Camouflage, sports and horse shows prelude Messines battle

Two months on from my last blog about WWI proper, Grandad (100 years ago) and New Zealand today are preparing for the Battle of Messines - or commemorations thereof. Below are excerpts from New Zealand Artillery in the Field, 1914-18 which illustrate some of the work, relaxation, and other preparations by the Artillery in the final two months preceding a major assault on Messines Ridge:

Dressing station at Messines (Alexander Turnbull Library)
via: https://nzhistory.govt.nz/page/battle-messines

 On April 1st the 3rd Brigade was entrusted with the building of ten battery positions. The infantry assisted by providing working parties, and a dump was formed and material issued to the batteries as it was required. These magnum opus positions, as they were styled, had all to be carefully camouflaged, even before work was commenced, so that not the slightest indication of their presence might be observed by the enemy. Usually the site chosen was covered from end to end by great strips of green camouflage netting, and the men toiled under cover of this. ...

In pursuance of the policy of resting the Division by units, the Artillery Brigades were withdrawn from the line in turn for a period of two weeks, which were spent in training and recreation in the Lumbres area, near St. Omer.  ... While out of the line batteries carried out a certain amount of training, but a good deal of time was devoted to sport in the way of football competitions, sports meetings, and cross-country races. The men benefited very much by the spell; but in the 1st Brigade the horses returned in rather poor condition, due to the cold weather which had been experienced and the work during training. No interruption in the works in progress had been suffered by the process of spelling the brigades, and once they had returned and settled down again, work went on with renewed energy. ...

On May 13th, the Divisional Artillery Horse Show was held near Westhof Farm; the condition of the teams and vehicles entered in the show was in all respects excellent, and reflected the greatest credit on the drivers, to whose zeal and labour such creditable results were due. The 7th Battery received the cup awarded for the best Battery Transport, and a number of prizes were secured by the sections of the Divisional Ammunition Column.

As the month progressed every day was marked by the most intense activity on the part of the British artillery, heavy and field, and by a corresponding increase in the enemy's retaliatory fire and counter-battery work. ... In reply to a practice barrage carried out on May 25th, Gas Trench and the general neighbourhood of Hill 63 were heavily shelled with 10.5 and 15cm. howitzers. The same areas were shelled on the night of the 26th, and back areas were swept with fire for several hours. We suffered a good many casualties by these bombardments, the progress of work was often seriously hindered, and dumps of ammunition, some of them containing thousands of rounds for the field guns, were blown up; but these were checks not unforeseen that in no way stayed the momentum of events.

 The attack on the Messines Ridge would begin two weeks after this event.

"Bread not bombs" - then and now

"Bread not bombs" is a catchphrase of the peace movement. But it literally came true 72 years ago this week in occupied Holland shortly before Germany capitulated at the end of World War II.

I have just been reading Operation Chowhound by Stephen Dando-Collins, which tells how British Lancaster bombers and American B-17 'Flying Fortresses' turned their bomb-bays into food repositories to make dangerous low-level food drops to the Dutch population within German-held territory - comprising most of the major cities. An embattled Germany had requisitioned supplies and cut off usual food sources partly in retaliation for a transport strike the previous year.

About 20,000 people had died through malnutrition in what the Dutch called the Hongerwinter (Hunger Winter), and many more were on the brink, surviving on tulip bulbs, scavenged food, and what they could sneak in from rural areas.

Lancasters over Netherlands
(from http://www.secondworldwar.nl/#manna
via Wartime Wednesdays)

The drops were made from 29 April to 8 May, under the name Operation Manna by the British, and Operation Chowhound by the Americans. name for the operation, and it is told more fully on Dutch-based site.

According to the Stephen Dando-Collins' account, the offer to allow food drops was first instigated by the SS Governor for the Netherlands Reichskommissar Arthur Seyss-Inquart. Anticipating Germany's demise, he saw it as an opportunity to save his own neck. Unfortunately for him, it wasn't - he was executed along with other Nazi leaders at Nuremberg after the war. But the offer - to allow food drops with a promise not to shoot the planes down - was only taken up due to the lobbying of (German-born) Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands, and the forethought of American General  Dwight D. Eisenhower who set plans in motion for the drops before formal approval came through from Allied political leaders. And for the first few days, the Allies were operating on a verbal agreement only.

Maaike Steenhoek's family was one that came through the Hunger Winter to witness the food drops - before central Netherlands was liberated on 5 May. Writing on the Canadian blog Wartime Wednesdays, she says, "My mother and uncle talked about this all their lives. The Manna flights remained in their memories as a miracle, a gift of food from the air. Operation Manna brought life when they were looking death in the face."

For many of the aircrew involved, after years of bombing raids bringing death and destruction, it was "the best thing they did in the war".

I share this post as an example of how swords can be turned into ploughshares, and good can shine in the darkness, from the context of our present day where about 795 million people remain hungry and 15 conflicts or wars continue which each cause more than 1000 or more deaths a year (according to Wikipedia sources).