Bad Soden Great War Memorial

The black plaque reads: War Memorial. Erected in 1930 to commemorate the victims of the First World War 1914-1918. The 'Dying Soldier' is a work by the Bad Soden-born sculptor Anton Grauel

What I find particularly interesting about this is that the memorial was erected 12 years after fighting ended.

Remarque-able

I HAVE lost count of the number of 'classic' books I have bought only to find they do not live up to their billing.

So it was with strong doubts in my mind that I splashed out £6 on a remaindered copy of Erich Maria Remarque's Im Westen Nicht Neues, better known in English-speaking lands as All Quiet On The Western Front.

I mention the German title because an accurate translation would be Nothing New In The West, or, as translator Brian Murdoch freely renders it, Nothing New On The Western Front.

Be that as it may, Ramarque was a WW1 veteran who used his experiences in basic training, on the front line and as a hospital orderly to write a gripping and entertaining work of fiction.

In some ways, and this will probably be regarded as heresy by literary cognoscenti, the book reminded of Danish writer Sven Hassel's Legion Of The Damned Series (and, in a lesser way, Stephen Crane's The Red Badge Of Courage).

In my defence, I was in my mid-teens when I started reading Hassel, and my memory of his qualities may be faulty.

But I doubt if many readers of Remarque would query my praise of his work.

A remarkable read

"Three Great Wars"

AM returning from a trip to Bavaria, where I stayed at the mountain town of Bischofsgrün.

It is a ski resort in winter, and the focus of several well-waymarked hiking trails especially popular in summer.

One trail, the Bischofsgrün Panormaweg, is rather disappointing as panoramwegs go - it never gains enough height to give extensive views of the surrounding countryside.

But it passes a site of military and historic interest - a former sanatorium that was turned into a military hospital from 1914-20.

Entrance to the part of the grounds used as a cemetery

Memorial near the entrance, which bears the inscription (roughly translated): From 1914-20 the sanatorium was a military hospital. Of the soldiers who died there, 21 were buried in the grounds. The small cemetery was redesigned in 1954 and expanded as a soldiers' memorial by Paul Dürrbeck. Since then it has been a discreet place of pilgrimage to dead soldiers.

A search on the internet reveals Dürrbeck was the chief physician of the sanatorium, and that in 1954 he had a bell-tower memorial erected for the dead of "the three great wars since 1870," ie the Franco-Prussian War, WW1 and WW2.

Bell-tower memorial

The roundel at the bottom of the bell tower appears to list the number of soldiers from the town killed in each of those three wars

A specifically WW2 memorial

"The stone tent of the dead soldiers" (a literal translation that probably does not capture the true spirit of the wording)

Inside the "stone tent" - perhaps "tabernacle" is a less literal but better translation

Visitors, at least those from Germany, are presumably expected to know the identity of "the three great wars since 1870."

It made me wonder what wars would be thought of by other nationalities, given the same wording.

The two world conflicts would be cited by Brits, I am sure, but which would be the third?

Older people would probably name the Korean War, but younger ones might well instead say the Falklands War.

Americans would certainly include WW2, but perhaps the Korean and Vietnam Wars would squeeze out WW1.

Top Notch

I LOVE history, and I love travel, and when a book combines the two, it is usually a winner as far as I am concerned.

But is rare for any book, however good, to make me laugh out loud, but Lewen Weldon's Hard Lying: An Intelligence Officer On The Levantine Shore 1914-19 made me do just that.

Not a promising title, even if Hard Lying has a certain intriguing quality about it

Weldon won the Military Cross for his exploits, mainly concerned with patrolling the east Mediterranean while supervising the gathering of intelligence from behind Turkish lines.

A few extracts will give a flavour of the contents.

"We all turned out early, and not without at least one rather humorous incident. Just alongside my cabin, a lot of hammocks had been slung, in which were sleeping not only Bluejackets [sailors] but also some officers of the Lancashire Fusiliers. Of course, only the Bluejackets turned out on hearing the pipe, and the bos'n, coming along and seeing some men - sailors, as he thought - still lying in their hammocks began to sing out, 'Show a leg there: show a leg.' Seeing no response to his order, he got justly enraged, and, rushing up to the nearest occupied hammock, with another bellow of 'Show a leg,' he gave the unfortunate occupant a hard punch in the back. Whereupon a Marine, who happened to be standing near, called out, 'Look out: that's an officer.' The bos'n gave one horrified glance at the angry face of the Major whom he had punched - and fled."

That is on page 50 of my Eland edition, and another choice paragraph follows 10 pages later.

"There was a custom in the wardroom of tossing with dice for drinks. One evening some of us were doing this when the Admiral came in, and, after looking on for a bit through his eye-glass, turned to the Commander, and said: 'I have a sort of recollection, Jack, that there is some sort of regulation forbidding this.' 'Yes, sir,' replied the Commander, 'but we pay no attention to it in this ship,' and continued to toss."

There is a lot more in this vein, and a lot of much more serious stuff about close contact with the enemy.

The title, Hard Lying, refers, according to the author, to the Royal Navy custom of giving extra pay for hazardous service.

Weldon was one of those who survived such service, and had what contemporaries called "a good war," and he tells a good tale.

Junk Status

I AM in danger of becoming a Mike Lambo junkie.

Yesterday I watched him on YouTube playing three missions from his WW1 book, Assault On Vimy Ridge, starting with a detailed play-through.

He has achieved what I would have thought next-to-impossible - made a trench-warfare simulation compulsive viewing.

Naturally he is playing with counters, but it would work equally well - and look even better, in my view - with miniatures.

Winning A VC By Popular Vote

HAVE you ever heard of someone winning the Victoria Cross by ballot, ie as the result of a vote?
It sounds far-fetched, but apparently it used to happen.
I only found out about it after coming across this striking memorial, to Able Seaman Albert McKenzie, beside Tower Bridge Road in Bermondsey, South London.

He took part in a raid on Zebrugge in German-occupied Belgium in April 1918 in which most of the storming party of which he was a member were killed.
According to Wikipedia, 19-year-old McKenzie "landed with his machine-gun in the face of great difficulties, (accounting) for several of the enemy ... and was severely wounded whilst working his gun in an exposed position."
McKenzie was presented with his VC by George V at Buckingham Palace, only to die later in the year from Spanish Flu.
So far, interesting enough, but not especially remarkable, and there is no mention of there being a ballot before McKenzie was awarded his medal.
However, go to the Wikipedia entry for the Zeebrugge Raid, as opposed to the entry for McKenzie, and this can be found:
"The Zeebrugge Raid was promoted by Allied propaganda as a British victory and ultimately resulted in the awarding of eight Victoria Crosses. The 4th Battalion Royal Marines was awarded the Victoria Cross for the action. Under Rule 13 of the Victoria Cross warrant, a ballot was stipulated [to] select the recipients. Victoria Cross rules specify that four Victoria Crosses should be awarded this way (one to an officer, one to an NCO and two to other ranks) they were not observed and only two Victoria Crosses were awarded. This was the last time that Victoria Crosses were awarded by ballot, although the rule remained within the Victoria Cross warrant. In a mark of respect to those involved in the raid the Royal Marines have never raised another 4th Battalion. A ballot was similarly held for the crews of the assault vessels for the Zeebrugge Mole (Vindictive, Royal Daffodil and Iris II) and the embarked raiding parties. Following the ballot, Victoria Crosses were awarded to Albert Edward McKenzie and Alfred Carpenter."

The Wikipedia entry is slightly confusing, and needs tidying up by someone with more specialist knowledge than myself, but I have checked elsewhere and it seems the VC could - and still can, theoretically - be awarded by a vote of the personnel who took part in an action if it is otherwise extremely difficult to distinguish between the bravery of those involved.