the large German flanking maneuver in Belgium. In spite of the employment of these units, both sides entered battle with a dearth of information about the dispositions of the opposing forces. While the German cavalry was successful in counter-reconnaissance, advancing infantry forces often found themselves suddenly opposed by unexpected Belgian or French resistance. On the other hand, defeating the German cavalry consumed the French cavalry to the extent that it was ineffective in both reconnaissance and counter-reconnaissance roles. 

At the operational level, both the Germans and French used separate cavalry divisions usually, but not always, organized under a corps headquarters. These large cavalry units were supposed to move in advance of any infantry forces, and both prevented the enemy cavalry from determining friendly dispositions and defeating the enemy cavalry. Much attention was devoted to the enemy cavalry, less to determining the location of enemy forces, at least until the press of battle forced such concerns to the forefront.

In August 1914, both the French and Germans used their cavalry to screen the movements of their infantry forces and to discover the movements and dispositions of the enemy forces. [With the opening of hostilities] he German cavalry thought its main mission was to defeat the enemy cavalry. However, in the opening campaign, while at times German cavalry commanders attempted, unsuccessfully, to fight French cavalry mounted, the German command generally wanted its cavalry to systematically avoid combat with the enemy cavalry. French cavalry performance, particularly in the early weeks of the war, at times similarly failed to provide adequate reconnaissance for the following infantry. The French cavalry, although not fixed in its employment to supporting a detailed, prewar plan, was designated to advance forward of the French infantry. This, too, placed the cavalry at the operational level into a situation where it was reconnoitering too far in advance to the infantry, both in time and in space. This problem was exacerbated when Joffre delayed movements and advances based on revisions of the German situation, usually developed through the presence of German infantry discovered at certain points by civilian contacts or aerial reconnaissance. Unlike the German cavalry, however, and probably more as a consequence of the French being placed in the position of responding to German movements, their horsemen returned to previously cleared areas for second and third looks in the days between 6 and 19 August 1914. However, the French gained little knowledge of general German troop movements.

Both sides developed lessons from the cavalry operations of August 1914 on the Western Front. Both sides sought to use the mounted characteristics of its cavalry to maximum effect. However, this mobility required large spaces. Lacking space, as in the Ardennes and between two entrenched lines, cavalry could not effectively operate as a mounted arm. Defensive firepower made frontal attacks most difficult. Massed attacks on horseback became impractical, while firing dismounted became far more important than previously thought, particularly in the close terrain that dominated western European battlefields.

However, old ideas often died hard. At least one German cavalryman rationalized that the enemy had realized Teutonic-mounted superiority and deliberately sought to take advantage of close terrain to negate this advantage.

The German cavalry divisions were saved by the attachment to them of the Jäger battalions, originally designed for mountain or forest warfare, but left with no use for their unique skills in German war plans. However, while this was recognized to a point at the time, German cavalry observers still insisted that mounted cavalry could operate alone to conduct operational intelligence.

Aerial reconnaissance complemented ground units. In fact, in August 1914, airplanes, particularly on the French side, rather than ground cavalry units, obtained most of the significant intelligence. However, aviation had several disadvantages. The planes were short ranged and required changes of base when operating with cavalry in a reconnaissance role, as in August 1914. The aviation support elements frequently could not keep up and, in at least one instance, resulted in the planes not being able to conduct an important mission. While generally beyond the scope of this work, after the failures of cavalry in the mobile campaigns of August and September 1914, and the subsequent development of the trench lines, when the weather was good, airplanes in effect provided the only available reconnaissance.

After August 1914, the use of cavalry as a reconnaissance force atrophied with the onset of trench warfare. The creation of continuous lines of entrenchments and the mass use of artillery relegated most reconnaissance missions to the nascent air forces deployed on both sides. As the war progressed, the Germans converted most of their large prewar cavalry to infantry, while the British and French retained mounted units not for reconnaissance but to pursue the enemy once the long expected breakthrough occurred. Over time, the airplane or the infantry patrol replaced the horseman in this role. In the few places where cavalry was still used later in the war, it was treated as mounted infantry more than as the reconnaissance force, prized primarily for its operational mobility. Cavalry was so irrelevant by 1918 that U.S. forces fielded only one small cavalry unit in the two major campaigns in which the American Expeditionary Force participated. 

Sources: Scouts Out! The Development of Reconnaissance Units in Modern Armies, U.S. Army Combined Arms Center