When Bad Jet Was Young He Was A Good Jet. He Loved His Country, His Family, His God. When War Came, Bad Jet Went To Defend His Country. He Didn’t Want To Kill But When His Friends Were Killed He Killed In Return. At First It Was Hard To Kill But Then It Got Easier. He Became Good At Killing. He Was A Hero, He Was Decorated And Everybody Loved Him. When The War Was Over He Came Home, Got A Job, Had A Wife And Lived Happily Ever After. Or So It Seemed. All But The Dreams.
Bad Jet
Posted in Art
For those of you that don’t know, the Maidu were a Native American tribe that once occupied an area encompassing Oregon House…
Maidu communities varied with the topography. In the foothills, the Feather, American, Yuba and other smaller streams flow through deep narrow canyons. Permanent settlements were usually on the ridges that separate the parallel streams. Minor features of topography seemed to have determined the particular site choices. For the foothill Maidu, a spring, a clearing, a level southwestern exposure, or any other essential varying features was the deciding consideration (on the Ames estate, the Maidu sites cover all three of the above).
All pictures below were taken on various parts of the Ames estate:
The valley Maidu traded with the Wintun (another Native American tribe). Beads were used as money. Beads came in tens and were always handled on strings. From the valley and hills the beads flowed into the high Sierra, often traded for salmon, salt, nuts, bows and arrows, deerskins and wild tobacco.
The list of animals not considered food by the Maidu was small. Dog was the most taboo animal, regarded as poisonous. Also, the buzzard and all reptiles were avoided. Invertebrates, high in protein, were freely eaten; worms, larva of yellow jackets and other insects, grasshoppers, crickets, locusts and fresh water mussels were considered delicacies. Deer were hunted in companies of men (They were driven over cliffs). Before the hunt, prayers and magical observances, and strict taboos were enforced for the families of the hunters. These people were very religious and into shamanism. There was a ceremony for everything; a change in seasons, animal sacrifice, sickness, new life and death.
Traces of the Maidu are all around us. Rocks used as grinding stones (for processing acorns) are scattered across the Ames estate. I find it thought-provoking to be occupying land and “owning” land as a direct beneficiary of an ethnic cleansing campaign carried out approximately 150 years ago.
Now, for the record, no ancestors of mine participated in this ethnic cleansing process and, in fact, my ancestors have always fought on the “right” side of any war America was involved in from the Civil War to World War II. However, that does not alter the fact that we, and actually anyone in America, have benefited from an ethnic cleansing campaign.
Am I apologizing? No. Am I fomenting for reparations or land reform? No. Such is the way of the world. The powerful abuse those weaker than them and the Maidu probably pushed some other weaker group out before them.
I just find it thought-provoking to run my hands over rocks that were shaped by humans hundred or thousands of years ago and to be occupying land once occupied by them.
As Buddha said, “Transiency is inherent in component things.”
Posted in Personal
Tagged Ames estate, Indian grinding stones, Maidu, Oregon House
With the heavy emphasis on war and politics in the recent posts, I thought a little Banksy with “his” (I use “his” loosely since Banksy’s identity remains unknown) illegal, subversive and, most importantly, anti-establishment art would serve delightfully well as a transition back to lighter fare on The Velvet Rocket.
Banksy was first brought to my attention when I noticed the piece pictured below while walking through central London with some classmates.
The Westminster City Council stated in October 2008 that the work “One Nation Under CCTV”, will be painted over as it is graffiti. The council says it will remove any graffiti, regardless of the reputation of its creator, and specifically stated that Banksy has no more right to paint graffiti than a child.
I took the picture above, but can claim no credit for those featured below. Hopefully, you can get past this and enjoy them all the same:
It was interesting to see Hitler’s World War II bunker, where he spent his final days, when I knew that I would be seeing the bunker where he spent his front-line service in World War I only four days in the future. Below is a picture of the parking lot under which Hitler’s bunker lies.
There is nothing to indicate the location other than a modest sign nearby. If you want to visit the site yourself, make sure you know where it is before you head out because the Germans in the area will be very reluctant to tell you where it is. There have been several attempts to destroy the bunker complex, but it is massive and with reinforced concrete walls that are 12 feet thick, this is easier contemplated than accomplished.
The neighborhood still bears many of the scars of war:
Many of the surviving buildings in the area look like this one – covered with shrapnel and bullet damage.
Or like these buildings – derelict and abandoned.
Abandoned bunkers are still widespread throughout the area.
Nearby are the grounds of the former Gestapo torture chambers – uncovered as part of the Topography of Terror.
Some pictures on the site demonstrate the extremes of war:
Mass shooting by members of an Einsatzgruppe D (special mobile unit) of the Security Police – 1942
Estimates are that between 1941 and 1945 the Einsatzgruppen and the SS killed more than 1.3 million people in open-air shootings.
Forced to dig their own graves and then executed…
Hanged Soviet partisans – 1942
Amusingly, the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe is less than a block from where Hitler’s World War II bunker was located. How would Hitler feel about having a Jewish memorial right next to his old bunker?
The thought that Jock died for his country is of no comfort to me
His memory is all I have left to love.
- John Low’s fiancee, 10 January 1918
World War I saw many firsts. The first aircraft in combat, the first tanks in combat, the first use of chemical warfare, the first use of a flamethrower in combat… The tactics of the time, however, were far behind the technology.
On 30 July 1915 the Germans introduced the flame-thrower at Hooge through the “Totenkopfpioniere” or troops of the German Guard Reserve Pioneer Regiment. By the end of 1916 this regiment had 3,000 men and a total of some 600 flame-throwers. During the entire war, 653 attacks, most of them devastating, were carried out using flame-throwers.
The warfare gasses of the First World War were derived from chemicals used in the textile industry. Chlorine and phosgene are used for making dyes, in which Germany was the market leader. The many accidents in the chemical industry gave German scientists the idea of further modifying the gasses produced and giving them a military application. From August 1914, the Germans tried filling shells with gas. Their early attempts were not successful and instead they decided to fill steel cylinders with chlorine.
The first gas attack
In the spring of 1915 the Germans in Geluveld planned a large-scale gas attack on Hill 60. But, because the desired north-easterly wind failed to blow, the attack was shifted to the front between Langemark and Steenstrate. The Allies ignored a whole series of warnings that a gas attack was imminent. Even deserter August Jager, who handed them the complete German plan, was not believed. On 22 April 1915 the Germans released more than 5,000 cylinders of chlorine gas. Huge gaps appeared in the Allied lines as a result but the Germans underestimated the effect of the new weapon, and they didn’t have enough reserve troops ready to exploit their success.
Gradually the Germans developed odorless and colorless gasses whose effects are not immediately felt. They worked with about twenty different types of gas, including phosgene, a potent chemical whose effects are only noticed after a couple of hours and which is ten times more deadly than chlorine gas. On 12 July 1917 the Germans introduced mustard gas – also known as Yperite – on the Ypres front. This is an oily liquid which is spread in the air with shells. It’s absorbed by the skin, which hours later begins to itch and form blisters that soon burst and fester, with terrible mutilations as a result.
The balance
Each of the warring parties employed gas on a massive scale: the Germans used 52,000 tons, the French 26,000 tons and the British 14,000 tons. Even so, less than 1% of the total number of victims of the war succumbed to the effects of gas. This is because gas masks were quickly developed. Nonetheless, the Germans and the Allies continued to use gas so as to force the enemy regularly to don their masks – this had a very demoralizing effect. Thus – leaving aside the terrible mutilations caused by mustard gas (Yperite) – gas is used mainly as a psychological weapon.
Gas – chlorine
First use – 4/22/1915
Type – asphyxiating gas (+ tear gas)
Reaction Time – .5 to 1 minute
Nature – yellow-greenish gas, smells like bleach; the basis for several gasses
Effect – affects breathing and eyelids, afterwards it also attacks the nervous system
Gas – phosgene
First use – 11/28/1915
Type – asphyxiating gas
Reaction Time – 1 to 2 hours
Nature – gas smells like rotting hay
Effect – burns the alveolus and blood vessels; blood enters the lungs and the victim chokes in his own blood
Gas – mustard gas (Yperite)
First use – 12/07/1917
Type – blister gas
Reaction Time – 6 to 24 hours
Nature – oily liquid, remains active for 8 days – even in water
Effect – absorbed by the skin, producing itching followed by blisters which fester, resulting in horrible mutilation
Gas – arsenic
First Use – 02/09/1917
Type – poison gas + sneezing gas
Reaction Time – 2 to 5 minutes
Nature – colorless gas, smells like almonds; attacks even the gas mask itself
Effect – kills the white blood cells so that the body is poisoned
These are the artillery shells with which gas attacks were launched. The vials of toxins were placed inside the shells.
An assortment of gas masks and chemical warfare suits in a museum we visited.
This trip with my mates Andrew Drury and Nigel Green was not dedicated entirely to World War I though. Next up was Waterloo:
We started by visiting the home (now a museum) where the Duke of Wellington was billeted.
And, of course, we all had to take turns having our pictures taken on the Duke of Wellington’s bed even though we were not supposed to.
I was impressed by the history of this six pounder bronze cannon in the museum. It was manufactured in Douai, France in 1813 and then captured at Waterloo and taken back to England. It is now on loan from the Royal Armouries London
Then it was on to the famous battlefield itself. This is the monument marking the spot.
And this is the lion positioned at the top.
And this is the view from the top of the monument out across the legendary battlefield.
A panorama at the base of the monument features a 360 degree view of the battlefield (The “real” parts of the set are all in life-size and one looks down on the battle from above). With intense sound effects – screams of horses and men, booming cannon fire, rifle fire – it is deafening inside and it makes you feel as if you were really there. It gave me an adrenalin rush. Here are two pictures I took inside, but they don’t do it justice at all.
On the far side of the Waterloo battlefield is Hougoumont Farm (also known as the Chateau of Hougoumont), where the battle of Waterloo really started – and where many say the battle of Waterloo was actually won. Wellington himself declared afterwards that “the success of the battle turned upon the closing of the gates at Hougoumont”.
Hougoumont Farm is off-limits to visitors (someone still lives there), but those rules don’t apply to us. And Andy Drury has a 4WD…
The grounds of the farm:
Seeing the farm in this state leaves little clue to the desperate hand-to-hand fighting and loss of life that took place here, nor to the incredible historical significance of Hougoumont Farm…
These dogs really wanted a piece of me. The dark, hairy one was snarling and throwing itself at the fence in an effort to get to me. The fence was poorly constructed and was shaking violently when the dog hurled himself at it. I wonder if the Coldstream Guards would have fared as well against these dogs as they did against the French?
Nigel and Andy inspecting the musket ball and shrapnel damage to the farm. Andy’s mighty Trojan 4WD is in the middle.
Below is a watercolor painting of the battle which gives one an idea of how ferocious the fighting was. The painting depicts the location you see Andy and Nigel in above (Click on the picture for more detail):
Those indentations in the bricks are not natural. These walls were absolutely peppered with shrapnel and musket balls.
Back to World War I…
Newfoundland, not a part of Canada during WWI, received its own war monuments. The exploits of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment earned the small British colony 5 overseas memorials: the Beaumont Hamel Memorial probably being the most famous. Each of these structures consists of a cairn of Newfoundland granite in the form of a natural outcrop of land supporting a bronze caribou, the emblem of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment. The mounds are surrounded by native Newfoundland plants. At Beaumont Hamel on 1 July 1916, the opening day of the Battle of the Somme, the Newfoundland Regiment was absolutely obliterated by enemy fire as it advanced across the exposed slopes.
The scene was described as follows in the museum near the site:
“The Newfoundlanders’ Advance – Members of A and B companies who escaped the clouds of shrapnel emerged into No Man’s Land where the nightmare continued. Although artillery fire slackened, the soldiers from the 1st Newfoundland Regiment were decimated by machine-gun fire from Position 60. Few made it beyond the Danger Tree (pictured below). In the meantime, artillery fire resumed, ending any remaining chance for the soldiers of the other two Newfoundland companies, particularly C company, which was carrying additional equipment.”
The Beaumont Hamel Memorial. This land is now owned by Canada.
Of course, I had to climb to the top.
This is the view of the battlefield from the top. You can still clearly see the crater holes and outlines of the trenches.
Statistics from some of the battles in the Somme area helped put the losses from our current conflicts in places like Iraq and Afghanistan in perspective. Consider the following quote from the museum at the Beaumont Hamel Memorial:
“At the end of the day, British losses amounted to 60,000 out of a total of 100,000 troops in the battle. One of the darkest days in British history.”
That’s 60,000 in one day!
We went down onto the battlefield and started exploring the trenches. Here’s Nigel looking for a good picture and providing some scale to the size of the trenches.
This is the Danger Tree. It somehow stayed upright in the middle of No Man’s Land, despite the utter destruction around it. However, it served as an excellent reference point for artillery barrages as well as for snipers and machine-gunners. So, it would not have been a good place to visit during the First World War.
This sign cautions against proceeding at the edge of the battlefield:
So, naturally, we did proceed and went exploring down in the trenches.
Nigel Green and Andrew Drury exiting the battlefield.
Next up: Agincourt (or Azincourt if you are French).
Going even further back in time…
It was eleven in the morning on the 25th of October 1415. Henry V and his troops were retreating to Calais to embark for England when they were cut off by French forces which outnumbered his by an amount most historians agree was 4 to 1. The English coming off of an 18 day march across 250 miles of hostile territory under constant harassment were suffering from dysentery and exhaustion, and were further hampered by inclement weather.
Lightly clad, the English archers were more supple in their line of command. Using time well, they dug stakes into the ground to give protection against cavalry charges and to allow them to shoot arrows over the top. The bugles and trumpets of the French then began their loud calls. Each group was under its own banner, its leader at its head. The well equipped French first succeeded in pushing back the English, but progress was difficult because the ground, a recently plowed field, was muddy from recent rainfall.
The shooting of the English archers did nothing to reduce the disarray among the French ranks. At the same time, the French support troops were becoming less orderly, continually pushed forward by those behind them. The French soldiers were so squashed together that they could barely lift their arms to fight. Additionally, the arrows of the English archers badly frightened the horses, the cavalry having been strategically placed on both flanks. The panic amongst the horses did not help morale amongst the soldiers.
The French troops, marching through the middle of the mud where they sank up to their knees, were already overcome with fatigue even before they advanced against the enemy. The deep, soft mud particularly favored the English force because, once knocked to the ground, the heavily armored French knights struggled to get back up to fight and several knights, encumbered by their armor, actually drowned in the mud. Taking advantage of the situation, the English left their refuge of stakes, taking their swords, axes and other arms and hurled themselves on the French line. This resulted in a tremendous slaughter of the throng, the French being too restricted to reply or defend themselves. Many French soldiers that had fallen to the ground were unable to get up at all and could only thrash helplessly on the ground as the English ruthlessly and efficiently went about thrusting a blade through the slots in the French armor.
The end result was a tremendous victory for the English and a humiliating loss for the French. Almost 600 years later, this battle still resonates strongly for both the English and the French.
The Agincourt/Azincourt monument.
The battlefield is pictured below. I could better sympathize with the French predicament when we ventured out into the fields. We were under very similar circumstances, walking through a recently plowed field after heavy rains, and almost immediately we started sinking down into the mud and my shoes are still caked with it.
My tribute to the English archers. Recent analysis of the skeletons of English archers from this time reveals that their back and arm muscles were so strong that it actually left them deformed. I’m not exactly in that league.
By the way, despite being in France, the museums around Agincourt are remarkably unbiased – unlike those around Waterloo which leave you with the impression that Napoleon won the battle (and I’m saying this even as a fan of Napoleon).
After the day’s death and destruction, it was time for a pub… The lads at the end of another successful trip: Andrew Drury, Justin Ames and Nigel Green.
This trip was conceived relatively recently, but I never say no to an adventure – particularly one involving my mates Andy Drury and Nigel Green. And so off to France and Belgium we went…
Much of the first part of our tour covered the sites of World War I:
Spanning Europe, Africa, the Middle East and even China and the Pacific Islands, it is difficult to overstate the impact of “The Great War”. Four empires disappeared – the German, Austro-Hungarian, Ottoman and the Russian. Four dynasties, the Hohenzollerns, the Habsburg, Romanovs and the Ottomans together with all their ancillary aristocracies, all fell after the war. Belgium and France were left in ruins.
Over 40 million casualties resulted, including approximately 20 million military and civilian deaths.
In addition, a major influenza epidemic that started in Western Europe in the waning months of the war spread around the world and killed at least 50 million people.
Also, the poor conclusion of World War I also set the stage for many other world conflicts – The Bolsheviks seized control of Russia. Out of German discontent with the Treaty of Versailles, Adolf Hitler was able to gain power. The birth of Israel and the continuing Israeli-Palestinian conflict are found in the spoils of World War I as, usually after only cursory consultation with the local population, the political boundaries drawn by the victors of the First World War were quickly imposed.
And, of course, what war does not have its war crimes?
Perhaps the most infamous is the campaign of genocide carried out by the Turks against the Christian Armenians, Assyrians and Greeks during the final years of the Ottoman Empire. The exact number of deaths is unknown although a range of 250,000 to 1.5 million is given for the deaths of Armenians.
But let us not forget the rape of Belgium…
In Belgium, German troops, in fear of French and Belgian guerrilla fighters massacred civilians in Andenne (211 dead), Tamines (384 dead), and Dinant (612 dead). On 25 August 1914, the Germans set fire to the town of Leuven, burned the library containing about 230,000 books, killed 209 civilians and forced 42,000 to evacuate.
This is the face of “The Great War”… And, yes, this man is still alive. It’s difficult to even conceive of such suffering.
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This is the bunker where Adolf Hitler spent his front-line service with the Bavarian Infantrie-Regiment List.
We would have gone inside, even without flashlights, but this water was waist deep and it was literally freezing out there.
Hitler’s rear-line service was spent in a house in the nearby village of Fournes-en-Weppes at No. 1345 rue Froidherbe. A large marble plaque, placed on the home in 1942 by the Nazi government to commemorate his time there, was removed by the home’s owner in 1944, but the fittings can still be seen above the door.
Nigel and Andy pose next to the bunker to give an idea of its scale:
This crater was the scene of one of the largest non-nuclear explosions in history. The 171st Tunnelling Company spent months excavating a tunnel 513 meters long under the German lines and then packed it with 91,000 pounds of ammonal. The ammonal was blown on the 7th of June 1917 and it was said the blast could be felt as far away as London. The crater is 40 feet deep and the diameter of complete obliteration extended 430 feet.
At the time it was called the Lone Tree Crater, but has now had its name changed to Spanbroekmolen or the Pool of Peace.
I had this picture taken to demonstrate the scale of the crater.
It’s amazing how much evidence of World War I is still present. Piles of shells like this (some still live) can be found in the woods or along roads where farmers have plowed them up.
And crater holes still dot the landscape in areas that are not farmed.
The stumps of trees ripped apart by explosions and bullets still fill the forests.
And in some areas, the bunkers and trenches have remained remarkably intact given the time that has passed.
It was pitch black in the bunker above and so I just leaned in and snapped a shot with the flash on – the picture below is the result.
I would love to have explored this tunnel, but without a flashlight or waterproof boots I opted to save this one for next time.
Another remarkably intact trench. The forests seem to do a good job of protecting the trenches and tunnels.
It looks tranquil now, but this was the scene of horrific fighting.
Ypres, Belgium at the end of World War I:
Pictures taken very near the same location in Ypres today:
In four great battles around the city of Ypres, over 250,000 British, Canadian, Australian, New Zealand, Indian, Pakistani and South African troops were killed. More than 100,000 of these men have no known graves, of whom 54,896 are commemorated by name on the Menin Gate (those who died before 16 August 1917).
Nigel and Andy search for a name that is on a medal Nigel acquired:
Mindful of this sacrifice, a number of local citizens of Ypres put forward the idea that the Last Post should be played each evening, as a mark of respect and gratitude towards those who had given their lives for the independence of Belgium. The Menin Gate seemed the most fitting location for such a tribute: It was through the Gate that most of the soldiers had marched off to the front, many never to return. More than 80,000 Frenchmen, Americans and other Allies shared the same fate.
Every day of the year since 1928, crowds gather to hear the Last Post being played.
Military cemeteries blanket the landscape of Belgium and France. Tyne Cot, a burial ground for the dead of World War I in the Ypres Salient on the Western Front, is the largest cemetery for Commonwealth forces in the world, for any war.
The majority of the graves in the cemetery are marked in this manner:
Graves stretching to the horizon.
Despite the somber setting, I still had to be myself and climb to the top of the memorial.
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Dulce et Decorum Est by Wilfred Owen
Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of tired, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind.
Gas! Gas! Quick, boys!– An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
And flound’ring like a man in fire or lime…
Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light,
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.
In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.
If in some smothering dreams you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,–
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.
8 October 1917 – march, 1918
Wilfred Owen was killed in action on 4 November 1918 during the crossing of the Sambre-Oise Canal, exactly one week (almost to the hour) before the signing of the Armistice. His mother received the telegram informing her of his death on Armistice Day, as the church bells were ringing out in celebration.
Posted in Dynamics of Death Tour, Travel
Tagged Hitler's WWI bunker, Ypres, Leper, Sanctuary Wood, Menin Gate, Andrew Drury, Nigel Green, Spanbroekmolen, Pool of Peace, Tyne Cot
