Robert Paterson's Weblog

How to change your work culture - a lesson from nearly 100 years ago - Vimy Ridge

 

On this day, April 9th, 1917 the Canadian Corps captured Vimy Ridge and changed how war was fought in WWI. Their story is not only important in purely historic terms (this was Canada's Waterloo - Gettysburg - Gallipoli) but how they did this has lessons for all today who wish to make their organization more like a network and less like a machine.

How do organizations make sense of the new networked world? The same problems faced generals in WWI. How were they to make sense of industrial warfare? The Canadian Corps solved this problem in 1917 at Vimy. The lessons learned of how they did this apply today. Here we discover the essence of what they did and how to apply this to our own time.

In honour of the men of 1917 and to help us understand how to create the culture to create a truly human organization, I have written a very short book that offers you a step by step acccount of how this was done back then. The times are different but the problem of how to get away from Command and Control remains. The lessons from Vimy are here to be learned all over gain.

Here is the link to the book

 

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Nov 11 - Remembering my Family - What about yours?

At every Remembrance day, I remember in particular my Grandfather and my Great Uncle whom I knew and who served in WWI. But this year, thanks to my sister Diana, who has been doing all the work, I would like to honour the wider family by name who served in both wars. When you see the list - you may also wonder about your wider family. How great was their sacrifice and effort. Diana and I have found this research deeply moving and meaningful. I know you will too if you look more deeply into your family.

The Patersons were part of a close knit group of intermarried Scots families who played a major role in the establishment of Canada. All the sons and many of the daughters served in WWI. Many were killed or wounded. For the women at home - it must have been unbearable. My Great Great Aunt, lost all her children. Some lost their husbands in one war and their son in the next. 

Diana and I remember them most of all.

At the centre of the "Clan" were the Allans - who while capitalists of a first order - had a deep sense of duty. The Allans lived on both sides of the Atlantic and family members saw each other often. Most of the Canadian boys were educated in England. Some served in the British Army.

But Canada weeps for them all. For to survive was not the end. Many were scarred for life both in body and soul. 

First of all the fallen in WWI.

Gwendolyn Evelyn Allan, aged 17, and Anna Marjory Allan, aged 15, (her body was never recovered) drowned at the sinking of the Lusitania 7th May 1915. Their mother was rescued and stayed in England to found a hospital for Canadian soldiers. Her son Hugh was to die the following year. 

Flight Sub Lieutenant Hugh Allan, son of Lt Col Sir Hugh Montague Allan - the then patriarch of the family - killed on his first mission aged 20 on July 6 1917.

Captain John James Allan Liverpool Scottish killed 27th April 1916. His mother, Edith, had taken him to sign up on 15th May 1915

Allan Routledge killed 23rd Sept 1916

Temp Major - Captain Montague Claud Gribbon died 8th December 1915 at Kut el Amara in Mesopotamia - left his widow 389 pounds

Major Charles Napier North, Montague Claud Gribbon's brother in law, shot in the head by a sniper while inspecting wire near Zonnebeke Loos Nov 1st 1914 - left his widow 224 pounds 2 shillings and 3 pence. 

Captain George R Houston Boswall of the Grenadier Guards, died Loos 27th September 1915 aged 38!

Alexander Young, son of James Allan ( all we know right now)

Those who survived WWI

Major Claud MacFie - Seaforth Highlanders - DSO Gallipoli

Major Hugh Earnest Spencer Milburne

Major Claude Edward Allan Milburne

Lieutenant Ellice Allan Mackenzie Royal Canadian Artillery

Major James MacFie - India

Lt Col Bryce Allan DSO Gallipoli

Lieutenant Duncan Charles Allan son of Margaret MacFie - daughter of Sir Hugh Allan

Major Alexander Thomas Paterson (CFA) DSO and Bar - Served in France from Feb 1915 to September 9 1918 when he was gassed - My paternal Grandfather

Lieutenant Hartland Paterson lost a leg to wounds in his first action on September 12th 1918 - Alec's brother and my Great Great Uncle

Captain James Blackwood Paterson - Paymaster for the Canadian Black Watch and lender of last resort to all Canadian Officers!

Lt Col Charles Ballantyne - personally raised 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards (Canada) - My maternal great grandfather

Charles Bridges - It's complicated!

Major Charles Hope (CFA) My wife's Grandfather

The Fallen in WWII

Flight Lieutenant William Hope - 1944 Killed testing a Typhoon - Charlie Hope's eldest son and my wife Robin's Uncle

Captain Hugh Ellice Mackenzie Canadian Grenadier Guards - we have not found out how he died yet

Second Lieutenant George Cleeton Houston-Boswall Royal Scots regiment in December 1941 at Hong Kong

Served in WWII

Commander Robert Alexander Allan - RNVR - DSO Crois de Guerre, OBE

Col Alexander Thomas Paterson (yes my grandfather served in both)

Midshipman James Alexander Paterson CRN (my dad) invalided out of the service

Cpl Francis Hope, my father in law

Afghanistan - The Roxanne Option?

Anyone wanting to get a feel for what really confronts the US and the Nato alliance in Afghanistan should read Steven Pressfield's book "The Afghan Campaign". The book is not about today but about Alexander's campaign. But it can inform today.

Alexander tried it all. Including genocide. It all failed. He could not extricate himself without losing face. And for him to lose face would have been the end of him. Being a genius, he found the Roxanne option. This is what I think President Obama needs to consider. Not marrying an Afghan Princess but using a game changing and face saving way of altering everything.

The current debate - more troops or the same is missing the point. There is no way that there will ever be a government in the country that can be looked at as being anything other than what it is - the typical government of a failed state. There can be no victory for "democracy". Troop levels mean nothing in this context other than adding more will only make the ultimate failure worse and further isolate the President at home and abroad. Keeping them the same will only give his opponents the cross to hang him on when that too fails.

It's not just the administration or the democrats that are at risk - so is America. 

The Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan showed the world that the USSR was now a Paper Tiger. The defeat of the French in 1745 was the decisive blow to its prestige and its credit that lead to the revolution. The defeat of Russia by Japan undermined the Tsar in the same way. The Boer War, although technically a victory, showed that Britain could be beaten. The stakes are huge!

Defeat not terror is the risk for America. So what is the Roxanne Option?

It is all about how the place really works. It's all about money and drugs.

Pressfield is clear. You can always do a deal with a tribe. Tribes understand power and honor and business. You cannot tell them to be different. They respect above all real power. Not the power of the weapon but real power that is related to prestige and to things that people really need.

The real power in Afghanistan is all about money. The money there  - vast sums - comes from the opium harvest.

Our obsession with the War on Drugs is our weakness. The Roxanne Option - the Game Changer - is to take over the drug trade. We buy all the opium. We can burn it if we want or make it into medical products. My point is that we have to control the trade and make the locals rich and keep the money for us to hand out to whom we please.

They key to the hearts and minds of the people is not to have them like us but to have them see us as useful. Once we have control of the opium, we have control of everything and everyone. We have the money. With that kind of power and with the loss of power to the warlords, we have room to move.

Now what will the Republicans say to that?

The West loses for sure if we don't get the power and this is the only way. The President loses for sure if he takes either of the other options

I would roll the dice as Alexander did who not only married the Afghan Princess but made many key locals his close associates. Some of the old guard were pissed. But they had to take it for the alternative was defeat and dishonor.

Dambusters 65th Anniversary

I came to England in the fall of 1954. Rationing was just ending, the house next door was a bomb site and the war seemed as if it had just ended. London was still a mess - most cars and clothes were pre war and everyone was very poor. Everyone had a war story. My Nanny told me of the Blitz and watching dogfights in the English summer sky. My Grandfather talked of how he had smuggled his dog over to England in the drum of the band. It was in the mid 1950's that a number of great films came out. There was enough time I think to get perspective but the war was still close enough for the emotional truth to be first hand for much of the audience.

The 1956 film with Richard Todd still stands as one of the best war movies ever made. It is very realistic emotionally - people really were like that. There is also some great footage of Lancasters and the supporting routine of flying. (Here is the RCAF Lanc at Hamilton taking off today)  Todd is exceptional as is Redgrave who plays Barnes Wallis. I am pleased to say that Richard Todd is still alive and very youthful. He was a para in WWII and was in action at Pegasus Bridge on the night of June 5.

This is my favourite scene - where I always cry - the men are biding their time and then Todd/Gibson tells them that it is time to go. As the board the trucks, Eric Coates music swells into the full theme. Nothing is said - it's all the routine of going out to the plane. You the viewer know that many will never return.

The film ends with complete heartbreak as we see routine again of getting home and then ... the empty rooms, the empty chairs in the dining hall - it's very subtle and so different from what you might expect.

The entire film is available thanks to Henry V Keiper who has a number of great war films up - including my other WWII fave Twelve O'Clock High with the incomparable Gregory Peck as the driving new base commander. Gibson was very much like the Peck character - he was very tough and not popular.  Gibson was killed later in the war - he could not stay away from action. While on his book tour in the US after the raid he was asked how many trips he had taken (As a US Pilot you could leave after 25 - he replied 174) Keiper also has the Battle Of Britain that starts here.

You Tube has all of the 1956 film available plus an outstanding documentary in 6 parts posted by GD Houston who has put up a truly wonderful selection of excellent documentaries. Here is part 1

Houston is  a real find - he has over 400 videos on his channel. You can order the DVD at Amazon here. Here is a link to the history of the raid. Here is a link to a well reviewed book on the making of the film.  Here is a link to the book and the author who captured the war for my boyhood - Paul Brickhill.

Now it looks certain that Peter Jackson is about to make a remake. I wonder how he will approach it - The screen writer is Stephen Frye who I have a lot of confidence in to get the period right. R C Sheriff, who wrote Journey's End, wrote the original screenplay.

I wonder if they will focus more on the character of Joe McCarthy, the very popular American who flew on the raid who had a very distinguished career. His son is in the documentary with Joe's bomb aimer who clearly thought the world of his skipper. Joe had a very significant part in the raid - it was his plane that would not start and he and his crew took the spare and did much of the raid alone and very exposed.

Wow

I just saw this as I was searching for a Family Image on Flickr - what a beautiful idea!

War - the reality

I think and write about war because I think that it is part of who we are - it is an unavoidable paret of being human. But I also know that it is not a game and that it is a terrible thing not to be undertaken lightly. My dear sister Diana is writing a book about Canada leading up to WWI. One of her characters is a poet. She of course is the poet. As we too appear to be stumbling into a terrible time, I would like to share now and then some of her poems.

Here is the first. It is called "My Love"

Oh, My love, how I hunger for thee here within my bed of mud

Not your arms so sweet and soft that stretch to me in the night

In my grasp instead of you, I hold a spade unto my breast.

It is cold and hard like the frost above that lays on top of me

My feet curl up, not entwined with yours so warm and slight

They live inside my boots at night and they feel nothing at all

as they do not belong to me.

My hands grip this ice -cold thing, as I am afraid!

What if my cold mud bed instead of embracing me my love

Should fall around me like a tomb, and with out this cold hard companion

I would be buried alive, and never come home to thee.

Oh how I long for thee and the touch of your breast in my hand.

My chest pressing against your back and our hearts so close

Oh how I long to feel our hearts beat as one, and my face

buried in your long dark hair, like silk against my cheek

Shall I whisper to you so close to me, good night my love?

Only the sound of your breath at night, only you and me.

All snug and tucked up in bed are we, and our love to keep us warm.

And the birds in the day do wake us up, all twittering and free

Oh my love, I shall come back to you, if God spares me just one night.

If a shell shall find me in the night, do not cry for me!

I shall be all curled up in my hole of mud and my heart shall fly to thee

Carried on a flame so bright and warm to you so sweet and clean

I shall enter thee when you are fast asleep and forever live in thee

For I can live in this bed of mud because I live within thee every night.

Oh! My love, do not cry for me. For I shall watch over thee, my love.

John (Red) Miller of 143 Wing RCAF in WWII - Funeral - Contact?

I posted recently on Remembrance day in honor of my Uncle by marriage, Bill Hope. David Wesley found my site and asks for your help. Please use the comments feature if you would like to get in touch with David.

I am trying to contact anyone who is maintaining contact with veterans of 143 Wing, RCAF.

My uncle John ("Red") MIller, who served with 143 Wing during WW2, died last Firday, and the funeral is scheduled for 1000 am at Como Park Luthern Church, in St. Paul Minnesota.

I realise that it is probably going to be difficult for anyone in Canada to get down here for the funeral (though if they want to, I can be reached if you comment here on Rob's site - he will pass you on to me, but I thought that some of the men he served with might want to know he has passed on.

His daughter, my cousin Leslee, is making funeral arrangements, and will decide on the formal obituary, so I will not attempt one here, but I should mention that he was one of a number of young men who went north to enlist in the RCAF when the USA was still not in the War. 

He served with 143 Wing as an aircraft armorer, so he did not fly any combat missions, but he did come under fire one night when the ground element of the squadron was deployed to an airfield in France that had not entirely been captured before they arrived!  He was always proud of his wartime service with 143 Wing.

If you can give me any help in contacting veterans of 143 Wing, I would appreciate it.

-David A. Wesely

Allied Dead in Iraq and Afghanistan

So in 2009 where will we be? (DNI)

There has to be a mission that has a chnce of working and that is valid.

Imagine your son or daughter as a statistic like this. Then ask if you can accept that another parent takes the loss for your Ok that we should stay

O Valiant Hearts - Vimy

My friends know that I am not a religious person. But this does not stop me from feeling the need to understand the losses in WWI in terms of sacrifice and its link to Calvary, the Crucifiction and in the end Resurrection.

As a boy I was a chorister. At my school we sang this hymn - that I sung again for the first time yesterday since my voice broke. I can never get the words out and am always reduced to standing numb with emotion. The beautiful music by Holst is here.

                O valiant hearts who to your glory came
                through dust of conflict and through battle flame;
                tranquil you lie, your knightly virtue proved,
                your memory hallowed in the land you loved

                Proudly you gathered, rank on rank, to war
                as who had heard God's message from afar;
                all you had hoped for, all you had, you gave,
                to save mankind — yourselves you scorned to save

                Splendid you passed, the great surrender made;
                into the light that nevermore shall fade;
                deep your contentment in that blest abode,
                who wait the last clear trumpet-call of God.

                Long years ago, as earth lay dark and still,
                rose a loud cry upon a lonely hill,
                while in the frailty of our human clay,
                Christ, our Redeemer, passed the self-same way.

                Still stands his Cross from that dread hour to this,
                like some bright star above the dark abyss;
                still, through the veil, the Victor's pitying eyes
                look down to bless our lesser Calvaries.

                These were his servants, in his steps they trod,
                following through death the martyred Son of God:
                Victor, he rose; victorious too shall rise
                they who have drunk his cup of sacrifice.

                O risen Lord,O Shepherd of our dead,
                whose cross has bought them and whose staff has led,
                in glorious hope their proud and sorrowing land
                commits her children to thy gracious hand.

It has been fashionable to be cynical about war. But as our sons and daughters once again pay the price, surely no matter what we feel about the politicians that ask this of them, we have to acknowledge that this cynicism cannot apply to those died.

Does not our current involvment demand that we question the mission and the motives of those who send our children into war - for the true price is ours.

Remembrance - In an English Village

I do my best to return to England every 2 years and I usually am here both for Guy Fawkes and Remembrance. The last few times I have been in a small English village and this weekend I was in Knipton in Leicestershire.

Remembrance in a small village is different in that it is so intimate. This weekend, Esme and I stood on the road outside before the village cross with a small organ that broke in mid hymn. What stirs me so much in these moments is the reading of the names. Who could have imagined all those years ago that their names do indeed live for eve more - or at least for a century? In the village these names are not forgotten because so many who carry the name are still there.

Knipton is a very small village and the list was very long. Every able man must have been involved and many never returned home. All classes in the village from the Manners family (The Duke of Rutland who own Belvoir and the surrounding estate) to the plowmen are on the list - all families gave their sons and are united in sorrow and loss.

This intimacy, this connection to the past and the scale of the loss affects me more than the grander exercises. Who can really imagine the loss of 1.7 million (England's price)? But we all can imagine the loss of our own son. We can all connect to the hearing of our own family names on a bright November morning.