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Article: Letter: Soldiers' mass hallucination was a fantasy
- Article from:
- The Independent (London, England)
- Article date:
- September 18, 1994
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 1994 The Independent - London. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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IT IS strange that the myth of the Angel of Mons should be
presented in a play as though it actually happened ("The Somme
comes to Glasgow", 4 September). In fact there is no first-hand
documentation of "the best documented mass hallucination of modern
times", as David Lister describes it, for the simple reason that it
never occurred.
A report in the Times on 30 August 1914 by A Moore mistakenly
exaggerated a defeat of the British Expeditionary Force. Another
journalist, A Machen of the Evening News, thought about this and
wrote a fictional piece called The Bowmen. This was published on 29
September 1914. It was inspired by the archers at Agincourt
reappearing on earth, said Machen, an ...