I died in hell – They called it Passchendaele

"Once trench warfare set in everyone was bound to the wheel; and when the High Command gave it a turn, Army, Corps and divisional commanders turned with it." WW1 History PhD student, Canberra, Australia.

[scrapironflotilla]

Another one from the scrapbook of Lt-Gen MacMunn. No signature, no caption, just a beautiful watercolour.

[scrapironflotilla]

Turkish Despair. Dope name.

Yep, really fits in with the aesthetic.

I think we usually call that neighbourhood the Balkans.

Well that's an appropriately depressing end to that little vignette.

[scrapironflotilla]

"Brilliant sunshine turns the sky to the clearest and loveliest light blue behind us, and the hillsides – greeny brown when one is near – are melted in the golden haze into a wonderful pale pink – golden pink – mysterious and almost shadowless, and frail like a soft cloud upon the water. Further away the great giant castle of Samothrace stands up clad in every misty shade of blue, as though already half melted into the sky and sea between which it is suspended. And this afternoon when I come back it will all be quite different. Our island will be all blue – rich, many tinted and delicate, with deep violet shadows throwing each hill into relief, shaming the cruder colouring of the sea and sky. And Samothrace will be a clear, cold, steely mountain on the horizon – beauty aloof, unapproachable, soulless! But best of all perhaps is the evening, when the island becomes deep dark green and violet and purple, and the sea in the bay brightens to burnished steel, and after the flaming crimson streamers of the sunset have died away, the dark masses of the hills stand outlined against the marvellous pale green sky of the dying day – a colour so clear that you seem to be looking through to the outer limits of space, to where a star shines golden like a fragment of the vanished sun. What an unutterably beautiful world God has made, and what sad sordid ugliness man puts into it!" LtCol Guy Dawnay to his wife Cecil, 23/6/1915.

Like so many upper class Englishmen soldiers Dawnay was something of a frustrated poet. His letters to Cecil are full of beautiful passages describing the Aegean Sea and the Gallipoli peninsula and relating amusing anecdotes about the campaign there.

[scrapironflotilla]

writing about the armenian genocide

[scrapironflotilla]

Many ladies who were in the camp to see the last of their husband, brothers, etc., remained and had dinner with us. They were somewhat melancholy company, so at 9.30, the night being a fine one and we having recieved no orders as to the time we should move, a piper was produced and we all danced reels, and finished up with a game of rugby football with a pillow.

4th October 1914 - Diary of Lieutenant William Fraser, Gordon Highlanders.

[pagecommando]

@scrapironflotilla Would this William Fraser be a relative of George Macdonald Fraser of Flashman fame, or just same name? IIRC GMF also served in the Gordons, and Fraser writing as "MacNeill" In the slightly fictionalized MacAuslan stories set in the 40s mentions a relative who was Pipe Sergeant in the 1890s.

[scrapironflotilla]

No, I don't think so. If they were related it'd be pretty distantly I think. This William Fraser was the fourth son of Alexander Fraser the Lord Saltoun.

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Dear Mother, I expect you will see in the papers that I am wounded. It's not really so at all. I was going down to some new trenches we took over at Hill 60 with my Company, when a stray bullet at its last gasp went through the flesh of the inside of my thigh. I coulnd't feel any exit wound and though it had just gone in and stuck there. So after we'd finished the relief I went back and got the doctor to tie it up. We found it had just gone through and I found the bullet inside my breeches, so I'm sending it home for you to look at.

May 14th 1915, Captain William Fraser, Gordon Highlanders.

[scrapironflotilla]

Many ladies who were in the camp to see the last of their husband, brothers, etc., remained and had dinner with us. They were somewhat melancholy company, so at 9.30, the night being a fine one and we having recieved no orders as to the time we should move, a piper was produced and we all danced reels, and finished up with a game of rugby football with a pillow.

4th October 1914 - Diary of Lieutenant William Fraser, Gordon Highlanders.

[captain-price-returns]

French naval gunners on the Western Front circa 1917

[scrapironflotilla]

C'mon man, that's a bit unfair.

Some of them were Catholic.

[scrapironflotilla]

As a favour to future generations of historians, we must make sure that the private texts and emails of notable figures are leaked on reddit or twitter.

[scrapironflotilla]

This guy reaching out from 1970 to skewer me personally

[scrapironflotilla]

C'mon man, that's a bit unfair.

Some of them were Catholic.

[scrapironflotilla]

As a favour to future generations of historians, we must make sure that the private texts and emails of notable figures are leaked on reddit or twitter.

[scrapironflotilla]

C'mon man, that's a bit unfair.

Some of them were Catholic.

[captain-price-returns]

artillery shell

invest in my idea

[vastwinterskies]

how am I supposed to go to the supermarket without cavalry support

[scrapironflotilla]

Old fashioned thinking.

What you need is fire superiority over the other customers. And there's only one certain way to achieve that.

[scrapironflotilla]

Doing some WW2 research for work and hot damn. That's a hell of an image.

[anyboli]

This page from one of my history books looks like a lesbian utopia.

Source: Reclaiming Lost Ground by Neale McGoldrick & Margaret Crocco

[anyboli]

Very similar vibes - this 1899 illustration from Puck of butchy (for the time) lesbians looking like the coolest, hottest women to ever walk the earth

[studentofetherium]

i'm not normally one to make jokes about dialect or accent. but the way that British people pronounce "lieutenant" feels like an in-joke i'm not privy to

[aokozaki]

Aww, you're feeling lieut out?

[bewbin]

in World War 1 around 8 million horses died but in World War 2 it was under a million which can only mean horses started to evolve bullet resistance

[lordoftablecloths]

im sorry i couldnt just let these slide