Oscar Tellgmann
Soldiers’ fencing exercise in a barracks courtyard for training bayonet attacks
1914
The Arrival of American Troops at the Front, 1918 by John Singer Sargent
Rosalie, Rosalie! Rosalie is the Nickname for the French Bayonet, c. 1919 by Claggett Wilson
if I was in the army they'd kill me immediately for saying shit like "I'm such a mortarpilled trenchcel" when we're getting shelled in the trenches
I'd tell my co that I'm "maximmaxxing" when I clean the machine guns and he'd send me out to no-man's-land
telling my fellow soldiers that im in my silly tank arc. i see a steaming canister and i immediately go “ woah such a mustardcore gas vibe”
military police asking if I have any last words before they execute me for cowardice: well?
me: chad deserter vs the virgin order follower
We spent the morning in cricket matches and other amusement, and in the afternoon the whole Division went down to the Canal to swim and take part in a great Aquatic Carnival. From the Serapeum pontoon bridge, both sloping banks of the Suez Canal for fully a mile north, was one teeming mass of naked humanity – at times there were over 15,000 men in the water, and whenever the judge’s launch tooted to notify that the course must be cleared, the scamper to the bank was a sight worth seeing and remembering.
John Monash writing describing how the 4th Australian Division commemorated the first Anzac Day in April 1916.
the essay question was about the utility of ‘total war’ as a concept for thinking about war. somehow i think they may have attempted some cheating
…it would be impossible for us to shift from Egypt for at least four weeks from now, and the move to France would take at least another four weeks for the whole Corps. So a great deal must happen in the European theatres before we can get anywhere near the fighting line. When the time does come I feel perfectly sure that we shall do extremely well, as nothing could be finer than the physique and spirit and the morale of our men, who will have to face an already shattered and half beaten enemy.
John Monash writing from Egypt in early March 1915.
Oh the optimism of a general and an army that hasn’t yet fought
The theory here is that no move will be made until the fleet has cleared up the situation in the Dardanelles, and that then it will be a case of an occupation of Constantinople, and trying to bring the Turks to their senses.
It is my opinion that the war is going very well indeed for us, and that the next month or two will see a great change to our advantage.
Monash in late March 1915, still incredibly optimistic. this does actually show how little even senior officers like brigadier-generals actually knew about what was going on at any given time during the war.
Varieties of ship camouflage from International marine engineering v.24 (1919:Jan.-June).
Full text available here
...it would be impossible for us to shift from Egypt for at least four weeks from now, and the move to France would take at least another four weeks for the whole Corps. So a great deal must happen in the European theatres before we can get anywhere near the fighting line. When the time does come I feel perfectly sure that we shall do extremely well, as nothing could be finer than the physique and spirit and the morale of our men, who will have to face an already shattered and half beaten enemy.
John Monash writing from Egypt in early March 1915.
Oh the optimism of a general and an army that hasn’t yet fought
In this way, every day has its incidents, some pleasant, some troublesome. Beeston (the senior medical officer) is now on board the “Ulysses”, and it is a great comfort to me to have his expert advice on all medical questions many of which arise every day.
He brought his little dog Paddy, (you will remember him telling us how Paddy had adopted him at Broadmeadows) Paddy, of course, has to carry his identity disc, but refuses to state his religion. It appears that before Paddy left Broadmeadows he made the acquaintance of a lady dog, which had to be left behind, so they made him sign a separation allowance form, but the trouble was that no one knew for how many children it had to be filled in.
Letter from then Colonel John Monash aboard the transport ship Ulysses in December 1914, on his way to Egypt.
The Great Italian retreat. Italian troops riding on a railway engine during the retreat. 1917.
i wasn't that excited for the tumblr trench warfare update at first but the bayonet charge over no man's land was so exhilarating. i saw one of my mutuals disappear under an artillery blast
WWI themed sketch by E. H. Shepard, frontline soldier at the time, before becoming the illustrator of the ‘Winnie the Pooh’ books.
A French airplane shot down by friendly fire.
During our tour we had made a good communication trench down the forward slope to the front line. This was over a mile in length. On the 10th I conducted General Douglas Smith to the front line and he expressed amazement at the work.
That night it rained heavily and three days later there was no trench. The whole area was sludge and the trench had closed up. On relief, a party of the 1st Battalion Border Regiment had got bogged. Ropes were sent for and all but one man rescued. He was so embedded he could not be moved. In the end he undid his braces and was pulled out of his boots and trousers by force. It was a freezing night but he survived.
Major General Beauvoir de Lisle on the winter of 1916-17.
My first full-length history book is out today!
The Pattern: The 33rd Regiment and the British Infantry Experience During the American Revolution, 1770 - 1783, follows the 33rd Regiment, arguably one of the best in the British Army, through its campaigns during the American Revolutionary War. The book aims to give a complete understanding of the 33rd and their experiences, so it’s not just a regimental history. Opening chapters deal with recruitment, training, weapons, clothing and equipment, as well as the home service 1770-75, where the regiment acquired a reputation for excellence. There’s also statistical analysis! I look at where the 33rd’s soldiers came from, what jobs they did before enlisting, their age, their height, and how long they served for. After that there’s a chapter dealing with the events of each year from 1776 to 1783. Not just combat either, though there’s loads of that - diet, disease, discipline and desertion, the role of women, camp life and the experiences of transatlantic voyages are among the topics dealt with. It’s also got;
- Over 100,000 words of core text
- 40 images
- Over a dozen BATTLEMAPS
- Specially commissioned artwork
- Graphs and tables
- An appendix!
Purchase links below. This has been a two-year labour of love, so all the support, be it buying a copy or just reblogging this, is much appreciated:
Thank you everyone for all the support, it means a lot! :)
Fohs Nikolaus, Sergeant Major Austrian of the Sappeur Abteilung with the Silver Medal of Honor
Major-General Thomas D’Oyly Snow nails tumblr discourse about WW1 a hundred years before it begins
Considering how venereal diseases rampaged through some armies during WW1 I wouldn't go near a "dangle parade" if I was a regimental surgeon unless I was armed with a gasmask and the thickest pair of welding gloves this side of the Hindenburg Line
“Other men - truly desperate - deliberately smeared pus from venereal sores into their eyes. ‘Cases of gonorrhoeal opthalmia’ a staff officer noted, were ‘considered to be self inflicted’ and 'of frequent occurrence’, especially in prison hospitals.”
This sort of stuff is usually classified as a discipline problem and discipline in the Australian Imperial Force was an issue throughout the war. And it got worse as it went on and as recruiting fell. So you had men who were well and truly burnt out and not really fit for service being sent back to their units because there were no replacements.
So as the war kept going and more and more of these guys had to keep going back to the front and they would do anything to get out of it. So this sort of self inflicted wounding became more common.
The solution that Australian generals wanted and kept arguing for was to shoot a couple of deserters. Due to Australian law although AIF soldiers could be sentenced to death they couldn't actually be executed and their sentences were invariably commuted. This was widely known and probably did contribute to the extreme kinds of self harm and the imprisonment of Australians in military gaols as a way to avoid frontline service.
Generals from Haig down to brigadiers like Pompey Elliot lobbied the Australian government to relent about shooting a couple of soldiers as an example to the rest. They pointed to the Kiwis and the Canadians who both carried out executions to show that it was effective. But the government didn't budge and no Australian was executed for desertion or cowardice during the war.