posted
I'll try to find the link to the exact page with the most detailed information. His time in the British army was short because of a disease he caught called Trench Fever. I'll check the exact dates. His part in the battle was a small unit engagement. It's doubtfull that he saw the flame thrower in action the time frame is off there.He may have heard about its use from others after he came home. http://www.jrrtolkien.org.uk/homepage.htm I originaly found the information following links to this site so its here somewhere.P.S.He was in the Lancashire Fusilers I believe he would have been a junior officer, And a Signals Officer. He was commisioned in 1915 and sent to france in 1916 That came from a page with less detail than the one I studied earlier. Lighting strike cost me all my links a while back. I remember his outfit were forced to retreat by a more experianced german unit.
[ September 10, 2003, 12:30 PM: Message edited by: Mountain Man ]
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Whips of fire are mentioned throughout the Bible, the Koran, even in Buddhism. It is a very old symbol of extreme torture, one of the worst they could think of back then.
If Tolkien had such a dislike against flamethrowers in specific that he felt he had to include the symbolism in his books, I imagine he would make the fire-whips more widely used and put it in the hands of orcs and such in LOTR to simulate its inhumane misuse.
And since he didn't use hands-on symbolism like that in the first place...
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Mountain Man
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Very good point. That weapon then came from his studies of ancient religions. After having seen the flame thrower in action it seemed possible. He said little about his experiances. Few gentlemen want to talk about such things. He lost two of his last three old friends in that part of the war. The others had already been killed before he went to war. He did speak of it in interviews but mostly he downplayed his own part in the war. He did talk about men he served with and some are believed to be in his books as character studies. In other words he thought of them and how they would react while creating his characters. I've also found references to ULHAN as jager corp in austrian sevice. The german ULHAN fought most often as mounted infantry. They got there fast on horse back then out of necessity fought on foot. They were tough dangerous professional killers born for war. Some germans wore metal breast plates and steel helmets with hornlike projections to hold shaped steel bullet resistant plates. I'm not sure if they came into use at that time but I've seen pictures of the armor captured in later battles. They were mostly used by machinegunners,the most hated enemy of all.
[ September 10, 2003, 06:15 PM: Message edited by: Mountain Man ]
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Mountain Man
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I'll add this part here to keep it separate. The whole battle is said to be part of much greater action dealing with the defence of the ancient pre Roman Fortress City of VERDUN. The British were there to take the heat off the French who were besieged and defending their stronghold against a mighty foe. The elements there remind me of helms deep. The courage of the defenders was a major story in the newspapers of the time. They spoke of 'the miracle of Verdun'. The last road left open, the BAR LE DUC became known as LA VOIE SACREE (the sacred way).
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Mountain Man
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http://www.jrrtolkien.org.uk/tolkien_as_student.htm#war this is the page that discribes Tolkiens baptisim of fire. His men were traped in the wire and cut down by machinegun fire. They never had much of a chance and Tolkien himself was lucky to survive. The letter from one of his friends that he recieved after the fellow had been killed in another action is very touching. Some pages say he had been sent home because of shell shock but this is not so. The disease and its symtoms are discribed. The hallucinations and other symtoms may have brought on a sort of nervous breakdown. The disease its self is very interesting and may have been a result of all the unburied dead.
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Mountain Man
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http://www.firstworldwar.com/weaponry/flamethrowers.htm Well since I seem to have this thread to myself, I'll sum up what I've found out about Tolkiens experiances in the Somme, and how it may have affected his work. The Flamethrower was used in that battle, not as a man portable weapon, but as a huge two ton emplacement with a range of ninety yards(Balrogs?). Tolkien compared Sam to the enlisted men who he felt were better men than he in many ways. Battle fatigue of the type Tolkien suffered from, made much worse by the trench fever, affects the Amygdalae a almond shaped piece of nerve tissue conecting the forebrain to the primitive part of the brain commonly called the reptile brain. This has been studied by those who have researched delayed stress disorders. My theory is that by suppressing the memories of that battle, they ended up becoming part of his stories without his concious knowledge of the fact. Rod Serling and many other Sci Fi and Fantasy authours who fought in great battles show the same elements in their works. Thats all for now any questions?
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