In the drive to source more metal to create munitions,
hitherto unconsidered resources were investigated by both sides, and the possibility
of plundering the church bells of the enemy was not ruled out. Russia, fearing
the German advance in 1915, felt the threat was significant enough to take the laborious
precaution of removing 300 of her bells for safety from churches of all
denominations. The Illustrated London News reports that bells of all sizes were
relocated to Nikolsy Monastery, just outside Moscow, to prevent their metal
from being melted down and used for shells. These two recently discovered
pictures from The Illustrated London News of the bells outside Nikolsy
Monastery throw a spot light on the role that church bells inadvertently played
in World War One, and here we take a further look at other ways in which church
bells contributed to the war effort.
Outside of Russia, the church bells of Europe did not have
an easy war either. Apart from the threat of sacrilegious looting and recasting
to make shells, church bells on the Western Front also became the unintended
casualty of the shells themselves. The height of bell towers gave commanding
views of the local area, and made for good observation posts. Unfortunately for
the bells, this worked the other way too, with the towers becoming a high
visual target of shellfire, intended to disable the enemy’s vantage point, but
inadvertently destroying or dislodging the bells as well. These fallen bells
were not to go to waste though, as ingenious wartime creativity found a new
role for them, taking them beyond the belfry, and on to the battlefield.
These fallen or plundered church bells could be heard
striking in the trenches: not as an army padre’s call to worship, but re-used as
a warning against enemy gas attacks. Sometimes gas alarms were simply improvised
gongs in the form of any sonorous material, such as clanging a frying pan
suspended from a rope, but they also took the form of salvaged bells from
felled church towers. The once holy sound of these bells became a sinister
portent for soldiers, and must have formed a terrifying part of soundscape of
life in the trenches. Smaller gas bells also acted as coveted trophies of the
battlefield, as to capture enemy gas bells was a significant blow, rendering
them vulnerable to stealth gas attacks.
Away from the battlefield, the symbolic power of bells as
psychological currency for victory and freedom was employed by countries on
both sides. When America entered the war in 1917, the Liberty Bell was used on
propaganda as a symbol of American freedom, and employed on posters to promote
the purchase of Liberty Loans. Germany also used images of bells in this way to
gather support for their war loans, and bells even featured in distorted early reports
of the rape of Belgium at the start of the war. News that the monks of Antwerp
refused to ring the church bells to celebrate the German invasion became embellished
to the extent that by the time the story was reported in ‘Le Matin’ in Paris,
it has morphed into a sensationalist tale of gratuitous German violence, with
the bells of Antwerp being rung regardless, but with the defiant monks hung up
inside the bells and used as human clappers…
These are just a few ways in which the substance, sound and symbolism of church bells played their parts in World War One in the potential creation of munitions, in offering an early warning system against chemical warfare, and on the mental battlefield in the struggle to win the ‘hearts and minds’ of the people. The church bells of Britain mostly escaped unscathed to ring out in celebration when the Armistice was declared, but their Russian and European sisters on the front line were not so lucky…
http://www.maryevans.com/lb.php?ref=22370
Lucinda Moore