Beginning, Previous Section, Section XLIII
Approximately 1460 days were spent at war. 10,000,000 soldiers died, an average of 7,000 soldiers died every day, or approximately 4 soldiers died every minute for four years. A quiet day on the Fronts saw hundreds of lives end. July 1st 1916 saw approximately 57,000 lives end for the British alone. There are no exact figures for the casualties of the First World War. At Verdun stands a monument for 150,000 men, these men were never found and they are assumed to be buried somewhere in the region. At Ypres stands a monument for 56,000 unidentified soldiers buried in the region. These figures stand for the dead, this does not account for the wounded, this does not account for the dead men who were not in infantry units, this does not account for the women who died, or the civillians who died. Bullets, shells and bayonets were not the only killers at war, but they were the best recorded killers. It is estimated that a further 10,000,000 died from the 'Flu in the years that followed.
Legends, Fiction, Mythology and Propaganda is to be found at every turn of the war. From false accusations that the Germans sank a Canadian Hospital Ship, through the story of an Englishman who crossed No-Man's-Land every night of the war and executed a German Commanding Officer, to the German Division which entered the 3rd Battle of Ypres singing patriotic songs and all perished there. There is very little which is not covered by the imaginative minds of the times, the propaganda which followed, and the fact that the victors are permitted to write the Histories and no one else may argue.
To the best of my ability every fact used in this story has been accurate, every place visited exists (or existed at the time), every battle occurred. Also, with the exception of the 13th Midlander's Division, Squadron 284 and Squadron 83, any Divisions or Squadrons mentioned actually existed where mentioned doing what was mentioned. As far as I know the times I used another Division's activities I credited those activities to the Division.
I have been writing and researching this story for two years now. I have learnt nearly an entire new language while trying to erase modern idiom from the speech of my characters (how successful I have been I cannot say, but my feeling is that it is reasonable).
The First World War ended with a lot of unhappy people. Germany was unhappy because they had been defeated and nearly half the population believed that the other half had betrayed them. England was unhappy because they knew that another war was coming. Russia was unhappy, as with Austro-Hungary, Germany and Rumania, because they were in the midst of revolutions of varying degrees of messiness. Even the United States of America were unhappy with the Peace which they had engineered, but those reasons are unclear. Poland was about the only moderately happy with the situation and that was because for the first time in many years it was once more a single, united country.
Having finished that what follows is congratulations to those of you who have either read the whole way though this as it was being posted, or have since waded through the archives. This story was never intended to become the immense epic it ended up being. Had I known the undertaking was going to become so vast when I first began it I most certainly would not have started it (yet another case where ignorance in advance is a very good thing). By the time I realised how immense it was going to be (which was about half a year, real-time, after I began posting it) I had got so thoroughly dug in and interested that quitting was not to be considered. Even that estimation was actually quite decent compared to what it actually is, but it kept growing, new things needed to be added, new characters needed space to be developed. I hope this has proved as enjoyable to read as it was to write (carefully ignoring the several hundred times when it was nearly thrown out the window in sheer exasperation). Once again I thank those of you who have hung in for the time, posting responses, reading unintelligible e-mails, and comforting when the author was positive the whole thing was a corny parody and so utterly ridiculous as to not even be funny.
Special thanks goes out to Leia and Sandy who have lived for two years with me when I rarely managed to hold a conversation without dragging this work up for discussion. They listened with endless patience as plot and characters were pondered for hours on end. They gave criticism and advice when it was asked for (sometimes it was not asked for). They gave encouragement when needed and when they deemed it was getting all too devouring they dragged me out to the odd scrap of social life to save me from insanity.
Many thanks to the many people from Derbyshire Writers Guild, A Novel Idea and friends who sacrificed characters and names to the maelstrom of my imagination and this story. Particular thanks to those whose characters suffered either a severe mangling or became deceased. This story wouldn't have been written without you guys so thanks!
| Character | Owner |
| Andrea | Andr¨¨a |
| ANGEL, Christopher | Pyro |
| ANGEL, Lieutenant James 'Pyro' | Pyro |
| ASHINGTON-FRANKSTON, Wing-Commander Lord James 'Ashie' | Sandy |
| BAKER, Sister Philadelphia | Stephanie |
| BEAUSOLIEL, Nathalie 'Giselle Vernard' | JenR/MelissaD |
| BEHR, Private Johnathon | Eva |
| BENNET, Lieutenant Folin Kirth 'Bennie' | Leia |
| BOTT, Josiah Vavasor | Katt |
| BRUCE, Randall | Tim* |
| CARRIGAN, Captain Jack 'Carrie' | Spring |
| COUNT, The | John |
| Dutchy | Aija* |
| de SMET, Lieutenant Pieter 'Dakota' | Lise |
| FFORBES, General Edward 'Eddie' | MariaH (ANI) |
| FITZPATRICK, General Ronald | Eva |
| FLORINGTON-SMYTHE, Captain Lord James 'Florrie' | Eva |
| FORDINGHAM, Commodore Pepel | Leia |
| GOLGEROV, General Prince Mikhael | Eva |
| HOLLOWAY, Brigadier Miles Edward | Spring |
| HUGHES, Mrs. Becky | Leea |
| JOHNSON, Colonel Benjamin | MariaH (ANI) |
| Katt | Katt |
| MARCH, Victoria Elliott | Leea |
| MARCH, Elliot | Leea |
| MARCH, Emilie | Jaro |
| MARCHET, Leonie | Leah |
| Marguerite | Peg |
| McKENNA, Captain Ellis 'Mac' | LizM |
| Nero | LizM |
| O'NIELL, Lieutenant Lord Brian | Sandy |
| O'NIELL, Lady Helen O'Brien 'Nelli' | Spring |
| Pete | Suzz* |
| REUBANS, Lieutenant Gerald 'Emma' | Eva |
| THOMLIN, Colonel James | John |
| Walter and Bismarck | Stephanie |
| WEIR, Helene | Mary Kate |
* - Not from either boards.
I also have many, many thanks for Joanna, Stephanie and Tineke who supplied me with translations into Polish, German, French and the whatever other language I needed a translation into. Thanks also to LizM, Peg and Elli who backed up my internet failings and supplied much important information which was otherwise inaccessible to me.
I've attached my sources of information under this. Some of the sources contain little or no insight into the war, but they give much insight into the life and mentality of the people at the time. Some sites I have not listed because their links no longer work (or the author was careless enough to lose them!) To the best of my ability I have noted every site, book and movie I got material from (or a site which will give access to the sites).
World War 1 general information sources:
Trenches in the Web - Possibly the best WW1 site currently on the web
WW1 Archives site
Encyclopedia Brittanica
Spartacus Educational site - quite a lot of none battle related material
Lots of Links
Summary of the African Fronts
Summary of the Western Front
Interesting articles
Athy Heritage and the award of a V.C.
Links page
Links page
Canada in the War
Extracts from 'Gun Fodder' - quite descriptive of an execution
Raid of Zeebrugge
Versailles Treaty and other interesting stuff.....and a lot of corpse photographs
School tour, but some stuff from the War
Accrington Pals (an early Battalion of volunteers)
Battle of Somme
These sites come courtesy of Spring's Help :)
some political site
US Election Atlas
These sites and sources come courtesy of Elli's Help :)
Ypres
Letters
no idea!
Likewise
The New York Times Headlines - Microfilm, Chicago Public Library
The London Times Newspaper - Microfilm, Chicago Public Library
Saturday Evening Post - 1919
These sites come courtesy of LizM's Help :) and some later work of my own:
Spanish Influenza
Spanish Influenza
Spanish Influenza Timeline
Spanish Influenza on the international level
Spanish Influenza
Spanish Influenza
Diaries and Biographies:
Robert Lindsay McKay
Surgeon Grow
Captain Noel Chavasse
Siegfried Sassoon
Jack Simpson and Duffy (the man and his donkey - Gallipoli)
Jack Turner
Some Biographies, Records and other things
Major J.G. Brew
Stories by various combatants
Aircraft:
Aircraft Site - Very good for aircraft, aces and medals for all combatants
General Aircraft site
Manfred von Richtofen 'The Red Baron'
Zeppelin Raids
Battles:
Spartacus Educational Site - Battles are quite reasonably recorded here
Gallipoli
Gallipoli
Naval Activities:
The German High Seas Fleet - Admiral Scheer
U-Boats
Medical:
Books:
Fiction:
The 39 Steps John Buchan Greenmantle John Buchan Mr Standfast John Buchan The 'Biggles' Omnibus Captain W.E. Johns The Spanish Bride Georgette Heyer - actually from the Napoleonic Wars, but it is reliable on the army structure. Rilla of Ingleside L.M. Montgomery The Jeeves Omnibus P.G. Wodehouse The Psmith Omnibus P.G. Wodehouse Bulldog Drummond Omnibus 'Sapper' The Lonely Road Nevil Shute
Non-Fiction:
My younger years Winston S. Churchill Encyclopedia Britanica . Unruly Life . Victoria Regina L. Housman To War with Whitaker Countess of Ranfurly (WW2 source, but still informative and a very interesting read) Fleming, Sir Alexander Moreau Florey, Howard . Einstein . Yeager: Another WW2 source, but good for Test Piloting Wilson: the man and his times . Seven Pillars of Wisdom T.E. Lawrence (an interesting book, there have been many academic fights over its accuracy) Child Star Shirley Temple Black Wings: Life of Douglas Baeder (another cross source, mostly ww2) Unfinished Journey Yehudi Menuhin Battles, the complete edition . Fighting Pilots . Movies & Television:
Star: Life and times of Gertrude Lawrence - 20th Century Fox 1965
Gallipoli - 1980
Lawrence of Arabia - 20th Century Fox 1940's-50's
On your Marx - 1994I will add that I have not named all my sources because many things have been acquired over years of reading. Though I may retain a detail from a book, I frequently forget the book (particularly if it was a book I did not like).
I will admit at this point much of this epic would not have been possible had it not been for John Buchan. Anyone who has read the books written by him and mentioned above will have found a large number of similarities between what happened during the Darcy-Nickel Saga and the adventures of Richard Hannay....similarities will also be found in the speed at which Darcy climbed the ranks, but at no point have I consciously copied more then rough plot outline and various destinations and any posts heavily indebted to him have been noted.
Other than that all there is to say is congratulations, thanks, and I hope you enjoyed it. -
© 1999, 2000, 2001 Copyright held by the author.