Poem ~ Laconia Omen - Monday, 5 March 1917- Tuesday, 6 March 1917

Impression sketch of RMS Laconia by Jamie. See original images at:<http://www.tynebuiltships.co.uk/L-Ships/laconia1912.html>

With launch in 1911 RMS Laconia,

A Cunard Ocean Liner, was a young vessel

When war began in 1914 - built

At Wallsend Britain, by makers Swan Hunter

And Wigham Richardson Ltd.

Later commandeered for war

Service Laconia sailed to South Africa -

At Simon's Town, having then
Been fitted out as an armed Merchant

Crusier, with a new purpose.

The Laconia patrolled waters,

In Indian and South Atlantic Ocean,

From April 1915 - employed

As a headquarters, during the actions

To take on German East Africa.

Returning to Britain in June

1916, the Laconia again returned

To Service September 
1916 with Cunard - six months later

Laconia departed New York.

25 February 1917 on route

For Liverpool - the hour 9 O’clock when

The Laconia steamed west,

Northwest by Fastnet - aboard were

75 passengers and 217 crew.

Outnumbered by crew, only

A fraction of usual passengers travelled

Including Americans - time

Was almost 10 O’clock, when many

Travellers were yet to retire.

The crossing of the Atlantic

Had been uneventful - a passenger

Quizzed a London solicitor

Over chance of being torpedoed; '4000

To one,' said Henry Chetham.

A member of the British diplomatic

Service offered another opinion to state

'250 to 1, if we don’t meet a sub.'

An apt answer came along, creating

A sudden slam like a large door.

A lurch forwards and sideways

Under their feet, everyone jumped up.

A New Yorker commented.

To say It's a lousy torpedo, only a fizzer.'

A hit had been made starboard.

An explosion blew near the 
Engine room - the Laconia still floated. 

Captain Irvine's instructions for 
Safety saw orderly move to lifeboats

The U50 sub still close by.

Lifeboat drills now became

Real as five blasts on the ships whistle

Signalled an evacuation.

After 20 minutes another hit struck, full

On into the engine room.

The blast damaged a lifeboat

Being lowered into the water, in which

Sat two Americans - mother

And daughter; Mrs Mary Hoy along with

Elizabeth Hoy reached sea.

Now the Laconia began to list

Taking on water, as passengers and

Crew released more lifeboats.

Quickly sinking the Laconia's stern -

The nose of the vessel, dipped.

Then straight in the air; silently

The vessel slipped into dark waters,

10.20 p.m. within 30 minutes

Survivors rocked alone in their boats;

Not all had made it safely.

In sour silence the survivors

Saw a black, glinting wet shape move

Towards them - in darkness

An accented voice called out, 'vot ship

Was dot?' A reply called back.

A steward yelled, 'the Laconia,

Cunard Line' - the German voice gave

Casual reply; 'yov’ll

Be alright the patrol vill pick you up.'

The sub moved away.

Some six hours later Royal

Navy patrolled came across these

Drifting boats but not all

Had made it - 6 crew 6 passengers

Had become victims.

Boat No 8 had held 14 souls -

This had been badly damaged during

The torpedo hit, so as soon

As it touched water, the sea began

Dragging them down.

Survivor, Able Seaman Walley,

Told of hopelessness to try to bail any

Water out - yet it did not

Sink, but kept afloat by fact of holding

Tanks - he held on in the stern.

Everyone clung to the edge

Of the underwater boat - every swell

Whipped over the souls that

Held on - in the stern seats Mrs Hoy

And daughter stood in the boat.

Time passed, counted

By the cold waves that washed them

No. 8 - finally grey haired

Mrs Hoy lay back; daughter Elizabeth

Held her and talked away.

Likely her mind became

Lost as she held her dead mother.

Soon it was too much,

Left weak in body and her mind

As another swell came.

The two women wearing

Lifebelts and were swept away -

The frozen survivors left

With more corpses, stubbornly

Holding on until rescued.

Account by Floyd Gibbons

Told of the despair and struggles

In the sea, until encounter

Of a mine sweeper and a patrol

Boat found their pale lights.

Six hours had passed when

One after another they pulled aside

HMS Laburnum, where

Tattooed arms of jack tars reached

Out to the fortunate few.

The story of yet another

Lost sea vessel; although relatively

Few lives were lost - unlike

The Lusitania - the small act would

Have great effect in war.

by Jamie Mann.

Source: File: RMS Laconia. Available at: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RMS_Laconia_(1911)> [Accessed 5 March 2017]

Source: File: Today in World War I - U-boat Sinks Laconia, Kills Two Americans. Available at: <http://today-in-wwi.tumblr.com/post/157711139713/u-boat-sinks-laconia-kills-two-americans> [Accessed 5 March 2017]

Source: File: The Sinking Of The Laconia, By Floyd Gibbons. Available at: <http://www.worldwar1.com/sflac.htm> [Accessed 5 March 2017]

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Poem ~ Somme Mines - Friday, 30 June - 1916

Source: File: The Somme: Secret Tunnel Wars (WWI Documentary) (BBC). [online] See: <https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:British_plan_Somme_1_July_1916.png> [Accessed: 30 June 2016]

 Source: File: British infantry attack plan for 1 July 1916, the "first day on the Somme". British and French front line shown in red, German front line shown in blue. German second and third lines shown as dashed blue lines. British and French objectives on the first. [online] See an original image at: <https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:British_plan_Somme_1_July_1916.png> [Accessed: 30 June 2016]

French Companies had started

Digging under German lines for some time.

Then the British arrival at the Somme

Carried on their task - these Royal

Engineers set up their base at Bray.

Maricourt La Boisselle, Fricourt,

And Carnoy shafts came into their control -

Named the 'Glory Hole' by the British;

An area about which careful secrecy

Was maintained and defended closely.

War under foot was a different 

Dimension to the fighting above ground.

With fundamental preparations

For the Somme breakthrough,

19 dug tunnels led to mines.

While the number was less than

Intended, the undertaking was ambitious -

In a south position were nine

Smaller mines about Fricourt;

Being charges of triple Tambour.

Out of Beaumont Hamel three

Tunnels spread out - one a communication

Trench connected to jumping off

Point of Sunken Lane, the others

Made towards Hawthorn Ridge.

There at 30 yards from German

Edges, in depth of 57 feet, a deep gallery

Created was filled with ammonal.

Prepared for zero hour - a dispute

Was raised over timing the mine.

A request for ridge's detonation,

By Lieutenant-General Hunter Weston,

To be four hours earlier, allowing

Resulting crater to be taken,

For any enemy alarm to settle.

Headquarters stated 'no,' but

Lieutenant-General Hunter Weston's

Persistence led to compromise;

Ridge redoubt would be blown

Ten minutes before zero hour.

In previous battle actions of

Lieutenant-General Hunter Weston,

General Haig declared him as

Rank amateur; despite some

Successful Gallipoli tactics.

Lacking competence earned

Hunter Weston the nickname 'Hunter-

Bunter' - with ruling tendency

Towards brutality, he led VIII

Corps within Somme Sector.

Tunnelled preparations were

Readied, as at Lochnagar Street mine -

In order to make crater cover

Against exposure to enemy fire,

All readied for the Battle of Albert.

by Jamie Mann.

Source: File: Mines on the first day of the Somme Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Available at: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mines_on_the_first_day_of_the_Somme> [Accessed 30 June 2016]

Source: File: Aylmer Hunter-Weston. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Available at: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aylmer_Hunter-Weston> [Accessed 30 June 2016]

Mann, J., 2016. 100 years Ago - Poems by Jamie Mann. [letter] (Personal communication, 30 June 2016). 

http://worldwaroneblogger.blogspot.co.uk/

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Poem ~ Noel Hodgson: Grenade Supplier And Poet - Thursday, 29 June - 1916

Source: File: Noel Hodgson in uniform. MC ribbon on uniform, which was awarded in 1915. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. See an original image at: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._N._Hodgson> [Accessed 29 June 2016]

From a Northumberland life

Emerged a man, William Noel Hodgson

Son of a Bishop, the youngest

Of four - gaining a Kings scholarship

To Christ Church, Oxford -

He set out in studies of human learning.

With a passion for classical

Learning, William Noel always followed

A desire to write stories

And verse - with this talent led a young

Mind to publication, that

Began with the Nation and The Spectator.

Connections followed, from

The New Witness, With Cecil Chesterton

Encouragements to write.

In a month before break of war appeared

'The Years Glide By,'

With an alternative title Labuntur Anni.

The lines depicting fantasy

Travel - this involve galleons, lagoons,

Treasures and old sea kings -

The youthful William Hodgson had no

Desires for war - an eagerness

To climb, took him to heights to reflect.

Life and war intertwined

As William climbed the Cairngorms.

To see war's outbreak

In Roma Fuit where the rustic hill

Is disturbed by a charge -
It is fate of bodies to lay under grass.

In unavoidable brutality

To pointless war, William recognised

That human tendency -

Despite having no desire in first days

Of war, he joined

Devonshire Regiment as junior officer.

In the trail to fighting,

'Smiler' Hodgson saw the western front

At Festubert - within

Two months, in action at Loos, he held
A trench for 36 hours;

In despatches he received Military Cross.

Then Lieutenant Hodgson

Turned his skills towards a prose direction,

To talk of experiences.

With the 9th Devonshires to the Somme,

Stationed in preparation,

For what rumors described a big push.

Within the approach

Of delayed days, weather's actions pushed

Z day two days later,

To 1st July 1916 - from Fricourt they waited

In trenches of Mansell Copse,

Their trenches situated amid a hold of trees.

Situations often spur

The creative thought - Hodgson took

His pencil to paper -

Some strange inspiration, perhaps

Of death, as he looked

Over to Germans machine gun positions.

In old habits of poetry

Noel Hodgson, took from his father's

Occupation, to detail

A poem, as in a prayer to the sun on hills.

Looking to the glories

Of the day, he asked for soldier's strength.

From a mix of man's ability

Of artful creation, Lieutenant Hodgson

Touched on past ideals

Of mad catastrophe - for a lord's power

To make him a man -

As he climbed by thoughts, to his hill.

How perhaps, he knew

The futility of it all - to find a bullet's kiss

Before endless sunsets.

That mixes strangeness in one single

Day, to know he will miss

All human delights, with death's arrival.

by Jamie Mann.

Source: File: W. N. Hodgson Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Available at: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._N._Hodgson> [Accessed 29 June 2016]

Source: File: William Noel Hodgson (1893 – 1916). Available at: <http://www.warpoets.org/poets/william-noel-hodgson-1893-1916/> [Accessed 29 June 2016]

Mann, J., 2016. 100 years Ago - Poems by Jamie Mann. [letter] (Personal communication, 29 June 2016) 

http://worldwaroneblogger.blogspot.co.uk/

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Poem ~ Bullet Proof Tunic - Wednesday, 28 June - 1916

Source: File: Advert - The Bullet-Proof Jacket. [online] See an original image at: <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/12211605/Daily-Telegraph-June-28-1916.html>[Accessed: 28 June 2016]

A long established company,

Whose origins lay as far back

As 1772, in the making of guns

And weapons; the name

Wilkinson Sword Co Ltd.

Their address of 53 Pall Mall,

London, SW, had a reputation

For keenest blades of combat

Knives - also known

As military outfitters.

In talent for their sharpest blade,

Wilkinson Sword had also made

Developments in the handgun -

The Webley and Scott

Self-loading models.

The evolution of modern warfare

Had not just affected weaponry,

But uniform development -

As in steel helmets

Against shrapnel.

June 1916, an advert appeared,

To claim Wilkinson's new bullet

Proof, khaki jacket for officers -

To make for greater,

Protective efficiency.

In a heading, for tunic's resistance 

Against '455 Government revolver

Bullet, from a 20 yards distance,
This patented tunic

Reduced wounds.

The tunic structure would halt most 

Injuries from shell fire - that if not

Fatal, to leave wearer absent

From duty over

Period of weeks.

The secret was with the lining,

Made of high tempered steel -

Whose distribution of weight,

Would conceal any

Heaviness on wearer.

This bullet proof uniform tunic,

Would be of same appearance

As any other military clothing -

Fitted by an expert

For full comfort.

by Jamie Mann.

Anon.,1916. Advert - The Bullet-Proof Jacket. The Daily Telegraph, [online] 28 June 1916. P.7. Col.4. Available at: <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/12211605/Daily-Telegraph-June-28-1916.html>[Accessed: 28 June 2016].

Source: File: A Brief History of Wilkinson Sword Online. Available at: <http://www.wilkinsonfscollection.com/wilkinsonfscollection.com/Wilkinson_a_brief_history.html> [Accessed 28 June 2016]

Mann, J., 2016. 100 years Ago - Poems by Jamie Mann. [letter] (Personal communication, 28 June 2016). 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/12211605/Daily-Telegraph-June-28-1916.html

http://worldwaroneblogger.blogspot.co.uk/

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Poem ~ Aviator Adventurer - Saturday, 24 June - Sunday 25 June 1916

Source: File: Sub-Lieutenant Charles Nungesser alongside his morbid insignia. [online] See an  original image at: <http://www.opex360.com/2015/07/27/hussard-de-la-grande-guerre-charles-nungesser-le-parrain-de-la-54e-promotion-de-lecole-militaire-interarmes/> [Accessed: 24 June 2016]

A Parisian Charles Nungesser,

An experienced born adventurer

And sportsman, went as a teenager

In search of his missing uncle.

On a mission of discovery Charles

Travelled to South America, here

He worked in Buenos Aires - first

As an auto mechanic then a racer.

From professional racer Charles

Then learned to fly - on finding

His uncle, the young Nungesser

Worked on his sugar plantation.

When war broke out at home

22 year old Charles Nungesser,

Returned to join 2nd Regiment

Hussars, in first months of war.

September 3rd 1914, this soldier

As part of a patrol, was mentioned
In despatches - with their officer

Wounded the men took shelter.

With his fellow soldiers Nungesser

Halted a car, occupied by German

Staff, who they rapidly despatched,

To discover valuable enemy papers.

Nungesser took charge of driving,

At speed returning them to safety -

Stolen by Germans the French car 

Was a Mors; to give him a nickname.

The 'Mors Hussar' had impressed

His superiors, to be given Medaille

Militaire along with the car - some

Days later he passed a few poilu's.

They questioned his role - a youth

Driving around in a car while they

Fought in the trenches - to prompt

Nungesser requesting a transfer.

With his skill at flying, the soldier

Joined Service Aeronautique -

Yet adventurer Charles Nungesser

Was not a man for disciplined rules.

He liked everything fast, not just

Engines but women too - home

In Paris led to his reputed meeting

With an exotic dancer, Mata Hari.

As Aviator the French pilot was

Mentioned 3 times in despatches;

Taking part in 53 bombardments,

To gain Croix de Guerre by 1915.

31 July 1915 Nungesser with his

Mechanic Pochon, on standby, took

Up a Voisin 3 - to fight five Albatros'

Shooting one down near Nancy.

On return Nungesser went under

House arrest, having gone against

Orders - then received a decoration

Before being sent away to Nieuport.

The Nungesser legend had begun -

The pilot’s grim insignia; freebooters

Skull and crossbones below a coffin,

Either side a candle, in a black heart.

The image of Nungesser's morbid

Humour appeared on all his crafts -

A display of his aerobatics above

Nancy, resulted in suspended arrest.

By start of 1916 Nungesser's daring

Resulted in a terrible accident - when

Testing a craft, a control stick broke

His mouth's roof to dislocate his jaw.

Along with two broken legs and

Ribs, found him unconscious for

Five days - invalided from hospital,

A frustrated Nungesser flew again.

In two months he was back in cockpit -

He shot down an enemy balloon

And two crafts  - Nungesser found

Himself promoted to Sub-Lieutenant.

With a report of his 'charmed life,'

Nungesser, during June 1916,

Encountered 6 enemy; 3 Fokkers

And 3 Luft-Verkehrs-Gesellschaft.

In a situation, he employed a trick

To fly between L.V.G. and Fokkers -

Amid six enemies’ they did not fire,

To avoid shooting each other down.

Sub-Lieutenant Nungesser made

His return in safety - he had taken

28 shots in the plane's body, seven

In the engine, one hitting his shoe.

by Jamie Mann.

Anon.,1916. Aviator's Charmed Life. The Daily Telegraph, [online] 24 June 1916. P.10. Col.6. Available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/12211360/Daily-Telegraph-June-24-1916.html [Accessed: 24 June 2016].

Mann, J., 2016. 100 years Ago - Poems by Jamie Mann. [letter] (Personal communication, 24 June 2016). 

Source: File: Charles Nungesser Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Online. Available at: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Nungesser> [Accessed 24 June 2016]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/12211360/Daily-Telegraph-June-24-1916.html

http://worldwaroneblogger.blogspot.co.uk/

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