SIR - During the Battle of Ypres (1914) fighting around Langemarck gave rise to a myth: students advancing, during a bayonet charge, singing ‘Deutschland, Deutschland Uber Alles’. Hitler included this story in ‘Mein Kampf’. His regiment was probably at Gheluvedt (not Langemarck) and did not sing ‘Deutschland etc’, as this was not the national anthem. It is also unlikely that anyone charging the enemy with fixed bayonets would be able to sing. The incident took place at Bixchote. Langemarck was chosen as it has a Germanic name.
Myths like Langemarck depended on a tendency to romanticise fallen men. The idea of martyrs fitted the myth. The idea of young students dying in vain in November 1914 was preferable to the shame of November 1918.
From 1933-1944, November 11th became Langemarck day as a counter to Armistice Day. The National Socialists used the Langemarck myth of young soldiers betrayed by the aristocracy as a weapon when called for.
Peter J Palmer, Buttermere Rd, Bradford
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