Historical References of the Iron Warriors

[Karak Norn Clansman]

Historical References of the Iron Warriors

 

The themes of the Iron Warriors in Warhammer 40'000 revolve around the drudgery, hardship and murderous grind of trench warfare and siegecraft.

 

The primary historical reference of the Iron Warriors becoming disappointed and embittered after endless siege warfare draws upon the souring of armies and European cultures during the drawn-out attrition and hunger of the Great War (1914-1918), which ended in state collapse, attempted mutinies, roving bandits, revolution and civil war in many countries as the great powers raced toward the bottom in total war. This is the main idea: See the French army mutinies of 1917; the Russian revolution and coup and civil war; the disintegration of Austria-Hungary toward the end of the war complete with masses of bandits; the German revolutions and civil strife; the short-lived revolutionary rule of Bela Kun in Hungary, among other things. To say nothing of Italy immediately after the war, where the imminent threat of revolution in northern Italy and widespread bitterness over catastrophic losses and perceived poor treatment by its Entente allies at the peace treaties led to the march on Rome.

 

Even in neutral Sweden with its lack of food production and arable land, the British blockade caused widespread hunger, made much worse by the country selling grain to Germany for profit and by black market profiteering (mistakes not repeated during the Second World War). Tales of hunger and desperation abound at the end of the First World War. For instance, trains loaded with confiscated Romanian grain destined for Germany were seized in Vienna to feed empty stomachs, in a fascinating spat between allies. The German Michael offensive of 1918 partially failed when hungry stormtroopers came across well-stocked Entente supply depots, and the famous Prussian discipline broke down as shocked officers could not possibly convince their soldiers to resume the offensive and press the attack. Instead, the hungry German soldiers gorged themselves on the bountiful food stocks of their enemies, thereby slowing down the attack. British army jokes after the failed German offensives quip about masses of Germans offering themselves up willingly as prisoners of war, so that all the Tommies needed to do was walk out with a sandwich.

 

All this souring of countries and armies, and all this strife from the end of the Great War are the primary historical source of inspiration for the Iron Warriors' background. Have you ever thought that the embitterment of Astartes in endless siege warfare sounded contrived? Now you know why: The inspiration is the tumbling end of the Great War.

 

The Iron Warriors also draw upon historical themes of ancient siegecraft and military engineering, and particularly Greek and Roman ones, as enshrined in their homeworld. The decimation comes from here, to say nothing of Syracuse with its brilliant siege engineers and inventors. The Stor-Bezashk siege engine corps is by the way the name of the veterinarians of the Sassanid Persians from late antiquity, responsible for caring for their armies' crucial horses.

 

Lastly, the background for this Legion, named the Corpse Grinders before the rediscovery of Perturabo, would seem to point to the Corpse Grinders being recruited from some futuristic Mad Max variant of vaquero and cowboy culture in a desiccated and bombed-out dry version of Central Amerika, although probably not with cattle herds as their main sustenance.

 

Have you spotted any other historical references in the background of the Iron Warriors Legion? If so, please share!

 

Being aware of the historical inspiration behind 40k better enables us to craft background and stories fit for the themes in play.

 

Cheers

 

 

Artwork by snip105

Edited April 20, 2024 by Karak Norn Clansman

[Terminatorinhell]

That's pretty cool, you should do some on other chapters too. 

 

I do wish they had a more Persian based Legion 

[Karak Norn Clansman]

@Trysanna: Thank you. Great question! And good observation about Canadians during the First World War. I do not know, but then again I have only read a couple of Black Library works that touch on Iron Warriors. Has anyone spotted anything? If there is at all anything that specific inspired by Canadians, then it might possibly deal with assault squads and breaching teams.

 

The historical references are written all over the Death Korps of Krieg and all manner of Imperial Guard regiments down to very particular things so that it is easy to talk about historical army in space down to aesthetic details, but with Iron Warriors the historical references have usually been more general and subtle as far as my knowledge goes.

 

@Terminatorinhell: Thanks. Good idea.

 

I wrote this because an artist friend, Igor Levchenko (renowned in Elder Scrolls circles and with a fantastic knack for a classic oil painterly impression) asked if I had any thoughts on Iron Warriors/Corpse Grinders. And because I told a local friend (let's call him JAB) about what I wrote to master Levchenko, only to become surprised when JAB not only said that he had never thought about it or even heard any Warhammer discussion about the WWI-inspirations for Iron Warriors before; but he even said that he had never heard about the mutinies, the hunger problems and so on at the end of the Great War. And he is more learned about history than most people. Stunned, I brushed up what I had written for Igor Levchenko and set out to spread the word about something that was blatantly obvious when I first read about Iron Warriors in their White Dwarf article at about age 14.

 

I will give other Chapters and Legions some thought, and hopefully return with something with meat on the bone later on.

 

Fully agreed on Persian theme. Speaking of which, I have had to restrain myself from going on a 40k equivalent of the historically based culture spree I've done for fantasy factions in the Ninth Age. Otherwise I would do nothing but churn out drawings and background for Persian Marines, Ethiopian Imperial Guard or Sisters of Battle, Byzantine Stormtroopers, Moche Chaos Squats, Sikh Imperial Guard, Finnic Exodites, Nias tribe Tarellians, and so on without end. Instead I have contented myself to make use of such themes in drawings focused on other matters than the background of specific regiments and Chapters (see Descendant Degeneration here on B&C or look in the 40k section of the gallery and play find the historical references - tip: Soviet and late antique Roman ones abound).

 

Cheers

Edited April 20, 2024 by Karak Norn Clansman

[Terminatorinhell]

I'd be absolutely down to pick your brains about Persian themed marines. My homebrew chapter is Persian based IF successors. 

[LSM]

One of the big references is to English occultist Aleister Crowley, the (among other things) self proclaimed prophet who would guide humanity into the Æon of Horus.

 

His wizard name, as part of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, was Perdurabo ("I will endure").

 

When other members (Yeats et al) ejected him from the Order there was a wizard battle (ie. Crowley got kicked down the stairs). This happened at the Order's West Kensington headquarters, near the Olympia train station/exhibition venue.

[Rain]

2 hours ago, LSM said:

One of the big references is to English occultist Aleister Crowley, the (among other things) self proclaimed prophet who would guide humanity into the Æon of Horus.

 

His wizard name, as part of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, was Perdurabo ("I will endure").

 

When other members (Yeats et al) ejected him from the Order there was a wizard battle (ie. Crowley got kicked down the stairs). This happened at the Order's West Kensington headquarters, near the Olympia train station/exhibition venue.

Back when bored rich people would put on funny hats, take drugs, and engage in LARP instead of taking plane rides to private islands engaging in very specific forms of child labor. It was a more innocent time.

[Gilbertus1]

Speaking of Persian references in 40K

 

I think the Thousand Sons have some with 

Ahriman which means "devil" in Farsi (Persian)

[Brother Nathan]

think this may be the best thread for this but i was reading on th e wiki and came upon this paragraph...

 

All were achievements for which it was recognised and commended by the Emperor in turn. The IV^th Legion took from the 8^th Expeditionary Fleet the emblem of the Winged Bolt as its first heraldic device and displayed its battle honours with pride, carrying them as vexilla standards before the dauntless columns of its Legionaries as they advanced into shot and shell across dozens of worlds conquered by the force of the IV^th Legion's arms.

 

winged bolt? is that... huh? i googled.. likely  it means this...

 

but does it mean the actual ...,

but he a more fun idea ...

i need another banner....

 

 

Edited January 4 by Brother Nathan

[LSM]

I think it'd be a nod to the Marines Malevolent chapter symbol:

 

Edited January 9 by LSM

[Dr_Ruminahui]

Or maybe they just wanted to call them a bunch of wing nuts but that was too obvious.   (wing nut being older slang for an crazy/unstable person, such as your conspiracy theorist type)

[techsoldaten]

While I generally agree with the sentiment expressed in the OP's post, there are several specific historical references and characters that spring to mind when I'm thinking about the Iron Warriors.

 

The Battle of Arras , 1914 - Fought between the French and the Germans, this battle seemed to embody so much of IW lore. The early stages of WWI were not characterized by trenches, it was better characterized in terms of large troop movements, city sieges and attempts to grapple with the significant innovations in German artillery. The French and the German armies were trying to outmaneuver each other in a series of actions called the Race to the Sea, which eventually came to a head at Arras.

 

Arras was the first place the French really put their foot down. Until this point, there was a lot of talk the French armies would collapse within a month or two. At Arras, they set up within heavily fortified areas and basically dared the Germans to come get them. The Germans obliged.

 

While the battle was bad for both sides, the Germans suffered horrendous casualties and began to feel the pinch of supply lines. Until this point in the war, they were using as much artillery each day as Germany could produce in a month. When the stockpiles ran low, it meant battles became infantry affairs. The frontline units on both sides hadn't taken massive casualties or fought against any entrenched foe (much less a veteran force.) The casualties at Arras were substantial and this phenomenon started taking place, where troops from the rear were being marched up to the front having to look at the casualties from the last assault. As far as I can tell, this battle in particular is where the talk about the "horrors of war" in that conflict really started.

 

The Battle of Arras lead to the first fixed trench systems being set up and the first immobile front lines coming about. The 2 German Generals - Rupprecht and von Bulow - were published saying things that would be recognizably Peturabo. Also, if you read about the battle, the way the German soldiers are described, with their shining helmets and regimented formations, is very reminiscent of the Iron Warriors.

 

The Battle of the Somme, 1916 - This was the longest battle of WWI. The Allies were assaulting German defenses in an effort to relieve pressure on the French at Verdun. The idea was to break through the lines and open a new front. 

 

This was the biggest and most costly battle of the war. The Germans, poorly supplied, pursued a war of attrition, deadlock and entrenchment that cost the Allies 60,000 casualties on the first day. It went on like this for months, total casualties were over 1 million. It included some of the first uses of tanks along with endless hellscapes of craters, shell holes, bodies that could not be retrieved, barbed wire stretching for miles, and the like.

 

The German's strategy, in a nutshell, was to bleed the allies white, and it's very recognizable as something the IW would pursue. German General von Falkenhayn, in particular, was know for the elastic defense, where Allied armies would be allowed to penetrate the trench network to be drawn into a killing zone with artillery and machine guns positioned in the back. This made success and retreat impossible.  von Gallwitz, another German general, was very concerned with defense and counterattacks. He maintained a system of fortifications along the line that were extremely difficult to break, even with artillery and masses of men. He was basically creating fortresses that allowed him to launch counterattacks whenever he wanted to, similar to the fortresses Iron Warriors are known for putting up.

 

There's a lot of great literature from the era available for getting into the mindset of the Iron Warriors. I can't think of them without thinking of what must have happened at these 2 battles.

Edited January 10 by techsoldaten