Work on the book has progressed with the first sample chapter on Coburn Cowper now complete. Work on the main manuscript begins in January 2010, but research is still on-going with new photos and information coming to light on several of the people who will feature in the book. The desk has been covered in Great War period notebooks, trench maps, officer’s papers, photographs and letters – and will continue to be so for the next few months!

There are hundreds and hundreds of online resources to help you learn more about the First World War and the soldiers that fought in it, indeed, if you want an (almost) exhaustive list of all military research websites, then check out my interactive pdf which lists, links to, and describes thousands of very useful websites…

However, there are half a donzen or so websites that personally, I keep coming back to time and time again when I am researching WW1 heroes..over time, I will share with you my fave WW1 websites…(in no particular order). First up is the Commonwealth War Graves.

Commonwealth War Graves Commission  www.cwgc.org

This free online resource is simple to use and brilliant for tracking down those soldiers who died in both World Wars. The Debt of Honour Register is a database of about 1.7 million (count them) men and women the Commenwealth who died, as well as the 20,000 plus cemeteries and memorials where they are commemorated. There is also 67,000 civilian dead on the register.

Searches are carried out by surname, and can be refined by adding initials, years of death, nationality and which force served in. Once you hit the ‘go’ button you will then see a list of hits in tabular form noting name, rank, regiment, date of death, age and grave/memorial reference. When you find your chap, you can click on his name and more information such as any gallantry medals, next of kin, and the important unit information is also shown. You can print out a ‘certificate’ which gives you all this information on one page which is a nice touch…

cwgc - search results

However, the site is not just about the register, there are good online learning areas, specifically on the Battle of the Somme, Ypres and the German Offensive of 1918. There is also a new North Africa (1940-1943) area which is very good.

A related site is the War Graves Photographic Project (http://twgpp.org) which aims to hold a photographic record of every Commission head stone and memorial.

Images of Great War’s lost generation preparing to head off to the Western Front – captured by the UK’s first female Press photographer

This was supposed to be the war to end all wars, although, of course, that wasn’t how it turned out.World War I was eclipsed by the still greater conflict two decades on, but the mechanised slaughter in the trenches of Belgium and France broke the heart of a British generation and still resonates to this day.With nearly a million dead, representing the flower of young British manhood, the Great War shattered the nation.

With is his arms protectively around his family, a soldier poses with family members as he prepares to board a train to the front. The moment was captured by Britain’s first female press photographer, Christina Broom

Till we meet again: Trooper A.H. O’Conner bids au revoir to his sailor brother at Waterloo station in 1915

These heart-rending photographs show members of a ‘lost generation’ as they set off to do their duty for King and Country on the Western Front, where the life expectancy for soldiers was just three weeks.Among the images is a rare photograph which shows Rudyard Kipling’s son John in uniform and wearing glasses.John had initially been refused a commission because of his poor eyesight, but his father pulled strings to ensure he eventually became an officer with the 2nd Battalion Irish Guards.Just weeks afterwards, John was killed at the Battle of Loos in 1915, his death prompting his father to write the immortal words: ‘If any question why we died/Tell them, because our fathers lied.’John’s death inspired Kipling’s poem, My Boy Jack, and the incident became the basis for a play and its subsequent television adaptation, starring Daniel Radcliffe.

On display: Christina Broom outside her stall. Britain’s first female Press photographer was entirely self-taught

Doomed: Not a single soldier from this Irish Guards machine-gun team, pictured in 1914, survived the horrific slaughter on the battlefield

Stand by your bikes: The mobilised Household Battalion line up for inspection in 1916

Order of the bath: Officers of the Household Battalion form a guard of honour at Richmond Camp in 1916

Almost as moving is a picture of a 14-strong machine-gun squad from the Irish Guards, proudly showing off their gleaming weapons. Not one of them survived the war.In another frame, two brothers, one in the Army another the Navy, bid farewell at Waterloo station. Did they ever see each other again? This unique archive of pictures is the work of Christina Broom, Britain’s first female Press photographer. Today, eight albums containing 2,000 prints come up at auction for the first time and are expected to fetch £35,000 at Sotheby’s in London.Self-taught Mrs Broom cashed in on the postcard boom by charging soldiers tuppence for pictures of themselves to send to their families.

Here are young men whose faces brim with swagger, bound together by an intense camaraderie.Most thought that they would be coming home; this was a war, remember, which the politicians initially promised would be ‘over by Christmas’.In fact, the majority fell in the mud and the blood of Loos, Ypres, Passchendaele, the Somme, Vimy Ridge or the Marne.And yet, looking into the eyes of this lost generation, it is clear that these brave souls – boys really, a lot of them – were little different to the lads who are once again making their way to foreign lands to do their duty, in the mud and sand of Afghanistan.The world has changed almost unimaginably since these pictures were taken. And yet, sadly, war remains much the same.

War hero: GH Fleming, left, was decorated with the Distinguished Conduct Medal for his coolness under fire while at Ypres where he was wounded. Right, officers from the 2nd Battalion Irish Guards pose for the camera in 1915

Well it’s not long now till the big day arrives, so I thought I’d do a quick run down of what’s new in the world of wargaming miniatures. Some of the following are on my wish list for the festive season.

1. First up are the exquisite new plastic War of the Roses foot infantry from Perry Miniatures. These minis are absolutely amazing, nicely sculpted and you get a whopping 48 in a box for £15, a bargain. These are on my wish list, and will be used as part of a medieval army and as infantry in a Brettonian army for Warhammer Fantasy Battles.

2. Black Powder a new rule set from Warlord Games, this looks really interesting, in the fact that its one rule book that cover a period of history that you’d normally require several rule books to game in. This set of rules can  be used to play Napoleonic battles, run games in AWI and the American Civil War, as well late Victorian battles and skirmishes.

3. Wargames Factory have produced some of their best work,  in fact it is their best work, with the release of Vikings in plastic, and they look amazing. I’m now really tempted to build and paint a Viking horde in 28mm, especially now that Gripping Beast have resin ships. These plastic vikings are well sculpted, dynamically posed and you get 24 to a set, with a range of different weapons to tool your rampaging horde with.

4. The undead from Mantic, currently avaliable through pre-order, look really nice. Irregular Magazine were sent some of the Elves for review, and

2009 Christmas Special from Too Fat Lardies

4. 2009 Christmas Special by Too Fat Lardies, this is a 123 page bumper packed PDF for £5, which contains a a bumper packed book full of articles on a wide variety of wargaming subjects. Which includes pulp action, articles on gaming in AWI, WW2 and ACW to name a few. Well worth purchasing for a good xmas read.

5. A Very British Civil War, if you haven’t come across this little gem, then your missing a great alternative history setting which is great fun to play. The source book, which is not rules specific, is set in 1930’s Britian and provides a background for an alternative history where Edward VIII did not abdicate and caused a constitutional crisis leading to a civil war.

Recently they’ve added to this source book with a new book which picks up from the original source book, this has been split in to two book, the North and the South. The first of the two the North, which includes the fight for Scotland was released in late November, and the book which continues the action in the South will be avaiable in late January, look out for the section on Cornwall written by yours truely.  All books and flags for the differing factions are avalaiable from Solway miniatures, there are plans afoot for further books on this campaign setting for 2010. I will keep you updated as I find out more.

Three years ago, I found a box of old black and white photos in my late maternal Grandmother’s basement. My Great Grandparents bought the house in 1901 when they emigrated from Britain. In 1921, my Gramma was born in front of the fireplace in the house she lived in until the day she died.

When I’m feeling nostalgic, I like to paw through the box and randomly select a few pictures to inspect. The musty smell of time fills my nose and I’m transported back to muskrat swamps, slat board sidewalks, trolley cars, apple orchards and the face of a frontier port city before it rose up out of the bush. I spent a great deal of time talking with my Gramma – pulling stories from her brain over cups of Earl Grey tea. As a result, I hear my Gramma’s voice narrating the stories that go with many of the pictures. Yet, others remain silent. The silent pictures are special because those stories are lost.

Here’s a selection of pictures from the box that serves as my black and white time machine.

McCall's Magazine. Such a classic shot.

A young boy named Walt and his dog, Tibby. Check out Walt's boots.

WWI: on the train to war.

I don't know who Alice is, but she warms my heart.

The story varies, in my mind, about this couple. Today, he looks like he cracked a dirty joke right before the picture was taken. She's trying to look stern. They are always in love.

WWI encampment. The man second from the right, with the pipe, makes me smile.

I only have names: Ben and Nellie, in one of their more serious photos.

There's something not quite right about the girl on the right.

The double Victoria Cross awarded to Captain Noel Chavasse during WW1 has been sold privately to Lord Ashcroft for a reported £1.5million.

The VC and Bar was sold by St. Peter’s College, Oxford which was founded in 1929 by Captain Chavasse’s father, the Reverend Francis Chavasse, and had been gifted the medals decades before by the Chavasse family.

These medals will no doubt be the star exhibits at the Lord Ashcroft Gallery at the Imperial War Museum which will house Lord Ashcroft’s VC collection, as well as 50 other VC’s from the Museum’s own collection.

Captain Noel Chavasee was the medical officer attached to the 10th (Liverpool Scottish) Battalion, The King’s (Liverpool)Regiment during the First World War and was the only man to be awarded 2 VC’s in this conflict.

Chavasse was first awarded the VC for his actions on 9 August, 1916, at Guillemont, when he attended to the wounded all day under heavy fire.

On 30th July 1916, The battalion was moved into the Somme battlefield near Mametz. The plan was for the battalion to be in reserve for an attack on Guillemont on 31st, but they were never used. The next week for the men was spent digging communication trenches. On 7th August, the battalion received orders to take part in an assault on Guillemont at 4:20am on the 8th. The battalion was part of 166th brigade and was again in reserve. The attack by 164th and 165th brigades was successful on the right but in the middle and left, it was held up. The Liverpool Irish in 164th Brigade appeared to be cut off near the railway station. The 166th were ordered to attack at 4:20am the following morning. The preparation for the attack didn’t go well. The guides failed to turn up, and while waiting for fresh guides, they were caught in German shelling which caused casualties. Eventually the guides arrived but they only had the vaguest idea of the route. The battalion reached the jumping off trenches with only minutes to spare.

The attack was to be made past Trones Wood and Arrowhead Copse to capture the German front line trench and on into Guillemont. The attack started under a German bombardment of the trenches and no-mans-land. Heavy machine gun fire swept Death Valley and pinned down the attackers. In all four attempts were made by the battalion but all without success. The failed attack cost the Liverpool Scottish dear, out of a starting complement of twenty officers and about 600 men, five officers were killed, five were missing and seven wounded. Of the men, sixty nine were killed, twenty seven missing and 167 wounded. This attack was made over the same ground that 30th Division which incorporated 89th Brigade attacked on 30th July, 1916 with enormous casualties. 89th Brigade was manned with three Battalions of the Liverpool Pals. The Scottish must have known the men who lay so thickly on the ground over the ground they were attacking. What this did to their morale does not need any explaining.

During the action, Noel was wounded by two small shell splinters in his back, despite this, he performed the deeds that were to gain him his first VC. The evening of the attack saw Noel and a party of volunteers in no-mans-land helping bring in wounded men. He got as close 25 yards (23 metres) to the German front line where he found three men. This went on all night and throughout all this, a constant rain of snipers bullets and occasional bombing swept no-mans-land.

The battalion went back to a rest area at Valines west of Abbeville, Noel was granted sick leave to recover from his wound. He rejoined his battalion on 7th September near Delville Wood. Back in the thick of the fighting, he was again out rescuing men and treating those brought in to his Casualty Clearing Station. In early October Bishop Chavasse received a letter from Lord Derby which despite being “absolutely forbidden by War Office Rules” he informed the Bishop that “one of your sons in the RAMC attached to the Liverpool Territorials” had been forwarded to him and he “had the honour of forwarding his name to His Majesty for the bestowal of this magnificent Order (the V.C.) and I cannot tell you how pleased I was to do so”. The Bishop wrote immediately to Noel who replied (with some scepticism) “.. till I see it in print I will not believe”. He told no one else in the battalion.

The battalion moved from the Somme back to the Ypres Salient in the Weiltje sector, it was even more battered and grim than he remembered it. By this time, news started to reach the battalion of awards following the action at Guillemont. Two of Noel’s stretcher bearers had been awarded the Distinguished Service Medal and two more the Military Medal then on 26th October, 1916 the London Gazette announced that Noel Godfrey Chavasse MC, RAMC had indeed been awarded the Victoria Cross. The Scottish received the news on 28th October and a celebration ensued, the officers held a dinner for Noel in a chateau at Elverdinghe. The citation in the London Gazette read:

Captain Noel Godfrey Chavasse, M.C., M.B., Royal Army Medical Corps.

For most conspicuous bravery and devotion to duty.

During an attack he tended the wounded in the open all day, under heavy fire, frequently in view of the enemy. During the ensuing night he searched for wounded on the ground in front of the enemy’s lines for four hours.

Next day he took one stretcher-bearer to the advanced trenches, and under heavy shell fire carried an urgent case for 500 yards into safety, being wounded in the side by a shell splinter during the journey. The same night he took up a party of twenty volunteers, rescued three wounded men from a shell hole twenty-five yards from the enemy’s trench, buried the bodies of two Officers, and collected many identity discs, although fired on by bombs and machine guns.

Altogether he saved the lives of some twenty badly wounded men, besides the ordinary cases which passed through his hands. His courage and self-sacrifice, were beyond praise.

Chavasse’s second award was made during the period 31 July to 2 August 1917, at Wieltje, during the Third Battle of Ypres (Passchedaele).

The offensive was scheduled to start on 25th July but due to several factors, it was delayed until 31st July. On 20th July, The Scottish moved away from their training camp and back to the familiar ground at Weiltje. The preliminary bombardment for the offensive had already started and the Germans replied by shelling the roads and communication trenches which caused 9 deaths in the battalion as they moved up to the front line. Mustard Gas and high explosive shelling caused a further 145 casualties in the next few days. On the 24th July, the battalion were relieved and they moved back to make good their losses. On the 29th July, they battalion moved forward to its assembly positions, ominously, the fine weather now broke and the rain, which was to turn the battlefield into the infamous quagmire, started. Noel, moved into the dugout at Weiltje. This was no simple scrape but an excavation large enough to hold several hundred men and deep enough to be safe from artillery. It even had its own generator to supply power for lighting and more importantly, water pumps.

The attack started at 3:50 am on 31st July. The Scottish were by this time already in open ground and made good progress towards their first objective and they pushed on towards the Steenbeek, a stream that crossed their route. As they crossed it, they were held up by uncut wire in front of them and by heavy machine gun fire from Capricorn Trench. One of the two tanks detailed to aid in the assault came up at 7am and despite being put out of action very quickly by three direct hits from a German field gun, it managed to break through the wire and by 7:45am all the battalion’s objectives had been taken. Noel had moved his aid post forward with the attack and set it up in a captured German dug out at Setques Farm. The area was subjected to intensive German fire but he stayed put. The dugout was small and it served only as a patching up station before the wounded were sent further back Noel had been injured in the head by a shell splinter as he stood up and waved to indicate the position of his aid post. It is possible he suffered a fractured skull in this incident. After being dressed at the Weiltje dug out, Noel returned, despite advice to stay put, to his aid post. His stretcher bearers had been busy and Noel was very busy until sundown. As night fell Noel picked up his torch and went searching the wrecked landscape for survivors, it was raining again by this time.

Early the following day, Noel found himself a German captive who was a medic and the two of them worked hard to treat wounded men in the impossible conditions of mud, blood and water. Noel went to the door of the dugout to call in the next man when a shell flew past him and down the stairs, killing the man who was waiting to be carried away by the Field Ambulance. Details get very confused at this point, Noel may have received another wound but he carried on. The official history of the Liverpool Scottish has it that Noel was wounded twice more in the head. One stretcher bearer had been sent to the aid post to tell Noel to return. Despite intense pain, “The Doc refused to go and told us to take another man instead”. There is no doubt that at about 3am in the morning of Thursday 2nd August, 1917, another shell entered the aid post, Noel was sitting in a chair trying to get some sleep. Everyone in the aid post was either killed or seriously wounded. Noel had received four or five wounds, the worst being a gaping abdominal wound from which he bled profusely. He managed to crawl up the stairs and out of the dug out and crawled along the (flooded, muddy) “road” until he stumbled across a dugout occupied by Lt. Charles Wray of the Loyal North Lancs Regiment who sent for help and later sent an account to his local paper.

Noel was sent to Casualty Clearing Station No. 32 at Brandhoek, which specialised in abdominal wounds. He was operated on immediately and after all the shell splinters had been removed he was patched up. He regained consciousness and he spoke to a Colonel Davidson who reported “He seems very weak but spoke cheerfully”. It was not to be a happy ending however as Noel died peacefully at 1pm on Saturday 4th August, 1917. Three years to the day since the outbreak of the war.

The Citation for the second award read:

The award was announced in the London Gazette on 14th September, 1917. It read:

Though severely wounded early in the action whilst carrying a wounded soldier to the dressing station, he refused to leave his post, and for two days, not only continued to perform his duties, but in addition, went out repeatedly under heavy fire to search for and attend to the wounded who were lying out. During these searches, although practically without food during this period, worn with fatigue and faint with his wound, he assisted to carry an number of badly wounded men over heavy and difficult ground. By his extraordinary energy and inspiring example was instrumental in rescuing many wounded who would have otherwise undoubtedly succumbed under the bad weather conditions. This devoted and gallant officer subsequently died of his wounds.

Captain Chavasse is buried in Brandhoek’s New Military Cemetery. His grave (Plot 3, Grave B15) has had several memorials over the years, the current headstone was erected on 28th April 1981. It is the only headstone in the world to have two Victoria Crosses engraved on it. The inscription “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” was selected by his father. This cemetary is looked after by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission who do such a wonderful job in many countries of the world.

Obviously, this card is sent to let someone know that you donated to a charity for French orphans, in their name. What a wonderful gift!

Any Parsonions related to Mrs. Stella Lynd, 2718 Main?

For more about The Fatherless Children Of France; http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?_r=1&res=940DEFDD133FE433A25755C0A9679C946996D6CF  

Click the photo below to read the entire book of letters from orphans to their American benefactors. The book is ‘public domain’ from google.

The book above is priceless. Sweet, cute, and heartbreaking all wrapped up in one.

The true spririt of Christmas, COMPASSION.

Over the past two radio-less journeys to work, I’ve spent the time memorising Siegfried Sassoon’s ‘Everyone Sang’, a poem he wrote about the moment the ceasefire was declared at the end of WW1. Though Sassoon was back in England by the Armistice, it’s the men in the trenches I visualise in these verses. What must they have felt at the prospect of beginning life without war? According to Sassoon, they sang:

Everyone suddenly burst out singing;
And I was filled with such delight
As prisoned birds must find in freedom
Winging wildly across the white
Orchard and dark-green fields; on; on; and out of sight.

Everyone’s voice was suddenly lifted,
And beauty came like the setting sun.
My heart was shaken with tears; and horror
Drifted away … O but every one
Was a bird; and the song was wordless; the singing
will never be done.

This is one of those poems that sound like music, and that make your own concerns negligible under their lovely weight. Worth having in your head any day of the week.

Peter Schiff on The Fed & Your Money

This November I was alerted to the fact that the Commonwealth War Graves Commission has decided to experiment with four cemeteries in Belgium and France, to look at how they might appear if predictions on climate change are correct; lonh periods of drought meaning that maintaining the ‘English Garden’ look might prove impossible. As this is such a fundamental core what these cemeteries and memorial sites are about, it has caused much discussion such as here:

Great War Forum

and:

World War 2 Talk

To say the least, the look of Railway Chateau Cemetery, shown in the above video, is startling for anyone used to the calm serenity of Great War cemeteries. Such a radical change, if it is ever adopted, would change the look and ‘feel’ of these sites forever. More information on CWGC’s own site:

CWGC

A Roden lança este fantástico kit na escala 1/32, na minha opinião um dos mais bonitos aviões da WW1.

One of Germany’s biggest companies, Siemens Schuckert Werke was already world renowned at the beginning of the Twentieth Century, first of all in its application of innovative developments in manufacturing industry in the fields of electricity and telegraphic communication. In 1907 the company expanded into the newly popular arena of aeronautics and built an aerostat (military balloon) and two years later produced a monoplane of its own design. However, both developments passed by almost unnoticed.
This situation changed with the onset of WWI – before long, Siemens Schuckert Werke was able to construct the SSW R.I bomber. Although it was only built in small numbers, it played a full part in military operations. In 1916, after a technical request of the Air Inspectorate (Idflieg), the firm built a replica of the most successful French biplane of that time, the Nieuport 11 Bébé. This fighter was named the SSW D.I and was manufactured in a small series. The experience gained allowed Siemens to concentrate on the development of a fighter of its own design, which, thanks to the designers’ preliminary work, would turn out to be very different from all other German fighters of that epoch.
The principal factor which put limits on any possibility of improving the performance of German fighters during the war was the lack of a powerful engine. The Siemens company had already conducted experiments with bi-rotary engines for some period of time – it was a radical design, in which unlike an ordinary rotary engine the cylinders revolved in the opposite direction to the crankshaft. During tests in an experimental SSW D.I it showed a substantial improvement in all aspects of operation, and Siemens Schuckert Werke decided to build a completely new, more powerful 11-cylinder engine, the Sh.III, fitted to a new airplane.
In October 1917 Siemens demonstrated four new experimental machines to the military, each with different overall dimensions but the same basic type of construction: a classical biplane with a wooden fuselage, with a characteristic circular cross section throughout; and an identical new Sh.III. engine. Among these four highly impressive airplanes was D.7552/17, which soon acquired its official type name of SSW D.III and on the occasion of the First Fighter Competition in January 1918 was ordered in a quantity of 20 machines for the immediate needs of the Front with the purpose of evaluating its potential in combat conditions.
It should be noted that during the Competition the SSW D.III achieved an unprecedented figure in climbing to altitude it attained a ceiling of 6 thousand meters in 21 minutes, when other German fighters needed more than twice as long to do the same. Such an airplane was obviously more than desirable for Germany which increasingly felt the pressure of the air armadas of the Entente in the sky. After successful tests in operational conditions Idflieg placed two additional orders with Siemens Schuckert Werke; at first for 30 SSW D.IIIs, and then for 50 more machines.
In the period from March to May 1918 at least 41 aircraft were delivered to the Front, mainly to the elite squadrons of Jagdgeschwader I and Jagdgeschwader II. A celebrated ace, and commander of JG II, Rudolf Berthold acclaimed the potential of the SSW D.III as “unsurpassed”, especially in the context of its capability as an airplane interceptor. The SSW D.III went extremely well after enemy intruders at extraordinary altitudes of 5000-6000 meters, and Englishmen and Frenchmen often became easy prey for the SSW D.III.
However, the type was very soon plagued by engine related troubles. After a mere 7-8 hours of normal running the Sh.III displayed the signs of cylinder head disintegration, resulting in complete destruction of the engine. Evidently the engine was very demanding as to the quality of its oil and intolerant of synthetic substitutes, during a time when Germany had great difficulty sourcing the castor oil required for aviation use. At the end of May 1918 all SSW D.IIIs were returned from the Front to the factory for repair. In perfecting the engine a major role was played by the firm Rhenania Motorenfabrik AG, and in due course its durability was tested to at least 40 hours of operation without breakdown.
Modified SSW D.IIIs with the improved engine began to return to the Front in July of that year. They were quite different from their predecessor in the characteristic rectangular form of their tail fin; engine cowling much cut away for the sake of improving engine cooling; balanced ailerons; and other less important differences. Taking into consideration that an overwhelming number of fighter squadrons at that time were already re-equipped with the predominant Fokker D.VII, the subsequent operational career of the SSW D.III was confined mainly to the squadrons of the home defense Kestas.
All things considered, the SSW D.III was one of the most significant airplanes of its time. It may not have gained the same great fame as the Fokker D.VII, which was even mentioned in the articles of the Versailles Agreement, but the SSW D.III was marked down by the Inspection Committees of the victor countries as an “airplane of potential threat” to their own forces, and almost all surviving machines, together with the small quantity of SSW D.IVs which had continued to be built after the war, were completely destroyed in 1919.

Performances
Length 8,43m
Wingspan 5,70m
Height 2,80m
Wing area 18,82m²
Empty weight 534kg
Loaded weit 725kg
Speed max 185km/h
Climb to height 1000m 1,45min
Climb to height 6000m 20,30min
Endurance approx.2hours
Engine 1xSiemens Halske Sh.III, 160hp (later 200hp)
Armament 2xLMG 08/15 Spandau

On Remembrance Day in sunny, brisk Vancouver, Ian Bell (fresh from a CBC appearance “On The Coast“) joins Dave to read from Grandpa Mark’s diaries written in the trenches in WW1 as a young Canadian. From the library steps with a flask of scotch, they reflect on the costs and motivations of war, importance of friendship and the ethereal experience of going “over the top” and facing the terror on the other side, plus anecdotes about capturing Germans soldiers and discourse on the importance of personal documentation to pass forward to generations.

Sit awhile for Vimy Ridge Diaries on Remembrance Day – Postcard # 61

Featuring:

Geoff Berner – Excerpts from “Maginot Line” Recorded live at the Biltmore Cabaret, Vancouver, BC, Feb. 28, 2009

Various artists (including piper Dave Ahl) – Recorded live at UBC Remembrance Day Ceremony, Nov. 11, 2009

Ian Bell reading from Grandpa Mark’s diaries

William Markle Pecover – Memory of Vimy Ridge

William Markle Pecover – On Being Bombed in Britain

Photo via CDN Veterans Affairs asks How Will you Remember? – Download Canadian historical war time photo and video packs, organized by theme and era, then remix and share via social networks.

More Remembrance Day

White Poppies for Remembrance – podcast series

John Cairney reads Robert Burns on Remembrance Day – podcast

Remembrance Day Events in Vancouver plus Canadian Campaigns

Remembrance Day posts on Ephemeral Feasthouse

Ian Bell on CBC’s On The Coast [note: Real Audio files]

Wednesday November 11 – To commemorate Remembrance Day a Vancouver man has posted excerpts from his great-grandfather’s wartime journals on to his blog. Ian Bell told Stephen why it’s important to him to remember. Listen to the interview.(runs 7:04)

{Bonus} 50 years ago the Vietnam war began. When the war ended many Americans moved to BC. Woody Carmack was one of them and he attempted to help ex-soldiers deal with post-traumatic stress disorder and other problems. Listen to the interview.(runs 8:53)

More Postcards

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Dave Olson’s Library at Uncleweed.net
Twitter: @uncleweed

Podcast Gear

I use Koss Sterophones, M-Audio MicroTrack II, M-Audio Solo audio interface, Griffin iMic and Sony Microphone – in case you were wondering.

National Theatre – Drury Lane

War Horse is the enchanting stage adaption of Michael Morpurgo’s much loved children’s novel. It tells the story of a horse who in the beginnings of his life is sold at auction to the hapless drunk Magellan, who not wanting to lose face pays a premium price for the part thoroughbred.  His long suffering wife is dismayed as the money spent on the horse was ment for the mortgage, and decides the only way for them to make their money back is to raise the horse and sell it when it’s fully grown.  This job goes to her young son Albert  who soon develops a close bond to the horse and names him Joey.  When Joey is fully grown war is declared and Albert’s father discovers that a high price is being offered for strong horses to join the Calvary and he promptly sells Joey.  Albert is devastated about Joey going to war and although only 16 he lies about his age, joins the army and searches for his long lost friend.  The play then follows the two stories of Joey & Albert fighting through the horror that is World War 1.   The story,  as any story about WW1 is heartbreaking, emphasising the waste of so many young lives, on both sides of the fight; men and animal being worked to exhaustion in nothing but hellish conditions, undernourished and under protected.  All the animals in War Horse are portrayed by puppets; Joey and Topthorn (another horse who Joey fights alongside in the war) are the most impressive and are moved by three puppeteers.  Although the puppeteers are clearly visible when moving the horses, you soon forget they are there and only see a living and breathing animal in front of you.  When an animal dies the puppeteers crawl out from the carcass and walk off stage like a spirit leaving a body.  The heart and soul they put into these animals is incredible, and surely something for everyone to witness.   Have a look at YouTube trailers to see for yourself http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-bni4QqSv4.  Over all the production is out of this world, the story truly heart-warming and the response from the crowd (standing ovation all round) is proof that War Horse wins the hearts of its audience.

[Book] A Crisis of Brilliance, by David Haycock, courtesy of a review in the Guardian:

“The particular cauldron of intensity into which Haycock plunges is the Slade School of Drawing, Painting and Sculpture…  and the students who experience this ‘crisis of brilliance’ – a phrase coined by their bristly, austere professor of drawing, Henry Tonks – are Stanley Spencer, Mark Gertler, CRW Nevinson, Paul Nash and Dora Carrington. All studied at the Slade between 1908 and 1912. Their fate was also decreed by a trial of fire, the first world war, that would define their art for the rest of their lives.

“As their names became known, so the artists were swept into the orbit of avant-garde movements such as Wyndham Lewis’s vorticists, the craft work of Fry’s Omega Gallery, and the ‘Georgian painters’ patronised by the stylish, monocled civil servant and collector Eddie Marsh.

“The war smashed into their lives as well as the old order. Haycock follows the hostilities with powerful economy, while tracing the artists’ own splintered trajectories… Haycock’s narrative of this entangled, war-defined group is so strong that it often has the force of a novel, hard to put down.”

Update: You can download the preface and first chapter [PDF] from the author’s website.

text……..

War People Farming Kill Alpha Ranch Passive
Soldiers, politicians and the Holy Church all declare war to be an abomination and yet two global wars were fought in the last century and many conflicts since, some deliberately escalated. At first glance, it would appear that war is fought for two reasons defense or conquest. If this holds true than every military engagement can be quantified as either defensive or offensive. The problem with attempting to explain every military operation as either defensive or offensive comes with three major issues. The repetitive military mistakes and blunders, successive attempts at defending an un-supply-able position and the full implementation of a physical, psychological and media (PPM) driven campaign of escalation designed to enrage resistance and empower an insurgence.
The third factor of war will be termed escalation and this can be explained as neither defensive nor offensive. At least, not under the current understanding of strategic warfare, so a new mold must be cast and forged to illustrate why escalation is politically executed. A defensive or offensive struggle fits into a rational model of either cultural growth or survival, but escalation of war is not human, or humanely logical. It would be easy to say escalation requires more military arms, supplies and weapons, which it most certainly will, but this is not the only benefit escalation could provide a country with a closed or locked political system.
Here an investigation must be made to uncover if escalation of warfare, repetitive military mistakes, successive attempts at defending an un-supply-able position and the full implementation of a physical, psychological and media (PPM) driven campaign has a motive that can be delineated. All historical cases of escalation appear to place more troops into a definable Kill Zone. Hence, is there a political motive to kill off a countries natural born and military trained warrior population?
War strategy is implemented for three purposes offense, defense and escalation. Executing war policy for the solely purpose of escalation can only be explained to increase arms sales and, or kill off soldiers. Every population produces some natural born warriors; people that are born hunters and others which are passive gatherers. If the political machine does not address the hunters or warriors, they will eventually demand to be included into the political system. This is a major problem for the ruling elite, which is currently implementing a two part good cop, bad cop political pyramid scheme.
The two party system in the United States and throughout most proclaimed democracies feeds off each other in a partnership design to sell the public a government but to completely control the system and economically repress the population. The thing about good cop, bad cop politics is you end up with no cop at all, no justice and no representation. However this is the true design and function of the current two party political system. The group that would challenge this system are the hunters, natural born warriors or fighters, so placing them into a military Kill Zone might be a political method to maintain control over the society. Therefore kill alpha and farm passive.
Here and now we will cover repeated, intentional military blunders, which will include the recurring implementation of the classic “Göring air bridge”. In addition there exists a need to explain the physical, psychological and media (PPM) driven campaigns, which escalate war. The Iraq Abu Ghraib prison pictures are a good example to a PPM campaign and the results of such an event need to be scrutinized. Note to the world, nothing gets out of a military prison unless it is released by the Red Cross/Crescent or as an organized planned media campaign. And, the pictures from Abu Ghraib prison can only be explained through a policy of escalation.
The Creation of the World of Sheeple

Escalation of military war is a strategic political solution to address the problem of farming its population. What essentially is taking place is the weeding out of the bad eggs, the strong alpha population, so the spineless, weak-willed lower class can be economically depressed. This is not a final solution but a continual solution to a problem that needs to be addressed for each successive generation. The system is empowered by the controlling elite and the corruptible, justified by the media and heroized by bloodless John Wayne type movies.
Every society produces four classes of people a wealthy ruling elite class, determined to maintain control. Next, a small educated group that empowers the ruling elite and provides substandard education and a phony media, twisted with Homeric and Sacrificial messages. The last two classes of people come from the main population and include the sheeple slave working class and warriors. War is designed, negotiated and implemented with the sole purpose of purging the warrior class, the ones who would, and will challenge the ruling elite for part ownership in the government. The following justification will be based on physical evidence. Wars and conflicts will be researched to confirm that the world’s political systems maintain control through Genocide, intentionally farming a distinct population class.
Example 1 WWI

World War I occurred between 1914 and 1918 and was sold as the War to End All Wars. The event involved a global military conflict that entangled the majority of the world’s largest political powers. The war assembled into two opposing alliances the Allied Triple Entente and the Triple Alliance. More than 70 million military personnel were mobilized in the largest wars in recorded history. The main opponents descended into a state of total war, thrusting their entire scientific and industrial capabilities into the war effort. More than 15 million people were killed, making it one of the deadliest conflicts in history.
At the end of WWI just one hour from the ceasefire the USA and British military sent waves of troops on frontal assaults of fortified German machine gun posts entrenched in the high ground or separated by cold rivers. The official number of dead of the final day cannot be trusted but are listed as 3,000 Americans and 2,000 British Common Wealth soldiers. These warriors died in the last hours of WWI even though every commander knew the war would be over that day. In fact one account has German soldiers that were manning the machine guns, pleading with the attacking Allied Powers soldiers to stop, for the war is about to end.
“The Last Day of World War One” was presented as a Timewatch series by the BBC where Michael Edward Palin tells the story of how the First World War ends and covers the final casualties. At 5:10 am 11th, 11, 1918 the two parties signed the Armistead and the news was sent around the world; hostilities would cease at 11:00 am.
Michael Palin explains that nearly 11,000 soldiers died that final day before the 11am Armistice. This number does not include the deaths caused that day from received injuries. World War One had a whole generation of men just disappearing, the numbers are shocking, the cemeteries in northern France unbearably moving. The soldiers in France are buried in rank and file, and walking between the graves, provides a feeling of being in the middle of a dead army.
http://rationalrevolution.net/articles/casualties_of_war.htm

The deaths which occurred on the last days of World War One cannot be explained as having an offensive or defensive aim. Here an unnecessary escalation of war can be unveiled. Although, it cannot be attributed to satisfying a motive to exclusively increase military arms sales. The only way to explain sending 11,000 men to their deaths, for no reason on the last day, final hour and up to the last minutes of World War One is to purge the population of its trained and battle hardened warriors. Following WWI the American government was challenged by the surviving veterans, which camped on the DC State Capital in tent cities and demanded payment of a promised war bonus. It appears now that the American and British governments had made a correlation between who will cause them future problems and who needs to be physically eliminated. The following century continued on the same course, a future that manipulated created wars as a tool so the ruling elite and corruptible can sustain, economic and political control.
Example 2 WWII

World War II was a grave yard for the warrior population and took place over a 6 year period of 1939 to 1945. WWII, or the Second World War was a global military conflict which tangled most of the world’s nations; including all of the great powers. It was organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allied and the Axis powers. The war mobilized over 100 million military personnel, assembling the most widespread war in human history. The major participants positioned their entire economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities to service the war effort, in a state of “total war”. WWII erased over seventy million people, whom the majorities were civilians, making this war the deadliest conflict in human history.
To scrutinize the entire conflict of WWII in one work is impossible but military tactics were created and repeated over the remaining century and beyond. The Battle of Stalingrad was completely revolutionary and would define future military strategy. In the Battle of Stalingrad, Adolf Hitler declared the German army would never leave the city. Later Soviets encircled Stalingrad and the head of the Luftwaffe, Hermann Göring insured he could supply the Sixth Army with an “air bridge”. This air supply support system the “Göring air bridge” would allow the Germans in the city to fight on while a relief force was assembled.
The Sixth Army was the largest army unit in the world and almost twice as large as a regular German army unit, it should have been clear that supplying them by air was futile. The only way any military intelligence unit would suggest the implementation of a “Göring air bridge” would be with the sole purpose of creating a Kill Zone, which would entrench their own soldiers and render them politically obsolete. On February 2, 1943 Stalingrad ended with the surrender of the German Sixth Army. The bell tolls and 478,741 Soviet and German warriors were killed or were missing in action.
Example 3 Vietnam the First Indochina War “Viva la France”

The French became involved in a Vietnam War between 1946, until 1954 attempting to control their Indochinese colonies and trade. The French defense plan involved a forward operating base “FOB” called Dien Bien Phu, placed deep in the hills of northwestern Vietnam. The French constructed the base in the center of an open plain surrounded by mountains on all sides. Dien Bien Phu, could not be supplied by ground transport and a “Göring air bridge” was again resurrected.
The French troops dug into Dien Bien Phu with fortified trenches, reminiscent of World War I warfare. The Vietnamese ,Viet Minh rained anti-aircraft fire on the air field cutting the supply lines provided by the “Göring air bridge”. Viet Minh artillery made the FOB a Kill Zone designed for the sole reason to eliminate the warriors from the French society. After a two-month siege, the garrison was captured and on May 7, 1954 the French surrendered.
The French involvement in Vietnam had very little to do with French national soldiers. Most of the hard field war was fought by the French Foreign Legion which at that time included an extremely large contingency of crack SS troops. These ardent Nazi’s had no place to go or hide in the world at the end of WWII and joined in droves into the French Foreign Legion. The French were never planning on granting these X-Nazi’s French citizenship on completion of their service to the Legion, and devised a plan to exterminate this group.
The plan involved the standard FOB Kill Zone which could only be supplied by air shipments, hence the resurrection of the classic “Göring air bridge” transpired. This strategy was taken right out of the pages of the Battle of Stalingrad and the operation was replicated on the failed German campaign. To make the FOB completely un-defendable it was placed in a open valley surrounded by mountains on all sides. This let the Viet Minh dig into the mountains and shower artillery on the French forces.
Example 4 Vietnam the Second Indochina War “Born in the USA”

The United States became involved in Vietnam from 1959 to 1975 following the French withdrawal. Fourteen years later during 1968, at the height of the American Vietnam War, the USA military brass recreates Dien Bien Phu, along with the classical “Göring air bridge”. The name of the US Marine Corps (forward operating base) FOB is Khe Sanh. At the FOB Khe Sanh, a number of similarities between Stalingrad and Dien Bien Phu can be made. Although the Americans did hold some mountain positions, the high ground bases were sporadic, lightly defended and eventually over run. The primary Khe Sanh base, just like the French was positioned in an open valley surrounded by mountains on all sides with a central airfield.
Khe Sanh became encircled with fortified trenches, reminiscent of the World War I warfare. Together Stalingrad, Dien Bien Phu and now Khe Sanh could all not be supplied by the ground transport. The timeless “Göring air bridge” failed due to antiaircraft fire and the landing zone at Khe Sanh became littered with crashed aircrafts. Artillery hailed down and Khe Sanh predicatively developed into a Kill Zone, designed to wash the American population of any natural political leaders or opponents.
The only difference between Stalingrad, Dien Bien Phu and Khe Sanh is that the Americans military Brass claim to have won the battle, as in a victory. In addition the American Military provides some statistics to show they did not make the same mistakes. Here is one of the official military justifications, “Khe Sanh was much closer to its supply base than for Dien Bien Phu”.
Another official military rationalization states that “at Khe Sanh, the Americans held the high ground, and their artillery forced the Vietnamese to use their artillery from a much greater distance”. These skewed political explanations fail to mention that the fourteen year arms race, the Cold War provided the Vietnamese with better artillery, which could be dug in on any mountain ridge 10 or even 20 miles away. One forward spotter with an invention called a portable radio could easily guide or walk the Vietnamese artillery right down the marines’ throats.
The PPM (physical, psychological and media) campaign in Vietnam was also implemented by using a small military structure called a platoon. The classic USA army Platoon in design was applied to escalate the Vietnam confrontation and psychologically empower the resistance. The Platoon is a small group of young, vicious and murderous gang of rapists and killers sent out with no leadership to eke out a level of revenge for the loss of their fellow soldiers, their O’ my brothers.
What homicidal actions these Platoons performed were designed at the political leadership level to not police the population but empower and motivate the resistance. In the Old Testament following a battle the soldiers were never permitted back into their village until a rest period of up to a week. This is a psychological resting period because sending soldiers into a battle and then into villages is only performed to escalate a conflict.
The Vietnam War was driven by the media and for the first time actual engagements were experienced firsthand by American families huddled around their dinner tables and self absorbed by their televisions. It could be said that the American families themselves became so interested in tracking the progress of the war it became a drama, with the war playing out as a soap opera. From the H3onE3 work, hearing of a sacrifice or martyrdom was determined as a prim evil human instinct. Under human psychological development hearing of a sacrifice is comforting because it insured at a primitive level, they were not the victim
To add further insult to injured and disfigured soldiers, a grass roots media campaign was intentionally implemented that vilified the returning Vietnam troops. Soldiers returned to jeers, taunts and spitting at the airports and on public streets. CBS Evening News reported in the 1970’s events of incidences that soldiers were attacked and spit on at the airports. The seemingly homebrewed hippie, socialist, student movement started as a grass roots campaign, which was commandeered by the social elite and utilized to render the returning Vietnam soldiers obsolete. The arriving soldiers found themselves demoralized both physically and psychologically. This was the tool used to insure the soldiers would never organize into a political front, such as the WWI soldiers camping on the State capital.
Example 5 Afghanistan

Afghanistan is a region with a harsh environment maintaining bad agricultural lands, mountains and high deserts. Any region with extremely harsh ecological conditions will be home to a brutal, unlawful and nearly inhumane population subsiding off what can be stolen from each other. These are the bands of warlords. Religions subsisting in such harsh conditions maintain an extremely radical interpretation of scripture, and tend to have an external fundamental component of religious sacrifice.
Unlike Christianity which internalized its sacrificial elements the Muslim religion is propagated by externalizing its sacrificial component. In the Koran the external form of sacrifice is called Jihad. Thus a far more potent tool is built to propagate Islam, than the internal sacrificial element is in Linear Western Religion. Western religion provides its god as sacrifices, which is an internal form of sacrifice. This method is not “as”, an attractive growth mechanism and in fact hardly believable. Since convert or die, is at the fundamental theology of the Muslim sacrificial element, in time following the continual course, all shall be converted. The sacrificial element built into the Muslim religion is that powerful, that potent and well constructed.
Afghanistan British Colonialism and Russian Stupidity

The British attempted three times to colonize Afghanistan, all three failed. Dr William Brydon was the sole survivor of First Anglo-Afghan War, the invading British army consisted of 16,500 people, 4,500 military personnel, and over 12,000 civilian camp followers. Safe passage was granted to the British as they retreated through snowbound mountain passes. The Ghilzai warriors reneged and the withdrawing British were attacked transiting the gorges and mountain peaks along the Kabul River between Kabul and Gandama. The British were finally massacred at the Gandamak pass before reaching the besieged garrison at Jalalabad. Dr Williams Brydon fled on a horse and never looked back, surviving the account and memorialized in the Elizabeth Butler painting.
The First Anglo-Afghan War lasted from 1839 to 1842. It was one of the first major conflicts during the Great Game, the 19th century competition for power and influence in Central Asia between Great Britain and Russia. In 1878, the British invaded again, beginning the Second Anglo-Afghan War. In the late 19th century, Afghanistan became a buffer state in “The Great Game” played between the British Indian kingdom and Russian Empire. On August 19, 1919, following the third Anglo-Afghan war, the country regained full independence from the United Kingdom over its foreign affairs. The conclusion was Afghanistan had just gained a reputation as a graveyard for foreign armies.
On December 24, 1979 over 100,000 Soviet troops took part in the invasion of Afghanistan backed by another one hundred thousand members of the Afghan Parcham faction militia. The current ruler Amin was killed and replaced by Babrak Karmal. Soviet occupation of Afghanistan was part of the Cold War strategy, the United States responded by arming and supporting the Afghan mujahideen. U.S. support began during the Carter administration, but increased substantially during the Reagan regime, in which it became a centerpiece of the so-called Reagan Doctrine. The Soviet occupation resulted in the deaths of between six hundred thousand to 2 million Afghan civilians. Soviets withdrew in 1989.
911 the Two Towers and the Two Conspiracies

The 911 incident is no different than Pearl Harbor pre-empt to WWII or the sinking of the Lusitnia in 1915 the pre-cursor to WWI. To commit hundreds of thousands of soldiers to war requires a media campaign and an epic event seems to serve a higher purpose. Leading up to the 911 attack on the world trade center a few signed appeared that the world’s conflicts had brewed an extremely radical and organized religious element. This means that the extremely harsh ecological conditions of the Middle East which will naturally produce a brutal, nearly inhumane population, is now well organized and technologically advanced. Thanks to the conflicts forged during the Cold War conflicts and Reagan Doctrine.
In turn both the hard natural conditions along with the war fabricated an extremely outward progression of the Islamic religion with its fundamental external component of saintly sacrifice. Loss of family, friends, brothers and loved ones from the Afghan cold war conflict now organized into an ideological struggle with defined enemies throughout the world. The organized and well funded group named Al-Qaeda now targeted both Russia and the Linear Western Religious Alliance.
Chronicle to the Rise of Terrorism: External Sacrifice

- 1992 first Al-Qaeda’s terrorist attack, two bombs detonated in Aden, Yemen. – 1992 Israeli Embassy destroyed in Buenos Aires. – 1993, Ramzi Yousef used a truck bomb to attack the World Trade Center in New York City. – 1994 A small bomb explodes on board Philippine Airlines flight 434. Authorities found out Ramzi Yousef planted the bomb as a test for future intended terrorist attacks. – 1995 Bombing of military compound in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. – 1996 Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia. – 1997 Islamic terrorists attack tourists in Luxor, Egypt. – 1998 Two United States embassies in East African, Tanzania and Kenya carried out simultaneously. – 1999 Russian apartment bombings lead Russia into the Second Chechen War. – 2000 Al-Qaeda militants in Yemen bombed the missile destroyer U.S.S. Cole. – 2000 Jordan bombing plot of four sites uncovered. – 2000 Ahmed Ressam, plot to bomb Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). – 2000 Christmas Eve, Indonesia terrorist attack by Al Qaeda involving coordinated bombs. – 2000 Rizal Day, multiple bombings around Manila in the Philippines. – 2000 German police foil plot to attack a cathedral in Strasbourg, France. – Sept 11, 2001 A series of coordinated Al-Qaeda suicide attacks took place. Terrorists hijacked four commercial passenger jet airliners. The hijackers intentionally crashed two of the airliners into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City. The hijackers crashed a third airliner into the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia. The fourth plane crashed into a field near Shanksville in rural Pennsylvania.
http://www.knowledgerush.com/kr/encyclopedia/List_of_terrorist_

attacks/

Considering the growing outward progression of an external sacrificial religious movement prior to September 11, 2001 attacks, a stronger security system should have been initiated at airports. In fact, the opposite occurred, less spending for airport security was mandated. Half of all the x-ray and metal detecting equipment in the airports was broken. The staff which managed the security at the airports was paid by the lowest bidding contractor. Most airport security workers received a handsome minimum wage.
Two conspiracies occurred around the 911 events. The first designed into the USA infrastructure, airport security and lack of controlled immigration. The second conspiracy can be located in the 911 grassroots media campaign that swanked a long list of completely false conspiracies. This was performed for the sole purpose of hiding the structural deficiencies. These structural failings replicated so closely, the WWII Pearl Harbor incident that they had to be covered and hidden by a homebrewed yellow journalism campaign.
This means that the 911 media campaign was organized, led and financed by clandestine government leadership designed to spam the worlds open media. The internet was utilized and pirated to hide the structural similarities between 911 and Pearl Harbor. The USA government was supported by a yellow media journalism campaign, which brewed out of church pews. The commercial media fed their fire and financing soon followed the grassroots yellow journalists, which than produced followers outside the church organizations. The original 911 conspirators groups met at church spaces and connected funding can all be traced back to churches.
USA in Afghanistan

Following the September 11 2001 attacks the United States launched Operation Enduring Freedom, a military campaign to destroy the Al-Qaeda terrorist training camps inside Afghanistan. The U.S. military threatened to overthrow the Taliban government for refusing to hand over Osama bin Laden and several Al-Qaeda members. The U.S. made a common cause agreement with the Northern Alliance, a militia still operating in Afghanistan.
The United States government, military strategists and the commercial media fully purged of any historical record, suffering from amnesia, unable to remember the British attempt at imperialism, the soviet crack at conquest, now sends the American army into the Killing Zone of Afghanistan; the graveyard of many foreign armies. Exactly how does a military with no friendly border or coast transport troops and supplies into the mountainous desolated region of Afghanistan, yeap you got it, a “Göring air bridge” with the entire country being a FOB and natural Kill Zone. The classic “Göring air bridge” was established to now supply and fight an entire war.
WestPoint and all military colleges certainly must teach the fundamental Nazi strategy to propagate the death of its own natural borne warrior class. The only group with any backbone willing to physically challenge the ruling political control continues to be sent into Kill Zones and forward airbases for their personal destruction. The connection between who controls these puppet strings goes deep into the dark pits of Fraternal and Masonic societies which Göring materializes as a chief architect.
Example 6 Iraq War

The Iraq war was also turned into a warrior Kill Zone but utilized a new method to spiral up the conflict and cut off any possible withdrawal plan. To escalate the war and insurgence, a media driven psychological campaign was utilized. Here the USA military arranged a media campaign which released pictures of torture, homosexual rap and clinical atrocities of the Iraq civilian population. Essentially nothing escapes a military prison unless it is intended to be released as a direct political policy.
The most interesting element of the Abu Ghraib prison torture pictures can be found in the actual pictures. The positions the prisoners were posed in were far more advanced and explicit then the guards were educated enough to produce. If anything, here is the proof that the prison guards were led by a extremely sophisticated intelligence operation and not by a small group of ruffians. A few pictures even demonstrated Muslim men assuming the classical crucifixion pose, reminiscent of the Jesus Christ Passion story. The reaction from the Muslim world was predictable.
So let’s examine the Abu Ghraib prison torture pictures for their sophisticated elements. Multiple pictures of prisoners were photographed with them assuming position or poses of extreme importance, one being a pyramid and the other an out stretched eagle / Christ. These structural positions were intended to represent and replicate the United States great seal, which can be found on the back of the one dollar bill. The pyramid structure was designed to represent the Freemason emblem and their handily work. This being the Temple of Solomon square symbol of the Pi circle secret, here utilized to repress the free minded educated population. The eagle posture symbolized the manifestation of Zeus and that the Iraqi people have now had their Zeus, crucified in the Christian style.
The Abu Ghraib prison pictures were staged and the young uneducated, enlisted soldiers were tossed into the photos to appear as participants and ring leaders. The commissioned soldiers were simple puppets used as ponds to hold the reigns and responsibilities of increasing the conflict. The media blast of the Abu Ghraib photos caused an escalation of the Iraqi war by empowering the resistance.This brought soldiers and supplies from throughout the Muslim world to fight a guerrilla war.
The photos were taken using a camera owned by Cpl. Charles A. Graner . On January 2004, Specialist Joseph Darby handed over horrific images of detainee abuse to the Army’s Criminal Investigation Command (CID). The next day, the Army launched a phony criminal investigation with a directive to only interview to low hanging fruit on the tree. No commanding officers from the prison were to be interviewed. Three and a half months later, CBS News and the New Yorker published the photos and stories that introduced the world to devastating scenes of torture and suffering inside the decrepit prison.
The abu ghraib prison photos caused perhaps the worst US public relations disaster since the invasion of Iraq. The published photos in 2004 damaged the image of the United States as it fought an escalating war against insurgents in Iraq and created a deep resentment throughout the Muslim world. The photos caused a rapid escalation of the conflict. Prior to the release of photos February 2004, 19 servicemen were named dead and reports of 150 wounded, future pull out seemed possible. Following the media hype and frenzy, by April the number of deaths jumped to 136 with 1214 severely wounded. The death and casualty rate has remained high ever since.
Example 7 French revolution

Now an understanding has been constructed to the reason why war is implemented, here we can board the time machine yet again and explain the French Revolution. The French Revolution was implemented to enlist the warriors from the world’s poor, serf, sheeple population and coerce’ them into a Kill Zone. Napoleon Bonaparte was merely a chess pond, a tool used as a puzzle piece to clean and clear the natural warriors from society throughout Europe.
Bonaparte was given victory after victory until all the natural born warriors of Europe were conscribed, enlisted and lumped into one potato sack. This potato sack was then driven past the supply lines and was annihilated in the desolate plains of Russia. What potatoes fell out of the Russian campaign were again, given victory after victory and marched up a steep hillcrest into a Kill Zone forged at the Battle of Waterloo. This was the puppet Napoleons last struggle and it ended in 1815, June 18th.
The American Civil War

Slavery is a horrific and demoralizing event in American history but here we must talk about it in a functional aspect detached from personal feelings. Only here will you find the Civil war to be a completely unnecessary event because the industrial revolution was very close to ending the need for a large untrained labor force. In fact more American Africans slaves died fighting, during the war than would have otherwise being freed by the industrial Revolution. Although, a slave should have every right to fight for their freedom and this can only be commended, historically we will view this war as unnaturally created
When the American Civil war occurred the Cotton Gin had already been invented and many other inventions that mechanized farming, by default eliminated any need for slavery. The modern cotton gin was created by the American inventor Eli Whitney in 1793 to mechanize the cleaning of cotton. The invention was granted a patent on March 14, 1794. The gin caused a massive growth in the production of cotton in the American South. Whereas formerly this work required a large labor source to hand clean and separate the fiber from the seeds. The cotton gin revolutionized the process and eliminated the need of a large worker force.
On some farms slaves were already wielding tubes which sucked cotton bolls off the plants making the laborious task of picking obsolete. This sort of machine had been patented since 1859 with tentacle like hoses that extended from a single vacuum tank, it look rather like an octopus.
Slavery was a tool used by the controlling elite at the beginning of the industrial revolution to weed out the hunters and warriors from both the black, tan, red and white population. The system used a yellow journalistic media campaign to drive up strife, separation and conflict between the North and South. This was the ground work for the controlling elite to draw the population’s swords into a long war. The term yellow journalism was invented during this time period and was the tool used to start and continue the war.Slavery as inhuman or human as it is, was a tool used to separate the sides and draw warriors into battle. These warriors lined up in the Napoleonic row, upon row of ducks and they eliminated themselves from political significance. Warriors tend to use force and not their intellect to understand, negotiate and solve issues. They grab first at the guns and the survivor’s communicate their accounts to pen and paper. It is their one weakness, their cross placed above their heads to bear for a life time. In the eyes of the world a history glorified by war is easier to justify than outright Genocide.
Now the situation has been made nice and crystal clear and determined that genocidal social conditioning has been forced on the world’s population through each successive generation, without doubt. The Great finale, overall climax, prophecy or Revelation has still yet to be played out. The H2onE2 and H3onE3 labor strikes remorselessly at illuminating the human / humane impasse but, “When a man cannot choose correctly right from wrong, he ceases to be a man.”

Photographed by drakegoodman

Undated and postally unused. An elaborate array of wires extend out of this communications hut and would work their way to units closer to the frontline.

These essential installations were kept a comparatively safe distance from the fighting.

– License

I have seen some great theatre in my time.

• King Lear (Shakespeare) at Stratford about fifteen years ago (although after two hours I was wishing Lear would just finish himself off and stop philosophising aloud).
• The Resistable Rise of Arturo Ui (Brecht) at the Contact Theatre in Manchester in 1974 when I went with my sixth-form German group and our Assistentin – who was left in tears. The play (about the rise of Hitler) ended with the stage blacked out between two huge Nazi flags and photos of brutality and the concentration camps projected onto a small screen – followed by the actor who played Ui/Hitler telling the audience (words to the effect that) Hitler may be dead, but his bastard offspring are not. No one could speak as we left the theatre at Manchester University.
• Mamma Mia (!) – just to be the only bloke in an audience of 20-something women laughing and singing our way through the ridiculous plot and wonderfully banal Abba songs.

But last night beat the lot. I had seen the National Theatre’s publicity for Michael Morpurgo’s play – set in the context of the First World War – when it was on at the National Theatre on London’s South Bank, but I never had the opportunity to go. Last night, after dinner with some good friends, we put that right.

Morpurgo wrote the story for children, seeing the war through the eyes of horses who don’t choose which side they are on. The synopsis of the play tells the following story:

At the outbreak of World War One, Joey, young Albert’s beloved horse, is sold to the cavalry and shipped to France.  He’s soon caught up in enemy fire and fate takes him on an extraordinary odyssey, serving on both sides before finding himself alone and in no man’s land.  But Albert cannot forget Joey and, still not old enough to enlist, he embarks on a treacherous mission to find him and bring him home.

It sounds almost silly. But it is the most engaging, emotionally powerful and arresting production I have ever seen in a lifetime of theatre-going.

The whole theatre is used – with actors standing among, coming out of and running though/into the audience – drawing us into the action rather than leaving us as spectators of someone else’s drama. The sound and light are superb and the projection of ’scrap book’ images above the stage is powerfully evocative. The horses are operated by teams of puppeteers, but you soon see them as real. They are astonishingly life-like in their movement and behaviour – and it is hard to imagine what research, engineering and work went in to making them work so effectively. The acting was superb and when the explosion that closed the first half ripped through the auditorium, I was sitting on the edge of my seat, body tense and emotions shredded.

Anyone who has read the First World War poets such as Wilfred Owen, Siegfried Sassoon and Rupert Brooke will come to this play already sensitised to the horror and humanity-wrenching futility of war. But Morpurgo has brought to the familiar narratives a new perspective – seeing the action and cost through the experience of an animal rather than a partisan human being.

Until last night I had no idea that (according to the programme notes) in the 10% of France invaded and devastated by 1918 (from pre-War figures) the number of cattle and draft oxen had reduced from 892,000 to just 58,000; horses and mules from 407,000 to 32,000; sheep and goats from 949,000 to 25,000; and pigs from 356,000 to 25,000. In the same area 293,039 houses were destroyed, 435,961 houses seriously damaged, 436 million cubic yards of trenches and shell holes had to be filled, 448 million yards of barbed wire removed, and so on.

One million horses were taken to France from Britain. Only 62,000 returned.

If the opportunity arises to see this production (currently at the New London Theatre in Drury Lane), don’t miss it. It is stunning at every level.

If the Armistice Day commemorations and the documentaries about The Great War have given you an appetite for more, then you might be interested in this book.

It is a fictionalised autobiography of the war poet Siegfried Sassoon’s experiences in the trenches during 1916 and 1917. The main character George Sherston is Sassoon himself and the action starts at the Army School and goes on to describe the characters and actions along the way.

Sassoon became disillussioned with the war and he ended up being sent to Craiglockhart Hospital in Edinburgh, mainly because the poet Robert Graves (David Cromlach in the book) had managed to convince the authorities that Sassoon had shell shock.

It’s a great read if you are into the First World War. However, I was always aware that if Sassoon hadn’t been born into a very wealthy family with influential connections, he would have been put up against a post and shot.

For more information go to the online Sassoon manuscripts which I reached via this Guardian article.

Another early start on the 10th as we tried to get out of Lens and head north (and across the border) to Ypres. Getting out of Lens wasn’t particularly easy or pleasant…but we got there in the end and headed out into the country, which, thankfully was largely flat. We passed through some sites of famous battles: Neuve Chapelle, Aubers, Fromelles, Ploegsteert, Messines (with a most wonderful Irish memorial on top of the ridge) and Wijtschate..the nearer we got to Ypres, the more memorials and the more cemeteries we passed..a true sign of the horror of the 3 huge battles that were fought here during the Great War.

Just outside la Basee, Steve got a puncture, but thankfully it was a quick fix…my bike seemed to be doing ok and I was doing my best to nurse it through these final couple of days. However a couple of miles down the road I also got a puncture…another easy fix hopefully but it was not to be. My tyre kept going down and I kept pumping it up – I had to keep as much air in the tyre as possible to keep the pressure of the badly damaged rim (remember the lack of spokes…) It lasted until a couple of miles outside of Ypres but I got another puncture…

We walked the last couple of miles into the main town. Ypres itself is a wonderful place…it is similar to Verdun in some respects with its large walls and ramparts.. The cloth hall is one of the most impressive buildings I have ever seen, especially as it was largely destroyed by artillery fire. Walking through Ypres to the north we passed through the Menin Gate Memorial to the Missing - what an amazing piece of architecture. With almost 55,000 names of soldiers who fought and died on the Ypres battlefields but do not have a know grave it is as sad as it is breathtaking.

Designed by Sir Reginald Blomfield, this memorial combines the architectural images of a classical victory arch and a mausoleum and it contains, inside and out, huge panels into which are carved the names of the 54,896 officers and men of the commonwealth forces who died in the Ypres Salient area and who have no known graves. This figure, however, does not represent all of the missing from this area. It was found that the Menin Gate, immense though it is, was not large enough to hold the names of all the missing. The names recorded on the gate’s panels are those of men who died in the area between the outbreak of the war in 1914 and 15th August, 1917. The names of a further 34,984 of the missing – those who died between 16th August, 1917 and the end of the war, are recorded on carved panels at Tyne Cot Cemetery, on the slopes just below Passchendaele.

The Menin Gate is not a memorial tucked away in some remote part of the town, remembered now and then. The Menin Road is still an important thoroughfare and traffic and pedestrians pass under the gate as part of the daily life of Ypres. In this aspect alone, Remembrance is kept very much alive in Ypres, but there is more.

Every night of the year, without exception, policemen close the road to traffic at 8.00 p.m. and then stand at the salute while buglers from the Ypres Fire Brigade play “The Last Post”. This happens whatever the weather and there is always someone there to watch. The people living near the Menin Gate often open their doors and stand on their doorsteps to join in this daily act of Remembrance in honour of the young and brave who came from all over the world to die in the defence of their town.

Our hotel was not in Ypres ( I couldnt get a room for lest than 200 quid – something to do with Remembrance Day!) but in Menen, which for me was great because it meant an opportunity to cycle down the infamous Menin Road via Hellfire Corner and past the Hooge Crater. We continued to walk (I had a puncture remember) as we thought the hotel wasnt too far out of Ypres, but it soon turned out it was almost 10 miles, so we stopped and tried yet again some emergency puncture repair action on my poor old wheel. To say it was a pain in the arse is a huge understatement. The design of my back wheel makes getting the tyre back on after a repair a real mission – so much so that in the course of trying to lever the tyre onto the rim caused more punctures…twice. And broke 2 plastic tyre levers. Tensions and tempers were rising but the damn wheel was not going to beat us – we finally got the wheel back on and flew down the menin road to our hotel. It was a Best Western and probably the nicest hotel we had stayed at on the trip..

Next morning (11th) we rose early and rode back down the Menin Road to Ypres. We arrived at 10am and there was already a crowd gathering at the Menin Gate. We were in good time though and made sure we got good positions. The Remembrance Ceremony was fantastic with the Last Post being played at 11am followed by a minute silence. Standing in the shadows of that great memorial, hearing the haunting tunes of the last post, and seeing the huge wreaths being laid by various dignatories of the UK and the Commenwealth was an amazing, humbling, emotional experience…we had done it. We had cycled the line and got to Ypres for Remembrance Day…

For The Fallen (Laurence Binyon)
With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children,
England mourns for her dead across the sea.
Flesh of her flesh they were, spirit of her spirit,
Fallen in the cause of the free.

Solemn the drums thrill; Death august and royal
Sings sorrow up into immortal spheres,
There is music in the midst of desolation
And a glory that shines upon our tears.

They went with songs to the battle, they were young,
Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted;
They fell with their faces to the foe.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years contemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

They mingle not with their laughing comrades again;
They sit no more at familiar tables of home;
They have no lot in our labour of the day-time;
They sleep beyond England’s foam.

But where our desires are and our hopes profound,
Felt as a well-spring that is hidden from sight,
To the innermost heart of their own land they are known
As the stars are known to the Night;

As the stars that shall be bright when we are dust,
Moving in marches upon the heavenly plain;
As the stars that are starry in the time of our darkness,
To the end, to the end, they remain.

Yesterday was Armistice Day and I posted a famous poem to commemorate the day. I also have this pic I want to post. This is the tomb of Marshal Foch in the same building as Napoleon’s Tomb in Paris at the Military Museum there. I actually found this tomb very moving. More so than Napoleon’s really and I really like this pic.

White Poppy

Well, I couldn’t very well have remembrance day go by without writing something about my military ancestors, so here goes

Charles Farquharson Barclay, youngest brother of my great-grandmother, a sapper with the Royal Engineers, died aged 21 on 26th April 1918.  ”Charlie” was very much a family favourite, and his loss was deeply felt within the family.  He was burried in Aire Communal Cemetary, although his parents gravestone in Springbank Cemetary, Aberdeen, also gives tribute to him.

His older brother, James “Jim” / “Jimmy” Barclay survived him.  James had been in the army for many years prior to the outbreak of the first world war with the Royal Scot’s Greys.  Despite a love of music, after his war-time experiences he would not listen to music with links to war, switching it off immediately.  The whole mood of the room would change in an instant.

Carlos Alick Souter, brother of my great-grandmother Eliza Mary Souter, was a private with the Gordon Highlanders when he was killed, aged just 24, on the 12th April 1917.  He is burried at Aubigny Communal Cemetary, although as with Charles his parents too paid tribute to him on their own gravestone.  He is also listed on the Alford war memorial.

Henry Geddes, details currently uncertain but believe that this is his page on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website, although more needs to be done to confirm this.

But let’s not forget that remembrance day is not just about the world wars, as horrific as they were, its scope is far wider than that.

Kenneth Murray, missing, presumed dead, Korea April 1951.  To this day there are some relatives who hope they may get to find out what happend to him.  He was my great-uncle (through my grandfather’s side).  His parents’ gravestone in Alford gives tribute to him.

Whenever I go to a cemetary ancestor-hunting, I tend to find myself cleaning up the gravestones and leaving some flowers.  When one fell off whilst I was in Alford, I decided to leave it at the war memorial.

The picture at the top of this post may be of interest to some people.  I have always been very much in favour of non-violence, but through my genealogical research I have seen for myself how much pain war leaves for families many generations and many decades on.  I firmly believe that the only proper response to fully acknowledge the sacrifice of these individuals and the suffering of their families is to say never again.  That is the message the white poppy sends out for me.

(I also have a purple poppy, but for completely different reasons, so I shan’t start on that here!)

Alford war memorial with Carlos Alick Souter listed