‘Splendid patriotism and heroic self-sacrifice’: First World War memorials in Welsh metalworks

Much of the academic attention on issues of Great War mourning and commemoration has focussed on the civic memorials, particularly given that they are designed to be public, visible reminders of the local community’s contribution to the war effort. The focus of this article is on a different subset of memorials, in that they refer specifically to workers from particular companies who served in the war. As such they were not always public memorials, being located in many cases within the works and thus only on display to fellow workers. Yet neither were they entirely ‘private’ memorials, such as the ones established in so many family homes to those they had lost. This article considers twenty five metalworks memorials in the south Wales counties of Monmouthshire, Glamorgan and Carmarthenshire. Taken as a whole, these memorials convey a number of messages about south Wales society in the immediate aftermath of the war. In most examples these were commissioned within three years of the Armistice, and the terms they deploy show that the ‘language of 1914’ was still in vogue. Patriotism was ‘splendid’; self-sacrifice was ‘heroic’; the memory of the fallen was ‘glorious.’ Death was preferable to dishonour. In naming these men, the metalworks companies claimed them as their own and by extension laid claim to a share of the glory. The men’s identity as employees was highlighted in the numerous memorials which noted their position within the company. They had an identity as steelworkers or tinplaters, as well as their identities as men of their hometown, and as Welshmen, Britons and sons of the Empire.

Call to service: The Register of Australian Accountants for National Service 1940–1944

PurposeThe paper explores the creation in Australia of the Register of Accountants for National Service. Established at the outset of the Second World War, the Register operated for four years from June 1940 providing voluntary, non-remunerated, part-time and after-hours services to a highly stressed and seriously stretched federal government bureaucracy by members of the main Australian professional accounting bodies. Departments of the Navy, Army, Air Force, Supply and Development and Munitions were the largest consumers of the services offered.Design/methodology/approachThe study of the Register relies mainly on an extensive archive of war-time documentation from the Federal Government and various accounting professional institutes which has survived, predominantly in the National Archives of Australia. The resource is particularly rich in material covering the complex negotiation processes that brought the Register into operation together with documentation recording and reporting the work of the Register. The themes of professionalization, institutional legitimacy, volunteerism and patriotism are all invoked to explain the presence of the Register in the machinery of government that was assembled to deliver the ultimately successful war effort. Created by the principal professional accounting institutes, the Register attests to the commitment of their members to the war effort and, thereby, the importance of the profession to Australian society.FindingsThe perilous situation of Australia at a time of war provided a compelling incentive for the accounting profession to organise itself in an efficient and highly effective manner to assist with the war effort. The disparate and somewhat fractured accounting profession at the time was able to work together in a structured, cohesive and disciplined manner to provide voluntary services when called upon. To deliver the voluntary services promised, a purpose-built set of institutional arrangements was put in place. An extensive inventory of the potential services that could be provided by members of the main professional accounting bodies was conducted to facilitate the smooth matching of government needs with services available.Research limitations/implicationsDiscussion focusses only on Australia where the Register was unique. No other examples have been discovered where a profession has self-mobilised to serve a nation in a time of war. A further limitation is that the activities reported are restricted to self-reporting by the Register and a small loose collection of documents prepared by the Department of the Navy.Originality/valueThe uniqueness of the Register is the core of the originality and value of this study. How and why it came into being and the method by which it completed the “task” assigned to it stand as testament to a profession strategically placed to contribute in a substantive manner to the war effort at minimal cost to the nation.

Sentimental Equipment: New Zealand, the Great War and Cultural Mobilisation

<p>During the First World War, New Zealand society was dominated by messages stressing the paramount importance of the war effort to which the country was so heavily committed. Reflecting the total nature of the conflict, these exhortations regularly linked individual duties to the war effort and associated that effort with larger, or higher, purposes. It is often perceived, or presumed, that the dominance of this material arose from general wartime hysteria or was the result of imposed propaganda - with all the manipulative trickery that term connotes. Either way, such perceptions dovetail with notions that the war represents a historical rupture and that wartime discourse might be characterised as insincere, inauthentic and abnormal. Challenging this interpretation, this thesis considers wartime messages as emblematic of deeper cultural sentiments and wider social forces. Specifically, it argues that they represented the results of a cultural mobilisation; a phenomenon whereby cultural resources were mobilised alongside material resources. Consequently many pre-existing social dynamics, debates, orientations, mythologies, values, stereotypes and motifs were retained, but repurposed, in response to the war. A range of subjects illustrating this phenomenon are surveyed, including collective identity, anti-Germanism, gender archetypes, gender antitypes and social cohesion. This study highlights two major dimensions of the phenomenon: firstly, the relationship between the pre-war social/cultural landscape and the mobilised results; and, secondly, how the ideological war effort operated by layering meanings upon wartime developments. Analysing these aspects of cultural mobilisation sets New Zealand‘s military involvement in a broader context and enriches our historical understanding of the society which entered and fought the Great War.</p>

Sentimental Equipment: New Zealand, the Great War and Cultural Mobilisation

<p>During the First World War, New Zealand society was dominated by messages stressing the paramount importance of the war effort to which the country was so heavily committed. Reflecting the total nature of the conflict, these exhortations regularly linked individual duties to the war effort and associated that effort with larger, or higher, purposes. It is often perceived, or presumed, that the dominance of this material arose from general wartime hysteria or was the result of imposed propaganda - with all the manipulative trickery that term connotes. Either way, such perceptions dovetail with notions that the war represents a historical rupture and that wartime discourse might be characterised as insincere, inauthentic and abnormal. Challenging this interpretation, this thesis considers wartime messages as emblematic of deeper cultural sentiments and wider social forces. Specifically, it argues that they represented the results of a cultural mobilisation; a phenomenon whereby cultural resources were mobilised alongside material resources. Consequently many pre-existing social dynamics, debates, orientations, mythologies, values, stereotypes and motifs were retained, but repurposed, in response to the war. A range of subjects illustrating this phenomenon are surveyed, including collective identity, anti-Germanism, gender archetypes, gender antitypes and social cohesion. This study highlights two major dimensions of the phenomenon: firstly, the relationship between the pre-war social/cultural landscape and the mobilised results; and, secondly, how the ideological war effort operated by layering meanings upon wartime developments. Analysing these aspects of cultural mobilisation sets New Zealand‘s military involvement in a broader context and enriches our historical understanding of the society which entered and fought the Great War.</p>

The Demands of Total War

The quality of school life at the NPEA gradually deteriorated during wartime—chronic shortages of everything from steel to salt, from teaching staff to stable-hands, increasingly impinged on the schools’ day-to-day functioning. This chapter begins by considering the great expectations placed on the Napolas by the Inspectorate and the armed forces, in their capacity as de facto officer training schools. Secondly, it describes daily life at the NPEA, including the ‘war missions’ (Kriegseinsätze) which pupils were expected to undertake as leaders on the children’s evacuation programme (KLV) or as anti-aircraft auxiliaries (Flakhelfer). It also explores the all-important connections between the Napola home-front and former pupils at the battle front, as exemplified by the school newsletters or Altkameradenbriefe, which were expressly designed to foster a transgenerational sense of comradeship among all who belonged to the Napolas’ ‘extended family’. Finally, the chapter briefly examines the ways in which the NPEA system profited from or abetted the wartime crimes of the Nazi regime, including the expropriation of asylums and Jewish property, and the use of forced labour (not least that of concentration-camp inmates). The conclusion then situates the experience of the Napolas within the context of existing scholarship on the state of German education and society during this turbulent period of total war. Ultimately, the NPEA were better able to withstand the privations of war than most ‘civilian’ schools during this period, due not least to their centralized administration, and their supposedly vital contribution to the war effort.

“The Sacrificed Army” – the Hungarian 2nd Army Between Memory and History

The fate of the Hungarian 2nd Army has a significant role in the Hungarian memory. The army was sent to the Eastern Front in 1942 suffered one of the great defeats of the Hungarian military history during the Soviet counter-offensive in January 1943. During the past almost 80 years, different narratives have emerged about it were evolved in the Hungarian public. In the paper the author shall analyse the most significant elements of these narratives. Firstly, there will be examined the genesis and underlying causes of the decision to send the 2nd Army to the Eastern front. The author counter a popular post-war myth that the Hungarian leadership sent out the Hungarian soldiers and labour servicemen with the intention of sacrifice that it could limit Hungary's involvement in the German war effort. Although the Hungarian military leadership discriminated against various social groups (primarily of individuals of Jewish descent, non-Hungarian nationalities) in military service, they did not aim to destroy them. Similarly, the higher proportion of reserve officers and lower social classes (peasantry, workpeople) in the army was misinterpreted. In the second part of the paper the author will examine the interpretations of the defeat in January 1943. As a part of this topic there will be shown how the public opinion and survivors overstated the loss data and the temperature conditions of “the Russian winter.” In addition, the author scrutinize the fighting and withdrawal in January 1943 from the viewpoint of the military discipline. Finally, he analyse the interpretations of two orders. The army commander, Colonel General Jány wrote in his order on 24 January that “the 2nd Army has lost its honour.” Although later he withdrew this order, it became the symbol of the barbarity and betrayal of the Hungarian military elite against the Hungarian soldiers. It received a different opinion on the order of the commander of the III Corps of 1 February 1943, in which Major General Stomm disbanded his formation - which was unprecedented in Hungarian history

Writing the Women’s Part

This chapter documents Clark’s dedicated pursuit of the words, and meanings, by which women’s participation in World War One was to be expressed. As Clark observed, women, as war workers, arguably claimed a new linguistic visibility in war-time, evident in a diverse array of gender-marked neologisms alongside other gender-specific and transferred forms of use. This was another part of the language of war effort and doing one’s bit, in which Clark’s interest in minuteness (and ephemerality) proved rewarding — as did his attention to the complex undercurrents of meaning that such forms could reveal. This was, as he explored, nevertheless perhaps best seen as another form of language ‘for the duration’ – profoundly resonant of time and change, it was also strikingly time-bound, and characterised by its own forms of ephemerality and incipient obsolescence.

The Union Occupation of Coastal North Carolina

In 1861 and 1862, Union forces invaded and occupied eastern North Carolina. This chapter explores the origins, execution, and consequences of this invasion, looking at its military, social, and political significance. It highlights the weakness of Confederate fortifications along the North Carolina coast and the Union military leadership of Cmdr. Silas Stringham, Maj. Gen. Benjamin Butler, Brig. Gen. Ambrose Burnside, and Capt. Louis Goldsborough. As one of the first sites in the South occupied by the Union Army, coastal North Carolina created an early venue for wartime Reconstruction. The chapter emphasizes how African Americans responded to the Union invasion, escaping from slavery, forming refugee camps in Union enclaves, and working for the Union war effort. In 1862, Military Governor Edward Stanly tried to reinstitute slavery.

Stones River

The Battle of Stones River and the capture of Murfreesboro, Tennessee, took place at a critical time in the Union war effort. The federal government needed to create battlefield victories to support the implementation of the Emancipation Proclamation, slated to go into effect on January 1, 1863. Despite a grueling campaign that the Federals nearly lost, they were able to deliver enough of a victory to provide that political leverage. The battle also strengthened ties between the Federal army that fought at Stones River and its government, while weakening the confidence felt by Southerners in their own army. After the battle, the Federals remained inert at Murfreesboro for six months. Their impact on the community and its region was enormous. Even though Tennessee was exempt from the Emancipation Proclamation, slaves in the area broke down slavery by fleeing to the Union flag at Murfreesboro.