"Once trench warfare set in everyone was bound to the wheel; and when the High Command gave it a turn, Army, Corps and divisional commanders turned with it." WW1 History PhD student, Canberra, Australia.
Don't wanna be here? Send us removal request.
Text
Parade of the Dead by Georges Bertin Scott (1873-1943).
203 notes
·
View notes
Text
British artillery officers used some interesting methods for locating German batteries.
How fucking bad were methods in 1916 that this is an improvement?
59 notes
·
View notes
Text
Damage to Seydlitz from HMS Queen Mary's 13.5" in guns during the Battle of Jutland.
82 notes
·
View notes
Text
I fucking hate trenchposting sometimes
All my mutuals throw me into a muddy field with a shovel and shout "go trench boy go"
256 notes
·
View notes
Text
"During the course of a combat it is well known that the accuracy of fire falls off to an almost incredible degree, and the mean expenditure of bullets per man placed out of action previous to the introduction of long-range weapons never fell materially below 200." Continental vs South African Tactics - Col Frederick Maude, Royal United Services Institute Journal, 1902.
Something you don't see a lot of is the research that the British army did before the 20th century about the wars they fought. This is mostly because they didn't have an organised staff to actually do this research, but interested individuals certainly did.
Maude doesn't cite his sources, but he draws reference to the Napoleonic and US Civil wars as being before the advent of "long-range weapons". Gives you a sense of how inaccurate smoothbore muskets and even mid-century rifles were given the close ranges at which they're firing.
What's also interesting is how much that number grows by the middle of the 20th century. In WW2 it's taking upwards of 5,000 bullets to cause a single casualty, and by some accounts 50,000+ during the Vietnam War.
15 notes
·
View notes
Text
An improvised trench catapult used by the British in 1914. Also firing/flinging an improvised grenade known as a 'jam tin bomb'.
London Illustrated News, 1914.
121 notes
·
View notes
Text
My first phd supervisor wrote about troops from the British West Indies during the war.
One reason men from across the Caribbean volunteered... was the belief that ‘wartime sacrifice’ would lead to post-war ‘improved standing’. The hoped-for ‘improved standing’ for returned soldiers did not materialise. They were permitted to vote in the first post-war election, but thereafter the colony returned to being a white-only electorate. Fearful of armed uprisings, the colonial government encouraged 4,000 BWIR veterans to emigrate to Cuba and other locations. With the return of peace, Jamaica issued a series of new postage stamps. Two featured the departure and return of the BWIR contingents. A third, portraying Jamaican slaves gaining their freedom, was produced by De La Rue & Company in England and sent to the colony in April 1921. The government considered the stamp too controversial and destroyed the entire stock for ‘political reasons’. Someone Else's War: Fighting for the British Empire in World War I - John Connor.
Classic British Empire.
The Great War was indeed a World War. These gentlemen from the Royal Garrison Artillery represent His Majesty from far-off Bermuda!
178 notes
·
View notes
Text
Testing of armour-piercing shells and an armoured cupola at the Hadfield's foundry.
Illustrated London News, 1914.
32 notes
·
View notes
Text
Canon de 138mm modèle 1887 dominating the bow of the French Type A riverine gunboat Furieuse on the Aisne, 1916
86 notes
·
View notes
Photo
The barrels of 15 inch naval guns in the Coventry Ordinance Works. September 1917.
145 notes
·
View notes
Photo
Members of the dominion and Allied Press Tour watching Vickers Gun tuition at the RAF Cadet School of Armament, September 1918.
67 notes
·
View notes
Photo
Mrs Margaret Lloyd George (wife of British prime minister David Lloyd George) examining the wreck of the German Zeppelin L 21 at Cuffley, Hertfordshire, 3 September 1916.
123 notes
·
View notes
Photo
Tommy the tortoise, the pet of Mrs Dudley Beresford, injured by shrapnel during a German air raid on London on 29 September 1917.
117 notes
·
View notes
Photo
Worker drilling out a cavity in an over-filled shell, No. 14 National Filling Factory, Hereford.
39 notes
·
View notes
Photo
Munitionettes working at the Lyddite Filling House, No. 14 National Filling Factory, Hereford.
65 notes
·
View notes
Photo
A Sergeant of the Australian infantry in full marching order, in the courtyard of the Royal Mews, Buckingham Palace in October 1917.
138 notes
·
View notes