An Article from a newspaper in Swindon, England

The Angels of Mons, The Battle of Bellicourt Tunnel

Sometimes I run across items that are only tangentially related to my writing. This article is one such. The main feature, in addition to the facts the story reveals, is that I had a wonderful visit to Swindon on my most recent research trip to England. It so happens that a major private collection of Vickers Machine Guns and related materials are owned and curated by Richard Fisher of Swindon. I spent a long afternoon with him and his collection last April. Before that we had communicated through e-mail. I had many questions about the operation of the gun, training of the soldiers who used it, the specific jobs of the six soldiers assigned to each gun. His information made what I wrote about the gun accurate and authentic.

There are many fascinating items in his collection. Among them is a simple device to measure whether an airplane was close enough to the gun to warrant shooting at it. It consisted of a strip of steel about three inches long and an inch wide with three holes bored in it, each of a different diameter, and a cord about 18 inches long. The soldier would hold the end of the string at his ear lobe, stretch it to its full length and look through the holes. Only when the plane filled the largest hole would it be close enough to be worth firing at.

In addition to a myriad of Vickers artifacts, Richard has collected three hundred Vickers training manuals. The most interesting one to me is a manual in Urdu translated into that language and transliterated, so a trainer who did not speak the language could read the material to soldiers he was training in their language without needing to know Urdu. This means that someone needed to be able to translate from English to Urdu and someone (maybe the same person) needed to be able to transliterate it into English.

This was one example of the lengths to which armies went to fight the war.

If you have not yet read The Angel of Mons: A World War I Legend you are missing out on a fascinating story.

I am also at work on the sequel to the novel, this one about a battle in which Americans, and South Carolinians, North Carolinians, and Tennesseans played a central role.

One of the Pleasures of Writing II

The Battle of Bellicourt Tunnel,

Thirtieth Division in the World WarOne thing about the projects that is about subjects that are limited in scope s that people who are expert in the topic enjoy sharing what we know with other experts. Several weeks ago I wrote about Mitch Yockelson of the National Archives in Maryland. There is another expert in the actions of the federalized Thirtieth Division, Old Hickory, and the 118th Regiment, soldiers from South Carolina.

He is Jim Legg, military archaeologist, University of South Carolina. About a year ago we talked and exchanged e-mail addresses. Then, by chance and good fortune, I was finishing a presentation at the South Carolina Civil War Relics and Military Museum while Jim was installing an exhibit of some of his World War I trench maps. A week later Jim took me on a tour of the maps, from which I learned a lot about World War I military cartography and cartographers.

Since then we’ve met twice. After the first Jim lent me a ledger box filled with Thirtieth Division files (one box of three) for me to use. The second visit he lent me a rare and greatly treasured 243 page The Thirtieth Division in World War I (1936.) The book is filled with wonderful photographs, maps, drawings, and text. In return, I have told him of discoveries I am making. It is likely that I will use Jim’s artillery bombardment map for the battle of Bellicourt Tunnel for the Thirtieth Division as a cover for my novel, The Battle of Bellicourt Tunnel.

Dumb Luck, Good Fortune, the 30th Division, AEF, and the Battle of Bellicourt Tunnel

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The True Love referred to is of the famous French Soixante-Quinze, the 75.
The True Love referred to is of the famous French Soixante-Quinze, the 75.

Maybe dumb luck and good fortune are the same thing. I seem to be blessed with them. For example. I often visit antique malls when I travel. I have several collections I keep up, two for myself, one for my wife, and one for my daughter. When I am in Staunton, Virginia to see plays at the American Shakespeare Theater, I stop at the Verona Antique Mall. Every time I look through one vendor’s paper ephemera. On the most recent visit I bought three copies of Leslie’s Magazine from the time of World War I. Even though I bought them last winter, I just got to read them. Much to my amazement, the one dated April 20 has an artist’s rendering of the first artillery being fired by Americans. As it happens, the first American soldiers to go to Europe and fight were National Guardsmen from two divisions—the 30th and the 27th. The book I am now writing, The Battle of Bellicourt Tunnel: A Novel features soldiers from the 30th , men from South Carolina, North Carolina, and Tennessee.

Dumb luck? I think so. Good fortune? Definitely. Incidents like this happened throughout my writing life. May they continue to occur. I need all the help I can get.

The Doudou and “The Angel of Mons: A World War I Legend

The Angels of Mons, , ,

Each Trinity Sunday in Mons, Belgium two important ceremonies are performed. In the morning the sacred relics of St. Waudru, abbess of a collegiate convent she founded in the Seventh Century, are paraded through the streets, carried on the carte d’or, a cart covered in gold leaf. Later in the day, the city celebrates the battle between St. George and the dragon. There are records from 1440 the ceremony was already ancient. The Ducasse de Mons, the Doudou, and the Lucomon are names for the same ceremony.

The cart d'or containing the relics of St. Waudru
The cart d’or containing the relics of St. Waudru

In April, 2015 Mons opened five new museums. One is dedicated to the history of the Doudou.

The Ducasse de Mons celebrations are recognized as one of the UNESCO Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity.

Read about the ceremonies and their connection to the Angel of Mons: A World War I Legend in Chapter Four, “The Priest’s Sermon: St. George and Mons.”

The Doudou version of the dragon who St. George defeats.
The Doudou version of the dragon who St. George defeats.

There are several YouTube presentations of the ceremony worth seeing. I am not sure I would like to be part of the throng myself. Too many people for me.

A scene from the Doudou
A scene from the Doudou
A scene from the Doudou
A scene from the Doudou

One of the Pleasures of Writing

The Battle of Bellicourt Tunnel

One of the pleasures of writing is meeting with people who are expert in what I am writing about. One such person, Mitch Yockelson, Ph.D., works for the National Archives in College Park, MD. The author of Borrowed Soldiers: Americans under British Command, he is one of the most knowledgeable writers about the Battle of Bellicourt Tunnel, and, specifically the 30th and 27th Divisions of the American Expeditionary Force’s II Corps. Soldiers from South Carolina, North Carolina and Tennessee principally made up the 30th. These soldiers are the main characters in the novel I am writing about them in the Battle of Bellicourt Tunnel.

The British saved the bridge less than a mile south of Bellicourt Tunnel
The British saved the bridge less than a mile south of Bellicourt Tunnel

Dr. Yockelson and I conversed at the National Archives.

When we were saying good bye he said that he admires historical novelists, books like my own The Angel of Mons. I answered that I marvel at historians who can write books like Borrowed Soldiers. His book is ripe with detail, drawing on a vast store of resources. I got a good of who these American soldiers were, and what brought them to this battle. Since I have a special need for the information, I am grateful to Dr. Yockelson to have undertaken the writing of this record.

Already, I have met with others expert in facets of the battle. These memorable meetings and friendships are one of the great pleasures for me.

A Fascinating Book on Many Levels

The Angels of Mons,

This review appeared on Amazon — read and enjoyThe Angel Of Mons

By David Wetzel on June 27, 2015

Format: Kindle Edition

Jerred Metz’s The Angel of Mons is certainly a work of magical realism, but that term fails to describe the shimmering interplay (and interplayfulness) of the real and supernatural in this rich, dense, mythically powerful novel. Based on a legend—or was it?—that grew out of the first battle in World War I between the British and Germans on August 23, 1914, at Mons, Belgium, the story begins with the factual death of Maurice Dease, commander of a Vickers machine gun crew at the Nimy Bridge, and describes a meteorological phenomenon—or was it?—that enveloped and stymied the advancing German army in what many observers described as the image of St. George, allowing the vastly outnumbered British forces to begin an orderly retreat. From there Metz elaborates on that sighting, blending the story of the British retreat through the Forest of Mormal in northern France with visions of Joan d’Arc who guides them to safety along a whispering road cut through the forest, though never discovered in history books. They eventually make it to the British Front by way of other visions and miracles descending on characters both historical and fictional.

If this were the extent of The Angel of Mons, it would be good magical realism. But returning the British forces to safety only begins Metz’s fictional celebration-study of legend and myth. Using the deaths of three key participants—Dease, Malcom Leckie, and Tommy Atkins—Metz takes us into what could be considered the shared Twilight Zone of the Coleridge-Wordsworth dynamic: Coleridge making the ethereal real and Wordsworth making the real ethereal. A secondary cast of characters (who happen to be icons of modern history transmuted into entirely believable fictional counterparts) draw out the mystery of Mons through a superb device: twentieth-century spiritualism and psychic phenomena. We find connections between W. B. Yeats, Arthur Conan Doyle (and his “living” counterpart Sherlock Holmes), and even Winston Churchill—all connected, in some way, with the question of proving communication with the dead. It appears that such proof does exist—if only within Metz’s London of early September 1914.

This is the Coleridge side of the dynamic. But the book ends on the Wordsworth side, with the death, in the very last hour of the war—and again at Nimy Bridge—of Private Atkins. In his exalted afterlife, he speaks directly to the reader as the Angel of Grief and Memory, calling forth an image both apocalyptical and transcendent. The vision seems to come out of the Book of Revelation, the theosophical idea of the Brotherhood, and—well—Moby Dick. Truly, the spiritual and philosophical density of Metz’s The Angel of Mons is much like Melville’s, and it’s filled with character, dialogue, and drama worthy of what we might see and overhear on the decks of the Pequod. In short, it is a fascinating book on many levels.

Reading for the National Winston Churchill Museum

The Angels of Mons
1946, the Iron Curtain speech
1946, the Iron Curtain speech

 

On June 25 I had the pleasure of giving a talk and reading from The Angel of Mons: AWorld War I Legend sponsored by the National Winston Churchill Museum at Westminster College, in Fulton, Missouri. I explained why I picked Churchill as a character and then how I discovered connections betweenhim and the legend of the angel. . Naturally, I am deeply interested in Churchill. This is the reason he is a character in the book.

My beloved Sarah Barker and I read Chapter 16, “The Angel of Mons, Winston Churchill, And his Aunt, Lady Janey Campbell” and Chapter 1, “The Sun Gaily Passed”. In The Angle of Mons Churchill was First Lord of the Admiralty, in command of theBritish Navy. He will also be a character in my novel about the Battle of Bellicourt Tunnel. At that time he served the War Council as Minister of Munitions.

I am happy that the college president, the museum director and staff, and community folks attended the reading. Plus, friends from Columbia and Kansas City came, too. We all had a good time.

This was my third visit to the Churchill Museum. It is especially well done. The story of the museum, Churchill’s connection to Westminster College— His “Sinews of Peace” speech in 1946 (“an ‘Iron Curtain‘ has descended across the continent”)—and the Wren-designed Church of Saint Mary, Aldermanbury are well worth a side trip. excerpt from Churchill's "Iron Curtain" speech

Fulton is sixteen miles east of Columbia, Missouri. You don’t have to worry about crowds and long waits in line.

 

 

The Battle of Bellicourt Tunnel and Dante’s Divine Comedy

The Battle of Bellicourt Tunnel, ,
Dante's tomb 2
Where Dante’s Bones are Buried

Our daughter’s first name is Ravenna. I knew that Ravenna, Italy was once the capitol of the Byzantine Empire. Beyond that, I knew that it has churches from that time group of that decorated inside with world-renown amazing mosaics. It was always our plan to someday visit Ravenna with our daughter. Last month we made that trip. Truly, the mosaics were astounding.

Dante Alighieri's tomb in Ravenna, Italy
Dante Alighieri’s tomb in Ravenna, Italy

A highlight of the visit to Ravenna for me was a visit to the tomb of Dante, the poet. Exiled, he spent the final years of his life there. This year is the 750th year since his birth. Over the years I read the three books that make up his Divine Comedy. I taught The Inferno a couple of times. The epic poem is one of the greatest literary creations of Western Civilization, for several reasons.

Part of my plan for The Battle of Bellicourt Tunnel is to use the structure of Dante’s Divine Comedy as a pattern. In literary terminology, this is called a trope. I was deeply moved, nearly to the point of tears and sobs (but I have that response at times, like at the military cemeteries at Mons, Belgium and Bony, France.)

I will incorporate the three levels of the afterlife that the Divine Comedy treats–Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven.

I know that at some time in the near future I will go back to Ravenna—first, to marvel at the mosaics we did not get a chance to see in the few days we were there, and second, to spend time with Dante and visit the Dante museum. We had “The Kid” along, my two-year-old grandson. His interest in churches, mosaics, and museums was naturally limited. He needed action.

The Battle of Bellicourt Tunnel — Beginning Thoughts

The Battle of Bellicourt Tunnel, Uncategorized

Naturally, like many writers, I am attracted to stories of

Marker commemorating the breaching of the Hindenburg Line
Marker commemorating the breaching of the Hindenburg Line

the extraordinary, the unique, the mythic. A look at the titles of my prose books make this clear. Thus, there must be something extraordinary, unique, and mythic in the Battle of Bellicourt Tunnel. Of course, this could be said of almost all accounts of battle. There is always heroism, gallantry, courage, horrible circumstances to be overcome, and just the simple problems of weather and terrain. Good confronts evil. There is victory and defeat. There is folly and wisdom, tactics, strategy, deception. Often, presumably there is divine intervention. Surely, each side prays to its deities–often to the same deity–for victory. Signs are read in the elements. Chaplains and the soldiers pray for it. There are personalities, the language of the military. This novel contains these. A canal tunnel three miles long, the plateau it lies beneath being the one reasonable place for the Allies to finally, after all these years, breach the Hindenburg Line.

What lies within the tunnel?