Poem ~ War Surgery - Saturday, 24 March 1917

Source: File: Wounded undergoing operations WWI. See an original image at: <http://history-help.wikia.com/wiki/File:Ww1_hospital.jpg> [Accessed 24 March 2017]

Amid progressive developments

Created by situation of the war,

Were attempts by medicine 

In order to treat severe wounds.

A son of the MP James O'Grady,

Trade unionist of Labour Party,

Was given cutting edge surgery,

Badly injured some months prior.

Severity mean that an arm had

To be amputated - the surgeon 

Did not leave it there, to cut

Part of the bone from the arm.

Doing this he made the attempt

To save the fellow's limb - an

Operation followed to reattach

Arm once more to the shoulder.

Severed tendons were sewn

Back together - this worked,

So the O'Grady soldier was

Able to lift a cup and drink tea.

The discernible difference was

To be that, the arm compared

To the other arm, was shorter;

The bone removed 2 1/2 inches.

by Jamie Mann.

Anon.,1917. A Surgical Marvel. The Daily Telegraph, [online] 8 March 1917. P.6. Col.4. Available at: <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/12214364/Daily-Telegraph-March-8-1917.html> [Accessed: 24 March 2017].

Mann, J., 2016. 100 years Ago - Poems by Jamie Mann. [letter] (Personal communication, 24 March 2017). 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/12214364/Daily-Telegraph-March-8-1917.html

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

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Poem ~ Zimmerman: Telegram Of War - Friday, 9 March 1917 - Sunday, 11 March 1917

Source: File: Zimmermann Telegram as Received by the German Ambassador to Mexico - NARA - 302025.jpg. See original images at: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimmermann_Telegram> [Accessed 9 March 2017]

Alongside the greatest neutral country,

United States of America, a small cousin

Kept an ear to the door - maybe not to spy

But more a watchful eye, so that January

1917, The Naval Intelligence Service

Made something of a discovery.

At Room 39 of the admiralty on January

19 1917, intercepted a telegram - receiver

Was Heinrich von Eckardt being Germany's

Ambassador in Mexico - the sender Arthur

Zimmermann, German Empire's foreign

Secretary; a blatant coded message.

The Western Union Telegram had,

Since 1856, used an amazing technology

Whereby electrical impulses sent through wire,

Tapped out in Morse and typed onto a form

To be hand delivered - Naval Intelligence

Monitoring made surprise discovery.

Headed by normal Western Union 

Logo, the received typed form sent via

Galveston for German Legation, Mexico city.

Ten uneven columns of grouped numbers;

3,4 or 5 sets, dated January 19 1917

And signed 'BERNSTORFF.'

The telegram conveyance travelled by

Galveston Texas, to possess the stamp

Of German Ambassador to the United States;

J.H. von Bernstoff - the note taken on by

Room 40, and the official secret office

Of cryptographic workers.

In order to hide potential interception,

Later claims how the message took three

Routes - whereas only one had been used;

The message sent in Berlin to US embassy,

Via diplomatic cable - first to Copenhagen,

Then London and onto Washington.

The transatlantic cable being only

Possible way - as Britain had severed

German cables in 1914 - Swedish cables

And those of the US converged at relay

Station of Porthcurno, finally boosted

To travel across the ocean.

It was at Porthcurno that all traffic

Was copied by the British intelligence.

Germany's usage of the cable was agreed

By US President for diplomatic reasons,

To work for a peaceful solution

In negotiating war's end.

Room 40 code-breaker analysts

Set to work - conditions having been

That Germany using cable, telegrams could 

Not be in code; yet the US Ambassador

In Berlin J. Gerrard, was persuaded

To transmit the coded form.

Within hours, Nigel de Grey in Room 40

Had deciphered part of the code, whereby

They had acquired German systems 13040

And 0075 ciphers - William Hall, room 40

Chief, refused to release the message

For duration of another 3 weeks.

Decipher's Grey and Montgomery

Completed the decryption - the issue

Being any release would show how British

Had intercepted confidential American

Cables and expose the fact Britain 

Held Germany's secret codes.

To maintain secrecy, a cover story

Was devised as to how the Zimmerman

Cable came into their possession - to convince

The States the telegram was real and fact

They had discovered the true content

Of the telegram's suggestion.

An agent in Mexico 'Mr. H' would

Bribe a telegraph agency employee

For a copy - weighing up the risk of US entry

Into war and Germany realizing capture

Of German ciphertext codes being

Revealed, was well worth it.

To cover the cover up America

Agreed to the official story, how British

Agents gained the deciphered text in Mexico.

The 13040 code then given to America,

To make their own verification

Of the coded telegram.

The Zimmerman Telegram content

Revealed German intent, conveyed by

The Foreign secretary to Eckardt, who read

In disbelief - given over by Room 40 chief

To Edward Bell, Britain’s US secretary,

Yet convinced it was a forgery.

by Jamie Mann.

Source: File: Wikipedia: Zimmermann Telegram. Available at: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimmermann_Telegram> [Accessed 9 March 2017]

Source: File: Ask History: What was the Zimmermann Telegram? Available at: <http://www.history.com/news/ask-history/what-was-the-zimmermann-telegram> [Accessed 9 March 2017]

Source: File: National Archives: The Zimmermann Telegram. Available at: <https://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/zimmermann> [Accessed 9 March 2017]

Source: File: The Sun THE MESSAGE THAT CHANGED HISTORY. What is The Zimmerman Telegram and how did it lead to America joining the allies in World War One? Available at: <https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/2633708/how-zimmerman-telegram-changed-history/> [Accessed 9 March 2017]

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Poem ~ Bapaume Triangle - Thursday, 1 March 1917- Friday, 2 March 1917

Source: File: Men of 30th Battalion AIF among ruins of Bapaume - the day they entered the town. See an original image at: <https://www.awm.gov.au/blog/2007/04/03/bapaume-to-bullecourt-the-fighting-in-france-1917/> [Accessed 01 January 2017]

i

Time moves on a pace -

The bite of winter starts to fade.

February's end sees news

Of Gommecourt, which German

Troops abandoned.

A hammered commune

8 miles north of Albert, within

The Bapaume triangle -

A two-man patrol had set out.

Members of the Durham

Light infantry entered the park

Of Gommecourt chateau;

The ruins striking a stark line.

The commune remnants

Being easily taken, without any

Fight - 9 months before

Had seen a London regiment.

Then an assault had

Been taken on the impregnable

Position, to threaten

Them with total annihilation.

For reasons the Germans chose

To retreat during dusk -

Their way had been protected,

West of Bucquoy.

With a wedge formed

By rear guard posts - machine

Guns lined about

Rossignol and Biaz woods.

Return to normality

Saw resurgence of dirty tricks -

Booby traps set out

To catch out unwary hunters.

Souvenirs of abandoned
German helmets concealed

Explosives set to blow
If touched, as were trip wires.

Insignificant devices

Were seen as less of a threat

Than machine gunners

And snipers concealed all about.

ii

Work of the troops being

To hunt them out from hiding -

Not so far very far

Away Puisieux village hid many.

A manhunt took

Place within the maze of brick

Ruins, in the night

Of Tuesday 27 February 1917.

In the clearance

The British line had expanded;

Gommecourt, lay

Left to Puisieux, right to Irles.

All such communes

Destruction were thorough -

To include Irles

And Achiet le Petit churches.

In German occupation

Churches were destroyed to halt

Advantages as platform

For their enemies observers.

The clock tower

Of Bapume had also gone -

Noted how in the

Somme this had told time.

South of Bapaume,

North of Ligny-Thilloy - yet

Another village fell

Into allied hands -Thilloy.

Speculation makes

For reasons, in the ease

Of taking the line

Within these communes.

Steady pressure

Of allied attacks, perhaps had

Pushed enemy; back

To poorer, shorter grounds.

Yet a concentrated

German line set to rebuild their

Offence and defence;

Annoyance came via new shells.

iii

Bapaume lay under

A mile away 'he' i.e. Germany,

On the other side had

Big guns, on railway mounts.

Over the bubble that

Was Bapaume shot quick fire

Artillery - barbed rolls

About Achiet and Bucquoy.

The loop continuing

At Loupard wood - what then

Was plan of German

High command to pull back?

His tactic perhaps

To regroup along a shorter,

Stronger line - a pivot

At Le Transloy held his lines.

Allied anticipation

To perhaps reform before

Arras, Cambrai

And Douai - in speculation.

Beyond Bapaume

Were eastern strongholds

Of an enemy, set

In French woods and villages.

These British gains

Were results of consolidation

To re-strengthen,

Maybe against losses of 1916.

by Jamie Mann.

Gibb, P., 1917. German Retreat - More British Gains. The Daily Telegraph, [online] 1 March 1917. P.7. Col.2. Available at: <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/12214348/Daily-Telegraph-March-1-1917.html> [Accessed: 1 March 2016].

Mann, J., 2016. 100 years Ago - Poems by Jamie Mann. [letter] (Personal communication, 1 March 2017). 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/12214348/Daily-Telegraph-March-1-1917.html

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

#WW1 #WW1centenary #GreatWar #WW1poem #GreatWar #WW1centenary #worldwarone #worldwaroneremembered #WW1Bapume