Landships II

thanks, My grandfather (maternal) , 'Ralph', started in the London Regiment, missed the Marne, but was at Loos, where he was also disciplined field punishment again, for firing a round during a charge... he had been ordered to empty his rifle, and just charge with the bayonet fixed... bloody madness.. (my paternal grandfather was at Gallipoli, where he was order to do the same thing, and was severely wounded, ended up almost crippled, for doing it,)

Ralph was badly gassed in 1916, and served as an Ambulance driver for the rest of the war... rising to Corporal... BUT, blotted his copy book (as usual), when he refused to be sent to Archangel , to "Fight the workers" (almost all the veterans that I remember came out of WW1 as committed socialists.  the story of My Paternal grandfather is still of the secret history of what happened after the war in Australia.), and because he was considered a hero, MM, they did not court-martial him, instead he was ordered to stay with the Rhineland Occupation army, where he became chequers champion, got fed up with that and emigrated to Australia...

a family memento that survived the Ipswich floods of 2011, was the .38 revolver he carried as an Ambulance red cross driver... (could have been shot on the spot for being armed, but they all carried weapons, not for self protection, but to put down those too severely wounded to make it back to the clearing station.. it has seven notches in the handle. a side of the war never mentioned.)

another time he was shown german chivalry, was when he was in a group column during an advance, and it was shot to pieces by german ground attack aircraft... but they never shot at the ambulances, they just flew low and revved their engines which spooked the horses...

Buy the way, I live in Brisbane, and in 1971, I was permitted to climb inside the A7V, and take photo of the interior. those negs survived the floods. (the rest of my collection did not) after there was a newspaper article calling for its scrapping as a dangerous hazard..

I know some have been pirated in a few books. (I had sent them to Airfix mag)... but not all, and if they may be of interest, I will try and scan them in...

I am only now getting around to dong anything, after retiring.

regards, Sandy

-- Edited by nurgle on Wednesday 26th of June 2013 07:52:40 AM