Secret Warriors
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cinema and, 292
convalescence and, 225
early aviators and, 43, 44, 45, 46–7
mental disorders and, 245, 248
nervous conditions and, 22–3
officers and ‘other ranks’, 36–7
ruling class as biased against science, 32–3, 34–5, 36
shortage of servants, 171
socialism, 319, 327
Somervell, Howard, 229
Somerville College, Oxford, 225
Sopwith, Thomas, 46, 55
Sopwith Aviation Company, 46, 55, 70, 72–3, 91, 95, 348
‘sound ranging’, 151–3, 206
HMS Southampton, 120
Spain, 77, 133–4
Spandau machine guns, 95
spectroscopy, X-ray, 150
Spencer, Stanley, 235, 313
spies, 134–5
German, 110, 116
St Andréw’s University, 219, 349
St Bartholomew’s Hospital, London, 218, 234, 242, 255–6
St John Ambulance Brigade, 216, 217
St Mary’s Hospital, Paddington, 226
The Star, 305, 307
Starling, Professor, 184
steel helmets, 157–8
steel industry, 157
Stein, General von, 333
Stern, Albert Gerald, 197, 198, 200, 201
Stevens Institute of Technology, USA, 34
Stevenson, Frances, 306
Stokes, Wilfred, 161–3, 385–6
Stonehenge, 347
Strachan, Hew, 164, 395–6
Strand Magazine, 195
Strange, Louis, 173
street lighting, 16, 356
Strutt, John William see Rayleigh, Lord
submarines, 37
Germany’s unrestricted warfare, 122, 138–40, 142, 146
sound location of, 155
weaponry against, 353
see also U-boats, German
Sudan, 218, 269, 273
suffragettes, 14, 274
sugar, 20
sulphuric acid, 19
Sunday Express, 322
supersonic airliners, 10
Sweden, 140, 141
Swettenham, Sir Frank, 287–8
Swinton, Colonel Ernest Dunlop, 194–5, 200, 202, 203, 204, 210, 280–1, 386
The Defence of Duffer’s Drift (novel), 194
Switzerland, 297
Sykes, Major Frederick, 69, 70
syphilis, treatments for, 21
Syria, 98
Tank Corps, 205, 210
tanks: agricultural machinery and, 196, 197–8
Allied counter-offensive (July 1918), 208
armour plating, 196, 197, 201, 205
British army’s obstructiveness, 198, 199, 204, 210
at Cambrai, 205–7, 208, 209, 210
caterpillar tracks, 196, 197, 198
Churchill and, 196–7, 198–200, 210
development of, 193–4, 195–201, 209
first use of (the Somme, 1916), 203–4
German anti-tank tactics, 206
guns on, 198–9, 201, 202, 205
Holt tractors, 196, 197–8
during last months of war, 208–9
manufacture and supply of, 201–2
‘Mother’ prototype, 200–1
origin of name ‘tank’, 201
at Passchendaele, 205
second generation of, 205
in Second World War, 209
training of commanders and crew, 202, 205
H.G. Wells forsees, 195–6, 199
Tawney, R.H., 214
Telefunken, 18
telegraph wires, 1–2, 8, 17, 101, 104, 138
telephony, 7, 17–18, 163, 357
television, 357
tetanus, 220
HMS Theseus, 107–8
Thetford, Norfolk, 202
Thomas, Lowell, 324–5
Thompson, Sylvanus, 34
Thomson, Sir Basil, 130, 133, 134–5
Thomson, Sir J.J., 154, 155, 156
Thorpe, Professor, 179–80
The Times, 24, 25, 66, 117, 154, 156, 179, 217, 272–3, 287, 288, 306, 307, 326, 351
Tisdall, Claire, 253
Titanic, sinking of (1912), 19
Tizard, Sir Henry, 346–9, 350, 351, 353, 354, 355, 356, 386–7
TNT (trinitrotoluene), 166–7, 170, 171
Tong, Edward ‘Teddy’, 293–4, 300
Tonks, Henry, 235, 387–8
Topical Company, 291–2, 311
torpedoes, 72, 296, 354
Tower of London, 331
Toynbee, Arnold, 283, 323, 388
trade unions, 14, 274, 319–20
trams, electric, 56
Trenchard, Colonel Hugh, 85–6, 89
Trevelyan, G.M., 280
Trinity College, Cambridge, 33, 45, 149, 150, 352
Trinity College, Dublin, 252
Trippe, Juan, 338
Tritton, William Ashbee, 200, 210
tuberculosis, 22
Tullibardine, Marquess of, 62
tungsten, 157
typhoid, 21–2, 214, 216
U-boats, German, 118, 132, 133, 143, 322, 328
Battle of Dogger Bank and, 114, 115, 116
unrestricted submarine warfare and, 122, 138–40, 142, 146
Ulster Volunteer Force, 129, 320
HMS Undaunted, 108
underground railway, electric, London, 35, 269
United States of America (USA): Max Aitken and, 282
American Expeditionary Force, 146
‘armed neutrality’ policy, 142
army actions in war, 208
The Battle of the Somme shown in, 309
Britain Prepared shown in, 297–8
broadcasting industry, 338
cinema industry, 291, 312, 357
civil aviation industry, 338
Civil War, 37, 191, 214, 215
Department of Information and, 318
development of poison gases, 189
development of the tank in, 196, 197
electricity industry in, 16
entry into war (6 April 1917), 97, 145, 207, 322, 328
exports of explosives, 172
German propaganda in, 278
Germans’ diplomatic mission in, 125, 129, 131–2, 138, 139–42
Irish Americans, 129, 141, 298
motor industry, 30
post-War private enterprise, 338
scientists in, 15
shell shock and, 261
university-industry links, 34
use of cinema, 312
Wright brothers, 32, 42, 45, 51–2, 53, 62, 64
Zimmermann telegram and, 139–42, 143–6
universities: exclusive nature of, 33
inter-war work with military, 355
links with government and industry, 10, 11, 33, 219
medical research, 22
Officer Training Corps at, 216
provision of drugs to army, 219
pure versus applied science debate, 10–11
scientific studies in, 33
University Grants Committee, 157
in USA, 34
University College Hospital, London, 229
University College, London, 10
Urban, Charles, 294–8, 309, 312, 388–9
urban growth, 35
Vergemere (luxery yacht), 133–4
HMS Vernon, 354
Vickers-Maxim, 55–6, 64, 70, 90, 95, 154, 192, 196, 202, 205, 296, 335–6
Victor bomber, 48
Vienna, 14, 23, 76, 191
Vincent, Dr Clovis, 262
vocational training, 33–4
Voisin, Gabriel, 42–3
Vorticist movement, 313
Wales, Prince of, 239
Walpole, Hugh, 324
Walton, Sergeant, 264
War Office, 6, 7, 11, 35, 64, 86, 117, 155, 168, 180, 315, 316
allows reporting from the front, 288
cinema and, 292, 293–4, 295, 298, 3
00–1, 303, 304, 307, 310, 332
code breakers at, 126
Commercial and Scientific Advisory Committee, 156
development of the tank and, 197–8, 199, 200
MI7, 318, 320
Military Intelligence Division, 103
press regulation and, 271, 280–1
shell shock and, 241–2, 250, 255, 265
treatment of the wounded and, 216, 218, 221
Trench Warfare Department, 155–6, 162, 200
War Trade Intelligence Department, 135–6
Warner, Pelham, 318
Wassmuss, Wilhelm, 124–5
Watson-Watt, Robert, 349–52, 353, 389–90
weather conditions, 80, 96, 113
Weizmann, Chaim, 169–70, 390–1
Wells, H.G., 36, 51, 154, 195–6, 199, 280, 327–8
Welsh, T, 294
Westminster, Duke of, 62
White, George, 56
Whitehead, A.N., 14
Whittle, Frank, 355
Wickham-Legg, L.G., 127
Wickham-Steed, Henry, 326
Wilhelm II, Kaiser, 25, 139, 292–3, 341
Wilhelmshaven, 112, 116, 118, 119, 121, 123
Wilkinson, Joseph Brooke, 293, 294, 300
Willoughby, L.A., 127
Wilson, Admiral Sir Arthur, 112, 113–14, 115, 116, 121–2
Wilson, President Woodrow, 139, 141, 142, 144–5, 146, 319
Wilson, Sir Henry, 216–17
Wilson, Walter, 200, 210
Wiltshire, Harold, 249
Wimperis, Henry, 354–5
wind tunnels, 61
Wolseley motor car company, 55, 63–4
women, 12, 27, 76, 171–2, 217, 245, 270, 332
Admiralty recruitment of, 127–8
chemists at Woolwich Arsenal, 168
in munitions factories, 170–1, 296, 311, 357
the ‘new’ woman, 14
newspapers and journals for, 24, 25
as nurses at base camp Hospitals, 224–5
nurses at CCSs, 223
suffrage debate, 13, 14, 274
war work, 170–2, 296, 311, 332, 357
Woods optics company, Derby, 86
Woolwich, 155, 168, 354
Royal Laboratory, 159
Royal Military Academy, 53
Wormwood Scrubs, 197
wounded, treatment of see military medicine
Wren, Christopher, 6
Wright, Sir Almroth, 226–7
Wright, Wilbur and Orville, 32, 42, 45, 51–2, 53, 62, 64
X-rays, 21, 149–50
Yealland, Lewis, 259–60
Young, George, 126–7
Ypres, Flanders, 175, 176–9, 186–7, 193
Yugoslav National Council, 327
Zeiss, 86
Zeppelins, 56
bases in occupied
Belgium, 197
bombing raids
along the English coast, 156, 180–1
Zimmermann, Arthur: telegram and, 139–2, 143–6
Zionism, 170
the Zoetrope, 26
Zyklon B, 403
About the Author
Taylor Downing is a television producer and writer. He was educated at Cambridge University and went on to become managing director and head of history at Flashback Television, an independent production company. His most recent books include Spies in the Sky, Churchill’s War Lab, Cold War (with Sir Jeremy Isaacs) and Night Raid.
ILLUSTRATIONS
The aircraft in which John Moore-Brabazon made the first powered flight by a Briton in Britain on 30 April 1909; it looks like a giant box kite.
Winston Churchill, First Lord of the Admiralty (1911–15); he was so keen to encourage naval flying that he even tried to learn to fly himself.
Charles Rolls at the wheel of one of his luxury vehicles; but he was also a pioneer aviator who tried to get the army interested in powered flight.
An A-type glass plate camera being handed to an observer in a Vickers FB5; despite the primitive look, photo intelligence developed as a sophisticated science during the war.
Alliott Verdon Roe beside one of his early flying machines; his company, Avro, went on to make iconic aircraft in the First and Second World Wars.
William Lawrence Bragg, a scientist who went into uniform and developed sound ranging for the army; the youngest person ever to win a Nobel Prize, at twenty-five.
Baron Rayleigh, one of the top scientists of the day, who worked with government committees on explosives and aviation, and for the Royal Society War Committee.
Colonel Ernest Swinton who reported from the front in 1914–15 and realised the need to break the stalemate of entrenched defences and barbed wire.
Captain Philip Joubert de la Ferte who carried out the first aerial observation flight of the war in August 1914 but twice had to land and ask where he was.
Brigadier-General Sir David Henderson, the first commander of the Royal Flying Corps; he and his moustache inspired a generation of early flyers.
A group of early aviators study a map in front of a BE2 biplane on the Western Front; they directed the artillery at the enemy’s guns.
An aerial photo of German lines, February 1918; ten million aerial photos were distributed during 1918.
Admiral Reginald ‘Blinker’Hall [ (centre), the key [ figure behind the code-breaking and intelligence gathering at Room 40 of the Admiralty; taken while still captain of HMS Queen Mary.
Naval actors; two naval officers disguised as the skipper and the owner of the Sayonara, the ship Hall sent to spy along the Irish coast.
Vickers machine gun team on the Somme, July 1916; they wear Hypo helmets to protect them from gas attack.
Wilfred Stokes, engineer, shows off the mortar he invented and some of the projectiles it could fire.
Eustace Tennyson d’Eyncourt, naval engineer; to his surprise Churchill put him in charge of developing the tank.
One of the early tanks prepares for action at Cambrai, November 1917; the tank was a completely new machine that emerged out of existing technologies during the war.
Scottish soldiers using improvised cotton-pad respirators, May 1915; when the Germans first used gas it took some time to develop an effective mask.
Soldiers demonstrating the use of a Hypo helmet, 1916; it provided more efficient protection from a gas attack.
Wounded men on stretchers laid out around a Regimental Aid Post, the first tier of medical care on the Western Front, not far from the front trench, 1916.
Victims of mustard gas that caused horrible yellow blisters and blindness, being led away, 1918.
Charles Masterman, politician and literary figure who started Britain’s official propaganda campaign.
John Buchan, one of the most successful novelists of the era who wrote profusely to promote the British cause and ran the propaganda department in 1917.
Alfred Harmsworth, Lord Northcliffe, before the war, the press baron who turned official government propagandist in 1918.
Max Aitken, Lord Beaverbrook, the Canadian magnate and newspaper owner who became Minister of Information in 1918.
Recruiting Posters, 1914; left, the famous Alfred Leete poster of Kitchener. Right, women are encouraged to send men off to their deaths.
Anti-German hysteria, 1914; Punch cartoon shows Kaiser Wilhelm standing over dead Belgian women and children.
Harold Gillies, plastic surgeon, who did remarkable work reconstructing the faces of some of the most horribly mutilated victims of the war.
Drawings of one of Gillies’ patients, before and after surgery, made by Henry Tonks, the celebrated artist.
Women workers in a munitions factory; filling shells with explosives was a dangerous job but nearly one million women came forward for this work.
J.B. McDowell, official cameraman, with his hand-cranked film camera; cumbersome and heavy, this type of camera was used to film the Battle of the Somme.
Frames from the famous Over the top’ scene in the Battle of the Somme
film; staged at a trench mortar school behind the lines, these images appeared to show men falling as they went forward and shocked cinema audiences around the world.
Staff and patients at Craiglockhart War Hospital, Edinburgh, a Victorian Hydro-spa converted to treat officers suffering from shell shock; Captain William Rivers (front row: sixth from the left) treated Siegfried Sassoon here and Arthur Brock treated Wilfred Owen who then began to write some of the most famous poetry of the war.
SECRET WARRIORS
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Copyright © 2014 by Taylor Downing
First hardcover edition April 2015
ISBN: 978-1-60598-694-4
ISBN: 978-1-60598-750-7 (e-book)
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