Jakealoo

@jakealoo

WW1 blogger, researcher and aspiring author. Amateur genealogist. Vintage photo enthusiast. My WW1 blog: Doing Our Bit Twitter: Follow @jake_a_loo !function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,"script","twitter-wjs");

1,096 posts

Posts

demons

The 99th Aero Squadron of the Air Service, US Army/France c. 1917

demons

Mark V tanks with British and New Zealand infantry moving forward after their capture of Grevillers, 28 August 1918.

demons

A British soldier fires a machine gun with periscope attachment in the trenches at Gallipoli.

A nice real photo postcard of Leysdown on the Isle of Sheppey, postmarked 1938.

#rppc #1938 #1930's #England #Isle of Sheppey #Leysdown

wahnwitzig

WWI Italian Bersaglieri

brightonmuseums-ww1-war-stories

This recruitment poster shows heroic cavalry troops on the battlefield, their horses galloping past exploding shells. But this was a scene that rarely occurred on the Western Front, where most of the fighting was conducted through heavy artillery and infantry.

The poster reflects an early belief that cavalry units would play a decisive role in the conflict. Although they were successfully used in the Battle of Mons in the first few weeks of the war, they proved ineffective once the war became locked in trench warfare.

In spite of this, cavalry units continued to be maintained by Britain’s generals. This may have been because many of Britain’s military leaders, such as General Douglas Haig, were former cavalrymen who clung to a belief that horses would eventually be able to sweep into enemy trenches worn down by artillery.

This lingering belief in the utility of cavalry combat has often been cited as evidence of the incompetence of Britain’s generals. David Lloyd George complained about this in his 1934 memoir of the war, claiming of the ‘ridiculous cavalry obsession’ of his generals.

demons

Wounded British soldiers stretch their legs beside their train, which has stopped just outside Amiens during a German Offensive/4 March 1918.

demons

Ambulance drivers of the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (FANY) wearing their fur coats near Calais in January 1917.

Although the British Army wanted nothing to do with the women of FANY initially, by the time of the Armistice those who worked in the field and drove ambulances had been decorated many times for bravery including: 17 Military Medals, 1 Legion d’Honneur and 27 Croix de Guerre.

demons

Australian soldiers and army nurses playing cards at Mudros on the Greek island of Lemnos, 19 September 1917.

wahnwitzig

wwiphotos

Page 15 of 105

This is among my favorite pages in the album for how closely it puts you in the position of a soldier in the trenches. Combined with the previous page in this spread, you can’t help but imagine yourself digging through that mud, hiding in a storage closet or spying through the bushes.

Buy the book on Amazon