It was 100 years ago

[Tuercas viejas]

Guys
I was reading bits of the Torygraph when this article popped up!
My grandfather the war hero, killed on the first day of the Battle of Passchendaele*

Strange because only a few days ago I was thinking about him having fought and survived that battle serving in the Lancashire Fusiliers. He took a shot in the hip and was gassed but still recovered to be promoted to an officer from the enlisted ranks. He died in his late 60's a sufferer of emphysema in London.

For those interested he was a Geordie from South Shields. Being from a very poor background he was a bare foot boy of about 8 years of age when he went to sea on an Argentinian flagged freighter sailing between Liverpool, Cape Town, Buenos Aires , Montevideo, Houston, New Orleans, New York Providence and back to Liverpool.
Educated by the Master of the ship he was fluent in spoken working class German & Spanish by the time war broke out in 1914.
He was first in the Northern Cyclist battalion then transferred to the Lancashire Fusiliers.

My brother got hold of his war records recently and the written text about his promotion were some references to the fact that he was from a poor background but was surprisingly well educated and being fluent in German he had been useful in the ranks for interrogating captured prisoners of war.
It finished with the note he is a natural leader of men and the promotion in the field is approved.

Having met him as a small boy of about 8 years of age he mentioned a few things that have stuck in my head some which now have Downton Abbey like connotations.
Well we marched to war, the officers rode to war on their finest horses or in their Rolls Royces/Humbers ! But bombs and bullets don't discriminate so it wiped a lot of em out!

It was a relief the Americans came into the war in 1917.
They had a truck that was the best in the mud and it was ugly but could it work. The officer would often ask me to go over and scrounge one of their trucks because we had something stuck in the mud!
Of course only later did I discover he was referring to the Manhattan Mil truck which later became the Mack!

And lastly he viewed the Americans as Britain's finest ally!
They came and got us out for the sh!t twice! Their officers were far better than ours, the German officers I interrogated I were very capable soldiers who spoke and wrote in high German! He mentioned one German high command officer (General Erich Ludendorf at the Somme I suppose he was referencing ) said "British soldiers fight like lions but their officers are donkeys".

I was one of those lions!
In memoriam Capt Sid (Jock) Rhoades Hon Discharged
Tuercas Viejas

 

[Deleted member 11979]

I'm 42 and can't imagine leaving my family to go and sit in a foreign field and have bullets and shells flying toward me

My grandad is still with us and is certainly made of sterner stuff than I am, I'm sue he thinks I am s wuss even though by most standards I work hard

He's a top chap , very kind and calm and surprised us all by telling us he was part of the firing squads that sorted out a few nasty nazis after WWII

Us grand children now give him far less grief

Different times thankfully now, we have it very good

 

[artyman]

My Grandad lied about his age to enlist, was wounded first at Ypres then again later at the Somme, before he was even old enough to have been there. He never talked about it, saw too many horrific things I guess. I went to the Somme Battlefields a few years back, a very moving experience.

 

[Wheelsnuts]

My grandad was a Yorkshire lad who fought in the trenches and I know he was at Arras. He lived to the ripe old age of 89 but he never said much about his experiences. However he kept a little pill box containing the bullet they dug out of him.

 

[grober]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civilian_casualty_ratio#World_War_I

Perhaps worth reflecting :- The relatively low ratio of civilian casualties in this war is due to the fact that the front lines on the main battlefront, the Western Front, were static for most of the war, so that civilians were able to avoid the combat zones. Conflicts since then have increasingly involved civilian casualties perhaps implying that WW1, on the western front at least, was the last large ritualised military conflict?

 

[Wheelsnuts]

I remember reading in Nevil Shute's autobiography, "The Slide Rule" (a great read by the way), that his parents continued to take the family on holiday to the south of France during the early days of WW1. I thought that was amazing.

 

[BTB 500]

My grandfather was a Lt. in the Royal Field Artillery from 1915 onwards (aged 20). His diary for 31st July 1917 briefly mentions the start of Passchendaele: "Attack in Flanders started at 3.50 am. Good progress reported, HOLLEBEKE captured."

He was wounded by a grenade at Langemarck 2 months later, ending the war for him. He recovered and remained in the army till 1949.

 

[BTB 500]

My Grandad lied about his age to enlist, was wounded first at Ypres then again later at the Somme, before he was even old enough to have been there.

Going the other way, my Grandad's 61 year old uncle managed to enlist by shaving his head and claiming to be 40! He was wounded at Gallipoli.

 

[219]

I never knew my dad's dad , only that he fought in WW1 , and my dad was born in January 1919 after he came home . Alas , he passed away before I was born so I never got to meet him .

My maternal grandfather was too young for WW1 and too old by the time WW2 came around , but as a skilled mechanical engineer was in a reserved occupation , and also was an air raid warden .

My dad had plenty of stories about his time with the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders in France during WW2 - he was part of a group who didn't get picked up at Dunkirk , but they managed to steal a van or truck ( can't remember what he told me ) and went down the coast until they found a small boat , which they escaped in .

While back in Scotland , as a driver , he spent time teaching females to ride motorcycles , and had a story about stopping at a junction where he , as the pillion , put his feet down for a second , just as the young lady took off ... apparently some time passed before she realised he was no longer there and came back looking for him

Later in the war , he was sent back to France . I wish I could tell you about some great action he was involved in , but unfortunately , while crawling forward in the battlefield , he was accidentally shot in the backside by one of his comrades , quite seriously injured and invalided home . After recovering , during which time he was taught to knit in army hospital , he went back to serving as a driving instructor until he saw his time out . After the war , he worked as a bus driver for a few years , before buying a secondhand truck , which started off his road haulage business .

My brother in law was a career soldier in the Royal Engineers and saw service in Ireland , The Falklands , the first Gulf War , Bosnia , Germany as well as a few postings at home .

That pretty much is my family military history .

Oh , I did have a dear old friend who I worked beside some 30 odd years ago - Freddie was half German/half Chzeck and was conscripted into the German Navy when his village was occupied . He saw service in the Med and had one story about a shell landing on deck near him but not going off , so he picked it up and threw it overboard - for that he got a medal , presented to him by Admiral Karl Doenitz , but Freddie always said it wasn't bravery , just self preservation . He came to Scotland as a POW , and was in the camp on Lord Anstruther's estate , where he became his lordship's chauffeur and worked for him after the war , eventually settling in Edinburgh .

 

[Deleted member 6183]

Although not a blood relative I used to call a family friend Uncle, he was an elderly gent who had been a surgeon.

During his service he had treated an Italian who had his penis shot off, here it goes a bit hazy but the end result is that my Uncle either grafted him a new one or made a prosthetic one, anyway, several years later he was sent a photo of the Italian with his family - including his children.

 

[Darrell]

My dads dad was a medic and never ever spoke about the war. What he witnessed deeply affected him. He went AWOL whilst he was in some kind of military hospital in England. My dad was born during the war so I suppose it doesn't take a genius to work out where he went!! He died when I was in my early teens and I really only remember him as a right miserable old sod. Now I know more.

My mums dad was a military policeman. I remember him and if ever a job suited the man!

My mums step-dad reckoned he was a Spitfire pilot. He liked to tell a few tall stories but as he was a rather cool dude who wore a cravat, was always pi$$ed and drove an XK 150 there could be some truth in his stories.

My wife's great Uncle Helmut was a German who flew in the Luftwaffe. He was shot out the air and spent the rest of the war as a POW. He settled in Wisbech and married a local girl who was my wife's great aunt. She was Jewish.
Uncle Helmut was a real character who always drove a Volkswagen. He sadly died last year.

 

[Tuercas viejas]

Of course just from these few posts by members, we can see there is still a strong generational connection (no matter now, how vague) to proudly served family members. Fallen or otherwise.

Recently I stumbled upon this Channel 4 documentary about the Somme which took place earlier than Passendale; but it gives a clearer explanation for the reasoning of why this pointless & horrific slaughter took place. Above all though (at least from my perspective) it gives us a stronger personal connection to unknown solders who actually lived experienced and died in that conflict.

I found this to be very thought provoking, I sincerely hope it does for you all.
Cheers Dennis
Tuercas Viejas

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ietYhbiFeYs

In my grandfather's words
Beware of the rat tat tat of the Maxim gun!

 

[MikeInWimbledon]

Average age of soldiers

I'm 42 and can't imagine leaving my family to go and sit in a foreign field and have bullets and shells flying toward me

Different times thankfully now, we have it very good

It's OK, you wouldn't have been there. Your sons would have gone.

In 1914, there were 700,000 soldiers, including 250,000 boys (illegally) under the age of 18. Most troops were in their late teens / early 20's.

As a grandfather of 42, which is what you would have been in 1914, they wouldn't have taken you. You'd be home, running the factory, and feeding your sons' wives and your grandchildren

"What d'you mean it doesn't make you feel better, to think that, at age 42, your four sons, aged 17 - 22 might have been there?"

At least you have done your bit, by looking after your three daughters, your sons' two wives, and your four grandchildren. (At age 42)

"Different times."