Who is This ? ? ?

[neverforget]

 

     Spent the war  in a camp-but who and why?

I'm guessing he wasn't a red-coat at Butlins. Was he a camp commandant?

[seaJane]

2 hours ago, Khaki said:

He is Bela Lugosi , actor and GW soldier in the Austro Hungarian army where he was wounded on the Russian front.

 

khaki

Correct!

[Guest]

19 minutes ago, neverforget said:

. Was he a camp commandant

 

  No!!  No!! It's not Bernard Hepton- That delusion is mine!!!

[David Ridgus]

1 hour ago, neverforget said:

 

(He did look a bit like both of them though.....)

 

 

NF

 

I thought he was a ringer for Kevin Kline.

 

By the way 'trying to enlist' is positively on point for inclusion in WIT compared to some of the weird and wonderful photos  we have had over the years (who can forget the endless animals whose only qualification was to have featured in a picture with someone who had a Great War connection, not to mention the photo-negative of Chris Baker [still the only living person to have featured on WIT])

 

Either way, though I fully support RaySearching's efforts to maintain standards, your efforts along with UG in keeping the thread afloat during its dog days allows you a certain latitude ??

 

David

[Guest]

 

 

    Clue- International coal mining

[neverforget]

28 minutes ago, David Ridgus said:

 

NF

 

I thought he was a ringer for Kevin Kline.

 

By the way 'trying to enlist' is positively on point for inclusion in WIT compared to some of the weird and wonderful photos  we have had over the years (who can forget the endless animals whose only qualification was to have featured in a picture with someone who had a Great War connection, not to mention the photo-negative of Chris Baker [still the only living person to have featured on WIT])

 

Either way, though I fully support RaySearching's efforts to maintain standards, your efforts along with UG in keeping the thread afloat during its dog days allows you a certain latitude ??

 

David

Many thanks for your words of support David.

Coming from our thread's foremost, eminent, illustrious, venerable, distinguished and exalted member, they are greatly appreciated. 

I promise not to bring proceedings into disrepute in future ✍?

[Fattyowls]

On 11/04/2017 at 23:37, neverforget said:

I promise not to bring proceedings into disrepute in future ✍?

 

Speak for yourself. You sit at the front near teacher; I'll be at the back with the bad lads. Can I also take this opportunity to nominate GUEST for the Daniel/Phoebus Award for Services to Non-Clue Clues. I'm telling you, international coal mining is right up there with some of Daniel's epics. A few more like that and cult status is assured.

 

Pete.

[David Ridgus]

 

 

    Clue- International coal mining

I fear another clue is needed mon brave. Was he interred by us or the Germans?

 

David

[Fattyowls]

2 minutes ago, David Ridgus said:

I fear another clue is needed mon brave. Was he interred by us or the Germans?

 

David

 

At the risk of being pedantic is there a missing 'n' in there somewhere?

[David Ridgus]

43 minutes ago, Fattyowls said:

 

At the risk of being pedantic is there a missing 'n' in there somewhere?

I know a bad workman always blames his tools but the wretched auto correct will be the death of me. As ever my friend I thank you for your kindness in underplaying my carelessness in proofreading. You are quite right of course, I meant to ask who held him prisoner, not who buried him ? 

 

David

[Guest]

5 hours ago, Fattyowls said:

 

At the risk of being pedantic is there a missing 'n' in there somewhere?

 

     Now,now children

1-  He was not interred during the years of the Great War- but  died  when Harold Wilson was PM (please note,this does not necessarily mean he died in the UK-'cos he didn't)

2) He was interned by the French-  which should narrow the range on his nationality. He intended to serve in the armed forces of one of the Central Powers  but didn't quite make it back in time.

[neverforget]

On 12/04/2017 at 00:20, Fattyowls said:

 

Speak for yourself. You sit at the front near teacher; I'll be at the back with the bad lads. Can I also take this opportunity to nominate GUEST for the Daniel/Phoebus Award for Services to Non-Clue Clues. I'm telling you, international coal mining is right up there with some of Daniel's epics. A few more like that and cult status is assured.

 

Pete.

Brilliantly WITty post as ever Pete. If only my old schoolteachers could see your remarks they would be choking on the irony.

Assuming no doubt incorrectly that Mr. V's man was German or Austrian, I've managed to narrow down the list of suspects to a mere 12,940 interned by the French, though I've not as yet uncovered too many notable coal miners amongst them. 

Once I've finished trawling the list, I'll be moving on to the Bulgarians, Turks, etc.

Back shortly........

 

 

[Ron Clifton]

Bela Lugosi? He served in the AH Army in 1914-1916.

 

Ron

Edit: I was replying to post 6074 without realising there was another page! Pleased that I got it right, though.

Edited 12 April , 2017 by Ron Clifton

[Stoppage Drill]

#6083 Paul-Henri Spaak ?

[Guest]

1 hour ago, neverforget said:

Brilliantly WITty post as ever Pete. If only my old schoolteachers could see your remarks they would be choking on the irony.

Assuming no doubt incorrectly that Mr. V's man was German or Austrian, I've managed to narrow down the list of suspects to a mere 12,940 interned by the French, though I've not as yet uncovered too many notable coal miners amongst them. 

Once I've finished trawling the list, I'll be moving on to the Bulgarians, Turks, etc.

Back shortly........

 

 

 

       Famously concerned with the Western Front in 1918 and the fate of 4 men of the infantry. His fame through international coal mining came in 1931 and involved coal miners from both France and Germany

10 minutes ago, Stoppage Drill said:

#6083 Paul-Henri Spaak ?

 

   Post-Brexit?  I think not

[Stoppage Drill]

 and the fate of 4 men of the infantry. 

 

The Four Corporals of Suippes ?

[Guest]

10 minutes ago, Stoppage Drill said:

 

The Four Corporals of Suippes ?

 

      Alas, never heard of them.  Give it an hour-answer at 11

[Stoppage Drill]

 

      Alas, never heard of them.  Give it an hour-answer at 11

Look them up. Terrible tale.

[neverforget]

 

      Alas, never heard of them. 

Very surprised to hear that. They (and the mother of one of them) have featured here in the past. You can follow the course of the story here: 

 

I thought your man might be Gustav Stresemann, but I don't think he was interned so I guess not.

[Guest]

23 minutes ago, neverforget said:

Very surprised to hear that. They (and the mother of one of them) have featured here in the past.

I thought your man might be Gustav Stresemann, but I don't think he was interned so I guess not.

 

      Now I know better, I do know it- but I know it as l'Affaire Souain -  My ex is French from the Aube,(10) and her family come from the Ardennes (08)-so many times have been past Souain in the Marne and heard the story. But never heard the name Suippes before.

     They are not too keen on showing "Paths of Glory" in the land of liberte,egalite et fraternite. Generals seem to have been exempt from the higher ideals of the Republic

[Guest]

   It is the great German (Austrian)  film director Georg Wilhelm Pabst (1885-1967)  -  He directed "Westfront 1918. Vier von der Infanterie"- the German cinema's equivalent of the Lew Ayres "All Quiet on the Western Front". He also directed the powerful 1931 anti-war film "Kameradschaft"- about a mining accident just inside France-and how German miners tunnel through to the rescue- Considered a socialist classic-that the international unity of the workers is a common interest and that common humanity transcends nationalism and war

(Both on You Tube)

    He was in the US in 1914 but was interned by the French at Brest for the duration while trying to get back to enlist.. In 1939 he failed to get out of Nazi Germany and had another undistinguished war doing not very much in Hitler's Germany- He did later make a minor film about the last 10 days of Hitler and also a film in the Fifties concerning July 20th

 

 

 

 

[Fattyowls]

But never heard the name Suippes before. 

 

It is probably close to two decades since I was last there, as it is not a place that British visitors are likely to pass. (Name dropper alert!) However I went to Verdun with Martin Middlebrook and Mike Hodgson several times in the 90's and Martin used to like to go across country rather than use the autoroute. As a consequence we would cross the Santerre plateau south of the Somme, pass Laon where General Charles Mangin said he would make his headquarters after the breakthrough on the Chemin de Dames 100 years ago and then go along the ladies road. We would stop at the beautiful Vendresse cemetery below the crest and on one occasion took in the Bois de Buttes, of immortal memory to the Devonshires.

 

Suippes was a coffee stop on at least one trip as we crossed the dry Champagne and there was time to explore the town. The market seemed to have most of the 246 kinds of cheese that Charles de Gaulle complained of but on the north edge of the town is one of those large, sad French millitary cemeteries, which has one British grave, an ambulanceman called Gidley, who was killed on 26th April 1917.

 

At the junction close to the cemetery is a stone which I think is incredibly significant in the history of the First World War. It describes how in early September 1914 the Kaiser and his entourage had stopped at this crossroads and his generals had informed him that they had decided to retreat in the face of the French counterattack along the Marne. Although the decision may well have been taken elsewhere I think this location is where Moltke's supposed statement "Your majesty, we have lost the war" started to come true. It would take four years and incalculable suffering and misery before it came to pass but I think that little junction at Suippes is so symbolic.

 

Pete.

[Guest]

   Pete-I haven't been to that area for years- but the little town where Madame's parents lived was where the German advance stopped in 1914-You look along a long straight road across the boring landscape of Champagne and can see a little hamlet a mile or so down the road- I was told the German advance stopped halfway.  And then when you come across the mounds in an otherwise flat,empty landscape and a notice says so many thousands are buried there from 1914. Hate to say it but the French army  and the French state seem/seemed a little casual to the life of the individual

[neverforget]

23 minutes ago, Fattyowls said:

 

It is probably close to two decades since I was last there, as it is not a place that British visitors are likely to pass. (Name dropper alert!) However I went to Verdun with Martin Middlebrook and Mike Hodgson several times in the 90's and Martin used to like to go across country rather than use the autoroute. As a consequence we would cross the Santerre plateau south of the Somme, pass Laon where General Charles Mangin said he would make his headquarters after the breakthrough on the Chemin de Dames 100 years ago and then go along the ladies road. We would stop at the beautiful Vendresse cemetery below the crest and on one occasion took in the Bois de Buttes, of immortal memory to the Devonshires.

 

Suippes was a coffee stop on at least one trip as we crossed the dry Champagne and there was time to explore the town. The market seemed to have most of the 246 kinds of cheese that Charles de Gaulle complained of but on the north edge of the town is one of those large, sad French millitary cemeteries, which has one British grave, an ambulanceman called Gidley, who was killed on 26th April 1917.

 

At the junction close to the cemetery is a stone which I think is incredibly significant in the history of the First World War. It describes how in early September 1914 the Kaiser and his entourage had stopped at this crossroads and his generals had informed him that they had decided to retreat in the face of the French counterattack along the Marne. Although the decision may well have been taken elsewhere I think this location is where Moltke's supposed statement "Your majesty, we have lost the war" started to come true. It would take four years and incalculable suffering and misery before it came to pass but I think that little junction at Suippes is so symbolic.

 

Pete.

Great stuff Pete. My son and I plan to visit the Somme and Verdun areas on our next visit, so the stone will be taken in as well, and I will pass on your comments to him. 

[neverforget]

25 minutes ago, voltaire60 said:

   Pete-I haven't been to that area for years- but the little town where Madame's parents lived was where the German advance stopped in 1914-You look along a long straight road across the boring landscape of Champagne and can see a little hamlet a mile or so down the road- I was told the German advance stopped halfway.  And then when you come across the mounds in an otherwise flat,empty landscape and a notice says so many thousands are buried there from 1914. Hate to say it but the French army  and the French state seem/seemed a little casual to the life of the individual

Sadly, I don't think that the French were on their own in that respect Mr.V.