Langemarck, 1914

The Imperial German Army made numerous attempts to break the British salient line surrounding Ypres in the fall of 1914.

Thousands of British and German soldiers were killed or wounded, although the Germans suffered substiantially higher casualties, with little gain to show for the enormous lost of men, about 20% of the killed being upper middle and middle class university and high school students.

This was Von Falkenhayn's newly reconstituted German 4th Army, replenished with the volunteers, the Freiwillige, who had rushed to join after the Great War started and were given eight weeks of military training and then sent to both the Western and Eastern Fronts.

Most were German university and high school students, who had obtained military passes to defer their studies until the war's end; but some were unemployed, older men; riff-raff like the Bavarian Army volunteer Adolf Hitler.

One of the most well-known German assaults was near Langemarck, on October 21st and 23rd, 1914.

The British SMLE rifles cut down the onrushing mass of German soldiers like scythes cutting wheat.



This battle is one of the more controversial in First World War history, because it was to later become politicized and enshrined as part of the mythology of German National Socialist ideology.

The legend created, based partially on the facts, but amplified by doctored up lies from the very beginning by the German Military and, later, Third Reich politicos, was an attempt to turn a costly defeat into a spiritual victory of sorts.


An article about the battle appears below.

I try not to get too political on this Blog, however, I have noticed that some of the university historians who write about Langemarck tend, in short, to draw a lot of conclusions about this battle that there is just, no matter how you slice it, no way they really can make final determinations and absolute conclusions about.



At best, they can speculate and offer their opinions as to what happened during the battles.

There are a number of sources, some mentioned below, that make references to Imperial German soldiers singing as they advanced into battle, including war diary and letter entries by both German and also British soldiers.



They may have sung the Deutschland song; perhaps it was a different song?



We really don't know; we were not there.




The Imperial German soldiers were fighting for a Prussian expansionist state.

But the Imperial German soldiers were not Nazis.


However, one can say that their deaths were exploited by the Imperial German military establishment and the German Empire's media of the day, who attempted to turn a military thrashing and the wasted lives of these thousands of young men, the intellectual and social elite of their youth, into a spiritual victory by labelling their deaths with the emotive phrase "Die Kindermord bei Ypern."



Again, not to get too political, but my own government in the USA, did something a little similar when the NFL Football Player, Pat Tilman, was killed in Afghanistan a few years back.

First, the military said Tilman was killed in action; I think Tilman was killed in 2004, and the 2004 Election was pending.

Well, we didn't have to wait 31 years to find the truth out; but it was not until a year or two after the 2004 Election that the real facts were disclosed.



Pat Tilman wasn't killed in action; he was killed by friendly fire and may have even been a victim of negligent homicide. This was known by U.S. military officials within hours after he had been killed.

It is said that Tilman shouted his name several times to the American military personnel that were shooting at him.



Something sort of similar to this happened in the USA in 1980s with Vietnam, with all the Rambo type movies and TV shows, but I don't have time to get into that.



Copyright 2008 by Gamburd, USA