Short Details on some Noted People who served in WW1 / WW2

Sent to me from a friend so I thoughtI would share them with the forum!

I will post them type.

MISCELLANEOUS


[FONT=&quot]
[/FONT][FONT=&quot]Ned Parfett (UK)- Newsboy & subject of a very famous, iconic photograph. He was the 16-year-old newsboy standing on a London street holding the headline banner announcing the sinking of the Titanic in April 1912 which became a very well-known & oft-used image after the scene was snapped by a photographer. The photograph symbolises the great shock and disbelief that greeted the news of the famous tragedy.
The Great War began two years later and in 1916, 20-year-old Parfett joined the Royal Artillery and served as a Despatch-Rider before being assigned to Reconnaissance duties. He took part in numerous actions and was mentioned in dispatches, receiving the Military Medal, being praised for his bravery by his CO. He was granted home-leave in October 1918 and on the 29th, just 14 days before the end of the war, he was about to head home when he paused to collect some fresh clothes from a Quarter-Master’s store. At that moment, it was struck by an artillery shell and 22-year-old Parfett was killed. Three of his brothers also fought in the war but all survived.

Charles Lightoller (UK)- Second Officer of RMS Titanic and highest-ranking member of the ship’s crew to survive the infamous sinking in 1912. He was also a volunteer sailor in rescuing British troops during the Dunkirk Evacuation in 1940.
In the Great War, Lightoller joined the Royal Navy and served as a Lieutenant on the armed-merchant cruiser RMS Oceanic and then in 1915 as First Officer on the converted ex-liner RMS Campania, the world’s first aircraft-carrier. He became a Commander and served on Torpedo boats and finally as Master of a Destroyer. He was twice awarded the DSO.

Georg Ludwig von Trapp (Austria)- Career Naval Officer and wealthy Austrian noble who married Maria Kutschera, the tutor to his seven children, following the death of his first wife. This story is famously known for being the inspiration for the hugely-successful stage and screen musical ‘The Sound of Music’.
During WW1, von Trapp was a U-Boat Captain in the Austro-Hungarian Navy and was credited with the sinking of 13 ships, including a French armoured-Cruiser, plus the capture of a Greek Steamer. Most of his victims were British or Italian Steamers and most of his kills were achieved in a captured French submarine re-christened U-14. He ended the war as a Lieutenant-Commander or Korvettenkapitan. His brother Werner, also in the military, was killed in 1915.

John Reginald Christie (UK) – Infamous Serial Killer who murdered eight people (including his wife) between 1943 and 1953 and buried or concealed their bodies at his flat at 10 Rillington Place in Notting-Hill, London. He was tried and executed in July 1953. A younger man, Timothy Evans, was falsely convicted and executed in 1950 after being arrested for the murder of his wife who had actually been killed by Christie. Following Christie’s trial, Evans was posthumously pardoned but the tragic mistake sparked public outrage and was a major factor in the abolition of the death penalty for murder in the UK in 1965.
During WW1, the 17-year-old Christie enlisted as a signalman in September 1916 and served on the Western Front. He was injured in a Mustard gas attack in June 1918 and hospitalized in Calais for a month where he claimed to have been blinded. However it is most likely that this injury was only feigned as there are no records of it and Christie had been a known hypochondriac and hysteric since early childhood who had pretended to be ill on numerous occasions in order to get attention. For three months after his injury, Christie was also mute but this also may have been an affectation.

William Maxwell Aitken, the 1st Lord Beaverbrook (Canada)- Controversial and flamboyant Business Tycoon, Politician & Media Baron. In the 1920s-30s, he owned the UK Fleet-street newspapers The Daily Express & The Sunday Express. However he is best-remembered for his role as Minister for aircraft production during WW2 and he is popularly credited for increasing the supply of new fighter aircraft for the Royal air-force before and during the Battle of Britain in 1940 (although some recent historians have questioned the true impact of his role).
In WW1, Beaverbrook was in charge of creating the Canadian War Records Office in London and he exerted considerable pressure on the British media to ensure that the contributions of Canadian troops on the Western Front were given due recognition. He visited Canadian troops at the front on several occasions and was given the honorary rank of Colonel. In 1916, he published a book ‘Canada in Flanders’, show-casing the achievements of his countrymen. In 1918, he became Minister for Information and was responsible for Allied propaganda but in September of that year, he resigned in frustration due to restrictions on his role and powers imposed by political enemies and rivals.

Jean Patou (France)- Fashion-Designer and Perfume-Manufacturer of the 1920s and 30s. He is best-known for being the first to design women’s sportswear, which included inventing the tennis-skirt, and produced designs that still influence sports-clothing today. He also produced and sold numerous popular scents and his perfume company-The House of Patou-remained a family-owned business until 2001. One of his perfumes- Joy- is the world’s second-highest seller after Chanel No.5.
Mobilised in 1914, Patou served as a Captain in the French Army Zouaves. He fought in the ill-fated Gallipoli Campaign in 1915 as a member of the French Contingent of the Allied Invasion Force.

Dale Carnegie (USA)- Writer, Lecturer and Motivational Speaker from pre-WW1 to the 1950s. He designed many courses in corporate training and professional & personal development that are still used today across the world (known as the Carnegie Courses). To date, up to 7 million people have participated in them. His most famous book on self-improvement was How to Win Friends and Influence People (1937). Many of his techniques and ideas are still a major influence on many motivational speakers today.
During WW1, Carnegie served in the US Army.

Colonel Francis de Groot (Ireland/Australia)- Military Officer and member of the New Guard, a secretive, extreme Right-Wing organisation that existed in Australia during the 1920s and 30s and, at its peak, had 50,000 members in Sydney alone. The Guard were committed to combating the spread of Communism and preserving Australia’s ties and loyalty to England. De Groot achieved his moment of fame on March 19th 1932 during the Official Opening of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Dressed in full military uniform as a Cavalry Officer and mounted on a horse, he infiltrated the Honour Guard. As the State Premier of NSW, Jack Lang, was about to cut the ribbon, de Groot galloped forward, raised his sword and, with a shout of “I declare this bridge open in the name of decent & respectable people of New South Wales!” he slashed the ribbon himself. De Groot later said that this action was to protest the absence of Governor-General Isaacs and to take a stand against the state Labor government of Premier Lang whom the New Guard believed was under the sway of Communism. De Groot was arrested and tried but was acquitted on legal technicalities and he later moved back to Ireland. The sword he used to cut the ribbon was recently bought by an Australian collector and the incident has become a famous part of the city’s folklore.
During WW1, de Groot served in the British 15th Hussars Cavalry Regiment and saw action on the Western Front, participating in the Battles of Mons and Le Cateau in August 1914.

Otto Frank (Germany/Holland)- German-Jewish Spice store owner who moved to Holland in 1933 to escape the Nazis and who later hid for two years (1942-44) together with his wife, two daughters and four other Jews in an annex of a house in Amsterdam to avoid capture. They were discovered in 1944 and sent to a concentration camp where all of them perished except Otto. One of his daughters, Anne, had kept a diary during their confinement in the annex and after his release, Otto organised its’ retrieval and publication. The Diary of Anne Frank became one of the most famous books to emerge from WW2 and the Holocaust. Otto also organised a successful campaign to prevent the demolition of the building where he and his family had hidden and ensured it was preserved to become a museum.
In WW1, Frank became a Leutnant in the German Army in 1915 and he fought on the Western Front along with tens of thousands of other German Jews, many of whom would survive the First World War only to perish in the Holocaust of the Second.

Alfred Eisenstaedt (Germany/USA)- Photographer who snapped the very famous picture of an off-duty US Sailor kissing his girlfriend in Times Square, New York on VJ Day, 1945, the day the Second World War ended. German-born Eisenstaedt, who became a US Citizen in 1935, was a professional photographer from the late 1920s up until the early 1990s.
In WW1, Eisenstaedt, a native of East Prussia who was raised in Berlin, served in the German Army Artillery. He was badly wounded in Flanders on 9th April 1918 and by the end of the day, he was the sole survivor of his Battery. His injuries left him walking with a permanent (and severe) limp for the rest of his life.

George Kruger Gray (UK)- Coin Designer who produced the designs for the reverses (tails) of coins for a number of countries. He designed all of the Australian coins used between 1937 and the introduction of decimal currency in 1966 and several English coins in circulation between the 1920s and 1950s. His designs for the Canadian nickel and one-cent coin are still in use today.
During WW1, Gray served as an infantryman in the Artists Rifles Regiment on the Western Front.

[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]
[/FONT]

 

Part 2

Science, Technology & Medicine


Edwin Hubble (USA) – Scientist, Astronomer and Author whom the Hubble Telescope is named after. He was credited in 1925 with being the first person to discover that the Universe actually extended way beyond the Milky-Way galaxy and he also discovered the ‘Red-shift’ of galaxies which added observational proof to the existing theories of The Big Bang and The Expanding Universe. He has also been (in-correctly) credited by many as the original author of the Big Bang theory. However, Hubble’s work profoundly changed mankind’s view of the Universe.
In WW1, he served in the US Artillery on the Western Front in 1917, having trained with Truman. He reached the rank of Major.

Sir Frederick Grant Banting (Canada) - Doctor credited with the discovery of the Hormone Insulin for treatment of Diabetes. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1923. He lost his life in an accidental plane crash during a flight from Canada to the UK during WW2.
During the Great War, he served in the Canadian Army as an army doctor on the Western front during WW1 and received the military cross for bravery.

Charley Best (Canada)- Doctor credited with the co-discovery of Insulin (see above). He missed out on receiving a Nobel Prize which outraged his colleague Banting who agreed to share his own prize money with Best.
During WW1, Best served in the Canadian Army and fought with the 2nd Tank Battalion on the Western Front with the rank of Artillery Sergeant.

Norman Bethune (Canada)- Physician and medical innovator. During the Spanish Civil War in 1936, Bethune developed the world’s first mobile blood-transfusion service and medical unit whilst working as a volunteer doctor in the Republican Army. Later, Bethune, who was a member of the Canadian Communist Party, went to China in 1938 and helped to establish medical services amidst the fighting against the Japanese invaders. He died of blood poisoning from a cut he sustained on his hand during an operation whilst under fire at his mobile surgical unit during the Sino-Japanese War of 1939. His achievements were recognised posthumously thanks largely to a tributary essay written by Mao Tsang. His mobile surgical units were later used as the model for the design of the Mobile Army Surgical Hospital (MASH) by the US Army.
When WW1 started, Bethune suspended his doctor training and joined the No 2 Field Ambulance in 1914 as a stretcher-bearer. He served on the Western Front and was wounded by shrapnel, spending three months in an English hospital to recover. Returning to Canada, he completed his Medical Degree in 1916 and then joined the Royal Navy the following year as a Surgeon-Lieutenant, treating injured servicemen at Chatham Hospital in the UK.

Elizabeth Kenny (Australia)- Nurse & Physio-Therapist. She successfully developed new methods in the treatment of Polio, especially in children afflicted with the disease. Using a regimen of passive exercises rather than the previously-conventional methods of immobilising limbs with braces or plaster casts, Kenny achieved considerable success in treating Polio patients. She aroused much controversy amongst the medical establishment, due in no small part to the fact that she was largely a self-taught ‘Bush’ Nurse with no official qualifications. She spent considerable time in the USA during the 1930s and 40s and gained widespread support and favour. The Sister Kenny Rehabilitation Institute in Minneapolis is named in her honour and she is credited as the founder and developer of Physiotherapy (or Physical-Therapy). Today, Kenny is better-remembered and more admired in the USA than she is in her own country. She died in Australia of Parkinson’s Disease in 1952.
In WW1, Kenny, despite her lack of official qualifications, managed to enlist as an Australian Army Nurse. She served on board the so-called ‘Dark Ships’, blacked-out Troopships that sailed from Australia to the UK, carrying supplies and reinforcements to England and bringing wounded Australian soldiers back home through submarine-infested waters. Kenny completed 16-round trips in all and ended the war with the rank of Lieutenant in the Australian Army Nurses Corps.

Gerhard Paul Domagk (Germany)- Pathologist & Bacteriologist. During the late 1930s, he discovered and developed the drug Sulfonamidochrysoidine (‘Sulfo’)- the first commercially available Anti-Biotic. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1939 but he was forbidden by the Nazis to accept it and as a consequence he did not receive it until 1947.
At the outbreak of WW1, the 19 year-old Domagk interrupted his medical studies in Kiel and enlisted in the German Infantry, fought on the Western Front and was wounded in December 1914. After he recovered, he served as a Medic for the army for the remainder of the war.

Albert Besson (France)- Physician, Hygienist and Bacteriologist who made innovative observational studies about the links between disease and habitations, namely how the spread of infection could be combated through better-designed architecture and cleaner living conditions for impoverished people. In the 1950s, he became an active campaigner for increased vaccinations and better water quality for France’s urban poor.
In WW1, he became an officer cadet in the French Army and he fought at Fort Vaux during the Battle of Verdun in 1916. He saved the lives of several injured soldiers but was then badly wounded himself. His injuries were so severe that his family were mistakenly informed that he was dead and it was some weeks before they received word that he had actually survived.

Kurt Schneider (Germany)- Psychiatrist who pioneered several techniques in the diagnosis and treatment of Schizophrenia in the 1920s, most notably the First-Rank Symptoms of diagnosing the disease which are still widely-used today although recent studies have challenged their effectiveness.
During WW1, Schneider served in the German Army on the Western Front. He later served as an Army Doctor in the Whermacht during WW2 but was an opponent of the Nazis, largely because of their support of Eugenics (a belief that the Human Population can be genetically improved by imposing total birth-controls on people with physical or mental defects).

Please note, he is not to be confused with Leutnant Kurt Schneider who was a fighter-pilot in WW1, serving in Jasta 5 and who was credited with 15 victories before his death in July 1917.

Sir Charles Geoffrey Vickers (UK)- Lawyer, Writer, Administrator, Philosopher and Systems Scientist. Vickers pioneered numerous ideas and theories in the field of Social-Systems Analysis, the most well-known and highly regarded of which was the ‘Appreciative System’ used in the study of human social activity, interaction and behaviour.
In WW1, Vickers enlisted in 1914 as a Second-Lieutenant in the 7th Battalion of the Sherwood Foresters (nick-named the ‘Robin-Hood Battalion’). Promoted to Captain the following year, Vickers fought on the Western Front. Following the Battle of Loos in September 1915, the Germans sought to recover lost ground by counter-attacking at Hohenzollern redoubt where Vickers and his men were positioned. On October 15th, Vickers held up a barrier across the width of the trench to block it against grenades being lobbed at them by advancing German infantry. Whilst he was holding off the enemy, he ordered his men to lay a second, sturdier barrier behind him, effectively blocking off his own escape route in order to ensure the safety of his men. Vickers was able to stand his ground until the second barrier was completed and he was able to withdraw and rejoin his men without injury. Vickers was awarded the Victoria Cross for his actions. Later in the war, he joined the Lincolnshire Regiment and by June 1918 was a Major in command of a Battalion during the Second Battle of the Marne. His brother Burnell was killed in 1916.

John B S Haldane (UK)- Geneticist and Evolutionary Biologist who co-pioneered the mathematical theory of Population Genetics and also made important contributions to the study of Human & Animal Genetics.
In WW1, Haldane served in the Black Watch Regiment of the British Army.

Lisa Meitner (Austria)- Nurse & Physicist. She was credited with the co-discovery of Nuclear Fission, articulating her theory how the nucleus of an atom could be split into smaller parts, releasing a large amount of energy. Her partner in the discovery, Otto Hahn, was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry & Physics in 1944 but many believe that Meitner should have been received it as well. Meitner’s and her colleague’s work in-directly led to the development of Atomic Weapons. The American Government offered Meitner the chance to work on the Manhattan Project (the A-Bomb) but she refused, saying “I want nothing to do with a bomb”. Meitner, who was Jewish, fled to Sweden in 1938 to escape the Nazis.
During WW1, Meitner worked as a Radiology Nurse in an Austrian Military Hospital.

Andre Bloch (France)- Jewish-French Mathematician, best-known for his Bloch’s Theorem.
In WW1, Bloch served in the French Army as a Second-Lieutenant in the Artillery and was assigned to a sector in Nancy. He suffered an accidental fall from an observational-post and was badly injured. Whilst on convalescence leave in November 1917, Bloch returned to his family home in Besancon and murdered his brother Georges (who had been discharged from the army due to a head-wound) together with his Aunt and Uncle. Declared mentally unfit to stand trial, Bloch was committed to an asylum where he spent the remaining 31-years of his life and from where he produced all his mathematical work and theories. It is believed that he murdered his relatives due to an obsessive desire to purge his family of all members whom he thought were going to become mentally ill.

Friedrich von Hayek (Austria/UK)- World-renowned Philosopher and Economist. He promoted the values of Classical Liberalism and Free-Market Capitalism and was against Socialism and Government Interventionism, putting him at odds with Keynesian Economics. His writings and ideas were highly-influential across the Western world and British PM Margaret Thatcher was one of his most loyal devotees even though von Hayek (who became a British citizen in 1938) wasn’t a fan of Conservatism, saying that it ‘froze’ ideas rather than moved them forward.
In WW1, von Hayek served in the Austro-Hungarian Army-Artillery on the Eastern Front in 1917. He flew as an observer in a two-seater and was a spotter for the artillery units below. He was decorated for bravery and although he saw out the war without any injuries, the conflict had a profound effect on him. He vowed to do his part in improving society and he sincerely believed his economic ideas would help maintain peace in the future.

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (France)- Philosopher, Jesuit Priest, Paleontologist & Geologist who took part in the discovery of the Peking Man in 1923, fossilized human remains found in China and estimated to be between 500,000 and 750,000 years-old. His book The Phenomenon of Man was a study of the origin of Human Beings and both supported and elaborated on the theories of Evolution. From this study, he developed the theory of the Omega Point which states that the Universe is constantly evolving towards a more complex state and with a greater level of consciousness. The Catholic Church refused to support the book and consequently it was not published until after his death in 1955.
During WW1, de Chardin served on the Western Front as a stretcher-bearer in the 8th Moroccan Rifles and was decorated for valour several times, including an award of the Legion of Honour. He reflected on his experiences during the war and he wrote “…the war was a meeting….with the Absolute.”

Ludwig Wittgenstein (Austria/UK)- Philosopher who is best-known for his study of the relationships between language and reality in the book Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus which was recently voted in a poll as being one of the top-five most important books of Philosophy of the 20th century.
In WW1, he volunteered for Military service in the Austro-Hungarian Army and served on a ship and then in an Artillery workshop before being sent to the Russian Front in 1916. Whilst serving in a howitzer Regiment, he was decorated for bravery several times. Transferred to the Italian Front, he was captured in November 1918. During his time as a POW, he worked on the above book. Wittgenstein’s family was afflicted by mental illness and two of his four brothers committed suicide before the war. A third brother, Kurt, who was an Officer in the Army, took his own life in October 1918 when his troops deserted. The surviving brother Paul (see Art, Literature & Music) lost his arm during the war but later became a famous concert pianist. In 1903, the young Wittgenstein attended the same school as Adolf Hitler but it is not known if the two boys were friends.

John B S Haldane (UK)- Geneticist and Evolutionary Biologist who co-pioneered the mathematical theory of Population Genetics and also made important contributions to the study of Human & Animal Genetics.
In WW1, Haldane served in the Black Watch Regiment of the British Army.

[FONT=&quot]
[/FONT]

 

Part 3

Sport


Sidney Hatch (USA)- Successful Marathon-runner. He competed in over 45 competitive Marathons in the USA between 1904 and 1922 and never failed to finish. He won the annual Missouri All-Western Marathon in St Louis six times and in the 1916 96-mile Milwaukee to Chicago Run, he completed the event in a record time of less than 15 hours. Hatch competed in two summer Olympics, in 1904 in St Louis and in 1908 in London. In the former, he won a Silver medal in the 4-mile team event.
When the USA entered WW1 in 1917, Hatch enlisted in the US Army and, not surprisingly, was employed as an Army Messenger, putting his fitness and running skills to good use on the Western Front. He was decorated for ‘extraordinary heroism’ after carrying messages through heavy fire during fighting near Brieulles on October 11th 1918. He was awarded the DSC and a Purple Heart and the French Croix de Guerre.
Charlie Paddock (USA)- Champion Athlete and two-time Olympic Gold-medallist. He won two Gold medals at the 1920 summer Olympics in Antwerp in the mens 4 X 100m Relay and the mens 100m Sprint plus a Silver in the 200m. At the 1924 summer Olympics in Paris, Paddock gained a Silver in the 200m and then competed again in the 100m but came fifth. The winner of the latter race was Jewish/English athlete Harold Abrahams, an event immortalized in the popular 1981 film ‘Chariots of Fire’. Paddock also competed in the 1928 summer games in Amsterdam but did not reach the finals. He died in an accidental air-crash in 1943.
In WW1, Paddock served on the Western Front in 1918 as a Lieutenant in the US Army Field Artillery. He began to display his athletic prowess at the 1919 Inter-Allied Games where ex-soldiers from the Allied Nations competed in track & field events.

Percy Jones (UK)- Welsh Boxer who became World Flyweight Champion in 1914.
During the Great War, Jones served in the Royal Welsh Fusiliers and earned the rank of Sergeant. He fought on the Western Front and was gassed and then later wounded in his leg which had to be amputated. Having contracted Trench Fever during the war, he never recovered and he died on Christmas Day 1922, the day before his 30th birthday.

Christy Mathewson (USA)- Major League Baseball player 1900-1916 who threw over 2,500 Strikeouts and was elected into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1936 as one of it’s ‘First Five’ inaugural members.
Mathewson served in the US Army during WW1 in the newly-formed Chemical Service along with Ty Cobb, another well-known Ball player and member of the ‘First Five’. During a training exercise in 1918, he was accidentally gassed and consequently developed Tuberculosis which he died of in 1925.

Herbert Jones (UK)- Football Player who played in the Blackburn Rovers when they won the FA-Cup in 1928 and played in England’s International Team 1927-28.
Jones enlisted under-age in 1914 when he was only 15 years-old. He was sent to the Western Front in 1915 and he participated in the Christmas Truce later that year. Jones played a game of football with some German soldiers in No Man’s Land. He later wrote, “It was really sad to play football with them, then a few hours later have to start shooting and killing them…Those Germans were actually fine fellows…” He was wounded by shrapnel in 1916 and the injuries were severe enough to have him discharged from military service. His experiences prompted him to remain a staunch Pacifist for the rest of his life.

Hobey Baker (USA)- Champion Hockey and Football Player of the pre-WW1 period. He played for Princeton University Ivy-Club in both the Hockey and Football Teams. He captained Princeton’s Football Team to a National Championship win in 1911 and did likewise for the Hockey Team in 1912 and 1914. It was for the latter sport that he is most-admired and he was generally regarded as the first great US Hockey-player. Baker was elected into the World Hockey Hall of Fame in 1945 and the US equivalent in 1973. Today, the Hobey-Baker Award is still presented to the top male US College Hockey Player each year.
During WW1, Baker trained as a pilot and joined the 103rd US Aero-Squadron on the Western Front in 1918. Flying an orange and black-painted SPAD XIII, Baker destroyed three German aircraft before the end of the war. In December 1918, only a few weeks after the Armistice, Baker was performing a routine test-flight of a newly-repaired SPAD over his aerodrome at Toul when the plane suffered a mechanical failure. Baker was killed in the subsequent crash. Written orders to return home were found tucked in the pocket of his jacket.

David Jones (UK)- Welsh Rugby Player who played internationally in both League and Union 1902-1906. In 1905, Jones (six-foot-tall and weighing 16-stone) played for the Welsh-team that defeated the New-Zealand All Blacks 3-0 in the latter’s Rugby Union Tour of the Northern Hemisphere. Many Rugby enthusiasts still regard this match as being one of the greatest ever played in the history of the game. He was banned from Rugby Union in 1907 after illegally receiving payment at a time when the code was still strictly amateur.
When WW1 began, the 33-year-old Jones enlisted and served as an Infantryman in the Welsh Guards. He was badly wounded on the Somme in 1916 and he never fully recovered from his injuries, suffering serious health-problems until he died in 1933 at the age of 52.

William Tyrrell (Ireland)- Doctor & Rugby Union Player who played in the 1910 British Tour of South Africa and played in nine Tests for his native Ireland, the last in 1914. In 1950-51, he was President of the Irish Rugby Football Union. During the 1920s and 30s, he was a senior Medical Officer in the RAF, serving in the Middle-East and in 1939-43, he was Honorary Surgeon to King George VI.
In WW1, he served in the Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC) on the Western Front and was mentioned in Dispatches six times. He received the DSO and Bar, the MC and the Belgian Croix de Guerre. Whilst serving as Medical Officer in the 2nd Lancashire Fusiliers in 1915, he was buried by an exploding shell and he experienced temporary shell-shock. He drew on this experience when he participated in a War Office Committee of Enquiry into the causes and effects of shell-shock in 1922 and he stated that it was his belief that shell-shock was primarily caused by a ‘repression of fear’.

Tony Wilding (New Zealand) - Champion Tennis-Player of the pre-WW1 era who was officially ranked World No 1 in 1913. Won the Mens Singles at Wimbledon four years running in 1910-1913 and also won in the Mens Doubles four times between 1907 and 1914. He played in the winning team in the Davis Cup four times between 1907 and 1914 plus won a Bronze Medal in the Indoor Singles at the 1912 Olympics in Stockholm. He was elected into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1978 and the Wilding-Park Tennis venue in New Zealand is named after him. His Record of multiple Wimbledon wins stood until 2000 when it was finally surpassed by Pete Sampras.
Wilding was living in the UK when WW1 began and he enlisted in the Royal Marines and served as a Captain in the Armoured Car Division in France. On May 9th, 1915, he was killed in action during the Battle for Aubers Ridge at Neuve-Chapelle. At the time of his death, he was engaged to Hollywood actress Maxine Elliot.

Tommy Armour (Scotland/USA)- Professional Golfer who emigrated to the USA in the early 1920s and won the 1927 US Open, the 1930 PGA Championship and the 1931 British Open. He was elected into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1976. He co-wrote the 1953 Book How to Play your Best Golf all the Time which was one of the highest-selling books on Golf ever published.
During WW1, Armour served in the British Army Tank Corps, reaching the rank of Staff Major. His conduct in the field was much-praised and earned him a private audience with King George V. Later in the war, he was badly injured in a Mustard gas explosion. He permanently lost his sight in his left eye (and was temporarily blinded in his right) and he also had to have metal plates surgically implanted into his head and left arm. Despite his injuries, Armour was able to win the 1920 French Amateur Golf Tournament less than two years after the end of the war.

Arnaud Massy (France)- Professional Golfer who won the French Open four times between 1906 and 1925, the Belgian Open once and the Spanish Open three times. He also won the 1908 UK Blackpool Tournament. In terms of major wins, he remains the most successful French Golfer of all time and, until 1979, he was the only player from Continental Europe to win a major tournament.
During the Great War, Massy served on the Western Front as a French Army Infantryman and he was wounded at Verdun in 1916. Despite his injuries, he was already playing Pro-Golf again by the end of the war.

Nedo Nadi (Italy)- Champion Fencer who is regarded as one of the greatest and arguably the most versatile of the 20th Century. He won Gold at the 1912 Stockholm Olympics in the Foil Individual event and won an impressive five Gold medals in a variety of Fencing events at the 1920 Antwerp Games. This feat has never been equalled by any Fencer since, and in fact his tally of five Gold medals in a single Olympics was not surpassed in any sport until Swimmer Mark Spitz won seven Gold at the 1972 Olympics in Munich. His brother Aldo was also a Champion Fencer who won three Gold medals at the Antwerp Games. Nadi was President of the Italian Fencing Federation 1935-40.
During WW1, Nadi served in the Royal Italian Army Infantry and was decorated for bravery.

James Duncan (USA)- Champion Discus-Thrower who participated in the 1912 Olympics in Stockholm, winning a Bronze medal for the US Team. On May 26th, 1912 during the Irish-American Athletic Club’s Track & Field Championships in New York, he became the first official holder of the World Discus Record, throwing 156 feet with his right-hand and 96 feet with his left.
During WW1, Duncan served in the US Army as a Lieutenant in the 11th Company of Engineers and saw considerable action on the Western Front. After he was discharged from the Army at the end of the war, Duncan stayed in France and ran a gym in Paris and also worked as a caretaker for the American Military Cemetery at Suresnes. Long-term psychological-trauma from his wartime experiences may have been a factor in an un-successful suicide attempt in 1932.

Henry Taylor (UK)- Champion British Freestyle Swimmer who competed in all four Olympic Games held between 1906 and 1920. He won a Gold medal at the 1906 Athens Games for the 1 mile-Freestyle. This was followed by three Gold medals at the 1908 London Games for the 400m, 1500m and 4 X 200m relay. This latter feat was not equalled by any other British athlete until Chris Hoy won three Gold medals in Cycling at the Beijing Games in 2008.
During WW1, Taylor joined the Royal Navy in 1914 and was on board the Battleship HMS St Vincent at the Battle of Jutland in 1916. At the height of his celebrity status in 1920, a popular story circulated that Taylor’s ship was sunk and that he used his swimming skills to rescue other survivors but that was a myth as the St Vincent survived the battle. Taylor was later transferred to the Battleship HMS Ramillies and served on board her until the end of the war.

John ‘Jack’ Wilson (UK)- Yorkshire-born First Class Cricket-Player & Jockey. Played for Yorkshire CCC prior to WW1 and became a Jockey after the war. He rode in the famous Grand-National Steeplechase three times and won in 1925 on the horse Double Chance.
In 1914, Wilson gained his pilot’s license prior to the outbreak of war and when the conflict began, he was serving in the RNAS. In April 1915, he attacked and bombed two German submarines lying at anchor in Zeebrugge. The following June, he attacked the Zeppelin Sheds at Evere, near Brussels in a night-raid, a feat for which he and his co-pilot, J.Mills, were awarded the DSO.

Herbie Collins (Australia)- Test-Cricketer who played in International Test Matches between 1920 and 1926 and was Captain of the Australian International Cricket Team 1921-26 and under his leadership, they won the 1924 Test-series against England. Collins made over 1,300 runs in 19 Tests with a batting average of 45.06 which included four centuries.
During WW1, Collins enlisted in the Australian Light-Horse Regiment in 1915 and served in Sinai and Palestine. Transferred to the Western Front later in the war, he worked as an ammunition carrier for the artillery. He achieved the rank of Lance-Corporal before the end of the war.

Bradbury Robinson (USA)- College Football player who is notable for throwing the first legal forward-pass in American Football-history and was the game’s first recognised ‘Triple-Threat’, namely a player who was considered equally proficient in all three skills-running, passing and kicking. He threw the first forward-pass (reaching 67-yards) at a game in 1906 when he was a player for St Louis University.
In WW1, Robinson enlisted in the US Army and was commissioned as a Captain. He was placed in charge of L Company of 340th Infantry Regiment attached to the 85th Division. Arriving in France in July 1918, he worked as an instructor at the inter-Allied Tank School at Recloses before his Company was ordered to the front at the start of November. He and his unit were in the trenches for the last ten days of the war.

Bill Hardcastle (New Zealand/Australia)- Rugby-Player who played both League and Union 1895-1914. Played for his home-country during the 1897 NZ All-Blacks Rugby-Union tour of Australia but later switched sides and played for the latter against New Zealand in a League Test in 1908. He played internationally for Australia in both codes between 1897 and 1914 and he was one of the first dual-code Rugby players.
In WW1, Hardcastle enlisted as a private in the 3rd Infantry Battalion of the AIF and he left Australia in 1916 (aged 42) and fought on the Western Front as a machine-gunner. He survived to see the Armistice but played no more rugby after the war.

Georges Carpentier (France)- Professional Boxer who achieved considerable fame in Europe and the USA both before and after the war. He became Welterweight Champion of Europe in 1911, Middleweight Champion in 1912 and Heavyweight Champion the year after that. In October 1920, in a title-fight in London, he beat US Boxer ‘Battling’ Levinsky to become Light-Heavyweight Champion of the world. The only title left for him to win was Heavyweight Champion of the world and he made his attempt in 1921 in Jersey City, USA against famous American Jack Dempsey. Over 100,000 people attended the match. Carpentier lost the fight but he achieved considerable fame and respect in the USA nonetheless and he and Dempsey became life-long close friends. Of the 109 Professional fights of his career, Carpentier won 88 of them, including 56 by knockout. He was elected into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1991.
In WW1, Carpentier began the war as an Army Chauffeur but he transferred to the French air-corps and earned his pilots wings in 1915. Flying two-seater Farman reconnaissance planes, he served for 18-months over the Western Front during 1915-16. He was twice-decorated for bravery. In December 1916, he became serious ill and although he was offered the chance to return to his unit after he left hospital, he declared himself unfit for further operational flying. He spent the remainder of the war as an army boxing-instructor and also gave demonstration matches to entertain troops.

D. Gallaher,
1st All Black (New Zealand rugby team) captain. Boer War, WW1.
Killed Passchendaele.
NZ-France rugby Test series play for trophy that bears his name

Sir Malcolm Campbell (UK) holder of land and water speed records.
According to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography he "enlisted as a motorcycle rider ... was commissioned in the [Royal] West Kent regiment ... transferred to the Royal Flying Corps" [and eventually to the RAF] (MBE).

Jack Beresford (UK) He won five medals in the post war Olympic Games: single sculls silver medalist Antwerp 1920; gold, single scull Paris 1924; silver British eight, Amsterdam 1928; gold,coxless four Los Angeles in 1932; gold double sculls, Berlin in 1936.
He "served with the Artists' Rifles in 1917, was commissioned in the Liverpool Scottish regiment, and was wounded in the leg in northern France in 1918."

Hugh Lawrence Doherty (UK) Wimbledon (All England) tennis singles champion from 1902 to 1906; singles Olympic gold medalist in Paris 1900; American championship winner 1903; he, and his brother Reginald, were Wimbledon doubles champions eight times between 1897 and 1905 and doubles Gold medalists in Paris 1900.
He served in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve Anti-Aircraft Corps, enlisting in 1914 "died on 21 August 1919 of toxaemia." He is not commemorated by the CWGC.

Stanley Jackson (UK)The Right Honourable Sir (Francis) Stanley Jackson, P.C., G.C.S.I., G.C.I.E., K.St.J. (1870-1947).
He made his name as a household word in cricket; had a distinguished Parliamentary career and was governor of Bengal.…[W]hen he retired from first class play after 1905 he was perhaps the greatest cricketer in England.” (Obituary, The Times (10 March 1947), p. 7.)
He raised the 7th (Reserve) Battalion, The West Yorkshire Regiment in Leeds on 15 September 1914, and continued to serve as the unit’s commanding officer until it went overseas in 1917.


Percy Courtman, killed in action 2/6/17. Bronze medal winner, 1912 Olympics, 400 metres breast stroke.

2Lt Cecil Healy (AUST) - Olympic swimmer for Australia in both the 1908 and 1912 Olympics. Won a silver medal in at least one of these Games. (Sorry, but I don't have his biographical details immediately to hand, but will check later!). From Sydney NSW.
Enlisted in the 19th Bn, AIF as an "original", regimental number 2, as I recall, and was the unit's first RQMS. Survived Gallipoli and went on to the Western Front where he served in all the battles as part of 5th Bde, 2nd Division. Being considered good officer material, he was sent to England to do the full time commissioning course in late 1917 and returned to the 19th Bn in mid-1918. He was killed on 29 August 1918 as a platoon commander leading an attack on a wood on the western side of the Somme near Peronne. This action was part of the lead-up actions to the Battle of Mont St Quentin. Four of his men were KIA in the same engagement and all are now buried together in the nearby Assevillers New British Cemetery.

 

Part 4

Film & Theatre


Maurice Chevalier (France)- Popular and acclaimed actor, singer & entertainer who starred in many hit musicals both on stage and on screen in Europe and the USA, his fame reaching its peak during the 1920s & 30s.
In WW1, Chevalier served in the French army and was, in fact, already half-way through his National Service and was stationed near the German border when the war began in 1914. Seeing action in the first bloody weeks of the war, he was wounded in the back by shrapnel and then captured. He spent 2 years in a German POW camp where he passed the time by learning English which greatly assisted him in his later career. He was released in 1916 thanks to the influence of the King of Spain who was a friend of Chevalier’s girlfriend Mistinguett. Chevalier spent the remainder of the war entertaining Allied troops behind the lines.

Jean Renoir (France)- Acclaimed Film-Director of French cinema from the 1920s to the early 1960s. His best-known films include “The Rules of the Game” and “The Grand Illusion”
When the war broke out in 1914, the 20-year-old Renoir was already serving in the French cavalry as part of his National Service. After seeing action and receiving a wound to the leg (leaving him with a permanent limp), he transferred to the fledgling air-force and served as a Reconnaissance pilot in Escadrille 64.

Rene Clair (France)- Film Director of the 1920s-1960s, best-remembered for his films The Imaginary Voyage (1926) & Forever and a Day (1943).
During WW1, Clair served as a Volunteer ambulance driver on the Western Front.

Michael Curtiz (Hungary/USA) - Film Director who helmed over 150 movies between 1912 and 1961 (he emigrated to the USA in 1926). He is best-remembered for his classic Casablanca (1942) along with The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938), Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) and White Christmas (1954).
At the outbreak of WW1, Curtiz was drafted into the Austro-Hungarian Army in 1914 and he served for a short time in the Artillery but he was sent back into the film-industry in 1915 in order to produce propaganda features. Curtiz was Jewish and several of his relatives, including his sister’s husband and their three children, perished in the Holocaust during WW2.

Bela Lugosi (Hungary/USA) – Stage and Screen actor of the 1920s to the 1950s who enjoyed a successful career in Hollywood after emigrating to the USA in 1921. He is best-remembered for starring in ‘Dracula’ (1931) and playing the role of Frankenstein and other villains in numerous films. His last film was the famously bad ‘Plan Nine from Outer Space’ in 1955 which was completed shortly before he died, lonely and poor. His relationship with the eccentric director of that film, Ed Wood, became the subject of the film of the same name directed by Tim Burton and starring Johnny Depp in 1994.
During WW1, he served as an Infantry Lieutenant in the Austro-Hungarian Army 1914-17 before he starting working as an actor for the Hungarian film industry, appearing in war & propaganda films before the armistice in 1918.

William Wellman (USA)- Film Director who helmed over 50 movies between 1919 and 1975. He directed the WW1 aerial epic Wings (1927) which won the Academy Award for Best Film at the first-ever Oscars held that year. Other well-known films he directed included The Ox-Bow Incident (1943) and Battleground (1949). One of his later films was the poorly-received WW1 air-war film Lafayette Escadrille (1958) which was notable mainly for featuring a young Clint Eastwood.
In WW1, Wellman joined the Norton-Harjes Ambulance Corps on the Western Front and then he joined the French Foreign Legion. After that, he trained as a pilot and joined N87 Escadrille of the Lafayette Flying-Corps, gaining the nickname ‘Wild-Bill’. He flew Nieuport 17s and 24s, christening his planes with the name ‘Celia’ (after his mother). Wellman saw considerable action over France and he was officially credited with 3 enemy aircraft destroyed for certain plus 5 probables. He was shot down and wounded, leaving him with a permanent limp in one leg and he received the Croix de Guerre for his service.

Richard Arlen (USA)- Film Actor of the 1920s-1940s who starred in the 1927 movie Wings (see above).
During WW1, Arlen served as a pilot in the Royal Canadian Air-Force.

Merian C Cooper (USA)- Film Producer, Director and Screenplay writer. He is most famous for co-directing (and co-writing) the famous and ground-breaking epic King Kong (1933) which featured many innovations in special effects. His other work included directing the film Four Feathers and producing several John Ford/John Wayne films such as Rio Grande, The Quiet Man and The Searchers.
During WW1, Cooper served in the US Air-Corps and flew DH4s over the Western Front. He was shot down in 1918 and received serious burns in the crash but survived, albeit as a POW which he remained so until the end of the war. After WW1, he formed the ‘Kosciusko’ Squadron of American Volunteer pilots fighting in Poland against the Russian invasion of 1919-21. He was shot down again and spent nine months as a POW of the Bolsheviks until he escaped and made his way to Latvia on foot. During WW2, he served in the US army air corps as a staff officer.

Walter ‘Walt’ Disney (USA)- Film director, producer, entrepreneur, screenwriter, animator, philanthropist and theme-park designer. Won 26 Academy Awards during his career and the company he co-founded- The Walt Disney Company-now earns $35 Billion a year.
In WW1, Disney tried to enlist in the US Army in 1917 but was rejected due to his age (he was only 16 at the time). Un-deterred, he instead joined the Red Cross and spent a year on the Western Front as an Ambulance-driver.

Humphrey Bogart (USA) -Film actor & movie star 1930s-1950s, star of such classics as Casablanca, The Maltese Falcon and The African Queen.
During WW1, the young Bogart enlisted in the US Navy in 1918 and served on board the transport vessel USS Leviathan. Some historians claim he was wounded by shrapnel during a bombing attack.

Walter Brennan (USA)- Prolific Film Actor who appeared in over 70 films between 1925 and 1974. He won three Academy Awards for Best Supporting Actor, an achievement no other actor has equalled since, for the movies Come and Get It (1936), Kentucky (1938) and The Westerner (1940) plus he was nominated for a fourth in Sergeant York (1941).
In WW1, the 23-year-old Brennan enlisted in the US Army in 1917 and served as a private in the 101st Field Artillery on the Western Front.

George O’Brien (USA)- Silent Film Actor of the 1920s and star of numerous Westerns released during the 1930s. He is best-known for his starring role in the acclaimed 1927 silent film ‘Sunrise’.
In WW1, O’Brien served in the US Navy on board a Submarine-Chaser and also acted as a stretcher-bearer for injured Marines and was decorated for bravery. He served in the US Navy again during WW2.

Adolphe Menjou (USA)- Film actor of both the Silent and Sound era and who appeared in over 50 films between 1916 and 1960. He is best-remembered for his roles in The Sheik (1921-alongside Rudolph Valentino), The Front Page (1931-Academy Award Nomination), A Farewell to Arms (1932), A Star is Born (1937) and for playing one of the cold-hearted French Generals in the WW1 film Paths of Glory (1957).
During WW1, Menjou served as a Captain in the US Army Ambulance Service on the Western Front.

Buster Keaton (USA) - Film actor, script-writer and director of the 1920s Silent Era through to the Sound era and beyond. His best-known films include ‘The Navigator’ (1924) & the anti-war black comedy ‘The General’ (1927), the latter often ranked by film-critics as one of the finest films of all time. By the 1960s, he was making cameos in B-grade ‘Beach’ movies.
In WW1, he served in the US Army 40th Division on the Western Front 1917-18. Although he appears to have experienced little or no actual combat, Keaton contracted a severe ear infection that nearly took his life and left him with partial hearing loss.

Bill ‘Bojangles’ Robinson (USA)- Stage & film actor/dancer of the 1920s -1940s. He appeared in a number of film musicals alongside Shirley Temple during the 1930s and was an acclaimed singer and dancer on the stage. Regarded by many as the greatest Tap-Dancer of all time, he was immortalised in the popular 1968 folk-song ‘Mr Bojangles’.
When the USA entered WW1 in 1917, Robinson joined the US Army and served as a rifleman in the 15th New York Infantry Regiment. When the unit reached France and was attached to the 4th Army, it was renamed the 369th Infantry with the nickname of ‘Harlem’s Hellfighters’ and he remained on the Western Front until the end of the war. Robinson was given the honour of being the regimental band’s Drum-Major for the Victory parade along Fifth-Avenue, New York.

Cole Porter (USA)- Famous songwriter and composer of stage and screen musicals from the end of WW1 up until the late 1950s. Many of his songs are still hugely popular today and he is regarded as one of the greatest American songwriters of all time, penning tunes such as ‘I’ve Got You Under my Skin’, ‘Night and Day’, ‘I Get a Kick Out of You’, ‘Anything Goes’ & ‘Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?’.
Porter was travelling in Europe when the USA entered the Great War in 1917 and he joined the French Foreign Legion in that year and served for a time in North Africa. He was then transferred to the Western Front and was employed at the French Officer’s School at Fontainebleau as a Gunnery Instructor for newly-arrived American soldiers. Interestingly, Porter still managed to keep a luxury apartment in Paris even during his military service and he was able to continue his playboy lifestyle during his spells of leave.

Randolph Scott (USA)- Prolific Movie Actor who appeared in many Westerns from the late 1920s through to the early 1960s. Although many of his films were B-Grade features, some of the Westerns he starred in are now considered classics of the genre. The latter included his final film Ride the High Country (1962), directed by the controversial Sam Peckinpah and regarded by many critics as one of the best Westerns ever made.
During WW1, Scott enlisted in the US Army in 1917 at the age of 19. He served on the Western Front as an Artillery-Observer in the 2nd Trench Mortar Battalion, 19th Field Artillery.

James Whale (UK) - British-born film director who had a successful career in Hollywood helming numerous films, the most famous of which are 'Frankenstein', 'Waterloo Bridge', 'The Man in the Iron Mask' and the big-budget musical 'Showboat'.
In the Great War, he served as an officer in the British army with the rank of Second Lieutenant, enlisting in 1915 and seeing considerable action on the Western front. He was captured in August 1917 and spent the remainder of the war in a POW camp. Highly traumatized by his wartime experiences, they were a major factor in his eventual suicide by drowning in his Hollywood home in 1957. The recent film "Gods and Monsters", which starred Ian Mackellen and Brendan Fraser, depicted the final months of his life albeit in a semi-fictional sense.

Nigel Bruce (UK)- Character-Actor on stage, radio & screen 1930s-1950s. Best-known for playing Dr Watson, the sidekick to Sherlock Holmes in 14 films about the famous detective duo (Holmes was always played by his good friend Basil Rathbone-see below). He also appeared in nearly 45 other films such as Treasure Island (1934) and The Charge of the Light Brigade (1936).
In WW1, Bruce joined the 10th Service Battalion of the Somerset Light Infantry, serving as a Lieutenant. He later joined the Honourable Artillery Company in 1916 and fought at Cambrai in 1917 where he was badly wounded. Bruce’s left leg was hit by no less than eleven bullets and he was confined to a wheelchair for over a year before he was able to walk again.

Basil Rathbone (UK)- Stage and film Actor 1920s- 1950s, starred in numerous films, including The Dawn Patrol and The Adventures of Robin Hood and was famous for his portrayals of Sherlock Holmes.
During WW1, he served in the British Infantry in the trenches as a private in the London Scottish Regiment and later as a Lieutenant in the Liverpool Scottish regiment. He was decorated for bravery in action. Involved in a number of trench-raids and reconnaissance missions, he once scouted a German trench in broad daylight by disguising himself as a tree!

Claude Rains (UK/USA)- Successful film and stage Actor of the 1930s-1960s. He spent the majority of his career in Hollywood and became a US citizen in 1939. He was nominated for Academy Awards for best actor four times, namely for Mr Smith goes to Washington (1939), Casablanca (1942), Mr Skeffington (1944) and Notorious (1946). He also won a Tony Award in 1951 for his performance in the play Darkness at Noon.
During WW1, Rains served in the London Scottish Regiment as a comrade of Rathbone (see above) and three other future actors (see below). He rose from the ranks to become a Captain. During a gas attack, he was injured and permanently lost most of his sight in one eye.

Ronald Colman (UK)- Successful stage and film Actor who was active from 1916 to 1957. He won an Academy Award for best actor in 1947 for the film A Double Life and was nominated for three more films- Bulldog Drummond & Condemned (both in 1930) and Random Harvest (1942).
During WW1, Colman served in the London Scottish Regiment and was one of the first of the Territorial Soldiers to see action. He fought at the Battle of Messines in 1914 and on October 31st, he was badly wounded in the leg by shrapnel. He was left with a permanent limp and was invalided out of the army in 1916 whereupon he immediately began his acting career on the London stage.

Cedric Hardwicke (UK)- notable actor of the stage and screen, appeared in numerous Hollywood and British films. He appeared in over 45 movies between 1931 and 1964, the most well-known included The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939), A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court (1949) and The Ten Commandments (1956).
During the Great War, he fought on the Western Front as an infantryman in the London Scottish Regiment and he remained in the British contingent of the Army of Occupation in Germany until 1921.

Herbert Marshall (UK)- Successful stage and film Actor who appeared in nearly 40 movies between 1929 and 1963. His most well-known films included The Painted Veil (1934), The Razor’s Edge (1946), Duel in the Sun (1946) and The Fly (1958).
In WW1, along with the other future thespians Rathbone, Rains, Colman and Hardwicke (see above), Marshall served in the London Scottish Regiment. Of all these men, Marshall paid the biggest price for his war service when he was severely wounded in the leg and had to have it amputated, wearing an artificial limb for the rest of his life.

Charles Laughton (UK)- Popular and acclaimed film & stage Actor and Director. Appeared in numerous films from the early 1930s through to the 1960s, the most famous of which include Rembrandt (1936), The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939), Hobson’s Choice (1954) and Spartacus (1960). He won an Academy Award for best actor in 1933 for The Private Life of Henry VIII and was nominated twice more for Mutiny on the Bounty (1936) and Witness for the Prosecution (1958). He directed the acclaimed thriller Night of the Hunter in 1955, which starred Robert Mitchum, and is often cited as one of the best Hollywood films of the post-WW2 era.
During WW1, Laughton, who was 15 years-old when the war began, enlisted in 1917 in the 2/1st Battalion of the Huntingdonshire Cyclist Regiment and he later served in the 7th Battalion of the Northamptonshire Regiment. He saw action with both units on the Western Front and was gassed on one occasion but later recovered.

Leslie Howard (UK)- Stage and Film Actor 1930-1942. He is best-remembered for appearing in the films The Scarlet Pimpernel (1934), Gone with the Wind (1939) and The 49th Parallel (1941). He was twice nominated for an Oscar for best actor for his performances in Berkeley Square (1933) and Pygmalion (1938). Howard lost his life in 1943 whilst he was returning to Britain after a goodwill/publicity (and intelligence-gathering) tour of Spain when the DC-3 he was travelling on was shot down by the Luftwaffe over the Bay of Biscay.
In the Great War, Howard (then still known by his birth name of Leslie Steiner) enlisted in the Northamptonshire Yeomanry as an officer. He saw action on the Western Front and suffered severe shell-shock in 1916 which led him relinquishing his commission in May of that year. After his recovery, he began his acting career in 1917.

Stanley Holloway (UK)- Character Actor of the Stage and Screen who appeared in over a hundred films, stage productions and TV programs between 1919 and 1975. He is perhaps most famous for playing Eliza Doolittle’s Father Alfred in the 1964 hit film musical My Fair Lady.
In WW1, Holloway served in the Connaught Rangers Infantry Regiment.

Vernon Castle (UK)- Professional Dancer, Dance-Teacher & Choreographer of the pre-WW1 era. With his American wife & dancing partner Irene, Castle became a famous and influential Ballroom and Stage Dancer. They ran a highly-successful Dance school in New York and gave private lessons, charging up to $1,000 a session to wealthy clients. The Castles were considered amongst the very-best Ballroom dancers of their day in the UK, France and USA and a book they wrote, Modern Dancing (1914), was a bestseller. They were both major and sought-after celebrities in their time and were trendsetters through Irene’s innovative fashion and hairstyles, their openly liberal views on sexuality and race and their passion for animal rights- decades before it became popular. A Hollywood film was made about their life in 1939 with Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in the lead-roles.
During WW1, Vernon enlisted in the RFC and fought over the Western Front, being credited with two German aircraft destroyed. He was awarded the Croix de Guerre. In a decision perhaps influenced by his pre-war fame, he was transferred to Canada to assist in the training of new pilots in 1917. Promoted to Captain, he was later despatched to the USA to perform the same duty. In February 1918, he was taking off from Benbrook Field in Fort Worth, Texas when he had to bank sharply to avoid another incoming aircraft. His engine stalled and, unable to recover control in time, he crashed. Captain Castle died of his injuries soon afterwards. His grieving wife Irene wrote a moving memoir to him called My Husband the following year and a street in Benbrook is named after him.

Reginald Denny (UK/USA)- Prolific character Actor of the 1920s to the 1960s whose family emigrated to the USA in 1912 when he was 21 years-old. He was notable for being usually cast as the stereotypical Englishman in many US film, TV and stage productions. His most significant work included appearing alongside Greta Garbo in Anna Karenina and with Katherine Hepburn in The Little Minister.
During WW1, Denny flew with the RFC and after the war was employed as a stunt pilot.

Victor McLaglen (UK/USA)- Prolific screen Actor who appeared in well over a hundred films between 1920 and 1958. He is best-remembered for roles in the WW1 drama What Price Glory? (1926), Gunga-Din (1939) and for always being cast as Irish US-Cavalry Sergeants in John Ford’s classic Westerns Fort Apache (1948), She wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949) and Rio Grande (1950). He won an Oscar for Best Actor for his role in The Informer (1935).
In the Great War, 28 year-old McLaglen enlisted in the British Army and he served with the temporary rank of Captain in the 10th Battalion of the Middlesex Regiment and was sent to the Middle-East theatre. For some reason, possibly because he played Irish characters in a number of films, he later claimed (falsely) that he had served in the Royal Irish Fusiliers. For a time, he also served as Provost Marshall of Bagdad in British-controlled Iraq. A talented boxer, he became Heavyweight Champion of the British Army in 1918.

Eric Blore (UK)- Comic Actor who appeared in over 80 films from the 1920s onwards, often type-cast as the stereotypical English Butler. He appeared in a number of the Fred Astaire/Ginger Rogers Musicals including The Gay Divorcee (1934) & Top Hat (1935).
In the Great War, Blore served in the Artists Rifles where he earned his commission and he later became an officer in the South Wales Borderers.

Clive Brook (UK)- Actor, Director & Screenplay Writer of the 1920s-60s whose best-regarded films included Shanghai Express (1932) & On Approval (1943).
In WW1, Brook served in the Artists Rifles on the Western Front 1917-18.

Arnold Ridley (UK) – Actor and Playwright, best-known for his play ‘The Ghost Train’ and for playing the role of Private Godfrey in the long-running, hugely popular BBC TV comedy Dads Army 1968-1977.
In 1914, the 20-year-old Ridley enlisted in the Somerset Light Infantry as a private and saw considerable action on the Western Front. Taking part in the Battle of the Somme in 1916, Ridley was wounded in the left arm and both legs by shrapnel and during a hand-to-hand action, a German soldier struck him on the head with a rifle butt. For the rest of his life, he only had partial use of his left arm, he walked with a limp and his head injuries left him prone to blackouts. Despite this, he managed to re-enlist at the beginning of the Second World War and joined the BEF in France in 1940 but his old injuries proved too difficult for him and he was invalided back home.

John Laurie (Scotland)- Actor best-remembered for playing the role of Private Fraser in the BBC hit-comedy series Dads Army 1968-1977 but who also appeared in numerous British film and stage productions in the 1920s-1970s including ‘The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp’ (1945) and ‘The Way Ahead’ (1944).
During WW1, Laurie served in the British Army on the Western Front 1917-18.


Jack Warner (UK)- Film & TV actor who appeared in various British films of the 1940s & 50s including ‘The Blue Lamp’, ‘The Lady-Killers’ & ‘Carve Her Name with Pride’. He is best-known for his role as PC Dixon in the long-running, hugely popular British TV series ‘Dixon of Dock Green’ which ran from 1955-1976.
In WW1, the 22-year-old Warner served in the RFC in 1917 and flew Sopwith Camels on the Western Front.

Fritz Lang (Austria/Germany/USA)- Acclaimed and highly influential Film Director associated with the German Expressionist movement of the 1920s-30s and who later directed films for Hollywood after becoming a US Citizen in 1939. He is best remembered for his Silent era masterpiece Metropolis (1927), the murder-thriller M (1931) and the Film Noir classic The Big Heat (1953).
In 1914, Lang was drafted into the Austrian Army and fought in Russia and Romania. He was wounded three times and also suffered severe shell-shock in 1916. He ended the war with the rank of Lieutenant.

Friedrich W Murnau (Germany/USA)- Film Director of the German Expressionist Period during the 1920s and who emigrated to the USA in 1926. He directed the acclaimed 1927 silent film ‘Sunrise’ starring George O’Brien (see above) and which was nominated for Best Film at the very first Academy Awards held the same year. It is cited by many critics as one of the best films ever made. He is also well-known for his film Nosferatu (1922), an interpretation of the Vampire Legend, along with The Last Laugh (1925) and Faust (1926). He died in a car-accident in 1931 and only 11 people came to his funeral, including Fritz Lang and Greta Garbo.
Murnau trained as a pilot and flew in the German Air-Force during WW1.

Max Schreck (Germany)- Stage and Film Actor of the 1920s and early 1930s. Best-remembered for taking the lead-role of the Vampire Count Orlok in F W Murnau’s (see above) interpretation of the Dracula Story in the 1922 silent-film Nosferatu. He died suddenly of heart failure in 1936.
During WW1, Schreck served in the German Army on the Western Front 1915-18.

Friedrich von Ledebur (Poland)- Stage & Film Actor who appeared in a number of well-known US & British films including Moby Dick (1956), The Blue Max (1966) and Slaughterhouse Five (1974).
Von Ledebur was only 16 years-old when he enlisted in the Austro-Hungarian Army in 1916 and he became an officer in the Austrian Cavalry 1917-18.


Billy Cotton later racing car driver, band leader and TV star of the 1950s and early 60s (Wakey Wakey!) Flew in the RFC (RE8s in which he went balloon busting

Basil Hallam, 'Gilbert the Filbert', a popular entertainer more famous in his day than any of these, was killed; he fell from an observation balloon.

Irving Berlin songwriter and producer of many Broadway musicals wrote his first Broad way success Yip Yip Yaphank whilst a sergeant at Camp Upton in December 1917. He also appears to have taken part in some tank familiarisation with a British Mk IV 'Britannia' at this time

 

Part 5 Part (a)

Soldiers


[FONT=&quot]Air-Marshall Edgar Ludlow-Hewitt (UK)- Commander of RAF Bomber Command 1937-40 & Inspector General of the RAF 1940-45.
Ludlow had already served nearly a decade in the British Army when WW1 began but in 1914, he joined the RFC and became a Flight-Commander with No 1 Squadron on the Western Front in November, flying a variety of types including BE2s and Bleriots. In 1915, he both commanded and flew with two units- No 15 & No 3 Squadrons, operating BE2s and Morane Parasols. By 1916, he was a Corps Commander in the RFC and was a senior officer employed assigned to pilot-training schools for the remainder of the war.

Air-Chief-Marshall Richard Peirse (UK)- Commander of RAF Bomber Command 1940-1942. His force was criticised in the controversial Butt Report for costly, in-accurate and in-effective bombing on German targets and he was replaced by ‘Bomber’ Harris (see below) in 1942. In 1943-44 he served as Commander-in-Chief Allied Air-Command, South-East Asia but he was forced to resign in disgrace when he eloped with the wife of General Claude Auchinleck.
At the start of WW1, Pierse served in the Royal Navy as a Midshipman and later in 1914, he trained and served as a pilot in the RNAS. In January 1915, Pierse won a DSO for his participation in an aerial attack on Dunkirk. When the RFC and the RNAS merged in April 1918 to become the Royal Air-Force, Pierse commanded No 222 Squadron which operated bombing missions against Turkish targets in Macedonia, Thrace & the Balkans until the end of the war.

Air-Marshall Arthur 'Bomber' Harris (UK) –Strong-minded, controversial and formidable Chief of RAF Bomber-Command, who directed the night-bombing offensive on Germany & occupied Europe 1942-45.
During WW1, he served in the RFC as a fighter pilot, flying Sopwith Strutters & Camels during 1917, eventually becoming CO of his unit, No 45 Squadron. He was officially credited with destroying 5 German planes.

Air-Marshall N H Bottomley (UK)- Commander of RAF Bomber Command 1945-1947.
In WW1, Bottomley served as an Officer in the 3rd Battalion of the East Yorkshire Regiment 1914-15 and flew with the RFC 1916-1918, ending the war with the rank of Flight-Commander.

Air-Marshall Hugh Dowding (UK) – Quiet and aloof leader of RAF Fighter Command during the Battles of France and Britain, May-October 1940. He was removed from his post in circumstances that have remained controversial ever since.
During WW1, he served in the RFC, commanding No 16 Squadron which operated Royal Aircraft-Factory BE2s. During the Battle of the Somme in 1916, he was sent back to Britain for insubordination. (He had complained to RFC Commander, General Trenchard, that air-crews required more rest from operations)

Air-Marshall William Welsh (UK)- Commander of RAF Fighter Command No 11 Group Jan-April 1940 (replaced by Keith Park-see below). Commander of British Air-Support Operations for Operation Torch-the Anglo-US Invasion of French-North Africa, November 1942.
In WW1, Welsh joined the RNAS in November 1914 and flew as a test pilot. He became one of the first pilots to successfully take off from an aircraft-carrier when, on 6th August 1915, he took off in a Sopwith Schneider from HMS Campania which was sailing at 18-knots. He repeated this feat on November 3rd, only with the ship sailing at top speed this time. In 1917, he was shot down whilst flying a Sopwith Baby near Dunkirk but he survived unhurt. In 1918, he took over command of No 217 Squadron RAF, operating DH4s.

Air Vice-Marshall Sir Keith Park (New Zealand) - Commander of RAF Fighter Command's No 11 Group, the most heavily engaged Group during the Battle of Britain July-October 1940 and later commanded the air defences on Malta.
In 1914, he joined the New Zealand army artillery and landed at Gallipoli in April 1915, soon earning the rank of Lieutenant. During the campaign he made the un-usual decision to transfer to the British Army and he survived the entire disaster to be evacuated in January 1916. Later he commanded a battery at the Somme and was wounded in October 1916. After his recovery, he joined the RFC and in 1917 he joined No 48 Squadron based near Arras, flying Bristol F2Bs. On August 17th, he earned the Military Cross for shooting down one enemy plane for certain, getting two more probables and damaging a fourth in a single sortie. By war's end, he had risen to the rank of Major and was commander of his unit. Park was credited with five enemy planes destroyed for certain with 14 probables (last seen going down ‘out of control’). One of his victims was Leutnant Franz Pernet, stepson of General Ludendorff.

Air-Marshall William 'Sholto' Douglas (UK) – Head of RAF Fighter Command, after the removal of Hugh Dowding in November 1940. In 1942, he was replaced and then commanded British air-forces in the Middle East and later he led Coastal Command 1944-45.
Regarding his WW1 service, in 1914, Douglas joined the Field Artillery and transferred to the RFC the following year. He flew with No 2 Squadron as an Observer and then trained as a pilot and eventually became a Major and commander of No 84 Squadron which flew BE12s, then Sopwith Strutters and SE5s. He earned the MC and DFC by the end of the war.

Air-Marshall Trafford Leigh-Mallory (UK) - Commander of RAF Fighter Command No 12 Group during the Battle of Britain and later replaced Sholto Douglas as Head of Fighter Command in 1942. He was appointed Commander of Allied air-forces supporting the D-Day landings before his death in an accidental air-crash in August 1944. At the beginning of WW1, he joined the infantry and saw action as a Lieutenant with the South Lancashires. He was wounded at the Second Battle of Ypres in 1915 and after his recovery, he transferred to the RFC. Leigh-Mallory flew with three squadrons, No 7, No 5 and No 8, the last one as squadron-leader. At the Battle of Cambrai in 1917, he flew reconnaissance and Army co-operation missions and earned the DSO by the end of the war. He was noted as an efficient and energetic leader but not a popular one with his men who thought him aloof and sometimes pompous.

Air-Chief-Marshall Charles Portal (UK)- Chief of the Air Staff of the RAF during the early years of WW2 and in 1944 he became Marshal of the Royal Air-Force. He was responsible for the appointment of ‘Bomber’ Harris as head of Bomber Command in 1942 and he accompanied Churchill to the Casablanca & Yalta Conferences.
At the outbreak of WW1, Portal was a dispatch rider in the motorcycle section of the Royal Engineers. He was involved in the August 1914 battles of Mons and Le Cateau and by September he was promoted to Lieutenant, being mentioned in despatches by the BEF’s Commander, General Sir John French. By December, he was commanding all riders of the Headquarters Signals Company of the 1st Corps. In 1915, Portal transferred to the RFC and flew as an observer and then became a pilot. By 1918, he was a Lieutenant-Colonel in the new RAF and he earned a Military Cross for his services over the Western Front.

Air-Marshall J C Slessor (UK)- Commander of RAF Coastal Command 1943-44, Commander Allied Air-Forces Middle-east 1944-45 & Chief-of-staff of the Royal Air-Force 1950-53.
During WW1, Slessor enlisted in the RFC in 1915 and served briefly as a pilot in No 14 and No 24 Squadrons. At that end of that year, he joined No 17 Squadron as a Flying-Officer and served in Egypt and Sudan, flying BE2cs. In April 1917, he transferred to No 5 Squadron of the RFC as a Flight-Commander and flew BE2s and RE8s over the Western Front. From mid-1918 until the end of the war, he was a senior officer at the central flying school in the UK.

Air-Marshall William Dickson (UK)- Commander of the RAF Desert Air-Force 1944 and Chief-of-Staff of the Royal Air-Force 1953-55.
During WW1, Dickson enlisted in the RNAS in 1916 as a Naval flier and served as a pilot on board the carriers HMS Furious, HMS Revenge and HMS Queen Elizabeth.

Air-Marshall W A Coryton (UK)- Commander of the 3rd Tactical Air-Force 1944 and Commander of RAF Burma 1945. Prior to that, was Commander of No 5 Group Bomber Command, the first Group to be equipped with the new Avro Lancaster. He was sacked in 1943 by Harris for refusing to order his men to mount a night-raid over Germany in bad weather.
In WW1, Coryton volunteered for the Army in 1914 and served as a Lieutenant in the 8th Battalion of the Rifle Brigade. At the First Battle of Ypres in October 1914, he was wounded in the shoulder by machine-gun fire and he was one of only five officers of his Battalion to survive the Battle. In 1917, he joined the RFC and his natural flair with mechanics saw him become a flight-instructor and he was assigned to No 40 Training Squadron. In 1919, he taught the young future King George VI to fly.

Air-Marshall Robert Foster (UK)- Commander of RAF Desert Air-Force 1944-45 and Commander of the Second Tactical Air-Force West Germany 1951-53.
In WW1, Foster joined the RFC in 1916 and flew with No 54 Squadron in 1917, flying Sopwith Camels and achieving one confirmed victory. After a short period serving in No 44 Home-Defence Squadron, Foster returned to the Western Front in April 1918 as a Flight-Commander in No 209 Squadron of the new RAF alongside the famous Canadian pilot Roy Brown, officially (and controversially) credited with shooting down Manfred von ‘the Red Baron’ Richthofen. Again flying Camels, he fought until the end of the war and was credited with 4 aircraft destroyed (and 5 shared), one captured and one probable (‘out of control’). He had a narrow escape from death in 1923 when, whilst serving with the RAF in India, his Bristol F2B was accidentally set on fire by a dislodged incendiary round and he and his observer were captured and savagely beaten by rebels and held in captivity for three weeks before being released.

[/FONT]

 

Part 6 (b)

Military

Air-Marshall W G S Mitchell (UK)- Commander of RAF Middle-East 1939-40.
In WW1, Mitchell was already an experienced pilot with No 4 Squadron RFC when the war began in August 1914 and he served on the Western Front, flying BE2s, Farmans and Bleriots. In January 1915, he became a Flight-Commander in No 10 Squadron, flying BE2Cs & Ds over the Western Front and by June the following year, he was their Commander. He saw action at the Battles of Loos (1915) and Arras (1917) and was mentioned in dispatches six times, receiving a DSO and Military Cross. By mid-1918, he was a Group Commander in the new RAF.

Air-Marshall Philip Joubert de la Ferte (UK)- Commander of RAF Coastal Command 1941-43. He was credited with the decision to produce a torpedo-armed version of the Bristol Beaufighter.
When the Great War began, de la Ferte had already been flying for the RFC since 1913 and he was a pilot in No 3 Squadron which was equipped with BE2s and Bleriots. He had the distinction of flying one of the RFC’s first two operational sorties at Mons in August 1914. In April of the following year, he took command of No 15 Squadron flying BE2s and five months later, took charge of the famous No 1 squadron, flying Morane Parasols and BE8s over the Western Front. He was shot down and wounded in November 1915. After his recovery, he served as a Wing-Commander in both the Middle-East and on the Western Front 1916-17, and in 1918 he commanded No 6 Group RAF in Italy.

Air-Marshall Arthur W Tedder (UK)- Commander of RAF Middle-East 1941-43, Commander-in-Chief of Allied air-forces in the Mediterranean 1943-44, Deputy Supreme-Commander Allied Forces under Eisenhower 1944 and Chief-of-Staff of the RAF 1946-1950. He was heavily involved in the planning of the air-operations on D-Day (and was a vocal critic of Montgomery) and was one of the officers present at the Official German Surrender Ceremony in May 1945. Prior to that, in 1943, he had the tragic misfortune to witness an accidental air-crash that claimed the life of his wife Rosalinde when the transport aircraft she was board ran off the runway at Cairo airport. Previously, his son Richard, an officer in the Army, had been killed in France in 1940.
In WW1, Tedder was an officer in the Dorset Regiment in 1915 but he sustained a knee-injury during training that prevented him from seeing combat. The following year, he joined the RFC and completed his training by June and was posted as pilot to No 25 Squadron on the Western Front, flying Bristol Scout Cs, being promoted to Flight-Commander within two months. On New Years Day 1917, Tedder was made Commander of No 70 Squadron and flew Sopwith Strutters with them until June. Then he transferred his command duties to leading the Australian pilots of No 67 Squadron RFC (formerly No 1 Squadron AFC) and served with them in the Middle-East until the end of the war.

Air-Marshall George Owen Johnson (Canada)- During WW2, Johnson was placed in charge of aircrew training for the RAF. Realising that the RAF’s demands for new aircrew could not be possibly filled by training schools in the UK alone, he established the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan in 1940. This plan brought aircrew from all over the world to be trained in stations throughout the Empire in locales such as Canada, Australia & South-Africa. Johnson’s Plan was credited with ensuring that enough airmen were trained for the Commonwealth air-forces in WW2.
In WW1, Johnson arrived on the Western Front in October 1917 as a 21-year-old RFC pilot in No 84 Squadron, flying SE5s. He shot down one German aircraft, shared credit in the downing of two others and was also credited with three more probables (‘out of control’). In April 1918, he transferred to No 24 Squadron RAF which also operated SE5s and to his score, he added one enemy aircraft and one balloon destroyed, one aircraft captured and two more sent ‘out of control’, bringing his total wartime score of kills and probables to 11. He returned to England in June 1918 as an instructor before he was posted as a Flight-Commander to the newly formed No 1 (Canadian) Squadron and arrived back at the Front in November but the Armistice was declared before he saw any further action.

Field-Marshall Bernard Law Montgomery (UK) -Most famous British General of WW2, 'Monty' commanded British forces in North Africa, Sicily, Normandy and North-West Europe. He is best-remembered for defeating Rommel at El Alamein in 1942 and for his campaigns in Normandy and North-West Europe.
At the outbreak of WW1, he was a junior officer serving in the Royal Warwickshires and fought at the Battle of Mons in August 1914 where half his Battalion were made casualties. Badly wounded in the lungs by a sniper at Meteren in October of that year, he nearly died but eventually recovered. He served as a senior staff officer for the rest of the war involved in training of the new British armies and in the planning of major offensives. He ended the Great War as a Lieutenant-Colonel.

Field-Marshall Archibald Wavell (UK) -British General in WW2, notable for great successes against the Italian armies in North Africa in 1940. Later became Viceroy of India.
In WW1, he fought as an Infantry officer at the Second Battle of Ypres in 1915 (where he lost an eye), was Liaison to the Russian Army in 1916 and then served as a staff officer in Palestine in 1918.

Field-Marshall William Joseph Slim (UK)- Commander of the British 14th Army- ‘The Forgotten Army’- in Burma, responsible for defeating the Japanese at the Battles of Imphal and Kohima in 1944 and for driving them out of Burma the following year. Later became Governor-General of Australia.

In 1914, Slim was a Second-Lieutenant in the Royal Warwickshire Regiment and he took part in the Gallipoli Campaign the following year where he was wounded. In 1916, he was involved in the Campaign in Mesopotamia. The following year, he was promoted to full Lieutenant and he was wounded in action again. By 1918, he was a Captain and received the Military Cross for his service.

Field-Marshall Harold Alexander (UK)- Commander-in-Chief Allied Forces in the Middle-East and later Supreme Commander Allied Forces HQ during WW2.

Alexander began the Great War as a Second-Lieutenant in the Irish Guards and fought with the BEF in 1914. By February 1915, he was a Captain and two years later, he was promoted to Major. By November 1917, he was an acting Lt-Colonel in charge of a Battalion in the Irish Guards, a post he held until the Armistice. He fought extensively on the Western Front throughout the war, seeing action at Loos and on the Somme, winning a DSO in the latter. He was wounded twice in action. The famous writer Rudyard Kipling, whose son Jack was a young officer in the Irish Guards and who died at Loos, paid a warm tribute to Alexander’s leadership during the war.

Field-Marshall Claude Auchinleck (UK)- Commander-in-Chief Allied Forces in the Middle-East 1941-42 and Commander of British 8th Army 1941-42.
During WW1, Auchinleck served in the Middle-East and was an officer serving with Indian Troops of the 62nd Punjab Regiment attached to the 6th Indian Division. In February 1915, he fought off a Turkish Attack on the Suez Canal. In December, the Regiment fought in Mesopotamia at the Battle of Basra where the unit suffered heavy losses but eventually defeated the Germans. He became temporary Commander of the Regiment after the CO became a casualty.

Field-Marshall Alan Brooke (UK)- Chief of Imperial General Staff 1941-46 and the top military advisor to Churchill.
During WW1, Brooke served on the Western Front as a Colonel in the Royal Field Artillery.

 

Part 7 (c)

Military

[FONT=&quot]Lt-General Brian Horrocks (UK)- Popular and energetic Commander of British XXX Corps that fought extensively in the Normandy Campaign and the Battle for Arnhem in 1944 and in the crossing of the Rhine in 1945. The Corps’ failure to relieve the British 1st Airborne Division in Arnhem has generated debate and controversy ever since but Horrocks never received any personal blame and he remained a much-admired and well-liked soldier.
Horrocks became a Second Lieutenant in 1914 and he joined the 1st Battalion of the Middlesex Regiment shortly after the unit had retreated from Mons in August. At the Battle of Armentieres on October 21st, his platoon was cut off, surrounded and forced to surrender and Horrocks himself was wounded. Now a POW, he was harshly interrogated by his captors who accused him of using ‘expanding’ bullets, outlawed by the Hague Conventions. Kept in unsanitary conditions, Horrocks’ wounded legs became badly infected and for a time, he was unable to walk, having to crawl to the toilet. He was transferred to a more conventional (and cleaner) POW camp and when he recovered, he made numerous escape attempts. The Germans placed him in a camp for Russian officers, hoping that the language barrier would isolate him and dampen his spirits. But Horrocks made the most of his time there by learning to speak Russian which helped him greatly in his post-war career in the public service. Horrocks received the Military Cross for his resistance as a POW. After the Armistice, he participated in the Russian Civil War where he was captured by Bolsheviks in 1919 and spent another ten months as a POW. Following that, he took part in the Anglo-Irish war in 1920, describing it as ‘a most unpleasant form of warfare”.

Lt-General Arthur E Percival (UK)- General who commanded British & Commonwealth Military Forces in Malaya & Singapore which fell to the Japanese in 1942 and was one of the worst Allied defeats in WW2 with over 100,000 Allied soldiers becoming POWs. Unlike many of his men, Percival survived his time in captivity, mainly spent in Manchuria, and after he was released, he stood behind MacArthur on board the USS Missouri when the Japanese signed the final surrender in September 1945. Percival was much-criticised and maligned for his conduct of the campaign and despite the efforts of some recent historians who have defended him, he remains a controversial figure.
In the Great War, the 26-year-old Percival enlisted as a private in 1914 but soon rose through the ranks to become a Captain in the 7th Battalion of the Bedfordshire Regiment. He advanced into no-man’s land with his unit on the first day of the Battle of the Somme-July 1st 1916 and survived the day without injury. However he was wounded four times by shrapnel during fighting near Thiepval in September. Transferring to the Essex Regiment, he reached the rank of Lt-Colonel by 1917 and in the following year, during the German Spring Offensive, he personally led a bayonet charge that saved a French Artillery unit from being over-run, winning a DSO and a Croix de Guerre. In 1919, Percival joined the 45th Fusiliers that fought with the ‘Whites’ during the Russian Civil War and in one action, he was credited with the capture of 400 Bolsheviks. In 1920, Percival commanded an Essex Battalion in Ireland during the Anglo-Irish War against the newly-formed IRA. He was noted for his contempt for the Irish, his utter ruthlessness against the Guerrillas and for the 1,000-pound bounty the IRA put on his head.

John Dill (Ireland/UK)- Having Commanded British Military Forces in the Middle-East during the Inter-War period, Dill was Chief of the Imperial General-Staff in 1940. Disliked by Churchill, the latter wanted him out of the way and sent him to Washington as the Senior British Representative of the Joint Chiefs-of-Staff. The move proved a fruitful one as Dill was highly successful in improving and maintaining Anglo-US relations. US President Roosevelt praised him as ‘the most important figure in the remarkable accord which has developed in the combined operations of our two countries’. Dill died of an illness in 1944.
In the Great War, Dill served as a Major in the 25th Infantry Brigade, 8th Division on the Western Front. He fought on the Somme and was mentioned in Despatches eight times, ending the war as a Brigadier-General.

General John Vereker (6th Viscount Gort) (UK)- Commander of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) which was sent to France upon the outbreak of WW2 in 1939. When the German Advance broke through the Ardennes in May 1940, Gort changed his initial orders for his forces to join up with the French for a combined counter-offensive and instead ordered the BEF to pull back for an evacuation at Dunkirk. Some historians credit Gort with saving the BEF whilst others criticise him for being defeatist and accuse him of abandoning his French Allies.
In WW1, Gort began the war as a Captain and eventually rose to the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel in the 1st Battalion of the Grenadier-Guards. On September 27th, 1918, during the battle of Canal du Nord, Gort personally led a platoon of infantry, supported by one tank, in a flanking attack on a heavily defended German position. Despite being twice-wounded, Gort continued to lead the assault and refused to be taken to medical aid until the position was taken. For this feat, he was awarded the Victoria Cross.

General John Crocker (UK)- Commander of the 1st & 9th Corps of the British Army during the Battle for Normandy in 1944.
During WW1, Crocker served in the Artists Rifles and later transferred to the Machine-Gun Corps. He served in the 174th Machine-Gun Company in the 59th Infantry Division and he served on the Western Front, earning a DSO and an MC.

Admiral Alfred Dudley Pound (UK)- First Sea Lord of the British Royal Navy 1939-1943, credited with the victory against the German U-Boats in the Atlantic but also criticised for giving the infamous order to Convoy PQ-17 to ‘scatter’, causing the fleet of merchantmen to be all but destroyed. He died after suffering two strokes in October 1943.
In WW1, the 39-year-old Pound was Captain of the RN Battleship HMS Colossus at the Battle of Jutland in 1916 where his ship was credited with sinking two German Cruisers.

Admiral John Tovey (UK)- Commander of the Royal Navy Home-Fleet 1940-42. Personally led the British Battle-Fleet, led by Battleships Rodney & King George V, that tracked down and sank the German Battleship Bismarck in May 1941 in the Denmark Straits.
In WW1, the 31-year-old Tovey was Captain of the RN Destroyer HMS Onslow at the Battle of Jutland April 1916.

General Andrew McNaughton (Canada)- Commander of the 1st Canadian Infantry Division. Involved with the planning and staging of the Dieppe Raid in 1942, he received much of the criticism and blame for its disastrous outcome.

During WW1, he served in the 4th Battery of the Royal Canadian Artillery on the Western Front. He was twice wounded in action during fighting on Vimy Ridge in 1917, a battle which is generally regarded as the Canadian Army’s proudest moment of the Great War. He also invented the Cathode Ray Direction-Finder, an early fore-runner of Radar and he sold the rights for exactly one-dollar.

General Sir Thomas Blamey (Australia) - Commander-in-Chief of Australian armed forces in WW2. A controversial figure during the war, he has been criticised by some recent Australian historians for being overly subservient to US General MacArthur.
In WW1 he fought at Gallipoli in 1915 as a Major in army Intelligence and later served on the Western Front as a staff officer.

Lt-General Leslie Morshead (Australia)- Commander of Australian Army forces at the siege of Tobruk and the Battle of El Alamein during WW2.
During WW1, Morshead was a Captain in the 2nd Battalion of the AIF and landed with the first wave at Gallipoli on April 25th 1915- Anzac Day. His platoon made the furthest advance inland on that day, reaching the hill ‘Baby 700’ but a lack of reinforcements forced them to withdraw when the Turks counter-attacked. He fought at the bloody battle of Lone Pine in August and contracted dysentery the following month which saw him evacuated. During 1917-18, he commanded the 33rd Battalion of the AIF and fought at Ypres, Villers-Bretonneux and Amiens and earned the DSO and Legion d’Honneur. After the war, he became a member of the secretive political organisation in Australia known as the New Guard (see Miscellaneous).

Lt-General Edmund Herring (Australia)- Commander of the 6th Australian Division during the campaigns against the Italians and Germans in North Africa and Greece 1940-41 and he later commanded Australian Forces during the Battle for Kokoda, New Guinea against the Japanese in 1942.
When WW1 began, Herring was studying at Trinity College in the UK and he joined the Royal Field Artillery attached to the 22nd Division of the British Army with the rank of Second-Lieutenant. He participated in the Macedonian Campaign in 1915 and in the Battle of the Dorian in April 1917, he served as an Artillery-Observer and took command of his Battery when the CO was killed. He later received the MC.


[/FONT]

 

Part 8 (d)

Military
Air-Marshall Arthur Coningham (Australia/New Zealand)- Commander of Air HQ Western Desert 1941-42 and Commander-in-Chief of the 2nd Tactical Allied Air-Force 1944-45. He lost his life in 1948 when a transport aircraft he was on board went missing in the Bermuda Triangle during a flight to the USA.
Coningham’s family were forced to move to New Zealand when Arthur was young due to his father being convicted of fraud. Therefore when WW1 began, Coningham joined the New Zealand Army. A bout of Typhoid prevented him from landing at Gallipoli (a quirk of fate which may have saved his life) and he joined the RFC in 1916. He fought on the Western Front and by the end of the war he was commanding No 92 Squadron of the RAF, flying SE5s. He was credited with 9 enemy planes destroyed for certain and shared in the destruction of four others.

Air-Marshall George Jones (Australia)- Chief-of-Staff of the RAAF 1942-1953. During WW2, his position existed alongside the post of RAAF-Head of Operations held by AM William Bostock (see below), an awkward arrangement that led to a power-struggle and tumultuous feud between the two former friends. This feud, combined with a perception amongst the rank-and-file that the RAAF was a bloated bureaucracy filled with men more concerned with furthering their administrative careers than winning the war, led to the infamous Morotai Mutiny in 1945. This incident saw a number of RAAF frontline squadrons and senior officers stationed in the Pacific, including Wing-Commander Clive Caldwell, the top-scoring Australian ace of WW2, refuse to fly on any more operations. Their reasons were that they felt that Australian units were being left in forgotten backwaters and were being needlessly forced to fly strategically pointless missions.
During WW1, Jones fought at Gallipoli as an Infantryman in the AIF. He later transferred to the RFC and worked as a mechanic before undertaking his pilot’s training. He flew in a fighter squadron over France and achieved seven confirmed aerial victories.

Air-Marshall William Bostock (Australia)- Head-of-Pacific Operations for the RAAF during WW2. He is remembered for his infamous feud with Chief-of-Staff George Jones (see above), one that severely damaged the morale and credibility of the RAAF in the Pacific during the latter phase of the war.

Like his one-time friend George Jones, Bostock fought as an Infantryman during the Gallipoli Campaign in 1915. He landed on Anzac Cove on April 25th and was heavily involved in the subsequent bloody fighting. Severely ill with dysentery, he was evacuated in August. He transferred to the mounted corps of the Light-Horse Brigade and fought in Sinai in 1916. He joined the RFC in 1917 and successfully trained as a pilot and was transferred to the Western Front. He flew Bristol F2Bs in No 48 Squadron under the command of Keith Park (see above) and remained with this unit until the Armistice.

Field-Marshall Herman Goering (Germany)- Commander of the German Luftwaffe in WW2 and senior Nazi figure from the early days of the party’s founding. He was also a noteworthy art collector and lover of luxury. He took his own life after standing trial for war crimes in 1945.
In WW1 after a year in the Infantry, he fought as a fighter-pilot in the German IAF 1916-1918 and took over command of Manfred Von Richthofen's Jagdgeschwader 1 following the latter's death. He was credited with 22 Allied planes destroyed by the end of the war.


Field-Marshall Erwin Rommel (Germany) - Whermacht General who commanded Panzer forces during the Blitzkreig in France in 1940 and most famously, commanded the Afrika Korps in North Africa 1942-43. He then led the defence of Normandy in WW2 before being badly wounded in July 1944 and later that year was implicated in the assassination attempt on Hitler and forced to take his own life.
Entering the Great War as a young Leutnant in the German Army, Rommel commanded a Platoon in the 27th Infantry Division. He fought in the Battle of the Frontiers in the Ardennes on August 21-22, 1914. Leading his platoon, he engaged French troops at close quarters and personally led a squad in capturing a farm-house occupied by the enemy. The Mayor of a village that Rommel’s platoon captured offered his men food and wine. Rommel demanded that one of the villagers taste it first in case it was poisoned! Later in the war he eventually rose to command an Infantry Battalion in the AlpenKorps (Mountain-troops), seeing action in France, Italy (including the Battle of Caporetto in October 1917) & Romania. He was wounded three times and on one occasion was captured by Italian troops but he later escaped.

Rommel's part on August 21 and 22 is a bit more complicated than you might think. He did a reconnaissance on 21 August to see if there were French troops in a small village near Longwy.
Then on 22 August he led a platoon that assaulted the Belgian village of Bleid. They killed the French guard that was holding a farmhouse, but didn't take the farmhouse itself. Instead they tried to burn the village where French soldiers were resting in the houses. They failed spectacularly, and only got away with their lives because the French musketry was, to put it mildly, hopeless.
At the time Rommel was suffering from a very violent stomach upset through living on army biscuits for several days (every time they wanted someone to take message or do a recce, Rommel was thanked for having volunteered, and every time he got to a unit to report he had just missed the mobile kitchen!)

Field-Marshall Albert Kesselring (Germany) - Air and Ground commander who led one of the Luftwaffe's Air fleets during the Battle of Britain and later commanded ground forces in Italy, most famously at Monte Cassino in 1944.
In the Great War, he was a junior officer in both the 1st and 3rd Bavarian Foot Artillery on the Western Front and he also served as a Staff officer in the East.

Field-Marshal Hugo Sperrle (Germany)- Commander of Luftwaffe Air-Fleet 3 during the Blitzkrieg through France and later during the Battle of Britain 1940.
In the Great War, Sperrle served in the German air-force and flew as an Observer in two-seaters.

General Kurt Student (Germany) - Luftwaffe General who participated in the development and founding of the German Airborne Forces –Fallschirmjager- and was their Commander during all of their Campaigns in the West in WW2- Holland, Sedan, Crete, Monte Cassino, Normandy and North-West Europe. And he was also involved in planning ‘Operation Oak’ which rescued beleaguered Italian Dictator Benito Mussolini in 1943.
Having already undergone pilot training in 1913, Student served on the Eastern Front with Feldflieger-Abteilung 17 from the beginning of the Great War until early 1916. On the 1st June of that year, he took over command of Fokkerstaffel AOK 3, which operated Fokker E-IVs. He flew on the Western Front and scored three victories in July and August. One of these was a French Nieuport 11 which made a forced landing behind German lines. Student salvaged the plane and had it repaired and repainted, flying it into action himself. He then flew with various units of the Third Army, most notably with Jasta 9 of which he was commander from Oct 1916 until May 1917. His total victory tally for the war was six enemy aircraft brought down, all of them French.

Field-Marshal Georg von Kuchler (Germany) - Commander of German Whermacht Third Army in WW2 during the conquest of Poland and the West. He later commanded Army Group North from early 1942 and led the long and ultimately un-successful siege of Leningrad.
In WW1, he commanded an Artillery Battery on the Western Front, participating in the Battles of the Somme and Verdun. Later, he became a Staff Officer in the 206th Infantry Division.

Field-Marshal Gunther von Kluge (Germany)- Commander of German Fourth Army during the conquest of Poland and France in WW2 and later commanded Army Group Centre during the Invasion of Russia. In Normandy in July 1944 he assumed command of Army Group B after Rommel was wounded but was implicated in the Bomb-Plot to assassinate Hitler and took his own life the following month.
Von Kluge served as Staff Officer in the German Army on the Western Front during WW1 and he fought at Verdun in 1916.

Field-Marshal Erich von Manstein (Germany)- High-ranking and Popular Commander of German Army forces during WW2. He developed the plans to break through in the Ardennes into Belgium and France in May 1940 and fought with distinction on the Russian Front, commanding an Army Group by 1942 and achieving numerous victories against the Red Army, most notably at Kharkov and Sevastopol. He was sacked by Hitler in 1944 for insubordination.
In WW1, von Manstein fought on the Eastern Front in 1914 and was seriously wounded in Poland and did not fully recover until the following year. He became a Staff Officer (Captain) and for the remainder of the war, he was transferred back and forth between the Eastern and Western Fronts. In the East, he served in North Poland, Serbia and Estonia whilst in the West, his sectors included Verdun and Champagne.

Field-Marshal Friedrich Ernst Paulus (Germany)- Commander of the German Sixth Army during the disastrous Battle of Stalingrad 1942-43 where 300,000 German troops were surrounded by the Soviets. Disobeying orders from Adolf Hitler to take his own life, Paulus surrendered both himself and his remaining 91,000 men to the Russians in January 1943. Unlike most of his troops, he survived captivity and lived until the 1950s.
In 1914, Paulus was a junior officer in the 111th Infantry Regiment of the German Army and he fought at the Vosges and Arras in the autumn of that year. After suffering a severe illness, he joined the Alpenkorps as a Staff Officer and ended the war as a Captain.

Field-Marshal Walter Model (Germany)- Commander of the 3rd Panzer Division in 1940 and then led a Panzer Corps on the Russian Front, eventually rising to command the Ninth Army by early 1942 and then Army Group B in the West by 1944. He fought with distinction in the Ukraine and at Kursk, and defeated Allied Airborne Forces at Arnhem, inflicted heavy losses on US Forces in the Hurtgen Forest and participated in the Ardennes Offensive. He took his own life in April 1945.
In August 1914 when the Great War began, Model was Adjutant for the 1st Battalion of 52nd Infantry regiment of the German Army 5th Division. He was badly wounded at Arras in May 1915 and, returning to the front after he recovered, won the Iron-Cross in October. For the remainder of the war he served as a Staff Officer with a variety of units.

Field-Marshal Wilhelm Keitel (Germany)- Head of the High Command of the Armed Forces of Germany during WW2. During the early years of the war, he attempted to argue against Hitler’s decisions and plans that he did not agree with. But after 1942, he gave up any opposition, leading his colleagues to nickname him “Lakaitel” (the Little Lackey” and “The Nodding Donkey”. He signed the Official Document for Germany’s Surrender in May 1945. He was arrested and tried for war crimes and executed by the Allies in 1946.
In WW1, Keitel served in the German Field Artillery Regiment No 46. In September 1914, he was badly wounded by shrapnel in his right forearm during fighting near Flanders. He recovered but the injury left his arm permanently weakened and he spent the remainder of the war as a staff officer.

Field-Marshal Ferdinand Schorner (Germany)- Senior Commander who fought in Poland and Finland and led a Panzer Corps on the Eastern Front. He ended the war as Commander of Army Group Centre defending Czechoslovakia and his Army was the last large-scale German force to surrender on May 11th 1945.
During WW1, Schorner fought on the Italian Front as a Lieutenant and he took part in the Battle of Caporetto in 1917 where a combined German & Austro-Hungarian Army defeated the Italians. He won the Pour le Merite for his courage in that action.

Major-General Henning von Tresckow (Germany)- Officer in the German Whermacht during WW2 and one of the senior figures involved in the planning and implementation of Operation Valkyrie- the attempted assassination of Adolf Hitler and a coup against the Nazi regime, staged on July 20th 1944. The operation failed and Tresckow took his own life the following day at his post on the Eastern Front. His suicide note included the lines-“ ….I am still convinced that we did the right thing. Hitler is the archenemy of not only Germany but the whole world…..God promised Abraham that He would not destroy Sodom if just ten righteous men could be found in the city, and so I hope that for our sake, God will not destroy Germany…”

During WW1, von Tresckow joined the 1st Regiment of Foot Guards as an officer cadet in 1915 when he was 16 years-old. By June 1918, he was the youngest Lieutenant in the German Army. In the Second Battle for the Marne, he earned the Iron Cross First Class for outstanding courage. His CO commented to him at the time, “You, Tresckow, will either become chief of the general staff or die on the scaffold as a rebel”.

 

Part 9 (e)

Military
[FONT=&quot]Admiral Erich Raeder (Germany)- Grand-Admiral of the German Navy (Kriegsmarine) 1939-1943 until replaced by Donitz (see below).
During WW1, Raeder was an officer in the Imperial German Navy and he fought at Dogger Bank in 1915 and at Jutland the following year. He also served as Chief-of-Staff for Admiral Franz von Hipper.

Admiral Karl Donitz (Germany)- Grand-Admiral of the Kreigsmarine 1943-45 and was appointed President of Germany on the 1st May 1945 after the suicide of Hitler, a post he held for only 23 days before he was removed by the Allies, following the formal surrender. Donitz served as Head of the German Navy’s U-Boat Arm 1939-42 and organised the dreaded Wolf-Packs that inflicted huge losses on Allied Merchant shipping. Two of his sons were killed during WW2.
In WW1, Donitz began the war as a Second-Lieutenant on the German Navy Light Cruiser SMS Breslau. He fought the Russians in the Black Sea and was promoted to First Lieutenant in 1916. He transferred to the Submarine Fleet in that year and became Watch Officer on board U-39 and then was promoted to Captain of UC-25. In 1918, he transferred as Captain to UB-68 and patrolled the Mediterranean. On October 4th, his submarine was sunk by a British warship and he ended the war as a POW on Malta.

Admiral Gunther Lutjens & Captain Ernst Lindemann (Germany)- Fleet Commander and Captain, respectively, on board the German Battleship Bismarck during her first combat sortie into the Atlantic-Operation Rheinubung- May 1941. Accompanied by Cruiser Prinz Eugen, the Bismarck engaged and sank the British Battle-cruiser HMS Hood and damaged the Battleship HMS Prince of Wales in the Battle of the Denmark Straits on May 24th. However, the Bismarck was damaged by air-attack and, pursued by the British Home Fleet, she was sunk on May 27th and of her crew of 2,200 men, there were only 115 survivors. Both Lutjens and Lindemann are believed to have been killed instantly when their bridge was destroyed by shell-fire.
During WW1 Lutjens commanded German Navy Torpedo Boats along the Flemish Coast and led raids on the port of Dunkerque. He ended the war with the rank of Lieutenant-Commander. Although portrayed in the popular British 1960 film ‘Sink The Bismarck’ as passionately devoted to his Fuhrer and a vain, glory-seeking officer, the real Lutjens disliked the Nazis when they came to power in the 1930s, always refused to give the Hitler salute and from the outset had little confidence in the Bismarck’s chances of success. Meanwhile Lindemann served as a young Gunnery-Officer on board the German Battleship SMS Schleswig-Holstein which took part in the Battle of Jutland in 1916.

Marshal of the Soviet Union Georgy Zhukov (Russia)- Most famous and decorated Soviet General of WW2, credited with the successful defence of Moscow in 1941, oversaw the encirclement of the German Sixth Army at Stalingrad and broke the enemy siege of Leningrad in 1944. He led Operation Bagration which drove the Germans back into their home territory and finally conquered Berlin in April 1945.
During WW1, Zhukov was conscripted into the Russian Army in 1915 at the age of 19. He served first in the 106th Reserve Cavalry Regiment and then was transferred to the 10th Dragoon Novgorod Regiment. He was twice decorated with the Cross of St George for bravery in action and was promoted to NCO by 1917. After the October Revolution, he joined the Bolsheviks.

General Georgiy Zakharov (Russia)- Senior Commander in the Red Army during WW2 throughout the war. His most significant action was commanding the left wing of the Soviet counter-attack at Stalingrad in 1942 that encircled the German Sixth Army.
During WW1, Zakharov completed his training at the school for ensigns in 1916 and fought the Germans on the Eastern Front as a Second-Lieutenant. By October, 1917, he had risen to Regimental Commander. During the Russian Civil War in 1919, he commanded a Company in the Red Army.

General Tadeusz ‘Bor’ Komorowski (Poland)- Commander of Polish Resistance Forces during the bloody Warsaw Uprising of 1944. He later became Prime Minister of the Polish Government-in-exile 1947-49 and he spent the rest of his life in England where he died in 1966.
During WW1, Komorowski served in the Austro-Hungarian Army.

General Edward Rydz (Poland)- Commander-in-Chief of the Polish Army in 1939 at the time of the German invasion. When Poland surrendered, he crossed the border into Romania where he was interned. He escaped in 1940 and went to Hungary. The following year, he travelled back into occupied-Poland under a false identity with the intention of secretly co-ordinating Resistance activities. However, he died suddenly of heart-failure in 1941 at the age of 55.
During the Great War, Rydz joined the 1st Brigade of the Polish Legion in the Austro-Hungarian Army in 1914, under Commander Pilsudski. He participated in many battles, most of them fought against the Russians on the Southern Vistula. By 1916, he was a full Colonel. The following year, Rydz and many other Poles of the Legion refused to swear an oath of loyalty to the Austrians and the Legion was forcibly disbanded. A very talented painter, Rydz devoted time to his art even during the war and he held a successful exhibition of his paintings in Warsaw in 1916.

General George S Patton (USA) - US Army General who commanded American Infantry and Armoured forces in North Africa, Sicily, Italy & North-West Europe during WW2. He is most-famous for his successes in Sicily and North Africa, for leading the Allied Breakout at Normandy and relieving besieged Bastogne in 1944 as well as for his stormy rivalry with British General Montgomery and for infamously slapping a shell-shocked G.I.
In WW1, he served as a Captain in the newly-formed US Army Tank Corps 1917-18. He fought at the Battle of Saint-Mihiel in September 1918. He was badly wounded in the upper thigh during one action in which he led a six-man squad forward to destroy an enemy machine-gun post (Patton was one of only two men to survive).

General Douglas MacArthur (USA) - US Army General who commanded US forces in the Philippines when the USA entered the war in 1941 and eventually rose to become joint supreme commander of Allied Military Forces in the Pacific. Later he commanded the Allied Occupational forces in post-war Japan and NATO forces in the Korean War.
In the Great War, he served as Chief-of-Staff of the 42nd Division of the AEF and later commanded the 84th Infantry Brigade on the Western Front. He received multiple decorations and was wounded twice. Refusing to wear a gas-mask, he suffered respiratory problems for the rest of his life.

General Carl Andrew Spaatz (USA) - Commanded US 8th Air-Force in WW2 and later in 1947 became the first Chief-of-Staff of the United States air-force.
In the Great War, Spaatz entered the conflict in 1917 as commander of the 31st Aero Squadron of the AEF. He spent most of the war with the US Aviation training school at Issoudon but he saw three weeks of action late in the war with the 13th Aero Squadron, flying SPADs and personally shooting down 3 enemy planes.

General Roy Geiger (USA)- Commander of the 1st Marine Aircraft Wing in WW2 Pacific Theatre (The ‘Cactus Air-Force’) which, outnumbered and poorly supplied, managed to hold off Japanese assaults on Guadalcanal during the latter part of 1942. Later, Geiger commanded Marine Corps Ground forces in the battles for Bougainville, Guam and Palau. In 1945, he assumed Command of the US 10th Army during the Battle for Okinawa following the death of General Buckner. Geiger died in 1947.
In WW1, Geiger arrived in France in July 1918 and served as a pilot with 5 Group RAF and then commanded a squadron in the First Marine Aviation Force and flew with the Day Wing of the Northern Bombing Group. He led bombing raids against targets behind German Lines up until the end of the war. Geiger was awarded the Navy Cross.

General George C Kenney (USA)- Commander of Allied air-forces in the South-West Pacific 1942-45.
During WW1, Kenney enlisted in the US Army Signals Corps Aviation section in June 1917 and was sent to France as a flight-Lieutenant upon completion of his training. He flew 75 combat sorties over the Western Front with the 91st Aero Squadron and was credited with two enemy aircraft shot down. One of the aircraft he brought down is believed to have been flown by Herman Goering.

Major-General Edward P King (USA)- Senior Officer of the US Army during WW2 who served under General MacArthur during the defence of the Philippines in 1941-42. He took command of US/Filipino Forces on the Bataan Peninsular after MacArthur was ordered to evacuate to Australia. He surrendered his forces on April 9th 1942 and survived three and half years as a POW of the Japanese.
During WW1, King served with the US Army on the Western Front. He was Chief Assistant to the Chief of Artillery and he performed well enough to receive a DSM.

Major-General Jonathan M Wainwright IV (USA)- Second-in-command of US/Filipino Forces in the Philippines under MacArthur in 1941-42. Following the Fall of Bataan in April 1942, Wainwright was commander of the remaining Allied troops on the fortified island of Corregidor which endured a month-long siege by the Japanese before he surrendered his surviving forces on May 6th. He survived over three years as a POW and was on board the USS Missouri in September 1945 to witness the final Japanese surrender in Tokyo Bay.
In WW1, Wainwright arrived in France in February 1918 and was Assistant-Chief of Staff in the 82nd US-Infantry Division. He took part in the Saint-Mihiel & Meuse-Argonne Offensives. After the Armistice, he remained in Germany until 1920 whilst serving with the Allied army of Occupation.

General Charles P Hall (USA)- Commander of US Army XI Corps that played a major part in the liberation of the Philippines from the Japanese in 1944-45.
When the USA entered WW1 in 1917, Hall was a Second-Lieutenant in the 23rd Infantry Regiment and he went with this unit to France. In March 1918, he became Adjutant of the 3rd Infantry Brigade of the 2nd Division AEF and he fought in the Marne and Aisne Offensives. On July 18th 1918, he was present at the Battle of Vierzy. Volunteering to report on the enemy positions, Hall accompanied a group of French tanks into the German-held town, encountering intense fire. He carried a wounded man to safety whilst under heavy machine-gun fire. He also assisted in rallying and organising the advancing Allied troops and established a Forward Aid post to treat the wounded. Hall received the DSC for his heroism during this action.

General Holland Smith (USA)- Marine-General who commanded V Amphibious Corps during the Invasions of the Marianas, Saipan and Guam in 1944 and later headed all Expeditionary Troops in Task Force 56 for the invasion of Iwo Jima in 1945.
In 1916, Smith was an officer in the 4th Marine Regiment fighting bandits in the Dominican Republic before sailing to France in May the following year as commander of the 8th Marine machine-gun company stationed in a quiet sector in Verdun. After graduating from Army General Staff College in February 1918, he became Adjutant of the 4th Marine Brigade attached to the 2nd US Infantry Division. He participated in the famous Battle of Belleau Wood and in July became Assistant-Operations officer in the First Corps of the US First Army and was involved in the planning and staging of several major offensives during the final months of the war.

General Courtney Hodges (USA)- Commander of the US Third Army 1943-44 and the US First Army 1944-49.
During WW1, Hodges fought on the Western Front with the AEF and he earned a DSC during fighting on the Marne River in 1918.

General Walter Krueger (Germany/USA)- Commander of the US Third Army 1941-43 and the US Sixth Army 1943-46.
Born in Germany, Krueger’s family emigrated to the USA in 1889 when he was eight-years-old. He served with the 26th Division of the AEF in France 1917-18 and later served with the 84th Division. He was restricted in his movements due to French Commanders expressing concerns about his loyalty due to his German heritage, a claim that angered and frustrated Krueger.

General Walton Walker (USA)- Commander of the US Eighth Army in the Korean War 1950-53.
During WW1, Walker served with the 5th Infantry Division of the AEF and he received a Silver Star for gallantry displayed during combat.

General William Joseph Donovan (USA)- Military Intelligence Officer who commanded the Allied Office of Strategic Services (OSS) during WW2 and today he is regarded as ‘The Father of the CIA’.
During WW1, Donovan served as an officer in the 42nd Division of the AEF and he fought on the Western Front. He received the DSC, was wounded three times in action and reached the rank of Colonel. On 14th October 1918, he led an attack on a strongly-defended German post at Landres-St-Georges. Constantly exposing himself to enemy fire in order to encourage his men, Donovan was wounded in both legs but he refused to be taken to an Aid-post until all of his surviving men had reached safety. For this feat, he received the Congressional Medal-of-Honour.

[/FONT]

 

Part 10 (f)

Military
Lieutenant Paul Copeland Maltby. Paul was the son of Christopher James Maltby of Felmersham, Bedfordshire, born 5 August 1892 and educated at Bedford School. He was commissioned into RWF from the RMC in 1911, became a Lieutenant 19 October 1912, served with 2RWF in India and appeared in the Malta group photograph 2 March 1914 with other 2RWF and 1RWF officers. He commanded II Platoon in A Company on mobilisation. Additionally [and unusually] he was Machine Gun Officer, an appointment nominally for a subaltern without platoon responsibilities. He became a temporary Captain 19 November 1914 and by 5 April 1915 he was in D Company. His only appearance in TWTIK was as Mostyn’s accidental victim in a patrolling incident when he was shot in the foot during the night of 4/5 April 1915. He took the hint that fate offered and on 8 September 1915 left RWF to join the Royal Flying Corps [RFC], becoming a Captain on 1 October 1915 and receiving a DSO as a Temporary Major by February 1917. Surviving the war, he received the Air Force Cross [AFC] in 1919 and went on to become Commandant of the Central Flying School 1932 to 1934. Paul had married in 1921. He was Air Officer Commanding in Java 1942 and was taken prisoner by the Japanese. His diary of a harsh captivity was published after his death. One of his sons was killed in action in 1945. He retired from the RAF in 1946 and was Serjeant at Arms, House of Lords from then until 1962. Maltby was responsible for the restoration and cleaning of WG Fletcher’s French Tricolour which hangs in Eton College Chapel. Air Vice Marshal Sir Paul Copeland Maltby KCVO KBE CB DSO AFC DL Grand Commander Order of Orange Nassau died of a massive stroke 2 July 1971. The file is not available in PRO. Paul had a distinguished brother, Major General Christopher Michael Maltby.

Lieutenant William George Holmes continued to serve after the war and thus his personal folder is not open to inspection. George, as he was known, was born 20 August 1892 the son of Dr Reid Holmes of Aberdeen, and educated at Gresham’s School Norfolk. He joined 2RWF on commissioning 11 October 1911 and appeared in the 2 March 1914 group photograph, by which time [as of 15 February 1914] he was a full Lieutenant. The illustration used here is a pre-war studio portrait, as a Second Lieutenant complete with racoon skin head dress. According to Frank Richards young Holmes was the grandson of a Colonel Holmes who fought at Waterloo and the soldiers called him ‘Chopper’ Holmes for reasons unknown. A single man, he was Battalion Transport Officer immediately before mobilisation but relinquished this and sailed to France with the battalion as OC VIII Platoon, B Company. He served briefly as Brigadier’s Galloper [TWTIK, but what duties were entailed is not made clear] on 24 August and next day his platoon was in action seeing off some Uhlans. An early re-shuffle placed him with IX Platoon, C Company, where he was referred to by Picton Davies [RRRWF] as ‘Holmes the whimsical, the wit of the unit’. He was wounded in the crisis at La Cordonnerie Farm 29 October 1914 and was made Temporary Captain 15 November 1914. Holmes subsequently contributed to TWTIK on the early days of the war.
On returning to duty in 1915 he was posted to 1RWF, distinguishing himself, earning a DSO and Bar, becoming Captain 1 October 1915, Temporary Major 3 May 1916, Temporary Lieutenant Colonel 16 September 1916 [from which time he commanded his battalion] and Brevet Major 1 January 1918. He received the DSO on 3 January 1917, and a second DSO in the London Gazette 18 July 1917:
‘For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty. During the final stages of the fighting, he was the soul of both defence and offence. He was placed in command of the remnants of all the battalions in the vicinity, and it was mainly due to his gallantry and dash that the enemy counter attack was defeated’.
In November 1917 he took 1RWF to the Italian front, and was wounded again. At the end of the war he was reputed to be the youngest Brevet Lieutenant Colonel in the Army, [New Year’s Honours 4 January 1919], a claim that is difficult to substantiate. In the post war period promotion was slow, but George Holmes, after a period as Adjutant 1RWF [Indian General Service Medal with clasps ‘Waziristan 1919-21’ and ‘Waziristan 1921-24’], had accelerated promotion in 1923 which led to command of a battalion of the East Lancashire Regiment. He married Yvonne Dorine de Bourbon in 1930. He became Colonel 1933, Brigadier 1935, Major General 1937, CB in 1938 and commanded his division with distinction in the Retreat to Dunkirk 1940. He was promoted that year to Lieutenant General and the remainder of his war was in Corps and Army command appointments in Egypt and the Levant. Lieutenant General Sir William Holmes KBE CB DSO* [together with six Mentions in Despatches from two World Wars, the Italian Al Valore Militari, the Greek Order of the Phoenix with Swords and the Polish Pologna Restituta] retired to the USA in 1945 and died in Tumacacori, Arizona in January 1969 at the age of 76.

Bt. Lt-Col Archibald Wavell (AA&QMG) served with the (Material and Manpower) Branch of the British Staff at the Supreme War Council, 8 January to 27 March 1918

Admiral of the Fleet Baron Andrew Browne Cunningham (UK) Commander-in-chief: Mediterranean, 1939–1942; Allied naval commander for the amphibious operations in the Mediterranean, 1942–1943; First sea lord, 1943–1946.
Served with the Naval Brigade in the Second Boer War. Commanded HMS Scorpion 1911-1918. He served in the Mediterranean including the Dardanelles campaign (DSO 1916); transferred to the Dover Patrol 1918, in command of Termagant (bar to DSO); served in the Baltic 1920 (second bar to DSO).

Admiral of the Fleet Sir Bertram Home Ramsay (UK) Brought out of retirement, he was appointed Vice-Admiral, Dover; supervised the evacuation of Dunkirk; appointed Flag Officer, Expeditionary Force he supervised the palnning for the amphibious assaults on Africa, Italy and north-west Europe. Killed in an air crash, 2nd January 1945, on the way to see Field-Marshall Bernard Law Montgomery.
Served with the Naval Brigade in the Somaliland expedition of 1902–4. During WWI: served in the Admiralty signals department; commanded monitor M 25 and HMS Broke (MVO, MID).

Admiral of the Fleet Sir James Fownes Somerville (UK) Brought out of retirement, he assisted Admiral Ramsey during the evacuation of Dunkirk; appointed to the command of Force H, Mediterranean; February 1942 appointed to command the Eastern Fleet; 1944 appointed to the British Admiralty Delegation in Washington.
Served as a fleet wireless officer in WWI (DSO for the Dardanelles).

Bernard Freyberg.
Reputedly 1st man ashore Gallipoli (covered in lard and tasked to light fires on beach). NZ forces commander WW2. Governor General of NZ post WW2.

Major Ion Antonescu (Romania), Chief of Staff at General Prezan Commander of the Northern Romanian Army in WW1. Commander of the Romanian Axis in WW2

Lt Col WGS Dobbie, Royal Engineers. Dobbie served as a GSO1 with Haig's Operations Section at GHQ. It was he who composed and signed the signal that was sent to all BEF units that "hostilities will cease at 1100 today, November 11th...." It was timed at 0650 hrs and sent from Advanced GHQ. Dobbie I believe, also signed the order for the British occupation of Germany.
By WW2, Dobbie was a Lt General and Governor- General of Malta from 1940-42, which covered the period of the intense air raids on the Island. He was knighted for "inspired leadership " on Malta in 1941. His son, Major Arthur Dobbie was killed in Italy during WW2 whilst serving with 237 Field Company RE.

George C. Marshall in World War I (1916-1919) - A Most Efficient Officer In Every Respect
A short article by Blaine A. Horton of Shepherd College this material, which is part of the Western Front Association website, provides an overview of George C. Marshall from the Great War. Marshall was later Army Chief of Staff the commanding officer over Eisenhower during the Second World War. [CEF Study Group - Sept 2010
[FONT=&quot]

[/FONT]

 

Part 11

Politics & Religion


Harry Truman (USA)- President of the United States 1945-1953.
He served as a battery commander 129th Field Artillery, attached to the 35th Infantry Division in the US army on the Western Front 1917-18. He was known for his bravery, strict discipline, loud profanities during action and his anger and frustration at the Cessation of Hostilities order on November 11th, 1918. According to at least one historian, Truman ordered his guns to continue firing even after 11am when the ceasefire was meant to come into effect, saying that he wanted “Germany wiped off the map”.

Angelo Roncalli (Italy) - Elected by the Vatican as Pope John XXI in 1958.
During WW1, he served in the Royal Italian army as a Medical Corpsman at the Battle of Isonzo River. He was also employed as a Chaplain and a Stretcher-Bearer and ended the war with the rank of Sergeant.

Giovanni Minzoni (Italy)- Well-known Catholic Priest in the 1920s who co-founded a Boy-Scout Group in Argenta and was a staunch and openly vocal opponent of the Fascist Movement that was gaining momentum across Italy. He was murdered by Fascist Blackshirts in August 1923, allegedly on the personal orders of Italo Balbo (see Aviation).
During WW1, Minzoni was called up to serve as a Military Chaplain in the Royal Italian Army in 1916. He served on the north-east front and awarded the Silver Medal of Military Valour for courage displayed during the Battle of Piave River.

Benito Mussolini (Italy)- Fascist Dictator of Italy 1922-1943 although he was technically Prime Minister with the Official Title of Head of Government, Duce of Fascism and Founder of the Empire. Removed from power in 1943, he was executed by Communist partisans in 1945.
In WW1, Mussolini served in the Royal Italian Army on the Austrian Front and he spent a total of nine months in the front-line trenches as an Infantryman, soon rising to the rank of Corporal. He was praised by his superiors for his calmness under fire and his dedication to duty. He contracted Paratyphoid Fever and in 1917, he was seriously wounded when one of his unit’s mortar rounds accidentally detonated in his trench, leaving him with over 40 pieces of shrapnel in his body. Discharged from hospital later that same year, he was no longer fit for active duty and he resumed his job as editor of the newspaper Il Popolo d’Italia. He later wrote of his wartime experiences in his book Diario Di Guerra.

Petro Badoglio (Italy)- Prime Minister of Italy 1943-1944, following the removal of Mussolini. Signed an Armistice with the Allies in July 1943 and declared Italy to be at war with Germany in October. He was removed from government in 1944 due to his previous involvement with the Fascists.
When Italy entered WW1, Badoglio was already a Lt-Colonel in the Royal Army and he was promoted to General in May 1916 following his role in the capture of Monte Sabotino. Partially due to his Masonic connections, he was further promoted to Vice Chief-of-Staff of the Army and he bore some of the responsibility for the Italian Army’s disastrous defeat at the Battle of Caporetto in October 1917. For several years after the war, he used his position to attempt to censor and alter official military documents in order to conceal his role in that lost battle.

Ferruccio Parri (Italy)- Prime Minister of Italy June-December 1945 and a Government Senator until 1981.
Served in the Royal Italian Infantry during WW1, was wounded four times in action and received four decorations for bravery. After 1918, he was an active opponent of Fascism.

Winston Spencer Churchill (UK) – Prime Minister of Great Britain 1940-1945 and again in 1951-1955.
At the outbreak of WW1, he was First Lord of the Admiralty but left the war cabinet following the disastrous failure of the Gallipoli Campaign in which he played a major role in implementing. The 42-year old Churchill attempted to serve at the front and after spending some time in the Grenadier Guards, he became a Lieutenant-Colonel commanding the 6th Battalion of the Royal Scots Fusiliers in early 1916. One historian recently claimed that one reason why Churchill was anxious to get to the trenches was that the headquarters of the Grenadier Guards was a ‘dry house’ but the lower-ranks at the front were allowed to drink!

Clement Attlee (UK)- Prime Minister of Great Britain 1945-1951.
In 1914, Attlee applied for a Commission and became a Captain in the South Lancashire Regiment in which he participated in the Gallipoli Campaign in 1915. He contracted Dysentery and was temporarily sent to Malta to recover, which may have saved his life as he missed the Battle of Sari Bair in which his Regiment suffered heavy losses. Returning to Gallipoli, he remained until the final evacuation in which his unit was the very last to be lifted off the beaches. In fact, Attlee was the second-last man of the entire Allied Force to leave Suvla Bay on the 9th January, 1916 (The last man was General Frederick Maude who later conquered Bagdad in 1917). Attlee remained in the Middle-East and saw action in the Mesopotamian Campaign in Iraq where, at the Battle of El Hannah, he was wounded in the legs by shrapnel whilst leading an attack on enemy trenches. Sent home to England to recover, he worked as a training instructor until June 1918 when he was sent to the Western Front where he stayed until the Armistice. He ended the war with the rank of Major. His brother Tom was a Conscientious Objector and spent much of the war in prison, which caused a rift between the two siblings.

Anthony Eden (UK) - Prime Minister of Great Britain 1955-1957 and, prior to that, served as Foreign Secretary during WW2.
In WW1, Eden served with the 21st Battalion (Yeoman’s Rifles) of the Kings Royal Rifle Corps during WW1 as a Captain and later rose to become the youngest Brigade-Major in the British Army. His younger brother Nicholas was killed at the Battle of Jutland in 1916. After the war he met Adolf Hitler in the early 1930s and both men observed that they had been present on opposite sides at the First Battle of Ypres in 1914 and would have come within a grenade’s throw of each other at the Battle of the Somme in October 1916.


[FONT=&quot]Harold Macmillan (UK)- Prime Minister of Great Britain 1957-1963.
In the Great War, Macmillan served as a Captain in the Grenadier Guards and was wounded three times in action. His third wound was sustained at the Battle of the Somme in 1916. During this action, he was shot in the pelvis whereupon he spent an entire day lying in a slit-trench, reading a work by the Ancient Greek playwright Aeschylus to keep his mind from the pain until help arrived. After the Somme, he saw no further action as his pelvic wound took years to heal, leaving him with a slight limp whilst an earlier injury left him with a weak grip in his right hand. Macmillan had been half-way through an Oxford Degree prior to joining up but after the war ended he could not bear to go back and finish it as so many of his fellow students had lost their lives and University life would never feel the same.

Rotha Lintorn-Orman (UK)- Founder of the British Fascist-Movement (the Fascisti) in 1923, an organisation noted for its far-right politics, staunch Imperial Nationalism and anti-Communist stance. The party was active until the early 1930s when schisms in the organisation led to several groups breaking away and forming their own extremist movements and parties such as the National Fascisti, the Imperial Fascist League and the British Union of Fascists (BUF). Orman’s own party was defunct by 1935 due to lack of support and funding and she died in March of that year.
In WW1, Orman served in the Women’s Reserve Ambulance and was decorated for bravery during the Great Thessaloniki Fire in the Balkans, 1917. She also became head of the Red Cross Motor School, training Ambulance drivers for the Western Front and served with the Scottish Women’s Hospital Corps.

Oswald Mosley (UK)- Politician, Member of Parliament & Founder of the British Union of Fascists (BUF) in 1932 which at its height had a membership of over 50,000 in Britain. In WW2, he was interned and held under house-arrest in the UK.
In WW1, Mosley served as an officer in the 16th Queen’s Lancers and fought on the Western Front. He later transferred to the RFC and underwent training as an Observer but an accidental crash (whilst showing off to entertain some of his family) left him badly injured and with a permanent limp. Mosley returned to the Army at the Front but the pain from his injured leg grew steadily worse and he passed out at his post during the Battle of Loos in 1915. He was excused further frontline duty and spent the remainder of the war in administrative work at the Ministry of Munitions and at the Foreign Office back in Britain.

A K Chesterton (UK)- Politician, Writer & Co-Founder of the British National Front Party in 1967, a right-wing nationalist organisation which still operates today and controversially campaigns against immigration & multi-racism in Britain. To be fair, after forming the Party, Chesterton later distanced himself from some of the group’s more extremist views.
In WW1, Chesterton (a cousin of the famous writer G K Chesterton) served in the British Colonial Infantry in East Africa in 1915 and nearly died of Malaria and Dysentery. He joined the Durban Light Infantry in 1917 and fought on the Western Front. He ended the war with the beginnings of a life-long problem with alcoholism.


[/FONT]

 

Part 12 (b)

Robert Erskine Childers (Ireland)- Politician, Writer & Irish-Nationalist. Initially a Loyalist to the British Crown (albeit with some reservations) before WW1, he turned into a staunch (some say extreme) Nationalist following the English Army’s brutal suppression of the 1916 Easter Rising in Dublin. He was an opponent of the final draft of the 1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty (which he attended as a member of the Irish delegation) which both literally and ideologically divided Ireland and led to the Irish Civil War which began the following year. An anti-Treaty activist, Childers was arrested by National Army soldiers for illegally carrying a fire-arm and was executed in November 1922. An espionage novel he wrote in 1903- The Riddle of the Sands-was a huge bestseller prior to WW1 and is still in print today.
During WW1, Childers served in the British Royal Navy as a Navigation Instructor for RNAS pilots. He flew as an observer in one of a group of Short floatplanes that carried out a bombing raid on the Zeppelin sheds at Cuxhaven on Christmas Day, 1914. He served on board two vessels- HMS Engadine, a seaplane tender and HMS Ben-my-chree, a seaplane carrier. He participated in the 1915 Gallipoli Campaign and won a DSO. In April 1918, he joined the new RAF as an Intelligence Officer and remained so until the end of the war.

Philippe Petain (France) – Chief of State of Vichy France 1940-44. After the Allied liberation of occupied France, Petain was tried for treason and for extensive collaboration with the Germans. A death sentence was reduced to life imprisonment by order of De Gaulle who had served under Petain during WW1.
His service in WW1 was extensive. Having served in the French Army since 1876, Petain was already a Colonel when the Great War began. In 1914, he was promoted to Brigadier-General and commanded the 6th Division of the French Army at the Battle of the Marne in September which halted the German advance and began the deadlock of Trench warfare. By the end of the year, he was Commander of XXXIII Corps which he led at the Battle of Artois in 1915. By the following year, he was Commander of the French Second Army at the start of the Battle of Verdun and was soon promoted to command Army Group Centre. Petain rotated his Divisions in and out of the lines to promote rest and recovery and also organised the long lines of motorised supplies and reinforcements which enabled Verdun to be held. Not surprisingly, Petain was regarded as the ‘Hero of Verdun’. By mid-1917, he was Commander-in-Chief of the French Army. Petain was instrumental in containing and minimising the effects of the infamous French Army mutinies of that year by improving conditions for his troops and becoming more frugal in expending their lives. Petain was made Marshall of France in 1918, following his successes in helping to contain the German Spring Offensives. Today, his achievements in WW1 have been largely overshadowed by his actions during WW2 and he is primarily regarded as a traitor by younger generations of French people.

Andre Maginot (France)- French Civil Servant, member of parliament and Minister for War for 3 terms in the 1920s and 30s. He was a passionate advocate for the building of a long line of static defensive forts along the border between France and Germany during the inter-war period. Construction of them was well under-way at the time of his death in 1932 and they were soon known as ‘The Maginot Line’.
At the outbreak of WW1, he served in the French Army and was soon promoted to sergeant. Wounded in the leg in November 1914 near Verdun, his injuries left him with a permanent limp. He was also decorated for bravery. The French Army’s disastrous performance in fighting in the open countryside against the Germans in the Ardennes in August 1914 (the so-called ‘Battle of the Frontiers’) was a major influence on his belief that his country’s armed forces would fare better with a static, linear defensive line.

Rene Coty (France)- President of France 1954-1959.
In 1914, Coty volunteered for Military service and joined the 129th Infantry Regiment of the French Army. He saw action at the Battle of Verdun in 1916.

Charles De Gaulle (France)- Brigadier-General in the French Army in 1940, Leader of the Free French Forces during WW2 and first President of the French Fifth Republic 1959-1969. He is also remembered as a great writer and orator.
De Gaulle studied and trained at a Military Academy prior to WW1 and was already a professional soldier by 1914. Having joined the 33rd Infantry Regiment of the French Army in 1912, De Gaulle fought at Verdun in 1916. He was wounded in action and captured by the Germans and spent the remainder of the war in a POW camp where he wrote his first book- ‘The Enemy and the True Enemy’. After 1918 he remained in the French Army and took part in the expedition to assist the Poles who were supporting the ‘Whites’ (Russians loyal to the Monarchy) in the bloody Russian Civil War of 1919-21.

Paul-Henri Spaak (Belgium)- Prime-Minister of Belgium 1938-1939 and again in 1946-1949.
In 1916, Spaak lied about his age in order to join up and after reaching the front, was captured by the Germans, spending two years in a POW camp.

Stanley Bruce (Australia)- Prime-Minister of Australia 1923-1929 and Australian High Commissioner to the UK 1933-1945.
Bruce was working as a lawyer in London when the Great War began and he joined the Worcestershire Regiment attached to the Royal Fusiliers. He served as an officer on the Western Front and was severely wounded in 1917. He was decorated with both the Military Cross and the Croix de Guerre for bravery. Invalided back home to Australia, he spent the remainder of the war involved with recruitment campaigns.

Fred Paterson (Australia)- Senior-Member of the Australian Communist Party 1922-1977 (at its peak in 1942, it had 20,000 members) and in the Queensland state election in 1944, he won the state-seat of Bowen, becoming the only Australian Communist to ever hold a seat in Parliament.
During WW1, Paterson served in the Anzac infantry on the Western Front 1916-18. He was involved in organising two soldier-strikes involving rations. After the Armistice, he became a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford and his tours of poverty-stricken areas of the UK and Ireland led him to embrace Marxism.

Gordon Coates (New Zealand)- Prime-Minister of New Zealand 1925-1928.
In 1914, Coates was already a senior Government figure in NZ, being a member of the recently formed Reform Party. He tried to enlist immediately but was forbidden by the then PM, William Massey, who did not want to lose his services in Parliament. Determined to join up, Coates eventually got permission to do so in late 1916. He fought on the Western Front and won a Military Cross and Bar for bravery.

John George Diefenbaker (Canada)- Prime Minister of Canada 1957-1963.
In WW1, Diefenbaker served in the 105th Saskatoon Fusiliers in 1916 and later became a Lieutenant in the 29th Light Horse in 1917. Stationed in England for training prior to deployment to France, he never reached the Western Front. A serious accident during training caused internal injuries and heart problems and he was pronounced medically unfit for active service and sent back home.

Lester B. Pearson (Canada)- Prime Minister of Canada 1963-1968 and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1957 for his role in defusing the Suez Crisis.
In 1914, Pearson volunteered as a Medical Orderly with the University of Toronto Hospital Unit and the following year joined the Canadian Army Medical Corps as a stretcher-bearer, serving 2 years in Egypt and Greece. In 1917, he transferred to the RFC and successfully trained as a pilot although he was lucky to survive an accidental crash at Hendon. Whilst on leave in London one night in 1918, he was crossing a blacked out street when he was struck by a bus. His injuries were severe enough to have him invalided out of military service and sent home.

Josip Broz ‘Tito’ (Croatia) – Leader & Organiser of the Anti-Fascist Resistance Movement (Partisans) in Yugoslavia during WW2 and President of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia 1953-1980.
In 1914, Croatia was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and 22-year-old Tito was drafted and trained as a Sergeant in its army. He was imprisoned for a short time in 1914 for spreading anti-war propaganda and the following year, he fought against the Russians on the Eastern Front. After being nominated for a decoration for bravery, he was wounded and captured by Russian troops in March 1915. After hospitalization, he was sent to a work-camp in the Urals where he learnt about Bolshevism from fellow prisoners. He joined the Revolutionary Movement after Red workers liberated the camp in 1917. He served in the Red Guards and was a member of the Communist Party when he returned home in 1920.

Kurt Schuschnigg (Austria)- Federal Chancellor of Austria 1934-1938. When Hitler annexed Austria in 1938, he was imprisoned in Dachau during WW2 but he survived to live until 1977.
In WW1, Schuschnigg served in the Austro-Hungarian Army.

Theodor Korner (Austria)- President of Austria 1951-1957.
In WW1, Korner fought on the Italian Front with the rank of Major. He also served as a member of the Austrian Army’s senior staff.

Alexandru Averescu (Russia/Romania)- Prime Minister of Romania Feb-March 1918, then again in 1920-1921 and again in 1926-1927.
Romania entered WW1 in 1916 and Averescu, who had served in the Romanian Army since 1876 and had already fought in three wars, commanded the Romanian Second Army in defence of the Southern Carpathians and later commanded Army Group South in the campaign against the Bulgarians. He achieved some temporary success early in the campaign but the 500,000-strong Romanian Army (supported by 100,000 Russian troops) was eventually defeated by a much smaller combined German, Austrian and Bulgarian Force in under four months. Several historians have criticised Averescu’s leadership in the field and have rated his overall general-ship as poor. However he was praised for his successful defence of Moldavia, the last remaining area of Romanian territory. At the battle of Marasesti in August 1917, he led the Romanian forces in a successful bid to halt the German advance. He was also praised for his integrity in the face of the corruption that many of his fellow commanders succumbed to. After Romania surrendered, he quit the military to begin his political career.

Ion Victor Antonescu (Romania)- Prime Minister of Romania 1940-1944. Was an ally to Nazi Germany during WW2 and committed large numbers of Romanian troops to the invasion of Russia. Was captured by the invading Soviets in 1945 and executed the following year for his role in the mass-slaughter of Jews carried out by the Romanian Army in Odessa in 1941.
During WW1, Antonescu served as Chief-of-Staff for General Prezan in 1916 and then became Head-of-Operations for the Romanian Army after it retreated into Moldavia.

Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim (Finland)- President of Finland 1944-1946 and, prior to that, was Commander-in-Chief of Finnish Armed Forces during WW2.
When the Great War began, Mannerheim had already been serving in the Imperial Russian Army for 23 years, having fought in the Russo-Japanese War of 1905. In 1914, he took command of the Guards Cavalry Brigade and fought against the Austro-Hungarians and Romanians. He was awarded the Order of St George for bravery in combat and by 1915 was commanding the 12th Russian Cavalry Division. Following the Russian Revolution in 1917, he was given command of a Cavalry Corps but soon fell out of favour with his new leaders due to his lack of enthusiasm for Communism. He was relieved of his duties and he returned to Finland.

Adolf Hitler (Austria/Germany)- Writer, Painter, Orator & Leader of Nazi Germany & The Third Reich 1933-1945. He was the individual who bears the most responsibility for beginning the Second World War. Committed suicide in 1945 as the Soviets over-ran the ruins of Berlin.
Hitler fought on the Western Front as a private in the 16th Bavarian Regiment and was later employed as a runner, earning the rank of Gefreiter (Lance-Corporal). He fought at First Ypres in October 1914 where his Company of 250 men was reduced to 42 in a matter of weeks, an experience that left him withdrawn and sombre the remainder of the war. The Battle saw the famous ‘Massacre of the Innocents’ in which, according to legend, thousands of ill-trained University Students marched towards the British trenches singing patriotic songs and were slaughtered en masse. The story was later elevated into a romantic myth by Hitler and the Nazis to suit their own purposes (although recent research has revealed that only a small portion of the German troops were ex-students). Hitler later fought on the Somme, Arras and Passchendaele. He was wounded in the thigh in 1916 and gassed in October 1918 which left him temporarily blinded but some historians claim that it may have been hysteria related to battle-fatigue. Hitler was twice-awarded the Iron Cross but never reached a rank beyond Gefreiter partially due to being of Austrian-birth but also to his superiors doubting his leadership abilities.

Rudolf Hess (Germany)- Deputy-Leader of the Nazi Party during the late 1930s until 1941 when he made an un-authorised flight to the UK in an attempt to negotiate a peace-treaty with Britain prior to the German invasion of Russia. Held in captivity by the Allies during the war, he spent the remainder of his life in Spandau Prison until his death in 1987.
Unlike some of the other senior Nazi figures such as Goebbels, Hess had a genuinely extensive combat-record during WW1. Joining up in 1914, he enlisted in the 7th Bavarian Field Artillery and fought on the Western Front. Transferring to the Infantry, he was wounded several times, including a severe chest wound which prevented him from returning to the trenches. Enlisting in the Air-Force and completing his pilots training, he was posted to an operational unit-Jasta 35b in mid-October 1918. He flew a number of sorties over the Front during the final weeks of the war but achieved no victories.

Ernst Rohm (Germany)- Chief-of-Staff of the Sturmabteilung (SA) which was the militia-wing of the German Nazi Party during its early formation. Although he was initially a close-political ally of Adolf Hitler, the SA’s brutal tactics and its strength were later seen as a potential liability and threat to the ambitions of the Nazis. Thus Hitler violently purged the leadership of the SA on June 30th 1934, the so-called Night of the Long Knives. Rohm was given the option of committing suicide but he chose execution and was shot dead on the 2nd July at Stadelheim Prison in Munich.
During WW1, Rohm joined the German Army prior to the outbreak of war and in August 1914, he was an Oberleutnant in the 13th Infantry Regiment of the Bavarian Army. In September, he was badly wounded during fighting at Lorraine in France, leaving him with permanent facial scars. He continued to serve on the Western Front and ended the war with the rank of Hauptmann (Captain). After the Armistice, he joined one of the Militia Groups formed in Germany to combat the growth of the Communist Movement and he met Hitler in 1919.

 

Part 13 (c)

Heinrich Lubke (Germany)- President of the Federal Republic of (West) Germany 1959-1969.
During WW1, Lubke served in the German Army as a Lieutenant.

Walter Ulbricht (Germany)- Head of State of East Germany 1960-1973. His official title was Chairman of the Council of State of the German Democratic Republic.
During WW1, Ulbricht served in the German Army and fought on the Eastern Front at Galicia and in the Balkans 1915-17. He deserted in 1917 and was caught and imprisoned in Charleroi but the prison was taken over by Communists during the political unrest in Germany and Ulbricht was released before the end of 1918.

Leo Baeck (Germany)- Jewish Rabbi, Scholar, Writer and Religious Leader for Progressive Judaism. He was a proponent for Jews and published several best-selling books including Essence of Judaism. Baeck was a spiritual and community leader of Germany’s Jewish population during the reign of the Nazis up until he was deported to a concentration camp in 1943 which he managed to survive. After the war, he became Chairman of the World Union for Progressive Judaism.
During WW1, Baeck worked as a Chaplain in the Germany Army on the Western Front.

Friedrich Martin Niemoller (Germany)- Lutheran Pastor and anti-Nazi Theologian. A staunch anti-Communist, he initially supported Hitler but soon changed his tune and became an active dissenter to the Nazi government. He wrote the famous and moving poem about the mass-murder inflicted by his country’s rulers- ‘First They Came….” Niemoller was imprisoned in Dachau but survived the ordeal. After the war, he became President of the World Council of Churches 1961-68.
In WW1, Niemoller joined the German Navy in 1915 and in February the following year he became Second Officer on board the submarine U-73, operating in the Mediterranean, sinking two Allied troopships and a British Man-o-War and also laying mines in the French Port of Said. In January 1917, he was Coxswain of U-39 and the following August, he was First Officer on board U-151. The latter enjoyed a spectacular success in the Bay of Biscay and near Gibraltar, sinking 55,000 tonnes of Allied shipping in 115 days at sea. In May 1918, Niemoller got his own command of submarine UC-67, patrolling the French coast and temporarily sealing off the Port of Marseilles. He became a Lutheran after the war and later wrote the book “From U-Boat to Pulpit”

Gyula Gombos de Jakfa (Hungary)- Prime Minister of Hungary 1932-1936.
During the Great War, de Jakfa was a Captain in the Austro-Hungarian Army.

Dome Sztojay (Hungary)- Prime Minister of Hungary March-August 1944. He was removed from his office by the Germans and later executed by the Allies in 1946 for war crimes committed against Hungarian Jews.
In WW1, Sztojay served in the Austro-Hungarian Army with the rank of Colonel.

Ferenc Szalasi (Hungary)- Prime Minister of Hungary 1944-1945. He was executed in 1946 for atrocities committed against the Jewish population and for collaboration with the Germans. Szalasi served as an officer in the Austro-Hungarian Army during WW1.

Matyas Rakosi (Hungary)- Prime Minister of Hungary 1952-1953.
Rakosi served in the Austro-Hungarian Army in WW1 and was captured whilst fighting on the Eastern Front.

Imre Nagy (Hungary)- Prime Minister of Hungary 1953-1956. In 1956, he attempted to make Hungary a neutral state, exempt from the Warsaw Pact and independent of Soviet control. The Russians invaded and occupied the country that same year and Nagy was imprisoned and executed in 1958.
Nagy served in the Austro-Hungarian Army in WW1 and fought on the Eastern Front. He was captured by the Russians in 1915 and he was converted to Bolshevism, joining the Russian Communist Party and serving in the Red Army. He did not return to Hungary until 1921.

Kemal Pasha Ataturk (Turkey)- Founder and First President of the Republic of Turkey 1923-1938, remembered as ‘The Father of Modern Turkey’.
A senior officer in the Turkish Army when WW1 began, Kemal was commander of the 19th Infantry Division and was stationed on the Gallipoli Coast when the Allies invaded on April 25th, 1915. He and his heavily outnumbered men fought the Australians on that first day and managed to delay their advance just long enough for reinforcements to arrive. Kemal fought throughout the bloody campaign that successfully contained the Allied forces until the last of them were evacuated in January 1916. Later in the war, he commanded XVI Corps against the Russians in the Caucasus and by the end of the war, he was Commander-in-Chief of the Turkish 2nd Army. After the war, he sent a gracious message of tribute to the Australian people and he promised to care for the graves of the Anzacs buried at Gallipoli saying, ‘….by coming here and dying, they have become our sons as well….’ He also agreed to permanently re-name the stretch of coast where they landed as Anzac Cove. In gratitude, the Australian Government built a memorial to him in the national capital Canberra.

Ismet Inonu (Turkey)- President of Turkey 1938-1950.
A senior Commander in the Turkish Army during WW1, he fought the British & Empire forces in Palestine & Syria and he commanded the forces that were defeated by General Allenby in the Battle of Megiddo in 1918.

Cemal Gursel (Turkey)- President of Turkey 1960-1966.
During the Great War, Gursel was a Lieutenant in the 12th Artillery Regiment in the Turkish Army and he fought at Gallipoli. He later fought in Palestine and Syria where he contracted Malaria and was captured by the British and ended the war as a POW.

Ceudet Sunay (Turkey)- President of Turkey 1966-1973.
During WW1, Sunay served in the Turkish Army and fought in Palestine 1917-18 and was captured by the British and spent the last months of the war as a POW.

Felicjan Slawoj Skladkowski (Poland)- Prime Minister of Poland 1936-1939. He was to be the last leader of an independent Poland until the collapse of the Soviet Union some fifty years later.
During WW1, Skladkowski served in the Polish Legion of the Austro-Hungarian Army.

Wladyslaw Sikorski (Poland)- First Prime Minister-in-exile of the Republic of Poland 1939-1943. During the Great War, Sikorski fought with the Polish Legions in the Austro-Hungarian Army.

Tomasz Arciszewski (Poland)- Prime Minister-in-exile of the Republic of Poland 1944-1947.
In WW1, Arciszewski was a First-Lieutenant in the Polish Legions of the Austro-Hungarian Army 1914-15 and he embarked on his political career in 1916.


King George VI (UK) king of the United Kingdom and head of state for the British Empire, 1936-1952; Emperor of India 1936-1947.
Served as Midshipman and Sub Lieutenant on HMS Collingwood, present at Jutland; Lieutenant on HMS Malaya May 1917; transferred to the Royal Naval Air Service November 1917, founder member Royal Air Force April 1918.


Tojo Hideki (Japan) Prime Minister etc of Japan October 1941 - July 1944
Graduated from the army staff college 1915.

Oswald Mosley (UK)- Politician, Member of Parliament & Founder of the British Union of Fascists (BUF) in 1932 which at its height had a membership of over 50,000 in Britain. In WW2, he was interned and held under house-arrest in the UK.
In WW1, Mosley served as an officer in the 16th Queen's Lancers and fought on the Western Front. He later transferred to the RFC and underwent training as an Observer but an accidental crash (whilst showing off to entertain some of his family) left him badly injured and with a permanent limp. Mosley returned to the Army at the Front but the pain from his injured leg grew steadily worse and he passed out at his post during the Battle of Loos in 1915. He was excused further frontline duty and spent the remainder of the war in administrative work at the Ministry of Munitions and at the Foreign Office back in Britain.

A K Chesterton (UK)- Politician, Writer & Co-Founder of the British National Front Party in 1967, a right-wing nationalist organisation which still operates today and controversially campaigns against immigration & multi-racism in Britain. To be fair, after forming the Party, Chesterton later distanced himself from some of the group's more extremist views.

In WW1, Chesterton (a cousin of the famous writer G K Chesterton) served in the British Colonial Infantry in East Africa in 1915 and nearly died of Malaria and Dysentery. He joined the Durban Light Infantry in 1917 and fought on the Western Front. He ended the war with the beginnings of a life-long problem with alcoholism.



Robert Erskine Childers (Ireland)- Politician, Writer & Irish-Nationalist. Initially a Loyalist to the British Crown (albeit with some reservations) before WW1, he turned into a staunch (some say extreme) Nationalist following the English Army's brutal suppression of the 1916 Easter Rising in Dublin. He was an opponent of the final draft of the 1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty (which he attended as a member of the Irish delegation) which both literally and ideologically divided Ireland and led to the Irish Civil War which began the following year. An anti-Treaty activist, Childers was arrested by National Army soldiers for illegally carrying a fire-arm and was executed in November 1922. An espionage novel he wrote in 1903- The Riddle of the Sands-was a huge bestseller prior to WW1 and is still in print today.

During WW1, Childers served in the British Royal Navy as a Navigation Instructor for RNAS pilots. He flew as an observer in one of a group of Short floatplanes that carried out a bombing raid on the Zeppelin sheds at Cuxhaven on Christmas Day, 1914. He served on board two vessels- HMS Engadine, a seaplane tender and HMS Ben-my-chree, a seaplane carrier. He participated in the 1915 Gallipoli Campaign and won a DSO. In April 1918, he joined the new RAF as an Intelligence Officer and remained so until the end of the war.

Philippe Petain (France) – Chief of State of Vichy France 1940-44. After the Allied liberation of occupied France, Petain was tried for treason and for extensive collaboration with the Germans. A death sentence was reduced to life imprisonment by order of De Gaulle who had served under Petain during WW1.

His service in WW1 was extensive. Having served in the French Army since 1876, Petain was already a Colonel when the Great War began. In 1914, he was promoted to Brigadier-General and commanded the 6th Division of the French Army at the Battle of the Marne in September which halted the German advance and began the deadlock of Trench warfare. By the end of the year, he was Commander of XXXIII Corps which he led at the Battle of Artois in 1915. By the following year, he was Commander of the French Second Army at the start of the Battle of Verdun and was soon promoted to command Army Group Centre. Petain rotated his Divisions in and out of the lines to promote rest and recovery and also organised the long lines of motorised supplies and reinforcements which enabled Verdun to be held. Not surprisingly, Petain was regarded as the 'Hero of Verdun'. By mid-1917, he was Commander-in-Chief of the French Army. Petain was instrumental in containing and minimising the effects of the infamous French Army mutinies of that year by improving conditions for his troops and becoming more frugal in expending their lives. Petain was made Marshall of France in 1918, following his successes in helping to contain the German Spring Offensives. Today, his achievements in WW1 have been largely overshadowed by his actions during WW2 and he is primarily regarded as a traitor by younger generations of French people.

Andre Maginot (France)- French Civil Servant, member of parliament and Minister for War for 3 terms in the 1920s and 30s. He was a passionate advocate for the building of a long line of static defensive forts along the border between France and Germany during the inter-war period. Construction of them was well under-way at the time of his death in 1932 and they were soon known as 'The Maginot Line'.
At the outbreak of WW1, he served in the French Army and was soon promoted to sergeant. Wounded in the leg in November 1914 near Verdun, his injuries left him with a permanent limp. He was also decorated for bravery. The French Army's disastrous performance in fighting in the open countryside against the Germans in the Ardennes in August 1914 (the so-called 'Battle of the Frontiers') was a major influence on his belief that his country's armed forces would fare better with a static, linear defensive line.

Rene Coty (France)- President of France 1954-1959.
In 1914, Coty volunteered for Military service and joined the 129th Infantry Regiment of the French Army. He saw action at the Battle of Verdun in 1916.

Charles De Gaulle (France)- Brigadier-General in the French Army in 1940, Leader of the Free French Forces during WW2 and first President of the French Fifth Republic 1959-1969. He is also remembered as a great writer and orator.

De Gaulle studied and trained at a Military Academy prior to WW1 and was already a professional soldier by 1914. Having joined the 33rd Infantry Regiment of the French Army in 1912, De Gaulle fought at Verdun in 1916. He was wounded in action and captured by the Germans and spent the remainder of the war in a POW camp where he wrote his first book- 'The Enemy and the True Enemy'. After 1918 he remained in the French Army and took part in the expedition to assist the Poles who were supporting the 'Whites' (Russians loyal to the Monarchy) in the bloody Russian Civil War of 1919-21.

Paul-Henri Spaak (Belgium)- Prime-Minister of Belgium 1938-1939 and again in 1946-1949.
In 1916, Spaak lied about his age in order to join up and after reaching the front, was captured by the Germans, spending two years in a POW camp.

 

Part 14 (d)

Stanley Bruce (Australia)- Prime-Minister of Australia 1923-1929 and Australian
High Commissioner to the UK 1933-1945.
Bruce was working as a lawyer in London when the Great War began and he joined the Worcestershire Regiment attached to the Royal Fusiliers. He served as an officer on the Western Front and was severely wounded in 1917. He was decorated with both the Military Cross and the Croix de Guerre for bravery. Invalided back home to Australia, he spent the remainder of the war involved with recruitment campaigns.

Fred Paterson (Australia)- Senior-Member of the Australian Communist Party 1922-1977 (at its peak in 1942, it had 20,000 members) and in the Queensland state election in 1944, he won the state-seat of Bowen, becoming the only Australian Communist to ever hold a seat in Parliament.
During WW1, Paterson served in the Anzac infantry on the Western Front 1916-18. He was involved in organising two soldier-strikes involving rations. After the Armistice, he became a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford and his tours of poverty-stricken areas of the UK and Ireland led him to embrace Marxism.

Gordon Coates (New Zealand)- Prime-Minister of New Zealand 1925-1928.
In 1914, Coates was already a senior Government figure in NZ, being a member of the recently formed Reform Party. He tried to enlist immediately but was forbidden by the then PM, William Massey, who did not want to lose his services in Parliament. Determined to join up, Coates eventually got permission to do so in late 1916. He fought on the Western Front and won a Military Cross and Bar for bravery.

John George Diefenbaker (Canada)- Prime Minister of Canada 1957-1963.
In WW1, Diefenbaker served in the 105th Saskatoon Fusiliers in 1916 and later became a Lieutenant in the 29th Light Horse in 1917. Stationed in England for training prior to deployment to France, he never reached the Western Front. A serious accident during training caused internal injuries and heart problems and he was pronounced medically unfit for active service and sent back home.

Lester B. Pearson (Canada)- Prime Minister of Canada 1963-1968 and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1957 for his role in defusing the Suez Crisis.
In 1914, Pearson volunteered as a Medical Orderly with the University of Toronto Hospital Unit and the following year joined the Canadian Army Medical Corps as a stretcher-bearer, serving 2 years in Egypt and Greece. In 1917, he transferred to the RFC and successfully trained as a pilot although he was lucky to survive an accidental crash at Hendon. Whilst on leave in London one night in 1918, he was crossing a blacked out street when he was struck by a bus. His injuries were severe enough to have him invalided out of military service and sent home.

Josip Broz 'Tito' (Croatia) – Leader & Organiser of the Anti-Fascist Resistance Movement (Partisans) in Yugoslavia during WW2 and President of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia 1953-1980.
In 1914, Croatia was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and 22-year-old Tito was drafted and trained as a Sergeant in its army. He was imprisoned for a short time in 1914 for spreading anti-war propaganda and the following year, he fought against the Russians on the Eastern Front. After being nominated for a decoration for bravery, he was wounded and captured by Russian troops in March 1915. After hospitalization, he was sent to a work-camp in the Urals where he learnt about Bolshevism from fellow prisoners. He joined the Revolutionary Movement after Red workers liberated the camp in 1917. He served in the Red Guards and was a member of the Communist Party when he returned home in 1920.

Kurt Schuschnigg (Austria)- Federal Chancellor of Austria 1934-1938. When Hitler annexed Austria in 1938, he was imprisoned in Dachau during WW2 but he survived to live until 1977. In WW1, Schuschnigg served in the Austro-Hungarian Army.

Theodor Korner (Austria)- President of Austria 1951-1957.
In WW1, Korner fought on the Italian Front with the rank of Major. He also served as a member of the Austrian Army's senior staff.

Alexandru Averescu (Russia/Romania)- Prime Minister of Romania Feb-March 1918, then again in 1920-1921 and again in 1926-1927. Romania entered WW1 in 1916 and Averescu, who had served in the Romanian Army since 1876 and had already fought in three wars, commanded the Romanian Second Army in defence of the Southern Carpathians and later commanded Army Group South in the campaign against the Bulgarians. He achieved some temporary success early in the campaign but the 500,000-strong Romanian Army (supported by 100,000 Russian troops) was eventually defeated by a much smaller combined German, Austrian and Bulgarian Force in under four months. Several historians have criticised Averescu's leadership in the field and have rated his overall general-ship as poor. However he was praised for his successful defence of Moldavia, the last remaining area of Romanian territory. At the battle of Marasesti in August 1917, he led the Romanian forces in a successful bid to halt the German advance. He was also praised for his integrity in the face of the corruption that many of his fellow commanders succumbed to. After Romania surrendered, he quit the military to begin his political career.

Ion Victor Antonescu (Romania)- Prime Minister of Romania 1940-1944. Was an ally to Nazi Germany during WW2 and committed large numbers of Romanian troops to the invasion of Russia. Was captured by the invading Soviets in 1945 and executed the following year for his role in the mass-slaughter of Jews carried out by the Romanian Army in Odessa in 1941.
During WW1, Antonescu served as Chief-of-Staff for General Prezan in 1916 and then became Head-of-Operations for the Romanian Army after it retreated into Moldavia.

Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim (Finland)- President of Finland 1944-1946 and, prior to that, was Commander-in-Chief of Finnish Armed Forces during WW2.
When the Great War began, Mannerheim had already been serving in the Imperial Russian Army for 23 years, having fought in the Russo-Japanese War of 1905. In 1914, he took command of the Guards Cavalry Brigade and fought against the Austro-Hungarians and Romanians. He was awarded the Order of St George for bravery in combat and by 1915 was commanding the 12th Russian Cavalry Division. Following the Russian Revolution in 1917, he was given command of a Cavalry Corps but soon fell out of favour with his new leaders due to his lack of enthusiasm for Communism. He was relieved of his duties and he returned to Finland.

Heinrich Lubke (Germany)- President of the Federal Republic of (West) Germany 1959-1969.
During WW1, Lubke served in the German Army as a Lieutenant.

Walter Ulbricht (Germany)- Head of State of East Germany 1960-1973. His official title was Chairman of the Council of State of the German Democratic Republic.
During WW1, Ulbricht served in the German Army and fought on the Eastern Front at Galicia and in the Balkans 1915-17. He deserted in 1917 and was caught and imprisoned in Charleroi but the prison was taken over by Communists during the political unrest in Germany and Ulbricht was released before the end of 1918.

Leo Baeck (Germany)- Jewish Rabbi, Scholar, Writer and Religious Leader for Progressive Judaism. He was a proponent for Jews and published several best-selling books including Essence of Judaism. Baeck was a spiritual and community leader of Germany's Jewish population during the reign of the Nazis up until he was deported to a concentration camp in 1943 which he managed to survive. After the war, he became Chairman of the World Union for Progressive Judaism.
During WW1, Baeck worked as a Chaplain in the Germany Army on the Western Front.


Friedrich Martin Niemoller (Germany)- Lutheran Pastor and anti-Nazi Theologian. A staunch anti-Communist, he initially supported Hitler but soon changed his tune and became an active dissenter to the Nazi government. He wrote the famous and moving poem about the mass-murder inflicted by his country's rulers- 'First They Came…." Niemoller was imprisoned in Dachau but survived the ordeal. After the war, he became President of the World Council of Churches 1961-68.
In WW1, Niemoller joined the German Navy in 1915 and in February the following year he became Second Officer on board the submarine U-73, operating in the Mediterranean, sinking two Allied troopships and a British Man-o-War and also laying mines in the French Port of Said. In January 1917, he was Coxswain of U-39 and the following August, he was First Officer on board U-151. The latter enjoyed a spectacular success in the Bay of Biscay and near Gibraltar, sinking 55,000 tonnes of Allied shipping in 115 days at sea. In May 1918, Niemoller got his own command of submarine UC-67, patrolling the French coast and temporarily sealing off the Port of Marseilles. He became a Lutheran after the war and later wrote the book "From U-Boat to Pulpit"

Gyula Gombos de Jakfa (Hungary)- Prime Minister of Hungary 1932-1936.
During the Great War, de Jakfa was a Captain in the Austro-Hungarian Army.

Dome Sztojay (Hungary)- Prime Minister of Hungary March-August 1944. He was removed from his office by the Germans and later executed by the Allies in 1946 for war crimes committed against Hungarian Jews.
In WW1, Sztojay served in the Austro-Hungarian Army with the rank of Colonel.

Ferenc Szalasi (Hungary)- Prime Minister of Hungary 1944-1945. He was executed in 1946 for atrocities committed against the Jewish population and for collaboration with the Germans.
Szalasi served as an officer in the Austro-Hungarian Army during WW1.

Matyas Rakosi (Hungary)- Prime Minister of Hungary 1952-1953.
Rakosi served in the Austro-Hungarian Army in WW1 and was captured whilst fighting on the Eastern Front.

Imre Nagy (Hungary)- Prime Minister of Hungary 1953-1956. In 1956, he attempted to make Hungary a neutral state, exempt from the Warsaw Pact and independent of Soviet control. The Russians invaded and occupied the country that same year and Nagy was imprisoned and executed in 1958.

Nagy served in the Austro-Hungarian Army in WW1 and fought on the Eastern Front. He was captured by the Russians in 1915 and he was converted to Bolshevism, joining the Russian Communist Party and serving in the Red Army. He did not return to Hungary until 1921.

Ismet Inonu (Turkey)- President of Turkey 1938-1950.
A senior Commander in the Turkish Army during WW1, he fought the British & Empire forces in Palestine & Syria and he commanded the forces that were defeated by General Allenby in the Battle of Megiddo in 1918.

Cemal Gursel (Turkey)- President of Turkey 1960-1966.
During the Great War, Gursel was a Lieutenant in the 12th Artillery Regiment in the Turkish Army and he fought at Gallipoli. He later fought in Palestine and Syria where he contracted Malaria and was captured by the British and ended the war as a POW.

Ceudet Sunay (Turkey)- President of Turkey 1966-1973.
During WW1, Sunay served in the Turkish Army and fought in Palestine 1917-18 and was captured by the British and spent the last months of the war as a POW.

Felicjan Slawoj Skladkowski (Poland)- Prime Minister of Poland 1936-1939. He was to be the last leader of an independent Poland until the collapse of the Soviet Union some fifty years later. During WW1, Skladkowski served in the Polish Legion of the Austro-Hungarian Army.

Wladyslaw Sikorski (Poland)- First Prime Minister-in-exile of the Republic of Poland 1939-1943.
During the Great War, Sikorski fought with the Polish Legions in the Austro-Hungarian Army.

Tomasz Arciszewski (Poland)- Prime Minister-in-exile of the Republic of Poland 1944-1947.
In WW1, Arciszewski was a First-Lieutenant in the Polish Legions of the Austro-Hungarian Army 1914-15 and he embarked on his political career in 1916.

 

Part 15

Aviation


[FONT=&quot]Sir Charles Kingsford-Smith (Australia) - World-renowned aviator and aero-nautical pathfinder, made the first Trans-Pacific flight (in a Fokker Tri-Motor christened The Southern Cross) from the USA to Australia in 1928. He later established a commercial airline in Australia. He and his co-pilot disappeared in 1935 whilst flying a Lockheed Altair from England to Australia. In March 2009, an Australian film-crew claimed to have located the wreckage in the Bay of Bengal but at the time of writing (May 2009), it has yet to be confirmed.

In WW1, he first served in the Australian Light-Horse mounted Infantry and fought at Gallipoli as a despatch-rider. He survived the disastrous campaign with only minor injuries. In 1917 he transferred to the RFC and joined No 23 Squadron, flying SPADs. He saw considerable action over the Western Front 1917-18. It is un-clear as to how many aerial victories he gained. Some sources credit him with six enemy aircraft destroyed whilst others state it was only four. One of his Australian biographers credits him with only one enemy plane shot down (a two-seater). On his final sortie in 1918, Smith was wounded, having to have most of his left foot amputated as a result. Awarded a decoration for bravery, he arrived at the Palace to receive his medal from King George whilst still on crutches due to his injured foot. Trying to observe Royal Protocol which frowned on a subject turning his back on the King, he attempted to walk backwards after receiving his award and fell over.



Bert Hinkler (Australia)- Pioneering Airman who was the first person to fly solo from England to Australia in 1928 and three years later made the first solo flight across the South Atlantic. He lost his life in 1933 when his Puss Moth crashed into the Tuscan Mountains in Italy whilst he was trying to break the air-speed record from England to Australia.
In WW1, he served in the RNAS as a Gunner/Observer and then in 1918 served as a pilot in No 28 Squadron RAF in Italy, flying Sopwith Camels. He also invented an adaptor for rear-seat machine-guns which allowed hot, spent rounds to be ejected sideways rather than flying backwards into the laps of the gunners.

William ‘Bill’ Lancaster (UK/Australia) – Born in England but a child-migrant to Australia, Lancaster was a pioneering aviator who flew from England to Australia in 1928 in an Avro Avian. Although he came second to Bert Hinkler (see above), his co-pilot was Australian Jessie ‘Chubbie’ Miller so the flight was notable for being the first by a woman. The duo later had a long-term personal relationship, culminating in the infamous ‘Lancaster-Miller affair’ of 1932 in Florida USA. Lancaster was accused of murdering American Haden Clarke who had been having an affair with Miller. Despite strong evidence against him, Lancaster was acquitted but doubts about his innocence remain to this day. He vanished over the Sahara Desert in 1933 whilst trying to break the air-speed record from England to South Africa flying in another Avian. His body was not found until 1962.
In WW1, Lancaster enlisted in the Australian Army in 1916 and served in the ANZAC infantry seeing action on the Western Front and then in Palestine. He joined the Australian Flying Corps in 1918 and completed his pilot-training but the war ended before he saw combat. In 1919, he transferred to the RAF and served in India throughout the 1920s.

Amelia Earhart (USA)- Pioneering Aviator who was the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic in 1932 and was the first pilot of either sex to fly from Hawaii to the US-mainland. She vanished over the Central Pacific in 1937 during an attempted circum-navigational flight of the globe.
During WW1, Earhart volunteered to train as a VAD Nurse’s Aid and she assisted in the treatment of wounded servicemen at Spandina Hospital in Canada 1917-18.

Helene Dutrieu (Belgium)- Champion Cyclist, Stunt-Driver & Pioneer Aviator. In 1910, she was the 4th woman in the world to become a licensed pilot and later that same year, she became the first woman to stay airborne for longer than an hour. She won the King’s (Aviation) Cup in Florence in 1911 and in the following year, she was the first ever female pilot to fly a seaplane.
During WW1, Dutrieu worked as an ambulance-driver and then became Director of Val-de-Grace Military Hospital in Campagne.

Mario De Bernardi (Italy) -Racing-pilot who won the Schneider Cup Trophy held at Hampton Roads, USA in 1926. Flying a Macchi M.39, he beat the American competitors with a top speed of 396.7 km per hour (246.5 mph). Both during and after WW2, he was a test pilot in Italian experimental jets. He suffered a heart attack whilst in the air over Rome in 1959 and died shortly after landing. An Italian Military air-base in Rome is named after him.
During WW1, De Bernardi served in the Air Corps of the Regio Esercito. He flew in two units, the first being 75th Squadriglia, flying Nieuport 10s and later in the famous 91st Squadriglia flying Ansaldo A1s & SPADs under the command of the top-scoring Italian ace of WW1, Francesco Baracca (34 Victories). Media reports at the time of his death credited De Bernardi with 10 aerial victories but more recent research states that his official score was 3 enemy planes shot down for certain with 1 probable plus 5 more destroyed on the ground.

Augustus Orlebar (UK)- RAF Test-pilot during the Inter-War Period and he was both a pilot with, and commander of, the British High-Speed Flight Team that competed in the Schneider Trophy Contest 1927-31. In 1929, he set a world-record for air-speed by achieving 357.7 mph in his Supermarine S6- N247. During WW2, he was an Air-Commodore in the RAF and commanded No 10 Group of Fighter-Command 1941-42 and was Deputy-Chief of Combined Operations in 1943.
Orlebar enlisted in the British Army in 1914 and was a Second-Lieutenant in the 5th Battalion of the Bedfordshires. He fought in the Gallipoli Campaign in 1915 and was wounded by a sniper. After his recovery, he joined the RFC in 1916 and joined No 19 Squadron at the Western Front as a pilot, flying BE12s and then SPADs. He saw considerable action and was credited with two enemy planes destroyed whilst serving with this unit. In 1917, he served for a brief period in No 44 Home-Defence Squadron, flying Sopwith Camels, and then returned to the Western Front in December as a Flight-Commander in No 73 Squadron, also equipped with Camels. He fought with this unit until mid-1918 and was credited with the destruction of another four German aircraft. One of his successes, achieved on March 13th, 1918, was the fighter flown by Lothar von Richthofen, who was severely wounded when his aircraft was shot-down by Orlebar. Ten days later, Orlebar himself was shot down and wounded by an Albatross scout over Ham. After another stay in hospital and a stint as a flying instructor in Britain, Orlebar returned to the Front yet again in August 1918, flying Camels and then the new Sopwith Snipe, with No 43 Squadron. He achieved one more aerial victory on September 29th, bringing his total war tally to seven.

Quintin Brand (South Africa)- In 1920, he made the first attempt by an airman to fly from London to Cape Town in a Vickers Vimy to secure a 10,000-pound cash prize from the South African Government. He crashed en route and made the final part of the journey in another aircraft, a DH9, for which he was disqualified. However the SA Government awarded Brand and his co-pilot the prize anyway so impressed were they by the attempt. During WW2, Brand became Commander of No 10 Group of RAF Fighter-Command in the Battle of Britain, July-October 1940 and was a vocal supporter of Dowding and Park, a stance which earned him a few enemies amongst his peers and was a possible factor in his next posting, that of head of No 20 Training Group. He ended the war with the rank of Air Vice-Marshall.
In WW1, Brand, arriving in England in 1915, joined the RFC and completed his pilot’s training in March the following year. For two years, he flew with the famous No.1 Squadron RFC, flying Nieuport 16c and 17 scouts over the Western Front as a Flight-Commander and he was credited with seven enemy machines shot down. In 1918, he was transferred to command No 112 Squadron RFC which was assigned to Home-defence duties and equipped with Sopwith Camels. Brand scored one confirmed victory during his time with that unit. Then he was transferred to command the newly formed No 151 Squadron RAF which was another home-defence unit. However, this squadron was specifically organised as a Night-Fighter Unit equipped with specially modified Camels. The unit achieved spectacular success in combating the German night-bombing raids and was credited with the destruction of no less than 26 Gotha bombers. Brand himself shot down 4 of them, bringing his total Great War tally to 12 enemy planes destroyed.

Italo Balbo (Italy)- Well-known Aviator who made transatlantic flights, leading formations of Savoia-Marchetti S-55 flying boats, from Italy to Brazil in 1930-31 and from Rome to Chicago in 1933. The city of Chicago renamed Seventh Street as ‘Balbo Drive’ in his honour. He lunched with President Roosevelt and was given a massed reception in Madison Square. The word ‘Balbo’ became a term to describe large groups of aircraft during WW2. A high-ranking member of the Fascist Blackshirts, Balbo was General of the Italian air-forces from 1928 (even though he only learnt to fly in 1926!), served as Governor of Libya from 1933 and was Marshall of the air-force by the beginning of WW2. He was shot down and killed over an air-base at Tobruk, North Africa in June 1940 by Italian AA gunners who mistook his SM-79 bomber for a British Blenheim.
In WW1, Balbo joined the 8th Alpini (Alpine) Regiment of the Italian Royal Army in 1915 and was decorated for bravery in action and reached the rank of Captain. He transferred to the air-force and therefore missed the Battle of Caporetto where his Battalion was captured en masse. He abandoned his flight training when he was still in its early stages and transferred back to the Alpini Regiment in July 1918 and fought at the Battle of Vittorio-Veneto and was again decorated for bravery under fire.

[/FONT]

 

Part 16

Tom Campbell Black (UK)- English Aviator who won the 1934 MacRobertson England to Australia Air-race, flying a de-Havilland DH-88 Comet with co-pilot Charles Scott. They won the ‘Speed-section’ of the race, flying from London to Melbourne in just 71 hours, a very impressive feat in 1934. Previously in 1931, Black had rescued German WW1 veteran pilot and fellow-adventurer Ernst Udet after the latter had crashed in the Sudan desert. Black was killed in an accidental collision at Liverpool airport in 1936.
During WW1, Black served as a pilot firstly in the RNAS and then joined the RAF in 1918 with the rank of Captain.

Robert Loraine (UK)- Aviator and Actor. He appeared in many stage productions from the late 1890s through to the pre-WW1 years and also appeared in a number of silent and early sound films such as SOS (1928) and Marie Galant (1934). He also fought in the British Army as an Infantryman in the Boer War in South Africa (1899-1902) and was mentioned in dispatches. However it was in the early years of aviation that Loraine made his biggest mark. After witnessing Frenchman Bleriot’s flight across the English Channel in 1909, he was inspired to learn to fly and eventually purchased a Farman for 7,000 pounds. He made his first public-flight at Bournemouth in 1910 and became the first ever pilot to fly through wet weather and the first to land on the Isle of Wight. In September of that year, he became the first pilot to successfully fly across the Irish Sea and later that same month, he was the first to communicate by Morse Code Signals from the air. It is also believed that Loraine was the first to coin the term ‘Joystick’. He died in 1935 and his widow Winifred later wrote a book about him called Soldier, Actor & Airman.
With the start of WW1, Loraine joined the RFC as a Second-Lieutenant in the Special Reserves. He initially failed to impress his superiors with his flying skills after he wrote off two aircraft in accidental crashes and he was assigned to be an observer in No 3 Squadron. In November 1914, his aircraft was shot down by ground fire over France and he was badly injured. After his recovery, he successfully qualified as an RFC pilot and joined No 2 Squadron in France in April 1915, flying BE2cs. The following September, he joined No 5 Squadron as a Flight Commander, flying Vickers FB Gunbuses. On October 26th 1915, he was awarded the MC after he and his observer were credited with the destruction of a German two-seater Albatros which crashed behind British lines. The pilot, Unteroffizier Gereld, was killed but the 17 year-old observer, Leutnant Bucholz, survived to become a POW and a subsequent interrogation yielded much vital intelligence on the German air-strength and tactics. In March 1916, Loraine was promoted to Major and assigned to command a new squadron, No 40, flying FE8s and by March the following year, he was a Wing-Commander. In July 1917, he was assigned to overseeing a Training Wing at Andover and his harsh discipline and relentlessly high standards made him very unpopular as did his flippant disregard for the high accident-rate amongst the cadet pilots. He was accused of being drunk whilst on duty and although he was acquitted, his bitterness at the slur on his name led him to request a transfer back to the Front which was granted. He became CO of No 211 Squadron in May 1918, flying DH9as over France. He was seriously wounded again in July and saw no more action after that and returned to his acting career after the Armistice.

John Alcock (UK) and Arthur Brown (USA/Scotland)- Two Aviators who flew the first non-stop TransAtlantic Flight in a converted Vickers Vimy from NewFoundland to Ireland in June 1919, covering the distance of 3,186 km in just over 16 hours. Alcock flew the Vimy whilst Brown served as Navigator. Shortly after their flight, both men were knighted by King George V. In December, Alcock was flying a new Vickers Viking to Paris for a special exhibition when he became disorientated in dense fog, flew too low and crashed in the Normandy countryside. Alcock was pulled from the wreckage still alive but he died of his injuries before medical help could arrive. Brown worked in an administrative capacity for Vickers during the 1920s-30s and served in the British Home Guard during WW2, a conflict which claimed the life of his only son Arthur who was a Mosquito pilot in the RAF.
When the Great War began, Alcock was already a qualified pilot and he served with the RNAS in the Middle-East. Stationed at Moudros, his unit carried out bombing-raids on Turkish targets and he received the DFC when he intercepted three enemy seaplanes off the coast in September 1917 and shot down two of them. Whilst on a bombing mission, he was shot down and captured by Turkish troops. He spent the rest of the war as a POW in Turkey.
In 1914, Brown (who was born in Scotland but to American parents who were both still US citizens) was a University Brigade reservist and he received a commission and fought on the Western Front as an officer in 3rd Battalion of the Manchester Regiment. He then transferred to the RFC and served in No 2 Squadron as an observer. His aircraft was shot down by anti-aircraft fire over Vendin le Vielle but he escaped with only minor injuries. After a short recuperation, he commenced operational flying again but had another brush with death when his BE2 was shot down, again by AA fire, in November 1915. Brown and his pilot were both captured and he spent the remainder of the war in a POW camp. Brown’s pilot, Lieutenant H Medlicott, made an astonishing 14 escape attempts and was shot dead by a German guard on his last try in June 1918.
Frederick Sidney Cotton (Australia)- Businessman, Inventor and Pioneer Aviator. He developed High-Speed Stereoscopic Techniques in Photography and also worked in the early development of colour film. He was a pioneering innovator in aerial reconnaissance and he flew spy-missions over Nazi Germany during the 1930s. He had the distinction of being the pilot of the last foreign aircraft allowed to leave Berlin Airport in September 1939 just before the outbreak of WW2.
During WW1, Cotton flew with the RNAS in 1915 and participated in the earliest night-bombing sorties carried out over France. He invented the Sidcot Flying-Suit, designed to keep pilots warm at high altitudes and this suit remained the standard design in the RAF until the 1950s. In 1917, he joined No 8 Squadron RFC as a Flight-Lieutenant but he resigned in October after clashing with his superiors.

William H Fysh (Australia)- Co-Founder of Qantas Australian Airlines in 1920. In January 1921, he flew a BE2e with one passenger from New South Wales to Queensland in what was Qantas’ first commercial flight. Whilst undertaking survey work for the Great Air-Race from UK to Australia, he was also the first man to drive a car across the outback desert to the Gulf of Carpentaria in 1919.
In 1914, Fysh joined the AIF and enlisted in the 1st Australian Light-Horse Brigade. He landed at Gallipoli in May 1915 and survived the ordeal until the evacuation in December. He later served in Palestine with the rank of Corporal. He transferred to the RFC in July 1917 and qualified as an Observer/Gunner in October of that year. He served in the Middle-East in No 67 Squadron RFC (also designated No 1 Squadron AFC), which flew Bristol F2Bs. He was credited with the destruction of five German and Turkish machines, including two in a single action on August 31st 1918, a feat for which he received the DFC.


Ross Macpherson-Smith & Keith Macpherson-Smith (Australia)- Brother-Aviators who flew the first-ever flight from England to Australia in 1919, beating five other entries for the cash prize offered by the Australian Government. The two brothers, together with Sergeants Jim Bennett and Wally Shiers, took off in a Vickers Vimy from Hounslow, England on November 12th, 1919 and landed in Darwin, Australia on 10th December, after travelling 17,911 km with a total flying time of 135 hours. The four men shared the 10,000-pound prize money and the Vimy remains on display at Adelaide Airport in South Australia. Ross and Jim Bennett were both killed when they crashed during a test-flight of a Vickers Viking in the UK in 1922 during preparations for a proposed round-the-world flight. Following the death of his brother, Keith abandoned plans for the flight and commenced a successful career in senior administrative roles for several commercial airlines prior to his death from cancer in 1955.
Upon the outbreak of WW1, 22-year-old Ross enlisted in the Third Light Horse Regiment of the AIF and landed at Gallipoli in May 1915 with the rank of Sergeant. He was promoted to Second-Lieutenant in September and was evacuated from the Peninsula in October due to wounds and illness. Promoted to First Lieutenant after rest and recovery in the UK, he rejoined his Regiment in March 1916 and fought with them in Palestine at the Battle of Romani in August. In July 1917, he volunteered to join the AFC and qualified first as an observer in December and then as a pilot by early 1918. He flew with No 67 Squadron RFC (also designated No 1 Squadron AFC), flying Bristol F2Bs on patrols over the Suez Canal. The unit flew in support of General Allenby’s 1918 offensive against the Turks in Palestine and he participated in numerous bombing missions on enemy positions at Wady Fara. Ross earned an MC when he landed to rescue a downed fellow-pilot whilst being pursued by Turkish Cavalry. He received a second MC and won the DFC three times by the end of the war. He also flew a number of missions in a Handley-Page 0/400, several of which were attached to the Squadron. By the end of the war, Ross had been credited with 11 enemy aircraft destroyed.
Keith was deemed medically unfit to join the Australian Infantry so, after a lengthy spell of hospital treatment to improve his health, he paid his own sea-passage to the UK and joined the RFC. He successfully trained as an officer-cadet and was posted to No 58 Squadron RFC in November 1917. The Squadron, a newly formed bomber-unit, left for France in January 1918 but Keith was not to see any action as before he could reach the Front, he was posted to No 75 Squadron, a Home-Defence Unit, as a Gunnery-Instructor. He was promoted to Lieutenant in April but spent the remainder of the war in England on training-duties.

Ehrenfried Gunther Freiherr von Hunefield (Germany) – Owner and crew-member of the Junkers W33 ‘Bremen’ which made the first successful Trans-Atlantic flight from east to west 12th-13th April, 1928. Famous American aviator Charles Lindberg was the first airman to cross the Atlantic in 1927 but he flew west to east. The direction the Bremen flew (Ireland to Canada) was arguably more difficult due to the prevailing winds. Von Hunefield, already ill when he made the flight, died of cancer the following year.
Von Hunefield battled ill-health throughout his childhood and was born blind in his left eye and was near-sighted in his right. In 1914, he was initially rejected for military service due to his poor health but he volunteered as a Motorcyclist and served on the Western Front as a dispatch-rider. He was badly wounded in September in Flanders and the injury left him with a shortened left leg. Due to his handicaps he was unable to perform any further military service in the war.

Herman Kohl (Germany)- Aviator who was the pilot of the Bremen (see above). After the pioneering flight, he returned to his job for Lufthansa but he lost it in the early 1930s due in no small part to his refusal to support the Nazis. He retired to his farm and died in 1938.
During WW1, Kohl served as a Lieutenant in the 13th Battalion of the German Army Engineers (Pioniers). He served on the Western Front and was wounded in both legs, injuries that left him unfit for further service in the Army. However, he joined the German air-force and became a commander of a bomber unit. He was shot down and captured by French troops and ended up in a POW camp from which he later escaped and made it back to German lines.

James Fitzmaurice (Ireland)- Aviator who was navigator on the flight of the Bremen (see above). After the flight, he continued to work in aviation.
In WW1, Fitzmaurice joined the British Army and enlisted in the famous 17th Lancers and was wounded in action on the Western Front. After his recovery, he transferred to the Infantry and joined the 7th Battalion of the Queen’s Royal (West Surrey) Regiment attached to the 55th Division and it was in this unit that he fought in the Battle of the Somme in 1916. By the following year he was a Corporal and later was acting Platoon Sergeant. In June, 1917, he was accepted for Officer’s training and from November of that year until June 1918, he served as Second-Lieutenant of the 8th Irish Battalion of the Kings Liverpool Regiment. Then he joined the RAF and successfully completed his pilot’s training but the war came to an end before he could join a frontline Squadron.

Ritter von Greim (Germany)- Successful Test-Pilot of the 1930s and Luftflotte-Commander at the Battle of Kursk 1943. On the 26th April 1945, von Greim, accompanied by celebrated Test-pilot Hannah Reitsch, flew a Storch light aircraft to Berlin in an attempt to rescue Adolf Hitler from the attacking Soviets. They were attacked by Soviet fighters over the city and von Greim was wounded in both legs. Reitsch reached over his shoulders and took the controls and successfully landed near the Brandenburg Gate. They made their offer to Hitler to fly him out to safety but he refused. Two days later, Reitsch and von Greim flew their Storch out of Berlin with Russian infantry snapping at their heels. Von Greim was captured by US troops on May 8th and, shattered by his country’s defeat, he committed suicide two weeks later. His son Hubert, an Me-109 pilot in the Luftwaffe, was shot down by an Australian Spitfire over Tunisia and he became a POW.
In 1914, von Greim joined the fledgling German Air-Force as an observer and he flew over the Western Front in two-seaters. He was credited with shooting down an enemy Farman in October 1915. He completed his pilot’s training in 1916 and joined Jasta 34 in April the following year, flying Albatross D-IIIs. He flew and fought with them for the next eleven months and he was credited with eight enemy aircraft shot down. In March 1918, he became CO of Jagdgruppe 10, a unit that flew a mixture of Pfalz Scouts and Albatross DVs. In June, he was attacking an F2B when its engine cowling came adrift and struck Greim’s port wing. In the five months that he led this unit, he scored a further 15 aerial victories. In August, he became CO of another unit-Jagdgruppe 9 but in October, he was posted back to his old unit- Jasta 34, now equipped with Fokker DVIIs. He led this squadron until the Armistice the following month. Greim ended the war with a total of 28 victories.

[FONT=&quot]Kurt Tank (Germany)- Aircraft Designer, Aeronautical Engineer & Test-Pilot. He was Head of the Design Department for the aircraft manufacturer Focke-Wulf in 1931-45, overseeing the design of the highly successful FW-190, acknowledged to be one of the best fighters of WW2. Tank also designed the equally-famous FW-200 Condor and he test-flew the first prototype.
During WW1, Tank volunteered for military service when he was 17 years-old and he served on the Eastern Front in the German Army Cavalry. By 1918, he had been promoted to Leutnant and by the war’s end he was a Captain, having received multiple decorations for his service.

Alexander M Lippisch (Germany)- Aircraft Designer who developed the Messerschmitt Me-163 Komet, the world’s first (and only) operational rocket-propelled fighter.
Lippisch enlisted in the German air-force and served on the Western Front 1915-18 as an aerial photographer and cartographer.

George Bulman (UK)- Chief Test Pilot for the British Hawker aviation firm from 1925 until WW2. He test-flew the first prototypes of a number of Hawker machines, including the Hart, the Demon and the famous Hurricane fighter.
In WW1, after serving in the Honourable Artillery Company, Bulman transferred to the RFC in 1915. He flew with them throughout the war and he remained in the RAF until 1925.

[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]
[/FONT]

 

Part 17

Exploration


George Mallory (UK) - Famous Mountaineer who made three attempts to climb Mount Everest in the early 1920s and vanished on the third expedition in 1924. His body was finally discovered near the summit in 1999. Debate still continues as to whether he reached the peak before he perished. If he did, then he was the first man to climb Mt Everest.
In WW1, Mallory joined the Royal Garrison Artillery as a 2nd Lieutenant in 1915 and participated in the preliminary bombardment at the Somme the following year. He remained on the Western front for the remainder of the war. Good friends with Robert Graves, he was Best-Man at the latter's wedding in 1918.

Frank Arthur Worsley (New Zealand) – Sailor, Navigator and Explorer, Worsley was Captain of the Endurance, the ship that carried Anglo/Irish explorer Ernest Shackleton’s Trans-Antarctic Expedition of 1914-16. The Endurance was trapped and crushed by ice whilst attempting the cross the continent but, aided crucially by Worsley’s Navigational Skills, all 28 men of the Expedition sailed 3 lifeboats to Elephant Island. Then Worsley, Shackleton and 4 other men in a single lifeboat managed to reach South Georgia 800 miles away and three of them, including Worsley and Shackleton, were somehow able to walk 36 miles inland to reach help. All 28 men survived.
Joining the Royal Navy in 1916, Worsley commanded one of the secret ‘Q’ ships and was credited with the ramming and sinking of a German Submarine.

John King Davis (Australia)- English-born Australian Navigator & Explorer. He was Chief Officer on board the Nimrod during Shackleton’s Antarctic Expedition of 1908-09 and Captained the Aurora and was second-in-command of Douglas Mawson’s Australasian Antarctic Expedition of 1911-14. Davis Station in the Antarctic is named after him.
During WW1, Davis commanded the Troop Ship Boonah which ferried Australian troops and horses to Egypt and England.

Aleksandr Kolchak (Russia)- Polar Explorer who sailed with Eduard Toll on the Arctic Expedition in 1900 on board the vessel Zarya. An officer with the Russian Navy, he fought in the Russo-Japanese War of 1905. After the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917, he remained a Monarchist (a ‘White’) and became Head of the Siberian Regional Government which was still a White-controlled area at that time. He became a virtual Dictator of the region and imposed brutal treatment on suspected Bolsheviks. When the region was taken over by the Reds in 1920, he was arrested and executed.
In 1914, Kolchak was an officer in the Russian Navy and for the first year of the war, he commanded a mine-layer that mined the entrances to German-held Ports. In 1916, he became a Vice-Admiral and joined the Black Sea Fleet. He fought against the Ottoman Empire and commanded a Submarine that sank Turkish Colliers.


[FONT=&quot]Sir Charles Kingsford-Smith has him being initially placed with the 4th. Light horse when he enlisted in Brisbane on 10-02-1915 then he was transferred to the 1st.Reinforcement of the 4th. Australian Division as a signaller, probably due to
his electrical training prior to enlisting. He trained in Egypt and served in France, being promoted to Sgt.
He was discharged from the Army on 16-03-1917 when he accepted a commission in the Royal Flying Corps. He served in Palestine and was transferred to the newly formed Australian Flying Corps.

Herbert Hollick-Kenyon, born London, 17th April 1897, d. 30th July 1975. Known simply as Hollick Kenyon, he emigrated to Canada as a child, and served in the Canadian Royal Flying Corps in 1917. He is best remembered for his trans Antarctic flight with the American Explorer Lincoln Elsworth, in 1935, which almost ended in disaster, before they were rescued by the British ship Discovery.

[/FONT]

 

Outstanding Geoff, a big thanks to your mate for letting you have this and for you for sharing this with us.

Regards Michael.

 

Only short pieces on each however if of interest there is more about each on the net to follow up with.

WW1 provided many of WW2's leading military names.