Poem ~ War Machines - Friday, 1 September 1916 - Thursday, 14 September 1916

Source: File: Holt Tractor hauling a 9.2 inch Howitzer to a forward area. See an original image at: <https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Holt_tractor_hauling_a_9.2_inch_Howitzer_to_a_forward_area.jpg> [Accessed 1 September 2016]

Source: File: Little Willie. See an original image at: <http://www.historywiz.com/tank.htm> [Accessed 1 September 2016]

http://www.historywiz.com/tank.htm

Source: File: Little Willie - The world's first tank. The Tank Museum. See YouTube: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fLCdNudUxk/> [Accessed 10 July 2016]

i

Virtually a year to the day had been

In the making a new concept of war -

Though such an idea had been around

For centuries - born 'Bohemia one.'

Hussite leader, called One-eyed Žižka,

Conceived in the 1400s an idea

Of wagons of armour and cannons.

Five centuries later came idea of self

Propelled cannon by Levavasseur -

Captain of an artillery battalion this

French man had proposition for a petrol

Machine driven on roues articulées -

The crawler tracks would carry 75 mm

Gun cross-country, on a steel caisson.

Objections were raised as directions

Could not be controlled - machines

That could cross multiple terrains had

Proved unsatisfactory - artillery drawn

By horse was perfectly fine - not put

Down, Captain Levavasseur revised

His project in another 1908 prototype.

Yet the plan was rejected by August -

The British had already invented

A chain track, by company Hornsby

And Sons - various trials had led to

Fitting of rolling tracks onto tractors -

After a wheeled tractor was beaten

By trial display, came other changes.

July 1907 in Aldershot, an improved

Chain track was shown a possibility.

David Roberts engineer for Hornsby

Showed a trailer mocked up to carry

A gun - the tracked trailer prompted

The nickname 'caterpillar,' appropriate

To evoke that particular insects crawl.

Trials continued with this caterpillar

Tractor - adding trailers by November

1907, David Roberts displayed this

Tracked trailer to the Royal Artillery -

And then again some months into 1908

At Aldershot, with King Edward present

They displayed the engines versatility.

The caterpillar tractor and trailer showed

The possibility to cross rough grounds,

By obstacles scattered in its path - a mock

Up of a dummy gun was added, along

With a horse team stuck in mud freed

By this machine - the caterpillar crossed 

40 miles non-stop to gain a £1000 prize.

ii

Two years later 1910, a third version

Towed ammunition and 60 pound gun

Over difficult earth - this prompted Major

Donohue's suggestion, how a tractor

Might be fitted with gun and iron shields;

This left Roberts to later regret not

Taking on an idea of an automated gun.

Conceptions had emerged over time

To include a fictional thought in a story

Of 'The Land Ironclads' - H. G. Wells took

The invention of pedrail mobility - being

Wheels of pivoted feet - until war's reality 
became impeded by a landlocked conflict,

Prompting the need to break stalemate.

Matters began to alter after a trial took

Place in Wales - artillery officers gave

Questions over the tractors lack of power,

Prompting a conversion to petrol driven

Engine - a difference of opinion between

Mechanical Transport committee and

Royal Horse Artillery noted shortcomings.

Into 1911 and David Roberts hopes to sell

His idea faded; the war office retracted all

Interest - for £4000 he sold patents to Holt

Manufactures, USA - who also registered

Term 'Caterpillar' as a trademark - matters

Took another turn, when war across Europe

Opened up opportunities for inventions.

Based in California USA, Holts producing

Crawling tractors became favoured as

A way to pull artillery and haul trains

Over rough French tracks - parallel ideas

Had no borders; Colonel Jean Baptiste

Eugène Estienn, commander of French

Artillery Regiment, became tank's father.

Estienn stated how victory belonged

To first who would devise a cannon

On a vehicle over multi terrains - while

French had limited Holts tractors, use

Of them by the British prompted this

Colonel's caterpillar track ideas to carry

An armoured vehicle - his other idea

Included a personal shield on wheels.

Another Estienn development was how

To overcome enemy trenches and wire -

The 'Boirault' was a special machine;

A large open frame driven by a central

Engine - an oblong that could tilt, this

Large rotating track crushed obstacles.

Yet slow fragility led to its end, mid 1915.

iii

As Boirault 1 was abandoned June 1915,

Parallel British industry in July saw a new

Prototype for a land fighter underway.

Developments for fighting vehicles given

To the Landslips committee, prompted

Trails of various wheel and track vehicles -

But single and triple track systems failed.

The project began 1 August 1915, given

To William Foster and Company - just

Under four weeks 'number 1 Lincoln

Machine' did its maiden run in the yard,

Problems showed up one by one to be

Met by challenges to solve resistance,
This in turn led to suspension changes.

Need to traverse five-foot trenches found

Tracks sagged off the wheels and jammed,

While a 16 ton body was too much weight

For the tracks - this led to various track

Designs - William Tritton tried out methods

With tracks held firmly, to be unsprung -

Cast links with steel plates were riveted.

Though the machines speed was limited,

This proved a successful method - then

Into the autumn 1915 rolled out 'Llittle

Willie,' the little sibling of Mark I tank -

This test machine showed issues that

Could be resolved in the next generation;

Work was set out on an improved design.

The main fundamental difference to Willie

Came in a body of a parallelogram, with

Unequal adjacent sides - a rhomboidal

Shape - in considering centre of gravity,

A gun turret on the body’s centre would

Be too high - guns were therefore placed

Either sides; a shape to echo the Boirault.

The army’s armour and armaments needs

Were worked into the finished designs -

Within months, December '15, came names

Like 'His majesty’s ship centipede,' Wilson

Machine and Big Willie, were melded down

Into 'Mother' - to perform before Land ships

Committee at the very beginning of 1916.

A repeat performance was given before

Cabinet ministers and more senior army

Members - 'Mother' was driven over

A prepared landscape of parapets, wire

Craters and over trenches - though the

Secretary of state for war Kitchener was

Wary, Lloyd George prompted production.

With the Land Ships Committee renamed

'Tank supply Committee,' the staff officer

Hugh Elles would be commander of tanks

In France - initial orders began 12 February

Followed by a further 50 in April - the reality

Of land ships codenamed 'tanks' arrived by

British engineering ingenuity, ready for battle.

by Jamie Mann.

Source: File: History of the tank. Available at: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_tank> [Accessed 1 September 2016]

Source: File: British heavy tanks of World War I. Available at: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_heavy_tanks_of_World_War_I#Mark_I> [Accessed 1 September 2016]

Source: File: Boirault machine. Available at: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boirault_machine> [Accessed 1 September 2016]

Source: File: Little Willie. Available at: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Willie> [Accessed 1 September 2016]

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

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

#WW1 #WW1centenary #GreatWar #WW1poem #GreatWar #WW1centenary #worldwarone #worldwaroneremembered #WW1Tanks

Poem ~ The French 75's - Thursday, 10 December 1914

  Source: File: "Our glorious 75", propaganda postcard.jpg, Canon de 75 modèle 1897, Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. [online] Available at: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canon_de_75_mod%C3%A8le_1897> Accessed: 10 December 2014].

 i:

The modèle 1897 French field-gun,

‘Seventy-five’ was proclaimed

As liberator and saviour of France,

As proclaimed in Revue de Paris.

No censorship is made, in how

This gun works, to cause death,

To an enemy in its' systematic

‘Sweeping and progressive firing.’

The battery, made up of four guns,

Moves into action, then to begin

Firing - on a signaller’s receipt,

Making a given range when seen

That the open enemy is advancing.

The 75’s process is to spray shells,

Over several hundred yards -

In creation of a zone of danger,

In which nothing can have a chance.

With first shot fired, the gunner

Spins a handle, to send a second

Sideways - in zone left by the first,

To be repeated by the third shot;

By combined force, is the death zone.

At chest height in hellish rain,

Each shell bursts above the earth.

Thus a battery of four gunners,

Firing twelve shells clears an area

A kilometer in front,

And a hundred yards in depth.

To follow this strategy a second

Salvo - centres on 100 yards behind,

The first fired three shells per gun,

To clear out a same sized zone.

Then a third salvo focuses on

Another 100 yards beyond

The first - equally effective -

A dozen acres will be churned,

And cleared of anything living,

Under a pounding of 36 shells.

After the rain of bursting metal,

Hangs a silence a deafening

Noise of nothing - akin to the grave.

Propaganda of the gun

Depicts a French solider,

In new uniform of blue,

Feeding white shells,

Into a white, barreled gun.

Observed by a ghostly

Woman - with flowers

On her writing desk giving

A virgin innocence.

ii:

Designed over five years,

From the previous century,

The gun was to prove worth,

At the battle of the Marne.

Simply known as the French 75,

Created as anti-personal -

For using thin shells of Melinite,

And fused shrapnel shells.

First of a modern artillery piece,

The 75 design made allowance

For all day firing over five miles -

Of 15 rounds per minute -

Up to 30 rounds by a skilled crew.

Another advantage of this gun,

Was in recoil mechanism cycle -

Absorbing the retort’s force

In two seconds - to allow a crew

An instant following shot,

Without any need to re-aim -

Leading to the future of rapid fire.

Each 75 four-gun battery,

Would be manned by highly

Trained men - totaling 170,

Led by four officer graduates,

From engineering schools.

To function in field, each 75.

Required twelve horse teams,

Looked after by enlisted men,

Of countryside backgrounds.

These six horses were to pull

A detachable part of a limber  -

Another six pulled a further

Ammunition chest for each gun -

In total each 75-gun battery

Was assigned 160 warhorses.

by Jamie Mann.

Anon.,1914. The French Artillery – The ‘75’ at Work. The Daily Telegraph, [online] 10 Dec. p.5. Col.1. Available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/11283535/Daily-Telegraph-December-10-1914.html  [Accessed: 10 December 2014].

Mann, J., 2014. 100 years Ago - Poems by Jamie Mann. [letter] (Personal communication, 10 December 2014). 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/11283535/Daily-Telegraph-December-10-1914.htm

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

#WW1 #WW1centenary #GreatWar #WW1poem #GreatWar #ww1centenary #worldwarone #worldwaroneremembered

Poem ~ A Fortified Paris - Sunday, 6 September 1914

In a Special Sunday edition,

Comes some speculation,

Over the situation of Paris' defence.

Fortification lines around the capital city

Of France, make up the number of three.

Dating from 1870, comes the first line,

Made in the reign of Louis Philippe.

But old walls and earthworks are little use.

A second ring of fortified positions from 1878,

Does not form a complete circumference,

But form a number of separate fortresses.

The most likely approach to Paris, of attack,

Would be from a northerly direction.

Between the rivers of the Oise and the Seine

Lay a number of strong positions, mainly upon

The higher ground; the forest of Montmorency

A backbone of defensive forts –

Sitting with the Seine is the fort of Cormeilles -

The redoubt of Francaville, before Les Cotillons,

Being supported by batteries.

Remember that Cormeilles stands 500 feet

Above the Seine, the slopes of which, being steep,

Commands great power. Then between Cormeilles

And Forest of Montmorencey, is the valley of Ermont,

Along which sweep the forts. At the north east

Of the forest, stands the fort of Domont - further on

A defensive group includes the Fort of Ecouen -

Along with various connected batteries.

Moving southwards is battery of Pincon Hill

And the forts of Stains - Perhaps the most secure

Against attacks being formed with open spaces,

Permanent trenches, with entanglements

Of barbed wire fences – Exposed to this fort,

Is an open low lying plain. The defence of Vaujours

To the south, may be flooded If necessary,

By the trailing rivers of the Trond and Moree.

Between the swift waters of the Marne,

And Canal de l’Durque, Fortifications of Vaujours

and Chelles cover part of the access to Paris.

Higher than the Marne, and lying between

Seine and river Chelles are the forts of Villiers,

Champigny, Suey and Villenueve, St Georges,

That makes up strong Bulwarks of Paris.

Being strengthened by batteries, felled timber

Wire defences and permanent trenches.

In the wide Plain of Seine and Palaiseau

Are no existing permanent defences,

But are covered by fortifications on either side,

So here the forts of Palaiseau, Villiers,

Haut Buc, Saint Cyr and batteries,

South of Versailles, form a solid fortress wall.

The Fort de Chatillon stands as the pivotal fort –

Beyond Versaille and St Germain are further

Strong works of Le Trou de Fer, forming batteries

About the Forest of Marly – furthermore,

Beyond this group Mont Valerien is made,

To have the greatest of military defence.

So out goes a warning to potential Invaders,

By this description of an impregnable city,

In facing its latest dangerous enemy.

The French capital Paris is quite prepared.

Standing ready, grateful for former

Felicitous defenders, building such forts.

by Jamie Mann.

Anon., 1914. Fortified Paris - Defensive Preparations - Almost Impregnable. The Daily Telegraph - Special War Edition, [online] 6 Sept. p.6. Col.2. Available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/11068680/Daily-Telegraph-September-6-1914.html [Accessed: 6th September 2014].

Mann, J., 2014. 100 years Ago - Poems by Jamie Mann. [letter] (Personal communication, 6 September 2014). 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/11068680/Daily-Telegraph-September-6-1914.html

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

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