WOMEN AS ARMY SURGEONS
CONTENTS INTRODUCTION THE PHOTO BOOK KRIEG DEM KRIEGE! HEROISM ALONE WAR AND THE INDIVIDUAL WHO WAS THE ENEMY? THE SOLDIER AS ‘HERO’ VICTIMS AND PERPETRATORS THE DEAD OF THE EASTERN FRONT AND THE CIVILIAN VICTIMS ANIMAL SUFFERING ATROCITY PROPAGANDA THE WAR AT SEA AND IN THE AIR THE MISERY WAS UNIVERSAL 1 BATTLE INTRODUCTION 1914–18: THE CASUALTIES 2 BODY CONDITIONS IN THE TRENCHES DISEASE WOUNDS 3 MIND FROM HEALTH TO NEUROSIS NEUROSIS 4 AID FROM WOUNDING TO AID POST FROM FIRST AID TO HOSPITAL THE FIELD HOSPITAL THE BASE HOSPITAL TOO MANY WOUNDED, TOO LITTLE HELP COMPLICATIONS IS SURVIVAL A BLESSING? MEDICAL EXPERIMENTS MEDICAL AID AND MILITARY NECESSITY MILITARY PSYCHIATRY IN SUMMARY: THE CHARACTER OF MILITARY MEDICINE 5 DEATH DEATH OUTSIDE OF BATTLE DEATH IN BATTLE MEETINGS WITH DEATH BURIAL IN WARTIME AFTERWORD FRIEDRICH HAD CHOSEN THEM PRECISELY BECAUSE THEY WERE REPULSIVE, AND IN ANY CASE THE ENTIRE 1914–18 WAR HAD BEEN REPULSIVE MANY PEOPLE, INCLUDING THE HISTORIAN JAY WINTER, HAVE ARGUED THAT SINCE THE PHOTOGRAPHS IN FRIEDRICH’S BOOK WERE ‘ALMOST UNBEARABLE TO LOOK AT’ THEY 1 VERDOORN, ARTS EN OORLOG, 2 DAY LEWIS, COLLECTED POEMS, 3 HOLMES, FIRING LINE, BEFORE MY HELPLESS SIGHT THE PEACE ACTIVISTS OF THE INTER-WAR PERIOD ENDORSED FRIEDRICH’S VIEW THAT HIS PHOTOGRAPHS SHOWED PEOPLE THE TRUTH ABOUT WAR BUT WAS THAT IN FACT THE CASE? DO PHOTOGRAPHS OF MEN MAIMED IN BATTLE GIVE THE LIE TO ALL OUR STORIES ABOUT THE HEROISM OF MILITARY COMBAT AND THE ETERNAL COMRADESHIP BORN OUT OF IT? SIMPLY SHOWING THE GRUESOME RESULTS OF WARFARE, CONCENTRATING OUR ATTENTION SOLELY ON ITS VICTIMS, GIVES A DISTORTED VIEW INDEED WAR HAS SO MANY FACES THAT ANY SINGLE IMAGE IS A DISTORTION IT IS PERFECTLY POSSIBLE TO SELECT WAR PHOTOGRAPHS IN WHICH NOTHING IS HAPPENING, WITH NO SIGN OF CONFLICT AT ALL BEHIND SUCH PICTURES, HOWEVER, LIES ANOTHER STORY: AN ABANDONED, TOTALLY EMPTY BATTLEFIELD – SO TYPICAL OF MODERN WARFARE BUT ESPECIALLY OF THE FIRST WORLD WAR, IN WHICH MANY MEN KILLED OR WERE KILLED WITHOUT EVER SEEING AN ENEMY COMBATANT7 – IS A HORRIFYING SIGHT TO A FIGHTING MAN, A CONTRIBUTORY FACTOR IN THE PSYCHIATRIC PROBLEMS SUFFERED BY SOLDIERS 8 THE MENTAL SUFFERING AND PHYSICAL PAIN OF MEN IN BATTLE, WHICH COME TO THE FORE IN THIS 4 WINTER, SITES OF MEMORY, 161; LIDDLE & CECIL, FACING ARMAGEDDON, 5 ADDISON & CALDER, TIME TO KILL, 8 HOLMES, FIRING LINE, WOMEN AS ARMY SURGEONS INTRODUCTION BOOK, ARE ONLY ONE ASPECT OF MODERN WARFARE, BUT IT IS AN IMPORTANT ASPECT, AND ONE THAT HAS RECEIVED LESS ATTENTION THAN IT IS DUE HEROISM ALONE OWEN AND FRIEDRICH WERE REACTING AGAINST THE TIME-HONOURED STORY PORTRAYED IN BATTLE PAINTINGS, WITH OCCASIONAL EXCEPTIONS SUCH AS GOYA’S DESASTROS DE LA GUERRA IT IS A STORY TOLD IN OUR OWN TIME BY THE VAST MAJORITY OF WAR FILMS,9 IN WHICH THE HEROISM OF WAR IS MAGNIFIED WHILE THE HORRORS ARE DELIBERATELY VEILED SHOULD ANYONE DIE – A FILM’S LEADING CHARACTERS ARE RARELY KILLED – AND SHOULD HE AFTERWARDS APPEAR ON SCREEN, HE IS LIKELY TO BE FULLY INTACT IN DEATH HEADLESS OR CASTRATED CORPSES, BURNED OR PUTREFYING BODIES, INTESTINES HANGING OUT OF STOMACHS AND SEVERED ARMS OR LEGS ARE NOTABLY ABSENT FROM WAR FILMS THE SINGLE LEG SUSPENDED HIGH IN A TREE IN MAMETZ WOOD, ‘WITH ITS TORN FLESH HANGING DOWN OVER A SPRAY OF LEAF’, WHICH WYN GRIFFITH SAW BEFORE HIM FOR THE REST OF HIS LIFE,10 WILL NOT BE ENCOUNTERED IN MOST WAR FILMS NEITHER WILL THE PUTREFYING CORPSES PROSTRATE IN A TRENCH IN A FIRST WORLD WAR PHOTOGRAPH WITH WHICH, TO THE GREAT DISPLEASURE OF HIS SERGEANT, A FRIEND OF MINE DECORATED HIS LOCKER DURING HIS MILITARY SERVICE IN THE 1960S THE SAME GOES FOR BOOTS WITH FEET STILL IN THEM, DESCRIBED BY BOTH THE ENGLISHMAN EDMUND BLUNDEN AND THE GERMAN HANS SCHETTER 11 ALTHOUGH CATEGORIZED AS WAR FILMS, WAR IS NOT THEIR SUBJECT A WOUNDED CHARACTER IS LIKELY TO HAVE SUFFERED NOTHING WORSE THAN A BULLET IN THE SHOULDER OR LEG APPLY A SLING OR A SPLINT AND THE ACTION CAN CONTINUE TO A SECOND, LESS NUMEROUS CATEGORY BELONG FILMS LIKE SAVING PRIVATE RYAN (1998) FULL OF EXTREMELY REALISTIC IMAGES, THEY NEVERTHELESS HELP TO REVIVE THE MYTH THAT WARS ARE FOUGHT TO COMBAT TYRANNY AND OPPRESSION, AND THAT THOSE WHO GO INTO BATTLE – IN THIS CASE AMERICANS TO A MAN – SACRIFICE THEMSELVES WILLINGLY ON THE ALTAR OF FREEDOM SPIELBERG’S FILM BELONGS TO THE SAME DISAGREEABLE TRADITION AS, FOR EXAMPLE, STOßTRUPP 1917 (GERMANY, 1934): REALISTICALLY FILMED; MYTHOLOGICAL IN CONTENT THIS INTERMEDIARY FORM BRINGS US TO A THIRD CATEGORY OF FILMS, THOSE THAT PRESENT A FAR MORE REALISTIC IMAGE OF WAR, SHOWING THE FILTH, THE DESTRUCTION, THE MADNESS, THE LIES, THE OVERBLOWN PATHOS THEY ARE CALLED ANTI-WAR FILMS, ALTHOUGH SOME DELIBERATELY LEAVE OPEN THE POSSIBILITY THAT OTHER WARS MAY HAVE BEEN LARGELY HEROIC OR HUMANE AND SO MIGHT MORE ACCURATELY BE DESCRIBED AS ‘ANTI-THIS-PARTICULAR-WAR FILMS’ AFTER LISTENING TO THEIR PARENTS’ STORIES AND WATCHING SUCCESSFUL MOVIES LIKE ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT, SOLDIERS OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR WERE ABLE TO ANTICIPATE THE TECHNOLOGICAL HORRORS THAT AWAITED THEM, YET MOST WERE CONVINCED 9 HOLMES, FIRING LINE, 62–3, 10 HOLMES, WAR WALKS, 141; WINTER, DEATH’S MEN, 249; HOLMES & DE VOS, LANGS DE VELDEN VAN EER, 11 BLUNDEN, UNDERTONES OF WAR, 71; MACDONALD, TO THE LAST MAN, AMONG A SURFEIT OF WARTIME HORRORS FROM THE LATE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY ONWARDS, THE FIRST WORLD WAR IS UNIQUE ONLY IN THAT IT WAS THE FIRST IN WHICH GREAT INDUSTRIAL POWERS FOUGHT ON BOTH SIDES THE INDIVIDUAL WAS LOST IN A MAELSTROM OF MODERN, INDUSTRIALIZED WARFARE THE WAR OF 1914–18 WAS THE FIRST IN WHICH MACHINE-GUNS, TANKS, GAS, AIRCRAFT AND FLAME-THROWERS WERE DEPLOYED ON A MASSIVE SCALE IT WAS ALSO THE FIRST IN WHICH THE TELEPHONE, ALTHOUGH IT OFTEN FAILED AT CRUCIAL MOMENTS, ALLOWED SENIOR OFFICERS TO OPERATE FROM SAFETY BEHIND THE LINES THE PROVERBIAL BOND 12 ADDISON & CALDER, TIME TO KILL, 36; HYNES, SOLDIERS’ TALE, 108; KESTER, ‘HET (ON)GEWAPEND OOG’, 5–25, 13 WHETHER IT IS POSSIBLE TO SPEAK OF HUMANE OR EVEN HEROIC MILITARY EXPLOITS BEFORE THE REVOLUTIONARY AND NAPOLEONIC WARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY DEPENDS OF COURSE ON HOW WE DEFINE THESE TERMS BUT WITH THE POSSIBLE EXCEPTION OF RELIGIOUS CONFLICTS, THE MISERY INFLICTED BY THE WARS OF THE NINETEENTH AND TWENTIETH CENTURIES WAS VASTLY GREATER 14 AN ARMY IS THE LARGEST UNIT OF THE ARMED FORCES IT IS COMPOSED AS FOLLOWS: A SECTION CONSISTS OF 15 MEN; A PLATOON OF 60; A COMPANY, LED BY A CAPTAIN, OF 250–300; A BATTALION (MAJOR) OF 1,000; A REGIMENT (COLONEL) OF 2,000; A BRIGADE (BRIGADIER-GENERAL) OF 4,000; A DIVISION (MAJOR-GENERAL) OF 12,000; AN ARMY CORPS (LIEUTENANT-GENERAL) OF 50,000; AND AN ARMY (GENERAL) OF 200,000 IN THEORY, THAT IS IN PRACTICE, AND ESPECIALLY IF A CONFLICT IS LENGTHY, THE NUMBERS MAY WELL BE SMALLER 15 HYNES, SOLDIERS’ TALE, IT IS STRIKING THAT IN THE YEARS 1914–18 THE DISCIPLINING OF COMMONWEALTH TROOPS – CANADIANS, AUSTRALIANS AND NEW ZEALANDERS – DID NOT ASSUME ANYTHING 16 FUSSELL, BLOODY GAME, 17 ADDISON & CALDER, TIME TO KILL, 18 AUDOIN-ROUZEAU, 14–18 LES COMBATTANTS, 19 MANNING, HER PRIVATES WE, 20 WHALEN, BITTER WOUNDS, THIS BOOK FOCUSES ON THE INDIVIDUAL SOLDIER, SO STRATEGY AND TACTICS RECEIVE LESS ATTENTION THAN IN MOST ACCOUNTS THE NAMES OF PROMINENT GENERALS AND FIELD- MARSHALS LIKE VON FALKENHAYN, VON HINDENBURG, LUDENDORFF, HAIG, PLUMER, JOFFRE, NIVELLE AND PÉTAIN ARE CONSPICUOUS BY THEIR ABSENCE HEATED DEBATES HAVE ARISEN ABOUT THEIR STRATEGIC AND TACTICAL THINKING WERE THEY BUTCHERS WHO DELIBERATELY SACRIFICED HUMAN LIVES? OR DID THEY FEEL GENUINE COMPASSION FOR THE MEN WHO DIED AS A RESULT OF THE TACTICS THEIR LEADERS WERE FORCED TO ADOPT? SOME REGARD THE GENERALS AS FOOLS RESPONSIBLE FOR AN ENDLESS SERIES OF BLUNDERS, MEN WHO REFUSED TO HAVE ANY EMPATHY FOR, OR DID NOT EVEN BOTHER TO INFORM THEMSELVES ABOUT, THE CIRCUMSTANCES IN WHICH MEN HAD TO CARRY OUT THEIR ORDERS OTHERS REGARD THEM AS CAPABLE MILITARY LEADERS WHO, FROM A MILITARY POINT OF VIEW, MADE PROPER USE OF THE MEANS AT THEIR DISPOSAL AND TOOK DECISIONS WHICH, FOR ALL THE CONSEQUENT BLOODSHED, WERE NECESSARY FOR THE ACHIEVEMENT OF FINAL VICTORY 24 THESE QUESTIONS ARE OF LITTLE IMPORTANCE TO THE SUBJECT UNDER DISCUSSION HERE NEITHER THE GENERALS, NOR ORDINARY SOLDIERS, NOR ‘THE CIRCUMSTANCES’ WERE PRIMARILY RESPONSIBLE FOR THE DEBACLE THE BLAME LIES WITH WAR, A MORE OR LESS AUTONOMOUS PROCESS THAT NEVER 21 WINTER, DEATH’S MEN, 48, 26 BARTHAS, CARNETS, 360; ELLIS, EYE-DEEP, 197–8; WILSON, MYRIAD FACES, 358; BOURKE, DISMEMBERING THE MALE, 27 BRANTS, PLASJE BLOED, 28 WILSON, MYRIAD FACES, 29 MURRAY, ‘WEST AT WAR’, 30 WINTER & BAGGETT, 1914–18, 210; KEEGAN, HISTORY OF WARFARE, 313, 31 SIMKINS, WORLD WAR I, PERSONAL ACCOUNTS BY GRAVES AND OTHERS DID NOT PREVENT THE THOUSANDS OF ANONYMOUS SOLDIERS WHO IMPLEMENTED THE GENERALS’ STRATEGY AND TACTICS, THE MEN WHO SUFFERED AS A RESULT OF THE PLANS OF THE HIGH COMMAND, ALL TOO OFTEN BEING FORGOTTEN AMID A WEALTH OF DETAIL ABOUT THE MACHINATIONS OF NAMED STAFF OFFICERS, JUST AS IN MANY WAR DOCUMENTARIES THE FEATURES OF A WEAPON ARE TREATED AS IF THEY WERE AN END IN THEMSELVES, ITS QUALITIES EXTOLLED AT THE EXPENSE OF ANY CONSIDERATION OF ITS EFFECTS ON THE HUMAN BODY TO OVERSTATE THE IMPORTANCE OF STRATEGY AND TACTICS, COMRADESHIP AND COURAGE, AND UNDERSTATE THE HORRORS BY GIVING A QUICK SUMMARY OF THE NUMBERS OF DEAD AND WOUNDED IN A FEW FINAL PARAGRAPHS, QUITE OFTEN LEAVING THE SICK OUT OF ACCOUNT ALTOGETHER, IS LIKEWISE TO DO AN INJUSTICE TO THOSE WHO FOUGHT AND DIED NO WONDER SIMKINS’ BELIEF THAT TO LOOK ONLY AT THE HORRORS IS TO FALL PREY TO DISTORTION IS NOT SHARED BY ALL HISTORIANS JOHN ELLIS, FOR EXAMPLE, WROTE IN A BOOK TO WHICH HE GAVE THE EXPRESSIVE TITLE EYE-DEEP IN HELL THAT WE MUST NEVER FORGET THAT THIS WAR WAS UNPARALLELED IN ITS CRUELTY AND SUFFERING, NO MATTER HOW HEART- WARMING ITS COMRADESHIP, HOW ADMIRABLE ITS DEEDS OF COURAGE AND SELF-SACRIFICE, HOW IMPRESSIVE ITS LITERARY TESTIMONY BOOKS MUST INDEED BE WRITTEN ABOUT THESE UPLIFTING QUALITIES, HE SAYS, BUT THE SOLDIERS WILL HAVE DIED FOR NOTHING IF WE FAIL TO EMPHASIZE THAT THE WESTERN FRONT WAS A FOUR-YEAR NIGHTMARE ‘OF FILTH, DECAY, NOISE, BLOOD AND DEATH’ SUCH AS HAD NEVER BEEN SEEN BEFORE IT WAS A WAR IN WHICH MEN FOUGHT ‘FOR REASONS THEY HARDLY UNDERSTOOD, FOR A FUTURE THEY ALMOST CEASED TO BELIEVE IN, AND WHICH OFFERED NOTHING WHEN IT CAME’ 40 DUTCH BATTLEFIELD EXPERT CHRISJE BRANTS WRITES IN THE INTRODUCTION TO HER EEN PLASJE BLOED IN HET ZAND (A POOL OF BLOOD IN THE SAND), ‘THEY WERE YEARS IN WHICH HOPE AND IDEALISM TURNED TO DESPAIR AND DISILLUSIONMENT, IN WHICH TENS OF MILLIONS OF CIVILIANS WERE TO DISCOVER FOR THEMSELVES WHAT MODERN WAR MEANT AND AMONG SOLDIERS ALONE TENS OF MILLIONS 38 HYNES, SOLDIERS’ TALE, 39 LIDDLE & CECIL, FACING ARMAGEDDON, 821, 40 ELLIS, EYE-DEEP, SOME COMMENTATORS HAVE GONE SO FAR AS TO COMPARE THE FIRST WORLD WAR WITH THE SHOAH: THE SAME ENDLESS LINES OF PEOPLE PLODDING TOWARDS ALMOST CERTAIN DEATH; MEN CONFINED TO A SMALL STRETCH OF GROUND SURROUNDED BY BARBED WIRE, PLAGUED BY LICE AND DISEASE KEEGAN POINTS OUT THAT ACCOUNTS OF THE SOMME PRODUCE MUCH THE SAME RANGE OF EMOTIONS AS DESCRIPTIONS OF HOW AUSCHWITZ WAS RUN, AND HISTORIAN OMER BARTOV SAID IN HIS LECTURE ‘INDUSTRIAL KILLING: WORLD WAR I, THE HOLOCAUST, AND REPRESENTATION’ THAT THE SHOAH, THE FOREMOST EXAMPLE OF ‘MILITARIZED KILLING’, CANNOT BE EXPLAINED WITHOUT EXAMINING THE ‘INDUSTRIAL KILLING’ OF 1914–18 THAT PRECEDED IT, ‘THE MECHANIZED, IMPERSONAL, AND SUSTAINED MASS DESTRUCTION OF HUMAN BEINGS, ORGANIZED BY STATES, LEGITIMIZED AND SET INTO MOTION BY SCIENTISTS AND JURISTS, SANCTIONED AND POPULARIZED BY ACADEMICS AND INTELLECTUALS’ 46 PERHAPS THESE WRITERS HAVE IN MIND THE WORDS OF ONE BRITISH POET ON THE EVE OF THE SOMME: ‘IT’S GOING TO BE A BLOODY HOLOCAUST ’ BUT THIS MERELY DEMONSTRATES THAT THE WORD SHOAH IS A BETTER TERM FOR THE MURDER OF SIX MILLION JEWS IN THE SECOND WORLD WAR THERE ARE EVEN THOSE WHO, CONSCIOUSLY OR UNCONSCIOUSLY, REGARD THE FIRST WORLD WAR AS THE MORE TERRIFYING OF THE TWO, SINCE THOSE TRANSPORTED TO THE SLAUGHTERHOUSES WERE 41 BRANTS, PLASJE BLOED, 43 BRANTS, PLASJE BLOED, 44 WINTER & BAGGETT, 1914–18, 45 CHICKERING, IMPERIAL GERMANY, 46 KEEGAN, FACE OF BATTLE, 255–6; BARTOV, ‘INDUSTRIAL KILLING’, 1; WORLD WAR I, THE HOLOCAUST, AND REPRESENTATION’, HTTP://WWW ANTI-REV ORG/TEXTES/BARTOV97A/INDEX HTML, ‘JAHRHUNDERT DER KRIEGE’, 112, 114, 115; ADDISON & CALDER, TIME TO KILL, 47 KOCH, HET BEGIN VAN DE BARBARIJ, 7 (COLUMN 4); DE SCHAEPDRIJVER, TAFERELEN UIT HET BURGERLEVEN, P 49 DE SCHAEPDRIJVER, TAFERELEN UIT HET BURGERLEVEN, NEVERTHELESS, THERE WAS NO MASS REVOLT IN ALL RANKS, AT LEAST NOT IN THE FORM OF OPEN PROTEST THERE WERE MEN WHO THRIVED ON WAR AND WOULD ALWAYS REGARD IT AS THE BEST OF TIMES; SOME ENJOYED IT FROM THE START,54 WHILE OTHERS WERE SO DEFORMED 50 WITKOP, KRIEGSBRIEFE, 52 JOHANNSEN, VIER VON DER INFANTERIE, 36–7; WHALEN, BITTER WOUNDS, 53 AUDOIN-ROUZEAU, 14–18 LES COMBATTANTS, TO THE GENERAL RULE THAT WHERE HISTORIANS WRITE ABOUT THE VICTIMS OF WAR THEY DO SO IN A FRAGMENTARY WAY,60 OR BRIEFLY IN A SEPARATE CHAPTER,61 OR AS ONE ASPECT OF A 55 FERGUSON, THE PITY OF WAR, 56 MANNING, HER PRIVATES WE, 182; WILSON, MYRIAD FACES, 58 VERDOORN, ARTS EN OORLOG, 59 WHALEN, BITTER WOUNDS 60 WINTER, DEATH’S MEN; BRANTS & BRANTS, VELDEN VAN WELEER 61 ELLIS, EYE-DEEP; KEEGAN, FACE OF BATTLE WOMEN AS ARMY SURGEONS INTRODUCTION STUDY OF THE WORK OF DOCTORS AND NURSES 62 THEY DESERVE BETTER THE DEAD, SICK AND WOUNDED ARE AN INTEGRAL PART OF ANY WAR, ALTHOUGH NOT ALWAYS TO THE SAME DEGREE, IF ONLY BECAUSE SOME WARS ARE TOO SHORT TO PRODUCE THE HUGE NUMBER OF CASUALTIES SEEN IN 1914–18 IN THE FIRST WORLD WAR, WITH ITS VAST ARMIES MARCHING IN SERRIED RANKS TOWARDS THE MACHINE-GUNS, MILITARY MEN, POLITICIANS, EVEN ORDINARY MEN AND WOMEN LEARNED TO SEE SOLDIERS AS UNITS OF CALCULATION, AS NUMBERS RATHER THAN AS HUMAN BEINGS THIS LED TO THE NOTION, WHICH SOON FOUND PRACTICAL APPLICATION, THAT WHICHEVER SIDE PROVED ABLE TO TAKE THE HIGHEST LOSSES WOULD EMERGE VICTORIOUS THIS WAS TO GIVE THE CONCEPT OF ‘VICTORY’ A MEANING IMPOSSIBLE TO CAPTURE, EVEN WITH REFERENCE TO PYRRHUS AT THE SAME TIME WE SHOULD NOT THINK OF SOLDIERS PURELY AS VICTIMS PEOPLE OCCASIONALLY SPEAK OF THE ‘INNOCENT’ ARMY, BUT THIS IS A REFERENCE TO THE GENERALLY NON-BELLIGERENT MIDDLE CLASS, THE SOCIAL STRATUM THAT PRODUCED THE WRITERS MIDDLE- CLASS MEN JOINED UP IN THEIR HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS AND HAD ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA WHAT THEY WERE LETTING THEMSELVES IN FOR THEY LEARNED VERY QUICKLY, LOSING THEIR INNOCENCE FOR EVER, AND IN THIS SENSE IT IS RIGHT TO DESCRIBE THEM AS A ‘LOST GENERATION’ THE TWENTIETH CENTURY WAS THE FIRST IN WHICH SOLDIERS COULD SEE THEMSELVES AS VICTIMS RATHER THAN AS AGENTS OR PERPETRATORS THIS WAS A CONSEQUENCE OF THE TOTAL HELPLESSNESS OF THE INDIVIDUAL IN MODERN WARFARE 63 IN THAT SENSE THEY WERE INDEED VICTIMS BUT INNOCENT, UNWITTING VICTIMS OR NOT, THE SOLDIERS WERE ALSO, INDEED PRIMARILY, THE ACTIVE PARTY THE SHOT PRECEDES THE WOUND ALTHOUGH MEN CAUGHT IN GUNFIRE AND SHELLING ARE CENTRAL TO THIS BOOK, NOT DYING BUT KILLING, SANCTIONED KILLING, IS THE MAIN FEATURE OF WAR MOST OF THE SOLDIERS OF 1914–18 WENT TO THE TRENCHES VOLUNTARILY AND THOSE WHO RECOVERED FROM PHYSICAL OR MENTAL WOUNDS OFTEN RETURNED TO FRONT-LINE SERVICE, MAINLY OUT OF SOLIDARITY WITH THEIR COMRADES AFTER RETURNING TO THE FRONT IN 1918, OWEN WROTE TO HIS MOTHER THAT HE HAD GONE ‘TO HELP THESE BOYS – DIRECTLY BY LEADING THEM AS WELL AS AN OFFICER CAN; INDIRECTLY, BY WATCHING THEIR SUFFERINGS THAT I MAY SPEAK OF THEM AS WELL AS A PLEADER CAN’ 64 IT WAS SOLIDARITY LIKE THIS WHICH CAUSED MEN TO FOLLOW ORDERS THAT MEANT ALMOST CERTAIN DEATH, RATHER THAN FEAR OF PUNISHMENT, PATRIOTISM, OR LOYALTY TO COMMANDING OFFICERS THE VAST MAJORITY OBEYED, AWARE THAT REFUSING ORDERS MEANT BETRAYING FELLOW SOLDIERS BY MAKING THEIR TASK EVEN HARDER, AND FIRMLY CONFIDENT OF THEIR OWN IMMORTALITY 65 NEVERTHELESS, WHEN FACED WITH A CHANCE TO SAVE THEIR OWN SKINS, ‘EVERY MAN FOR HIMSELF’ WAS AN EVEN HIGHER COMMAND SOLIDARITY WITH OTHER MEN WAS NOT THE ONLY REASON SOLDIERS ALSO FOUGHT OUT OF A VAGUE SENSE OF DUTY, OR SIMPLY BECAUSE THEY HAD SAID THEY WOULD FIGHT, FOR 62 VAN BERGEN, WAARDE GENERAAL; VAN BERGEN, DE ZWAARGEWONDEN EERST?; BINNEVELD, OM DE GEEST; ECKART & GRADMANN, DIE MEDIZIN; GABRIEL & METZ, A HISTORY OF MILITARY MEDICINE; MACDONALD, ROSES OF NO MAN’S LAND; VERDOORN, ARTS EN OOORLOG 63 HYNES, SOLDIERS’ TALE, 64 HOWORTH, SHELL-SHOCK, 65 WILSON, MYRIAD FACES, I ALSO NEEDED TO CONSIDER WHETHER RESEARCH INTO THE THEATRES OF WAR IN THE DARDANELLES AND THE EAST, IN ITALY AND AFRICA, WOULD PRODUCE MUCH THAT WAS REALLY NEW ABOUT SICKNESS, DEATH AND INJURY TO ADD TO WHAT COULD BE GATHERED FROM THE WESTERN FRONT, APART FROM A HUGE INCREASE IN THE BARE STATISTICS AND A FEW RELATIVELY RARE DISEASES SPECIFIC TO THE EAST IT IS IMPORTANT TO ADD THAT AT NO STAGE DID THE WAR IN THE EAST REACH THE ABSOLUTE IMPASSE THAT CHARACTERIZED THE WESTERN FRONT FOR SO LONG THE ARTILLERY PLAYED A SMALLER ROLE AND THE CAVALRY A LARGER ONE, THE USE OF GAS WAS MORE SIGNIFICANT IN BOTH MILITARY AND HUMAN TERMS, AND BECAUSE OF THE RACIAL 66 DE SCHAEPDRIJVER, TAFERELEN UIT HET BURGERLEVEN, 67 ANDRIESSEN, DE OORLOGSBRIEVEN VAN UNTEROFFIZIER CARL HELLER, 105–6; EKSTEINS, RITES OF SPRING, 176; WILSON, MYRIAD FACES, 68 KÖPPEN, HEERESBERICHT, 462; VONDUNG, KRIEGSERLEBNIS, 264; WHALEN, BITTER WOUNDS, 69 HARRISON, ‘THE MEDICALIZATION OF WAR – THE MILITARIZATION OF MEDICINE’, THE DESERT WAR OF T E LAWRENCE AND THE ARABS, THE ONLY FIRST WORLD WAR BATTLE ON LAND THAT IS AT ALL REMINISCENT OF NINETEENTH-CENTURY WARFARE, WITH HAND-TO-HAND COMBAT AND THE CAVALRY AS THE DECIDING FACTOR, IS SIMPLY TOO SMALL IN NUMERICAL AND GEOGRAPHICAL TERMS TO BE OF ANY REAL SIGNIFICANCE TO AN INVESTIGATION OF THIS KIND, AND THE SAME GOES FOR THE JUNGLE WARFARE OF THE COLONIES ALL THESE ARE FACTORS THAT WOULD NOT APPLY WERE A BOOK SUCH AS THIS TO BE WRITTEN ABOUT THE SECOND WORLD WAR, FOR EXAMPLE THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE YSER AND GALLIPOLI IN CLIMATIC, GEOGRAPHICAL AND OTHER CONDITIONS, AND THEREFORE IN THE NATURE OF THE FIGHTING AND THE SICKNESS AND INJURY IT PRODUCED, ALTHOUGH CONSIDERABLE, ARE INSIGNIFICANT COMPARED TO THE CONTRASTS BETWEEN NORMANDY AND IWO JIMA, LENINGRAD AND HIROSHIMA, KURSK AND MIDWAY, ARNHEM AND STALINGRAD, EL ALAMEIN AND GREBBEBERG A BOOK ALONG THE SAME LINES AS THIS ONE BUT FOCUSING ON THE SECOND WORLD WAR MIGHT BE IMPOSSIBLE TO WRITE THE HUGE DIVERSITY OF EXPERIENCES OF COMBAT IN THE 1939–45 WAR MAKES IT IMPOSSIBLE TO SETTLE UPON A SINGLE IMAGE, JUST AS THERE IS NO SINGLE THEATRE THAT COULD BE DESCRIBED AS DECISIVE IN PART THIS MAY BE A RESULT OF THE FACT THAT NO ARENA OF BATTLE PRODUCED BOOKS 70 HOLMES, FIRING LINE, 371; WINTER & BAGGETT, 1914–18, 77, 362–3; WHALEN, BITTER WOUNDS, 40; TOWNSHEND, MODERN WAR, 104; VONDUNG, KRIEGSERLEBNIS, 122, 129; ECKART & GRADMANN, DIE MEDIZIN, 228, 234–5; ECKART & GRADMANN, ‘MEDIZIN’ IN ENZYKLOPÄDIE ERSTER WELTKRIEG, 213; MOOREHEAD, DUNANT’S DREAM, 224, 270; KEEGAN, FIRST WORLD WAR, 215; AUDOIN-ROUZEAU & BECKER, ’14–’18, CIVILIANS LOST AT SEA WHEN THEIR SHIPS WERE TORPEDOED 73 BELGIAN CIVILIANS WERE EXECUTED IN REVENGE FOR THE ALLEGED ACTIVITIES OF FRANCS-TIREURS I SAY ALLEGED, BECAUSE IT WAS FRUSTRATION IN THE FACE OF UNEXPECTED MILITARY RESISTANCE THAT LED THE GERMAN HIGH COMMAND TO TERRORIZE THE BELGIAN POPULATION IN THE EARLY DAYS OF THE CONFLICT, RATHER THAN OUTRAGE AT SNIPING BY CIVILIANS, WHICH WAS MERELY AN EXCUSE CIVILIAN SNIPERS WERE RARE AND IN MANY PLACES UNKNOWN EVERY STRAY SHOT, EVERY INSTANCE OF ‘FRIENDLY FIRE’ BETWEEN GERMAN COMPANIES – WHICH OCCURRED QUITE REGULARLY IN THE CONFUSION – WAS ATTRIBUTED TO FRANC-TIREURS, AND MANY PEOPLE CAME TO BELIEVE IN THEIR EXISTENCE AS A RESULT PERHAPS THE ‘FRANC-TIREUR-PSYCHOSIS’, AS LUC SCHEPENS CALLS IT IN HIS BELGIË IN DE EERSTE WERELDOORLOG (BELGIUM IN THE FIRST 71 BLEKER & SCHMIEDEBACH, MEDIZIN UND KRIEG, 72 GILBERT, FIRST WORLD WAR, XV 73 VONDUNG, KRIEGSERLEBNIS, THE BELGIANS SUFFERED CIVILIAN CASUALTIES IN THE BOMBARDMENTS OF LIÈGE AND ANTWERP, AS DID THE FRENCH DURING THE BOMBARDMENT OF REIMS IN MID-SEPTEMBER 1914 77 DUTCH JOURNALIST ALEXANDER COHEN WROTE OF THAT BOMBARDMENT, ‘IT WAS TERRIBLE AND OVERWHELMING I WATCHED AS A POOR MAN, A LABOURER, WAS MORTALLY WOUNDED BEFORE MY EYES HIS THIGH WAS TORN OFF, HALF HIS SKULL BLASTED AWAY APPALLING ’78 FOR THE FIRST TIME IN HISTORY, BOMBARDMENT WAS NOT LIMITED TO THE MAXIMUM RANGE OF ARTILLERY IN THE AERIAL BOMBING OF LONDON, FOR INSTANCE, A NURSERY SCHOOL WAS HIT AND TWENTY CHILDREN KILLED 79 IN GERMANY 768 CIVILIANS DIED AS A RESULT OF ALLIED AIR STRIKES 80 IN THE AUTUMN OF 1914, HUNDREDS OF CITIZENS OF YPRES WERE KILLED BY GERMAN ARTILLERY FIRE, INCLUDING ONE YOUNG GIRL WHOSE LEG WAS FOUND SEVERAL METRES DISTANT HER OTHER LEG WAS SMASHED TREATMENT AT A FRENCH FIRST-AID POST COULD NOT SAVE HER AND SHE BLED TO DEATH, WHILE A PRIEST TRIED TO KEEP HER MOTHER AWAY TO PREVENT HER FROM SEEING THE CONDITION IN WHICH HER CHILD WAS DYING 81 INJURED CIVILIANS WHO WERE LUCKY ENOUGH TO RECEIVE SOME KIND 74 SCHEPENS, ‘BELGIË IN DE EERSTE WERELDOORLOG’, 75 DE SCHAEPDRIJVER, DE GROOTE OORLOG, 78–85, 90–91; DE SCHAEPDRIJVER, TAFERELEN UIT HET BURGERLEVEN, 64–5; KRIEGSBRIEFE GEFALLENER DEUTSCHE JUDEN, 105; RIEMANN, SCHWESTER DER VIERTEN ARMEE, 128–9; TOWNSHEND, MODERN WAR, 17; DE VOS, DE EERSTE WERELDOORLOG, 35, 38; HEIJSTER, IEPER, 57–61; KEEGAN, FIRST WORLD WAR, 91–3; TUCHMAN, GUNS OF AUGUST 173–4, 314–32; AUDOIN-ROUZEAU & BECKER, ’14–’18, 82–6; BILLSTEIN, ‘GASHÖLLE YPERN’, 105–8; KAMMELAR, SICKING & WIELINGA, DE EERSTE WERELDOORLOG, 47–57, 77 WINTER & BAGGETT, 1914–18, 64–6; DE SCHAEPDRIJVER, DE GROOTE OORLOG, 78 SPOOR, TEGEN DE HOLLANDSE KLEINGEESTIGHEID, 80 CHICKERING, IMPERIAL GERMANY, 82 LA MOTTE, BACKWASH OF WAR, 63–4, 67; CARDINAL ET AL , WOMEN’S WRITING, 159; HIGONNET, NURSES AT THE FRONT, INTRODUCTION, IX, XIII; MEIRE, DE STILTE VAN DE SALIENT, 63, 84 MACDONALD, SOMME, 85 WINTER & BAGGETT, 1914–18, 130; CHICKERING, IMPERIAL GERMANY, 86 GRAVES, GOODBYE, 87 DAY LEWIS, COLLECTED POEMS, 88 HIGONNET, BEHIND THE LINES, 204, 214, 216, 89 WINTER, DEATH’S MEN, 90 GILBERT, FIRST WORLD WAR, 256, NOTE 2; BARHAM, FORGOTTEN LUNATICS, 145; HORNE, PRICE OF GLORY, 190–91; TOLLER, JUGEND IN DEUTSCHLAND, 75; TOWNSHEND, MODERN WAR, 13–14; KEEGAN, FIRST WORLD WAR, 344; GLOVER, HUMANITY, 65–6; WEINDLING, HEALTH, RACE AND GERMAN POLITICS, 281; HOFMAN, ‘OORLOG AAN HET THUISFRONT’, PASSIM; LERNER, HYSTERICAL MEN (2003),