As our side fought the Great War (1914-1918) we had the supernatural, phantom assistance of Saint George (AD275-303), of Joan of Arc (1412-1431) and of the English bowmen of the Battle of Agincourt (1415). Sydney's credulous Globe and Sunday Times War Pictorial went to town on all this 100 years ago this week.
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"SPIRITS OF BRITISH DEAD ... ENGLISH BOWMEN AND ST. GEORGE RIDING WHITE CHARGER HELP ROLL BACK HORDES OF HUN FOEMEN.
"St. George riding his milk-white charger at the head of the retreating British forces during those terrible days of August, 1914: phantom English bowmen drawing their great war bows on the stricken fields of the twentieth century; Joan of Arc in full armour riding at the head of the French armies."
"What are we to think of these and similar stories brought from the welter of conflict by men who assert, with all the earnestness in their power, that they saw the wondrous shapes?
"Shall we dismiss them as the phantasms produced by superhuman hardships; or shall we, bowing in mute reverence before powers not of this world, believe that the God of Righteousness and Justice did indeed send aid from the Legions of the Air [angels] to arrest the imminent victory of Unrighteousness and Injustice?"
The Globe voted for God, noting "there is no lack of independent and corroborating evidence as to the appearance of the apparitions. Both unlettered privates and cultured commissioned men agree as to their presence on the fields of battle" .
