Now all roads lead to France and heavy is the tread
Of the living; but the dead returning lightly dance.
Edward Thomas, Roads

Thursday, March 28, 2024

On the Generalship of Armando Diaz


Maresciallo d'Italia Armando Diaz


The Italian Army's Supreme Commander for much of the Great War, Luigi Cadorna, is usually listed near the top of the list of the war's "Donkey Generals." However, his post-Caporetto replacement performed quite capably but is, today, mostly forgotten. This is partly due to the fact that—postwar—he served in Mussolini's first Fascist government. I think his year in the top job was impressive and worth recalling.

An Italian of Spanish descent and born in Naples, Armando Diaz (1861–1928) started his military career very early. After attending the military school at Nunziatella, he became an artillery officer at the military academy in Turin in 1884. His first active service was during the war against Turkey in 1911, where he served as a lieutenant colonel and infantry commander in Libya. Promoted to major general in 1914, he was assigned to Luigi Cadorna’s (1850–1928) staff when Italy joined World War I. 

In 1916, he asked to serve in a combatant unit and was promoted to lieutenant general and commander of the 49th Division in the 3rd Army at the Isonzo Front. After being wounded in service, he received a silver medal for his valuable military contributions.After the defeat at Caporetto, Diaz replaced Cadorna as chief of the  general  staff on 9 November 1917, while the great retreat was still underway. He led the reorganization of the remaining forces to stand on the Monte Grappa massif and along the Piave River, which successfully halted the German and Austro-Hungarian offensive.

Later, under his command, the Italian Army, supported by reinforcements from the British, French, and Americans, would gain its two greatest victories of the war.  The first was the June 1918 defeat of the Austro-Hungarian "last ditch" offensive of the war, known as the Battle of the Piave River. Subsequently, he organized and trained his forces for the decisive conflict of the Italian Front, which came to be known as the Battle of Vittorio Veneto.

Vittorio Veneto looms large in the Italian national psyche, as well it should. It was a decisive battle that defeated Austria-Hungary and redeemed Italia Irredenta. It is also the most  significant victory by the Italian army in the history of the nation, before or after. 


King Vittorio Emanuele III, General Diaz and Third Army Commander the Duke of Aosta at a Postwar Awards Ceremony


After the defeat of the enemy's June attack along the Piave River, General Diaz corrected the poor "lessons learned" system of General Cadorna with a system that analyzed information at the Commando Supremo level and distributed it to the army. The first fruit of this new system was a detailed analysis of the Battle of the Piave issued to the field in July of 1918. The lessons learned during the Battle of the Piave would be put to use during Vittorio Veneto.

The Battle of Vittorio Veneto started on October 24, 1918 with attacks across the breadth of the theater of operations from the Trentino to the sea. The Austrians repulsed the initial Italian Fourth Army attacks along the Grappa, and sent some of their best units to the area. Diaz was not like Cadorna; he had the vision to see how actions linked together. The attack of the Fourth Army was drawing in the Austrian reserves, just as Diaz wanted.

 On 26 October Diaz sent everything he had across the Piave. The Piave is a river with a strong current, and was in flood. Many of the bridges were swept away by the current, but by evening the Italian Eighth, Twelfth, and Tenth Armies had established some small bridgeheads. Air resupply replenished the forces in the bridgeheads when the bridges were destroyed. The Italian breakthrough started when the XVIIIth Army Corps, which had been in reserve, crossed the Piave on the Tenth Army bridge during the night of 27–28 October, and attacked along the boundary between the Fifth and Sixth Austrian armies. The Austrian Sixth Army commander, facing a threat to his lines of communication, ordered a retreat to the second defensive line. The order for the retreat was the beginning of the end for the Austrians.

The fighting around Mte Grappa was still intense, but the  Austrians were approaching exhaustion. Along the Piave the Italians were starting to pour across. By 1 November the Battle  became an Italian race for territory. A naval expedition seized  Trieste on 3 November. On 4 November, Italy and Austria-Hungary  signed an armistice. In his victory message Diaz announced: "The Austro-Hungarian Army is vanquished. . ."

The Italian victory of Vittorio Veneto owed much to the exhausted state of Austria-Hungary but only after Italian forces had broken the frontline defenses of the Austrian army. The rear elements of the Austrian army, particularly some of the reserve divisions of the Sixth Army, had refused to fight even before the breakthrough of the XVIIIth Army Corps. When the XVIIIth Army Corps broke through the Austrian defenses they capitalized on the demoralized state of forces in the Austrian rear, clearly validating Clausewitz's statement that "a threat to the rear can, therefore, make a defeat more probable, as well as more decisive."

The strategic aim of Vittorio Veneto was the defeat of the Austrian army, which in turn would end the war. Diaz believed that if the Italians could break through the Austrian defenses the demoralized army would not withstand the defeat; he was right. The difference in the way Diaz pursued the strategic aim, in contrast to Lundendorff or Cadorna, was that he committed the forces appropriate to the task. Diaz accepted a great deal of risk at Vittorio Veneto by committing everything Italy had to the attack. The class of 1900 had already been called up, and some of the boys of the class of 1899 were already in the line. Diaz had no reserves left.


Monument  at Bassano del Grappa to the Boys of the
Class of 1899 Who Fought in the Final Battle


The contribution of Vittorio Veneto to Allied victory is underrated. The Austrian army was defeated in the field. There was no doubt in the mind of Austria-Hungary that she was defeated. Ludendorff wrote in a letter to Count Lerchenfeld that at "Vittorio Veneto Austria did not lose a battle, but a war, and herself, bringing Germany down in the ruins with her . . . if Austria had not collapsed, we could still have gained time and resisted without difficulty during the whole winter."

After the war, Diaz was appointed a senator. In 1921, he was ennobled by King Victor Emmanuel III and given the title of 1st Duca della Vittoria ("Duke of the Victory"). Benito Mussolini named him Minister of War in 1922, and upon retirement in 1924, he was given the honour of Maresciallo d'Italia (Marshal of Italy).

Sources: Operational Art on the Italian Front During the Great War, Robert C. Todd. Army Command and General Staff Coll, Fort Leavenworth, KS, School of Advanced Military Studies, 1992; 1914-1918 Online; Wikipedia

Wednesday, March 27, 2024

What Pre-Revolutionary Russia Can Tell Us About Russia Today: Part I – Messianic Russia


The Kremlin—Symbol of Russian Power


The Russian nation is an extraordinary phenomenon in the history of all mankind that may hold the power to bring a new light to the world.

Fyodor Dostoyevsky


Russia has hypnotic power. This was especially evident in its dynamic 19th-century history, when its population tripled. Russian military power, critical in defeating Napoleon, cowed the empire's neighbors and allowed the tsar to expand wherever he could get away with it. Even Europe's master statesman, Otto von Bismarck accepted that Germany's well-being depended on peaceful relations with the Russian bear. (Wilhelm II forgot this and started down the road to doom in 1914.) 

Despite suppressing the first post-Napoleonic revolt against the old order, the Decembrist revolt of reformist military officers in 1825, Russia then continually disconcerted the rest of world by serving as an incubator for more extreme radicalism. Regardless of the oppressive measures taken by the tsars' agents, secretive groups of Russians relentlessly borrowed or invented, then tested, perfected, and propagated the revolutionary and nationalistic ideologies that would make the next century one of the most violent in history. All of this went on while innumerable Russian writers and musicians—like Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, Tchaikovsky, and Rimsky-Korsakov—were enchanting the world with their creativity. In this series we will explore why 19th-century Russia was so dynamic and dangerous in order to see what insight it might lend on Vladimir Putin's 21st-century Russia.


Russian Icon Suggesting Divine Blessing
of the Nation


Messianic Russia

Russia's centralized and militarized state has distinguished the country for centuries, although whether its militarization was offensive or defensive has been a matter of considerable historical debate. Nonetheless, starting from the beginning of the 16th century, Russia eventually and uniquely came to control major portions of two continents.

Historian George Vernadsky embraced the argument of geographical determinism—that the peculiar geography of Eurasia encouraged a dynamic national grouping (i.e. Russia) to extend its domination as far as possible for security reasons. Richard Pipes suggests, however, that the Russians, and later the Soviets, adopted an ideology—be it "Moscow as the Third Rome" or Marxism-Leninism—that promoted and encouraged the government to be inherently aggressive and expansionist. 

A powerful national myth is required to dominate such extensive territories, and the Russians developed one under the first tsars. The 15th century saw the emergence of a messianic vision for the Russian state and the people of Moscow as the "Third Rome," or historical protector of Orthodox Christianity. The first Rome was long gone, and the second Rome, Constantinople, fell in 1453. In 1472 Russian Prince Ivan III married Sofia Paléologue, the niece of Byzantium's last emperor, Constantine, and this marriage gave legitimacy to Russia's claim as Byzantium's historical successor. In 1520 the monk Filofey supposedly wrote in an oft-cited letter to the tsar.

And now, I say unto them: take care and take heed, pious tsar; all the empires of Christendom are united in thine, the two Romes have fallen and the third exists and there will not be a fourth. 


Ivan the Terrible—Note Religious Elements


In 1547 the Muscovite prince Ivan IV ("the Terrible") officially adopted the title of tsar, derived from the Latin caesar, to emphasize that the line of Christian capitals was matched by a succession of rulers. Iver Neumann has argued that the Third Rome doctrine anointed Russia as the divine successor to Constantinople, but Russia's borders were never fully identified, thus providing religious justification for expansion. Throughout Russian history, Holy Russia has been invoked as the suffering savior of the world, and its historical mission was the crux of the Russian Ideal.

Russian philosopher Nikolai Berdyaev attributed the Russians' messianism to their unique combination of Western and Eastern qualities:

The Russian people is not purely European and it is not purely Asiatic. Russia is a complete section of the world—a colossal East-West. It unites two worlds, and within the Russian soul two principles are always engaged in strife—the Eastern and the Western. 

This East-West duality, though, would contribute much to the pre-revolutionary strife in Russia. The eternal question of East or West was at the heart of the 19th-century debate between Russian Slavophiles and Westernizers. The Slavophiles were aristocratic romantic intellectuals who believed in the superior nature and historical mission of Orthodox Christianity and in Russia as uniquely endowed with a culture transcending East and West. They touted traditional institutions such as the peasant commune as models of harmonious social organization and claimed that rationalism, legalism, and constitutionalism would destroy Russia's natural harmonious development. The Slavophile movement was a reaction against the Westernizing efforts of Peter the Great and Catherine the Great.

The Westernizers took the German idealism of Hegel as a starting point but argued that while Russia possessed many unique and superior features, its historical mission required it to follow the path of Western civilization. They criticized Russian autocracy and took a more positive view of the rule of law and constitutionalism. While the Slavophile ideology was anchored in Russian Orthodoxy, the Westernizers placed little value on religion; some became agnostic or even atheist, while the moderate Westernizers retained some religious faith and their political and social programs supported moderate liberalism with popular enlightenment.

This messianic impulse, nevertheless, would naturally provide a self-evident (to Russia) legitimization to a constantly expansionist foreign policy. Richard Pipes commented that it "promoted an extraordinary imperial appetite." Russia could also justify certain acquisitions by stressing its role as defender of Orthodox Christianity. It believed Orthodox Ukrainians, for example, should accept the tsar's sovereignty because the tsar would protect them against both the Muslims of the Ottoman Empire and the Catholics of Poland. 

Christianity was a powerful spiritual unifying force that helped involve various tribes and tribal unions of the vast Eastern Slavic world in the creation of a Russian nation and Russian state.

Vladimir Putin, 2014


Source: “Russia’s Early Identity Questions” from the chapter "Russia's Historical Roots" in the book The Russia Balance Sheet by Anders Åslund and Andrew Kuchins. Copyright: Peterson Institute for International Economics. Reprinted with permission.


Tuesday, March 26, 2024

They Called it Shell Shock: Combat Stress in the First World War


Order a Copy of This Title HERE

By  Stefanie Linden

Helion & Company, 2017

Reviewed by Michael Robinson


Originally presented in Reviews in History, August 2017

Over 80,000 cases of shell shock were officially recognized by British Army personnel during the First World War. The diagnosis remains a culturally and historically resonant symbol of the First World War in Britain. Its significance has been influenced by the famous postwar memoirs of ex-servicemen who recounted their personal experiences of shell shock. Similarly, Pat Barker’s critically and commercially successful Regeneration trilogy only served to reinforce shell shock as an integral cultural reference point. 

Yet, this has arguably been damaging to the historiography. These works focus primarily on the officer class which has led the working-class Tommy’s torment to be comparatively obscured, despite their sizeable majority. Leading military psychiatrist researchers, Simon Wessely and Edgar Jones, went so far as to argue: "To an extent, shell shock was hijacked by the literary fraternity."  Indeed, it was only in 2002, with Peter Leese’s Shell Shock: Traumatic Neurosis and the British Soldiers of the First World War, that the first in-depth and exclusive academic analysis of Britain’s experience of shell shock was offered. Leese’s work has been subsequently added to by a small number of additional studies into shell shock.

Stefanie Linden’s They Called it Shell Shock provides a fresh approach to the historiography of shell shock and the men who suffered from psychoneurotic reactions as a result of service in the First World War. Drawing on a host of research resources, including medical publications, institutional records, and the histories of soldier-patients who underwent treatment during the conflict, Linden’s work demonstrates the universal psychological suffering of servicemen of both the British and German armies. By doing so, this work provides the very first comparative analysis of both British and German servicemen who suffered from combat stress during the First World War. . .

They Called It Shell Shock contributes to firmly established features in the historiography of shell shock. For example, Linden makes it clear that traumatized soldiers suffered from a huge variety of subjective psychological symptoms, which could be induced by an immediate incident or the cumulative effect of service, but that some servicemen also developed psychoneurotic symptoms despite never having been exposed to active service, with many breaking down away from the front and even on home leave (pp. 32, 181). Indeed, a quantitative analysis of the Charité records demonstrates that almost a quarter of patients had not even seen action (p. 181). Linden’s analysis also provides further evidence of the differentiation in  treatment and perception of shell shock depending on whether a sufferer was a private or an officer with the treatment on offer to the latter much preferable to the former (pp. 94–8). In addition to addressing well-trodden paths in the historiography, They Called it Shell Shock provides welcome considerations into largely neglected aspects of First World War history. The study addresses suicide and desertion in separate chapters via the analysis of German and British medical literature to consider how service during the First World War could drive German and British servicemen to suicide (pp. 146–57) or desertion (pp. 158–76). Such analyses of these important subjects are welcomed, and it is no criticism of the author to suggest that much more research into these neglected topics is now required.

In addition to providing timely analyses into overlooked topics, They Called It Shell Shock is undaunted by tackling the complex relationship between shell shock and combat-induced Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. While recognizing the intrinsic similarities in both diagnoses, Linden argues that medical diagnoses are dictated by the existing cultural and environmental context. In warfare, this includes medical progress, societal beliefs, stereotypes and stigma, and the nature and conduct of a given conflict. As Linden observes: "The physical expression of distress may also be mediated by cultural forces through popular health fears, which alert patients and doctors to particular areas of the body" (p. 235). Linden’s considered appraisal of the two diagnoses is welcome especially as debate, confusion, and disagreement regarding the relationship between PTSD and shell shock continues to feature on the floors of conferences.

The undoubted strength of The Called It Shell Shock lies within Linden’s analysis of more than 600 original medical case files of British and German soldier-patients who underwent neurological and psychiatric treatment at the National Hospital at Queen Square in London, the Charité Psychiatric Department in Berlin and the Jena Military Hospital in Jena. With regards to the former, the vast majority of patients admitted to Queen Square were private soldiers with only four shell-shocked officers being admitted between 1914 and 1918 (p. 60). Thus, this study brings timely attention to the regular private who has been overshadowed by the officer class. This original research on previously untouched medical archives allows Linden to demonstrate the universality of subjective psychoneurotic symptoms including traumatic brain injury, fits, twilight states, states of stupor, exhaustion, and paranoia and psychosis, which affected both British and German soldiers alike. . .

Ultimately, They Called It Shell Shock will be of immense interest to shell shock historians, specialists in trauma studies, those interested in the social and cultural effects of the First World War, as well as a broader audience of students interested in the impact the First World War had on servicemen and combatant nations.

Excerpted from Michael Robinson's original review.

Monday, March 25, 2024

The Most Beautiful World War One Cemetery I've Ever Visited



By Editor Mike Hanlon

During my time leading tours of World War One battlefields, I was able to take one group to the sites south of Verdun in and around the Vosges Mountains. Unlike almost all my other tours, however, I had never done a pre-reconnaissance of the area. Also, my guidebooks were a little weak on this sector, especially on the German side of things. Since I always included stops at the cemeteries and memorials of all the combatants, I was forced to select  almost-randomly three German cemeteries using a Michelin map, guided exclusively by the proximity of the cemeteries to our main route. I guess by accident, I struck gold. I've visited hundreds of the cemeteries from the war, and this one turned out to be the most beautiful I've ever experienced.


Different Elements Around the Graves: Stone Bridge,
Stream, Somber Plantings

The German war cemetery Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines at Montgoutte in Alsace,  stunned all our group when we arrived and approached the front gate. The elegant and somber landscaping, the dignified arrangement of the graves, and its magnificent centerpiece 40-foot cross were collectively a masterpiece of design and—at least to me—felt like a holy place of remembrance. The photos here,  of course, can only hint at the experience of being there in person. I hope if you ever find yourself traveling in the area you have a chance to visit the cemetery.


Enhanced Stream Bed


Perhaps, though, I should share one caveat.  The current look of the cemetery is not anything like the original "natural" look of the little mining district valley where it is set. The design and appearance of the cemetery evolved over decades and two world wars, although the large cross was begun when the Great War was still raging. The current "look" was, as best I can figure, finalized in 1966 with the intention of turning the cemetery into a "showpiece", possibly as a pilgrimage destination. The undated photo below shows some interim configuration with the large cross installed but with little of the current landscaping added and the graves still marked with a mixture of cross designs.


Earlier Configuration


The earliest construction on the cemetery at Montgoutte was begun during the war using civilians and prisoners of war by the newly established German War Graves Service. From the Great War are 1,039 German burials, including 671 in individual graves. Later, 136 graves from the Second World War were added.  


German Soldier in the Center of the Cross


The graves are aligned on either side of a monumental granite cross, whose bronze medallion represents a German soldier. The stream that flows in the middle of the cemetery refers to the symbolism of rest and peace. It has been listed as a World Heritage site since 2023. About 6km to the west at the Sainte-Marie Pass is a French national cemetery holding 230 fallen from the First World War, which has an identical name, Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines.  Today, the Montgoutte cemetery is maintained by the German federal government, which sends military personnel based near Bruchsal Untergrombach every year to carry out maintenance work.


Getting There


Directions:

Heading north from Colmar, take N83/A35 to Chanenois and follow Exit 17 west to Sainte Marie Aux Mines.

Heading south from Strasbourg, take A35 to Chanenois and follow Exit 17 west to Sainte Marie Aux Mines.

Sunday, March 24, 2024

Taken Prisoner: Firsthand Account of Major George Hercules Forster Tailyour, Royal Horse Artillery


Major Tailyour


Major George Hercules Forster Tailyour  (1877–1921) joined the Royal Horse Artillery in 1896. With the BEF, he was Brigade Major with the 5th Division, Royal Field Artillery. In the early struggle he was mentioned in General John French's First Despatch, which usually means he was reported by a superior officer to the higher command as having performed a gallant or meritorious action in the face of the enemy. At the Battle of Le Cateau, during the retreat from Mons, Tailyour was captured while helping the division's artillery withdraw as the battle was beginning to go poorly for the British He would spend the remainder of the war in captivity. He seems to  have spent his time in two POW encampments, Clausthal in Bavaria and Torgau-Bruckenkopf in Saxony. Possibly because of declining health, he was paroled to Holland on 5 January 1918 and returned home after the Armisitice. He resumed his service career and was given command of the Royal Artillery Brigade in Colchester, where he died in 1921 from the health problems caused by his time as a prisoner of war.

The British National Archives holds this firsthand account of his capture in 1914, which was republished in Stand To in June 2014. It's unclear when Major Tailyour wrote it.

On the 26th August 1914 at about 1pm there was a stampede to the rear of a number of teams of draught horses including those of the 28th Bde. RFA; with General Headlam's authority I proceeded from  the Div[ision] HQ to reform the teams of the Bde; and to try withdraw one of its batteries to a position near Reumont south of Le Cateau, as there were at the time no guns in the rear of the main position.  Owing to the confusion in the road near the Div. HQ I could not get my own horse so I took one that was being led by an orderly towards the rear.

After reforming the teams and taking them up to the position under cover near their guns, I went forward to reconnoitre the best line by which the teams could reach the batteries. I then met General Headlam, who said it was useless to attempt a withdrawal from the Bde. until the fire slackened and that he was going to see how the batteries were getting on the left.  On returning to the teams I found two of the captains with them (R.A. Jones and J. Thornburn) and conveyed the General's instructions to them.  I then discovered that the horse I was riding belonged to Major Bayley of the 28th Bde,. and had therefore to give it up. Unfortunately, though my orderly had followed me, he had done so without either of my horses and I had to proceed on foot after instructing him where to bring me a horse.  I then went to try to find out how the 15th Bde. on the right was getting on, especially the 11th Bty. which had been under severe fire earlier in the day.  


British Artillery at Le Cateau

I found one gun of this Bty. overturned in the valley to the South of this position and whilst detaching its breech block was passed by a company of Argyll and Sunderland Highlanders going up to the front trenches.  I brought the breech block back to the wagon line.  On my way to the gun I had secured a horse, said to belong to a man in the 11th Bty. who had been killed.  On my return to the teams of the 15th Bde. at about 2:20pm, I realised that the 28th Bde. could not have been moved and  feeling convinced that a Bty. would be required near Reumont, I decided to withdraw one of the Batteries of the 15th Bde., although I had no orders to do so.  I took up the teams of the 80th Bty. and after seeing all the vehicles off the position went on to inform the OC 15 Bde., Lt. Col Stevens, of what I had done.  

I missed his trench at first and coming back to it fell over the parapet thoroughly winded.   After recovering my breath I explained as best I could, what had happened and gave all the information I had, e.g. 40,000 French en route from Arras to come up on our left, 1st Corps (British) on our right, and an infantry brigade in reserve near Reumont.  As the last order known to Col. Stevens and myself was that there would be no retirement and as he was anxious no one should leave his trench at the time, I waited in his observation station in order to be able to take back full information on the situation.

A short time after my arrival in the trench the enemy, who must have collected in large numbers in the dead ground, suddenly turned from the right rear the flank of the infantry line in which the observation station was.  There was apparently no possibility of getting away and I was captured with Lt. Col. Stevens and his Bde. HQ.  Owing to the order issued earlier in the day, to throw away the government revolver cartridges, as they were of doubtful pattern, I was unarmed.

 

Sources:  R.S. Tailyour article in the Wartimememoriesproject: Stand To: The Journal of the Western Front Association; In the Hands of the Enemy: Being the Experiences of a Prisoner of War; Ourheroes.southdublin.ie


Saturday, March 23, 2024

At Work in a War Hospital




From The War Illustrated, 18 May 1918

Sentimental magazine stories of the wounded represent, as a rule, only one background to hospital life. The drama—which concerns itself, according to recipe, with that rare occurrence, a love-match between a patient (hero) and a nurse (heroine)—is staged in a ward.

Hospitals altogether consist of wards—this is the idee fixe of the lay public, and even of the majority of those who have actually penetrated into the interiors of hospitals. Ward life, at all events, occupies the forefront of the picture, with, perhaps, a vague middle-distance of operating-theatre, recreation-room, cook-house, and dispensary.

The visitor, it is true, passes many closed portals in his long walk down the corridors to the bedside of the friend whom he has come to cheer. He catches sight of officials who would seem to have no direct connection with the arts of healing. But what goes on behind those portals, and how the officials are engaged, he seldom inquires.

Yet to the extensive male and female staff of a military hospital there is much more to think of than the wards and the getting well of those wards' inmates. A man may enlist as an R.A.M.C. orderly and be exceedingly busy, yet never once bandage a wound or even. witness the flow of blood. A girl may volunteer as a V.A.D. and never do any nursing.


When the Wounded Arrive

Behind the Scenes

A big war hospital is a complex machine, and needs for its smooth running a host of behind-the- scenes activities. Your friend whose arm is full of pieces of shrapnel, or who has had his leg amputated, is being served not only by skilled physicians and kindly Sisters, but also by clerks and registrars, accountants and card-index damsels, steward's-store men and sanitary squad, and electricians and bacteriologists; from the commanding officer and the matron down to the grimy individual who stokes the furnaces, or the Abigail in the pantry of the nurses' mess, there are troops of folk whose ministrations appear rarely to be appreciated ; but each of whom, in some remote and roundabout way, is reacting upon the restoration to health of that stricken soldier in the ward.

That soldier, even though he be laid low, is still a member of the Army; his existence is still the concern of the State; the War Office must keep track of him, as long as he is in the land of the living; his regimental depot has to hear about him, either now or when he emerges from hospital.

Every .move he makes involves the filling-in of documents. Before he reached the hospital his name and his particulars had been noted, in France, on the steamer, and in the ambulance trains; each separate step that he took, from battlefield to "Blighty," can, if necessary, be traced.

The moment he alighted at the hospital a clerical V.A.D. obtained from him his name, number, rank, age, length of service, religion, and a dozen other intimate details, and he was hardly bestowed in bed before another clerical V.A.D. was entering these in " Field Service Army Book" while yet a third clerical V.A.D., in charge of a filing system, was tackling on his behalf, "Army Form W3243" which is a printed card to fit a drawer in the admission and discharge index ; meanwhile, a fourth clerical V.A.D. is writing less elaborate memoranda upon a smaller card, which will be dropped, into its niche in the archives of the Inquiry Bureau.


The Patients Are Kept Busy on a Typical Ward

An Army in Miniature

All this is obvious enough, when you come to think of it. A hospital with a fluctuating population which, at its fullest, rises to 2,000, and with a salaried staff amounting to several hundreds, would fall into chaotic confusion were it not run systematically. It is itself an army in miniature. Its lines of communication must be maintained; the stream of supplies, whether of equipment or food of money, must flow, day after day and month after month, with absolute evenness.

Behind those shut portals, which the visitor passes so negligently, there is a never-ceasing clatter of typewriters and the whir of telephone bells; a glimpse within shows khaki-clad men who, though they have red crosses on their arms, are seated at desks much in the manner of city quill-drivers; or maybe women wearing the uniform of the V.A.D. attending to parcels letters, stamps, and telegrams in the hospital's own private post-office. Here, again, is the telephone room. It has the switchboard familiar in all large establishments—rows of little signal-holes and flexible snakes of connecting wires.

The hospital is not only linked with the outer world by half a dozen lines but also owns an intricate internal system of telephones—wards and offices and departments, and operating- theatres, and M.O.s' huts and sergeants' mess and kitchens and stores, and board-room and dental-room, as wells as a pathological laboratory and sentry-box, and paymaster and fire brigade. They can all speak to each other in an instant and all are thus dependent on the V.A.D. who by day, or the orderly who by night, presides at this central switchboard. And here and there, in the corridors of the hospital, you will remark an ordinary public telephone call-box; this is for the use of inmates, whether staff or patients, who wish to converse with their friends on matters unconcerned with hospital business. For the hospital's own lines must not be used for private affairs.


A Patient at Manchester Hospital Receives Visitors and a Mandolin Serenade from a Wounded Comrade


Task of the Pay Office

It may be that, in .your journey to the ward, you pass a door outside which is a queue of convalescents in blue uniforms. They are waiting to receive their pay. For the soldier who is in hospital has not, for that reason, ceased to be supported by the efforts of the tax-collector.

During his sojourn in the hospital the soldier is allowed to draw, for pocket-money, a small advance from the pay which accumulates for him elsewhere. I wonder how many civilians envisage the complications of the army bookkeeping which this system causes? Every regimental paymaster must be advised of each of the doles of a few shillings that concerns him. And the note which is handed to the soldier, with his railway warrant, when he leaves us —this, too, must be notified and duly deducted.

Our Pay Office staff pilots a department whose accountancy demands expert knowledge; it is a bank in miniature, handling some thousands of pounds weekly—for it not only advances these odd sums to patients, but distributes the salaries of the Sisters and the nurses, the probationers, the clerical V.A.D.s, the masseuses, the scrubwomen, and the unit of the R.A.M.C.

When it is realized that these disbursements vary, in all sorts of manners, owing to differences of lengths of service and gradations of rank (e.g., a 1st Class orderly gets more than a 2nd Class orderly, to mention only one example out of a score), and that if a man is absent on duty for 24 hours he receives a cash allowance for his food accordingly, and that there are allowances (or deductions) for upkeep of clothes, for washing, and heaven knows what other technical minutiae—all calculated in pence per diem—it will be seen that the Pay Office of the hospital is by no means a place of repose for the slacker.

The Night Staff

The Pay Office employs some women clerks, but its main pillars arc men. Like all the other male employees of the hospital, these men are "unfits" in the lowest medical category. Even were they not, it would be easy to justify their retention here; for, as has been said, they are experts in a routine which, if muddled, would mean an appalling waste of the country's money as well as of labour. But I touch upon the fact of their "unfitness" because I have heard some nonsense talked (generally by comfortable civilians, too!) about this and similar berths being safe and easy sinecures for youngsters who should be in the trenches. Sate, admittedly; but easy—no. The work is a never-ending grind.

If the visitor, instead of quitting the hospital building, were to linger till ten or 11, or even 12 at night, and peep into the Pay Office—or, for that matter, the staff clerks', or admission and discharge, or registrar's offices—he would generally find the electric lamps still blazing and some of the khaki-wearers, white-faced and worn, still toiling at their army forms and ledgers.

At night no hospital ever pauses. In each ward there is a wakeful Sister or curse. There are night-duty orderlies and night-duty doctors; also a specialist surgeon ready to be called at a minute's notice. There is a night dispenser, a night ward-master, a night convoy squad, a night sentry at the gate, a night operator on the telephone, a night Sister, a night corporal.

The hospital, qua hospital, never sleeps. But it should be noted that some of its retinue, awake at uncanny hours, are doing without their sleep not because the time-table so ordains, but because they are conscientious slaves of allegiance to a "cushy job" more cruel in its tyranny than the onlooking critic conceives.

Thanks to Tony Langley for this contribution from his wartime periodicals collection.

Friday, March 22, 2024

Weapons of War: Found in Kansas City, KS—A Schneider Canon de 155 C modèle 1917



By James Patton

Sitting today in Shawnee Park at 7th St. and Shawnee Ave. in Kansas City, Kansas, is an interesting artillery piece with a WWI history. This howitzer has a curved shield, which means that it was made in France and used by American gunners in 1918. It is a Canon de 155 C modèle 1917 Schneider, C-17S for short, which was manufactured by Schneider et Cie., also known as Schneider-Creusot, as their principal works were in the city of Le Creusot in France. 

Schneider was founded in 1836 by the Schneider brothers, Joseph Eugène (1805–1875) and Adolphe (1802–1845). Their business grew quickly, especially in the manufacture of steam engines and locomotives, and the firm diversified into artillery production in the 1880s. 


A Battery of AEF 155s Firing in the Meuse-Argonne Offensive


During the First World War era the business was run by Adolphe’s grandson Jacques, who also established the popular Schneider Trophy air races, held between 1913 and 1931. In the postwar era he was vilified by the antiwar left in France as one of the "Merchants of Death" who promoted and prolonged the war for personal gain.

Due to the huge supply of war surplus guns, the Schneider artillery business became unprofitable in the interwar years and was discontinued altogether in 1935. Later, in the 1950s, Schneider divested all of its iron and steel operations to concentrate on electrical devices, which it continues to produce today. 

The C-17S was the third and last model in a series that began with an order from Russia in 1910. It differed from the earlier models primarily because it used bagged propellant rather than cased shells. Total wartime production was 3,020. 


Doughboy Gunners Manning a Schneider 155


In 1918, the U.S. Army purchased 1,503 C-17S guns from France, designating it as the 155 mm Howitzer Carriage, Model of 1917 (Schneider), to replace the M 1908 6-inch gun (there were only 42 on hand) as the standard howitzer.

Additionally, they paid $560,000 for non-exclusive rights to the design and working drawings, and 626 guns were manufactured in the U.S. These were designated as the M1918, and they differed somewhat from the French guns, having a straight shield rather than a curved one, rubber tires rather than steel-rimmed wooden wheels, a pivoting spade, and a different breach mechanism. All of the U.S. units in action in France in 1918 used the French-built C-17S guns. The first U.S. regiment equipped with U.S.-made M1918 guns was about to embark for France when the war ended.


Side View Details


All of the C-17S guns were brought to the United States and later retro-fitted to the M1918 standard. In the 1930s, many were modernized with air brakes, new metal wheels, and pneumatic tires to enable highway-speed towing by trucks, but the Shawnee Park gun wasn’t one of them. 

The M1918 was the standard American heavy howitzer until replaced by the 155 mm Howitzer M1 beginning in late 1942. In 1940, many were sent to the U.K. under Lend Lease. The Shawnee Park gun was declared surplus by the Army and given to the Wyandotte County Salvage Committee in 1947 to replace a Spanish-American War gun that was scrapped in 1942.  

The French had over 2,000 C-17S guns in service in 1940, which fell into German hands and were used by them throughout WWII, along with several hundred others captured from other countries. 

For the artillery buffs, here are some statistics on the gun:

Overall weight: 9,120 lbs

Overall length: 257 inches 

Projectile weight: 95 lbs

Maximum range: 12,500 yards

Max./Min. elevation: 42°/0°

Max. Sustained Rate of Fire: 1 round per minute


Sources: "Heavy Howitzers" at Jaegerplatoon.net. This article—in slightly different form—originally ran on KansasWW1 on February 2, 2017.




Thursday, March 21, 2024

The Basics of Mining Operations


One of the Original Messines Mines Today


Gentlemen, I don’t know whether we are going to make history tomorrow, but at any rate we shall change geography.

British General Sir Charles Harington before 
the Battle of Messines, June 1917


On battlefieds, such as those of the Great War,  any hill or ridge, even a tiny one, gave the men holding it a great advantage in terms of being able to see what the enemy was doing. Such positions were often highly strengthened, making them keys to the overall defense of their sector. Flanders, the Somme, the Argonne Forest, the St. Mihiel Salient, and the Vosges Mountains were all sites of extensive mining operations on the Western Front. Mining enemy positions was only useful and possible when positions of opposing forces were fixed for long periods, as on the Western Front between November 1914 and March 1918 when trench warfare predominated. It was also important on the Italian Front both in the mountains and on the Carso Plateau where attritional warfare predominated before the Battle of Caporetto.  Some strategic sites were so important  they were the location of relentless mining through the entire period of trench warfare on the Western Front.  The best known of these are Les Eparges Spur south of Verdun and the Butte de Vauquois near the Argonne Forest.




Mining operations required large numbers of men and enormous quantities of explosives, but they offered the potential to undermine and destroy key parts of the enemy’s line, thus allowing men on the surface to attack successfully. The use of mining seemed to offer a solution to the worst problems of trench and attrition warfare. If one side could tunnel under the enemy’s lines, it could plant explosives that would kill nearly all the enemy soldiers  manning the position in one hit and open a gap in their line.


Click on Image to Enlarge

Simplified View of a Mining Operation


Often men were recruited from the peacetime mining, construction, or engineering industries of the various countries as such men typically possessed many of the skills and much of the knowledge required to construct underground mines. Mining required specialists largely because the work was dangerous, often technical, extremely physical, and frequently carried out in near darkness. Furthermore, the confined spaces the men had to work in meant that few were mentally able to work as miners. It was difficult and dangerous work—the land was swampy, the clay was hard to dig. Furthermore, the closeness of the enemy meant that, each side could hear the other digging. It was a constant reminder the enemy might collapse their tunnels and bury them alive.


This Was a Site of Mining Throughout the War By
Both Sides. Over 500 Charges Were Detonated, 1915–1918.


An Extreme One-Day Example

In 1917, the Allies were planning a major attack to be called the Messines offensive, named after the town on a commanding ridge south of Ypres. If the tunnelers could detonate explosives under the enemy’s trenches, it would weaken the enemies lines, thereby aiding the forthcoming attack. This led to the supreme and most successful mining effort of the war. On the morning of 7 June 1917, at 04:10 local time (Zero Hour), the British exploded 19 of the 24 deep mines, almost simultaneously, between Hill 60 and The Birdcage (southwest of Warneton). The gigantic explosions destroyed the enemy positions and created huge craters in the landscape. One bunker was actually turned upside down. The explosion was heard by the British prime minister David Lloyd George, who was working late in his Downing Street study. Hundreds of German soldiers died in the initial blasts, and the attacking British and Commonwealth forces quickly occupied the ridge. That was as far as the attack carried, however.

Nevertheless, from the photos shown on this page, the reader should be able to see what General Harington meant when he spoke of changing geography.


Also see our articles:

Battlefield Recon: The Mines of Messines HERE.

Drone Footage of Eparges Spur HERE.


Sources: 1914-1918 OnlineHill 60 Movie Website

Wednesday, March 20, 2024

The American Ambassador in Berlin Views the Coming of War


Ambassador Gerard and His Embassy Staff in Berlin


New Yorker James Watson Gerard, Jr, (1867–1951) served as Ambassador to Germany from 1913 to 1917, when America broke diplomatic relations with the empire. Earlier had been highly active in Democratic politics, including Tammany Hall and had served as a Justice of the New York Supreme Court from 1908 to 1913. His 1917 memoir of his time as ambassador, My Four Years in Germany, was a bestseller and even led to a movie spin-off. After the First World War, Gerard became known as a wealthy mining investor and philanthropist.  In the 1930s he became a visceral critic of Hitler and Nazism, especially their anti-Jewish policies.  


Meeting the Kaiser

On September ninth, 1913, having resigned as Justice of the Supreme Court of the State of New York, I sailed for Germany, stopping on the way in London in order to make the acquaintance of Ambassador Page, certain wise people in Washington having expressed the belief that a personal acquaintance of our Ambassadors made it easier for them to work together. . . In the month of November [1913], I presented my letters of credence as Ambassador to the Emperor. This presentation is quite a ceremony. Three coaches were sent for me and my staff, coaches like that in which Cinderella goes to her ball, mostly glass, with white wigged coachmen, outriders in white wigs and standing footmen holding on to the back part of the coach. Baron von Roeder, introducer of Ambassadors, came for me and accompanied me in the first coach; the men of the Embassy staff sat in the other two coaches. Our little procession progressed solemnly through the streets of Berlin, passing on the way through the centre division of the arch known as the Brandenburger Thor, the gateway that stands at the head of the Unter den Linden, a privilege given only on this occasion.

We mounted long stairs in the palace, and in a large room were received by the aides and the officers of the Emperor's household, of course all in uniform. Then I was ushered alone into the adjoining room where the Emperor, very erect and dressed in the black uniform of the Death's Head Hussars, stood by a table. I made him a little speech, and presented my letters of credence and the letters of recall of my predecessor. The Emperor then unbent from his very erect and impressive attitude and talked with me in a very friendly manner, especially impressing me with his interest in business and commercial affairs. I then, in accordance with custom, asked leave to present my staff. The doors were opened. The staff came in and were presented to the Emperor, who talked in a very jolly and agreeable way to all of us, saying that he hoped above all to see the whole of the Embassy staff riding in the Tier Garten in the mornings. . .


Symptoms of Extreme Militarism

For years officers of the army, both in the discharge of their duties and outside, have behaved in a very arrogant way toward the civil population. Time and again, while I was in Germany waiting in line at some ticket office, an officer has shoved himself ahead of all others without even a protest from those waiting. On one occasion, I went to the races in Berlin with my brother-in-law and bought a box. While we were out looking at the horses between the races, a Prussian officer and his wife seated themselves in our box. I called the attention of one of the ushers to this, but the usher said that he did not dare ask a Prussian officer to leave, and it was only after sending for the head usher and showing him my Jockey Club badge and my pass as Ambassador, that I was able to secure possession of my own box.

There have been many instances in Germany where officers having a slight dispute with civilians have instantly cut the civilian down. Instances of this kind and the harsh treatment of the Germans by officers and under-officers, while serving in the army, undoubtedly created in Germany a spirit of antagonism not only to the army itself but to the whole military system of Prussia.


The German View of War

The short war against Denmark in 1864, against Austria, Bavaria, etc., in 1866 and against France in 1870, enormously increased both the pride and prestige of the Prussian army. It must not be forgotten that at all periods of history it seems as if some blind instinct had driven the inhabitants of the inhospitable plains of North Germany to war and to conquest. The Cimbri and Teutones—the tribes defeated by Marius; Ariovistus, who was defeated by Julius Caesar; the Goths and the Visi-Goths; the Franks and the Saxons; all have poured forth from this infertile country, for the conquest of other lands. The Germans of to-day express this longing of the North Germans for pleasanter climes in the phrase in which they demand "a place in the sun."

The nobles of Prussia are always for war. The business men and manufacturers and shipowners desire an increasing field for their activities. The German colonies were uninhabitable by Europeans. All his life the glittering Emperor and his generals had planned and thought of war; and the Crown Prince, surrounded by his remarkable collection of relics and reminders of Napoleon, dreamed only of taking the lead in a successful war of conquest. Early in the winter of 1913-14, the Crown Prince showed his collection of Napoleana to a beautiful American woman of my acquaintance, and said that he hoped war would occur while his father was alive, but, if not, he would start a war the moment he came to the throne.


During the Crisis and Early Days of the War
the American Embassy Was a Center of Interest


The July Crisis

Some days after my return to Berlin the ultimatum of Austria was sent to Serbia. Even then there was very little excitement, and, when the Serbian answer was published, it was believed that this would end the incident, and that matters would be adjusted by dilatory diplomats in the usual way.

On the twenty-sixth of July, matters began to boil. The Emperor returned on this day and, from the morning of the twenty-seventh, took charge. On the twenty-seventh, also, Sir Edward Goschen returned to Berlin. I kept in touch, so far as possible, with the other diplomats, as the German officials were exceedingly uncommunicative, although I called on von Jagow every day and tried to get something out of him. On the night of the twenty-ninth, the Chancellor and Sir Edward had their memorable conversation in which the Chancellor, while making no promises about the French colonies, agreed, if Great Britain remained neutral, to make "no territorial aggressions at the expense of France."

The Chancellor further stated to Sir Edward, that ever since he had been Chancellor the object of his policy had been to bring about an understanding with England and that he had in mind a general neutrality agreement between Germany and England. 

On the thirtieth, Sir Edward Grey refused the bargain proposed, namely that Great Britain should engage to stand by while the French colonies were taken and France beaten, so long as French territory was not taken. Sir Edward Grey said that the so-called bargain at the expense of France would constitute a disgrace from which the good name of Great Britain would never recover. He also refused to bargain with reference to the neutrality of Belgium. Peace talk continued, however, on both the thirtieth and thirty-first, and many diplomats were still optimistic. On the thirty-first I was lunching at the Hotel Bristol with Mrs. Gerard and Thomas H. Birch, our minister to Portugal, and his wife. I left the table and went over and talked to Mouktar Pascha, the Turkish Ambassador, who assured me that there was no danger whatever of war. But in spite of his assurances and judging by the situation and what I learned from other diplomats, I had cabled to the State Department on the morning of that day saying that a general European war was inevitable. On the thirty-first, Kriegsgefahrzustand or "condition of danger of war" was proclaimed at seven P. M., and at seven P. M. the demand was made by Germany that Russia should demobilise within twelve hours. On the thirtieth, I had a talk with Baron Beyens, the Minister of Belgium, and Jules Cambon, the French Ambassador, in the garden of the French Embassy in the afternoon. They both agreed that nothing could prevent war except the intervention of America. . .

Acting on my own responsibility, I sent the following letter to the Chancellor:

"Your Excellency:

Is there nothing that my country can do? Nothing that I can do towards stopping this dreadful war?

I am sure that the President would approve any act of mine looking towards peace.

  Yours ever, (Signed) JAMES W. GERARD."

To this letter I never had any reply.


Ambassador Gerard Bids Farewell to a Train of
Americans Being Evacuated from Germany


On the first of August at five P. M. the order for mobilisation was given, and at seven-ten P. M. war was declared by Germany on Russia, the Kaiser proclaiming from the balcony of the palace that "he knew no parties more". . . On the second of August, I called in the morning to say good-bye to the Russian Ambassador. His Embassy was filled with unfortunate Russians who had gone there to seek protection and help. Right and left, men and women were weeping and the whole atmosphere seemed that of despair.

 

Source: My Four Years in Germany by James W. Gerard