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Somme pics...
- Thread starter Astoness
- Start date
dib...the first pic i think i have seen before...its of a recruitment meeting for ww1 held at st andrews football club....
what can i say about the 2nd pic....soldiers trecking through the mud in the summer of 1916....the conditions look absolutely horrific...which of course they were....
lyn
what can i say about the 2nd pic....soldiers trecking through the mud in the summer of 1916....the conditions look absolutely horrific...which of course they were....
lyn
its very sad dib...i know my grandad was not at the somme he was on the front line though and suffered gassing very badly..its just a pity we dont know the names of the men in the pic...could be anyones relative....i shall post anymore i come accross....
lyn
lyn
Alan Tucker
master brummie
The St Andrews photo is 1914 and the senior officer present was Major Hall Edwards.
ASTONITE
master brummie
Quote from the battle;
[SIZE=+1]On July 1st 1916 at 0730, the British Army attacked the German entrenched positions in the Department of the Somme – France, This was a line some 18 miles long.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=+1]The British divisions marched slowly over no-mans land, carrying 66 pounds of kit each, in wave after wave of extended lines. The week previously, the British artillery bombardment from 1,350 guns expected to annihilate the barbed wire, trench defense and artillery, but as the British crossed no mans land, they found this was not the case – struggling through uncut barbed wire, they were cut down by German machine guns – 19,000 of them killed.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=+1]The British divisions marched slowly over no-mans land, carrying 66 pounds of kit each, in wave after wave of extended lines. The week previously, the British artillery bombardment from 1,350 guns expected to annihilate the barbed wire, trench defense and artillery, but as the British crossed no mans land, they found this was not the case – struggling through uncut barbed wire, they were cut down by German machine guns – 19,000 of them killed.[/SIZE]
Chris_Baker
master brummie
Bad enough, but no need to layer tragedy with myth. By no means did all march slowly over no man's land. The three Divisions at the southern end of the line captured their objectives, largely through having the experience and wisdom to close up to the German front trench before the British shellfire lifted onto more distant targets.
Bacxk to the pics. The second one is not the Somme, but the Ypres salient.
Bacxk to the pics. The second one is not the Somme, but the Ypres salient.
printmeister
master brummie
My great uncle died at Ypres. He was a private in the 2nd Battalion Princess Charlotte of Wales' Royal Berkshire Regiment.
He died on Aug 1st 1917, so I am assuming that was at the battle of Pilckem Ridge, as I believe his regiment were there at that time.
Trying to find more info on this at the moment
He died on Aug 1st 1917, so I am assuming that was at the battle of Pilckem Ridge, as I believe his regiment were there at that time.
Trying to find more info on this at the moment
Alan Tucker
master brummie
Back to the St Andrews Pic. I found this yesterday. One of the officers is Major John Hall Edwards
Bham Gazette 9.11.14....
John Hall Edwards had acted as chief of medical staff of the Curzon Hall recruiting station since outbreak of war - gazetted Major RAMC. "he was the distinguished Bham surgeon and radiographer'. He had previously experimented with Rontgen Rays (X) with the result that his left forearm had to be amputated and also lost fingers of right hand. As a result X ray tubes are now being shielded with lead glass. He was granted a Civil List pension of 120 pounds a year 'for services to the cause of science'. South African War - he was surgeon-radiographer to the Deelfontain Hospital.
NB the arm of the officer on the left of the photo suggests that was him. If so the photo is after the date of the article.
Bham Gazette 9.11.14....
John Hall Edwards had acted as chief of medical staff of the Curzon Hall recruiting station since outbreak of war - gazetted Major RAMC. "he was the distinguished Bham surgeon and radiographer'. He had previously experimented with Rontgen Rays (X) with the result that his left forearm had to be amputated and also lost fingers of right hand. As a result X ray tubes are now being shielded with lead glass. He was granted a Civil List pension of 120 pounds a year 'for services to the cause of science'. South African War - he was surgeon-radiographer to the Deelfontain Hospital.
NB the arm of the officer on the left of the photo suggests that was him. If so the photo is after the date of the article.