Military History Group U3A Dorking Newsletter Number 11 June 2021
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Military History Group U3A Dorking Newsletter Number 11 June 2021 Meetings via Zoom during Pandemic Any contributions to the newsletter are very welcome and should be sent to Robert Bartlett at [email protected] Contents Parish Notes 2 Next Meeting 2 MHG Future 3 Autumn Talk schedule 3 The Start of the Franco-Prussian War 1870 4 Meeting in a garden in Brockham 7 Light Car Patrols in the Libyan Desert First World War 8 Father of first Surrey Constabulary police superintendent Dorking 1851 19 Book reviews 24 1 Parish Notes Fellow enthusiasts – greetings from Barrie Friend As we are unable to meet face to face our July 6th talk will again be by Zoom. During the lockdown our monthly Zoom talks attracted up to 60 viewers of whom the majority were Dorking u3a Group members who were not members of the Military History Group. This was most heartening, and we received numerous positive comments about the quality and interesting content of the talks delivered by group members and the guest speakers. A summary of the latest talk on The Franco Prussian War in 1870 is below. We will continue to invite Dorking u3a Group members to our meetings as guests to hear the range of talks we are planning for the Autumn and for 2022. It is our intention to meet in September in Brockham Pavilion. The talks will be delivered by members of our group and by guest speakers some of whom will be members of other u3a Military History Groups. The aim of the meetings is to share knowledge and understanding whilst maintaining the u3a ethos of developing friendships. The lockdown has had another positive impact upon our Military History Group which has seen the size increase to 28 members, and our last two members, Carolyn Wilson and Teresa Mills joined only weeks ago. Welcome to you both. We wouldn’t have stayed together or grown without the commitment from all members of the group - you have kept the faith, thank you. A Mention in Despatches is awarded to the members who had a higher profile and helped behind the scenes in many ways: our loyal Zoom speakers Jim, George and Mike, our Newsletter contributor and editor Bob, and also Hilda whose roses we smelled and shortbread we devoured. We shouldn’t forget the Committee members without whom we would not have had such a high profile and excellent method of communicating, John Sinclair, Mike Docker and Gareth Balle. Our Next Meeting Date: Tuesday 6th July Venue: Link to Zoom Meeting https://zoom.us/j/94889472345?pwd=QkhtdTNnSGdzMC95Q0xNVVBqVllqdz09 Speaker: Group member Tony Barnes will talk on “The Battle of Kasserine Pass; Rommel’s Last Victory.” 2 Tony will describe how, following the Torch landings in North Africa, Rommel gave the Americans a bloody nose in November 1942 and the consequences for the allies. Starting: 1030 am A summary will appear in the MHG Newsletter as always. Our Future You’ll recall the two challenges for the group in the coming months - membership and speakers. To build membership we will maintain our relationship with those on the Zoom guest list whilst looking outside Dorking and District u3a group. Teresa Mills, mentioned above, is one who has made that very small leap from ‘Zoom guest’ to MHG member. The quality of speakers and their topics will continue to attract new members and I’m pleased that our speaker pool is increasing from those of our group who find face to face talking a more preferable method for them than Zoom and we are also developing close relationships with adjoining u3a Military History Groups. Milton u3a MHG has offered to visit and talk, and Mike Smith has introduced speakers to us from the Bookham u3a MHG. Our future looks bright. Autumn Talk Schedule September 7th: Bob Bartlett: "Wheels Across the Desert: Light Car Patrols during First World War in the Libyan Desert.” (Part one of potentially a series of three talks) October 5th: Joint meeting with Miford, Surrey, u3a Military History Group in Brockham Pavilion November 2nd: New member Liz Lockhart-Muir: “The Wasbies.” How an intrepid group of women - the Women's Auxilliary Service (Burma) - supported the 14th Army in Burma in WWII. December 7th: Guest Speaker from Bookham u3a MHG Julian Roberts: The Russian Japanese War Our 2022 Talk Schedule Watch this space: it’s looking good. 3 The Start of The Franco Prussian War, July 1870 Guest speaker Tim Pritchart - Barrett delivered a very knowledgeable and enthusiastic talk at our last Zoom meeting. His talk, covering the causes and the start of the war up to the Battle of Sedan, will be uploaded onto our YouTube site through D&D u3a web page. Here is a summary to accompany this. Origins of the Franco - Prussian War: power, pride and lies Prussia’s defeat of Austria in 1866 had confirmed Prussian leadership of the German states and threatened France’s position as the dominant power in Europe. The immediate cause of the Franco-Prussian War, however, was the candidacy of Prince Leopold of Hohenzollern (related to the Prussian royal house) for the vacant Spanish throne. The Prussian chancellor, Otto von Bismarck, and Spain’s leader, Juan Prim, persuaded Leopold to accept the Spanish throne in June 1870. This move greatly alarmed France, which felt threatened by a possible combination of Prussia and Spain directed against it. Leopold’s candidacy was withdrawn under French diplomatic pressure, but Prussian King Wilhelm 1 was unwilling to bow to the French ambassador’s demands that he promised to never again allow Leopold to be a candidate for the Spanish throne. Bismarck ‘edited’ William’s telegraphed description of this interview, and on July 14 he published this provocative message (The Ems Telegram), which accomplished his purposes of infuriating the French government and provoking it into a declaration of war. The French emperor, Napoleon III, declared war on Prussia on July 19, 1870, because his military advisers told him that the French army could defeat Prussia and that such a victory would restore his declining popularity in France. The French were convinced that the reorganisation of their army in 1866 had made it superior to the German armies. They also had great faith in two recently introduced technical innovations: the breech-loading chassepot rifle, with which the entire army was now equipped; and the newly invented mitrailleuse, an early machine gun. The French generals, blinded by national pride, were confident of victory. Otto von Bismarck saw war with France as an opportunity to bring the South German states into unity with the Prussian-led North German Federation and build a strong German Empire. The Germans had superiority of numbers as the South German states of Bavaria, Wurttemburg and Baden regarded France as the aggressor in the conflict and had thus sided with Prussia. An equally important asset was the Prussian army’s general staff, which planned the rapid, orderly movement of large numbers of troops to the battle zones. This superior organisation and mobility enabled the chief of the general staff, General Helmuth von Moltke, to exploit German superiority in numbers in most of the war’s battles. 4 The French collapse, the siege of Paris and the loss of Alsace and Lorraine The efficient German mobilization contrasted with confusion and delay on the French side. Germany was able to deliver 380,000 troops to the forward zone within 18 days of the start (July 14) of mobilisation, while many French units reached the front either late or with inadequate supplies. The vast German and French armies that then confronted each other were each grouped into right and left wings. 5 After suffering a check at the Battle of Worth on August 6th 1870, the commander of the French right (south) wing, Marshal Mac-Mahon, retreated westward. That same day, about 40 miles to the northeast, the commander of the French left wing, Marshal Achille Bazaine, was dislodged from near Saarbrücken and fell back westward to the fortress of Metz . His further retreat was checked by the German right wing in the blundering Battles of Hard and Gravelotte on August 16th and 18th and he then took refuge behind the defences of Metz indefinitely. The French right wing, commanded by Mac-Mahon and accompanied by Napoleon himself, attempted to relieve Bazaine but was itself encircled and trapped by the Germans at Sedan on August 31. The following day, the Germans on the surrounding heights poured deadly artillery fire down on them. The Battle of Sedan was a disaster for the French. Trapped against the Belgian frontier, the French lost 17,000 men and were compelled to surrender on September 2. About 104,000 officers and men were taken prisoner, including both Napoleon and Mac- Mahon. German losses numbered 460 officers and 8,500 men. Since Bazaine’s army was still bottled up in Metz, the result of the war was virtually decided by this surrender. French resistance was carried on against desperate odds by a new government of national defence, which assumed power in Paris on September 4, 1870, and proclaimed the removal of the emperor and the establishment of the Third Republic. On September 19 the Germans began to besiege Paris. Foreign minister Favre serving in the new French government, went to negotiate with Bismarck, but the negotiations were broken off when he found that Germany demanded Alsace and Lorraine. Leon Gambetta, the leading figure in the provisional government, organised new French armies in the countryside after escaping from besieged Paris in a balloon. These engaged but could not defeat the German forces.