War Office Research Articles

American Writers and the Approach of World War II, 1935–1941: A Literary HistoryShell Shock, Memory, and the Novel in the Wake of World War I

American Writers and the Approach of World War II, 1935–1941: A Literary HistoryShell Shock, Memory, and the Novel in the Wake of World War I

The Deportation of James Larkin: Irish American Politics and the British, American, and Free State Governments

The Deportation of James Larkin:Irish American Politics and the British, American, and Free State Governments Gerry Watts (bio) James Larkin (1874–1947) was founder and leader of the Irish Transport and General Workers' Union (ITGWU). Almost single-handedly he organized the lowest-paid workers in Ireland, laborers who worked in subhuman conditions and lived in cramped and unhygienic housing where malnourishment and disease were rampant and mortality rates high at the turn of the century. Through his inspiring leadership and oratorical skills, he captured the imagination of the Irish working class, empowering them with a sense of their own destiny. After the travails of the 1913 Lockout, Larkin left Ireland in 1914 and landed in the United States with the double aim of furthering Irish nationalism and worldwide social revolution. Although Larkin did not ultimately achieve these goals, he did play a part in promoting Irish nationalism in the run-up to the 1916 Rising. He also worked within American trade unions, campaigned against the war, and was instrumental in the formation of the American Communist Labor Party. After an initial period working with the Irish American organization Clan na Gael, Larkin fell out with the group over political aims and in 1920 was convicted of criminal anarchy and incarcerated in the New York state penitentiary system. Three years later, he was given a full pardon by the New York governor Al Smith, and shortly thereafter he was deported from the United States by the department of labor. For his troubles, he was often penniless, subject to arrest, and exposed to danger. This essay will look at the role played by individuals within the Bureau of Investigation (precursor to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, [End Page 186] the FBI), Clan na Gael, and the Irish Free State and British governments in the deportation process of Larkin in America. This process was begun in February 1919 but only completed in April 1923. Deportation was the legal sanction for an alien charged and convicted of criminal anarchy. However, Larkin instead received a sentence of imprisonment, with deportation carried out only after a long delay. Consequently, he was unable to return to Ireland during the critical period of the War of Independence and the formation of the Free State between January 1919 and January 1923. A look at the people and circumstances surrounding his incarceration will renew focus on this period of Larkin's life, particularly the role played by Clan na Gael members in the judicial process, at his trial, and during his lengthy appeals process wherein a conviction was secured without deportation. This essay will inquire into whether or not this was a tactic on the part of Clan na Gael members to keep Larkin away from Ireland and stop him from interfering with the work of Sinn Féin. The "nationalist plot" to have Larkin assassinated in 1919, first brought to light by scholar Claire Culleton, is closely connected to these events and will receive attention here as well.1 I will first assess the authenticity of the plot and then ask if its underlying motives were similar to the tactics of Clan na Gael in Larkin's judicial process—namely, that in both cases the motive was to keep Larkin away from Irish affairs. The essay will also look at the role the British state and Free State played in keeping Larkin away from Ireland. It will consider aspects such as the British exclusion order keeping the labor leader out of Ireland, intelligence discussions on Larkin between Dublin Castle and the War Office in London, and the use made by the Free State of the Irish consular service in New York and the office of the Irish Trade Representative in tracking his activities. This analysis takes the form of an investigation and intends therefore to set out a series of exploratory questions. [End Page 187] Larkin is "Shadowed" by Dublin Castle Following the outcome of the 1913 Lockout, Larkin had become despondent. The outbreak of war in August 1914, however, changed the political landscape significantly, pushing Larkin to the fore once again—not as a revolutionary strike leader this time, but as...

The Journey of Muhammed Bey al-Alfi to London: An Eye-Opening Journey

Through close analysis of a wide array of archival sources like Foreign Office Records and War Office Records as well as diverse contemporary sources like chronicles, memoires, correspondences, and press, this article provides an investigation of the journey of the Mamluk chief Muhammad bey al-Alfi to London in 1803 on behalf of the Mamluk beys of Egypt. It seeks to illuminate the various aspects of this journey was shrouded in obscurity and left out of the prevailing historical narrative. The paper also highlights the underlying motives of this journey as well as its implications on the Mamluk institution. It also outlines the diplomatic, economic and social activities that Alfi bey conducted there. It argues that this journey was truly an eye-opening experience if not a life-altering one for Alfi bey. Evidently, it had a lasting impact on him and helped him to articulate a new political vision by its end. As a result, he returned back Egypt with a recipe for its progress and a full determination to initiate an entire political makeover. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.5913/jarce.53.2017.a006

Exploring British India: South African prisoners of war as imperial travel writers, 1899–1902

During the second South African War (1899–1902), also known as the Anglo-Boer War, the British War Office supervised the transportation of approximately 24,000 South African prisoners of war to Bermuda, St. Helena, and British India. Examining previously unstudied memoirs published immediately following the war by war prisoners held in camps in India and Ceylon, I argue that these texts read not, as one would expect, as prison or war writing, but as travel literature. These authors do not see a conflict between enjoying the benefits of empire abroad while fighting an anti-imperial war at home. The descriptions of landscapes and events in these memoirs suggest a cultural imaginary built on travelling and cultural exchange, as opposed to the insular and nativist Afrikaner nationalism that would follow empire. This article thus contributes to a larger project of examining the precursors of postcolonial nationalism, as well as historical and imaginative links between imperial peripheries.

‘Not a Position for a Gentleman’: Sir Matthew Nathan as Colonial Administrator: From Cape Coast Castle to Dublin Castle via Natal

ABSTRACTThis article examines the role of Sir Matthew Nathan, British permanent under secretary for Ireland at the time of the Easter Rising in April 1916, and how critical events in his career as soldier, colonial governor and civil servant shaped his conduct and reaction to events in Ireland as the Rising unfolded around him. The article raises issues of identities: namely Nathan's own identity as an English gentleman, when, given his Jewish background, he was an outsider to that caste. Nathan's brief military career and lengthier career as a colonial governor earned him high praise as a model bureaucrat. In this paper Nathan's track from the War Office through government houses situated in West Africa, Hong Kong and Natal to Dublin Castle is traced to illustrate the changes in his character from decisiveness to indecision. While Nathan clearly misread the volatile situation in Ireland over the 1916 Easter weekend, his actions demonstrated both indecision and bureaucratic delaying tactics. It is argued that his experiences with obdurate settler ministers in Natal played a role in shaping his hesitancy at the time of crisis in Dublin and that this hesitancy provided an opportunity for the direct action of the Irish Volunteers. The conclusion is that, at the time of the Irish crisis, Nathan failed to exercise the ‘power of the personal influence’ expected of an experienced governor.

High altitude hypoxia, a mask and a Street. Donation of an aviation BLB oxygen mask apparatus from World War 2.

The history of hypoxia prevention is closely inter-related with high altitude mountain and aviation physiology. One pioneering attempt to overcome low inspired oxygen partial pressures in aviation was the BLB mask-named after the three designers-Walter M Boothby, W Randolph Lovelace II and Arthur H Bulbulian. This mask and its variations originated just prior to World War 2 when aircraft were able to fly higher than 10,000 feet and pilot hypoxia affecting performance was an increasing problem. We give a brief description of the mask and its designers and discuss the donation of a model used by the British War Office in October 1940 and donated to the Harry Daly Museum at the Australian Society of Anaesthetists by the family of Dr Fred Street. Dr Street was a pioneering paediatric surgeon in Australia and served as a doctor in the Middle East and New Guinea in World War 2. He received the Military Cross.

Beyond Jihad: The Pacifist Tradition in West African Islam

Lamin Sanneh’s book Beyond Jihad deals with the peaceful transmission of Islam in West Africa by a pacifist clerical group. The author challenges the claim that the old African kingdom of Ghana was conquered by the militant Berber Almoravids in the eleventh century. Islam was not introduced into sub-Saharan Africa through militant jihad, as generally believed. The principal agents for the dissemination of Islam in West Africa were local clerics, who used the peaceful means of accommodation and adaptation. The clerical tradition was pacifist, emphasizing learning and teaching, not war and political office.

Invasion, raids and army reform: the political context of ‘flotilla defence’, 1903-5

In response to the pressure of the invasion debates of 1903–5 the Admiralty developed a new strategy, ‘flotilla defence’, to counter arguments brought forward by the War Office. This concept was a purely political one; it was a cynical bid to mislead the Committee of Imperial Defence in order to secure naval funding. By placing ‘flotilla defence’ in this context this article will demonstrate that it was not, as has been claimed, a revolutionary naval strategy, but part of the polarization of defence policy which led to a breakdown in relations between the army and the navy.

The Imperial Security State: British Colonial Knowledge and Empire-Building in Asia, by James Hevia

Based solidly on archival sources in the India Office Records, The National Archives (including Foreign Office and War Office papers) and a wide range of secondary material, this book by James Hevia explores two historical dimensions. One is the ways in which the Intelligence Branch of the Indian Army exploited its methods of collecting topographical, statistical and human (anthropological) information to plan military campaigns; and the second is to explain the importance of intelligence collecting to our understanding of the creation of the modern state. In short, Hevia’s argument is that imperial expansion, notably in India, created the techniques for modern state self-preservation. By de-romanticising the Great Game of Anglo-Russian rivalry in Central Asia, the author claims to locate the origins of United States and British counter-insurgency ‘operations systems’ employed during the Cold War with the Soviet Union (pp. 258–60). This review will, first, examine Indian Army methods behind military planning; and, second, it will evaluate the claim of continuity into the twentieth century.

‘A shadowy entity’: M.I.1(b) and British Communications Intelligence, 1914–1922

Although the part played by the British War Office’s cryptanalytic bureau in diplomatic cryptanalysis during the First World War is better understood than formerly, its contribution to military Communications Intelligence (Comint) has remained largely unknown. This article describes the origins of what eventually became M.I.1(b), its wartime development as a military cryptanalytic (and eventually cryptologic) bureau, and its post-war demise; it also seeks to identify the factors that contributed to its subsequent obscurity. It concludes that M.I.1(b) played a key role in British army Comint during the First World War, both through its own cryptanalytic work and in supporting and coordinating the efforts of widely dispersed field cryptanalytic activities, and that its subsequent obscurity has served to distort understanding of the development of British Comint.

Jason Sean Ridler. Maestro of Science: Omond McKillop Solandt and Government Science in War and Hostile Peace, 1939–1956. xv + 350 pp., figs., tables, bibl., index. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2015. $55 (cloth).

Jason Sean Ridler. <i>Maestro of Science: Omond McKillop Solandt and Government Science in War and Hostile Peace, 1939–1956</i>. xv + 350 pp., figs., tables, bibl., index. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2015. $55 (cloth).

World War I and the Russian Revolution in the Memoirs of German Officer Wilhelm Wölfing

This is the first publication of the memoirs of W. Wölfing, a German reserve officer and participant in World War I. This unique archival document contains information about his time in captivity in Siberia between 1915 and 1917 and his activity as an official representative of the German High Command in Moscow in 1918. The text of the memoirs is kept in the Federal Military Archive of Germany in Freiburg. It has never been published in Germany or translated into Russian previously. The text has a pronounced anti-Bolshevik tone: equally, its author presents the development of events between 1917 and 1918 as being unsupported by the German government, which makes it possible to consider the position of Wölfing as an alternative to the preservation of the German Empire and the destruction of the Bolshevik regime. The author’s biography combines typical and unique features: a certified lawyer; a reservist on the Eastern front during World War I; an uhlan sent on air reconnaissance; and a German officer who led a carefree life in Russian captivity and made an adventurous escape in 1918. After the signing of the Brest Peace Agreement between Germany and Soviet Russia, he headed the Moscow Office of the the German High Command’s Foreign Policy Department; in this capacity, he was engaged in propaganda work, promoted emigration, and was an advocate of a military intervention in Russia to overthrow the Bolsheviks. His status as a diplomat allowed him to establish broad and diverse contacts. He had contacts among representatives of the Bolshevik leadership, including the Chekists (Radek, Peters), “former people” hostile to the new government (Patriarch Tikhon, Prince Lvov), cultural activists, and many foreigners. The memoirs contain many details of Russian everyday life in the wartime conditions before the Revolution and at the beginning of the post-revolutionary period. They also make it possible to clarify prevailing ideas about the nature of the political processes that took place in 1918, primarily in regards to the extent to which the Bolsheviks influenced the events of the November Revolution in Germany and the possible alternatives to Russian history between 1918 and 1919.

The Old Peace of Absalom, Absalom!: Interwar Faulkner and the Tradition of Nonviolence

The Old Peace of Absalom, Absalom!:Interwar Faulkner and the Tradition of Nonviolence Caitlin Cawley (bio) Introduction William Faulkner's life was shaped by war. He lived through World War I and World War II, and despite being born thirty years after President Andrew Johnson signed Proclamation 157, "Declaring that Peace, Order, Tranquility and Civil Authority Now Exists in and Throughout the Whole of the United States of America," the Southerner wrote about the wrote about the uniquely American Civil War throughout his work. In 1950, Faulkner used his Nobel Prize acceptance speech to address the question that had come to define humankind in the wake of atomic warfare: "When will I be blown up?" Twelve years later, as he lay dying in Byhalia, Mississippi, the United States was once again preparing for war, this time in Vietnam, a conflict which would lack the Manichean frames of reference shaping America's collective memory of the First and Second World Wars. That war would come to epitomize Jason Compson Sr.'s advice to his son Quentin in The Sound and the Fury: "[N]o battle is ever won he said. They are not even fought. The field only reveals to man his own folly and despair, and victory is an illusion of philosophers and fools" (76). Faulkner created a body of work that, among many things, labors to subvert the conditions and illusions that support war and, in turn, underwrite the modern individual's terrorised state. And while scholars have attended to this labor for decades, there is little critical consensus over Faulkner's views on war and its antinomy, pacifism. Like many of his fellow modernists, Faulkner had a complicated relationship with pacifism that reflects the socio-political climate in the United States and Europe between WWI and WWII as well as the writer's personal history. [End Page 127] In 1918, the Mississippi native made a rather ignominious attempt to join the fight against the Central Powers. Inspired partly by the legacy of his great grandfather who served as an officer in the Civil War and partly by by his heartbreak over a beloved high-school sweetheart marrying another man, the twenty-year-old joined the Royal Air Force in Canada. He never saw combat, but Faulkner made a mountain out of his five months as a RAF cadet, posing for years as a combat veteran and fabricating an elaborate mythology around this posture. Donald Kartiganer sums up the paradoxes that characterize this layer of the Southerner's biography as Faulkner "honoring the combatants of that war through the flattery of imitation and yet also [importantly,] mocking the mythology that had attached itself to them … Faulkner's war consists of zany theatrics, gallant pratfalls: gestures so empty of serious military content that they become at once farcical and heroic" (632). Faulkner's ironic and critical bellicosity found its way into his interwar fiction as well. His writings from the period are replete with naive Southern characters who enthusiastically participate in the Civil War and First World War. And while Kartiganer insists that Faulkner's "doubleedged performance becomes the key to the wars he described in his fiction, wars that reflect, with increasing complexity, the characteristic Southern conflict of 'looking two ways'" (632), Faulkner's life and interwar fiction also register a broader transatlantic intellectual and political movement. By the 1930s, pacifism had gained significant ground on the left. However, Hitler's programme of remilitarization led many of the American writer's British contemporaries to question their campaigns for peace and disarmament. At the Labour Party Conference in 1935, the party leader, George Lansbury, decided to support rearmament despite his self-professed commitment to Christian pacifism (Briggs 314–5). Virginia and Leonard Woolf were in attendance at the conference, and like England's pacifist-leaning literati, the couple was divided on the decision. Virginia reflected on the conference in her diary, writing that her "sympathies" were with "non-resistance," and through figures like Antigone and mediums like her political pamphlets, she worked to advance a precedent for resisting perpetual warfare, culminating in her pacifist manifesto Three Guineas (1938) (Woolf 315). Leonard, on the other hand, who was closely involved in...

Analysis of Methods for Ellipsoidal Height Estimation – The Case of a Local Geodetic Reference Network

Ghana’s local geodetic reference network is based on the War Office 1926 ellipsoid with data in latitude, longitude and orthometric height without the existence of ellipsoidal height. This situation makes it difficult to apply the standard forward transformation equation for direct conversion of curvilinear geodetic coordinates to its associated cartesian coordinates (X, Y, Z) in the Ghana local geodetic reference network. In order to overcome such a challenge, researchers resort to various techniques to obtain the ellipsoidal height for a local geodetic network. Therefore, this paper evaluates, compares, and discusses different methods for estimating ellipsoidal height for a local geodetic network. The investigated methods are the Abridged Molodensky transformation model, Earth Gravitational Model, and the Orthometric Height approach. To evaluate these methods, their estimated local ellipsoidal height values were implemented in the seven-parameter similarity transformation model of Bursa-Wolf. The performance of each of the methods was assessed based on statistical indicators of Mean Square Error (MSE), Mean Absolute Error (MAE), Horizontal Position Error (HE) and Standard Deviation (SD). The statistical findings revealed that, the Abridged Molodensky model produced more reliable transformation results compared with the other methods. It can be concluded that for Ghana’s local geodetic network, the most practicable method for estimating ellipsoidal height is the Abridged Molodensky transformation model. Keywords: Abridged Molodensky Model, Earth Gravitational Model, Orthometric Height, Geodetic Network

INVESTIGATION OF HORIZONTAL AND VERTICAL CONTROLS ON KNUST CAMPUS

Controls are coordinated horizontal or vertical positional data for land and geographic information systems forming a framework to which surveys are started, referenced and adjusted. Controls on KNUST campus were established over three decades ago with new ones being added as and when t h e y a r e required. Conventional survey methods like trilateration, triangulation and traversing were used and are still being used for densification of controls. These approaches involve the use of low precision instruments such as analogue/optical theodolites and leveling equipment. Since the establishment of these controls, t h e y have not been investigated but t h e y are being used for p r o j e c t development. A modern method that uses satellite positioning techniques such as GPS is currently in operation and has numerous advantages in the establishment of control networks. GPS control surveys were carried-out on seven controls and ellipsoidal coordinates were obtained in the World Geodetic System 84 reference frame. The Cartesian coordinates were projected onto the Universal Transverse Mercator frame. A two dimensional conformal transformation was done using existing KNUST boundary coordinates to Ghana National coordinates based on the War Office ellipsoid. Precise Level routines were carried out on the seven controls for the computations of orthometric heights. The method of least squares adjustment, root mean square errors (RMSE), standard errors (SE) and residuals derived were used to analyse the differences in horizontal positions and heights of the controls. The linear displacement between the computed and the existing coordinates were within the range of 0.015m to 0.014m. The RMSE were 0.048 and 0.106, whiles the SE were also 0.057 and 0.125 for the northings and eastings respectively. The computed and existing heights differed between -0.075m and -0.004m with a mean downward movement of 0.011m. Keywords: Surveying; coordinates; control points; GPS; precise level

‘Après la guerre’: John Redmond, the Irish Volunteers and Armed Constitutionalism, 1913–1915

Abstract The received narrative of the Ulster crisis relegates John Redmond to the role of bystander as parliamentary politics were sidelined by paramilitarism. Only the First World War, in this account, arrested the advance of armed force in Irish politics. This article seeks to disrupt this narrative by demonstrating that Redmondites were not untouched by the militarist turn which Ireland experienced in these years. Instead, home rulers developed an armed strategy of their own in response to the advent of militant extra-parliamentary politics. Having taken over the Irish Volunteers in spring 1914, Redmondites began to arm their supporters in defence of self-government. Separatists were scornful of these efforts, and it is true that Redmondites initially saw this activity primarily in political terms. But the outbreak of war persuaded Redmond that the eventual return of loyalist soldiers to Ireland at the end of the conflict could be decisive if the Ulster crisis resumed. Believing that nationalists needed to plan for this contingency, Ireland’s prime minister-in-waiting resolved to use the war to build a home rule army. Initially, pro-war nationalists hoped that this could be achieved through the Volunteers becoming a government-sponsored home guard, but War Office opposition forced Redmond to the conclusion that only British military service could ensure a sufficient force to secure the future of self-government. Though this strategy of armed constitutionalism had unravelled by Easter 1916, that it was attempted suggests that late Redmondism should not be conceived of only in terms of Redmond’s public rhetoric of orange and green reconciliation through common battlefield sacrifice.

A Chance to Show His Mettle: War, Creativity and Reparation in the Work of Wilfred Bion

This paper looks in detail at Wilfred Bion's war writings, specifically at his preoccupation with issues of morale and leadership, and at the intense feelings of isolation and disillusionment that accompany his bleakest moments. This reading of the war writings demonstrates that Bion found resources that enabled him not only to survive this harrowing time but also to work creatively to improve the lives of his fellow soldiers, and it is suggested that Melanie Klein's concept of unconscious reparation may be helpful in considering Bion's life and work during this period. An impulse to repair may also be discerned in Bion's first published paper, ‘The “war of nerves”…’ (), as well as in his work in 1942 for the War Office Selection Board where, with the support of gifted army leaders, Bion was able to draw on his traumatic wartime experiences in order to make influential contributions to the reform of the British Army.

A centenary of Robert T. Leiper's lasting legacy on schistosomiasis and a COUNTDOWN on control of neglected tropical diseases.

Part of Robert T. Leiper's (1881-1969) lasting legacy in medical helminthology is grounded on his pioneering work on schistosomiasis (Bilharzia). Having undertaken many expeditions to the tropics, his fascination with parasite life cycles typically allowed him to devise simple preventive measures that curtailed transmission. Building on his formative work with others in Africa and Asia, and again in Egypt in 1915, he elucidated the life cycles of African schistosomes. His mandate, then commissioned by the British War Office, was to prevent and break transmission of this disease in British troops. This he did by raising standing orders based on simple water hygiene measures. Whilst feasible in military camp settings, today their routine implementation is sadly out of reach for millions of Africans living in poverty. Whilst we celebrate the centenary of Leiper's research we draw attention to some of his lesser known colleagues, then focus on schistosomiasis in Uganda discussing why expanded access to treatment with praziquantel is needed now. Looking to WHO 2020 targets for neglected tropical diseases, we introduce COUNTDOWN, an implementation research consortium funded by DFID, UK, which fosters the scale-up of interventions and confirm the current relevance of Leiper's original research.

The Imperialism of Internment: Boer Prisoners of War in India and Civic Reconstruction in Southern Africa, 1899–1905

ABSTRACTDuring the course of the Anglo-Boer War of 1899–1902, over 9,000 captured Boers were sent abroad to India as prisoners of war. Using hitherto unexamined sources, this article explores how, during their internment and repatriation, British officials and administrators across the empire collaborated in a concerted attempt to transform the imperial enemy into colonial collaborator. This involved a necessarily intercolonial effort to conduct a successful programme of ‘re-education’ capable of cultivating ‘white’ British virtues in preparing Boer POWs for their future rights and duties in reconstructing Southern Africa upon their repatriation. In so doing, the government of India and other colonial officials across the empire thus recapitulated their ideal of Britain’s imperial project in the Boer POW camps. Highlighting the intercoloniality of this process, India’s viceroy, Lord George Curzon, played as prominent a role as did the War Office, or South Africa’s soon-to-be pro-consul, Lord Alfred Milner. The microcosmic imperialism of Boer internment thus reveals a great deal about the nature and structure of power within the British Empire, and emphasises the value of an intercolonial or transcolonial perspective in examining the complex, global consequences of the Anglo-Boer War.

‘A most miserable hotchpotch’: Charles Bean and the origins of the First World War film collection

ABSTRACTThe story of the moving picture collection of the First World War held by the Australian War Memorial is a frustrating, complex and intriguing one. Charles Bean struggled from the earliest days of the war to get Australian film, shot by Australian cinematographers, into Australian hands – with limited success. Using the 1919 report Charles Bean wrote on his dealings with the War Office Cinematograph Committee (WOCC) as a framing device, this paper traces some of the paths taken by the earliest of these fragile records. By using three films as case studies, exploring the history of the WOCC and its major players and drawing on (and pulling apart) contemporary correspondence, diaries and notes a chaotic picture emerges. Though Bean himself is not without sin in the mishandling of the Australian footage, his fight for these first few films highlights the constant tension between film as a content-driven commodity and film as an archival object.