Fife and Scotland - the offbeat perspective

A Different Historical Perspective

If the entire history of Planet Earth could be measured on the face of a twenty-four hour clock then the whole of human history would represent a modest fraction of the last second of the last minute on that clock! Indeed, far more has occurred and changed on a global scale in the last few centuries than in the previous ten thousand years! What follows then is a series of selective and condensed histories starting from the Ice Age and moving progressively towards the present time. It's a deliberately different and radical perspective on major events which describe some of the successes and the failures of different periods. Although brief mention is made to some parts of Scottish history, more detail is offered in a separate section of this web site.

Global Conflict: World War One

In late 1914, German Admiral Graf Maxmillian Von Spee led his modern and well equipped Far Eastern Fleet across the Pacific and docked at Valparaiso. The local population welcomed them and the German Fleet of five warships remained there for a short time. In response to this movement, Rear Admiral Christopher Craddock was ordered to deal with 'the problem' despite lacking resources to do so. Ships were sent to augment Craddock's fleet but several failed to arrive by the time Craddock had sailed from Port Stanley in the Falkland Isles. In late October, Winston Churchill, First Sea Lord of the Admiralty, instructed Craddock to wait pending possible reinforcement from the Japanese Navy but it is not known whether this message was ever received.

Communication technology of this period was crude and the local presence of HMS Glasgow attracted German attention. Graf Spee's fleet sailed from Valparaiso with a view to sinking her but what they found instead was Craddock's makeshift fleet near the Chilean coastal town of Coronel. Coronel ended the myth of Royal Navy invincibility that had lasted since Trafalgar and was one of the worst naval defeats Britain had suffered in more than a century! HMS Glasgow and a converted merchant vessel emerged as sole survivors of this encounter and both quickly returned to Port Stanley for repairs and refueling.

Although widely celebrated in many parts of the World, the German success proved to be short-lived. By the time Graf Von Spee sailed his fleet towards the Falkland Isles and with plans to attack the port, HMS Glasgow had been repaired and refueled, and had been joined by other ships of the Royal Navy. This new fleet under command of Admiral Sir Frederick Sturdee sailed out and were better equipped to deal with the German fleet. They won a great victory and destroyed the German fleet.

Two years later, the German High Seas Fleet under command of Vice-Admiral Reinhard Scheer tried again to involve the Royal Navy in a head-on conflict in the North Sea and where a picket line of submarines were expected to deliver substantial losses ahead of the main battle. They were surprised, however, by the speed of deployment ordered by Admiral Beatty, based at Rosyth in Scotland and of the anticiptation of Admiral Jellicoe in overall command and based at Scapa Flow in Orkney who moved his fleet south in support of the Rosyth fleet. As a consequence, few of the picket submarines were in position to intercept either force and no British ships were lost to this advance guard.

Both major battleship groups of the opposing nations met at Jutland on 31st May 1916 and where neither side proved capable of the decisive blow that both wanted. The outcome can best be described as inconclusive.

Not since the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805, had the Royal Navy been put to the acid test of a major engagement and in this respect, the Royal Navy was found wanting. In this, the only major sea battle of of World War One, the Royal Navy lost fourteen capital warships while the Germans lost eleven. On seeing one battleship blow up with spectacular violence, Beatty observed, "There's something bloody wrong with our ships today!"

As German vessels sought to withdraw and disengage from the battle and retreat, Jellicoe feared the possibility of a trap with the risk of torpedoes being launched against his battlefleet and wisely chose to withdraw rather than run the risk, something he was openly criticised about in the press. Both sides claimed victory but from a longer term and strategic point of view, the German High Seas fleet was effectively confined to port for the remainder of the war with German sailors being lesser regarded as an instrument of success by their own government. In the closing stages of the war, German sailors revolted against the harsh treatment and against their own Government.

The Battle of Jutland remains as the last naval 'clash of titans' in which armoured battleships fought each other in traditional fashion and firing shells at each other as the principal means to secure victory. It would never be that way again! The age of the battleship as the ultimate expression of seapower was already waning with new technologies ready to assume the mantle of importance. Germany had invested heavily in its submarines yet never had enough at sea to deliver the crushing blow against convoys bringing supplies across the Atlantic from America. The Battle of Jutland was also where a spotter aircraft was successfully launched from a ramp fixed to the gun barrels of HMS Engadene and signifying the new importance of aerial support in maritime warfare. On this occassion, however, communication difficulties between the pilot and the fleet made little difference to the outcome of the battle.

In the years prior to World War One, several nations adopted a policy whereby governments would pay for the development and construction of major ships provided the ship operators ensured the maintenance and availability of such ships could be relied upon in times of war. In Britain, the Cunard line accepted £2.6 million for the construction of the fast liners, Lusitania and Mauritania.

On May 7th, 1915, the German submarine U20 sighted the liner RMS Lusitania off the coast of Southern Ireland and launched a torpedo in her direction and where Kapitanleutnant Walther Schwiger aboard U20 held the firm belief that the liner was carrying 'contraband' to the UK in support of the British war effort. Sadly, there is some evidence to suggest this might have been true and where the gap between her double hulls might have been filled with diesel fuel and where Canadian soldiers of the 'Winipeg Rifles' brigade were aboard. The cargo manifest suggests many shell casings made by the Bethlehem Steel Company but there has always been a suspicion that the cargo actually comprised loaded and live shells. If true, then this might explain the 'second explosion' reported by Kapitanleutnant Walther Schwiger aboard U20 after the torpedo struck the Lusitania. Whatever the case, the Lusitania sank with over twelve hundred victims and including a number of German spies locked in the brig. Several Americans were listed among the dead yet US President Woodrow Wilson strove to keep the US neutral and isolated from this 'European War'. Lusitania was not a primary reason why the USA finally chose to enter the war on the Allied side but rather a partial influence.

On January 16th 1917, a coded telegraph intended for the Mexican government and written by Arthur Zimmermann, the German Foreign Secretary, ws intercepted by the highly secret 'Room 40' British intelligence and successfully decoded. In brief, the document offered the government material support in the recovery of lands lost in Mexican-American war and principally involving New Mexico and Texas. Mexico was also expected to broker an alliance between Germany and Japan with America caught in the middle. Contents of the Zimmermann Telegram were released to the press and published on March 1 causing public outrage in the US.

The United States of America declared war against Germany and its allies on April 6th 1917 and following their experience of trench warfare learned from the American Civil War, brought new insight and swelling numbers of Allied troops to the front line. On the same day, US battleships were sent to join with the British fleet at Scapa Flow and US destroyers were deployed at Cobh in Southern Ireland. US submarines were ordered to escort Atlantic convoys shipping supplies to Britain.

The First World War was largely fought in France and where initial encounters followed the tried and tested pattern of a cavalry charge supported by infantry. In many ways, they were akin to the early stages of the American Civil War and where emulation brought predictable and dire results. In 1915, the Allies sought to create second front at Gallipoli in Turkey and where conventional war tactics resulted in 21,000 British, 10,000 French, 8,700 Australians, 2,700 New Zealanders and 1,370 Indians becoming casualties.
Ottoman casualties were 86,700 - nearly twice as many as all the Allies combined yet the objective, the capture of Constantinople was never acheived.

Stalemate occupied the largest part of the war with neither side capable of making an essential and sustainable breakthrough. It was time when many lives were consumed on a daily basis to retain the status-quo of fixed battle lines with neither side willing to give way. In some cases, poisonous gas was unleashed in the first examples of chemical warfare using mustard gas or worse. The 'gas mask' thus became a feature of this and future conflicts.

In Britain, development of tracked vehicles was initially concealed by describing them as water carriers for frontline troops and called tanks. Later, when the guns and armour were added, the name stuck. Tanks were first deployed at the lesser known Battle of Flers but had a much greater role during the Battle of the Somme in 1916. On that occassion, some fifty of the thirty ton beasts were deployed but fourteen either got bogged down or suffered from mechanical failures.

While many of the vehicles proved unreliable or succumbed to 'friendly fire', two of the tanks broke through the enemy defences and ended the stalemate that had lasted for years and where arrival of tanks on the battlefield proved to be a temporary advantage.

In 1917, the American army was small but was quickly expanded and four million men were drafted within a very short period of time. Although never officially part of the Allied forces, the American Expedtionary Force (AEF) under General Pershing began landing troops in Europe at a rate of about 10,000 each day. The balance of power that had kept the war going on for years began to shift in favour of the Allies. Additionally, the First World War brought another new element into the conflict for the first time and as a direct result of aircraft development by Orville and Wilbur Wright at Kittyhawk USA in 1903.

Like the tethered ballons that had existed before in wartime, propeller driven aircraft of the period provided the ideal way in which enemy movements could be observed from the sky but unlike the balloons, they were mobile, hard to hit by groundfire and provided the means of wreaking terror by dropping small lightweight grenades into enemy trenches. Although the weight and range restrictions of these early craft still limited their ability, the age of the bomber aircraft wasn't far off into the future. For now though, new designs were created in which aircraft were developed to fight each other in the skies partly as an offensive technology but equally as a defensive one. In 1914, the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) was formed as a new part of the British Military and designed to counter enemy aircraft flights over British armies. Germany did likewise and aerial confrontation was inevitable. The age of 'dogfights' in the sky began during World War One and where a new generation of 'air aces' was created.

In this respect, Manfred von Richthofen, aka 'The Red Baron' became one of the most successful 'ace' flyers of the war with more than eighty 'kills' credited to him during his career. He was shot and killed by groundfire on a flight that should have been his last prior to retirement. With hindsight, the success of the 'Red Baron' owed much to the development of the 'interuptor gear' linking propeller rotation to the gun firing mechanism so that German aircraft could aim and shoot towards the enemy and without risk of self damage to the propellor. Upon learning this secret, allied forces aircraft adopted similar technology.

By 1918, daily life in Germany had become a major struggle with shortages of many essential supplies affecting citizens at every level. With the enemy closing in, Kaiser Wilhelm II accepted the inevitable defeat of Germany and fled. A few days afterward, the articles of surrender were signed in a rail carriage docked at Compiegne in France.

By mutual agreement, the First World War was officially ended on the Eleventh Hour of the Eleventh Day of the Eleventh Month.

Today, this date is still referred to as 'Armistace Day' and recognises the heroic sacrifice given by so many in service to their respective countries. Given the many millions of people who had died, there was now a universal desire to establish a system in which repetition was impossible. It was called the 'League of Nations'

The League Of Nations.

In 1919, the 'League of Nations' was formed with the primary duty to prevent further war. In 1921, the 'Washington Treaty' set limits on armaments and which greatly favoured America. In theory, aggression by any nation against another would be met by a combined force from all others but this quickly proved to be an empty threat. In 1922, the French government complained about delays of German war reparation payments and invaded the Ruhr industrial areas of Germany. German workers resisted and production levels collapsed leaving Germany unable to generate sufficent wealth to maintain value of its currency. Consequently, the value of German currency plummeted and mass starvation and unemployment followed. At worst, it would have needed a barrow loaded with currency to buy a loaf of bread! It was against this background of hardship, poverty, unemployment that a new nationalist socialist party found willing members and favour among the German populace. In 1933, Adolf Hitler was appointed Chancellor and assumed the role of Fuhrer (leader) upon the death of President Hindenburg in 1934.

The prospect of reviving a country in deep economic trouble was always likely to be a major task and Hitler began resolving the economic ills by ordering a whole series of government contracts covering a wide spectrum of projects that employed millions of people. His plan to 'kick start' the German economy brought lasting benefits like the autobahns and rail networks still in use today.

New houses were built with cellars as part of a standard design and where Germanic people could use this space to develop and manufacture a wide range of products and components. Self employment was encouraged and where several major German projects involved assembly of components from these small workshops. German manufacture became synonymous with quality and the people's car branded as Volkswagen is still a popular choice with international buyers today. Under Hitler's pre-war rule, the German economy boomed and industrial production rose to levels still to be matched or exceeded in modern times. Germany became a country in which idealism was represented at every level of society.

Plans started to go wrong when young children were indoctrinated in support of the superior race philosophy excluding others and especially those of Jewish faith. They were taught from an early stage to believe that a Third Reich would rule the World for a Thousand Years. Conversely, and under this regime, people of Jewish descent were singled out and targeted as scapegoats for any ills remaining in the economy. Even now, so many decades later, it remains hard to accept how an apparently civilised society embarked on a strategy of genocide and which would effectively murder six million innocent lives in such organised fashion!

In 1936, tensions brought about by poverty and feudal government provided the necessary components of rebellion and conflict in the Iberian penninsula. The Spanish Civil War invited many foreign participants on a voluntary basis. Popular author Eric Blair better known as George Orwell, was one of these drawn into the war. His observations were later integrated into fictional works like '1984'.

In the Spanish conflict, Spain became divided between a republican movement and a nationalist counterpart with the latter receiving considerable levels of support from the Catholic Church, Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. In April, 1937, the northern Basque town of Guernica was bombed by aircraft of the German Luftwaffe 'Condor Legion' and the Italian 'Aviazone Legionaria'. The result prompted Pablo Picasso's famous painting and honed the concept of blitzkrieg or 'lightning war' among German pilots. Ultimate victory went to the better funded nationalists with General Franco assuming overall political power over the nation in 1939.

Throughout this war, the League of Nations had proved lamentable and ineffective. It was equally weak when Italian forces invaded Abyssinia (now called Ethiopia) and committed attrocities including usage of chemical weapons and mustard gas; a fact revealed to the Word by the International Red Cross but denied by Italian leader Benito Mussolini. It was Benito Mussolini who first referred to agreement between Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany as 'Axis Forces'. This expression was later applied to include Japan during the Second World War.