Himmler: the shameful secrets and humiliating death of Hitler's acolyte

Heinrich Himmler was not always the fearsome Reichsführer of the SS, one of the most responsible for the Holocaust and the architect of the extermination camps. There was a time when he was just a sensitive child whose stomach for eating too heavy a meal was ruining. The criminal lawyer Tania Crasnianski corroborates this in her work «Children of Nazis» , where she also defines him as a weak, short-sighted boy with a weak chin and who, as happened with many other Nazi leaders , had little to do with the Aryan ideal at the beginning of his days. What cannot be denied is that he adored order and chess and that his mother, who pampered him excessively, loved him madly.

During his childhood, Himmler's companions claimed that Himmler could not kill even an insect. Bitter nonsense knowing that he would be the conductor of Adolf Hitler during the Nazi Holocaust. In what they did hit, as the historian Peter Longerich reveals in his work "Heinrich Himmler: A Life" (OUP Oxford, 2011), is that he was obsessed with pleasing his teachers.

That desire led him to want to shine in his studies, so he abandoned sports (the foundation pillar of the future Third Reich) and accepted the task imposed by his father to spy on other students to obtain information about their families. All this caused him to earn a bad reputation that he dragged during his first years of life. In fact, Longerich dares to point out that his peers considered him almost stupid.

The report that his teachers made of him when he was just a child corroborates that, since he was old enough to go to school, his maxim was none other than studying to be well considered among his superiors: “He is a very capable student who works hard. tirelessly, has great ambition and has achieved top results in the class. His behavior is exemplary. Perhaps that idea was what led him to want to enlist in the army shortly before the end of the First World War, back in 1918.

Young Himmler dropped out of school and began his training, but was unable to fight on the front lines due to the end of the conflict. A thorn that would never be removed and that grew thicker when he was forced to work in a manure processing plant. Although that frustrated desire also left him with a great love for the martial world, the uniforms and the order that, years later (during the 1920s), would lead him to join the National Socialist German Workers' Party of Adolf Hitler and, ultimately , to be noble leader of the SS.

Abstinence

Nor was Himmler, at the time, a follower of the later theory promoted by the SS of fathering Aryan children who would become a sort of upper class that would repopulate the USSR. On the contrary, during his youth he defended sexual abstinence and avoided associating with women. The idea came to him after reading a work by Hans Wegener, "Young men like us", in which chastity was exposed as the highest virtue of man and was charged head-on against relationships outside of marriage, masturbation and prostitution . He also used to insist that his future was at stake and that he could not be distracted by a trifle like love.

That idea did not last long in his mind. After meeting Margarete Siegroth Boden, seven years his senior, Himmler gave vent to his interest in the female sex. This was corroborated by Katrin, his great-niece, in "Himmler according to correspondence with his wife": "Himmler's inexperience with women and his initial insecurity towards them soon diminished." After months of endless missives, the two married and had a little girl, Gudrun, in 1929.

Shortly after, and before the impossibility of having more children, they adopted the son of a deceased soldier of the already formed SS. However, they ended up sending him to boarding school because, as his mother wrote in her diary, he was "of a criminal nature", a liar and a thief.

Himmler in Mauthausen

At the end of the 1930s, after the rise of Nazism, little was left of that timid Himmler who advocated abstinence. After studying female sexuality, he became convinced that monogamy was a "work of Satan" invented by the Catholic Church and that it should be abolished. Consistent with his new theories, he separated from his wife informally and maintained a relationship with one of his secretaries, Hedwig Potthast. He had two children with him and, in 1942, he moved to another house with his new family. That destroyed his first wife. “This only happens to men when they become rich and famous. If not, the aging wives must help them feed and support them.

Occult and riches

According to the "United States Holocaust Memorial Museum", the rise of the SS and the faith that Hitler placed in him to orchestrate the Final Solution (the mass murder of Jews) turned him into an eccentric who saw himself as an emperor medieval. He was also carried away by his fascination for the occult arts and supported follies such as an expedition of Nazi scientists to Tibet to find the supposed origins of the Aryan race. All this, without counting his search for archaeological treasures that, he believed, had supernatural powers (some such as the Holy Grail, the Lance of Longinus or the Hammer of Thor).

The occult was his undoing. Obsessed as he was by the ancient Norse legends instilled in him by his father, Himmler acquired Wewelseburg Castle in the Paderborn region in 1934. This building, remodeled at the cost of thirteen million marks, became the spiritual center of Nazism, a kind of Camelot of the swastika.

In his work "Heinrich Himmler", the journalist Willi Frischauer (a witness to what happened in Hitler's Germany) stated that "no two months were the same" in the whole place, that he hired "the best artisans to make fine tapestries" or "Curtains of heavy brocade" and that "the doors were lined with precious stones and metals."

Himmler in Dachau

Himmler quickly got used to a life of luxury. This is clear, for example, in the correspondence he sent with his wife. While the rest of the Germans went through all kinds of deprivation, they enjoyed foie or caviar.

"My dear! Last night when I arrived, Mr. Baumert arrived at the same time with your beautiful roses and coffee, thank you very much. Also Mr. Wolff. Today we had a wonderful time, hopefully "they" [the English drivers] will not visit us again. Little doll got very hard at school. It is also a shame that she does not find a real friend at school. […] We still have a lot of caviar, shouldn't I give it? I don't have any boots of yours to give to the boot collection. Can't we send you something? A thousand hugs and greetings from the bottom of the heart, your M ».

Unworthy ending

After assuring his men that, when the time came, he would take responsibility for the actions perpetrated by the SS, he preferred to betray the Reich and tried to make a pact with the British and Americans behind Hitler's back. He was convinced that, with their help, a kind of transitional government could be created in Germany. But it did not help anything. In the end, the same hierarch who had orchestrated the systematic murder of millions of Jews and confirmed that he would never abandon the "Führer", tried by all means to save his life.

On May 10, 1945, after the Soviet takeover of Berlin, he left Flensburg with his henchmen disguised as a sergeant of the Geheime Feldpolizei (the secret police of the Wehrmacht).

Shortly after, on the 21st of that same month, the Allies captured him on a bridge located between Hamburg and Bremen. Trapped, he was just as cowardly as he had been in life. At first he tried to hide behind his new false identity. When the British discovered that he was the leader of the SS, they sent an intelligence colonel from headquarters to question him. Montgomery's subordinate Michael Murphy decided to humiliate him and put his sins in front of him. All this, after they had explored its cavities. On the 23rd, the officer showed him photographs of the concentration camp prisoners and beat him. Shortly after, and after realizing that there was no way out, Himmler bit into a cyanide capsule and committed suicide.

Perhaps the best way to define Himmler is the words used by Albert Speer, the Reich's minister of armaments: "Half schoolmaster, half nutty." A school teacher, because of his appearance and because, in addition to being methodical, he was extremely organized (two virtues that greatly captivated Hitler). Crazy, for everything else, which was a lot.

Meet the rare luxury Citroën 2CV

We’re not joking!
The idea of a luxury Citroën 2CV seems incongruous, but it’s what we have here.
Not only that, but we’re talking of a model that was only made for a matter of months – making it a sought-after rarity.

Farmyard fashion?
Why, though, did Citroën decide to doll-up the ‘Deuche’ with a sparkle of glamour so at odds with the car’s utilitarian image?
The answer isn’t hard to find.

Chasing the competition
In October 1961, Renault had introduced its R4. In its first full year, sales came within a whisker of those of the 2CV – and in 1963 they would pull ahead.
The notion that Renault sold its small cars – 4CV and Dauphine – to townies and left the rural market to the 2CV was brusquely knocked on its head.
Not only that, but the new Renault had a dual town-and-country appeal thanks not just to its better performance, but also to its availability in more luxurious forms.

Affordable luxury
Citroën had to react, and in March 1963 it came out with the AZAM – an AZ (a 425cc 2CV, in other words) that had been améliorée or ‘improved’.
Mechanically the car was unchanged, meaning that the air-cooled flat-twin still developed 18bhp, and remained mated to a four-speed gearbox with the option of a centrifugal clutch.
But the equipment list was long – and that was the point of the new model.

Sparkle and polish
Outside there were Ami 6 hubcaps, stainless-steel front window frames, bright trim for the windscreen and the rear-door windows, a polished aluminium bonnet strip, stainless looped overriders, half-moon doorhandles, and chromed headlamp rims and wiper arms.
Marvel of marvels, there was even a second brake light for the first time on a 2CV.

Are you sitting comfortably?
Inside, the key changes were better-upholstered Ami-like seating, with a sliding front bench (the car pictured has the optional separate front seats), plus a more styled Quillery steering wheel and a rear parcel ‘trench’.
Other details were black plastic lock handles, an interior light, a passenger sunvisor (with mirror), and a column indicator stalk.

Better to drive, too
In December 1964, the 2CV’s rear-hinged ‘suicide’ front doors gave way to front-hinged items, to conform with French legislation, and in September 1965 the AZAM, in common with other 2CVs, gained the familiar six-light body style with its revised radiator grille.
More significantly, driveshafts with constant-velocity joints became standard on the AZAM, eliminating the snatch when pulling away under lock that previously blighted drivability.
In this form the model lasted until April 1967, when it was replaced by the AZAM Export.

More go to match the show
All the while, the engine remained at 425cc – whereas from January 1965 the Belgian assembly plant savvily offered an AZAM 6 with the 602cc engine of the Ami 6, along with 12V electrics and CV-jointed driveshafts.
The Spanish factory in Vigo would later list a similar model, lasting until 1972. Quite why the French were never offered a 602cc AZAM remains a mystery.

Did it make the difference?
If we’re honest, all this stuff was pretty much smoke and mirrors. A few strips of brightwork didn’t make for a better car.
The standard 2CV ‘hammock’ seats were perfectly comfortable, and the CV-joint driveshafts could be specified on lesser 2CVs.

Ready to move on?
Members of the press were unmoved. Period French road tests of the six-light AZAM didn’t deem the supposed enhancements of the model even worth mentioning.
The 2CV was a car whose time had passed; that was the message. The Citroën was judged crude, poorly finished and above all miserable to drive, due to its lack of performance.
It was time to put it out of its agony.

Sales success
The public thought differently: there was enough loyalty to keep sales stable, with even the odd tick upwards.
But the R4 was powering ahead: in 1967, 321,079 were produced, against 201,679 of the 2CV family, Ami 6 excluded.
The answer was to emerge with the announcement of the Dyane in autumn 1967, ahead of which the AZAM Export was deleted from the price list in August.

A new lease of life
The ‘new 2CV’ was initially just a crisp, fresh suit of clothes over the old mechanicals. But once it was given the option of the 602cc engine, in January 1968, the hatchback Dyane answered many of the criticisms aimed at the 2CV, which it came briefly to outsell by almost two-to-one.
It was only with the availability of the same unit from February 1970 that the 2CV came bouncing back, forming a successful double act with its supposed replacement – which it ended up outlasting.

Ticking the boxes
The 1970-on 2CV6 included some items of AZAM equipment, but above all it had an engine that gave the car the modern-day usability it had previously lacked.
That 602cc powerplant was the real game-changer. An output of 28.5bhp constituted a 58% increase on the AZAM’s 18bhp – no small matter.
In retrospect, the AZAM was low-cost marketing flim-flam that achieved very little.

A 2020 perspective
Today, of course, we look at the model with different eyes, appreciating it for its unique quirks of presentation – especially in the case of the Export, whose owners will proudly point out, for example, the chrome ring on the ex-Ami gearknob.
Good survivors of this five-month wonder are scarce, and rare are those that have original upholstery in presentable order and a full set of undamaged ‘Gala’ wheeltrims.
The AZAM Export of Hervé Chauvin was bought in June 1967 by his grandmother, whose only previous car had been a more basic AZL, and passed to Hervé and brother Francis in 1995.
With just 70,000km on the clock, it has its original hood and seats, which in the front are the optional separate type.

Better than the average
It had a respray in the correct Gris Rosé in 2004, and can be regarded as a fine, untampered-with specimen of the breed. And, yes, it does look smarter than a bread-and-dripping standard 2CV.
Those bits of brightwork give it a lift, the orangey-red upholstery looks plush, and the dashboard less as if it’s been ripped from a passing tractor. There really is a bit of jauntiness to the old girl.
And to drive? Here there are no surprises.
“It’s a bit limited in speed. It’s fine for Sunday pottering but not really suitable for everyday use,” cautions Chauvin as I sink – slump? – into the softly upholstered driving seat and the car gently keels over. Yup, it’s a 2CV all right.

 

You’ve got to roll with it
There’s the usual lolloping ride – even though for 1966 the 2CV had been given telescopic dampers at the rear, while retaining its inertia and friction dampers up front.
Until you’ve got the hang of it, profiting from the centrifugal clutch demands concentration, but it allows you to trickle along or pull away from below 1000rpm without touching the pedal.
Performance is leisurely, to put it kindly. You really do need to keep the engine on the boil – that usual 2CV combat-driving technique.
But the brakes are fine and so is the steering, now there’s no fight through the driveshafts.
I’d still vote for a later 602cc 2CV, but I can see the appeal of a ’60s model that tries – ever so gamely, but not totally convincingly – to be lipstick-smart rather than boots-and-pitchfork rustic.
As for Chauvin, would he ever sell his family AZAM? “No. Absolutely not!”

Pius XII, the real reasons for a false trial.

By advancing the process of beatification of Pius XII, Benedict XVI revived the controversy over his action during the war. But it is always the same arguments that are brandished against him.

                                                Berlin, 1927. Before becoming Pius XII, Mr Pacelli 

was a nun in Germany and secretary of state to his predecessor, Pius XI, author of an encyclical                                                                          denouncing Nazism.

 Cardinal Pacelli was out of luck. His pontificate was that of totalitarianism. Pius XII had to face both Nazi and Soviet monsters. That was his destiny. He had not been trained for this. He had been a close collaborator of Benedict XV who, during the First World War, and in spite of an obvious Germanophilia, kept the balance approximately equal between the two camps.

He was a man of the nineteenth century. It was the product of a theological and diplomatic school. He thought he could reconnect with the Matoise dwellings of the Church. Applying a policy desired by Pius XI, he negotiated with Hitler - and tried to do the same with the Soviets - what his distant predecessor had forged with Napoleon: a concordat. A compromise that would respect the authority of secular power, but safeguard Catholic populations and the practice of worship. He did not immediately understand that he was dealing with new barbarians for whom the treaties were only "paper rags."

Pius XII was not of the temper of a prophet who, in the Jewish tradition, thunders and thunders, in the name of God, against the abuses of power. To a German cardinal who came to him for advice, he replied, "Martyrdom is not decreed from Rome." He had no sympathy for the Führer, whom he compared to the devil, and was even said to be trying to exorcise in secret. He had been the principal editor, under Pius XI, of the famous encyclical Mit Brennender Sorge, which had condemned Nazism. But if he opened the doors of the Vatican wide to persecuted Jews, he was also obsessed with the security of Catholics under the German boot. The call of the Dutch bishops against the persecution of the Jews had provoked the fury of the Nazi military against the Dutch Catholics, and had not saved a single Jew.

But Pius XII was fighting on two fronts. The other great totalitarianism of the century haunted him. Yet he was careful not to tank the Russians as long as they faced Hitler. It was only after the end of the war that he relentlessly fought communism. It was a very difficult fight to fight. Many progressive Catholics were seduced by the new Rome. Pius XII ends up condemning the working priests, to stop the bleeding towards the Party. Communism was a thousand lenarisms without dogma; a universalism without God; a paradoxical and diabolical humanism that held man for nothing. A religion of substitution. Pius XII fought him relentlessly.

To do so, he encouraged the building of the Common Market around France, Germany, and Italy, all led in the 1950s by Christian Democrats, De Gasperi, Adenauer, and Schuman. This was the time when Gaullists and Communists blamed cannon against "Vatican Europe." It is in this context that we must appreciate the creation of the play Le Vicaire, in 1963. It would change the posthumous fate of Pius XII.

Before this play, he is the man to whom the greatest Israeli leaders, Golda Meir and Ben Gurion, paid tribute. He is the friend of the Jews, the man who dared, even in secret words, to evoke the great Jewish misfortune, where Roosevelt, Churchill, or de Gaulle said nothing. The great rabbi of Rome, Israel Zolli, then converted to Catholicism and was baptized with the first name of Eugenio, like that Pacelli who saved his life. Admittedly, at the time, some Roman Jews resented Zolli, whom they blamed for accepting the pope's hospitality without caring about the tragic fate of the Nazi-ravaged Roman Jewish community. But no one suspects Pius XII of colluding with Hitler, though some are irritated to see some congregations protect the Nazi escape to South America.

After this play, Pius XII became, in the collective imagination, "the Pope of Hitler." The personality of the play's author, the German Rolf Hochhuth, is highly controversial. He is suspected of having been manipulated by the USSR secret services at the time. In any case, their methods are recognized. Since the Third International, in the 1930s, the method of communist propaganda has always been the same: to demonize the adversary, one must treat him as a fascist and a Nazi. To destroy the Christian tradition, it must be Nazized. To make Pius XII pay for his anti-communist commitment, it must be digitized. Pius XII, "the Pope of Hitler", is the equivalent of CRS-SS. In 2002, Costa-Gavras made a film: Amen.

The thesis is firmly established in the media. Hence the virulent campaign when Benedict XVI advances the process of beatification of Pius XII. If the Roman curia believed to escape the media lynching by linking this cause to that of the popular John Paul II, the operation was failed. We wonder about the motivations of Benedict XVI. First, the theologian pope pays homage to another great theologian, who greatly inspired his youth. Then, above all, this beatification enters into the long-term strategy of reconciliation and reunification of all the branches scattered through the history of Christianity. Pius XII was the last pope before Vatican II. To pay him homage is to honor the traditionalist sensibility of which Benedict XVI initiated the reintegration into the family.

Coronavirus: Scotland bans households mixing indoors as Nicola Sturgeon criticises Boris Johnson plan

Nicola Sturgeon has announced a new ban on households mixing across Scotland from Wednesday, as she said Boris Johnson’s plan will not go far enough to bring down cases of the virus.

In a statement, the first minister said Scotland would align with England on plans to introduce a 10pm curfew for pubs, restaurants and other entertainment venues, with workers being asked to continue to work from home where possible.

But Ms Sturgeon also said the measures introduced to restrict hospitality in England – unveiled by the prime minister just hours before – will not be sufficient to bring down the R rate of Covid-19 transmissions.

Diverging from the rules in England, which permit gatherings of six people inside in areas not subject to local lockdown, she said from tomorrow Scots will not be able to meet in other people’s homes.

The first minister said data suggested this measure had reduced the spread of the virus in the west of Scotland and extending it to the rest of the country will hopefully reduce transmission. Certain exemptions will apply, however, including couples not living together, tradespeople, and those who need childcare.

“Difficult though it is, any serious effort to reduce the R number below one must take account of this key driver of transmission and seek to break it,” she said.

"So after careful consideration, we have decided that from tomorrow, to be reviewed after three weeks and with exceptions that I will come on to, visiting other households will not be permitted."

Addressing teenagers specifically, she added: "I know how miserable this is for you and you have been so patient.

"We are trying to give you as much flexibility as we can. In return, please work with us and do your best to stick to the rules, for everyone's sake."

On the issue of a so-called “circuit break” lockdown in October, which would result in a return to short-term closures of venues such as pubs and restaurants, the SNP leader said no decision had yet been taken by the Scottish government, but it was being kept “under review”.

She also urged people in Scotland not to book travel overseas for the October break "unless it is absolutely essential" and advised people against car sharing with those outside of their own household.

Elaborating on her decision to enforce more severe restrictions than England, Ms Sturgeon, who attended Tuesday’s Cobra meeting chaired by Mr Johnson, said: “I can confirm that we will introduce measures on hospitality similar to those outlined in England by the prime minister – and thereby align as far as possible with the rest of the UK.

“However, the advice given to the cabinet by the chief medical officer and the national clinical director is that this on its own will not be sufficient to bring the R number down.

“They stress that we must act, not just quickly and decisively, but also on a scale significant enough to have an impact on the spread of the virus."

Pleading with Scots to follow the new restrictions, she urged people to “stick with this”, adding: "Keeping to all these rules isn't easy – but they remain the best way for all of us to protect ourselves, each other, the NHS and ultimately save lives.

 "All of this is incredibly tough – and six months on it only gets tougher. Though it doesn't feel like this now, this pandemic will pass. It won't last forever and one day, hopefully soon, we will be looking back on it, not living through it."

 

Pastel-colored Jupiter dazzles in gorgeous Hubble telescope photo

The Hubble Space Telescope captured this unique panchromatic image of Jupiter on Aug. 25, 2020. The photo combines Hubble observations in near-infrared, visible and ultraviolet light.

 It's like somebody put Jupiter under a blacklight. 

A new photo by the Hubble Space Telescope shows the solar system's largest planet in surprising pastel hues.

The image, captured on Aug. 25, combines data in ultraviolet, visible and near-infrared light to give researchers a new look at Jupiter, one that could reveal insights about the gas giant's thick atmosphere.

Related: The best Hubble Space Telescope images of all time!

"In this photo, the parts of Jupiter’s atmosphere that are at higher altitude, especially over the poles, look red as a result of atmospheric particles absorbing ultraviolet light," Hubble team members wrote in a description of the photo, which was released on Thursday (Sept. 17). "Conversely, the blue-hued areas represent the ultraviolet light being reflected off the planet."

The white storm in the upper left portion of the image, which first boiled up on Aug. 18, "is grabbing the attention of scientists in this multiwavelength view," Hubble team members wrote. "The 'clumps' trailing the white plume appear to be absorbing ultraviolet light, similar to the center of the Great Red Spot, and Red Spot Jr. directly below it. This provides researchers with more evidence that this storm may last longer on Jupiter than most storms."

Hubble, a joint project of NASA and the European Space Agency, launched to Earth orbit aboard the space shuttle Discovery in April 1990. Scientists soon realized that the big scope had a flaw in its primary mirror, which spacewalking astronauts fixed in December 1993. 

Astronauts maintained and upgraded Hubble on four additional servicing missions after that, the last of which occurred in 2009. As the new Jupiter photo shows, the telescope is still giving astronomers and the public amazing views of the cosmos, three decades after its launch.

The Battle of Passchendaele

 

The official name of the battle is the 3rd Battle of Ypres, but it is universally known as the Battle of Passchendaele because the capture of Passchendaele town and its ridge (Passchendaele ridge) eventually became the primary objectives of the operation. The battle began on July 31, 1917 with an attack northeast on Pilckem and right on Gheluvelt ridge. The attacking troops in the Pilckem sector were supported by massive tanks. Initially the advance was successful, but unfortunately the right flank failed in its attempt to take Gheluvelt ridge.

Later, at four in the afternoon it started to rain. The rain lasted for several days and of course the land was flooded and made the advance of the tanks impossible.

Although Haig had the original purpose of a brief battle to break through the German lines it was revealed that it was impossible. Despite this, Haig insisted on continuing operations further north in the Langemarck area. General Gough, selected for his aggressiveness to carry out the main attack, warned Haig about the impossibility of continuing and urged him to call off the attack. But Haig inflexible as always ordered to continue the attack, despite the terrible losses. The totally sterile attack lasted three more weeks until he decided to suspend it. Then he decided to change the axis of the attack, from north to east, and by the time the weather cleared he ordered the ridge to attack again. Haig also decided to replace Gough with General Plumer who would be in charge of the next attack. Plumer, one of the most cunning and intelligent generals in the British General Staff, was in favor of carrying out small-scale attacks under the cover of an intense barrier of fire that would also discourage German counterattacks. This strategy led to the accumulation of large numbers of troops in a very narrow front, which facilitated the relief of exhausted troops and the provision of food and ammunition. The troops would advance behind a screen of fire and would be hidden and camouflaged under the smoke and dust of the explosions. However, these forecasts would be nothing if the rain made an appearance and the terrain became a viscous and impractical element.

The Battle of Menin Road on September 20 was the first of three famous victories that were achieved through the use of Plumer's new programmed tactics. At dawn on the fifth day, after five days of uninterrupted bombardment, the ANZACS launched a victorious attack with two Australian divisions on both flanks and a Scottish division to the left to reinforce the flank. One of the most notorious episodes of this attack was that of Australian 2nd Lieutenant Fred Birks. Birks led the heroic takeover of a machine gun company located in one of the German fortifications, eliminating the enemy and capturing the weapons. After this action he organized a party to take another of the fortifications that ended up taking 16 enemy soldiers, one of them the commanding officer. Birks died shortly after a shell blast while digging trenches for the shelter of his platoon. He was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross. His body lies in the Perth Cemetery in Zillebeke (Grave I.G. 45).

Tyne Cot Cemetery

The Australians reached the bottom of Polygon Wood and Black Watch Corner at a cost of 5,000 casualties. They were relieved, and the captured sector consolidated by installing a small railway line to ensure the delivery of supplies to the new front line. On September 26 the good weather continued and the ground conditions were still optimal for Plumer's curtain of fire to continue and the Anzacs to continue. The Australian 4th Division captured the remainder of the Polygon and Butte position. They had managed to reach a position from which it was possible to attack the bulk of the Broodseinde ridge (Broodseinde ridge). The Battle of Broodseinde took place at dawn on October 3. The Australian troops waiting to attack were bombarded in their own trenches by enemy mortar fire, and when they jumped out of the trenches to attack they were surprised to see how the German troops used their own fire barrier to advance towards the Australian positions, curiously, found themselves face to face in the middle of No Man's Land. However, the Germans were eventually driven back by an Australian bayonet charge. At this point, a German machine gun began to sweep through the front Australian ranks, slowing down part of the attack. Then Sergeant Lewis McGee, armed only with a revolver, traveled about eighty meters under the bullets, finally taking the machine gun and reorganizing the attack again. McGee was awarded the Victoria Cross for outstanding leadership. Unfortunately he died on October 12 without knowing his mention. His body lies in Tyne Cot Cemetery Grave No. XX.D.1.

After the Australian bayonet charge, the German troops withdrew to their trenches. There, together with other reserve troops, they were crushed by British artillery. The Australians continued the advance under the barrier of fire and finally managed to take the Broodseinde ridge on 4 October. When the Australian troops reached the ridge, they saw the drawing of the German lines crystal clear. The only obstacle to victory was the town of Passchendaele located to the north and which was heavily occupied by the Germans. These three fantastic victories vindicated Plumer's strategy of going step by step, although they were possible because time gave them a truce and the ground was dry enough to allow a breakthrough. The next day, October 5, it started to rain. It was not torrential rain, but a constant rain that ended up soaking to the bone. Haig, encouraged by the three successes, ignored the rain and decided to launch another attack on the Germans on the Passchendaele ridge. He even warned the cavalry to be ready for the attack. He ordered the Anzacs to take Passchendaele on October 9 even when the wind and rain had raised a terrible storm. Haig's decision was reckless as conditions were utterly adverse: the belts of barbed wire had not been cut and the Germans had replaced their exhausted troops with fresh reinforcement units sheltered from the elements in their concrete fortifications. The main reason for Haig's insistence on continuing the attack was to prevent his troops from having to remain all winter in a Dantean scenario, with extreme weather conditions, and above all with the constant threat of being within range of the German positions without coverage.

Tyne Cot Cemetery

The Australians attacked and in Augustus Wood, near Tyne Cot, Captain Clarence Jeffries, with an assault platoon, in the attack on a German fortification, captured four machine guns and took 35 prisoners. Position secured Jeffries led the attack to the next German position but fell under the bullets of a German machine gun. He was posthumously awarded the VC and his grave is in Tyne Cot Cemetery, not far from that of Sergeant McGee. According to John Laffin, all the officers in the battalion were killed or wounded that day.

Incredibly, and largely because of the courage of Captain Jeffries, twenty Australian soldiers reached the ruins of what was once the church of Passchendaele. Unfortunately, the British troops, from the right flank, were unable to hold and support the Australians, who were forced to retreat into the craters flooded with water and mud that the howitzers and torrential rains created and that was their front line. original. The British artillery had no reserves of ammunition, and the few shells that fell did so by sinking into the slimy mud, turning into harmless columns of mud and water. Despite all this, Haig decided to continue the attack, even as rain and freezing cold made their appearance on October 12. The attack was hopelessly doomed to failure. The slimy sea of ​​mud invaded everything and made the sacrifice of the troops as absurd as it was inhuman.

It was in this attack that Sergeant McGee was killed. The only solid objects in the middle of this sea of ​​crater-spattered mud were the German concrete fortifications, which with their machine guns under the camouflaged protection of the mud caused many casualties. The attack cost 7,000 casualties. 3,200 soldiers from the Australian 3rd Division died in just 24 hours. In the end, the exhausted Australian troops were withdrawn, but Haig, pathologically obsessed with taking Passchendaele, ordered the Canadians to end the battle. However, Canadian General Arthur Currie, one of Haig's few generals with common sense, adamantly refused to advance until weather conditions improved and troop supplies were adequate.

Finally, on November 12, the Canadians took Passchendaele, or what was left of it.

The battle was over, and aerial photographs were taken after it. It is estimated that there were more than half a million craters in the area where the town of Passchendaele had once stood. This was what Haig hoped, for his troops to spend the winter there. The results of the offensive were Pyrrhic: the predictions of breaking the enemy lines were not fulfilled, and the few gains were at a very high price in human losses. The British had achieved their objective, although it was totally useless in terms of strategic planning as the amphibious attack on Nieuport had been abandoned and there was no longer any hope of capturing the German ports, which were finally blocked with the sinking of old ships. in Zeebrugge.

Tyne Cot Cemetery

The Battle of Passchendaele claimed more than half a million dead in three months. The Germans lost about 250,000 men and the British about 300,000, of whom more than 36,000 were Australians. More than 90,000 bodies of Australian or British soldiers could not be identified, and around 40,000 were never recovered, dwelling forever in the hideous quagmire. Many of those who drowned were wounded or exhausted soldiers who had slipped or fallen from the wooden walkways that crossed the huge craters or puddles created by the howitzers and who were unable to escape the disgusting and nauseating slimy sludge that had become. battlefield.

Passchendaele was the last war of attrition of the Great War, and it still remains in memory as a futile battle, just like that of the Somme a year earlier. The criticisms lie, above all, in the fact that a year after the battle of the Somme, Passchendaele was a carbon copy in terms of strategy and tactics, not so much in weapons.

400 Years After the Mayflower Set Sail, a New Exhibit Acknowledges the U.K.'s Impact on Native American Communities

Circa 1621, Massasoit or Ousamequin, chief of the Wampanoag of Massachusetts and Rhode Island, pays a visit to the Pilgrims' camp at Plymouth Colony with his warriors after signing the earliest recorded treaty in New England

On a September day in Plymouth, southwest England, a ship set sail. The day was Sept. 16, 1620, and the vessel was the Mayflower. Its passengers and their voyage would soon secure their place as an indelible part of American history. Now, 400 years later, in another September in Plymouth, the facts of that story are coming in for a reexamination.

The Mayflower story taught to generations of American schoolchildren goes something like this: The ship’s arrival in Cape Cod, Mass., that November, was the start of British colonization in the Americas. Those onboard were pilgrims, migrating from Europe as a result of religious persecution; they created a new Plymouth in Massachusetts, overcame adversity and eventually celebrated the first Thanksgiving. But that is only a fraction of the true history. The Mayflower’s passengers were not all pilgrims and 1620 did not mark the start of British colonization, nor did the 1621 Thanksgiving event mark a happy ending when it came to the settlers’ impact on the Indigenous Wampanoag people, who had been living on that particular part of the land for thousands of years.

“Quite honestly, the Mayflower story can’t be told without the inclusion of the Wampanoag perspective,” says Paula Peters, a Wampanoag historian living in the community of Mashpee, Cape Cod. For the anniversary of the Mayflower’s journey (which began 400 years ago Wednesday according to modern calendars, though the date was recorded as Sept. 6 at the time), she has been advising organizers of anniversary activities on both sides of the Atlantic about how to properly incorporate this often overlooked perspective.

One result of that collaboration: a new exhibition in the U.K. that acknowledges the impact of the Mayflower on Native American communities. While many Americans have begun to grapple more in recent years with the Indigenous perspective on their history, the U.K. has in many ways been slower to address its own role in that story—and when Mayflower 400: Legend and Legacy opens at the new gallery The Box in Plymouth, England, it will represent the first collaboration of its kind in the U.K., according to curator Jo Loosemore. The exhibition was conceived from the start to be co-curated by the Wampanoag and also features a specially commissioned artwork by Wampanoag artist Ramona Peters.

A short walk from the Plymouth waterfront, the gallery’s cool air provides some relief on a sticky September day. The museum’s staff are busy preparing for its opening later this month, which was delayed from earlier in the year by the coronavirus pandemic. As Loosemore leads the way up the building’s stately stone staircase, she explains how this year in particular has shown the circularity of history. “We are telling this story in the midst of a pandemic, and effectively the disease that decimated the Wampanoag population before the Mayflower arrived really shaped that relationship,” says Loosemore. “Traditionally [the Mayflower story] has been told in a certain way, and that tradition has dominated for 400 years. With the Wampanoags’ help, and through the fact that we are telling a chronological story but with contemporary sources, [we can] unravel the fact from the fiction.”

Both Loosemore and Paula Peters highlight the importance of including context from the Wampanoag perspective as part of that unraveling.

Squanto shows the pilgrims of the Mayflower how to plant corn and fertilize it with dead fish. 

“It really has been a comfortable way to look at history: the Mayflower arrived, they met this friendly Indian named Squanto, Squanto taught them how to plant and fish, and they lived happily ever after,” says Peters, adding that most people don’t ask themselves how Squanto was able to communicate with the colonizers. In fact, six years prior to 1620, 20 Wampanoag men, including Squanto, and seven men from the neighboring Nauset tribe, were captured by English explorer Thomas Hunt and taken to England with the intention of selling them as slaves in Spain. Squanto was later able to earn his way back home as a guide, but by the time he returned home to Patuxet, most of the villagers had perished because of a plague known as the Great Dying, thought to be due to arrivals of European settlers, who brought diseases against which the Native American population lacked immunity.

Initially when the Mayflower arrived in Patuxet, which the passengers later renamed Plymouth, the relationship between the colonists and the Wampanoag was one of co-existence. For the Wampanoag, who had been diminished in number by disease, having an alliance with the English meant having an alliance with people who had arms and could help them defend their territory. But as more settlers arrived, relations became more strained.

“That backstory is so important to knowing the impact on the Wampanoag, of both pre-colonial and colonial contact,” says Peters.

In the U.K., too, there was more backstory than is often told. The port city of Plymouth played a fundamental role in English attempts to create colonies in America, both in the 1580s with Roanoke and in the early 1600s with Jamestown and Popham. By acknowledging those facts at the beginning of the exhibition at The Box, Loosemore makes clear that while the Mayflower as a ship and as a journey occupies a unique space in public consciousness, its real importance comes from its place in a larger context.

The main contemporary historical account from the time is the journal of William Bradford, called Of Plymouth Plantation. But, though the written record is all in the hand of the colonists, through this journal and other letters and diaries, it was always possible to interpret those materials from the Wampanoag side, says Peters, as the colonists were open and honest about how they treated the community. “Many pilgrims were seeking a place where they could have the freedom to worship as they pleased and live as they pleased,” she points out, “and yet they did not have that same tolerance for the Wampanoag.”

 Second Peirce Patent, 1621

In fact, the long-term impacts for the Wampanoag would be devastating. The 1621 Peirce Patent Agreement is the oldest surviving state document of New England, and effectively granted the Pilgrims permission from England to settle in what would become Plymouth, Mass. As Peters puts it, it was a form of a land grab. The English colonists would completely take over the region within 50 years and force English law upon the community, and a series of bloody conflicts would then ensue. “[The Wampanoag leader], whose name was Ousamequan, could not have known that he was going to be subject to the rule of the crown,” says Peters. “In spite of the fact that this is something the English had run from, they brought it with them.”

Bradford’s journal was lost for almost two centuries and then rediscovered in the 1850s in Plymouth, U.K., giving rise to a Victorian fascination with the Mayflower story, says Loosemore. But the Victorian version eliminated any Wampanoag history or perspective, blurring the fact and the fiction about 1620 right up until the present day. “It’s about heroism, it becomes about romance, it becomes about overcoming adversity. They paint it, they write poems about it, they write prose,” says Loosemore.

The power of that romanticized story has persisted—though it’s starting to show cracks. As recently as 1970, organizers a 350th anniversary event at Plymouth Rock in Massachusetts asked Wampanoag tribal elder Frank James, who was due to speak, not to elaborate on the negative impacts that colonization had on his people. James withdrew from the official celebrations and went to Cole’s Hill, overlooking Plymouth Rock, giving his speech from there. That became the first annual National Day of Mourning in remembrance of the sacrifice of Indigenous ancestors, an event that has continued every year since. At the new exhibition in Plymouth, a transcription of James’ full speech is on display, with no censorship.

For Peters, the anniversary of Mayflower‘s journey and the colonization of Wampanoag land is a time to reflect on how Indigenous people have been marginalized throughout history, and how their story is one of survival despite all that has happened in the past. “When you look at what happened 50 years ago, and where we are today—to be able to step up as equals on an international platform talking about our story,” she says, “I feel as though we are at last being heard.”