Grandpa and WWI

I learned from oral family history that my Grandfather, Arthur Edward Shorthose, served in WWI and came home “shell shocked” from that experience.  I also know that Arthur never went back to work as a constable after the war and lived out his life on a military pension.

The soldier at the left is exhibiting the "1000 yard stare," a symptom of shell shock

 I learned that the British recognized two types of “shell shock” during the war, one of which afforded the patient a pension and the other did not.  If the malady was due to enemy action then a pension was allowed.  Recently, while digging deeper into Arthur’s story, I discovered that he was just 8 months shy of his 30^th birthday on January 1, 1914 when he entered the military.  Arthur was a little old for combat duty so he was assigned to the “Army Service Corps.”  I began to wonder, how does one become “shell shocked” from enemy action if they are just handling supplies and not in the trenches at the front.  As part of the explanation for that question, the following is a list of medals that were awarded to Arthur:

Silver War Badge (SWB) was awarded to servicemen who became ill or were wounded while serving in France or Flanders.

Allied Victory Medal (Victory Medal) was awarded for service in any operational theater between 5 August 1914 and 11 November 1918. It was issued to individuals who received the 1914 and 1914-15 Stars and to most individuals who were issued the British War Medal. The medal was also awarded for service in Russia (1919-1920) and post-war mine clearance in the North Sea (1918-1919).

British War Medal was awarded to both servicemen and civilians that either served in a theater of war, or rendered service overseas between 5 August 1914 and 11 November 1918. It was also awarded for service in Russia, and post-war mine clearance in the Baltic, the Black Sea, and the Caspian Sea between 1919 and 1920.

1914 Star (Mons Star) was awarded for service in France or Flanders (Belgium) between 5 August and 22 November 1914

It should be remembered that the first World War was one of the bloodiest in the history of the world.  It was also a first in many other ways including the first use of airplanes, the first use of tanks and other motorized equipment, and the first general use of flamethrowers, but what really contributed to the high mortality rate was the preponderance of heavy artillery on both sides.

Two of the greatest conflicts of the war were “The Somme Offensive” and “The Battle of Verdun.”  The Battle of Verdun began at 7:15 am on the 21^st of February, 1916 when the Germans launched an artillery bombardment that fired over 1,000,000 rounds in ten hours.  The bombardment was so intense that the ground rumbled with a sound that could be heard 99 miles away; the battle continued until 18 December of that same year.  It lasted almost ten months and cost the lives of over 700,000 combatants!  That amounts to 70,000 lives for every month of the battle.

The Somme Offensive started on the 1^st of July in the same year and ended just over 41/2 months later with a loss of over 1,000,000 combatants or more than 222,200 per month!  The Somme Offensive is considered the bloodiest military operation ever recorded.

Between July and mid-November of 1916 both of these battles raged at the same time with a combined loss of over 292,000 combatants a month, or almost 10,000 a day!  Arthur’s “1914 Star” and his "Silver War Badge" tell me that he was there in France and close to the action, since the battle took place in France and within 50 miles of the English Channel.

The artillery bombardments continued through most of the battles and it is estimated that 75% of the casualties were a result of artillery fire.  The French, alone, consumed 23.5 million rounds during the battle of Verdun and the Germans consumed 21 million rounds!

This is a part of the Verdun Battlfield today, almost 100 years later and the shell craters are still visible.

 With this kind of activity going on, it is easy to see how anybody within the theater of operations could be classified as being shell shocked from enemy action.  The carnage was so heavy that there are still 100,000 missing in action that were blasted to pieces and just became part of the soil.  In some places it is said that the ground is composed more of human flesh and bone than earth and vegetation.

One French lieutenant at Verdun who was later killed by an artillery shell wrote in his diary on May 23, 1916:

"Humanity is mad. It must be mad to do what it is doing. What a massacre! What scenes of horror and carnage! I cannot find words to translate my impressions. Hell cannot be so terrible. Men are mad!”

U.S. Losses in WWI were just 2% of the total or 117,500 men.