When I first started this blog in early 2013, I could’ve never imagine it taking-off the way it did. But here we are now in 2015, with the followers count now in 4 digits. It’s been a long journey, but one that I’m proud to have taken. I would like thank all of you for your support and for taking interest in this historical blog.
Showing posts with label world war in color. Show all posts
Showing posts with label world war in color. Show all posts
1st Squadron Australian Flying Corps. Bristol F2B fighters A7194 (P) in half white colour scheme and B1150 in standard scheme.
Scattered graves marked by simple white crosses on the old Somme battlefields, September 1917.
Two tanks put out of action near Stirling Castle, in the Ypres sector during the attack on 20 September 1917. Taken while the fighting was continuing further forward, the photograph shows an unidentified soldier who had leaned against the nearest tank to die,
The derelict hulk of a British tank on the Pozieres battlefield. This Mark I Male tank, C1, (Champagne), belonged to C Company, Heavy Machine Gun Corps, later to become the Tank Corps. It was one of seven tanks assigned to the Canadian 2nd and 3rd Divisions for their attack on Courcelette, and German positions to the south and east of the village on 15 September 1916. The 2nd Division attacked from prepared positions across the Albert to Bapaume road toward Bapaume and to the north of the road with the village of Courcelette as their first objective. Of the seven tanks assigned to the attack on Courcelette, one broke down before the attack, three became bogged in German trenches, two reached Courcelette, although only one was still in action beyond Courcelette. C1 was commanded by Lieutenant (Lt) A. G. C. Wheeler, Machine Gun Corps (MGC), and the crew from the MGC included, 2527 Sergeant F. J. Saker, 2801 Gunner (Gnr) E. H. Bax, 2720 Gnr W. N. Smith, 2736 Gnr F. C. Stone, 2602 Gnr G. G. Lloyd, 2752 Gnr H. Rothera and the driver M2/105514 Private (Pte) H. Brotherwood, Army Service Corps. Lt Wheeler and his crew reached their start position at 0400 on the extreme left of the divisional area after moving through the ruins of Pozieres. C1’s steering had been damaged by German shellfire during the night and although this had been repaired the driver Pte Brotherwood must have had a very difficult time keeping the tank on track, avoiding old trenches, the many shell craters and the growing number of Canadian causalities falling in the tanks path. The terrain was so difficult that the tank could not keep up with the infantry and the speed was reduced to around 10 yards per minute until at about 0700 when the tank bellied out and although the tracks were still turning the tank had stopped. Lt Wheeler later placed the tank at map reference R35a 3.9. The crew tried to dig the tank out, but after laboring for four hours and just as Lt Wheeler was about to abandon the task, a shell landed nearby and a fragment severed Pte Brotherwood’s jugular; he died two minutes later. The tank was abandoned on the battlefield. Pte Brotherwood is buried in the Pozieres cemetery. This action on 15 September 1916 at Flers and Courcelette was the first time tanks were used on the Western Front. The Tank Corps Memorial, commemorating this action, is near the Windmill site on the Albert to Bapaume Road, just to the east of Pozieres, not far from where this photograph was taken. Source: The Tanks at Flers by Trevor Pidgeon, Fairmile Books Cobham, England.
Stretcher bearers of the Australian 13th Field Ambulance resting at a dressing station on Westhoek Ridge, October 1917.
Four unidentified members of the 3rd Australian Light Horse Regiment machine gun in action at Khurbetha-Ibn. 31 December 1917.
An Australian Light Horseman collecting anemones near Belah in Palestine.
The soldier was identified in 2007 as being 2601 Trooper George “Pop” Redding, 8th Light Horse Regiment. Redding enlisted from Benalla, Victoria, on 28 August 1915 stating his age to be 44. He was in fact 57 making him nearly 61 at the time of this photograph and one of the oldest enlisted men in the AIF.
The Illustrated "All Quiet on the Western Front":
"Our early life is cut off from the moment we came here, and that without our lifting a hand. We often try to look back on it and to find an explanation, but never quite succeed. For us young men of twenty everything is extraordinarily vague, for Kropp, Muller, Leer, and me, for all of us whom…
A British motorbike machine gun crew get ready to leave, circa 1917 on the Western Front in France
Original image source: The National Library of Scotland
Photographer: David McLellan
Licensed under the Creative Commons (CC) BY-NC-SA
