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06-24-2006, 11:03 AM | #1 | |
Illustrious Ulair
Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: In the home of lost causes, and forsaken beliefs, and unpopular names,and impossible loyalties
Posts: 4,240
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Battle of the Somme 90th Anniversary July 1st
As many of us know, the Battle of the Somme (1916) was perhaps the single most formative experience of Tolkien's life, in which he lost two of his three closest friends: Rob Gilson & Geoffrey Bache Smith. It had a profound effect not just on his personal but also on his creative life. This article is from the forthcoming Tolkien Encyclopedia.
Perhaps we should all take a moment this coming Saturday to reflect on the suffering & sacrifice involved & to realise that without that time of horror we would probably not have the works that mean so much to us. Quote:
Around a wide-hearth-fire that's glowing red, Giving no thought to all the stormy weather That flies above the roof-tree overhead. And he, the fourth, that lies all silently In some far distant and untended grave, Under the shadow of a shattered tree, Shall leave the company of the hapless brave, And draw nigh unto us for memory's sake, Because a look, a word, a deed, a friend, Are bound with cords that never man may break, Unto his heart forever to the end. From a poem by GB Smith on the death of Rob Gilson. Smith was killed not long after. |
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06-24-2006, 01:34 PM | #2 |
Ghost Prince of Cardolan
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Muddy-earth
Posts: 1,297
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I have often thought of the horror of the trenches and how lucky we are that we will never have to face it, and that Tolkien survived it. I have many DVDs and books on the subject. I sit and watch those faces pass by, wondering what they could have done to enrich our world, I do not wish to upset anyone, yet I am glad that Tolkien survived The Great War by being invalided. The Somme is a battle honour for my Regiment, as it is for many regiments that survived that horror, but not the politicians knife. The Lancashire Fusileers were my local Regiment, they no longer exist, having been amalgamated with other regiments, diluting the standards, traditions and customs that many young men were proud of, and many died upholding them, these words Tolkien as a young officer of the regiment would understand
Omnia audax, the motto of The 20th of Foot, Daring in all things And does'nt Tolkuhn mean Foolhardy. I will raise a glass of port to my old regiment on the 1st of July, and drink to the memory old all who died that day And I will play The Green Fields of France (No mans land) by The Men They Could'nt Hang
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[B]THE LORD OF THE GRINS:THE ONE PARODY....A PARODY BETTER THAN THE RINGS OF POWER. Last edited by narfforc; 06-25-2006 at 01:30 AM. |
06-24-2006, 03:25 PM | #3 |
Spirit of the Lonely Star
Join Date: Mar 2002
Posts: 5,133
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Davem,
Thank you for the post. I would not otherwise have remembered this. I found a site put up by the Imperial War Museum that includes recollections about the battle. Click here for a brief article on Tolkien's service and a photo of the revolver he carried.
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Multitasking women are never too busy to vote. Last edited by Child of the 7th Age; 06-26-2006 at 07:56 AM. |
06-24-2006, 04:13 PM | #4 |
La Belle Dame sans Merci
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Davem, my thanks for posting up a history lesson more profound than any I've ever received in a classroom.
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peace
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06-24-2006, 04:30 PM | #5 | |
Relic of Wandering Days
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: You'll See Perpetual Change.
Posts: 1,480
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06-26-2006, 05:23 AM | #6 |
Spectre of Decay
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Remember regardless
It should be borne in mind that when you remember the Somme you are remembering somewhere in the region of a million men of both sides who died in a sordid, muddy stalemate that dragged on for five months. By the end of the first day, British and Empire casualties alone totalled 19,240 dead and 38,230 wounded. I know that Bźthberry will thank me for mentioning the First Newfoundlanders, one of only two non-British units in the British sector, who entered the field with a Battalion strength of 801 and the following morning had 68 men fit for duty, the worst Battalion casualties of the day. The Tyneside Irish Brigade (34th Division) advanced more than a mile under heavy fire and were practically annihilated. Such is the butcher's bill for one day of a four-year war.
Our main interest, I suppose, is the British 29th Division ("The Incomparable Division"), which comprised the 86th, 87th and 88th Brigades. It was to the 86th Brigade that the First Battalion, the Lancashire Fusiliers was assigned. The 29th Division order of battle included the 16th Battalion, the Middlesex Regiment, which was excusively recruited from public (read extremely prestigious private) schools, but also such famous names as the King's Own Scottish Borderers, the Royal Fusiliers, the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, and the South Wales Borderers (formerly the 24th Foot, who defended Rorke's Drift). The division was to maintain the British flank, but like much of the British assault its attack was a failure. In fact it was the French XX Corps who made the only obvious gains, and the British units alongside them were the beneficiaries of their attack. The determination of the attackers can be seen in the fact that nine Victoria Crosses were later awarded for individual actions on that day, six of them posthumously. The most ever awarded for a single action was 20, for the Crimean battle of Great Redan in 1855. By the end of the war, the Entente lines along the Somme had advanced by ten kilometres, at the cost of more than six-hundred thousand casualties. German casualties are generally estimated at around five-hundred thousand. Effectively for the sake of the distance from one side of London to the other an entire generation ceased to exist. Since volunteer Brigades, who selected only the best applicants, were used extensively, the loss of talent and promise is disproportionately high. Had the Lancashire Fusiliers been assigned to the Bapaume sector, or had his battalion been among the leaders of the advance, it is highly likely that J.R.R. Tolkien, or probably 2nd Lt. J. Tolkien, would have made no greater name in print than to appear in the Times Roll of Honour, but perhaps greater men died there who never had a chance to make their mark. In these jingoistic times it's worth remembering that Britain in 1914 was nearing the end of a century of domestic peace, with burgeoning nationalist pride in the strength of her armed forces and a growing mistrust of foreigners. A massive mutual deterrant, delicate checks and balances and complicated diplomatic ties completely failed in the face of imperialistic paranoia and self-interest to prevent a war that ended not in peace, but in a twenty-year cease fire. We are lucky that the likes of Tolkien, Lewis, Siegfried Sassoon, Robert Graves and others survived, but a gifted poet in Wilfred Owen and a comic author who betters Wodehouse in H.H. Munro were cut off with their careers unfinished, and they are only two names among many. We should remember how near we came not to having the works we discuss here, but it's more important to remember what was actually lost and why. Obviously those who survived gave much thought to it, some to the difference between the ideal and reality of war, others, like Tolkien, considering the very nature of good and evil. Many arguments for pacifism and international co-operation were born in the aftermath, and even the seed of the United Nations was sown as the pieces were gathered up. That such world-shattering events should be tied up with the history of Middle-earth seems hardly surprising, and it's inevitable that when intelligent and sensitive people try to reason out a great horror something remarkable must happen. What ought to be surprising is that less in Tolkien's line did come out of it, and that we are so quick to forget the events themselves. I am reasonably sure that Tolkien never did, and he was only present at the front for a very short space.
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Man kenuva métim' andśne? Last edited by The Squatter of Amon Rūdh; 06-26-2006 at 07:27 AM. |
07-01-2006, 04:51 AM | #7 |
Illustrious Ulair
Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: In the home of lost causes, and forsaken beliefs, and unpopular names,and impossible loyalties
Posts: 4,240
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Last edited by davem; 07-01-2006 at 05:07 AM. |
10-30-2006, 02:19 PM | #8 |
Loremaster of Annśminas
Join Date: Oct 2006
Posts: 2,317
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Tolkien's cavalry chase
Again, no proof of anything here but a "denial of disproof": it appears that Totenkopf or skull-and-crossbones badges were worn by the Prussian 1st and 2nd Life Hussar regiments, which were attached to the Prussian Guard- and If I've read John Garth's book correctly, the Prussian Guard was the corps Tolkien's division faced on the Somme. As already posted, all German cavalry were issued lances, and it was a common Allied mistake to therefore call them all "Uhlans."
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10-31-2006, 02:43 AM | #9 |
Spectre of Decay
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Dread Horsemen
To be honest I've been thinking that a lot of my comments about that were rubbish for some time. Basically I misread the original post as simply a dream rather than a nightmare brought on by actual events. There's no particular reason why Tolkien would have made up a wartime adventure, and it's no more unlikely than a lot of other things that happened on the Western Front. Thanks for the information about German cavalry insignia: of course skulls and crossbones are popular motifs in military badges, and it was always unlikely that British lancers were the only ones to adopt them.
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11-03-2006, 12:45 PM | #10 | |
A Mere Boggart
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: under the bed
Posts: 4,737
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Seems more or less a good place to drop in this nugget of info, though it relates to WWII and Tolkien...
There's a book out by Adrian Gilbert (POW: Allied Prisoners in Europe) which includes a look at those Allied PoWs held in German and Italian camps who were fortunate enough to be kept occupied with educational opportunities - one of which was to take a Literature exam which was set by Tolkien, Lewis and Leonard Rice-Oxley. In the new Companion & Guide there's an entry thus: Quote:
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Gordon's alive!
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