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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-23109590

The photograph taken at Riqueval Bridge, almost at the bottom of the article, a few of the men look to be wearing flak jackets, those white ish squares with what looks to be a black belt...is that what they are?

Life jackets?

DM

Yes life jackets - fall into a water filled shell hole and you can't get out - no life jacket you drown in filthy muddy water.

sign01

Yes, troops that were to be fighting in areas known to have large bodies of water like the san quentin canal in 1918 were issued white life jackets like the ones seen in the film titanic. That famous picture in the link that shows thousands of men next to the bridge features 137 Brigade 46th Division (Mainly 1/6th North Staffordshire Regiment). regarding the centenery, i'm already commited to events in Britain and Europe for the next few years, highlights for next year include Mons commemerations, and the siege of antwerp.

450 Martini..

My grandad was with 1/4th Batt. Leicestershire regiment 138th Brigade 46 North Midland Div. They were a couple of miles south of the bridge at Bellenglise. I have yet to visit the Division Memorial There. I have visited the memorial at Vermelles and was present at the blessing/ dedication of the new memorial at Auchy- les- Mines.


Jenks

I have a few friends who represent the 1st and 2nd Battalion Leicestershire regiment in Both world wars.
http://tommy-atkins.org.uk/

Back in july My reenactment group that was representing 6th south staffords, the 14-21 society that represented 56th division (With whom my great grandfather served) and the leicesters gathered together at the replicated trench system at the staffords regimental museum (where i help out as museum armourer)to recreate on a small scale the action around gommecourt on the 1st of july, it was a family friendly event and was very intresting for the public, in the evening we gathered in uniform in the trench in uniform and toasted the men that fell that day with our rum ration, the atmosphere was quite moving. I have a bit of film from the battle, i'm operating one of the british machine guns hidden in the undergrowth.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pLUcKWhoH8

I will be visiting Gommecourt this autum and i intend to walk the route of attack on the 1st of July 1916.

450 Martini..

I will be visiting Gommecourt this autum and i intend to walk the route of attack on the 1st of July 1916.

I touched on the subject of Gommecourt in the..... 'Nice balanced article in the Mail NOT'..... thread .Particularly the controversy regarding the 46th North Midland Division..


http://www.amazon.co.uk/Lack-Offensive- ... 0955811902

Jenks

On the subject of reenactors. I was lucky enough to attend the Dedication service of the new 46 Div. memorial at Auchy les Mines 13 October 2006. the memorial is just Yards from the Hohenzollern redoubt were so many 46th Div. men died on 13th October 1915. Mostly in the first ten minute of the action! I found the ceremony a very emotional experience made more so by knowing that my great uncles remains lay just a few yards away. When a group of reenactors appeared from the redoubt marching and singing 'it's a long way to Tipperary' and 'Goodbyee' that was nearly the straw that broke my emotional back! they marched up to the memorial and as they laid their wreath one of them who possessed a fine tenor voice sang another ww1 song.








http://www.webmatters.net/txtpat/?id=736



Jenks

Interesting extract from Max Hastings new book..... (Sorry SimG)

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... -book.html

From linked article:

On August 22, the French army suffered 27,000 dead (not counting the wounded and captured in a series of battles along the frontier with Germany) — one-day casualties on a scale never surpassed in the war by any nation. This was a much larger loss than the British were to suffer nearly two years later on July 1, 1916, the first day of the Battle of the Somme, which is often wrongly cited as World War I’s high-blood-mark.

Six thousand officers and men were killed or wounded; 3,800 were taken prisoner. Almost all the French commanders perished, including two generals. By August 29 — as the advancing German forces swept aside any opposition — French casualties soared to a quarter of a million, including 75,000 dead.

By comparison, the involvement of the small British Expeditionary Force was limited. But even so, in major actions at Mons, Le Cateau and the three-week nightmare of the First Battle of Ypres, four times as many soldiers of the King perished in 1914 as during the three years of the Boer War. Much of the old British Army reposes for ever in French cemeteries.

Jenks

Horrific numbers really - yet the public supported the troops, can you imagine the outcries nowadays if that happened.