<![CDATA[Frontline Fellowship

<![CDATA[Frontline Fellowship - History]]>Wed, 04 Mar 2026 03:24:08 +0200Weebly<![CDATA[The BOMBING of CITIES in WORLD WAR II]]>Fri, 13 Feb 2026 22:00:00 GMThttps://www.frontlinemissionsa.org/history/the-bombing-of-cities-in-world-war-ii

The bombing of Dresden 14 February 1945

Frontline Fellowship · The Real Story Of The Allies 14 February St Valentines Day Bombing Of Dresden In 1945

The BOMBING of CITIES in WORLD WAR II
by Dr. Peter Hammond

Bombarded
On Mission outreaches in Sudan I experienced aerial, artillery and rocket bombardments. However, these experiences were insignificant compared to that of my parents in the Second World War. My Father served as a bombardier in the Royal Artillery in the British Army for the whole 6 years of the war. He told me of the Heinkel III’s coming over his military base and turning his barracks into matchsticks as he lay flat on the parade ground with debris blown high into the air pummelling him into the ground! My mother was only 6 years old when she experienced her first bombing. It was September 1940, she was at the circus in Berlin when the British bombed them. She was almost trampled in the stampede to flee the exploding bombs. Many times my mother heard the air raid sirens and had to rush to the air raid shelters. Frequently she saw the green and red parachute flares dropped by the lead bombers to guide the thousand bombers where to unleash their cargo of death and destruction. Her neighbourhood was turned into blazing rubble.

Uncivilised
Eminent British War historian, Captain Sir Basil Liddle Hart, described the strategic bombing campaign by RAF Bomber Command during the Second World War as: “The most uncivilised means of warfare that the world had known since the Mongol invasions.”

Contrary to International Law
British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain declared that England’s policy of bombing cities in Germany: was “absolutely contrary to international law.” Just before being ousted in Winston Churchill’s coup, Prime Minister Chamberlain announced: “His Majesty’s government will never resort to the deliberate attack on women and children and other civilians, for the purpose of mere terrorism.”

Bombers for Victory
Shortly after replacing Chamberlain as Prime Minister, Winston Churchill declared: “Our supreme effort must be to gain overwhelming mastery in the air… the bombers alone can provide the means to victory.”

Bombing Alone
Marshal of the Royal Air Force, Lord Trenchard, as early as 1921, declared that: “The next war could be won by bombing alone, by destroying the enemy’s will to resist.” From this perspective, an entire strategic philosophy developed, which was to dominate British and later American military strategy.

Quick and Easy Victory
It was the Italian General Gilulo Douhet who predicted that in the next war, bombers would inflict millions of civilian casualties in a matter of days.

Targeting Civilians
Stanley Baldwin described this new military philosophy in the House of Commons: “The only defence is offence, which means that you have to kill more women and children, more quickly than the enemy, if you want to save yourselves.”

Irrational Predictions
Although aircraft was only invented in 1903 and first used militarily in the First World War (1914-1918), books and films had developed a public dread of aerial bombing out of all proportion to its actual threat. Inspired more by the science fiction novels of H.G. Wells and Alexander Korda’s Film, Things to Come, Royal Air Force experts declared, as an article of faith: that “the bomber will always get through.”

Counter Technology
Strangely, these men failed to anticipate that technical developments in one area of warfare are soon matched by counter measures in other areas. Aircraft had advanced rapidly in WWI. Just as gas warfare was soon countered by gas masks, anti-aircraft technology would soon catch up. Night bombers would soon be countered by night fighters.

Indirect Warfare
Yet many British politicians and military leaders leapt upon this philosophy of faint hearts. After the disastrous battles of WWI, with entire divisions decimated in the battle of the Somme, Passchendaele and Ypres, the British feared to face the German soldier on the battlefield and sought for an indirect way of winning a war. Instead of losing hundreds-of-thousands of soldiers facing the German army on the ground, they would drop millions of tonnes of bombs on German cities from a safe height of ten thousand feet or more.

Total Warfare
British military strategists concluded that what had actually won the First World War was the British Naval blockade, which had led to starvation conditions in Germany. It became an article of faith amongst the chiefs of staff that the bombing of German cities would achieve victory in the war without the need to commit their armies to the kind of ground war that had caused so many casualties on the Western front in 1914 to 1918. Underlying this philosophy was the assumption that German civilians would crack under the pressure of sustained bombing. Actually, despite enduring the most sustained aerial bombardment for over five years, they never did crack. In fact, war production steadily increased.

The Spanish Civil War
When, during the Spanish Civil War, in 1938, the nationalists bombed Barcelona, reportedly 1,300 inhabitants were killed. From this British aerial experts concluded that each tonne of bombs dropped would inflict 72 casualties. This figure was treated as definitive and on this basis, the Home Office predicted one million casualties in London in the first few days of the next war. But this alarmist nonsense had no basis in fact. In fact the casualty rates at Barcelona were barely 3 casualties to every tonne of bombs dropped. Of the half a million killed in the entire Spanish War, less than 3% were killed by air raids. However, as those facts did not support Bomber Commands’ philosophy, they were suppressed at the time.

The Absence of German Heavy Bombers
The fact that the German Luftwaffe had no four-engine bombers, nor any plans to produce any in the future, was also suppressed. The entire German Luftwaffe was plainly geared to ground support of the Wehrmacht. The Heinkel 111 and Stuka Ju-87s had very small bomb capacities and were only designed for ground support of Panzer divisions. Plainly Germany had no intention of strategic bombing of cities. Germany’s heaviest bomber did not even have the capacity to carry 10% the payload of bombs that a British Lancaster was designed for.

First Blood
The earliest British air raids on Germany were quite disappointing for Bomber Command. On 4th September 1939, the day after Britain declared war on Germany, an RAF attack on a German seaplane base resulted in 24 out of the 28 British bombers being shot down. The survivors managed to drop a few bombs, by mistake, on the Danish town of Esbjerg. This was 190 km from the target!

Failure
Air raids on German warships in Wilhelmshaven were also ineffective. The few bombs that hit their targets either did not explode, or bounced off the German armour causing no damage at all. The early casualties suffered by the British bombers were extreme. Two air raids on oil installations in the Ruhr, by over 300 British bombers achieved no hits and no damage to the plants.

Inaccurate and Ineffective
Photographic evidence on the RAF bombing raids on the industrial Ruhr in Germany revealed that less than 10% of British bombers got within five miles of their target and that the bombs dropped by these aircraft were dispersed in an area 75 square miles around the intended target. During the air raids of 1940 and 1941, more British aircrew died than German victims of the bombings.

More Failure
The German battle cruisers at Brest, Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, were attacked by 1,723 sorties. Almost 2,000 tonnes of bombs were dropped on these ships, yet the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau survived these air raids, mostly unscathed.

Disproportionate Resources
RAF Bomber Command received more funding, labour, strategic materials and equipment than all other branches of the British military combined. The labour of thousands of workers in factories all over Britain was being scattered across Germany to no good purpose. Raw materials that could have been better used to build tanks, ground support aircraft, fighters, dive bombers, machine guns, rifles, medical supplies, etc. we’re being squandered to fulfil an obsession with the bomber as the war-winning weapon to beat all weapons.

Squandered Resources
Yet, far from winning the war, Bomber Command, almost lost it by absorbing the resources that could have been used to equip Britain with genuine weapons of war. Instead of recognising that the Strategic Bombing Campaign was a failure, the chiefs of staff determined to concentrate on the bombing of cities. A policy of terrorising the German population became a fundamental component of the Strategic Bombing Campaign of the RAF.

Saturation Bombing of Cities
Recognising that navigational aids were deficient and that the bombsights used were highly inaccurate, Bomber Command determined to concentrate entire Air Wings into Thousand Bomber Raids on German cities. These night time saturation bombings wouldn’t be able to miss their targets, because they would concentrate on the centre of large cities. Killing Germans, any Germans, became the policy of Bomber Command. Between 1940 and 1945, 61 German cities were destroyed in bombing campaigns by RAF Bomber Command. At least two million Germans civilians were killed by the air raids of the RAF and USAAF.

Illegal Targeting of Civilians
Indiscriminate bombing was internationally outlawed. The Washington Treaty of 1922 expressly forbade the use of bombing against civilian populations. United States government propaganda films condemned the Japanese Empire for bombing of cities, such as Shanghai. Yet, upon America’s entry into the war, U.S. General, H.H. Arnold, advocated the policy of strategic bombing of cities, such as they had condemned in Shanghai, as “the only way” that Germany could be beaten.

Non-Combatants
Winston Churchill commented: “The air opened paths along which death and terror could be carried far behind the lines of the actual enemy; to women, children, the aged, the sick, who in earlier struggles would perforce have been left untouched.”

Provoking Counter Reaction
Air Ministry historian, Dennis Richards, in the official History of the Royal Air Force (1939-1945) wrote: “If the Royal Air Force raided the Ruhr, destroying oil plants with its most accurately placed bombs and urban property for those that went astray, the outcry for retaliation against Britain might prove too strong for the German Generals to resist. Indeed, Hitler himself would probably lead the clamour. The attack on the Ruhr was therefore an informal invitation to the Luftwaffe to bomb London.”

The Great Decision
The Principal Secretary to the Air Ministry in Britain reported: “We began to bomb objectives on the German mainland before the Germans began to bomb objectives on the British mainland… Because we were doubtful about the psychological effect of the truth, that it was we who started the strategic bombing offensive, we have shrunk from giving our great decision of 11 May 1940, the publicity it deserves.” (Bombing Vindicated by J. M. Spaight, Principal Secretary to the Air Ministry.)

Total Warfare
In an interview with the New York Times, 10 January 1946, Air Marshal Tedder declared that Germany had lost the war because she had not followed the principle of “Total Warfare.”

War Psychosis
Dennis Richards in The Royal Air Force, 1939-1945, The Fight at Odds observed: “Retaliation was certain if we carried the war into Germany… there was a reasonable possibility that our capital and industrial centres would not have been attacked if we had continued to refrain from attacking those of Germany… the primary purpose of these raids was to goad the Germans into undertaking reprisal raids of a similar character on Britain. Such raids would arouse intense indignation in Britain against Germany and so create a war psychosis without which it would be impossible to carry on a modern war.”

Emotional Engineering
British Jurist, F. J. P. Veale, in Advance to Barbarism, observed: “It is one of the greatest triumphs of modern emotional engineering that, in spite of the plain facts of the case, which could never be disguised, or even materially distorted, the British public, throughout the Blitz period (1940-1941), remained convinced that the entire responsibility for the sufferings it was undergoing, rested on the German leaders. Too high praise cannot, therefore, be lavished on the British emotional engineers for the infinite skill with which the public mind was conditioned prior to and during a period of unparalleled strain. The inhabitants of Coventry, for example, continued to imagine that their sufferings were due to the innate villainy of Adolf Hitler, without a suspicion that a decision, splendid or otherwise, of the British War Cabinet, was the decisive factor in this case.”

Terror Bombing
Sir Archibald Sinclair, Secretary for Air, declared: “I am in full agreement of terror bombing. I am all for the bombing of working class areas in German cities.” On 5 July 1941, the city of Münster in Germany was bombed by 63 British Wellington Bombers, just after midnight. The city was unprepared and without any anti-aircraft protection. By the end of the war more than 90% of the old city of Münster was destroyed.

Lubeck
On the night of 28 March 1942, 234 Wellington and Sterling Bombers dropped over 400 tonnes of bombs on Lübeck. 1,468 buildings were destroyed, 2,180 were seriously damaged and 9,103 were lightly damaged. 62% of all buildings in Lübeck were damaged or destroyed.

Cologne
On the night of 30 May 1942, Cologne was destroyed by RAF Bomber Command. 2,000 tonnes of high explosives were delivered by 1,046 bombers in 90 minutes. Luftwaffe Commander, Hermann Göring, refused to believe the reports: “It’s impossible! That many bombs cannot be dropped in a single night!”

Bremen
On 25 June 1942, the British launched 1,067 bombers against the German port city of Bremen. This air raid succeeded in killing 85 people, destroying 572 houses, for the loss of 53 aircraft.

Contrasts in Casualties
Because the Luftwaffe was not equipped with strategic bombers, the contrast between casualties caused by the Blitz in England and the saturation bombing of German cities is stark. Coventry lost 100 acres through bombing. Approximately 300 people in Coventry lost their lives due to air raids by the Luftwaffe. Yet the RAF bombing of Hamburg killed over 70,000 civilians.

Firebombing Hamburg
Between 24 July and 2 August 1943, RAF Bomber Command unleashed Operation Gomorrah against the coastal town of Hamburg in Germany. 8,000-pound blockbusters and 4,000 pound “cookie” bombs knocked out roofs and windows. Subsequent waves dropped 350,412 incendiary bombs to start fires. Crews of Halifax Bombers reported a mass of raging fires in Hamburg, rising to 19,000 feet. Lead Bombers dropped parachute flare markers to guide the following bombers as to where to release their bombs in the dark. As the waterworks were destroyed first, there was no running water with which the fire brigade could extinguish the sea of flames, which soon engulfed the entire city.

Night and Day
The next day, 25 July, U.S. Army Air Force B17 Flying Fortress Bombers, unleashed further destruction upon the stricken city of Hamburg. The British lost only 12 aircraft during the night raid. The Americans lost 15 aircraft during their day raid. For 10 days and nights, the RAF and USAAF kept up a relentless day and night bombardment of the doomed city. 16,000 residential buildings in Hamburg were destroyed.

Amidst the Ruins
Incredibly, by the end of 1943, the aircraft industry, chemical industry and submarine building factories were back to almost pre-bombing capacity. However, 70,000 civilians had died in the 10-day firebombing of Hamburg.

The Destruction of Dresden
Between 13 and 15 February 1945, the city of Dresden was destroyed by over 2,000 bombers of the RAF and the USAAF. Dresden had been chosen as a target by the Soviets. Joseph Stalin persuaded Churchill and Roosevelt at Yalta to target Dresden, which was a major receiving area for refugees. The city was swollen with civilians fleeing the Red Army’s rapid and destructive advance. On the evening of 13 February 1945, 796 Lancaster’s and 9 de Havilland Mosquitos dropped 1,478 tonnes of high explosive and 1,182 tonnes of incendiary bombs between 22:14 and 22:22. Three hours later another 1,800 tonnes of bombs were dropped by a second group of Lancasters.

Successful
The first official reports on the air raid on Dresden described it as one of the most successful of the Thousand Bomber Raids: “Our pilots report that as there was little flak they were able to make careful and straight runs over the targets without bothering much about their defences; a terrific concentration of fires was started in the centre of the city.” The British described the raid as one of the “powerful blows” promised by the Allied leaders to Joseph Stalin at Yalta.

Disgrace
Allied Bombers who were involved in the firebombing of Dresden later recalled the sense of shame they felt when no anti-aircraft fire, or night fighters, opposed their bombing of the city. Numerous historians and jurists have described the bombing of the cities of Germany as a war crime and a holocaust. Yet British Air Marshal “Bomber” Arthur Harris, the Bomber Command chief directly responsible for the saturation bombing of civilian centres, was knighted for his efforts! There was a time when knights were renowned for protecting women and children – not targeting them.

Scandal
News reports from neutral countries, such as Sweden and Switzerland, pointed out that Dresden was one large hospital city swollen with refugees fleeing the advancing Red Army. They also pointed out that the main railway station on the outskirts of town was unaffected by the bombing which targeted the residential section of town. 22 Hospitals had been destroyed in Dresden. One British commentator asked: “Who the devil is going to get anything out of it? We contribute the bombs and the machines and the crews who don’t return from these raids. The Dresdeners themselves don’t get anything out of it, naturally. The only ones who look like they’re getting anything are the Russians – they get Dresden at our expense. I don’t see any reason why we should go and kill people for the benefit of the Russians alone. Do you?”

Bombing Refugees
An Associated Press radio despatch put out from Paris was broadcast throughout the United States describing the: “Deliberate Terror Bombings of German population centres… carried out by heavy bombers of the Allied Air Forces on residential sections of Berlin, Dresden… with the unprecedented day and night assault on the refugee crowded capital, with civilians fleeing from the Red Tide in the East.”

Exceptional Cowardice
Americans had traditionally viewed with suspicion the RAF Bomber Command strategy of bombing cities. Now Americans learned that American Bombers were involved in the same terror raids on civilians. The report noted that, as all available German Air Forces were concentrated on the Eastern Front to combat the Red Army offensive which threatened to destroy Germany and all of Europe, the targeting of civilian centres in Germany seemed “exceptional cowardice.”

Military Objectives
As this AP News Report was widely broadcast by radio throughout the United States, General Eisenhower and General Henry Arnold cabled General Spaatz, to clarify that the USAAF was “only targeting military objectives” and not engaging in area bombing of cities. General Carl Spaatz gave an ambiguous and dishonest assurance that the USAAF only attacked “military objectives.” This of course was not true.

Barbaric Bombing
American Historian Professor Harry Elmer Barnes, wrote: “It was the indiscriminate bombing of civilians by the so-called strategic air forces during the Second World War which culminated in the destruction of Dresden (a wholly non-military objective) in February 1945, that completely pulverised the code of civilised warfare and returned the treatment of military opponents and civilians to the level of the primal warfare that had prevailed among the savages, the Assyrians and the Medieval Mongols. On the basis of the most authoritative British sources, Mr Veale demonstrates clearly that it was the British and not the Germans who introduced indiscriminate strategic bombing, despite the efforts of Hitler to avert this reversion to barbaric practices.”

Kassel
The German town of Kassel suffered over 300 air raids, some by Thousand Bomber Raids, the British by night and the Americans by day. When on 4 April 1945, the city surrendered barely 15,000 remained of an original population of 250,000.

Wiener Neustadt
Wiener Neustadt in Austria emerged from the air raids with only 18 houses intact and its population of 45,000 reduced to just 860.

The True Heroes
The London Times Review on the British official History of the Strategic Air Offensive, commented: “One closes these volumes feeling uneasy, that the true heroes of the story they tell are neither the contending Air Marshals, nor even the 58,888 officers and men of Bomber Command who were killed in action. The heroes were the inhabitants of the German cities under attack; the men, women and children who stoically endured and worked on among the flaming ruins of their homes and factories, up till the moment when the Allied Armies overran them.”

Going Too Far
In the course of watching a British propaganda film showing the bombing of German cities from the air, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill suddenly sat bolt upright and asked Lord Casey: “Are we beasts? Are we taking this too far?”

Propaganda War
Throughout the world there were shockwaves of revulsion against the bombing of Dresden. This compelled the propaganda ministries to seek to generate as much counter accusations of atrocities against the enemy to justify the targeting of whole cities for destruction. Soon, pictures of starving inmates of labour camps were being published widely. The fact that the starvation was caused by the Naval Blockade and Arial Bombardment of Germany was, of course, not pointed out.

Distortion
As virtually every harbour, railway junction and bridge in Germany had been bombed, all basic services had broken down in the final months of the war. Starvation was widespread and epidemics of typhus had erupted. Even pictures of German civilians laid out in the centre of bombed out towns were published with the caption that these were victims of German death camps. American soldiers in Dachau had German civilians drag victims of typhus into the showers, which the Americans then claimed had been gas chambers. Later all parties agreed that there never had been a gas chamber at Dachau and the Americans were ordered to dismantle the structure they had built after the war to show to tourists. By then virtually all the prison wardens at Dachau had been massacred by the American forces for the crime which they now admitted had not taken place there.

Admission of Guilt
The American judge at the Nuremberg Trials, Nicholas Biddle, later acknowledged that: “Germany waged a much cleaner war than we did.” Winston Churchill acknowledged that had Germany won the war he could have been tried as a war criminal for having authorised the bombing of cities. Marshall of the RAF, Lord Trenchard, once declared: “I can’t write what I mean, I can’t say what I mean, but I expect you to know what I mean.”

General Purpose Dud
The official historian of the Strategic Air Offensive, Sir Charles Webster, noted that half of the bomber sorties made over Germany were a complete waste of time. The weapon with which most British bombers were armed, the general-purpose bomb, was so unreliable and ineffective as to constitute a waste of strategic resources: “Between 1939 and 1945, Bomber Command dropped over half a million 500 pound general purpose bombs and nearly 150,000, 250 pound general purpose bombs. Not only were these bombs unsuited to the task for which they were used, because of their general characteristics, which consisted of an unhappy compromise between strength of casing and weight of explosive, but they were also relatively inefficient and all too often defective, weapons.”

Poor Workmanship
It is estimated that nearly 40% of all bombs dropped by the British in 1940, failed to detonate. Even the 4,000 pound bombs frequently broke up on impact, without exploding. It was observed that Bomber Command wasted thousands of aircrew who lost their lives carrying defective bombs to Germany. This was described as bad as “sending men into battle with their rifles loaded with blanks.”

Evaluating the Strategic Bombing Campaign
It is now clear that General Douhet and Trenchard were wrong. Bombers did not win the war. In fact, one can safely say that not only did the bombing of cities not shorten the duration of the war, but the Strategic Bombing Campaign actually prolonged the war and exponentially increased the death toll of that war.

Unethical and Counter Productive
Unwilling to face the German soldier on the battlefield, these strategists were prepared to drop bombs on his family from a safe height of over 10,000 feet. This indirect way of winning a war proved to be an illusion. Over two million people were killed and millions more injured and crippled as a result. The strategic bombing of cities proved to be not only unethical, but counterproductive.

“When you besiege a city for a long time, while making war against it to take it, you shall not destroy its trees…” Deuteronomy 20:19

]]><![CDATA[The Real Story Behind The ATTACK on PEARL HARBOUR]]>Fri, 05 Dec 2025 22:00:00 GMThttps://www.frontlinemissionsa.org/history/the-real-story-behind-the-attack-on-pearl-harbour

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As my history teacher, Mr Rees-Davies, MP, in Rhodesia cautioned us: “Beware the victor’s version of history!” The story of what led up to the Japanese attack on the US Navy at Pearl Harbour is both fascinating and surprising.

Battle of Taranto
On the night of 11 to 12 November 1940, British Naval forces under Admiral Andrew Cunningham, including Aircraft Carrier HMS Illustrious, launched Fairey Swordfish biplane torpedo bombers in the Mediterranean Sea to attack the Regia Marina Battle Fleet at anchor in the harbour of Taranto. Despite the shallow depth of the water, the aerial torpedoes proved devastatingly effective, crippling the Italian Navy, which lost half of its capital ships in one night.

Naval Air Power
The Royal Navy raid on Taranto Bay marked the ascendency of air power over sea power. The Fleet Air Arm proved to be the Navy's most devastating weapon.

Trained by the Royal Navy
As the Imperial Japanese Navy had initially been trained by the Royal Navy and studied the Royal Navy's tactics and strategies most carefully, it should have been obvious that the Imperial Japanese Navy, the third most powerful Navy in the world in 1941, with 10 Fleet carriers, would begin practicing with torpedo bombers and carefully evaluate the possibility of them being used against the American Pacific Fleet based in Pearl Harbour. Japan had the largest and most modern carrier Fleet in the world in 1941. By comparison the USA had 7 aircraft carriers (only 3 of which operated in the Pacific) and Britain had 8 aircraft carriers (of which only one operated in the Indian and Pacific Oceans).

The Danger of Torpedo Attack
The claim that no one could have anticipated torpedo attacks in the shallow waters of a harbour before 7 December 1941, is false. The British had proved that torpedoes could be effective in their attack on the Italian Navy at Taranto, 11 November 1940. The Royal Navy used Swordfish Bi-planes to deliver the torpedoes. The US Navy had discussed this new threat in a June 1941 Memorandum. Torpedo nets were considered to be installed in Pearl Harbour as a precautionary measure.

Overruled by Politicians in Washington D.C.
Admiral Kimmel and his staff testified that the decision not to install torpedo nets and booms had been made by the Navy Department in Washington DC, not in Hawaii.

Classified Documents Denied to the Public
There are many documents relating to Pearl Harbour which are still classified by the United States government and have not yet been made public. Many of the documents were destroyed during the war. Some of the public records of the United Kingdom containing Churchill's "Most Secret" war time intelligence briefs, were marked as "closed for 75 years", including the sections dealing with events from November 1941 through March 1942.

Was the Japanese Raid on Pearl Harbour Unprecedented?

Mers-El-Kébir
Seventeen months before Pearl Harbour, the British Royal Navy attacked the French Fleet at anchor on the coast of French Algeria. The Battle of Mers-el-Kébir on 3 July 1940, resulted in the deaths of 1,297 French servicemen, the sinking of a French battleship and the damaging of 5 other ships. The combined air and sea attack was carried out against Britain's official ally - France.

Attacking an Ally
The attack remains controversial and created much hostility between France and Britain. Britain argued that "the times were desperate; invasion seemed imminent; and the British government simply could not afford to risk Germany seizing control of the French Fleet… the prominent British motive was thus dire necessity and self-preservation." However, the French insisted that, as their terms of surrender with Germany did not require them handing over their Fleet, which was still in French controlled territory, the British action was treacherous.

Swift and Surprising Action
French ships that were in Alexandria and believed that they were allies of Britain were shocked to be blockaded, boarded and seized by the Royal Navy at the same time. Also, on 3 July, French ships in Plymouth and Portsmouth, England, were boarded and captured. This included the French submarine, Surcouf (the largest submarine in the world at that time), four other submarines, the battleships Paris and Courbet, destroyers Triomphant and Leopard. Some officers and sailors were killed in the struggles. These attacks were justified by the British strategy of Copenhagening the Fleet.

Copenhagening the Fleet
Admiral Horatio Nelson's famous battle of Copenhagen on 2 April 1801 was a clear inspiration for the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour, 1941. Although Denmark was officially neutral during the Napoleonic Wars, Britain feared that her Navy may be seized by the French, if Denmark fell to the French.

Targeting Neutrals
The Battle of Copenhagen was a result of multiple failures of diplomacy. With Britain enforcing a strict blockade of France and any country trading with France, even neutral nations, such as Denmark, Sweden and Prussia, were regarded as legitimate targets.

The Battle of Copenhagen
Admiral Sir Hyde Parker and Vice Admiral Horatio Nelson led the attack on the Danish capital, Copenhagen. The British attack, during which Admiral Nelson famously placed his telescope to his blind eye ignoring a command to withdraw, was, from the British perspective, spectacularly successful. 1,600 Danish soldiers and sailors were killed, or wounded and most of the Danish Navy either sunk, severely damaged, or captured.

The Second Battle of Copenhagen
Although ostensibly neutral, Denmark was again attacked by the Royal Navy 16 August - 5 September 1807, when the Royal Navy bombarded Copenhagen, seized the Danish Fleet "as a precaution" in case Denmark did choose to join the French. 3,000 soldiers and civilians, including 195 children, in Copenhagen died as a result of the bombardment. As the majority of the Danish Army was at the Southern border to protect against a possible attack from the French, this second assault on a neutral country was a scandal at the time.

Ignoring Historic Precedents
Knowing that the Imperial Japanese Navy was modelled on the Royal Navy, these famous battles, strategies and tactics of Copenhagening the Fleets of even neutral countries where a potential threat was perceived, including against Britain's French allies and most tellingly at the Battle of Taranto where aircraft launched from aircraft carriers using torpedoes had crippled a battle Fleet, should have been taken into consideration.

Deception by Entertainment
As modern American films such as Tora! Tora! Tora! and Pearl Harbour tend to ignore these historic precedents and pretend that the attack on Pearl Harbour was both "unprecedented" and "unexpected" and "the first surprise attack by aircraft on ships," generations have been deceived into thinking that Pearl Harbour was a treacherous, unexpected and unprecedented attack "A day that will live in infamy!"

"Now these things became our examples, to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted… Now all these things happened to them as examples and they were written for our admonition…" 1 Corinthians 10:6-11

Desperately Seeking War
William Henry Chamberlin in America's Second Crusade (1950) wrote: "It is scarcely possible, in the light of this and many other known facts, to avoid the conclusion that the Roosevelt Administration sought the war which began at Pearl Harbour. The steps which made armed conflict inevitable would take months before the conflict broke out." (Freedom Betrayed: Herbert Hoovers Secret History of the Second World War and Its Aftermath).

Failing to Give US Servicemen a Fighting Chance
General Albert C. Wedemeyer is quoted by Herbert Hoover in Freedom Betrayed as stating: "When on, December 6, our intercepts told us that the Japanese were going to attack somewhere the very next day, whether in the Central Pacific, or to the South in the Philippines and Dutch East Indies, the president of the United States, as Commander in Chief of our Military Forces… could have gone on the radio and broadcast to the wide world that he had irrefutable evidence of an immediate Japanese intention to strike. This would have alerted everybody from Singapore to Pearl Harbour. Even though inadequate in some cases to defend effectively, nevertheless, our forces would have been able to take a toll, which would have blunted the Japanese attack. In Hawaii, the capital ships might have been moved out of the congested harbour to sea, where Admiral Kimmel at least had the foresight to keep the far more vital aircraft carriers. Furthermore, our Carrier taskforce in the mid-Pacific might have attacked the Japanese task force when its planes were aloft. There are many possibilities which could have given our men a fighting chance."

Blind Service to Stalin and the Soviet Union
"Roosevelt ignored the whole communist infiltration into his administration. Much of it was to be exposed before his death. But of more importance, he ignored the whole international purpose of communism and its morals in international relations. Its purposes and methods had been blatantly stated to the world ever since 1917 and its statements in books were widely distributed in the United States. Roosevelt was not a communist. His leanings towards Stalin and blindness to communistic activities arose partly from his own Leftist-leaning and partly from the usefulness of the communists in support of his administration politically throughout his 13 years in office."

Co-operating with Communism
"His leanings towards Stalin and the communist began with the recognition of the Soviet Union immediately upon taking his office in 1933... During 15 years prior to the recognition, Democratic and Republican administrations alike had barred any relations with a country which had returned huge numbers of mankind to slavery and was constantly conspiring against the welfare of other peoples. By recognition, Roosevelt gave the Soviet Union certain respectability in the family of nations, but also of importance. By that act, he had opened the door to communist penetration and conspiracies in the United States." “He who justifies the wicked and he who condemns the just, both of them alike are an abomination to the Lord.” Proverbs 17:15

A Madman's Desire to Get US into War
In Herbert Hoover's Freedom Betrayed, General Douglas McArthur's views are reported that: "the whole Japanese war was a madman's desire to get us into war." McArthur was convinced that the "Financial sanctions in July 1941 were not only provocative but that Japan was bound to fight even if it were suicide, unless they could be removed, as the sanctions carried every penalty of war except killing and destruction and no nation of dignity would take them for long."

An Unnecessary War
McArthur said that: "Roosevelt could have made peace with Konoye in September 1941 and could have obtained all of the American objectives in the Pacific and the freedom of China and probably Manchuria. Konoye was authorized by the Emperor to agree to complete withdrawal."

Callous Indifference to the American Army Beleaguered in the Philippines
McArthur was bitter about: "Roosevelt's starvation of supplies to him at a time when the whole fate of the South Pacific and their allies in Asia was at stake." "Roosevelt had shown his vindictiveness in many ways."

The Truth about Pearl Harbour
In September 1944, John Flynn, a member of the America First Committee, published The Truth about Pearl Harbour:

Provoking Japan to Get America into the War
Rear Admiral Frank Beatty, who at the time of the Pearl Harbour attack was an aide to the Secretary of the Navy, Frank Knox, testified: "Prior to 7 December, it was evident even to me… that we were pushing Japan into a corner. I believe that it was the desire of President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill that we get into the war, as they felt their allies could not win without us and all our efforts to cause the Germans to declare war on us had failed. The conditions we imposed upon Japan were so severe that we knew the nation could not accept them. We were forcing her so severely that we could have known that she would react towards the United States. All her preparations in a military way - and we knew their overall import - pointed that way."

"Worth the Price"
Jonathan Daniels, Roosevelt's administrative assistant at that time of Pearl Harbour, presented an eye-witness viewpoint: "The blow was heavier than he had hoped it would necessarily be… But the risks paid off; even the loss was worth the price..." ("1941: Pearl Harbour Sunday: The End of an Era").

To Save the Soviet Union from Collapse in Europe
In Day of Deceit, by Robert Stinnett, a memorandum prepared by Commander McCollun stated that a memorandum issued in the immediate pre-war period declared that only a direct attack on US interests would sway the American public, or Congress, to favour direct involvement in the European war. Anderson and Secretary Knox, offered eight specific plans to aggrieve the Japanese Empire "If by these means Japan could be led to commit an overt active war, so much the better." The McCollun memo of 7 October 1940, remained classified until 1994.

Reckless and Irresponsible
Admiral James Richardson was fired by President Roosevelt for complaining about the president's order to station the Pacific Fleet in Pearl Harbour. Admiral Richardson blamed the president for the "initial defeats in the Pacific" as "direct, real and personal." Richardson believed that stationing the Pacific Fleet in Pearl Harbour made the ships "extremely vulnerable to attack" and provided "a poor and nonstrategic defence."

A Travesty of History
"No reasonably informed person can now believe that Japan made a villainous unexpected attack on the United States. An attack was not only fully expected, but was actually desired. It is beyond doubt that President Roosevelt wanted to get his country into the war, but for political reasons, was most anxious to ensure that the first act of hostility came from the other side; for which reason he caused increasing pressure to be put on the Japanese, to a point that no self-respecting nation could endure without resort to arms. Japan was meant, by the American President, to attack the United States. As Mr Oliver Lyttelton, then British Minister of Production, said in 1944: 'Japan was provoked into attacking America's Pearl Harbour. It is a travesty of history to say that America was forced into the war'." - British Historian Captain Russell Grenfell Main Fleet to Singapore as quoted by President Herbert Hoover in Freedom Betrayed.

Dereliction of Duty
Captain L.F. Safford, US Navy, in charge of the Communications Security Section of Naval Communications in Washington, testified before the Admiral Hart Board that: "On 4 December 1941, we received definite information from two independent sources that Japan would attack the United States and Britain… at 9pm Washington time, 6 December 1941, we received positive information that Japan would declare war against the United States at a time to be specified thereafter. This information was positive and unmistakable and was made available to Military Intelligence virtually at the moment of its decoding. Finally at 10:15am Washington time, 7 December 1941, we received positive information from Signal Intelligence Service, War Department, that the Japanese Declaration of War would be presented to the Secretary of State at 1 pm, Washington time that date; when it was 1pm in Washington, it would be day break in Hawaii and approximately midnight in the Philippines, which indicated a surprise air raid in Pearl Harbour in about three hours. President Roosevelt had ample time to broadcast a warning."

Criminal Negligence
An Army Enquiry conducted July to October 1944, condemned negligence by General Marshall and other senior officers for having prior knowledge of the attacks from the intercepts and for not having alerted the Military Commander at Pearl Harbour. Congress was not satisfied with the Military investigations and reports and from November 1945 to May 1946, the Congressional Pearl Harbour Investigation, a Minority Report by Senate Members of the Committee condemned the endeavour to "throw as soft a light as possible on Washington."

Attempted Cover-Ups
"The Roberts Commission Report was so hasty, inconclusive and incomplete. Some witnesses were examined under oath, others were not. Much testimony was not even recorded… several records were missing and most inadequate explanations were supplied… Army and Navy information indicated growing imminence of war was delivered to the highest authorities… including the President. The fatal error of Washington was to undertake a world campaign and world responsibilities without first making provision for the security of the United States, which was their prime constitutional obligation. High Washington authorities did not communicate to Admiral Kimmel and General Short adequate information of diplomatic negotiations and of intercepted diplomatic intelligence, which, if communicated with them, would have informed them of the imminent menace of a Japanese attack in time for them to fully alert and prepare the defence of Pearl Harbour… the failure to perform the responsibilities indispensably essential to the defence of Pearl Harbour rest upon Franklin D. Roosevelt, Henry L. Stimson, Frank Knox and George C. Marshall…" (Freedom Betrayed)

Dragging a Reluctant America into War
George Morgenstern in his book, Pearl Harbour: The Story of the Secret War, published in 1947, wrote: "With absolute knowledge of war, they refused to communicate that knowledge clearly, unequivocally and in time, to the people in the field, upon whom the blow would fall… Pearl Harbour provided the American War party with the means of escaping dependence on a hesitant Congress in taking a reluctant people into war… Pearl Harbour was the first action of the Acknowledged War and the last battle of a Secret War, upon which the administration had long since embarked.

The Secret War of Deception and Propaganda
"The Secret War was waged against nations which the leadership of this country had chosen as enemies’ months before they became formal enemies, by declaration of war. It was waged also by psychological means by propaganda and deception against the American people… the people were told that acts which were equivalent to war were intended to keep the nation out of war. Constitutional processes existed only to be circumvented. Until finally the war making power of Congress was reduced to the act of ratifying an accomplished fact."

Rejecting Every Overture for Peace
Herbert Hoover declares in his book Freedom Betrayed: "It can never be forgotten that three times during 1941, Japan made overtures for peace negotiation. America never made one unless a futile proposal to the Emperor the day before Pearl Harbour could be called peace. A peace could have been made in the Pacific that would have saved China from ravishment and would have protected the American Pacific flank. If Roosevelt was still determined to carry on his undeclared war with Germany, until it provoked reprisals, that Pacific protection was the only sane course. It would have limited our engagement in any case to the European theatre. As a result of this policy - an undeclared war upon Japan - we suffered the greatest military defeat in our history - with immeasurable consequences.

Fanning the Flames of Hate by a Mass of Lies
"Public opinion was overwhelmingly against our being involved in the war up to the day of Pearl Harbour… America came into World War One 33 months after its outbreak. She came into World War Two 27 months after it started. The processes and the months of lag were the same: the appeal to crusade for freedom, for independence of nations, for lasting peace; the same pictures of atrocities; the fanning of hate and above all, the mass of lies and stimulation of fear of invasion - they were identical. But in World War Two the people believed much less of it and they believed much more that they were being deliberately pushed into the war. They dimly recognised that they were being ground in the mills of power politics and the personal ambitions of men."

Stalin, Churchill and Roosevelt's War
"The First World War had been conducted in the Allied side in the name of 'the peoples'. This war was in the name of Stalin, Churchill and Roosevelt. At times the whole political and military scene seemed their personal property - as it was." (Herbert Hoover, Freedom Betrayed). “While they promise them liberty, they themselves are slaves of corruption …” 2 Peter 2:19

Many Recognised They Were Being Forced and Deceived into War
"In the first World War, our sons marched to war with flowers in their rifles. Bands and cheering people were on every platform. There were no bands, no flowers and no cheers on the railway platforms to World War Two. There was little singing of war ballades by soldiers or civilians, except at the urging of paid conductors of propaganda. The station platforms were stages for grieving and tears. The promises, the speeches, the propaganda filled the air as in World War One, but this time the people received it grimly and with little believing." - Herbert Hoover.

Double Standards
President Herbert Hoover in Freedom Betrayed documents: "Roosevelt's contemptuous refusal of Prime Minister Konoe's proposals for peace in the Pacific of September, 1941 was a lost opportunity. The acceptance of these proposals was prayerfully urged by both the American and British Ambassadors in Japan. The terms Konoye proposed would have accomplished every American purpose except possibly the return of Manchuria - and even this was thrown open to discussion. The cynic will recall that Roosevelt was willing to provoke a great war on his flank over this remote question and then gave Manchuria to Communist Russia."

The Threat of Communism
Herbert Hoover documents in Freedom Betrayed that American Military officials strongly urged FDR to accept the Three Months' Stand-Still Agreement offered by the Emperor of Japan in November 1941. Japan was alarmed at the threat of the Soviet Union and a 90-days delay could have kept war out of the Pacific. Secretary of War, Stimson, in his Diary, disclosed that Roosevelt and his officials were seeking for a method to stimulate an overt act of aggression from the Japanese.

Betraying Asia to Communism
"Then, Secretary of State, Hull, issued his foolish ultimatum and we were defeated at Pearl Harbour. By Roosevelt insisting that Chinese Premiere Chiang Kai-shek include Mao Tse-Tung's communists in a Coalition government and Roosevelt's Secret Agreement at Yalta to betray Mongolia and Manchuria to Russia, future generations were betrayed. All of China was sacrificed to the communists in the years of President Truman - at the insistence of his Left-wing advisors and General Marshall. The Second World War ended with 450 Million Asiatic peoples betrayed under communist dictatorship." (Freedom Betrayed). “It is an abomination for kings to commit wickedness, for a throne is established by righteousness.” Proverbs 16:12

The Only Beneficiary was Communism
Herbert Hoover in Freedom Betrayed declared: "I had warned the American people time and again against becoming involved. I stated repeatedly its only end would be to promote Communism over the earth; that we would impoverish the United States and the whole world. The situation of the world today is my vindication." “… Should help the wicked and love those who hate the Lord? Therefore the wrath of the Lord is upon you.”
2 Chronicles 19:2

Christian Resistance
"Despite these physical losses and these moral political disasters and these international follies… Despite the drift to collectivism, despite degeneration in government, despite the demagogic intellectuals, despite the corruption in our government and the moral corruptions of our people, we still hold to Christianity, we still have the old ingenuity in our scientific and industrial progress."

The Public-School Front
"We have 35 million children marching through our schools and 2.5 million in our institutions of higher learning…

Hope in the Homes
"The promise of a greater America abides in the millions of cottages throughout the land, where men and women are still resolute in freedom. In their hearts the spirit of America still lives. The boys and girls from those homes will someday throw off these disasters and frustrations and will re-create their America again." “Hate evil, love good; establish justice in the gates.” Amos 5:15

Forewarned is Forearmed
In order to anticipate problems and threats in the future we need to study the past.
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” George Santayana.
“If we do not know our own history, we will simply have to endure all the same mistakes, sacrifices and absurdities all over again.” Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Truth does not fear investigation
“You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.” John 8:32

Dr. Peter Hammond
Frontline Fellowship
P.O. Box 74, Newlands, 7725
Cape Town, South Africa
Tel: (021) 689-4480
Email: mission@frontline.org.za
www.ReformationSA.org
www.FrontlineMissionSA.org
www.HMSSchoolofChristianJournalism.org

To listen to a radio interview on this subject, click here.

See also:
Mitsuo Fuchida – From Pearl Harbour to Calvary
Were Atomic Bombs Necessary to End World War Two?
The Assassination of General George S. Patton

]]><![CDATA[DAVID LIVINGSTONE at VICTORIA FALLS]]>Sat, 15 Nov 2025 06:23:46 GMThttps://www.frontlinemissionsa.org/history/david-livingstone-at-victoria-falls

I could never forget my wife Lenora's birthday, 16 November, because it fell on the same day that Dr David Livingstone first sighted, measured, sketched and named Victoria Falls on the Zambezi river 16 November 1855. Back in 2013 we were camping on the banks of the Zambezi river, conducting the Livingstone 200 missions conference in the town of Livingstone, in Zambia.

ON THIS DAY in MISSIONARY HISTORY
DAVID LIVINGSTONE at VICTORIA FALLS
16 November 1855 – Scottish Missionary, Dr. David Livingstone, sighted, explored, measured and named Victoria Falls on the Zambezi River in Central Africa.
“The Smoke that Thunders”
Seeing enormous columns of spray and hearing a thunderous roar miles away, Missionary David Livingstone asked local people what was there? In response, he was told: “Mosi-oa-Tunya,” (“the smoke that thunders”). Some villagers described it as “Seongo” or “Chongwe,” which means, “the place of the rainbow.”
Fear and Superstition
When asked what caused the smoke and the thunder, he was told that this was the work of the spirits. Apparently, nobody had dared venture close enough to actually see what made the smoke thunder. Most were too afraid to go with Dr. Livingstone to explore it, so great was the hold of superstition and fear.
“A Scene so Lovely Angels Must have Gazed Upon It”
Borrowing a canoe, Dr. Livingstone travelled downstream and could clearly see: “the high columns of vapour which were called by the villagers, smoke. From a distance, it looked as though large tracts of grass were being burned.” As he drew closer, he could see “five distinct columns, bending in the direction of the wind. They seemed placed against a lower ridge covered with trees. The tops of the columns at this distance appeared to mingle with the clouds. They were white below and higher up became dark, so as to simulate smoke very closely. The whole scene was extremely beautiful; the banks and islands dotted over the river are adorned with sylvan vegetation of great variety of colour and thorn… no one can imagine the beauty of the view from anything witnessed in England. It had never been seen before by European eyes, but a scene so lovely must have been gazed upon by angels in their flight.”
Lush Rain Forest
“The Falls are bounded by three sides by ridges 300, or 400, feet in height, which are covered with forest, with the red soil appearing amongst the trees.”
The View from Livingstone Island
Dr. Livingstone beached his canoe on an island situated in the middle of the river, (today this is called Livingstone Island) and crawled to the edge to gaze at a most wondrous sight, as “on both sides, the water rolled off into deep gorges. In coming hither there was danger of being swept down by the streams which rushed along on each side of the river, but the river was now low… the vast body of water seemed to lose itself in the earth, the opposite lip of the fissure, into which it disappeared, was only 80 feet distant. Creeping with awe to the verge, I peered down into a large rent, which had been made from bank to bank of the broad Zambezi River and saw a stream of over 1,000 yards broad leap down hundreds of feet and then became suddenly compressed in a space of 15, or 20, yards wide.”

“The Most Wonderful Sight in Africa”
“The entire Falls are simply a crack made in hard basaltic rock from the right to the left bank of the Zambezi and then prolonged from the left bank by way through 30, or 40, miles of hills. If one imagines the Thames filled with low, tree-covered hills, immediately beyond the tunnel, extending as far as Graves End, the bed of black basaltic rock instead of London mud and a fissure made therein from one end of the tunnel, to the other, down through the keystones of the arch and prolonged from the left end of the tunnel through 30 miles of hills, the pathway being over 100 feet down from the bed of the river, instead of what it is, with the lips of the fissure from 80 to 100 feet apart, then fancy the Thames leaping bodily in the gulf and forced there to change its direction and flow from the right to the left bank and then rush boiling and roaring through the hills, you may have some idea of what takes place at this, the most wonderful sight I had witnessed in Africa.”
The Rainbow in the Cloud
“In looking down into the fissure, on the right of the island, one sees nothing but a dense white cloud, with two bright rainbows in it. From this cloud rushed up a great jet of vapour, exactly like steam and it mounted 200, or 300, feet high; there condensing it changed its hue to that of dark smoke and came back in a constant shower,” which saturated Livingstone to the skin.
Shimmering Sights of Steam, Steel and Snow
On the left of the island, he saw: “water at the bottom, a white rolling mass, moving away to the prolongation of the fissure, which branches off near the left bank of the river…. The walls of this giant crack are perpendicular and composed of one homogenous mass of rock. The edge of that side over which the waterfalls is worn off 2, or 3, feet and pieces have fallen away, so as to give it somewhat of a serrated appearance. That over which the water does not fall is quite straight, except at the left corner, where a rent appears and a piece seems inclined to fall off upon the whole; it is nearly in the state in which it was left at the period of its formation… on the left side of the island we had a good view of the massive water which causes one of the columns of vapour to ascend and it leaps quite clear of the rock and forms a thick unbroken fleece all the way to the bottom. Its whiteness gave the idea of snow, a sight I had not seen for many a day. As it broke into pieces of water, all rushing on in the same direction, each gave off several rays of foam, exactly like bits of steel being burned in oxygen gas gives off rays of sparks. A snow white sheet which seemed like myriads of small comets rushing on in one direction, each of which left behind its nucleus rays of foam.”
Measuring Victoria Falls
Ever the Scientist and Geographer, Livingstone now began to measure the Falls and to draw sketches of it. He let down a weighted string and measured the distance from the lip of Livingstone Island down to the bottom of the gorge at 310 feet deep. He then calculated that the width of Victoria Falls was 1,860 yards. He paced the distance between the first and the second gorge at 400 paces on the left side at 150 paces on the right. The accuracy of these initial measurements have been confirmed by later scientific measurements.
The Largest Waterfall in the World
Victoria Falls is classified as the largest waterfall in the world, with a combined width of 1,708 metres (5,604 feet) and a height of 108 meters (354 feet) on average. It results in the world’s largest sheet of falling water. Victoria Falls is roughly twice the height of North America’s Niagara Falls and over twice the width of Horse Shoe Falls. It is bigger than Argentina and Brazil’s Iguazu Falls. Victoria Falls has recorded up to 12,800 tonnes of water per second passing over the edge. Victoria Falls has been identified as one of the seven natural wonders of the world.
A Major Tourist Destination
Dr. Livingstone named it after Queen Victoria and it has been a major tourist destination ever since. By the end of the 1990s, almost 400,000 people were visiting Victoria Falls each year. Most of the tourists go to the Zambian side, because of the political instability in Zimbabwe. There are two national Game Reserves at Victoria Falls, Mosi-oa-Tunya National Park in Zambia and Victoria Falls National Park in Zimbabwe.
On his Zambezi expedition, Dr. Livingstone was accompanied by Victorian artist, Thomas Baines, whose colour paintings of Victoria Falls are famous. They also documented the tremendous concentration of wildlife in the area around Victoria Falls. Evidently, it was, for generations, a major wildlife sanctuary, as none of the local people dared venture near a place which the superstitious viewed with fear.
Victoria Falls Will Always Be Associated with David Livingstone
Some may question if David Livingstone was the first to see Victoria Falls. However, there is absolutely no question that he was the first to name it, measure it, sketch it and make it known to the world. There are major monuments to Dr. David Livingstone on both the Zambezi and Zimbabwean sides of Victoria Falls. On the Zambian side is situated the city of Livingstone, which has the Livingstone Museum and the David Livingstone Teacher Training College.
“Deep calls unto deep at the noise of Your waterfalls; all Your waves and billows have gone over me. The Lord will command His lovingkindness in the daytime and in the night His song shall be with me - A prayer to the God of my life.” Psalm 42:7

]]><![CDATA[Versailles - The Poisonous Spirit of Vengeance]]>Fri, 27 Jun 2025 22:00:00 GMThttps://www.frontlinemissionsa.org/history/versailles-the-poisonous-spirit-of-vengeanceVersailles - The Poisonous Spirit of Vengeance

By Dr. Peter Hammond

“Injustice, arrogance, displayed in the hour of triumph will never be forgotten or forgiven.”
– Lloyd George, 1919

“Those three all-powerful, all-ignorant men… sitting there carving continents with only a child to lead them.” – Arthur Balfour

German Victories on the Eastern and Southern Fronts
After defeating the Italians at Caporetto and the defeat of Romania and Russia, in early 1918, a million German soldiers had been released to join their comrades on the Western Front for the last great German offensive of the war.

Western Offensive
By April 1918, Ludendorff’s armies were back on the Marne River and Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig was issuing his order: “With our backs to the wall… each of us must fight on to the end… Every position must be held to the last man: there must be no retirement.”

America Upsets the Balance of Power in Europe
In the end, the Americans proved decisive. By spring 1918,300,000 American soldiers were in France; by summer, 1,000,000. With fresh American soldiers moving into the front lines at 250,000 a month, German morale sank.

Peace Overtures
On October 5, 1918, Prince Max of Baden sounded out President Wilson on a peace based on the Fourteen Points he had laid out in January. Three days later, Wilson asked Prince Max if Germany would accept the points. On October 12, Prince Max gave assurances that his object in “entering into discussions would be only to agree upon practical details for the application” of the Fourteen Points to a treaty of peace.

Roadblocks to Peace
Wilson now began to add conditions: Safeguards must be provided to guarantee Allied “military supremacy” and a democratic and representative government must be established. The Kaiser had to go. Prince Max agreed. On 23 October, Wilson took the German offer to the Allies. The British and French, after four years of bloodletting that had cost them together two million dead and six million wounded, balked at Wilson’s mild terms. Under a threat from Colonel House of a separate peace, Prime Minister Lloyd George went along, with one reservation. Britain could not agree to the second of Wilson’s points: freedom of the seas. The Royal Navy must be free to do whatever they thought necessary to protect the empire.

Escalating Demands
France succeeded in inserting a claim to full compensation “for all damage done to the civilian population of the Allies and their property by Germany by land, by sea and from the air.”

The Crime of 11 November
Matthias Erzberger, the leader of the Catholic Centre Party who had urged fellow Germans to agree to an armistice, was given the thankless task of meeting Marshal Ferdinand Foch, the Allied Supreme Commander and signing the Armistice in a railway carriage in Compiègne Forest on November 11, 1918. Erzberger would be assassinated in the Black Forest, in 1921, for the “crime of November 11.”

A Call to Reject Vengeance and Greed
In Great Britain, a “khaki election” was called by the government to exploit the triumph of war’s end.
Lloyd George began his campaign November 12, one day after the Armistice, with a statesmanlike call for a magnanimous peace. “We must not allow any sense of revenge, any spirit of greed, any grasping desire to over-rule the fundamental principles of righteousness. Vigorous demands will be made to hector and bully the government in the endeavour to make them depart from the strict principles of right and to satisfy some base, sordid, squalid idea of vengeance and avarice. We must relentlessly set our faces against that.” "He has shown you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God?" Micah 6:8

No Mercy
Arriving in Paris with a mandate for no mercy, Lloyd George found his resolve to impose a harsh peace more than matched by Georges Clemenceau, whose ravaged nation had lost 1.3 million of its sons. He had one great love - France; and one great hate - Germany. Clemenceau was determined to impose on “le Boche” a treaty that would cripple Germany. His fear and hatred were caught in a remark attributed to him: “There are twenty million Germans too many!” "Undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful; who knowing the righteous judgement of God, that those who practise such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practise them." Romans 1:31-32

A Terrible Treaty
“Democracy is more vindictive than cabinets,” Churchill had told the Parliament in 1901. “The wars of peoples will be more terrible than those of kings.” The peace the peoples demanded and got in 1919 would prove more savage, for, wrote one historian, “It was easier for despotic monarchs to forget their hatreds than for democratic statesmen or peoples.”

The Contrast of Vienna
At the Congress of Vienna in 1815, Napoleon’s foreign minister Talleyrand had sat with Castlereagh of England, Metternich of Austria, Alexander I of Russia and Frederick William III of Prussia, the coalition that had destroyed Napoleon’s empire, to create a new structure of peace.

The Contrast of Brest-Litovsk
At Brest-Litovsk in 1918, Germans and Russians had negotiated the terms, which gave self-determination and freedom to Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Georgia, Belarus and Ukraine. But, though Germany’s fate was to be decided at Versailles, no German had been invited, for the Allies had come to Paris to punish them as the "guilty nation" responsible for destroying the peace!

Reneging Upon Promises and Principles
“We have no quarrel with the German people. We have no feeling towards them but one of sympathy and friendship. It was not upon their impulse that their government acted in entering upon this war,” Wilson had said on April 2, 1917, as America entered the war.

A Savage Peace
When German representatives were summoned to Paris to receive the terms of the Allies, they were stunned at the amputations to be forced upon them. Eupen and Malmédy were to be taken from Germany and given to Belgium. Alsace and Lorraine were to be annexed by France. The Saar was placed under the League of Nations – de facto French control - and its coalmines given to France. The 650,000 Germans of the Saar were granted the right, in fifteen years, to vote on whether they wished to return to Germany. Should they so decide, Germany must then buy her mines back! In Schleswig, a plebiscite was to be held to divide the land with Denmark. The East Prussian port of Memel was seized by Lithuania. Only on the insistence of Lloyd George, who reportedly said he would no more transfer Upper Silesia to the Poles “than he would give a clock to a monkey,” was a plebiscite held in those lands that had been under German sovereignty for centuries. In the plebiscite, 60 percent of the people voted to stay with Germany, but five-sixths of the industrial area and almost all the mines were still ceded to Warsaw.

A Tragic Farce
A disgusted British observer, Sir Robert Donald, called the plebiscite a “tragic farce” and the stripping of Upper Silesia from Germany “robbery under arms.”

The Polish Corridor
The port city of Danzig, German for centuries, was declared a Free City and placed under League of Nations administration and Polish control. East Prussia was separated from Germany by a “Polish Corridor” that put a million Germans under Warsaw’s rule.

Robbery Under Arms
Versailles stripped from Germany one-tenth of her people and one-eighth of her territory. "Do not remove the ancient landmark, nor enter the fields of the fatherless." Proverbs 23:10

Wholesale Theft
Germany’s overseas empire, the third largest on Earth, was wholly confiscated. All private property of German citizens in German colonies was declared forfeit. Japan was awarded the German concession in Shantung and all German islands north of the Equator. The German islands south of the Equator went to New Zealand and Australia. Germany’s African colonies were divided among South Africa, Britain and France.

Double Standards
Germany’s rivers were internationalized, and she was forced to open her home markets to Allied imports but denied equal access to Allied markets.

Dismembered and Disarmed
Territories cut away, colonies gone, Germany was to have her limbs broken so she could never fight again. Germany was forbidden ever again to build armoured cars, tanks, heavy artillery, submarines, or an air force.

Defenceless
The High Seas Fleet was seized as war booty, as was the German merchant fleet. Her navy was to consist of six small battleships, six light cruisers, twelve destroyers and twelve torpedo boats. The General Staff was abolished, and the army restricted to one hundred thousand men. Germany was to remain forever vulnerable to her enemies.

Sickening Extortion
Goaded on by Lord Northcliffe’s newspapers, Lloyd George made good on his pledge that Germany be made to bear the full cost of the war – to include the pensions of Allied soldiers. But, Wilson’s public pledge of "no indemnities" had first to be circumvented. Someone else would have to persuade Wilson, for the president had come to detest Lloyd George. “Mr. Prime Minister, you make me sick!” the president blurted, after listening to another shift of position by the “Welsh witch”. "While they promise them liberty, they themselves are slaves of corruption." 2 Peter 2:19

A Vindictive Peace Which Guaranteed War
John Maynard Keynes, who was with the British delegation, would return home to write The Economic Consequences of the Peace, the book charging the Allied leaders with having crafted a savage and vindictive peace that must, by crushing Germany with debt, set the stage for a new war.

Reparation Scam
The British were behind this scheme to include pensions. For as the damage done to the British Isles by air or naval attack was minimal and the confiscation of Germany’s merchant ships had replaced British losses at sea, Britain was entitled to perhaps only 1 percent or 2 percent of reparations. If Germany could be made to pay the pensions of millions of British soldiers, however, Britain’s share of reparations could soar to more than 20 percent. Including pensions, however, would also triple the Reparations Bill for Germany.

Fraudulent Idealism
Lloyd George enlisted South Africa’s Jan Smuts, a lawyer one historian calls “the great operator of fraudulent idealism,” to persuade Wilson that forcing Germany to fund the pensions of Allied soldiers would not violate his pledge to limit reparations to civilian damage done in the war!

Illogical
An outraged U.S. delegation implored Wilson to veto the reparations bill, arguing that it did not follow logically from any of his Fourteen Points. “Logic, logic, I don’t give a damn about logic,” Wilson snarled. “I am going to include pensions.”

We Are Doing Hell's Dirtiest Work
Henry White, one of five members of the official U.S. delegation, reflected the dejection and disillusionment idealistic Americans felt: “We had such high hopes of this adventure; we believed God called us and now we are doing hell’s dirtiest work.”

Colossal Extortion of a Nation
In 1920, the Allies would set the final bill for reparations at thirty-two billion gold marks, an impossible sum. "For I, the Lord, love justice; I hate robbery and iniquity." Isaiah 61:8

The Myth of War Guilt
Under Article 231 of the treaty, the “war guilt clause,” Germany was forced to confess to and accept full responsibility for, causing the war and all the damage done! Under Article 227, the Kaiser was declared a war criminal to be arrested and prosecuted. Forcing the Germans to confess to an historic crime and agree to a lie – that they alone were to blame for the war – was as foolish as it was unjust.

Kaiser Wilhelm was Not a Warmonger
The Kaiser by 1914 had been in power twenty-five years yet he had never fought a war. In the two Moroccan crises, it was he who had backed down. Though he had given the Austrians support to act against Serbia, when the Austrian archduke was murdered by Serb terrorists on June 28, 1914, by the last days of July, no monarch in Europe was trying more desperately to arrest Europe’s plunge to war. "He who justifies the wicked and he who condemns the just, both of them alike are an abomination to the Lord." Proverbs 17:15

A Poisonous Effect
The effect on the German psyche of forcing the nation to confess to a crime Germans did not believe they had committed was poisonous: There is no better way to generate hatred than by forcing a person to sign a confession of guilt which he is sacredly convinced is untrue. The wanton humiliation, unprecedented up to that time in the annals of Christendom, created a thirst for justice.

Treacherous Treaty
“The forced admission of German war guilt in the Treaty of Versailles would have been a colossal political blunder even if it had been true: and it was not true,” adds British historian Russell Grenfell. Today, men do not appreciate what Versailles meant to the Germans, who, triumphant in the East, believed they had laid down their arms and accepted an Armistice and peace in the West based on Wilson’s Fourteen Points.

A Colossal Political Blunder
British Labour leader Sir Roy Denman offers this analogy: These terms are difficult to bring home to British readers. But, supposing that Britain had lost the U-boat war in 1917 and Germany had imposed an equivalent peace; it could have meant British recognition that its policy of encirclement (of Germany) had caused the war; confiscation of all British colonies and the British merchant fleet; Dover and Portsmouth occupied; the Royal Navy reduced to half a dozen destroyers; south-east England demilitarised; Liverpool a free port, with a corridor under German rule to Harwich; and crippling reparations. No post-war British government would have accepted this indefinitely.

The Starvation Blockade
Why did the Germans sign? Germany faced invasion and death by starvation if she refused. With her merchant ships and even Baltic fishing boats sequestered and the blockade still in force, Germany could not feed her people. When Berlin asked permission to buy 2.5 million tons of food, the request was denied.

A Violation of International Law
From November 11 through the peace conference, the blockade was maintained. Before going to war, America had denounced the British blockade as a violation of international law and human decency. It had kept the vital necessities of life out of neutral ports "if there were any chance the goods could be trans-shipped to Germany."

As Great Criminals As You Are
When America declared war, a U.S. admiral told Lord Balfour, “You will find that it will take us only two months to become as great criminals as you are.” U.S. war ships now supported the blockade. “Once lead this people into war,” Wilson had said in 1917, “and they’ll forget there ever was such a thing as tolerance.”

War Against Civilians
America had forgotten. The blockade was responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of men, women and children after the Germans laid down their weapons and surrendered their warships. Its architect and chief advocate had been the First Lord of the Admiralty. His aim, said Churchill, was to “starve the whole population – men, women and children, old and young, wounded and sound – into submission.”

War in Peace
On March 3, 1919, four months after Germany accepted an Armistice and laid down her arms, Churchill rose exultant in the Commons to declare, “We are enforcing the Blockade with rigour and Germany is very near starvation!”

Worse than War
Five days later, the Daily News wrote, “The birth-rate in the great towns (of Germany) has changed places with the death rate. It is tolerably certain that more people have died among the civil population from the blockade than died on the battlefield.”

Callous Indifference
Even the entreaties of “brave little Belgium”, for whom the British had said they had gone to war, fell on deaf ears. Herbert Hoover, who would be credited with saving a starving Belgium, “spent as much time arguing with the British about getting food to the Belgians,” writes U.S. historian Thomas Fleming. The “poor little Belgium” of British propaganda meant little to the British admirals and bureaucrats. Churchill, who favoured letting the Belgians starve and blaming the Germans, called Hoover “a son of a bitch” for trying to deliver food to starving civilians.

Starving Women and Children
Americans “have been brought up not to kick a man in the stomach after we have licked him,” said Hoover. “We have not been fighting women and children and we are not beginning now.” Put in charge of all relief efforts, Hoover wanted to feed the starving Germans. Congress refused. In February 1919, Congress appropriated $100 million for food, but Germany was not to get a loaf of bread, nor a bowl of soup. "For I was hungry and you gave Me no food, I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink." Matthew 25:42

Death on the Rhine
So severe was the suffering that, on March 10, 1919, the British Commander on the Rhine publicly urged that food be sent to the population as the spectre of starving children was damaging the morale of his troops. General Sir Herbert Plumer’s letter was read to the Big Three in Paris: "Please inform the Prime Minister that, in my opinion, food must be sent into this area by the Allies without delay… The mortality amongst women, children and sick is most grave and sickness due to hunger is spreading. The attitude of the population is becoming one of despair and the people feel that an end by bullets is preferable to death by starvation."

Criminal Targeting of Children
His troops, said General Plumer, could no longer stand the sight of “hordes of skinny and bloated children pawing over the offal from British cantonments.” Pope Benedict XV’s plea for an end to the blockade was ignored. One visitor to Germany who witnessed it all wrote: "The starvation is done quietly and decently at home. And when death comes, it comes in the form of influenza, tuberculosis, heart failure, or one of the new and mysterious diseases caused by the war and carries off its exhausted victims. In Frankfurt, even as late as March 1920, the funerals never ceased all day."

A Bitter Legacy
In 1938, a British diplomat in Germany was asked repeatedly, “Why did England go on starving our women and children long after the Armistice?” “Freedom and Bread” would become a powerful slogan in the ascent to power of the new National Socialist Workers Party.

A Dark Chapter in History
Decades later, Hoover, a former president and senior statesman, was still decrying the post-Armistice Food Blockade of Germany as “a wicked thrust of Allied militarism and punishment” that constituted “a black chapter in human history.” “Nations can take philosophically the hardships of war. But, when they lay down their arms and surrender on assurances that they may have food for their women and children and then find that this worst instrument of attack on them is maintained - then hate never dies.”

Beasts They Are
On May 7, 1919, at Trianon Palace Hotel, Versailles, Clemenceau, Wilson beside him, handed the German representation the terms of peace: “The hour has struck for the weighty settlement of your account,” said Clemenceau. “You have asked for peace. We are ready to give you peace.”

Cold Blooded Starving of Non-Combatants After the Armistice
As the German Foreign Minister, Ulrich von Brockdorff-Rantzau, read his reply to Clemenceau, he refused to stand: "We can feel all the power of hate we must encounter in this assembly… It is demanded of us that we admit ourselves to be the only ones guilty of this war. Such a confession in my mouth would be a lie. We are far from declining any responsibility for this great world war… but we deny that Germany and its people were alone guilty. The hundreds of thousands of non-combatants who have perished since 11 November by reason of the Blockade were killed with cold blood after our adversaries had conquered and victory had been assured to them. Think of that when you speak of guilt and punishment."

Refusal to Listen to Reason
When he heard this bristling German defiance, “Clemenceau’s face turned magenta.” Lloyd George snapped the ivory paper knife he was holding and said, “It is hard to have to listen to that!” Wilson exploded. “What abominable manners… the Germans are really a stupid people!” “Isn’t it just like them?” he whispered to Lloyd George. Said Balfour, “Beasts they were and beasts they are.”

Amidst Communist Revolutions and Riots
Still, the Germans refused to sign. “What hand would not wither that binds itself and us in these fetters?” said Chancellor Philip Scheidemann. He resigned his office. But, with families starving, Bolshevik uprisings in Munich, Cologne, Berlin and Budapest, Trotsky’s Red Army driving into Europe, Czechs and Poles ready to strike from the east and Foch preparing to march on Berlin at the head of an American-British-French army, the German government capitulated.

Death Sentence of a Nation
Five years to the day after Gavrilo Princip shot the archduke and his wife in Sarajevo, German delegates signed what Wilson had promised his countrymen would be “peace without victory and without vanquished.” “A huge crowd and two German delegates led like felons into the room to sign their doom” was how an American observer in the Hall of Mirrors that day described it. “It was like the execution of a sentence.”

A Deafening Silence
The New York Times’s Charles Selden wrote, “The stillest three minutes ever lived through were those in which the German delegates signed the Peace Treaty today.”

Celebrating an Assassination
The same day, June 28, the government of the new “Czechoslovak Democracy” sent a wire to the leaders of Yugoslavia congratulating them on the anniversary of the Sarajevo murder of the archduke and his wife and expressing their hopes of “similar heroic deeds in the future.”

Disarmed, Divided and Disgraced
By forcing German democrats to sign the Treaty of Versailles, which disarmed, divided and disassembled the nation Bismarck had built, the Allies had discredited German republican democracy at its birth.

Protest at Scapa Flow
At Scapa Flow, naval base of the British Grand Fleet in the Orkneys, northeast of Scotland, where the German High Seas Fleet had been interned, Adm. Ludwig von Reuter, rather than surrender his warships, ordered them scuttled. With a signal from the flagship at noon on 19 June 1919, German sailors pulled the seacocks, sending ten battleships, nine armoured cruisers, eight heavy cruisers, fifty torpedo boats and one hundred submarines to the bottom.

Murder at Sea
As the unarmed German sailors fled in lifeboats, they were fired on by enraged British sailors.

Brutality
Not until July 12, 1919, a full 8 months after the Armistice, did the Allies fully lift the starvation Blockade.

Bold Resistance
When Admiral von Reuter returned to Wilhelmshaven in 1920, thousands of Germans thronged the docks to hail him as “the last hero” of the High Seas Fleet.

Not Beaten - Betrayed
The Germans felt utterly betrayed – and blamed America. “President Wilson is a hypocrite, and the Versailles Treaty is the vilest crime in history,” said the social democrat Scheidemann, who had brought down his government rather than sign. “If these are the peace terms, then America can go to hell,” said General Ludendorff.

Invalid
Men who believe in the rule of law believe in the sanctity of a contract. But, a contract in which one party is not allowed to be heard and is forced to sign at the point of a gun is invalid. Germany signed the Treaty of Versailles only when threatened that, should she refuse, the country would be invaded and her people further starved.

Destroying Europe
Though Napoleon’s foreign minister Talleyrand had been invited to Vienna to negotiate the peace of Europe, in 1915, no German had been invited to Paris to discuss the Versailles Treaty in 1919. Francesco Nitti, the prime minister of Italy when Versailles was signed, in his book The Wreck of Europe, expressed his disgust at the injustice.

Unjust
In the old canon law of the Church it was laid down that everyone must have a hearing, even the devil: Etiam diabolus audiatur (Even the devil has the right to be heard). But, the new democracy, which proposed to install the society of the nations, did not even obey the precepts which the dark Middle Ages held sacred on behalf of the accused.

A Scrap of Paper
From the hour of signature, the Germans never felt bound. Said Vorwarts, the unofficial voice of Berlin, “We must never forget it is only a scrap of paper. Treaties based on violence can keep their validity only so long as force exists. Do not lose hope. The resurrection day comes.”

British Gains
Lloyd George had wanted a peace that would enlarge the British Empire, satisfy the press, have the Jingoes cheering him in the House and eliminate Germany as a commercial rival and world power. He got it all: the High Seas Fleet, the Kaiser’s colonies, the German merchant marine and the promise of full reparations.

French Ambitions
France had lost 1,375,000 soldiers and millions more were wounded, maimed, or crippled. She demanded crippling compensations and terms of peace that would guarantee that Germans would never again be able to resist France. Clemenceau wanted to detach all German lands west of the Rhine and create a “Rhenish Rhineland,” a buffer state - and to occupy the east bank of the river with Allied troops for thirty years. Poincaré, a Lorrainer, wanted to annex all 10,000 square miles of the Rhineland, as did Foch. Annexing the Rhineland would have put five million Germans and much of Germany’s industrial might, under permanent French control. Wilson recoiled at so flagrant a violation of his principle of self-determination.

The Destruction of the Austrian Empire
After Germany mounted the scaffold came the turn of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Under the treaties of St. Germaine and Trianon, that ancient empire was butchered, cut into pieces to be distributed to the nations that had supported the Allies. Northern provinces went to the new Poland. Czecho-Slovakia, which had emerged as a new nation in 1918 under Thomás Masaryk, was ceded rule over three and a half million Germans, three million Slovaks, one million Hungarians, 500,000 Ruthenes and 150,000 Poles. All resented in varying degrees being forced to live in a nation dominated by seven million Czechs.

A Dangerous Injustice
To coerce three million Germans to come under a Czech rule most of them despised was fiercely argued at Paris. On March 10, the chief of the field mission for the U.S. delegation, Archibald C. Coolidge, called it a grave mistake and “filed a memorandum in which he proposed a frontier almost the same as that established in 1938 after ‘Munich.’” Coolidge’s reasoning was as follows: "To grant to the Czechoslovaks all the territory they demand would not only be an injustice to millions of people unwilling to come under Czech rule, but would also be dangerous and perhaps fatal to the future of the new state. In Bohemia, the relations between the Czechs and the Germans have been growing steadily worse during the last three months. The hostility between them is now intense… The blood shed on March 3rd when Czech soldiers in several towns fired on German crowds… was shed in a manner that is not easily forgiven."

A Disastrous Decision
South Africa’s Jan Smuts also warned that the Czech lust for land, Hungarian as well as German, might bring disastrous results: “With some millions of Germans already included in Bohemia in the north, the further inclusion of some 400,000 or 500,000 Magyars in the south would be a very serious matter for the young state, besides the grave violation of the principles of nationality involved.” "To rob the needy of justice and to take what is right from the poor of My people, that widows may be their prey and that they may rob the fatherless." Isaiah 10:2

Benes Deceived the Allies at Paris
The Big Four did not heed Smuts and Coolidge. They listened instead to Eduard Benes, the Czech foreign minister. On the eve of Munich, 1938, Lloyd George would charge Bene’s with having deceived the Allies at Paris. "A false witness will not go unpunished and he who speaks lies will not escape." Proverbs 19:5

The Czech Coup
Why did the Czechs succeed at Paris at the expense of their neighbours? First, they had chosen the winning side. Second, their new territories would come at the expense of Germany, Austria and Hungary, who were to be punished and weakened. “No pity must be shown to Hungary,” said André Tardieu, the “Father of Trianon”, who chaired the committee dealing with the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The Czechs knew what they wanted and were resolute and ruthless in taking it. As Hungary and Austria were reeling in defeat in 1918, Czech troops moved into Slovakia. They then seized the Polish enclave of Teschen, “whose coal heated the foyers and powered the industry of Central Europe from Krakow to Vienna,” and occupied German Bohemia, which would come to be known as the Sudetenland. Clemenceau supported the Czech seizures. By the time Masaryk, Benes and the Allies were finished, they had created in the new Czechoslovakia the tenth most industrialized nation on earth, having stripped Austria and Hungary of 70 to 80 percent of their industry, from china and glass factories to sugar processors… to the breweries of Pilzen and the Skoda works producing world-class armaments, locomotives, autos and machinery. "You shall not covet your neighbour's house… or anything that belongs to your neighbour." Exodus 20:17

A Powderkeg that Would Incite New Wars
The new nation – one-half Czech, one-fourth German, with Slovaks and Hungarians constituting a fifth of its population – was bordered by four nations (Austria, Germany, Hungary and Poland) all of which bore deep grievances against her. “The Peace Conference”, writes David Andelman in A Shattered Peace, “had turned Czechoslovakia into a polyglot highway from Germany to the Balkans… with a fifth column in its midst.” "Getting treasures by a lying tongue is the fleeting fantasy of those who seek death." Proverbs 21:6

Austrians Betrayed
South Tyrol, to the bitterness of its two hundred thousand Austrian inhabitants, was turned over to Italy as war booty for switching sides and joining the Allies in 1915. Vienna, seat of one of the greatest empires of Christendom, became the capital of a tiny landlocked country of fewer than seven million.

Trianon Dismembers Hungary
Hungary was another “victim of every sort of prejudice, desire and ultimate diplomatic and political error of the powers gathered in Paris. It had no real advocate there…” By the Treaty of Trianon, signed June 4, 1920, Hungary was mutilated, the kingdom reduced from an imperial domain of 125,000 square miles to a landlocked nation of 36,000m². Transylvania and the two million Hungarians residing there went to Romania as a reward for joining the Allies. Slovakia was handed over to the Czechs. Other Hungarian lands went to the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. “Hungary, which might have played a key role in Clemenceau’s cordon sanitaire,” writes Andelman, “instead became a victim on every side.”

Treachery at Trianon
The U.S. Congress refused to approve the Treaty of Trianon and in August 1920 signed a separate peace. Hungarians regarded the imposed peace of Trianon as a national crucifixion, the greatest national disaster since the Battle of Mohacs in 1526, which led to a century and a half of Ottoman Turkish occupation.

Empty Promises
On 1 February, 1918, Wilson had told the world: "There shall be no annexations, no contributions, no punitive damages. People are not to be handed about, from one sovereignty to another, by an international conference… Self-determination is not a mere phrase… Every territorial settlement involved in this war must be made in the interest and for the benefit, of the population concerned and not as part of any mere adjustment, or compromise of claims, amongst rival states."

Betrayal of Trust
What Wilson had promised the world and the nations that laid down their arms, would not happen, did happen, with his collusion. József Cardinal Mindszenty, primate of Hungary, looked back in his Memoirs upon the injustice done his nation and people at Paris. Benes and Masaryk showed fraudulent maps and false statistics to the other delegates at the conference… President Wilson had proclaimed the right of self-determination; but this principle was completely ignored when the Allies lopped off two thirds of Hungary. No one bothered to consult the people about their wishes. Of the eighteen million under Hungarian rule in 1910, ten million were taken away. Of the lost ten million, Cardinal Mindszenty estimated that more than three million were ethnically Hungarian. Hungarian bitterness at the Wilsonian peace was as deep as it was in Germany.

Denied their Right of Self Determination
At Paris, Germans, Austrians and Hungarians had no right of self-determination not subject to Allied veto. Germans were handed over to Denmark, Belgium, France, Italy, Czechoslovakia, Poland and Lithuania, without their consent. Plebiscites were granted to peoples who wished to break free of German rule. But, in Alsace, Lorraine, Danzig, the Polish Corridor, Memel, Bohemia and South Tyrol, Germans were denied any plebiscite, or voice, in choosing the nation to which they wished to belong. Three million Hungarians had been force-marched into new nations. By 1920, 885,000 were under Czech rule, 1.7 million under Romanian rule and 420,000 under Serb rule.

Artificial Countries that Could Not Last
The Little Entente of Romania, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia was created partly out of fear of a Hungary whose lands and peoples each had torn away. Though it was promoted by and allied with France, serious statesmen, like George Kennan, regarded it with scorn: "The Little Entente, on which the Czechs, with French encouragement, had tried to base their security, was an artificial, unwise arrangement founded in the quicksand’s of the vengeful, emotional and unrealistic spirit that dominated French policy in the years just after World War I."

Czechoslovakia
As for the newborn nations baptised at Paris, they were almost as multi-ethnic as the Habsburg Empire, but lacked her history, lineage and moral authority. Czechoslovakia was only half-Czech. Germans, Slovaks, Hungarians, Poles and Ukrainians had been handed over to Prague.

Yugoslavia
The Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes contained Bosnian Muslims, Montenegrins, Hungarians and Bulgarians, the last forcibly transferred to the new kingdom by the Treaty of Neuilly.

The Polish Powder Keg
Poland was a polyglot nation. In a 1931 linguistic census, Poles formed only 68.9 per cent of the total population. Ukrainians with 13.9 per cent, Yiddish-speaking Jews with 8.7 per cent, Byelorussians with 3.1 per cent and Germans with 2.3 per cent made up nearly one-third of the whole. In specific areas, they constituted a dominant majority. "Woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness and his chambers by injustice…" Jeremiah 22:13

Romania's Deal with the Allies
Like the Czechs, the Romanians would emerge as one of the great winners at Paris. Wedged between the Allies, Serbia and Czarist Russia and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Romania began the war as a neutral. In August 1916, however, after receiving a secret offer of Transylvania and the Banat, to be taken from Hungary, Bucharest joined the Allies. Prime Minister Ian Bratianu, who had negotiated the secret treaty, had also been assured of Russian military aid, which never came. By year’s end, 1916, Austro-Hungarian and German armies occupied Bucharest. King Ferdinand, Queen Marie and the government had fled to the protection of the Russians in Bessarabia. Not until the final weeks of war did Romania re-join the struggle. Yet Bratianu and Queen Marie, a granddaughter of Victoria and first cousin of George V, arrived in Paris to demand full payment for having fought on the side of the Allies, though Bucharest had violated Article V of the 1916 treaty by concluding a separate peace.

Expanding at the Expense of its Neighbours
Between them, Bratianu and Queen Marie succeeded in doubling the size of Romania. They received Transylvania and the eastern Banat from Hungary, Bessarabia from Russia, northern Dobruja from Bulgaria and Bukovina from the dismantled Habsburg Empire. Western Banat went to the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes – a polyglot nation, 43% Serb, 23% Croat, 8.5% Slovene, 6% Bosnian Muslim, 5% Macedonian, 3.6% Albanian and the rest a mixture of Germans, Hungarians, Vlachs, Jews and Gypsies.

Planting the Seeds of a Second European War
It was that the men of Paris redrew the maps of Europe and planted the seeds of a second European war. The winners at Paris were the Czechs, Romanians, Poles and Serbs. The losers were the Austrians, Germans, Hungarians, Bulgarians and Russians. The Italians felt cheated of what they had been promised in the Treaty of London. The Poles felt they had been denied Teschen because of favouritism toward the Czechs. Thus was Europe divided between satiated powers and discontent powers determined to retrieve the lands and peoples that had been taken from them.

The Most Disastrous Treaties in History
With the treaties of Versailles, St. Germaine, Trianon and Neuilly, the Allies at Paris had made a chaotic mess of Europe. For America, they had stripped the Great War of any morality. When Wilson came home with a peace that denied the defeated their right of self-determination, made a mockery of his Fourteen Points, honoured the secret treaties he had denounced and enlarged the British, French, Italian and Japanese empires by a million square miles and tens of millions of subjects, Americans concluded that their 116,000 sons died for nothing.

Why Did America Interfere in Europe's War?
In The World Crisis, Churchill would express puzzlement as to why the Americans ever went to war. American historians will perhaps be somewhat lengthy in explaining to posterity why the United States entered the Great War on April 6, 1917. “There were plenty of reasons of high policy for (America) staying out in 1917 after waiting so long,” Churchill concluded. History has proven him right on that point. "You shall not follow a crowd to do evil; nor shall you testify in a dispute so as to turn aside after many to pervert justice." Exodus 23:2

Injustice and Arrogance of Versailles Guaranteed Another War
Lloyd George sensed the tragedy the Allies were setting in train, he retired to Fontainebleau on the last weekend of March and wrote one of the more prophetic documents of the century: "You may strip Germany of her colonies, reduce her armaments to a mere police force and her navy to that of a fifth rate power; all the same, in the end if she feels that she has been unjustly treated in the peace of 1919 she will find means of exacting retribution from her conquerors… Injustice, arrogance, displayed in the hour of triumph will never be forgotten or forgiven… I am, therefore strongly averse to transferring more Germans from German rule to the rule of some other nation than can possibly be helped. I cannot conceive any greater cause of future war than that the German people, who have certainly proved themselves one of the most vigorous and powerful races in the world, should be surrounded by a number of small states, many of them consisting of people who have never previously set up a stable government for themselves, but each of them containing large masses of Germans clamouring for reunion with their native land."

Ensuring War Not Peace
About the creation of a Polish Corridor, severing Germany in two, Lloyd George warned: "The proposal of the Polish commission that we should place 2,100,000 million Germans under the control of a people which is of a different religion and which has never proved its capacity for stable self-government throughout its history, must, in my judgment, lead sooner or later to a new war in the East of Europe."

Unifying the Germans in Opposition to Injustice
Rather than loosen the bonds Bismarck had forged among Germans, the peace of Versailles reinforced a spirit of nationhood. The treaty had defeated its own purpose, writes John Laughland, for it made the Germans victims of a great injustice. The debt itself, which obviously fell uniformly on the entire nation, also made the Germans feel solidarity with one another. They became united in their common protest. It made Bavarians and Saxons feel for the territorial losses of Prussia, whereas fifty years previously, such losses would have concerned only Prussians.

Betrayal
The reparations which the Germans had to pay to the French thus united them in common resentment. This was a fatal combination. At Paris the Allies had scourged Germany and dispossessed her of territory, industry, people, colonies, money – and honour by forcing her to sign the “War Guilt" Lie. But they had not killed her. She was alive, united, more populous and potentially powerful than France and her people were now possessed of a burning sense of betrayal.

Ganging Up on Germany
Novelist Anatole France had written, as he saw victory with America’s entry into the war, “Even if beaten, Germany will pride itself on having resisted the entire world; no other people will be so inebriated by their defeat.”

Versailles Lit the Fuse for World War Two
The treaty writers of Versailles wrote the last act of the Great War and the first act of the resurrection of Germany and the war of retribution. Even in this hour some men saw what was coming: Lloyd George in his Fontainebleau Memorandum; Keynes as he scribbled notes for his Economic Consequences of the Peace; Foch (“This is not peace, it is an armistice for twenty years”); and Smuts (“This Treaty breathes a poisonous spirit of revenge, which may yet scorch the fair face—not of a corner of France, but of Europe"). "Acquitting the guilty and condemning the innocent – the Lord detests them both." Proverbs 17:15

Versailles Threatened Civilisation
Secretary of State Lansing said of the peace he and President Wilson brought home: “The Versailles Treaty menaces the existence of civilization.” In Italy, the wounded war veteran and Fascist leader Benito Mussolini warned: “The dilemma is this: treaty revision or a new war.” Hans von Seeckt of the German General Staff agreed: “We must regain our power and as soon as we do, we will naturally take back everything we lost.”

Unjust and Unsustainable
Versailles had created not only an unjust, but an unsustainable, peace. Wedged between a brooding Bolshevik Russia and a humiliated Germany were six new nations: Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Czechoslovakia. The last two held five million Germans captive. Against each of the six, Russia or Germany held a grievance. Yet none could defend its independence against a resurrected Germany, or a revived Russia. Should Russia and Germany unite, no force on Earth could save the six states.

British Gains as the Expense of Germany
The British Empire came out of Paris the great beneficiary of the Great War. The Hohenzollern, Romanov, Habsburg and Ottoman empires had been crushed into ruins. The challenge of a Wilhelmine Germany that had surpassed British industrial production by 1914 was history. Germany was no longer a great power. The High Seas Fleet, the greatest threat to the Royal Navy since Trafalgar, had committed suicide at Scapa Flow. Britain had taken over Germany’s Atlantic cables and most of her merchant fleet to compensate for the loss of 40 percent of her own to U-boats. Germany’s islands in the South Pacific had been mandated to Australia and New Zealand. German South-West Africa had gone to South Africa. German East Africa (Tanganyika) had become a British mandate. The Cameroons and Togoland were divided between Britain and France. Mesopotamia and Palestine, taken from the Turks, had gone to Great Britain. Out of the war fought "to make the world safe for democracy", the British Empire had added 950,000 square miles and millions of subjects. Said Lord Curzon, “The British flag never flew over more powerful, or united, an empire than now; Britons never had better cause to look the world in the face; never did our voice count for more in the councils of the nations, or in determining the future destinies of mankind.” "A little that a righteous man has is better than the riches of many wicked." Psalm 37:16

The British Empire at its Zenith
After the treaties of Versailles and Sèvres had been imposed on the defeated Germans and Turks, a man could walk from Kuwait to Cairo, turn south and walk the length of Africa to Cape Town without leaving a British Dominion, colony, or protectorate. The dream of Cecil Rhodes, the Cape-to-Cairo railroad, could now be built without asking for transit rights from any power other than a fellow member of the British Imperial Conference. In 1921, Jan Smuts, now prime minister of South Africa, told his fellow prime ministers that the British Empire “emerged from the War quite the greatest power in the world and it is only un-wisdom or unsound policy that could rob her of that great position.” "He who passes by and meddles in a quarrel not his own, is like one who takes a dog by the ears." Proverbs 26:17

The Cost of the War
British gains, however, had not come without costs. The war had proven the disaster Norman Angell had predicted in his 1909 The Great Illusion. The total number of fatalities for the British Empire as a whole was 921,000: the originator of the Imperial War Graves Commission, Sir Fabian Ware, calculated that if the dead were to march abreast down Whitehall the parade past the Cenotaph would last three and a half days.

Irrecoverable Damage
The highest casualty rate had been among young British officers, striking home with all the leaders of Britain’s great parties. The Liberals’ Asquith, Labour’s Arthur Henderson and the Irish Nationalists’ John Redmond had each lost a son. The Unionists’ Bonar Law had lost two. British debt was fourteen times what it had been in 1914. While it appeared to the world that the British Empire had made out wonderfully well, Britain had sustained losses, tangible and intangible, from which she would never recover.

Shattered Honour
Charles Mee, whose grandfather lost all ten brothers in the war, wrote in his book on Versailles that not only had there been a collapse of the political order in Europe, but the war had discredited much of the rhetoric of national pride, honour and sacrifice, as well as faith in the notions of reason, progress, humanism. Nor did even the notions of God, representational art, or Newtonian physics appear to be in such good repair. The “modern” Western civilization that had grown up since the Reformation was under siege from outside and from within and offered scant support to the disintegrating political order.

The Greatest Catastrophe in the History of Civilisation
“A generation had been decimated on the battlefields of Europe”, Mee continued. “No one had seen the likes of such slaughter before: the deaths of soldiers per day of battle were 10 times greater than in the American Civil War,” heretofore the bloodiest conflict in the history of Christendom.

Erosion of Moral Authority
Then there was her loss of moral authority. How could British and Europeans, who had just concluded four years of butchering one another with abandon, assert a moral superiority that gave them the right to rule other people?

Respect for the West Devastated
With the Turks’ defeat of the British at Gallipoli, word had gone out to Asia and the Arab world that Europeans were not invincible. Awe of Western military prowess and power had been irreparably damaged in the eyes of subject peoples. The respect for Western invincibility had been destroyed. "Do not strive with a man without cause, if he has done you no harm." Proverbs 3:30

Seeds of Revolution
Also, Wilson’s sermons on “self-determination” and Lloyd George’s hymns to the “rights of small nations” had been heard beyond the German, Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman empires. The genie of nationalism was out of the bottle and Balfour had promised the Jews a homeland in Palestine. To defeat the Turks, T. E. Lawrence had stirred up the smouldering embers of Arab nationalism. Not one day passed that some popular leader did not arrive in the lobby of Wilson’s hotel to plead for independence for a province, or colony, he had never heard of. At Paris, British diplomat Harold Nicolson spoke of “that sense of a riot in a parrot house!”

Ignorance and Idealism Leads to Chaos
A “chastened Wilson” returned to tell Congress: “When I gave utterance to those words (that “all nations had a right to self-determination”) I said them without the knowledge that nationalities existed, which are coming to us day after day.” The right of all peoples to self-determination, to which the Allies paid homage at Paris, was an axe that would strike the roots of every Western empire. By the time Lloyd George returned to London, Ireland was in revolt and rebellions had broken out in Egypt, Iraq and India.

The Rise of America as a Superpower
While Germany had been diminished, a more formidable rival had arisen. World financial leadership had passed to a United States that had greatly profited from selling to the Allies while avoiding heavy combat until the summer of 1918. America had shown herself to be a mighty military power. From three hundred thousand men in arms in 1917, she had raised an army of four million and transported two million soldiers to France, where they had been decisive in the final results.

America Eclipses Britain as a Naval Power
Britain had ceased building warships in 1918. America had just begun. By 1921, the United States had become the first nation in a century to achieve naval parity with Great Britain. An epidemic of Anglophobia had broken out in America over the belief that the British Empire had gorged itself in a war where 116,000 Americans had made the supreme sacrifice to make the world safe for democracy

Disgust and Disillusionment
Disillusionment with the treaty Wilson brought home would deepen in the 1920s and 1930s, as all the Allied powers, save Finland, defaulted on their war debts and America fell deep into economic Depression. Perhaps the greatest loss Britain suffered was in her standing and credibility with the American people. After Versailles enlarged the British Empire by 950,000 square miles and as the Allies walked away from their war debts mocking Uncle Sam as “Uncle Shylock,” Americans came to believe they had been hoodwinked and swindled. They came to concur with British historian H.A.L. Fisher: Versailles had “draped the crudity of conquest… in the veil of morality.” "But,if you have bitter envy and self-seeking hearts, do not boast and lie against the truth." James 3:14

Inviting War
France and Britain got the peace they wanted. Twenty years later, they would get the war they had invited. The next time Britain rang for help, America would take her time answering the call. The Yanks would not be “coming over” until after France had been overrun and British troops fled the continent at Dunkirk. Americans’ bitterness over the belief they had been played for fools was something the British never understood: The British had cut the cables, the Lusitania had been carrying military contraband, the tales of German atrocities in Belgium had been lies, the British had sent “Black and Tans” to shoot down Irish patriots, we had been deceived by “lying British propaganda” into sending our boys into a war to pull Britain’s chestnuts out of the fire.”

The Frankenstein Monster of Bolshevism
Something new and ominous had come out of the war. The Russia of the Romanovs was gone. Atop the largest nation on earth sat a grisly gang of Bolshevik terrorists committed to world revolution and the destruction of all Western empires and nations. In March 1920, after a trip to Europe, Churchill, who had been almost alone in urging Allied intervention in Russia, wrote Lloyd George what one historian calls “one of the great prophetic documents of European history.”: “Peace with the German people, war on the Bolshevik tyranny” was Churchill’s message. “We may,” he wrote, “be within measurable distance of a universal collapse and anarchy across Europe and Asia. You ought to tell France that we will make a defensive alliance with her against Germany, if and only if, she entirely alters her treatment of Germany… Next you should send a great man to Berlin to help consolidate the anti-Spartacist anti-Ludendorff elements into a strong left-centre block. For this task you must have two levers: first, food and credit, which must be generously accorded in spite of our own difficulties (which otherwise will worsen); secondly, early revision of the Peace Treaty by a Conference to which New Germany shall be invited as an equal partner in the rebuilding of Europe."

Red Revolutions Fill the Vacuums in Central Europe
What alarmed Churchill was the prospect of civil war in Germany, leading to a dictatorship of Right or Left. Communist coups had briefly succeeded in Budapest and Bavaria and an attempt had been made by the Reds to seize power in Berlin. All had been suppressed by German Freikorps. There was fear that a man of the right like Gen. Erich Ludendorff might sweep aside the democratic regime that had arisen on the Kaiser’s abdication but been discredited in many German eyes by having submitted to the Allied diktat at Versailles.

Communist Threat to Europe
In March 1920, the Kapp putsch, to seize power in Berlin was blocked only by a general strike. Germany was now so prostrate she could no longer fulfil her ancient duty – to keep the Russians out of Europe. Yet Churchill recognized the danger of the regime of Lenin and Trotsky and, repeatedly urged Allied intervention to kill the viper in its crib. So far sighted was Churchill that his subsequent craven behaviour toward Stalin seems inexplicable and inexcusable.

A Ghastly Tragedy
“A Carthaginian Peace?” – This was “no reason why the world must be thrust into ruin.” It was Churchill who first branded Versailles a “Carthaginian peace,” laying responsibility for the vindictive treaty at the feet of Woodrow Wilson: "Making the world safe for Democracy! I wonder whether in this reactionary peace – the most reactionary since Scipio Africanus dealt with Carthage - Wilson still hears the mute appeal of the people to be saved from the coming war… What a ghastly tragedy this is." Carthage, torched and pillaged, its soldiers put to the sword, its women violated, its children sold into slavery, vanished from history. Was this the fate of Europe? "There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death." Proverbs 14:12

Germany as the Liberators of Eastern Europe
To understand the German outrage, one must view Versailles through German eyes. As of 11 November, 1918, Germans did not see themselves as defeated. No Allied soldiers stood on German soil. “At the moment of the November 1918 ceasefire in the West,” writes German historian Andreas Hillgruber, Germany was victorious. In the east, maps of the military situation showed German troops in Finland… down through the area south of Kursk, to the Don east of Rostov. Germany had thus secured the Ukraine… In addition, German troops held the Crimea and were stationed in Transcaucasia. Germany had simply applied to that “prison house of nations,” the Russian Empire, the Wilsonian principle of self-determination, permitting its captive peoples to go free.

An Armistice on Conditions
Also, Germany had accepted an armistice on the basis of Wilson’s Fourteen Points, enunciated in his address to Congress January 8, 1918. The fourteen were amended to twenty-four by addresses to Congress, February 11, at Mount Vernon on July 4 and in New York City on September 27. These Twenty-four Points were to serve as the basis of the peace. So Wilson had pledged to the Germans. Under Points Seven and Eight, Germany was to depart Belgium and restore French rights in Alsace-Lorraine lost in 1871.

Secret Treaties
But, where Point 1 called for “open covenants, openly arrived at,” South Tyrol, Austrian for six hundred years, was given to Italy under a secret treaty with Britain in 1915 and all German islands in the North Pacific were given to Japan to comply with a secret treaty with Britain in 1917.

Freedom of the Seas Abandoned
Point 2, “absolute freedom of navigation upon the seas… in peace and war,” except for “international action” to enforce “international covenants,” was dropped by Wilson at the insistence of the British.

Double Standards
Point 3 called for “removal of all economic barriers and establishment of an equality of trade conditions among all nations.” But, Germany was denied the right to enter a customs union with Austria and forced to grant unrestricted Allied access to her markets, while being denied equal access to Allied markets.

Selective Application
Point 4 declared that “national armaments will be reduced to the lowest point consistent with domestic safety.” Germany was forced to disarm, but the Allies, while demobilizing their huge armies and reducing the size of their fleets, maintained enormous militaries. Hitler would use the Allied refusal to match German disarmament to justify German rearmament in 1935.

Wholesale Theft of Territories
Point 5 called for the “free, open-minded and absolutely impartial adjustment of all colonial claims.” This was trampled underfoot as the Allies scrambled to seize and confiscate every German colony as well as the private property of German citizens who lived there. "Better is a little with righteousness, than vast revenues without justice." Proverbs 16:8

Violation of Self Determination
Point 9 read, “A readjustment of the frontiers of Italy should be effected along clearly recognizable lines of nationality.” Yet, ceding South Tyrol all the way to the Brenner to Italy, to honour a secret treaty, made Wilson and the Americans appear to the Tyrolese and their Austrian kinsmen as liars and hypocrites.

Betraying Millions
Point 13 declared an “independent Polish state… should include the territories inhabited by indisputably Polish populations.” But, the Poland created at Paris held captive millions of Germans, Ukrainians and White Russians, ensuring conflict with Russia and Germany when those nations got back on their feet. "Destruction comes; they will seek peace, but there shall be none." Ezekiel 7:25

Failure and Fraud
Point 17, enunciated on February 11, 1918, amended on July 4, was the self-determination clause: “The settlement of every question, whether of territory, of sovereignty… (or) of political relationship, upon the basis of the free acceptance of that settlement by the people immediately concerned.” On February 11, a Joint Session of Congress had roared its approval as Wilson had declared the principle forever associated with his name: "National aspirations must be respected; peoples may now be dominated and governed only by their own consent. Self-determination is not a mere phrase. It is an imperative principle of action, which statesmen will henceforth ignore at their peril." Thus were sown the seeds of the greatest war in the history of mankind. "Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore do not be partakers with them." Ephesians 5:6-7

Criminal Violation of Every Point of the Armistice
Point 18 declared that “all well-defined national aspirations shall be accorded the utmost satisfaction… without introducing new… elements of discord and antagonism that would be likely in time to break the peace of Europe and consequently of the world.” Point 18 is a parody of what was done at Paris. There was scarcely a promise Wilson made to the Germans at the time of the Armistice that was not broken, or a principle of his that he did not violate. "The way of peace they have not known and there is no justice in their ways; they have made themselves crooked paths. Whoever takes that way shall not know peace." Isaiah 59:8

Dishonourable and Disastrous
The Senate never did a better day’s work than when it rejected the Treaty of Versailles and refused to enter a League of Nations where Americans soldiers would be required to give their lives enforcing the terms of so dishonourable and disastrous a peace.

The Burden of Versailles Doomed Europe
Lloyd George, who had realized all of Britain’s ambitions saw what was coming. He returned home triumphant, but grim, he said, “We shall have to do the whole thing over again in twenty five years… at three times the cost.”

Irreconcilable
The dilemma at Paris was that Allied goals were irreconcilable. No peace could meet Wilson’s ideals and Foch’s demands. Clemenceau had wanted a truncated, disarmed Germany, weighted down with reparations so heavy she could never rise again to challenge France. Wilson had wanted a peace of no victors, no vanquished. As U.S. historian Thomas Bailey wrote, “The victor can have vengeance, or he may have peace, but he cannot have both” from the same treaty. "A wrathful man stirs up strife…" Proverbs 15:18

Hitler Was Born at Versailles
At a London dinner party soon after Adolf Hitler had taken power in Berlin, one of the guests asked aloud, “By the way, where was Hitler born?” “At Versailles” was the instant reply of Lady Astor. Rising from obscurity to build a mass movement in a demoralized Germany, Hitler first drew public notice, then attracted ever-larger crowds, by delivering again and again a powerful speech he titled simply “The Treaty of Versailles.”

The Failure of Justice at Versailles and the Price of Vengeance
On April 8, 1945, Churchill, in a memo to the Foreign Office traced the origins of the unnecessary war back to Versailles – and Woodrow Wilson: "This war should never have come unless, under American and modernising pressure, we had driven the Habsburgs out of Austria and the Hohenzollerns out of Germany. By making these vacuums we gave the opening for the Hitlerite monster to crawl onto the vacant thrones. No doubt these views are very unfashionable. The men of Versailles had brought home the peace of vengeance the people wanted. Their children would pay the price for their having failed to bring home a peace of justice. That price would be 50 million dead in the war that would come out of the Hall of Mirrors in the Palace of Versailles."

"Do not be deceived, God's not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap." Galatians 6:7

Sources
Churchill, Hitler and The Unnecessary War – How Britain Lost Its Empire and the West Lost the World, by Patrick J. Buchanan, Three Rivers Press, New York, 2008.
A History of the Modern World – From 1917 to the 1980s, by Paul Johnston, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London, 1984.
Diplomacy, by Henry Kissinger – The Seminal Work on Foreign Policy and the Art of Diplomacy, Simon and Schuster Incorporated, New York, 1994.
Hall of Mirrors – One Moment of Time that Changed the Face of the Twentieth Century, by David Sinclair, Arrow Books, London, 2002.
Indictment – First Edition, by Dorothy Stuart-Russell, Omni Publications, USA, 1990
Lord Riddell's Intimate Diary of the Peace Conference and After – 1918-1923, by Lord Riddell, Victor Gollancz Ltd., London, 1933.
Peacemaking 1919, by Harold Nicolson, Methuen & Co. Ltd., 1964.
Some Memories of the Peace Conference, by Colonel R. H. Beadon, Lincoln Williams, London, 1933.
The End of Order – Versailles 1919, by Charles L. Mee, Jr., Elsevier-Dutton Publishing, New York, 1980.
The First Casualty – From the Crimea to Vietnam: The War Correspondent as Hero, Propagandist and Myth Maker, by Phillip Knightley, E. P. Dutton and Co., New York, 1976.
The Fourteen Points and The Treaty of Versailles – Oxford Pamphlets on World Affairs, by G. M. Gathorne-Hardy, Oxford University Press, London,
The Journal of Modern History – Volume 51, Number 1, The University of Chicago Press, 1979.
The Origins of the World War – Volume II, by Sidney B. Fay, The Free Press, USA, 1966.
The Peace Conference, by Dr. E. J. Dillon, Hutchinson, Surrey.
The Public Years – My Own Story, by Bernard M. Baruch, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Canada, 1960.

]]><![CDATA[The Battle of waterloo]]>Tue, 17 Jun 2025 22:00:00 GMThttps://www.frontlinemissionsa.org/history/the-battle-of-waterloo

18 June will mark the anniversary of the decisive Battle of Waterloo. The British and German victory over the French at the Battle of Waterloo decisively ended the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars which had convulsed Europe for almost 25 years.

THE BATTLE OF WATERLOO
by Dr. Peter Hammond

Watershed
18 June will mark the anniversary of the decisive Battle of Waterloo. The British and German victory over the French at the Battle of Waterloo decisively ended the French
Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars which had convulsed Europe for almost 25 years. It ended the political and military career of Napoleon Bonaparte and ushered in almost a century of general peace throughout most of Europe. Waterloo was a victory of Christianity against Humanism. It was a great victory for God's Covenant Nations. It was a victory for Protestant Britain and Germany against Catholic France. It marked the beginning of the Greatest Century of Missions.

Decisive
Waterloo was the crowning triumph of the career of Arthur Wellesley, the First Duke of Wellington. The Duke of Wellington remarked that the battle had been "a damned serious business" and "the nearest run thing you ever saw in your life." On 18 July 1815, the Duke of Wellington, leading an Anglo-Dutch-German force fought to a standstill a confident and enthusiastic army led by Napoleon whose military performance had dazzled Europe. Napoleon Bonaparte was renowned as the greatest soldier of his age. Yet, he was decisively stopped and outmanoeuvred by the Iron Duke and his ally Field Marshall Gebhard Blücher, whose timely arrival at the close of the day sealed the victory and sent Napoleon and his forces fleeing for Paris.

Revolutionary Threat
The Battle of Waterloo was an epoch closing event, and one of the great watersheds of history. The disastrous Russian campaign of 1812, had signalled the decline of Napoleon and his Revolutionary French forces. Marshall Blücher's victory over Napoleon at the Battle of Leipzig, 1813, led to Napoleon Bonaparte's abdication and exile to the Island of Elba. However, he escaped back to France, February 1815, and with whirlwind energy reassembled his army. Paris workshops produced 1,200 uniforms and 12,000 cartridges a day. By June, 124,000 French soldiers were concentrated near the border of Netherlands, which at that time included Belgium.

Outnumbered
Few Allied armies could be mobilised in time to resist Napoleon's inevitable offensive. The Duke of Wellington arrived in Brussels, 4 April, to discover that his Anglo-Dutch forces consisted of a scant 33,000 men. Wellington exclaimed: "I have an infamous army, very weak and ill-equipped and a very inexperienced staff." Most of Wellington's experienced officers and men had been shipped across the Atlantic to fight the Americans in the War of 1812. German volunteers from Hanover and Brunswick and 6,000 men of the King's German Legion swelled Wellington's heterogeneous force to 68,000. Insufficient to be able to defeat the French forces, Wellington was dependent on the support of the Prussian (German) forces of Marshall Blücher.

Invasion
On 14 June, Napoleon's Order of the Day came to invade the Netherlands. "The moment has come to conquer or to perish," he declared. In brilliant sunshine, the Emperor's forces seized the frontier town of Charleroi, where he was supported by many French speaking Belgians, who were revolutionary sympathisers and quick to switch sides. Napoleon's plan was to march on to Brussels, severing the communication lines between Wellington's Anglo-Dutch-German forces and Blücher's Prussian army, defeating them separately.

Retreat
Napoleon's surprise offensive enjoyed early success, as he forced Wellington's forces at Quatre Bras, 32km South of Brussels, to withdraw before the overwhelming French attack. Eight 1 kilometres away the Prussian army at Ligny was also forced to retreat under furious artillery fire and an overwhelming concentration of French forces.

Making a Stand
On the afternoon of 17 June, the Duke of Wellington halted on a ridge that crossed the road to Brussels. Flanked by forests on both sides, it was a choke point through which Napoleon's forces would be funnelled. Napoleon had carefully selected the ground as an ideal defensive position in August the previous year. (At the time he had recommended the construction of a number of fortresses, which had not yet been built.) Wellington had chosen his battlefield well. His men occupied and fortified the Chateau of Hougoumont and the farm house of La Haie Sainte. The East-West ridge which became the central point of Wellington's defensive position, provided cover for his cavalry and troops on its Northern reverse slope.

Downpour
Providentially, intensive rain had saturated the soil, which forced Napoleon to delay his offensive on Sunday, 18 June, until noon, to enable the soil to dry out sufficiently. As it was, the mud dissipated much of the effect of his artillery and slowed down the French forces as their boots and hooves churned up the clay soil into a morass.

Teamwork
While Wellington had made the best use of his chosen ground, he knew that his forces were insufficient to resist an all-out attack by all the French forces available to Napoleon. It was on the basis of an assurance from Marshall Blücher that he would march to their relief, that Wellington made his courageous stand just South of Mont Saint Jean, close to the village of Waterloo.

Volunteer Veterans
At the Battle of Waterloo, the French had 69,000 including 48,000 infantry, 14,000 cavalry, 7,000 artillery with 260 guns. Most of Napoleon's men were veterans of at least one campaign and were almost all volunteers.

Inexperienced Conscripts
Wellington had 50,000 infantry, 11,000 cavalry, and 150 guns. Of these 25,000 were British, 6,000 from the King's German Legion, 17,000 Dutch and Belgian troops, 11,000 from Hanover, 6,000 from Brunswick and 3,000 from Nassau. Many of the troops of the Coalition Forces were inexperienced. (Most of the experienced troops who had served with Wellington before had been sent to North America.) 48,000 Prussians under Marshall Blücher arrived at the climax of the battle.

Hougoumont
Hours later than Napoleon had intended, the battle began at 11:30am on Sunday, 18 June. Most of Wellington's forces were sheltered from the artillery fire by being stationed on the reverse slope of the ridge. The initial attack by Napoleon was against the farm house of Hougoumont, guarding Wellington's right flank. Resolutely defended by the British Foot Guards and Hanovarian and Nassau soldiers, Hougoumont resisted all assaults by Napoleon's three main infantry corps who assailed it mercilessly throughout the day.

Mass Assault Repulsed
Having failed to divert any of Wellington's reserves into this diversionary flank attack, Napoleon sent in D'Erlon's infantry corps, supported by cavalry and the concentrated fire of over 260 cannon of the French artillery against Wellington's left centre. Two brigades of British heavy cavalry scattered the massed columns and sent them fleeing back down the slope.

Scotland Forever
One of the most heroic actions of a day filled with heroism was the charge of the Scots Greys as part of the Heavy Brigade. As they thundered down the slope on their magnificent grey chargers, yelling "Scotland Forever!" and slashing at their enemy left and right, they seized the Eagle banner of the French 45th Regiment, the so-called Invincibles, and scattered the massed French centre column attack. However, in their euphoria, the Scots Greys advanced too far and many were lost to the French counterattack with the Lancers.

Squares Defeat Cavalry
As Wellington ordered his infantry in the centre right to move to the reverse slope of the Northern ridge at 16h00, Marshall Ney ordered a cavalry assault in hope of chasing this apparent retreat into a rout. From the French perspective this was a disastrous move. Wellington had ordered a controlled and limited withdrawal and his infantry were able to form squares in good time to fight off every cavalry charge.

La Haie Sainte
Marshall Ney finally succeeded in capturing the farm house of La Haie Sainte only because the King's German Legion garrison had run out of ammunition. It was at this critical moment that the Prussian cavalry charged at Plancenoit and forced the redeployment of most of the Imperial Guard to confront the Prussian threat to their right flank.

Grouchy Fails to Defeat the Prussians
The 33,000 men Napoleon had detached under Marshall Grouchy to pursue the Prussians to ensure that they did not link up with Wellington's forces, failed in their mission. Despite Marshall Blücher having been injured by his horse falling on him during a cavalry charge at Ligny, the 73year old veteran had succeeded in reorganising his defeated and scattered men into a cohesive fighting force that out-marched Grouchy's pursuing French forces.

Triumph
In an extraordinary feat, Blücher led his army on a torturous forced march, along muddy roads, arriving at the Battle of Waterloo in time to save the day and crown Wellington's forces steadfast resistance with a most decisive victory. Together they crushed the French and relentlessly pursued them all the way to Paris. The Prussians nearly captured Napoleon himself.

The Ridge
At 19:30 Napoleon launched the final attack against Wellington's line on the ridge in what was to be the climactic point of the battle. Wellington had bolstered his centre by bringing in the Dutch and Belgian divisions. Nine battalions of the Imperial Guard attacked Wellington's centre, who were dangerously short of ammunition. The British Foot Guards of Maitland's Brigade faced the Imperial Guard and Wellington's voice rang out: "Now, Maitland! Now is your time!" The order rang out: "Up Guards! Make ready! Fire!" The Foot Guards gave a withering fire to the French formations who were unable to deploy into line.

They Will Not Stand
Wellington galloped to Sir John Colborne of the 52nd: "Go on, Colborne! Go on! They won't stand. Don't give them a chance to rally!" Wellington had gauged the mood of the French army precisely. At this point Colonel Colborne, commanding the 52 Light Infantry Battalion took his men out of the line in an audacious move wheeling them to their right, so they ended up parallel to the left flank of the French formation and delivered a final devastating blow, forcing the French to crumble and retreat. As the 52nd charged with bayonets, Napoleon's last army disintegrated in flight.

Counter Attack
As the Prussian forces emerged from the woods, to roll up the French right flank, Wellington ordered his men off the ridge into a general advance, which cleared the battlefield of all French units. The battle had been hanging in the balance before the arrival of Blücher's Prussian army. The German assault was decisive in crushing Napoleon's reserves and relentlessly pursuing the scattered French forces all the way to Paris, which they entered on 7 July.

Retreat
The French retreat turned into rout as coalition cavalry pursued them until 23:00. Napoleon's elite Young Guard failed to stem the Prussian advance and were annihilated. Napoleon's abandoned carriage was captured, still containing diamonds left behind in the rush to escape. These diamonds became part of King Frederick Wilhelm of Prussia's crown jewels. Over 2,000 French prisoners, including several generals and 78 artillery pieces were captured by the Germans before the end of that day, 18 June 1815. French casualties for the Battle of Waterloo totalled 41,000. Allied casualties, 24,000. The defeat of Waterloo ended Napoleon's rule as Emperor of the French and marked the end of his 100 days return from exile.

Victory
Around 22:00, the Duke of Wellington and Marshall Blücher met at La Belle Alliance, the farm house that had formed Napoleon's headquarters during the battle. Marshall Blücher and the Duke of Wellington saluted each other and warmly shook hands, congratulating one another on their stunning victory.

Abdication and Capture
Napoleon's political support withered away after the defeat at Waterloo and, on 24 June 1815, Napoleon announced his second abdication. Paris surrendered on 4 July 1815. Napoleon's attempt to escape to North America was thwarted by the Royal Navy blockade and he was forced to surrender to Captain Frederick Maitland of HMS Bellerophon on 15 July. The Treaty of Paris was signed 20 November 1815 and Louis XVIII was restored to the throne of France.

Surrender
Napoleon in his letter of surrender to the Prince Regent of England, wrote: "Royal Highness – exposed to the factions which divide my country, and to the enmity to the great powers of Europe, I have terminated my political career; and come like Themistocles to throw myself upon the hospitality of the British people. I claim from your Royal Highness the protection of the laws and throw myself upon the most powerful, the most constant, and the most generous, of my enemies."

Lions Mound
Today one can visit the Battlefield of Waterloo. 18km South of Brussels, it is dominated by the large monument, the Lion's Mound. The Lion's mound is a large conical artificial hill built as a symbol of the Allied victory over the French. The Mound is 43 metres high with a circumference of 520 metres and a volume of 390,000 m³. Victor Hugo mentions in his novel, Les Miserables, that on visiting that site two years after the completion of the Mound, the Duke of Wellington is said to have remarked: "They have altered my field of battle!" As much of the soil used to construct the artificial hill was taken from other parts of the battlefield, the topography has been seriously altered. However the Mound does offer a splendid view of the battlefield to those who ascend the 226 steps leading to the Lion statue and observation area. The Lion statue weighs 28 tonnes and is 4.5 metres in length. The Lion is the heraldic focus of the coat of arms of the Monarch of the Netherlands. The Mound was completed in 1826.

Grenadier Guards
Maitland's First Foot Guards, having defeated the Grenadiers, were awarded the title of Grenadier Guards and adopted bearskins in the style of the French Grenadiers that they had defeated.

Household Cavalry
Britain's Household Cavalry likewise adopted the Cuirass armour of the French cavalry that they had defeated at Waterloo.

Lancers
The effectiveness of the French Lancers led to the widespread adoption of their weapon
throughout Europe. The British converted their first light cavalry regiment to lances in 1816.

A Sepulchre for France
Victor Hugo in Les Miserables, wrote that: "At the battlefield of Waterloo there is no French tomb. The whole of that plain is a sepulchre for France."

A Legacy of Destruction
Although Napoleon is highly respected as a military commander, at least 6 million Europeans died in the 17 years of war that Napoleon had waged against the rest of Europe. When he went into exile, France was bankrupt and her overseas colonies were lost. The Napoleonic Wars set back Europe's economic life for at least a generation.

Duke of Wellington
Field Marshall Arthur Wellesley, the First Duke of Wellington (1769-1852), was a Protestant from Ireland who served as an Aide-De-Camp to two successive Lord Lieutenants of Ireland. He was also elected as a Member of Parliament in the Irish House of Commons. A Colonel by 1796, Wellesley saw action in the Netherlands and in India, served as Governor of Seringapatam and Mysore in 1799. As a Major General, he won a decisive victory at the Battle of Assaye in 1803. Wellesley rose to prominence as a General during the Peninsula campaign in Spain and Portugal during the Napoleonic Wars and was promoted to Field Marshall after his victory over the French at the Battle of Vitoria in 1813. Following Napoleon's exile in 1814, Wellesley served as British Ambassador to France and was granted a Dukedom. During the 100 Days War in 1815, he crowned his military career with the decisive defeat of Napoleon and the French forces at the Battle of Waterloo. The Duke of Wellington participated in 60 battles during his military career.

Courageous and Decisive
The Duke of Wellington's constant appearance at points of crisis did much for the morale of the troops. He hazarded himself as much as the most frontline soldier. The heavy casualties amongst his staff bear solemn testimony to the risks he ran on that day, and at other battles he fought. Wellington showed the rare ability to always be at the right place at the right time. It was his personal intervention which shored up the damaged and threatened centre after the fall of La Haie Sainte. It was his precise timing and order which initiated the destruction of the Imperial Guard at the climactic point of the battle.

Honoured Leader
Wellington adapted defensive styles of warfare where he minimised his own losses while
succeeding in defeating numerically superior forces. Many of his tactics and battle plans are still studied in military academies around the world. He was twice elected Prime Minister of Great Britain. He continued as one of the leading figures in the House of the Lords and remained Commander in Chief of the British Army until his death.

Compassionate Leader
Wellington was known to always rise early. He scorned creature comforts, and even after returning to civilian life, slept in a camp bed. He was described as a practical man who spoke concisely. It was rare that he expressed emotion. His physician reported that he broke down in tears the night after the Battle of Waterloo, unwilling to be congratulated for his victory, because of the high cost of the battle in terms of the loss of lives of his own forces. Wellington wept when he read the casualty returns: "I do not know what it is to lose a battle, but certainly nothing can be more painful than to gain one with the loss of so many of one's friends."

Truth and Valour
Wellington received a state funeral, 18 November 1852 and buried in St. Pauls Cathedral next to Lord Nelson. The bronze memorial sculptured for Wellington's memorial features Truth tearing the tongue out of falsehood and Valour trampling cowardice underfoot.

Dramatic Reversal of Fortunes
The Battle of Waterloo is one of the most famous battles in history. Waterloo has entered the dictionary as "a decisive or crushing defeat." The name itself conjures the most dramatic and decisive reversal of fortune possible. It would not be too much of an exaggeration to say that had this crucial battle been lost, today we could be speaking French.

"Now these things became our examples, to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted. And do not become idolaters as were some of them… Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition…"
1 Corinthians 10:6-7,11

]]><![CDATA[MAGNA CARTA]]>Sat, 14 Jun 2025 22:00:00 GMThttps://www.frontlinemissionsa.org/history/the-first-bill-of-rights-magna-carta

The First Bill of Rights

"…I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing…and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.'" Genesis 12:1-3

Most Valuable
15 June marks the anniversary of the proclamation of Magna Carta. Magna Carta has been one of the most valuable exports of Great Britain to the rest of the world. Magna Carta has truly blessed all the families of the earth. Magna Carta was the first Statute, the first written restriction on the powers of government.

Foundational
Magna Carta, signed by King John at Runnymede, 15 June 1215, recognised foundational Scriptural principles: Justice must not be sold, delayed, or denied; no taxes may be levied without the consent of representatives of those being taxed; no one may be imprisoned without a fair trial by a jury of their peers; property must not be taken from any owner without just compensation. Religious freedom is foundational and must remain inviolable, with all "its rights undiminished and its liberties unimpaired."

First Bill of Rights
Magna Carta is recognised as the grandfather of all Bills of Rights. Magna Carta was the inspiration for the Glorious Revolution of 1688, the model for the English Bill of Rights of 1689; and for the Bill of Rights of the United States of America.

Greatest Constitutional Document
Lord Denning described Magna Carta as "the greatest Constitutional document of all times – the foundation of the freedom of the individual against the arbitrary authority of the despot."

Reformation
During the greatest century of Reformation, in the 16th century, there was a tremendous upsurge of interest in Magna Carta and strenuous efforts to apply these Biblical principles of justice and freedom into all areas of British life.

Liberty
Magna Carta is an important symbol of liberty today. It is greatly respected worldwide by both historians and lawyers, as a potent foundational document for the protection of personal liberties. It has been described as one of the most important legal documents in history. "Do not remove the ancient landmark…" Proverbs 23:10

God-Honouring
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Stephen Langton, wrote Magna Carta, which declares: "John, by the grace of God, King of England… know ye, that we, in the presence of God and for the salvation of our soul and the souls of all our ancestors and heirs and unto the honour of God and the advancement of the Holy Church and amendment of our realm… by this our present charter confirmed, for us and our heirs, forever; that the Church of England shall be free and have her whole rights and her liberties inviolable…"

Bible-Based
The Bible was clearly recognised as the foundational authority for Magna Carta. "You shall do no injustice in judgement. You shall not be partial to the poor, nor honour the person of the mighty. In righteousness you shall judge your neighbour." Leviticus 19:15

Justice
Magna Carta established the right of Trial by Jury to protect the accused from capricious condemnation by authorities. The high value that Christianity, from its inception, has placed on the individual is in stark contrast to the ancient Egyptian, Babylonian, Persian, Chinese, Greek and Roman cultures, in which the individual was always subordinate to the state. True liberty, individual rights and respect for human personality found no place in the ancient world.

Christian Emphasis
It was the Christian emphasis on the individual that established the freedoms and rights enshrined in Magna Carta of 1215 and the later English Petition of Rights of 1628, the English Bill of Rights of 1689 and in the American Bill of Rights of 1791.

Under God and Law
Sir Edward Coke, Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas, challenged King James I, that Magna Carta gave the Courts of Common Law the right to provide justice "from the highest to the lowest" because the king was "under God and the Law." "'You could have no power at all against Me unless it had been given you from above…'" John 19:11. All civil authority is delegated by God and answerable to God.

The Christian Roots of Liberty
Dr. Alvin Schmidt, in How Christianity Changed the World, documents that the freedoms and liberties expressed in Bills of Rights and Declarations of Independence, are extensions of Magna Carta, which is thoroughly Christian. Civic freedoms and liberties could not have occurred had it not been for the Christian values that prompted and shaped the formation of these documents, all of which are extensions of Magna Carta. Magna Carta is revered throughout the world as the cornerstone of modern freedom.

Reaction to Tyranny
Sir Winston Churchill noted in his History of the English Speaking Peoples, that the rights and liberties of English speakers owes more to the vices of King John, than to the virtues of any man. King John was one of the worst kings that England ever had. His cruelty and capriciousness drove the barons of England to mobilise and compel King John to set the royal seal to Magna Carta, or Great Charter.

Habeas Corpus
The sealing of Magna Carta, 15 June 1215, was a splendid victory for the English people. It marked an end to the arbitrary power of any ruler to throw a man in prison without granting him opportunity to prove his innocence. Magna Carta decrees that any man arrested must be tried in court and if it cannot be proved that he has done wrong, he must be set free. "To no one will we sell, to no one deny, or delay, right or justice." "He who justifies the wicked and he who condemns the just, both of them alike are an abomination to the Lord." Proverbs 17:15

Just Weights and Measures
No taxation is legal that is not authorised by those being taxed. Weights and measures must be standardised. "You shall do no injustice in judgment, in measurement of length, weight, or volume. You shall have honest scales, honest weights, an honest ephah and an honest hin: I am the Lord your God." Leviticus 19:35-36

Parliament
A Great Council of nobles and bishops is to advise and guide the king in governing the country. This Great Council soon developed into the English Parliament, which is the model and mother of all parliaments (Exodus 18:21).

Rule of Law
The right of a fair Trial by Jury of one's peers, the right of having a voice in the running of the government and in determining taxes, the right to a just and uniform standard of weights and measures for money and goods, are just some of the many blessings which have flowed from Magna Carta. "Hate evil, love good; establish justice in the gate… let justice run down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream." Amos 5:15,24

The Authority of the Archbishop
Archbishop Stephen Langton strongly sympathised with the Northern barons who openly rebelled against King John. The Archbishop declared that if John refused to negotiate, then he would excommunicate every man in the Royal Army. The Barons advanced on London, where they were warmly welcomed. By the time they had pursued the king to Staines, Magna Carta included 63 demands. On Monday, 15 June 1215, the Barons met the king in a meadow named Runnymede, on the South bank of the Thames River, halfway between Staines and Windsor. John agreed to the demands, but another four days were spent in hammering out the details of the wording and in making copies of the document. On Friday, 19 June, John fixed the royal seal to Magna Carta.

Enduring Legacy of Liberty
Despite attempts by King John to violate his commitment and the hostility of Pope Innocent III to Magna Carta, the regency of John's younger son, Henry III, reissued Magna Carta in 1216 and his son, Edward I, reissued Magna Carta in 1297, confirming it as part of England's Statute Law.

The Dooms of King Alfred
During the time of the Reformation in the 16th century, there was an upsurge of interest in Magna Carta as lawyers and historians traced the principles of freedom in the Great Charter, to Biblically-based laws enacted during the times of the Anglo Saxons, such as The Dooms of King Alfred the Great at the end of the 9th century, which begin with The Ten Commandments, The Case Laws of Exodus and Christ's Sermon on the Mount. "…It is not good to show partiality in judgment. He who says to the wicked, 'You are righteous', him the people will curse; nations will abhor him." Proverbs 24:23-24

Restoring Liberty
Both James I and his son, Charles I, attempted to supress the discussion of Magna Carta and this led to the English Civil War of the 1640s and the execution of Charles for high treason. The violation of the Rights of Englishmen as outlined in Magna Carta led to the Glorious Revolution of 1688, which ousted the Catholic James II, welcoming Protestant William and Mary to the throne and the signing of the English Bill of Rights in 1689. "Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people." Proverbs 14:34

Charter Rights in America
The colonists in the 13 colonies of North America protested the violation of their chartered rights as outlined in Magna Carta when Parliament failed to provide redress for their grievances. In 1687, William Penn published The Excellent Privilege of Liberty and Property: Being the Birthright of the Free-born Subjects of England, which contained the first copy of Magna Carta printed on American soil. Penn's comments reflected those of Coke's, that Magna Carta was fundamental Law. The American colonists quoted extensively from Magna Carta concerning their rights to Trial by Jury and Habeas Corpus. The American founding fathers declared that their Constitution was to preserve their rights and liberties as enshrined in Magna Carta. The American founding fathers claimed Magna Carta as foundational for their American Constitution of 1789, which became the supreme law of the land in the USA. In 1976, Britain lent one of the four surviving originals of the 1215 Magna Carta to the United States for their Bicentennial celebrations and also donated an ornate case to display it. A replica is still on display in the United States capital crypt in Washington DC.

From Sea to Sea
William Stubb in his Constitutional History of England, published in the 1870s, documented that Magna Carta had been a major step in the shaping of the English people as a nation governed by laws under God. The British dominions, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Southern Rhodesia and the Union of South Africa, all regard Magna Carta as foundational to their laws and sought to model their Constitutions on its provisions.

Birth Certificates of Freedom
Four exemplifications of the original 1215 Magna Carta remain in existence and are held by the British Library and the cathedrals of Lincoln and Salisbury. At least 13 original copies of the 1215 Magna Carta were issued by the Royal Chancery at the time. These were sent to county sheriffs and bishops who made more copies and ensured that the provisions were understood by the population. The original Charters were written on vellum sheets, using quill pens, in abbreviated Latin. Each was sealed with the royal great seal using beeswax and resin, most of which have not survived. The 63 numbered clauses of Magna Carta were introduced by Sir William Blackstone in 1759 as the original Charters formed a single, long unbroken text. The four original 1215 Charters will be on joint display at the British Library this year, to mark the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta.

Precious Heritage
Lincoln Cathedral's original copy of the 1215 Magna Carta was being displayed at the World Fair in New York when the Second World War broke out and spent the war years in Fort Knox. Prime Minister Winston Churchill attempted to gift the Charter to the American government, hoping that this would encourage the USA, then neutral, to enter the war, but Lincoln Cathedral refused to hand over the rights to such a precious heritage.

Invaluable Documents
Only one exemplification of the 1216 Charter survived and is held in Durham Cathedral. Four copies of the 1217 Charter exist, three of these are held in the Bodleiam Library in Oxford and one at Hereford Cathedral. The Australian government has a 1297 Charter on display in the Members Hall of Parliament House, Canberra. The National Archives in Washington DC has a copy of the 1297 Charter. (In 2007, a 1297 Magna Carta was sold at an auction for US$21.3 Million, the most ever paid for a single page of text.)

Christian Heritage
The Church in England played a central role in drafting Magna Carta, initiating the negotiations between the Barons and the king and at least eleven other bishops were present at the signing of Magna Carta, along with its author, Archbishop Stephen Langton. "Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." 2 Corinthians 3:17

Continental Clash and Contrast
It was not surprising that Pope Innocent III reacted with hostility to Magna Carta and attempted to annul it. The Inquisition was being established on the continent with its Corpus Juris, while the Church in England was establishing Habeas Corpus and Trial by Jury. "…Should you help the wicked and love those who hate the Lord? Therefore the wrath of the Lord is upon you." 2 Chronicles 19:2

The Threat from Brussels
For those who think Magna Carta is only a matter of distant interest for historians, Britain's membership of the European Union threatened to undermine our Chartered Rights as Englishmen. Brussels is attempting to create a unified European criminal code which would abolish Trial by Jury, Habeas Corpus and other safeguards entrenched in Magna Carta. More influenced by the papal Inquisition and Napoleonic code's Corpus Juris, if allowed to progress unchecked, an EU prosecutor could issue European warrants, which could violate the foundation stones of our freedoms established in Magna Carta. "Unless the Lord builds the house, they labour in vain who build it; unless the Lord guards the city, the watchman stays awake in vain." Psalm 127:1

God's Law or Chaos
Those who reject God and His Law have no objective basis for justice. If one rejects Creation and the Law of the Creator then social and moral chaos is inevitable. What does secular humanism offer us? "You came from nothing! You are going nowhere! Life is meaningless!" From goo to the zoo to you, from mud to monkeys to man. No ultimate standards of right and wrong. Situation ethics and relativism have led to the lawlessness tearing families and communities apart. We need to return to God's Law of perfect Liberty. "But he who looks into the perfect Law of Liberty and continues in it and is not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does." James 1:25

"Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage… For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another." Galatians 5:1,13

Dr. Peter Hammond
Frontline Fellowship
P.O. Box 74 Newlands 7725
Cape Town South Africa
Email: mission@frontline.org.za

]]><![CDATA[ON THIS DAY - 20 MAY]]>Mon, 19 May 2025 22:00:00 GMThttps://www.frontlinemissionsa.org/history/on-this-day-20-may

THE SPANISH ARMADA
It was on 20 May that the Spanish Armada set sail to invade Protestant England.

Phillip Launches the Armada
Phillip II of Spain called the Catholic world to a Crusade against Protestant England. It was English gold and support that bolstered the Protestant cause in Scotland and Netherlands. With Phillip having conquered Portugal and expanded Spain’s Atlantic power, he ordered his admirals to assemble an Armada which could crush the Protestants in England once and for all.

“The Invincible Armada”
By May 1588 Phillip had prepared a fleet consisting of 130 ships, 2,400 cannon and over 30,000 men. This was the greatest naval force the world had yet seen. It was called “The Invincible Armada.” The plan was for the Armada to sail up the English Channel, pick up troops from the Spanish Netherlands under the Duke of Parma and escorting his invasion barges across the Channel to conquer England. Queen Elizabeth ordered the entire nation to pray for God’s intervention and protection against the invading Spanish Armada.

What was at Stake
Had the Spanish Armada succeeded, today’s world would be unrecognizable. Spain was the Catholic superpower. England led the Protestant cause. All Europe feared Spain. It had overwhelmed all of its adversaries – even the Turk. Had the Armada succeeded the whole subsequent history of England and Scotland would have been dramatically changed. There would have been no Protestant North America and no Anglo-Saxon civilization. It would have made Spain the unrivalled world superpower and Spanish the world’s language.

One of the Greatest Speeches Ever Made
An English army of almost 20,000 men were assembled at Tilbury to oppose the anticipated 30,000 men in the Spanish Armada. In addition to these a further 15,000 Spanish troops under the brutal Duke of Parma were to be ferried across the Channel in barges from the Netherlands. Queen Elizabeth addressed her soldiers at Tilbury with these words: “I am come amongst you, as you see, resolved, in the midst and heat of the battle, to live or die amongst you all, to lay down for my God and for my Kingdom and for my people, my honour and my blood, even in the dust. I know I have the body of a weak and feeble woman, but I have the heart and stomach of a king and of a King of England too and think foul scorn that Parma or Spain or any prince of Europe should dare to invade the borders of my realm; to which, rather than any dishonour should grow by me, I myself will take up arms, I myself will be your general, judge and rewarder of every one of your virtues in the field.”

The English Navy
The Royal Navy had been under the control of Sir John Hawkins since 1573. He had rebuilt and reorganized the Navy that had survived from the days of Henry VIII. The castles which had towered above the galleon decks had been cut down. The keels were deepened. Designs concentrated on sea-worthiness and speed. Most significantly of all, Hawkins had installed heavier long-range guns. Knowing that he could not out-produce the Spanish in terms of the size and number of galleons, Hawkins was determined to batter the enemy from a distance with the superior range of his cannon. The Spanish Armada carried many cannon (2,400) but these were really only suitable for close-range salvos before grappling and boarding enemy vessels for hand-to-hand combat.

Against All Odds
To oppose the Armada’s 130 ships, Hawkins had 34 vessels, carrying 6,000 men. His commanders were Lord Howard and Sir Francis Drake. (It was Sir Francis Drake’s famous raid on the Spanish Armada in port at Cardiz in 1587 which had delayed the sailing of the Armada by destroying a large quantity of ships and stores. This was described as “the singeing of the King of Spain’s beard!”)

The Armada Sets Sail
The Armada finally left Tagus on 20 May. It was afflicted by severe storms. Two of their 1,000 ton ships lost their masts. They had to put in to refit at Carunna and could not sail again until 12 July.

Fires Over England
An Intelligence Report of 21 July from Howard to Walsingham reported sighting 120 sail vessels including galleys “and many ships of great burden.” Beacons were lit all across England to alert the population to the danger. Church bells rang. Special services were held to pray for God’s protection.

Engaging the Enemy
The English engaged the Armada in a four-hour battle, pounding away with their long-range guns, but staying out of range of the Armada’s cannon. There was a further engagement on 23 July and then off the Isle of Wight on 25 July. The guns of the English ships raked the decks of the galleons killing many of the crew and soldiers.

Fire Ships Cause Panic
On 28 July the Spanish Armada anchored in the English Channel near Calais. As the English Navy lay upwind from the Spanish, they determined to set adrift 8 fire-ships, filled with explosives, to drift into the crowded Spanish fleet at anchor. As the Spanish crews awoke to see these flaming ships drifting towards their anchored Armada, they panicked. Spanish captains cut their cables and made for the open sea. Many collisions followed. The surviving ships of the Armada headed eastwards to Gravelines expecting to link up with Parma’s troops and barges, ready to be escorted for the invasion of England. But the tides and winds were against them and they found no sign of Parma’s troops in Dunkirk harbour.

Decisive Engagement
At this point the Royal Navy caught up with the Spaniards and a long and desperate fight raged for eight hours. Howard’s men sank or damaged many of the Spanish ships and drove others onto the banks. The English reported that at this point they had completely exhausted their ammunition, otherwise scarcely a Spanish ship would have escaped.

The Devastated Armada
The remnants of the defeated Armada now fled northwards seeking to sail around the north of Scotland in order to reach Spain. They faced mountainous seas and racing tides. Westerly winds drove two of the galleons to wreck upon the coast of Norway. Ships that had been shattered by the English cannonades were now struck by storms. Another 17 ships were wrecked on the coast of Britain. Most of the once mighty Armada were lost before the battered survivors finally reached Spanish ports in October.

God Blew and They Were Scattered
Incredibly, the English had not lost a single ship and scarcely 100 men in the ferocious engagements against the Spanish Armada. Though limited in supplies and ships, the tactics of Hawkins and his admirals Howard and Drake, had been crowned with success. A medal struck to commemorate the victory bears the inscription: “Afflavit Deus et dissipantur” (God blew and they were scattered!)

Answers to Prayer
While churches throughout England were holding extraordinary prayer meetings, devastating storms had wrecked the Spanish plans. The Duke of Parma’s invasion barges from Holland were prevented from linking up with the Armada by Dutch action. The English tactic of setting fire ships amongst the huge Spanish galleons created confusion. Courageous action by the English seamen and continuing storms decimated and broke up the Spanish Armada. Most of what was left of Phillip’s fleet was devastated by more storms off the coast of Scotland and Ireland. Only a miserable remnant of the once proud Armada limped back into the Ports of Spain. 51 Spanish ships and 20,000 men had been lost. The greatest superpower at the time had suffered a crippling blow. The defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588 marked a great watershed in history. It signalled the decline of Catholic Spain and Portugal and the rise of Protestant England and Holland.

A Victory for the Protestant Reformation
Before 1588 the world powers were Spain and Portugal. These Roman Catholic empires dominated the seas and the overseas possessions of Europe. Only after the English defeated the Spanish Armada did the possibility arise of Protestant missionaries crossing the seas. As the Dutch and British grew in military and naval strength, they were able to challenge the Catholic dominance of the seas and the new continents. Foreign missions now became a distinct possibility. Had the Spanish Armada not been defeated, Protestantism could have been extinguished in England and Holland. Then the whole future of North America would have been far different with Catholicism dominating instead of the Protestant Pilgrims.

A Watershed Event
By the grace of God, the destruction of the Spanish Armada in 1588 saved the Protestant Reformation in England from Spanish invasion, oppression and the Inquisition. The victory of Protestant England and Protestant Holland against Catholic Spain was absolutely essential for the founding of the United States of America and of the Republic of South Africa.

Dr. Peter Hammond
Frontline Fellowship

Bibliography:
The Great Christian Revolution by Otto Scott, 1995.
Elizabeth I by Jacob Abbott, 1876.
The Spanish Armada by Winston Graham, Collins, 1972.

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]]><![CDATA[Jimmy Carter’s Disastrous Foreign Policy]]>Sat, 04 Jan 2025 13:29:17 GMThttps://www.frontlinemissionsa.org/history/jimmy-carters-disastrous-foreign-policy

Jimmy Carter’s Foreign Policy was
Disastrous for the Persecuted Church
By Dr. Peter Hammond

Eulogising a Failed Presidency
The passing away of President Jimmy Carter has led many to consider his “presidential legacy.” Joe Biden claimed that President Carter was a “Role Model!” Others declared that Jimmy Carter was “a Champion of peace, human rights and justice!”

Jimmy Carter’s Foreign Policy was Disastrous for the Persecuted Church
The Carter Catastrophe 1977–1981

And that he “globalized the human rights movement.” President Ronald Reagan pointed out that Jimmy Carter’s foreign policy was Hypocritical, as he targeted American allies who were accused of being authoritarian and in-fringing on human rights (in their fight to protect their countries from communist aggression) while Carter’s ad-ministration maintained friendly relations and channelled vast amounts of US aid to the most totalitarian state on earth, the Soviet Union—where there was no respect for human rights at all!

Angola’s Agony
In Africa we do not see Jimmy Carter as a force for peace, human rights or justice at all. Referring to President Carter, Jonas Savimbi, the leader of UNITA in Angola commented: “It is better to be America’s enemy, than to be America’s friend. If you are America’s enemy, you will probably be bought. If you are America’s friend you will certainly be sold!” Jonas Savimbi spoke from personal experience. The pro-western Christian Angolans cer-tainly were betrayed by Carter’s US State Department and by the CIA.

The Betrayal of the Shah of Iran
The Shah of Iran also testified of the treachery of Jimmy Carter’s State Department, as detailed in Erfan Fard’s insightful article about Carter’s central role in the Iranian Revolution of 1978 and 1979, as summarised below:1
After a 37-year alliance with the US, the Shah of Iran was undermined by Carter and his advisors’ deceitful and misguided policies. The Shah, through his US assisted “White Revolution” programme (starting in 1963) was ag-gressively modernising and Westernising Iran, thereby raising the ire of conservative and leftist forces, most out-spoken of whom was cleric Ayatollah Khomeini. Carter pressured the Shah by supplying opposition forces in Iran, Carter sent General Haig to incapacitate the Iranian military, the US ambassador was a pro-Mossadeq sym-pathizer—ultimately, the US backed the political uprising against the Shah which led to his downfall and plunged Iran into chaos—an event that President Reagan called “a historical stain in American history”. All the while Carter’s administration chastised the Shah about human rights issues. Later the Shah admitted “that his gravest mistake was following U.S. advice, which led to the release of murderous terrorists who later orchestrated more violence.” On top of this, Carter’s treatment of the Shah during his illness (lymphatic cancer) was described as “inhumane” (after going into exile on 16 Jan. 1979, the Shah shuttled from country to country, only being al-lowed into the USA on 22 Oct. 1979 for medical treatment, departing the US on 15 Dec. 1979, succumbing to his illness in Egypt on 27 July 1980.)
The incoherent and vacillating actions and policies of Carter, his administration and his intelligence services dur-ing the Iran crisis prompted the Shah to ask, “Why is the CIA so intensively active against me?” This upheaval also raises the question of why did the CIA fail to predict the rise of the mullahs and the 1979 turmoil? With Carter quick to praise Khomeini as a “sacred” figure—a religious and moderate leader—it became apparent that there had been ties between the two before 1979.
In the climactic act, the US hostage crisis (beginning 4 Nov. 1979), Carter first wrote a pleading letter to Khomei-ni and then resorted to prayer. Eventually Carter authorized a rescue mission, but it ended in disastrous failure (25 Apr. 1980). This was in stark contrast to the German GSG 9’s successful rescue of all their hostages in Somalia and the Israeli’s success in rescuing their hostages in Entebbe, Uganda.
Regrettably, Carter’s policies regarding the Islamic Republic “live on in what can be described as ‘Carter 2’ (Obama) and ‘Carter 3’ (Biden) ... Perhaps his death will mark the end of these misguided policies and their dark legacy. Yet, the world first faced the rise of Islamic radicalism during Carter’s era, and the failed battle against terrorism continues to this day.”1
Interestingly, in his book Our Endangered Values Jimmy Carter criticizes President George Bush’s disastrous wars in the Middle East, wars that were actually following the Carter Doctrine, the policy Carter established in 1980, which deems the Persian Gulf a vital US interest requiring military intervention to maintain the status quo!

Covert Support for Genocide in East Timor
Indonesia invaded East Timor in 1975, beginning a twenty-four year occupation marked by genocide and other human rights abuses. The Indonesian invasion was launched during Gerald Ford’s presidency, with US fore-knowledge, support and equipment.2 Carter continued the United States’ secret support for the occupation, in-creasing supplies of military equipment to Indonesia in late 1977: “In 1977–1978 while Indonesia engaged in wholesale destruction in the form of massive bombardment … the Carter Administration extended the military and diplomatic support necessary to make it all possible.”3 Indonesia was using US-supplied OV-10 Bronco air-craft for their incendiary bombing campaign.

Ideas Have Consequences
US Foreign Policy often affects Christians in Africa and the Middle East: some eulogies for Jimmy Carter claimed that even small acts can change the world and that Jimmy Carter’s actions touched many lives. Of course that is true and in Jimmy Carter’s case disastrously so. His intentions may have been good, but the consequences have been consistently catastrophic. It was Jimmy Carter’s government meddling in Afghanistan, early in 1979, that provoked the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan in Christmas of that year. Ever since, American in-volvement in Afghanistan has been increasingly counterproductive and disastrous, especially for the local popula-tion.

Giving away The Panama Canal
It was Jimmy Carter who decided to give away the Panama Canal, which the United States had built (1904–1914) at the cost of many lives and which America had paid a fortune for many times over. And continues to pay a for-tune for in shipping fees while communist China moved in to seize control over this vital and strategic naval ship-ping chokepoint. Hutchison Port Holdings, owned by the Hong Kong-based Li family had “a concession to oper-ate two ports near the ends of the canal—the Balboa port on the Pacific side and the Cristóbal port on the Atlantic side—neither these ports nor the company controlled access to the canal.” The Li family succumbed to growing pressure from the Trump administration—on 4 March 2025, Larry Fink’s American investment company BlackRock announced that it, alongside a group of investors, were buying all 40 of the ports outside of China and Hong Kong owned by CK Hutchinson for nearly $23 billion.4 The Chinese government was infuriated, saying that the deal “betrayed and sold out all Chinese people” and has stalled the deal by launching an antitrust investi-gation.5

A Trail of Betrayal
During the four years of Jimmy Carter’s presidency, thirteen countries fell to communism. Including Nicaragua where Carter’s administration betrayed the longtime American ally Somoza. In most cases, these nations did not just fall to communism, but were actually betrayed into the hands of communist revolutionaries as a result of Carter’s treacherous and inconsistent globalising of human rights campaign. It was a top foreign policy goal of Jimmy Carter’s presidency to force the people of Rhodesia to hand over to Robert Mugabe’s Red Chinese trained and armed ZANU terrorists: “ ‘Carter told me that he spent more time on Rhodesia than he did on the entire Mid-dle East. And when you go into the archives and look at the administration, there is indeed more on Southern Af-rica than the Middle East,’ historian and author Nancy Mitchell said.” 6 As Ian Smith of Rhodesia declared: “We were never beaten by our enemies, we were betrayed by our friends!”

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Frontline Fellowship · The Real Story of Jimmy Carter’s Disastrous Foreign Policy Legacy

A Legacy of Oppression
Americans removed Jimmy Carter from the presidency over forty four years ago. However, the long suffering people of Zimbabwe are still stuck with Carter’s legacy in the form of Robert Mugabe’s murderous Marxist ZANU dictatorship. Just as the long-suffering people of Iran are still oppressed by the ayatollahs.

A Legacy of Liberty
No countries fell to communism during the eight years of Ronald Reagan’s presidency. In fact countries started to be freed from communist oppression. Ronald Reagan put freedom on the offensive, supported resistance move-ments in communist countries and helped win the Cold War that brought down the Berlin Wall and the Iron Cur-tain. The collapse of communism throughout Eastern Europe, in 1989, brought about a new era of religious free-dom and Missionary activity that had previously been inconceivable.

Strength and Weakness
As Winston Churchill observed: “There is nothing they despise more than weakness; there is nothing they respect more than strength!” America was plainly despised in the days of Jimmy Carter. However, America was respect-ed under Ronald Reagan.

Persecution Increases
During the Clinton era (1993–2001), we witnessed and experienced a steady increase of violent persecution of Christians in the Muslim world. It was in the 1990s that radical Islamic regimes, such as the National Islamic Front in Sudan, began systematic terror bombing campaigns of churches, hospitals and schools. It was at that time that I experienced artillery and aerial bombardments while ministering in churches in Sudan.

A Dramatic Decline of Bombings
However, as America began fighting back after the terror attacks of September 11th, 2001, toppling the radical Taliban regime in Afghanistan, the bombing of churches in Northern Nigeria and South Sudan stopped. We en-joyed a period of relative peace and stability as radical Muslim regimes went on the defensive.

An Explosion of Persecution
However, after Obama became president of the USA (2009), there was an unmistakable escalation of violent at-tacks on Christians worldwide, particularly in the Muslim Middle East. Literally hundreds of churches were bombed and burned throughout Northern Nigeria, Egypt, Sudan and Iraq in the four years of his presidency. Just in Northern Nigeria alone, there were over 1,000 attacks on churches (with 17,000 Christians killed) by Boko Haram Jihadist terrorists, just in a five year period from 2010 to 2015.

Worst President of All Time Competition
At a Biblical Worldview Conference in Colorado in 2010, one of the speakers claimed that Barack Hussein Obama was the worst president in American history. During discussion time I ventured to challenge this, point-ing out that it may turn out to be so, but Obama had only been in power for less than two years. Had he considered the trail of treachery of President Jimmy Carter? While I was cataloguing some of Carter’s foreign policy catas-trophes, Dr David Noebel walked up and put his hand on my shoulder: “Peter, you are wrong! When it comes to damage done, no president was worse than Franklin Delano Roosevelt: At Yalta, he betrayed the whole of East-ern Europe and ultimately one-third of the world’s population under the most oppressive dictatorship in history, the Soviet Union!” From the back of the hall a loud voice rang out: “And it all began with Abraham Lincoln!” Another person suggested that Woodrow Wilson should also be considered as a serious candidate for one of the worst presidents in American history, as he introduced federal income tax, the Federal Reserve Bank, dragged America into the First World War and played a leading role in launching the League of Nations! Another sug-gested that LBJ was the worst.

Sowing the Seeds of Civil War in South Sudan
On the 9th of July 2011, the youngest country in the world was born, South Sudan. This was a major answer to an extraordinary campaign of prayer and action which I was intimately involved in. This included writing and pub-lishing three editions of Faith Under Fire in Sudan, taking in several film crews who produced films such as Su-dan: the Hidden Holocaust, Terrorism and Persecution and Three Days in Sudan. I also conducted over 1,200 meetings within Sudan and more than 1,000 public meetings and radio and TV interviews internationally to pro-mote the independence of South Sudan. Everyone expected the newly independent South Sudan to be declared a Christian country, however, ex-president Jimmy Carter managed to persuade the new president of South Sudan to resist all calls from his own citizens to include Christian amendments to the constitution and prayer in parliament. Carter used his elder statesman status to insist that South Sudan be constituted as a secular state!

Worse than that he sowed the seeds for the civil war in South Sudan by demanding that President Salva Kiir in-clude his arch-rival Riek Machar in his government as his vice president. But Machar was much more than a rival, he was a surrogate for the National Islamic Front government of Sudan. Machar and his SSIM army had been supplied by the Sudan Armed Forces of dictator Omar Al Bashir. Machar’s SSIM actually killed more of the South Sudanese civilians, committed more atrocities and slaughtered more of the cattle, caused more scorched earth devastation than even the National Islamic Front regime of the Sharia law enforcing Sudan government! At the first anniversary of independence in South Sudan, President Kiir reported that 5 billion Sudanese pounds were missing from the public treasury! He demanded that these embezzled funds be returned. The next year he could only report on 200 million pounds being returned, so he fired his government. Civil war broke out as Vice Presi-
dent Machar was plainly the guilty party, as he controlled the oil revenues which made up most of the income of South Sudan. Incredibly, after a ceasefire was negotiated, the US government again insisted that the kleptomaniac embezzler be reinstated as vice president! This inevitably led to another outbreak of civil war. So we cannot even say that Carter’s disastrous foreign policies ended in 1980 with his electoral defeat. He continued to meddle in international affairs to an unprecedented extent for any previous president.

American Foreign Policy Affects Lives
Most Americans probably do not think foreign policy when they vote for their president. However, Christians in Africa and the Middle East earnestly entreat our brethren in America to seriously consider the foreign policy im-plications of their votes. Lives are at stake.

Doomed by Carter’s State Department
There is no doubt that millions of people died throughout Africa, Asia and the Middle East because of the foreign policies of Jimmy Carter. Tens-of-millions continue to suffer to this day as a result of Carter’s foreign policy leg-acy, including the people in Iran. It needs to be remembered that the Shah of Iran was one of America’s closest allies in the Middle East when Jimmy Carter’s State Department actively worked to betray their ally and push Iran over to the ayatollahs. The end result of that has yet to be seen as Iran continues to be a volatile part of the ex-tremely violent Middle East.

USAID Funded the Arab Spring and ISIS
The devastating so-called Arab Spring (Dec. 2010–Dec. 2012) launched by the US State Department of Barack Hussein Obama toppled stable governments in the Middle East and initiated a wave of destructive riots, revolu-tions and terrorism that brought the number of Christians in the Middle East down from 15 million in 2010 to less than 10 million by 2020! Obama’s Secretary of State Hillary Clinton described the Muslim Brotherhood as a force for peace and moderation in the Middle East. This despite the Muslim Brotherhood having been responsible for the very public assassination, in 1981, of president Anwar Sadat of Egypt (who by the way was the real archi-tect of the Camp David Accords between Egypt and Israel, which Jimmy Carter received credit for). On just one weekend, the Muslim Brotherhood mobilized mobs that burned down over seventy churches in Egypt. Founded and funded by the CIA, ISIS beheaded countless Christians and blew up historic monuments, including the tombs of Daniel and Jonah.

Obama was Even Worse than Carter
During Obama’s disastrous presidency a billboard appeared in America with a smiling picture of President Jimmy Carter declaring: “At least I can’t be called America’s worst president anymore!”

Delivered
However, as I wrote in my article: “Ronald Reagan Saved Lives in Angola”, there are many millions of people alive, and free, today, because of the far-sighted and courageous foreign policies of President Ronald Reagan.7

An Urgent Call to Prayer and Action
What we sow, we reap. There are consequences for every action. We continue to pray that our Christian brethren in the United States will be in much prayer and seek the wisdom of God when they approach future elections.

Back to the Bible for Reformation and Revival
May we all be Faithful to God’s Word and effective in His service as we seek to reclaim our countries for Christ, laying solid Biblical foundations for Reformation and earnestly praying for Spiritual Revival. We need to Make Africa Safe Again.

Ronald Reagan Saved Lives in Angola
As an African, I will always be grateful for the role Ronald Reagan played in saving lives in Angola. In the 1980s, I made multiple missions into war-torn Angola. At the time, there were over 50,000 Cuban troops in the country. The communists had attacked and destroyed many churches. MiG-23s and Mi-24 Hind helicopter gunships were terrorising villagers in Angola. I documented numerous of these atrocities, including the strafing of villages, schools and churches.
In 1986 I remember hearing Ronald Reagan’s speech—carried on the BBC Africa service: “We are going to send
stinger missiles to the UNITA Freedom Fighters in Angola!” Those of us listening to the short wave radio looked at one another in stunned amazement. After a long silence as we wondered if our ears had actually heard what we thought we’d heard, one of us said: “That would be nice!”

We scarcely dared believe that it would happen. But it did. Not long afterwards the stinger missiles began to ar-rive in UNITA controlled Free Angola. Soviet aircraft were shot down. The bombing and strafing of villagers, schools and churches came to an end. Without any doubt, Ronald Reagan’s policies saved many tens of thousands of lives in Angola.

In my photo albums I have numerous pictures of Soviet aircraft shot down in Angola: Mi-24 Hind helicopters, Mi-8 Hip helicopters, and a MiG-23. They are a reminder of an American President who cared about the people of Angola who were suffering under communist occupation.

May the Lord continue to be your strength and shield.
Yours for the fulfilment of the Great Commission,
Dr. Peter Hammond

Sources
1 Fard, E., “Carter: The President Who Betrayed Shah to Khomeini” [blog], Times of Israel (30 Dec. 2024), https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/carterthe-president-who-betrayed-shah-to-khomeini/ 2 Al Jazeera, “US ‘backed East Timor invasion’ ” (3 Dec. 2005), https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2005/12/3/us-backed-east-timor-invasion
3 Smith, M. K., “Jimmy Carter: the False Savior”, CounterPunch (30 Dec. 2024), https://www.counterpunch.org/2024/12/30/jimmy-carter-the-false-savoir/
4 Rennie, A., “BlackRock Leads Consortium Buying Panama Canal Ports for Nearly $23B”, Investopedia (4 Mar. 2025), https://www.investopedia.com/blackrock-leads-consortium-buying-panama-canal-ports-for-nearly-usd23b-11690345
5 Hale, E., “Why is China angry about a plan to sell two ports on the Panama Canal?”, Al Jazeera (1 Apr. 2025), https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/4/1/why-is-china-angry-about-a-plan-to-sell-two-ports-on-the-panama-canal
6 Anna, C., “ ‘Our country ignored Africa,’ Jimmy Carter said. He didn’t”, The Washington Times (5 Jan. 2025), https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2025/jan/5/jimmy-carter-said-country-ignored-africa-didn/
7 Hammond, P., “Ronald Reagan Saved Lives in Angola”, Frontline Fellowship (2 Oct. 2017), https://www.frontlinemissionsa.org/angola/ronald-reagan-saved-lives-in-angola

Frontline Fellowship · A Critical Analysis of Jimmy Carter's Legacy

]]><![CDATA[THE FALL of the IRON CURTAIN]]>Fri, 08 Nov 2024 22:00:00 GMThttps://www.frontlinemissionsa.org/history/the-fall-of-the-iron-curtain

9 November marks the Fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.

A speech at Westminster College, Fulton, Missouri, 5 March 1946, declared, “An Iron Curtain has descended across the continent”. From Stettin in the North to Trieste in the South barbed wire and barricades, walls and machine gun towers were going up, sealing off the captive nations occupied by the Soviet Union from their neighbours in the West. The Iron Curtain divided a continent and trapped hundreds of millions of people under communism. Soviet dictator, Joseph Stalin, declared that the Second World War was not a disaster but “a great opportunity” to extend communism into the very heart of Europe.

Poland Betrayed
Even Poland, for whose freedom Great Britain had ostensibly entered the war, was now little more than a satellite of the Soviet Empire ruled by men chosen by Moscow. Its population was now imprisoned behind a line of barbed wire, watchtowers and minefields - a physical iron curtain.

Secret Police
To spy on its captive populations the Soviet empire set up secret police. In the Soviet Union it was the KGB, in Bulgaria it was the DS, in Czechoslovakia the StB, in Hungary the AVB, in Poland the SB, in Romania the Securitatae and in East Germany it was the STASI (the Ministry of State Security). The STASI maintained a huge network of 90,000 secret police and 175,000 paid informants. They kept files on 4,000,000 East Germans - a quarter of the population.

Berlin Blockade
The Berlin Wall was manned by 15,000 guards - the so-called Volkspolizei (VOPOS). When Joseph Stalin attempted to starve West Berlin into submission by cutting off all electricity and supplies on 23 June 1948 the Western powers responded with the Berlin Airlift. The Berlin blockade was the first serious global crisis of the Cold War. West Berlin was kept alive by an airlift of over 150 aircraft supplying an average of 5,000 tons per day. By the time the Soviets ended the blockade on 12 May 1949 over 2.5 million tons had been delivered at the cost of 60 aircrew who had died in aircraft crashes.

Korean War
There were numerous hot fronts in the Cold War. The Cold War included a full-scale military war in Korea where 2 million died in the three-year conflict. Evidence has since surfaced that Stalin was planning to follow up the Korean attack with a military offensive in Europe. He was deterred by the quick international response in Korea.

Protests in Berlin
After the death of Joseph Stalin (5/3/53), over 100,000 East Berlin workers protested against the Soviet occupation. Two Soviet armoured divisions were sent into East Berlin to crush the protest in June 1953. Over 100 civilians were killed and 25,000 protesters arrested.

Uprising in Hungary
In July 1956, a full scale uprising in Hungary shook the Soviet Empire. Mass demonstrations demanded the withdrawal of Soviet troops and in Budapest, a massive statue of Stalin was toppled. Soviet troops poured into Hungary and over 20,000 Hungarians were killed in the repression. Tens-of-thousands more were arrested and imprisoned. 250,000 Hungarians fled to the West.

The Berlin Wall
The Berlin Wall was concrete proof of the failure of “scientific socialism”.
To prevent Germans in the Soviet zone from fleeing to the Western zone in Berlin, a 165 km wall was constructed to seal off West Berlin's island of freedom from Soviet occupied communist East Germany.
The Berlin Wall included 302 concrete observation posts/machine gun towers and 123 km of electric fencing.

Death Strip
A further death strip stretching 1,393 km along the border between communist East Germany and free West Germany was constructed with:
724 observation posts/machine gun towers,
1,161 km of electric fencing,
54, 000 self-firing devices and
190 km of mine fields.

Kill Zone
Just between 13 August 1961 to 30 July 1983, 73 people were killed by the communists while attempting to escape over the Berlin Wall, 182 more people were killed attempting to escape from East Germany across the border into West Germany, 60,000 people were imprisoned for “preparation, assistance or complicity”, in attempting to escape from East to West Germany (with sentences ranging from 16 months to life imprisonment). By 1989, at least 239 escapees from East Berlin were known to have been killed just at the Berlin Wall alone. More than a thousand died, trying to flee across the Iron Curtain.

Yet from the founding of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) in 1949, more than 4,500,000 (over one quarter of the population) voted with their feet by fleeing to West Germany. 38,515 escaped from East to West Berlin by tunnels, by improvised air machines or hot air balloons, hidden inside vehicles travelling from East to West Berlin. 2,768 East German soldiers and officers on duty (including a Colonel) escaped to the West.

Voting With their Feet
Yet from the founding of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) in 1949, more than 4,500,000 (over one quarter of the population) voted with their feet by fleeing to West Germany. 38,515 escaped from East to West Berlin by tunnels, by improvised air machines or hot air balloons, hidden inside vehicles travelling from East to West Berlin. 2,768 East German soldiers and officers on duty (including a Colonel) escaped to the West.

Cuban Missile Crisis
The Cold War almost went nuclear during the Cuban missile crisis, October 1962. The vicious conflicts in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia (1963 - 1975) were hot parts of the Cold War.

Invasion of Czechoslovakia
Anyone who believed that communism could be reformed from within was shaken by the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968 when Czech communist party chief, Alexander Dubcek, attempted to create “socialism with a human face.” As a result of economic reforms in Czechoslovakia, the other East European satellite states complained that their positions were being undermined by the reforms in Czechoslovakia. The Soviet response was: Leonid Brezhnev ordered a full-scale Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia to restore orthodox communism. The Prague Spring ended in August 1968 as half-a-million Warsaw Pact troops invaded Czechoslovakia and overwhelmed the courageous resistance of Czech patriots.

Détente Deception
The Soviet Empire reached its peak during the period of Détente, as they sponsored, trained and armed revolutionaries to seize power in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam in 1975, Ethiopia in 1974, Guinea Bissau, Angola and Mozambique in 1975, Grenada and Nicaragua in 1979 and Rhodesia/Zimbabwe in 1980. The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 was a major wake up call to those in the West who still believed in Détente.

Freedom on the Offensive
As a result of this unprecedented Soviet advance there was a backlash throughout the West, epitomised by staunch anti-communist US President, Ronald Reagan, British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, West German Chancellor, Helmut Kohl and south Africa’s P.W. Botha. The West went on the offensive, directly supporting the anti-communist Solidarity trade union movement in Poland, which soon organised nationwide strikes and protests against the Soviet occupation. The USA began to arm and support anti-communist resistance movements as far afield as in Nicaragua, Afghanistan and Angola.

Bankrupting the Soviets
Ronald Reagan's policies forced the Soviets back onto the defensive and strategically undermined their economy. Spectacular re-armament programmes and the space based Strategic Defence Initiative (SDI) quickly left the Soviets far behind in the arms race and totally bankrupted the Soviet Union in their futile attempt to keep up with America.

The Iron Lady
British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher's determination to fight to reclaim the Falkland Islands, after the Argentinean invasion, helped convince the Soviets that the West was not nearly so decadent and weak as they had imagined. Thatcher's success in reviving the British economy also helped demonstrate that capitalism had a future even while communism was bankrupting the Soviet Union in Eastern Europe. The Iron Lady had this to say about the Berlin Wall: “The Berlin Wall stands as concrete proof that when people have a choice, they choose to be free Freedom has its problems but we've never needed to build walls to keep our people in.”

Defeating the Communists
Brave anti-communist resistance fighters in Mozambique, Angola, Nicaragua and Afghanistan severely bled the Soviet forces, inflicting serious defeats upon them. The Rhodesian resistance throughout the 60s and 70s had set back the advance of communism in Southern Africa and the destruction of entire Cuban mechanised divisions in Angola by South African conventional forces in the battles on the Lomba River in 1987 and 1988 convinced the Soviet Union that they would not even be able to win a conventional war against the West.

Recognising Reality
Russian soldiers began to refer to Afghanistan as their 'Vietnam'. As Russian casualties mounted in that conflict, the ongoing political crisis in Poland and widespread resistance to communism throughout the Soviet empire helped convince the Soviet leaders that their bankrupt system was doomed.

The Glasnost Gulag
Even under Gorbachev's much-acclaimed Glasnost, the Soviet Gulag imprisoned millions. When US President, Ronald Reagan, stood at the Berlin Wall and challenged: “Mr Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” the Soviet Union operated 1,976 concentration camps, 273 prisons, 85 psychiatric prisons and 41 death camps. In this Soviet Gulag, over 5,000,000 political and religious prisoners were incarcerated. Alexander Solzhenitsyn, author of The Gulag Archipelago, documented that between 1918 and 1953 (under Lenin and Stalin's rule) over 50,000,000 Russians served long sentences in the Soviet concentration camps - with millions perishing

The Hypocrisy of Communism
It was pointed out that while the communists claimed to have liberated Russia from the oppression of the Czars, there were 5000 times more official executions under communist rule in Russia as occurred under Czarist rule in the same time period. By comparison with Russia under Czarist rule where the highest figure of political prisoners was 183,949, the communists imprisoned seventy times as many people at any one time.

Callous Disregard for Life
Vladimir Lenin famously declared that it did not matter if three quarters of the population of Russia perished, as long as the remaining quarter were communist.
Joseph Stalin observed: “The death of one person is a tragedy; whereas the death of a million is just a statistic!”

Prayer and Protests
As candlelit prayer vigils and protests spread from Leipzig, through Dresden, to all of East Germany, the East German government was bankrupt and tottering. Gorbachev's Soviet Union was also bankrupt and could no longer bail them out. So Erich Honecker, the dictator of East Germany, turned to the West Germans (who in the past had always been willing to provide enough to keep East Germany going). This time, however, the West German Federal Government, was not willing to bail them out. They demanded reforms.

The Fall of the Wall
While governments negotiated, the people in both East and West Berlin rose up to breach the wall and began to dismantle it physically. The leaders were overwhelmed by events. Days after the Berlin Wall collapsed, mass demonstrations broke out in Czechoslovakia. Vaclav Havel, long-time leader of the Resistance movement and prisoner of the communists, rose to power and dismantled communism in Czechoslovakia.

The Christmas Revolution
Street fighting erupted in Romania to overthrow the brutal communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu. Soon resistance spread to Bulgaria where the communists were overthrown in December 1989. In Hungary, the communist government was overthrown in October 1990. In Albania, the first free elections were held in March 1991. Yugoslavia split into different republics as each broke away from the communist control in Belgrade. Soon the Baltic Republics - Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania - were demanding and achieving their independence from the Soviet Union.

The End of the Soviet Union
In August 1991, a coup in the Soviet Union was frustrated in its attempt to return the country to hard line communism. Boldly waving the white, blue and red Russian flag, Boris Yeltsin abolished the Soviet Union and pulled down the Soviet Flag. The Cold War had formally ended.

Terrorist Threat from the Middle East
Even as the Cold War with Soviet Union communism ended, a new war was starting with radical Islamic terrorists declaring war on the West.

Victory Over Communism
“There is nothing they despise more than weakness. There is nothing they respect more than strength.” The Cold War was won by a combination of Christian courage by persecuted Christians who endured decades of brutality, steadfast resistance by brave anti-communist soldiers who fought the Soviets to a standstill, persistent prayer and pressure from Christians in the West and the bold strategy of Ronald Reagan, which dismantled the Evil Empire.

“While they promise them liberty, they themselves are slaves of corruption…” 2 Peter 2:19

Dr. Peter Hammond
Reformation Society
P.O. Box 74 Newlands 7725
Cape Town South Africa
Tel: 021-689-4480
Email: mission@frontline.org.za
www.FrontlineMissionSA.org
www.idop-africa.org
www.ReformationSA.org
www.LivingstonFellowship.co.za

Obtain Going Through – Even if the Door is Closed book, by Bill Bathman, for the incredible story of ministry behind the Iron Curtain and how the Wall was breached.

See also:
The Greatest Killer
The Heart and Soul of Karl Marx
The Failure of Atheism and the Triumph of Faith in the Soviet Union

]]><![CDATA[The 11TH of NOVEMBER]]>Fri, 08 Nov 2024 16:07:03 GMThttps://www.frontlinemissionsa.org/history/the-11th-of-november

The 11th of November

by Dr. Peter Hammond

Remembering Rhodesia
11 November is packed full of meaning for anyone whose relatives fought in the World Wars and for all who had the privilege of growing up in Rhodesia.

59 Years ago on Thursday, 11 November 1965, at the most solemn moment of the 11th hour of Armistice Day, Ian Douglas Smith, the Prime Minister of Rhodesia, signed Rhodesia's Unilateral Declaration of Independence from Great Britain.

Remembrance Day
Throughout the English-speaking world, the 11th November is observed as a Remembrance Day to solemnly recall the end of hostilities of World War One at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918. In time, it has come to be observed as a Memorial Day for all who died in both World Wars and in other subsequent conflicts.

Lest We Forget
During my Missionary travels I have been struck by how many hundreds of War Memorials there are throughout the world. Every town and village in the British Isles and in Rhodesia and South Africa, have Memorials to the fallen of World Wars One and Two. Even at Victoria Falls, close to the new statue of Dr. David Livingstone, erected in 2005 on the Zambian side, there is a War Memorial listing the names of people from Northern Rhodesia, who fought and died for Britain.

Honour Rolls
At Milton High School in Rhodesia, we would be reminded daily of the large numbers of past pupils who had given their lives "for King and Empire" in WWI and WWII. There were numerous wooden Rolls of Honour on the walls of our halls engraved with the names of past pupils and the dates of their death.

In Flanders Fields
When I visited the battlefields in Ypres, Belgium, I was struck by how many Hammonds are recorded in the Rolls of Honour on the walls of the War cemeteries. There are many War cemeteries near Ypres for soldiers of the British Empire. I have by no means visited all of these cemeteries, but I have visited the six largest and counted over 65 Hammonds listed as killed in action, in that one theatre of the First World War. According to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission 480 Hammonds died fighting for Britain in the First World War.

Love in Action
Numerous of the Memorials have this Scripture verse etched into the stone: "Greater love hath no man than this that a man lay down his life for his friends." John 15:13. Others declare: "…unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain." John 12:24

Blood Swept Lands and Seas
During a 2014 Mission to England, I saw the beginning of the Tower of London Memorial for those who fell in the First World War. Beginning on 4 August 1914, marking the 100th anniversary of Britain's declaration of War against Germany, which launched WWI, 888,246 ceramic poppies were planted by volunteers in the moat surrounding the Tower of London. Entitled Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red, this evolving memorial marked the number of soldiers who fell for the British Empire in the First World War. Every evening, Last Posts were played by bugle at sunset and names of those who died in the First Word War were read out to the crowds.

For King and Country
My Father served as a Bombardier in the Royal Artillery throughout the six years of World War II. Much of the Second World War, my Father served in the Eighth Army, mostly under Field Marshall Montgomery, in North Africa and Italy. My Dad operated a 25 Pounder. He was involved in the Battle of El Alamein. Although my Father was a very patriotic Englishman and Rhodesian, he had an extremely high respect for Field Marshall Erwin Rommel and the Afrika Korps. He called them "an honourable enemy" and the North Africa Desert Campaign, "the last gentlemen's war".

Hollywood Distortions
On a number of occasions, I remember my Father becoming quite agitated and angry over distortions in Hollywood films that depicted the German Afrika Korps committing atrocities. "Rubbish!" he declared, "The Afrika Korps were gentlemen. No such atrocities ever happened in the North African campaign. This is absolute rubbish!" It deeply offended my father to see the enemy he so highly respected portrayed in such a dishonest light.

We Fought the Wrong Enemy
On several occasions, my Father explained that he could never understand how Britain had ended up fighting against the Germans and for the French. "The Germans should never have been our enemies", he was convinced. "Historically, our real enemies have always been the French and the Russians!"

Clobber the Communists
There were many other military veterans in Rhodesia who shared the same conviction. A common sentiment was: "We should not have fought against the Germans; we should have joined them in clobbering the communists in Russia!" I have heard similar sentiments from British, Canadian, Australian and South African veterans at MOTH (Memorable Order of the Tin Hats) Shell Holes.

Ian Smith of Rhodesia
The first time I saw Prime Minister Ian Smith, it was as a young boy of 14-years old, standing outside the Bulawayo Club in Rhodesia. I had heard from my father that the Prime Minister was going to visit. Expecting some impressive entourage, I was standing by the entrance in Eighth Avenue with my cat, Tim. I can still remember my surprise as I saw a rather humble Peugeot 404 park in front of the Bulawayo Club and out stepped Mr Ian Smith. The Prime Minister was completely alone. There was no driver, or adjutant, no bodyguards, or policemen, visible anywhere. The Prime Minister had driven himself alone to the Club. He stroked my cat, who was sitting on the wall and smiled at me, then walked into the Club!

Communist Contrast
Almost 10 years later, I was in Harare, on Samora Machel Avenue when Zimbabwean dictator Robert Mugabe sped past. The contrast with Ian Smith's arrival could not have been more acute. First came 8 motorbike outriders, then police cars, armoured luxury Mercedes Benz’s with tinted windows, followed by another police car and a truckload of soldiers with heavy weapons, sirens blaring. All vehicles on both sides of the road had to come to a complete stop at the side. This, I was informed by residents, was how Mugabe travelled every day!

Fearing None But God
When I mentioned this to Ian Smith, he laughed and commented that he feared God, he was a life-long Presbyterian, he believed in the Sovereignty of God and he had survived the Second World War – he did not see what he had to be afraid of! In fact, during the war years, as Prime Minister, Ian Smith would frequently travel alone, without a convoy, scorning the real risk of an ambush, down to his farm near Gwelo. He would also often give all the staff at Independence (the Prime Minister's residence) the weekend off, so that there not be so much as a cook in the kitchen or a policeman at the gate. He and his wife would be alone and that was the way he wanted it. He could not bear people fussing around him.

Honourable Man of Integrity
I have a photograph of Ian Smith cycling to work. Ian Smith was a remarkable statesman. A man of integrity. He said what he meant, and he meant what he said. He was an example of an honourable man of his word.

Flying Hurricanes for Britain
Over the last 20 years of his life on earth, I frequently had the privilege of having lunch, or tea, with Mr Smith. We read the Scriptures and prayed together on a number of occasions, and I interviewed him for radio. On one occasion, when we were discussing the Second World War, Mr Smith grew serious. He had devoted six years of his life flying in the Royal Rhodesian Air Force. With the outbreak of the Second World War, he joined the RRAF and served in 237 (Rhodesia) Squadron. He flew Hawker Hurricanes, serving in Egypt, Lebanon, Persia, Iraq and then finally in the North African Desert War. He served at El-Alamein and Tobruk and was severely injured in a crash landing. He suffered a broken jaw, broken leg, broken shoulder and severe facial wounds. It was thought that his back was broken, but it turned out to be, as he put it, "only buckled". After 5 months of recuperating under expert medical attention in Cairo, he returned to active service, flying Spitfire Mark IX's.

Spitfire Shot Down
It was during the Italian campaign in 1944 that he was shot down. He had to jettison his canopy, release his harness and turn the Spitfire upside down, so that he could drop free, pull his ripcord and parachute to safety. For the next five months he evaded enemy patrols, joined up with the local Resistance and later crossed the Alps on foot, to link up with Allied forces in France.

The Benefit of Hindsight
"With hindsight", Mr Smith declared to me, "We fought on the wrong side. The real enemy was communism. We did not realize it at the time, of course, but we were not really fighting for Christian civilisation and freedom, because we were allied to Stalin's Russia. Instead of freeing Europe, we helped Stalin enslave half of it under communism."

Catastrophic Consequences
We discussed some of the catastrophic consequences of the World Wars, the Yalta agreement and how Europe had been bullied into abandoning their colonies and protectorates in Africa and how the African people had suffered so severely under the dictators who were pawns of the superpowers in the Cold War. "It would have been better if Britain had stayed out of the war and let Germany smash communism in Russia once and for all. Or better still, we should have helped free Russia from the communists. That would have spared a lot of people much grief."

Facts Are Stubborn Things
What he said was quite jarring and shocking. As I had taken the Hollywood and textbook version at face value, the idea that we had been on the wrong side seemed too staggering a thought to fully comprehend at the time. However, from conversations with Christians throughout Eastern Europe, I came to the same conclusion. The persecuted Believers suffering behind the Iron Curtain in Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, East Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria and Albania, could not be convinced that the Second World War had achieved freedom, democracy and Christian civilisation for them!

The Yalta Betrayal
Over 100 million Christians had been betrayed into the hands of Stalin's Soviet Union by the Yalta Agreement and the extremely generous so-called Lend-lease which poured limitless supplies of tanks, trucks, aircraft, weaponry and every conceivable tool and ammunition into Stalin’s vile Soviet Union to enable it to survive Operation Barbarossa and come to dominate more than half of Europe by the end of the war.

The Katyn Forest Massacre and Operation Keelhaul
Then Polish Christians enlightened me as to the Katyn Forest Massacre, Russians informed me of Operation Keelhaul, which betrayed millions of Russians (men, women and children) who immediately following the war, were forced by the Allies, at gun and bayonet point, over the border, into the hands of Stalin's executioners.

Honour the Soldiers But Do Not Let the Politicians Get Away with Murder
There is no questioning the courage, dedication to duty and self-sacrifice of the soldiers, sailors and airmen who served in their countries armed forces during the First and Second World Wars. However, the wisdom and honesty of the politicians who placed them in the line of fire, should certainly be questioned.

Understanding the Great War and Its Consequences
To this end I have written a number of articles seeking to get to grips with the lessons and implications of the First World War: A Tale of Two Conferences; Britain and Germany – The Best of Enemies; How Propaganda Changes Perceptions and People; and Surprising Facts About the First World War .

How Britain Lost Its Empire and the West Lost the World
I also highly recommend Patrick Buchanan's bestselling book: Churchill, Hitler and The Unnecessary War – How Britain Lost Its Empire and the West Lost the World. This book, published by Three Rivers Press, treats the First and Second World War as one Thirty Years War. I think Patrick Buchanan makes a very compelling and enlightening case.

A Hundred Year War
However, I am also coming to the conviction that while one can consider WWI and WWII as the Thirty Years War, it may be even more accurate to refer to the Hundred Years War. Since 1914 the world has not been at peace. The consequences of 1914 continue to afflict all of us. The Versailles Treaty, which ended the First World War and guaranteed the Second World War, shaped our new world disorder.

Freedom Betrayed
US President, Herbert Hoover’s landmark book, Freedom Betrayed – Herbert Hoover’s Secret History of the Second World War and its Aftermath documents the treachery and treason of FDR’s administration’s and deception operations that misdirected America’s Arsenal for Democracy to salvage Stalin’s Soviet Union and betray Eastern and Central Europe under Communist control.

Babylon and the Beast
It has also become clear that our real enemy is communism and the secular humanist New World Order, particularly as promoted by degenerate Hollywood, the treacherous United Nations and Apostate World Council of Churches. The New World Order agenda of a one-world government, one-world religion and one-world economy bear remarkable resemblance to the Biblical warnings in Revelation 13. Please see my article:
Resisting Babylon and the Beast

Islamic Jihad
Recently the tremendous threat of Radical Islam has also become clear. Yet very few understand the clear and present danger of Islam to freedom and civilisation. Our Slavery, Terrorism and Islam – The Historical Roots and Contemporary Threat book, has gone through multiple revisions and expansions and is now three times larger than the first edition.

Recognising Our Friends and Our Enemies
So, as we remember the fallen soldiers and Rhodesia's bold and brave stand against communist terrorism, we should also reflect on how the greatest century of Missions was derailed into the worst century of Persecution. There is no doubt, in my mind, that, if our ancestors could have seen the results that have flowed from the First and Second World Wars, they would not have fought against one another, they would have fought side by side, against the real enemy.

Understand the Times
May God grant that we may understand the times and know what God's people should do (1 Chronicles 12:32).

"Now these things became our examples, to the intent that we should not lust after evil things… and do not become idolaters… Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition…" 1 Corinthians 10:6-11

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