103 Years Ago

Contextualising a certain short film

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/archive/first-world-war/article4538855.ece 

Fall of Osowiec reported The German main headquarters state that, aIthough no definite figures of the booty taken at the fall of Kovno are yet to hand, the number of prisoners is more than 20,000. More than 600 cannon were captured, many of which are modern heavy ones
Another Russian fortress is reported to have fallen into the hands of the Germans. The announcement is made from Berlin that Osowiec, has been occupied by the troops under General von Eichhorn after it had been evacuated by the Russians. There is as yet no confirmation of the event from Petrograd. Osowiec, though it ranked only as a minor fortress has, on three occasions at least, played a distinguished part in checking previous German invasions of Poland. Situated on the Bobr, with Augustowo to the north and Bielsk to the south, it defended the only good passage across the swampy valley of marshes through which the river flows.

THE GERMAN CLAIM.
Berlin, Aug 23. German official report: Marshal von Hindenburg’s Army. The troops under General von Eichhorn are further advancing east and south of Kovno. On the Bobr we occupied the fortress of Osowiec, which was evacuated by the Russians. North and south of Tykocin successful fighting took place. We captured Tykecin, taking 1,200 prisoners, among them 11 officers. Seven machine-guns also fell into our hands.
[The Wireless Press version of the communique gives the number of machine-guns captured as 77. It adds that “desperate Russian counter-attacks east of Bielsk failed, with very considerable losses to the enemy. We advanced south of this town.”]
ARMY GROUP OF MARSHAL VON MACKENSEN. The enemy put up a tenacious resistance between Razna and the Bug. An attack across the Bug above the Pulwa sector is progressing. Before Brest Litowsk the situation is unchanged. On both sides of the Lakes of Switjas and near Piszcza, east of Wlodawa, the enemy was defeated yesterday and driven north-eastwards. Reuter.
The Wireless Press reports the following from Berlin in addition to the above: The Army of Prince Leopold of Bavaria. Accompanied by stubborn fighting this Army group has crossed the Kleszczele-Razna line and is engaged in further favourable attacks. Three thousand and fifty prisoners were taken and 16 machine guns captured.
[Yesterday’s German official report stated that Prince Leopold’s Army group crossed the Kleszczele-Wysoko Litowsk railway on Saturday and captured over 3,000 prisoners and a number of machine guns.]

74 Years Ago

76 Years Ago

Wilfred Owen obituary

News of the poet’s death reached his family as the bells rang out in celebration of the armistice and received only a passing mention in the long lists of casualties. The Times now publishes his obituary

Second Lieutenant Wilfred Owen in 1916, the year he was commissioned into the Manchester Regiment

His subject was war, and the pity of war. Wilfred Owen’s preface to his poetry was found among his papers in an unfinished condition; he had hoped to publish his work in 1919. “All the poet can do today is to warn,” he added. “That is why the true poets must be truthful.”

Owen had experienced at first hand the pain inflicted by war and knew of what he wrote. “Red lips are not so red/As the stained stones kissed by the English dead,” are the opening lines to Greater Love, in which he describes in graphic, violent detail the “piteous mouths that coughed” and “hearts made great with shot”.

Much of Owen’s poetry was written in a creative burst while he was a patient at Craiglockhart War Hospital in Edinburgh, where the cries of traumatised patients echoed in the corridors. It was there that he met other men who would become known as poets of the Great War: Siegfried Sassoon, who introduced him to the idea of the “protest poem”, and Robert Graves, whom Owen described as “a big, rather plain fellow”. Like Milton, Owen was keen that his poetry should not merely be a passive witness to events, but rather an active response to the suffering he had seen and endured.

100 Years Ago

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/register/stand-by-unfix-bayonets-l0m8tjhhx

NOVEMBER 12, 1918

Stand by. Unfix bayonets

The British Army began its first battle of the war at Mons on August 22, 1914, and, by the grace of God, our troops stood in this same spot when the order came to cease fire. That the enemy had made up his mind that the end had come, our troops yesterday had ample evidence. On most of the front they marched and rode almost as they pleased. The news of the armistice was got forward to our far-flung patrols and batteries with great promptitude, and a great silence fell upon the land after 11 o’clock. There can be no harm now in saying that the message had been expected, and there had been ample time to signal the news beyond the points where telegraph and telephone cease. Our scattered troops were told to unfix bayonets and unload magazines and to stand to for further orders. No attempt was to be made to fraternize with the enemy. I believe there was some demonstrativeness on the German side, and I hear of German troops seen trying to break their rifles or throw them away. But, on the whole, the great tidings appear to have been taken pretty quietly. Amongst the troops in rest there was more jubilation. At headquarters close to the line parades had been arranged of all available troops as soon as the news was received, and at 11 o’clock the bugles sounded the “Cease fire” and the bands played the “Marseillaise” and “God Save the King”. Many then broke out into “Tipperary”, which the peasantry seem to imagine is our National Anthem, to judge by the respect with which they hearkened to the strains.

Shortly after 11 o’clock the roads presented an extraordinary scene. Refugees began to stream back in swarms. The Germans are manifestly anxious to show their good faith, for very shortly after the armistice dispatch riders were bringing into Corps Headquarters full details of the positions of all mines, booby traps, and leads, which had been sent over under the white flag by enemy commands.

The day is grey and drizzling, which does not conduce to outdoor demonstrations on the part of people who have suffered much, and many of whom cannot yet tell how many of their dear ones have fallen in the terrible struggle. Silent thankfulness is the prevailing sentiment today in the war area of Northern France.

The Times History of the War - The Armistice

The Armistice

This chapter examines the military collapse of Germany, the Turkish Armistice, Austria-Hungary follow, Germany's isolation, Prince Max of Baden makes overtures for peace, President Wilson's reply, Allied military conference in Paris, German armistice delegates arrive at Rethondes, the Armistice signed, its terms, reception in Germany and England

Read the full story

The Downfall November 10, 1918

Germany is utterly alone, beaten in the field by the foes she despised, with her sailors and with thousands of her soldiers in mutiny, her people in insurrection under the red flag, her destinies in untried hands

Read the full story

100 Years Ago

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/register/these-fateful-hours-ktz75t9tk

NOVEMBER 9, 1918

These fateful hours

Marshal Foch has lost no time in answering Germany’s petition for an armistice. Yesterday morning the delegates presented themselves at the Allied Headquarters, and he handed them the conditions on which their request will be conceded. At the same time he informed them that these terms must be accepted or refused within three days. He also told them that the cool suggestion of their Government for an immediate suspension of hostilities pending this decision could not be entertained. It was put forward, Prince Max and his colleagues affirmed, “in conformity with humanity”; but the advantages it would have conferred are so patent that it suggests either sheer impertinence or the necessity to convince the German people that every possible loophole of escape has been explored. Every hour of immunity from the converging attacks which threaten to cut off the enemy’s retreat would be invaluable to them. No respite can be thought of until they have agreed, formally and irrevocably, to the terms. Stringent as these must be, it hourly becomes clearer that the German Government must submit to them or incur a terrible responsibility. The delegates have dispatched a courier to convey them to the Chancellor and the German High Command at Spa, and an urgent request that he shall be sent back as quickly as possible with the latest instructions.

The signs increase that peace on any conditions grows more and more vital to the enemy. The Chancellor, Prince Max, has just declared in an address to Germans abroad that in the fifth year of the contest, and “abandoned by their allies” — a not very generous complaint — the German people “could no longer wage war against increasingly superior forces”, and he confesses that “the victory for which many had hoped has not been granted to us”.

The signs of internal commotion in Germany are growing more serious. The chief naval ports are in the hands of mutinous sailors and soldiers and revolutionary civilians, while the movement is spreading inland. Want and the collapse of all expectations of victory and plunder excited by the “militarists” have excited dangerous passions among the masses. Anger against the Emperor is fierce. His abdication is being called for upon all sides.

100 Years Ago

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/register/rumour-and-suspense-q9hh0g5zf

NOVEMBER 8, 1918

Rumour and suspense

All the world awaits with eager desire news that Germany has taken the next step towards peace. Every hour that she delays increases her losses and her danger. The rumours which filled London yesterday that she had signed the armistice were manifestly premature, for they were circulated before the delegates could have reached their destination. A wireless message states that they left Berlin on Wednesday evening. The only official information as to the course of their journey is contained in Marshal Foch’s communication to the German Headquarters. It states that if they wish to meet him to ask for an armistice they are to advance to the French outposts by the Chimay-Fourmies-La Capelle-Guise road, where they are to be received and conducted to the place fixed for the interview. There they will be met by the Allied Generalissimo and by Admiral Wemyss, the First Sea Lord, who has been appointed to act with Marshal Foch as his naval associate. The terms are irrevocably fixed and are to take or to leave within a definite period, which we may assume from precedent to be three days from yesterday afternoon.

The capture of the western part of Sedan by the First American Army is a dramatic incident in the great advance of the Allies which has been sweeping forward since the close of last week. It looks as though the Germans had delayed their retreat from the Laon salient too long, and the rapid advance of the Americans disconcerted their plans. They may still extricate themselves, but their situation is obviously full of danger.

German newspapers publish accounts of ominous disturbances at Kiel, Hamburg, and Cuxhaven. A “Soldiers’ Council” has been formed at Kiel, the red flag hoisted on at least one battleship, the sailors have mutinied, troops sent to suppress them have joined them, the men are complete masters of the ships and the officers powerless. Some ebullition was inevitable once the rigour of “militarist” control had been mitigated, but there is nothing as yet to suggest that the movement is general. Public order has been preserved, though two or three officers have been murdered. At the same time it is clear the excitement among the working classes may become dangerous if their hopes of an immediate armistice and early peace are disappointed.

The Times History of the War - The Collapse of Germany

The collapse of Germany

This week's chapter examines the effects of the blockade, Ukrainian food supplies, war loans and national credit, submarine failures, socialism in the army, moral weakening of the people, Lichnowsky memoir, Herr von Kuhlmann and the peace offensive, fall of von Kuhlmann, Admiral von Hintze Foreign Minister, a ministry of failure, effect of the Battle of Amiens, Prince Max Chancellor, socialistic participation, effect of Cambrai, Main Headquarters demands peace, the Fourteen Points, socialist impatience, abdication of the Kaiser, the Armistice

The Socialists of Bavaria passed a resolution that Germany should be reconstituted into a people's State, and the Munich papers called on the Kaiser to give a shining exampIe to his people by sacrificing himself

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Abdication of the Kaiser November 11, 1918

I hear that the Kaiser with a suite of 10 gentlemen, in two court carriages, passed the Dutch frontier near Maastricht and close to Eysden this morning. Secrecy is observed concerning his movements

Read the full story The following news was transmitted on Saturday through the wireless stations of the German Government:

The German Imperial Chancellor, Prince Max of Baden, has issued the following decree: The Kaiser and King has decided to renounce the Throne. The Imperial Chancellor will remain in office until the questions connected with the abdication of the Kaiser, the renouncing by the Crown Prince of the Throne of the German Empire and of Prussia, and the setting up of a Regency have been settled. For the Regency he intends to appoint Deputy Ebert as Imperial Chancellor [our Hague Correspondent gives the foregoing sentence as, “He contemplates proposing to the Regent the appointment of Deputy Ebert as Chancellor”], and he proposes that a Bill should be brought in for the establishment of a law providing for the immediate promulgation of general suffrage, and for a constitutional German National Assembly which will settle finally the future form of Government of the German nation and of those peoples which might be desirous of coming within the Empire.

Berlin, November 9, 1918.

100 Years Ago

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/register/germans-and-belgians-mdgxx9x8d

NOVEMBER 5, 1918

Germans and Belgians

We are vigorously following up our success at Valenciennes by attacking the sectors on the south. We are reported to be making good progress everywhere, and taking considerable numbers of prisoners. At many places the German retreat is reported to be most disorderly, and the Belgians have been following them up with the greatest eagerness.

An interesting document has fallen into Belgian hands in the shape of a General Order to the 5th Bavarian Division, dated October 5, showing how at that date German troops realized the change in their situation. The Order says: “However regrettable the condition of the civil population of Belgium may be, the consideration of revictualling the German Army must come first.” It therefore orders all horses, vehicles, &c, to be requisitioned and used for Army purposes, and continues: “Officers and men must understand that their relationship to the civilian population has changed since the alteration in the general situation. Civilians must now be regarded as an enemy people with whom we are in a state of war, and it is strictly forbidden to give them any assistance whatever. Military requirements alone must be taken into consideration, and all products of the country must be utilized solely in our own interest and not in that of the people.”

This order, of course, gives the German soldiery carte blanche to loot and pillage as they please, and they appear to have been taking advantage of it in a way which neither the Belgian Army nor the Belgian people will ever forget.

I mentioned some time ago a story, which I declined to vouch for, of Germans leaving one of their own dead as a booby trap so placed that when the body was lifted for burial it would explode a mine. The possibility that this was true is increased by the fact that our Engineers have in two places found an apparent grave with a cross marked “unknown Englishman”. The position of the graves was suspicious, and on careful examination they were found to contain, not a dead British soldier, but a German mine.

Another example of German cunning is in furnishing machine-gun crews left to cover rearguards with civilian suits of peasant clothes, enabling them to make their escape as harmless farming folk.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/another-step-towards-victory-g23xlwf6m

NOVEMBER 3, 1918

Another step towards victory

Germany now stands alone. The last and greatest of her confederates has fallen away from her. The Austro-Hungarian Commander has signed an armistice with General Diaz, and it will come into force this afternoon. The actual terms will not be made public until tomorrow, but it is easy enough to surmise their general tenor. Clearly they must be of such a kind as to ensure the complete and effective isolation of Germany. The Power whose ambitions Germany used to prepare and provoke the world-war, and who has been throughout her ready tool and accomplice in the nefarious policy of aggression, abandons her and leaves her either to oppose single-handed the foes whom she could not defeat when at the head of a great coalition, or to submit to the terms which they may dictate to her. It is still far from clear which course she will take. Until, therefore, her surrender becomes a fact, the first duty of the Allies and of America is to redouble their efforts, both military and diplomatic, to enforce her acceptance of the victorious peace they are resolved to secure.

There is no doubt, of course, that the armistice with Austria entirely changes the military situation to the great advantage of the Allies. It opens the way for the execution of plans which are doubtless already prepared and can now be put into immediate execution. Nor is it only in the military sphere that this great event imposes fresh duties upon us. It demands new efforts in the field of diplomacy. As the time approaches when Germany must sue for an armistice or be crushed, the Allies and the United States must exert themselves more than ever to attain perfect clearness and unity, both as to the terms which they would be prepared to grant and on the subject of the peace preliminaries themselves. We presume that the present meetings at Versailles, where the leading soldiers and sailors of the Alliance have been in conference, have at least resulted in agreement upon the essential measures, naval and military, which are required to enforce the only kind of peace that the democracies will sign. That is the first, and for now, most important, business. The peace preliminaries follow, but here too there is no time to be lost in correlating our main ideas if there is to be no subsequent misunderstanding.

100 Years Ago

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/register/the-battle-in-flanders-t6bsnkwj0

NOVEMBER 2, 1918

The battle in Flanders

On the front of the Allied attack in the north which began yesterday we continue to push the enemy back upon the line of the Scheldt, while in the Valenciennes area we have forced our way so closely up to the southern edge of the city that you may hear tonight that Valenciennes is in our hands. The position of the Germans there must now be nearly intolerable. A characteristic item of the booty taken in the southern area was a party of four German ambulances which, having a legitimate load of wounded on the beds below, were laden above with booty plundered from the villages.

Pushing up behind our troops, our guns have been industriously shelling enemy troops and transport on the roads. On our immediate left the French troops had some trouble with strong positions in Anseghem Chateau. The place was full of machine-guns, and the Germans fought stubbornly, and it was not until after hand-to-hand fighting that they finally got possession. On the left of the French, American troops seem to have had the hardest fighting. The woods were strongly held, and protected with wire and machine-guns, but, working like old soldiers, the Americans made their way round, and those of the garrison who were not killed or escaped were made prisoners.

All this country is thickly settled, and the Germans last night had set a number of farms on fire, which kept the hours of darkness brilliant and made the advance of the French and Americans in the early morning very easy. In other farms and hamlets are large numbers of civilians, and the Germans, falling back, fought from and among the buildings in Boer fashion. We hesitated to use the guns because of the innocent inhabitants, and the infantry therefore had to go forward without artillery, and the work was done by individual fighting with rifle and bayonet.

The Germans, as they fall back, shell with gas the farms and villages where civilians are. Our men do all they can to protect civilians by giving them gas masks, which they strip from German prisoners, and are trying to make them get out of the area; but it is difficult to persuade civilians not to cling to shelters in cellars and so forth, which have so far proved their salvation, but where it is impossible for them to live always in their masks.

Lest we forget: Private Harry Patch, the last man to have gone over the top – obituary

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/0/lest-forget-private-harry-patchthe-last-man-have-gone-top/

This obituary has been republished as part of The Telegraph's commemoration of the end of the First World War. As well as the generals who planned missions and the poets who immortalised them, many ordinary British men and women helped bring about the Armistice on November 11 1918. Here, we remember them

Private Harry Patch, who died on July 25 2009 aged 111, was believed to be the last surviving British soldier to have gone into action on the Western Front, an experience about which he retained bitter memories.

As the last Tommy, the last British trench fighter of the Great War, the last man to have gone over the top, and latterly and briefly - after the death a week ago of Henry Allingham - Britain’s oldest man, Patch bore his celebrity with bemused dignity. “Why I’m still here,” he remarked at the age of 108, “I can’t fathom.”

When the television documentary makers started to interview the small corps of centenarian veterans at the turn of the 20th century they found that several retained vivid memories of the trenches. But Patch was the one who burned with the strongest indignation - at the constant danger, the noise, the rats, the lice and the biscuits that were too hard to eat at Passchendaele.

100 Years Ago

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/register/turkey-has-capitulated-q3lgvlpb3

NOVEMBER 1, 1918

Turkey has capitulated

At noon yesterday an armistice between the Allies and Turkey brought our campaigns in Syria and Mesopotamia to a happy and victorious conclusion. The one has ended with the brilliant capture of Aleppo by General Allenby, and the other by General Marshal’s capture of the entire Turkish force opposed to him on the Tigris, on the very day on which the armistice was signed. Turkey has thus yielded to an overwhelming military defeat in both Eastern theatres of war. Her Palestine Army has been entirely destroyed and a similar fate has befallen the limited forces she put into Mesopotamia. This point should be emphasized. Turkey did not surrender in consequence of events in Europe, though the collapse of Bulgaria hastened her decision. She hoisted the white flag because she had been conclusively beaten in the field, and could look for no help from her defeated confederates. In its later stages her overthrow has been almost exclusively the work of Great Britain, and it was fitting that she should tender her submission to a British Admiral, for it is the power of the Royal Navy which has made possible the splendid triumphs of the British and the Indian Arnies in the East. The full terms of the armistice are not yet disclosed, but they include free passage for the Allied Fleets through the Bosporus to the Black Sea; occupation of the forts in the Dardanelles and the Bosphorus necessary to secure their passage; and immediate repatriation of all Allied prisoners of war. The number of British and Indian prisoners in Turkish hands is said to be between nine and ten thousand.

Great Britain already holds Palestine, Syria, and Mesopotamia. The hour of Rumania’s rescue is at hand, and Allied command of the Black Sea should sound the death-knell of the Bolshevist tyranny in Russia. The Pan-German plot in the East is shattered, we think forever. The Baghdad Railway is in Allied hands. Whatever the future of Turkey may be, it is unlikely that Germany will again have any part or lot in it. The peoples of Arabia, Palestine, Mesopotamia, and Syria are delivered from the duress of centuries, and it is imperative that the remnant of the Armenian nation, whose sufferings no words can tell, shall be given equally full freedom at once.

The Times History of the War - End of Western Front campaigns

End of Western Front campaigns

The advance continued: fall of Ostend, capture of Thourout, German stand on the Selle, Douai entered, Germans evacuate Lille, Americans take Grand Pre, how the Selle was crossed, Germans abandon the Belgian coast, enemy stand on the Lys, Belgians in Zeebrugge and Bruges, German reserves exhausted, French advance between Oise and Serre, Valenciennes captured, the Battle of the Sambre, November 4, great German retreat, Maubeuge and Tournai taken, Canadians capture Mons, the Armistice, weapons and the war, German booby traps, air fighting, German views, the Kaiser abdicates

The enemy was now falling back along his whole battlefront, and throughout the following days, although the rain was incessant and imposed great hardships on our troops, the cavalry and infantry pressed forward with hardly a check, keeping close touch with the rapidly-retreating Germans. It was plain that the last days of German resistance had come

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100 Years Ago

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/register/influenza-no-improvement-tv85cqpm8

OCTOBER 29, 1918

‘Influenza’: no improvement

Our obituary columns this morning bear melancholy witness to the ravages of the great plague of influenza and pneumonia. Messages from one or two places in the country state that the epidemic is abating, but in London there is little or no sign of improvement. Yesterday the number of members of the Metropolitan Police Force suffering from influenza had risen to 1,410, and deaths to 30. Of the London Fire Brigade staff 117 are ill. At Hackney fire station seven men out of 11 are on the sick list. During the 48 hours ending at 7 o’clock yesterday morning 61 persons seized with influenza in the streets were taken to hospitals by the ambulance service. Several of the London borough councils are making a house-to-house distribution of leaflets advising people of the best preventives and giving instructions as to what to do in case a member of the household becomes afflicted.

During the week-end there were 57 deaths in Poplar from the disease, 12 of which occurred in institutions. The borough of St Pancras has been placarded with posters advising the public to keep warm and rest in bed on the first appearance of the symptoms of influenza. A gargle is recommended consisting of a saltspoonful of salt in half a glass of water, coloured purple with a weak solution of permanganate of potash.

At the London Hospital between 20 and 80 nurses — one-tenth of the total nursing staff — are away from duty, and many additional beds had to be provided for new patients during the week-end. At the Great Northern Hospital there are about 100 cases. Some 20 nurses are away from duty, and the staff is much overworked. Many girls from the clerical department are doing light work in the wards.

Among the deaths recorded in our obituary columns on page 1 today are 34 from influenza, pneumonia, or kindred diseases, including 12 deaths of soldiers. Of the latter nine are attributed to pneumonia, combined in two cases with influenza, and in one each with malaria and dysentery; two to influenza and one to meningitis following influenza and pneumonia. Of the other 22 deaths, 10 are attributed to pneumonia and influenza combined, seven to pneumonia, four to influenza, and one to pleurisy following influenza.

Agincourt - 3

https://chestnut-ah.livejournal.com/976009.html

Wallace Collection влаштувала невеличку виставку з нагоди 600-ліття перемоги під Азенкуром. Зовсім-зовсім невелику - але ж три зали зброї нікуди не ділися, і можна "добрати" в них (Нарешті побачив сагайдак до куші, із болтами, кінець 15 ст., який чомусь не виставлено у сталій експозиції)

Agincourt - 2

http://nuk-tnl-deck-prod-static.s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/projects/a597e50502f5ff68e3e25b9114205d4a.html Battle of Agincourt, 1415, from the 'St. Alban's Chronicle' (vellum) Battle of Agincourt, 1415, from the 'St. Alban's Chronicle' (vellum)

The battle of Agincourt (Azincourt was and remains the French spelling) was one of the most remarkable events of medieval Europe, a battle whose reputation far outranked its importance. In the long history of Anglo-French rivalry only Hastings, Waterloo, Trafalgar and Crécy share Agincourt’s renown.

Agincourt’s fame could just be an accident, a quirk of history reinforced by Shakespeare’s genius, but the evidence suggests it really was a battle that sent a shock wave through Europe. For years afterwards the French called 25 October 1415 la malheureuse journée (the unfortunate day). It had been a disaster.
Yet it was so nearly a disaster for Henry V and his small, but well-equipped army. That army had sailed from Southampton Water with high hopes, the chief of which was the swift capture of Harfleur, which would be followed by a foray into the French heartland in hope, presumably, of bringing the French to battle. A victory in that battle would demonstrate, at least in the pious Henry’s mind, God’s support of his claim to the French throne, and might even propel him onto that throne. Such hopes were not vain when his army was intact, but the siege of Harfleur took much longer than expected and Henry’s army was almost ruined by dysentery.

Agincourt - 1

Extract from Campaign 9: Agincourt 1415 by Matthew Bennett
Once in position the archers began to shoot at the enemy. Just imagine for a moment that you are an archer in the English army. You are famished, cold and wet and suffering from diarrhoea or worse from the effects of your diet of unclean water and nuts and berries. You expect to die in the forthcoming battle. For the men-at-arms there will be ransoms and often cosy  captivity at the hands of men of their own class, related by birth or known to them personally. As a despised and feared footman, all you can expect is to be slaughtered by men so well-armoured as to be almost invulnerable or, if captured, to be mutilated so that you may not ply your craft again. The King has just reminded you that you can expect to lose three fingers from your right hand. However rousing his speech, you are most fortified by despair. At first it seems impossible that the French can be beaten. Then as you advance it becomes apparent that they have been careless – that they do not know what they are doing!

English Crossbowmen, Archers and Infantrymen Illustration taken from Men-at-Arms 85: Armies of Agincourt by Christopher Rothero

100 Years Ago

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/past-six-days/2018-10-19/register/the-agony-of-lille-lrx8zgssf

OCTOBER 19, 1918

The agony of Lille

From Our Special Correspondent. My visit to Lille was as wonderful an experience as any man could hope to have in a lifetime. Two or three hours before, an officer of the Liverpool Regiment, with his men, had gone into the town and made an official call on the Mayor. A small party of French and Belgian correspondents also made their way in, but I was the only Englishman.

The streets for miles were a surging mass of people, chiefly women and children, who had been waiting since the Germans had gone in the darkness of the early morning. A rumour spread that I was “the English General”, though whether Sir Douglas Haig, General Birdwood, or General Haking I do not know. It was useless to deny it, for who could argue with a hundred thousand people mad with joy, and on me was poured all the gratitude for its deliverance of the population which has suffered so much through four years. It was necessary to walk some miles through the streets, battling every yard through cheering, laughing, sobbing women and children, and a few men. I was showered and heaped with flowers and draped with Tricolour flags and streamers. Fifty times I must have saved babies, thrust at me to be touched or kissed, from being trampled underfoot. The women struggled to touch or kiss some part of a hand or cheek or clothes. Men fought to grip one’s hand. For mile after mile the crowd continued — one mass of shouting, cheering, weeping humanity — and the cries, hailing one as “saviour” and “deliverer”, mingled with shouts of “Vive l’Angleterre!” and the refrain “Nous avons tant souffert, mon general, nous avons tant souffert,” are things no man could ever forget.

But for the help of some men who made a phalanx round me, I doubt if it would have been possible to reach the Mayor’s residence. Finally even this phalanx became powerless, and from the Mayoralty a bodyguard of gendarmes was provided to take me back to the canal, beyond which my car was waiting. The car was heaped with flowers, and the chauffeur told me he had been kissed by more people that afternoon than in all his life before. It was a truly wonderful experience, which brought home, as nothing else, what the German captivity and their deliverance have meant to the people of France.