The Explorers' Club Special: August 1916

Operation AXIOM: The World War
August 1916: The Central Powers made a bid to seize the Suez Canal; Romania entered the war, joining the Entente Powers; the Italians continued to throwmen across the Isonzo River, gaining a bridgehead on the Austro-Hungarian side; & the Battle of the Somme ground on.

The Wayback Machine Tour of the World War: August 1916
"The Explorers' Club," № DIX: The Battles of Romani & Bir el Abd (3-5 & 9 August 1916)
"The Explorers' Club," № DX: The Endless Battles of the Isonzo, Part IV: The Sixth Battle (6-17 August 1916)
"The Explorers' Club," № DXI: The Battle of the Somme, Part IV: The Battle of Delville Wood (14 July-3 September 1916)
"The Explorers' Club," № DXII: Romania joined the Entente Powers (27 August-18 September 1916)

Lest we forget.

The Explorers' Club Special: July 1916

Operation AXIOM: The World War
July 1916: On the first day of the Somme, the British suffered 19,420 killed, the costliest day of the entire war; another 38,050 were wounded. The Battle of the Somme was planned as a combined Franco-British offensive, but with the French tied down at Verdun, the British bore the burden of the main attack. German reinforcements were unavailable, tied down at Verdun & trying to stem the Russians' offensive. The Germans & Austro-Hungarians were able to stall that Brusilov Offensive. German sabotuers blew up an ammunition depot in New York Harbor.

The Wayback Machine Tour of the World War: July 1916
"The Explorers' Club," № DIV: The Battle of the Somme, Part I: Mines on the First Day (1 July 1916)
"The Explorers' Club," № DV: The Battle of the Somme, Part II: The Battle of Albert (1-13 July 1916)
"The Explorers' Club," № DVI: The Battle of the Somme, Part III: The Battle of Bazentin Ridge (14-17 July 1916)
"The Explorers' Club," № DVII: The Brusilov Offensive, Part II: The Battle of Kowel (24 July-8 August 1916)
"The Explorers' Club," № DVIII: The Black Tom Explosion (30 July 1916)

Lest we forget.

Armistice Day

"Armistice Day has become Veterans' Day. Armistice Day was sacred. Veterans' Day is not."
—Kurt Vonnegut Jr., Breakfast of Champions

Operation AXIOM: The 102nd Anniversary of the Armistice of Compiègne
One hundred two years ago to the day, 11 November 1918, "at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month," the guns fell silent on the Western Front. The "War to End All Wars" was over. Tens of millions were dead. Empires lay in ruins. Revolution was in the air. The world that had existed before the summer of 1914 was shattered utterly, torn asunder by unfathomable bloodshed.

The world had never seen madness as red as the World War; pray to the Almighty that we shall not see madness so red in our own lifetime. A century later, only the ignorant &/or the foolish would say we do not live in a world yet scarred by 1914-1918, haunted by the ghost of a war most of us prefer to pretend never happened. Western civilization barely survived the suicide attempt of 1914-1918, & might yet succumb to the wound. It all ended—in triumph, in defeat, in exhaustion, in jubilation—on 11 November 1918, one hundred two years ago today.

"Prelude: The Troops"
by Siegfried Sassoon, M.C. (1886-1967)

Dim, gradual thinning of the shapeless gloom
Shudders to drizzling daybreak that reveals
Disconsolate men who stamp their sodden boots
And turn dulled, sunken faces to the sky
Haggard and hopeless. They, who have beaten down
The stale despair of night, must now renew
Their desolation in the truce of dawn,
Murdering the livid hours that grope for peace.

Yet these, who cling to life with stubborn hands,
Can grin through storms of death and find a gap
In the clawed, cruel tangles of his defence.
They march from safety, and the bird-sung joy
Of grass-green thickets, to the land where all
Is ruin, and nothing blossoms but the sky
That hastens over them where they endure
Sad, smoking, flat horizons, reeking woods,
And foundered trench-lines volleying doom for doom.

O my brave brown companions, when your souls
Flock silently away, and the eyeless dead,
Shame the wild beast of battle on the ridge,
Death will stand grieving in that field of war
Since your unvanquished hardihood is spent.
And through some mooned Valhalla there will pass
Battalions and battalions, scarred from hell;
The unreturning army that was youth;
The legions who have suffered and are dust.

"The Last Post"
by Robert Graves (1895-1985)

The bugler sent a call of high romance—
Lights out! Lights out!—to the deserted square:
On the thin brazen notes he threw a prayer.
God, if it's this for me next time in France
Spare me the phantom bugle as I lie
Dead in the gas and smoke and roar of guns,
Dead in a row with the other shattered ones,
Lying so stiff and still under the sky—
Jolly young Fusiliers, too good to die.
The music ceased, and the red sunset flare
Was blood about his head as he stood there.

The Wayback Machine Tour of Armistice Day: Lest We Forget
I will never forgive myself for failing to mark properly Armistice Day in 2019. There was an episode of "The Explorers' Club," & that was fitting, but there ought to have been both.

Armistice Day '18 + Armistice Day '17 + Armistice Day '16

Armistice Day '15 + Armistice Day '14 + Armistice Day '13 + Armistice Day '12

Armistice Day '11 + Armistice Day '10 + Armistice Day '09

Armistice Day '08 + Armistice Day '07 + Armistice Day '06 + Armistice Day '05

Armistice Day '04 + Armistice Day '03 + Armistice Day '02

The Rebel Black Dot Song o' Armistice Day
A. E. Housman (poem) & George Butterworth (music), "The Lads in Their Hundreds" from The Pity of War: Songs and Poems of Wartime Suffering (Mike Papa Whiskey)

Commentary: George Butterworth, M.C. (1885-1916) was considered one of the most promising English composers of his generation. He was mentioned in despatches & awarded the Military Cross (M.C.) for gallantry in combat as an officer in the Durham Light Infantry. He was killed in the Battle of the Somme & his body was never recovered; his name is inscribed on the Thiepval Memorial.

The poem "The Lads in Their Hundreds" is from Housman's 1896 collection, A Shropshire Lad; Butterworth set it to music in 1911-1912.

"The lads in their hundreds to Ludlow come in for the fair,
There's men from the barn and the forge and the mill and the fold,
The lads for the girls and the lads for the liquor are there,
And there with the rest are the lads that will never be old…

"They carry back bright to the coiner the mintage of man,
The lads that will die in their glory and never be old."

The Explorers' Club, № DCXXXIX

Operation AXIOM: The World War—The Hundred Days Offensive, Part III
31 August-3 September 2018: The Battle of Mont Saint-Quentin—In a daring frontal assault (which might have been condemned as reckless had it failed), the Australian Corps seized Mont Saint-Quentin, the high ground that was the key to the Germans' defense of the River Somme, & the town of Péronne; the Germans had anticipated & prepared for the attack, but were still forced to retreat.

Lest we forget.

The Explorers' Club, № DCXXXVI

Operation AXIOM: The World War—The Hundred Days Offensive, Part II
21 August-2 September: The Second Battle of the Somme—Instead of reinforcing the offensive around Amiens, which had ground to a halt as supplies lines were stretched & the Germans had brought up reinforcements, the Entente's Anglophones (British, Canadian, Australian, & American) attacked around Albert, pushing the Germans back to the "Hindenburg Line" (the Siegfriedstellung).

Lest we forget.

The Explorers' Club, № DCXIV

Operation AXIOM: The World War—The Spring Offensive, Part II
21 March-5 April: Operation Michael—The Germans advanced farther, faster than at any other point since 1914, taking thousands of British P.O.W.s & advancing forty miles in some places; the Entente countered with a brilliant tactical choice, surrendering indefensible ground devastated in the Battle of the Somme while reinforcing & successfully defending the vital strategic positions of Amiens & Arras.

Lest we forget.

The Explorers' Club, № DXXXV

Operation AXIOM: The World War
11 January-13 March 1917: The British raided & probed along the Ancre battlefront to test new tactics & weapons, to gather intelligence, & to divert German attention away from preparations for a looming British offensive at Arras; the Germans continued construction of elaborate defensive works known as the "Hindenburg Line" (or Siegfried Position, Siegfriedstellung) & preparations for withdrawal to same.

Lest we forget.

The Explorers' Club, № DXXIV

Operation AXIOM: The World War—The Battle of the Somme, Part VIII
13-18 November 1916: The Battle of the Ancre—The British attack was proceeded by a seven-day artillery barrage & the detonation of a second huge mine beneath the Hawthorn Ridge Redoubt; fog & mud slowed the infantry's advance & the fog limited air aupport; German casualties were heavy, including many prisoners; the British reckoned 18 November the formal last day of the Somme.

The Wayback Machine Tour of the Battle of the Somme
№ DIV: The Mines on the First Day of the Somme (Part I)
№ DV: The Battle of Albert—20,000 Dead on the First Day (Part II)
№ DVI: The Battle of Bazentin Ridge (Part III)
№ DXI: The Battle of Delville Wood (Part IV)
№ DXVI: The Battle of Fleurs-Courcelette—tanks debuted as weapons of war (Part V)
№ DXVII: The Battles of Thiepval Ridge, Le Transloy, & the Ancre Heights (Part VI)
№ DXXIII: Hector Hugh Munro, the writer Saki (Part VII)

Lest we forget.

The Explorers' Club, № DXXIII

Operation AXIOM: The World War—The Battle of the Somme, Part VII
Hector Hugh Munro (1870-1916), better known by his pen name Saki, the short-story writer & novelist who volunteered for Kitchener's Army in 1914; he refused an officer's commission & served as an ordinary trooper, even though over the official age of enlistment; best known for "The Interlopers" (a personal favorite) & When William Came, he was killed by a German sniper on 14 November 1916.

Lest we forget.

The Explorers' Club, № DXVII

Operation AXIOM: The World War—The Battle of the Somme, Part VI
26 September-11 November 1916: The Battles of Thiepval Ridge (26-28 September), Le Transloy, & the Ancre Heights (both 1 October-11 November)—The Anglo-French & Imperial offensives, which never achieved the desired strategic breakthrough but steadily gained ground, were slowed by adverse weather & renewed German defensive vigor; trenches, tanks, gas, & aeroplanes all featured.

Lest we forget.

Commentary: Truly, truly, lest we forget.

The Explorers' Club, № DXVI

Operation AXIOM: The World War—The Battle of the Somme, Part V
15-22 September 1916: The Battle of Fleurs-Courcelette—The first tanks were introduced to break through the stalemate of trench warfare; developed under the aegis of the Royal Navy's Landships Committee, the term "tank" was used as cover, so as not to give away the secret of the new weapon.

Commentary: The "Little Willie" was the Landships Committee's first prototype, intended as a proof-of-concept design & development mule, not for combat.

Lest we forget.

The Explorers' Club, № DXI

Operation AXIOM: The World War—The Battle of the Somme, Part IV
14 July-3 September 1916: The Battle of Delville Wood—British & Imperial forces, including the first deployment of South Africans to the Western Front, seized the Delville Wood, forming a salient in the German lines that could be used to launch further offensives, followed by seven weeks of close combat, with constant small-unit attacks & counterattacks amidst persistent rain & endless mud.

Lest we forget.

The Explorers' Club, № DVI

Operation AXIOM: The World War—The Battle of the Somme, Part III
14-17 July 1916: The Battle of Bazentin Ridge—The earlier Franco-British attacks had forced the Germans from their primary defensive lines; from their secondary lines, the Germans were on the back foot against renewed attacks, unable to mass & coordinate artillery fire & harassed by Entente air power; reinforcements were scarce due to Verdun in the West & the Brusilov Offensive in the East.

Lest we forget.

The Explorers' Club, № DV

Operation AXIOM: The World War—The Battle of the Somme, Part II
1-13 July 1916: The Battle of Albert—On the first day of the Somme, the attacking British suffered approximately 60,000 casualties—19,420 dead & approximately 40,000 wounded, in a single day.

Lest we forget.