On the hundredth anniversary, thoughts on the Somme, from Charles JohnsonCooke.
On display in one cabinet are a couple of pristine machine guns — one a British “Vickers,” the other its German equivalent. My stomach turns inside out at the sight of them. These are the water-cooled monstrosities that were instrumental in producing the great stasis and all of its horrors. Capable of pushing out 500 rounds per minute (eight per second), it convinced both sides that defense was the safest course.
The machine gun, the British journalist Philip Gibbs observed, afforded its bearers the capacity to construct “not a line but a fortress position.” “No chance,” he noted, “for cavalry!” And yet, though the world’s generals knew from experience in Manchuria, from Thrace, and from the killing fields of the American Civil War just how obsolete established military tactics had been rendered by technological change, for much of the First World War the cavalry was given plenty of chances. Mounted or not, advancing forces at the Somme hewed largely to the techniques of old — failing tragically to overcome the conviction that charging with sufficient gusto would, eventually, lead to a glorious breakthrough. It was thus that the poet Rupert Brooke’s romantic conceptions of some “corner of a foreign field that is forever England” gave way to unlovely reality, and those optimistic volunteers who had followed the Ruritanian glory of all that his sonnets promised were met instead with the full might of the Industrial Revolution. There were few fair fights in the Great War — little chivalry or skill or heroism. There was just boredom, and then attrition. Just factory-style death. Just Siegfried Sassoon’s embittered “continuous roar,” and the apocalyptic collision of impregnable defense with naïve attack. In the days of muskets and cannon, one could reasonably expect to push forward to glory. Now, the lions were fed into the meat grinder with everybody else. When soldiers were brave enough to leave their hiding places, the novelist Sebastian Faulks recorded in Birdsong, “the air turned to lead.”
As I noted on Twitter, I hadn’t realized that the battle started exactly fifty-three years after Gettysburg (this weekend is the 153rd anniversary). As Charles notes, the Civil War, particularly the latter stage, with battles like Cold Harbor, provided hints of the horrors to come.
[Afternoon update]
When I read “Charles Johnson” I was wondering what did this Charles Johnson http://markhumphrys.com/lgf.html have of interest to say about the Somme or any other matter of historical or current importance.
Y’know, the Charles Johnson of LGF fame. One of the Four Horsemen of the Ablogcalypse advocating for a military response to the 9-11 attacks (Charles Johnson of LGF, Andrew Sullivan of The Daily Dish, Steven Den Beste or USS Clueless, and Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit). The graphics-arts blogger who didn’t “discover” the George W Bush fake-but-accurate Texas Air National Guard evaluation letter (that was “Buckhead” at Free Republic), but who had a semi-permanent animation posted of that document fading back and forth with a version typed in a recent version of MS-Word?
It appears that Instapundit Glenn Reynolds is the only one going strong. Steven Den Beste quit political blogging because he tired of the criticism from political opponents and also for personal reasons on having to battle illness (I believe he announced he was diagnosed with MS), Andrew Sullivan turned against President George W Bush on Iraq because of same-sex marriage, and Charles Johnson, what can be said about Charles Johnson? Did someone put one of those gruesome mind-control eels from Ceti Alpha V into his ear canal?
The author of that piece is Charles Cooke, not Charles Johnson. Rand, you had be worried for awhile.
Thank you, Paul. They’re both common names, but I’m very happy to give proper attribution.
Charles LGF was on the Megyn Kelley show the other night defending ISIS and Islamic terrorism. Guy looked about ready to burst a vein.
So, what do you think of my Ceti Eel-in-the-ear (from Star Trek The Wrath of Khan) theory?
“No chance for cavalry!”
While in the hospital last year I came across a book on the attempt by some German officers to assassinate Hitler. The brother of the author (both were part of the conspiracy) strongly endorsed and demonstrated the proper use of horses even in WW2 (I think the Russians had the last cavalry charge. That’s the wrong way.)
Also, ironic is that was nearly the first use of tanks. Tanks and helicopters are our modern cavalry and used tactically in a similar way.