The Dangers of the Battlefield...One Hundred Years Later

 By the late fall of 1914--basically around this time 100 years ago--the final flanking maneuvers in the race to the North Sea were solidifying a line of trenches from the Belgian Coast to Switzerland.  Stretching some 440 miles, the tactical and strategic goals of every subsequent campaign to regain (or alternately to hold) territory along the trenches of the Western Front would demand the use of artillery to try to dislodge or destroy enemy fortifications.  The demand for artillery shells was insatiable; for most of 1914 and early 1915 neither side could produce shells in sufficient quantity (in the millions) to prevent shortages on the front.  In the haste to ramp up production of this critical war materiel, everything from miscalculating the quantity of powder to poor-quality chemicals, fuses, or metal ultimately resulted in about a quarter of all artillery shells failing to detonate when fired.

Moving forward in time to the present, undetonated shells still represent a constant danger for farmers and individuals working, or simply walking, in and around the battlefields and military posts of World War I.  And those shells are still taking lives.

While it may be difficult to grasp the dangers of these shells individually, since we tend to think of them inadvertently going off one or two at a time, let's pause for a second to talk about the Battle of Messines that began on 7 June 1917.  British soldiers labored over eighteen months to dig 21 mine shafts across no-man's land and under German positions along the Messines Ridge.  Each shaft was filled with thousands of pounds of explosives (the largest containing some 41 tons), with the plan to detonate all the mines at 3:10 am just prior to a massed infantry assault (comprising nine divisions) and a creeping artillery barrage to provide cover for the advance.  Only 19 mines were detonated, but they killed some 10,000 men almost instantly and allowed the British assault to achieve its initial tactical objectives within three hours.  So what about the other two mines?

The British told Belgian authorities that with all the German counter-mining going on, and the devastation caused by the massive explosion of the other mines, that they were no longer certain where the two missing tunnels (and the explosives in them) were located.  One was found on 17 June 1955 near Le Pelerin when lightning struck nearby electrical pylons (erected in the 1950s) and set off the explosives in the ground beneath it.  The other mine is still under the Belgian countryside somewhere south of Ypres....

A recent article about the dangers of unexploded ordnance along the Ypres front highlights the ongoing concern for how to safely locate and remove these explosives and serves as a good reminder for our next talk on November 6.  Please come out to Twomey Auditorium on Nov. 6 at 6:00 pm to learn about efforts to preserve the battlefields, deal with unexploded shells, and address the public history questions and civic responsibilities that surround efforts to commemorate the First World War.

One of craters produced by the Messines mines. Photo Credit: Wikipedia

The Bristol Fighters

The Western Daily Press has published a story highlighting the British F.2 or Bristol Fighter and the aircraft's role in World War I.  During the spring and summer of 1917, the Bristol Fighter was one of the newer, more agile aircraft designed by the Allies that allowed them to fight more aggressively (and successfully) the German Albatross and turn the tide of the war in the air.  You can read the story of the "Brisfit" here:

http://www.westerndailypress.co.uk/Bristol-s-ingenuity-match-Red-Baron/story-21143674-detail/story.html

Photo credit: Wikimedia and The Shuttleworth Trust

Trench Cake

Would you like a taste of life in the trenches of World War I?  No, you don't have to squat in mud, deal with vermin, or avoid gas shells and snipers.  In this case I mean a taste literally: The Telegraph recently published the recipe for World War I Trench Cake.

Trench Cakes were one of the items English families on the home front could make and send to their loved ones fighting on the continent.  The British government encouraged mothers and sisters to make these for their fathers, sons, and brothers instead of some more traditional sweets because they could be made from food items that were not part of the list of rationed or restricted items (like eggs and butter).  The full recipe is included at the link below.  Give it a try!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/history/world-war-one/10905975/How-to-bake-a-First-World-War-trench-cake.html

Photo credit: The Telegraph and the Department for Culture, Media, and Sport

The Great War in Modern Images

The Atlantic recently published a collection of modern images of World War I--it contains photographs from a range of locations and topics, from some of the last surviving veterans to modern day views of the battlefields and the recovery of artifacts.   

Warning: there are a few images of human remains amid the archaeological excavations included in the collection, so if you do not want to see skeletons then you may want to skip checking out this news article.

http://www.theatlantic.com/static/infocus/wwi/century/

Ten WWI Battlefield Sites to See

As we approach the anniversary of the opening military actions in World War I, this summer has seen a number of interesting news stories and new websites created to honor the memory of the war.  In the interest of those blog readers who may not see these stories, I am going to post some of the links here for your reference.  These types of news items will be tagged with the label "news" and/or "website" so that then can be easily sorted and searched later as well.

Today's post is from the website Heritage Daily, and they have posted a list and description of ten World War I battlefields that are a "must see."  For those of us who may not be able to travel to Europe, they also provide some excellent photos and descriptions.  The link to the website can be found below, along with an image from their list.

http://www.heritagedaily.com/2014/07/10-must-see-world-war-i-sites/104221

Fort Douaumont 

(Image credit: Wikimedia)

Note: Clicking on the Wikimedia link will bring up additional images of this site.

World War I in the News

Here is an interesting story from NPR discussing a new book by Howard Blum titled Dark Invasion 1915: Germany's Secret War and the Hunt for the First Terrorist Cell in America.  To learn more about the book, click on the link below.

http://www.npr.org/2014/02/25/282439233/during-world-war-i-germany-unleashed-terrorist-cell-in-america

Image is from the NPR link.