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.

The Times History of the War - VCs of the War, 8

VCs of the War, 8

This week's chapter explores three commanding officers, engineers' fine deeds, crosses for courageous runners, farmhouse fights, territorials' exploits, back to Le Cateau, two Leinster regiments, saving the wounded, the Lancashire Fusiliers, a company sergeant-major, oversea soldiers and the cross, the Australian Imperial force, officers' fine acts, three posthumous honours, NCOs and privates, attacks on machine-gun posts, a bomber in a German trench, men from Ontario, an Army surgeon's cross, a wounded fighter, Lieut Lyall's great deeds, more Canadian heroes, further crosses for Zeebrugge, the decoration as a fighting barometer, a case of non-award, an analysis of the total awards

Four runners in succession having been killed in trying to deliver a message to a supporting company during the attack on Marou on October 20, Private Alfred Wilkinson, 1/5th Battalion Manchester Regiment (TF), volunteered for the desperate duty. The journey which he undertook involved exposure to extremely heavy machine-gun and shell fire for 600 yards, yet he managed to escape all perils and to deliver the message

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Joachim Rønneberg, Norwegian saboteur who led factory raid to hold up Nazi Germany's atom bomb effort – obituary

Last of the ‘heroes of Telemark’, the Norwegian team who carried out the most significant SOE operation of the Second World War

October 22 2018, 5:00pm, The Times

• Europe
• Germany

The Norwegian resistance fighter Joachim Ronneberg holds a Union flag that was presented to him by the clerk of the House of Lords in Westminster in 2013

In January 1942 an informant from German-occupied Norway reported a significant increase in the output of heavy water, necessary for the production of plutonium, at the Norsk Hydro plant at Vemork, 50 miles west of Oslo.

This Week in History - El Alamein (23 October-3 November 1942)

https://ospreypublishing.com/thisweekhistory/

El Alamein (23 October-3 November)

Following the First Battle of El Alamein, which had stalled the Axis advance, General Bernard Montgomery took command of the British Commonwealth’s Eighth Army in August 1942. The Second Battle of El Alamein marked a significant turning point in the Western Desert Campaign of World War II. The battle lasted from 23 October to 3 November 1942, and began with the major offensive Operation Lightfoot.

With Operation Lightfoot, Montgomery hoped to carve two corridors through the Axis minefields in the north. Allied armour would then pass through the Axis defences and defeat Rommel’s German armoured divisions. Diversionary attacks in the south would keep the rest of the Axis forces from moving northwards.

Success in the battle turned the tide in the North African Campaign. Allied victory at El Alamein ended German hopes of occupying Egypt, controlling access to the Suez Canal, and gaining access to the Middle Eastern oil fields.

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How Austria’s ‘bread offensive’ helped to turn the First World War in the Allies’ favour

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/8f484b3e-761b-11e8-a95e-4d8f3c5d626c

General Paul von Hindenburg, Kaiser Wilhelm II and General Erich Ludendorff

While General Erich Ludendorff’s focus of attention was Kaiserschlacht, his continuing offensive on the Western Front, the de facto head of the German army was only too aware of the interconnection of the four discrete European fronts. In the east, fighting had effectively come to an end with the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk in March, and what troops remained there were a force of observation, except in Finland, where the Bolsheviks were reluctant to cede independence under the terms of the treaty. Ludendorff had sent the Baltic division to assist the former tsarist General Carl Gustaf Mannerheim, later president of Finland, to eject the remaining Russian troops and put down the Finnish communists. By the end of May German troops held both Vyborg (western Russia) and Narva (Estonia), north and south of the Gulf of Finland. These Ludendorff intended to use as bases for an advance on Petrograd if it became necessary to overthrow the Bolshevik government or prevent the British troops sent to Murmansk in support of the “White” (anti-Bolshevik) Russian forces from doing so.

100 Years Ago

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/register/ostend-lille-and-douai-2xdjcbs9c

october 18, 1918

Ostend, Lille and Douai

British forces under General Birdwood entered Lille yesterday to the drumbeat of victory, and just before one o’clock Vice-Admiral Sir Roger Keyes landed at Ostend, whence the enemy had vanished. Later in the day Douai fell into our hands. When the new offensive began in Flanders on Monday, few expected that such great and dramatic results would be so rapidly attained. To the British public the recovery of the Belgian coastline will bulk even more largely than the fall of Lille. This country has suffered deeply as a result of the misfortunes which enabled the Germans to gain a foothold on the shores of Belgium. The ports served as lairs for their submarines and destroyers, and in the country behind them the aerodromes were built from which came the aircraft squadrons which so frequently bombed London and our towns and villages. We may well rejoice that the shores of Belgium are all but won back, and that never again will the enemy look covetously across the Straits of Dover.

It is no secret that until recently there seemed every probability that the Allies would find Lille a mass of ruins, another and a larger Bapaume. Apparently it has dawned upon the German Staff that they cannot seek peace with a flaming torch, and that their vile and wanton methods of destruction will only harden the hearts of the Allies against them. Their belated abandonment of practices of barbarism is the obvious outcome of the Allied protests, which should have been made in a more effective form long ago.
Meanwhile Sir Douglas Haig yesterday began a fresh attack on a ten-mile front between Bohain and Le Cateau, in which sector there has already been so much hard fighting. Should this new blow continue to develop, its results may be felt along the whole German front. One of its first consequences is that our troops have gained possession of Douai. On the other hand, the enemy are retreating in reasonably good order, and so far there is no sign of collapse and no visible prospect of a German military disaster.
The Germans have lost the war, and know it, but they are not yet close to breakdown. Their biggest danger is not the Allies. Germany might still resist for a long time, but not if behind a shortened front her civil population is in a state of revolt.

The Times History of the War - End of Near East campaigns

End of Near East campaigns

This week's chapter examines events preceding the collapse of Turkey, last campaign of the Russian Caucasian Army, effect of Bolshevist revolution, rivalry of Georgians, Armenians and Tartars, Turks Pan-Turanian ambitions, Germany's "new route to India", Turks at Erzerum, Kars, Batum and Tabriz, Germans at Tiflis, Nuri's advance on Baku, British intervention, events in Mesopotamia, replacing Russians on the road to the Caspian, Dunsterville's defence of Baku, helping the Nestorians, Baku reoccupied, Sir Percy Sykes's great march, German intrigues at Kabul, British at Merv, Persia's debt to Great Britain, Turks sue for terms, Enver and Taalat resign, armistice signed, through the Dardanelles to Constantinople, Russian Black Sea Fleet surrendered, plight of the Armenians

Every British officer in the Punjab regiment had fallen in the assault, and when the Bolshevists came on, the Indians were exposed to attack from three sides - frontally down the line, on the right flank by troops who had rallied apparently realizing our inferiority in numbers, and in the rear by a Bolshevist armoured train. The Indian officer of the Punjabi battalion put up a splendid fight and refused to retire without orders

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This Week in History - Sekigahara (17-23 October 1600)

https://ospreypublishing.com/thisweekhistory/

The battle is described in detail in Campaign 40: Sekigahara 1600 The Final Struggle for Power and placed fully in the context of the 150 years of war that it brought to a close in Essential Histories 46: War in Japan 1467-1615, (extract below). An earlier major clash of between rival samurai, which extended to five battles over 11 years, is vividly chronicled in Campaign 130: Kawanakajima 1553-64 Samurai power struggle (published next month).

An Extract from Essential Histories 46: War in Japan 1467-1615
The triumph of the Tokugawa

Following the successful outcome of the siege of Odawara in 1590, Tokugawa Ieyasu was granted the Hojo territories in fief, and moved his capital to Edo. The distance of his domains from Kyushu allowed him to avoid service during the invasion of Korea - a futile and bloody war that sapped the strength of many of his contemporaries. The invasion had ended when Hideyoshi died in the manner that all dictators dread, leaving his infant son Toyotomi Hideyori to inherit newly unified Japan. The daimyo who had survived or avoided the decimation of the Korean War then divided into two armed camps and fought each other at the famous battle of Sekigahara in 1600. On one side was a coalition under the command of Ishida Mitsunari, who supported the cause of the infant Hideyori. They were called the Western Army. Opposing them was Tokugawa Ieyasu, who believed that only he had the resources to manage the newly unified empire. His supporters were called the Eastern Army, and they marched towards Osaka from Edo.

Mary Midgley, moral philosopher who took on Richard Dawkins – obituary

Mary Midgley in 2010

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2018/10/12/mary-midgley-moral-philosopher-took-richard-dawkins-obituary/

Mary Midgley, who has died aged 99, was one of Britain’s leading moral philosophers, though she was more effective in wielding philosophical objections to other people’s beliefs than promoting a coherent philosophical viewpoint of her own.

She challenged the various reductionist fundamentalisms or myths – religious, political, social, but particularly scientific – which people use to interpret the world and as a basis for moral rules. Instead, she argued, we should accept that we must understand ourselves and the world from many different perspectives, which make it impossible to reduce moral questions to one simple synthesis.

The Times History of the War - End of Italian campaign

End of Italian campaign

This week's chapter examines the situation in July 1918, events in France, shortage of reserves and material, enemy superiority in numbers, cautious policy of General Diaz, results of the Salonika offensive, opening of the Italian attack, the opposing forces, advance in the Brenta sector, British occupy the Grave di Papadopoli, the Piave crossed, work of the British XIV Corps, the Monticano forced, Italians reach Vittorio, rout of the enemy, Austrian negotiations for an armistice, retreat on the Grappa front, the Livenza crossed, break-up of the Trentino Army, Trento occupied, Armistice signed, November 3, Italians land in Trieste, results of the victory

The Hapsburg Monarchy was breaking up within. Its southeastern front was now very seriously threatened. Peace rumours had been coming thick and fast, and on October 4 came the German proposal for an armistice, which was backed by Austria and aroused great popular enthusiasm in Vienna, where it seems to have been thought that a cessation of hostilities on the Italian front would immediately follow

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100 Years Ago

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/register/a-triumph-of-british-arms-7570dnntp

OCTOBER 11, 1918

A triumph of British arms

The British Army yesterday captured Le Cateau and retrod one of the most famous battlefields of the retreat from Mons. The Germans in the centre at Laon, and La Fère are cutting the margins of retreat very fine. The only weakness of the enveloping scheme is on the right of the Allied line. Owing to the enormous natural strength of the old German positions in Champagne and the Argonne, and to the lateness of our reconquest of the Suippe valley, this right wing is not so far forward as would be desirable. The main body of the German Army in France still has room for manoeuvre and delay. It may find another temporary line of resistance along the Serre and the Upper Aisne and, though this cannot be held for long owing to the breakthrough on the west, it may jam the closing of our strategic pincers.

The devastation of Cambrai seems to be less complete than was at first supposed, though the great Place d’Armes has been systematically and wantonly destroyed. But our Special Correspondent tells us this morning of a new and peculiarly mean piece of “frightfulness” in some of the deserted villages, where the Germans have deliberately broken up the embroidery machines, the only means of livelihood of the people of the district. No valour can defeat malice of this kind; it can only be defeated, if at all, by an act of policy, fully conceived and formally notified to the enemy.

General threats of reprisals do not meet the case; to be effective they must be specific. We do not mean that if the Germans burn a French town, we must burn a German town. We do mean that our reprisals should be of such a character as will deter the enemy, or, if not, punish him, and if possible compensate the sufferers for their losses. It may be that German towns could be more appropriately punished in other ways than by destruction. Ransom may take more forms than one. But in one form or another a German town should be held to ransom for the wanton destruction without military necessity of a French or Belgian town. And delay in the formulation of a policy is dangerous with events moving so rapidly: for, if nothing is done, the milestones of victory in the occupied districts of France and Belgium will be marred by heaps of smouldering ashes.

Squadron Leader Owen Ellison obituary

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/register/squadron-leader-owen-ellison-obituary-r76x3z9k2

Bomber pilot renowned for his dance moves who successfully mined the Danube and later ran a popular hotel in Barbados

October 10 2018, 12:01am, The Times

• Defence
• Armed Forces
• Europe

Ellison flew 42 operational sorties during the war against targets across Europe

Owen Ellison was one of the last survivors of one of the RAF’s lesser-known but most successful campaigns of the Second World War: the mining of the River Danube between April and October 1944, which disrupted the supply of oil from Romania to Germany.

Flown at night from bases in central Italy, the RAF raids proved highly effective as sunken ships, barges and tugs paralysed the river. Sixteen British aircraft and their crews were lost.

Ellison, then a flying officer with 70 Squadron, was the pilot of a Vickers Wellington twin-engine bomber who had seen action in north Africa in support of the Eighth Army and would receive the Distinguished Flying Cross for his actions over the Danube.

This Week in History - The Battle of Hastings (9-17 Oct 1066)

https://ospreypublishing.com/thisweekhistory/

Click on Essential Norman Conquest for a day-by-day reconstruction of the days between William’s landing at Pevensey on 28 September and his victory at Hastings. This website includes animated maps, 360 degree panoramas of the battlescene, 3D Norman and Saxon soldiers and 11th century soundbites.

Further reading

Essential Histories 12: Campaigns of the Norman Conquest (extract below) places the battle in its full historical context.

Campaign 13: Hastings 1066 (Revised Edition)  describes the campaign and battle in greater detail.

Warrior 1: Norman Knight AD 950–1204 explores the recruitment, training and lifestyle of the invaders.

Men-at-Arms 85: Saxon, Viking and Norman examines the equipment and lifestyle of the defenders.

Elite 9: The Normans expands on the crucial and formative effect that the Normans had on Britain and Europe.

Major-General Sir John Swinton obituary

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/register/major-general-sir-john-swinton-obituary-d6vkzjmfc

Distinguished Scots Guardsman who wanted his daughter Tilda to marry a duke but watched her become an Oscar-winning actress

October 9 2018, 12:01am, The Times

• Armed Forces
• Defence

Swinton while commanding the Scots Guards in 1970

The only misadventure John Swinton’s false lower leg encountered during 34 years of active military service after the war was when its owner’s eight-year-old son fired a .22 shot through it by mistake during a shoot. Indeed, Willie Swinton succeeded where Malayan insurgents and Greek-Cypriot terrorists had failed during John Swinton’s distinguished postwar military career.

The guardsman’s lower left leg had been severed by a mortar splinter in the last days of the Second World War, but his return to active service was not long delayed. The outbreak of the insurrection in Malaya in 1948 called for urgent reinforcements of infantry to counter the campaign of murder and extortion launched by the communist terrorists.

This Week in History - the US forces crossed the 38th parallel 7 October 1950

https://ospreypublishing.com/thisweekhistory/

The Korean War (28 September-9 October)

Having forced the North Korean forces out of Seoul, the capital of South Korea, by 27 September, the US Army then pursued the North Korean Army north. On 7 October following a UN resolution, the US forces crossed the 38th parallel, the line dividing North and South Korea. In response to the actions of the US and UN, the Chinese, backed by the Soviet Union, entered the Korean War in force on 25 November 1950. MacArthur's aim of total victory was no longer an option after this date. Instead, a bitter war of attrition, on land, sea and in the air, and costing many lives, continued until the ceasefire agreement in 1953. 

Żołnierz Koreańskiej Armii Ludowo-Wyzwoleńczej w hełmie radzieckim uzbrojony w karabin Mosin-Nagant wz. 1944 produkcji chińskiej. W tle radzieckie działko ppanc. 45 mm

Amerykański żołnierz 1. Dywizji Piechoty Morskiej w hełmie stalowym i mundurze polowym marines. Uzbrojony w karabin M-1 Garand i pistolet M 1911 A1

How war brought Winston Churchill and King George VI together

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/how-war-brought-winston-churchill-and-king-george-vi-together-sz5fp92xm

George VI was wary of Churchill after Gallipoli and the abdication crisis. But an acclaimed new life of the wartime PM by Andrew Roberts reveals the two became confidants and, finally, close friends

Churchill entrusted the King with key wartime secrets, knowing there would be no leaksHULTON/GETTY

The Sunday Times, September 30 2018, 12:01am

In June 1939 King George VI told William Mackenzie King, the Canadian prime minister, that he “would never wish to appoint Churchill to any office unless it were absolutely necessary in time of war”. He gave the example of Gallipoli, an operation that was one of the great allied disasters of the First World War, as showing Winston Churchill’s lack of judgment.

Churchill’s support for King Edward VIII (later the Duke of Windsor) during the abdication crisis in 1936 may have been another reason for King George’s disdain. Churchill had been the most prominent figure promoting a morganatic (unofficial) marriage between Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson, which most establishment figures had considered impossible under British law and practice.

100 Years Ago

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/register/the-captain-who-could-not-be-killed-mlb5t6pc7

OCTOBER 8, 1918

The captain who could not be killed

In the fighting of Friday and yesterday the adventures of the American Tanks are a thrilling story. Yesterday I visited the headquarters of a Tank unit — a wooden hut, furnished with but a few camp beds and chairs. The commander told how the Tanks preceded the infantry in the attack, how the enemy with anti-Tank rifles and mobile field guns had fired at point-blank range at the advancing monsters, and how the Tanks, shaking off the opposition as a dog shakes off water, had pressed onward, performing every feat that was asked of them.

There was one captain who led his Tanks on foot through the fog. Suddenly he missed his footing and, falling down a trench, discovered to his dismay that 12 Germans were waiting for him. He was promptly disarmed of his pistol and held as prisoner. But only a few moments had elapsed when the nose of a Tank peeped over the top of the trench. The Germans fled before the apparition and the captain, after recovering his pistol, climbed out of the trench and set forth to resume his command. On his way he was knocked over by a shell, and found lying unconscious on the battlefield. He recovered later, and finding that no bones were broken went off again to find his Tanks. This he eventually did, but a gas shell that burst near him penetrated his mask, and he was gassed. He had no intention of giving in, however, and, in spite of all entreaties, continued to lead his Tanks throughout the day, reporting to the headquarters where I was at 7 at night. “What did he say when he reported?” I asked the commander. “Blank, blank, I wouldn’t have given three cents for my life out there.”

This Tank unit has a mascot, a French boy named Leo Gerard, 14 years of age, from Lorraine. He was picked up in France, dressed in khaki, and has made himself quite the pet of the Tanks. He speaks American, is as brave as a lion, willing to go anywhere, even to the front in a Tank, and generally enjoys himself wandering around the lines making friends with all the officers and men. He told me he wants to go to America after the war to study at a university, and then become an officer in the American Army. He is in good hands, for the majority of the Tank officers are men from Harvard and Yale, and other famous universities of the United States.