See this link for Turkeys reared for the mess, December 1916:
courtesy of the National Army Museum
See this link for Turkeys reared for the mess, December 1916:
courtesy of the National Army Museum
Fascinating to hear of some posters’’ family connections with WW1. I have mixed feelings in this respect. My great-uncle fought in WW1 and died as a result of his participation, about 10 years after the war ended. He was a gifted amateur artist and left behind a notebook with many drawings, mainly of places where he was stationed rather than military subjects.
However he was a chemist by training and was in the British Army unit responsible for chemical warfare. We even have some photos taken from an observation balloon he was in over the battlefield, presumably planning the next attack.
He died of a lung disease. I’m not sure of the details but I suppose handling all that gas was the cause.
I guess he was just one of millions doing their duty and I don’t judge him for that, but most WW1 reminiscing is rightly about the poor sods in the trenches and he doesn’t quite fit into that narrative, in fact he must have caused a lot of misery.
I haven’t seen 1917. It sounds both moving but also very modern. I think I am at an age where I find a bleak look on the face of Alec Guinness much more moving than any amount of modern cinematic wizardry.
My grandfather had been in the army since 1899 when the war started and fought at Mons too, surviving the whole war unscathed, physically.
The small British army of 80,000 which were all regulars gave the Germans who were mainly conscripts a good battering.
It was at Mons where the Germans thought the British infantrymen were using machine guns, so rapid was there rifle fire.
I worked with a bloke years ago who's granddad swore he saw the angel of Mons.
He wasn't the only one https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angels_of_Mons
Whoever does not know how to hit the nail on the head should be asked not to hit it at all.
Friedrich Nietzsche
Fascinating, and definitely a 'few' who were there and what became a mythical (and quite well documented) battle.
There is some literature on the 'Angel of Mons' phenomenon including use of it by the government during dark days.
The BEF were, by and large, highly professional (though a small) and as part of a model that was quite different to the Continental norm (of largely conscript armies).
The rapid rate of accurate fire was as a result of a training regime with high standards that proved quite shocking (and costly to opponents), however, the size of the opposing forces in this battle was far in excess of the BEF, who covered the French retreat in this area (bearing the brut of bold manoeuvre in force). How the war changed, what with trenches and artillery, etc.,.
Br,
AP.
My wife's grandfather fought in WW1, he was in tanks. He told me they washed themselves and their clothes in fuel to kill the lice. I wish I'd recorded some of the stories he told me.
Eddie
Whole chunks of my life come under the heading "it seemed like a good idea at the time".
They shall not grow old by Peter Jackson added voices to these young men and instead of it being jumpy vague pictures from 100+ years ago, they were all real.
First world war in colour covered all the protagonists and made it seem like they all knew they going to war but didn't know why???
Thank you Ryan and PickleB for ths info - most interesting!
I was very much under the misapprehension that prediliction for this rather tasteless bird was a relatively recent marketing thing.
So clever my foot fell off.
Watched this last night on an iMax screen, sound and visuals were was fantastic.