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Recommend a Worthwhile Passage to Send

The Angels of Mons

Recommend a Worthwhile Passage to Send

The University of Rhode Island’s Alumni Association (my BA and MA are from URI) asked me to send a 400 word selection from The Angel of Mons: A World War I Legend to publish in the quarterly Quadangles, thealumni magazine. Instead of picking one myself, I want readers to recommend a worthwhile passage to send.

A Reward for Each Suggestion — The Angel of Mons Apocrypha

Six chapters were omitted from the novel for a variety of reasons, but are interesting nonetheless. Four are versions of the first chapter. “Song of the Vickers Guns” (16 pages), “We English are Here,” Their Presence Said, “And Many Will Follow, and Soon” (16 pages), “To Mons” (31 pages). The first actual chapter is none of these.

Two are from elsewhere in the book. These are “William Butler Yeats and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Attempt to Set Things Straight with George Bernard Shaw” (11 pages), and “Ypres, the Wipers Viper, and the Angels Teach the Skeptic Sewell Macmaster” (21 pages).

Readers suggesting a selection for the Quadangle can pick one of the four. You will receive it as a .pdf file.

Two Major Collections Add The Angel of Mons: A First World War I Legend

The Angels of Mons, , , , ,

At the Toronto Public Library The Arthur Conan Doyle Collection, one of the most important

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Doyle and Doyle-related collections in the world, has added a copy of The Angel of Mons: A First World War I Legend.

Conan Doyle and his family appear in five chapters in the book. Three feature Conan Doyle’s brother in-law, Captain Malcolm Leckie, RAMC. Sherlock Holmes appears in two.

www.acdfriends.org

 

                                       Two official notices about Dr. Malcolm Leckie
                    Dr. Malcolm Leckie, Battalion, Royal Fusiliers. Royal Army Medical Corps.   malcolm leckie               Supernumerary Captain, Restored to the establishment. Returned in February. 1914

Daily Chronicle

              Malcolm Leckie Burial, after Aug 28, 1914, Register B 202, Plot 1, row B. Grave 1.            Frameries Communal Cemetery. Age 34.
            8 December, 1914. DSO. First British Medical Officer to die in the war
            London Gazette

The Joseph M. Bruccoli Great War Collection in the Ernest F. Hollings Collections Library, University of South Carolina has also added The Angel of Mons to the collection.

Four documents are the foundation for the legend.

1) Arthur Machen’s “The Bowmen”,
2) Phyllis Campbell’s account in the Occult Review,
3) “The Angel Warriors at Mons”

including numerous confirmatory testimonies,
Evidence of the Wounded
And certain Curious Historical Parallels
An Authentic Record by Ralph Shirley,
editor of The Occult Review

4) Harold Begbie’s On The Side of Angels (1915)

Several of these are in the collection. The Great War Collection added The Angel of Mons, not because the book is rare, but because it recognizes the library’s resources being put to use.

People Believe that St. George and his Angels Saved the British

The Angels of Mons, ,

I give the impression in all the blogs I have written about The Angel of Mons that from the start the The Angel of Mons: one versionaccount was taken to be a legend, something made up. This is not the case. In England it was taken to be an appearance and an intercession that really took place at the battle of Mons. People from England who I know tell me that at school it was taught as fact. And at the least, they report that the British and German soldiers saw the angels, but what they saw was a hallucination—a result of fatigue, hunger, and thirst, and the terrors of battle. An example: In his introduction to his translation of The Voyage of Argo, the classic poem by Apollonius of Rhodes, E.V. Rieu recounts a scene in which the Argonauts saw a vision of Apollo. Then he wrote, “Our own men in the retreat from Mons had labored even harder (than the Argonauts.) And each party had its own appropriate vision: Angels for the British troops: Apollo for the Greeks.”

Even a classical scholar believed that the soldiers of the British Expeditionary Force reported seeing angels.

Even more closely do the people of Mons hold to the belief that St. George and his angels came to save the British, and, hence, Belgium and Europe.

Please share these blogs with people you think might be interested in reading them. Buy, read, enjoy, and share The Angel of Mons.

 

The Table of Contents

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The Angel Of Mons

Take a look and see this preview of coming attractions.

Table of Contents

BOOK 1

THE ANGEL ST. GEORGE FROM THE CLOUD

Chapter One: The Sun Gaily Passed                                                                      Page 3

 Dusk: The End of the First Day’s Battle – Across the Canal — The Judgment – A Bullet Found Lieutenant Dease

Chapter Two: War will Call Us Soon                                                                    Page 9

Training – The Lectures – Who will be the Top Vickers Teams? – In the Workshop – In the Common Room – Interlude: “The Laughing Husband” and Lord Gooseberry Tart – Gunners Godley and Sanders Report to the Section Leader – On the Firing Range and Fields at Hythe and Grantham – Knackers Hauled a Dozen Dead Horses – The Tournament – Lt. Colonel Norman R. McMahon Congratulates the Winners –Passing out Parade – The Ruffians and Victors Plan their Tableau – Celebration — Next Day, At the Manufactory – Comments, Congratulations, Salutations, and Wishes for Success

 Chapter Three: To Mons                                                                                           Page 34

These Vickers Machine Gun Squads Went on Ahead – Unloading the Limbers – Our Ladies – The Briefing – “Mons Shares St. George with You British”

Chapter Four: The Priest’s Sermon: St. George and Mons                          Page 43

“God and Monseigneurs Saint Georges” – “The Golden Arrows of God”

Chapter Five: The Angel St. George of Mons                                                   Page 49

Preparation – Sunday Morning – By Tonight We Will be Victorious – The Cloud of Dust – Where the Canal Makes a Sharp Turn – On the Slag Heaps –Tommy Atkins’ First Death – At the Victors: St. George and his Horde of Angels Descends

Chapter Six: Across the Canal the Germans Saw The Phenomenon in
the Heavens                                                                                                Page 66

And So They Saw – From Drunk with Gladness to Sober with Grief – Lieutenant Maurice Deasy’s Ascent and Transfiguration – Even German Officers and Staff in the Field Saw the Angel –They Fought through the Hours to the End of Day: The Retirement – Escape into the Twilight and the Night – That Night the British Generals Marched the Exhausted BEF Thirty-two Miles

Chapter Seven: Jeanne d’Arc and the Road Through                                    Page 75

Ahead Lay the Certainty – The Locale – From the Distance Came the Barking of Dogs and Lantern Light – Mongo Black Disappeared into the Gloom, The Victors Following — The Road where No Road Was – The Cyclists – Goullet Goes Forward – The Return – Captain Ashburner’s Conversion – Report to General Smith-Dorrien: A Pawn Offers Itself for Sacrifice – After Prolonged Silence – The Generals’ Meeting – General Smith-Dorrien’s Dream – The General’s Determination – The Ride Back – Protecting the Secret

BOOK 2

DR. MALCOLM LECKIE AND NURSE’S AIDE PHYLLIS CAMPBELL

 Chapter Eight: The Engagement                                                                        Page 101

Captain Malcolm Leckie and his Fiancée, Phyllis Campbell

Chapter Nine: Malcolm Leckie, Prisoner of War                                         Page 107

After Surgery – Another Meeting – “You Saw Them?” “Yes. Clouds Turned to Golden Angels.” – In Parting

Chapter Ten: Greetings and Farewell                                                               Page 114

Malcolm Leckie, Wounded, Returned to British Care – Phyllis Campbell, Nurses’ Aide, Voluntary Aid Detachment, and the Hospital Enquiry Sheets – The Angel of Mons: St. George, Intercessor and Salvation

BOOK 3

ANGELS AT LE CATEAU AND THE VICKERS TEAMS

Chapter Eleven: The Quarry, St. George, and the Angels of the Golden Mist
of Salvation                                                                                        Page 121

Without Pity or Remorse – A Lovely Place. A Deadly March – All that Remained was to Wave the White Flag – The Quarry – To the Bottom – The Problem of Manhandling the Gun to the Quarry Floor – Ziggy and Carmichael down the Wall – Valley of the Shadow of Death – What Tommy Atkins Saw – Tommy Atkins’ Second Encounter with the Divine – The Ascent out of the Pit – Let Death Rest from Toil

Chapter Twelve: St. George and the Angels of the Dark Cloud              Page 136

On this Vast Plain – Two Tethered Bosche Balloons – The Enemy Arrives – The Air Was Still – The Germans Came up to Us – “Angels Saved us Before. Why not Now?” – Herr Lieutenant Sardonic – A Front Row View – The Sky of Three Suns – The Rocks Arise as Soldiers – St. George! In the Flesh! – “Shoot an Angel of God?” – The Onslaught Halted – As Swiftly as they had Come – Souvenirs

BOOK 4

THE ANGEL OF MONS,CONAN DOYLE,W. B. YEATS, AND WINSTON CHURCHILL

Chapter Thirteen: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Captain Leckie’s
Letter from beyond the Grave                                               Page 159

Uncertainty Lay Heavy upon the Heart – Lily Loder-Symmons and Automatic Writing – Captain Leckie’s Handwriting – A Test – The Answer – In the Library

Chapter Fourteen: W. B. Yeats, Arthur Machen’s “The Bowmen” and the Battle of Le Cateau                                                   Page 174

A Heavenly Army Arose to Save Them – Yeats in Mackerson’s Pub – Yeats, the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, and the Angels of the Dark Cloud – Africanus Comes to his Aid – Arthur Machen’s “The Bowmen”

Chapter Fifteen: Yeats Meets Conan Doyle                                                     Page 192

Yeats Worried – A Page Torn from a Doctor’s Prescription Pad

Chapter Sixteen: The Angel of Mons,Winston Churchill
And his Aunt, Lady Janey Campbell                                    Page 196

Lady Campbell’s Note – Tea – On the Way back to his Office

Chapter Seventeen:

First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill
with Conan Doyle and Sherlock Holmes                           Page 204

 Churchill has Much to Tell Doyle and Holmes – Assignments – A Private Matter – Holmes and Churchill Alone – Word of the Angels will Spread – Ready to Depart

 BOOK 5

THE LAST BRITISH SOLDIER KILLED

 Chapter Eighteen: Tommy Atkins: Angel of Memory, Grief, and Tears   Page 217

Before All the Falderal – In the Nuns’ Woods North – Quiet as a Sunday Morn – Not the Last of the Ruffians and Victors – Marching Northwest into Belgium – Tommy Atkins, His Ascension – Tommy Atkins: Angel of Grief, Memory, and Tears – Dear Reader

 

 

 

The 3 D Projection of The Angel of Mons

The Angels of Mons, ,

The Legend of the Angel of Mons In an earlier blog I wrote about seeing a 3-D projection telling a version of the story of the Angel of Mons when we were in Mons, Belgium for the centenary commemorations of the battle.  Here’s a video of the projection.

The text of the video is in French. I knew that I would enjoy the story more if I knew what was being said. I asked a friend, Gail Bienstock, if she could translate the text. She tried to do it by watching the YouTube recording, but found it too difficult. So she sent an e-mail to the Ministry of Culture in Mons asking if she could get a copy of the script. She used my name, which were the magic words. The author sent it to her and she translated it.  Here is the script of La Legende des Anges, in both English and French.

This version, my book The Angel of Mons: A World War Legend, and a graphic novel are all fiction. This version gives a visual depiction, while mine, of course, as a novel, creates a much more detailed version of the events. In any case, enjoy.

 

Who is Real and Who is Made Up?

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Angel of Mons Valse-Cover Art
Angel of Mons Valse-Cover Art

Readers have asked which characters are real people and which fictional creations. Everything portrayed in the novel is fiction. To discover the facts regarding the Angel of Mons I recommend the Angel of Mons by David Clarke. After you read his book you will see what I did with the facts to make them interesting in the novel.

Characters of Historical Significance

 Winston Churchill, First Lord of the Admiralty
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Writer
William Butler Yeats, poet, Hierophant, Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn

Minor Historical Characters

Members of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn

Maude Gonne, Actress, political activist, mystic, subject of many of Yeats’s poems
Florence Farr, Actress, Praemonstratrix
Arthur Machen, writer, author of “The Bowmen”,
Alliester Crowley, mystic, magician
John Todhunter, author, playwright

 The Conan Doyle Circle

Lady Jean Doyle, wife of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Oliver Lodge, physicist, President, British Psychical Society
Miss Lily Symmons-Loder

The Churchill Circle

Lady Archibald Campbell, occultist, aunt of Winston Churchill
Phyllis Campbell, occultist, niece of Lady Campbell, author of an account of St. George’s appearance

Historical Characters, Military

General Horace Smith-Dorrian, in command of II Corps, British Expeditionary Force at Mons and Le Cateau
N.R. McMahon, “the musketry manic”, head of musketry and machine gun training before the war
Captain L.F. Ashburner commanding, 4th Royal Fuliliers
Captain Malcolm Leckie, RAMC. brother in-law of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Quartermaster Fitzpatrick
Lieutenant Maurice Dease, Vickers machine gun squad leader, first recipient of the Victoria Cross
Private Sidney Godley, also at Nimy Bridge, a first recipient of the Victoria Cross
World champion bicycle racers Goullet, France, and Bailey, Australia

Rather than hyperlink each of the names above, I suggest that you google any of the names you would like to learn more about. You can do the same for the three fictional characters in the next group.

Fictional Characters

Sherlock Holmes
St. George
Joan of Arc

Fictional Soldiers

The two Vickers machine gun crews

Ruffians

Lieutenant Dease, Privates Tommy Atkins, William Catchpole, Louis “Ziggy” Palmer, Paul Carmichael

Victors

Sergeant Henry Sanders, Privates Gabriel Jessop, Anthony Hardy, Howard Thomas Lang, Walter Sage, Carrew Nancarrew

You will meet them as you read, and see what each character does.

Sigfried Sassoon: A Continuation of Last Week’s Blog

The Angels of Mons, ,

Last week I wrote about our visit to the canal at Sambre-Oise Canal at Ors where the poet SassoonWilfred Owen was killed. That same afternoon the Bird brothers took us to the Point 110 New Cemetery to talk about the poet Sigfried Sassoon. Sassoon was Owen’s poetic mentor during the war. It is well worth reading about their relationship and the influence Sassoon had on Owen’s poetry. Their experience in the war led to a poetry critical of the war. “Avoiding the sentimentality and jingoism of many war poets, Sassoon wrote of the horror and brutality of trench warfare and contemptuously satirized generals, politicians, and churchmen for their incompetence and blind support of the war. Their view was vastly different from that of the jingoists like Kipling and Rupert Brooke.” Avoiding the sentimentality and jingoism of many war poets, Sassoon wrote of the horror and brutality of trench warfare and contemptuously satirized generals, politicians, and churchmen for their incompetence and blind support of the war.

Both poets became widely read in the United States during the Vietnam War. I read them several years before while working on my master’s thesis.

At New Cemetery we stood before three graves, one next to the other. Tony and Nick described the significance.D.C. Thomas

“On March 18, 1916 (this, before the Battle of the Somme) Robert Graves and Sigfried Sassoon were devastated when, within a space of 24 hours, three subalterns were killed, 2nd Lt. David Thomas, Prichard, and Richardson. Sassoon was particularly upset at Thomas’ death, with whom he was clearly in love.” Le Cateau & The Somme: A Tour: Aug 25-28, 2014 by Antony and Nicholas Bird.

Sigfried Sassoon stood at the foot of the hole while three were buried. Thereafter, “He began to undertake dangerous duties, especially patrols, sometimes going into No Man’s Land. Sassoon became known as ‘Mad Jack.’”

The day before we toured the Military Museum in Peronne, France. I watched an official British Army film showing the burial of a dozen soldiers. Each was wrapped in a canvas shroud, the shroud tied with rope. With care, the bodies were handed from a couple of soldiers at the top of the dirt mound to those in the hole. Around the perimeter stood the comrades of those who had been killed.

I stood at the grave site of the three, too, and was moved to tears the second time that day. Sadness and grief. Folly and waste. Loss and useless sacrifice. Of course, the war finally ended. So that was a good thing. But what was gained and what was lost?

Afterward, the war officially spoken of in terms of the old jingoism—bravery, courage, sacrifice, and so on. As Kurt Vonnegut writes in Slaughterhouse Five, “So it goes.”

The General by Sigfried Sassoon

‘Good-morning; good-morning!’ the General said
When we met him last week on our way to the line.
Now the soldiers he smiled at are most of ’em dead,
And we’re cursing his staff for incompetent swine.
‘He’s a cheery old card,’ grunted Harry to Jack
As they slogged up to Arras with rifle and pack.
But he did for them both by his plan of attack.

There are many blogs I have written about characters and events in The Angel of Mons. I know you will enjoy reading them. You can get to all of them at my web site: jerredmetz.com.

Standing where Wilfred Owen was Killed

The Angels of Mons, , , , , ,

When we left Mons, Belgium and Le Cateau, France we visited the battlefields of the Somme with guides Tony and Nicky Bird . At the banks of the Sambre-Oise Canal I stood where I would have been able to see Lieutenant Wilfred Owen, the finest and most important poet of the war, in a small boat trying to cross.

As was so often the case, the action Owen and his men were expected to carry out was difficult in the extreme. A pontoon bridge and rafts were being laid across the canal. The location was under heavy and constant machine gun fire. But the soldier must obey.

Owen was shot and killed while trying to cross the canal. For a moment I was seeing it happen Lieutenant Wilfred Ownebefore my eyes. Once in a while, especially when I hear certain songs, my chest tightens and sobs arise. This happened to me while I stood on the banks of the narrow Sambre-Oise Canal and looked at the water.

Lieutenant Owen was shot and killed a week before the Armistice was signed. At the moment when church bells were ringing in England to celebrate the Armistice, Owen’s mother was handed the telegram announcing that her son had been killed.

Owen’s war poetry is not like that of Rudyard Kipling or Rupert Brook, who both glorified war. His was of the horror and ugliness, the brutality and pointlessness of it. In the “The End” he asked:

Shall Life renew these bodies? Of a truth

All death will he annul, all tears assuage?

Or fill these void veins full again with youth,

And wash with an immortal water, age?

 The answer to these rhetorical questions is No. These few lines convey a sense of Owen’s view of war.

His mother, Susan Owen, quoted from these lines for her son’s gravestone. However, she removed the question mark after the second sentence, reversing her son’s poem’s very meaning. And she left out the rest of the stanza. She thought it better to let those who view his grave, which is frequently visited, thing that he believed that God (he) will cancel (annul) death, that there is life after. This is not what her son wrote.

I have had an academic interest in World War I for a long time. My Masters thesis was on a tetralogy, (four related novels) about the First World War, Parade’s End by Ford Mattox Ford. In my study for that work I also read deeply in the poets of the war, especially Wilfred Owen and Sigfried Sassoon.

I am also a poet, having had five books of poetry published. Poets often feel a kinship with one another. So while I was surprised at the depth of my emotions, I was not surprised that I was moved. I am grateful for being at that place, having those emotions, and, in that small way paying tribute to Owen. I thank him for helping shape my own attitude toward war when I read him years ago.

 

Soldiers Reenact the Battle of Mons

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In the US we are familiar with reenactments of battles from the Revolutionary War and the Civil Soliders and me in the Grand Place, MonsWar. Not surprisingly, the British and the Europeans also reenact battles. On August 23, exactly one hundred years after the Battle of Mons, British Tommies and officers paraded in the streets and square of Mons dressed in exact replicas of the uniforms the soldiers wore in the opening days of World War I. The same course, scratchy material, the same leather for their boots and belts, real Enfield-Lee rifles, and authentic kits made up their garb.

Most of the soldiers were still in the British army or had retired from it, so they had a direct historical connection with the events they were portraying. Some we spoke to claimed that before they got through the day, their necks were chaffed raw by the course stuff their uniforms were made of. This gave them a good idea of what their fellow soldiers of one hundred years ago had to suffer. In fact, the British Expeditionary Force was issued brand new stiff boots before they embarked for France, and then marched on to Belgium. Blisters, swollen feet, and great pain made their lengthy trek a sore beginning for the fight that was to follow.

In the background of the picture is the City Hall of Mons. It is an ancient, elegant building. After the day’s commemoration ceremonies on the 23rd , along with about one hundred dignitaries, we were received in the second floor great hall by the Mayor of Mons and the Prime Minister of Belgium. We were deeply moved by the day’s events. And we met people who are interested in the Angel of Mons, and in my novel.

La Legende des Anges Performed

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The 3-D performance of The Angels of Mons
The 3-D performance of The Angels of Mons

On the night of August 22, Sarah and I attended a showing of the 3-D projection of the story of the Angel of Mons. The picture shows the façade of the City Hall of Mons. Against this backdrop the half hour extravaganza was projected. I had never seen a production like this. I could not imagine how the detailed façade would not distort anything projected upon it, but there was no distortion. There was even displayed the burning of the building (though the building did not burn up in the war.) The narrated text was in French, so I did not get all the details, but could easily follow the plot and could see what was happening. Music and the sound of bombs enhanced the effect.

The production was performed every night from August 4 (the date Britain declared war on Germany) through the 23rd. The night we went, one thousand people filled the cafes, bistros, and outdoor restaurants and much of the Grand Place itself to watch.

It was exciting to see the story I had written about on the “screen.” Several of the main characters in The Angel of Mons: A World War I Legend were mentioned: Arthur Machen, Phyllis Campbell, Lieutenant Maurice Dease, and Private Sidney Godley.