Category Archives: 1914

POEM: – “FOR THE FALLEN” BY LAURANCE BINYON

They shall grow not old as we that are left grow old;

And age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning

We will remember them.

 

4th Aug 1914                At the age of 45 years, Laurence Binyon was too old to enlist

 

23rd Aug/9th Sept ‘14   Battle of Mons and retreat to the Marne by the BEF.

 

Mid Sept 1914             Binyon wrote the poem “For the Fallen”

 

21st Sept 1914              Poem was published in “The Times” newspaper

 

  • Binyon went to the Western Front as a Red Cross medical orderly.

 

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The Royal British Legion has adopted “The Exhortation for the Fallen” for all their Remembrance Parades.

 

 

 

PHOTOGRAPH OF BINYON

 

POEM: – “FOR THE FALLEN” BY LAURENCE BINYON

With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children,

England mourns 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 all 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 condemn.

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 our heavenly plain,

As the stars that are starry in the time of our darkness,

To the end, to the end, they remain.

 

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Robert Laurence Binyon was 45 years of age when the Great War began in 1914; therefore, he was too old to enlist in the military forces. At the time, he worked for the British Museum and in mid September 1914, he wrote his most famous poem whilst sitting on a cliff top looking out to sea on the North Cornwall coastline.

 

In early September 1914, Binyon was inspired to write the poem after hearing of the horrendous casualties to the British Expeditionary Force. The casualties were sustained during the Battle of Mons, the retreat from Mons, the Battle of Le Cateau together with the joint Anglo/French stand against the Germans at the Battle of the Marne.

 

Binyon went to the Western Front in 1916 as a Red Cross medical orderly.

 

 

The forth verse of the poem has been adopted by the Royal British Legion as an Exhortation for the ceremony of Remembrance to commemorate fallen Servicemen and Women. Whenever the “Last Post” is played the “Exhortation” forms part of the proceedings.

 

It is rather ironic that the poem was written at the beginning of the war rather than the end of the war considering the casualties suffered by all combatant nations.

 

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THE BATTLE OF THE AISNE

 

The Allied Forces held the German army at the River Marne, forcing Germany to retreat. The British and French forces were slow to attack the retreating German First and Second Armies, mainly due to exhaustion and caution. The Germans halted their retreat at the Aisne on the 11th September. The German First and Second Armies, (commanded by von Kluck and von Bulow), were joined by the new Seventh Army. (Commander, von Heedingen). On the same day, entrenching began on the Chemin des Dames Ridge, which provided the German with a long and high position from which to conduct their defence. Whenever possible the German army would select the high ground for defence.

 

The French Fifth and Sixth Armies (commanded by d’Esperey and  Maunoury), aided by the British Expeditionary Force (B.E.F. commanded by Sir John French) launched a frontal infantry assault upon the German’s  defensive positions across the river at the Aisne upon their arrival on the 13th September. Most of the B.E.F. crossed the Aisne, on pontoons or partially demolished bridges, during the night of the 13th September.

 

The French Fifth Army crossed the Aisne and captured the Eastern tip of the Chemin des Dames. Louis XV had the ridge named after the Royal coach road built for his daughters. East of the Chemin des Dames, French armies had very little progress beyond the positions reached on the 13th September.

 

The B.E.F. advanced under the cover of the foggy night. As the mist evaporated under the bright morning sun, machine gun fire from the flank decimated their numbers. They were forced to begin digging in after Sir John French ordered the entire B.E.F.  to entrench. Although neither side were not trained for trench warfare, the German Army adopted the system better. The Germans had ample supplies of siege howitzers and trench mortars, plus sufficient shells, which inflicted great losses to the Allied troops. By contrast, Britain had a shortage of heavy artillery and shells, and what they did have was not equal to the German artillery.

 

Establishing a bridgehead north of the river on the14th September, the Allies continued to assault the dug-in German forces on the higher plateau above. Within hours, the Germans had counter-attacked, forcing the Allies back. Germany used her heavy artillery and machine guns to defend her positions, demonstrating the superiority of defensive warfare against the offensive counterpart. Consolidation of the small advances could not be maintained, and by the 18th September, the Allies had scaled back the offensive. It finally became clear, especially by the Allies, the well-entrenched positions of the Germans could not successfully be attacked by direct frontal assault. The French were also finding themselves under increased pressure at Reims.

 

Both armies abandoned frontal assaults, on the 28th September, and began to try to turn the other’s flank. As the Germans aimed for the Allied left flank, the Allies similtaneously aimed for the German right flank. The period became known as the “race for the sea”. The Western Front was now established and stalemate descended

whereby both armies faced each other in trenches with a strip of land between which became “no mans land”.

 

The Western Front became a continuous trench line of approximately 400 miles, stretching from the Belgian channel town of Newport, south into France and eventually turning south east, right up to the Swiss border. By attacking and counter-attacking, the lines of trenches would vary throughout the war. The only Belgian city to stay in Allied hands was Ypres. For political reasons Ypres was required to be held in control by the Belgian/Allied Governments

 

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Battle of the Marne & Aisne

 

 

 

5th Sept 1914 After retreating from Mons, the French reserve infantry troops stumbled      across the forward guard of the German army.

 
9th Sept 1914 The German 1st and 2nd armies were split into two forces by a tactical error of commander von Kluck.

 

A 50km gap opened up, and the Anglo/French forces exploited the error.

 
11th Sept 1914 The Germans were halted and forced to retreat back to the Aisne River.

Entrenching began on the Chemin des Dames Ridge.

 
13th Sept 1914 Anglo/French armies crossed the Aisne and launched an infantry assault on the German defensive positions.

 

BEF were ordered to entrench

 
14th Sept 1914

 

 Anglo/French troops established a bridgehead north of the Aisne.

 

German counter-attack forced the allies back

 
18th Sept 1914 Allies scaled back the offensive as German defences proved too strong

 
28th Sept 1914 Both armies tried to encircle the other in a bid to out-flank their opposition in the “Race to the Sea”

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This established the Western Front from the Channel to the Swiss border.

 

 

 

 

                                                                                                                                   

 

 

 

 

 

 

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First Battle of the Marne

 

 

 

The retreat from Mons, by both the French Army and the British Expeditionary Force ended at the River Marne, approximately 30 miles from Paris.   Faced with a counter-attack along the Marne, the Germans slowed down their advance. The French Military Governor of Paris, General Joseph Gallieni, secured overall command of the B.E.F., after consulting with Lord Kitchener. Gallieni had six thousand French reserve infantry troops transported to the battle by approximately six hundred Paris taxicabs.                 Battle commenced at noon on the 5th September, when the French 6th Army stumbled on the advance guard of the German 1st Army.

 

The British avoided joining the battle until the commander of the German 1st Army, General Alexander von Kluck, made a tactical error on the 9th September 1914. Von Kluck ordered his forces to pursue and over-run the French 6th Army, retreating to the Marne. A 50km gap opened up between the German 1st and 2nd Armies, and the Allied forces quickly attacked the open flanks of both German armies. The combined French 5th Army and the B.E.F. exploited this tactical error.

 

Upon learning about this error, the German Chief of General Staff Helmuth von Moltke suffered a nervous breakdown. His subordinates assumed command of the 1st and 2nd Armies, ordering them to withdraw to the Aisne River.

 

The German retreat, between the 9th to 13th September, effectively caused the abandonment of the Schlieffen Plan. The Schlieffen Plan was designed to by-pass the Allied armies and enter Paris, ensuring France would sue for peace, allowing the German army to concentrate on the Eastern War with Russia. The aftermath of the battle, despite all the enormous efforts by the German forces, had come to nothing.

 

.The Allies were now pursuing the retreating Germans, and forced both sides to dig trenches on the banks of the river Aisne, which was to be the next major engagement

 

 

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THE BEGINNING OF THE WORLDWIDE CONFLICT

One of the reasons for the outbreak of war in 1914 was the petty jealousies for the colonies of the British Empire throughout the world. Protection was required when Germany, along with other European nations, acquired their own colonies globally.

 

The war of 1914 was largely fought out in Europe. However, the conflict encompassed the whole world. The British Empire countries of Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and India were committed to the declaration of war against Germany. Their citizens willingly volunteered to join the fight.

 

Japan had entered the war as Great Britain’s loyal ally. America eventually entered the war on the side of the allies, effectively completing the nations involved in the Great War.

 

AFRICAN THEATRE OF THE GREAT WAR

 

The continent of Africa had been colonised over the years by the British Empire, France, Germany, Belgium, Holland and Portugal.

 

The African Theatre was part of the Great War. Should war break out in Europe, the European colonies in Africa would remain neutral, under the Berlin Conference 1884. An editorial by the “East African Standard” on the 22nd August 1914 argued that Europeans in Africa should not fight each other. Instead, they should collaborate to dominate over the native African population. The British army attacked German held coaling and radio stations in S.W Africa, together with wireless stations elsewhere in Africa. By having control of the radio stations Britain would help clear the seas of German commerce raiders. In S.W, Africa German fusiliers defeated British troops, who retreated to British Territory. The South African army, having put down a rebellion by the Boers, conquered German South-west Africa. British and French forces invaded the German colony of Togoland in West Africa on the 7th August 1914 and Germany finally surrendered on the 26th August 1914. British forces attacked German troops at the Battle of Tere near Garva on the 25th August, eventually resulting in a German withdrawal. Fighting in Africa continues into 1918.

 

THE BATTLE OF CORONEL

 

Naval warfare was to form a part of the war. Admiral Graf Maximillian von Spee of the German East Asiatic squadron was operating in the Pacific Oceon. Spee had devised a plan to prey upon all shipping in the crucial trading routes off the west coast of South America. In early October 1914, the British had intercepted a radio communication giving details of the plan. The British West Indies Squadron, under the command of Admiral Cradock, patrolling South America, was ordered to deal with the problem.

 

Admiral Spee’s naval force consisted of five modern efficient armoured and light cruisers, whereas Admiral Sir Christopher Cradock had four not so modern cruisers. Hoping for reinforcements from Britain, Cradock waited in the Falkland Islands. When the reinforcements failed to appear, Cradock proceeded to meet up with the light cruiser “Glasgow” at Coronel. “Glasgow” had been despatched there to gather intelligence reports. Spee, with all his war ships, set out to destroy “Glasgow” after having heard she was patrolling alone. In the meantime, Cradock had ordered his squadron to adopt an attacking formation.

 

One message, sent by Winston Churchill, the First Lord of the Admiralty, ordered Cradock to halt any confrontation, pending any possible reinforcements from the Japanese navy. Whether Cradock received this message, no one actually knows.

 

Cradock had received an intercepted   radio signal, on the 31st October 1914, to say the German light cruiser “Leipzig” was in Cradock’s area. Promptly he ordered his squadron to intercept, and on the 1st November 1914, he encountered Spee’s entire force. Instead of retreating against superior opposition, Cradock decided to engage the Germans. However, he did order his converted ex liner “Ortanto” to break away and retreat. Spee’s reaction to this confrontation with the British was to move his squadron out of Cradock’s firing range. Spee proceeded to shell Cradock’s force and crippling the flagship “Good Hope”. Both armoured cruisers “Monmouth“and “Good Hope” were destroyed. Cradock drowned when he his ship went down and there were not any survivors of the two warships. Spee’s own fleet had suffered little damage and sailed for the German naval base in Chile. Two British ships “Glasgow” and “Ortanto” escaped.

 

Once the news had been received, the British Admiralty despatched a huge naval force under the command of Admiral Sir Frederick Sturdee. This fleet was designated to destroy Spee’s force when the two sides engaged at the Battle of the Falkland Islands.

 

 

THE BATTLE OF THE FALKLANDS ISLANDS

 

Speeding toward Port Stanley, in the Falkland Islands, Admiral Graf Maximillian von Spee was keen to raid the British radio station and coaling depot. Spee was keen to add the Falkland Islands to his credit after his East Adriatic Squadron success at defeating the British at the Battle of Coronel.

 

Britain’s First Sea Lord, Sir John Fisher, had ordered a squadron to the Falklands in order to reverse the defeat at Coronel.

 

Admiral Sir Frederick Sturdee was the commander of the British Fleet. The fleet was moored up, and re-coaling in Port Stanley. Spee commenced his attack on the 8th December 1914 and missed the opportunity strike the British fleet whilst still at dock. Realising the danger to his squadron Spee made a dash for the open sea but the British soon pursued.  Spee brought about an engagement, in the early afternoon, knowing he could not out-run the more powerful British cruisers. The cruiser “Invincible”, commanded by Edward Bingham had damage inflicted by the German cruisers “Scharnhorst”and “Geneienau”, who resumed a hasty escape. Sturdee was able to bring his cruisers within extreme firing range. Four of the five German cruisers were sunk, “Scharnhorst”, “Geneienau”, “Nurmburg” and “Leipzig”. Only one German cruiser, “Dresden” escaped but by March 1915 it’s captain surrendered and scuttled her off the Juan Fernandez Islands.

 

The British lost 10 sailors killed and minimal damage to “Invincible”. However, 2200 German sailors lost their lives together with the loss of four warships.

 

The success, by Sturdee, was a morale booster and complete reversal for the set-back at Coronel. As a result, German commerce raiding ceased until the introduction of the submarine at a later stage of the war.

 

 

 

Resources:-

 

Taylor, A.J.P., The First World War, George Rainbird Limited, London.

Wikipedia, African Theatre of World War 1, the free encyclopaedia.

Wikipedia, The Battle of Coronel 1914.

Wikipedia, The battle of the Falkland Islands, 1914.

Timeline

THE GREAT WAR – 1914

 

 

June 28th                    Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand at Sarajevo

 

July 28th                     Austria declares war on Serbia

 

Aug 1st                       Germany declares war on Russia

 

Aug 2nd                       Moltke appointed commander of German Armies

 

Aug 3rd                       Germany declares war on France

 

Aug 4th                        Germany invades Belgium

 

Aug 4th                        Britain declares war on Germany

 

Aug 4th                        Sir John French appointed commander of the B.E.F

 

Aug 7th – 16th              B.E.F. lands in France

 

Aug 21st                      Ludendorff apptd. Chief of Staff of the 8th Army

 

Aug 22nd                     Hindenburg appointed commander of the 8th Army

 

Aug 23rd                      Battle of Mons

 

Aug 24th                      Main German army enter France

 

Aug 28th – 30th            Battle of Tannenberg

 

Aug – Nov                  1st campaign in East Africa

 

Sept 5th – 10th              1st battle of Marne – German invasion halted

 

Sept 6th – 15th              Battle of Masurian Lakes

 

Sept 9th – 12th              Battle of Lemberg

 

11th Sept                      Battle of the Aisne

 

Sept 14th                      Moltke resigns, succeeded by Falkenhayn

 

Sept 15th                      1st trenches dug

 

Mid Sept                     Laurence Binyon wrote the poem “For the Fallen”

 

Sept 17th/Oct 18th        Race to the sea

 

21st Sept                      Poem “For the Fallen” was published in “The                                                                       Times” newspaper

 

Oct                              Allied army conquest of German S.W. Africa

 

Nov 1st                         Battle of Coronel

 

Nov 2nd                        Russia declares war on Turkey

 

Nov 6th                         Britain and France declare war on Turkey

 

Nov 11th – early Dec.   Germans push Russia further East

 

Dec 2nd                         Austro-Hungarians capture Belgrade

 

Dec 8th                          Battle of Falkland Islands

 

Dec 11th                        Serbians recapture Belgrade

 

Dec 25th                        Christmas Truce in some parts of the front

 

 

Note!

 

Red text indicates British involvement

 

Black text indicates other theatres of war

June

EVENTS LEADING UP TO THE GREAT WAR

 

The Franco-Prussian War, of 1871, ended with the defeat of France, who was forced to hand over her Eastern provinces of Alsace and Lorraine. This war was the prelude to a period of hostility in Europe that was to last until the end of the Second World War in 1945. In the European summer of 1914, two great European alliances found themselves in a state of fury against each other. The initial main protagonists were Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire on the one side, and France, the British Empire and Russia on the other. Against the backdrop of plumed and helmeted Emperors and Generals, both sides possessed, by way of machine guns and high explosive artillery, weapons of terrible destruction. The origins of this war lay in the complicated cocktail of greed, fears, prejudices and misunderstandings of the early 1900’s. In 1914, Europe was still widely perceived as the financial, cultural and political centre of the world. The major European powers, however, were engaged in an arms race. Each was trying to acquire colonial possessions in the under-developed world.

 

In the late 19th Century, Bismarck had forged modern Germany out of a collection of smaller nation states and in doing so had upset the balance of power in Europe. Using her strengthening industrial power, she had built up both an army and navy of formidable size and capability. The two former players, France and Russia, concerned at Germany’s intentions formed a defensive alliance in 1894. Great Britain, alarmed at the German navy’s potential threat to the British domination of the world’s shipping routes aligned herself with France, whose fear of German aggression was nourished by her yearning for the return of the lost provinces of Alsace and Lorraine. Russia, with its population of 125 million had a vast resource of manpower and massive landmasses, but she lacked the technological skills and an industrialised state. In 1879, Germany and Austria-Hungary had signed the dual alliance to help each other should the other be attacked.

 

Within this background of alliances stood two faltering empires, the glories of the Turkish Empire, now widely recognised as the sick man of Europe, were already only a memory. The Austro-Hungarian Empire consisted of a ramshackle collection of states in the South of Europe. Austria-Hungary was particularly suspicious of the independent country of Serbia, who she saw as the effective leader of an international Slav terrorist movement. This was fermenting unrest between the 23 million Serbs living in the Empires’ territory. By 1914, the tensions in Europe had reached a dangerous level and, the very alliances, formed to protect the peace, now sucked the great nations of Europe into war.

 

Now we must turn to the Balkans. The Turkish Empire was disintegrating, and Russia confronted Austria-Hungary, the ally of Germany, the other power seeking to move into her area of interest. Here in this cauldron, with their different nationalities, religions, and languages, an incident in a city called Sarajevo set alight the tinderbox and the world went to war. The Archduke Franz Ferdinand was the nephew and heir of Emperor Franz Joseph who had ruled the Austro-Hungarian Empire since 1848. Ferdinand had chosen the 28th June 1914 to visit Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia, and a part of his uncles’ empire. In Sarajevo that day, several young revolutionaries had come for assassinating the Archduke. One of these, a 19-year-old tuberculoid student called Gavrillo Principp was sitting in a café when the Archdukes’ car took a wrong turning and had to reverse back past him. Principp, seizing this historic opportunity fired two shots at 5 yards range, killing both the Archduke and his wife Sophie. These two fatal shots were the opening salvo of the Great War.

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August 4th

NOTIFICATIONS OF A STATE OF WAR

His Majesty’s Government informed the German Government on August 4th, 1914, that, unless a satisfactory reply to the request of His Majesty’s Government for an assurance that Germany would respect the neutrality of Belgium was received by midnight of that day, His Majesty’s Government would feel bound to take all steps in their power to uphold that neutrality and the observance of a treaty to which Germany was as much a party as Great Britain.

The result of this communication having been that His Majesty’s Ambassador at Berlin had to ask for his passports, His Majesty’s Government have accordingly formally notified the German Government that a state of war exists between the two countries as from 11 p.m. to-day.

Foreign Office

August 4th, 1914

Published in London Gazette of August 7th, 1914