I have recently become intrigued by a rather specialised
sub-branch of fiction concerned with stories written in the years before World
War 1 forecasting a German invasion of England. Not too suprisingly, this is
known as "invasion literature" and a vast number of tales were
written, of which only a handful survive in print. These fears were stimulated
by dramatic changes in European politics; first by the astonishing defeat of
France, regarded as the greatest land power in Europe, in the Franco-Prussian
War of 1870-71, immediately followed by the formation of a new German Empire
with Prussia at its core. These changes were a considerable shock to the
British and led to a switch in viewpoint; the country's traditional enemy,
France, being replaced in that bogey-man role by an increasingly powerful and assertive
Germany.
Many military writers expressed their concern that the
British government had become complacent in its imperial superiority and that
the Army was wholly unprepared for the possibility of invasion, reliance being
placed on the Royal Navy to deter or prevent any such hostile action. Some of
those writers expressed their concern in the form of fictional accounts of how
an invasion might happen, and what the results could be. So these stories are a
form of speculative fiction, interesting in what they reveal about the national
mindset of that era.
I have already written about one of these stories, in comparing
it with Wells's The War of the Worlds:
this is G. T. Chesney's novella The
Battle of Dorking: Reminiscences of a Volunteer, which was published in
Blackwood's magazine in 1871. Unlike the majority of writers on this subject
(who tended to be very jingoistic) Chesney was a professional; a colonel in the
Royal Engineers. His account of the successful German invasion of England from
the viewpoint of a British volunteer soldier is gripping and realistic; the
courage and enthusiasm of the volunteers is shown to be useless against the professionalism
of the Prussians (Chesney doesn't actually name the country the invaders came
from, but they do speak German…). The panic, lack of information, confusion and
errors described in Chesney's well-written account are all too credible, and it
is no surprise that it was a best-seller.
British concerns about German intentions only increased with
time, as Kaiser Wilhelm II, urged on by Alfred von Tirpitz, Grand Admiral of
the German Imperial Navy, decided that being the foremost land power was not
enough: he wished to challenge the Royal Navy as well. The next landmark story
in this genre appeared in 1903: The
Riddle of the Sands, Erskine Childers' great spy/sailing adventure. The two
British heroes of this account take a sailing holiday in the German East Frisian
islands, following-up a theory one of them has that the shallow, sheltered
waters between these islands and the coast would make an ideal gathering place
for an invasion force aimed at landing in Eastern England. I won't say any more
about this story, except that it is my favourite novel. Those who also enjoy it
might like to know that a sequel appeared in 1998 (yep, 95 years later!); The Shadow in the Sands, by Sam
Llewellyn, is also a great read, the author having done an excellent job of
capturing the flavour of the original.
This takes me on to the next best-seller, If England Were Invaded, by William Le
Queux, originally published in 1906 as The
Invasion. This is similar to The
Battle of Dorking as it starts with an initially successful invasion of
England by Germany, and gives a nod to The
Riddle as the invasion does indeed set off from the Frisian islands, with
huge numbers of barges being towed by tugs just as Childers prophesied. This is not mentioned until later, however;
the story begins with the invasion force having already landed at several
points along the east coast of England and, with the aid of agents already
established there, severing all communications with the rest of the country. The
invasion force, including cavalry and artillery, is greatly superior to the
available British forces in numbers, equipment, organisation and training, and
the result is a crushing defeat for England. However, that is not the end of
the story, the author illustrating the (still valid) principle that while a
well-trained military will easily defeat a less well-prepared force on the
field of battle, that advantage can be much reduced in the messy business of
close-quarter fighting in densely built-up areas.
The narrative is largely written from the authorial
viewpoint, the language slipping in moments of excitement from dispassionate
third-person to a more emotional form, as in: "at present we are powerless". Much of the book consists of articles
in newspapers, reports from correspondents, diary entries and official
proclamations from both sides of the battle. There is great emphasis on
military detail, with the army units involved from both sides being identified
and their locations and movements described. I can imagine the contemporary
military enthusiasts having maps spread all over a table, moving around tokens
representing the different units as they follow the story. For the rest of us,
though, this is a tedious amount of detail, far more than is needed to
appreciate the tale.
A couple of other criticisms: the ability of the Germans to secretly
put an army of 250,000 men ashore with apparent ease seems far-fetched, and
very little is said about the Royal Navy, whose primary task it was to block
any invasion. There is just a brief mention at the start that the RN had
suffered a major defeat (plus a description of how warships were trapped at
Chatham by German blockships) and, close to the finish of the story, that the navy
had managed to regain control of the sea following a major victory. Conversely,
and presumably reflecting the personal interests of the author, there is a
great deal said about the impact of events on the stock market and banking services!
This is a much longer book than Dorking but, in providing both a wider canvas and more detail, Invaded lacks the immediacy and
emotional impact of the earlier first-person account. This is despite the
apparently endless catalogue of destruction and slaughter, with little of note
in London left standing. Dorking also
at least provides some explanation of the failure of the RN to stop the
invasion, so all told it is the better story.
When William Came,
subtitled A Story of London Under the
Hohenzollerns, is a very different story, a novella written in 1913 by one
of the most perceptive satirists of the day: H. H. Munro, better known by his pen
name of Saki. The starting point in this story is that Britain has been invaded
and defeated by Germany, which is in the process of assimilating its conquest
as part of the German Empire. Little is said about how this was achieved (other
than reference to Germany's very powerful new air force), the focus being on
the reactions of British (and specifically London) society to this state of affairs.
The two principal characters are a wealthy young couple with
different attitudes to the invasion: he is violently antagonistic, she is more
accepting of the situation, but views change over time. The joy in this story
is the sharp observation of the author; this provides an often sardonic insight
into the attitudes and thinking of the period, as well as presaging the
dilemmas which lead some of the inhabitants of an occupied country to
collaborate with the occupiers. His motive in writing this story was to argue
for conscription into the military, in order to build up a large reserve of
people with some knowledge of shooting and soldiering, ready and able to take
up arms for the defence of the nation. He is a little more subtle than most of
the authors here, however, driving the point home by having his Kaiser decide
that British men would not be allowed to enlist in the armed forces of the
German Empire, as they had shown no interest in or aptitude for soldiering, and
they would therefore have to pay much heavier taxes instead!
Saki lived and died by his principles, enlisting as an
ordinary soldier on the outbreak of WW1 despite the fact he was eligible for a
commission and was over the enlistment age anyway. He was killed by a German
sniper in 1916.
Danger by Sir
Arthur Conan Doyle (subtitled: Being the
Log of Captain John Sirius), is a short story which takes yet another
approach. This story is told by the captain of a submarine belonging to the
navy of a fictitious small country in northern Europe, which finds itself at
war with Britain. The use of a small force of submarines to blockade British
ports and sink any vessels from any nation carrying goods to the UK rapidly
results in food shortages since the UK relied (and still relies) on imported
food to survive. With people starving, the UK is forced to sue for peace after
only a few weeks.
Considering the story was written in 1913, it is remarkably
prescient in presaging the unrestricted submarine warfare used by Germany
against the UK in both World Wars, and which in both cases came close to
success. Conan Doyle's purpose in writing the story was, for once, not
concerned with pressing for more expenditure on armaments, but on measures
which should be taken to reduce the country's vulnerability to blockade: more
domestic food production, more strategic food stores and, interestingly,
railway tunnels under the Channel to ensure blockade-proof supply routes (not
that that would have helped in either World War, with the enemy at the other
end of the tunnel).
To conclude, Wiki asserts that "the [invasion
literature] genre was influential in Britain in shaping politics, national
policies, and popular perceptions in the years leading up to the First World
War" but it was criticised at the time as it "risked inciting war
between England and Germany and France".
5 comments:
fascinating post... having greatly enjoyed "Riddle.." i just ordered "Shadow.." many tx for the recommend...
You're welcome - I hope you enjoy it!
Incidentally, I also enjoyed the 1979 film of The Riddle of the Sands, although at 100 minutes running time quite a lot had to be chopped out.
Interestingly, Germany paid this story rather more attention, making a TV version in 1984 with ten episodes totalling 500 minutes running time. They have recently reissued the series as a DVD boxed set, including a film-length version. I have recently bought a copy, but not yet got around to watching it (as I don't understand German, I want to read the novel again first!). You can buy it from amazon, under the title "Das rätsel der sandbank".
I have an anthology volume titled THE BATTLE OF DORKING AND OTHER INVASION STORIES 1871-1914 which includes these, as well as George Griffith's THE ANGEL OF THE REVOLUTION (which, interestingly, has its inventor develop heavier-than-air flight in 1903) and P. G. Wodehouse's THE SWOOP!, the satire of all the others.
Thanks for the tip - I have just had a look on my shelves and discovered a couple of books edited by I.F. Clarke:
The Tale of the Next Great War, 1871-1914, and
The Great War with Germany 1890-1914.
They contain a large number of stories, some of which I have reviewed above.
My problem is that I have accumulated so many books that I have forgotten exactly what I have...
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