I Am At A Loss For Words

As the British Army mushroomed in numbers, more horses and mules were needed. The Remount Service, having scoured [Britain], started to look overseas for new “recruits” and replacements for those that had been lost, or were no longer fit to return to duty.

North America was the most obvious place to look. With its vast plains and intensive farming, the rolling lands of the West had produced a light draught horse that was a breed apart from its European ancestors—and, importantly, there were plenty of them.

U.S. and (to a much lesser extent) Canadian horses and mules eventually made up two-thirds of those used by the British Army. The supply was constant over the war years, which left many wondering how America came to have so many horses available.

Remount Service purchasers (all of whom had to have a good deal of equine experience so as not to be conned into buying “duds”) traveled throughout the West and Midwest buying thousands and thousands of animals.

At first sight, the “Yankees”, as they were affectionately known, were in a rough and ready shape: they were shoeless, long-haired, tousle-maned and had ragged hips. But they were tough; generations of their kind had become completely at home with roaming out in the open and in all kinds of weather.

Simon Rees, writing in 2009

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Horses and mules operating in mud conditions in Belgium in 1916.

The British alone lost more than a quarter-million horses during The Great War. The British casualty ratio for horses was approximately 25 per cent.

The single largest cause of death for horses of the British Army on The Western Front: they were worked to death.

The second largest cause of death for horses of the British Army on The Western Front: starvation.

The third largest cause of death for horses of the British Army on The Western Front: pneumonia.

In last place: “killed in enemy action”.

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Heaving about in the filthy mud of the road was an unfortunate mule with both of his forelegs shot away. The poor brute, suffering God knows what untold agonies and terrors, was trying desperately to get to its feet, which weren't there. Writhing and heaving, tossing its head about in its wild attempts, not knowing that it no longer had any front legs.

I had my revolver with me, but couldn't get near the animal, which lashed out at us with its hind legs and tossed its head unceasingly. Jerry's shells were arriving pretty fast; we made some desperate attempts to get to the mule so that I could put a bullet behind its ear into the brain, but to no avail.

By lingering there, trying to put the creature out of its pain, I was risking not only my life but also my companions'. The shelling got more intense—perhaps, we hoped, one would hit the poor thing and put it out of its misery.

Lieutenant R. G. Dixon, The Royal Garrison Artillery, 14th Battery, writing in 1915

War Horses

A British horse team lies dead in a Belgian street in 1915, having been hit by a German shell.

The photograph appeared in the July 10, 1915, issue of The War Illustrated, with the following caption:

The ghastly harvest of a German shell. Tragic scene immediately after the explosion of an enemy shell near a British transport wagon in a Belgian street. All four horses are dead, but though the wagon still stands, the driver was hurled from his seat and seriously wounded. He is seen pluckily attempting to rise, as a comrade reaches his side.

“Taxis Of The Marne”

One of the legendary “Taxis Of The Marne”, now on display in the World War I section of Musée de l'Armée at Les Invalides.

When my brother and I had visited Paris in 2003 and 2004, the World War I section of Musée de l'Armée had been closed for a multi-year redesign and reinstallation. It was only in January of this year that we were able at last to visit the World War I section of Musée de l'Armée.

In early September 1914, one month into the war, German forces were already at Paris’s outskirts. The ease of the German advance through Belgium and Northern France en route to Paris had shocked British and French command. By September 6, German troops were in position to capture Paris within the following 24 hours.

In desperation, French authorities decided to send to the front 6,000 troops being held in reserve for the defense of Paris.

There was a problem: the French rail network, already clogged (to the extent it was working at all), was not in a position to transport 6,000 reserve troops to the front.

To accomplish the troop movement, French officials ordered 600 Paris taxis to assemble at Les Invalides. Each taxi was ordered to deliver five soldiers to the front, return to Paris, and pick up another five soldiers for transport to the front.

The tactic worked. The German advance was halted. Within days, British and French forces were able to mount an effective counterattack that drove German forces 40 miles from the city.

Paris had been saved.

And stalemate set in for the next four years.

Chief Of The German General Staff Helmuth von Moltke knew instantly that the war on The Western Front had been lost in the 72 hours that had transpired between September 6 and September 8—and he informed the Kaiser by cable that defeat was now inevitable against Britain and France.

Moltke was soon thereafter relieved of command.

Within days, Moltke’s health collapsed, mental and physical, and he was forced to return to Berlin.

Eighteen months later, during Berlin funeral services for Field Marshal Colmar von der Goltz, Moltke himself keeled over.

He had died on the spot.

Arnold Schoenberg In The Austro-Hungarian Army In 1916

This photograph, from 1916, depicts a group of soldiers in the Austro-Hungarian Army. Arnold Schoenberg—at age 42—appears in the front row, second from the right.

The Austro-Hungarian Empire was so desperate for manpower sixteen months into the war that Schoenberg was classified as fit for service in December 1915. Schoenberg served for almost a year before a petition for his release was granted.

A year later, things had so deteriorated for The Central Powers that Schoenberg was again called to active duty. For his second period of service, beginning in 1917, Schoenberg was assigned light duties in and around Vienna.

Berlin 1915

Ten months into the war, life goes on, street repairs and all, on Unter den Linden, Berlin’s most fashionable boulevard.

By 1916, the outlook in all three cities had darkened significantly, and the “normalcy” that is a feature of the 1915 photographs had all but disappeared.

London 1915

Once again, no suggestion of the disaster occurring across the English Channel is in evidence in The City, London’s financial district.

Paris 1915

From the photograph, one would never know that Paris was a city in wartime, under constant threat of invasion, with the front less than 100 miles from the city-center block on which rests the Paris Opera.

1911: The Hohenzollern Family

Kaiser Wilhelm II in 1911, pictured with only a few members of his enormous family.

The photograph captures two of the Kaiser’s children, one daughter-in-law and three grandchildren. The photograph was taken during the Kaiser’s annual summer sailing sojourn, and may be dated from the apparent ages of the grandchildren.

From left to right: Princess Viktoria Luise (1892-1980), seventh and youngest child—and only daughter—of Kaiser Wilhelm II; Duchess Cecilie Of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (1886-1954), wife of German Crown Prince William (not pictured) and known as The Crown Princess; Prince Hubertus Of Prussia (1909-1950), third son of The Crown Prince and The Crown Princess; Kaiser Wilhelm II (1859-1941); Prince Wilhelm Of Prussia (1906-1940), first son of The Crown Prince and The Crown Princess; Prince Adalbert (1884-1948), third son of Kaiser Wilhelm II; and Prince Louis Ferdinand Of Prussia (1907-1994), second son of The Crown Prince and The Crown Princess.

Prince Wilhelm Of Prussia took part in Germany’s 1940 invasion of France, and died as a result of injuries received in battle. His death aroused great public sympathy—and caused Hitler, who feared a threat to his power, to issue an order barring all members of former German royal houses from serving in the military.

Prince Wilhelm Of Prussia was once second in line to the Hohenzollern throne; both his grandfather and father outlived him.

As may be seen in the photograph, Prince Adalbert was an exceedingly handsome young man. In fact, all six of the Kaiser’s sons were exceedingly handsome as young men, as countless photographs attest. They certainly did not get their looks from their father: even as a young man, Kaiser Wilhelm II could never be considered genuinely handsome. Their mother, too, never presented an especially striking appearance, if photographs depict her accurately.

Yet all six sons were absolute head-turners—and exceedingly well-raised, and exceedingly well-behaved, if contemporary accounts are true. Kaiser Wilhelm II must have been a very good father—despite the fact that his own father had been a conspicuous horror.

Prince Adalbert’s wedding ceremony—he married Princess Adelheid Of Saxe-Meiningen (1891-1971)—was, oddly, held on August 3, 1914, the very day Germany declared war on France.

Perhaps even odder: the wedding ceremony of Prince Adalbert’s only son, Prince Wilhelm Victor (1919-1989), was held on July 20, 1944, the day of the attempted assassination of Hitler.

1916: The Romanov Family

The Romanov Family (without Alexandra) in 1916, two years into the war.

"They Shall Not Pass"

French marines at Verdun, 1916.

A Call To Arms

British war posters from The Great War were quite poor.

As graphic art, they were deplorable. As political documents, they were crude if not outrageous in the sentiments they expressed. Nothing comparable was produced in France, Germany or Russia for the duration of the war.

Well into World War I, Britain had a serious problem encouraging able-bodied men to join the armed forces. Once again, Britain was alone in this regard. The same problem was not experienced in France, Germany or Russia.

Only the imposition of a draft was to ease Britain’s manpower problems—and Britain waited until the war was well underway before implementing a draft. The government delayed a draft as long as feasible because it believed the populace might reject such a mechanism—and the government feared outright insurrection.

The role of zeppelins in World War I was not unduly prominent. There were several zeppelin bombing raids on London, but the raids carried more psychological impact than prospect of significant damage.

The money Germany spent on its zeppelin force far outweighed the monetary damage caused by German raids on London. The ratio has been adjudged to be at least two-to-one, and perhaps as high as four-to-one—the very opposite of what such a ratio should have been.

The zeppelin campaign was a complete waste of German resources, as the Germans themselves came to realize long before the war had run its course.

The Great War: German Red Cross Dogs

1918

German Soldiers Captured During The Spring Offensive

German soldiers, happy to be alive, captured after the failure of The Spring Offensive in late April 1918.

Bavarian Reserve Infantry October 1918

The Bavarian Reserve Infantry, Munich, October 1918.

German Supreme Command had informed the Kaiser on September 29, 1918, that the military situation on The Western Front had become hopeless and that the war ultimately would be lost.

Authorities in Bavaria—and all over Germany—immediately began preparing for revolution. Indeed, upon failure of The Spring Offensive in late April 1918, civilian officials had initiated preparations for containing a populace on the brink of open revolt.

At the time, it was believed that the war would continue into the summer of 1919, giving authorities sufficient time to prepare measures designed to quell rebellion.

The war was to end suddenly and abruptly in November 1918.

Revolution in Bavaria—and throughout Germany—was instantaneous. In fact, revolution in Bavaria occurred a full four days before The Armistice even was to take effect.

"Misery And Destruction Follow Anarchy"

This 1918 Bavarian poster attempts to head off revolution even before the war is over.

“From Hanover Square North, At The End Of A Tragic Day, The Voices Of The People Again Arose”

There's a personal experience behind [the third movement of The Second Orchestral Set], the story of which I will now try to tell.

We were living in an apartment at 27 West 11th Street. The morning paper on the breakfast table gave the news of the sinking of the “Lusitania”. I remember, going downtown to business, the people on the streets and on the elevated train had something in their faces that was not the usual something. Everybody who came into the office, whether they spoke about the disaster or not, showed a realization of seriously experiencing something. (That it meant war is what the faces said, if the tongues didn't.)

Leaving the office and going uptown about 6 o'clock, I took the Third Avenue "L" at the Hanover Square Station. As I came on the platform, there was quite a crowd waiting for the trains, which had been blocked lower down, and while waiting there, a hand-organ, or hurdy-gurdy, was playing on a street below. Some workmen sitting on the side of the tracks began to whistle the tune, and others began to sing or hum the refrain.

A workman with a shovel over his shoulder came on the platform and joined in the chorus, and the next man, a Wall Street banker with white spats and a cane, joined in it, and finally it seemed to me that everybody was singing this tune, and they didn't seem to be singing for fun, but as a natural outlet for what their feelings had been going through all day long.

There was a feeling of dignity all through this. The hand-organ man seemed to sense this and wheeled the organ nearer the platform and kept it up fortissimo (and the chorus sounded out as though every man in New York must be joining in it). Then the first train came and everybody crowded in, and the song eventually died out, but the effect on the crowd still showed.

Charles Ives

The tune, which Ives goes on to identify, was the 1868 hymn, “In The Sweet By-And-By”.

The Wittgenstein Family, Vienna, Summer 1917

From left to right: Kurt Wittgenstein, Paul Wittgenstein, Hermine Wittgenstein, Max Salzer, Leopoldine Wittgenstein, Helene Wittgenstein Salzer and Ludwig Wittgenstein.

The Romanov Family 1912

Lausanne 1915

Leonide Massine and designers Natalia Gontcharova, Mikhail Larionov and Leon Bakst surround Igor Stravinsky at Bellerive, Serge Diaghilev’s rented estate near Lausanne, in July 1915.

The front lines were barely 100 miles away from this summer idyll, and July 1915 was the same month in which Germany launched its “Triple Offensive” and introduced the flamethrower into battle.