Second Lieutenant Harold Hemming on selecting NCOs from the recruits of the 12th West Yorkshire Regiment:
“There was no use picking out a few bright-looking chaps and telling them that they were corporals, for there was no way of indicating their rank. We did not even have brassards with stripes on them that they could wear over their coat sleeves. So I counted the men who had moustaches and found that I had just enough, so I made them all lance-corporals there and then …"
The British Army in WW1, a wonder of modern organisation.
Two British soldiers picking apples in an orchard. The soldier on the left bites into the fruit as he looks around him, while the other, wearing a kilt, leans up to pick from the higher branches.
To commemorate the anniversary of D-Day, a short thread of photos colourised by DBColour (Colourising History on Facebook). Descriptions run from top-to-bottom.
Piper Bill Millin, seen here landing on Sword Beach with his bagpipes with Lord Lovat’s Commandos of 1st Special Service Brigade. IWM B 5103.
Commandos of 1st Special Service Brigade after landing on Queen Red beach, Sword area, 6 June 1944.
British Airborne troops smile from the door of their Horsa glider as they prepare to fly out as part of the second drop on Normandy on the night of 6th June 1944.
LCI(L) 135 of the 2nd Canadian (262nd RN) Flotilla carrying personnel of the North Nova Scotia Highlanders and the Highland Light Infantry of Canada en route to France on D-Day, 6 June 1944.
(Library and Archives Canada Photo, MIKAN Nº. 3205043)
Film still from the D-Day landings showing commandos aboard a landing craft on their approach to Sword Beach, 6 June 1944.
LCA (Landing Craft Assault) containing soldiers from the Winnipeg Rifles head for the Normandy Juno beach - June 6, 1944.
Commandos approach Sword Beach in a Landing Craft Infantry (LCI). Ahead, the beach is crowded with tanks and vehicles of 27th Armoured Brigade and 79th Armoured Division.
Troops of 3rd Infantry Division on Queen Red beach, Sword area, circa 0845 hrs, 6 June 1944. In the foreground are sappers of 84 Field Company Royal Engineers. Behind them, medical orderlies of 8 Field Ambulance, RAMC, can be seen assisting wounded men.
British infantrymen take part in a street fighting exercise amidst the ruins of a British street after an air raid - Lymington, Hampshire, England, 1941
Troops of the British 3rd Infantry Division come ashore on Sword Beach, 0845 hours, 6 June 1944. They are led by the 84th Company of Royal Engineers. In the middle distance, medics tend to wounded men, while at the rear, commandos of the 1st Special Service Brigade disembark from landing craft. Photo credit: Sgt. J. Mapham/Imperial War Museum.
8 MARCH 2023 || The Princess of Wales visited The 1st Battalion Irish Guards for the first time since becoming Colonel on Salsbury Plain on 8 March 2023.
Catherine opted for -
Windproof Camouflage Combat Smock Jacket from the British Army
Astoria knit Sweater in fern green by Holland Cooper
High G-Shape Cargo Skinny Pants In Khaki from G-Star
Gold Hoop Earrings
Supalite II Goretex Hiking Boots In Brown by Berghaus
A brilliant portrayal of British Captain Patrick Ferguson's experimental rifle corps, an ad hoc company raised in 1777 and equipped with Ferguson's famed breech-loading rifles.