Hi, I'm Batman and this is Out of the
Trenches where I sit here in my Batcave
and answer all your questions about the
First World War or Batman.
Tristan Reveur writes: "Could you tell
us something about the smaller European
states like Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, San
Marino, Monaco, and Andorra? A few of them
were at the war too, weren't they?
What were their roles at this time?
Liechtenstein very much gravitated
towards Austria-Hungary during the war
because of Liechtenstein's geographic
location. The ruling prince had a vested
interest in Austria-Hungary winning the
war as many of the noble estates were
within the Habsburg Empire and actually
much of the country's wealth was sourced
from the Empire. In spite of this,
Liechtenstein was neutral during the
conflict and it had been a neutral
nation since the Austro-Prussian War of 1866.
When Austria-Hungary
-spoiler alert-
eventually lost the war
Liechtenstein was devastated
economically and was forced to form a
customs union with neighboring
Switzerland. San Marino was quite
dependent on Italy but also declared its
neutrality when Italy declared war on
Austria-Hungary. Now this, let's just say
it displeased the Italians, who believed
that San Marino might harbor
Austro-Hungarian spies. As a result, they
tried to establish a forced occupation
with their own police force and when San
Marino refused to comply, they cut the
San Marino telephone lines. Two groups of
ten volunteers from San Marino joined the
Italian Army. The first group were
actually combat people and the second
served in a military hospital. When the
Austro-Hungarians discovered the
existence of this hospital, they cut all
diplomatic ties with San Marino. There
was a great deal of political unrest in
Monaco during this period, since there
was a revolution in 1910 that had ended
the absolute rule of the princes. But
Prince Albert the First suspended the
new constitution during the war.
Monaco played no real role during the
war, but in July 1918 a treaty was signed
agreeing that Monaco's protection was
France's responsibility. The, I guess,
funniest case of the principalities has
to be that of Andorra, which declared war
on Germany during World War One but took
no part in any fighting. This state of
war existed until 1958,
since Andorra was not included in the
Treaty of Versailles. We already
talked about Luxembourg in a previous
Out of the Trenches episode.
Vahith Nakka asks: "As far as I'm aware, the frontline on
the Western Front stretched from the
English Channel to the Swiss border, but
the vast majority of the action (and
carnage) along the Western Front happened
in Northern France and Belgium. Were
soldiers posted to defend the front far
away from the sector with the most of
the major fighting? If so, did soldiers
enjoy a better quality of life than their
compatriots fighting in Northern
France and Belgium? Thanks for the great
work you guys create!" We create great
work, guys.
You. Your welcome. There were a few
quiet sectors dotted along the Western
Front sure, where a little fighting took
place. These areas could prove quite
useful, especially for say American
troops, who used these sectors for
training purposes when they arrived in
France in 1918. In these areas, both
sides often had an attitude of
live-and-let-live, where neither one of
them firing on one another.
There was a tacit agreement between both sides, where
they would often discharge their
weapons in a, I guess, ritualistic way to
give the impression that fighting was
taking place to those in command. This
wouldn't happen across an entire sector but
among small platoons or companies, where
sentries would refuse to fire on
exposed enemy soldiers. These soldiers
were lucky and, as a result, enjoyed
a better quality of life in the sense
that they had a greater chance of
surviving a stint at the front.
Some even spoke of leaving their
trenches and sitting in the grass behind
them reading books and letters. Many were
able to customize their trenches without
enemy fire, and some - and I'm not making
this up -
even brought pianos into their dugouts
for entertainment. In some cases, it was
courteous for both sides to not fire on
each other while they were eating dinner
when the smoke from the cooking fires
was spotted. A letter from a German
soldier named August Bode even talks of
a Frenchman who would eat with the
Germans in their trench when he knew that
it was time for dinner.
Okay. In spite of this, they still had to
suffer the same boredom that other
soldiers did in the trenches and they
were also at the mercy of the weather, of
course. Now, high command was often wary
of this inaction and would analyze
casualty lists to see if such a lull had
taken hold of certain areas. They would
order patrols and raids into enemy
trenches to cultivate the offensive
spirit among the troops. Now, this was
hated by some troops and, on occasion, they
would warn the enemy with a message, you
know' tied to a stone and thrown over, of
incoming artillery and what time it
would take place.
Some would even blow a whistle to alert
the enemy of the impending shell so that
they would have time to take cover.
Raids became compulsory for all
regiments, but sometimes, reports of raids
were actually invented. The British
High Command gave orders that a
strand of German barbed wire had to be
brought back to prove that the company
had visited the enemy trench. So one
group of raiders found a solution
to this.
They brought back a large coil of German
barbed wire and just would continuously
cut pieces off of it every time a raid
was ordered. But the live-and-let-live
policy depended not just on the sector
but also on the troops facing one
another. Like the Germans did not like
the Highland regiments from Scotland and
the British didn't get on with the
Prussians but they sometimes got on with
the Saxon regiments. The live-and-let-live
climate was fragile on its own, anyway
though. And of course it was often broken
by lethal force. The loss of comrades on
both sides
made good intentions toward one another
hard to sustain. Stories of prisoners
being shot after having surrendered on
both sides also fueled animosity.
Ok, that's all for today. I didn't get any
questions about Batman but maybe next
time.
But seriously this episode of Out of the
Trenches was shot while we were on the
road - still are on the road - in France
shooting in the Verdun area and right
now we're in Romagna at the Romagna 14-18
museum, which is as you can see, a
fantastic museum of all sorts of amazing
stuff that Jean-Paul de Vries, who runs
the museum, just found over the years.
I mean hundreds of thousands of things
that he's found in the field so if
you're ever here you should definitely
check it out. Do not forget to subscribe.
See you next time