The Angels of Mons

The Battle of Mons was the first major battle of the First World War undertaken by the British Expeditionary Force. The British Army attempted to hold the Mons-Condé Canal against the advancing German Army. Many troops who were either from Plymouth or had passed through the port would have fought at Mons.
One of the most enduring tales of the time features the legend of a group of angels who supposedly protected the British Army as they fought. Many soldiers were reported to have seen angels over the battlefield and the tale greatly boosted recruitment. Even today, the story is still taken to be true but was, in fact, a work of fiction and although many people retold the story, not one British soldier who was at the battle actually saw anything.

The tale developed from a short story written by Arthur Machen for the London newspaper, The Evening News, entitled 'The Bowman'. It was published on 29th September 1914. The story told of phantom bowmen being called upon from the Battle of Agincourt by a British soldier fighting the Germans. It was written as a first-hand account although was total fiction. However, readers thought that it was a true account and Machen was asked to provide witnesses to the event.
A couple of months later, Machen was asked by priests if the story could be reprinted in local parish magazines. One priest proposed to write a preface to the story and asked Machen for sources of the event for which he replied that none could be given as the story was a work of fiction. The priest replied that Machen must be mistaken as the 'facts' of the story were true, and that Machen must have based his story on a true account. Machen said later:
'It seemed that my light fiction had been accepted by the congregation of this particular church as the solidest of facts; and it was then that it began to dawn on me that if I had failed in the art of letters, I had succeeded, unwittingly, in the art of deceit. This happened, I should think, some time in April, and the snowball of rumour that was then set rolling has been rolling ever since, growing bigger and bigger, till it is now swollen to a monstrous size.'

Variations of the story began to appear each reporting the story as fact. On 24th April, the British Spiritualist Magazine published stories of angelic warriors being seen over the Battlefield at Mons and by May 1915, the story was said to show that God was on the side of the Allies. As the rumours of angels at Mons spread across the world, Machen tried to dispel the rumours by publishing the story in a book with a long preface stating that there was no truth in the story. It became a best seller but this only led to a series of publications claiming to provide proof of the angels' existence.
The story re-emerged in the 1980s. No witness accounts existed although it was said that some soldiers had seen visions of phantom cavalry as they retreated. However, these hallucinations were put down to the exhaustion of troops who had not slept properly for days.
In 2001, an article published in the Sunday Times claimed that a diary of a soldier named William Doidge had been found which proved the existence of the angels. This was accompanied by film and photographic evidence. However, this later turned out to be a hoax.
No doubt as stories emerge during the centenary of the commencement of the First World War this year, the story of the Angels of Mons will be re-told over and over and, even one hundred years later will still be taken, by some, as fact.

Officers at the Citadel, Plymouth in 1916

With the anniversary of the commencement of the First World War coming up, I thought I'd post this interesting photo of officers at the Citadel in 1916.
I bought this interesting postcard on ebay (for £1.99!). The caption reads: 'Officers' Course of Gunnery, Citadel, Plymouth, February 1916.' The photographer is J.W. Barter of Plymouth. Written on the back in ink is: 'Yours sincerely, Frank H Bullock. 29th March 1916.'
It's a lovely picture, let's hope that most of them managed to survive the war.

A German Spy at Plymouth

This latest rare photograph from the newspaper archives comes from the Evening Telegraph and Post of Wednesday 30th August 1911. It shows the German Officer, Max Schulz, in court in Plymouth. He was arrested on a charge of attempting to procure a local solititor to commit an offence under the Official Secrets Act. Schulz had been obtaining information about the British Navy and dockyard and was passing it back to Germany.

In November 1911, Max Schulz was found guilty and sentenced to 20 months in jail.

This photo and many others can be found on my online gallery at www.flickr.com/photos/derektaitold photos

Exeter in the Great War

The second of my books about the First World War, for Pen and Sword, has now been completed and will be published later this year. This one features the city of Exeter and, using old newspaper reports and stories from the time, tells that tale of Exeter's part in the Great War. This will form part of a series covering towns and cities across Great Britain. I'm currently working on a similar book all about Bath. Meanwhile, here's a sneak preview of the Exeter cover which I think is very eye catching!

More giants!

By now everyone will have seen the news about Gog and Magog in the local papers. I'm pleased that the Herald picked up on the story from my blog and then 'exclusively' released the details on Wednesday. It's a very exciting project and let's hope it all goes ahead as I'm sure it will bring tourists flocking to the area, from worldwide, which will hopefully also increase trade in the many shops, cafes and pubs and other businesses in the city. Duttons Cafe will have the perfect vantage point and the Gog and Magog Inn will no longer have customers coming in asking what their strange name means! I think it's a very impressive proposal and seems to have the support of the people of Plymouth. Some people are already talking about the cost but I personally think that many people would happily volunteer to help out on such an iconic project and it probably wouldn't cost as much as perhaps imagined.

By Thursday, the Herald had featured people's reactions to the project, which on the whole, seemed favourable. I took the photo of Charles, which featured in the paper, on Mount Batten Pier when he attended the council meeting at the beginning of December. It will be interesting to see how it all develops and I know that Charles has had a lot of support already. Incidentally, he was interviewed on Radio Plymouth about the project and clips from the interview can be heard this Sunday (12th January) between 8am and 11am, either online at ww.radioplymouth.com or on 106.7fm (on one of those old-fashioned radio things).
I'll try to keep you up to date with any progress on this blog, so please check back.

Gog and Magog to return to Plymouth Hoe!

The huge chalk giants that last stood on Plymouth Hoe in the 1600s are about to make a comeback and should be in place by September this year.
Back in July 2013, the artist Charles Newington contacted me after reading my blog post about Gog and Magog. Charles was behind the Folkestone White Horse which stands above the entrance to the Channel Tunnel in Kent. Charles told me of his idea to put the huge chalk drawings back on the Hoe and asked if I could help.  After taking photos and measurements (the land in front of the Citadel is 67 feet!), Charles prepared some preliminary drawings, which can be seen here. I suggested that Charles contacted Chris Robinson and that set the ball rolling. The idea was approved at a meeting of Plymouth Waterfront Partnership in September 2013 and then Chris arranged a meeting with the council on 6th December which was attended by Tudor Evans, David Draffan, Charles Newington, Malcolm Beskin (Charles' associate) and Chris Robinson. The whole idea was welcomed and agreed to and is going ahead and should be in place, if all goes well, by September 2014.
I'm confused by the council's secrecy about what is a fantastic project which should become famous worldwide. The press, or other media, haven't been told and it's all been kept hush-hush. However, I think that the people of Plymouth will want to get behind the idea so I'm publishing it here for the first time. Now all I've got to rely on is that people actually read my blog...

Photo archive

I'm trying to put together an online archive of old photos of Plymouth, many rare and unseen. By putting them on Flickr, they will be easily viewable to everyone. I've made a start at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/derektaitoldphotos and hopefully, over the next few months (or years), the archive will grow to contain many thousands of photos. I hope to include many views and events that haven't been seen before on the net and I hope they will be of great interest to many people.