Landships II

Good heavens - the Legion of Frontiersmen. I just caught up on the references.

That pre-war period was quite extraordinary and peopled by extraordinary people. One that may not be well known (an Australian) was (Herbert) Dyce Murphy - but he is fairly well documented on the internet. He toured Europe, disguised as woman and accompanied by a retired Admiral, with the task of spying out and recording details of the continental railway networks in anticipation of the coming conflict.

He was later with Mawson's 1911 Antarctic expedition where a fellow expeditioner was Lt. EFR (Bob) Bage of the Australian Engineers, on leave from the army. Bage has a chapter in The Home of the Blizzard, the report of the expedition. He was unfortunately killed at Gallipoli, early in May, 1915, marking out a trench in a place where some General thought there should be one despite the location being under direct fire from at least five emplaced Turkish MMGs (or perhaps because of it).

Also on the expedition was Frank Hurley, photographer who became an official Australian war photographer. The AWM and NAA is full of his work - some of it a little controversial since he had the habit of superimposing some of his shots for dramatic effect.

And FH Bicketrton was there as well, one-time hunter for RL Stevenson's Treasure Island which he was convinced was real, maintainer of the expedition's "air tractor" and radio station. He went on to be a fighter pilot on the western front and served in WW2 as well.

Not to mention CT Madigan, expedition Meteorologist (who has his chapter in Blizzard too IIRC) who had deferred taking up his Rhodes Scholarship to take part in Mawson's expedition. He was to serve with the RE in the war then went on to become a renowned geologist, explorer and educator back in Australia.

All of these people led lives that were like something out of Boys Own Paper. Apart from Bob Bage being shot dead. I don't recall much of that in the BOP. Anyway, my thesis is the Legion of Frontiersmen was very much part of that same childlike extravagance of adventurousness that has, by and large, long gone from the world I think. Or perhaps not - even now young Jessica Watson nears the end of her solo voyage in her extremely pink yacht. A sixteen year-old for heaven's sake. When I was sixteen I could barely be trusted to catch a metropolitan train by myself.

Here´s a little list of the WWI related storys I´ve collected so far:

771	Giant-Killer
1278	The Helmet
1592	Stolen Glory
1842	The Aces
1884	Charlie´s Tank
2304	To The Death!
2461	Raid By Night!
2530	From beyond the grave
2541	Fathers and sons
2647	Dead Mens Revenge
2649	Bad Blood
2676	The Man With No Shadow
2793	Stormtrooper
2809	Always Ready
2817	Valley Of Death
2866	Revolution!
2875	Father And Son
2889	Race For Your Life
2906	Battling Boneshakers
2918	Flames Of War
2973	Zeppelin Killer
2991	Lost In Time
2997	Tin-Can Fury
3060	Metcalf´s Medal
3104	Mongrel Squadron
3135	Wings Over Africa
3137	Red Menace
3161	Secret Of The Sword
3174	Over The Top! (Terror In No-Man´s-Land)
3221	Mooney´s Monster
3234	Terror Tactics
3257	The Condemned Men
3280	Battling Relic
3290	Tin-Can Terrors
3297	Buried Secret
3309	Warriors In Time
3354	Mark Of The Wolf
3365	Tin Lizzy Terrors
3368	Deadly Duell
3376	The Great Retreat
3409	Desert Shot Out
3437	Alpine Aces
3474	The Fighting Giants
3488	Best Of The Bombers
3497	Ghosts!
3513	Flying Eye
3530	Mountain Warfare
3538	Rogue Ace
3545	The Two Charlies
3626	Tin-Can Troopers
3633	The Worst Of Pals
3661	Run The Blockade
3686	Return To Action
3687	Master Marksman
3689	War Wagon
3693	...A Second Chance
3698	Front-Line Fear
3729	The Forgotten Five
3768	The First Aces
3797	The Art Of War
3801	Frontline Leader
3821	Heroes From The Past
3838	Terror In The Trenches
3846	Chamber Of Evil
3848	Storm Troopers!
3878	Harry´s War
3882	The Long Way Home
3889	Delivery Boy
3938	Billy´s Best Friend
3941	Trial By Battle
3951	The War Watch
3957	Skinner´s Squad
4036	Saving Lives!
4041	"Taxi!"
4050	"Hold The Front Page!"
4051	The Marksmen
4057	Tin-Can Trouble
4068	Sentenced To Death
4075	The Railway Raiders
4084	Submarine Warriors
4089	Treachery In The Trenches
4091	Ace Versus Ace
4147	Battlefield Bike
4249	The 11th hour
4265	The blast from the past
4226	The secret Invasion
4153	Roar of the guns

The yellow marked ones are "split-storys" (WWI & WWII, or else)

Some of them are re-issues.

Here you can take a look of all the ralated issues since the beginning:
http://www.britishcomics.20m.com/pocket.htm


Happy reading!

Oliver

-- Edited by Wollhodden on Wednesday 12th of May 2010 03:47:15 PM

I'd be interested to know more about the bus. I have a book on the B-Type with a couple of anecdotes about its service in France. The story might be based on them. And the one where they start up a WWI Tank in WWII would be interesting, however far-fetched.

Hughbearson wrote:

---

Hi Wollhodden, I'm intested to see what "Red menace" and "Revolution!" are about.
Thanks, Hugh.

---

This is "Red Menace" & Revolution!" (and another Comic which is situated in Russia 1917 resp.  WWII, called "Tin Can Fury")

 

By the way, there also 2 "Freikorps" storys so far: "Mark of the Wolf" & "Stormtrooper"

(There are 2 similiar named storys: 2793 Stormtrooper (Freikorps) & 3848 Storm Troopers! (Western Front))

-- Edited by Wollhodden on Friday 14th of May 2010 11:25:54 AM

That's fantastic, Oliver. Thank you very much. I think Charlie's Tank is the one I dimly remember. The price of 22p dates it - and me. The bus story - a Daimler, not a B-Type, and fairly accurately drawn - is actually quite plausible. Since the buses were driven by their civilian crews, I assume the plot is that members of the Royal Naval Division commandeered it and drove it towards Nieuport, with, judging from the illustration, Belgian soldiers as passengers.

Ally Sloper? Seriously?! (One of the characters in the Bus story) - as well as being the name of a newspaper cartoon character from the Victorian/Edwardian era, the Army Service Corps was nicknamed 'Ally Sloper's Cavalry'

Rob wrote:

---

Ally Sloper? Seriously?! (One of the characters in the Bus story) - as well as being the name of a newspaper cartoon character from the Victorian/Edwardian era, the Army Service Corps was nicknamed 'Ally Sloper's Cavalry'

---

The name rang a bell with me, but I couldn't think why. It turns out to be a rather convoluted matter.

Ally Sloper was indeed a 19th century cartoon character, in appearance and behaviour remarkably similar to the inimitable W.C. Fields. His name seems to have been a pun on aller and "to slope off," both indicating his tendency to make himself scarce at times of difficulty, upon the rent becoming due, or whenever he might be required to pay for drinks. The conveniently abbreviated ASC was given the nickname by troops not convinced of the Corps's value on the battlefield. In the case of the character in the bus story, it might be that his name was Sloper and he was nicknamed Ally by his comrades, or it might be a little joke by the author. I am happy to receive further insight.

The Railway Raiders looks highly interesting, presumably set in Mesopotamia. It reminds me that in 1917 a U-Boat was captured by the Belgian 5th Cavalry.

 

James H wrote:

---

...The conveniently abbreviated ASC was given the nickname by troops not convinced of the Corps's value on the battlefield. ...

---

Talking of the ASC, has anyone reviewed the first britishpathe.com (R)ASC reel? http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=75429. Lots of interesting stuff there, including "the first ever tracked vehicle".

Yes, yes, easy to see who's just (re)discovered this fascinating resource (and whose download quota is being frittered away on 'sightseeing').

Steve

-- Edited by Rectalgia on Saturday 22nd of May 2010 09:17:33 AM