First World War nurse Edith Cavell to be commemorated on new £5 coin

Cavell, who was executed after helping 200 allied troops escape occupied Belgium, will be pictured on the new £5 coin

A new £5 pound coin to commemorate the work of British First World War nurse Edith Cavell is to be released next year, marking one hundred years since her death.

The coin will form part of a set of special commemorative coins created by the Royal Mint to mark the war’s centenary.

Cavell, who worked as a nurse in German occupied Belgium until her death in 1915, was responsible for saving the lives of thousands of soldiers from both sides, as well as helping nearly 200 allied soldiers escape German forces in Belgium to neighbouring Holland.

When the German authorities found out about the assistance she was giving to allied soldiers, she was arrested, before being executed by firing squad.

According to Treasury minister Nicky Morgan, Edith Cavell was a British hero and deserved to be celebrated on one of the commemorative coins.

She said: "She showed true bravery by helping injured soldiers, regardless of their nationality, and it is right that she should be honoured as a British hero.”

Following the success of a petition last year that persuaded the Treasury to replace Charles Darwin with the author Jane Austen on their new £10 notes, Cavell’s relatives decided to begin their own petition calling for Cavell to be included on a new £2 coin, unaware she would be considered for the £5.

In May, relatives of Cavell delivered the petition to the Treasury with nearly 110,000 signatures.

So successful has the campaign been, Chancellor George Osborne last week considered the possibility of adding Cavell to one of the new coin designs alongside celebrated military chief Lord Kitchener.

source: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/first-world-war-nurse-edith-cavell-to-be-commemorated-on-new-5-coin-9586495.html?origin=internalSearch

Campaign to honour hundreds who died in troop ship sinking

On the 2011/2012 I published a post regarding the following newspaper report that I have come across recently.

My original blog post can be found at:

http://trenchartswordsintoploughshares.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/one-from-collection-in-memoriam-pt.html

Campaign to honour hundreds who died in troop ship sinking

A campaign has been launched to win recognition for hundreds of First World War soldiers almost a century after they died at sea.

Next year marks the centenary of the sinking of a troop ship bound for the battlefield of Gallipoli with the loss of 860 British lives, including some members of the Hampshire Regiment.

When the war ended, many of those who died were awarded three campaign medals – but hundreds more missed out.

Now a group of amateur historians has begun a campaign to ensure that 99 years on from the sinking of His Majesty’s Troopship Royal Edward, all the men who went down with her receive just recognition for their sacrifice.

David Crampin, one of those behind the campaign, said: ‘The rules at the time seemed to suggest that because these men were between theatres of war, travelling from the UK via Egypt on their way to Gallipoli they were excluded from receiving 
medals.

‘But if that was the case, why did a large number of other men get them? Surely they should all have been treated in the same way – they were on their way to war, keen to do their bit; why should some have missed out when others got the medals they all deserved?’

After the war Winston Churchill called for all men who had died in transports between theatres of war to receive medals.

The powers-that-be at the time rejected the idea, but regardless of this ruling, some of the Royal Edward victims did in fact get them.

Source: http://www.portsmouth.co.uk/news/defence/campaign-to-honour-hundreds-who-died-in-troop-ship-sinking-1-6342107

A History of the First World War in 100 Moments: Massacre at Wirballen

A History of the First World War in 100 Moments: Massacre at Wirballen

No. 11, The Eastern Front, 8 October 1914: Karl Henry von Wiegand, Berlin correspondent of United Press International, reports on the Germans’ lethal use of machine guns near Wirballen in Russian Poland

KARL HENRY VON WIEGAND

 

 

Sunday 13 April 2014

At sundown tonight, after four days of constant fighting, the German army holds its strategic and strongly entrenched position east of Wirballen.

As I write this, I can catch the occasional high notes of a soldier chorus. For four days the singers have lain cramped in those muddy ditches, unable to move or stretch except under cover of darkness. And still they sing. They believe they are on the eve of a great victory.

I reached the battlefield of Wirballen shortly before daylight, armed with a pass issued by the general staff and accompanied by three officers assigned to “chaperone” me... We had travelled three days by auto and were within three miles of the right wing of the German position when we broke down and we went ahead on foot.

 

 

 

Today I saw a wave of Russian flesh and blood dash against a wall of German steel. The wall stood. The wave  was shattered and hurled back.

Rivulets of blood trickled back slowly in its wake. Broken bloody bodies. We struck the firing line at a point near the extreme right of the German position shortly before daylight and breakfasted with the officers commanding a field battery…

While I was still marvelling at the number of details requiring attention in this highly specialised business of man killing, I was yanked out of my reverie by a weird, tooth-edging, spine-chilling, whistling screech overhead.

The fact that the shell was 500 to 1,000ft above me and probably another couple of thousand feet beyond, before my ear registered its flight, did not prevent my ducking my head.

A good many shells had passed over my head before I could lose an almost irresistible desire to hug the ground.

For half an hour the German battery paid no attention to the shells passing overhead and out of range. Finally a soldier with a telephone installed on an empty ammunition box began talking and copying notes, which the commander of the battery scanned hastily. A word of command and a lieutenant galloped along the line giving various ranges to the different battery commanders. The crews leaped to their positions, and the battery went into action.

The firing continued for perhaps 15 minutes, when there was a halt, more telephoning, a new set of ranges for some of the guns and a resumption of firing…

Now both the German and Russian shells were screeching and screaming overhead in a most uncomfortable if undangerous fashion. In the morning sunlight, from the summit of the hill, I got my first view of the fighting that will go down in history as the Battle of Wirballen.

The line stretched off to the left as far as the field glasses would carry, in a great, irregular semicircle, the irregularity being caused by the efforts of both armies to keep to high ground with their main lines.

As we watched, the entire fire of the Russian artillery seemed to be diverted on a village situated on a low plain about 2,000 yards to the northward of our position. The village – already deserted – was being literally flattened under a deluge of iron and steel.

The ruins were in flames. After half an hour the reason for shelling the deserted village became evident.

A general advance against the German centre was launched and the Russians were making certain that the village, directly in the line of advance, had not been occupied by the German machine guns during the night.

So far, though I had been witnessing a battle of obviously tremendous magnitude, I had not seen the enemy. From our position slightly in the rear of the German flank, it was comparatively easy to trace our own line through the glasses, but the general line of the Russians was hard to determine, being indicated only by occasional flashes  of gunfire.

Yesterday, for the first time since the start of the battle on Sunday, the Russians attempted to carry the German centre position by a storm. All Sunday and Monday the opposing artillery had been hammering away at the opposing trenches. Twice under cover of their field artillery the Russian infantry advanced in force. Twice they were forced back to defensive positions. Now they were to try again. The preliminaries were well under way...

At a number of points along their line, the Russian infantry came tumbling out and, rushing forward, took up advanced positions awaiting the formation of the new and irregular battle line.

The German officers moved along in the open behind the trenches encouraging and steadying their men, preparing them for the shock. Finally came the Russian order to advance. At the word, hundreds of yards of the Russian fighting line leaped forward, deployed in open order and came on. One, two, three, and in some places four and five successive skirmish lines, separated by intervals of from 20 to 50 yards, swept forward…

From the outset of the advance, the German artillery, ignoring for the moment the Russian artillery action, began shelling the onrushing mass with wonderfully timed shrapnel, which burst low above the advancing lines and tore sickening gaps.

But the Russian line never stopped. On came the Slav swarm – into the range of the German trenches, with wild yells and never a waver. Russian battle flags... appeared in the front of the charging ranks.

The advance line thinned and the second line moved up. Nearer and nearer they swept toward the German positions.

And then came a new sight! A few seconds later came a new sound. First I saw a sudden, almost grotesque, melting of the advancing lines. It was different from anything that had taken place before.

The men literally went down like dominoes in a row. Those who kept their feet were hurled back as through by a terrible gust of wind. Almost in the second that I pondered, puzzled, the staccato rattle of machine guns reached us.  My ear answered the query of my eye. For the first time the advancing lines hesitated, apparently bewildered. Mounted officers dashed along the line urging the men forward. Horses fell with the men. I saw a dozen riderless horses dashing madly through the lines...

The crucial period for the section of the charge on which I had riveted my attention probably lasted less than a minute. To my throbbing brain it seemed an hour.

Then, with the withering fire raking them, even as they faltered, the lines broke. Panic ensued. It was every man for himself. The entire Russian charge turned and went tearing back to cover...

I swept the entire line of the Russian advance with my glasses – as far as it was visible... The whole advance of the enemy was in retreat, making for its entrenched position.

After the assault had failed and the battle had resumed its normal trend, I swept the field with my glasses. The dead were everywhere. They were not piled up, but were strewn over acres. More horrible than the sight of the dead, though, were the other pictures brought up by the glasses. Squirming, tossing, writhing figures everywhere! The wounded!

All who could stumble or crawl were working their way back toward their own lines or back to the friendly cover of hills or wooded spots.

But there appeared to be hundreds to whom was denied even this hope, hundreds doomed to lie there in the open, with wounds unwashed and undressed, suffering from thirst and hunger until the merciful shadows of darkness made possible their rescue – by the Good Samaritans of the hospital corps, who are tonight gleaning that field of death for the third time since Sunday.

First filed as a UPI report, via The Hague and London, on  8 October 1914

Earlier ‘Moments’ are at independent.co.uk/greatwar

Malala Yousafzai and Kailash Satyarthi win Nobel peace prize 2014

Pakistani teenager and Indian children’s rights activist beat Edward Snowden, Chelsea Manning, the Pope and Vladimir Putin to the prestigious prize 

• Paul Owen, Matthew Weaver and agencies
• The Guardian, Friday 10 October 2014 10.06 BST

Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani teenage education campaigner shot on school bus in 2012 by a Taliban gunman, has won the 2014 Nobel peace prize.

Malala won along with Kailash Satyarthi, an Indian children’s rights activist.

The two were named winner of the £690,000 (8m kronor or $1.11m) prize by the chairman of the Nobel committee - Norway’s former prime minister Thorbjoern Jagland - on Friday morning.

Malala, now 17, is a schoolgirl and education campaigner who was shot in the head by a Taliban gunman two years ago in her home country of Pakistan. She won for what the Nobel committee called her “heroic struggle” for girls’ right to an education.

She is the youngest ever winner of the prize.

After being shot she was airlifted to Queen Elizabeth hospital in Birmingham, where she was treated for life-threatening injuries.

In a statement, the committee said: “Despite her youth, Malala Yousafzai has already fought for several years for the right of girls to education, and has shown by example that children and young people, too, can contribute to improving their own situations.

“This she has done under the most dangerous circumstances. Through her heroic struggle she has become a leading spokesperson for girls’ rights to education.”

Satyarthi, the Nobel committee said, had maintained the tradition of Mahatma Gandhi and headed various forms of peaceful protests, “focusing on the grave exploitation of children for financial gain”.

There were a record 278 nominations this year, 19 more than ever before – including US whistleblowers Edward Snowden and Chelsea Manning, Russian president Vladimir Putin, and Pope Francis. Also on the list of nominees was an anti-war clause in the Japanese constitution and the International Space Station Partnership.

Previous choices include illustrious names such as Nelson Mandela, Aung San Suu Kyi, and Martin Luther King - and, controversially, Barack Obama in 2009.

Last year’s choice of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in hindsight seems a similar act of wishful thinking. At the time the agency’s role in overseeing the destruction of Syria’s chemical arsenal offered a very slim chance of finding a diplomatic resolution to the crisis in that country. But the violence in Syria has only got worse, and there are continuing concerns that the Assad regime has continued to conceal its stockpile of chemical weapons.

The Nobel announcements have been going on all week, and willconclude with the prize for economics on Monday.

Yesterday the Nobel committee stunned the literary world by choosing little-known French author Patrick Modiano for the prize.

On Wednesday Stefan Hell of the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, Göttingen, William Moerner of Stanford University in California, and Eric Betzig of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in Virginia won the chemistry prize “for the development of super-resolved fluorescence microscopy”.

On Tuesday Shuji Nakamura of the University of California, Santa Barbara, shared the physics prize with Isamu Akasaki and Hiroshi Amano of Japan for “the invention of efficient blue light-emitting diodes which has enabled bright and energy-saving white light sources”.

And on Monday, British-US scientist John O’Keefe and married couple May-Britt and Edvard Moser from Norway won the Nobel prize in physiology or medicine for discovering the brain’s “inner GPS”.

Worth 8m kronor each, the Nobel prizes are always handed out on 10 December, the anniversary of prize founder Alfred Nobel’s death in 1896. Besides the prize money, each laureate receives a diploma and a gold medal.

Nobel, a wealthy Swedish industrialist who invented dynamite, provided few directions for how to select winners, except that the prize committees should reward those who “have conferred the greatest benefit to mankind”.

Source: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/10/wins-nobel-peace-prize-2014

Comment on Alan Henning

I was brought up in an industrial village built by Henry Ford in Manchester. It later became dissected from the City of Salford by the Manchester Ship Canal. As a child I would take my dog, a whippet, around the factories at the weekend to hunt rabbits. We gave many pensioners as well as our own family, meat for the pot for sustenance.

I would get the buss, as a child, into Eccles. On a Saturday we would go to the ABC Cinema for the 'Children of The ABC' matinees. Childrens films that kept us entertained for a few hours, and gave our parents a few hours reprieve. Afterwards I would go around the market and maybe walk up toward Eccles Cross.

I now live in London. Before I moved here, I worked in a office in Salford just of Chapel Street.

Did I meet Alan Henning in a pub? We are about the same age, were we at the same parties? Did he take me home from a pub in his taxi?

Salford, for those that do not know is a separate city from Manchester, the division being the Manchester Ship Canal. Both Cities have their own identity and both are fiercely proud.

We are both peoples who have struggled through the decline of the major industries and the decline of Salford Docks (where my father worked).

We are fiercely proud of our heritage. We fight tooth and nail for our families, communities and our rights. No one cares for us in Government so we do what we have to do.

My community as a child was a community comprised of immigrants. Irish (my heritage), English and Asian. My friends as a child were, at least 50% Indian and Pakistani. It reflected who our neighbours were. And I think this is similar to where Alan Henning was coming from.

Alan has been referred to as 'one of our own.'

This title has no reference to race, creed, colour or gender. We just look after  'our own' who ever they may be.

Alan included within this the children of Syria. He died for it.

As a Mancunian (Person from Manchester) I salute my Salfordian neighbour for taking our tradition of welcoming the stranger, to an extreme. We are not normally called on to put our lives on the line to welcome the stranger. He did it and died for it.

I cannot imagine what Alans family are going through. I hope that the proactive interventions of the Muslim community across the world, will give them some comfort (as the hero of so many peoples).

When I was in Catholic school as a teenager, I was asked to do an essay on whom I thought should be 'saints.' I chose Martin Luther King and Mahatma Ghandi. If I was given the same choice now, I would include ALAN HENNING.

Rest well my friend. In your death you have created a new world for all of us to live up to.

Alan Henning: A man whose kindness killed him

• Oct 04, 2014 06:00
• By Pat Hurst

Friends say Alan Henning was never involved in politics or talked about current affairs or religion, and was a cheerful, happy personality, always eager to help others

Alan Henning was known for his helpful kindness - a kindness that killed him.

Within an hour of crossing the border into Syria in an aid convoy, his killers from IS swooped: he was singled out, separated from the others and taken hostage.

Friends say Alan Henning was never involved in politics or talked about current affairs or religion, and was a cheerful, happy personality, always eager to help others.

Smiling for the cameras, Mr Henning, 47, filmed at the Turkish border shortly before his capture, said: "It's all worthwhile when you see what is needed actually get to where it needs to go. That makes it all worthwhile.

"No sacrifice we do is nothing compared to what they are going through every day, on a daily basis."

Born at Hope Hospital in Salford, the son of lorry driver father Oliver and mother Eileen, and one of three children living in Salford, Mr Henning led an ordinary life, growing up in the Eccles area of the city where he was born.

He met his wife Barbara locally, the couple marrying at Salford register office and going on to bring up their two children, Lucy, 17, and Adam, 15.

He enjoyed going fishing and tinkering with technology - earning him the nickname from friends and family of Inspector Gadget - or Gadget for short, the clumsy cartoon character.

For more than a decade he had worked as a taxi driver until, around two years ago, he became involved in helping the Syria aid effort.

He used a garage in Swinton, Salford and an upstairs office there was hired by Kasim Jameel, who ran a firm hiring cars to use as taxis and was involved in humanitarian aid for Syria.

Mr Henning hired a car from Mr Jameel for his job and the two became friends.

True to his nature he wanted to help out with the aid effort, where a convoy of ambulances, filled with medical and other supplies were driven to the Turkish border with Syria.

Mr Henning loaded the ambulances up and agreed to be a driver on his first trip in 2012.

A friend said he saw it at first almost as a "road trip" or "adventure" - and was only away two weeks. The ambulances dropped off at the border, the aid volunteers would then return to the UK.

But on a second trip Mr Henning crossed the border to see for himself conditions in war-torn Syria, a family friend said.

It was a fateful decision.

His friend said: "I think what he saw over there overwhelmed him. Orphans, kids with no mothers or fathers, desperate children. It changed him."

On his return to the UK Mr Henning's aid efforts "snow-balled" and he was "on a mission" to help - traveling again from Bolton to Syria in December last year with eight other volunteers from the town.

Orlando Napolitano, 68, runs a cafe on Bridge Street, Salford, where Mr Henning was a regular, around the corner from the garage and taxi hire firm.

Mr Napolitano said: "I have been here 22 years, and two years ago these Asian people moved in around the back and that's when all this started, this aid doing, taking stuff to Syria.

"He said he was going there to help these people who had nothing, refugees. He was happy to help.

"That last trip I said, 'Alan, I think it is a bit dangerous' He said, 'No, I have been there twice. We don't go far in, just past the border.'

"I said, 'Alan, you are going before Christmas. What about your family?'

"He said, 'That's what I love to do. When you give them goods, the kids are so happy and that's why.'

"He would come in for coffee twice a day and we would chat. He's a nice guy, happy, cheerful.

"He was missing straight away, as soon as he went to Syria. As soon as he crossed the border they snatched him."

Kasim Jameel, who said he was with Mr Henning on the final trip, did not want to talk about his capture.

Mr Jameel said: "Alan is just a taxi driver, that's all he is, just a taxi driver. Ultimately they have no reason to kill him. He could see suffering before his eyes on social media. He knew how to get involved via myself. He went there to help."

But as a citizen of one of IS's sworn enemies in the West, he became a prized hostage, his life at the mercy of Islamic fanatics.

Back home family and friends had been hoping and praying for his safe return.

Eight months into the captivity, his sister, Gill Kenyon, from Bury, posted a black and white picture of the pair together as youngsters on Twitter on August 15, his 47th birthday.

Referring to her brother by his nickname Gadget, she wrote: "Happy 47th birthday to my little bro Gadget/Alan Henning. Can't wait to have a party on your return, love you bro xx."

Martyn Shedwick, a friend who helped repair one of the donated ambulances driven to Syria, said: "He's quite an amazing guy for what he's done. An ordinary bloke, just wanting to help out, that's all it is.

"He never talked about politics or religion or anything.

"When I saw the photo of him in the orange suit, it proper hurt, it's like somebody kicked me in the heart.

"Despite all the badness in the world, there's some really good people as well and Alan is one of them - he just really wanted to help."

Source: http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/alan-henning-man-whose-kindness-7881257

RIP Alan Henning

R.I.P. Alan

Ben the Beagle wins a prize at Chiswick House Dog Show!

This blog is often filled with doom and gloom, so today I thought that I would share a story with you about my dog, which will hopefully put a smile on your face.

Ben is part Beagle, part Tasmanian Devil and  part Dolphin!

While walking him in Chiswick Park a couple of months ago, he decided that the other dogs were boring and it would be much more fun to swim after the ducks, geese and swans.

While I was whistling and and shouting at him to come back, a casual bystander (without dog or child) told me that I had to get my dog out of the water. (Just to let you know, the rules of the park are that dogs are allowed into the lake so long as they are not encouraged to do so by throwing in balls or sticks). I pointed out to the gentleman that calling and whistling the dog was actually me proactively attempting to retrieve my errant canine.

"Well you need to do more!" was the reply.

Flabbergasted, I enquired "what do you want me to do, go in after him?"

His response shocked everyone around when he asserted "Well frankly, yes!"

I was left with the choice of sending him into the lake to involuntarily retrieve my dog, or, I had better go in and get him 'voluntarily.'

As the air turned blue, small children's eyes were swiftly covered and the old lady recently acquainted with lying prostrate on the grass was given the vapours, I stripped to my underwear and waded in after 'Ben the Bastard!'

He thought that it was great fun for me to swim after him and chase him in the lake, much more fun than him chasing the birds!!

After about 5 minutes, he thought better of the game and my rising temper, and swimming further away found the bank and ran for his life in a storm of water droplets like cloud dispersing behind him.

The gentleman in question, satisfied at the conclusion, departed swiftly before I emerged like a drowned rat from the lake.

I believe the photographic and video evidence is now festering on the internet.

Back to the dog show last weekend.

Ben was entered for 'Naughtiest Dog.' The above story was the reason that I gave for him being due the title, and as 'The Fairy Dog Mother' (one of Chiswick Park's legendary dog walkers) was one of the judges, she could share the photographs and video that she had taken of the incident with the other judges!!

Needless to say, Ben won 1st prize as 'The Naughtiest Dog' category. However, when I attached his 'Badge of Shame,' otherwise known as his rosette, to his collar, he proceeded to tear it to shreds within minutes, proving to all that the title was appropriately imposed.

The slang of World War 1: Fancy a shag while lying doggo?

The slang of World War 1: Fancy a shag while lying doggo?

(picture; Flickr/ Manchester Archives)

Wednesday 1 Oct 2014 8:06 pm

It may sound more of an untoward proposal than a friendly invitation.

But during World War I, phrases such as ‘smoking shag while lying doggo’ would have been easily understood.

Shag – a low-quality tobacco used by soldiers – could only be enjoyed in a gap between skirmishes when ‘doggo’ – motionless and quiet.

These are some of the more unusual words featured in a new book about the language of the trenches. The Lingo Of No Man’s Land, first written by Lorenzo Napoleon Smith in 1918 and

reworked for modern readers by Prof Julie Coleman, reveals the distinct vocabulary used by serving soldiers.

Prof Coleman, from the University of Leicester’s School of English, said: ‘The language of the trenches was a fascinating topic, even while the war was under way. Newspapers and recruiting agencies published glossaries of trench slang as a way of bridging the gulf between civilians and those serving on the front line.

‘Terms like fireworks (aerial bombardment), tin hat (helmet) and old soldier (a soldier who evades danger) humanise the experience of war by revealing the humour that made unthinkable conditions bearable.’

The book, which has been made available online by the British Library, is a reissue of a dictionary originally compiled by the Canadian soldier at the end of the war. It shows how the different dialects of men sent to fight came together to create a language that was unique to wartime western Europe.

A century on, many words have disappeared from common use – an invitation to nibble on some ‘rat poison’, or cheese, would not be well received nowadays, for example.

However, others – such as ‘doss’, ‘dud’ and ‘fag’ – survive to this day.

Prof Coleman said: ‘Some of the words and phrases listed in these glossaries have become unremarkable features of everyday language: now anyone can put the wind up someone, do something in an over-the-top way or use a joystick.’

Source: http://metro.co.uk/2014/10/01/the-slang-of-world-war-1-fancy-a-shag-while-lying-doggo-4889367/

A History of the First World War in 100 Moments: The French general and the deserter

Even early in the war, desertion was punishable by death. Edward Spears, a British liaison officer, saw the macabre spectacle of an execution

EDWARD SPEARS

 

 

Sunday 13 April 2014

"General de Maud'huy had just been roused from sleep on the straw of a shed and was standing in the street when a little group of unmistakeable purport came round the corner. Twelve soldiers and an NCO, a firing party, a couple of gendarmes, and between them an unarmed soldier. My heart sank and a feeling of horror overcame me. General de Maud'huy gave a look, then held up his hand so that the party halted, and with his characteristic quick step went up to the doomed man.

"He asked what he had been condemned for. It was for abandoning his post. The General then began to talk to the man. Quite simply, he explained discipline to him. Abandoning your post was letting down your pals; more, it was letting down your country that looked to you to defend her. He spoke of the necessity of example, how some could do their duty without prompting but others, less strong, had to know and understand the supreme cost of failure. He told the condemned man that his crime was not venial, not low, and that he must die as an example, so that others should not fail. Surprisingly, the wretch agreed, nodding his head. He saw a glimmer of something, redemption in his own eyes, a real hope, though he knew he was about to die. Maud'huy went on, carrying the man with him to comprehension that any sacrifice was worthwhile while it helped France ever so little. What did anything matter if he knew this?

One of the trenches from which deserters tried to escape

"Finally, de Maud'huy held out his hand: 'Yours also is a way of dying for France,' he said. The procession started again, but now the victim was a willing one. The sound of a volley announced that all was over. The general wiped the beads of perspiration from his brow, and for the first time perhaps his hand trembled as he lit his pipe."

First published in 'Liaison 1914', by Sir Edward Louis Spears (Heinemann, 1930)

Tomorrow: Machine guns on the Eastern front. The series continues in Monday's 'Independent'. 'Moments' already published can be seen at: independent.co.uk/greatwar

A History of the First World War in 100 moments: The legend of 'the taxis of the Marne'

A History of the First World War in 100 moments: The legend of 'the taxis of the Marne'

No.9 Paris, 7 September 1914: In the early weeks of the conflict, getting troops to the right place quickly could be a matter of life or death. One particular episode has passed into French legend. John Lichfield continues our daily series marking the centenary of the First World War

JOHN LICHFIELD 

 

 

Friday 11 April 2014

On 6 September 1914, 600 Paris taxis, we are told, saved France from calamity.

They transported 6,000 soldiers to reinforce a French and British attack on the five German armies blundering over the plains east of Paris (now the home of Disneyland Paris).

Their arrival tipped the balance in one of the most important battles in history. A lightning German advance through Belgium and northern France in the first weeks of the war was checked. The German commanders panicked and retreated behind trench lines from the North Sea to Switzerland.

The total taxi-meter bill to take the 7th Infantry Division to the Battle of the Marne, settled by the French war ministry, came to Fr70,102, or £3,500.

If you accept the legend of “the taxis of the Marne”, there was another, bloodier bill. The Marne prevented an early German victory and prolonged the First World War through a further four years and two months of mass slaughter.

Is the taxi legend true? Sadly, no – or, at least, only in part. The Battle of the Marne was one of the most significant battles of European, and world, history. Scarlet Renault taxis were commandeered from the streets of Paris. But they delivered reserve troops who occupied rear positions and scarcely fought. More than two million men – mostly French and Germans but also 70,000 members of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) – fought in the Battle of the Marne. The 6,000 taxi-borne reinforcements were an anecdotal pinprick, skilfully used by the French government to promote the idea that a “sacred union” of soldiers and civilians had come together to fight a great patriotic war.

Three things did make a difference on the Marne. The first was a monumental German blunder. Berlin’s grand invasion plan – the Schlieffen Plan – envisaged that some German armies would go around Paris to the west. Instead, the whole of the German attacking force pivoted to the east, threatening to squeeze the retreating French and British against other German armies advancing from Lorraine.  Historians differ over why the plan was changed. The fog of war? Over-confidence?

The second decisive factor was spotter aircraft, which played a decisive role in warfare for the first time. It was a French plane which first reported that all the German armies had wheeled to the east of the capital. General Joffre, the French commander, saw his chance. The Germans were marching into a trap. On 5 September, three French armies and the British force attacked the Germans in the flank and the rear.

The defeatist British commander, General Sir John French, originally refused to take part in the attack. He blamed the French (unfairly) for his terrible losses in the first two weeks of the war. He did not want to fight with the French again until more British troops arrived. The war minister, Lord Kitchener, was dispatched from London to order him into battle.

The BEF, although small, was the third decisive factor. A wedge was driven between the two main German forces by the British and by the French Fifth Army under General Franchet d’Espèrey (known as “Desperate Frankie” to the British staff).

On 9 September, it seemed that an entire German army, 200,000 strong, would be cut off. But the French and British advanced so slowly that, some historians insist, they missed an opportunity to end the war. Instead, the Germans escaped to impregnable defensive positions on the northern bank of the river Aisne. The two enemies raced to the Channel coast, each trying to outflank the other. Neither won.

The Germans dug in, on high ground where they could find it. The First World War – the war of trenches, barbed wire, machine guns and mustard gas – was about to begin.

Did the French war ministry really pay the metered fares for 600 taxis to the river Marne? Apparently, it did. The actual amount shown was Fr70,102.

But there was a cap on the meters. The drivers were cheated out of their full fares.

Sunday's paper

Death of a deserter

The series continues in tomorrow’s ‘Independent on Sunday’. Earlier ‘Moments’ are at independent.co.uk/greatwar