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Colin: Posted on 17 March 2015 07:47
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Colin: Posted on 16 March 2015 05:30
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Colin: Posted on 15 March 2015 01:40
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Mike Palmer: Posted on 14 March 2015 09:01
 HMS Amethyst was today one hundred years ago hit by field
artillery while involved in the Dardanelles Campaign. 22 members of the ships
company were killed in the action, four more would succumb to their injuries
later. George James Todd Captain of the Amethyst was mentioned in Naval
Dispatch. “.....I desire also to bring to their Lordships’ notice the name of Commander
G.J.Todd, “Amethyst.”
“Amethyst” was hit several times by large projectiles, and
had her steering gear and engine-room telegraphs put out of action.
Arrangements were quickly made to man the hand-steering wheel, and improvise
engine-room communications. Both during and after the action Commander Todd was
very ably assisted by Lieutenant James C.J. Soutter, Senior Lieutenant of “Amethyst,”
who was indefatigable in his efforts."
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Mike Palmer: Posted on 13 March 2015 08:21
The BEF’s first independent offensive of the Great War on
the Western Front the Battle of Neuve Chapelle is over. The press will hail the
campaign a stunning success, decades later historians will regard it as a
failure, as it didn’t achieve it’s over optimistic objectives. The reality
though is this is modern twentieth century warfare, dirty, bloody and costly
and the sum of all its parts will equal the final outcome. For Britain the casualties
numbered nearly 11,000 killed, wounded, or missing, included in that number Corporal
Noble whose actions on the 12 of March would be acknowledge by
awarding him the Victoria Cross who would die on the 13th of the
wounds he sustained.
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Colin: Posted on 12 March 2015 07:52
The Battle of Neuve Chapelle Continues, as hopes are raised of a major
breakthrough. Private William Buckingham’s
action in aiding British and German casualties while under heavy fire and despite
is own injuries is awarded the Victoria Cross. Corporal William Anderson
repelled a major counter attack and was awarded the Victoria Cross for his
actions. Private Edward Barber played a significant role in capturing a German
trench and is awarded the Victoria Cross for his actions. Sargeant-Major Harry
Daniels and Corporal Cecil Noble each was awarded the Victoria Cross for their
actions in attempting to cut trench wire while under heavy fire. Captain
Charles Foss led a bombing party that led to the retaking of a German trench
and over 140 prisoners was awarded the Victoria Cross for his actions. Lance-Corporal
Wilfred Fuller attacked a group of German soldiers and for his actions was
awarded the Victoria Cross. Lieutenant
Cyril Martin for his efforts in holding up German reinforcements was awarded
the Victoria Cross. Private Jacob Rivers in attacking German positions was
awarded theVictoria Cross |
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Colin: Posted on 11 March 2015 07:32
The Battle of Neuve Chapelle rages on with a further 700 plus British lives lost. HMS.Bayano is sunk by the German Submarine U27
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Colin: Posted on 10 March 2015 07:01
The first major set piece participation of the BEF begins at
Neuve Chapelle. At 7.30 (local time) The British unleash a thirty minute
bombardment by 340 mixed calibre artillery pieces. British and Indian troops overwhelm
elements of the single German sixth army division in residence. In less than
four hours the village of Neuve Chapelle was largely in British hands.Rifleman Gobar Sing Negi would be awarded the Victoria Cross
for his actions.
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Colin: Posted on 09 March 2015 09:10
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Colin: Posted on 08 March 2015 07:44
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Colin: Posted on 06 March 2015 07:11
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Colin: Posted on 05 March 2015 07:08
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Colin: Posted on 04 March 2015 06:21
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Colin: Posted on 03 March 2015 07:37
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Colin: Posted on 02 March 2015 07:43
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Colin: Posted on 01 March 2015 06:12
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Colin: Posted on 27 February 2015 05:05
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Colin: Posted on 26 February 2015 05:23
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Colin: Posted on 25 February 2015 07:04
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Colin: Posted on 24 February 2015 07:01
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Colin: Posted on 23 February 2015 06:25
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Colin: Posted on 22 February 2015 08:04
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Colin: Posted on 20 February 2015 07:35
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Colin: Posted on 19 February 2015 07:32
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Colin: Posted on 18 February 2015 07:34
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Colin: Posted on 17 February 2015 07:23
Sir Herbert Raphael was born in 1859 the second son of Henry
Louis Raphael, banker, of Raphaels Bank. A carreer politician he entered the
House of Commons in the 1906 general election as MP for South Derbyshire. In
1910 he joined with two other Liberal M.P.s, Charles McCurdy and (Sir) Tudor
Walters, and formed Gidea Park Ltd., for the purpose of building a garden suburb
on the remainder of the Gidea Hall estate. Now known as Romford Garden
Suburb", it was constructed in 1910–11 as an exhibition of town planning.
Small cottages and houses were designed by more than 100 architects. A competition was held to select the best town
planning scheme for the suburb – the best designs for houses resulted in those
sold at a well-above average £500 and cottages at £375. the project included a
new railway station. Soon after the outbreak of the First World War, Raphael
enlisted as a private in the 24th Sportsman's Battalion, Royal Fusiliers. For
some six months he did duty in the ranks, during which time he was made a
lance-corporal. In June 1915 he was granted a commission as a major and raised
the 18th (Service) Battalion (Arts & Crafts), the King's Royal Rifle Corps.
Recruiting centres were opened in London, Derby, and various places in
Yorkshire and the Midlands. Recruits came in fast, and a depot was formed at
Gidea Park, Essex, a part of Sir Herbert's estate, where the men were billeted
in empty houses. Later in the same year he raised the 23rd (Reserve) Battalion
of the regiment from the depot companies of the 18th Battalion, and served in
turn as second-in-command of each unit. He left the battalion on 1st May 1916
when he was appointed Assistant Provost Marshal at Folkestone. He did not serve
overseas due to his age and survived the Great War, he died suddenly from heart
failure while out shooting on his estate in September 1924 aged 64. He had no
children, and the baronetcy became extinct on his death. |
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Colin: Posted on 16 February 2015 06:40
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Colin: Posted on 15 February 2015 11:13
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Colin: Posted on 13 February 2015 06:48
Charles Rumney Samson joined the Royal Navy in 1898 and was selected
as one of the first four Royal Navy officers to receive pilot training and
became the first British pilot to take off from a ship in 912, When World War I
broke out, Samson took the Eastchurch RNAS Squadron to France, where it
supported Allied ground forces along the French and Belgian frontiers, due to a
shortage of planes he improvised these patrols by commandeering pilot officers privately
owned cars which had been taken to France
and armouring them with a machine gun. This was the start of the RNAS Armoured
Car Section. Samson's aircraft also bombed the Zeppelin sheds at Düsseldorf and
Cologne and by the end of 1914, when mobile warfare on the Western Front ended
and trench warfare took its place, his squadron had been awarded four
Distinguished Service Orders, among them his own, and he was given a special
promotion and the rank of Commander. He spent the next few months bombing gun
positions, submarine depots, and seaplane sheds on the Belgian coast. He joined
the Dardanelles campaign in March 1915.
Air Commodore Charles Rumney Samson CMG, DSO & Bar, was
one of the few pilots who survived the entire duration of the Great War he died
of heart failure at his home near Salisbury, Wiltshire on 5 February 1931.
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Colin: Posted on 12 February 2015 07:07
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Colin: Posted on 11 February 2015 07:28
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Colin: Posted on 10 February 2015 07:26
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Colin: Posted on 09 February 2015 08:13
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Mike Palmer: Posted on 08 February 2015 07:57
Good Morning
The bottom half of today’s pictorial paper is the work of
one of the twentieth century’s greatest pioneering photographers the Australian
Frank Hurley. Ernest Shackleton's Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition was
Franks second trip having spent nearly three years on Australian explorer
Douglas Mawson Antarctic Expedition. Hurley would be stranded with Shackleton until
1916. In 1917, Hurley joins the Australian Imperial Force taking considerable
risks to photograph the Third Battle of Ypres. It was his commitment "to
illustrate to the public the things our fellows do and how war is
conducted" that brought his work into conflict with the AIF and being labelled
as fake by many war historians. Frank Hurley was an artist and his technique of
stacking negatives to create a composite image is just as valid as any painters.
His work is of such brilliance it will survive the test of time, and yes I am a
fan.
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Colin: Posted on 06 February 2015 08:10
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Colin: Posted on 05 February 2015 06:22
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Mike Palmer: Posted on 04 February 2015 08:05
Today Germany will announce its first sustained U-boat
(submarine) campaign against merchant and passenger ships approaching Britain.
Ships will be sunk without warning, including neutral vessels. this willContinue until
September:
Sligsby Baby Case: The Sligsby baby case so intrigued a nation that its verdict
made the front page. The basic premise to the case was on the death of Rev.
Charles Slingsby the bulk of the ancient estate around Knaresborough was left to Lieutenant Charles Henry Raymond Slingsby
and the remainder was to go to Lieutenant Slingsby’s son Teddy, this was challenged
by Charles younger brother who contested that Teddy was a substitute for his
real son who was stillborn and that while the couple were in San Francisco they
had put an advert in the ‘’San Francisco Examiner'’ for a child to adopt, although
this was denied. Justice Bargrave Deane who was presiding over the legal proceedings
called upon the services of Sir George Frampton (a famous sculptor) who noticed
a peculiarity about the boy's ear that was shared by Mrs. Slingsby, and claimed
that a child could not have this peculiarity unless it was congenital. No DNA
back in the day!, The Judge found in favour of Charles Henry Raymond Slingsby.
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Mike Palmer: Posted on 03 February 2015 09:11
278 men are lost to the sea when the armed merchant cruiser H.M.S.
Clan MacNaughton goes missing off the north coast of Ireland. A pre-war merchant
ship requisitioned in November 1914 whose disappearance created controversy at
the time and conspiracy theories ever since. Officially listed as lost due to
hitting a mine, questions were raised at the time of Clan MacNaughton seaworthiness;
the alterations to her superstructure making her top heavy and liable to founder
was refuted in an admiralty report presented to parliament. 60 of the ships
company nearly a quarter of her crew were young lads agedbetween 16 and 18.
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Mike Palmer: Posted on 02 February 2015 07:11
U21 was under the command of Kapitänleutnant (Captain
Lieutenant) Otto Hersing, who in Septemper 1914 torpedoed and sank the British
cruiser HMS Pathfinder the first warship to be sunk by a German U-boat during
the Great War. Hersing and U21 came to prominence in late January 1915 after
having shelled the airfield on Walney Island, scuttled the collier SS Ben
Cruachan and sank the steamers SS Linda Blanche and SS Kilcuan, all within a
forty eight hour period. Otto Hersing survived the Great War.
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Colin: Posted on 01 February 2015 08:17
 
On the 31st January the Germans launched an audacious
attack capturing British trenches at Cuinchy, which were being held by the
Coldstream guards. On the 1st February a counter attack was proposed
to retake the trenches so that the broken line could be re-established. After
the initial British bombardment of the Trenches the Coldstream Guards charged the
position being met with fierce resistance, they were supplemented by a second wave
of attack by the Irish Guards. Step forward Lance-Corporal Michael O’Leary who
on his own initiative was attacking a machine gun post which He knew would have
been dismantled during the bombardment to save from being destroyed, and that
it was a matter of life and death to perhaps hundreds that it was eliminated
before it could be redeployed. Having reached the corner of the German trench
he accounted for five German defenders but still had over eighty yards to cover
in order to reach the machine gun mound, “. At every moment he expected to hear
the sharp burr of the gun in action. A patch of boggy ground prevented a direct
approach to the barricade, and it was with veritable anguish that he realized
the necessity of a detour by the railway line. Quick as thought he was off
again. A few seconds passed, and then the Germans, working feverishly to
remount their machine gun and bring it into action against the oncoming Irish,
perceived the figure of fate in the shape of Lance-Corporal O’Leary, a few
yards away on their right with his rifle levelled at them.  The officer in charge had no time to realize that his finger
was on the button before death squared his account. Two other reports followed
in quick succession and two other figures fell to the ground with barely a
sound. The two survivors had no mind to test O’Leary’s shooting powers further
and threw up their hands. With his two captives before him the gallant Irishman
returned in triumph”
For his actions he was promoted to sergeant before the day
was over and was award the Victoria Cross.
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Mike Palmer: Posted on 30 January 2015 04:08
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Colin: Posted on 29 January 2015 07:45
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Mike Palmer: Posted on 28 January 2015 06:17
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Mike Palmer: Posted on 27 January 2015 06:58
Today is indeed Wilhelm II, the German Emperors birthday, and
as today’s paper suggests he was still smarting from the defeat at Dogger Bank issuing
orders that all further risks to surface vessels were to be avoided. The German
armies on the western front have again taken the offensive with simultaneous
attacks at several points along the line. Today is the day the British war
cabinet decides to attack the Dardanelles from the sea.
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Mike Palmer: Posted on 26 January 2015 07:56
The loss of the German armoured cruiser Blucher: Having
taken part in the raids on Yarmouth, Scarborough, Hartlepool and Whitby in 1914
which resulted in 137 deaths and 592 casualties, many of whom were civilians
there was significant public outrage towards the German navy. So when Blucher was
slowed significantly after being hit by gunfire from the British battlecruiser
squadron and abandoned by Rear Admiral Hipper, the commander of the German
squadron in order to save his more valuable battlecruisers she was left to the mercy
of the Royal Navy who had no qualms in sinking her or abandoning the survivors
of her crew to the sea when a German zeppelin began dropping bombs on the rescue
effort. It is estimated that between 747 to 1,000 of Bluchers crew were killed.
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Mike Palmer: Posted on 25 January 2015 05:56
On this day a hundred years ago a German deserter entered
the British front line trenches at Cuinchy at about 7 am and let it be known of
an imminent German attack about to take place Within half an hour of the
warning four German mines exploded along the trench line occupied by No 4
company Coldstream Guards and immediately rushed and occupied by the Germans killing
amongst others Captain Hon. J.B. Campbell. . No 1 Coy on the embankment by the
La BasséeCanal held its ground and No 2 Coy under Lt Viscount Acheson held on
to the keep and Brickstacks and repelled German attacks. The Scots Guards the
immediate right shared a similar fate but were able to maintain a stand at the
Brickfields. Reinforcements of London Scottish, Black Watch and Cameron
Highlanders were sent up and a counter attack was made but it was found
impossible to dislodge the Germans from the front trenches they had taken.
After this German attack, the front settled down a little, but thiswas only a
lull before a further storm.
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Mike Palmer: Posted on 24 January 2015 08:18
  On the 23rd January room 40 of British Naval
Intelligence intercepted German radio traffic outlining Admiral Franz Hipper′s
battlecruiser squadrons plans on attacking the British fishing fleet on the
Dogger Bank. A responce was quickly formulated by the Admiralty. Acting Vice
Admiral Beatty set sail from Rosyth with five battlecruisers — supported by
four light cruisers — in an attempt to trap Hipper′s force. The ensuing battle
resulted in the loss of the German armoured cruiser SMS Blücher. The battlecruiser
HMS Lion Vice Admiral Beatty's flagship was so badly damaged it had to be towed
back to port by the battlecruiser Indomitable and was under repair for more than
twomonths.
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Mike Palmer: Posted on 23 January 2015 07:57
Numerous artillery engagements along whole line; successful
French air-raids.
The RNAS continue their air raids on the German submarine
station at Ostend and Zeebrugge. Today
Lieutenant Richard Bell-Davies and Lieutenant Richard Edmund
Charles Peirse will drop eight bombs each on submarines alongside the mole at
Zeebrugge. Flight Lieutenant Davies was severely wounded by a bullet in the
thigh, but nevertheless he accomplished his task, handling his machine for an
hour with great skill in spite of pain and loss of blood. . Both men would
survive the Great War: Davies would recover from his wounds and go on to be
awarded the Victoria Cross he achieve the rank of Vice Admiral he died 26th
February 1966. Peirse would be knighted and achieve the rank of Air Chief
Marshal he died 5th August 1970.
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Mike Palmer: Posted on 22 January 2015 09:24
Tuesdays “The Murder Raid” or “Airship barbarities” over
Norfolk and Suffolk still dominate todays daily’s, whilst sarcastically
acknowledging the heroism required to kill women and children. The papers also
ran reports of British and French bombing raids on Essen and Ostend pointing out
the successful raids hit only military targets with no civilian casualties.
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Mike Palmer: Posted on 21 January 2015 08:00
“Four persons, as far as is known at the time of writing,
were murdered between the hours of eight and eleven on Tuesday night in the
towns of Yarmouth and King’s Lynn. The murders were committed under
circumstances of cold-blooded cruelty very rare in the records of crime. No
motive whatever but the desire to kill and terrify can be assigned for these
acts.” The Telegraph was pulling no punches in its criticism of the German air
raids two days previously in its leader on page 8, while page 9 backed this up
with indignation from across the Atlantic over the raid. There was plenty more
on pages 9 and 12 reporting on the raid and its aftermath to fuel further ire
as well.raid and its aftermath to fuel further ire
as well.
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