NAZI warship named after him.		A UK Firing Squad		A mass grave having just his name on the only tombstone

  This story is directly linked with this WW1 and a few things you might not be familiar with, particularly the section on enemy aliens and Internment Camps. Don't miss reading it.

  In fact, I will repeat a paragraph from the above URL to start this story off, adding just a few more sentences.

  Internment Camps had been established in 1915 to incarcerate all known enemy aliens at liberty to come and go as they pleased in the British Isles. As the war dragged on, and British people observed the lack of enforcement of discipline in Internment Camps, and witnessed aliens being excused incarceration, more and more resentment was voiced, even, in some quarters, suggesting that mob-rule was a suitable alternative to the Government's reluctance to enforce the rules designed to curtail the activities of these most hated aliens. DORA was supposed to rule the roost and by and large it did! DORA was an act of Parliament and stood for "Defence Of Realm Act". That the act had teeth was undeniable as can be seen in this brief definition of the Act. Note the number of EXECUTIONS carried out, when, where and how.

World War One: The Defence of the Realm Act

   When war was declared on 4 August 1914 (Gazette issue 28861), the country erupted in jubilation. However, behind the scenes, the government was terrified.

  Trade unions had a long history of holding employers to ransom, the suffragettes were causing unrest in the quest for universal suffrage, and there was a deep mistrust of German business and ‘spies within our midst’.

  Fearing insubordination and disorder, the government rushed The Defence of the Realm Act (DORA) through parliament (Gazette issue 28859).

  The proclamation said: ‘We strictly command and enjoin our subjects to obey and conform to all instructions and regulations which may be issued by us or our admiralty or army council’.

  It took just 4 days for DORA to achieve Royal Assent, being published in Gazette issue 28869 on 11 August 1914. It would prove to be an act that would touch the lives of every British citizen over the next 4 years.

The act itself

  In a nutshell, DORA was designed to help prevent invasion and keep morale high at home. It gave the government wide-ranging powers, such as the authority to requisition buildings needed for the war effort, or by creating new criminal offences. It also ushered in a variety of social control measures.

  As the war progressed, as did DORA, being amended and extended 6 times over the course of the war. The 2 main themes included:

Press censorship. The taking of any land the government wanted Also, no civilian could: Talk about naval or military matters in public places. Spread rumours about military matters. Buy binoculars. Trespass on railway lines or bridges. Melt down gold or silver. Light bonfires, fireworks or fly a kite. Give bread to horses or chickens. Use invisible ink when writing abroad. Buy brandy or whisky in railway refreshment rooms. Ring church bells.

  In addition to these strict rules, people were affected in other, more curious ways. They were forbidden to loiter near bridges and tunnels, and whistling for a London taxi was banned, in case it could be mistaken for an air raid warning. DORA even intervened in British drinking habits, as by the spring of 1915, pub opening hours were limited, people were banned from treating others to alcohol, and even the strength of alcohol was reduced.

  If anyone broke these rules, they could be arrested, fined, sent to prison, or even executed. A total of 11 ‘German spies’ were executed under the regulations.

Why so harsh?

  Though some provisions of DORA may seem strange to us today, they had their purposes. Flying a kite or lighting a bonfire could attract Zeppelins; limiting time in the pub helped to reduce drunkenness and would increase productivity; and when rationing was introduced in 1917, banning feeding wild animals helped to prevent food wastage.

  Censorship of the reporting British troop movements, their numbers, or any other operational information, prevented the enemy from finding out sensitive information, which potentially saved many lives.

The effect of DORA at home

  The first person to be arrested under DORA was John Maclean, a Scottish Marxist and revolutionary. He was arrested for uttering statements that were deemed ‘prejudicial to recruiting’. He was fined £5, but refused to pay. He spent 5 nights in prison and was dismissed from his post as a teacher by the Govan Board of Education (anybody with a criminal conviction was not allowed to teach, practice law or medicine).

  It’s estimated that almost a million arrests happened under DORA, but for the 11 unlucky few accused of being a spy, it ended with their execution.

  German spies that were caught in the UK during the war were dealt with under various sections of DORA. Carl Lody was the first person in about 150 years to be executed at the Tower of London, and the first of the 11 convicted spies to be shot.

  According to official records, Lody was charged with ‘attempting to convey information calculated to be useful to an enemy by sending a letter from Edinburgh on 27 September 1914 to Herr J Stammer in Berlin, which contained information with regard to the defences and preparations for war of Great Britain’.

  He met the firing squad on the morning of 6 November 1914, just 3 months after the outbreak of war.

  A full list of the 11 executed spies under DORA:

Carl Lody, 34, executed 6 November 1914 Carl Muller, 57, executed 23 June 1915 Willem Roos, 33, executed 30 July 1915 Haicke Janssen, 30, executed 30 July 1915 Ernst Melin, 49, executed 10 September 1915 Augusto Roggin, 34, executed 17 September 1915 Fernando Buschman, 25, executed 19 September 1915 George Breeckow, 33, executed 26 October 1915 Irving Ries, 55, executed 27 October 1915 Albert Meyer, 22, executed 2 December 1915 Ludovico Zender, 38, executed 11 April 1916

  With three exceptions (see below) this is where the executions were carried out, in this lean-to indoor firing range at the base of the curtain wall, shown with windows open and soldiers standing outside. Of the three exceptions two were shot in the moat or ditch which surrounds the castle and one was hanged in Wandsworth Prision.

  Carl Lody was the first spy to be shot in the Tower of London during World War One - he was executed on 6 November 1914. Carl Lody became the first person for more than 150 years to be executed in the Tower of London.

This is Carl Lody before his execution.

  He was one of 11 German World War One spies who faced a firing squad at the famous London landmark, during World War One.

  The prisoner walked steadily, stiffly upright, and yet as easily and unconcerned as though he were going to a tea party, instead of to his death.

  The procession disappeared through the doorway of the sinister shed and shortly after came the muddled sound of a single volley - Carl Lody had paid!

  Historic Royal Palaces Curator, Dr Sally Dixon-Smith, still finds it "really extraordinary" 11 convicted spies were shot at dawn, at a tourist attraction best known for containing the Crown Jewels. "In fact, more people were executed within the walls of the Tower of London during the 20th Century than under the Tudors," she explained.

  The Tower was chosen because of its sinister reputation. It was thought it would put a chill in the mind of an enemy spy and it might put him off doing what he was doing because he might be shot there.

  Most spies were arrested and tried after letters, newspapers or telegrams they had sent were intercepted by British intelligence.

  Not all the men executed were German - there were also a Latvian, two Dutchmen, a Swede, a Turk and three men from South America. Their ages ranged from 22 to 57.

  But, the Germans living in Britain were the ones vilified in the press at the outbreak of the war, leading the nation to be gripped with a collective spy fever.

  "Germans staying here may be serving their country more effectively than by shouldering a rifle," warned the Daily Mail, six days after war was declared.

  Despite this, there was sympathy for the convicted spies shown by their guards.

  As he was being led off to be executed, Lody remarked to the Assistant Provost Marshal he would probably "not care to shake hands with a German spy".

  "No," the marshal replied, "but I will shake hands with a brave man".

  Lody had used the alias Charles Inglis, after getting a false passport in this name from the American consulate in Berlin.

  He spent time in Edinburgh sending information to Germany on warships in the Firth of Forth.

  Adrian Hill, an officer with the Honourable Artillery Company, guarded another spy, Carl Muller.

  "He spoke perfect English and he talked to me very freely about his life, and I got to know him so well," Mr Hill remembered.

  It was a long night but what I did admire him for was that he was able to sleep.

  The extent of public concern about enemy aliens during the opening month of the war can be illustrated by the fact that the Metropolitan Police had received between 8,000 and 9,000 reports of espionage by the beginning of September.

  Only in about 90 cases was the suspicion of espionage sufficiently strong to warrant detention.

  During the war, counter-espionage located and brought to trial 31 German agents, 12 of whom were executed - the 12th hanged but not in the Tower - See below.

  The fact that not a single act of sabotage took place during the war indicates the extent to which British Intelligence had German espionage under control and the degree to which propagandists exaggerated the truth about enemy spying.

  All but two of the executions were carried out in the Tower of London's indoor firing range. The other two were shot in the ditch surrounding the Tower.

  There would have been a chair there and the prisoner would have been sat down either with bandages or leather straps binding him to the chair.

  A bandage would have been put over the eyes, and shortly after that the execution would have taken place.

  One of the spies did ask for a lady's silk hanky to be tied (over his eyes) but it was a little bit short so they had to tie bandages to the hanky.

  After execution the spies were buried at Plaistow cemetery in Newham, East London. There is actually a tombstone to the first spy to be executed, and, a joint marker for all the men who were executed at the Tower and for other people who were executed during the First World War elsewhere. The 12th man to be executed for spying during WW1, Robert Rosenthal, was hanged at Wandsworth jail West London on 15 July 1915. There were no more executions after 1916 because, according to sources, the Germans had "given up" on spying or had got very much better at it.

  All the executed spies were buried in a mass unmarked grave which remained undisturbed, unvisited (except for adding in more bodies) and ignored, as befits the final resting place of men who wanted to kill British people with the intention of helping Germany win the war. Today it is difficult to understand the parameters of the grave with several more than the twelve executed men mentioned here, thought to be fifteen interments. The following pdf file tells you about the grave, but the narrowness of the grave as configured today sitting in between two equally narrow graves can hardly accommodate say, 15 coffins unless they are purposely stacked. in which case the first buried must be very deep. If that were the case, how were they to know how many executions would take place? As you will read in the pdf file, many years after they had lost the war, a German delegation visited London with a hope of seeing the grave. The article suggests that it couldn't be found (or was that on purpose?) and that the German's returned home mission unfulfilled. The grave remained incognito for another forty five odd years, until permission was sought and subsequently granted with Christian charity to have it marked. In 1974 (for all, notwithstanding their religion) an act took place which bordered on the axiom that "time heals all wounds" as for the first time, the grave was marked with a tomb stone bearing a Christian icon and the name of the first executed way back in late 1914. Being there represents a tomb stone for all who lie under the sod. However, there was another point of view that at the start of WW2, another war started by the evil Hun-German nation, and the early sinking of the British battleship 'Royal Oak' in the Orkneys at Scapa Flow by a German UBoat, and given that the German Nazi Kriegsmarine had named a 1930's destroyer after the first spy executed 'Hans Lody' who had been a reserve officer in the German Imperial Navy (the Kaiserliche Marine), it would have been more fitting to bulldoze the contents of the grave into a skip and afterwards ditch it into the North Sea, which during Lody's time as a German spy, the Hun had had the temerity to call the German Sea. Time heals all wounds won the day, even to the point that somebody lays flowers on the tomb. One wonders whether that person(s) bothers to get out of the East of London to travel north to lay a wreath over the wreck of the Royal Oak? Carl Hans Lody

  I went to sea in several German 'Z' destroyers/frigates during my two years as a sea-rider on Flag Officer Sea Training staff (FOST) at Portland, in my time, Rear Admiral James Eberle during 1974/5, when Germans also called their ships using ordinary names - I served in the Karlsruhe, the Lubeck, the Schleswig Holstein and Z2,3 and 5.

  During WW2, the Carl Lody also called the Z10, created much havoc in the seas off Northern Europe, sending many men to their graves at the bottom of the sea, as though as a punishment for executing Carl Lody in London in 1914.

  Z10 Hans Lody, a destroyer built by the Nazi Navy pre WW2, had a full and active war from beginning to end. She was damaged on several occasions and ran aground at speed requiring a near nine months refit and rebuild of her hull, shafts, rudder and propellers. Although some near misses, she survived the war. She had several refits (over and above damage repairs) and several captains.

  At the end of WW2, Z10 was awarded to the United Kingdom as a war reparation. She was originally used as an instructional hulk to train engineering personnel in the working of the high-pressure boiler system. Her last German crew member remained with her in this capacity until November, 1946. She then was used as an accommodation ship in Southampton. She was broken up at T. Young in Sunderland beginning 17 July, 1949.

  Today, one hundred years later from the date of his execution, his grave is visited by Germans and used perversely as a shrine by inquisitive Germanic creatures. Less than a year after Lody's execution in London, the Germans executed Edith Cavell for spying. Edith herself said after her trial that she expected the verdict and that it was just. Moreover, just before she was shot, she declared that she was proud to die for her country. However, the world's audience didn't accept the judgement and branded the execution as an act of sheer barbarity. The execution did not auger well for the German nation and bit by bit neutral nations showed their disdain and open opposition to the cruel Hun and history records that it was considered such a heinous crime that because of it the USA started its procedures to declare war on the German nation. It was a gaffe of unprecedented proportions which opened the way to the destruction of the much hated and vilified nation upon earth in the last century. Unlike the mass grave in East London which contains the bones of evil men, proven spies, bringers of war and destruction upon the British people, an ignominous blot of Godless soil in a British graveyard, Edith's final resting place, wrenched from unholy Belgian earth of her makeshift grave alongside her execution point at the end of the war, is iconic and a place of pilgrimage. She was re-buried in earth in the grounds of Norwich Cathedral her family having chose not to entomb her in Westminster Abbey. She was murdered because she with her team, helped all combatants fighting in Belgium irrespective of nationality who had become distressed, physically or mentally, and once they were able, assisted them in escaping Belgium to the save-haven of nearby neutral Holland. Actions which were as far removed from being a crime as was possible. For that humanity and selfless act, they brutally took her life.