Blighty

| January 27, 2024

Now me, I wasn’t scratched, praise God Almighty (Though next time please I’ll thank ‘im for a Blighty) From The Chances by Wilfrid Owen Home Blighty was Britain or England. The term was popular in both the First and Second World War but its origins were earlier. The word originated in India during the 1800s […]

Battle of Loos

| September 18, 2023

War and War Trophies Prior to the attack 533 British guns fired more than 250,000 shells during a four-day bombardment commencing 21 September 1915. At the time, the engagement was the largest Great War British offensive. The battle also marked the first use of gas by the British Army. Specialized units of the Royal Engineers […]

Back to the Somme: Part 5

| July 30, 2023

Remembrance on the Somme A visit to the Commonwealth War Graves website begins Close to 150,000 Commonwealth casualties are buried in close to 350 sites on the Somme. They range from large cemeteries with thousands of graves to individual graves in churchyards and burial grounds. There are eight memorials to the missing of the Battle […]

Back to the Somme: Part 4

| June 30, 2023

The Mines On the first day of the Battle of the Somme (1 July 1916), 19 mines were detonated. Eight large and eleven smaller charges prepared by tunneling units of the British Army exploded on the German frontline. Both the mines at Lochnagar (detonated at 7:28 AM) and Hawthorn Ridge (detonated at 7:20 AM) were, […]

Back to the Somme: Part 3

| May 30, 2023

The Artillery Barrage Light gauge railways delivered ammunition to the frontline. Prior to the attack on 1 July 1916 a seven-day barrage fired 1.5 million shells. Of these it is estimated 1/3 of them were duds. The Canadian Expeditionary Force’s battalions took part in the Battle of the Somme but much later than the events […]