The First World War 1914-18

SUNDAY STABROEK, June 29, 2014 Page 1C

A war painting of the Western front by Paul Nash, the official artist on the British side in the First World War, who was retained by the War Office.

Exactly one hundred years ago yesterday,on the 28th June, 1914, a match was struckthat ignited a conflagration all acrossEurope and the Middle East. World War I,as it later became known, still hovered on

the periphery of living memory until as late as the begin-ning of this century, but with the passing of all those whofought in it, it has graduated to become just another chap-ter in a history book except that there are still millionsof people alive who once knew some of those who eitherfought in it or lived through it. As such, there remains anindirect albeit tenuous human thread linking the pre-sent to what happened one hundred years ago.

In addition to that, of course, it was the first industrialwar, so to speak, which saw the first tanks, the first air-craft, the first aircraft carrier and some massive artillerybeing deployed, not forgetting that this was also the firsttime chemical warfare and aerial bombing wereemployed in war. While weaponry has evolved dramati-cally from that period, nevertheless, First World War mil-itary hardware is still eminently recognizable to us today,and the nature of the war itself, therefore, appears some-

how very modern. This notwithstanding, the front in France and Belgium

in particular produced a lengthy stalemate. The soldierswere trapped in trenches and had to go over barbed wireacross a no-mans land to try and capture territory held bythe other side, whose soldiers faced them in their owntrenches. (See box for estimates of total casualties inevery theatre.)

The use of industrial era weaponry in these circum-stances took an extremely heavy toll on the men orderedover the wire, while the amount of land which changedhands for much of the period of four years on this frontwas very small. As the war progressed the military com-manders and the government in Britain in particular cameunder increasing criticism, (See G K Chestertons poem inbox), although in more recent times historians have beenkinder to the senior military echelons who directed theaction.

At the end of the war, the map of Europe and theMiddle East came to look very different, with twoempires the Austro-Hungarian and the Ottoman(Turkish) having been dismembered, thereby creating a

number of new territories, and Germany losing her fewimperial possessions in Africa and Asia. In addition, itcould no longer be denied (it had been apparent but notacknowledged before), that the worlds greatest industri-al power was the United States, whose entry into the warhad played a major role in bringing about the collapse ofGermany. The four years between 1914 and 1918 too hadprofound consequences in the colonial territories, most ofwhich had sent some of their young men to fight for themetropolis in the case of India, in huge numbers. Thosewho returned had an entirely different perspective on thecolonial situation from what had obtained pre-war, and inthat period lay the roots of some of the later independencemovements.

Many countries were involved at one period or anoth-er in the First World War, although the majority of thesesent no troops and saw no fighting on their soil. RobertWilde says that most of the Central American countries,for example, formally entered the war in 1917 after theUnited States did, although this had no practical

The First World War 1914-18This year marks the centenary of the First World War, which officially started on July 28, 1914. Sunday Stabroek recalls it very briefly, and looks at the role of some of those from the thencolonies and elsewhere, whose contribution is frequently overlooked.

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C SUNDAY STABROEK, June 29, 2014

The American Expeditionary Force lined up on the dock in front of their troop ship afterlanding in St Nazaire, France, 1917

The Australian Imperial Camel Corps which fought against the Turks, 1918

The Turks muster in preparation for an attack on the Suez Canal, 1914 (Library of Congress)

The most famous man on the Allied side came to beT E Lawrence, or Lawrence of Arabia, as he is bet-ter known. An author, poet, politician, secret serviceagent and soldier, he fought with Arab insurgentsagainst the Turks, and kept them onside by makingpromises that he knew did not represent the officialBritish position. His resolute attempts after the warto strike compromises with the British that wouldhave gone some way to fulfilling Arab expectations,failed. Along with the Balfour Declaration of 1917,the British legacy in the Middle East from this peri-od was the cause of many of its current problems.

Individual Blacks had enlisted independently in var-ious British regiments at the beginning of the war,such as the unknown soldier seen here on the left. Alocal example is that of Lionel Fitzherbert Turpin ofthen British Guiana. After the war he settled inLeamington in England; his son was RandolphTurpin, who became the World MiddleweightBoxing Champion. Norman Manley, later to bePremier of Jamaica, also volunteered, and served inthe Royal Field Artillery. His senior officers,impressed by his education and sophistication andembarrassed about him being restricted to the ranks,offered him a commission, but he refused it.


Indian wounded were treated in the grandiose sur-roundings of the Brighton Pavilion on Englandssouth coast. At first they were tended to by whitenurses, but this did not sit well with the War Office,and eventually male orderlies took over hands-oncare, while the nurses functioned in supervisory roles.

An unidentified corporal from the British West IndiaRegiment receiving a medal for gallantry underarms from Commander of Chaytor Force, NewZealander Major General Sir EWC Chaytor, 1918

British West Indies Regiment stacking shells at Ypres, 1917

Indian Military Engineers (Imperial War Museum)

The first British tank model in France, 1916. It was not very suited to the task, but was soonsucceeded by more effective models.


Diagram of a trench

Remembrance Day 1927, Georgetown

Members of the West Indies Regiment in France

An improvised march by young men in Georgetown in support of thelocal recruits for the British West India Regiment

An Allied trench on the Western front

Turkish prisoners in India, 1916

Zeppelins were used in bombing raids by the Germans early in the war,but were eventually abandoned because they were too easily shot down.

Here Dead We LieHere dead we lieBecause we did not chooseTo live and shame the landFrom which we sprung.Life, to be sure,Is nothing much to lose,But young men think it is,And we were young.

AE Housman


A Cemetery wherein are buried 300 West Indians,where not a tree, shrub or flower has been planted, bearseloquent testimony to theattitude adopted to [the menof the British West Indies Regiment] whether dead oralive. Lt.Col Wood-Hill, Commander of the 1st BritishWest Indies Regiment, 1920.

For generations now, Guyanese and other West Indianshave paid their annual silent tribute to Remembrance Dayto those who served, were wounded and who died in theFirst and Second World Wars. Above all, in the case of the1941-18 war they remember the sacrifice of the men ofthe British West Indies (BWI) Regiment, some of whomwere recruited from this country.

The assumption has always been that the burden of suf-fering inflicted by the rites of war was distributed more-or-less evenly across the regiments. Not so. In addition tothe enemy in the First World War, the men of the BWIbattalions also had to fight racial prejudice, humiliation,neglect and disease the last caused by hostile climaticconditions for which they were initially not properlyaccounted.

The statistics tell their own story. According to Lt-ColWood-Hill, a white Jamaican officer who campaigned onbehalf of his men against the bureaucrats in the WarOffice, and who in 1920 wrote a memoir entitled A fewNotes on the History of the British West Indies Regiment,135 West Indian soldiers were killed or died from woundsreceived in action, while 1,000 died from sickness mostly pneumonia and chest and lung trouble.

Perhaps what has attracted attention most about theRegiment, however, is the mutiny of some of the battal-ions at Taranto, Italy, at the end of the war on account ofdiscrimination and humiliation. Wood-Hills comment onthe mutiny was When all the facts are considered, it is amarvel that the men behaved with so much restraint.

In Egypt and on the front line in Palestine, he said,where they fought alongside both the 52nd Scottish aswell as Australian and New Zealand forces among others,there was good fellowship. Even in France, a much moreproblematic theatre from the point of view of Caribbeancontingent, barring a few isolated incidents there were nottoo many problems in the first two years. All of the front-line camaraderie evaporated however, when followingthe Armistice most of the West Indies battalions were bil-leted at Taranto, where, wrote the Lt-Colonel, TheColour Question was never so much in evidence andnever were West Indians so humiliated and badly treat-ed.

The Taranto mutiny is only now coming to publicattention, largely as a consequence of a documentarymade by British TV station, Channel Four, and rebroad-cast on the local Channel 9 station. The pioneer researchon the subject, however, was undertaken by Guyanesehistorian, Cedric Joseph some thirty years ago.

The only surviving World War One veteran in Guyanais Gershom Browne, who has written a small memoir ofhis experiences in and out of war, as yet unpublished, andwho agreed to be interviewed by this newspaper.Although he fought against the Turks in Palestine, he wasnever at Taranto. In addition, he was fortunate to haveescaped the harsh climatic condition which caused somany of his comrades such suffering.

While Brownes battalion endured fewer hardshipscomparatively speaking, some of the others had a verymuch more difficult time. The first Jamaican contingent,which went to form the Second Battalion, for exam-ple, was sent to England and was quartered in such poorhousing during the winter months, that a large number ofsoldiers fell ill.

The second contingent of Jamaicans faced similar con-ditions, but on this occasion Wood-Hill himself begged tohave them removed from England and into training.Within three weeks, they had been sent to Egypt,although according to the Lieutenant Colonel, their prob-lems were not over, as they subsequently succumbed tomeasles, mumps and cerebro-meningitis.

The most unfortunate contingent, again comprisingmostly Jamaicans, was the Fourth Battalion. Accordingto Wood-Hill, they were inadequately clothed and theirboat was caught in a blizzard. The vessel had not beenprovided with steam heating, and when it was forced toput into the port of Halifax, hundreds of men had to beadmitted to the hospital suffering from frostbite.

Many West Indians, wrote Wood-Hill, lost their livesfrom pneumonia on board ship and this was entirelydue to the fact that they were unsuitably clothed, with nowarm underclothing, no overcoats and sick accommoda-tion totally unsuitable.

Egypt was a more congenial climate for men whocame from the tropics, but it was not long before theluminaries at the War Office decided that the Third andFourth Battalions of the BWI Regiment should beremoved from there to serve as ammunition carriers inFrance. The Bermudans, said the bureaucrats, had per-formed very well in that role, and had also withstood thewinter in France successfully. It was in vain, wrote Wood-Hill, that it was explained to the military powers-that-bethat Bermuda was not, technically speaking, a tropicalisland, and that climatic conditions were rather differentfrom those in the Caribbean. Inevitably, the winter inFrance took its toll.

In the Autumn of 1916, a military conference in Egyptrecommended that all West Indians should be concentrat-ed there on account of the climate. However, this propos-al was not, according to the Lieutenant-Colonel, wellreceived by the commanders of the BWI battalions inFrance. They said their men were perfectly happy carry-ing shells, and did not want to return to Egypt.

This lack of unanimity, said Wood-Hill, practicallykilled the British West Indies Regiment. Furthermore,when the War Office had sufficient shell carriers inFrance, the remaining West Indians were simply utilizedas labour battalions, which inevitably demoralized them.

Lobbying on the part of Wood-Hill and others dideventually succeed in putting two battalions of theRegiment into the field against the Turks in Palestine,among whom were quite a few Guyanese. They acquitted

themselves well, proving to the world at large, wrote theJamaican officer, that the West Indians possess soldier -like qualities, and... that the opinion of the War Office -based goodness knows on what!- that West Indians havedoubtful fighting qualities, was absolutely and entirelyfalse.

At the end of his memoir, Wood-Hill analysed theproblems of the BWI Regiment during the First WorldWar. Aside from the colour prejudice of the War Office,he lamented the fact that after they had raised the men thehome colonies thought that their responsibilities hadended. The contingents, he wrote, were sent to Englandand simply dumped there.

The home colonial governments brought no pressure tobear on the War Office, and the latter was never calledupon to explain on what grounds they considered thatWest Indians would not make good soldiers.

Furthermore, he wrote, had the West Indies been fed-erated under one administration, instead of being individ-ual territories all dealing directly with the ColonialOffice, the whole history, life and being of the regimentwould have been altered.

The Dominion Governments, in contrast to the dis-parate and insular West Indian colonies, were also able togive full publicity to the exploits of their regiments in thefield, and as a consequence were in a position to givethem support, and lobby the War Office on their behalf.To give but one example, Indian troops were withdrawnfrom France early in the war because they too wereunable to withstand the rigours of the winter there.

Finally, Wood-Hill said that normally when a battaliondid well in the field, the commander was often rewarded,and this is looked upon by all ranks as a Reward to theRegiment. However, up to the signing of the Armisticeno single reward had been given to any commanding offi-cer of a British West Indies battalion in France or Italy.

Eighty-odd years after men across the Caribbeanresponded to the call from Britain to fight in the FirstWorld War, the true record of not just their service, butalso of their ordeal is now coming to light.

West Indians and the regiments

After war was declared many West Indians leftthe colonies of their own accord to enlist in thearmy in Britain, and were recruited into British reg-iments. According to Chris Baker, the War Officewas less than happy with this development, andmade attempts to prevent the West Indians fromenlisting, threatening to repatriate any who camewith this in mind.

It was eventually decided that the number ofaliens (ie non-whites) who could enlist in Britishregiments should be limited to one to every 50white British soldiers. In addition, they were notallowed to be promoted beyond NCO level,although according to Walter Tull, there were oddinstances of this happening, such as in the case ofthe son of a Barbadian carpenter who was a pro-fessional footballer playing for Tottenham Hotspur

and who was given a commission as a 2nd

Lieutenant in the Middlesex Regiment.Eventually, after lengthy discussions involving

the War Office and the Colonial Office, and fol-lowing the intervention of King George V, it wasdecided to raise a West India Regiment (a new one,since one had existed for a long time before this),which was done in 1915.

Fighting discrimination and cold: The British West Indies Regiment in the First World War

The article below was first published inthe Sunday Stabroek on April 16, 2000

BWIR badge this is the insigma of the GWIRas worm by BWIR troops


The Harlem Hellfighters Regimental Band, which is credited with help-ing to introduce jazz to Europe.

Crowds at the stelling waiting for the Guyanese recruits to arrive toboard the boat

Members of the 369th Infantry Regiment, known as the HarlemHellfighters, who individually received the Croix de Guerre fromFrance. The Hellfighters were originally a New York National Guardregiment taken into federal service and sent to France. They were givenlabour duties first, since the American military command was not pre-pared to countenance them actively fighting alongside US white units;however, they were subsequently assigned to the French, and servedalongside Frances 16th Division in the trenches. They acquitted them-selves with valour, and the entire regiment was awarded a unit Croix deGuerre by France at the end of the war for taking Schault. 171 mem-bers of the regiment also received either the individual Croix de Guerreor the Lgion dHonneur from France at the end of the war for braveryin action.

British troops going over the wire into No Mans Land

French troops at the Battle of the Marne, 1914

The crowd at the stelling waiting for the arrival of the first Guyanesecontingent recruited into the British West Indies Regiment, 1915. The contingent first marched through Georgetown before boarding thevessel.

C SUNDAY STABROEK, June 29, 2014 SUNDAY STABROEK, June 29, 2014 Page 7C

Europe at the outbreak of war in 1914 The map of Europe looked very different at the end of the war.

Albania

Arabia

Austria-Hungary

Belgium and

colonies

Brazil

Bulgaria

China

Costa Rica

Cuba

Czechoslovakia

Estonia

Finland

France and Empire

Great Britain and

Empire

Germany and

Empire

Greece

Guatemala

Haiti

Honduras

Italy and colonies

Japan

Latvia

Liberia

Lithuania

Luxembourg

Montenegro

Nicaragua

Panama

Persia

Philippines

Poland

Portugal and

colonies

Romania

Russia

San Marino

Serbia

Siam

Turkey

Transcaucasia

Unites States of

America

Countries Involved

Indian soldiers (Imperial War Museum). After declaring war, Britain could only muster an expe-ditionary force of 120,000 men when France, Germany and Austria had mobilized millions. Whilethere were plenty of volunteers, it was recognized that these would take time to train, and sorecourse was had to India to make up the first numbers, because it had a very large, well-trainedforce already at its disposal. These troops were brought into service in Europe initially, the firstbatch of 28,500 Indian troops arriving in France on September 28, 1914. In all, 1.3 million menfrom the sub-continent served in the First World War, while through taxation India raised twowar loans for Britain which were never repaid.

Two soldiers of the Tirailleur Senegalais Regiment (from the Frenchcolony, Senegal) in 1915. Frances colonial African regiments foughtalongside the French in several theatres, and not just in Africa.British and German African troops fought in Africa, sustaining par-ticularly heavy losses in the east of the continent.

Canadian soldiers in the trenches at Vimy Ridge, 1917 (The Canadian Press)

(Compiled by Robert Wilde)


Elegy in a Country ChurchyardThe men that worked for EnglandThey have their graves at home:And birds and bees of EnglandAbout the cross can roam.

But they that fought for England,Following a falling star,Alas, alas for EnglandThey have their graves afar.

And they that rule in England,In stately conclave met,Alas, alas for EnglandThey have no graves as yet.

G K Chesterton

Members of the British West Indies Regiment cleaning their rifles in France,1916 Germans in the trenches before the Battle of the Marne, 1914

Gavrilo Princip, the Serbian assassin of ArchdukeFranz Ferdinand, and member of a nationalist group


The First World War 1914-18implications. Brazil was the only South American coun-try to declare war on Germany, again in 1917.

The leading protagonists were Germany, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire (Turkey), Britain (plusdominions and colonies), France (and colonies), Russia,Italy, Romania and from 1917, the United States. Theyfell into two groups: the Central powers (Germany,Austro-Hungary, Turkey, Bulgaria and others), whichwere ranged against the Allied powers (Britain, France,Russia, Italy and others. The United States was technical-ly not an Allied power, but was in association with theAllies).

After the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, Leninand his associates pursued peace independently withGermany. The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk which was signedearly in 1918, and which on the Russian side had beennegotiated by a team led by Leon Trotsky, was punitive toRussia in the extreme, and is regarded by some historiansas the template for the Peace of Versailles. The latter wassigned in 1919 between the major parties, and has longbeen seen by many as unduly harsh on Germany.

Outbreak of warThe causes of the war are complex, and have been

argued over by historians of varying ideological persua-sions for many decades. The trigger which set in train asequence of disastrous events is, however, very wellknown. On June 28, 1914, the Archduke Franz Ferdinandof Austria, heir to the Austrian-Hungarian throne, wasassassinated along with his wife Sophie in Sarajevo,Serbia, by the Serbian nationalist Gavrilo Princip. Inbrief, following this incident Austria-Hungary with thehelp of the Germans, then presented Serbia with an ulti-matum of ten demands, which Austria did not expectwould be fulfilled.

Nevertheless, on July 23, Serbia agreed to comply withall of the demands, save one that Austria should be partof an internal Serbian inquiry into the killing and fol-lowing that, three days later on July 28, 1914, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia. This date marks theofficial start of the First World War.

Owing to a system of alliances which had been formedprior to the war, a number of powers were then drawn intoit. Russia declared her support for Serbia, while Germany,of course, was in alliance with Austria-Hungary. It was

Germany which declared war on France, which hadstruck a pre-war entente with Russia, and the Germansmoved quickly to try and push through to Paris bymarching first through Luxemburg and Belgium.Belgiums neutrality, however, had decades earlierbeen guaranteed by the European powers, and it wasthis breach of it which caused Britain to declare waragainst Germany. It was said at the time that theBritish had gone to war over a piece of paper.

In November 1914, the Ottoman Empire declaredwar on the side of the Central powers, and this broughtlarge swathes of the Middle East, much of which wasunder Turkish control directly into the conflict. It wasin this theatre that Guyanese members of the WestIndia Regiment mostly fought. Turkey was seen asthe sick man of Europe, and for many decades vari-ous nations had been coveting one or another portionof its imperial holdings.

As said above, the war was fought on many fronts,but as said earlier large numbers of troops were pinneddown in Belgium and France, on what was called theWestern front. In the initial stages of the conflict, NewZealanders and Australians attacked islands in thePacific that were part of the German empire, while theBritish, French and South Africans, fought also inAfrica, where the Germans held a colony and protec-torates.

Austro-Hungarian forces fought in the Balkans,Italy and Russia, and Serbia especially took veryheavy losses at their hands. While the Russians scoredsuccesses against the Austrians early on, they encoun-tered difficulties when confronting the Germans firstin East Prussia, and also when fighting in centralEurope. From 1916 onwards, it was the disorganiza-tion and poor leadership on the Russian front, coupledwith the incompetence of the government at homeand the consequent hardship for civilians that provid-ed the context for first the February Revolution of1917, and then the Bolshevik one of October the sameyear.

The war against Turkey did not start well for theAllies and in 1915 there were huge British, Frenchand Anzac (Australian and New Zealand) casualties atGallipoli a campaign whose architect was a youngWinston Churchill in his capacity as First Lord of theAdmiralty. Following that disaster he had to leave thegovernment. Fighting extended as far as Saudi Arabia and

the Levant, as well as into Iran, where the Russians senttroops and where they won a series of victories until theirforces were withdrawn in 1917.

On the high seas, following the Battle of Jutland in1916, the powerful German navy was left bottled up inport by British ships, which also executed a blockade, andthe Germans resorted to submarine attacks on trans-Atlantic merchant shipping. The Americans had warnedGermany about unrestricted submarine warfare in viola-tion of international law, and while it stopped for a while,it resumed in January 1917. This together with the publi-cation of a telegram sent by the Germans to Mexicoencouraging the latter to declare war on the United States,brought the US into the war. This saw the drafting of2.8M fresh troops for the Western front.

After a temporary breakthrough on this front, theGermans were soon driven back, and with anti-wardemonstrations in the German cities where there weremajor shortages, and the army on the verge of mutiny the navy in the port of Kiel did mutiny the German highcommand recognized by September 1918 that the warhad been lost. The Allies first signed an armistice withTurkey at the end of October, and then one with Austriaon November 3, 1918. After the abdication of the Kaiser,who fled to the Netherlands, Germany declared a repub-lic on November 9. Two days later, the armistice withGermany was signed at 5am in a railway carriage atCompigne, in a French forest. The truce came into effectthe same day at 11am on the 11th day of the 11th month.

From page 1C

Manfred von Richthofen, known as the Red Baron,was a German flying ace who became famous onboth sides of the lines for the number of planes heshot down. After shooting down his 80th SopwithCamel, he himself was fatally shot at age 25.

The Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary and his wife Sophieprior to their assassination on June 28, 1914

Dulce et Decorum est, 1917Gas! GAS! Quick, boys! An ecstasy of fumbling,Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;But someone still was yelling out and stumbling,And floundring like a man in fire or lime ...Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light,As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.

Wilfred Owen


As a soldier in the British West IndiesRegiment, he fought on the front lineagainst the Turks and experienced being inno mans land- in the line of fire. Now101 years o1d, he does not regret anymoment of it and considers its Gods willthat he is still alive to tell the story.

Gershom Barnabas Onesimus Browneis one of the very few surviving WorldWar One veterans anywhere. Enjoying theearly morning sun at his daughtersLamaha Gardens home, the centenarianrecalled his life over the past century.

Gershom Browne was born toAlexander Browne and Johannah Brownene Rodney, at La Retraite village, WestBank Demerara. His father died when hewas about ten-years-old.

Following his education at the St MarksScots, the St Pauls Scots and the RattaryCongregational Schools, Browne workedin the capital for about eight months as anoffice boy. When he lost his job, he tookemployment as a call boy and laterworked as an apprentice blacksmith. Myyoung hands helped to beat into shapeseveral gates and fences of iron. I still seesome on properties in Georgetown, herecalls in a personal memoir which is yetto be published.

RecruitmentBrowne was about seventeen years old

when the First World War broke out inAugust, 1914. In his memoir he describeshow he would be at the Cable Board everyafternoon following events until the lastbulletin had been put up, and how hewould listen to and absorb the talk of theolder men there who sometimes discussedpast wars.

When the British West Indies (BWI)Regiment was formed, campaigns wereheld all over the country to recruit menbetween the ages of 18 to 35 years.

Browne, in his unpublished work tellshow he was recruited in November of1915 when he went to a campaign in theParade Ground (now IndependenceSquare) after work. There, he says, a largecrowd had gathered and was listening tospeeches and patriotic war songs, and hegave his name to a lady who approachedhim. He was 17 plus, and his mother wasnot happy about the new direction his lifehad taken.

After passing a medical examination,Browne was drafted as a soldier- No.3076 - in No. 2 platoon on February l,1916.

He was given a pair of boots and aslouch felt hat and underwent daily train-ing. He was later promoted to LanceCorporal.

In early November 1916, the soldiersboarded a Sprostons boat, the SSMazaruni, for Trinidad. Here they weredeposited until March 1917 when finallythey went aboard the troopshipMagdalene in company with recruits fromTrinidad, picking up soldiers fromBarbados, Grenada and St Lucia along the

way. Her destination was Malta.According to Browne, measles broke

out on the Magdalene, and some soldiershad to be taken off.

From Malta the boat sailed forAlexandria in Egypt, where they weretaken straight to an isolation camp, not farfrom the BWI Regiments camp at Mex.

EgyptThe soldiers were informed that they

were the fifth reserve battalion of theBritish West Indies Regiment; theGuyanese recruit was posted to F compa-ny and his number was 1931.

Browne says that in June of 1917, hewas given a new kit which included,among several other things, 2 bandolierswhich had 60 rounds of ammunition ineach, a rifle with a bayonet and an SBRgas mask.

It was a prelude to his being drafted forthe front, which happened, he says, on oneSunday morning in June. Their destinationwas Deriel Beelah station, where the 1stbattalion was to be found in dugouts onthe shore of the Mediterranean Sea.

The frontIt was not, continues Browne in his

memoir, a hot sector; the only engage-ments were with fighting patrols.However, in September, his situationchanged. His battalion was sent to the

front line again, but this time in a sector oftheir own. They were part, he says, of theComposite Force, comprising two BWIbattalions, two Jewish battalions, twoIndian regiments, a French detachmentand an Italian detachment.

It was at this time, Browne writes, Iwas selected for specialised training as ascout and sniper... No mans land here wasvery deep, over 1000 yards, and speakingmilitarily we had to have control of nomans land; so I had knowledge of everyinch... in our sector. Browne led patrolsreconnoitering or fighting. They wouldlook for enemy patrols, and if they sawany they would retreat and fire. I was notfrightened, says Browne.

He describes how the armies facingeach other were in fortified redoubts; hisplatoon occupied Dumbell Hill Redoubt,and he relates how one Sunday morning,the Turks started an artillery barrage onallied lines. What saved them was the factthat most of the Turkish shells were duds.However, during this barrage his compan-ion, Harry Branch, was killed. Later, onthe Jordan Valley front, he remembered aGuyanese, Sergeant Chan, being killed.

Brownes company was one nightordered on a forced march of 59 kilome-tres to make contact with the enemy. Atabout 2 in the morning, they realized itwould be a bayonet charge. Only a sol-dier who has seen active service knowswhat this means, he writes, it is a terror-

izing and terrifying action.The charge was successful, however,

and he records that in the aftermath morethan 130 prisoners were taken, including aGerman sapper, whose orders were, nodoubt, to blow up the Damesh Bridgeacross the Jordan River.

Unfortunately for Browne, during thismarch the Company had been ordered tolighten up to bare fighting order, whichmeant that everything had to be jettisonedexcept the absolute essentials, viz a blan-ket and waterproof sheet, haversack withemergency rations, a pair of socks, waterbottle and steel helmet. It was in this shed-ding process that the veterans diary wasleft behind and never seen again.

The Turks retreatGeneral Allenbys offensive in

Palestine, of which two BWI battalionswere a part, moved forward against theTurks on a 40 kilometre front. The enemywas dislodged, Browne writes, and alltowns west of the Jordan River were cap-tured, including Jerusalem.

After a bout of sickness, when he wassent down the line, Browne rejoined hiscomrades at Ramallah, and it was here, onNovember 8, 1918, they saw flashing sig-nals from the sea. These were the signals,he says, indicating that the Armistice hadbeen signed, and that fighting shouldcease.

Although he was shot at during histime on the front, Browne told thisnewspaper, I was never hit, but I didshoot at the enemy.

I witnessed many dead bodies on thefront line, but you cant... [focus] on them.You just have to keep moving.

DemobilizationIn October 1919, 20 men from the

British Guiana contingent, includingBrowne, were returned home.

He embarked on civilian life with a gra-tuity of 15 pounds, some agricultural toolsand the offer of land in the DemeraraRiver. He purchased a piece of land at LaGrange, West Bank Demerara and wentinto coffee cultivation. Subsequently heturned to diamond prospecting in the inte-rior, where, he writes, his scouting experi-ence stood him in good stead.

He later met and married DaislyJohnson who bore him eight children,seven of whom are alive. After beingtogether for fifty years, Daisly passedaway in June of 1975.

After a spell on the Bartica-IssanoRoad, the veteran was appointed theVillage Overseer of Bagotville District, inwhich post he gave long service.

Today the centenarian lives with hissecond child, Claudia Browne in LamahaGardens. He has a very vivid memory andmoves about independently. At the end ofthe interview he proceeded to read theStabroek News without his glasses.

Gershom Browne: In the line of fire in World War OneThe following interview with the late Gershom Browne who served in the West India Regiment in Palestine in World

War I was first published in Sunday Stabroek on April 16, 2000. Mr Browne died a few years ago.

Gershom Browne in his army uniform; he had just joined the BritishWest Indies Regiment.


The PeaceThe Peace of Versailles was signed five years to

the day after Archduke Franz Ferdinands assassi-nation on June 28, 1919. While it was precededby a conference which discussed the terms, thelosers were not present; the treaty was imposed onthem and they were simply called in to sign it afterthe victors had decided on its provisions. Initiallythese were discussed by a Council of Ten, but sub-sequently this was reduced to a Council of Four or the Big Four, as its negotiators came to beknown. These were Prime Minister GeorgesClemenceau of France, Prime Minister LloydGeorge of Britain, Prime Minister Vittorio Orlandoof Italy and President Woodrow Wilson of theUnited States.

Prior to arriving in Europe, Wilson had drawn upwhat were known as the Fourteen Points as a basisfor the peace, to which Germany had acceded.Wilsons document, however, was long on idealismand short on detail, and he soon found himself out-manoeuvred by the vengeful Clemenceau and thefar more politically astute Lloyd George. Wilsonwanted such things as open agreements betweenstates, self-determination, disarmament consistentwith domestic safety, and a League of Nations, forwhich Clemenceau in particular, had no time. In theend, it was only this last which survived intact.

According to John Maynard Keynes, who waspresent at the talks as an advisor to Lloyd George,Clemenceau held a stereotypical view of theGermans, namely, that they could not be negotiatedwith but only dictated to. He regarded Europeanwars as recurrent, and that there would be others;therefore, he had no patience with Wilsons gener-ous view which would shorten Germanys recoveryperiod and bring closer the day when that countryonce more would launch itself against France.

Germany had long since overtaken France, moreparticularly in economic terms, since their last mil-itary encounter in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870,and Clemenceau, according to Keynes, sought tostymie Germanys economic engine, so Francecould seize perhaps a part of it. This is the policyof an old man, wrote Keynes, whose most vividimpressions and most lively imagination are of thepast and not of the future.

Lloyd George for his part was concerned abouttoo great an imposition on the German economicmachine; after all, Britain for her own economicreasons would need a Germany which was healthyenough to trade with. However, he had justemerged from an election in 1918 where the cam-paign centred on not letting Germany get away withanything a position it was difficult to retreat fullyfrom.

And then there was the President of the UnitedStates, who was in the end to find his FourteenPoints overridden by what Keynes callsClemenceaus Carthaginian Peace (ie a brutalpeace). How did the President come to acceptthis? asked Keynes. In a lengthy response to thisquestion, he wrote among other things: Thus dayafter day and week after week, he [PresidentWilson] allowed himself to be closeted, unsupport-ed, unadvised, and alone, with men much sharperthan himself, in situations of supreme difficulty,where he needed for success every description ofresource, fertility, and knowledge. He allowed him-self to be drugged by their atmosphere, to discusson the basis of their plans and of their data, and tobe led along their paths.

The most controversial of the terms of the peacewas what became known in popular parlance as thewar guilt clause, whereby Germany had to acceptresponsibility for the war and pay enormous repa-rations. In the event, much of this was never in factpaid, but the humiliation it represented fed intoGerman discontent and provided fuel for dangerousnationalists like Adolf Hitler.

The Big Four in 1919. From left: British Prime Minister David Lloyd George, Italian PrimeMinister Vittorio Emanuele Orlando, French Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau and PresidentWoodrow Wilson of the United States

One of the great hazards of trench warfare was poison gas; many thousands of soldiers on bothsides were blinded by it, and sometimes killed. Here members of the British Machine Gun Corpsare seen in their gas masks, 1916.

The Allies most successful aircraft, the Sopwith Camel, 1917

The First World War 1914-18

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