Lock-down Level: Scout AMBER-YELLOW Amber-Yellow Activities

10th October 2020 Issue No. 14 Remembrance Day Resources We cannot let Covid 19 stop us from honouring our heroes

Britannica

Reflections Stories War pics Posters Summary: WW1 Summary: WW2 The Poppy Scout pics Jack Cornwell War poems The Telegraph

Harpenden, Wheathampstead and Kimpton Scout District Harpenden, Wheathampstead and Kimpton Scout District ScoutLock-down Amber-Yellow Activities Introduction

Lest we forget

The social discipline for the control of Covid-19 has It is so important that young people understand what dented normal Scouting considerably and the local passed in the 20th century, to acknowledge the decision requiring the community not to assemble sacrifices, to grasp what the fight was for, and to be for the annual Remembrance Day deals another able to see the seeds of another madness in our blow to our activities and expression. own time.

So that Scouts have an opportunity to mark the LDS 14 is a resource pack to be used entirely at the moment, Russell Brooks, DC, has asked Groups leader’s discretion. It is intended to provide material and Sections to include a remembrance reflection for Zoom or face to face meetings. Best of all would within their programmes at an appropriate moment. be to organise a short ceremony, in uniform, and To assist, I have collected together a few topical bring about a sincere contemplation of the lost life items from the internet and other sources to provide and the precious peace we all of us enjoy. thoughts and discussion about the wars and why we keep the memory alive. I want to make clear that the main contributors to the content are the original writers and picture- Phrases like ‘Lest we forget’ have to mean takers available on the internet. Except for the something. As the veterans die there are fewer to reflection on page 3, my pennyworth has been connect us to the struggles while time washes away confined to collation, captions and summary. our collective emotions. No community gathering with its formal solemnities detaches us even further. RV.

11th Nov 1919 Workers and pedestrians in bomb damaged London pay their respects to those killed in the First World War, with a two minute silence, one year after the fighting ceased. The tradition is carried out to this day at 11am on the 11th day of November each year.

The first 2-minute silence in London 1919. Press Association archives. p62: Britain at War 2 rv Oct 2020 Harpenden, Wheathampstead and Kimpton Scout District ScoutLock-down Amber-Yellow Activities Reflection

A Remembrance Sunday reflection.

e speak of remembrance because until not long ago those attending the annual service actually did remember. They recalled the bombs, the killing and lost comrades. Many Wdoing the remembering stood on crutches, or had empty sleeves. They could 'read' the medals on each other's blazers— picking out the campaigns and bravery. Even the young could see the yet-to-be fixed bomb-sites, could meet the veterans and hear their stories. The aftermath of war was in the air and everyone understood that we had lost much blood and treasure, and time had stood still for war.

Attending the service didn't need explanation. The impulse for remembrance was automatic and heartfelt. Foreign tyrants had sought to wreck our ways of life and curtail our freedoms but we resisted. We fought, not one but two wars, and each time, though the losses were terrible, we prevailed. A two-minute silence for the fallen felt so right, so deserved, so impossible not to observe. In 1919, the King decreed we will always remember and nations have formally honoured the sacrifices every year since.

As decades pass, we now know little of the pain that shaped the last century. We cannot 'feel' the hurt or gauge the loss; cannot know the effort and sacrifice. Yet we must stir ourselves to learn. We owe the fallen our minds to grasp what they did and why. As we reflect, we see that their massive quest in war is still our quest today. We have not been tested as they were tested yet the freedom they won is not granted as a right — it needs the current nation to cherish it and to be its constant guardian. - Know the price our servicemen paid, know the havoc and the fear, know how the world wars changed the course of history. This will teach freedom's value. Know that other peoples were liberated too which shows the wars were not fought selfishly, nor is the lesson lost on us today, that like our forebears, we have responsibility for others.

Think on this November day what it would do to our character if we neglected to acknowledge those who gave their lives for the principles of Freedom, Justice and Peace so that we can live as we do. Look on a poppy and see it afresh: at least in your mind's eye, see in its red petals, pictures of heroes crushing tyrants; decode the poppy's meaning and be stirred by its humanity, see flags, see blood, imagine the despair, the tears and the prayers. On this November day, connect, and for two minutes, be part of Remembrance Sunday – and then celebrate your freedom! rv

3 rv Oct 2020 Harpenden, Wheathampstead and Kimpton Scout District ScoutLock-down Amber-Yellow Activities Eyewitness stories

22 April 1915: September 19, 1918, Anthony R Hossack, Lieutenant Colonel John Stewart, of the 9th Battalion, Canada's Queen Victoria Rifles, near the Ypres front Black Watch

“...Officers, and staff officers, too, “At zero hour, the artillery stood gazing at the scene, awestruck and bombardment commenced. “To us who had dumbfounded; for in the northerly breeze been waiting anxiously for some minutes, there came a pungent, nauseating smell that tickled the throat and made our eyes it seemed as if some button had been smart. The horses and men were still pressed which discharged every gun on pouring down the road, two or three men the 15 mile front. “The change from on a horse, I saw, while over the fields silence to pandemonium was startling. streamed mobs of infantry, the dusky “They seemed dazed with the volume of warriors of French Africa; away went our fire and too much alarmed by the their rifles, equipment, even their width of the attack to know what to do tunics, that they might run the faster. One man came stumbling through our lines. ...and it was thus, with consummate An officer of ours held him up with ease, that the Highlanders reached, and levelled revolver. dealt with, their various objectives.”

“What's the matter, you bloody lot of “During the mopping-up process, a cowards?” says he. The Zouave was complete Turkish battery was discovered, frothing at the mouth, his eyes started the whole of the personnel having been from their sockets, and he fell writhing destroyed by a single shell - horses at the officer's feet…” lying harnessed up, and men at their Part of a report of the first use of poison gas guns, all dead.” www.independent.co.uk/news/world/world-history/ Describing the British attack on enemy trenches in Tabsor, Mesopotamia. Royal Garrison Artillery officer Maurice Laws June 1916 The Somme

During the opening bombardment, the Royal Artillery fired over 1.6 million shells. The intensity of the attack was unprecedented. British signaller Harry Wheeler recalled the deafening noise the artillery made.

“The firing was going on for weeks beforehand, on and off, and getting heavier. But the bombardment, when that started, it was what I always called the dance of hell. It was Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Shells bursting all the time, you know, guns firing, rather, all the time. It was a dance of hell, right enough. Those poor boys who had to go through it! My God, I shall never get it out of my memory. Yes, the dance of hell”.

Cecil Lewis Royal Flying Corps pilot , (On the sight from the air of so many guns in action)

“When you had to go right over the lines, you see, you were midway between our guns firing and where the shells were falling. And during that period the intensity of the bombardment was such that it was really like a sort of great broad swathe of dirty-looking cotton wool laid over the ground. And so close were the shell bursts – and so continuous – that it wasn’t just a puff here and a puff there, it was a continuous band. The whole of the ground beneath the darkening evening was just like a veil of sequins which were flashing and flashing and flashing and each one was a gun”.

4 rv Oct 2020 Lock-down Harpenden, Wheathampstead and Kimpton Scout District Scout War pictures: Amber-Yellow Activities The First World War

BBC

Wright’s first flight occurred only a decade before the war and so aerial warfare was still in its infancy but German gas filled balloons, the Zeppelins, could travel at 85mph and carry 2 tons of bombs. Britain had no defence against them. They were 100 metres long and carried 10,000m3 of hydrogen.

When trench warfare became deadlocked, German sent Zeppelins to bomb British cities.

Imperial war museum

The Germans put technical innovation at the forefront of military thinking to create strategic advantage. For instance, they introduced poison gas and strove to perfect the automatic gun so they could spray bullets in no man’s land. Both major killers in the first world war.

The Telegraph

Life in trenches: Soldiers spent 8 days in a trench at the front and then 4 days rest in trenches away from the front. They had to endure floods, mud, rats, little sleep and diseases.

Disease took more soldiers out of combat than weapons did.

Mental health was another terrible casualty of trench warfare.

The Guardian

5 rv Oct 2020 Lock-down Harpenden, Wheathampstead and Kimpton Scout District Scout Summary: Amber-Yellow Activities First World War

ensions had been brewing throughout Europe before World War I broke out, but especially in the troubled Balkan region of southeast Europe. Here, political instability led to the collapse of the old alliances between TEuropean powers. In 1914 Balkan nationalists assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria hoping to halt the Austro-Hungarian rule over Bosnia. Such was the political instability, the assassination triggered the Great War that lasted until 1918. During the conflict, the Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire) fought against the Allied Powers (Great Britain, France, Russia, Italy, Romania, Japan and the United States). Powerful new weapons on both sides changed warfare but when the armies could not move, the only defences against them were trenches dug in the earth. Trenches were both ghastly and inadequate and so World War I saw unprecedented levels of death. By the time the Allied Powers claimed victory, more than 16 million people were dead.

Germany began fighting aggressively on two fronts, invading France through neutral Belgium in the west and confronting Russia in the east.

On the western front, German troops crossed the border into Belgium in Fighting from a trench. The officer is throwing a grenade. 1914 and captured the city of Liege, using massive siege cannons. The Germans left death and destruction in their wake as they advanced through Belgium into France, even shooting civilians. They expected their fierce tactics to win them a quick victory.

In 1914, French and British forces confronted the German army near Paris, checked their advance and then drove them back. That defeat ended German plans for a quick victory. Both sides dug into trenches turning the Western Front into a hellish war of attrition that would last three years. Among the worst battles were at Verdun (300,000 dead) and the Somme (1,000,000+ casualties, 300,000+ dead), both in 1916.

The Eastern Front in Eastern and Central Europe was every bit as horrendous as the war in the west. The fighting was mainly between the Central Powers (the German and Austro-Hungarian Empires) and the Russian Empire.

The fighting was different on the Eastern Front compared to the Western Front because it covered a far larger area, stretching at times for over 1,000 miles north-to-south and hundreds of miles east-to-west. These distances made the trench system impractical and so armies moved rather than dug in. Also, although Russia initially fielded a huge and well-trained army, her factories could not meet the military demand and there were few roads and rail to keep their distant army supplied.

At the same time, the Austria-Hungarian Empire was in decline. Many of its soldiers yearned for freedom and showed little loyalty to the empire. Together with poor leadership, its army was in low morale. In contrast, the German Army was trained to fight a war of manoeuvre, had strong leaders and a good supply infrastructure. This enabled the Germans to succeed even when outnumbered.

6 rv Oct 2020 Lock-down Harpenden, Wheathampstead and Kimpton Scout District Scout Summary: Amber-Yellow Activities First World War (cont.)

During August 1914, Russia launched its offensive against Germany but were decisively beaten at the Battle of Tannenberg and withdrew. However, Russia fought and drove the back the Austrians and occupied the Austro- Hungarian province of Galacia.

Early 1915, the Austrians were powerless against the Russians in Galacia and so Germany took command of the entire Eastern Front. The German and Austrian troops launched an offensive against Russia and drove them back more than 200 miles in two weeks— unimaginable on the Western Front. The Russians made a strategic withdrawal back to their own territory and regrouped. The Central Powers had captured Russian Poland, Lithuania and most of Latvia and parts of Russian Ukraine.

By the start of 1916 Russia was better supplied. While Germany was occupied on the Western Front against the French at Verdun and the British on the Somme, Russia attacked the Austro-Hungarians and recaptured Galacia. Romania joined the Allies extending the Eastern Front hundreds of miles south. Romania attacked, but being ill prepared, they were overwhelmed and the Central Powers gained control of her vast coal and wheat fields. Romania lost about 250,000 soldiers and many of their civilians were killed in the fighting.

By the close of 1916, many Russian soldiers became disillusioned with the grim realities of the war and revolted against their leaders. They had lost about 2 million soldiers, suffered up to 5 million casualties and half a million civilians had died. In 1917, Russian armies mutinied leading to the Russian Revolution and the withdrawal of Russia from the war.

In March 1918, the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was concluded officially ending the war on the Eastern Front. Germany transferred its soldiers to the Western Front enabling extensive gains in France but the arrival of American soldiers eventually offset German advantage in numbers.

The war ended 11 o'clock, on the 11th day of the eleventh month of 1918.

Rv Oct 2020

Stretcher bearers under fire in ‘no-mans-land’

All the hard work done https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-i/world-war-i-history at these internet sources: https://owlcation.com/humanities/WW1-Overview-of-the-War-On-The-Eastern-Front

7 rv Oct 2020 Lock-down Harpenden, Wheathampstead and Kimpton Scout District Scout Posters: Amber-Yellow Activities The First World War

Conscription did not arise until 1916 and so the Services relied on volunteers. The posters encouraged men to join and the women to support.

Baden Powell, being an artist as well as a senior soldier painted the middle poster and included a Scout in the war effort. Although Scouts were well outside the age range for service, they too responded to the call and helped where they could.

The two ideas freely exploited in these propaganda posters is patriotism and shame. They were very effective.

8 rv Oct 2020 Lock-down Harpenden, Wheathampstead and Kimpton Scout District Scout War pictures: Amber-Yellow Activities The Second World War

Spitfire by Jeoff Nutkiins

World War II occurs two decades after the close of the first war and in that time engineers had developed war machinery to devastating effect. Technical supremacy influenced battle outcomes and so both sides worked tirelessly to out- perform the other. Weapons, ships, aircraft and radar characterise the second war whereas men, cannon and horses characterised the first war.

9 rv Oct 2020 Lock-down Harpenden, Wheathampstead and Kimpton Scout District Scout Summary: Amber-Yellow Activities Second World War

he instability created in Europe by the First World War (1914-18) set the stage for another international conflict – World War II – which broke out two decades later and would prove even more devastating. Rising to power in Tan economically and politically unstable Germany, Adolf Hitler, leader of the Nazi Party, re-armed the nation and signed strategic treaties with Italy and Japan to further his ambitions of world domination. Hitler's invasion of Poland in September 1939 drove Great Britain and France finally to declare war on Germany, marking the beginning of World War II. Over the next six years, the conflict would take more lives and destroy more land and property around the globe than any previous war. Among the estimated 45-60 million people killed were 6 million Jews murdered in Nazi concentration camps as part of Hitler's diabolical “Final Solution,” now known as the Holocaust.

World War I had destabilized Europe, and World War II grew out of issues it left unresolved. Discontent and instability in Germany enabled Adolf Hitler and his Nazi Party to gain power in 1934. Obsessed with the notion of a “pure” German race, Hitler believed that war was a proper way for the German race to expand. Though forbidden by the terms of the WW1 defeat, he secretly re-armed Germany. After signing alliances with Italy and Japan against the Soviet Union, Hitler sent troops to occupy Austria in 1938 and the following year annexed Czechoslovakia. Hitler's flagrant aggression went unchecked, as other nations were reluctant to engage in another confrontation.

In 1939, Hitler and Soviet leader, Joseph Stalin, signed the German-Soviet Non-aggression Pact. Hitler wanted to invade German Panzer tank. of Poland, a nation to which Great Britain and France had Typically 25 tons. Many thousands were made guaranteed military support if it were attacked by Germany. The pact with Stalin meant that Hitler would not face a war on two fronts if he invaded Poland. Instead, he would have Soviet assistance in conquering and dividing Poland. In September 1939, Hitler started WW2 by invading Poland. Two days later, France and Britain mobilised against Germany.

Soviet troops invaded Poland from the east. Under attack from east and west, Poland fell quickly, and by early 1940 Germany and the Soviet Union had control over the nation. Stalin's was opportunistic and occupied Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania and Finland. At sea, the British and German navies faced off in heated battles, and lethal German U- boat submarines struck at merchant shipping bound for Britain, sinking more than 100 vessels in the first four months of World War II.

In April 1940, Germany invaded Norway and Denmark. In May, German forces swept through Belgium and the Netherlands. Three days later, Hitler's troops struck French forces at Sedan, using tanks to cross the Maginot Line, thought by the French to be an impenetrable barrier. The British Expeditionary Force (BEF) were beaten and had to be evacuated by sea from Dunkirk. In the south, French forces mounted a doomed resistance. With France on the verge of collapse, Italy's fascist dictator Benito Mussolini formed an alliance with Hitler, and in the June of 1940 declared war against France and Britain.

In June 1940, German forces entered Paris. France was divided into two zones, one under German military occupation in the north and the other a cooperative civil government under Marshal Petain, installed at Vichy in central France.

Hitler now turned his attention to Britain. To pave the way for an invasion, German planes bombed Britain extensively for half a year known now as the Blitz. In May 1941, The Royal Air Force defeated the German Air Force in the Battle of Britain causing Hitler to postpone his plans to invade. With Britain's defensive resources pushed to the limit, Prime Minister Winston Churchill began receiving crucial aid from the U.S.

By early 1941, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria had joined the Axis, and German troops overran Yugoslavia and Greece. Hitler turned his attention to his big objectives: to occupy the land of the Soviet Union and to exterminate

10 rv Oct 2020 Lock-down Harpenden, Wheathampstead and Kimpton Scout District Scout Summary: Amber-Yellow Activities Second World War (cont.)

all Jews from all that Germany controlled. Plans for the “Final Solution” were introduced and over the next three years more than 4 million Jews would perish in the death camps in occupied Poland. In June 1941, Hitler invaded the Soviet Union, in what was named Operation Barbarossa. Over three and a half million German and other Axis troops attacked along an 1,800-mile front with 3,400 tanks supported by 2,700 aircraft. By mid- July, Nazi troops were only 60 miles from their objective, Moscow.

Hitler expected a victory ten weeks, whereas the harsh Russian winter changed everything. First endless rain turning the land into deep mud and then the ice and frost for which the Germans were unprepared. The Germans were forced to retreat in failure.

World War II in the Pacific (1941-43) Japan had a pact with Hitler. In December 1941, Japanese aircraft attacked the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbour in Hawaii, taking the Americans by surprise and claiming the lives of more than 2,300 troops. The attack unified American public opinion in favour Congress declaring war on Japan. Germany, and the other Axis Powers, then declared war on the United States. After a string of Japanese victories, the U.S. Pacific Fleet won a major battle in 1942 which proved to be a turning point in the war. By1943, Allied naval counterattacks against Japan were succeeding. In 1943, British and American forces defeated the Italians and Germans in North Africa. An Allied invasion of Italy followed and Mussolini's fascist government fell.

On June 6, 1944–celebrated as “D-Day”–the Allies began a massive invasion of Europe, landing 156,000 soldiers on the beaches of Normandy, France. In response, Hitler poured all the remaining strength of his army into Western Europe, ensuring his defeat in the east. With no forces to resist him, Stalin took Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Romania. Meanwhile, Hitler attempted but failed to drive the Americans and British back from Germany in the last major German offensive of the war: The Battle of the Bulge, ending January 1945. Germany formally surrendered on May 8, 1945 as Soviet forces were taking Berlin. Hitler killed himself on April 30 in his Berlin bunker.

World War II Ends (1945) At the Potsdam Conference of July-August 1945, U.S. President Truman, Churchill and Stalin discussed the ongoing war with Japan as well as the peace settlement with Germany. Stalin wasn't welcome but was tolerated because Soviet cooperation was needed to defeat Japan. Two recent campaigns against the Japanese had taken many lives and a direct land invasion of Japan was thought to prove even costlier. This led President Truman to authorize the use of a new and devastating weapon— the atomic bomb. One was dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima and another at Nagasaki. On August 15, 1945 the Japanese government surrendered, ending the Second World War.

World War II Casualties and Legacy World War II proved to be the deadliest international conflict in history, taking the lives of 60 to 80 million people, including 6 million Jews who died at the hands of the Nazis during the Holocaust. Civilians made up an estimated 50- 55 million deaths from the war, while military comprised 21 to 25 million of those lost during the war. Millions more were injured, and still more lost their homes and property. The legacy of the war would include the spread of communism from the Soviet Union into eastern Europe as well as its eventual triumph in China, and the global shift in power from Europe to two rival superpowers–the United States and the Soviet Union–that would soon face off against each other in the Cold War.

All the hard work done https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/operation-barbarossa-and-germanys-failure-in-the-soviet-union at these internet sources: https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/world-war-ii-history 11 rv Oct 2020 Lock-down Harpenden, Wheathampstead and Kimpton Scout District Scout Posters: Amber-Yellow Activities The Second World War

The Second World War lasts for six years and among the threats was the loss of imports due to the German U-Boats sinking the allies’ merchant ships. Food rationing was introduced in 1940. To ease the situation, ‘Dig for Victory’ and similar posters were displayed everywhere. Other posters urged young men and women to join up. Even men too old for service were encouraged to join the Home Guard.

12 rv Oct 2020 Lock-down Harpenden, Wheathampstead and Kimpton Scout District Scout The Poppy Amber-Yellow Activities Lest we forget

uring WW1, much of the fighting took place in o trace the history of the Remembrance Poppy, Western Europe. The countryside was we have to journey back to a time and place Dblasted, bombed and fought over repeatedly. Tstripped of almost all beauty and compassion. Previously beautiful landscapes turned to mud; bleak Belgian Flanders represented the northernmost point of and barren scenes where little or nothing could grow. the Western Front during the First World War, once the trenchlines had been inscribed in the earth by the end of There was a notable and striking exception to the 1914. Between 1914 and 1918, Flanders became one of bleakness - the bright red Flanders poppies. These the most devastated regions of the entire battlefield. resilient flowers flourished in the Yet as many soldiers middle of so much noticed, in Flanders c h a o s a n d and in other regions d e s t r u c t i o n , o f t h e b l a s t e d growing in their frontline, nature had thousands upon thousands. still not given up on the land. Papaver S h o r t l y a f t e r rhoeas is known by losing a friend in many other common Y p r e s , a names – corn poppy, Canadian doctor, corn rose, field poppy, L i e u t e n a n t red poppy and red C o l o n e l J o h n weed. The last name McCrae [in the i s r e v e a l i n g , f o r Spring of 1915] although this member was moved by the of the poppy family sight of these poppies and that inspiration led him to produces a beautiful vivid red flower, it is nonetheless write the famous poem: ‘In Flanders Fields'. classified as a weed. It grows in the most ravaged and Royal British Legion inhospitable of land (indeed it thrives best in soil that has been disturbed), hence it managed to add a haunting dash of colour to the shell-thrashed landscape of rtificial poppies were first sold in Britain in Flanders. Another of its common names is the Flanders 1921 to raise money for the Earl Haig Fund Poppy. Ain support of ex-servicemen and the families To see such beautiful flowers growing across fields that of those who had died in the conflict. They were were already sown with the bodies of thousands of dead supplied by Anna Guérin, who had been men must have left an impression on the minds of all who manufacturing the flowers in France to raise money witnessed it, the flowers delivering a curiously mixed for war orphans. Selling poppies proved so popular evocation of the red blood of the fallen yet the that in 1922 the British Legion founded a factory - regeneration of new life. staffed by disabled ex-servicemen - to produce its own. It continues to do so today. The Independent

Imperial War Museum

n late 1914, the fields of Northern France and Flanders were once again ripped open as World War One raged through Europe's heart. Once the conflict was over the poppy was one of the only plants to grow on the Iotherwise barren battlefields. The significance of the poppy as a lasting memorial symbol to the fallen was realised by the Canadian surgeon John McCrae in his poem In Flanders Fields. The poppy came to represent the immeasurable sacrifice made by his comrades and quickly became a lasting memorial to those who died in World War One and later conflicts. BBC

13 rv Oct 2020 Harpenden, Wheathampstead and Kimpton Scout District ScoutLock-down Amber-Yellow Activities Jack Cornwell

n the 31 May 1916 the actions of an ordinary Scout in extraordinary circumstances led to the creation of Scouting's Cornwell Badge to Ohonour Scouts who demonstrate a pre-eminently high character and devotion to duty, together with great courage and endurance.

Jack Cornwell was a Scout. He left school at 13 to work but quit his job to volunteer. The Navy recruited him in 1915, sent him to Devonport where on HMS Vivid, he showed aptitude and was trained in the intricate craft of sight setting naval guns. As “Boy – 1st Class” he was assigned to HMS Chester which meant he was soon to take part in the Battle of Jutland, the most crucial Naval engagement of the First World War.

In May 1916, HMS Chester and other battleships were sent to assist Vice Admiral Beatty's fleet who had engaged German battlecruisers, so starting the horrendous Battle of Jutland. Two hours into the battle, HMS Chester was heavily pounded by four German ships. Jack's gun was hit. With his shipmates dead or injured, Jack was one of the few men still standing. He had received a serious wound but stayed at his post awaiting orders. Jack died on 2 June 1916.

Vice Admiral Beatty's report of the Battle included an account of Jack's bravery and it captured the public imagination. On the 29 July 1916, Jack was reburied with full military honours, with hundreds of Scouts lining the route and members of the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve pulling the gun carriage bearing his coffin. Jack's courage lead to a posthumous award of the Victoria Cross. Vice Admiral Beatty wrote:

“The instance of devotion to duty by Boy (1st Class) John Travers Cornwell who was mortally wounded early in the action, but nevertheless remained standing alone at a most exposed post…. I regret that he has since died, but I recommend his case for special recognition in justice to his memory and as an acknowledgement of the high example set by him.” . Scouting awarded Jack Cornwell the Bronze Cross, the highest medal for heroism which could be bestowed on a Scout but then created the Cornwell Badge.

The Scout Cornwell Badge

A painting of the WW1 Battle of Jutland shows the sinking hit of the British battlecruiser HMS Indefatigable shortly before its explosion on 31st May, 1916.

Willy Stower/ullstein bild via Getty images

https://foreignpolicy.com/20 18/11/13/

14 rv Oct 2020 Lock-down Harpenden, Wheathampstead and Kimpton Scout District Scout Wartime Scouts: Amber-Yellow Activities Rising to responsibility

eing so young, Scouts could not contribute directly but they could support the war effort Bto the limit of their capacity which many Scouts did. Being useful was important to them but so too was citizenship and patriotism. Scouts were fit, had relevant skills and were trusted. They set about helping in a number of ways: they ran messages, did signalling, rendered first aid, helped firemen, and so on. Food was vital and Scouts helped with harvesting. Most of their work went unrecorded but a few early photos survive.

Should the nation find itself at war in the future, today’s Scouts will again rise to the moment and do what the early Scouts did: earn trust, be useful, rise to responsibility.

Scouts fire rocket to warn life-boat crew of ship in distress. WW1 Flax harvest

Turnip harvest

A coast-watching Sea Scout signals to a British warship. WW1

Ambulance work

15 rv Oct 2020 Harpenden, Wheathampstead and Kimpton Scout District ScoutLock-down Amber-Yellow Activities War poems

Wilfred Owen Siegfried Sassoon Dulce et Decorum Est Absolution

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks, The anguish of the earth absolves our eyes Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through Till beauty shines in all that we can see. sludge, War is our scourge; yet war has made us wise, Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs And, fighting for our freedom, we are free. And towards our distant rest began to trudge. Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots Horror of wounds and anger at the foe, But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind; And loss of things desired; all these must pass. Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots We are the happy legion, for we know Of tired, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind. Time's but a golden wind that shakes the grass. Gas! Gas! Quick, boys! – An ecstasy of fumbling, Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time; There was an hour when we were loth to part But someone still was yelling out and stumbling, From life we longed to share no less than others. And flound'ring like a man in fire or lime . . . Now, having claimed this heritage of heart, Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light, What need we more, my comrades and my brothers? As under a green sea, I saw him drowning. In all my dreams, before my helpless sight, Laurence Binyon He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning. If in some smothering dreams you too could pace For the Fallen Behind the wagon that we flung him in, And watch the white eyes writhing in his face, With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children, His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin; England mourns for her dead across the sea. If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood Flesh of her flesh they were, spirit of her spirit, Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs, Fallen in the cause of the free. Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues, Solemn the drums thrill; Death august and royal My friend, you would not tell with such high zest Sings sorrow up into immortal spheres, To children ardent for some desperate glory, There is music in the midst of desolation The old Lie; Dulce et Decorum est And a glory that shines upon our tears. Pro patria mori. They went with songs to the battle, they were young, Dulce et Decorum est Pro patria mori: It is sweet and decorous to die for one’s country Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow. They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted; Five-Nines: 5.9" shells They fell with their faces to the foe.

John McCrae They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old: In Flanders Fields Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning In Flanders fields the poppies blow We will remember them. Between the crosses, row on row, That mark our place; and in the sky They mingle not with their laughing comrades again; The larks, still bravely singing, fly They sit no more at familiar tables of home; Scarce heard amid the guns below. They have no lot in our labour of the day-time; They sleep beyond England's foam. We are the Dead. Short days ago We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, But where our desires are and our hopes profound, Loved and were loved, and now we lie, Felt as a well-spring that is hidden from sight, In Flanders fields. To the innermost heart of their own land they are known As the stars are known to the Night; Take up our quarrel with the foe: To you from failing hands we throw As the stars that shall be bright when we are dust, The torch; be yours to hold it high. Moving in marches upon the heavenly plain; If ye break faith with us who die As the stars that are starry in the time of our darkness, We shall not sleep, though poppies grow To the end, to the end, they remain. In Flanders fields.

16 rv Oct 2020 Lock-down Scout

Activity resource There are ten Lock-down Scout magazines for activities and much else besides for RED-level Scouting. Download from harpendenscouts.org.uk

Also, two Lock-down magazines Plus, a Lock-down magazines for Red level individual outdoor activities for Amber level group outdoor activities LDS 11 & 12 LDS 13

In lock-down Harpenden and Wheathampstead Scout District

17