Showing posts with label Newspapers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Newspapers. Show all posts

Monday, 31 July 2017

Poem ~ Paris Attacks - Tuesday, 31 July 1917

Source: File: From Geographical Imaginations: Is Paris Burning? A look-out man operates a portable siren above the city. See an original image at: <https://geographicalimaginations.com/2012/10/20/is-paris-burning/> 
[Accessed 31 July 2017]

Within war comes propaganda;
Opposing sides give denial
Of what the other side says.

Arial activity over the capital
Of France, found multiple
German bombing air raids.

As a precaution army of Paris
Firemen warned the people
Of enemy crafts approaching.

Weird, unusual sounds stirred
Paris, as firemen on roofs blew
On bugles or sounded sirens.

Above air raid alarms French
Air craft took flight over city,
In a darkening, melting sky.

Ground and sky became
As one - deep darkness cut
By beams of searchlights.

German official reports told
Of railways targeted in Paris,
To hit their mark with damage.

By Saturday, French replies
Made denial - that enemy
Planes had left no destruction.

Neither material loss nor loss
Of life - wireless messages
Were received by Admiralty.

Yet Parisian military bases
And railways were hit, with
German pilots safely returned.

Sunday July 29th, a Journal
Told of a suburban air raid
To describe damages done.

One store of combustibles
had been hit - also a factory
Yard, to leave small effects.

Two more fell appropriately
Into gutters, while shell havoc
Hit beds of innocent cauliflowers.

Any resulting explosions
Lacked involved descriptions,
As another bomb hit a centre.

Noted as important, maybe
Military, one turret exploded;
Being close to civilian houses.

The blast blew out material
To injure a single sleeping lady -
More bombs harmlessly fell.

Some hit one large enclosure,
With three in a boulevard -
Another damaged flowerbeds.

Sunday 29 July saw repeat.
30 minutes after midnight
Came the sounds of bugles.

Firemen called reveille and
Again set sirens loud across
Sleepy Paris, all as a caution.

Readied French squadrons
Took action to flight; reportedly
Sending enemy backwards.

News via Petit Journal, from
Versailles said bombs exploded,
All lost in the open countryside.

by Jamie Mann.

Anon.,1917. Bombs On Paris - No Victims Or Damage. The Daily Telegraph, [online] 30 July 1917. P.4. Col.6. Available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/12214740/Daily-Telegraph-July-30-1917.html [Accessed: 31 July 2017].

Mann, J., 2016. 100 years Ago - Poems by Jamie Mann. [letter] (Personal communication, 31 July 2017). 



#WW1 #WW1centenary #GreatWar #WW1poem #GreatWar #WW1centenary #worldwarone #worldwaroneremembered #WW1Paris

Saturday, 25 March 2017

Poem ~ Russia And Speculation - Sunday, 25 March 1917 - Saturday, 31 March 1917


Source: File: Vladimir 'Lenin' Ilyich Ulyanov in Exile. Collective Leadership. See an original image at: <http://en.academic.ru/dic.nsf/enwiki/11562318> [Accessed 25 March 2017]

16 March 1917 of the Gregorian calendar,
Noted how just over a week of revolution
Within Russia brought out reactions from
Other world countries - America's press
Were positive to respect Russia's people.

The view had arrived from New York,
Unblended by a lengthy Berlin wireless
Message to neutral countries - whose
Influence of assistance had funded
The return of Bolsheviks to Russia.

This included one certain figure intent
To lead the party; Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov
Known by alias Lenin - propaganda from
Germany had sought to suggest how
Russia would then be out of the war.

London opinion had no such thought -
Rebirth of Russian determination
Was suggestion - united Russian, free
Of plots would be better equipped;
Revolts success would defeat Germany,

A Petrograd dispatch told how army
Was on revolutionary side - two years
Of war bled away complete Tsar loyalty
And obedience to the Empire - America
Had welcomed the change of rule.

To say how entrusted Duma leaders
With others were directing the empire -
Maladministration’s had been turned
Upside down to realise ambitions; for
Russian access to unfrozen seas.

News of the Tsar's abdication raised
By press, as in the New York Times,
Noted the passing of an old regime,
Maybe to herald a new free world;
Democratic countries looked to Russia.

Democracy would free Russian
People - that good organization
Would make defeat of revolution
Impossible - what then will those
Autocrats in Germany consider?

The New York Tribune had debated
How changes of Russian rule may
Be decisive act to defeat Germany -
Within New York Times was theory
Of temporary abdication of monarchy.

To see new constitutional Tsar form
That could rule as head of the state;
America eagerly awaited more news.
Yet German reaction was subdued;
Perhaps a more realistic viewpoint.

Overall the view from Germany
Was one of regret and unknown -
How might alliances be affected?
A warning made by press to say
Caution against any change in war.

Deutsche Zeitung; 'personalities are
Central to events,' Vassische Zeitung;
Advised judgment; Berliner Tageblatt
Warned of anti monarchy; Frankfurter
Zeitung stated; can be no prediction.

A calmer reaction purveyed France
Where Press in the 'Temps' saw a shift
To the left in Bureaucracy and peoples
Struggles - a power shift to a bloc held
By assemblies and an army majority.

Yet the 'Temps' reminded the reader by
France's own historical fight for liberty.
Holland held change as victory for war
Parties, to end speculation of separate
Peace between Russia and Germany.

Nieuwe Rotterdamsche Courant added,
Idea of revolution would lend continuation
Of war - Italian military situation would
Not alter due to rapid manner of revolt -
Italy said: 'evil out of which good will come.'

Skepticism dominated - such Russian
Events as a telegram in Austrian capital
Of Vienna - any results of rising were far
Too soon to speculate; the coup d'etate
Would have a world reaching effects.

Analysis of Denmark dwelled on theory
That the old government had tendencies
Of a bond with Germany - in a renewal
Of rule, Russia would lean to envigoured
Route into the war as shared in Britain.

British MP Philip Stanhope, 1st Baron
Weardale's statement in an interview
Told of close acquaintance of many
Members of the new Russian cabinet -
To hope for new freedoms for people.

Stanhope shared belief of resurgence
By military presence on the fighting
Field - how agricultural movements
Would now be restored, to deal with
Food shortages with Moscow at centre.

Seen as important, British opinion held
Thoughts of Henry Mayes Hyndman,
A founder of Britain’s first socialist party;
This had been an ideal revolution
Where limited blood had been spilled.

A 'parasitical class' had been overturned
To claim facts had been issued in 'Justice,'
5 months before - background intrigue
Had led to downfall, while Miliukoff gained
Praise by Hyndman for smooth revolt.

So Kaiser be warned writing is on wall -
A world was watching wheel of revolution
For a smoothed shift of Russian power,
To rise and crush Germany; yet a wary
World should beware of revolutionaries.

by Jamie Mann.

Anon.,1917. A Worlds View On The Russian Revolt - America Delighted. 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: 25 March 2017].

Mann, J., 2016. 100 years Ago - Poems by Jamie Mann. [letter] (Personal communication, 25 March 2017). 



#WW1 #WW1centenary #GreatWar #WW1poem #GreatWar #WW1centenary #worldwarone #worldwaroneremembered #WW1Russia

Sunday, 12 March 2017

Poem ~ Broken Isolationism - Monday, 12 March 1917 - Thursday, 15 March 1917

Source: File: Woodrow Wilson is sworn in to his second term as President of the United States by Chief Justice Edward Douglass White. See an original image at: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:WilsonInauguration1917.jpg> [Accessed 12 March 2017]

Sunday 4 March 1917, the day
President Wilson made an oath
To enter a second term in post.
Entering a more somber period
Of his presidency - expectancy
Awaited an inaugural speech.

The talk centered around an
'Armed Neutrality Bill,' when
President Wilson would gain
Powers, to arm all merchant
Vessels, against the piracy
Being carried out by Germany.

96 members of the senate
Saw total of 83 supporting
Moves to armed neutrality -
For all intent and purposes
America was acting out war,
As seen in correspondence.

While from reliable sources
Representatives, Senators
Any kind of declaration lay
In the hands of congress;
The Representatives house
Of 416 votes saw 403 united.

They favoured 'Armed Ship
Bill,' to note how events
And the timing of, perhaps
Declaring war, had become
Shadowed by fact in armed
Ships, making a declaration.

An isolationism that USA
Had maintained for more
Than two years had altered,
After a German submarine
Covered the great distance
Of sailing the Atlantic ocean.

A new reality had been born,
To show how United States of
America was part of the world.
Overriding the people's beliefs
In refraining from any meddling
In European continent's affairs.

With the revealed plot aimed
Towards USA - to set attempts
To utilize Japanese forces on
An Mexican platform, intent
To invade American soil - akin
To the 1914 Belgium invasion.

A German telegram effectively
Declared themselves as enemy
To the USA, sentiments were
Swiftly stirred to fight on allies
Side - rather than to fight as a
Completely separate nation.

The propaganda machine
Of Germany within the USA
Reached a crossroads - they
Could not deny discovery
Of the German plot - though
Newspapers attempted a ploy.

New Yorker, Staats-Zeitung
And Gaelic American, gave
The idea to their readers that
The Zimmermann Note was
In fact an English forgery,
Planted to create conflict.

Flying in the face of Berlin,
Admissions and sentiments
Inflamed a majority among
People of America, which
Awaited Vienna’s response
In supporting Germany.

Yet the feeling of situation
Being all out of proportion
To lay in a certain minority -
If memebers in the senate
Might block the bill, Woodrow
Wilson could override them.

by Jamie Mann.

Source: File: Second Inaugural Address of Woodrow Wilson. Yale Law School - The Avalon Project. Available at: <http://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/wilson2.asp> [Accessed 12 March 2017]

Source: File: U.S. Presidential Inaugurations: Woodrow Wilson. Available at: <https://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/inaugurations/wilson/index.html> [Accessed 12 March 2017]

Source: File: The Washington times., March 05, 1917, Complete Afternoon Edition, Image 1. Available at: <http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84026749/1917-03-05/ed-1/seq-1/> [Accessed 12 March 2017]


#WW1 #WW1centenary #GreatWar #WW1poem #GreatWar #WW1centenary #worldwarone #worldwaroneremembered #WW1America

Tuesday, 7 March 2017

Poem ~ Sussex Pledge Broken - Wednesday, 7 March 1917- Thursday, 8 March 1917


Source: File: torpedoed Cross-channel ferry Sussex at Boulogne, March 1916. The entire forepart of the ship was destroyed in the attack. See an original image at: <http://study.com/academy/lesson/sussex-pledge-definition-lesson.html> [Accessed 7 March 2017]

Within hours of the Laconia's loss, survivor
Reporter Floyd Gibbons of Chicago Tribune,
Composed his account of certain night, February
25 1917 - over the next few days newspaper
Debates expressed American opinions.

Only 11 months before a diplomatic crisis 
Had threatened America's neutrality; German
UB 29 in a grave error of judgment, had attacked 
What was believed to be a Mine Sweeper - 
A daily passenger ferry left Folkestone.

The situation at sea had seen declared
War zones; German frustrations at land-war
Stalemate turned towards the sea - from 1916
Unrestricted U Boat policy of attacks were
Made against shipping, though restricted.

The Lusitania that had been torpedoed
In May 1915 had initially riled America with
The deaths of 128 Americans - in order to pacify
USA, Germany curbed U-boat attacks; armed
Merchant ships again valid targets by 1916.

March 1916 the Sussex carried civilians;
Being a cross channel ferry sighted by UB 29
Believed to be a mine layer the ferry was targeted.
The Sussex did not sink yet damage was heavy;
Amid the 80 casualties were 25 Americans.

President Woodrow Wilson's reaction
Was a threat to cut off all diplomacy with
Germany - actions were swift to Wilson's angry
April speech - on 4 May came a promise
With Germany's 'Sussex Pledge.'

The Sussex Pledge promised that no
Passenger ships would be targeted - while
Merchant ships would only be sunk; after being
Searched for weaponry passengers and crew
Would be made safe - rescinded by 1917.

Germany confidently believed that
They might win the war swiftly by an act
At sea, whereby unrestricted warfare would
Defeat allied forces, before any chance
Of the USA joining in conflict.

The Laconia attack sparked debate,
As daily American newspapers endorsed
The Governments view, to see the Laconia
Sinking as an overt act - such event
Were changing opinions in USA.

Tuesday 27 February an address
Made by President Wilson saw mixed
Reactions, about ambiguous nature of armed
Neutrality; 'peace at all costs' had then
Been the central policy of USA.

President Woodrow Wilson, along
With legal advisor Robert Lansing, met
To confer how blatantly Germany had gone
Against their word of the 'Sussex Pledge,'
Resulting in a new congress policy.

A quote from the New York Times
Called on all Americans to defend their
Liberties of the nation - a right to sail the seas
Securely and without risk - any surrender
Would show a nation lacking courage.

Debates in arming of American shipping
Were yet to be tested - to stretch the mind
How America might enter a war centered purely 
In Europe - President Wilson believed only
An invasion of the US would cause war.

Only time might tell any future 
Direction; in the meantime all American
Consular officers, along with all diplomats,
Started a process of leaving Austria,
Breaking with the central powers.

At the foot of America on Mexican 
Border, stretching from Tijuana across
To Brownsville, had been brewing a line
Of adversity - although regarding war
The country shared USA neutrality.

Mexico itself was in the throws
Of lengthy revolution - with strained
Politics openly made the hispanic country
An ideal sideline for German intent -
To entice Venustiano Carranza.

The President of Mexico held key
To deflect the USA; the Zimmerman
Telegram decoded message had revealed
German intent to restart their submarine
Warfare, to curtail 'Sussex Pledge.'

Ideal was that America remained
Neutral - if this did not happen then
Germany proposed a Mexico alliance -
The carrot being financial support
For regaining all lost territories.

Arizona, Texas and New Mexico taken
In the 1848 Mexican cession in the treaty
Of Guadalupe Hidalgo; von Eckardt was given
Free reign to gain Mexico as an ally,
By a settlement to retake territory.

Von Eckardt instructions was to distract 
President's attention; that in a few months
England would be compelled to make peace.
'Make war together make peace together,'
Was motto of an alliance with Mexico.

Although the telegram kept options
Open, von Eckardt was requested to use
His initiative; also to mediate some agreement
With Japan, who was then fighting alongside
The allied powers; signed Zimmerman.

Strains of mutual dislike lay all around;
America was anti Mexican, with element
Of anti British - with anti Germany in Mexico
Was anti America - German held hopes
For a Mexico-American war to break.

So a scene was set - with the 'Sussex
Pledge' trashed, to see by start of March
Defensive arms to be carried by American ships.
A direct result of overt act; diplomacy ties
With Germany fell - time might tell.

by Jamie Mann.

Source: File: US Department Of State: American Entry into World War I, 1917. Available at: <https://2001-2009.state.gov/r/pa/ho/time/wwi/82205.htm> [Accessed 7 March 2017]

Source: File: Wikipedia: Sussex Pledge. Available at: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sussex_pledge> [Accessed 7 March 2017]

Source: File: The First World War, East Sussex. The Sussex Pledge. Available at: <http://www.eastsussexww1.org.uk/the-sussex-pledge/> [Accessed 7 March 2017]


#WW1 #WW1centenary #GreatWar #WW1poem #GreatWar #WW1centenary #worldwarone #worldwaroneremembered #WW1America

Sunday, 25 December 2016

Poem ~ Season Of Peace And War - Monday, 25 December 1916 - Tuesday 26 December 1916

Source: File: Ruheben Camp festive card. Sketch depicting the card as they might have appeared in 1917 ‑ had the war ended that year. See an original image at: <https://www.worldwar1postcards.com/christmas-postcards.php> [Accessed 15 December 2016]

Reaching a bridge of 24 months from
First war Christmas, came 1916 festivities -
Situations of moods had long changed,
Across bitter stalemate of frontlines.

For the dead there were no celebrations.
Many that had once kicked a football
Across No Mans Land, long laid below
Or scattered across its poisoned mud.

Verdun, Somme and many new names
Of battles marked the bitter losses - any
Type of fraternisation forbidden by orders;
No football games of Hun versus Tommy.

Yet such truces of peace were not totally
Diminished - many Germans called out
Across the void to the Tommy and the Poilu
For 'Trêve de Noël' and 'Weihnachtsfrieden.'

The French spirit for 'live and let live' saw
Sectors sing to each other in native songs,
Along with exchanged gifts thrown across
Closest spaces of their outermost trenches.

Still the season, though subdued, continued.
Back in blighty had been orgainsed programs,
To get Christmas puddings to the front troops;
Though jokes abounded, if they would arrive.

With frozen stalemate in mud and the worst
Weather for more that 30 years, shortages
Were taking a grip - seasonal telegrams did
Not halt to tell men’s families of their deaths.

Not to forget the detained, held in camps from
Either side - with those most talented devising
Festive postcards - the artistic in the Ruhleben
Civilian camp held since 1914, drew designs.

In a card for xmas two detainees stare beyond
The wire towards the rising sun in hope of 1917;
A version shows them dancing before a happy
Sun and posts without wire, had the war ended.

A cherub builds three blocks for each war year;
1916 atop 1915 and 1914 - while yet another
Card, a smirking cherub kicks away the blocks -
Tentatively wishing happy forebodings for 1917.

With many an unlucky Tommy still on duty
In the trenches - as witnessed by news reporters
Such as Philip Gibbs - where after frosts, sleet
And snow found Christmas Eve a mild day.

Winter sunshine reflected across swamps
And flooded holes described in poetic images;
As supply columns churned their ways through
Mud, delivering feast day supplies to troops.

Gibbs saw soldiers as Noah like figures building
Colonies of huts, with attempts to abate floods -
Figures everywhere, splattered stiff with pale mud,
Emerged from lines imbued with Christmas spirits.

By subdued daylight Tommy's, Jocks and Anzacs
Sought out trinkets in nearest of French village
Markets - while on eve of feast day the reporter
Found a crowded restaurant, ready to celebrate.

Characters at every table; Tommy’s and Poliu
In salute of Entente Cordiale; 'Bonne chance!'
'Nous Les Aurons' and counter Christmas wishes
To old Fritz - here and there sat puzzled faces.

Young faces of 1916 recruits, amid the mature
Old Contemptibles, drawn into other temporary
Moods - away from the easy warmth and light
He took a few steps into darkness, to see blinks
Of horizon shells - somewhere soldiers died.

by Jamie Mann.

Gibb. P.,1916. Tommy's Xmas Eve - Scenes And Contrasts - A Memorable Picture. The Daily Telegraph, [online] 26 December 1916. P.7. Col.1-2. Available at: <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/12214032/Daily-Telegraph-December-26-1916.html> [Accessed: 26 December 2016].

Source: File: Picture Postcards From The Great War  - WW1 Christmas Postcards  by Tony Allen- 1914-1918. Available at: < https://www.worldwar1postcards.com/christmas-postcards.php> [Accessed 26 December 2016]

Mann, J., 2016. 100 years Ago - Poems by Jamie Mann. [letter] (Personal communication, 26 December 2016). 


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

#WW1 #WW1centenary #GreatWar #WW1poem #GreatWar #WW1centenary #worldwarone #worldwaroneremembered #WW1Christmas

Thursday, 6 October 2016

Poem ~ Medics Under Fire - Friday, 06 October - Saturday, 07 October 1916

Source: File: Stretcher-bearers moving up to the forward area; near Ginchy;14 September 1916. Tank tracks can be seen running alongside them in the mud. See an original image at: <https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Stretcher-bearers_attached_to_a_Guards_battalion_moving_forward_near_Ginchy_on_the_Somme,_14_September_1916._Q1214.jpg> [Accessed 6 October 2016]

An influential pioneer of newspaper trade
Alfred Harmsworth, had been born into world
Of the gentry, with brothers of viscounts
And barons to gain his own title - 1st Viscount
Northcliffe - to become a freelance journalist.

Building on the purchase of periodicals,
Harmsworth went on to take failing papers
And build them into successful chains -
From the Evening News the viscount went
Onto create the Daily Mail and Daily Mirror.

A tabloid pioneer that linked in compulsory
Education - another Harmsworth paper,
The Times, had made reports over the 1915
Shell crisis, that in turn had led to changes
In government regarding the lack of shells.

By reaction Prime minster Asquith was forced
To form a coalition government - by creation
The ministry of munitions, whose minister
Was to be David Lloyd George - Harmsworth
Still a journalist made reports about the war.

A piece appeared within his newspaper,
The Daily Mail, relating to the War Doctors.
Lord Northcliffe had embarked on a Somme
Tour of the war front - reaching the frontline
On a Sunday, under a heavy atmosphere.

As if a permanent thunderstorm, continual
Clouds of dusty smoke hung all around.
In his objective of visiting an Advanced
Dressing station were endless interruptions,
Having to lay flat to avoid close shell bursts.

The practise occurred every few seconds,
To become quickly tedious, without any
Sign of the dressing station close by -
Suddenly two stretcher-bearers emerged
Out of nowhere through a haze, to vanish.

As quickly as they came they went down
Underground, as Alice did into a rabbit
Burrow - an inspector of the medical posts,
Lord Northcliffe's guide, pointed after them;
Down they went, to follow into wonderland.

Behind the men they dropped into a trench,
From foggy light into pitch darkness lit only
By candles - yet no quiet place, as an acting
Battery had let loose above; dominating
Any act of easy exchange or questioning.

From the flickering light, a grimy grim image
Emerged. They were stood in a passageway.
Part of a maze dug out of clay earth, little
More than the width of stretcher handles -
Under the dull light men lay on the ground.

Lined out on stretchers blocking the passage,
The men were silent under noisome blasts.
Making it difficult to attempt to talk many just
Stared into space, some smiled others slept;
They stepped over the stretchered wounded.

Many were out of it on morhpia - their torch light
Beam passed over varied shadowy faces  -by
Half stumbles they reached the main dressing
Area - above them rumbles numbed by density
Of solid ground, ignored by those in their burrow.

In a small chamber they found young doctors -
A few R.A.M.C subalterns taking tender care,
Washing and dressing of some twenty-four
Soldiers - by stealth the visitors moved onward;
In another chamber lay nine wounded men.

In one small room an operation was underway -
A tracheotomy was performed to relieve one
Mans ability to breathe - carried out in calm
Beneath five foot of earth, endless shudders
Above bowed heads, ignored by doctors work.

Further down in the dug tunnels were other
Rooms; a corrugated walled store room, an
Office, kitchen along with a mess room home
To seventy staff - all impressed Lord Northcliffe
Providing a reminder of extremes of war work.

Above them the barrage increased again -
The visitors would have to remain a while
Longer, sitting among the wounded men who
Laid helpless on the ground - he noted among
Some having tremors of shell shock symptoms.

Around them hands and expressions played
In time  - with each echoing dull thud, such gun
Effects held equal prejudice for every soldier -
The realization came to Northcliffe, how these
Caring humans had ability to go without sleep.

Amazed by their dedications to treat extreme
Effects of war on bodies - Northcliffe and guide
Waited for storms abate, talking over how many
Of the wounded initially dressed own wounds,
Using basic field dressings sewn into tunics.

Of course, it was only those soldiers who were
Able - while others waited, reliant on regimental
Stretcher-bearers or reaching aid posts like the
One where they sat - little wonder he thought,
Some broke down and not just women nurses.

by Jamie Mann.

Anon.,1916. The War Doctors  - Their Life Under Fire. The Daily Telegraph, [online] 4 October 1916. P.7. Col.2. Available at: <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/12213368/Daily-Telegraph-October-5-1916.html> [Accessed: 5 October 2016].

Mann, J., 2016. 100 years Ago - Poems by Jamie Mann. [letter] (Personal communication, 5 October 2016). 



#WW1 #WW1centenary #GreatWar #WW1poem #GreatWar #WW1centenary #worldwarone #worldwaroneremembered #WW1Somme