News from the Front - 3rd May 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.
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One anniversary
Sinking of the Lusitania
On the 7th May 1915, the German submarine U-20, commanded by Kapitänleutnant Walther Schwieger, closed in on the RMS Lusitania and fired a single torpedo at the defenceless British liner. The attack became one of the most notable losses of civilian life during the Great War and represented another step on the process by which American public opinion shifted towards intervention in the war.
The Lusitania sailed from New York on the 1st May 1915, heading towards Liverpool, England. Passengers were warned of the risks of travel, not least by the German Embassy, which took out adverts in the The New York Times, and a host of other newspapers, saying,
“TRAVELLERS intending to embark on the Atlantic voyage are reminded that a state of war exists between Germany and her allies and Great Britain and her allies; that the zone of war includes the waters adjacent to the British Isles; that, in accordance with formal notice given by the Imperial German Government, vessels flying the flag of Great Britain, or any of her allies, are liable to destruction in those waters and that travellers sailing in the war zone on the ships of Great Britain or her allies do so at their own risk.
IMPERIAL GERMAN EMBASSY”
The Lusitania had an uneventful journey and was nearing the coast of Ireland when at 1245h, her funnels were spotted in the distance by the German submarine. U-20 tracked her target, at first on the surface and then, at 1325h, proceeding submerged. At 1410h, a single torpedo was fired from a range of around 700 metres, hitting the starboard (right) side of the ocean liner. Later on, Schwieger recalled what he saw when the ship was struck
“Torpedo hits starboard side right behind the bridge. An unusually heavy detonation takes place with a very strong explosive cloud. The explosion of the torpedo must have been followed by a second one [boiler or coal or powder?]... The ship stops immediately and heels over to starboard very quickly, immersing simultaneously at the bow... the name Lusitania becomes visible in golden letters.”
The Lusitania, listing heavily, took just 18 minutes to sink beneath the waves. Due to problems launching lifeboats, panic on board and the speed of the catastrophe, the death toll was high with 1,198 of the 1,959 passengers and crew on board being lost, including 128 American citizens. Over the following days, as bodies began to wash ashore, the Cunard company offered a reward to merchants and fishermen for each body brought ashore, but only 289 bodies were ever recovered. The New York Times carried a quote from Gilbert Parker, the British propagandist, that this event was a “most inhumane crime committed by an inhumane nation which has placed itself outside the bounds of civilisation.”
But this wasn’t the end of the tale.
After the sinking, the Germans justified the action, stating that it was within their terms of engagement, that the ship was carrying munitions and was therefore a fair target. There were, in fact, were over 4 million rounds of rifle ammunition and some quantities of artillery shell cases and fuses on board, but this was ignored by the British, who were keen to emphasise the loss of innocent lives.
Then, in August 1915, a German sculptor created a medal to commemorate the sinking. Intended as an attack on the Cunard Liner company for foolishly continuing to profit from ticket sales after Germany had declared unrestricted submarine warfare, the medal depicted the ship sinking on one side, and on the other side, a skeleton selling tickets under a banner saying “Business before everything”. Produced in a limited run of 500 medals, that might have been the end of it, but photographs of the medal found their way into the American press, causing widespread outrage, especially as the story was told that these were medals presented to the crew of the U-boat; another example of German “frightfulness.”
Keen to influence public opinion, the British (sub-contracting the work to Selfridges department store, so it didn’t look like a propaganda effort) struck their own copy of the medal and, capitalising on the outrage, sold around 300,000 of them in aid of St Dunstan’s Blinded Soldier’s and Sailor’s Hostel and the Red Cross.
One news story
The Seine-Nord Canal will impact Great War battlefields
The Seine-Nord Canal project is a five billion euro project to connect the canals at Compiègne, in the Oise, to Aubencheul-au-Bac, in the North. The project is a part of extending the inland waterways network within Europe and will be completed by 2030.
The route of the canal will run through some of the Great War’s battlefields and will pass by Cambrai, St Quentin and Peronne. During the work, it is expected that large amounts of munitions will be discovered and construction staff, and project archaeologists, have been trained by local bomb-disposal experts to identify potentially dangerous objects.
It is also expected that soldiers’ remains will be found during the excavations and will need to be buried. In fact, the Commonwealth War Graves Commission is already expanding a cemetery to handle the expected influx of graves that will be required.
One from the archives
The Leaning Virgin
This week’s one from the archives is taken from the History of the 72nd Battalion Seaforth Highlanders of Canada and shows Albert Cathedral on the Somme. The picture is notable as the cathedral shows the statue of the Madonna and Child, leaning at an almost horizontal angle, after being struck by a German shell on the 15th January 1915. The statue was to remain at that unlikely angle, secured by chains fastened to stop it crashing down for much of the war.
The sculpture, known as The Golden Virgin (or later, the Leaning Virgin) was created in 1897 by the sculpture Albert Roze, and during the war, because of its damage became subject to legends concocted by both sides. Some said that “When the Virgin falls, the war will end”, others said that whichever side actually knocked it down would lose the war. This turned out to be untrue as, in 1918, after the Germans had occupied the town of Albert, the British shelled the tower so that it could not be used as an observation post, bringing the tower and the statue to the ground.
The statue disappeared at this stage, but was recreated in 1929 and placed back on top of the reconstructed cathedral. At the time, there was some discussion about whether to affix it upright or at its famous wartime angle, but the decision was taken that the statue should be upright, presumably as this was a little more dignified for the Virgin Lady!
One survey
I want to ask you a question. This project was born back during the Great War centenary when I created a twitter feed to “live tweet” the events of the war 100 years on. This Substack newsletter was spun out of that work.
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One request
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