Landships II

James H · Legend

Some Corner of a Foreign Field Kitchen . . .

Rectalgia · Legend

Well spotted - certainly seems to be of the same pattern. It rains a bit in Manchester then?

Rob · Legend

I've only visited Manchester once, but when I lived in Yorkshire there was a saying - if you couldn't see the hills, it was raining. If you could see the hills, it was about to rain

kieffer · Commander in Chief

It's a nice picture! Is there anything known more about the contraption, technically spoken? It looks to me that the upper halve of the drum kettle can be lifted of.
And I am also wondering how the cart could stay upright without the horse.
Was this the only field kitchen from Manchester anyway?
Weather conditions: when it rains in Manchester one can be sure it will take only a day or so before the mess reaches the continent, those famous western winds! There's a beautiful Jaques Brel song refering to that, in French and in Flemish: 'le plat pays' or 'mijn vlakke Vlaanderland'.

Kieffer

James H · Legend

There seems to have been a Belgian Fund set up in the area. The only info I've managed to find is this reference: http://libraries.rochdale.gov.uk/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=C23804O5X4093.49975&profile=dial--12&uri=full=1100026@!48407@!8&ri=1&aspect=basic&menu=search&source=10.5.5.100@!dial#focus

I'm hoping to get up there in the next week or so and have a look at the article. Maybe it will provide some further leads.

Rectalgia · Legend

Talking of field kitchens, something I'd not heard of before, a picture received showing a Wiles Double Oven Stationary Cooker in Far North Queensland 1943.� A bit of quick checking indicates that many/most AIF battalions in WW1 ended up with the mobile versions of these things which, on the face of it, were rather superb.� The torturous tale of their introduction and resurgence with Australian field forces in two wars is given in http://www.nashos.org.au/wiles2.htm.� Now the horse-drawn units of WW1 would really be something ...

TinCanTadpole · Legend

kieffer wrote:
And I am also wondering how the cart could stay upright without the horse.

Looks as if the drum is pivoted towards the top on metal frames that sit inboard of the wheels, above the longitudinal frames; so when the horse is unhitched, the poles �(I don't know if there's a technical term for them) would be lowered to rest on the ground, while the pivots allowed the drum to swing so that it stays vertical.