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Brian Grafton
Victoria
BC Canada
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Posts: 4714
Joined: 2004
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A tale in search of confirmation …
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While having a beer with a friend today, he told me a story he had heard recently. Goes as follows.
There was a British Army Officer who, during WW1, led his men into battle using a long bow, but switching over to a sabre for hand-to-hand fighting. He is supposed to have survived the war.
I've never heard this tale before, and – while it sounds improbable – wonder if anybody out there knows of the same or similar lore. At first thought, after all, the 1914 Christmas Truce seems far-fetched, as does the Angel of Mons.
Comments? Thoughts? Mockery?
Cheers
Brian G
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"We have met the enemy, and he is us." Walt Kelly.
"The Best Things in Life Aren't Things" Bumper sticker.
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DT509er
Santa Rosa
CA USA
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Posts: 1433
Joined: 2005
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A tale in search of confirmation …
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Quote: While having a beer with a friend today, he told me a story he had heard recently. Goes as follows.
There was a British Army Officer who, during WW1, led his men into battle using a long bow, but switching over to a sabre for hand-to-hand fighting. He is supposed to have survived the war.
I've never heard this tale before, and – while it sounds improbable – wonder if anybody out there knows of the same or similar lore. At first thought, after all, the 1914 Christmas Truce seems far-fetched, as does the Angel of Mons.
Comments? Thoughts? Mockery?
Cheers
Brian G
I had read this before Brian, here you go!
"Meet the Mad WW2 Major Who Charged Ashore With Bow, Arrow, And Longsword".., Lt. Col. Jack Churchill, aka "Mad Jack" or "Fighting Jack"
[Read More]
Dan
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"American parachutists-devils in baggy pants..." German officer, Italy 1944.
“If your experiment needs statistics, you ought to have done a better experiment.” Lord Ernest Rutherford
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Brian Grafton
Victoria
BC Canada
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Posts: 4714
Joined: 2004
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A tale in search of confirmation …
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Dan, thanks for the reference and link! What a story; what a photo!
And some say Patton was crazy because of his ivory-handled side-arms. He doesn’t even come close!
Cheers
Brian G
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"We have met the enemy, and he is us." Walt Kelly.
"The Best Things in Life Aren't Things" Bumper sticker.
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Brian Grafton
Victoria
BC Canada
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Posts: 4714
Joined: 2004
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A tale in search of confirmation …
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dup
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"We have met the enemy, and he is us." Walt Kelly.
"The Best Things in Life Aren't Things" Bumper sticker.
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Phil Andrade
London
UK
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Posts: 6369
Joined: 2004
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A tale in search of confirmation …
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Brian,
There’s a lot of hyperbole in the British folklore of the Great War.
In my opinion, this is attributable to its sheer, unglamorous, industrialised massacre of soldiers in circumstances that deprived the narrative of redeeming features of individual prowess.
This was a war of artillery programmes, slaughter by routine on an unimaginable scale.
The British people sought comfort in anything that extolled the individual : air aces, Lawrence of Arabia and even celestial intervention by angels firing longbows.
Not just British people, surely it was a universal hunger to impart something that mitigated an unrelentingly dismal carnage.
I daresay, though, that British folklore has a special susceptibility for this kind of indulgence. There’s a desperate wish to find mavericks.
That’s rather a convoluted way of saying that the story is bollocks.
Regards, Phil
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"Egad, sir, I do not know whether you will die on the gallows or of the pox!"
"That will depend, my Lord, on whether I embrace your principles or your mistress."
Earl of Sandwich and John Wilkes
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Michigan Dave
Muskegon
MI USA
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Posts: 8054
Joined: 2006
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A tale in search of confirmation …
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Guys,
A WWI British commander leading troops with bow & arrows, & swords!
I get the point!? ☺
MD
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"The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract."
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Brian Grafton
Victoria
BC Canada
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Posts: 4714
Joined: 2004
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A tale in search of confirmation …
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Quote: There’s a lot of hyperbole in the British folklore of the Great War.
…
I daresay, though, that British folklore has a special susceptibility for this kind of indulgence. There’s a desperate wish to find mavericks.
That’s rather a convoluted way of saying that the story is bollocks.
Regards, Phil
Phil, IMHO hyperbole in war is associated with propaganda. Bollocks, on the other hand is, at kindest, nonsense, and more often it is horseshit. I guess your feelings on the this particular subject are relatively clear! 
At the same time, I think your comments from between the [ … ] are worth considering.Quote:There’s a lot of hyperbole in the British folklore of the Great War.
In my opinion, this is attributable to its sheer, unglamorous, industrialised massacre of soldiers in circumstances that deprived the narrative of redeeming features of individual prowess.
This was a war of artillery programmes, slaughter by routine on an unimaginable scale.
The British people sought comfort in anything that extolled the individual : air aces, Lawrence of Arabia and even celestial intervention by angels firing longbows.
Not just British people, surely it was a universal hunger to impart something that mitigated an unrelentingly dismal carnage.
I daresay, though, that British folklore has a special susceptibility for this kind of indulgence. There’s a desperate wish to find mavericks.
Dan’s link is reputed to be of WW2 vintage, which shocked me. At the same time, I heard some bizarre stories about Ord Wingate (I taught with one of his nephews in the late 1970s) which were both outrageous and anecdotal. I agree with a lot of what you say, and – at least for 20th-century war see this more apparent in WW1 than in either of the Boer Wars Not sure about WW2. You (and other MHOers) know much better than I whether your argument also applies to the ACW.
At any rate, the need for individual heroism and for recognition of individual commitment do, as you say, help humanize and make patriotic what is essentially mechanized slaughter. In WW1, I believe that officers returning to Blighty were often torn by the difference between the war they fought and the civilian understanding of the battle. In many instances (there were a tortured few, like Stephen Spender, who felt forced to speak out, but most returnees simply kept their mouths shut until they could return to the front. The question, of course, is whether the public should be kept from the reality of what their governments do in their name – both to others and to their own citizens.
But the British have, IMHO, indulged in some of what you mention for a long time. Even after WW2, when Canada was accepting British female refugees (with white skin and useable skills) and our primary schools were filled with women who lost their husbands to the war, the songs and poetic ballads we learned were often war-driven. I learned “The Minstrel Boy” in Grade 3, from an English woman who reeked loss. I honestly believe she was using her class to work out her grieving! And think about the differences between two versions of “When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again”; place it against “Johnny I Hardly Knew You” – the same song. All such songs, I might submit, sanitize and separate war. Even if you think I’m drifting from the topic, its hard to deny their existence. It is very possible that such ballads were meant to ease the reality of war’s horror, even before the mechanization of WW1.
Bit of ramble. Sorry
Cheers
Brian G
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"We have met the enemy, and he is us." Walt Kelly.
"The Best Things in Life Aren't Things" Bumper sticker.
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Phil Andrade
London
UK
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Posts: 6369
Joined: 2004
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A tale in search of confirmation …
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Brian,
You mention Ord Wingate. He, especially, exemplifies the kind of maverick that British folklore hungers for.
David Stirling likewise.
So too Guy Gibson, Douglas Bader and several others.
All these were legendary in WW2. It’s as if they leavened the narrative of war, and made good the omission of such stars from the story of 1914-18, which afflicted the population of this country with a much greater loss of life in circumstances of unremitting horror.
The Unknown Soldier was the hero of WW1. The individual had been obliterated, even in death: the majority of the victims not receiving identified burial.
Small wonder that the Imperial War Graves Commission set out to commemorate everyone by name by setting up those huge memorials to the missing.
Anything that imparted some story of individual glamour to such an ordeal was desperately nurtured.
Biggles ?
The second conflict afforded us a better backdrop, although I wonder how far it entailed a lot of the same.
As for Bollocks, “ they make a damned good stew” , according to the words of our beloved WW2 song Colonel Bogey !
Regards, Phil
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"Egad, sir, I do not know whether you will die on the gallows or of the pox!"
"That will depend, my Lord, on whether I embrace your principles or your mistress."
Earl of Sandwich and John Wilkes
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