News from the Front - 22nd February 2023
The weekly newsletter from from 1914-1918 - The First World War.
News from the Front exists to share great stories and interesting historical aspects of the First World War
One anniversary
On February 26th, 1915, the Germans attempted to break through French trenches with a newish weapon; the Flammenwerfer or flamethrower.
The German army had experimented with flamethrowers in the early 1900s, initially as defensive weapons for use in sieges, and had developed two models, imaginatively called the Grossflammenwerfer and the Kleinflammenwerfer, the big and small flame thrower. These weapons used pressurised containers to jet burning oil in the direction of the enemy. The smaller, man portable, version could project flames as far as 18 metres, while the larger, fixed position version, could double this range. During the war, a specialised detachment was created to train with, and develop tactics for, the use of the weapon for offensive purposes.
The first concerted attempt to use the new tactics took place near Malancourt, against the French, at a point where the trench systems were within 40 metres of each other. As Bernhard Reddemann, commander of “Flamethrower Squad Reddemann” wrote after the event.
“It was an immediately success when at the designated moment twelve streams of flames roar with loud hissing behind the enemies parapet. Loud screams of pain among the enemies on the other side. Who wasn’t set on fire jumps backwards and out of the trench. Headless they run across country without cover. There is no time to retreat through the connecting trenches. Just away, away from the horrible flames! They leave all behind, even their rifles! Unconcerned about the fire from the machine guns of our infantry they run across the open field. This is by far not so bad as the cruel death by burning. The prisoners had all been completely confused. An officer among them said: C’était l’enfer!‘ …’This was Hell!’ … after this excellent attack the flamethrowers received a lot of appreciation from all sides.”
The impact of the flamethrower is borne out by a later account by Louis Barthas, a French soldier, from the summer of 1915 of what it was like to be on the receiving end of a flamethrower attack.
“But what is this? Has hell opened up under our feet? Are we right at the rim of a furious volcano? The trench is filled with flames, with sparks, with bitter smoke, the air is unbreathable. I hear hissing, crackling, and alas, yes, the cries of pain.”
However, it was not all one-way traffic, flamethrower operators tended to be targeted by mass rifle fire and were unlikely to be taken prisoner if they tried to surrender. They were also subject to the ever-present danger that their equipment might explode, killing them and those around them in the subsequent inferno.
One news story
A rare German naval gun has been restored and displayed in the Scapa Flow Museum located in Stromness, Orkney. The trophy weapon, which was taken from the SMS Bremse, had been displayed in the open air and was in need of restoration. Now, fully restored, the gun is on display to the public once again.
The SMS Bremse was a minelaying light cruiser belonging to the Brummer class of the German navy. Launched on 11 March 1916, she served alongside her sister ship SMS Brummer and was involved in a successful convoy attack in the North Sea. The ambush resulted in the sinking of two destroyers, followed by the sinking of nine merchantmen.
After the armistice in November 1918, Bremse was among the many ships interned at Scapa Flow. During the scuttling of the German High Seas Fleet at Scapa Flow, a British naval party attempted to board Bremse and close her bottom valves. However, they discovered that there was too much water onboard, so to stop the ship from sinking, they cut the anchor chains and towed her towards the beach, hoping to ground her. They managed to ground her bow on the beach south of Cava, but the steep slope caused her stern to sink deeper in the water, causing her to capsize.
The ship was salvaged in 1929 and remains one of only five examples in the UK.
One from the archives
This week’s “one from the archives” is actually an archive. The picture shows the record cards compiled, and still held, by the International Committee of the Red Cross in Geneva.
The records shown in the picture were compiled during the First World War and represent the ICRC’s attempts to catalogue the details of Prisoners of War during the Great War.
The Agency's archive comprises records of around two million prisoners from different parts of the world and contains about six million cards. It includes 14 country indexes, covering American, Austro-Hungarian, Brazilian, British, Bulgarian, Franco-Belgian, German, Greek, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, and Turkish nationalities. The records also contain information about military personnel and civilians from colonies, like Senegal and India, and European regions, particularly Czech and Polish provinces of the German, Austro-Hungarian, and Russian empires.
The ICRC negotiated with the combatant nations about exchanging of information on individual prisoners and gathered lists of those who were captured or relocated to different camps. The committee also responded to requests for information from relatives trying to find out what happened to missing loved ones.
If you ever get a chance to visit Geneva, the ICRC’s headquarters and (free) museum are opposite the UN building and are a fascinating, if somewhat depressing, day out.
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