Landships II

James H · Legend

B Battalion History, 1917

philthydirtyanimal · Commander in Chief

Looks like that will be a very good read!

diggin_robat · Corporal

Just finished that book and I must say I�m impressed by the amount of research work which went into that. It is astonishing to me to how detailed the author reconstructed the actions in which B-Battalion took part and the degree at which he sheds light onto the individual men inside the machines.
Especially the battle around Fontain on 23.11.17 during Cambrai is an interesting read. For that he worked together with Philippe Gorczynski of "Following the Tanks - Cambrai" - fame.
Altough I found a discrepancy about the destruction about one tank in that action compared to the german main source of that battle, but that might be an issue of fog of war.
Anyway a good and worth reading!

diggin

James H · Legend

Does Patton get a mention? He must have bumped into him.

diggin_robat · Corporal

Not a word about Patton, I�m afraid. Since this book concentrate on a single Battalion of the Tank Corps, it would have been beyond it�s scope.

cheers

diggin

Ian · Corporal

Hi,

Thanks for the positive review about the book. It's difficult to get noticed with all the books that are published.

I'm really intrigued about the information from the German archives possibly shedding new light about the fate of one of the tanks. I realised when writing the book that my information sources were a bit one sided (largely British). I looked for German material in the usual places in the UK but didn't find much really.

I always thought that there was much more to come from the German side, so I'd be pleased to hear about any German material you have. I have had contact with a German chap whose Great Uncle fought at Fontaine. It was very interesting hearing from him but he did not have any new material.

As for Philippe Gorczynski, he was extremely helpful to me. He deserved enormous credit for all that he does to preserve the memory of the first Tank men.

Regards,

Ian

Date: Mar 20, 2011

I'm looking for information about my grandfather who volunteered for the tanks in 1916 and was wounded at the Battle of Messines on June 7 1917. We have his war diary, and although it doesn't say which Battalion he was in, he does talk about going to Wavrans for training and mentions what we think might be the name of the tank he was in - Baby Mine or Baby Nine. Was this tank part of B Battalion and do you know anything about it? My grandfather's name was Harold Rodgers.

Many thanks

Lindsey