Blasts from the Past

By Phil Tamarr

‘Blasts from the Past’ is a series of articles from the author's perspective on life. They depict events which took a little time to play out but were to change the way people lived their lives through work and leisure. A ‘blast’ is a strong puff or gust of wind which has the effect of completely altering the landscape. These 'blasts' also altered landscapes - the social, the political, even the scientific. They cover subjects from the creation of railways to the career of Winston Churchill. From the invaluable role of sergeants in military action to accounts from the author's own experiences in life.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Phil Tamarr
• Release date: Jan 17, 2022
• ISBN: 9781005702748

Book preview

Foreword

From this author’s perspective my title ‘Blasts from the Past’ depict events which took a little time to play out but were to change the way people lived their lives through work and leisure. A ‘blast’ is a strong puff or gust of wind which has the effect of completely altering the landscape and one can see such effects after a violent gale: trees are uprooted, roads are blocked, roads are bestrewn with fallen chimney pots and one must be cautious in resuming daily life.

Similarly, with innovation: take railways as an example: within weeks of opening a line, fishermen realised they could transport their catch of fish direct to urban areas within hours of landing which led to the British ‘fish ’n chips’, and, even more fundamental was the introduction of standard time throughout the UK. Soon the train traveller could read his trip to their destination when the firm of W H Smith placed stationers at most rail stations.

Another innovation was electric lighting which transformed the hours of night time by illuminating public places and the homes of ordinary people. The author has extended the analogy to include phenomena such as situations, events, criteria even people who slip below the radar when a crisis has passed such as WW2. In the latter context take those military men sporting a triple stripe on their uniformed arms and without whom British forces could not function: namely the humble serjeant.

And yet there are retrogressive criteria which do our country no good namely the people who believe the world owes them a living: the so-called 7% elite. When the PM issues restrictions he refers to the hoi-poloi i.e. the other 93% of the UK so that a certain guy can flout them by a trip to Barnard Castle to test his eye-sight. The reader might think of a ‘blast’ of their own. Tell me at [e-mail], or, in other words, ‘blast me’.

Since writing this piece my wife and soulmate died. I’ve included a tribute to her in this work. Her personality and character blasted me into becoming more than a useless nonentity.

Belief

A Personal Doctrine

The UK is a secular nation where religion is a matter for citizens’ own conscience. So belief has been removed from politics. There is an established church, the Church of England but it has no political power and is similar to monarchy having influence only. So, mosques, temples, synagogues, churches are common throughout the land and are meeting places for the faithful. Increasingly in recent years non-belief has gained currency and it is the writer’s own philosophy of life.

My belief per se is that chance has had more effect on my life than belief in a deity although I recognise the school of thought that chance is brought about by God so that I’m a victim of self-delusion. To answer this criticism, I recall a quote from Jesus that (I paraphrase) God watches over the sparrow fallen from his nest; that is the Lord God is a loving God who watches over his flock be they human or otherwise. It’s a powerful argument.

However, one of Charles Darwin’s observations is of a spider whose prey happened to be a wasp which the spider stung so as to keep it alive so that its hatchlings could feed on the inert body of the wasp. In other words, the wasp was consumed alive. Is that action tolerant of a ‘loving God’?

Examples of chance abound but I’ll give two: a man in 2018 parked his car and went for a meal after which he left the cafe to return to his vehicle but never reached it for a pane of glass blown by a high wind off a building site struck the motorist. He probably did not know what hit him; he was killed on the spot. My second example: a passing comet 65 million years ago dislodged a massive rock estimated to have been more than a mile wide from the Kuiper Belt. It made for Earth and crashed into Yucatan, Mexico and destroyed the dinosaurs by its blotting out the sun for decades: herbivores plant food died and they died of hunger and thus carnivores’ food also gradually disappeared.

But this extinction on land affected the seas much less and it is conjectured that once plant life was restored it gave opportunity for fish to migrate from water to land and there-from to develop into mammals which would eventually lead to apes and eventually homo-sapiens. This is a process that scientists call ‘evolution’. Elsewhere in the world such opinions are not permitted because they are contrary to an all-powerful state. And, even in a democratic country like the USA atheists are shunned by voters who are taught at school that the USA came about as a result of ‘a manifest destiny’ though in my view the events of 1776 to 1783 when the 13 colonies successfully defeated England, the mother country favoured the colonists as for example when General Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown bringing the war to an end. The Treaty of Paris ended the War of Independence.

Across the Atlantic England was faced by a resurgent and revolutionary France whose ships threatened Britain’s supply routes to India. Moreover, an alliance of Russia, Prussia, Holland and Sweden: the so-called ‘armed neutrality of the North’ menaced the very coast of the UK. It was time to ditch the colonies and defend the homeland. Manifest destiny my foot: it was sheer expediency. But Uncle Sam loves to wallow in self-delusion ignoring practicalities.

It was another example of chance which favoured the colonies in that decade of the 1780s. In 1789 the French Revolution took place; the colonists by chance had timed their uprising just in time. Belief as a personal philosophy is often affected by the times and the chance of great leaders. At no time is this more relevant than in the dispute between the English Parliament and King Charles Ist whereby the latter sought to prove that the monarch alone determined taxes and hence royal income. Parliament believed it was the sole arbiter – and prevailed. Oliver Cromwell proved parliament’s point and subsequent events long after the war was over enabled people to believe in anything they chose.

So although belief is a personal doctrine: it may have a wider meaning. It is a matter of personal choice in the UK.

Canadian

Just to give a hint about the North Americans north of the USA; to mention D-Day of WW2: of the five landing beaches two were named Utah and Omaha, two: Sword and Gold while the fifth was Juno reserved for Canadian troops but just compare Canada’s population with either the USA or the UK. This fact I judge will focus minds as to the Allies’ assessment of their diminutive ally. However few people are aware of the Canadian impact upon a different conflict particularly in the final months of the war: roughly from September to November 11th, 1918. Marshall Foch was appointed overall C in C of the total allied front. However the British General Haig was commander of the British front and he planned an attack on the Hindenburg Line which the Germans had constructed in depth giving ground in places in order to achieve a unified defensive capability.

But Haig had a plan: it involved Canadian troops. He had learned that the German frontline infantryman had a terror of Canadian units in the opposing trenches of the allied line. Post-1920 a published memoir would give the reason. It seems Canadian forces had a small contingent of soldiers from native Indian territories and some indulged in ancient ancestral practices. When Indians defeated Indians: they took scalps. Some of these captive scalps were smuggled back into Canada after repatriation. They were taken from German soldiers. Is it any wonder the enemy were terrified? Haig, though ignorant of the reason, would play on this dread. He issued orders by radio for the Canadians to move from their positions astride the Canal du Nord near Havrincourt, France but under cover of night they returned to their original position.

The Hindenburg Line stretched from Arras to St Quentin and on September 8th the allied armies consisting of the BEF under Haig, the AEF under the American general Pershing and the Belgians commanded by Prince Albert would attack the Hindenburg Line. However, the Canadians were the first to move forward in echelon formation before the bombardment had finished. There were few casualties and having achieved their objectives the Canadians set up MGs pointing across the Hindenburg Line’s zig-zag trenches which effectively prevented many of the enemy even reaching their own MGs. Allied aircraft also strafed German positions. The impassable had not only been breached but in many places captured with the result that Hinderburg sought an immediate audience with the Kaiser.

In official chronicles of The Great War, 1914 – 1918 there is barely a mention of the significant part played by the Canadians in bringing the Germans to the Armistice which came into force on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918 which incidentally is a German civil servant’s wife’s joke as this is the hour when the German Fasching Fool is elected to take office the following year in Fasching week, an annual beano after the annual religious fast, a German tradition.

Yet, readers may wonder about the Haig communiqué to his Canadian contingent. Would not the enemy infantry remain opposite the positions the Canadians had left? However, their destination was to be Zone X which would confabulate enemy soldiers with the result that the Hindenburg Line would be deserted by fearful soldiers, even their Feldwebel (German serjeants), but, Haig’s trick seemed to work as unfolding events were to prove.

Chance

Sometimes Called Luck

It is speculated that about 65 million years ago a rock detached itself from the Kuiper Belt and by chance made for planet Earth. It crashed into a shallow sea just south of present-day Mexico and caused an eruption of rock and sediment into the sky and it remained in orbit round the Earth for years. Some of it fell back to Earth but a great deal persisted in orbit blocking out the sun and bringing photosynthesis to an end which effectively denied plants necessary sustenance, and most died. This was bad for any living creatures needing plant-life to survive which happened to be plant eating dinosaurs. It was also bad news for carnal dinosaurs which fed off plant eating dinosaurs and within a few months there ceased to be any dinosaurs on Earth. They had existed for around 200 million years but all disappeared from the face of the Earth. But what was bad news for dinosaurs was good news for another type of creature which is called a ‘mammal’. It may safely be concluded that the demise of dinosaurs led eventually to homo sapiens, ie human beings.

Another event illustrating ‘chance’ occurred in 2018. A man parked his car and went for a meal in a cafe though he did not collect the car because on his way to the parking lot a pane of glass fell on his head and killed him instantly. But the piece de resistance concerns two people: a German and a Brit. In 1964 Ella was an au pair with a family in East Sheen, south of London while Ron at the same time lived in north London. London’s population at that time was around eight million so the chances of our meeting were remote. Ella’s employer, a Mrs Helps was in Harrods and spotted a noticeboard with a card advertising The Linguists’ Club. It seemed a good place for Ella to socialise with young women of her calling and it was just a block away at Niddry Lodge, off Kensington High Street.

Meanwhile Ron was looking for digs to be near his workplace at Fiat just off the north circular road in Acton where Daltons Weekly had advertised a bedsit nearby. There was also a small ad re The Linguists Club. I had not used my fluent German since leaving Frankfurt in 1958. So the chance of our meeting was increased somewhat. We came under the same roof soon after each of us had joined that club. A young woman was trying to decipher a notice about a trip to Greenwich being organised by the Club and I helped her out. Later I rescued her in the cellar cafe where she was being importuned by another man by addressing her in her own language.

Charity

Not a Synonym for Love

Appearing in Sunday supplements, TV ads or on posters is an appeal. young black boy of perhaps five or six years is shown with the message: Just £5 will save his sight. Or another ad shows a small girl fetching dirty water from a stream with a similar message: £5 ensures her drinking water will be pure. There’s also a spoken message to the latter to the effect that African streams carry a deadly germ that will cost her dearly. Am I alone in thinking that had condoms been widely