Forgotten heroes of WWI: different skin color but single coloured soul!
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As time passes and humanity gets involved in new and terrifying situations, most people seems to forget those terrifying situations of the past. A past not so past, of which there are still open wounds, comes to us on a daily basis through the news or social media sites to remind us that mankind has arrived where it is through difficult and winding roads.
Mankind has heroes everywhere. Right now we have heroes fighting the actual Coronavirus Pandemic that lashes the world, some kids(and even adults) have fiction heroes taken from comic books or pictures and for the majority of people some of their parents are heroes too....But in the popular imagination the most remarked heroes, real heroes, are those heroes came out of wars.
Manfred von Richthofen(the Red Baron) from WWI, Vasili Záitsev from WWII, George Washington from American Revolutionary War... they´re all examples of heroes amidst a whole constellation of them. Feats, incredible facts and a mind-blowing stories are covering those heroes lives...and they have another thing in common: publicity. Back in those days, those historical days, and right now in present times even, their figures were and are exploited as publicity material; giving them a wide coverage among society. That´s why they´re so recognized as real heroes...icons to follow may i say. And there´s no doubt that they deserve that title because their lifes were uniques but the truth is that there are other heroes out there that earned their place in that constellation but, unfortunately for them, those times were times where racism was an accepted fact and in most cases regular people were not taken into account for promotions or advertising, no matter how heroic their efforts were...with few exceptions.
People has almost forgotten “The War to end all Wars”, the First War World War or WWI. More than 100 years separates us from that terrifying event and it seems the time has taken its toll to our memories and we have somehow forgotten some facts, some stories and some heroes. Betrayed by their social extraction or their skin color, WWI had several non publicized heroes that remained in the darkness to this days.
No song was sung in their honor and almost no painting was painted regarding their achievements, but they lived hard, fight hard and some of them died hard even. Here are some invisible and forgotten WWI heroes brought back to light in more liberal times.
*❶* Khudadad Khan: the first soldier of Indian origin to be awarded the Victoria Cross.
Khudadad Khan was born on 26th October 1888 at Dabb village, Chakwal, in the Jhelum District of the Punjab, India. He served in the First World War with the 129th Baluchis, and was the first soldier of Indian origin to be awarded the Victoria Cross.
Fig 1. *Khudadad Khan, the first indian soldier to be awarded with the Victoria Cross(LIVES OF THE* *FIRST WORLD WAR)*
His merit? On 31st October, 1914, at Hollebeke, Belgium, the British Officer in charge of the machine gunners detachment to which Khan belong, was wounded, and all the others machine gunners belonging to other detachments were out of action by a shell, Khudadad Khan, though himself wounded, remained working his gun until all the other five men of his gun detachment had been killed. Thanks to his bravery (and to his fellow baluchis bravery) , Germans were held up just long enough for new Indian and British reinforcements to arrive. They strengthened the line, and prevented the German Army from reaching the vital ports. He was left for dead by the enemy but despite his wounds, he managed to crawl back to his regiment during the night.
He was evacuated to England for treatment and received his VC(Victoria Cross) from King George V on 26th January 1915.
*❷* Henry Johnson: the first Americans to be awarded the French Croix de Guerre.
Soldier Henry Johnson was called by many names because of his bravery act while standing on guard in the Argonne Forest on May 15, 1918 by the end of WWI: the “Black Death” or the “One-Man Army” were two of the nicknames he earned by his actions.
Fig 2. *Henry Johnson wearing the French “Croix de Guerre” for his bravery during WWI (https://www.mentalfloss.com)*
Private Johnson was born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, on July 15, 1892. Enlisted in the United States Military on June 5, 1917, he joined the all-black New York National Guard 15th Infantry Regiment, which, when mustered into Federal service, was redesignated as the 369th Infantry Regiment based in Harlem.
Once deployed at French territory they were relegated to menial work like loading and unloading shipments and managing food supplies: their skin color prevent them to take place among their white brothers in combat actions. But the French army was a different thing: they requisitioned the black American soldiers to fight in the French trenches as they need more men to fight back the german attempts on taking french trenches: US commando were pleased to give them to french side.
On May 15, 1918, Johnson and a fellow Soldier, Pvt. Needham Roberts were standing on guard near Argonne Forest when received a surprise attack by a German raiding party consisting of at least 12 soldiers. Outnumbered in a 6:1 ratio both soldiers fought back the german attack but soon private Roberts fell wounded. Although Johnson himself had received three gunshot wounds and injuries from grenades during the struggle, he still went to the aid of his injured comrade who was captured by the enemy, and continued to fight until the Germans fled. Was verified later that Johnson using only his knife in hand-to-hand combat, killed multiple German soldiers and rescued his fellow soldier while experiencing 21 wounds in his body.
For this act of bravery he was awarded the French “Croix de Guerre” and returned home as a celebrated hero but few months later he was completely forgotten in a segregated society, dying poor and forgotten in 1929.
*❸* Nurse Rimma Ivanova
WWI acts of bravery were not limited only to men. Rimma Mikhailovna Ivanova was a Russian nurse participant of the First World War. She was the only woman in the Russian Empire, awarded the military Order of St. George 4th Class.
Fig 3. *Rimma Ivanova was a Russian nurse and the only woman granted a military order medal by Russian Empire during WWI.(https://www.rbth.com)*
She was born in 1894 in Stavropol and after the outbreak of the First World War, she entered the nurses' courses in Stavropol and then, she volunteered as a nurse in the Russian army.
In 1915, during a battle near the village of Dobroslavka in Belarus, nurse Ivanova noticed that two officers from her squadron had been killed and the soldiers were starting to retreat, so enemy forces began to advance and threaten to kill all wounded soldiers lying down in the field. Ivanova quickly gathered the remaining troops around her and led the counterattack. Even though the soldiers managed to take enemy ground, Ivanova died from a fatal injury.
Souls are colorless or single color: the color of bravery
The examples mentioned below are only a small portion of many bravery acts that took place during WWI. In fact, we can spot many bravery acts from the ranks of people who did not belong to Europe at that time, because the WWI was fought mainly in Europe but gather people from every corner of the planet Earth.
Chinese, Gurkhas, native Africans and many other nationalities were involved, one way or another, into this incredibly deadly war.
Fig 4. *Chinese workers at labour camps in northern France during WWI (http://www.remembrancetrails-northernfrance.com)*
Poeple have forgotten individual heroes because the color of their skin or their gender mostly, but have forgotten too the collective effort of thousands of people who contributed to a favorable outcome of the war, like the Chinese joint effort in labour camps in France where thousand of chinese people worked day and night making roads and rails, repairing machines and doing blacksmith and carpentry work for the allies, freeing native troops for front line duties.
Another example of joint effort into fighting the enemy that is almost forgotten was given by native African troops. Because at that time, Africa countries belongs almost entirely to European countries was inevitable that the Black Continent was not involved in war efforts.
Fig 5. Nigerian soldiers get on a train wagon to be taken on board for Europe, soldiers like this ones fought on the side of Britain in World War I(https://www.dw.com)
The War records say that almost two million Africans were killed when the continent was drawn into the conflagration of World War I. Many of them fought in their homelands but many of them were taken to the Old Continent to fight a War that was not their War. Despised by their superiors for considering them as an inferior race, they were used as cannon fodder on countless occasions but they show a degree of bravery that leaves their own commanders perplexed so many times.
Irvin Cobb was a journalist and a very well-known writer for the Saturday Evening Post. His experiences of meeting black soldiers on the frontlines in Europe changed the opinion of many people around the world about the merits and degree of courage shown by soldiers of different races during the WWI... his writings helped to turn private Johnson a hero, for a short time.
Coob himself wrote, referring to Johnson achievement:
If ever proof were needed, which it is not, that the color of a man’s skin has nothing to do with the color of his soul, this twain then and there offered it in abundance
...and he was right, not only because of private Johnson feat but for the achievements of thousands of different skin color people who fought a War which did not end any of the upcoming Wars.
Final thoughts...
The Great War or WWI was not a war fought by white men only...not just white, not just men as you, dear reader, can see.
There were many many more bravery acts which led common people turn out to be war heroes but many of them were simply forgotten after the initial euphoria unleashed by the press of their time. Serve this little article as an eternal reminder that the color of one men or the gender of one person has nothing to do with the degree of bravery, courage and passion that can turn a common people to become a real hero.
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