The Crucified Soldier
A Propaganda Legend.
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Considering the fact that I have never watched a historical or war film before, I am overall impressed with Passchendaele (2008): the way it effectively displayed the muddy, wet and brutal conditions of the Battle of Passchendaele, and the blind ignorance of those who stayed in the home front. I appreciate how the movie stuck to some historical facts of the Battle of Passchendaele; not only were the diverse and contradicting emotions and feeling towards WWI correctly portrayed, small details such as how the trench was covered with bare tree trunks, matched the Battle of Passchendaele setting as well.
However, the allusion to the Crucified Soldier in the movie was the part that really captured my attention. It was illustrated when David Mann, a fellow Canadian soldier who is vehemently anti-German, is visually crucified on a “cross” by an artillery bomb after jumping into the German’s trenches.
Although this is not exactly how the crucified soldier incident occurred, the visual of Mann being hung on the “cross” is extremely visually impacting and therefore further developed the plot. This particular scene also relates to a legendary report of the crucified soldier mentioned previously in the movie.
The Crucified Soldier incident occurred at around 24 April 1915, during the second battle of Ypres, when an unidentified Canadian soldier was said to be crucified on a barn door while fighting on the Western Front. This story stems from a very short article that appeared on the May 10, 1915 edition of The Times, illustrating the story of how an officer of a Canadian troop had been “pinned to a wall by bayonets” by the Dublin Fusiliers at Ypres.
The public was outrages by such news, and the subject was raised in the British Parliament. Yet when Sir Robert Houston, a British Conservative Party politician, questioned the then Under-Secretary for War, Harold Tennant, he replied that “ there was no such information regarding such an attack” and that “inquiries would be made by the War Office”.
Later on, different media press such as The Toronto Star, The Morning Post, and Los Angeles Times also reported this story, all stating something similar to a Canadian sergeant being tied up and pierced by German bayonets, making the Germans nothing better than animals.
The story is followed up by another report from The Times five days later, which summarizes the incident saying that it was indeed real, despite the “absence of direct evidence and absolute proof” of the occurrence of the event.
This topic remain controversial today, nine decades later, as people are unwilling to believe that one can be so savage and cold-blooded. Some say that it is merely a method of propaganda used during WWI to reflect hatred upon the opposing side. Whether or not all the circumstances regarding this are true, I believe something did happen; there are too many independent accounts for this to be pure fantasy.
Learning about these incidents that occurred along side the battles during the Great War are able to help one understand different aspects that helped fuel the war. This propaganda legend is able to encourage patriotism at home front, and justify the country’s involvement to their own populace, especially by comparing the enemy’s “unjust” actions during war.
I have seen the following poster many times, but have not recognized the image until now: The Crucified Soldier incident was seized by the Allies, who desperately wanted to paint the Germans in a bad light in every opportunity; thus a propaganda poster was created. This was definitely effective, and is able to emotionally sway citizens to buy victory bonds as a way of participating at war in the home front.
Works Cited:
“The Crucified Soldier — the Story of Sgt. Harry Band.” AboveTopSecret.com. Above Top Secret, 29 Dec. 2009. Web. 6 Mar. 2014. <http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread530193/pg1>.
Simkin, John. “Crucified Soldiers.” Spartacus Educational. Spartacus Educational, n.d. Web. 07 Mar. 2014. <http://spartacus-educational.com/FWWcrucified.htm>.
Written on: Monday, March 10, 2014
