Hello. Welcome to the August edition. It is a bit shorter this month but hopefully still of some interest. As ever, please send items of interest to me or Fiona.
Trevor
The Programme for 2014, so far
2nd August Rob Thompson Wombles on the Western Front
6th September Nigel Crompton HMS Gretna
Last month’s speakers – Steve Binks and Trevor Adams
Steve gave a short talk on the new records which are available on the CWGC site (and which were the subject of his article in last month’s newsletter).
Trevor talked on the origins of the First World War. The key issue was the Balkans and the troubles of Austro-Hungary there. Coupled with that, Austro-Hungary itself has been largely ignored in the context of the reasons for WWI, not least as it did not exist after the end of the war. Obstacles to understanding the origins of WWI include propaganda of the time which, depressingly, still gets trotted out by modern day “experts”. As well, the 1914 frontiers and distributions of population are radically different from 1919, and especially from today, which makes it harder to make sense of the situation in 1914.
The four schools of thought on WWI were analysed, though today the most plausible is the “powderkeg”. This coupled with unbelievable haste, sabre rattling, anxiousness to get one’s retaliation in first, as it were, excessive militarism and a lot of miscommunication all compounded the danger. It was, in effect, the 9-day crisis. The BBC programme on the 1914 crisis was based on the memoirs of Edward Grey, the foreign secretary, who did not go to foreign countries but spent his time fishing! Like the memoirs of many politicians, they attempt to paint him in a better light than is warranted. Perhaps the people who come out best from the July crisis are the hereditary monarchs, Kaiser Franz Joseph excepted, who did their best to find a solution to the problems. Of course, the key voice of reason who was missing from the discussions was Archduke Franz Ferdinand, for obvious reasons.
Dedication of a cross of sacrifice in Dublin, 100 years on
On 31st July, a cross of sacrifice was officially dedicated at the National Cemetery at Glasnevin in Dublin. This follows on from the installation of CWGC headstones on the relevant graves in Glasnevin and indeed elsewhere in the Irish Republic. This is the latest stage in recognition of the Irish men and women who were involved in WWI. It is estimated that some 200,000 Irish soldiers fought in Irish regiments with perhaps another 50,000 in other regiments of the British Army and in other armies.
The ceremony was attended by the Duke of Kent and by the Irish President, Michael D Higgins, and bands of both the Irish army and the British army played at the ceremony.
Dedication of the cross of sacrifice, with the Duke of Kent to the left and President Michael Higgins to the right
President Higgins said:
We cannot give back their lives to the dead, nor whole bodies to those who were wounded, or repair the grief, undo the disrespect that was sometimes shown to those who fought or their families. But we honour them all now, even if at a distance, and we do not ask, nor would it be appropriate to interrogate, their reasons for enlisting.
To all of them in their silence we offer our own silence, without judgement, and with respect for their ideals, as they knew them, and for the humanity they expressed towards each other. And we offer our sorrow too that they and their families were not given the compassion and the understanding over the decades that they should have received.
A century on, World War One remains “somewhat of a mystery”. Why, when the hope of bringing the conflict to a decisive conclusion was dashed within months of its outbreak, did the combatants decide to persist, to mobilise for total war and eventually to commit the totality of their young manhood to mutual destruction?
If all wars are an object of infinite sadness, this particular one also remains as an inextinguishable source of bewilderment.
Views of a Jewish German ex-soldier on WWI
The retired BBC journalist Robin Lustig published some papers of his grandfather by way of an article in the “New Statesman”. Robin’s grandfather had been conscripted in to the German army in 1916 at the age of 41. He was therefore not a frontline soldier but was one of the “old gentlemen”, as they were called.
His views on the reasons for the war were:
“Without question,” he wrote, “Germany was not guilty of starting the war and even less was she the only guilty party . . . At the outbreak of war, there were very few people in Germany, and none among the liberals and, particularly, among Jews, who did not believe that Germany was fighting in a just cause.”
That cause, in the eyes of my grandfather, writing as the former owner of a small textiles business who had long experience of competing, often successfully, against similar British companies, was the defence of Germany against British economic domination. Britain, he said – or England, as he called it – had felt compelled to go to war to protect its economic interests.
“Imagine what was lost to the conservative English in big business, in railway construction, electrical installations, etc [by increasing German competition], and you will agree that this war, waged with entirely fair weapons, must have contributed at least as much to England’s annoyance with Germany as the latter’s military rearmament. Personally, I had always been convinced that the war, when it eventually came, and it became more and more probable that it would in fact come, would be started by England for economic reasons.”
On Kaiser Wilhelm II, he said:
“I am firmly convinced that it is incorrect to ascribe to the Kaiser plans for world domination, such as were nurtured by Hitler. Wilhelm was a romantic, and his enthusiasm for the sea and the navy were more romantic than political in nature.
“I admit that he would have liked to have more colonies, but he would not have gone to war to obtain them, and even less did he have territorial ambitions on the continent of Europe . . . The words of an English statesman – I cannot remember at the moment who – ‘All of us slid into it together,’ seem to hit the nail on the head.”
The “English” statesman was Lloyd George!
Robin’s grandfather had to leave Germany in the 1930s, and eventually made his way to Britain in 1946 but sadly fell ill soon after his arrival and died. This was before Robin was born, so they never met.
A British nurse on the Eastern Front
Extracts have been published from the diary of a British lady who was a teacher in Moscow on the outbreak of WWI and who became a volunteer nurse in the Russian army. She was in Russia during the Bolshevik revolution and had to escape via the Pacific. Unbelievably, she later managed to be working in Spain at the time of the Spanish civil war and broadcast on Spanish radio for the Nationalists (ie on the same side as Franco!). Florence Farmborough’s book was re-published in 1977, shortly before her death. She also took many photos which she developed whilst in the field hospital.
Her account of the retreat in the battle of Gorlice-Tarnow on the Polish Front on 18th April 1915 is quoted below (but it was the 1st May in the then Russian calendar). The battle was an attack by the Germans in Southern Poland, which was Russian territory, in order to relieve Russian pressure on the Austro-Hungarians.
Then the wounded began to arrive. We started work in acute earnest. At first we could cope; then, we were overwhelmed by their numbers. They came in their hundreds from all directions; some able to walk, others crawling, dragging themselves along the ground.
We worked night and day. And still they came! And the thunder of the guns never ceased. Soon their deadly shells were exploding around our unit; for hours on end, the horror and confusion continued… Those who could walk were sent on immediately without attention. “The base hospitals will attend to you,” we told them; “Go! Go! Quickly!” The groans and cries of the wounded were pitiful to hear. We dressed their severe wounds where they lay on the open ground; one by one we tended them, first alleviating their pain by injections. And all the time the bombardment of Gorlice was continuing with brutal ferocity.
On Sunday, the violence of the thunderous detonations grew in length and strength. Then, suddenly, the terrible word “retreat” was heard. At first in a whisper; then, in loud, forceful tone: “The Russians are retreating!” And the first-line troops came into sight: a long procession of dirt-bespattered, weary, desperate men — in full retreat!
We had received no marching orders. The thunder of the guns came nearer and nearer. We were frightened and perplexed; they had forgotten us! But they came at last — urgent, decisive orders: we were to start without delay, leaving behind all the wounded and all the equipment that might hinder us. A dreadful feeling of dismay and bewilderment took possession of us; to go away, leaving the wounded and the unit’s equipment! It was impossible; there must be some mistake! But there was no mistake, we had to obey; we had to go. “Skoru! Skoru!” [“Quickly!”] shouted familiar voices. “Skoru! Skoru!” echoed unfamiliar ones from the hastily passing infantry. “The Germans arc outside the town!”
Snatching up coats, knapsacks, any of our personal belongings which could be carried, we started off quickly down the rough road. And the wounded? They shouted to us when they saw us leaving; called out to us in piteous language to stop — to take them with us; not to forsake them, for the love of God; not to leave them — our brothers — to the enemy. Those who could walk, got up and followed us; running, hopping, limping, by our sides. The badly crippled crawled after us; all begging, beseeching us nut to abandon them in their need. And, in the road, there were others, many others; some of them lying down in the dust, exhausted. They, too, called after us. They held on to us; praying us to stop with them. We had to wrench our skirts from their clinging hands. Then their prayers were intermingled with curses; and, far behind them, we could hear the curses repeated by those of our brothers whom we had left to their fate.
Irish nurses
Caroline Adams
A few weeks ago, Trevor and I visited the Dublin WFA, where Trevor did a rerun of his tour de force on the origins of WW1. One of the Dublin members mentioned that he is trying to research Irish women who served in WW1 as nurses, VADs, etc. This is proving difficult.
Like their male counterparts, many women found it safer not to mention their 1914 – 1918 experiences, after they returned to Ireland.
If any of you come across any Irish women in the course of your own research, could you e mail the details to Trevor and he will pass them on to Michael.
Conscription problems taken to the extreme
Caroline Adams
The ways in which Empires treated their various ethnic groups, and the degree to which small ethnic groups felt any sense of belonging to ‘their’ Empire, is fascinating and sometimes appalling. I read an article on Kyrgyzstan, recently. Part of the Russian Empire, the Kyrgyz were faced with forced conscription into the Tsarist army in 1916. The nomads resisted and more than a quarter of their population were massacred.
From Pam – Poppies at the Tower of London
18th July, 2014 – Today the first of 888,246 ceramic poppies representing British military fatalities during WW1 was planted in the moat of the Tower of London by the longest serving Yeoman Warder, YS Crawford Butler.
The remaining poppies will be planted by over 8,000 volunteers from across the UK with the last poppy being placed on Armistice Day, 11 November 2014.
Find details on how to volunteer or buy a poppy here:
Thank you.
Open Day at Craig y Don Community Centre – Saturday 23rd August
The open day is to celebrate 10 years of the community centre. We hope to have a stall and would welcome volunteers to help with it, and any ideas and contributions of exhibits and for a bulletin board. We now know that the day will run from 1pm to 4.30pm, with the doors being open for set-up from 10.00am. There will be on official opening with the local AM and the mayor of Llandudno. Please contact Mark, Fiona or me if you can help.
Lights out ceremony at St Paul’s church, Colwyn Bay
On Monday 4th August, there will be a ceremony at the above church from 22.00 to 23.00 organised by Merfyn Thomas of the British Legion to commemorate the entry of the UK into the Great War.
And finally – Menai Bridge was built by Belgians in WWI?
Well, not quite! In October 1914, the town of Menai Bridge welcomed a contingent of 60 Belgian refugees from the town of Mechelen. During their time in Menai Bridge, the refugees built a promenade from Carreg yr Halen to Church Island passing under the Menai suspension bridge. There was a ceremony held last weekend to mark the centenary of their arrival, attended by the daughter of one of the original refugees.
Trevor Adams trevormcmadams@gmail.com