The Telegraph INSIDE THE Sunday, August 3, 2014 FIRST WORLD WAR PART 12: UNDERSTANDING HISTORY Sponsored by THE LAST IN A 12-PART SERIES TO MARK THE WAR’S CENTENARY ANTHONY PATRICK BISHOP NIGEL JONES R ICHARDS How the war shaped Aftermath and social Myths that served the Allied cause Stalin and Hitler revolution GETTY Sponsored by WELCOME SHINING ANGELS The sustaining myths created by propagandists and the need to feel God was on the Allies' side. Anthony Richards P4-5 AN EVIL LEGACY The conflict was the greatest man-made catastrophe, paving the way for Stalin and Hitler. Patrick Bishop omorrow marks the P6-7 100th anniversary of the LETTERS HOME day Britain entered the A soldier looks forward to seeing the land of First World War – four Antony and Cleopatra Tcataclysmic years that left an for the first time. Anthony Richards, P6 indelible mark on nations, societies and many individual lives. ART AND POETRY William Orpen' s To the In this final issue in the series, we Unknown Soldier in France and Laurence look back not just at what happened Binyon' s For the Fallen. but what almost certainly didn’t: the Richard Slocombe, P8 myths that pitted good against evil Nigel Steel, P9 and inspired belief in divine HEROIC RIDE Richard West was intervention amid atrocities that awarded a posthumous defied human rationale. VC after rallying his men to victory from horseback. We also look at what came next – Michael Ashcroft at how the conflict redefined power P1 0 -11 structures across Europe and led A NEW WORLD The war was a catalyst for to the bloodiest century in history. social change, helping The social legacy was also powerful, women win the vote and Ireland independence. from female emancipation to a new And how Britain' s Jews kind of class awareness and a rallied to the cause. Nigel Jones, burgeoning remembrance industry. Con Coughlin Our regular features from Imperial P12-13 War Museums include battlefield art, HITler’s WAR poetry, letters home and Lord How the future Führer was inspired to ` liberate Ashcroft’s portrait of a VC hero. Germany' . Plus your relatives' war There are your moving letters from experiences in Postbox. loved ones who fought on the front Zoe Dare Hall line. And while reflecting on the P14-15 forces that shaped the century, IWM PODCAST we also consider the role of one Hear IWM' s Voices of the disenchanted, opinionated First World War podcasts at www.1914.org/ youth who became a podcasts decorated First World War veteran. His name? Adolf Hitler. Front cover: The Cenotaph, Zoe Dare Hall London; left, US Army Series editor Y recruitment poster, ETT G 1917-18 THE SPONSOR to remember those Heroes, George Cross prestigious award for for the past four decades, Union (IDU) and one of include being Vice-Patron Lord Ashcroft KCMG PC who gave their lives in Heroes and Heroes of courage not in the face of launching, buying, building Britain' s leading experts of the Intelligence Corps the conflict. the Skies. In each of the enemy. He currently and selling companies, on polling. Museum, a trustee of Inside the First World Lord Ashcroft has the 12 supplements, owns 14 GCs. Lord both private and public, Lord Ashcroft has Imperial War Museum, War, a 12-part series, established himself as a Lord Ashcroft tells the Ashcroft' s VC and GC in Britain and overseas. donated several millions an Ambassador for is sponsored by Lord champion of bravery, incredible stories behind collections are on display He is a former of pounds to charities SkillForce and a trustee Ashcroft KCMG PC, building up the world' s First World War VCs in a gallery that bears his treasurer and deputy and good causes. of the Cleveland Clinic an international largest collection of from his collection. name at IWM London, chairman of the He founded in the US. businessman, Victoria Crosses (VCs), Lord Ashcroft along with VCs and GCs in Conservative Party. In Crimestoppers (then philanthropist and Britain and the purchased his first VC in the care of the museum. September 2012, he was the Community Action For information about military historian. Lord Commonwealth' s most 1986 and currently owns The gallery, built with a appointed a member of Trust) in 1988. the Lord Ashcroft Gallery, Ashcroft is sponsoring prestigious award for more than 180 of the £5 million donation from the Privy Council and was He is the founder of visit iwm.org.uk/heroes. the monthly supplements courage in the face of the decorations. Three years Lord Ashcroft, was made the Government' s the Ashcroft Technology For information on because he wants to enemy. He has also ago, he began collecting opened by HRH The Special Representative Academy and Chancellor Lord Ashcroft, visit promote a greater written four books on George Crosses (GCs), Princess Royal in 2010. for Veterans' Transition. of Anglia Ruskin lordashcroft.com understanding of the bravery: Victoria Cross Britain and the Lord Ashcroft has been a He is treasurer of the University. His numerous Follow him on Twitter: First World War and Heroes, Special Forces Commonwealth' s most successful entrepreneur International Democratic other charity roles @LordAshcroft Sponsored by LEGENDARY TA LE S Saved by a ring of shining angels Anthony Richards on the myths created by propagandists and the belief that God was on the Allies’ side e had a terrible time and at last a company of us was hemmed Scotland, having been observed with snow on their boots, and were on their way into a large chalk pit. We were quite powerless, and heard the to the Western Front to bolster the hopelessly outnumbered British Expeditionary German cavalry approaching. Suddenly I looked up and encircling Force. This desire for an explanation or solution to something disastrous or the top of the pit was a ring of shining angels. As the cavalry unexpected can still be seen regularly today in the conspiracy theories which rushed up, the horses saw them and there was a general circulate after the death of famous personalities such as Diana, Princess of Wales Wstampede. Our lives were saved and the Germans were put to confusion. Seven or world-shattering events such as 9/11. After the immensely popular figurehead soldiers as well as officers saw the angels.” So recalled a wounded British soldier Lord Kitchener was drowned when HMS Hampshire sank in June 1916, some from Mons, some time after the initial battle fought by the British Expeditionary spread the belief that he had survived and was secretly planning for the final Allied Force on August 23, 1914. Or did he? victory. Not too far removed, perhaps, from the legend of King Arthur, sleeping but The First World War generated a number of widely held beliefs that turned out to ready to appear in Britain’s hour of greatest need. be false – and one of the most famous folklore tales is that of the Angels of Mons A supernatural explanation to events can be perceived in the myth of the which, like the most notable myths of the war, emerged early in the conflict. ‘‘Vanishing Norfolks’’. Several hundred men of the 1/5th Battalion Norfolk Such tales were embodied in vivid stories that appeared quickly and developed Regiment became isolated during an attack at Gallipoli on August 12, 1915, which into popular acceptance with such intensity that, even today, many people remain resulted in extreme losses, with many of the bodies failing to be immediately familiar with them. This was an era when the word of newspapers, journals and recovered or identified. A myth grew up after the war which suggested that the men books was widely accepted as truth and the ability to confirm the accuracy of a had advanced into a mist and disappeared, never to be seen again. story was far from straightforward. Many tales were promulgated by word of The popularity of the legend was accentuated by the fact that the 1/5th Battalion mouth, and what may have started as an innocent comment, observation or joke included men recruited from the Sandringham Estate in Norfolk. King George V’s could sometimes finish as a widespread acceptance of historical truth. particular interest in the fate of his estate workers, many of whom he knew Despite the apparent veracity of the Angels of Mons anecdote, its origins lie in a personally, kept the story alive and ripe for speculation and later years saw the fictional short story by Arthur Machen calledThe Bowmen. Published on September introduction to the yarn of flying saucers, extra-terrestrial abduction and other 29, 1914, this recounted in first-person style how phantom archers from the Battle bizarre elements. In fact the truth was rather more mundane, as the ‘‘missing’’ of Agincourt repelled a German attack during the British retreat from Mons. Norfolks had already been discovered by a graves registration unit in 1919 and The story hit a nerve and variations on the idea of ghostly intervention soon buried in a mass grave at Suvla. began to appear in print, although this time portrayed as fact. The story of the The First World War is often characterised by the invention and widespread angels provided a comforting and inspiring message that God was on the side of adoption of new technology, and the novelty and uncertainty regarding these the Allies, so religious organisations encouraged the spread of the legend. helped to generate folklore. Zeppelin airships were a particularly fearsome form Linked to this idea of divine intervention was the notion that the Germans were of warfare as they appeared as an ominous and almost mystical threat in the skies a godless nation and enemies of Christianity.