From Tolkien to Hitler

Famous Soldiers of World War I

Warfare History Network Presents:

From Tolkien to Hitler

Famous Soldiers of World War I

3: The Red Barons Band of Brothers

Led by the dashing and charismatic Red Baron, Manfred von Richthofen,
the young pilots in Jasta 11 wreaked havoc in the skies over the Western Front.
Their reign was brief but glorious.

11: A Hobbit on the Somme

A young writer, J.R.R. Tolkien, witnessed the worst single day of
British military historyWorld War Is Battle of the Somme.

19: Blood & Guts, Grease & Glory

Fiery young officer George S. Patton rode into World War I at the head of the
U.S. Armys brand-new Tank Corps. It was the beginning of a storied career.

29: Hitler in WWI

An obscure would-be artist was changed forever by his horrific experiences
in the German trenches of World War I.

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Erich Lessing/Art Resource, NY

The Red Barons

Band of Brothers
LED BY THE DASHING AND CHARISMATIC RED BARON, MANFRED VON RICHTHOFEN, THE
YOUNG PILOTS IN JASTA 11 WREAKED HAVOC IN THE SKIES OVER THE WESTERN FRONT.
THEIR REIGN WAS BRIEF BUT GLORIOUS.
By OBrien Browne
LIKE A SWARM OF UNGAINLY DRAGONFLIES, A
squadron of six British RE8 observation aircraft droned
over the trenches of northern France on the afternoon April
13, 1917. The sky was a bright, cheerful blue and the RE8s
were intently engaged in spotting, or visually identifying,
German positions and signaling coordinates to British
artillery on the ground. Suddenly, six German Albatros
D.III biplane fighters, one painted completely red and all
gaily adorned, roared out of the yellow sun, their twin

machine guns spewing a hail of bullets. In a few minutes,

all of the RE8s were burning on the ground, their crews
lost. The German planes reformed, wagged their wings in
victory, and flew on into the dazzling sunlight.
It was just another day for the aces from Jagdstaffel 11,
Jasta for short. In the brief but deadly encounter, 2nd Lieutenant Lothar von Richthofen had destroyed two of the
British planes, with Lieutenant Kurt Wolff, Sgt. Maj. Sebastian Festner, and their skilled leader, Lieutenant Manfred

Manfred von Richthofens fighter squadron flies high among the clouds in this watercolor by Claus Bergen. The Red Barons fatal last flight was
on April 21, 1918. INSET: The dashing and doomed Manfred von Richthofen poses for a photo at the age of 25. He would not see 26.
WORLD WAR I 3

von Richthofen, shooting down one

bureaucrat, but a fearless combat leader
each; Lieutenant Hans Klein from Jasta
who led by example. Underscoring that
4 bagged another. For the men of Jasta
impression, Richthofen scored the units
11, it was a time of grand success and
first victory on January 23, shooting
camaraderie. From September to July
down a British FE8; he destroyed a sec1917, the men lived, fought, and died
ond British plane the next day.
together in the skies over the Western
Richthofen took Allmenrder, Festner,
Front, creating one of historys most
and Wolff with him on patrol. In the first
illustrious squadrons. For a brief
days, they were little help. Richthofen,
moment, the four men of Jasta 11 were
said his brother, came back somewhat
Germanys aces of aces. Their leader,
annoyed, but did not reproach them; on
known to future generations as the Red
the contrary, he did not say a word about
Baron, would become the 20th cenit. Wolff and Allmenrder told me that
Manfred,
still
wearing
flying
gear,
turys first media superstar.
influenced them more than the harshest
In the winter of 1917, however, the after combat.
dressing-down.
future of Jasta 11 was not so promising.
Gifted with immense organizational
Since the units inception, it had not scored a single victory and teaching talents as well as a shimmering charisma,
over the enemy. The 25-year-old Richthofen, Germanys Richthofen schooled his unbloodied gentlemen, as he
most successful living ace with 16 kills, was unhappy to called them, in the aerial combat tactics he had learned
learn that he had been appointed Jasta 11s new comfrom Boelcke. Stressing comradeship and discipline,
mander. Even worse, he was being transferred out of the Richthofen instructed his pilots to carefully select their tarrenowned Jasta Boelcke, named after its fallen leader, Capgets while ceaselessly watching their own backs, then to
tain Oswald Boelcke, whose 40 victories were unmatched get above and behind the enemy and attack out of the sun
by any other airman. Under Boelckes expert tutelage, while their opponents were blinded by the glare. He
Richthofen had become a talented combat pilot himself. stressed the need for the pilots to keep together and cover
Richthofen revered his mentor and dreaded leaving his old one another and forbade any stunt flyingdoing loops
unit. His spirits were lifted somewhat when he was or other tricksas superfluous and dangerous in combat.
awarded the Pour le mrite, popularly known as the Blue He also advised them to never fly too low or too far over
Max, Germanys highest and most prestigious decoration, enemy lines because ground fire often proved fatal. So
on January 12.
expertly did Richthofen train his men that Jasta 11 did not
The weather was suitably bleak and cold when suffer its first combat casualty until the end of March.
Richthofen took up his new command near the French village of Douai. He was greeted by 12 badly trained and Although Richthofen believed that the man was more
unmotivated pilots smoking and slouching around the important than the machine, he and his pilots were fortumuddy airfield, among them three scoreless pilots who had nate that German industry produced an excellent fighter
been in Jasta 11 since November 1916. The notably unsucplane, the Albatros D.III, equipped with two Spandau
cessful trio included a modest, soft-spoken Bavarian, Sebasmachine guns firing through the propeller. Powered by the
tian Festner, 22; fun-loving Karl Allmenrder, a pastors son ever-reliable 160hp Mercedes engine, the Albatros was
and a mere boy of 20 with the unwarrior-like nickname, fast, maneuverable, and boasted a good rate of climb. It
Little Karl; and unlikeliest of all, a frail-looking 22-year- was far superior to such lumbering British aircraft as the
old named Kurt Wolff, called Wlfchen (Little Wolf) by RE8, BE2, and FE two-seaters, and was more heavily
the others. Richthofen observed his new command with a armed than the DH2, Sopwith Pup, and French-built Spad
cold eye. Working here, he wrote home, brings me very VII and Nieuport 17 single-seat fighters. The Albatros did,
however, suffer from one major weaknessa deadly
little joy.
Being highly competitive and eager to surpass Boelckes propensity to shed its lower wings during a steep dive.
While Jasta 11 honed its skills, Richthofen continued to
score, Richthofen determined to turn his men into efficient
lead by example, shooting down a variety of enemy airand deadly fighters. The Jasta 11 pilots quickly learned
craft ranging from observation craft to fighters. By the
that their new commander was not a paper-pushing
WORLD WAR I 4

Authors Collection

The Band of Brothers radiating camaraderie in Bloody April 1917. Back row, left to right, Allmenrder, Hintsch, Festner, Schafer, Wolff,
Simon, and Brauneck. Front row, Esser, Krefft, and Lothar von Richthofen, sitting. Manfred von Richthofen in cockpit. Led Zeppelin used this
famous photo on the cover of their best-selling second album.

end of March he had increased his score to 31 as he inexorably closed in on Boelckes magical 40. Around this
time, Richthofen had his Albatros painted red. Although
he coyly claimed in his memoirs that the garish hue was
the color of his old cavalry unit, it also appealed to his
innate sense of drama and individualism. On a more mundane level, the color helped his novice pilots locate their
leader in the sky and enabled ground dwellers to identify
his aircraft, thus adding solid confirmation to any victory
claim. Richthofen hoped that the blood-red plane would
strike terror in the hearts of its opponents. With this in
mind, he encouraged his pilots to apply personal markings
to their own birds, as they called their aircraft, an idea
that greatly boosted unit pride. Eventually, they all
adopted various colorations of red, but with personal
touches. Allmenrders Albatros, for example, sported a
white nose and rear stabilizer, Wolffs a red fuselage and
green nose. In the publics mind, the chivalric colors
harkened back to the romantic days of medieval warfare.

Soon, Richthofens patience and superb leadership skills

began to pay off. The quiet Festner was the first of his
pupils to score a kill, shooting down a BE2c two-seater
on February 5. Eleven days later, Allmenrder matched
him by bringing down a BE2c; Festner destroyed an FE8
on the same day. Richthofens men had tasted blood and
yearned for more.
Meanwhile, 25-year-old Karl Emil Schfer, flying with
another unit and with one victory under his belt, was burning to fly in a fighter squadron. Aware of Richthofens success, Schfer sent him a telegram: Are you able to use
me? This was exactly the type of aggressive airman that
Richthofen appreciated. Come at once! he replied, and
Schfer joined Jasta 11 on February 21. Energized by
Richthofens electric personality, Schfer destroyed a twoseat Sopwith Strutter on March 4. Not to be outdone by
his squadron mates, the delicate little flower Kurt Wolff
revealed his fierce nature by blasting a BE2d out of the sky
two days later. Jasta 11 was becoming an efficient killing
WORLD WAR I 5

machine. My squadron is getting good, a proud

Richthofen wrote home. I am very happy with it. At the
end of March, 23-year-old 2nd Lieutenant Lothar von
Richthofen joined Jasta 11, thanks to his older brothers
influence. Now the band of brothers was complete. The
days of glory could begin.
March was a successful month for Jasta 11. Richthofen
was promoted to Oberleutnant after he knocked down
10 enemy aircraft. His men eagerly attempted to emulate
their leader, with Allmenrder shooting down three
enemy machines, Wolff five, and Schfer seven. Even
Richthofens neophyte brother scored, bringing down a
FE2b on the afternoon of March 28.
The twisting, confused nature of dogfighting was captured in a letter by Schfer, describing his third kill on
March 4. My first opponent eluded me in a steep dive,
he wrote. Before I could follow him I saw Allmenrder
being pressed hard by two Englishmen and I gave him
some breathing room. As I did, a Vickers single-seater got
in behind me. I made a half-loop and went into a spin; two
comrades who saw it thought I had been shot down, as
did the Vickers pilot, who then left me alone. I squeezed
out of the scrap in such a way that I had a measured look
at things and then very calmly went after a Sopwith twoseater. After I fired 100 shots it began to burn, then sideslipped down, fell end over end and fluttered earthwards
in a burning heap, whereupon I could not help letting out
a loud Hurrah.
More than just a military unit, the six men were
friends. Richthofen and I, Allmenrder, boasted in a
letter to his sister, always fly together, each looking
after the other. Wolff in particular ingratiated himself
with the others because of his gentleness and playful
sense of humor. He was close to both Richthofens, and
visited the Richthofen family estate in Schweidnitz.
Richthofens mother liked Wolffs dear, amusing boys
face. A great source of amusement was the long nightcap Little Wolff always wore under his flying helmet
as a lucky charm. With his jokes, he was the darling of
Jasta 11.
The victories of March were a mere foretaste of the
glories to come. April was a splendid month for the
squadron. The skies were blue, the weather mild. The
British Army was planning a major attack around Arras
in Jasta 11s sector, and the air was rife with RFC observation and fighter craft on vital photographic, reconnaissance, and combat missions. The British deployed
365 aircraft on the Arras front against only 195 German

Fun-loving Karl Allmenrder, a pastors son, poses in front of his Albatros.D.III fighter in 1917.

machines. Despite these odds, Jasta 11 was determined

to deny the enemy aerial superiority.
Fired by their first successes and egged on by the infectious
ambition of their commander, Richthofens band of brothers threw themselves into the battle, flying an exhausting
four or five patrols a day, usually together. By the end of
April, Wolff had destroyed an impressive 23 enemy craft.
Lothar von Richthofen and Schfer both boasted 15 kills,
Allmenrder nine, and Festner 12, including a notable victory over a BF2a, one of whose occupants was Captain
William Leefe Robinson, winner of the Victoria Cross,
Britains highest award for bravery. While patrolling with
Wolff on April 11, Manfred von Richthofen shot down a
low-flying BE2d for his 40th kill, at last matching his mentor Boelckes score. But Richthofen was not satisfied to
stop there. His tally reached 52 when, in a breathtaking
performance, he shot down two fighters and two observation craft on the 29th. Called Bloody April by their
British foes, the month saw Jasta 11 score a stunning 89
confirmed victories, making it the German Air Forces
most successful squadron.
Richthofen was the undisputed ace of aces. His and
Jasta 11s achievements were widely reported in the press,
feeding the German peoples hunger for flair and excitement in an increasingly bloody and protracted war.
Richthofen, his brother Lothar, Festner, Allmenrder,
Schfer, and Wolff became household names, their pictures immortalized on a popular series of postcards produced by the Sanke Company and avidly collected by
WORLD WAR I 6

All: Authors Collection

LEFT: Lieutenant Lothar von Richthofen proudly displays his Pour le

mrite medal at his throat. RIGHT: Lieutenant Kurt Wolff, called
Little Wolf, poses in his leather flying coat.

enthusiasts much as Americans collected baseball cards.

Richthofen was quickly promoted to the prestigious
rank of Rittmeister (cavalry captain) on April 6, and his
handsome face, his service cap tilted at a rakish angle,
his coat collar turned up and the Pour le mrite gleaming
at his neck, appeared everywhere. He is in all the
papers, his proud mother wrote in her dairy, on the
lips of all the people; the flag waves over his name. He
received hundreds of fan letters at squadron headquarters, and was besieged by countless autograph hunters
and reporters. Women especially adored him and wrote
to him by the hundreds. Showered with virtually every
medal his country could bestow upon him, Richthofen
was dining with top-ranked generals and even the kaiser
himself, mobbed by adoring crowds wherever he went.
Richthofen was equally famous across the lines, where
he was called the Red Devil, le petit rouge, and other
more colorful, unprintable expressions. Only later would
he become legendary as the Red Baron. All of Jasta 11s
fighters, carrying the unit marking of red, were well
known. A visiting reporter thought the units aircraft
looked like a swarm of radiant butterflies. Because of
the squadrons ability to pack up their tents and move up
and down the line according to necessity, Allied pilots
began referring to them as the Flying Circus, or
Richthofens Circus.
But fame was no protection against the vagaries of aerial
combat. One of the peculiarities of this form of combat
was that anybody, regardless of skill and experience, could
be brought down by anybody else at any given moment.
Schfer, for instance, crash landed on April 4, was shot

down on the 13th, and was brought down again on the

22nd, struck by ground fire and narrowly escaping capture by British troops as he worked his way across nomans-land. During a dogfight with the British 60th
Squadron on April 8, the lower port wing on Festners
Albatros broke apart, and he was forced to land.
Richthofen himself survived two potentially fatal incidents, one when his fuel tank was struck by enemy fire
and he had to land. On the other occasion, when he broke
his own rule by flying too low, his airplane was severely
hit when the Sopwith Strutter he had just forced down
unchivalrously kept firing at him from the ground. I once
more attacked him, Richthofen wrote, and killed one
of the occupants.
Under the intense strain of ceaseless combat,
Richthofens young team was forced to deal with the pressures of historys first air warthe adrenaline rush of fear,
the daily brushes with death, the thrill of the chase and the
kill, the nerve-killing dullness of fatigueyears before
notions of combat stress had been identified. Treatment
for shattered nerves did not exist and pilots simply flew
and fought until they collapsed or were wounded or killed.
And everybody was trying to kill them: small arms and
machine guns from the trenches, antiaircraft guns, enemy
fliers, structural and engine troubles on their aircraft, midair collisions during dogfights, and friendly fire. On top of
this, they had to cope with killing young men like themselves. When Schfer destroyed a British FE2d on April 3,
he sardonically referred to it as infanticide, alluding to
the youth of his victims. Richthofen smoked constantly
and suffered from nightmares about seeing his first English
victim die in the air.
Early in the morning of April 25, Sebastian Festner
attacked several Sopwith Strutters from the 43rd
Squadron. Depending on the source, he was either shot
down by one of these, suffered wing failure, was hit by
ground fire, or was the victim of a broken propeller.
Whatever the fate that pressed him earthward, he smashed
into the ground and died. As the first of the band to fall
in combat, Festners death shocked and saddened his comrades. Jasta 11 suffered its second blow when Schfer, a
seasoned ace with 23 victories, was awarded the Pour le
mrite and appointed commander of Jagdstaffel 28, on
April 26. In a letter to his parents, Schfer wrote that he
was bitterly sad that I must leave the Staffel I have come
to love, the splendid circle of comrades and most of all,
Richthofen. If I had a choice, I would prefer a thousand
times more to remain here.
WORLD WAR I 7

Manfred von Richthofen lands his Fokker DR1 triplane after another patrol over no-mans-land.

On May 1, Richthofen was ordered to take an openended leave, the kaiser wishing to preserve his valuable
national hero. Richthofen appointed his brother acting
commander of Jasta 11. Back in the Fatherland,
Richthofen sat for portraits, dined with royalty, and dictated his memoirs, The Red Combat Pilot, which became
an instant bestseller. It was translated into English and
widely read in Great Britain and elsewhere. Surrounded
by ecstatic fans wherever he went, Richthofen sorely
missed his squadron mates and longed to return to them.
In the newspapers, Richthofen proudly followed the victories of his friends. Little Wolff raised his score to 29
and was awarded the coveted Pour le mrite on May 4.
Three days later, Lothar was involved in an evening dogfight with brand-new double-gunned SE5 fighters from the
crack 56th Squadron. During the clash he shot down Captain Albert Ball, Great Britains highest ace and holder of
the Victoria Cross. This impressive feat, Lothars 20th kill,
made headlines across Germany. Delighted with his
brothers achievements, Richthofen was jolted by a
telegram: Lothar is wounded, but not mortally. Flying
with Allmenrder on the 13th, Lothar had been struck in
the hip by ground fire and hospitalized. Richthofen visited
his recuperating brother, writing to their mother that he
looked splendid, tanned with the Pour le mrite around
his neck. But in a subsequent letter home, Richtofen cautioned: Under no circumstances should [Lothar] be
allowed back at the Front until he is physically fit. Other-

wise he will suffer a relapse or be shot down.

Boyish Allmenrder, the last of the old band still
remaining in Jasta 11, was appointed its commander.
The entire responsibility has been given to me by
Richthofen, he excitedly wrote his sister. Hopefully, I
will remain in his Staffel a long time! Allmenrder
gamely carried on the old traditions by downing 13
enemy aircraft in May; he received the Pour le mrite in
June. Richthofen was also gladdened to hear that Schfer
had shot down his 30th victory, a DH4 bomber. The next
day, however, the Rittmeister received the stunning news
that that his friend was dead. Schfer had fallen on June
5 during a dogfight with FE2ds. Years later, Lieutenant
H.L. Satchell recalled bringing down the German ace.
Schfer looped over the top of us and we stalled, and
fell down on him as he was coming out of the loop,
wrote Satchell. Both I and my observer, Lt. T.A. Medford-Lewis, had our guns going. We were about 50 yards
from him and I can still picture his black helmet and red
plane. He made a serious mistake and it cost him his
life. Schfer had violated his masters warnings against
doing tricks in the air. A saddened Richthofen canceled
all appointments in his busy schedule to attend his
friends funeral in Krefeld, Schfers hometown.
When Richthofen returned to active duty in early June,
he quickly realized that the air war had changed. His
happy band of fighters was broken. Adding to the
Rittmeisters concerns were the excellent new Allied airWORLD WAR I 8

craft now confronting German

pilotsthe robust SE5a fighter, the
superb Bristol two-seat fighter, and
the highly maneuverable Sopwith triplane and Camel fighters, the latter
armed with twin Vickers machine
guns. Tactically, the Allies were
appearing over the front in massed
formations of more than 50 aircraft.
To counter this, German fighter units
were equipped with new Albatros
D.V and D.Va fighters, which were
supposed to be an improvement over
the D.III but still suffered from weak
lower wings. They were outclassed by
Manfred von Richthofen, with bandaged
the latest Allied planes.

end. Allmenrder was 21 years old.

Richthofen and Wolff were now the
last of the original band of brothers.
On July 2, Richthofen had Wolff
transferred back to Jasta 11 as its commander. This same day, the Rittmeister
avenged Allmenrders death by bringing down an RE8 for his 57th victory.
He was out hunting again with Wolff
and others on the morning of July 6.
Carefully, Richthofen and his men
stalked nine FE2ds patrolling over the
German lines. The Rittmeister signaled
the attack. As he roared downward, he
saw Wolff already blazing away at the
enemy. Calmly, with a hunters precihead, poses with a nurse at St. Nicholas
sion, Richthofen selected his prey, letHospital in Courtrai.
On June 25, Richthofen shot down
ting him grow in his gunsights; the
his 56th opponent, a RE8, and was
British observer was already nervously
officially informed that he was commander of firing at him, even though he was out of range. Biding his
Jagdgeschwader I (JGI), a combat group comprising Jas- time, Richthofen had not even released the safety latches
tas 4, 6, 10, and 11 and capable of putting 50 to 60 fight- on his guns. As his opponent banked to avoid him,
ers in the air at one time. This reorganization placed
Richthofen calmly maneuvered to stay behind. Suddenly,
enormous leadership and administrative strains on
he recalled, I received a blow on my head! I was hit! A
Richthofen and signaled how the massed nature of the
lucky shot had clipped a two-inch patch of skin and bone
ground war was reflected in the air war.
from his head. For a moment, he went on, my whole
Like his boss, young Allmenrder continued to score
body was completely paralyzed. My hands dropped to the
as well, shooting down his 30th opponent, a Nieuport
side and my legs dangled in the fuselage. The worst part
fighter, on June 26. Now he was second only to
was that the blow on the head affected my optic nerve and
Richthofen in kills. Eager for more victories, Allmen- I was completely blinded.
rder was out again the next morning, flying low over
Richthofens plane plunged earthward. Through sheer
the linesthe near-fatal mistake that Richthofen had
will power, he regained the use of his limbs and frantically
made weeks earlier. Suddenly, according to a letter
grabbed the joy stick. I must see! he recalled saying to
Richthofen wrote to Allmenrders father, he was fired
himself as his eyesight returned, although it was like lookupon by an English plane that was at least 800 meters
ing through thick black glasses. He made a decent landing
away [a] tremendous distance. Other reports indicated
in a field, tried to climb out of the cockpit but tumbled out
that small-arms and antiaircraft fire was heard coming
and lay on the ground in a daze. When he came to, he
from the trenches. Karls machine, Richthofens letter
found himself in St. Nicholas Hospital in Courtrai. The
continued, immediately made a left turn in the direc- ace of aces had proven vulnerable at last.
tion of our lines: a sign that there was still a conscious
Wolff was now the last of the band still flying. He was
presence in the machine. His comrades noticed that he
on a morning patrol again the day after Richthofen was
turned off the gas, and passed over in a glide. From this
wounded, shooting down a Sopwith triplane for his 33rd
victory. Four days later, flying to the east of Ypres, Wolff
glide, a vertical dive resulted, which did not cease. The
was leading Jasta 11 over the lines when tracers ripped
mortally wounded aces airplane fell into no-mans-land;
past the German fighters and a squadron of 12 triplanes
his body was recovered by German soldiers that
from the 10th Naval Squadron roared down on them. In
evening. I could not wish, Richthofen concluded, a
a letter to his girlfriend, Wolff humorously described what
finer death for myself than to fall in aerial combat; it is
happened next. I had my hand right where an Englisha consolation to know that Karl noticed nothing of his
WORLD WAR I 9

Oliver Thiele

spring, the frustrated pilot was killed

in action flying a new Fokker triplane
just four days after rejoining his unit.
Lothar received the depressing news
while convalescing at home. His
mother observed his reaction: His lips
grew hard; he sat the whole day and
stared through the window at the dark
trees in the garden.
Now all of Richthofens friends were
dead. As the hero of the German people and commander of JGI, he still had
a difficult task awaiting himto carry
on. His sense of duty and his burning
ambition brought him back into the
air, where he would reach an unheardof 80 victories en route to becoming
the highest scoring ace of World War
A replica of Manfred von Richthofens Fokker DR1, in which he recorded an unheard-of 80
I. Finally, the Red Baron fell on April
kills in World War I.
21, 1918, a victim of fatigue,
headaches, depression, and violating
man was shooting, he wrote. The bullet, being the
his own rules against flying too low and too far over
harder component, went through the handthe wrist
enemy lines. It was exactly one year after the glories of
bone was shot clean through. Wolff dove out of the dogApril 1917. He had not yet turned 26.
fight and returned to the airfield. Hours later he found
Of the original six who had made up the band of brothhimself lying alongside Richthofen in the hospital.
ers, only Lothar von Richthofen survived the war, saved
Lothar and Wolff were still recovering in hospital when
by his injuries. Wounded twice more, the 40-victory ace
Manfred returned to command on July 25, his wound
was recuperating in the hospital when he learned of his
unhealed, his head still bandaged, struggling with
brothers death. Had I been there, he said sadly, it
headaches and depression. Although his unit was doing
would not have happened. Lothar met a flyers end when
fine work, the fun was gone, the lines in his face harder.
he was killed in a civilian aircraft accident in 1921.
There is nothing left, Richthofen jotted down, of the
Manfred von Richthofen had molded and managed his
lively, merry war as our deeds were called in the beginmen superbly. From a group of badly trained, unmotining. Richthofen was soon leading patrols, although it
vated young men, he shaped a band of brothers that
was not until August 16 that he scored again, shooting
became textbook examples of boldness, courage, and
skill. Thanks to their leaders immense talents, four of the
down a Nieuport 17. Somehow, it was different now. I
band would be awarded the Pour le mrite. In their brief,
am in wretched spirits after every aerial battle, he wrote.
violent careers, Festner, Schfer, Allmenrder, Wolff,
But that no doubt is an after-effect of my head wound.
The Rittmeister would often head straight for his quarters Lothar, and Manfred accounted for a combined record of
after returning from patrol, explaining that he did not 225 downed aircraft. It was an exhilarating time. Flying
and fighting for fame and Fatherland, the young German
want to see anyone or hear anything.
pilots in Jasta 11 were driven by the reckless belief that
Wolff understood these feelings. Promoted to Oberleutthey were not going to die. They were wrong, but at least
nant, he returned to the war on September 11, forever
they died on their own terms, in the brilliant blue skies
changed by his grim experiences. Unable to shoot down
above the squalid gray trenches.
the enemy as he had done during the heady days of the

WORLD WAR I 10

Australian War Memorial

A Hobbit on the Somme

A YOUNG WRITER, J.R.R. TOLKIEN, WITNESSED THE WORST SINGLE DAY OF BRITISH MILITARY HISTORYWORLD WAR IS BATTLE OF THE SOMME.
By OBrien Browne

Smoke and ash drifted across the shattered ground. Dead

faces peered up with lidless eyes from pools of stagnant
water. Black flying objects screeched downward, bringing
terror and death to the soldiers huddled below, while on
the horizon the sky blazed red-orange with flame and the
entire earth shook.
This is the fictional world described in J.R.R. Tolkiens
immensely popular trilogy, The Lord of the Rings, but
it was based on the awful reality of the Western Front in
World War I. Perhaps no other war has produced such
an illustrious array of writers. Out of this fiery cataclysm, names such as English writers Robert Graves,

Wilfred Owen, Rupert Brooke, and Siegfried Sassoon

to say nothing of such American writers as Ernest Hemingway, E.E. Cummings, and John Dos Passos, and
German author Erich Maria Remarquehave been
etched into public perceptions of World War I-inspired
literature. Ironically, Tolkien, perhaps the most famous
and widely read writer to emerge from the conflict, is almost never associated with it.
Yet World War I had a major creative impact on Tolkien,
informing the universal themes that make his novels so
vivid. Brooding evil arises out of the East, a grand alliance
of forces forms in the West, and a war for the future of

A British soldier searches for a dead comrades identity disc after the disastrous attack at the Somme. Painting by Frank Crozier, who also
took part in a similar British rout at Gallipoli. INSET: A reflective J.R.R. Tolkien in his study long after the war.
WORLD WAR I 11

civilization takes place in a nightmarish

Upon graduation, Tolkien was accepted
lunar landscape filled with surging
into Oxford University, where he maarmies and killing machinesthe very
jored in Old English and Germanic lanthings Tolkien experienced firsthand in
guages while developing a relationship
World War I. In particular, male friendwith Edith Bratt, his childhood sweetship, fortified by the shared hardships of
heart. Against the background of rowarfare, stands out in Tolkiens writings,
mance and ivy-covered university walls,
and it jars modern readers to read
Tolkien observed the slowly escalating
Tolkiens foreword to the second edition
tensions among the nations of Europe,
of The Lord of the Rings. By 1918, he
which finally exploded into all-out war
writes, all but one of my close friends
in 1914 after the assassination of the
were dead.
Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand.
In 1889, Queen Victoria sat on the
Although many European men enthuBritish throne, dourly surveying her
siastically dashed to the colors of their remighty empire, which spread out from
spective nations to participate in a war
the British Isles to India, Egypt, Austhat was to be over by Christmas, others
tralia, Canada, and much of the rest of
greeted the conflict with indifference or
the planet. Britains powerful navy prorepulsion. For his part, Tolkien decided
J.R.R. Tolkien as a signal officer in the
tected homeland and colony alike; her 11th Battalion, Lancashire Fusiliers.
to complete his studies and then join
small professional army was battle hardup, a primarily financial choice.
ened from fierce colonial wars. This was
Tolkien had always been desperately
the world into which John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was poor, and his only chance for survival after the war was
born in Bloemfontein, South Africa, in 1892. Three years to find a job in academia. After struggling so hard to better
later, his mother brought him and his brother to England himself, Tolkien did not welcome the war, which symbolto escape the harsh African climate. Shortly afterward, ized for him the collapse of all my world. Still, after
the family was crushed to learn that Tolkiens father had graduating with a first-class degree in 1915, he prepared
died of rheumatic fever. They moved to Sarehole, just outto enlist in the British Army.
side the grim industrial city of Birmingham, where
Tolkiens friends in the TCBS had already reached the
Tolkiens mother gave him an excellent education at home. same conclusion. Gilson had joined in November
Her death in 1904 was another body blow to the young 1915, going into the Cambridgeshire Battalion, later to
boy. The Tolkien children were raised by an aunt and a be transferred to the 11th Battalion, Suffolk Regiment as
family friend.
a second lieutenant. Smith followed his friend a month
At school, Tolkiens linguistic gifts blossomed, and he later, the young poet being a c c e p t e d i n t o t h e O x excelled at Latin and ancient Greek, before devouring f o r d s h i r e a n d Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, alGerman, Gothic, Welsh, Finnish, and other languages. though he would later be transferred to the 19th
Tolkien was a member of his schools cadet corps, riding Battalion, Lancashire Fusiliers, also as a second lieutenant.
with a territorial cavalry regiment in 1912. He made best Like Tolkien, Wiseman opted to enlist later, going into the
friends with Christopher Wiseman, Geoffrey Bache Royal Navy in summer 1915 to serve on the battleship
Smith, and Robert Gilson, and together they founded the HMS Superb. Although it was a hard decision for the
Tea Club of the Barrovian Society, or TCBS, named after young men, in reality there was little choice but to voluntheir meeting place, the Barrow Store. It was an idealistic, teer. In those days, Tolkien later recalled, chaps
irreverent, and pretentious little group. The witty aesjoined up, or were scorned publicly. It was a nasty cleft
thetic Gilson dreamed of becoming a renowned architect; to be in.
In 1915, the war was not going well for Great Britain
Wiseman, sensitive and talented, wished to be a musiand its allies. As Tolkien and his friends went through
cian; literature-loving G.B. Smith longed to be a poet;
boot camp, the character of the war transformed, becomand Tolkien, dreamy, ambitious, and hardworking, wrote
ing more protracted and deadly than anybody had foretales of elves, dwarfs, and heroic supermen, inventing his
seen. The Lancashire Fusiliers, for instance, had taken
own private languages for them.
WORLD WAR I 12

British infantry trudges through the rain toward new lines at Guillemont during the 1916 Somme campaign.

part in a bloody but failed landing against well-entrenched Turkish forces at Gallipoli. On the Western
Front, British forces had suffered appalling losses at
Neuve Chapelle while Russians and Austrians battled it
out in the Carpathian Mountains. On the home front, a
German submarine campaign was strangling much
needed food and weapon supplies. And in April 1915, a
new horror appeared: along a four-mile stretch of the
Ypres Salient in Belgium, the Germans struck combined
French, Algerian, and Canadian divisions with a terrible
new weapon168 tons of chlorine, the worlds first poison gas attack. That autumn, Great Britain suffered
50,000 casualties in the Battle of Loos.
At this bleak hour, Tolkien and the three other members
of the TCBS gathered one last time to discuss literature
and the future. On June 28, the 23-year-old Tolkien enlisted in the Lancashire Fusiliers, no doubt desiring to be
close to G.B. Smith but also choosing the unit because it
was full of Oxford men. This was typical of British Army
recruiting at the timeyoung men joined up en masse by
town, school, or trade, organized into regiments sporting
such quaint names such as the Tyneside Commercials or
the Manchester Pals; G.B. Smiths battalion was known
as the 3rd Salford Pals. The idea was that units made up
of friends, relatives, and colleagues would be more cohesive and motivated on the battlefield. The tragic corollary
to this thinking was that when the fighting was particularly intense, such close-knit groups would also fall en
masse, wiping out entire school classes or neighborhoods

in the space of a few bloody moments.

Because of his language expertise, Tolkien was trained
in Yorkshire as a signals officer, responsible for battalion
communications with headquarters. He learned map
reading, Morse code, message sending via carrier pigeon,
and field telephone operation. He memorized the art of
station call signstactical voice communications with letters or digits representing companies, platoons, and sectionsand also how to use signal flags and discs, flares,
lamps, and heliographs as well as runners, soldiers who
carried hand-written notes to headquarters under fire.
Like all new soldiers, Tolkien found boot camp dull,
Army bureaucracy intolerable, and most of his commanding officers insipid. War multiplies the stupidity by 3,
he wrote. But in training camp, a more subtle transformation was occurring within him. Great Britains first volunteer army had thrown together men from all walks of
life and all social classes, and Tolkien developed a deep
sympathy and feeling for the tommy, especially the plain
soldier from the agricultural counties. In socially stratified prewar England, Tolkien the Oxford man would normally never have had anything to do with such
commoners.
On June 2, 1916, Tolkien received his embarkation orders. Now married to Edith Bratt, he visited her for the
last time, harboring little hope that he would ever see her
again. As he later remembered, Junior officers were
being killed off a dozen a minute. Parting from my wife
then was like death.
WORLD WAR I 13

LEFT: Troops of the 11th Battalion wait in the trenches at Arras, France. The battalion was typically hard hit by casualties. RIGHT: A German
5.9-inch naval gun, removed from a battleship, prepares to launch a gas bombardment. Note the gas masks on the gunners.

One by one, Tolkien and his friends went off to battle.

While Wiseman experienced a comparatively clean war
in the Navy, seeing sporadic action, Tolkien, Gilson, and
Smith entered a war zone of gothic horrors for which
nothing in their comfortably sheltered young lives had
prepared them. Moving up into the front lines, they witnessed the genius of their enlightened epoch being used
to kill masses of men. The earth of northern France was
ripped up and broken, oozing mud from countless shell
holes, the rotting bodies of dead men and horses littering
the ground, grotesquely entwined with the hulks of rusting guns, smashed wagons, and barbed wire. The trenches
were torn up by shell blasts, rat infested and mud filled,
and adorned with hunks of putrid flesh and smashed
equipment.
Tolkien disembarked on June 6, 1916, at taples,
from where he and the 11th Battalion, Lancashire
Fusiliers, under the command of Lt. Col. Laurence Bird,
were transported by train to the great British communication and supply center at Amiens and billeted near the
front lines. The battalion was transferred to 74th Brigade,
25th Division for an upcoming offensive on the Somme
River. Tolkien was assigned to A Company.
Neither he nor his men were aware of it, but they were
about to participate in the greatest attack in the history
of the British Army, the Big Push that Army planners
had designed to break through the Germans lines in the
rolling, chalky countryside near the Somme. After a massive artillery barrage, the Germans would be either dazed
or dead, and the British Army would simply stroll over

no-mans-land, occupy the trenches, and roll up the rest

of the enemys forces before breaking out into open
ground. The war could be brought to a sudden and decisive close. That, at any rate, was the plan.
Because the vast majority of the men were green,
Tolkien and his fellow officers were instructed to lead
their troops into battle in parade fashionlong, even lines
marching against the Germans in waves, their bayoneted
rifles held at the slope, tilted slightly forward. For a
week before the attack, 1,500 British guns had pulverized
the German positions to soften them up and cut the dense
wire entanglements through which the attacking British
were to weave. Zero hour was set for 7:30 AM, July 1,
1916. Some 200 battalions, containing 100,000 British
troops, would go over the top. Gilsons and Smiths units
were among those moved up to take part in the initial attack; Tolkiens unit was held in reserve.
The morning of the attack was a poets morning of
golden sunshine and wildflowers swaying gently in a faint
breeze. It had rained the night before, and freshness was
everywhere. Suddenly, at 7:28 AM, a massive heap of dirt,
German soldiers, and trees suddenly lifted into the air as
British sappers blew mines under the German trenches, in
one place scooping out a 90-foot-deep crater in the earth.
This was followed by an eerie silence. Then, all along the
line, the shrill sound of whistles trilled as British officers
signaled their men to attack. The Army slowly surged up
jumping-off ladders and began walking slowly toward the
enemy lines.
Gilson had blown his whistle and led his men over the
top. Their target was the enemy trenches near the village
WORLD WAR I 14

of La Boisselle. As Gilson and the 11th Suffolk advanced,

they soon realized to their horror that the wire before
them had not been cut by the artillery fire and that the
Germans, well-protected in deep dugouts, had survived
the massive bombardment. The Germans waited for the
advancing British to come into range, then opened up
with machine guns, small arms, and artillery fire. Before
the leading wave had advanced 100 yards, men began
dropping everywhere. A wounded company commander
wrote: My very last memory of the attack is the sight of
Gilson in front of me and [another officer] on my right,
both moving as if on parade, and both a minute or two
later to be mortally hit. The first of Tolkiens friends had
fallen. In a few moments, the 11th Suffolk had suffered
691 casualties. My chief impression, Tolkien wrote to
Smith, reflecting on Gilsons death, is that something has
gone crack.
Smith, an intelligence officer in the 19th Battalion, Lancashire Fusiliers, was also in action at the Somme. On July
4, he and his men attacked the Leipzig Salient, a strongly
fortified section of the German line on Thiepval Ridge.
Once again, the attack was repulsed with heavy losses.
Smith survived, writing in a very nonpoetic manner in his
battle report, Owing to hostile MG [machine-gun] fire
the advance was made by short rushes. Casualties were
heavy.
After Smith and his battered men were pulled out of
the line for leave, he ran into Tolkien in the village of
Bouzincourt, and the two old friends talked about their
experiences.
Luckily for him, Tolkien had not taken part on the disastrous opening day of the battle, when a staggering
60,000 British soldiers fell, 20,000 of them killed outright. Held in reserve, his unit watched the lines of
British wounded and German prisoners stream past.
When elements of the 11th were thrown into the fighting, Tolkien was kept back to act as communications officer for the battalion. On July 14, he slogged through
the battered remains of the village of La Boisselle, he and
his men hauling signal flares, lamps, and rolls of telephone wire to maintain communication with headquarters. The 11th attacked German trenches around
Ovillers and the fighting was fierce. Tolkiens company
commander was killed, just one of the 267 casualties the
11th suffered in two weeks of fighting. Tolkien was
made battalion signal officer in command of several
noncommissioned officers and privates.

Throughout July and August, the 11th was yanked in

and out of the line several times. In late summer it was
engaged in hard fighting at Thiepval Wood, especially a
section of the German line known as the Schwaben Redoubt. Tolkien, with eight runners under his command,
was assigned again to battalion headquarters. While the
battle stormed about him, Tolkien had to ensure that vital
battlefield information went out to his superiors while simultaneously coping with runners being wounded or
killed and telephone lines being severed by hostile gunfire.
Tolkien kept up with his writing as well as he could under
the circumstances. He recalled working on some of his stories in grimy canteens, at lectures in cold fogs, in huts full
of blasphemy and smut, or by candle light in bell-tents,
even some down in dugouts under shell fire. But such occasions were rare. You might scribble something on the
back of an envelope and shove it in your back pocket, he
later wrote, but thats all. You couldnt write. Youd be
crouching down among flies and filth.
The war continued. In late October, Tolkien and his
men were involved in bloody fighting to take Regina
Trench, located a mere 200 yards from the British lines.
Tolkien was stationed at battalion headquarters at Zollern
Redoubt. The attack began at precisely 12:18 PM with an
artillery barrage, before waves of British soldiers rushed
toward the German trench. This time the artillery fire was
effective enough to catch the Germans by surprise, and
many were killed, wounded, or captured. One of Tolkiens
signalers was hit while carrying a pigeon basket; he joined
160 other men who were casualties, among them many
officers knocked out while crossing no-mans-land. For
Tolkien and the 11th, this was the last fighting of the Battle of the Somme before they were pulled out of line for a
much needed rest.
After surviving four hellish months in one of the wars
deadliest battles, Tolkien succumbed to the most humble
but ubiquitous enemy of alllice. With a fever of 103
degrees, he was sent back to Great Britain in early November, diagnosed with trench fever, a disease akin to
typhus that was spread by infected lice. A vicious, debilitating, sometimes deadly disease, trench fever nevertheless was considered a blighty wound, a nonfatal
wound that ensured that the victim would be sent back
to Old Blightysoldier slang for Britainto recover.
Such wounded men were congratulated by their envious
comrades; hearing about Tolkiens condition, G.B. Smith
immediately wrote: Stay a long time in England. I am
beyond measure delighted.
WORLD WAR I 15

German infantry advance over a newly captured British trench during the last German offensive in the spring of 1918.

Tolkien spent the rest of the war in Harrogate Sanatorium and other Army facilities. In September 1918 he was
deemed incapable of returning to active service. Back at the
front, Tolkien was sorely missed. Although he often dismissed his war service with typical English self-deprecation,
Tolkien was considered a good officer. On leave in 1917,
Wiseman visited the convalescing Tolkien, telling his friend
that he hoped Tolkien would not be sent back to the war.
It is you and I now, Wiseman had written to him earlier.
Throughout 1917 and 1918, Tolkien was struck by recurring bouts of trench fever and was in and out of the hospital. Whenever he was well enough, he continued to fulfill
his duties, being promoted to full lieutenant. He also found
time to write an unpublished elegiac piece on Gilson and
Smith, and worked on his stories and languages
Meanwhile, his surviving friends were still at war. As
Tolkien lay feverishly in bed, G.B. Smith and his men were
settling down in the tiny village of Souastre, behind the
front lines. Smiths stay was uneventful until in late November 1916, when he was hit in the arm and buttock by
shell fragments. At first, it was believed he received his
own blighty wound. But by the first week of December,
Smith was dead, killed by gangrene from the foul battlefield soil that infected his wounds.
After the wars end in 1918, Tolkien worked as an associate professor before he became a full professor of AngloSaxon languages at Oxford University. He continued to

work on his novels, beginning with The Hobbit in 1937.

Although he denied that World War I had any influence on
his subsequent writing, warfare permeates Tolkiens Middle-Earth just as it permeated Europe in the first half of the
20th century. No writer can divorce himself from the fires
of his own experienceif he did, he would have nothing
to write about. Contradicting himself later, Tolkien admitted that his stories had been quickened to full life by war.
Tolkien and his three friends are reflected in the four
HobbitsFrodo, Sam, Merry, and Pippinin the wildly
popular trilogy, The Lord of the Rings. The Hobbits long
journey from the verdant fields of the Shire to the barren,
evil land of Mordor neatly mirrors Tolkien and his
friends journey from green England to the ruined
stretches of northern France. Endlessly marching, they
leave the West to battle a dark power in the East, much
as real-life British soldiers did. The characteristics of
Tolkiens friends appear in the Hobbits personalities. The
fun-loving G.B. Smith, for instance, serves as the model
for Pippin. Sampson Gamgee, a well-known Edwardian
doctor who invented Gamgee Tissue used in surgery, lent
his name to Tolkiens character Sam Gamgee, who himself
was a composite of the men he had fought beside. My
Sam Gamgee, Tolkien remembered, is indeed a reflection of the English soldier, of the privates and batmen I
knew in the 1914 war, and recognized as so far superior
to myself.
WORLD WAR I 16

fall of Gondolin in The Silmarillion, the Battle of

the Five Armies in The Hobbit, or the great war epic in
The Lord of the Rings, have their origins in the real-life
Battle of the Somme. Tolkien always denied, however,
that the Orcs, a cruel race, represented German soldiers.
He wrote to his son in 1941: I have spent most of my
life studying Germanic matters (in the general sense that
includes England and Scandinavia). There is a great deal
more force (and truth) than ignorant people imagine in
the Germanic ideal.

Perhaps staged after the battle, this photo claims to show the 11th
Battalion in action at Polygon Wood in September 1917. Tolkien
served as a signal officer.

A vast array of Tolkiens imagery could have been lifted

directly from a World War I battlefield guide. There are
the Dead Marshes, for example, a place where the dead
lay underneath a noxious film of stagnant water, and
the Noman-lands arid and lifeless, choked with ash
and crawling muds, sickly white and grey and pocked
with great holes. Hobbits Frodo and Sam take cover in
craters much like shell holes, and a foul sump of oily
many-coloured ooze lay at its bottom. Mordors fumes
recall the Germans use of mustard gas, while the white
and gray mud is similar to the deadly sucking muck of
the Somme, where the chalky ground had been pulverized by artillery barrages. The Dead Marshes, Tolkien
freely admitted, and the approaches to the Morannon
owe something to Northern France after the Battle of the
Somme.
Among the great attractions of Tolkiens Middle-Earth
are the realistic landscape descriptions and detailed maps
he created for his imagined lands, reflecting the skills he
had learned in map-reading and drawing courses at
Army signalers school. Much of Tolkiens worldthe
Hobbit holes, trolls caves, underground Dwarf and Elf
kingdomsmirrors the subterranean existence he experienced on the front lines in France, living in fetid
trenches and deep dugouts.
Tolkiens love of huge and heroic battles, such as the

Tolkiens details reveal his military training: the skill

with which Sam makes a smokeless fire; how the men of
Gondor, like army engineers, build bridges and defensive
works; and the Hobbits backpacks, much like a soldiers
kit of rolled blankets, cooking pans, spoon and fork, tinderbox, and a small store of salt, show an accuracy that
any soldier would appreciate. And just as Tolkiens
trench fever recurred in debilitating waves, so too does
Frodo suffer from painful fits long after the wars of Middle-Earth have drawn to a close, leaving him lying prone
on his bed. I am wounded, he tells Sam, wounded;
it will never really heala sentiment many physically
or emotionally scarred soldiers from any war can
share. Significantly, the destruction of the Dark Lords
empire in The Return of the King is powerfully reflected
in reality as World War I swept away several great
kingdomsCzarist Russia, the Ottoman Empire,
Imperial Germany, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
The impact of the war on Tolkiens works was obvious
to those who knew him best. Tolkiens close friend and
fellow Oxford scholar, C.S. Lewis, author of the Chronicles of Narnia books and a veteran himself, recognized
the war in Tolkiens writing. The conflict that dominates
The Lord of the Rings, Lewis pointed out, has the very
quality of the war my generation knew. It is all here: the
endless, unintelligible movement, the sinister quiet of the
front the lively, vivid friendships. Finally, in 1944,
Tolkien admitted the effect of the war on himself, writing
to his son Christopher, then serving in the Royal Air
Force, I hope that in after days the experience of men
and things, if painful, will prove useful. It did to me.
Paul Fussells influential The Great War and Modern
Memory argues that the romantic epic suffered a fatal
wound in the stupid and senseless First World War.
Tolkien would have disagreed. In stark contrast to the disillusionment and antiwar sentiment of the postwar period,
Tolkien unabashedly kept alive the tradition of war as a
WORLD WAR I 17

Aerial shot of the denuded Somme battlefield. The ruined wastes exactly match Tolkiens descriptions of the evil land of Mordor in The Lord
of the Rings.

noble and romantic ideal. He not only rejected modernism, but revived the heroic epic in English literature.
The romantic epic lives on with vigor and dash in Tolkiens
cavalry charges, his beautiful princesses, and shimmering
enchanted forests. Since his death in 1973, millions of
Tolkiens books have continued to sell around the world,
and he is easily the most unique, influential, and widely
read writer to emerge from the inferno of World War I. A
three-movie trilogy of his works directed by Peter Jackson
concluded by sweeping the Academy Awards in 2004.
But such creativity had its costs. Like many former soldiers, Tolkien downplayed, suppressed, and even denied
the effects of the war on him, yet they stayed with him
all his life. In 1940, writing to his son Michael who had
volunteered to fight in World War II, Tolkien hinted at
the things he had lost in the First World War. I was
pitched into it all, just when I was full of stuff to write,
and of things to learn, he said, and never picked it all
up again. He and Christopher Wisemanthe only sur-

vivors from the TCBSremained lifelong friends, meeting whenever they could to remember their friends in
better times.
Tolkien experienced pain all his lifethe early deaths
of his parents, financial hardship, the war. Like many people, he retreated into his mind, and there he found an enchanted land of heroes, beauty, and great deeds. Still, the
memories remained. I can see clearly now in my minds
eye, Tolkien recalled, the old trenches and the squalid
houses and the long roads of Artois, and I would visit
them again if I could. He never did, except in his books.
The war changed Tolkien, as it changed everyone. It injected loss and sadness into his writing, and made his descriptions more poignant because they were more real.
Mordor could not have existed had Tolkien not experienced it firsthand on the Somme. But the war also taught
him to value positive things as wellpity, beauty, heroism, loyalty, and the meaning of friendshipthemes that
run throughout all of his works and still reflect the lives
and aspirations of millions of readers today.

WORLD WAR I 18

Blood & Guts,

Grease & Glory
FIERY YOUNG OFFICER GEORGE S. PATTON RODE INTO WORLD WAR I AT THE HEAD OF THE
U.S. ARMYS BRAND-NEW TANK CORPS. IT WAS THE BEGINNING OF A STORIED CAREER.
By John Mikolsevek
History is full of great men and great deeds. All American schoolchildren know the story of George Washington crossing
the Delaware River in the dead of winter during the Revolutionary War. Yet how many are told of Washingtons less successful exploits in the French and Indian War? While George S. Patton was no George Washington, he nevertheless was
one of the most controversial and popular commanders in American history. After World War II, children heard the saga
of Old Blood and Guts and how he led the swift-moving Third Army across western Europe in pursuit of the crumbling
Nazi Army. But Pattons military achievements did not begin and end in World War II. Instead, they started in World
War I. And without his experience in the Great War, Patton might never have learned the fine art of command, of how
George S. Patton at the Tank Corps School near Langres, France, July 15, 1918.
WORLD WAR I 19

LEFT: Colonel Samuel D. Rockenbach, chief of the American Tank Corps. RIGHT: Skipper and gunner in a whippet tank north of Verdun.

to combine soldiers and tanks into one irresistible, mighty

phalanxa skill that served the Allies well in the next
war.
When the United States declared war on Germany and
the Central Powers on April 6, 1917, Patton was serving
on the staff of General John J. Pershing, his mentor and
idol. As a soldier and commander, Pershing was everything the 31-year-old Patton wanted to be. Strong-jawed,
muscular, and imposing, Pershing garnered respect just
by walking into a room. A tough disciplinarian, he
demanded the most from his staff and soldiers; his aides
lived in fear of his wrath. Patton began to mimic Pershing in word and deed. Already known as a loud-mouthed
martinet, Patton, during his time with Pershing, refined
his ideas and beliefs on military protocol. Strict about
discipline, he insisted on perfect military protocol. A formal salute became known derisively among the men as
a Georgie Patton.
After accompanying Pershing on his punitive expedition
against Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa in 1916, Patton joined the generals personal staff, where he used his
wife Beatrices vast fortune, his own political connections,
and a growing relationship between his sister Nita and
Pershing to cement his ties to the quick-rising general.
After the United States declared war, Patton followed Pershing to Europe. Along with 60 other officers and 128
War Department clerks, civilians, and enlisted men,
Patton left New York City on May 28 aboard the British
steamer HMS Baltic. During the voyage, Patton kept him-

self in shape, collected money for war orphans, and

worked on his French. While participating in the Stockholm Olympics in 1912, where he finished fifth in the pentathlon, Patton had fallen in love with French culture and
language, and although far from fluent in French, he
became an instructor on the voyage over. Even Pershing
frequented his lessons.
On June 8, Baltic docked at Liverpool to wild celebration,
including the playing of The Star Spangled Banner by
the Royal Welch Fusiliers. At last the Americans had
arrived. After landing, Pattons first assignment was to
lead 67 troops to their quarters in the Tower of London.
While not particularly thrilled with the assignment, Patton
knew that almost every officer back home would trade
jobs with him. Although still far from the front, he was
closer to it in London than he would have been in Washington, D.C. For the next few days, Patton kept busy
socializing, drinking, and fruitlessly ordering his troops
around. After a week of celebrating, Pershing and his staff
left for France. Arriving in Paris on June 13, Patton finally
saw his first glimpse of the war, several train loads of
British wounded; they did not look very happy. He
believed that it was only a matter of time until he had his
own crack at fighting.
Once again without specific duties, Patton functioned
basically as the commander of the headquarters troops.
The job entailed commanding guards on duty, making
sure that there were enough chauffeurs for the automoWORLD WAR I 20

biles and that the cars were running perfectly. Patton complained to his wife that personally I have not a great deal
to do. I would trade jobs with almost anyone for anything. Freely utilizing his wifes wealth, he purchased a
12-cylinder, five-passenger Packard automobile worth
$4,386the equivalent of more than $50,000 today
and endeavored to be seen everywhere. The fancy new car
turned the heads of many superior officers, who sometimes wondered how a young captain could afford such
a vehicle.
On July 20, Patton traveled with Pershing to meet with
the British commander in chief, Field Marshal Sir Douglas
Haig. Prior to departure, Patton installed a license plate
on the front of their automobile that read, U.S. No. 1.
During the meeting, Pershing impressed Haig, who nevertheless judged Pershings staff to be rather unspectacular.
But Haig liked Patton, writing in his diary after the meeting
that the A.D.C. [aide-de-camp] is a fire-eater and longs
for the fray. For Patton, there could be no greater praise.
Despite the praise from Haig, Pattons disgust with his
monotonous job continued to grow, as more of his West
Point classmates were promoted ahead of him. Patton
soon began to look for other jobs. By late July, for the
first time, he had a serious conversation about tanks and
their role in the war. Trained as a cavalryman and therefore appreciative of mobile warfare and aggressive tactics,
Patton seemed less than enthusiastic about tanks, writing,
The tank is not worth a damn. He stuck with his staff
job, but after following Pershings move to Chaumont on
September 1, he grew more frustrated, reporting himself
to be nothing but [a] hired flunky. I shall be glad to get
back to the line again and will try to do so in the spring.
These damn French are bothering us with a lot of details
which have nothing to do with any- thing. I have a hard
time keeping my patience.
Patton began to discuss with his wife the possibility of
joining the tank corps. There is a lot of talk about tanks
here now and I am interested as I can see no future to my
present job, he wrote. The casualties in the tanks are
high, that is lots of them get smashed, but the people in
them are pretty safe as we can be in this war. It will be a
long long time yet before we have any [tanks] so dont get
worried. I love you too much to try to get killed but also
too much to be willing to sit on my tail and do nothing.
By early October, Patton met and discussed with
Colonel LeRoy Eltinge the role of tanks. Eltinge believed
Patton should join them. On October 3, Patton submitted
an application to the Tank Service (later called Tank

Corps). In the letter, he wrote of his cavalry background,

his mechanical ability, and his fluency in French that made
him the right man for the job. Showing his usual flair for
self-promotion, Patton described his experience during
Pershings expedition into Mexico, when he had led a
small group of men on a raid that took the lives of three
Mexican banditos, including Pancho Villas chief lieutenant, Julio Cardenas. During the raid, Patton noted, he
had used an automobile to help in the surprise attack,
adding, I believe that I am the only American who has
ever made an attack in a motor vehicle.
While waiting for an answer, Patton entered the hospital
with a case of jaundice, but he was soon healthy and ready
for his new duty. On November 10, he was officially chosen for the Tank Corps and was ordered to prepare a
school for light tanks. Orders in hand, Patton wrote his
last diary entry as a staff officer: This is [my] last day as
staff officer. Now I rise or fall on my own.
Pattons first assignment in the Tank Corps was to learn
as much about the tank as possible. In order to begin the
American Expeditionary Force Light Tank School, Patton,
along with 28-year-old Lieutenant Elgin Braine, was
ordered to visit the French tank training center at Chamlieu for two weeks, followed by one week at a tank factory
at Bilancourt. Braine, a reserve officer, was originally
assigned to the 1st Infantry Division, but was transferred
to serve under Patton because of his mechanical and technical expertise. During their weeks studying French light
tanks, Patton and Braine made four suggestions that were
eventually adopted. These included a self-starter, improvements in the fuel tank to protect against leaks, an interchangeable mount that allowed the tank to carry a 37mm
cannon or machine gun, and a steel panel to separate the
crew from the engine. While at Chamlieu, Patton drove
his first tank, a French Renault. His first impression of
driving a tank was that it was easy to control; he thought
anyone who could drive a car could operate a tank. In typical Patton fashion, he amused himself by knocking over
trees with his new toy.
After three weeks of intense study, Patton and Braine
began the process of creating the Light Tank School.
Before this could happen, the Tank Corps first had to
decide which tanks to use. Following a fact-finding mission, the War Department settled on the Mark VII as the
nations heavy tank of choice. The Mark VII, a close
model of the British heavy tank, weighed a massive 43
tons, had an 11-man crew, and a dizzying maximum speed
of 6.5 miles per hour. For the light tank, the Americans
WORLD WAR I 21

American tanks move into battle line in the

Argonne Forest on September 26, 1918.

chose to copy the French Renault. The U.S. model

weighed 6.5 tons, with a maximum speed of 5.5 miles per
hour and a two-man crew to operate it: a gunner, usually
a sergeant, and a driver, usually a corporal. Each tank was
equipped with a 37mm cannon or a French Hotchkiss
8mm machine gun. Communicating inside the tanks
proved difficult. Completely closed in, with little light
seeping through, early tankers devised a primitive but
effective way to communicate. Unable to talk because of
the noisy engines, the gunner would kick the driver in the
back of the head to go forward, a kick on his head to stop,
and a kick on either right or left shoulder to go left or
right. Prior to the use of radio communication, this was
the best the tankers could do.
With heavy and light tanks selected, the Tank Corps
began to organize and produce its own tanks. Unfortunately for the Americans, manufacturers at home were ill
prepared for the large task aheadonly 26 ever arrived
in Europe. To supply the AEF with the tanks it needed,
the U.S. government reached an agreement with Allied
Commander in Chief Marshal Ferdinand Foch for the
transfer of existing light and heavy tanks to the Americans.
With the tanks on order, the Tank Corps had to grow
into a fully operational branch of the AEF. Colonel Samuel
D. Rockenbach was formally appointed chief of the Tank
Corps on December 22. Rockenbach, a graduate of Vir-

ginia Military Institute, was 22 years older than Patton

and his opposite in almost every way. A stoic, even-tempered figure, Rockenbach lacked a sense of humor and
was chosen not for his great mind but for his work ethic.
At first, Patton and Rockenbachs relationship was rocky,
and Pattons first comments on Rockenbach were
extremely critical. Col. R. is the most contrary old cuss
I ever worked with, he wrote. As soon as you suggest
anything he opposed but after about an hours argument
comes round and proposes the same thing himself. So in
the long run I get my way, but at a great waste of breath.
It is good discipline for me for I have to keep my temper.
As the Tank Corps prepared to begin training, Patton
wrote a paper about light tanks. The 58-page report was,
he bragged, the basis of the U.S. Tank Corps. I think its
the best Technical Paper I ever wrote. The paper dealt
with the mechanical structure of the tank, the organization of tank units, the tactics of tank forces, and methods
of instruction and drill. Patton, while neither a great writer
nor a revolutionary thinker, correctly believed that mobility was the most important factor in a tank. Through
mobility, he said, the tank could attack quickly, and with
its increased speed and maneuverability, the tank would
face less fire and be less vulnerable to enemy attacks.
The most insightful aspect of Pattons paper dealt with
tactics and training. While a firm believer in the weapons
power, he also believed that tanks should function as an
aid for infantry. The main tactical value of a tank was to
WORLD WAR I 22

help the infantry advance by running over barbed wire,

preventing the enemy from manning trench defenses,
shielding infantry from enemy machine-gun fire, neutralizing enemy strongholds, preventing counterattacks, and
seizing the initiative and attacking beyond the final objective. While most tanks in World War I were inserted piecemeal, Patton correctly believed that tanks should be
employed en masse.
Finding the land on which to train tankers proved to be
difficult. For the training center, Patton chose Bourg, a
small village five miles south of Langres. The ground was
level and perfect for tank training, and a lone railroad
track was beneficial in getting troops and eventually tanks
to the center. At first, the French refused to allow the AEF
access to the land. This infuriated Patton, who felt that
the French were acting more like enemies than allies. We
are more or less held up now by the French who seem to
put every obstacle in the way of our getting the ground
we want for Tank center, he groused. You would think
they were doing us a great favor to let us fight in their
damn country. Displaying great diplomatic patience, Patton was able to secure the land, and by January the tank
school was becoming a reality.
The next month, Patton learned of his promotion to
major. He immediately pinned two golden oak leaves on
his shoulders signifying his rank. Unlike most officers during this time, Patton wore his rank proudly and never
feared the Germans penchant for shooting officers. Soon,
he had the tank school up and running. With over 200
men in training at Bourg, Patton provided the best learning environment he could for his troops. Kept busy
around the clock, a typical day for soldiers in the tank
school began at 8:20 for morning drills, followed by closeorder drills, exercises on saluting at 8:35, then calisthenics
and fitness drills at 10:05, instruction in guard duty and
military courtesy at 10:45, followed by foot drill at 11:20.
After recess and lunch, officers were required to receive
pistol instruction at 1 PM, followed by machine-gun and
foot drill at 1:50 and theory and operation classes from
2:50 to 4. The rest of the day, the soldiers were expected
to keep the training center in shipshape order.
In March, Patton and Rockenbach spent a week in England attempting to get some modifications for their tanks.
I argued in favor of four speeds, Patton recalled, but
was ruled an ass. Following the trip, Rockenbach made
his first inspection of the tank school and was extremely
impressed. After the visit, Patton was in rare form, giving

a speech on discipline. Lack of discipline in war means

death or defeat, which is worse than death, he warned.
The prize for this war is the greatest of all prizesfreedom. It is by discipline alone that all your efforts, all your
patriotism, shall not have been in vain. Without it heroism is futile. You will die for nothing. With discipline you
are irresistible.
On March 19, Patton received word that he had been
promoted to lieutenant colonel, and he was further elated
to hear that 10 Renault tanks were on their way to Bourg.
Following a few weeks of training with actual tanks, he
and his troops put on their first demonstration on April
22. The demonstration went extremely well, and Patton
noted, The show came off all right except that it was
raining hard and very cold so that one got stuck in a shell
hole but I had a reserve one ready and every thing went
on fine. To celebrate the schools success, six days later
Patton organized the 1st Light Tank Battalion, with himself as battalion commander.
While happy with the tank schools progress, Patton
grew bored with the safety of rear duty and longed for a
glimpse of the front. I am getting ashamed of myself
when I think of all the fine fighting and how little I have
had to do with, he told his wife. On May 21, he finally
had a chance to travel to the front. Traveling with a
French major named La Favre, Patton once got within
200 yards of the German line. Willing to risk his life for
a bit of fun, La Favre turned sarcastically toward the German line and exposed his bottom to enemy fire as he
adjusted his leggings. Patton, not to be outdone, took off
his helmet, lit a cigarette, and began to smoke. Luckily
for both La Favre and Patton, German sharpshooters disdained to fire on the two show-offs.
Returning from his trip, Patton reorganized the tank
school and formed a second battalion. As the equivalent
of a regimental commander, he appointed a chief of staff,
adjutant, reconnaissance officer and supply officer. He
placed Captain Joseph Viner in command of the 1st Battalion, also named the 344th Tank Battalion, and Captain
Sereno Brett in command of the 2nd Battalion, also named
the 345th Tank Battalion. In June, Patton accepted a spot
at the Army General Staff College in Langres. While busy
with the tank school and not really interested in staff duty,
he decided to take the class because most general officers
had taken it. On August 20, while still in class, Patton
received an urgent message: You will report at once to
the Chief of Tank Corps accompanied by your Reconnaissance officer and equipped for field service. For Patton,
WORLD WAR I 23

it was a dream come true. For the first time in his life, he
would lead large numbers of men into battle.
By the late summer of 1918, the AEF had grown large
enough to participate fully in the war. Although divisions
had been pushed into battle to stop the German summer
offensive, the St. Mihiel attack would be the first major
engagement the AEF would participate in as a whole.
Located 20 miles southeast of Verdun, the town of St.
Mihiel had fallen into German hands in 1914. Four years
later, the Germans still held on to 150 square miles of
French territory. While cutting off the salient was important, the real prize was the ancient fortress of Metz, 30 miles
beyond St. Mihiel. The original plan called for an all-out
attack on St. Mihiel, with 15 American divisions and four
French divisions moving against the flanks of the salient.
Unfortunately, French and British fear caused a change
in the plan. Supported by Foch, Haig believed that a complete breakthrough of the St. Mihiel salient was risky and
unnecessary. Instead of pushing forward with a breakthrough, the armies would stop and prepare for the major
engagement against the Hindenburg Line. The new plan
called for the forces to free the railroad through St. Mihiel
to Verdun and to establish a base for further operations.
After cutting off the salient, the AEF would reorganize
and swing north to the Meuse-Argonne Hindenburg Line.
Patton set out to see the terrain on which his beloved
tanks would fight. During the last week of August, Patton
and some French soldiers explored the section designated
for the Tank Corps. Patton found the ground soft, but he
decided that it was suitable for tank use. With this knowledge in hand, he set about devising his own plan for his
tanks. The plan called for Pattons 1st Tank Brigade to
support the 1st and 42nd Divisions, which were located
almost directly in the center of IV Corps. Meanwhile, the
AEF received 225 light tanks from the French. Out of the
225 light tanks, Patton got 144 of them and planned to
put them all to use. Before going into battle, he gave
another grandiloquent speech. American tanks do not
surrender, he roared. As long as one tank is able to
move it must go forward. Its presence will save the lives
of hundreds of infantry and kill many Germans. Finally,
this is our big chance. Make it worthwhile.
The day of attack arrived. On September 12, 550,000
doughboys and 3.3 million artillery rounds launched their
attack on the St. Mihiel salient. Patton wrote in his diary,
When the shelling first [started] I had some doubts about
the advisability of sticking my head over the parapet, but
it is just like taking a cold bath, once you get in its all

Pulling a tank out of a ditch during the American attack on the German line at the St. Mihiel salient.

right. And I soon got out on the parapet. By 9:15, Patton

was growing weary of staying behind the lines. The excitement of the battle and the urge to prove his courage were
too much for him to ignore. He decided to leave his command post and see for himself what was going on.
Patton moved on foot toward the action and immediately saw the wrath of war as the dead lay scattered across
the field. As for his tanks, he came upon a few stuck in
the mud and trenches, but in general the tanks were performing well. Patton eventually met up with some French
tankers under his command around the town of St. Baussant, and he also encountered Brig. Gen. Douglas
MacArthur, commander of the 84th Brigade. The two
conversed on a hill as bullets whizzed by. I joined him
and the creeping barrage came along toward us, Patton
recalled. We stood and talked but neither was much
interested in what the other said as we could not get our
minds off the shells. One well-placed artillery round on
that cold, rainy, September day could well have changed
the course of World War II.
After talking with MacArthur, Patton moved on toward
WORLD WAR I 24

the action. In Essey, he met some American soldiers who

were afraid to cross a bridge a French soldier had told
them was mined. This made me mad, Patton said, so
I led them through on foot but there was no danger as the
Bosch [was] shelling the next town. After crossing the
bridge, he hitched a ride on a nearby tank. A few miles
out of town, while still on the top of the tank, Patton
noticed paint chips beginning to fly off the tankhe
couldnt hear anything over the noiseand immediately
jumped off the vehicle into a shell hole. Unfortunately for
Patton, the tank crew did not notice his hurried departure
and went on, leaving him in a wide-open field with
infantry troops still 600 yards behind. Stuck in the shell
hole, Patton again pressed his luck. The bright thought
occurred to me that I could move across the front in an
oblique fashion and not appear to run from the Germans
yet at the same time get back, he recalled. Finally I
decided that I could get back obliquely. So I started listening for the machine guns with all my ears. As soon as the
m.g.s opened I would lay down and beat the bullets each
time. Some time I will figure the speed of sounds and bullets and see if I was right. It is the only use I know of that
math has ever been to me.
After his narrow escape, Patton rejoined the infantry
and began organizing an attack of the town of Beney.
Around 3 PM, exhausted and content with the progression
of the battle, he sat down for his first meal, only to find
that a mischievous German POW had replaced the food
in his hamper sack with rocks. He made do with some
crackers taken from a dead German. Following the successful attack on Beney, both the 1st and 2nd Tank Battalions settled in for the night. The next day, Patton and
his tanks moved forward against little German resistance.
On September 14, his forces pushed aside German resistance and captured the town of Jonville.
For the Allies, the battle of St. Mihiel was a tremendous
success. More than 16,000 Germans were captured, along
with 450 guns; and more than 7,000 Germans were killed,
wounded, or missing. Only a few hundred American
deaths were reported. Of Pattons 174 tanks engaged in
the battle, three were destroyed, 22 were ditched, and 14
broke down. With only five killed in action and 19
wounded, Pattons tank forces had done extremely well.
The performance of the tanks, while far from perfect,
proved to doubters that tanks were an important and
powerful weapon, not just a laboring machine.
Patton believed that he and his forces had done well but

could do better. Personally, Patton had shown great

courage under fire and tremendous leadership qualities.
Rockenbach, however, believed Pattons conduct during
the battle was less than exemplary. As a tank brigade commander, he felt that Pattons duty was at headquarters,
not running around in a field chasing tanks. In Rockenbachs reprimand of Pattons conduct, he listed three
points: 1. The five light tanks of a platoon had to work
together and not be allowed to be split up. 2. When a tank
brigade was allotted to a corps, the commander was to
remain at the corps headquarters or be in close telephonic
communications with it. 3. I wish you would especially
impress on your men that they are fighting [with] tanks,
they are not infantry, and any man who abandons his tank
will in the future be tried. Pattons personal leadership
during the battle endeared him to his soldiers. While
Rockenbach considered Pattons wandering off to the
front line a weakness, others considered it a strength.
George Patton was always on the front lines, never in
the rear with the Red Cross, wrote Captain Viner. That
was one of the secrets to his greatness.
With the St. Mihiel salient closed, the AEF immediately
readied itself for the next move, the Meuse-Argonne offensive. For that attack, 10 divisions planned to attack in the
first wave, while eight others waited in reserve. Collectively, the AEF faced 18 well-trained German divisions.
Following an artillery bombardment, the American forces
were to attack a 20-mile-wide, 13-mile-long area.
Throughout the area were countless German defense fortifications, dugouts, and other obstacles. Patton devised a
plan for a concentrated tank thrust through the enemy
defenses. The 1st Tank Brigade was ordered to support
the 28th and 35th Divisions of I Corps as they attacked
from the west. The two units would break out of the line
and advance as far as they could.
The attack started on September 26 as the artillery bombardment broke through the heavy fog. Around 6 AM, Patton seemingly disregarded Rockenbachs advice and reprimand and left his command post to see how his tanks
were performing. Once again traveling on foot, Patton followed tank tracks on the Clermont-Neuvilly-BoureuillesVarennes road, and after a few kilometers met up with
some of his tanks. Almost immediately German artillery
shells hit and were followed by machine-gun fire. After
ordering everyone to hit the dirt, Patton ordered all ground
troops toward a railroad cut.
Once in the safety of the cut, Patton waited for the firing
to end. While waiting for the attack to subside, more and
WORLD WAR I 25

An American tank moves to the front past German

prisoners carrying their wounded to the rear on
the first morning of the attack at St. Mihiel.

more infantry troops began running from the front, seeking

protection in the cut. With the attack dying down, Patton
noticed tanks stopped before a large trench. Seizing a lull
in the German bombardment, he organized the infantrymen and marched them to the trench. As they approached
the trench, Patton ordered all to hit the dirt again, as
machine-gun bullets flew over their heads.
After the fire died down again, Patton immediately
ordered the men to help get the tanks across the trench,
and the men began to tear down the trench walls. The
Germans began another barrage, and machine-gun fire
burst out from the front. Unmoved by the firing, Patton
ordered his troops to hold their ground and continue digging. While some continued to dig, others fled back to the
railroad cut. Patton, angry at their lack of courage, continued to dig and even hit a few soldiers over the head
with a shovel to keep them working. With the fire increasing and more troops falling on the side of him, he pushed
forward, yelling, To hell with them, they cant hit me!
Finally the tanks advanced past the trenches, and Patton
readied himself and his motley group of soldiers to
advance. Waving his big walking stick over his head, he
tried to rally the troops and shouted, Lets go get them!
Whos with me? Caught in the moment, 100 soldiers
jumped to their feet and ran down the hill with Patton.
German machine-gun fire increased fantastically, causing

Patton and his soldiers to hit the dirt after only 50 yards.
With machine-gun fire growing stronger by the minute,
Patton had a sudden vision: I felt a great desire to run, I
was trembling with fear when suddenly I thought of my
progenitors and seemed to see them in a cloud over the
German lines looking at me. I became calm at once and
saying aloud, It is time for another Patton to die. [I]
called for volunteers and went forward to what I honestly
believed to be certain death. Six men went with me; five
were killed.
Patton quickly picked himself up, waved his walking
stick, and shouted to the six men following him, Lets go,
lets go! As the other men quickly fell, Pattons orderly,
Private First Class Joseph T. Angelo, wondered what the
lunatic was trying to prove, armed with only a walking
stick. Forced to take cover with Angelo in a shell hole, Patton once again tried to advance. A few seconds later, he felt
a shock of a bullet enter his leg. Struggling to move, Patton
managed to crawl back in the shell hole with Angelo.
Angelo managed to bandage his wound, and the two
awaited help. After a few hours, the fire abated and Patton,
still conscious, was placed on a stretcher and taken to the
medic tent.
Injured and suffering from massive blood loss, Patton
ordered the medics to take him to the 35th Division headquarters so he could give his report of the front. After
WORLD WAR I 26

reporting to the headquarters, Patton was sent to Hospital

Number 11 for immediate surgery. The next morning he
awoke, dazed but otherwise feeling rather good. The bullet
had entered his left thigh and exited two inches to the left
of his rectum. Patton wrote home to tell his wife that he
was missing half my bottom but otherwise all right.
Once again, Pattons tanks proved their worth. Overall
the two battles, St. Mihiel and the Meuse-Argonne offensive cost the AEF 117,000 casualities, but they inflicted
100,000 casualties on the enemy while 26,000 prisoners,
874 cannons, and 3,000 machine guns were captured. The
two battles helped push the Germans to the brink of
defeat. For Patton, however, the war was over.
A few days after being wounded, Patton was proud to
read stories of his death-defying exploits. The headline
of one story read, Col. Patton, Hero of Tanks, Hit by
BulletCrawled into Shell Hole and Directed Monsters
in Argonne Battle. While thrilled with what he had done
so far, Patton was slightly depressed, writing to his wife,
I feel terribly to have missed all the fighting. Bored
with hospital life and frustrated by not being able to fight,
he was cheered by another promotionthis time to
colonel. To his immense gratification, he was also
awarded both the Distinguished Service Medal and Distinguished Service Cross, and he wore them with pride
for the remainder of his life.
The war ended while Patton was still recovering, and he
noted almost sadly in his diary: Peace was signed and
Langres was very excited. Many flags. Got rid of my
bandage. After getting out of the hospital and writing
his numerous reports, Patton returned to his tanks, but
without the war his job was boring, and he was saddened
as many of his soldiers left for home. He remained in
France for months after the war, and he prepared to leave
with his brigade around March. Patton left aboard the SS
Patria on March 1 and arrived in New York with much
fanfare on March 17, 1919. Swamped by numerous newspaper reporters, Patton was quoted in the New York
Evening Mail as saying, The tank is only used in extreme
cases of stubborn resistance. They are the natural answer
to the machine gun, and as far as warfare is concerned,

A tank joins a mixed convoy of vehicles and horses at Essey, France.

have come to stay just as much as the airplanes have.

The war was over, the Allies had won, and Patton had
surpassed all expectations. The beginning of the Patton
legend was born. World War I reinforced what Patton had
trained his whole life to become, a battlefield commander.
The Great War showed him for the first time to be a fine
officer and leader of troops. Almost single-handedly, he
had created a tank school and trained the 1st Tank
Brigade. He had learned how to command and motivate
troops and, ultimately, how to lead them in combat.
Everything Patton did in World War II started in World
War I. Indeed, it is hard to imagine General Patton rolling
victoriously across Germany in 1945 had not Colonel Patton first slogged through the mud in France in 1918.

WORLD WAR I 27

Waterloo. Normandy. Agincourt. Gettysburg.

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Hitler in WWI
AN OBSCURE WOULD-BE ARTIST WAS CHANGED FOREVER BY HIS HORRIFIC
EXPERIENCES IN THE GERMAN TRENCHES OF WORLD WAR I.
By Kirk A. Freeman

In the months before the outbreak of World War I, 25year-old Adolf Hitler was living the starving artists life in
the Bavarian city of Munich, selling his paintings door-todoor and in the citys numerous beer halls. Hitler had fled
to Munich from Vienna in 1913 to avoid being drafted
into the Austrian Army, which he felt allowed too many
mixed bloods and different cultures into the ranks. Austrian author-ities caught up with him six months before
the start of the war and forced him to take a physical
exam to see if he was fit to serve. Ironically, Hitler was

deemed too weak for armed or auxiliary service, unfit

to bear arms.
Hitler learned of the assassination of Archduke Franz
Ferdinand when his landlady, Frau Popp, burst into his
room in hysterics and shouted, The Austrian heir to the
throne has just been murdered! According to Hitler, he
dropped to his knees and thanked heaven for letting him
be there during a time when Germany would be fighting
to save itself. He then rushed out into the street to blend
into the quickly gathering crowd in the Odeonsplatz. A

German soldiers wear gas masks in the trenches in this 1917 painting by French artist Francois Flameng. Adolf Hitler was gassed and temporarily blinded in August 1918. INSET: A battle-hardened Hitler on convalescent leave in Berlin in October 1916. It was during this period that
he developed a pathological hatred of Jews.
WORLD WAR I 29

ABOVE: Hitler, circled, was among the crowd of patriotic zealots in

Vienna celebrating the beginning of World War in August 1914.
BELOW: One of Hitlers student paintings. Scholars have judged the
future fuehrers work pedestrian and uninspired.

photograph taken at the time shows a jubilant, sallowfaced Hitler in the crowd celebrating the coming war.
Hitlers life of loneliness and insignificance was about to
end.
Hitler tried to enlist in the 1st Bavarian Infantry on
August 5, but he was sent away because the Army had
more volunteers than it needed. A fortnight later he was
summoned to report to Recruiting Depot VI in Munich
and enlisted as private No. 148 in the 1st Company, 16th
Bavarian Reserve Infantry Regiment. Also enlisted in the
regiment was Lieutenant Rudolf Hess, later to become
deputy fhrer of Nazi Germany, and Sgt. Maj. Max
Amann, later in charge of the Nazi press.
Between August 16 and October 8, Hitler and his comrades were stationed at Oberweisenfeld Barracks for training in weapons and marching. A comrade named Hans
Mend later wrote that when Hitler was issued his rifle he
looked at it with delight, as a woman looks at her jewelry,
which made me laugh. The regiment had heart and spunk,
but not much more. Lieutenant Fritz Weidemann, a professional soldier, noted that the regimental commander had
not been on active service in years and that most of the
company commanders were former reservists without any
combat experience. Weidemann also noted that the training
was quick and inadequate, that the regiment had few
machine guns, and that none of the soldiers had an iron
helmet; instead they wore oilcloth caps in 19th-century

Napoleonic style.
On October 9, the regiment marched out of Munich for
the trip to Camp Lechfeld, 70 miles to the west. In full
combat gear, the men marched in a continuous rain for
11 hours. In a letter to Frau Popp, Hitler reported that
his company was put up in a barn for the night, but that
no one could sleep because they were soaked through and
shivering from the cold. Late the next day the regiment
arrived at its destination. On October 21, the regiment
boarded railcars for transport to the front. The men sang
The Watch on the Rhine and broke into cheers when
they finally saw the great riverthe first time that most
of them (including Hitler) had ever seen the Rhine.
The next day the men disembarked from the train and,
after reorganizing, marched to Lille, Belgium, which had
been recaptured by the Germans from the British. On the
23rd, the regiment marched through the desolate town.
Hitler became nervous when British shells began to land,
since the town was full of ammunition carts and soldiers.
The shelling did not last long, and the men bedded down
on the wet and cold flagstones of the towns streets.
On October 25, at 3 AM, the regiment entered its first
battle, arriving just in time to join the German assault during the first phase of the Battle of Ypres. The regiments
objective was to take a farmhouse and the edge of the
woods beyond the house, about half a mile from the German lines. A heavy fog had risen, forcing a delay in the
attack timetable while others rounded up the lost battalions. At dawn the attack began, but a few steps out the
regiment came under intense fire from the right. In the fog
and confusion, the regimental hats that Weidemann had
complained about brought trouble. A regiment of Wrttemburg troops on the regiments right thought the Bavarians were British and opened fire, inflicting heavy casual-

WORLD WAR I 30

ities. Hitler and his friend Ernst Schmidt threw their caps
away instantly and ran to the rear headquarters to report
the situation and stop the slaughter. The first hour the regiment spent in combat, it lost many valuable men, including the regimental commander, to friendly fire.
After this incident the attack proper began, with the
British dropping artillery shells into the assaulting
columns. The men crawled into shallow dugouts and shell
holes to escape the flying shrapnel, before racing to a small
farmhouse in the middle of the field and crawling into a
ditch. During this assault, Hitlers platoon leader was
killed, as were most of the noncommissioned officers. In
all, it took five bloody assaults to take the edge of the forest. The final assault ended in hand-to-hand combat, and
Hitler was surprised when he jumped into the British
trench and made a soft landinghe had landed on a
British corpse.
This was the only battle in which Hitler fought as a true
frontline soldier. For his bravery and soldierly conduct, the
new regimental commander, Lt. Col. Philipp Engelhardt,
recommended Hitler as a dispatch runner (Meldegnger)
to serve at regimental headquarters. Someone also recommended Hitler and Schmidt for the Iron Cross, although
neither received the decoration. Of the 3,600 men who
marched out of camp with the regiment, 373 men were
killed in the first three weeks of fighting. Hitlers uncanny
luck began in his first battle. At one point, a shell exploded
near him; it killed another soldier, but Hitler only had a
sleeve ripped away.
On November 3, Hitler and his friends Ernst Schmidt
and Ignaz Westenkirchner were officially assigned as dispatch runners (eight runners were needed per regiment).
This was not a cushy job but a highly dangerous responsibility. Early in the war, dispatch runners traveled in pairs,
armed only with pistols and carrying a leather wallet
attached to their belts marked XXX for urgent, XX for
quick, and X for in your own time. A runner ran
hunched forward through trenches and dived into shell
holes, then sprang up between artillery salvos and sprinted
to the next trench, all the while hoping he had properly
calculated the timing between shells. On Hitlers first run
during the Battle of Messines, six miles southwest of
Ypres, three runners were killed and one wounded of the
eight on staff. On the second day, the regimental commander was wounded near Hitler and Schmidt; under
heavy fire, Hitler and Westenkirchner carried their
wounded commander to an aid station. Hitler was promoted to corporal for bravery.

Adolf Hitler, right, as a corporal in the Bavarian 16th Reserve Infantry Regiment.

A few days later, Engelhardt went to inspect the British

position and took Hitler and Hitlers friend Balthasar
Brandymayer with him. At the edge of a wood, Engelhardt stepped out to see the British trenches better and
instantly drew fire. Hitler and Brandymayer stepped in
front to protect Englehardt from harm, before dragging
their commander to a nearby ditch. The next day, Hitler
and several others were called to headquarters and told
that they had been recommended for the Iron Cross. It
was Hitlers second nomination in two months. When
four more company commanders arrived, Hitler and the
others left to give the officers room. Five minutes later a
British shell hit the tent, killing most of the men inside
and severely wounding Engelhardt.
On December 2, Hitler was decorated with the Iron
Cross 2nd Class. Later, he called it the happiest day of
my life. His self-esteem had received its first real boost.
The regiment was pulled back from the front for rest and
refitting just after Christmas. It was during this pause that
men began to notice Hitlers eccentric behavior. During
lulls in combat, he was either reading philosophical works
or sketching and painting with a box of watercolors he
always carried. Hitler was considered odd because he
never drank, smoked, or showed any interest in women.
When others talked of the French women, Hitler would
leave the group in disgust. If he saw a soldier flirting with
a French woman, he would reprimand the soldier for
hours about the sins of the flesh. At the same time, comWORLD WAR I 31

Dead German soldiers litter the battlefield at the Somme. Hitler was wounded twice but miraculously escaped a similar fatemuch to the
worlds later regret.

rades noted Hitler for being kind to enemy captives and

civilians, even attending funeral services for downed
enemy airmen to pay his respects.
Hitler rarely received mail or wrote any letters himself.
During a lull in the fighting and for refitting from the front
in late1914, Hitler received a parcel filled with treats and
breads from a baker he knew in Munich. He quickly wrote
the baker to thank him, but instructed him never to write
him again. When comrades asked Hitler about his home,
his response was always the same, that the regiment was
his home.
On February 11, 1915, Hitler was sitting in a dugout
when an enemy shell struck. Several men were killed and
wounded, but Hitler escaped with only a small scratch to
his face. This was the third time that Hitlers luck held for
him. Hitlers only true friend was a small dog that had
wandered in from the English side and fell into the German trenches. Hitler named the dog Foxy, and for the
next few years it was his closest companion.
In March, the regiment was sent into the trenches near
Fromelles, France, to defend a two-mile trench line against
the British and French. In May, the Allies launched an
attack and the Germans counterattacked. Hitler was in the
thick of the fighting. He took on extra duties that put him
near the front, close enough that he personally captured

three French prisoners by July. The extra duties took their

toll on Hitler, but he never shirked from danger. When the
British broke through the lines one day, Hitler was the only
volunteer to take a message to the front. No one expected
to see him alive again, and everyone was surprised when
he returned with a message from the frontline command.
Once again, Hitlers uncanny luck held out. He was eating
with some men in a dugout when he heard a voice telling
him to move to another dugout. Five minutes later a shell
exploded in the dugout, killing everyone in it.
The regiment remained near Fromelles for most of 1916
and was involved in the spring and summer offensives. In
July, Hitler dragged a fellow runner back to the trenches
during a heavy artillery barrage. On September 27, the
regiment was pulled out of the lines in Flanders and sent
to the Somme. The area was a living hell. At 5 AM on
October 5, Hitler was caught out in the open under a
British rolling barrage and severely wounded in the thigh
by shrapnel. He lay there for hours until a few comrades
went to find him and brought him in.
Hitler begged Lieutenant Fritz Weidemann to let him
stay with the regiment, but by the 9th, Hitler was on a
hospital train back to Germany. This was the first time he
had been away from the front in two years, and the civilian world shocked him. When Hitler was being removed
WORLD WAR I 32

A battle-hardened Hitler, far left, on convalescent leave in Berlin in October 1916. It was during this period that he developed a pathological
hatred of Jews. FAR RIGHT: Corporal Hitler, far left, poses with a group of fellow soldiers and their mascot, Foxy, at the front.

from the train to an aid station, the first thing he heard

was a German womans voice. This astounded himhe
had not heard a German-speaking woman in two years.
When aid workers placed Hitler on clean sheets, he was
afraid of getting them dirty and had trouble sleeping in a
bed after so many months at the front.
It was during this time that Hitler began developing an
irrational hatred of anything he saw as impure. When
he toured Berlin, he was appalled at the grumbling and
griping of the civilians and notedso he claimedthat
every clerk was a Jew and every Jew a clerk. He accused
the Jews of shirking from duty. This was untrue. Statistically speaking, the percentage of Jewish soldiers in the
German Army was nearly the same as the percentage of
Aryans, with the same casualty rates.
After he had recovered enough to walk, Hitler was
assigned light duty in the 2nd Bavarian Infantry Regiment.
It was there that Hitler grew his distinctive moustache,
which was popular among English soldiers. Hitler wrote
continuously to Weidemann, begging for his help to get
back to the front. Weidemann came through in March

1917, and Hitler gladly returned to the regiment. When

Hitler returned, Foxy began to jump around excitedly.
Hitler was in great spirits; a few soldiers even saw him
laughing while playing with the dog. That night Hitler,
armed with a flashlight and bayonet, was heard stabbing
rats late into the night until someone chucked a boot at
him.
On March 4, the regiment returned to the front lines a
few miles north of Vimy. Heavy rains had turned the shell
holes into deep ponds and quagmires of mud that could
suck a man under. In the trenches, soldiers forced their
way through mud and cold water that rose past their
knees. At the beginning of June, the regiment was sent to
Flanders to help repulse a British offensive near Ypres.
In August, the regiment was pulled from the line and sent
to Alsace to regroup. On the train ride, a French railroad
official offered Hitler 200 marks for his dog. Hitler refused,
saying that the dog was worth more to him than 200,000
marks. When he got off the train, Hitler could not find
Foxy and began to hunt everywhere for his pet. He never
found him. While he was hunting, someone pilfered his
WORLD WAR I 33

knapsack and stole his painting supplies and sketchbook.

Hitler never painted again. Of the missing Foxy, he wrote
later, The swine who took him from me doesnt know
what he did to me.
An increasingly distraught Hitler began to show some
of the psychopathic qualities that people would attribute
to him later. Up to then, he had never said anything negative about the Jews to his comrades, but now he began
to make increasingly inflammatory remarks. To tease him,
the men would bemoan the war and gleefully watch Hitler
fume about how the Germans could not afford to lose. In
September, Hitler was decorated a second time with the
Cross of Merit 3rd Class with Swords for valorous service.
At the end of September, he took an 18-day leave and
went to Berlin, staying with a comrades parents. According to his postcards, he enjoyed the sights and hoped to
return to Berlin after the war.
In March 1918, the Germans launched their last great
offensive of the war and morale was high. Hitlers regiment took part in the Second Battle of the Marne and sustained heavy losses; this action went on until Allied counterattacks halted the German offensive after 800,000
German casualties in four months. During this time, Hitler
overheard a new recruit spewing derogatory statements.
He confronted the recruit and a vicious fistfight broke
out, with Hitler emerging victorious.
In July, while running a dispatch, Hitler came upon the
commander of 9th Company, who had been wounded by
an American shell. He half carried, half dragged the officer
to the rear. Later that month, the regiments 1st Battalion
suffered under an intense bombardment and was raked
by heavy machine-gun fire. The battalion had advanced
so far that their own artillery was shelling their position.
The battalion commander, Hugo Gutmann, promised
Hitler the Iron Cross 1st Class if he could get a message
to the artillery to quit shelling the forward positions.
Hitler miraculously made it through and Gutmann kept
his word. In later years, Hitler maintained that he had
personally captured 10 French prisoners to win the decoration, a transparent attempt to hide the fact that he gotten his medal upon the recommendation of a Jewish officer.

On August 4, 1918, Hitler received the Iron Cross 1st

Class, a decoration that few nonofficers ever received.
This was the last decoration that Hitler received during
the war. Nine days later, near La Montagne, the regiment
was hit hard by a chlorine gas attack that seeped into
many of the mens gas masks. Hitler was blinded by the
gas and stumbled back in a blind-line in which each
man held onto the coat of the man in front of him as they
walked single-file to the rear. While Hitler lay in the hospital recovering, a local minister came into the ward on
November 10 to announce that the war was ending the
next day at 11 AM. The Kaiser, he said, had fled Germany.
Hitler was so shocked that he buried his head in a pillow
and went into psychosomatic blindness for a week.
Throughout the rest of his life, Hitler remained proud of
his military record and mentioned it frequently. He would
not tolerate any opinion that might smudge his military
career or personal image (real or imagined). When former
comrade Hans Mend published an unflattering eyewitness
accounts about Hitler in World War I (including a homosexual affair that Hitler allegedly had with another soldier),
Mend quickly disappeared into a reeducation camp in
1938, never to be heard from again. Other former comrades did not talk about the Hitler they had known in
World War I.
During World War I, Hitler rose from an insignificant,
unknown, struggling artist to a decorated, angry veteran.
During 45 months and 36 major battles, he developed the
personality characteristics that later haunted the world.
His regiment suffered 3,754 casualties, including several
of Hitlers friends. There is no record of Hitler ever killing
a man in combat. He was more frequently remembered
as a nice chap, one who wrote poetry, read, sketched, and
painted in his off hours. Serving in the army gave Hitler
a self-confidence he never had before. Using his newfound
self-assurance, he began to rally his countrymen with the
blind rage and hatred that propelled Germany and the
rest of the world toward the darkest days of the 20th century. It all began with Hitlers grueling experiences in
World War I.

WORLD WAR I 34

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