The Postcard
A postally unused carte postale that was released by Reims Cathédrale, Spot de la Cathédrale, Reims.
On the divided again of the card they have printed:
“Cathédrale de Reims.
Picture Prise le 19 Septembre 1914.
Reims Cathedral during the
bombardment by the German
Hearth Shells”.
Reims Cathedral in the Terrific War
The photograph reveals what repeated artillery assaults can do to a medieval masterpiece.
The Cathedral was decreased to a roofless shell by the 287 explosive and incendiary shells that rained on it during the course of the Terrific War.
A Poem by Grace Conkling
Grace Hazard Conkling (1878-1958) wrote a poem about Reims Cathedral in 1914:
‘A wingèd loss of life has smitten dumb thy bells,
And poured them molten from thy tragic towers:
Now are the windows dust that had been thy flowers
Patterned like frost, petalled like asphodels.
Long gone are the angels and the archangels,
The saints, the small lamb higher than thy door,
The shepherd Christ! They are not, any extra,
Preserve in the soul exactly where exiled natural beauty dwells.
But who has listened to in thy vaulted gloom
That aged divine insistence of the sea,
When music flows alongside the sculptured stone
In tides of prayer, for him thy home windows bloom’.
Like trustworthy sunset, heat immortally!
Thy bells dwell on, and Heaven is in their tone!’
In actuality the bells of Reims Cathedral did not soften, despite the fact that they did drop. The solidified swimming pools of steel on the floor of the Cathedral basically came from the masking of guide on the roof which had melted when the picket composition blazed from conclude to conclusion.
Molten lead also flowed from the medieval stained glass windows, and poured by means of the gargoyles developed to channel rain from the roof. The gargoyles were not built for the roof alone to pour out of them.
Reims Cathedral Ahead of the Good War
If you want to see what Reims Cathedral seemed like prior to the Good War, remember to look for for the tag 32RCB34
Rouen Cathedral
If Grace had desired to compose about bells which genuinely did melt, she could have waited a different 30 several years and composed about Rouen Cathedral. This was bombed by the Germans in the Next Environment War, major inter alia to a fireplace in the medieval north tower containing the well-known bells.
The tower acted as a chimney for the intensive woodwork inside to melt away and make really superior temperatures – sufficient to calcify the ancient stonework and leave swimming pools of molten bell steel at the base of the tower.
You can see additional about Rouen Cathedral if you lookup for the tag 87RCL55
The Use of Artillery in the Wonderful War
Artillery was pretty intensely utilised by both sides for the duration of the Terrific War. The British fired around 170 million artillery rounds of all sorts, weighing a lot more than 5 million tons – that is an ordinary of close to 70 kilos (32 kilos) for every shell.
With an regular duration of two ft, that quantity of shells if laid close to close would stretch for 64,394 miles (103,632 kilometres). That’s over two and a 50 percent periods round the Earth. If the artillery of the Central Powers of Germany and its allies is factored in, the figure can be doubled to 5 encirclements of the earth.
Through the first two months of the 3rd Battle of Ypres, more than 4 million rounds have been fired at a price tag of above £22,000,000 – a massive sum of money, in particular around a century ago.
Artillery was the killer and maimer of the war of attrition.
In accordance to Dennis Winter’s reserve ‘Death’s Men’ three quarters of struggle casualties were being triggered by artillery rounds. In accordance to John Keegan (‘The Facial area of Battle’) casualties have been:
– Bayonets – much less than 1%
– Bullets – 30%
– Artillery and Bombs – 70%
Keegan implies however that the ratio improved all through advancements, when massed males going for walks throughout no-man’s land introduced excellent targets for equipment guns and rifles.
Charles Devendeville
So what else occurred on the working day that the photograph was taken?
Very well, Saturday the 19th. September 1914 marked the death of Charles Devendeville. Charles, who was born in Lesquin on the 8th. March 1882, was a French swimmer and Olympic winner. He competed at the 1900 Olympic Games in Paris, exactly where he received a gold medal in the underwater swimming occasion.
Charles died of accidents in Reims throughout the Excellent War, at the age of 32.
Posted by pepandtim on 2021-07-22 09:48:06
Tagged: , postcard , previous , early , nostalgia , nostalgic , Reims , Cathedral , Excellent , War , 1914 , German , hearth , shells , explosive , incendiary , Grace , Conkling , Rouen , Charles , Devendeville , swimmer , gold , medal , Olympic , Online games , 22RCB97 , underwater
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