Posted By pferguson on May 6, 2012

Lochnagar and Hawthorn Ridge

Standing at its edge the mine crater of Lochnagar dwarfs all those who stand beside it staring down into its depth at the circle of poppy crosses at its base. The crater was created July 1, 1916 when the explosive packed mine was detonated by the Royal Engineers at 7:28 AM on the first day of the Battle of the Somme.

The tunneling units of the Royal Engineers detonated ten mines on that day, the two largest mines using 24 tons of ammonal, an explosive made of ammonium nitrate and aluminum powder.  These mines were located near La Boiselle to either side of the road from Albert to Bapaume, the Y Sap mine to the north and Lochnagar mine to the south. Lochnagar is easily viewed and frequently visited, thanks to the interest of Richard Dunning who purchased the ground in order that it might be preserved for future generations.

Another of the famed mines from that first day is located on Hawthorn Ridge, to the west of Beaumont Hamel, and where 18 tons of explosives were packed. The crater is now heavily regenerated with trees rising from the gap in the ground and is not as easily viewed as Lochnagar. Still, with the steady descent into this pit, one cannot help but think back to the hurtling earth launched skyward from the explosion and captured by the Great War photographer Ernest Brooks.

Film cinematographer Geoffrey Malins also captured the explosion with moving images and later reported, “The ground where I stood gave a mighty convulsion. It rocked and swayed. I gripped hold of my tripod to steady myself. Then for all the world like a gigantic sponge, the earth rose high in the air to the height of hundreds of feet. Higher and higher it rose, and with a horrible grinding roar the earth settles back upon itself, leaving in its place a mountain of smoke.”

I often recall my visits to these craters, and at time have returned to these great poxes on the earth reintroducing myself to that one day in July. Returning to Lochnagar I recall my first visit, the memorial introducing visitors to the spectacle, and as I wander around its crest, the visitors who come a bit afterwards and who, like myself, cannot help but stand in awe at this gap in the ground where earth and men were flung from their base heavenwards.

Did you know?

Lochnagar is the name of a mountain in Scotland located near Balmoral.

For those interested in learning more about tunneling units of the Great War, visit your local library and check out “Beneath Flanders Fields: The Tunnellers’ War 1914-1918” by Peter Doyle, Peter Barton and Johan Vandewalle.

If possible try to locate the film, “Beneath Hill 60”, an Australian film that tells the true story of Oliver Woodward MC and Two Bars a legendary Australian tunneller and the men whose war occurred not only above but below ground.

A Youtube video is available that shows the exploison of the Hawthorn Ridge Mine. Click the link below.

Category: Odds & Ends | No Comments »
Tags: 1 July 1916, Ernest Brooks, Geoffrey Malins, Hawthorn Ridge Crater, Lochnagar Crater, Mining Operations, Richard Dunning, Royal Engineers, Somme, Tunnelling Operations

Posted By pferguson on April 29, 2012

Fragments of Memory

Like inverted stakes in the hearts of France and Flanders, the splintered trees from the fields of battle stand as rooted silhouettes. Their splinters litter the ground on which men once walked, crawled or ran; the belligerent skelfs, large and small, hurling about tearing and ripping the flesh, piercing the souls of men.  Amongst the metal fragments, aimed engineering, gas and shrapnel balls these organic shards of nature took their toll. They, the soldiers, from all the pictures – seem to live in a world of black and white, with gray washes suggesting a continual haze from which men emerge between the trunks. The colour gone, leached from the landscape, drained into the ground where the roots of seemingly dead trees struggle to find a source of regeneration.

And yet with peace, and the passage of time, this bleak terrain that harnessed all participants for the years of the Great War returned as green fields filled with new life. The shattered remains of Ents, witnesses to the dreary course of men have passed but like the bones of men, their fragments haunt the ground in search of sweet memories instead of the bitterness of war.

Splinters, bits of whole things, fragments of memory, much of it lost to us, but once in a while, captured in a note to mother or another loved one, in the rekindling of the past, or in the telling of a story that has survived. When Tolkien wrote his trilogy, there are reminders of the Great War woven throughout its pages, his time on the Somme, and the acts of men are there for all of us to become immersed. How few today realize that Tolkien’s epic reflects, his Great War, the age of men­­­.

Did you know?

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien served during the Great War with the 11^th Battalion Lancashire Fusiliers. He arrived in France in June 1916 and during the Battle of the Somme was a signals officer.  Tolkien saw action at the Battle of Thiepval Ridge and took part in the assault on Schwaben Redoubt. Having suffered from trench foot on numerous occasions he developed trench fever in late October 1916 and returned to England November 8, 1916. The rest of his war was spent on garrison duties and in hospital. Still Tolkien’s experiences on the Somme gave to the world, through the sites he was witness, a trilogy long regarded as epic and classic in nature. Best then to remember his words, “By 1918 all but one of my close friends were dead.”

Category: Odds & Ends | No Comments »
Tags: 1916, Great War, Imperial War Museum, Lord of the Things, Memory, Ovillers, Revolver, Somme, Tolkien, Trees, Trench Fever, Trench Foot

Posted By pferguson on April 15, 2012

RMS Britannic
Another White Star Line Sinking

This week has seen an extraordinary amount of film at home and in the theatre with the launch of James Cameron’s 3-D version of Titanic. Ceremonies have recognized the 100^th anniversary of the loss of this titan on its maiden voyage, such as in Halifax, (the City of Sorrow) Nova Scotia where three cemeteries include the graves of this great ship’s victims. Museums and archives have clamored to assemble their presentations in this another great opportunity to study the impact of this mighty vessel’s loss. In effect there is a steady stream of Titanica, set upon the tide for us to investigate. In keeping with these offerings I provide a similar course but diverge slightly by taking us to one of Titanic’s, not often mentioned, kin RMS Britannic.

Like RMS Titanic, the Britannic was built by Harland and Wolff in Belfast and was launched February 26, 1914. During the Great War Britannic, which was larger than Titanic, became a hospital ship and renamed HMHS (His Majesty’s Hospital Ship) Britannic. Under the command of Captain Charles Alfred Bartlett CB, CBE, RD, of the Royal Naval Reserve, Bartlett first served with the White Star Line in 1894, and developed an uncanny reputation for “smelling ice” in the shipping lanes and was given the nickname “Iceberg Charlie”.

On November 21, 1916 at 8:12 AM Britannic struck a mine and sunk at 9:07 AM off the Greek island off Kea in the Kea Channel. It is amazing that nurse Violet Jessop was on board, not only did she survive the sinking of Britannic and the 1911 collision of Olympic with HMS Hawke, she was also a Titanic survivor.

Of the 1,134 individuals on board, thirty lives were lost. Britannic sank in about an hour, and it is thought that most of the fatalities did not occur due to the explosion of the mine but when some of the lifeboats were caught up in the vortex of the Britannic going down. Captain Bartlett who survived the Britannic’s sinking was, however, stuck by another vessel’s loss. On May 13, 1915 his only son, Charles Sydney Ellis Bartlett, was lost as a 15 year old Midshipman when HMS Goliath was hit and sunk by Turkish torpedoes in the Dardanelles. Midshipman Bartlett is commemorated on the Chatham Naval Memorial, Kent, England.

Of the 30 individuals lost in the Britannic’s sinking the following 15 souls have been confirmed as fatalities:

Piraeus Naval and Consular Cemetery, Greece
Fireman Joseph Brown, Southampton
Seaman G. Honeycott
Charles James David Phillips, Hants

Tower Hill Memorial, London, England
Fireman Frank Joseph Earley, Southampton
Steward Charles Claude Seymour Garland, Southampton
Scullion Leonard George, Southampton
Second Electrician Pownall Gillespie, Liscard, Cheshire
Fireman George William Godwin, Southampton
Assistant Cook Thomas McDonald, Liverpool
Fireman John George McFeat, Southampton
Steward Thomas Francis Tully, Bootle, Lancashire
Greaser George Sherin, Southampton
Trimmer Arthur Dennis, Southampton
Steward Henry James Toogood, Southampton
Fireman George Bradbury Philps, Southampton

Not Confirmed
Piraeus Naval and Consular Cemetery, Greece
Private Arthur Binks, M.M., Royal Army Medical Corps

Mikra Memorial, Greece
Private George James Bostock, Royal Army Medical Corps
Private Henry Freebury, Royal Army Medical Corps
Private Thomas Jones, Royal Army Medical Corps
Private Leonard Smith, Royal Army Medical Corps
Captain John Cropper, Royal Army Medical Corps
Sergeant William Sharpe, Royal Army Medical Corps (buried Syria New British Cemetery)
Private George William King, Royal Army Medical Corps
Private William Stone, Royal Army Medical Corps

Unknown
Six individuals not identified

Did you know?

Famed French explorer, filmmaker and diver Jacques Cousteau discovered the wreck in 1975 at rest 400’ below the water’s surface. Robert Ballard the discoverer of Titanic also visited the Britannic wreck site in 1995.

Captain Charles Bartlett’s honours include the CB (Companion of the Order of the Bath), the CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) and the RD (Royal Naval Reserve Decoration).

Category: Odds & Ends | No Comments »
Tags: 15 April 1912, 21 November 1916, Britannic, Charles Alfred Bartlett, Charles Sydney Ellis Bartlett, Film History, HMS Goliath, Hospital Ships, Merchant Navy, Piraeus Naval and Consular Cemetery, Royal Army Medical Corps, Titanic, Tower Hill Memorial, Violet Jessop, White Star Line

Posted By pferguson on April 9, 2012

William Johnstone Milne, V.C.
16th Canadian Infantry Battalion

W.J. Milne of Cambusnethan, Scotland (located south-east of Glasgow) came to Canada in 1910 and lived on the Canadian prairies near to the town of Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan where he found work on a farm. With the outbreak of  the Great War he joined the 46th Battalion C.E.F. in September 1915 but subsequently became a member of the 16th. He was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross for his actions south-west of Thelus during the Battle for Vimy Ridge April 9, 1917.He was 24 years of age.

Citation for the award of the Victoria Cross to William Johnstone Milne

“For most conspicuous bravery and devotion to duty in attack. On approaching the first objective, Pte. Milne observed an enemy machine gun firing on our advancing troops. Crawling on hands and knees, he succeeded in reaching the gun, killing the crew with bombs, and capturing the gun. On the line re-forming, he again located a machine gun in the support line, and stalking this second gun as he had done the first, he succeeded in putting the crew out of action and capturing the gun. His wonderful bravery and resource on these two occasions undoubtedly saved the lives of many of his comrades. Pte. Milne was killed shortly after capturing the second gun.”

Private Milne was buried 1/2 mile south-east of Neuville St. Vaast – 3 3/4 miles north of Arras. However with the progression of the war the grave was lost and so having no known burial Private Milne is commemorated on the Vimy Memorial, France. Private Milne’s medals and decorations, which were given to his mother Mrs. Agnes Milne, were held privately for several years but are now permanently housed in the collection of the Canadian War Museum, Ottawa.

Did you know?

Captain Victor Gordon Tupper M.C. who commanded “C” Company of the 16^th Battalion C.E.F. at Vimy Ridge was also killed during the attack on April 9, 1917. Tupper was the son of the Honorable Sir Charles Hibbert Tupper K.C.M.G. (Knight Commander Order of St. Michael and St. George) and Lady Tupper of Vancouver, B.C. Captain Tupper is buried at Ecoivres Military Cemtery, Mont-St. Eloi, France.

Captain Tupper’s  father, Charles Hibbert Tupper, a distinguished Canadian politician himself, was the son of Sir Charles Tupper who was a former premier of Nova Scotia, and was one of Canada’s 36 Fathers of Confederation, Captain Tupper’s grandfather also served briefly as Canadian Prime Minister in 1896.

Category: Odds & Ends, Pipers of War | No Comments »
Tags: 16th Battalion C.E.F., Great War, Thelus, Tupper Family, Victor Gordon Tupper, Victoria Cross, Vimy Memorial, Vimy Ridge, William Johnstone Milne V.C.

Posted By pferguson on April 4, 2012

For My Sweetheart

They left all that was dear to them behind, parents, family, and sweethearts, those that were most familiar to them. Home, the farm, the school, a favorite friend, a family pet, routine, and the day they knew. Hearing the call to war, the volunteers stepped to the fore and entered into the Canadian Expeditionary Force. Their active service taking them far from home, to the training camps and battlefields overseas and where memories of those at home were kept close at heart.

There too were the letters to loved ones, the girl left behind and so, on occasion, when the soldier had the chance, a postcard slipped into the mail with a heartfelt message,  or at other times a special item purchased and sent home. Souvenirs were popular. There were pillowcases depicting such things as Ypres on fire, commemorative china in the shape of tanks and interpretations of “Keep the Home Fires Burning”, trench art, and items picked up from the front lines such as pickelhaubes, iron crosses and fuses.

Still there were fine personal items sold by jewelers for the soldier as gifts for the ones at home. Made of gold or silver, and sometimes enameled, sweetheart pins, as they are popularly known, were a simple gift reminding the one at home of the one at the front. These pins often resembled the cap insignia of the soldier’s unit or regiment, others might relate to a specific town or battle. Some came in special boxes for Christmas gifts, others elaborately engraved. On the other hand soldiers also had coins of the realm turned into bracelets, with one side being filed over and an inscription hand engraved that reminded each other of their feelings, “The Lord watch between thee and me when we are absent one from the other.” With the addition of a silver or gold chain and clasp they were worn as reminders, “I have a soldier at the front”. It was one way of remembering before remembrance became a day.

As the words of John McCrae’s In Flanders Fields remind us “We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, Loved and Were Loved”. For all those wives, sweethearts, grandmothers, mothers, sisters and others who wait, we will remember them.

Category: Our Thoughts | No Comments »
Tags: Family, Great War, Home, Love, Mementos, Remembrance, Sweetheart Pins, Sweethearts