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Thread: 100 Years Ago Today

  1. #2501

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    POST NUMBER 2500 - SOMETHING TO CELEBRATE INDEED


    Well August 3rd 2014 seems a long time ago now, since then we have had 2500 posts and 161332 views. So its as good a time as any to say a few thank you's. Firstly to Rob who helped me get this off the ground in the early months of the war, when we were struggling to find anything happening at all, and more recently to Neil who has shared the workload as the war has intensified and the editor's job has taken up more and more time. Thanks also for all of you who have added extra articles and snippets of information from time to time, when we have missed something or ran out of time to include. Lastly a big thank you to everyone who has read and continues to read this piece.

    19th June 1917

    A bit like the last few days here in most of the UK, looks like the weather back in 1917 was just as warm and stifling, you only need to look at the casualty figures to realise we are going through something of a lull at the moment. Most of the focus on the Western Front is around the build up to events of 31st July - the 3rd Battle of Ypres - better known as Passchendaele

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    We have some busy days ahead - not least 31st July when 14 Victoria Crosses are awarded on the one day - more than the first day of the Somme....

    Lets start today with the death of the Russian Ace Podpolkovnik (Lt. Colonel) Yevgraph Nikolaevich Kruten

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    Podpolkovnik Yevgraf Nikolaevich Kruten was a World War I flying ace credited with seven aerial victories. He began World War I as an aerial observer with three years experience in military aviation. After a year's seasoning, he was recommended for, and graduated from, pilot's training in September 1914. He rose through the ranks, to be appointed as his unit's commander on 6 June 1916. With his victory tally at three, he was forwarded to service with the French Aéronautique Militaire. While learning French aerial tactics, Kruten shot down a German aircraft during February 1917. After his return to Russia in March 1917, he shared his new-found knowledge in a flurry of booklets on military aviation. He commanded his battle group of three detachments, and ran his victory total to seven before dying in a landing accident on 19 June 1917.

    Yevgraf Kruten was born into a family with a military tradition; both his father and his mother's father were colonels. He entered the world on 29 December 1890 in Kiev. In 1901, aged 11, he attended the Kiev Military Cadet Corps School. He was forwarded to horse artillery in 1908 as an ensign. In 1911, he was commissioned with the rank of podporuchik upon graduation from Konstantin Artillery School. In April 1912, he was transferred to Kiev. He was selected in June 1913 for a study of the potential use of heavier-than-air by the Imperial Russian Army. The test of five airplanes was conducted by the leader of the pilot contingent at Brovary, Pyotr Nesterov. Kruten was required to fly as part of Russia's maiden attempt at artillery spotting. The several flights he took sparked his interest. He found his way to the Third Air Company, which was located at Sviatoshyn Airfield in Kiev near his duty station. By August 1913, he was flying as an aerial observer in military maneuvers. He made six flights in foggy rainy weather with Nesterov, including one at night. As a result of his friendship with Nesterov, the aviator wrote a letter recommending Kruten's admission to aviation training.

    Kruten was one of the spectators when Nesterov flew the first aerial loop in history on 9 September 1913. In January 1914, Kruten began aviation training at the Katchinsky military school near Sevastopol. His natural talent can be seen in his flying his own loops on 23 August 1914. Kruten graduated as a military pilot in September 1914.

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    At the outbreak of war, Kruten began flying reconnaissance and bombing missions as a member of the 21st Corps Air Detachment. He reached the front and began flying combat in October 1914. He flew reconnaissance and bombing missions; by February 1915, he had flown over 40 sorties without crossing paths with any enemy aircraft. He switched to the 2nd Army Air Detachment; when he scored his first aerial victory on 6 March 1915, piloting a Voisin he was awarded the Order of Saint Anne Fourth Class. His observer/gunner, Captain Ducimetier of the General Staff, both shot down the plane and confirmed the victory. The successful duo flew back through crippling antiaircraft fire that stopped their engine and forced their landing near the Russian 2nd Caucasian Corps.

    The following month, April 1915, saw Kruten fly more than 25 long range missions. On the 18th, he partook in his unit's first night bombing sortie. Kruten continued to serve in the unit as it was redesignated as the 2nd Fighter Aviation Detachment. On 5 June, Captain Ducimeter was again his observer when they suffered a runaway propeller on their aircraft. Kruten got them home safely; the staff captain's report on the incident recommended Kruten's promotion to Captain. A month later, he received his captaincy, as well as the Order of St. Vladimir Fourth Class with Swords and Ribbon.

    In early 1916, Kruten's unit re-equipped with Nieuport 11s. During his orientation on the new machine, he realized that other pilots were unready for aerial battle. For them, Kruten wrote the first of several little pamphlets on the subject. It defined the assault sequence as: Altitude—Speed—Maneuver—Fire.

    In April 1916, Kruten was ordered to Smolensk to test fly aircraft for the new fighter groups being formed. He was brought back to Smolensk a second time, on 20 May 1916. He was given command of the brand new 2nd Boevaya Aviatsionnaya Gruppa (Battle Aviation Group) on 6 June. When the group was formed from the detachments from the 3rd, 7th, and 8th Corps, it was still short pilots. It would not be completed and committed to action until late July 1916; it reached its base at Nesvizh on 7 August. Kruten led from the front, scoring two more victories in August 1916. On 13 November, he was selected as one of a party assigned to the Western Front for cross-training with French aviators. He was posted to Pau in January 1917; later, he transferred to the flying school at Cazau. In February, he was serving with Felix Brocard's Escadrille 3; he was credited with a victory while with them. He returned to Russia in March 1917, after hearing of Czar Nicholas's abdication. The French had awarded him a Croix de guerre for his victory.

    The assignment to the French left him of the opinion that, "There is nothing about flying that we could learn from foreigners...." When he arrived back in Russia on 24 March 1917, he began writing a pamphlet, Invasion of Foreigners, protesting French aid to the Russians. This was the second of his pamphlets on Russian use of air power; he wrote at least eight booklets on the subject. In the meantime, he reassumed command of the 2nd BAG in early April 1917. The group was equipped with a mix of Nieuport 17 and Nieuport 21 fighters. One of each was reserved for Kruten's use. Both Nieuport 17 serial number 2232 and Nieuport 21 number 4572 were marked with Kruten's insignia of a medieval knight. From mid-April 1917, his Battle Group was stationed in Plotych, ten kilometers north of Tarnopol. Kruten threw himself into combat, leading from the front. On 30 May 1917, for instance, he fought six times without result. Interspersed with his dogfights were photo-reconnaissance and artillery adjustment missions. He would score three more victories during May and June 1917. His final victory, on 6 June 1917, was unusual; he ran out of fuel during his attack, but still managed to down his foe while gliding to a forced landing.

    On 19 June 1917 at 0925 hours, while returning from a combat mission, as his landing Nieuport sank through 100 meters altitude, Yevgraf Kruten spun in and crashed. Once removed from the wreckage, he lingered only a short while after the crash. He was posthumously promoted to Podpolkovnik. He was buried at the Nicholsky Military Cathedral in Kiev. In 1930, he was reinterred[3] in Luk'yanovskoe Cemetery, still in his native Kiev.

    There were 9 British airmen who fell on TUESDAY JUNE 19TH 1917

    Sergeant Appleton, S.C. (Stanley Chalmers) No.2 School of Aerial Gunnery RFC
    2nd Lt. Buntine, W.H.C. (Walter Horace Carlyle) Royal Naval Air Station, Dunkerque RFC
    2nd Lt. Clarke, N.V. (Nicholas Vincent) 57 Reserve Squadron RFC
    2nd Lt. Davies, A. (Albert) 55 Training Squadron RFC
    Lt. MacAskill, W.R. (William Ross) 20 Squadron RFC
    Flt. Sub Lt. Potvin, J.E. (James Edward) Royal Naval Air Station, Dunkerque
    Obs Officer Rogers, T. (Thomas) RNAS
    Air Mech 2nd Class Slingsby, T.E. (Thomas Edwin) Royal Naval Air Service, H.M.S. 'President II'
    Air Mech 3rd Class Stock, A.W. (Alfred William) No.2 Kite Balloon Section Royal Flying Corps

    The following aerial victory claims were made on this day...

    Jean Chaput France #5
    Stefan Fejes Austro-Hungarian Empire #4 u/c
    Julius Kowalczik Austro-Hungarian Empire #5
    Josef Pürer Austro-Hungarian Empire #6 u/c
    Jean Chaput France #12
    Joseph de Sevin France #4
    Robert Delannoy France #3
    Otto Kissenberth Germany #5
    Karl Odebrett Germany #2
    Flavio Baracchini Italy #7
    Guglielmo Fornagiari Italy u/c
    Gastone Novelli Italy #2

    Major Ronald Graham Seaplane Defence Flight, 13N (RNAS)

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    The son of William Graham, Ronald Graham was educated at St. Joseph's College, Yokohama and Castle Douglas Academy in Scotland. He was commissioned a Temporary Sub-Lieutenant in the Royal Navy on 25 May 1915 and promoted to Flight Sub-Lieutenant in September 1915. He received Royal Aero Club Certificate 2041 on a Grahame-White biplane at Grahame-White School, Hendon on 15 November 1915. Graham was posted to the Dover Seaplane Station in early 1916; to Seaplane Base, Dunquerque, 8 June 1916; O.C. Seaplane Defence Flight, Baby-St. Pol, 30 June 1917; and was commanding officer of 213 Squadron from May 1918 until the end of the war. He received a permanent commission in the Royal Air Force as Captain on 1 August 1919. Post-war, he remained in the R.A.F. and retired as Air Vice-Marshal on 29 June 1948. Listed as Ronald Grahame in the London Gazette.

    The Seaplane Defence Flight

    Formed originally from the Seaplane Defence Flight, which was itself founded in June 1917 at Dunkirk, it was reorganized as No. 13 Squadron RNAS on 15 January 1918. As the SDF, it operated Sopwith Pups. When the Royal Naval Air Service merged with the Royal Flying Corps to form the Royal Air Force, it was renumbered as 213 Squadron. In this incarnation, it flew Sopwith Baby floatplanes and transitioned to Sopwith Camels. It was during this time that the squadron derived its Hornet insignia and motto for the squadron badge, after overhearing a Belgian General refer to the squadron's defence of his trenches, "Like angry hornets attacking the enemy aircraft". The Hornet became affectionately known as "Crabro," latin for hornet. The squadron's official motto became, "Irritatus Lacessit Crabro" (The Hornet Attacks When Roused). In March 1919 the squadron went back to the UK where it disbanded on 31 December 1919.

    During its wartime existence, the squadron had 11 flying aces serve with it, including such notables as John Edmund Greene, Colin Brown, George Chisholm MacKay, Leonard Slatter, Maurice Cooper, Miles Day, Ronald Graham, John Paynter, John Pinder, and George Stacey Hodson.

    417 British Lives were lost on this day

    Today’s highlighted casualties include:

    Lieutenant Colonel Wigram Clifford DSO (Northumberland Fusiliers) is killed in action at age 41. He is the son of Major General R M Clifford.
    Captain Norman Cairns Robertson (Hampshire Regiment) dies of wounds as a prisoner of war at age 40. His brother was killed in July 1916.
    Captain Joseph Arthur Brearley (Devonshire Regiment attached Royal Engineers) is killed at age 27. His brother was killed in April 1916.
    Lieutenant Cuthbert Farrar Savage (Northumberland Fusiliers) is killed at age 26. He is the son of Canon E Sidney Savage.
    Lance Corporal Reginald Taylor (Wellington Regiment) is killed in action. He was a member of the 1913 All Blacks Rugby Football Club.
    Secretary William Webster Sant (Young Men’s Christian Association) dies of dysentary at El Arish on service in Egypt at age 25. He is a USA Rhodes Scholar of Lincoln College Oxford from Kenyon College USA.
    Corporal William Leslie Bradfield (London Regiment) commits suicide at age 24 by jumping out a window before he is to take up a posting as a Second Lieutenant in the Berkshire Regiment. His brother will be killed by a sniper in September 1918.

    Captain Tunstill's Men: There were thunderstorms in the morning but the weather became fine later. The Brigade horse show was held during the afternoon and would be described by Brig. Genl. Lambert (see 16th June) as a “huge success”. In a letter to his wife he also added that, “the last event was a mule race over the hurdles, a comic event of course, but most thrilling!”.

    There were three victories for 10DWR; Maj. Charles Bathurst (see 15th June) and Temp. Major. Hugh William Lester MC (see 16th June) won the team jumping in pairs event; the Battalion team won the Lewis Gun competition, in which they were required to unload and dismantle the gun before then re-assembling the gun ready for action; and there was also a victory in the event in which a limber and pair had to be driven between marker pegs. After the event Lambert and Lester dined with the officers of 10DWR.

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    Four officers of the Battalion pictured at the Brigade Horse Show; from left, Capt. Cecil Berry (see 15th June), Maj. Charles Bathurst (see above), Capt. Leonard Norman Phillips MC (see 15th June) and Capt. Adrian O’Donnell Pereira

    Western Front

    Small British advances on Arras front.

    Southern Front

    Italian offensive on Asiago plateau; ground gained on Mt. Ortigara.

    Political, etc.

    British peerages conferred by the King on Teck and Battenberg families.

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    The French submarine Ariane was one of eight Amphitrite-class submarines built for the French Navy during the 1910s and completed during World War I.

    During World War I, Ariane was torpedoed and sunk in the Mediterranean Sea off Bizerta, French Tunisia, on 19 June 1917 by the Imperial German Navy submarine SM UC-22

    Never Knowingly Undergunned !!

  2. #2502

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    A late addition for June 18th Chris:

    June 18 1917, Queenstown [Cobh]–American Admiral William Sims, one of the first American military representatives to arrive in Europe, had from the first advocated for extreme cooperation with their new British allies–destroyers should be sent across the Atlantic immediately to fight the U-boats, and those destroyers should be placed under the command of British admirals rather than trying to form an independent American naval presence in Europe. The first destroyersarrived in Ireland in early May, and Anglo-American naval relations were excellent from then on. Much of this was due to the effort of British Admiral Lewis Bayly, under whose command the American destroyers were placed.

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    Admiral Lewis Bayly (1857-1938), normally in command in Queenstown.

    Despite a rather nasty reputation (Sims even calling him early on “a peculiarly difficult man to deal with”), he made the Americans feel at home and soon became a surprisingly-beloved figure among the Americans, who often called him “Uncle Lewis.”

    This was furthered on June 18, when Bayly had to briefly go on leave. He handed over command of all British and American naval forces in Ireland (by this point chiefly American destroyers) to Admiral Sims, writing him:
    Would you like to run the show in my absence? I should like it and you are the only man of whom I could truthfully say that. Your fellows would like it and would have a good effect all around….And if the Admiralty during my absence ‘regret that you should have,’ etc., I will take the blame. If they give you a DSO, keep it.
    For five days, an American flag flew from naval headquarters at the largest British port in Ireland.
    See you on the Dark Side......

  3. #2503

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    and for the 19th:



    Alexander Kolchak (1874-1920), commanding the Black Sea Fleet from August 1916 to June 1917.

    Russian Sailors Depose Admiral Kolchak

    June 19 1917, Sevastopol
    –The Russian Navy, even more so than the Army, had been at the forefront of revolutionary activities in the armed forces. Boredom and strict discipline had led to open revolt during the February Revolution, especially in the Baltic Fleet, where sailors murdered the commanding admiral and imprisoned scores of other officers. The naval base at Kronstadt had even briefly rebelled against the Provisional Government for not being radical enough, before being talked down.


    The Black Sea Fleet was not immune from revolutionary activity either, and in fact had a long history of it dating back to the revolution in 1905 and the mutiny on board the Potemkin. The Black Sea Fleet was under the command of a hardliner, Admiral Kolchak. Kolchak had been the only major military commander (other than those who had been murdered by their own troops) not to urge the abdication of the Czar in March, and had been attempting to maintain strict discipline ever since to keep his fleet in order. On June 19, the sailors’ councils of the Black Sea Fleet voted to depose Admiral Kolchak, a move which was soon recognized by the government in Petrograd.


    Kolchak returned to Petrograd to report on the situation in the Black Sea Fleet, and urged that only extreme disciplinary measures, including capital punishment, would restore order in the armed forces. Kerensky disagreed, and, once Kolchak became the center of much counterrevolutionary intrigue, effectively exiled him in August by sending him as a liaison to the US Navy.
    See you on the Dark Side......

  4. #2504

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    Nice finds Neil - teamwork in action, thank you

    Never Knowingly Undergunned !!

  5. #2505

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    Well this is the last post from me for a few days, having seen us safely through the 2500 mark I am handing the reins back to Neil with effect from tomorrow.

    June 20th 1917

    We will start today with an unusual twist on a U-boat vs. Passenger Liner story featuring the Cunard liner Valeria. On June 20, 1917, the defensively-armed Valeria approached the Irish coast carrying 5,000 tons of wheat, foodstuffs, munitions and horses. She hit the periscope of U-99 (Max Eltester) and sank the submarine with gunfire as it surfaced. None of her 40 crew were saved. Valeria was formerly Den of Airlie, purchased in 1915 from Barrie of Dundee, as was her sister, Volodia (ex-Den of Ogil).

    Western Front

    German attacks on Souchez river repulsed.

    British recover ground on Infantry Hill.

    Violent German attack near Vauxaillon (Chemin des Dames) gains ground.

    Southern Front

    Italians carry height on Piccolo Lagaznoi (Carnia front).

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    After tunneling through the mountain and overcoming a difference in altitude of 190 metres (210 yd), Alpini detonate this mine beneath the vacated enemy stronghold on the crag above Cengia Martini, resulting in a large crater and more rubble falling into the valley. The Austro-Hungarians have no casualties but the Italians lose a few men during the ensuing fighting.

    The mines on the Italian Front during the First World War comprised a series of underground explosive charges of varying sizes, secretly planted between 1916 and 1918 by Austro-Hungarian and Italian tunneling units beneath their enemy's lines along the Italian Front in the Dolomite section of the Alps.

    From 1915, the high peaks of the Dolomites range were an area of fierce mountain warfare. In order to protect their soldiers from enemy fire and the hostile alpine environment, both Austro-Hungarian and Italian military engineers constructed fighting tunnels which offered a degree of cover and allowed better logistics support. In addition to building underground shelters and covered supply routes for their soldiers (like the Italian Strada delle 52 Gallerie), both sides also attempted to break the stalemate of trench warfare by tunneling under no man's land and laying large quantities of explosives beneath the enemy's positions. Between 1 January 1916 and 13 March 1918, a total of 34 mines were detonated in this theatre of war. Of these, 20 were Italian mines aimed at Austro-Hungarian targets and 14 were Austro-Hungarian mines aimed at Italian targets. The size of the explosive charges ranged from 110 kilograms (240 lb) to 50,000 kilograms (110,000 lb) of blasting gelatin. The largest Italian mine held 35,000 kilograms (77,000 lb) of explosive. Focal points of the underground fighting during the War in the Dolomites were Pasubio with 10 mines, Lagazuoi with 5, Col di Lana/Monte Sief also with 5, and Marmolada with 4 mines. The most intense episode was the seven-week period from 16 September to 3 November 1917 which saw 12 mine explosions. After November 1917 and the Italian retreat to Monte Grappa and the Piave river in the aftermath of the Battle of Caporetto, Pasubio with its elevation of 2,239 metres (2,449 yd)[1] remained the only underground war area on the Austro-Italian front.

    Unlike the mining efforts on the Western Front, where e.g. the mines on the first day of the Somme (1916) were constructed in a chalk and flint area and where e.g. the mines in the Battle of Messines (1917) were constructed in geology dominated by wet sand and clay, the mine galleries on the Austro-Italian front had to be executed at high altitudes in the hard carbonate rock of the Dolomites using hand-operating drilling machines and chisels. Fighting under these conditions, often in exposed areas near mountain peaks and even in glacial ice, required extreme skill of both Austro-Hungarian and Italian miners.

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    Political, etc.

    Baron Sonnino on Italian aims.

    Sidney, Baron Sonnino, (born March 11, 1847, Pisa [now in Italy]—died Nov. 24, 1922, Rome), Italian statesman who as foreign minister promoted his country’s entrance into World War I. He was also prime minister in 1906 and 1909–10.

    Having joined the diplomatic service in the 1860s shortly after the formation of a united Italy, Sonnino left it to devote time to political, social, and economic studies of Italian life. These studies led in 1876 to an important work on conditions in Sicily (La Sicilia nel 1876 [1877]) and in 1878 to his founding of a weekly economic review, La Rassegna Settimanale, that he later converted into a political daily. When he was elected deputy in 1880, his knowledge of Italian economic affairs brought him first the post of undersecretary of the treasury and later, in the midst of a financial crisis in 1893, that of finance minister. His energetic measures, including imposition of taxes by decree, averted possible national bankruptcy, but the military disaster of the Battle of Adwa in Ethiopia brought the fall of the cabinet, and for many years he was a leader of the conservative parliamentary opposition. For brief periods in 1906 and 1909–10 he served as prime minister, in which role he proved to be unable to conciliate parliament.

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    In November 1914 Sonnino became foreign minister in the cabinet of Antonio Salandra. He plunged into negotiations aimed at completing Italian unification by the acquisition of territories still held by Austria-Hungary. When he found that Austria would not meet Italian aspirations, he switched to negotiating with the Allies, and, on their acceptance of his demands, he successfully urged his government to declare war, even though parliament was not in session. Sonnino remained at the Foreign Office throughout the war, despite changing ministries. In the closing months of the war and at the Versailles Peace Conference he was dismayed by the failure of the Allies, notably of the United States, to grant all of Italy’s aims and by the cost of the war, which had exceeded his expectations. On the fall of the cabinet of Vittorio Emanuele Orlando in June 1919 he retired to private life.

    2 AIRMEN HAVE FALLEN ON WEDNESDAY JUNE 20TH 1917

    2nd Lt. Stacey, D.W. (Douglas William) 20 Squadron RFC
    2nd Lt. Sulman, G. (Geoffrey) 51 Squadron RFC

    The following aerial victory claims were made on this day...

    Otto Schmidt Germany #1

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    In 1916, whilst serving with FFA 25, Otto Christian Schmidt was an observer for Renatus Theiller. He was wounded in action on 18 October 1917. Schmidt scored his 8th victory on 11 September 1917, shooting down a Nieuport scout piloted by English ace, Louis Jenkin.

    Eduard von Dostler Germany #12
    Max von Müller Germany #18
    Reinhard Treptow Germany #2
    Sydney Pope Ireland #2
    Pavel Argeyev Russia #6
    Aleksandr Kozakov Russia #11
    Alexander Roulstone England #4

    Operation 'Hush' (The battle that didn't happen...)


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    Operation Hush was a British plan to make amphibious landings on the Belgian coast in 1917 during World War I, supported by an attack from Nieuwpoort and the Yser bridgehead, which were a legacy of the Battle of the Yser (1914). Several plans were considered in 1915 and 1916, then shelved due to operations elsewhere. Operation Hush was intended to begin when the main offensive at Ypres had advanced to Roulers, Koekelare and Thourout, linked by advances by the French and Belgian armies in between. Operation Strandfest was a German spoiling attack, conducted on 10 July by Marinekorps-Flandern, in anticipation of an Allied coastal operation.

    The Germans used mustard gas for the first time, supported by a mass of heavy artillery, which captured part of the bridgehead over the Yser and annihilated two British battalions. After several postponements, Operation Hush was cancelled on 14 October 1917, as the advance during the Third Battle of Ypres did not meet the objectives required to begin the attack. In April 1918, the Dover Patrol raided Zeebrugge, to sink block ships in the canal entrance to trap U-Boats, which closed the canal for a short time. From September–October 1918, the Belgian coast was occupied by the Allies, in the Fifth Battle of Ypres.

    To land troops swiftly, retaining the benefit from surprise, Bacon designed flat-bottomed craft which could land on beaches. The pontoons were 550 feet (170 m) long and 32 feet (9.8 m) wide, specially built and lashed between pairs of monitors. Men, guns, wagons, ambulances, box-cars, motor-cars, hand-carts, bicycles, Stokes mortar carts and side-cars, plus two male tanks and one female tank, were to be embarked on each monitor. HMS General Wolfe and the other monitors would push the pontoons up the beach, the tanks would drive off pulling sledges full of equipment, climb the sea-walls (an incline of about 30°), surmount a large projecting coping-stone at the top and then haul the rest of their load over the wall. The Belgian architect who designed the wall was a refugee in France and supplied his drawings. A replica was built at Merlimont and a detachment of tanks under Major Bingham rehearsed on it, using "shoes" on the tank tracks and special detachable steel ramps carried by the tanks, until they could climb the wall. In experiments on the Thames estuary, the pontoons performed exceptionally well, riding out very bad weather and being easier to manoeuvre than expected, suggesting that they could be used again after the initial assault, to land reinforcements. Night landings were also practised, with wire stretched between buoys to guide the pontoons to within 100 yards (91 m) of their landing place.

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    In the period after Operation Strandfest, 52 Squadron Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and the Fourth Balloon Wing, developed a III Wing practice of co-operation during artillery observation, by having balloon observers direct preliminary ranging, until shells were landing close to a target, then handing over to the aeroplane observer for the final corrections of aim. When the air observer had ranged the guns, the balloon observer took over again. The new method economised on aircrew and had the advantage of telephone communication between the ground and the balloon, since aircraft wireless could only transmit. Air co-operation with Royal Engineer sound ranging was also practised. A line of microphones were connected to a receiving station further back and activated by a forward observer. Air observers routinely sent "NF" by wireless and a position report when German batteries were seen to be firing and since German shelling often cut off the ground observer from contact with the rear, the sound-ranging station was equipped with a wireless receiver and used receipt of "NF", to activate the sound ranging apparatus. The device could also be used to identify the position of German artillery, when the air observer was unable accurately to indicate the position of the guns; balloon observers also assisted the ranging section, by reporting gun flashes.

    A landing operation would begin at dawn under the command of Rear-Admiral Bacon and an army division in three parties of about 4,500 men each, would disembark on the beaches near Middelkirke, covered by a naval bombardment and a smoke screen generated by eighty small vessels. Trawlers would carry telephone cable ashore and tanks would disembark from the landing pontoons and climb the sea-wall to cover the infantry landing. The infantry would have four 13-pounder guns and two light howitzers and each wing of the landing had a motor machine-gun battery. For mobility, each landing party had more than 200 bicycles and three motorbikes. Three landing sites were chosen, at Westende Bains, 1 mile (1.6 km) behind the German second line; another site 0.75 miles (1.21 km) beyond the German third line and a third landing 1.75 miles (2.82 km) beyond that at Middelkirke Bains, to cut off the German artillery's line of retreat around Westende, turn the German second and third positions and advance inland as far as possible.

    The northern landing brigade was to send a flying column with specialist engineers to Raversyde, to destroy the German artillery battery there and then advance east or south-east, to threaten the German withdrawal route to the south and isolate Ostend. All the landing forces were to rush inland towards Leffinghe and Slype, occupy bridges over the Plasschendaele canal and road junctions nearby. Extra transport would move with the two XV Corps divisions advancing from Nieuport. XV Corps would break out of the Nieuport bridgehead between St. Georges and the coast, with a barrage from 300 guns and naval guns over a 3,500-yard (3,200 m) front. A 1,000-yard (910 m) advance would be followed by a one-hour pause. Four similar advances over six hours would take the land attack to Middelkirke, where it would link with the landing force, keeping three divisions in reserve. The German defence was expected to have two brigades in the first two defence lines as the attack began. The plan was approved by Haig on 18 June and the 1st Division was chosen to make the coastal landings.

    J. F. C. Fuller, on the staff of the Heavy Branch Machine Gun Corps, called the scheme "a crack-brained one, a kind of mechanical Gallipoli affair" and when in the area in 1933, found that the sea-walls were partially covered in a fine green seaweed, which the tanks might not have been able to scale.[28] Admiral Keyes thought that the operation was doomed to fail and Admiral Jellicoe expected a great success. Despite the demands of the battles at Ypres, Haig had kept XV Corps on the coast throughout, ready to exploit a German general withdrawal. Haig resisted suggestions to launch the operation independently, wanting it to be synchronised with the advance on Roulers, which loomed in early October but did not occur until a year later. Prior and Wilson wrote that the amphibious part of the plan was extremely risky, given the slow speed of the monitors and un-armoured pontoons. A German mobile force was on hand as a precaution and the area could be flooded.[30] In 2008, J. P. Harris wrote that the German spoiling attack demonstrated that the decline of the German armies in France has been exaggerated and that the War Cabinet had neglected to question Haig more rigorously, after he assured them that the reverse had been due to local factors. In 1997, A. Wiest called the plan an imaginative way to return to a war of movement, foreshadowing the amphibious warfare of World War II and a credit to Haig but his refusal to agree to a landing independent of events at Ypres, showed that he had overestimated the possibility of a German collapse

    Never Knowingly Undergunned !!

  6. #2506

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    Well done Chris and thanks for your efforts once again.
    Rob.
    "Courage is the art of being the only one who knows you're scared to death."

  7. #2507

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    Thursday 21st June 1917
    (Cheers Chris for some fantastic pieces, now a short stint from yours truelly until the 2nd undercarriage op gets under way.)

    Today we lost: 432

    Air Operations:


    Royal Flying Corps Losses today: 6


    Lt Bigwood, P.H. (Paul Herrick), 57 Squadron, RFC. Killed in action aged 23. NFDK.

    2Lt MacBrayne, D.C.H. (David Cecil Hope). 11 Squadron, RFC. Died of wounds as a PoW, aged 19.

    2Lt McFerran, T.M. (Thomas Malcolm), 1 Squadron, RFC. Killed in action aged 19. NFDK.

    Lt Middleton, J.R. (James Russell), 11 Squadron, RFC. Missing - Wounded and Prisoner of War 24 March 1917, Died of Wounds as Prisoner of War at Mulheim, aged 29.

    A Mech 3 Pinder, N., RFC. NFDK.

    2Lt Tonks, H.A.C. (Henry Alfred Charles), attached 46 Squadron, RFC, Australian Flying Corps. Killed in action. NFDK.

    Claims: 10 confirmed (Entente 4 : Central Powers 6)

    William Charles Campbell #13th confirmed victory.
    William Jenkins #2nd confirmed victory.
    Robert Little #22nd confirmed victory.
    Gastone Novelli #3rd confirmed victory. (Italy)

    Andreas Dombrowski #4th confirmed victory.
    Otto Hartmann #3rd confirmed victory.
    Augustin Novak #4th confirmed victory.
    Karl Patzelt #2nd confirmed victory.
    Eduard von Schleich #3rd confirmed victory.
    Ernst Strohschneider #2nd confirmed victory.

    Home Fronts:


    Russia:
    Mutiny breaks out in the Russian Black Sea Fleet at Sevastopol (see March 16th, 1917).

    USA:
    Although US President Woodrow Wilson was re-elected in 1916 under the slogan "He kept us out of the war", at the start of his second term he decided that Germany's continued deployment of unrestricted submarine warfare was sufficient cause for the US to enter WW1. Shortly afterward, Congress passed the Selective Service Act of 1917, which required all males aged 21–30 to register for military conscription. Emma Goldman saw the decision as an exercise in militarist aggression, driven by capitalism. She declared in Mother Earth her intent to resist conscription, and to oppose US involvement in the war.

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    Emma Goldman and lawyer on a tram June 21st 1917.

    Goldman was imprisoned for two years after opposing conscription in the US during WW1.
    To this end, she and Berkman organized the No Conscription League of New York, which proclaimed: "We oppose conscription because we are internationalists, antimilitarists, and opposed to all wars waged by capitalistic governments." The group became a vanguard for anti-draft activism, and chapters began to appear in other cities. When police began raiding the group's public events to find young men who had not registered for the draft, however, Goldman and others focused their efforts on distributing pamphlets and other written work. In the midst of the nation's patriotic fervor, many elements of the political left refused to support the League's efforts. The Women's Peace Party, for example, ceased its opposition to the war once the US entered it. The Socialist Party of America took an official stance against US involvement, but supported Wilson in most of his activities.

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    On June 15, 1917, Goldman and Berkman were arrested during a raid of their offices which yielded "a wagon load of anarchist records and propaganda" for the authorities. The New York Times reported that Goldman asked to change into a more appropriate outfit, and emerged in a gown of "royal purple". The pair were charged with conspiracy to "induce persons not to register" under the newly enacted Espionage Act, and were held on US$25,000 bail each. Defending herself and Berkman during their trial, Goldman invoked the First Amendment, asking how the government could claim to fight for democracy abroad while suppressing free speech at home:

    We say that if America has entered the war to make the world safe for democracy, she must first make democracy safe in America. How else is the world to take America seriously, when democracy at home is daily being outraged, free speech suppressed, peaceable assemblies broken up by overbearing and brutal gangsters in uniform; when free press is curtailed and every independent opinion gagged? Verily, poor as we are in democracy, how can we give of it to the world?

    However, the jury found Goldman and Berkman guilty. Judge Julius Marshuetz Mayer imposed the maximum sentence: two years' imprisonment, a $10,000 fine each, and the possibility of deportation after their release from prison. As she was transported to Missouri State Penitentiary (now Jefferson City Correctional Center), Goldman wrote to a friend:

    “Two years imprisonment for having made an uncompromising stand for one's ideal. Why that is a small price."

    In prison, she was again assigned to work as a seamstress, under the eye of a "miserable gutter-snipe of a 21-year-old boy paid to get results".She met the socialist Kate Richards O’Hare, who had also been imprisoned under the Espionage Act. Although they differed on political strategy—Kate O'Hare believed in voting to achieve state power—the two women came together to agitate for better conditions among prisoners. Goldman also met and became friends with Gabriella Segata Antolini, an anarchist and follower of Luigi Galleani. Antolini had been arrested transporting a satchel filled with dynamite on a Chicago-bound train. She had refused to cooperate with authorities, and was sent to prison for 14 months. Working together to make life better for the other inmates, the three women became known as "The Trinity". Goldman was released on September 27, 1919.

    18-23 June: US National Tennis Championship (women's) will be won by Molla Bjurstedt.

    Germany:
    Wilhelmshaven–The food situation had been poor in Germany since the beginning of the last winter, with poor harvests, transportation chaos caused by a combination of poor weather and the Hindenburg Program all contributing to what had been called the “Turnip Winter.” The situation had not improved much on German naval vessels. The army, fighting on the fronts, received a choice selection of food; the navy, sitting in port, less so. And unlike civilians, sailors largely did not have the freedom to attempt to find or bargain for food elsewhere in their free time. Since the beginning of the year, sailors had been eating turnips (boiled or dried), and a stew so horrendous that it was nicknamed Drahtverhau (“barbed wire entanglement.”)

    The Navy tried to rectify this by allowing the establishment of food supervisory committees, to give the sailors a say in the selection and preparation of food. Rollout of these committees was slow, however, and on July 4 sailors on the flagship of the High Seas Fleet, Wilhelm der Grosse, went on hunger strike in protest. After this and similar strikes, food supervisory committees were finally established on most ships, though four “ringleaders” of the strikes were executed in September in an attempt to maintain discipline.

    Western Front


    French recover nearly all ground lost near Vauxaillon and make small advance near Mont Cornillet.

    German attack on the Teton (Champagne) repulsed.

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    Lieutenant General Robert George Broadwood CB General Officer Commanding 57th (2nd West Lancashire) Division dies of wounds received in action at age 55. He is struck by a shell while crossing a railway bridge over the River Lys at Houplines at 10:15 and will die shortly after at the 54th Casualty Clearing Station at Estaires.

    Tunstills Men Thursday 21st June 1917:


    Le Coq de Pailie, close to Berthen

    A much cooler and windy day, with some rain later in the day.
    2Lt. Donald Halliday Lyon (see 14th June) reported for duty, having arrived in France a week earlier.

    Pte. Joseph Barnes (see 30th May) re-joined the Battalion. He had been wounded on 19th May and had spent the last three weeks at 34th Infantry Base Depot at Etaples after being discharged from hospital.

    Cpl. Albert Earnshaw (see 11th June) re-joined the Battalion following treatment to a sprained ankle.

    Pte. James Lister Petty (see 28th May) joined the Battalion; he had spent the previous month at 34th Infantry Base Depot at Etaples since arriving with a draft of more than forty men, most of whom had immediately joined 10DWR.

    2Lt. John Robert ****inson (see 10th June) reported sick, suffering from trench fever and was evacuated to one of the many hospitals at Wimereux.

    Lt. Robert Oswald Milligan (see 7th June), who had suffered severe injuries to his left arm, was evacuated to England travelling onboard the hospital ship Princess Elizabeth; the details of his treatment in England have not been established.

    Pte. Walter Ralph (see 16th March), elder brother of Pte. Kit Ralph (see 30th April) who had been killed at Le Sars, was posted to France to join 9DWR.

    Naval Operations:

    Shipping Losses: 8 (All to U-Boat action)


    Political:


    Warrant instituting "Order of the British Empire" published.

    British Government place embargo on disposal of U.K. securities in neutral countries by residents in enemy countries.

    Anniversary Events:

    1667 The Peace of Breda ends the Second Anglo-Dutch War as the Dutch cede New Amsterdam to the English.
    1675 Christopher Wren begins work on rebuilding St. Paul’s Cathedral in London after the Great Fire.
    1791 The French royal family is arrested in Varennes.
    1834 C. H. McCormick patents the first practical reaper.
    1862 Union and Confederate forces skirmish at the Chickahominy Creek.
    1863 In the second day of fighting, Confederate troops fail to dislodge a Union force at the Battle of LaFourche Crossing.
    1887 Britain celebrates the golden jubilee of Queen Victoria.
    1900 General Douglas MacArthur offers amnesty to Filipinos rebelling against American rule.
    1908 Mulai Hafid again proclaims himself the true sultan of Morocco.
    1911 Porforio Diaz, the ex-president of Mexico, exiles himself to Paris.
    1915 Germany uses poison gas for the first time in warfare in the Argonne Forest.
    See you on the Dark Side......

  8. #2508

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    Wow Neil! How long you been working on this tour de force?
    Brilliant comeback! Salute Sir!

  9. #2509

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    Welcome back Neil.
    Rob.
    "Courage is the art of being the only one who knows you're scared to death."

  10. #2510

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    Oh, just a little something I knocked up over night.

    Quote Originally Posted by Rebel View Post
    Wow Neil! How long you been working on this tour de force?
    Brilliant comeback! Salute Sir!
    See you on the Dark Side......

  11. #2511

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    Back in harness eh Neil ? No peace for the wicked mate !

    "He is wise who watches"

  12. #2512

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    Nay lad, nay. Just shining me halo....sorry that's the bald patch.

    Quote Originally Posted by flash View Post
    Back in harness eh Neil ? No peace for the wicked mate !

  13. #2513

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    Quote Originally Posted by Skafloc View Post
    Nay lad, nay. Just shining me halo....sorry that's the bald patch.
    Are you (ton)sure about that, Neil?
    I laugh in the face of danger - then I hide until it goes away!

  14. #2514

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    I habit(ually) wear it Tim.
    See you on the Dark Side......

  15. #2515

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    Friday 22nd June 1917
    Today we lost: 433

    Air Operations:


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    W S Brancker: Temporary promotion to Maj-Gen 22 June 1917, rank made substantive in the RAF on 3 January 1918.

    Brancker was trained for the British Army at Woolwich, joining the Royal Artillery in 1896. He served in the Second Boer War and later for a number of years in India, where he made his first flight in 1910. On 18 June 1913 he was awarded theRoyal Aero Club’s Aviator Certificate no. 525.

    During the WW1, Brancker held important administrative posts in the RFC and later the RAF including Director of Military Aeronautics. In late 1915 a brigade system was introduced in the RFC and Brancker was promoted to brigadier general and appointed to command the Northern Training Brigade with his headquarters in Birmingham. This appointment was to be short-lived as in early 1916 Brancker was appointed Director of Air Organisation in London. In 1917, Brancker briefly served as the General Officer Commanding Royal Flying Corps's Palestine Headquarters and then its Middle East headquarters. Promoted to major general in 1918, he became Controller-General of Equipment in January of that year and Master-General of Personnel in August 1918. The following year, he was appointed Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath and, with the introduction of RAF-specific ranks, he became an air vice marshal.

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    Major-General Salmond in 1917.

    J M Salmond:
    Temporary promotion to Maj-Gen 22 June 1917, rank made substantive in the RAF on 1 April 1918.
    After Salmond graduated from Sandhurst with a commission as a 2Lt on 8 January 1901, he was transferred to the Kings Own Royal Lancaster Regiment on 9 March 1901. He sailed for South Africa to join his unit, which was engaged in the latter part of the Second Boer War. In 1902 he applied for a secondment to the West African Frontier Force but was turned down on the grounds that he was too young: he re-applied the following year and was accepted on 14 November 1903. He was immediately seconded to the colonial service and then promoted to Lt on 5 April 1904. Salmond's time in Africa was cut short as he was pronounced medically unfit and returned to England in November 1906. He was promoted to captain on 26 June 1910.

    Salmond learned to fly at the Central Flying School in 1912 and was awarded Royal Aero Club certificate No. 272 on 13 August 1912. Having been seconded to the RFC, he became a flight commander at the Central Flying School on 12 November 1912 and then a squadron commander there on 31 May 1913. In December 1913 he set the solo British altitude record at 13,140 feet. He became Officer Commanding No. 7 Squadron flying Sopwith Tabloids and the RE8 from RAF (Royal Aircraft Factory) Farnborough with the temporary rank of major on 1 May 1914. He continued in that role during the early weeks of the WW1 until August 1914, when he became Officer Commanding No 3 Squadron on the Western Front. He was mentioned in dispatches on 8 October 1914 and awarded the DSO on 24 March 1915.

    Salmond went on to be Officer Commanding the Administrative Wing at RAF Farnborough in April 1915, and having been promoted to the substantive rank of major on 8 January 1916, he became Commander of II Brigade RFC in February 1916, Commander of V Brigade RFC later that month and of VI Brigade RFC in March 1916. He was promoted to brevet Lt Col on 3 June 1916 and was appointed a Companion of the Order of St Michael and ST George on 4 June 1917.

    Salmond became Commander of the Training Brigade in July 1916 and then, as General Officer Commanding Training Division from August 1917, he opened many more flying schools, laid down minimum training standards and introduced new modern teaching methods. He was appointed Director-General of Military Aeronautics at the War Office on 18 October 1917. Promoted to brevet colonel on 7 December 1917, Salmond became General Officer Commanding the Royal Flying Corps in the Field (formation subsequently redesignated Royal Air Force in the Field) on 18 January 1918 and managed to secure complete air superiority over the German forces. He was appointed a Commander of the Royal Victorian Order on 13 August 1918.

    Salmond was appointed an Officer of the French Legion of Honour on 10 October 1918 and a Commander of the Belgian Order of Leopold on 8 November 1918 and was awarded the Belgian Croix de Guerre on the same date. He was also appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath on 1 January 1919 and awarded the American DSM on 15 July 1919 and the French Croix de Guerre on 21 August 1919.

    Salmond was awarded a permanent commission in the Royal Air Force as a major-general in August 1919 (shortly afterwards redesignated as an air vice marshal). He was made Air Officer Commanding Southern Area in September 1919 and then Air Officer Commanding Inland Area in April 1920. In October 1922 he became Air Officer Commanding Iraq Command, in which role, as officer commanding all British forces in Iraq he halted a Turkish invasion and sought to put down a Kurdish uprising against King Faisal, the British-sponsored ruler of Iraq. Promoted to air marshal on 2 June 1923, he became Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Air Defence of Great Britain in January 1925. He was placed on loan to Australian Government in May 1928, where he made an extensive aerial tour of northern Australia. before being promoted to air chief marshal and appointed Air Member for Personnel on 1 January 1929.

    Salmond was appointed Chief of the Air Staff on 1 January 1930. In that role he bitterly opposed the position taken by British politicians at the World Disarmament Conference in Geneva which would have led to the UK's complete aerial disarmament. In the event the talks broke down when Hitler withdrew from the Conference in October 1933. Salmond was advanced to Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath in the 1931. Salmond was promoted to Marshal of the Air Force on 1 January 1933 and he relinquished the post of Chief of the Air Staff on 1 April 1933. Salmond was succeeded by his older brother, Air Chief Marshal Sir Geoffrey Salmond. However, only 27 days later, Geoffrey Salmond died and John Salmond was temporarily re-appointed as Chief of the Air Staff. He stood down for the second and final time on 22 May 1933.

    Royal Flying Corps Losses today: 4


    Flt S-Lt Crowe, H.L. (Harry Laurence), Prawle Point Naval Air Station, RNAS. Killed while flying off Prawle's Point, Devon when Sopwith 11/2 Strutter N5604, nose-dived into sea from 1,000 feet. Wreckage recovered and taken to Plymouth by trawler 'Lois'. He was aged 20 years.

    Capt Hamber, H.B. (Harold Balleny), 35 Training Squadron, RFC. Killed whilst flying near Hounslow aged 32.

    2Lt Scott Miller, W.D. (Walter Dudley), RFC. Killed whilst flying at Waddington, Lincolnshire aged 19. Scott Miller, (Royal Fusiliers attached Royal Flying Corps), is the son of Lieutenant Colonel Walter Scott Miller DL.

    A Mech 2 Stanescu, P.J., RFC. NFDK.

    Claims: 3 confirmed (Entente 2 : Central Powers 1)

    Flavio Baracchini #8th confirmed victory. (Italy)
    Alexander Roulstone #5th confirmed victory.

    Karl Meyer #8th confirmed victory.

    Home Fronts:


    In 1917, Einstein applied the General theory of relativity to model the structure of the universe as a whole.
    He wanted the universe to be eternal and unchanging, but this type of universe is not consistent with relativity. To fix this, Einstein modified the general theory by introducing a new notion, the cosmological constant. With a positive cosmological constant, the universe could be an eternal static sphere

    Einstein believed a spherical static universe is philosophically preferred, because it would obey Mach’s principle. He had shown that general relativity incorporates Mach’s principle to a certain extent in frame dragging by gravitomagnetic fields, but he knew that Mach’s idea would not work if space goes on forever. In a closed universe, he believed that Mach’s principle would hold.

    Mach’s principle has generated much controversy over the years.

    Britain:
    King George V, it would appear, had decided that the current honours system was unable to properly reward the new avenues of service and new fields of activity which the war had engendered, and had decided to take steps to remedy this. Thus comes the news of the institution of the Order of the British Empire and the Order of the Companions of Honour. Most notable in the paper’s eyes is the fact that in these two new orders women are treated as being of equal status, highlighted in the report, commented upon at some length by another of the mysterious writers going under the moniker “A Correspondent” expresses the paper’s appreciation at the institution of “so plenary a recognition of services rendered to the State.”

    The article about the institution expects these two new orders, instituted in connection with the war, to “probably survive it” - how right it is as they are still going strong a century on, despite the objection of some to the use of the word Empire in the former.

    Dr E. J. Dillon is wheeled out to add his commentary to the fall of the unlamented King Constantine of Greece. Indeed so unlamented is the King that he even gets abuse from the locals whilst stopping over in Lugano.
    Philip Gibbs’ observes the Cockney spirit at work amongst the “London Lads in French Battles” although he finds their humour “queer”.

    Concern over the effects of war bread on the nation’s health is expressed, as there appears to be “a prevalence of unusual abdominal trouble and of skin disorders of various times which may not be unassociated with the bread now consumed”

    The House of Lords has an “animated and outspoken discussion” over the subject of reform to that august body. A leader in the Telegraph forbears from making any suggestions as to how it thinks such reform should proceed, probably wisely given the initiator of that discussion was the paper’s proprietor Lord Burnham

    Catering pioneer Sir Joseph Lyons dies.

    Lord Montagu of Beaulieu gives a speech outlining what he envisages as future world air routes .
    An article in the Telegraph waxes lyrical about “the most delicious green vegetable that graces the table in the course of the year.” Can you guess what this is, the English version being “the finest the world produces”?

    Hungary:
    The Hungarian Feminist Union is unimpressed with the planned limited granting of female suffrage in that state.

    Italy:
    The Italian Foreign Minister makes a speech claiming Italy’s war aims do not involve conquest, but the security of the country and the promotion of independent sovereign nations across Europe, such as Albania those independence is assured. How seemingly noble and disinterested of the country.

    USA:
    Lucy Burns and Katherine Norey become first women arrested while picketing the White House; they were never brought to trial.

    Russia:
    The Women’s Battalion of Death. In white is noted British suffragette Emmeline Pankurst; next to her is the battalion’s commander, Maria Bochkareva.

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    Petrograd – With morale collapsing in the Russian army, military leaders were quick to seize on any opportunity that could show that the Russian people were fully behind the war. Maria Bochkareva, a factory construction foreman, had personally appealed to the Czar in 1914 to fight in the army; her request was approved and she rose to the rank of sergeant. In the spring of 1917, she appealed to Brusilov to let her form a shock battalion of women, largely as an attempt to shame male soldiers into continuing the fight; if women were fighting for their country in the trenches, surely men could as well.

    Brusilov, eager as always to improve morale and reframe the Russian army as one based on patriotism, rather than duty to the Czar, approved Bochkareva’s request, and battalion was formed on June 19. It was quickly organized, and War Minister Kerensky himself reviewed the battalion on June 22, before it was blessed by church officials and quickly dispatched to the front. The battalion would have an excellent record in combat (and we will see them again next month), and was effective in inspiring nearby units to follow them into combat. However, on a wider scale, the battalion may have been counterproductive; the recruitment of women was seen as a desperate move by many soldiers, and certain detachments (especially Cossacks) were offended that they would have to fight alongside women.

    Western Front


    Heavy German attack on Chemin des Dames front; French lose ground south-east of Filain.

    Tunstills Men Friday 22nd June 1917:


    Le Coq de Pailie, close to Berthen

    It began to rain around 7am and continued until about 4pm.

    As he had anticipated in his recent letters home, 2Lt. Bob Perks DSO (see 16th June), now in command of ‘C’ Company, was promoted Captain. 2Lt. Joseph Crocker (see 26th October 1916) was promoted Lieutenant.

    Cpl. Edwin Lightfoot (see 3rd June) was confirmed in his rank and began to be paid, having previously held the rank unpaid.

    Pte. Cuthbert Dyer (see 31st December) left on ten days’ leave to England.

    Pte. Sydney Exley (see 12th June), on completion of the ten days’ leave he had been granted following his discharge from hospital, joined 3DWR at Tynemouth.

    The weekly edition of the Craven Herald carried reports concerning three original members of Tunstill’s Company:

    GRASSINGTON LAD RECOMMENDED FOR A COMMISSION

    After nearly three years in the Army, and two on the Western Front, Lance-Corporal Christopher Longstaff (see 3rd May), younger son of Mr. J. Longstaff of Grassington, has been recommended for a commission as Second-Lieutenant. He enlisted on the outbreak of war, and, after a year’s training, proceeded to France with the Duke of Wellington’s West Riding Regiment. Since then he has seen much hard fighting, taking part in the Battle of the Somme, but has luckily so far escaped without injury. He is at present at home in Grassington and is awaiting orders to begin his training.

    WOUNDED

    Mrs. Thos. Darwin has received news that her husband, Pte. Thos. Darwin (see 9th June), Duke of Wellington’s West Riding Regiment, is in hospital in France suffering from shrapnel wounds to his left shoulder. He is, however, improving nicely. Pte. Darwin only returned to France five weeks ago, after having been invalided to England last June (sic.) suffering from effects of gas and shell shock. His brother, Trooper Claude Darwin, of the Anzac Mounted Division, has been suffering from blood-poisoning in both hands, but has happily recovered. He is at present in Egypt.

    EARBY - KILLED IN ACTION

    Private Tom Greenwood (see 7th June), son of Mr. and Mrs. Wm. Greenwood, Cherrydene, Rostle Top Road, Earby, was killed in action on June 7th. He was 24 years of age, and had been in France nearly two years, having enlisted soon after the outbreak of war. An Earby comrade, who is home on leave, states that Pte. Greenwood was struck on the head by a piece of shrapnel and died instantly. He was formerly employed by the Earby Manufacturing Co. as a weaver, and was one of the leading spirits in the Wesleyan Guild.

    Naval Operations:

    Unsuccessful attack on U.S.A. transports by German submarines.

    Shipping Losses: 6 (All to U-Boat action)


    On June 16th, 1917, the American schooner Winslow, gross 566 tons, bound from Sydney to San Francisco via Apia, Samoa. was captured by the German raider SMS Wolf in the Pacific Ocean off Raoul, Sunday Island, Kermadec Group.

    On June 22nd, 1917, Winslow was set on fire by four bombs. 39 rounds fired to bring down her masts. She burned and sank. There were no casualties.
    SS Miami, built by Barclay, Curle & Co. Ltd., Glasgow in 1904 and owned at the time of her loss by Elders & Fyffes, Ltd., Glasgow, was a British steamer of 3762 tons.

    On June 22nd, 1917, Miami, on a voyage from New York to Manchester with general cargo, was sunk by the German submarine UC-51 (Hans Galster), 11 miles ESE of Fastnet. There were no casualties.

    Anniversary Events:

    1377 Richard II, who is still a child, begins his reign, following the death of his grandfather, Edward III. His coronation takes place July 16.
    1558 The French take the French town of Thionville from the English.
    1772 Slavery is outlawed in England.
    1807 British seamen board the USS Chesapeake, a provocation leading to the War of 1812.
    1864 Confederate General A. P. Hill turns back a Federal flanking movement at the Weldon Railroad near Petersburg, Virginia.
    1876 General Alfred Terry sends Lieurenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer to the Rosebud and Little Bighorn rivers to search for Indian villages.
    1910 German bacteriologist Paul Ehrlich announces a definitive cure for syphilis.
    1911 King George V of England is crowned.
    1915 Austro-German forces occupy Lemberg on the Eastern Front as the Russians retreat.
    See you on the Dark Side......

  16. #2516

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    Nice one Neil - welcome back mate. Its nice to be able to sit back with a cuppa and read the news as opposed to giving up half the evening finding and publishing it.

    Never Knowingly Undergunned !!

  17. #2517

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    Late edition Breaking News June 22nd:

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    Following Royal Navy experience in operating land planes from platforms on ships, in late 1916, the British Admiralty came up with the idea of a lightweight fighter aircraft, capable of flying off short platforms on the forecastle of Destroyers in order to provide large numbers of aircraft at sea capable of intercepting and destroying German Airships. It therefore instructed the Marine Aircraft Experimental Department at Port Victoria on the Isle of Grain, and the RNAS Experimental Flight at Eastchurch to each produce a design to meet this requirement.[1]
    The Port Victoria aircraft, designed by W.H. Sayers, was designated P.V.7. It was a very small single bay tractor biplane, of sesquiplane configuration, with its lower wing much smaller than its upper wing. The wings featured the same high-lift section as used in previous Port Victoria aircraft, and were fitted with ailerons only on the upper wing. It was intended, as was the competing Eastchurch design, to use a 45 hp (34 kW) geared ABC Gnat two-cylinder air-cooled engine. Armament was a single Lewis gun mounted above the upper wing.[2][3]
    While the Port Victoria design was designed and built, the commander of the Experimental flight as Eastchurch, Harry Busteed took over command of the Port Victoria Marine Aircraft Experimental Department, taking the designer of the Eastchurch competitor and the part built prototype with him to the Isle of Grain, with the Eastchurch design gaining the Port Victoria designation P.V.8. The P.V.7 acquired the name Grain Kitten to distinguish it from the P.V.8, which was named the Eastchurch Kitten.
    The P.V.7 first flew on 22 June 1917, powered by a 35 hp (26 kW) ungeared Gnat engine, as the geared engine was unavailable.[3] The P.V.7 proved to be tail heavy in the air and difficult to handle on the ground, with its sesquiplane layout and high lift wings being considered unsuitable for such a small aircraft. The Gnat engine proved to be extremely unreliable, with test flights being forced to remain within gliding distance of an airfield.[4]
    When the P.V.8 first flew in September, it proved superior, although similarly hamstrung by the 35 hp Gnat. The P.V.7 was rebuilt with new wings of conventional aerofoil section, a modified tail and a new undercarriage to eliminate some of the problems found in testing.[4] The low power and unreliability of the Gnat, however, prevented either aircraft being suitable for the intended use, and the P.V.7 was not flown after it was rebuilt.[5]
    Specifications

    Data from War Planes of the First World War: Volume One Fighters [4]
    General characteristics

    • Crew: 1
    • Length: 14 ft 11 in (4.55 m)
    • Wingspan: 18 ft 0 in (5.49 m)
    • Height: 5 ft 3 in (1.60 m)
    • Wing area: 85 ft² (7.9 m²)
    • Empty weight: 284 lb (129 kg)
    • Loaded weight: 491 lb (223 kg)
    • Powerplant: 1 × ABC Gnat two-cylinder horizontally opposed air-cooled, 35 hp (26 kW)

    Performance


    Armament


    See you on the Dark Side......

  18. #2518

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    Now what does that resemble?
    See you on the Dark Side......

  19. #2519

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    Saturday 23rd June 1917

    Today we lost: 486

    Air Operations:


    Royal Flying Corps Losses today: 7


    2lt Davis, L.A. (Lawrence Alan), 4 Squadron, RFC. Killed whilst flying aged 23. NFDK.

    A Mech 3 (Cadet) Goldie, B.D.F. (Barre Dudley Forbes), Recruits Depot, RFC, aged 18. NFDK.

    2Lt Jacot, C.W. (Conrade William), RFC. Killed whilst flying, crashed. NFDK.

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    Capt (Flt Cdr) Lee, R.H.D. (Richard Henry Driffield), 27 Squadron, RFC, (Norfolk Regiment attached Royal Flying Corps) is accidentally killed as a test pilot at home at age 29. He is an amateur photographer and all round sportsman who is wicket keeper in the Norwich Union cricket team. He is a keen motorist, took part in office dramatic society performances and installed a wireless at his father’s house. He enlisted in August 1914 in the Norfolk Regiment and was wounded while flying recovers and becomes a test pilot at Mousehold where his machine crashes and he is killed today. He is the son of the Reverend Frederick Lee Rector of Woodton and his only brother died of pneumonia while on service at home in March 1916. They are both buried in Woodton (All Saint’s) Churchyard Cemetery.

    Pte MacLeod, J.E. (James E.), 20 Squadron, RFC. Died of wounds aged 27. NFDK.

    Flt S-Lt McAllister, J.N. (John Norquay), 8th (N) Squadron attached 10th Wing, Royal Flying Corps, RNAS, aged 20. NFDK

    2Lt Tootell, B. (Bernard), 4 Squadron, RFC. Killed in action aged 21. NFDK.

    Claims: 10 Confirmed (Entente 6 : Central Powers 4)

    William Charles Campbell #14th confirmed victory.
    Robert Farquhar #5th confirmed victory.
    Gordon Otley #2nd confirmed victory.
    Jean Matton #7th confirmed victory. (France)
    Ferruccio Ranza #5th confirmed victory.
    Walter Bertram Wood #4th confirmed victory.

    Karl Jentsch #4th confirmed victory.
    Hans Klein #11th confirmed victory.
    Manfred von Richthofen #54th confirmed victory.
    Karl Wusthoff 2nd confirmed victory.

    Home Fronts:

    USA: In a game against the Texas Rangers (baseball) called Washington Senators, Boston Red Sox pitcher Ernie Shore retires 26 batters in a row after replacing Babe Ruth, who had been ejected for punching the Umpire (baseball) known as umpire.

    Britain:
    Today in the Lancet;
    A Lecture ON THE TREATMENT OF WAR WOUNDS.: SUPPLEMENTED BY ADDITIONAL MATTER RELATING TO ANTISEPTICS AND THE METHOD OF CARREL

    MASKS FOR FACIAL WOUNDS.

    ALBUMINURIA IN THE TRENCHES.

    A UNIVERSAL ARM-SPLINT.

    TEMPORARY " PILONS."

    A CASE OF PHARYNGEAL DIVERTICULUM.

    INCIDENCE OF INFECTIOUS DISEASE IN 1916.

    THE FACTORS OF CARDIAC IRRITABILITY.

    NEURASTHENIA IN SOLDIERS.

    INDUSTRIAL ACCIDENT MORTALITY IN AMERICA.

    THE WORK OF ASYLUMS IN EGYPT.

    WAR EMERGENCY FUND OF THE ROYAL MEDICAL BENEVOLENT FUND.

    EDUCATION OF THE LEFT HAND OF DISABLED SAILORS AND SOLDIERS.

    THE USE OF POLYVALENT VACCINES IN DYSENTERY.

    THE DEVELOPMENT OF TRAINED NURSING IN FRANCE.

    Western Front

    Further German attacks near Vauxaillon and Filain repulsed.

    Tunstills Men Saturday 23rd June 1917:


    Le Coq de Pailie, close to Berthen

    Capt. Leo Frederick Reincke (see 13th June) and 2Lt. Eric Dixon (see 13th June), both of whom had transferred to the Royal Flying Corps to be trained as observers, began a one month training course for their new roles, based at Reading.

    Pte. Thomas Hemingway (see 7th June), who had suffered relatively minor wounds to his left arm and face on 7th June, was discharged from hospital at Le Treport and posted to 34th Infantry Base Depot at Etaples.

    Pte. Fred Richmond (see 28th April) was transferred from 7th Battalion, Labour Corps to the newly-formed 488th (Home Service) Employment Company of the Corps.

    The weekly edition of the Keighley News reported the death of Sgt. John Thomas Hall MM (see 23rd May) and also of wounds suffered by Pte. Leonard Pickles (see below)

    MILITARY MEDAL WINNER’S DEATH

    Sergeant John Thomas Hall, West Riding Regiment, a Military Medal winner, of 8 Park Terrace, Dalton Lane, Keighley, has been killed in action. A single young man aged 26, he joined the Army in September 1914, and had been at the front two years. He formerly followed his trade as a moulder with Messrs. Clapham Bros., Keighley. He was the popular captain of the Keighley Celtic football team, and was very well known and highly esteemed. Second Lieutenant A.A. Jackson, his platoon officer, writing to his mother, extends his deepest sympathy, and adds; “When he, along with six of his comrades were killed, I was in another part of the front, and received quite a shock when I heard of the great misfortune which had overtaken my platoon. By the death of your son I lose one of the smartest and most cheery sergeants in my platoon.”

    Private Leonard Pickles, son of Mr. and Mrs. J.H. Pickles, of 7 Eagle Street, Keighley, is reported missing. He enlisted in the West Riding Regiment in September 1914, and was wounded by shrapnel in December 1915, and again in July 1916. He returned to the front last March.

    Leonard Pickles had been an original member of 10DWR, having enlisted at the age of 18, in Keighley. In the absence of a surviving service record it has not been possible to establish details of the wounds recorded here and it is unclear whether, by 1917, he was still serving with 10DWR or had already been transferred to 2DWR with whom he is known to have served.

    Naval Operations:

    Shipping Losses: 8 (3 to mines and 5 to U-Boat action)


    P. & O. liner "Mongolia" sunk off Bombay by mine. The P & O. Liner Mongolia, with passengers and the mails for India, China and Australia, as well as a full general cargo for Australia, struck a mine on June 23rd, 1917, 50 miles S. by W. of Bombay, and sank.

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    Three passengers, three engineer officers and 14 native crew and three Europeans were killed by the explosion. The survivors were taken off without further loss, but it was not possible to get at the mails which went down with the vessel. The mine was laid by the German raider SMS Wolf.

    Political:


    Return of M. Thomas to Paris from Russia.

    Resignation of M. Zaimis, Greek Premier.

    Dr. Ernst Ritter von Seidler appointed Austrian Premier (see 18th and June 21st, 1918).

    Russia:
    Note to the U.S. Government from the Russian Democratic Government (via the Russian Ambassador to the U.S. Boris Bakhmeteff, 23 June 1917


    On behalf of the Russian Provisional Government and in behalf of all the people of new Russia, I have been first of all sent here to express their gratitude to the Government of the United States for the prompt recognition of the new political order in Russia.

    This noble action of the world's greatest democracy has afforded us strong moral support and has created among our people a general feeling of profound appreciation.

    Close and active relationship between the two nations based upon complete and sincere understanding encountered inevitable obstacles during the old regime because of its very nature. The situation is now radically changed with free Russia starting a new era in her national life.

    The Provisional Government is actively mobilizing all its resources and is making great efforts to organize the country and the army for the purpose of conducting the war. We hope to establish a very close and active cooperation with the United States, in order to secure the most successful and intensive accomplishment of all work necessary for our common end.

    For the purpose of discussing all matters relating to military affairs, munitions and supplies, railways and transportation, finance and agriculture, our mission includes eminent and distinguished specialists.
    On the other hand, I hope that the result of our stay and work in America will bring about a clear understanding on the part of your public of what has happened in Russia and also of the present situation and the end for which our people are most earnestly striving.

    The achievements of the revolutionare to be formally set forth in fundamental laws enacted by a Constitutional Assembly, which is to be convoked as soon as possible. In the meanwhile the Provisional Government is confronted with the task of bringing into life the democratic principles which were promulgated during the revolution.
    New Russia received from the old Government a burdensome heritage of economic and technical disorganization which affected all branches of the life of the State, a disorganization which weighs yet heavily on the whole country. The Provisional Government is doing everything in its power to relieve the difficult situation. It has adopted many measures for supplying plants with raw material and fuel, for regulating the transportation of the food supply for the army and for the country, and for relieving the financial difficulties.

    The participation in the new Government by new members who are active and prominent leaders in the Council of Workmen's and Soldiers' Delegates has secured full support from the democratic masses. The esteem in which such leaders as M. Kerensky and M. Tseretelli and others are held among the working classes and soldiers is contributing to the strength and stability of the new Government.

    The Constitutional-Democratic Party, the Labour Party, the Socialist-Populists, and, excepting a small group of extremists, the Social Democrats - all these parties, embracing the vast majority of the people, are represented by strong leaders in the new Government, thereby securing for it authority.

    Plans of the Government
    Firmly convinced that unity of power is essential, and casting aside class and special interests, all social and political elements have joined in the national program which the new Government proclaimed and which it is striving to fulfil.

    This program reads:
    The Provisional Government, rejecting, in accord with the whole people of Russia, all thought of separate peace, puts it openly as its deliberate purpose the promptest achievement of universal peace; such peace to presume no dominion over other nations, no seizure of their national property nor any forced usurpation of foreign territory; peace with no annexations or contributions, based upon the free determination by each nation of its destinies.
    Being fully convinced that the establishment of democratic principles in its internal and external policy has created a new factor in the striving of allied democracies for durable peace and fraternity of all nations, the Provisional Government will take preparatory steps for an agreement with the Allies founded on its declaration of March 27th.
    The Provisional Government is conscious that the defeat of Russia and her allies would be the source of the greatest misery, and would not only postpone but even make impossible the establishment of universal peace on a firm basis.

    The Provisional Government is convinced that the revolutionary army of Russia will not allow the German troops to destroy our allies on the western front and then fall upon us with the whole might of their weapons. The chief aim of the Provisional Government will be to fortify the democratic foundations of the army and organize and consolidate the army's fighting power for its defensive as well as offensive purpose.

    The last decision of the Russian Council of Workmen's and Soldiers' Delegates, the decision of the All-Russian Peasant Congress, the decision of the Duma, the voice of the country as expressed from day to day by almost the entire Russian press, in resolutions adopted at different conferences and congresses - all these confirm their full support to this national program and leave not the slightest doubt that Russia is decided as to the necessity to fight the German autocracy until the conditions for a general and stable peace in Europe are established.
    Such decision is becoming more and more evident each day by practical work and results and shows itself in the pressing and rapid reorganization of the army which is now being fulfilled under the firm and efficient measures adopted by Minister Kerensky.

    New Russia, in full accord with the motives which impelled the United States to enter the war, is striving to destroy tyranny, to establish peace on a secure and permanent foundation and to make the world safe for democracy.

    Does not one feel occasionally that the very greatness and significance of events are not fully appreciated, due to the facility and spontaneity with which the change has been completed?
    Does one realize what it really means to humanity that a nation of 180,000,000, a country boundless in expanse, has been suddenly set free from the worst of oppressions, has been given the joy of a free, self-conscious existence?

    Instead of the old forms there are now being firmly established and deeply imbedded in the minds of the nation principles that power is reposed and springs from and only from the people. To effectuate these principles and to enact appropriate fundamental laws is going to be the main function of the Constitutional Assembly which is to be convoked as promptly as possible.

    Guided by democratic precepts, the Provisional Government is meanwhile reorganizing the country on the basis of freedom, equality, and self-government, rebuilding its economic and financial structure.

    The people are realizing more and more that for the very sake of further freedom law must be maintained and manifestation of anarchy suppressed. In this respect local life has exemplified a wonderful exertion of spontaneous public spirit.

    On many occasions, following the removal of the old authorities, a new elected administration has naturally arisen, conscious of national interest and often developing in its spontaneity amazing examples of practical statesmanship.

    The latest resolutions, framed by the Council of Workingmen, the Congress of Peasants, and other democratic organizations, render the best proof of the general understanding of the necessity of creating strong power. The coalitionary character of the new Cabinet, which includes eminent Socialist leaders, and represents all the vital elements of the nation, therefore enjoying its full support, is most effectively securing the unity and power of the Central Government, the lack of which was so keenly felt during the first two months after the revolution.
    As to foreign policy, Russia's national program has been clearly set forth in the statement of the Provisional Government of March 27th, and more explicitly in the declaration of the new Government of May 18th.
    With all emphasis may I state that Russia rejects any idea of separate peace. I am aware that rumours were circulated in this country that a separate peace seemed probable. I am happy to affirm that such rumours are wholly without foundation in fact.


    Anniversary Events:

    1683 William Penn signs a friendship treaty with the Lenni Lenape Indians in Pennsylvania.
    1700 Russia gives up its Black Sea fleet as part of a truce with the Ottoman Empire.
    1758 British and Hanoverian armies defeat the French at Krefeld in Germany.
    1760 Austrian forces defeat the Prussians at Landshut, Germany.
    1848 A bloody insurrection of workers erupts in Paris.
    1863 Confederate forces overwhelm a Union garrison at the Battle of Brashear City in Louisiana.
    1865 Confederate General Stand Watie surrenders his army at Fort Towson, in the Oklahoma Territory.
    1884 A Chinese Army defeats the French at Bac Le, Indochina.
    1885 Former general and president Ulysses S. Grant dies at the age of 63.
    1902 Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy renew the Triple Alliance for a 12-year duration.

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    Last edited by Lt. S.Kafloc; 06-23-2017 at 01:19.
    See you on the Dark Side......

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    John Spencer Dunville, VC (7 May 1896 – 26 June 1917) was born on 7 May 1896 in Marylebone, London, to Colonel John Dunville Dunville and Violet Anne Blanch Dunville (née Lambart). His father was from Holywood, County Down and was chairman of Dunville & Co whisky distillers. Dunville was educated at Ludgrove School and Eton College, and was a member of the Officers' Training Corps from May 1912 to July 1914. He passed matriculation for Trinity College, Cambridge, but with the outbreak of theWW1 joined the army instead. He was aged 21 and a 2Lt in the 1st (Royal) Dragoons when he was awarded the Victoria Cross for his actions on 25 June 1917 near Epehy, France.

    For most conspicuous bravery. When in charge of a party consisting of scouts and Royal Engineers engaged in the demolition of the enemy's wire, this officer displayed great gallantry and disregard of all personal danger. In order to ensure the absolute success of the work entrusted to him, 2nd Lt. Dunville placed himself between an N.C.O. of the Royal Engineers and the enemy's fire, and, thus protected, this N.C.O. was enabled to complete a work of great importance. 2nd Lt. Dunville, although severely wounded, continued to direct his men in the wire-cutting and general operations until the raid was successfully completed, thereby setting a magnificent example of courage, determination and devotion to duty, to all ranks under his command. This gallant officer has since succumbed to his wounds.
    —London Gazette, No. 30215, 31 July 1917

    Second Lieutenant John Spencer Dunville died of wounds on 26 June 1917, the day after performing the deed, and is interred at the Villiers-Faucon Communal Cemetery, Somme, France, (Plot No. A21).

    His Victoria Cross is displayed at the Household Cavalry Museum in Horse Guards in London.

    Today we lost: 501

    Air Operations:


    Flight Lieutenant Raymond Collishaw (Royal Naval Air Service) engages four enemy scouts, driving one down in a spin and another with two of its planes shot away. This machine is later seen crashing.

    With six other machines Flight Commander John Edward Sharman attacks 15 Albatross Scouts. After a combat at close range he will destroy one of these, its right plane and tail plane falling off. Within a month Commander Sharman will be dead.

    The German Army's Air Force brings together four Jagdstaffeln (fighter squadrons) – Jastas 4, 6, 10, and 11 – to form Germany's first Jagdgeschwader (fighter wing) I. Manfred von Richthofen is promoted from commanding officer of Jasta 11 to its commander of Jagdgeschwader I. This unit will become known as the "Flying Circus," thanks to the colorful paint schemes on its aircraft and possibly because it often moved from place to place for its operations in a manner similar to a travelling circus.

    Royal Flying Corps Losses today: 8


    2Lt Eyton-Lloyd, J.W. (John Wathen), 10 Squadron, RFC. Killed whilst flying aged 22. NFDK.

    Lt Franklin, R.V. (Robert Vernon), 58 Training Squadron, RFC. Killed whilst flying aged 20. NFDK.

    Capt Holt, W.P. (William Parkinson), 29 Squadron, RFC. Killed in action. NFDK.

    FS Matthews, F.G. (Francis G.), 10 Squadron, RFC, aged 25.

    Capt McNaughton, N.G. (Norman George), 57 Squadron, RFC. Killed in action aged 27. NFDK.

    Capt Mearns, A.H. (Angus Hughes), 57 Squadron, RFC. Killed in aerial combat near Becelaere aged 22.

    Flt S-Lt Saunders, R.G. (Robert Girling), 10 (N) Squadron, RNAS. NFDK.

    A Mech 3 Sykes, J. (John), Recruits Depot, RFC, aged 28. NFDK.

    Claims: 15 confirmed (Entente 10 : Central Powers 5)

    William Bishop #27th confirmed victory.
    Maurice Boyau #4th &#5th confirmed victories. (France)
    Fulco Ruffo di Calabria u/c. (Italy)
    Keith Caldwell #5th &#6th confirmed victories.
    Raymond Collishaw #24th confirmed victory.
    Albert Earl Godfrey #7th confirmed victory.
    Conn Standish O’Grady #3rd confirmed victory.
    William Kennedy-Cochran-Patrick #16th confirmed victory.
    Walter Bertram Wood #5th confirmed victory.

    Karl Allmenroder #28th confirmed victory.
    Heinrich Gontermann #22nd confirmed victory.
    Gisbert-Wilhelm Groos #2nd confirmed victory.
    Hans Klein #12th confirmed victory.
    Manfred von Richthofen #55th confirmed victory.

    Western Front

    French recover more ground near Vauxaillon.

    British advance on 1.5 mile front near Lens.

    Tunstills Men Sunday 24th June 1917:


    Le Coq de Pailie, close to Berthen

    Capt. Bob Perks DSO (see 22nd June), now in command of ‘C’ Company, wrote home to his father.

    My dear Dad
    Thanks very much for an extra long Monday letter. I am glad you appreciated the letter of a young Company Commander busy preparing for the first successful battle of the war. What?! (I may add too quietly that all his preparations were successful - very quiet that thought.)

    I am awfully sorry to cause you alarm but I thought I should be able to get a letter off before they telegraphed. Two things spoilt it – first and chiefly they kept us in the line extra days and second our HQ passed it on very quickly. I nearly did not report myself (I had to report myself as OC Company) but I remembered promising Mother to go to the doctor as soon as anything was the matter, and it might have gone wrong – I had not stopped to examine it thoroughly by then. Yes I was commanding A Coy when I got the hits and the command was no small part of the strain. (Perks had suffered a minor wound in action on 7th June and an official War Office telegram had been sent to his parents) I don’t think I can say much more of the Push than in the letters you must have read now.

    I am getting awfully keen on riding (or rather learning to) in my spare time now. Yesterday I went for a ride with two other Coy Commanders from about quarter to six til eight in the evening. And this morning I actually got up for an hours ride before breakfast. It was ripping once you were up.

    Allow me to congratulate you Sir on being the first to accede to my repeated requests for information of the pig. Now I know her name and abode, I am still curious as to her attendants. I suppose she more or less looks after herself until Jack can attend to her. Is her sty another of your triumphs?

    Congratulations on the toothache, but I hope further congrats will be unnecessary. Didn’t know the Hills were out; 20 Lincs. Terriers I suppose? We had the thunderstorm too and now it is a little cooler.

    My best love
    Bob

    P.S. Just as I finished I was fetched out (11.10 pm) to see Bosche aeroplanes dropping bombs quite near our anti-craft guns and search lights. Quite a show. RCP .

    Pte. Arthur Sutcliffe (see 30th January), who had been in England since leaving 10DWR five months previously, was deemed fit enough to be posted to 3DWR prior to returning to active service.

    A memorial service was held at the Wesleyan Chapel in Earby in memory of Pte. Tom Greenwood (see 22nd June) and another local casualty, Airman Frank Waddington. The Rev. A. Bradfield gave what was regarded as, “an impressive and very appropriate address” on 'The Christian's Hope.' Both men had been active members of the Wesleyan Guild.

    Eastern Front:

    News just in:
    Brusilov Begins to Doubt Success of Upcoming Offensive!

    June 23 1917, Mogilev
    –The upcoming Russian offensive, designed by Kerensky and Brusilov to unite the Russian army in the war effort once again, was beginning to have problems. Originally planned to go forward on June 23, it had already been pushed back twice. In part this was due to Kerensky’s propaganda campaign ahead of the offensive, but mostly it was due to morale issues. There were mutinies behind the lines, and for those units that did start making their way to the front, there was often large-scale desertion. It was worst in the Northern Front, closest to the revolutionary agitation in Petrograd, but even Brusilov’s old Southwest Front, which was to be conducting the offensive.

    The planning for the offensive, by this point, did take into account the severe morale issues. Preparatory orders issued June 23 issued that officers should destroy any alcohol captured in enemy stores during the offensive, to make sure that the advancing troops were not slowed down by drunkenness. Note that this issue was not just confined to Russia during the war; Germany would have severe problems during their 1918 offensives in France as troops slowed down to enjoy the material fruits of their victory.

    Brusilov spoke to Kerensky, urging him to call off the offensive; even his most veteran units could not be universally relied upon. But Kerensky was committed to the offensive for political reasons. Brusilov recalled that “he paid not the slightest attention to my words, and from that moment on, I realized that my own authority as the Commander-in-Chief was quite irrelevant.”

    Naval Operations:

    Breaking News: Just in: Delayed reports:


    First contingent of United States troops arrives in France (see May 19th).


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    First US troop convoy arriving.

    June 22 1917, St Nazaire–The first large contingent of American troops bound for Europe left New York on June 14, with 14,000 soldiers and marines on board a variety of ships. German Admiral Holtzendorff had said, when making the final arguments for unrestricted submarine warfare, that “I pledge on my word as a naval officer that no American will ever set foot on continental soil.” Pershing already had, of course, but this was Holtzendorff’s last chance to uphold his pledge and see if the U-boats could stop the army that they had brought into the war.

    On June 22, German U-boats found the American troop convoy, and made an attempt to attack it. However, any torpedoes they fired missed, and the fast-moving convoy soon passed them by. The Americans would arrive in France the next week without further incident. In fact, no American troop transport to Europe would be lost until February 1918.

    Mutiny of Russian Black Sea Fleet at Sevastopol.

    Shipping Losses: 16 ( 3 to mines & 13 to U-Boat action)


    H M Paddle minesweeper Redcar is sunk by a mine off the French coast near the Spindle Buoy. Seven of her crew are killed and while rescuing survivors the minesweeper Kempton also strikes a mine and sinks with the loss of four lives. Deck Hand William J Munning (Redcar RNR) will die tomorrow in Dunkirk of wounds received in the sinking. His brother will be killed serving in the Royal Garrison Artillery next year. Also aiding in the rescue efforts is the destroyer HMS Tartar who is damaged when she strikes a mine killing forty-eight. Among the dead is Signaller Leonard Horace Litchfield whose brother was killed in April 1915.

    Political:


    New Austrian Ministry, Dr. v. Seidler Premier.

    British and German delegates on Prisoners of War question meet at The Hague.

    The U.S.A. Liberty Loan largely over-subscribed.

    M. Pashich forms new Serbian Government.

    M. Zaimis, Greek Premier, resigns (see May 3rd and June 26th).

    Anniversary Events:

    217 BC Carthaginian forces led by Hannibal destroy a Roman army under consul Gaius Flaminius in a battle at Lake Trasimene in central Italy.
    1314 Scottish forces, led by Robert the Bruce, win an overwhelming victory against English King Edward II at the Battle of Bannockburn.
    1340 The English fleet defeats the French fleet at Sluys, off the Flemish coast.
    1497 Explorer John Cabot lands in North America in present-day Canada.
    1509 Henry VIII is crowned King of England.
    1664 The colony of New Jersey, named after the Isle of Jersey, is founded.
    1647 Margaret Brent, demands a voice and a vote for herself in the Maryland colonial assembly.
    1675 King Philip’s War begins.
    1812 Napoleon crosses the Neman River and invades Russia.
    1859 At the Battle of Solferino, also known as the Battle of the Three Sovereigns, the French army, led by Napoleon III, defeats the Austrian army under Franz Joseph I.

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    See you on the Dark Side......

  21. #2521

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    I realise the VC was awarded tomorrow but the complete action during which it was awarded took place from 24-25 June.
    See you on the Dark Side......

  22. #2522

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    Monday 25th June 1917

    Today we lost: 452

    Air Operations:


    Royal Flying Corps Losses today: 9


    2Lt Barron, J.G. (John George), No 2 Aircraft Acceptance Park, Hendon, RFC. Killed whilst flying at Hendon aged 42.

    A Mech 2 Bonny, G.C. (Gerald Charles), 58 Training Squadron, RFC. Accidentally Killed 25 June 1917 aged 18, when struck by propeller of Avro 504a A2667.

    Lt Bowman, L.S. (Leslie Spencer), 52 Squadron, RFC. Killed in aged 19, with Observer 2nd Lieut J E Power-Clutterbuck (Royal Field Artillery attached Royal Flying Corps). Attacked by Manfred von Richthofen, wings of RE8 A3847 broke off and wreckage fell burning to the ground between the trenches naer Le Bizet. Both pilot and observer are the only sons of doctors.

    Lt Brasell, J.S. (Jack Stanley), 1 Squadron, AFC. Killed in Action aged 24. Shot down by two enemy scout aircraft at Deir el Belah.

    A Mech 2 Cooper, E. (Ernest), Cranwell Central Depot and Training Establishment, H.M.S. 'Deadalus', RNAS. Died of pneumonia aged 34.

    PO Mech Higgins, P.O. (Philip Oscar), Armoured Car Division, Squadron 2, Russia, RNAS. Died of typhus aged 26, at Konia, whilst a Prisoner of War.

    Sgt Hourston, G. (George) DCM, 31 Squadron, RFC. dies on service at age 35 in India. His brother was killed in North Russia last January.

    Fl-Sgt Mathews F.G. (Francis George). RFC. Accidentally killed at age 25. His brother died of wounds in September 1915.

    2Lt Power-Clutterbuck, J.E. (James Edward), 52 Squadron, RFC, aged 23. See Bowman above.

    Claims: 14 confirmed (Entente 10 : Central Powers 4)

    Arnold Chadwick #6th confirmed victory.
    Julien Guertiau #4th confirmed victory. (France)
    Arthur Willan Keen #5th confirmed victory.

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    Lt William Jackson "Jack" Rutherford claims his 1st confirmed victory with 60 Squadron, RFC. Flying a Nieuport he shot down an Albatros DIII near Dury. (Sgared with Soden and Young). The son of William and Ida Rutherford, William Jackson Rutherford was a student of Applied Science at McGill University and a member of the McGill Provisional Battalion in 1915. No. 258 Sapper William Jackson Rutherford, from Div. Sig. Cos. to be temporary Lieutenant on 28 July 1916. Lieutenant Rutherford of the 23rd Battalion of the Canadian Expeditionary Force received Royal Aero Club Aviator's Certificate 4275 on a Maurice Farman biplane at military school, Catterick Bridge on 26 February 1917. Ceased to be employed and relinquished his commission on 31 March 1919.

    Franklin Saunders #4th confirmed victory.

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    Lt Frank Ormond "Mongoose" Soden claims his 1st confirmed victory with 60 Squadron, RFC. Flying a Nieuport he shot down an Albatros DIII near Dury. (Shared with Rutherford and Young). Although born in Canada, Frank Ormond Soden emigrated to England in 1904. Lieutenant Soden served with the 8th South Staffordshire Regiment and received Royal Aero Club Aviator's Certificate 3502 on a Grahame-White biplane at Grahame-White School, Hendon on 9 September 1916. After he transferred to the Royal Flying Corps, he scored 27 victories flying Nieuport scouts and the SE5a. He remained in the Royal Air Force when the war ended. He received a bar to his Distinguished Flying Cross for service in Kurdistan in 1922, was promoted to Group Captain on 1 April 1939, and was commanding officer of RAF Biggin Hill from December 1940 to June 1941. When World War II ended, he went to Kenya.

    Arthur Jones-Williams #4th confirmed victory.
    Walter Bertram Wood #6th & #7th confirmed victories.

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    2Lt Graham Conacher Young Soden claims his 1st confirmed victory with 60 Squadron, RFC. . Flying a Nieuport he shot down an Albatros DIII near Dury. (Shared with Rutherford and Soden). As a boy, Graham Conacher Young, the youngest son of George Penrose Kennedy and Charlotte Ann (Conacher) Young, was a student at the Sharp's Institution and the Perth Academy. In 1906 he was enrolled at the Merchiston Castle School in Edinburgh and began his studies at the Glasgow School of Architecture in 1909. In 1914, Young entered the Royal Military College at Sandhurst and served with the Seaforth Highlanders before being transferred to the Royal Flying Corps. Posted to 60 Squadron in March 1917, he scored his first victory flying a Nieuport scout and, before he was posted to the Home Establishment in December 1917, he scored four more victories flying the SE5a. Post-war, he served with the Royal Tank Corps in 1920 and was with No. 2 Armoured Car Company in the Arab rebellion in Mesopotamia. Young left the Royal Air Force in 1923 and returned home to Perth to resume his career in architecture. During World War II, he was the Perth Company Commander of the Home Guard and served as an instructor at the local Air Cadet Corps. From 1953 to 1955 he was the President of the Dundee Institute of Architects.

    Karl Allmenroder #29th confirmed victory.
    Manfred von Richthofen #56th confirmed victory.
    Franz Schleiff #2nd confirmed victory.
    Otto Schmidt #3rd confirmed victory.

    Western Front


    French carry crest near Hurtebise ("Dragon's Cave").

    First fighting contingent of American troops lands in France.

    British advance on Souchez river continues.

    Second Lieutenant John Spencer Dunville (Dragoons) when in charge of a party consisting of Scouts and Royal Engineers engages in the demolition of the enemy’s wire, displays great gallantry and disregard of all personal danger. In order to ensure the absolute success of the work entrusted to him, Lieutenant Dunville places himself between the N.C.O. of the Royal Engineers and the enemy’s fire, and thus protected, this N.C.O. is enabled to complete a work of great importance. Lieutenant Dunville, although severely wounded, continues to direct his men in the wire-cutting and general operations until the raid is successfully completed, thereby setting a magnificent example of courage, determination and devotion to duty, to all ranks under his command. Lieutenant Dunville will die of his wounds tomorrow and be awarded the posthumous Victoria Cross for his efforts. (see 24th)

    Tunstills Men Monday 25th June 1917:

    Le Coq de Pailie, close to Berthen

    There was further rain through the evening and overnight.

    The confusion as to the fate of Pte. Fred Brown (see 11th June) was now definitively resolved. Brown had originally been reported killed in action on 7th June, but this report had then been rescinded and it was reported instead that Brown had been wounded. It was now officially confirmed that Brown had indeed been killed on 7th June and had been buried at Woods Cemetery.

    Pte. Arthur Milner (see 8th February) was promoted Lance Corporal. Ptes. Herbert Newton (see 5th April) and Wilfred Clarkson (see 22nd July 1916) were promoted (unpaid) Lance Corporal.

    L.Cpl. Gilbert Swift Greenwood joined the Battalion, having spent the previous eight weeks at 34th Infantry Base Depot at Etaples following his posting to France on 3rd May; the reason for his extended stay at Etaples is unclear. He was 30 years old and from Halifax, where he had worked as an assistant to a wool merchant; he had been promoted Lance Corporal whilst in training with 3DWR. Pte. Henry Richardson Oddy (see 28th May) also joined the Battalion; he had spent the previous month at 34th Infantry Base Depot at Etaples, since arriving with a draft of more than forty men, most of whom had immediately joined 10DWR.

    Pte. Ernest Ashness (see 10th May) reported sick, suffering from boils; he was admitted first to 69th Field Ambulance and then transferred to 23rd Division Rest Station.

    Pte. Victor Alexander Wildman (see 28th May) again found himself on a charge; on this occasion for “irregular conduct, ie not having full kit on CO’s parade”. He was reported by Sgt. Arthur Kilburn Robinson (see 5th April) and sentenced to three days’ confined to barracks by Capt. Adrian O’Donnell Pereira (see 15th June).

    Pte. George Bernard Hardy (see 5th May) re-joined the Battalion from no.34 Infantry Base Depot at Etaples where he had spent the previous three weeks after being discharged from hospital.

    L.Cpl. Stephen Grady (see 9th April) was formally transferred to 69th Brigade Trench Mortar Battery, with whom he had been serving since May 1916. Also transferred to the same unit was Pte. Edwin Waterworth (see 16th January).

    Pte. Thomas Fielden (see 7th June), who had suffered a relatively minor wound to his left forearm on 7th June, was discharged from 2nd Canadian General Hospital at Le Treport and posted to 34th Infantry Base Depot at Etaples.

    A Divisional horse show was held and subsequently described by Brig. Genl. Lambert (see 19th June), as “somewhat tedious, but an excellent show”.

    A payment was authorised of outstanding pay and allowances due to the late 2Lt. Roland Herbert Wyndham Brinsley-Richards (see 4th May), who had been officially reported ‘missing in action’ following the action at Munster Alley in July 1916; the amount concerned was £46 2s. 6d.

    Southern Front:

    Austrian counter-attacks on Mt. Ortigara.

    Africa, Asiatic & Egyptian Theatres:

    Aleppo
    –Shocked at the loss of Baghdad, the Germans had sent Falkenhayn to Turkey in May to discuss the prospects for its recapture–and to exile him even further from any military decision-making in Germany. He met with Enver in Constantinople, and Enver soon came around to the idea of giving Falkenhayn command of a new army group tasked with retaking Baghdad. While Falkenhayn probably had something to do with this, more important was the material help Germany agreed to provide in the task–a full division (later a corps) and nearly $25 million in gold.
    In Aleppo, Enver met with his chief army commanders: Djemal Pasha, his usual political ally, commanding forces in Syria and Palestine; Izzet Pasha and Mustafa Kemal, from the Caucasus; and Halil Pasha, from Mesopotamia. He proposed to place Halil and Kemal’s armies under Falkenhayn’s command in the new Yildirim (“Lightning”) Army Group, which would prepare for an offensive towards Baghdad.

    Most of the commanders there were not receptive to Enver’s idea; Halil knew the area and the opponent best and did not think recapturing Baghdad was feasible. Kemal bristled at being placed under the command of Falkenhayn, worrying that Turkey was becoming a “German colony,” and pointed out that Turkish reserves were exhausted and could not sustain an offensive. Djemal, worried about a renewed British offensive in Palestine, wanted to keep Yildirim as a reserve, ready to face any new Allied attacks in Palestine, Mesopotamia, or the Caucasus. Nevertheless, Enver refused to back down; Djemal appealed to Grand Vizier Talaat, but was overruled.

    Naval Operations:


    Raid in Black Sea by "Breslau"; Russian wireless station and lighthouse on island of Fidonisi destroyed.

    Shipping Losses: 7 (3 to mines & 4 to U-Boat action)


    Political:


    M. Venizelos returns to Athens and succeeds M. Zaimis as Premier.

    Recall of German Minister to Norway, consequent on bomb-plot.

    Anniversary Events:

    841 Charles the Bald and Louis the German defeat Lothar at Fontenay.
    1658 Aurangzeb proclaims himself emperor of the Moghuls in India.
    1767 Mexican Indians riot as Jesuit priests are ordered home.
    1857 Gustave Flaubert goes on trial for public immorality regarding his novel, Madame Bovary.
    1862 The first day of the Seven Days’ campaign begins with fighting at Oak Grove, Virginia.
    1864 Union troops surrounding Petersburg, Virginia, begin building a mine tunnel underneath the Confederate lines.
    1868 The U.S. Congress enacts legislation granting an eight-hour day to workers employed by the federal government.
    1876 General George A. Custer and over 260 men of the Seventh Cavalry are wiped out by Sioux and Cheyenne Indians at Little Bighorn in Montana.
    1903 Marie Curie announces her discovery of radium.

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    See you on the Dark Side......

  23. #2523

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    Tuesday 26th June 1917

    Today we lost: 501

    Air Operations:


    Royal Flying Corps Losses today: 7


    2Lt Grace, A.A.G. (Alfred Alexander Gordon), 22 Reserve Squadron, RFC. Accidently killed while flying aged 22.

    Captain George Walter Thomas Lindsay (Royal Field Artillery attached Royal Flying Corps) is accidentally killed whilst flying near Bristol aged 26. His brothers will be killed in March 1918 five days apart.

    2Lt Ross, P.C. (Peter Cunningham), RFC. Died of wounds received while flying over German lines aged 26.

    A Mech 1 Sharman, C.E. (Charles Edward), 62 Squadron, RFC. Died of accidental injuries aged 26.

    Lt Street, C. (Cyril), 1 Squadron, RFC. Killed in action. NFDK.

    A Mech 2 Towlson, H., No 2 School of Aerial Gunnery, RFC. NFDK.

    Cpl Walford, G.H., RFC. NFDK.

    Claims: 18 Confirmed (Entente 10: Central Powers 8)

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    2Lt Geoffrey Herbert Hooper claims his #1st confirmed victory with11 Squadron, RFC. Flying a Bristol F2b with observer Capt FJ Carr, he shot down an Albatros DIII near Etaing-Dury. Joining the Royal Engineers on 1 November 1915, Geoffrey Herbert Hooper served as a Bristol Fighter pilot after transferring to the Royal Flying Corps in August 1916 and received Royal Aero Club Aviator's Certificate 3846 on 14 November 1916. Posted to 11 Squadron on 12 April 1917, he and his observers scored three victories during the summer of 1917. Following a rest and instructor duty with 38 Training Squadron, Hooper was reassigned to 20 Squadron on 14 September 1918. By the end of the month, he and his observer claimed six Fokker DVII’s. He scored his final victory the following month on the morning of 10 November 1918, downing his seventh Fokker D.VII near Charleroi. Hooper later served with the Royal Australian Air Force.

    Robert Little claims his #23rd confirmed victory.
    William Bishop ‘claims’ his #29th & 30th victories.
    Fulco Rufo di Calabria u/c. (Italy)


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    S-Lt Gilbert Marie de Guingand (France), claims his #1st confirmed victory with N48. Shooting down an Albatros D type near Berry-au-Bac. De Guingand started out in the infantry but transferred to the French Air Service, becoming a pilot in February 1916. After serving with C34 as a reconnaissance pilot, he was trained as a pursuit pilot and scored all of his victories while serving with N48 and Spa48. He was wounded in action on 3 September 1917.

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    2Lt Andrew Edward McKeever claims his #1st confirmed victory with 11 Squadron, RFC. Flying a Bristol F2b with observer 2Lt E Oake, he shot down an Albatros DV near Etaing-Dury. When the war began, Andrew Edward McKeever joined the Queen's Own Rifles of Canada and quickly proved to be an expert marksman in the trenches of France. Towards the end of 1916, he transferred to the Royal Flying Corps and was assigned to 11 Squadron in May 1917. At that time, the squadron was replacing its outdated BE2’s. Scoring all of his victories with the Bristol Fighter, McKeever was the highest scoring ace to fly this aircraft during World War I. He was also the highest scoring ace to serve with 11 Squadron. His last aerial combat of the war occurred just before noon on 30 November 1917. On that day, he and his observer, L.A. Powell, engaged two enemy two-seaters protected by a flight of seven Albatros DV’s. During the battle that followed, McKeever and Powell shot down four of the scouts. After the war, McKeever returned to Canada, then took a job in 1919 as the manager of an airfield in the United States. He died in hospital following an operation for injuries sustained in an automobile accident near Stratford, Ontario on 3 September 1919. He was 25 years of age.

    George Otley #3rd confirmed victory.
    Harry Gosford Reeves #2nd confirmed victory.
    Alexander Pishvanov #3rd confirmed victory.


    Karl Allmenroder #30th confirmed victory.
    Hans Bowski #3rd confirmed victory.
    Stefan Fejes #5th confirmed victory.
    Adolf Heyrowsky #11th & #12th confirmed victories.
    Josef Jacobs u/c.

    Lt Karl Schattauer claims his #1st confirmed victory with Jasta 23. Shooting down a Spad VII north east of Ostel. Schattauer claimed 9 victories before he was wounded in action on 27 May 1918.

    Alexander Tahy #5th confirmed victory.
    Emil Thuy #3rd confirmed victory.

    Western Front


    British advance astride Souchez river; La Coulotte occupied.

    Four men of Lincolnshire Regiment are killed outright by the explosion of a booby trap in a captured German dug-out. Company Sergeant Major Wilfred Hamp MM, a 32 year old Irishman who lived in Scunthorpe, Privates Ernest Hodgkinson of Scunthorpe, Randolph Spencer of Ashby (Scunthorpe) and 18-year old Robert Herbert Pickard of Barton-upon-Humber. Lance Sergeant Oliver Gouldthorpe will be awarded a MM for entering the dugout three times after the explosion, each time bringing out a wounded man. One of the wounded men that he brings out is Company Sergeant Major Herbert Pickard who, at 51, is the oldest member of the battalion. Robert Pickard is Herbert’s son. It appears that Herbert had ‘pulled some strings’ to get Robert into the battalion. It also appears that Hamp (a pre-war friend of the senior Pickard) had been unoficially ‘charged’ with looking after Robert. Herbert who was in C Company should not have been in the dug-out when it exploded, but was no doubt paying a paternal visit. Herbert Pickard will die of his wounds in eight days.

    Tunstills Men Tuesday 26th June 1917:

    Le Coq de Pailie, close to Berthen

    2Lt. Sydney Charles Ernest Farrance (see 17th January) arrived in France en route to join 10DWR.

    Pte. Tom Darwin (see 22nd June), who had been wounded on 7th June, was evacuated to England from 3rd General Hospital at Le Treport.

    Sgt. Frederick Griggs MM (see 10th March), who had been one of Tunstill’s original Company, having completed his course of officer training at no.7 Officer Cadet Battalion, based at Moore Park, Fermoy, County Cork, Ireland, was commissioned Second Lieutenant; he would be posted to 2DWR.

    Southern Front:

    Small Italian withdrawal on Mt. Ortigara.

    Africa, Asiatic & Egyptian Theatres:

    Russians take Serdesht (Persia).

    Naval Operations:


    News released today:


    London–Transatlantic convoys, which had only begun as an experiment last month, were quickly becoming routine. Four convoys crossed the Atlantic to Britain in June, and they were planned to become more frequent, leaving the Atlantic seaboard once every four days. Convoying greatly reduced the number of targets feasibly available to submarines merely by grouping ships together, but the Admiralty wanted to reduce the U-boats’ chances even further.
    On June 25, the Admiralty set up a special Convoy Section dedicated to supporting convoys. Providing dedicated convoy escort ships was its top priority–a task that became easier as the Americans began to contribute more ships to the war. Another task was coordinating with Room 40’s ever-increasing stream of intelligence. Many German U-boats used their radios to communicate back to Germany quite frequently. Room 40 was able to decrypt these transmissions and gain valuable information about German plans, providing useful information on average more than twice per day. Even without this, the radio signals themselves allowed the British to obtain a geometric fix on the U-boats’ locations. The Convoy Section now began to relay this information to the convoys, helping them steer clear of U-boats.

    Shipping Losses: 12 (2 to mines & 10 to U-Boay action)


    The Admiralty trawler Charles Astie (Skipper John Geddes) is sunk by a mine off Fanal Point, Lough Swilly. Her Skipper is among the 17 killed.

    Political:


    Report of Mesopotamia Commission published.

    M. Venizelos appointed Greek Premier (see 24th and 27th and October 5th, 1915).

    Anniversary Events:

    363 Roman Emperor Julian dies, ending the Pagan Revival.
    1096 Peter the Hermit's crusaders force their way across Sava, Hungary.
    1243 The Seljuk Turkish army in Asia Minor is wiped out by the Mongols.
    1541 Former followers murder Francisco Pizarro, the Spanish Conqueror of Peru.
    1794 The French defeat an Austrian army at the Battle of Fleurus.
    1804 The Lewis and Clark Expedition reaches the mouth of the Kansas River after completing a westward trek of nearly 400 river miles.
    1844 Julia Gardiner and President John Tyler are married in New York City.
    1862 General Robert E Lee attacks George McClellan’s line at Mechanicsville during the Seven Days’ Campaign.
    1863 Jubal Early and his Confederate forces move into Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
    1900 The United States announces it will send troops to fight against the Boxer Rebellion in China.
    1907 Russia's nobility demands drastic measures be taken against revolutionaries.
    1908 Shah Muhammad Ali's forces squelch the reform elements of Parliament in Persia.

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    See you on the Dark Side......

  24. #2524

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    Wednesday 27th June 1917

    Today we lost: 457

    Air Operations:


    German ace Leutnant Karl Allmenröder is shot down and killed. His 30 victories tie him with five other pilots as the 28th-highest-scoring German ace of World War I.

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    Allmenröder reached 30 victories (a Nieuport flown by Lt CC Street of No 1 Squadron RFC on 26 June) before being shot down at 0945 hours on 27 June 1917. The cause of Allmenröder's death is debatable, but he died from a crash near Zillebeke. German infantry soldiers retrieved his body from NML the night he was killed. It was a ghoulish detail; the crashed Albatros was so embedded in a hasty cemetery of casualties from the year before that it took two hours to disinter Allmenröder from the decomposing bodies around him.

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    He was interred in the Evangelical Cemetery in Wald. His brother Wilhelm later married Karl's fiancee, Helene Kortenbach.

    Royal Flying Corps Losses today: 9


    Lt Bird, D.J.A. (Dudley Joseph de Angulo), 29 Squadron, RFC. Killed in action aged 23. NFDK.

    Off Stwd 3 Bishop, W. (William), Seaplane Base, Dunkerque Naval Air Station, RNAS. Killed in Action by long range artillery fire on Dunkerque, aged 35. Also Killed in this incident were Officers Steward 2nd Class G A Russell and Air Mechanic 1st Class J C Sharp.

    A Mech 1 Bundock, V. (Victor), 21 Squadron, RFC. Died of wounds aged 23. NFDK.

    Flt S-Lt Jones, A.C. (Augustus C), RNAS, aged 24. NFDK.

    Lt Lowe, M. (Maurice), 19 Squadron, RFC. Killed in Action at Hovlthulst Wood aged 26.

    Lt Reynolds, E.K. (Edgar Kinsey), 13 Reserve Squadron, RFC. Killed while flying at Calne Wiltshire aged 27.

    Off Stwd 2 Russell, G.A. See Bishop above,

    A Mech 1 Sharp, J.C. (John C.), see Bishop above.

    Lt Wylde, T.E. (Thomas Edgar), RFC. Died of wounds aged 28. NFDK.

    Claims: 9 (Entente 5 : Central Powers 4)

    Albert Achard #3rd confirmed victory. (France)
    Charles Meredith Bouverie-Chapman #6th confirmed victory.
    Aleksandr Kozakov #12th & #13th confirmed victories. (Russia)
    Ernst Leman #3rd confirmed victory. (Russia)

    Albert Dossenbach #15th confirmed victory.
    Heinrich Gontermann #23rd confirmed victory.
    Josef Jacobs u/c.
    Otto Schmidt #4th confirmed victory.
    Kurt Wolff #31st confirmed victory.

    Western Front


    British take German position and 350 prisoners near Le Transloy.

    Tunstills Men Wednesday 27th June 1917:


    Le Coq de Pailie, close to Berthen

    A wet day.

    Capt. Bob Perks DSO (see 24th June) again wrote home to his father.

    My Dear Dad
    Thanks for the parcel of yesterday and letter of today. The parcel was a very compact little collection of lots of things urgently needed and all, except the plaster and Oxo for which I am pleased to say there was no immediate need, were immediately taken into use. I shall selfishly keep all the plaster to myself. The spurs are A1 in chiding the horse, much admired and make an awful difference not so much by their use as by the fact that of their being there. Jessie (my horse) knows. Do you know I guessed the Dr Reskas were an extra from you?! On the strength of the nice EP needles I treated myself to 5 new records. I rode over to a town about six miles away for them and was able to carry them all the way back in my spare hand.

    I am glad you liked my despatch. I had dinner with the C.O. last night and he told me that this brigade was to have the most medals given it of any this push! We have only two Military Medals up to date but crowds are expected any day now. Also this and our other battalion earned most praise from the Brigade!! To show how easy the victory was – our division had most casualties of any in the Push! That was because of our flank of course. Other people drove the guns that might fire on them back in front of them. The people on our left did not advance nor did the Bosche guns there go back. One of those honourable but nasty positions the division has earned for itself.
    The post was very early today so I am able to catch today’s outward mail which we generally miss by an hour or two. I caught it yesterday because I happened to be up at H.Q where they sort them at the right moment, picked my own parcel out and rode off.

    My Company is playing cricket this afternoon and is very anxious for me to play, but I think I shall content myself with watching.

    Love to you and Mother
    Bob

    P.S. We move up tomorrow and are for trenches the next night. RCP

    Pte. Albert Sunderland (see 7th June), who had been severely wounded on 7th June, died at 26th General Hospital at Etaples; he would be buried at Etaples Military Cemetery.

    2Lt. Fred Baume (see 5th April), currently on light duty with 3DWR at North Shields, having been wounded during the actions at Le Sars in October 1916, wrote to the War Office to enquire about the progress of his request for a wound gratuity:

    “I have the honour to request that my claim for gratuity for wounds received in action may receive further consideration. I was wounded at Le Sars on October 3rd 1916 and am at the present time, on Home Service. I have a wound about two inches long, three quarters of an inch wide and one inch and a quarter deep across the rectus femoris muscle. I am unable to take part in any strenuous sport and thus am interfered with in my civil occupation as a Sports Master. Up to this month I have been on light duty and at the present time am excused all marching”

    A payment of £90 was authorised to the widow of 2Lt. Benjamin Owen Hunt (see 23rd May), who had died of wounds a month previously. Hunt’s remaining effects were also returned to his widowed mother, Gertrude Marion Hunt; they were listed as “1 compass in case; 1 identity disc and chain; 1 ring; 1 pair of scissors; 2 studs; 1 Book of Psalms; 1 note case; 1 pipe; 1 penknife; letters; 1 photo; 1 fountain pen; 1 whistle and lanyard; 2 pencils; 1 cigarette case; 1 cheque book; 1 handkerchief; 1 note book; 2 cloth stars; 1 tobacco pouch; 1 purse; 1 Bible; 1 writing case”.

    Eastern Front:

    Russians carry enemy positions between Kimpolung and Jacobeny (Bukovina), and take 1,218 prisoners.

    Africa, Asiatic & Egyptian Theatres:

    General Allenby arrives in Egypt to replace Murray. Unlike most generals, Allenby becomes well-known to his troops moving his Headquarters from Cairo to Palestine. His mission is according to Lloyd George, to take Jerusalem before Christmas and then take Aleppo before a new German force of 6500, the Asia Corps under Falkenhayn, arrives to take on the British in Mesopotamia. Gaza had to be taken first, where the Turks are building trenches to create a defensive line 30 miles long from Gaza to Beersheba.

    Naval Operations:

    Shipping Losses: 10 (1 to a mine & 9 to U-Boat action)


    French cruiser "Kléber" sunk by submarine off Brest.

    The Cunard liner Ultonia is torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine U53 while east bound about three hundred fifty miles west from Land’s End. The Ultonia sinks in ten minutes but fortunately is being escorted by a ‘Q boat’, which picks up the crew and lands them at Falmouth. One man is killed during the operation of leaving the ship.
    Captain Alan ‘Skipper’ Cookson (Liverpool Regiment) is killed at age 23. The following poem by Second Lieutenant Murray McClymont was dedicated to his “skipper”.

    God’s Acre:
    When sands of Time
    have run their course
    And mortal heart is stilled,
    We renderback unto its Source
    The dust that He fulfilled
    And in some still,
    subdued spot Where all is peace,
    and they Who walked
    the silent paths are taught
    To meditate and pray,
    We to that dust its rest afford
    And dry our idle tears;
    For Death is peace,
    and Peace adored
    Reigns here
    throughout the years.


    S.S. "Artist" torpedoed in a gale by German submarine; crew left to perish.

    Political:


    M. Venizelos assumes power at Athens. Diplomatic relations severed with Germany, Austria-Hungary and Turkey. Declaration of War by Provisional Government against Germany and Bulgaria of November 23rd, 1916, becomes effective for the whole of Greece. "State of War" also begins between Greece and Austria-Hungary and between Greece and Turkey (see 26th).

    June 26 1917, Salonika–The Black Hand, the Serbian secret society that had provided the spark for war, was still very much active in the Serbian military even in exile. Prime Minister Pasic and Regent Alexander were increasingly concerned about the Black Hand’s influence, and in late 1916 decided to arrest Dragutin Dimitrijevic (codename Apis), for a supposed assassination plot against the Regent. Much of early 1917 was spent rooting out the Black Hand within the army; one in every thirty officers was removed from the front and sent to Tunisia. The officers of the Third Army had such a high proportion of Black Hand members that the whole army had to be broken up just weeks before a planned offensive.

    Apis’ trial was largely a sham; it was revealed in the 1950′s that the testimony against him regarding the assassination plot was entirely fabricated. On June 26, he and two other leading Black Hand members were executed by a firing squad. The Allies were somewhat concerned by all this, worrying that it was a prelude to negotiations with Austria (very belatedly satisfying the original ultimatum), but there is little hard evidence to suggest that this was the case.

    Anniversary Events:

    1743 English King George II defeats the French at Dettingen, Bavaria.
    1833 Prudence Crandall, a white woman, is arrested for conducting an academy for black women in Canterbury, Conn.
    1862 Confederates break through the Union lines at the Battle of Gaines’ Mill–the third engagement of the Seven Days’ campaign.
    1864 General William T. Sherman is repulsed by Confederates at the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain.
    1871 The yen becomes the new form of currency in Japan.
    1905 The crew of the Russian battleship Potemkin mutinies.
    Last edited by Lt. S.Kafloc; 06-27-2017 at 08:01.
    See you on the Dark Side......

  25. #2525

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    Frank Bernard Wearne VC, before joining the British Army he attended Bromsgrove School. Wearne was 23 years old, and a 2Lt in the 3rd Battalion, Essex Regiment, attached to the 10th Battalion during WW1 when the following deed took place for which he was awarded the VC.

    On 28 June 1917 east of Loos, France, Second Lieutenant Wearne, commanding a small party in a raid on the enemy's trenches, had gained his objective in the face of fierce opposition and managed to maintain his position against repeated counter-attacks. Then, realising that if the left flank was lost his men would have to give way, he leaped onto the parapet and followed by his left section, ran along the top of the trench firing and throwing bombs. While doing this he was severely wounded, but continued directing operations until he received two more wounds, the second mortal

    Today we lost: 552


    Air Operations:


    An aircraft takes off successfully from a flying-off platform mounted on a warship '​s gun turret for the first time when RNAS Flight Commander F. J. Rutland takes off from a platform aboard the British light cruiser HMS Yarmouth in a Sopwith Pup.

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    Royal Flying Corps Losses today: 4


    Capt Cruess-Callaghan, S. (Stanislaus), 44 Squadron, RFC. Died as a result of a aeroplane accident aged 20.

    A Mech 2 Fenton, J.A. (John Alfred), Headquarters 3rd Balloon Wing, RFC. Accidently killed aged 22. NFDK.

    2Lt Hunstone, G.N. (George Neil), 11 Squadron, RFC. Killed in Action aged 19.Killed the day after joining the Squadron.

    2Lt Ryder, R.V. (Reginald Victor), 4 Squadron, RFC. Died of injuries caused by falling from an aeroplane aged 20.

    Claims: 4 confirmed (Entente 4 : Central Powers 0)

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    S-Lt Maurice Arnoux, (France), claims his #1st confirmed victory with N49. Shooting down an enemy aircraft near Hirsingen. Maurice Arnoux entered the military in December 1914. Serving first as a driver with MF99 in Serbia, he began pilot training at Dijon in February 1916. Receiving a Pilot's Brevet three months later, he served with the GDE and MF55 before joining N49 as a pursuit pilot in April 1917. He remained with this Escadrille (later Spa49) flying Nieuports and SPADs until the end of the war. A Commandant during World War II, Arnoux was killed in action after resuming his career as a fighting pilot.

    Alfred Auger #7th confirmed victory. (France)
    William Bishop #31stconfirmed victory’.

    Flt Lt Norman Miers MacGregor, claims his #1st confirmed victory with 6 (N) Squadron, RNAS, shooting down a DFW C type near N5 central. In September 1917, having scored 4 victories with 6 Naval Squadron, Norman Miers MacGregor was posted to 10 Naval Squadron. Flying the Sopwith Camel, he scored his 5th victory on 15 September, downing the first Fokker Dr1 of the war. The Triplane exploded when it crashed, killing the pilot, Kurt Wolff of Jasta 11. MacGregor later scored two more victories and accrued 325 hours of operational flight time during the war.

    Western Front


    British advance on two-mile front south of Souchez river.

    Germans positions near Oppy carried.

    German attack north-west of Verdun; French trenches on Hill 304 captured.

    Tunstills Men Thursday 28th June 1917:

    Le Coq de Pailie, close to Berthen

    There was heavy rain in the early morning, but bright sun later, although it remained thundery, and became very hot and stuffy.

    After their two week stay at Le Coq de Pailie the Battalion began a move back towards the front line. They marched first to Chippewa Camp, via Godewareswelde and Reninghelst. One night would be spent here. Brig. Genl. Lambert (see 25th June) noted that, “10th WR marching rather badly but remainder well”. Among the men who were reported as having fallen out on the march without permission was the recently-arrived L.Cpl. Gilbert Swift Greenwood (see 25th June); he was deprived of his Lance Corporal’s rank and reduced to Private. Ptes. Stanley Broadbent (see 11th February), Thomas Caton (see 6th April), George Chamberlain (see 28th May), Albert Edward Everitt (see 12th June), Louis Hodgson (see 9th February), Lewis Lunn (see 16th January), Albert Moore (see 12th May), Harry Simpson (see 11th January), William Percy Smith (see 19th December 1916), Leonard Beaconsfield Turner (see 19th December 1916), Thomas Ward (see 9th June) and Joseph Henry Woodcock (see 13th May) were all reported as having fallen out by CQMS Hubert Charles Hoyle (see 14th January), and, on the orders of Maj. Charles Bathurst (see 19th June), were ordered to forfeit two days’ pay and undergo seven days’ Field Punishment no.2. Ptes. Charles Frederick Riddial (see 6th May) and Fred Slater (see 10th May) of ‘C’ Company were both reported by Cpl. George Heeley (see 19th April) for “drinking on the line of march”; on the orders of Capt. Bob Perks DSO (see 27th June) both would be confined to barracks for three days.

    Acting Sergeant John Stephenson (see 18th April) was now confirmed in his rank of Sergeant and Acting Cpl. George Heeley (see above) was confirmed in his rank of Corporal.

    2Lt. John Keighley Snowden (see 26th February), who had been wounded at Le Sars, appeared before a further Medical Board; the Board found that “This officer is fit for general service. He states that he has some tinnitus but the aural specialist at the no 1 GH Newcastle says that he can find very little wrong with his ears”. He was instructed to re-join his unit.

    After spending eight days at Woodcote Convalescent Hospital, Epsom, Pte. Mark Beaumont (see 20th June) was discharged and granted ten days’ leave before reporting to the Northern Command Depot at Ripon.

    Naval Operations:


    Shipping Losses: 14 (All 14 to U-Boat action)


    Political:


    In recognition of New Zealand's services, "Governor" changed to "Governor-General".

    Czech Socialist memorandum published.

    Neutrals:


    News just in:

    June 27 1917, Madrid–Spain, unlike most other countries in Europe, had stayed out of the war. She had no territorial or colonial ambitions that would be served by a war with Germany (despite sharing a small border with German Kamerun), nor had she anything to fear from German aggression (unlike Denmark or the Netherlands). Unrestricted submarine warfare had a negative effect on Spanish trade and Spanish ships were sunk. Unlike in the United States, however, this did not provoke Spain into the war; in fact King Alfonso XIII now saw himself as the leading neutral head of state, in a prime position to mediate a peace.

    Despite her neutrality, Spain still felt the effects of the war in terms of food shortages and higher prices, which resulted in increased unrest and labor agitation. Against this backdrop, the pro-Allied Spanish PM, Count Romanones, resigned, in part due to a German-funded press campaign against him. The new government soon faced a threat from a different direction, in the military. Officers stationed in Spain had found that their promotion prospects were quite limited compared to those stationed in Morocco and elsewhere in Africa. The leaders of the military juntas were arrested, but the remaining officers threatened to release them by force, and the new government fell. The next PM, Eduardo Dato, on June 27 suspended various constitutional guarantees, especially freedom of the press, in order to secure the monarchy from the risks of coup and revolution.

    Anniversary Events:
    1635 The French colony of Guadeloupe is established in the Caribbean.
    1675 Frederick William of Brandenburg crushes the Swedes.
    1709 Russians defeat the Swedes and Cossacks at the Battle of Poltava.
    1776 Colonists repulse a British sea attack on Charleston, South Carolina.
    1778 Mary “Molly Pitcher” Hays McCauley, wife of an American artilleryman, carries water to the soldiers during the Battle of Monmouth.
    1839 Cinque and other Africans are kidnapped and sold into slavery in Cuba.
    1862 Fighting continues between Union and Confederate forces during the Seven Days’ campaign.
    1863 General George Meade replaces General Joseph Hooker three days before the Battle of Gettysburg.
    1874 The Freedmen’s Bank, created to assist former slaves in the United States, closes. Customers of the bank lose $3 million.
    1884 Congress declares Labor Day a legal holiday.
    1902 Congress passes the Spooner bill, authorizing a canal to be built across the Isthmus of Panama.
    1911 Samuel J. Battle becomes the first African-American policeman in New York City.
    1914 Austria’s Archduke Franz Ferdinand is assassinated at Sarajevo, Serbia.
    See you on the Dark Side......

  26. #2526

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    Stirling work Neil

    Never Knowingly Undergunned !!

  27. #2527

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    Friday 29th June 1917

    Today we lost: 407

    Air Operations:


    Alfred Ulmer joined Jasta 8 on 10 September 1916. On 5 February 1917, he was badly wounded in a fight over Dranoutre when he was shot down by a Nieuport XII belonging to 46 Squadron. Recovering from his wounds, he returned to duty but was killed in a fight with 20 Squadron when his Albatros DV was shot down in flames by Harold Joslyn and Frank Potter in an FE2d.

    Royal Flying Corps Losses today: 10


    2Lt Cooper, C.A. (Cyril Ashley), No.2 (Auxilliary) School of Aerial Gunnery (1st Class Gunnery Instructor), RFC. Died of accidental injuries 29 June 1917. Injured 26 June 1917 in F.E.2b 4926, with AM2 H Towlson, who was also Killed.

    Lt Goodyear, D.M. (Duncan Matheson), 57 Squadron, RFC. Killed in action. NFDK.

    A Mech 1 Jonas, W. (William), Royal Naval Air Station, Isle of Grain, Royal Naval Air Service, H.M.S. 'President II'. NFDK.

    2Lt Kay, G.P. (George Pollard), 46 Squadron, RFC. Died of wounds aged 21. NFDK.

    A Mech 2 MacMahon, S. (Sydney), attached 42nd Siege Battery, Royal Garrison Artillery, RFC. NFDK.

    2Lt Martin, F.R. (Fairlie Russell), 57 Squadron, RFC. (Scots Fusiliers attached Royal Flying Corps) is killed in action at age 18. He is the son of Paymaster Rear Admiral W E R Martin CMG. NFDK.

    Sgt Rudd, P. (Percy), 21 Squadron, RFC. Died of accidental injuries aged 29. NFDK.

    Lt Sykes, H.K. (Harold Keith), 42 Squadron, RFC, (General List attached Royal Flying Corps) dies of injuries at age 25 received six days ago in a flying accident. He has two brothers who will also be killed in the Great War, the first in April 1917 the second in October 1918.

    Flt S-Lt Tulley, T.R., 12 (N) Squadron, RNAS. Killed when crashed while stunting.

    A Mech 2 Wakeley, A.W.C. (Argent William Clissold), 71 Squadron, AFC. Died of carebeller abscess at Birmingham aged 36.

    Claims: 17 confirmed (Entente 16 : Central Powers 1)

    John Cowell #8th confirmed victory.
    William Jenkins #3rd confirmed victory.
    Archie Jenks #2nd confirmed victory.
    Robert Little #24th confirmed victory.
    Donat Makeenok #5th confirmed victory. (Russia)

    2Lt Reginald Milburn Makepeace claims his 1st confirmed victory with 20 Squadron, RFC. Flying an FE2d, with observer Lt Waddington, he shot down an Albatros DIII near Houthem. The son of John P. & Mary A. Milburn Makepeace; Reginald Milburn Makepeace's father was a printer, compositor. Went to Canada in 1908; was living in Montreal, Quebec in 1911 and when he enlisted. Makepeace listed 1887 as the year of his birth when he emigrated to Canada, in 1908. Some sources list him as being born on 27 December 1887 in Liverpool, Lancashire.

    Alexander Merchant #5th confirmed victory.
    Archibold Miller #3rd & #4th confirmed victory.
    William Molesworth #3rd confirmed victory.
    Pier Piccio #5th confirmed victory. (Italy)
    Harold Satchell #5th confirmed victory.
    Owen John Frederick Scholte #3rd confirmed victory.
    Reginald Soar #6th confirmed victory.

    Lt Melville Wells Waddington claims his 1st confirmed victory with 20 Squadron, RFC. As an observer with pilot 2Lt Makepeace, he shot down an Albatros DII near Houthem. The son of Herbert and Edna Waddington, Melville Wells Waddington was over six feet tall. He attended the University of Toronto and after serving with the 12th Brigade Ammunition Column, Lieutenant Waddington transferred to the Royal Flying Corps on 16 April 1917. He was posted to 20 Squadron on 18 June 1917 and scored 12 victories that year as an observer. When the war ended, he returned to Canada where he sold insurance and real estate until his death in 1945.

    Arthur Jones-Williams #5th confirmed victory.


    Paul Billik #3rd confirmed victory.

    Western Front


    Continued British advance south of Souchez river; Avion entered.

    German attacks on Chemin des Dames front; French lose ground north-east of Cerny.

    German attacks near Reims repulsed.

    June 28 1917, St. Nazaire
    –Having successfully avoided U-Boats on their way across the Atlantic, the first American troop convoy arrived in St. Nazaire. The 14,000 troops on board finished unloading on June 28. They were greeted rapturously by the people of St. Nazaire, who hoped that American troops would bring the war to a swift conclusion. However, Pershing was less sanguine. He knew that the troops were disorganized and not fully trained, and it would be some time before they would be ready to serve on the front. This was further complicated by more political issues of command; the Americans insisted that the AEF work as a “separate and distinct component of the combined forces,” under an independent American command. This was unlike American naval forces in Europe, which were placed under British command, or the other Allied contingents of similar size on the Western Front (such as the Russia or Portuguese expeditionary forces). Due to all of these factors, Americans would not serve on the front until October.

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    First US troops disembark at St Nazaire

    Tunstills Men Friday 29th June 1917:

    Chippewa Camp, south-east of Reninghelst

    There was heavy rain in the evening and overnight.

    Maj. Charles Bathurst (see 28th June), who had been in temporary command of the Battalion since 18th May in the absence of Lt. Col. Robert Raymer (see 12th June) was posted back to England to attend a three-month senior officers’ course. His batman, Pte. George Albert Garbutt (see 22nd December 1916) went with him. Command of the Battalion passed temporarily to Maj. Herbert Henry Hudson MC who was transferred from 11th West Yorks. He was 36 years old and originally from Leeds. He had been awarded the Military Cross in June 1916, not for any specific action, but for his general meritorious service.

    L.Cpl. Victor Race (see 15th June) began to be paid according to his rank, which he had previously held unpaid.

    Cpl. John Stewart (see 26th May) was admitted to 69th Field Ambulance suffering from ‘debility’; he would be treated for three days before being discharged to duty.

    Pte. Charles Hammond (see 19th December 1916) was posted back to England. The reason for his departure, whether wounded, sick or otherwise, is currently unknown.

    Overnight the Battalion moved into support trenches, relieving 9th East Surreys, behind the area of Hill 60 and the Caterpillar. A Company was positioned at Larch Wood; B Company at The Caterpillar; C Company at The Dump and D Company at Imperial Trench (about I.34.a.7.2). Battalion HQ was at Larch Wood and the transport lines at Micmac Camp. The relief passed off quietly and without incident.

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    The weekly edition of the Craven Herald carried a series of reports regarding local casualties in the recent actions.

    GISBURN - CORPORAL W. H. SCOTT DIES FROM WOUNDS

    News has been received from the War Office by the wife of Corporal William Henry Scott (see 11th June), Duke of Wellington's Regiment, and late of Gisburn, that he died from wounds on June 11th. We take the following extracts from a letter written by Second-Lieutenant W.G. Wade (see 15th June):- "It is with the deepest sympathy and regret that I write to inform you of the sad death of your husband who died from the shock of his wound. Corporal H. Smith (unidentified) - a great friend of his - and myself were standing talking when a shell burst behind us. A part of the shell case struck your husband on the left cheekbone. He was unconscious, but we did not think the wound would be fatal when I wrote to your niece. It was after two or three days when we heard about his death, and owing to our frequent moving from place to place I had not the opportunity to write before. Believe me, the men of our transport deeply regret his death, and be assured that their sympathy is with you in your hour of trial, for your husband was one of the most cheerful companions and popular with his fellows. It is difficult yet to obtain news of his burial place, but I will endeavour to find out his last resting place, and should we be at any time in that district, you may be comforted to know that we will pay our deepest and fullest respects to his grave. You will be proud to know that he was always ready to volunteer to do his share of the great work."

    Corporal Scott, who was 26 years of age, was at one time employed as a groom by Mr. Kerns, of Gisburn. He enlisted in September 1915, and married shortly before leaving for France

    EARBY - MEMORIAL SERVICE

    A memorial service for the two Earby soldiers (Pte. Tom Greenwood (see 24th June) and Airman Frank Waddington), whose deaths were recorded last week, was held at the Wesleyan Chapel on Sunday morning. The Rev. A. Bradfield (supt. Minister) gave an impressive and very appropriate address on 'The Christian's Hope.' The deceased had both been active members of the Wesleyan Guild before joining the colours.

    ADDINGHAM - THE WAR'S TOLL

    Mr. and Mrs. F. Smith have received the following official intimation of the death of their son, Pte. R. Smith (see 13th June):-

    Infantry Record Office, York.

    "We regret to inform you of the death of your son, Pte. R. Smith, West Riding Regt., in the No. 2 Casualty Clearing Station, France on June 11th from shrapnel wounds in the left arm, left shoulder, and fractured humerus."

    The following letter was received from the R.C. Chaplain by his mother:- "Dear Madam, - I am the R.C. Chaplain at No. 2 Canadian Clearing Station. Your son went to our hospital and I had the privilege to give him the last sacrament. I deeply regret to inform you that he died in our hospital. I buried him in our cemetery close to the hospital. His grave is Plot 14E27. The burial took place yesterday the 12th June. I beg you to accept in this trial for yourself and your family my most sincere condolences. I can assure you that he will have a part in my prayers more especially at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. I remain, dear Madam, Yours truly, Edward Guay, R.C. Chaplain, No. 2 Can. Cas. Clearg. Station."

    Pte. Smith had seen a good deal of active service, joining up in the early period of the war and experiencing some stiff fighting, having been wounded several times. His brother, Pte. J. Smith (see 10th June), was one of the survivors of a torpedoed transport. There are still four brothers in the Army and one in the Navy, as well as a brother-in-law in the Army.

    ADDINGHAM SOLDIERS LETTERS

    Mr. Flint has received the following acknowledgment of parcels sent out:-

    Pte. W. Townson writes from the Royal Berks. War Hospital, Reading:- "Thanks for yours of the 18th and P.O., which will come in handy later on, that is when I can get out a bit. I am pleased to say my wound is doing very nicely, and yesterday I was able to get up for a short time. Before long I am hoping to spend a few days at home. I am sorry to hear the news about Reuben; we have lost some good lads from the old village."

    SKIPTON'S ROLL OF HONOUR - PRIVATE HARRY COWPER

    We regret to say that news was received from the Territorial Records Office, York, on Wednesday, of the death in action on the Western Front of Private Harry Cowper (see 12th June), West Riding Regiment, whose sisters live at 17, Brook Street, Skipton. No details are yet to hand beyond the fact that death took place on June 7th. Only 19 years of age, deceased was formerly an apprentice with the firm of Messrs. Alf Green and Co., Midland Saw Mills, Skipton. He joined up about 12 months ago and went to France in November last. His brother, Corporal Jack Cowper, is serving at the Front with the Royal Engineers.

    SKIPTON STRETCHER BEARER KILLED - PTE. CHARLES ARTHUR STOTT

    We regret to record the death in action on June 10th of Private Charles Arthur Stott (see 10th June), Duke of Wellington's West Riding Regt., whose wife and child live at 14, Bennett Street, Skipton. The sad news first came to hand in a letter written by Pte. J. W. Atkinson (see 10th June), of Skipton, to his mother, and was confirmed by the following letter from Sec.-Lieut. J. R. ****inson (see 21st June):- "I am very sorry to have to inform you of the death of your husband, who was killed in action on June 10th after having done three days' magnificent work as a stretcher-bearer. He was killed instantaneously while carrying a stretcher away. I am very sorry to have lost him, as I have never had a more willing and conscientious worker, and although he was not over strong he did not let it stand in his way, but worked untiringly. Please accept the deepest sympathy from the N.C.O.s and men of his platoon, and also from his fellow stretcher-bearers."

    The official intimation from the War Office was received on Friday last. Deceased, whose mother lives at Brookside, Skipton, was 33 years of age, and in civil life was a clerk and was connected with the Skipton Parish Church. He joined up in August 1916, and went out to the Front last January.

    There was also a further report in the Clitheroe Times regarding Pte. Fred Brown (see 25th June), which, unfortunately was published before confirmation of his death was received by his family.

    GOOD NEWS AT WADDINGTON - PRIVATE BROWN NOW REPORTED WOUNDED

    A fortnight ago we published the intimation, officially confirmed last week, that Private Fred Brown, Waddington, had been killed. The grief of the relatives, however, was changed to joy last Saturday morning when the Quartermaster-Sergeant of the Duke of Wellington’s West Riding Regt. Wrote, saying he had made a great mistake; Private Brown being “alive and fairly well”. On Wednesday morning a communication was also received from the Regimental Records Office, asking for the return of the official notice that Private Brown was killed and saying he was now reported wounded on June 7th. The members of the family are anxiously awaiting news from Pte. Brown himself.

    Eastern Front:

    Russian Summer Offensive begins (see July 18th).

    Southern Front:

    Austrian attack in Dolomites repulsed.

    Italians evacuate advanced position on Asiago Plateau (Trentino).

    Africa, Asiatic & Egyptian Theatres:

    Announcement that General Allenby has arrived in Egypt and assumed command of Allied forces in succession to General Murray.

    Naval Operations:


    Shipping Losses: 5 (All to U-Boat action)


    Political:


    Speech by Mr. Lloyd George at Glasgow.

    The Ukraine proclaims independence from Russia.

    Anniversary Events:

    1236 Ferdinand III of Castile and Leon take Cordoba in Spain.
    1652 Massachusetts declares itself an independent commonwealth.
    1767 The British parliament passes the Townshend Revenue Act, levying taxes on America.
    1862 Union forces, falling back from Richmond, fight at the Battle of Savage's Station.
    1880 France annexes Tahiti.
    1888 Professor Frederick Treves performs the first appendectomy in England.
    1903 The British government officially protests Belgian atrocities in the Congo.
    1905 Russian troops intervene as riots erupt in ports all over the country, leaving many ships looted.
    1917 The Ukraine proclaims independence from Russia.

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    See you on the Dark Side......

  28. #2528

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    Saturday 30th June 1917
    Today we lost: 449

    Air Operations:


    Lt. Col. William L. Mitchell assumes command of the American Air Service, AEF.

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    When the United States declared war on Germany on April 6, 1917, Mitchell was in Spain en route to France as an observer. He arrived in Paris on April 10, and set up an office for the Aviation Section from which he collaborated extensively with British and French air leaders such as General Hugh Trenchard, studying their strategies as well as their aircraft. On April 24, he made the first flight by an American officer over German lines, flying with a French pilot. Before long, Mitchell had gained enough experience to begin preparations for American air operations. Mitchell rapidly earned a reputation as a daring, flamboyant, and tireless leader. In May, he was promoted to lieutenant colonel. He was promoted to the temporary rank of colonel on October 10, 1917 to rank from August 5.

    In September 1918, he planned and led nearly 1,500 British, French, and Italian aircraft in the air phase of the Battle of Saint-Mihiel, one of the first coordinated air-ground offensives in history. He was elevated to the rank of (temporary) brigadier general on October 14, 1918 and commanded all American air combat units in France. He ended the war as Chief of Air Service, Group of Armies, and became Chief of Air Service, Third Army after the armistice.

    Recognized as one of the top American combat airmen of the war alongside aces such as his good friend, Eddie Rickenbacker, he was probably the best-known American in Europe. He was awarded the DSC, the DSM, the WW1 Victory Medal with eight campaign clasps, and several foreign decorations. Despite his superb leadership and his fine combat record, he alienated many of his superiors during and after his 18 months of service in France

    Royal Flying Corps Losses today: No casualties are recorded for today.


    Claims: 2 confirmed (Entente 0 : Central Powers 2)

    Hans Korner #2nd confirmed victory.

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    StabfeldwebelJohann Johann Risztics claims his #1st confirmed victory with Flik 42J. Flying a Hansa Brandenburg DI he shot down a Nieuport scout near Podgora. During 1918, Risztics formed a strong friendship with fellow pilots Friedrich Hefty and Ferdinand Udvardy. Amongst the airmen of Flik 42J, the trio became known as the Arany Triumviratus (Golden Triumvirate). Risztics marked both sides of his Albatros D.III with the number "8." Udvardy with the number "7", and Hefty with the number "6".

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    Western Front

    British capture further enemy defences south-west and west of Lens.

    German attack on Chemin des Dames.

    Violent artillery action west of Mort Homme (Verdun).

    Tunstills Men Saturday 30th June 1917:


    Support trenches, in the area of Hill 60 and the Caterpillar (A Company at Larch Wood; B Company at The Caterpillar; C Company at The Dump and D Company at Imperial Trench (about I.34.a.7.2).

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    There was heavy rain throughout the day which meant that, “the ground very slippery and work very difficult”; there was also considerable German shelling.

    Pte. John Dennis Moss (see 11th September 1915) was wounded; the details of his injuries are unknown.

    Pte. Harold Peel (see 7th June), who had been wounded on 7th June, was discharged from 7th Canadian General Hospital at Etaples and sent to 6th Convalescent Depot at Etaples.

    Pte. Jabez Wintersgill (see 7th June), who had been wounded on 7th June, was discharged from 56th General Hospital at Etaples and posted to 34th Infantry Base Depot at Etaples, en route to returning to active service.

    Lt. Col. Robert Raymer (see 29th June) who had been away from the Battalion since being taken ill on 18th May and had been on sick leave in England since 12th June, wrote to the War Office from his temporary address in Clifton, Bristol, confirming that he was now fit to return to duty:

    “I have the honour to report that the 21 days sick leave granted to me … expires on 3rd July and that I am proceeding to re-join the British Expeditionary Force on that date, being fit for return”.

    Pte. Harry Smith (see 28th April), serving with 7th Battalion, Labour Corps, was transferred to 377th Home Service Labour Company.

    Official casualty for the month were officially recorded as being:

    Killed – 2 officers and 35 other ranks

    Accidentally killed 0

    Died of wounds 0

    Wounded 6 officers and 159 other ranks

    Accidentally wounded 0

    Missing 13

    The official cumulative casualty figures for the Battalion since arriving in France were now:

    Killed 209

    Accidentally killed 4

    Died of wounds 9

    Wounded 974

    Accidentally wounded 51

    Missing 129

    Eastern Front:

    Heavy artillery action in Galicia.

    Africa, Asiatic & Egyptian Theatres:

    German forces driven from Nyassaland to the Rovuma border by British and Portuguese.

    Naval Operations:


    Shipping Losses: 24 (1 ran aground, 3 to mines & 20 to U –Boat action)


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    The destroyer HMS Cheerful (Lieutenant Harman A L Bond RNR) is sunk in northern Scottish waters, 6 miles SSE of Lerwick, Mainland, Shetland Islands. Cheerful strikes a mine, presumably German U-boat-laid, off Helli Ness, Cunningsburgh on the SE side of the main Shetland Island. Forty of her crew are killed while 18 men are saved

    Political:


    Greece breaks off relations with Germany and Austria-Hungary.

    Soviet delegates leave Russia for Socialist conferences in Stockholm, England, France and Italy.

    June 29 1917, Kiev
    [Kyiv]–The fall of the Czar had, in addition to its myriad other effect, had also brought nationalist problems to the forefront in Russia. The Provisional Government had largely embraced Wilson’s language about self-determination, and unsurprisingly many ethnic minorities in the former Russian Empire did so as well. A Ukrainian parliament, the Rada, had been quickly set up after the revolution and had been attempting to convince the Provisional Government to make needed concessions in the Ukraine. Chief among these were Ukrainian autonomy, the appointment of Ukrainians to governmental posts in the Ukraine, Ukrainian participation in any peace settlement, and extensive land reforms.

    The Provisional Government stalled, questioning the Rada’s authority to speak on behalf of the Ukraine, and saying that they could not make any substantial agreement with Ukraine until elections were held in both Russia and the Ukraine. The Rada grew impatient at the Provisional Government’s delays, and on June 23 unilaterally declared Ukrainian autonomy within Russia. On June 29, after the declaration was approved by the local Soviets, the new General Secretariat of Ukraine had its first meeting. Only a few hundred miles to the west, the Russian army was beginning its barrage preparatory to the upcoming offensive, as the state behind it was coming apart at the seams.

    Presented with the fait accompli in Kiev, the Provisional Government eventually recognized Ukrainian autonomy and the General Secretariat. The more right-wing members of the Provisional Government would strongly object to this, however, leading to further divisions in the Russian state.

    Anniversary Events:

    1520 Montezuma II is murdered as Spanish conquistadors flee the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan during the night.
    1857 Charles ****ens reads from A Christmas Carol at St. Martin’s Hall in London–his first public reading.
    1859 Jean Francois Gravelet aka Emile Blondin, a French daredevil, becomes the first man to walk across Niagara Falls on a tightrope.
    1908 A mysterious explosion, possibly the result of a meteorite, levels thousands of trees in the Tunguska region of Siberia with a force approaching twenty megatons.

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    Last edited by Lt. S.Kafloc; 06-30-2017 at 01:39.
    See you on the Dark Side......

  29. #2529

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    Sunday 1st July 1917

    Today we lost: 621

    Air Operations:


    The famous Sopwith Camel is introduced into service by the RFC, assisting the British to recapture air superiority over the battlefield.

    The Camel was powered by a single rotary engine and was armed with twin synchronized machine guns. Though proving difficult to handle, it provided for a high level of manoeuvrability to an experienced pilot, an attribute which was highly valued in the type's principal use as a fighter aircraft. In total, Camel pilots have been credited with the shooting down of 1,294 enemy aircraft, more than any other Allied fighter of the conflict. Towards the end of the Great War, the type had also seen use as a ground-attack aircraft, partially due to it having become increasingly outclassed as the capabilities of fighter aircraft on both sides was rapidly advancing at that time.

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    Navalised Camels on the aircraft carrier HMS Furious prior to raiding the Tondern airship hangars.

    The main variant of the Camel was designated as the F.1. several dedicated variants were built for a variety of roles, including the2F.1 Ship's Camel, which was used for operating from the flight decks of aircraft carriers, the Comic night fighter variant, and the T.F.1, a dedicated 'trench fighter' that had been armoured for the purpose of conducting ground attacks upon heavily defended enemy lines. The Camel also saw use as a two-seat trainer aircraft. In January 1920, the last aircraft of the type were withdrawn from RAF service.

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    Sopwith 2F.1 Camel suspended from airship R 23 prior to a test flight

    The only Handley Page O/100 in the Mediterranean theater bombs Constantinople in an attempt to begin a bombing campaign against the Ottoman Empire '​s capital city.

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    The Handley Page Type O was an early biplane bomber used by Britain during WW1. The Type O was the largest aircraft that had been built in the UK and one of the largest in the world. Most were built in two versions, the Handley Page O/100 (H.P.11) and Handley Page O/400 (H.P.12).

    The bombers were used in France for tactical night attacks on targets in German-occupied France and Belgium and for strategic bombing of industrial and transport targets in the Rhineland. Some aircraft were temporarily diverted toanti-submarine reconnaissance and bombing in the Tees estuary in 1917 and two aircraft operated in the eastern Mediterranean. The impression made by the Type O was such that for many years after the war, any large aircraft came to be called a "Handley Page" in Britain and entered the dictionary as such.

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    A Handley Page O/100 of the RNAS, 1918. Wings and interplane struts are finished with an experimental mottled camouflage scheme.

    Royal Flying Corps Losses today: 6

    CPO3 McFarland, J. (John), Armoured Car Division (Russia), RNAS. Killed in Action near Brezezany aged 36

    PO Mech Mitchell, W.L. (Wilfred Lionel) , Armoured Car Division (Russia), RNAS. Killed in Action near Brezezany aged 32. Ssuffered Direct Hit when serving with a Maxim Detachment.

    Sub Lieutenant Charles Bernard Orfeu, 2 (N) Squadron, RNAS. Dies of injuries received when aircraft crashed, aged 25. His brother will be killed in August 1918.

    PO Mech Pearson, W.G. (William George), Armoured Car Division (Russia), RNAS. Killed in Action near Brezezany.

    A Mech 1 Pinder, A. (Arthur), Farnborough Depot, RFC. NFDK.

    PO Mech Viane, E. (Edgar), Armoured Car Division (Russia), RNAS. Killed in Action near Brezezany aged 21.

    Claims: No claims today in 1917 (Today in 1918 there will be nearly 80!)

    Western Front


    Violent bombardment, followed by German attacks in Cerny-Ailles sector (northern Aisne); enemy losses heavy.
    Successful French counter-attack north-west of Verdun.

    June 30 1917, Bad Kreuznach
    –The mutinies in the French army had been widespread in May and early June. On June 4, it is estimated that only two fully reliable divisions stood between the Germans and Paris. However, the Germans remained unaware of this until Ludendorff finally heard about it on June 30. The mutinies were largely spontaneous and localized; beyond perhaps a neighboring unit, most soldiers, even those within mutinous units, had no idea how widespread the mutinies were. As a result, only French military and political leaders knew the full extent of the mutinies, and they made the fullest use of press censorship to prevent the word from spreading. Soldiers sent on leave were given the strictest instructions not to discuss any sort of indiscipline they might have witnessed on the front.

    By the time Ludendorff heard the news on June 30, the time to take advantage of it had largely passed. The mutinies were less and less common, thanks to a cessation of offensives, a more generous leave policy, and, to a surprisingly large extent, personal tours of the front by Pétain himself. Whether the Germans considered an offensive on the Aisne to take advantage of the French morale situation is unclear; their strategic choices in 1918 suggest it may not have been a major factor. Besides, the imminent Kerensky Offensive in the east demanded the Germans’ attention at the moment, ruling out any attacks in the west.

    Tunstills Men Sunday 1st July 1917:


    Support trenches, in the area of Hill 60 and the Caterpillar; A Company at Larch Wood; B Company at The Caterpillar; C Company at The Dump and D Company at Imperial Trench (about I.34.a.7.2).

    A fine day. There was heavy German shelling of reserve positions and intensive shelling of British front line around dawn.

    Overnight 1st/2nd the Battalion relieved 8Yorks in the front line on the right sector of the Divisional Front. One Company remained at the Caterpillar (I.35.a.9.2) and three Companies were positioned on the eastern edge of Battle Wood between O.6.a.2.5 and I.36.b.2.3; Battalion HQ was located at I.35.a.35.20. The line in this sector was by no means continuous or secure and was actually held by a series of posts.
    Three officers serving with the Battalion were promoted Lieutenant. Capt. Bob Perks DSO (see 28th June) was already holding his more senior rank in an acting capacity whilst commanding a Company; 2Lt. David Lewis Evans (see 15th June) and 2Lt. Herbert Sparling (see 15th June) were also promoted.

    2Lts. Conrad Anderson (see 20th June) and Ronald Ferguson (see 20th June), who had arrived in France ten days previously, reported for duty with 10DWR.

    There were also promotions for a number of former officers of 10DWR who were now in England, having been wounded or taken ill on active service. 2Lt. Harry Foster (see 8th July 1916), who had been in England since suffering shellshock on the Somme in July 1916; 2Lt. Ernest Cyril Coke (see 11th January), who had been wounded on the Somme in July 1916 and was now serving with 3DWR at North Shields; and 2Lts. Stanley Currington (see 4th October 1916) and John Keighley Snowden (see 28th June), both of whom had been wounded at Le Sars in October 1916, were all promoted Lieutenant. 2Lt. George Stuart Hulburd (see 7th April), who had been taken ill in April, and 2Lt. John Redington (see 10th April), who had been taken ill in July 1916 and was now employed at the Army Recruiting Office in Wolverhampton, were also both promoted Lieutenant.

    For the second time in less than a month Pte. Albert Saville (see 7th June) was reported absent without leave from 298th Labour Company, based at Ripon. On this occasion he was apprehended, on the same evening, by a member of the Military Police. On returning he was confined to barracks for three days.

    Trooper Claude Darwin (see 9th June), serving in Egypt with 1st Field Squadron, Engineers, Anzac Mounted Division, who had been in hospital for the previous two weeks suffering from an abcess to his neck, was transferred to the Citadel General Hospital in Cairo. He was the brother of Tunstill recruit, Pte. Tom Darwin (see 26th June), who had recently been evacuated to England having been wounded on 7th June.

    Eastern Front:

    Russian offensive, under General Brusilov, opens on 50-mile front, on either side of Brzezany (Galicia); three lines of trenches and 12,000 prisoners taken. To the south stubborn fighting, heavy Russian losses.

    Southern Front:

    Austrians very active in the Trentino. Attacks repulsed by Italians.

    Naval Operations:


    Shipping Losses: 14 (All to U-Boat action)


    Political:


    The announcement in Holland of assurances by Lord Derby that Britain will not strike at Germany through Holland if she remains neutral is made.

    Young Chinese Emperor, Hsuan Tung, restored.

    Anniversary Events:

    69 Vespasian, a Roman army leader, is hailed as a Roman emperor by the Egyptian legions.
    1543 England and Scotland sign the Peace of Greenwich.
    1596 An English fleet under the Earl of Essex, Lord Howard of Effingham and Francis Vere capture and sack Cadiz, Spain.
    1690 Led by Marshall Luxembourg, the French defeat the forces of the Grand Alliance at Fleurus in the Netherlands.
    1777 British troops depart from their base at the Bouquet River to head toward Ticonderoga, New York.
    1798 Napoleon Bonaparte takes Alexandria, Egypt.
    1838 Charles Darwin presents a paper on his theory of evolution to the Linnean Society in London.
    1862 Union artillery stops a Confederate attack at Malvern Hill, Virginia.
    1863 In the first day’s fighting at Gettysburg, Federal forces retreat through the town and dig in at Cemetery Ridge and Cemetery Hill.
    1867 Canada, by the terms of the British North America Act, becomes an independent dominion.
    1876 Montenegro declares war on the Turks.
    1898 American troops take San Juan Hill and El Caney, Cuba, from the Spaniards.
    1916 The Battle of the Somme begins. Approximately 30,000 men are killed on the first day, two-thirds of them British.

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    Snoopy piloting his "Sopwith Camel"
    See you on the Dark Side......

  30. #2530

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    Monday 2nd July 1917

    Today we lost: 390

    Air Operations:


    British aeroplanes bomb Bruges. One of his engines having seized while he is over Bruges, Flight Lieutenant Cecil Hill Darley (Royal Naval Air Service) drops his bombs on his objective and manages to fly his machine home on one engine and make a safe landing at his aerodrome.

    Royal Flying Corps Losses today: 12


    2Lt Carter, H.W.W. (Harry William Whittard), 59 Squadron, RFC. Accidently killed whilst flying. NFDK.

    Capt Cole-Hamilton, C.W.E. (Con William Eric), 56 Training Squadron, RFC. (Royal Scots attached Royal Flying Corps) is killed, flying Spad S7 A8965, in a flying accident at age 21. His uncle was killed commanding the 6th East Lancashire Regiment at Sari Bahr on Gallipoli in August 1915.
    2Lt Eliot, G.L. (Geoffrey Lionel), 76 Squadron, RFC. Killed whilst flying. NFDK.

    Capt Horsley, W.P. (Wilfred Palmer), 53 Squadron, RFC. Killed in action aged 30. NFDK.

    CPO3 Locke, W.J. (William James), Armoured Car Division, RNAS. Died of Wounds near Brezezany aged 23.

    2Lt Mowat, S.A. (Sinclair Alexander), 31 Training Squadron, RFC. Accidentally Killed whilst flying in Huntingdon.

    2Lt Pascoe, F.G.B. (Frank Guy Buckingham), 53 Squadron, (Irish Fusiliers attached Royal Flying Corps),RFC. Killed in action aged 22. NFDK. He is the son of the Reverend Frank Pascoe Vicar of St George’s Millom.

    LCpl Russell, F. (Frederick), 45 Squadron, RFC. Died of Wounds received while flying aged 22.

    Lt Smith, E.S.C. (Eric St Clare), Wireless & Observers School, (Royal Field Artillery attached Royal Flying Corps), RFC. Accidentally Killed whilst flying, Sgt Wilson was injured, at Brooklands at age 25 when his biplane falls from the sky. He is the son of Alderman Enos Smith, Chairman of the West Ham Education Committee.

    Sgt Whatley, H.A. (Hubert Arthur), 53 Squadron, RFC, aged 19. NFDK.

    Lt Wheatley, L.A. (Leslie Albert), 59 Squadron, RFC. Killed in action aged 26. NFDK.

    Capt Wyatt, F. (Felix), 27 Squadron, RFC, aged 28. He is the son of the Reverend James Deen Keriman Mahomed Wyatt Rector of Ingham. NFDK.

    Claims: 10 confirmed (Entente 7 : Central Powers 3)

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    Flt S-Lt Charles Philip Oldfield Bartlett claims his #1st confirmed victory with 5 (N) Squadron, RNAS. Flying a DH4, with observer AGL S.D. Sambrook, he shot down an Albartos DV near Zeebrugge. Flight Sub-Lieutenant Charles Philip Oldfield Bartlett received Royal Aero Club Aviator's Certificate 3118 on a Maurice Farman biplane at Royal Naval Air Station, Chingford on 21 June 1916.

    Raymond Collishaw #25th confirmed victory.
    Albert Earl Godfrey #8th confirmed victory.
    Arthur Willan Keen #6th confirmed victory.
    Harold Satchell #6th confirmed victory.
    Richard Trevethan #3rd confirmed victory.
    Vasili Yanchenko #8th confirmed victory.

    Gisbert-Wilhelm Groos #3rd confirmed victory.
    Manfred von Richthofen #57th confirmed victory.
    Reinhard Treptow #3rd confirmed victory.

    Western Front


    British advanced posts driven back short distance from Lens.

    German attacks repulsed north of the Aisne.

    Tunstills Men Monday 2nd July 1917:

    (Dispatch rider late again....will have to have strong words with him)


    Eastern Front:

    Russian offensive progresses in the region of Zborow (east of Lemberg); 6,300 prisoners taken.

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    Troops from the Czechoslovak Brigade, pictured around the time of the offensive in early July. Their attack on July 2 was a great success, breaking through the Austrian lines and taking roughly as many prisoners as there were soldiers in their own brigade.

    July 1 1917, Tarnopol–After a two-day preliminary barrage, the Russians began their first major offensive after the revolution on July 1. The plan for the offensive was quite similar to last year’s Brusilov Offensive, featuring careful reconnaissance, sapping, and coordination between infantry and artillery. The offensive was taking place over a narrower front than in 1916, allowing a greater concentration of Russian manpower and artillery–though it would also allow a greater concentration of German and Austrian reserves.

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    RNAS Armoured Car Division Officers, Kerensky Offensive July 1917.

    Morale in the Russian armies was extremely low, as Brusilov recognised. Although the troops on the Southwest Front were more reliable than those closer to revolutionary Petrograd, the planners of the offensive still made sure that the troops in the vanguard were mainly not European Russians, instead using troops from Siberia and Finland, a brigade of Czechoslovak volunteers, as well as highly trained and reliable shock battalions.

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    Men of the RNAS Russian Armoured Car Division and a Russian artillery battery pose with a British flag on a flat-bed railway wagon in Galicia during preparations for the offensive. Galicia (the Austro-Hungarian partition of Poland), July 1917.

    The left flank of the attack had little success, making few gains, none of them permanent. On the right flank, however, the Eleventh Army made excellent progress. Russian heavy artillery had wreaked havoc on the Austrian lines, shock troops quickly broke through weak points, and the preponderance of Russian infantry soon overwhelmed the rest. In the first two days of the offensive, the Eleventh Army had taken the first two Austrian trench lines, captured 18,000 prisoners, and opened a three-mile gap between enemy armies. Whether they could exploit these gains in the coming days, however, was still quite uncertain.

    Naval Operations:

    First regular convoy of merchant ships sails from Hampton Roads (Va.) [Experimental convoys had been tried in May. Convoys outward from Great Britain did not start till August.] (see May 17th and June 14th).

    Shipping Losses: 7 (all to U-Boat action)


    Political:


    King and Queen attend service at Westminster Abbey for jubilee of Canadian Federation.

    Agreement signed at The Hague for the exchange of combatant and civilian British and German prisoners of war (see May 13th, 1916).

    Anniversary Events:

    1298 An army under Albert of Austria defeats forces led by Adolf of Nassau.
    1625 The Spanish army takes Breda, Spain, after nearly a year of siege.
    1644 Oliver Cromwell crushes the Royalists at the Battle of Marston Moor.
    1747 Marshall Saxe leads the French forces to victory over an Anglo-Dutch force under the Duke of Cumberland at the Battle of Lauffeld.
    1776 The Continental Congress resolves with the Declaration of Independence that the American colonies “are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States.”
    1822 Denmark Vesey is executed in Charleston, South Carolina, for planning a massive slave revolt.
    1858 Czar Alexander II frees the serfs working on imperial lands.
    1863 The Union left flank holds at Little Round Top during the Battle of Gettysburg.
    1881 Charles J. Guiteau fatally wounds President James A. Garfield in Washington, D.C.

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    See you on the Dark Side......

  31. #2531

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    No diary entry for Tunstills men received. Can only assume DR lost.
    See you on the Dark Side......

  32. #2532

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    Tuesday 3rd July 1917

    Today we lost: 423

    Air Operations:


    British air raid on Belgian towns.

    Royal Flying Corps Losses today: 7


    Lt Adam, A.R. (Alexander Russell), 50 Squadron, RFC. Killed in Action aged 21, during an aerial combat near Arras.

    Lt Cleaver, E.A. (Eric Arnold), 14th Balloon Company, RFC. Died of wounds. NFDK.

    A Mech 2 Duncan, T. (Thomas), 4 Squadron, RFC, attached 120th Siege Battery, Royal Garrison Artillery. Killed in action aged 19. NFDK.

    2Lt Littler, T. (Tom), 1 Squadron, RFC. Killed in action aged 19. NFDK.

    2Lt Moore, F. (Frederick), 4 Squadron, RFC. Killed in action while flying aged 22. NFDK.

    Capt Orr, R.B.R. (Robert Baird Rowley), 4 Squadron, RFC. Crashed while flying, aged 30.

    A Mech 2 Wilmot, W.A. (William Arthur), RNAS. Died of pneumonia aged 36.

    Claims: 21 (Entente 19 : Central Powers 2)

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    Lt Cecil Brock claims his #1st confirmed victory with 1 (N) Squadron, RNAS Flying a Sopwith Triplane he shot down an Albatros DIII near Tenbrielen. From Winnipeg, Canada, Cecil Guelph Brock joined the Royal Naval Air Service in 1916. He scored 3 victories flying the Sopwith Triplane and 3 victories flying the Sopwith Camel. Wounded in action on 21 August 1918, Brock took part in the dogfight with Jasta 11 that resulted in the death of Manfred von Richthofen.

    William Jameson Cairnes #4th confirmed victory.
    Keith Caldwell #7th confirmed victory.
    Arnold Chadwick #7th confirmed victory.
    Ralph Curtis #2nd confirmed victory.
    Fred Holliday #16th confirmed victory.
    William Jenkins #4th confirmed victory.
    Frederick Kydd #5th confirmed victory.
    Robert Little #25th & #26th confirmed victory.
    Alan Inceil Riley #5th confirmed victory.
    Reginald Soar #7th confirmed victory.
    Frank Soden #2nd confirmed victory.
    Frank Stevens #2nd confirmed victory.
    Edmund Thieffry #5th & #6th confirmed victory. (Belgium)

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    2Lt Desmond Percival Fitzgerald Uniacke claims his #1st confirmed victory with 48 Squadron, RFC. As an observer in a Bristol F2b, with Pilot Lt Ralph Curtis, he shot down a 2 seater near Queant. The son of Richard Gordon Fitzgerald and Cecilia Monica (Lambert) Uniacke, Desmond Percival Fitzgerald Uniacke attended St. John's College, Hurstpierpoint and was serving with the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers when he was promoted to 2nd Lieutenant on 23 September 1916. A Bristol F2b observer with 48 Squadron, he transferred to the Royal Flying Corps in May 1917. He scored 13 victories with pilot Ralph Curtis before both were shot down over Roulers on 21 September 1917 by Hermann Goring of Jasta 27. Curtis died from his wounds and Uniacke was taken prisoner.

    Anthony Wall #16th confirmed victory.
    Wilfred Young #2nd confirmed victory.

    Paul Billik #4th confirmed victory.
    Adolf von Tutschek #11th confirmed victory.

    Western Front


    German offensive on a front of 11 miles north of the Aisne repulsed with heavy loss.

    German attacks towards Verdun repulsed.

    Two members of the 22nd Canadian Infatnry are shot at dawn for desertion. Private Gustave Comte and Private Joseph LaLancette both pay the ultimate price for their actions. The twenty-two year old Comte had enlisted in September 1915 and landed in England in June 1916. The twenty-one year old LaLancette joined the army in June 1916 just two days after Comte landed in England. LaLancette was drafted to France in November 1916, just before the end of the Battle of the Somme.
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    Shot at Dawn Memorial

    Tunstills Men Tuesday 3rd July 1917:


    Front line trenches in Battle Wood; one company at the Caterpillar (I.35.a.9.2) and three Companies between O.6.a.2.5 and I.36.b.2.3.
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    Another hot day, with further German shelling.

    Overnight 3rd/4th the Battalion was relieved by 1/17th Londons, with the relief completed by 2am, and moved back to Micmac Camp, between ****ebusch and Ouderdom.

    Pte. Richard Marsden (see 13th May) was wounded; he suffered ‘bomb wounds’ to his left thigh and was admitted, via 71st Field Ambulance, to 10th Casualty Clearing Station at Remy Sidings, and from there he would be transferred to 3rd Canadian Stationery Hospital at Boulogne.

    Pte. Ronald Bray (see 20th May), serving with the Divisional Machine Gun Company, was wounded, suffering multiple shrapnel wounds to his left shoulder and back. He was admitted first to 69th Field Ambulance, transferred to 3rd Canadian Casualty Clearing Station and then to 18th General Hospital at Camiers.

    L.Cpl. John Smith Hodgson (see 15th June) began to be paid according to his rank, having previously held it unpaid. L.Cpl. Thomas Anthony Swale (see 19th June 1916) was promoted Corporal.

    L.Cpl. Stephen Grady (see 25th June), serving with 69th Brigade Trench Mortar Battery, was promoted Corporal.

    Cpl. Thomas Arthur Sturdy (see 6th June), who had suffered severe wounds to his left leg on 6th June, was evacuated to England; the details of his further treatment are unknown.

    Eastern Front:

    Russian attack of Brzezany (Galicia) fails.

    Artillery activity growing in the Stokhod area (Volhynia).

    Naval Operations:


    Shipping Losses: 12 (All to U-Boat action)


    While the steamship Shuna is anchored in the River Seine, a fire breaks out among some cases of grenades which form part of the deck cargo. Master Albert Spence immediately hurries to the scene of the fire, but by the time he reaches the spot the cases are already on fire. With a few buckets of water he succeeds in extinguishing the fire before the first hose can be started, and he then removes the charred cases. Later some others catch fire, but the fire is gotten under control by means of the hose. Captain Spence’s actions undoubtedly avert an explosion and save a great many lives for which he will be awarded the Albert Medal.

    Political:


    Riots in Amsterdam.

    Statement in House of Lords by Lord Hardinge (Ex-Viceroy of India) on report of Mesopotamia Commission.

    Anniversary Events:

    1775 George Washington takes command of the Continental Army.
    1790 In Paris, the Marquis de Condorcet proposes granting civil rights to women.
    1844 American ambassador Caleb Cushing successfully negotiates a commercial treaty with China.
    1863 Confederate forces attack the centre of the Union line at Gettysburg, but fail to break it.
    1878 John Wise flies the first dirigible in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
    1901 The Wild Bunch, led by Butch Cassidy, commits its last American robbery near Wagner, Montana, taking $65,000 from a Great Northern train.
    1903 The first cable across the Pacific Ocean is spliced between Honolulu, Midway, Guam and Manila.
    See you on the Dark Side......

  33. #2533

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    Wednesday 4th July 1917
    Ed Note: Happy 4th July to all our readers.

    Today we lost: 405

    Air Operations:


    Operation Türkenkreuz's Third Raid:

    The commander of Kagohl 3, Hauptman Ernst Brandenburg, was injured in an aeroplane crash a few days after the raid on London on 13 June and command of the squadron passed to Hauptman Rudolph Kleine. While waiting for ‘London’ weather, Kleine chose to make an early morning attack on the naval installations at Harwich and Felixstowe.

    At 6.55am observers at Orfordness heard the sound of aircraft as the 18 Gothas approached the Suffolk coast. Five minutes later the formation came into view flying at about 14,000ft. Ten minutes earlier Captain J. Palethorpe and Air Mechanic J. O. Jessop had taken off from the RFC base at Martlesham Heath to commence an endurance test on a D.H.4. Palethorpe decided to attack the formation single-handed but his forward firing machine jammed. Undeterred he closed to about 100 yards so Jessop could fire but engaged by a number of the Gothas, Jessop was shot dead forcing Palethorpe to turn back. Having landed he took off again 20 minutes later with another observer/gunner, but by then it was too late.

    Having come inland the Gothas headed south and appear to have split into two groups as they approached Felixstowe, one group making for that town and the other heading for Harwich. As the group approached Harwich it dropped six HE bombs over Shotley; four fell in fields on Over Hall Farm and two exploded close to the RNAS Balloon Station killing two naval men and fatally injuring another. Passing over Harwich harbour about 13 bombs dropped, all falling in the water or mud, missing the ships at anchor there. Three light cruisers, HMS Canterbury, HMS Concord and HMS Conquest, all opened fire. A bomb that landed in Harwich failed to explode as did one of two that landed in neighbouring Dovercourt. The one that did explode merely broke some windows, others fell harmlessly in the sea.

    The group of Gothas that approached Felixstowe dropped two HE bombs on Trimley Marshes where they killed 21 sheep and injured 29 others. Seven other bombs fell on the marshes without causing any damage. In Felixstowe, two bombs that exploded in Mill Lane, west of the junction with Garrison Lane, killed five soldiers of the 3rd battalion, Suffolk Regiment and injured 10 others. Three bombs exploded near the Town railway station causing only a small amount of damage. Heading toward the docks, 11 HE bombs fell on waste ground, four exploded near to the Beach railway station and two fell just north of Felixstowe docks. None of these caused any serious damage, but directly ahead lay RNAS Felixstowe. Two bombs dropped on the naval air station where they destroyed an H-12 ‘Large America’ flying boat, killing three civilian workmen and six RNAS personnel (five mechanics and an officers’ steward).

    The first AA gun opened fire at 7.10am, joined by six others firing 136 rounds without success. The RFC sent 66 aircraft up but the first of these did not take off until 7.29am by which time Kagohl 3 were on their way back to Belgium. No. 66 Squadron, RFC, had moved to Calais to assist with Home Defence from there but they did not receive the order to take off until 8.10am so by the time they were airborne it was too late to intercept the returning bombers. The RNAS sent up 17 aircraft from bases in England and 20 from Dunkirk. The home aircraft took off far too late to have an impact but five aircraft from Dunkirk found the Gothas and attacked but no aircraft were shot down.

    Casualties: 17 killed, 29 injured
    Damage: £2,065

    Royal Flying Corps Losses today: 11

    A Mech 1 Austins, A., Felixstowe Naval Air Station, Royal Naval Air Service, H.M.S. 'President II'. Died of wounds received earlier that day in Enemy Air Raid on Felixstowe aged 29. Others Killed were Air Mechanic 2nd Class J Cordell & Air Mechanic 1st Class A J Huggett.

    A Mech 2 Barlow, S.J.(Sidney John). Recruits Depot. RFC. NFDK.

    A Mech 2 Cordell, J. (James), Felixstowe Kite Balloon Station, RNAS. Killed in Action in Enemy Air Raid on Felixstowe.

    2Lt Foreman, G.W. (Granado Walter), 22 Squadron, RFC. Killed in Action aged 23, crashed. NFDK.

    LM Gilmour, J. (James), Kite Balloon Section, Shotley Naval Air Station, RNAS. Killed in Action in an enemy air raid on Shotley. Also Killed were; A/C 1 F T Grimes, AM! D E Pigg and AM1 E W Sanders.

    AC1 Grimes, F.T. (Frederick Thomas), Kite Balloon Section, Shotley Naval Air Station, RNAS. Killed in Action in an enemy air raid on Shotley.

    A Mech 1 Hugget, A.J. (Alfred J.), Felixstowe Kite Balloon Station, RNAS. Killed in Action in Enemy Air Raid on Felixstowe.

    A Mech 1 Jessop, J.O., RFC, aged 24. NFDK.

    A Mech 1 Pigg, D.E., Kite Balloon Section, Shotley Naval Air Station, RNAS. Killed in Action in an enemy air raid on Shotley.

    A Mech 1 Sanders, E.W. (Ernest William), Kite Balloon Station, RNAS, aged 23.

    2Lt Simmonds, R.G. (Richard George), X Aircraft Depot, Egypt, RFC. Accidentally Drowned aged 34.

    Claims: 4 confirmed (Entente 4 ; Central Powers 0)

    Gustave Daladier #3rd confirmed victory. (France)
    Sidney Ellis #3rd confirmed victory.
    Alexander Pishvanov #4th confirmed victory.
    Alexander Shook #6th confirmed victory.

    Otto Schmidt u/c.

    Western Front


    At Observatory Ridge, about five miles from Ypres and a mile from Hooge, the Liverpool Regiment are in the front line. Lieutenant Aidan Chavasse and 8 men are out on a raiding party when they meet a German patrol and in the ensuing fight Lieutenant Chavasse is wounded. When the party returns, it is discovered he is missing. His brother Bernard the medical officer of the battalion and some others go out to try and bring him back but he is never found. Lieutenant Aidan Chavasse is dead at age 26 one month prior to the death of his brother Noel, one of only three double Victoria Cross winners in the history of the British military. They are sons of the Bishop of Liverpool.

    Lieutenant ‘Lord’ Ian Basil Gawen Temple Hamilton-Temple-Blackwood (Grenadier Guards) is killed at age 47 at Boesringhe, in Flanders during a night raid. He is the son of the 1st Marquess of Dufferin and Ava KP Governor General of Canada. He was an artist in black and white for children’s books written by Hilaire Belloc including The Bad Child’s Book of Beasts, More Beasts, The Modern Traveller, A Moral Alphabet, Cautionary Tales for Children and More Peers. His brother died of wounds at Ladysmith in January 1900 and a nephew will be killed in Burma in March 1945.

    July 3 1917, Cerny–By the end of June, the Germans had found out, through sources in Switzerland, observations of rapid troop turnover, and the occasional prisoner (though Pétain had done his best to try to prevent this) about the morale situation in the French Army. Believing these reports, Bavarian Crown Prince Rupprecht, commanding his own Army Group along the Aisne, ordered an attack along an 11-mile front for July 3. Despite the Germans’ hopes, the French held fast, repelling the Germans along the whole front despite taking heavy casualties.

    OHL remained skeptical about the reports, and in fact at this time was stripping the Western Front for troops to head east to counter the Kerensky Offensive. Rupprecht made similar attacks at several other points throughout July. On certain occasions they did make gains, but French forces counterattacked and retook the lost ground, even on one occasion making gains of their own. Several of these counterattacks were conducted by units that had been mutinous and considered highly unreliable during the height of the mutinies in May and early June.

    Tunstills Men Saturday 23rd June 1917:

    Micmac Camp, between ****ebusch and Ouderdom.

    A largely fine day, but with a little rain at times. In the afternoon the Battalion moved to billets around Steenworde; travelling by train from Ouderdom to Godewaersvelde and thence by road to the billets.

    Ptes. Thomas Henry Fearn (see 12th June), Thomas Fielden (see 25th June), Thomas Hemingway (see 23rd June), who had all suffered relatively minor wounds on 7th June, re-joined the Battalion from 34th Infantry Base Depot at Etaples.

    2Lt. Sydney Charles Ernest Farrance (see 26th June), who had arrived in France a week earlier, reported for duty with 10DWR.

    Pte. Harry Walsh (see 6th June), who had suffered severe wounds to his back whilst on patrol on the night of 6th/7th June, was evacuated to England for further treatment.

    2Lt. George Patrick Doggett (see 10th June), who had had his right leg amputated as a result of wounds suffered on 7th June, died at 9.45pm at Carnarvon Hospital, Bryanston Square, London. He would be buried at at Cambridge City Cemetery.

    Pte. Harold Precious (see 16th June) who had suffered severe wounds to his right thigh and back on 7th June, died at the East Leeds War Hospital; he would be cremated at Lawnswood Crematorium and his ashes interred at York Cemetery.

    Maj. Charles Bathurst (see 29th June), who was back in England to embark on a senior officers’ training course, married Marcella Hilda Charlotte Barnewall.

    Africa, Asiatic & Egyptian Theatres:

    Turkish cavalry reconnaissance from Beersheba (Palestine); shelled and forced to retreat.

    Action of Beho-Beho ends (see 3rd).

    Naval Operations:


    Ponta Delgada (Azores) shelled by enemy submarine.

    German submarine attack in force on U.S. transports defeated.

    Shipping Losses: 10 (1 to mines & 9 to U-Boat action)

    British mine-sweeper sunk in Mediterranean.

    The ship S S Ribston is sunk by a torpedo 85 miles west of Fastnet killing 25 including the Master J Tweedie.

    Russian battleship "Peresvyet" sunk by mine off Port Said.

    Political:


    Issue of report on operations in East Africa.

    Anniversary Events:

    1712 12 slaves are executed for starting an uprising in New York that killed nine whites.
    1776 The amended Declaration of Independence, prepared by Thomas Jefferson, is approved and signed by John Hancock--President of the Continental Congress--and Charles Thomson, Congress secretary. The state of New York abstains from signing.
    1817 Construction begins on the Erie Canal, to connect Lake Erie and the Hudson River.
    1826 Two of America's founding fathers—Thomas Jefferson and John Adams--die.
    1831 The fifth president of the United States, James Monroe, dies at the age of 73.
    1845 Henry David Thoreau begins his 26-month stay at Walden Pond.
    1855 Walt Witman publishes the first edition of Leaves of Grass at his own expense.
    1861 Union and Confederate forces skirmish at Harpers Ferry.
    1862 Charles Dodgson first tells the story of Alice’s adventures down the rabbit hole during a picnic along the Thames.
    1863 The Confederate town of Vicksburg, Mississippi, surrenders to General Ulysses S. Grant.
    1881 Billy the Kid is shot dead in New Mexico.
    1894 After seizing power, Judge Stanford B. Dole declares Hawaii a republic.
    1895 The poem America the Beautiful is first published.
    1901 William H. Taft becomes the American governor of the Philippines.
    1910 Race riots break out all over the United States after African American Jack Johnson knocks out Jim Jeffries in a heavyweight boxing match.

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    See you on the Dark Side......

  34. #2534

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    Thursday 5th July 1917

    Today we lost: 432

    Air Operations:


    Royal Flying Corps Losses today: 6


    2Lt Erlebach, A.W. (Arthur Woodland), 57 Squadron, RFC. Killed whilst flying when aircraft crashed, aged 23.

    2Lt Fletcher, L.M. (Leslie Morley), 71 Squadron, RFC. Killed whilst flying. NFDK.

    Flt Off (Prob) Flynn, H.J. (Harold John), Manston Naval Air Station, RNAS. Killed whilst flying at Manston. NFDK.

    2Lt Haist, O.D. (Orville Dwight), 37 Training Squadron, RFC. Died of injuries aged 23. Crashed and injured whilst flying Armstrong Whitworth FK8 A2727 on 3 July 1917.

    2Lt Moss, W.T.G. (William Thomas Gregory), RFC. Died of accidental injuries aged 18. NFDK.

    2Lt Vick, K.J. (Kenneth Jesson), 36 Training Squadron, RFC. Killed while flying in B.E. 2e A13 (crashed) aged 28.

    Claims: 6 (Entente 3 : Central Powers 3)

    Ralph Curtis #3rd confirmed victory.
    Reginald Soar #8th confirmed victory.
    Desmond Uniacke #2nd confirmed victory.

    Friedrich-Karl Burckhardt #5th confirmed victory.
    Eduard von Dostler #13th confirmed victory.

    Lt Rudolf Otto claims his #1st confirmed victory. With FA(A) 283. Shooting down a Farman east of Pomorzany.

    Western Front


    British line slightly advanced south of Ypres.

    Artillery engagements in the Aisne and Champagne sectors.

    Tunstills Men Thursday 5th July 1917:


    Billets in the Steenworde area

    Another fine day

    Over the course of the next few days several large new drafts of men arrived. A number of the men from these drafts have been identified. These were either men who had attested, in locations all over the country, under the Derby Scheme in 1915-16 or men who had been called up under the terms of the Military Service Acts. In both cases they had mostlyt been mobilized in early 1917. Some had trained in England with 11DWR, but mostly with various Training Reserve Battalions before being posted out to 34th Infantry Base Depot at Etaples on 17th June 1917. Pte. Benjamin Thomas Alcraft was a 31 year-old fireman from Shieldfield, near Newcastle-on-Tyne. Pte. John William Antill was a 20 year-old labourer from Derbyshire. Pte. James Herbert Armstrong was a 34 year-old clerk from North Shields. Pte. William Axton was a 19 year-old armature winder from Loughborough. Pte. Harry Bailey (25198) was a 19 year-old clerk from Bilston. Pte. Harry Bailey (25248) was 32 years old and from Elland, where he had worked as a boot maker and repairer. Pte. John William Baird was a 25 year-old clerk from Ouseburn, Newcastle. Pte. Willis Barker was 19 years old and from Sheffield. Pte. John Barrett was 21 years old and from Newcastle-on-Tyne. Pte. Lewis Baty was a 19 year-old miner from Newcastle. Pte. John Bayliss was a 19 year-old carter from West Bromwich. Pte. Frank Blakeborough was a 34 year-old joiner from Huddersfield; he was married but had no children. He had originally applied to join the RFC but had been rejected. Pte. Nicholson Braddock was a 19 year-old ironworker from Swalwell, near Gateshead. Pte. Harry Bradshaw was a 19 year-old textile worker from Leicester. Pte. George Towler Brown was a 19 year-old farm labourer from Wainfleet. Pte. John Robert Camm was a 22 year-old ‘horseman’ from Nettleham, Lincs. Pte. Arthur Clark (25164) was a 36 year-old brickyard labourer from South Killingholme; he was a married man with three children. Pte. George Carter was 19 years old and from Sneinton, Notts. Pte. Charley Culley was a 23 year-old kennelman from Lincoln; just ten days before departing for France he had married Florence May, who was five months pregnant with their first child. Pte. William Stanley Davies was a 23 year-old shell filler from Kidwelly. Pte. Harold Deighton was a 19 year-old bricklayer from Bridlington. Pte. Thomas Henry Dixon was a 32 year-old stonemason from Cleckheaton; he was married with one daughter. Pte. Arthur William Drane was 19 years old and from Chadwell, Essex. Pte. Harold Draper was a 25 year-old labourer from Rotherham; on 30th April he had married Ellen Jackson, who was four months pregnant. Pte. John Henry Evison was a 20 year-old ‘horseman’ from Lincolnshire. Pte. John William Farrer was a 19 year-old warehouseman from Bradford. Pte. Frederick Fielden was a 31 year-old barman from Halifax; he was married but had no children. Whilst in training he had spent a month in hospital, sffering from bronchitis and had been absent without leave for 21 days on the expiry of his final embarkation leave; he had been ordered to serve 21 days’ Field Punishment no.2. Pte. William Franklin was a 22 year-old labourer from Tipton; he was a married man with one son. Pte. John Walter Gethen was a 24 year-old carter from Sheffield. Prior to enlisting he had a string of criminal convictions (at least nine) for stealing and drunkenness, starting when he was just 14. He had attested in December 1915 and had been called up in June 1916. He had been reported absent without leave from 91st Training Reserve Battalion on 8th November 1916 and had remained absent until being apprehended by the police on 6th February 1917. He was court-martialled on a charge of desertion but found guilty of the lesser charge of being absent without leave, and sentenced to six months’ detention. Having served half of his sentence he had been released and posted to 89th Training Reserve Battalion, where he remained until being posted out to France. Pte. David Doughty Glossop was a 25 year-old ‘head horseman’ from Newark. Pte. John James Goodship was a 19 year-old parcels messenger from Bradford. Pte. Charles Grant was 38 years old and married with seven children; he was from Leicester where he had worked for a shoe manufacturer. Pte. William Henry Gray was a 20 year-old farm labourer from Spalding. Pte. George Hartell was 19 years old and from Leicester; he had enlisted in the Leicestershire Regiment as a ‘band boy’ at the age of 15 in April 1913. He had been promoted Lance Corporal in March 1917 but had reverted, at his own request, two months later. Pte. William Hewitt (25172) was a 23 year-old mill operative from Lincoln; he was a married man with one daughter. Pte. Harry Hey was a 19 year-old colliery screener from Castleford. Pte. Victor Hillam was a 19 year-old apprentice hairdresser from Bradford. Pte. Alfred Hirst was 19 years old and from Burton-on-Trent. Pte. Herbert Hirst was a 19 year-old cloth finisher from Huddersfield. Pte. Cyril Hollingsworth was a 21 year-old carter from Sheffield. Pte. Arthur Holden was a 35 year-old woolsorter from Wibsey, Bradford; he was a married man with one son. Pte. Joseph Honeyble was a 27 year-old fish boxwood sawyer from Grimsby; he was a married man with two children. Pte. Raymond Charles Ingleson was a 28 year-old markert gardener from Bradford. Pte. Herbert Jacklin was a 19 year-old waggoner from Brigg, Lincs. Pte. James Jackson was a 37 year-old groom from Shieldfield, near Newcastle-on-Tyne; he was a married man. His only child, James William had died in January aged nine months and his wife was now pregnant with their second child. Pte. Thomas Charles Jacques was a 32 year-old cowman from Crowle. Pte. Charles Knight was a 33 year-old baker from North Wales. Pte. George Herbert Lant was a 37 year-old lithographer from Halifax. Pte. Leonard Le Lacheur was a 19 year-old clerk from Newcastle (although originally from the Channel islands). Pte. William Hay Murdock was a 29 year-old tailor from Leeds; he was a married man with three children. Pte. Charley Norman was a 19 year-old textile worker from Oadby, Leics. Pte. Claude Wilfred Norman was a 19 year-old hosiery worker from Wigston Magna, Leics. Pte. Philip Pankhurst was a 31 year-old grocer from Surrey; he was a married man, but had no children. Pte. Harold Parsons was a 19 year-old grocer’s assistant from Lincoln. Pte. Frank Patterson was a 30 year-old munitions worker from Newcastle; between March and May he had three times been reported absent without leave from 83rd Training Reserve Battalion and had served a total of 21 days in detention for his offences. Pte. John Perrin was a 19 year-old milkman from South Carlton, Lincs. Pte. Robert Phillips was a 19 year-old labourer from Barnsley. Pte. Sidney Powdrill was a 25 year-old horseman from Bassingham, Lincs. Pte. Arthur Prestwood was a 20 year-old blacksmith’s striker from Bracebridge, Lincs. He had married in November 1916 when he and his wife, Elsie Briggs, already had a daughter who had been born on 8th June 1916, and Elsie was now pregnant with their second child. Pte. Thomas Prince was 19 years old and from New Mills, where he had worked as a machinist for a Bleaching and Dyeing Company. Pte. Gerald Pullen was a 19 year-old textile worker from Bradford. Pte. Stephen Shevill was 19 years old and from Newcastle. Pte. Charles Simmons was a 19 year-old silk comber from Bradford. Pte. William Noel Simpson was a 19 year-old engine cleaner from Grantham. Pte. Ernest Smith (25187) was a 30 year-old carpenter from Bourne, Lincs; he was a married man with one son, Trevor John. Pte. George Stinson was a 20 year-old labourer from Grimsby. Pte. Arthur Tempest was a 37 year-old spinning mill overlooker from Bradford. Pte. Arthur Thornton was a 31 year-old book dealer from Brighous; he was a married man, though with no children. Pte. Edward Westle was a 24 year-old coal miner from Ashington. Pte. Robert Whitaker was a 34 year-old tram conductor from Bradford; he was married with one daughter. Pte. Sidney Christopher Hugh Williams was a 21 year-old ‘press hand’ from Lutterworth; he had joined the Leicestershire Regiment in April 1916 and had been promoted Lance Corporal in June 1916. However, he had been deprived of his rank and demoted to Private in January 1917. The reason for his demotion was stated to have been, “Disobedience of Army Orders, in that he communicated direct with the War Office”. On 9th December 1916 he had written to the War Office asking to be posted to active service: “In view of the present crisis I wish to offer my services as I think I am fit and do not see why I should be kept here to do clerical work. My height is 5’ 0” and I think I should be doing a lot more in the new Tanks than sitting in an office doing nothing but writing and wasting time”. Pte. Thomas Henry Wood was a 19 year-old under gardener from Repton. Pte. Sidney Wood was a 19 year-old miner from Castleford.

    There are also a small number of men known to have been among this draft, but for whom it has not been possible to make a positive identification. They were Ptes. John Beresford, Hugh Flanagan, Joseph Formby, William Green (25220), Sydney Daniel Stamper, James Matthew Willey and William Wills.

    Also joining with this draft was Pte. James Allen (see 19th June); he had originally been due to join 10DWR six weeks earlier, but had spent some time in hospital.

    Pte. Milton Wood (see 17th June 1916) reported sick and was admitted to 69th Field Ambulance and from there transferred to 4th General Hospital at Camiers; the nature of his illness is unclear.

    Pte. Smith Stephenson Whitaker (see 7th June), who, on 7th June, had suffered wounds to both legs, was transferred from 56th General Hospital at Etaples to 6th Convalescent Depot, also at Etaples.

    Brig. Genl. Lambert (see 28th June) went on leave to England; he would return on 15th July.

    Three original members of Tunstill’s Company, Sgt. William Edmondson Gaunt (see 10th May), LCpl. Christopher Longstaff (see 22nd June) and Cpl. Fred Swale (see 18th May) all reported to begin their officer training courses. Gaunt reported to no.2 Officer Cadet Battalion at Cambridge and Longstaff and Swale to no.6 Officer Cadet Battalion at Oxford.

    Capt. James Watson Paterson, arrived in France, en route to join 10DWR. Born in Edinburgh in 1889, he was the son of Thomas Watson Paterson, who was a teacher. He had joined the Scots Guards following the outbreak of war and been posted to France on 25th May 1915 with 2nd Battalion, but was discharged on appointment to a temporary commission with 11DWR on 23rd July 1915. He was promoted Lieutenant with effect from 1st May 1916 and Captain on 1st September 1916, whilst, it seems serving with a Training Reserve Battalion. He had been transferred away from the Training Reserve on 3rd June.

    Pte. Lewis Walton (see 17th June), serving with 1DWR in India, was discharged from hospital in Gharial, following treatment for scabies.

    2Lt. Thomas Arnold Woodcock (see 4th June), who had served with the Battalion for only three weeks before reporting sick on 7th April, appeared before a Medical Board at 2nd Western General Hospital in Manchester. The Board reported the details of his illness and found that, “he still has pain after ordinary food and he is constipated. The general condition has improved. Not necessary to appear before same Medical Board”. He was recommended a two weeks’ stay at an officer’s convalescent hospital before then being posted to light duties at home.

    Eastern Front:

    Artillery and infantry action in the Brzezany region.

    Africa, Asiatic & Egyptian Theatres:

    Artillery and infantry action in the Brzezany region.

    July 4 1917, Kethira–The Arab forces in revolt against the Ottomans had been successfully harassing the Hejaz Railway for several months now. While their strength was not sufficient to take Medina or other fortified targets on the railway such as Ma’an (in modern Jordan), the Arabs decided to target Aqaba, the port city at the head of its namesake gulf, separating Arabia from the Sinai–and from the British troops there and in Palestine.

    On July 2, the Arabs defeated a Turkish battalion defending the approaches to the town. The Arabs suffered only two dead in the battle (versus 300 Turks), though one of them was quite nearly TE Lawrence, who managed to accidentally shoot his own camel during the battle while he was riding it.

    Aqaba’s defenses were mainly geared towards defending it from a British invasion from the sea; it had been shelled periodically by the British since Turkish entry into the war. There were essentially no landward defenses, apart from what could be quickly repurposed. Most of the defenders fell back or surrendered quickly. The sole exception, a strongpoint at Kethira, was taken by Arab forces on the night of July 4, during a lunar eclipse that Lawrence knew was coming–while the defenders had expected a full moon to help their watch.
    The remaining Turks in Aqaba surrendered on July 6; Lawrence soon left to cross the Sinai and meet up with General Allenby, the new British commander in Palestine; the fall of Aqaba now meant that the Arab forces could possibly coordinate with a British advance there.

    Naval Operations:


    SM UC-7, Kaiserliche Marine, is lost at sea. She is believed to have struck a mine in the north sea and sank north of Zeebrugge, with the loss of all 18 of her crew.

    Shipping Losses: 6 (All to U-Boat action)


    British destroyer mined in North Sea (announced), 18 survivors.

    Political:


    Belgian Socialists announce at Stockholm their determination to make no peace with German Imperialism.
    Reichstag opens.

    Anniversary Events:
    1776 The Declaration of Independence is first printed by John Dunlop in Philadelphia.
    1806 A Spanish army repels the British during their attempt to retake Buenos Aires, Argentina.
    1814 U.S. troops under Jacob Brown defeat a superior British force at Chippewa, Canada.
    1832 The German government begins curtailing freedom of the press after German Democrats advocate a revolt against Austrian rule.
    1839 British naval forces bombard Dingai on Zhoushan Island in China and occupy it.
    1863 Federal troops occupy Vicksburg, Mississippi and distribute supplies to the citizens.
    1892 Andrew Beard is issued a patent for the rotary engine.
    See you on the Dark Side......

  35. #2535

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    Friday 6th July 1917

    Today we lost: 425

    Air Operations:


    Black Flight strike back:


    The aircraft of the All-Black Flight were christened with suitable names. Ellis Reid, of Toronto, flew Black Roger; J. E. Sharman, of Winnipeg, flew Black Death; Gerry Nash, of Hamilton, called his machine Black Sheep; and Marcus Alexander, of Toronto, christened his plane the Black Prince. The flight commander, Collishaw, flew a machine which gloried in the name Black Maria.

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    During their first two months they claimed a record 87 German aircraft destroyed or driven down – which, strangely enough, brought Collishaw and the unit no wide publicity, though garnered a great deal of renown among their German opponents in the area. Collishaw later claimed that this was because officials in the regular Royal Flying Corps were loath to give credit to naval pilots.

    June 6, 1917 was their grandest day. They were flying offensive patrols with 10 Triplanes. Collishaw was leading a patrol when they came across an Albatros 2-seater escorted by 15 Albatros and Halberstadt fighters. In the "fur ball" that ensued Collishaw dropped three Albatroses, Nash downed an Aviatik two-seater and an Albatros, Reid downed a Halberstadt scout, Sharman and Alexander each downed an Albatros. In total the RNAS shot down 10 German aircraft without any losses.

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    (During the First World War, the all Canadian "B" Flight of No. 10 Naval Squadron, led by Flight Cmdr. Raymond Collishaw, consisted of 5 black nosed Sopwith Triplanes. These Triplanes were Collishaw's Black Maria, Ellis Vair Reid's Black Roger, John E. Sharman's Black Death, W. Melville Alexander's Black Prince and Gerald Ewart Nash's Black Sheep. This was the redoubtable "Black Flight".

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    In the summer of 1917 the "Black Flight" quickly earned such a reputation that the German high command gave Jasta 11 orders to destroy them. On June 26th, 1917, Leutnant Karl Allmenroder, a 30 victory ace and Manfred von Richthofen's deputy commander of Jasta 11, scored the only air victory against the Black Flight, shooting down and capturing Nash. On June 28th the "Black Flight" again met the Red Baron's "Flying Circus" where Allmenroder was shot down and killed by Collishaw in the ensuing battle. For a month the "Black Flight" thrashed the Jastas which had dominated the skies for so long. On July 6, Richthofen was wounded and shot down by an observer in a FE2d being escorted by Collishaw and his Flight.

    In addition to Nash's capture the Black Flight suffered 2 more losses, Sharman on July 22nd and Reid on July 28th. - both were killed by anti-aircraft fire. In late July, No. 10 Naval Squadron started re-equipping with Sopwith Camels, brining to an end the exploits of the "Black Flight".

    Between June 1st and July 28th 1917, the formidable "Black Flight" shot down 87 enemy aircraft and was one of the most successful units of the war.)

    Wounded in Combat:

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    Richthofen's Albatros D.V after forced landing near Wervicq. This machine is not an all-red one

    Richthofen sustained a serious head wound on 6 July 1917, during combat near Wervicq against a formation of FE2d two seat fighters of 20 Squadron, RFC, causing instant disorientation and temporary partial blindness. He regained his vision in time to ease the aircraft out of a spin and execute a forced landing in a field in friendly territory. The injury required multiple operations to remove bone splinters from the impact area. The air victory was credited to Captain Donald Cunnell of No. 20, who was killed by German anti-aircraft fire a few days later on 12 July 1917 near Wervicq, Belgium; his observer Lt. A. G. Bill successfully flew the airplane back to base.

    The Red Baron returned to active service against doctor's orders on 25 July, but went on convalescent leave from 5 September to 23 October. His wound is thought to have caused lasting damage; he later often suffered from post-flight nausea and headaches, as well as a change in temperament. There is even a theory linking this injury with his eventual death.

    Aerial activity south of Ypres.

    German towns bombed by French aeroplanes.

    Royal Flying Corps Losses today: 19

    Flt S-Lt Allan, H. (Hugh), 3 (N) Squadron, RNAS. Killed while flying Sopwith Pup N6181, which dived in from 1000 feet into a wheatfield near Furnes, between Oost Dunkerque and Coxyde. Aged 20. He is the son of Lieutenant Colonel ‘Sir’ Hugh Andrew Montagu Allan CVO. His two younger sisters were both lost in the sinking of RMS Lusitania.

    2Lt Brooks, L.W. (Leonard William), 2 Squadron, RFC. Killed in action. NFDK.

    Lt Campbell, W. (William), 2 Squadron, RFC. Killed in action aged 26. NFDK.

    2Lt Clark, W.H. (William Henry), 23 Squadron, RFC. Killed in action aged 19. NFDK.

    2Lt Clarke, H.C. (Harry Charles), 48 Squadron, RFC. Killed in action. NFDK.

    2Lt Farnes, H.C. (Henry Charles), 48 Squadron, RFC. Killed in action. NFDK.

    A Mech 2 Gilchrist, E. (Edward), 70 Squadron, RFC. Killed in action aged 26. NFDK.

    Flt S-Lt Hillaby, E.C. (Eric Crowther), 1 (N) Squadron, RNAS. Killed in action during aerial combat aged 19.

    A Mech 2 Jones, C.E.W. (Charles Emmanuel William), 56 Squadron attached North Riding Heavy Battery, Royal Garrison Artillery, RFC, aged 23. NFDK.

    Pte Milligan, J., Aircraft Repair Park, RFC. NFDK.

    Lt Mutch, G. (George),4 Squadron, RFC. Killed in Action with J Y Taylor [on Arras Mem] aged 24.

    Cpl Park, J.T. (John Torley), 48 Squadron, RFC. Killed in Action with Lieut H C Farnes, pilot of Bristol F2b A7109. On Distance Offensive Patrol, in combat with Enemy Aircraft, shot down in flames near Sailly 9.50am.

    Off Stwd 3 Rogers, D. (David), Royal Naval Air Station Felixstowe, RNAS, aged 19. NFDK.

    Lt Rowley, E.G. (Eric Grahame), RFC, aged 23. NFDK.

    Lt Ryder, W.H. (William Harold), RFC. Killed in action aged 20. NFDK.

    2Lt Smither, H. (Harold), 48 Squadron, RFC. Killed in action aged 24. NFDK.

    Lt Taylor, J.Y. (John Yates), 4 Squadron, RFC. Killed in action aged 21. NFDK.

    Lt Trotter, S.F. (Stuart Fowden), 20 Squadron, RFC. Died of wounds aged 31. NFDK.

    2Lt Watlington, H.J. (Henry Joseph), 70 Squadron, RFC. Killed in action. NFDK.

    Claims: 52 confirmed (Entente 43 : Central Powers 9)

    William Alexander #4th & #5th confirmed victories.
    Arnold Chadwick #8th confirmed victory.
    Geoffrey Cock #10th confirmed victory.
    Raymond Collishaw #26, #27th, #28th, #29th, #30th & #31st confirmed victories.
    Douglas Cunnell #4th, #5th, #6th, #7th & #8th confirmed victories.
    Jean Derode #5th confirmed victory. (France)
    Sidney Ellis #4th confirmed victory.
    Archie Jenks #4th confirmed victory.
    John Leacroft #2nd confirmed victory.
    Robert Little #27th confirmed victory.
    Reginald Makepeace #2nd confirmed victory.
    Donat Makeenok #6th confirmed victory. (Russia)
    Jean Matton #8th & #9th confirmed victories. (France)

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    Lt Malcolm "Mac" McCall claims his #1st confirmed victory with 20 Squadron. Flying an FE2d with observer Lt Melville Waddington, he shot down an Albatros DV near Comines. The son of Malcolm and Florence McCall, Malcolm McCall joined the Royal Scots Fusiliers and was promoted to 2nd Lieutenant on 18 September 1914. After he transferred to the Royal Flying Corps, he was posted to 20 Squadron and promoted to temporary Lieutenant on 1 July 1917. Five days later, he scored his first victory flying an FE2d. But soon after, on 21 July 1917, he was wounded and his observer, Lt. Ralph McKenzie Madill, was killed when their two-seater (A1865) was shot down. On 27 July 1917, he was promoted to Lieutenant with precedence from 1 June 1916. Returning to his squadron in 1918, McCall scored five more victories flying Bristol Fighters with his observer, Clement Boothroyd. Post-war, he emigrated to Rhodesia.

    Douglas McGregor #2nd confirmed victory.
    Alexander Merchant #6th confirmed victory.

    2Lt John Theobald Milne claims his #1st confirmed victory with 48 Squadron, RFC. Flying a Bristol Fighter with observer 2Lt LH Turner, he shot down an Albatros DIII east of Cambrai. A Bristol Fighter pilot serving with 48 Squadron, John Theobald Milne scored 9 victories before he and his observer were shot down near Merken on 24 October 1917 by Fritz Kieckhafer of Jasta 29.

    William Kennedy-Cochran-Patrick #17th & #18th confirmed victories.
    Ellis Reid #10th confirmed victory.
    Cecil Richards #3rd confirmed victory.
    Owen John Frederick Scholte #4th confirmed victory.
    Frank Stevens #3rd confirmed victory.
    Armand de Turenne #3rd & #4th confirmed victories. (France)
    Melville Waddington #2nd confirmed victory.

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    Captain Clive Wilson Warman (USA) claims his 1st confirmed victory with 23 Squadron, RFC. Flying a Spad VII he shot down an Albatros DIII near Thorout. A civil engineer from Norfolk, Virginia, Clive Wilson Warman enlisted in the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry at Valcartier, Canada on 5 September 1914. With this regiment he was wounded in action in the Second Battle of Ypres in April 1915. After recovering from his wounds, Warman was assigned to a mechanical transport unit and served in Ireland during the Easter Rebellion. In the summer of 1916 he transferred to the Royal Flying Corps and after training he served as an instructor at Turnberry. He was sent to France on 13 June 1917 and joined 23 Squadron three days later. On 16 August 1917, flying a Spad VII, Warman shot down a two-seater and a balloon before engaging three German scouts. When his machine gun jammed and couldn't be cleared, he threw his gun mallet at his opponents and resumed the fight with his flare pistol. For his actions, Warman was awarded the Distinguished Service Order (DSO). He was the only American to receive this award during World War I. While serving with the Royal Canadian Air Force, Warman died from injuries sustained in a crash over the Edmonton sewage farm on 8 May 1919.

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    Lt Albert Edward Woodbridge claims his #1st, #2nd, #3rd & #4th confirmed victories with 20 Squadron, RFC. An observer in a FE2d flown by 2Lt Donald Charles Cunnell, he shot down 4 Albatros DV’s near Wervicq. An observer with 20 Squadron, Albert Edward Woodbridge, the son of Ellen Woodbridge, was educated at Westcliff and Mercer's School, London. It is believed that one of the four Albatros Dv’s he and Donald Cunnell claimed on 6 July 1917 was piloted by Manfred von Richthofen who was wounded in the head that morning. Woodbridge was wounded in action on 31 July 1917 but rejoined his squadron in the fall and scored three more victories. On 29 December 1917, 2nd Lieutenant Woodbridge received Royal Aero Club Aviator's Certificate 5696 on a Maurice Farman biplane at military school, Ruislip. During a London-to-India flight in 1929, he and two others were killed when the Imperial Airways mail plane he was piloting crashed in flames while attempting to land at Jask.

    Vasili Yanchenko #9th confirmed victory. (Russia)

    Walter von Bulow-Bothkamp #16th confirmed victory.
    Bertram Heinrich #5th confirmed victory.
    Josef Jacobs u/c.

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    V/Fldwbl Fritz John Jacobsen claims his #1st confirmed victory with JAsta 31. Shooting down a Bristol F2b near Sailly. Wounded in action on 26 October 1917, remained with Jasta 31.

    Hans Klein #13th confirmed victory.

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    Lt Hans Joachim Rolfes claims his #1st confirmed victory with Kasta 11, shooting down a Voision. Rolfes was wounded in action on 21 August 1918 but remained with Jasta 45.

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    Lt Fritz Rumey claims his #1st confirmed victory with Jasta 5 shooting down a balloon near Boursies. When the war began, Rumey was serving with the 45th Infantry Regiment. After serving with the 3rd Grenadier Regiment on the Russian Front, he transferred to the German Air Force in the summer of 1915. Serving first as an observer with FA(A) 219, he completed Jastaschule and was assigned to Jasta 2 in May 1917. The following month, he joined Jasta 5. He was wounded in action on 25 August 1917 and again on 24 September 1917. Rumey's 25th victory came on 26 June 1918, when he shot down a Sopwith Camel flown by Canadian ace Edward Eaton. Three days later, in his last dogfight, Rumey's Fokker DVII was badly damaged when he collided with an SE5a flown by South African ace George Lawson. Rumey jumped from his plane but was killed when his parachute failed to open.

    Otto Schmidt #5th confirmed victory.

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    Lt Kurt Wissemann claims his #1st confirmed victory with Jasta 3 shooting down a Bristol F2b near Tilloy. Credited with shooting down Georges Guynemer on 11 September 1917, Wissemann was killed in action a little over two weeks later. Rene Fonck claimed he shot him down to avenge the death of Guynemer but evidence would suggest Wissemann was a victim of the Royal Flying Corps' 56 Squadron.

    Kurt Wolff #32nd confirmed victory.

    Western Front


    Operation Standfast:

    On the 6 July 1917, the MarinesKorps Flandern began a desultory artillery bombardment, which continued for the next three days. Fog and low cloud prevented detection of the German build-up. Then, at 5.30am on the the 10 July the massed German artillery, including three 24cm naval guns in shore batteries and 58 artillery batteries (planned naval gunfire support from destroyers and torpedo-boats was cancelled), opened up on the British positions in the bridgehead. Mustard gas (Yellow Cross) was used for the first time in the barrage. All but one of the bridges over the Yser River were demolished, isolating the 1/Northamptonshire and 2/KRRC of 2nd Brigade, 1st Division on the extreme left flank. Telephone communication was also cut. The German bombardment continued throughout the day. The British artillery attempted a counter-barrage but several guns were knocked out and the German infantry were well protected. At 8pm, the Marines Korps launched the infantry assault, by which time the two British battalions had suffered 70-80% casualties. The German stormtroopers attacked down the coast, outflanking the British. Their attack was then followed by waves of German Marines, supported by flamethrower teams to mop up dugouts. After a gallant defence, the British battalions were overwhelmed. Only 4 officers and 64 other ranks managed to reach the west bank of the Yser.

    A contemporary trench map of the Yser brideghead prior to the Strandfest attack. The River Yser can be seen with Nieuport-Bains on the (left) bank. The North Sea coast is at the top of the map. The British front line is sketched in blue on the opposite bank, with the German front in red facing it. It was here that the 1st Northamptons and 2nd King's Royal Rifle Corps suffered such heavy casualties on 10 July 1917.
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    The German attack on the 32nd Division, further to the east, was less successful. Only the 97th Brigade was
    attacked and although there was some penetration into the line, a counterattack that night by the 11/Border
    Regiment, supported by two companies of the 17/Highland Light Infantry, restored all but 500 yards of the front
    line. A general counterattack was ordered for the 11 July by General Rawlinson. Wisely, he later rescinded his decision at the request of XV Corps Commander, Lt. General John Du Cane.

    The total British casualties amounted to approximately 3,126 of all ranks, killed, wounded and missing. Of these, fifty officers and 1,253 other ranks belonged to the two battalions of 1st Division.

    Elements of the American Expeditionary Force arrive in France.

    Tunstills Men Friday 6th July 1917:


    Billets in the Steenworde area.

    The weather remained fine

    While at Steenworde each Battalion of the Brigade, including 10DWR, “built an assault course on the plan of a course as required for the new ‘Bullet and Bayonet’ training”.

    2Lt. Cyril William Wildy reported for duty with 10DWR. He was 22 years old (born 31st October 1894) and from Kenley, Surrey. He had joined the Inns of Court OTC in October 1915, prior to which he had been working as an articled clerk to a chartered accountancy firm. He had been commissioned on 24th December 1915 and posted to 2/25th Cyclist Battalion, London Regiment in Norfolk, with whom, from July 1916, he had trained on signal duties. Wildy would take over as Battalion Signalling Officer following the death in action of 2Lt. Harold Watthews (see 8th June).

    Pte. Patrick Ferguson (see 20th April), who was still at 34th Infantry Base Depot at Etaples, departed to England on ten days’ leave.

    Pte. Walter Ralph (see 21st June), elder brother of Pte. Kit Ralph (see 30th April) who had been killed at Le Sars, was transferred from 9DWR to 1st/5th York and Lancasters.

    Lt. John Charles Brison Redfearn (see 24th September 1916), who had been under medical treatment in England for trench fever for the previous nine months, suffered a further acute attack of illness. He was reported to have been “seized with pain in the stomach, vomiting followed by violent retching and slight looseness of the bowels”. On the following day he would be admitted to 1st Northern General Hospital in Newcastle.

    Pte. Ambrose Birdsall (see 7th June) who had been in England since being taken ill in March, was posted from Northern Command Depot at Ripon to 3DWR, en route to a return to active service, having been declared A1 and fit for duty.

    The weekly edition of the Craven Herald reported on the discharge from the army of Cpl. Billy Rawlinson (see 2nd July),

    HIGHER BENTHAM - NEWS OF THE “BOYS”
    Quite a number of “Boys” have been home this week. Cpl. William Rawlinson, of Stockbridge, has received his discharge after having received 47 wounds from a shell which killed two of his pals and wounded three others on the Somme last summer.

    Eastern Front:

    Russian attack in Galicia spreading in region of Stanislau.

    Heavy fighting near Brzezany.

    Africa, Asiatic & Egyptian Theatres:


    Aqaba (Arabia) occupied by Arab forces. In the summer of 1917, T. E. Lawrence and the Arab leaders recognized the importance of seizing the port of Aqaba in order to secure a port and base on the northern Red Sea coast that could in turn facilitate further campaigns into Palestine and Syria. Accompanied by a party of tribesmen and Auda abu Tayi, the hereditary war chief of the warlike Howeitat tribe, Lawrence led a small force on an epic two-month march through the desert. After a clash with a Turkish battalion at Abu al-Lissan, the Arab force took the surrender of some of the outlying garrisons and finally took Aqaba on 6 July 1917.

    Lawrence of Arabia captured the port town of Aqaba in perhaps one of the greatest coups of the Arab Revolt. He had left the Arab camp at Wejh on 9 May, embarking on an epic expedition across some of the worst desert terrain in Arabia. As they approached Aqaba their ranks swelled with friendly tribesmen, numbering over 1,000 men when they finally took the town.

    The taking of Aqaba represented a huge turning point in the orientation of the campaign and thereafter the Arab Northern Army could use it as a base for later campaigns in support of General Allenby’s push into Palestine in 1917 and 1918.

    (Lawrence was extremely lucky not to have been killed as during the attack he managed to shoot and kill the camel he was riding at the time!)

    Naval Operations:

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    HMS Vehement launched today, V Class destroyer.

    Shipping Losses: 11 (1 to a mine & 10 to U-Boat action)


    HMS Itchen (Lieutenant Frederick L Cavaye) is torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine U99 in the North Sea. Seven members of her crew are killed.


    Political:


    Crisis in Germany owing to the demand in the Reichstag for reforms in domestic and foreign policy and a peace without annexations or indemnities.

    Conscription Bill carried in Canadian House of Commons (see October 12th).

    Li-Yuan-Hung, President of China, resigns and is succeeded by Feng-Kuo-Chang (see June 6th, 1916, July 7th, 1917 and October 11th, 1918).

    Anniversary Events:

    1415 Jan Hus, a Czech who spoke out against Church corruption, is burned at the stake as a heretic.
    1519 Charles of Spain is elected Holy Roman emperor in Barcelona.
    1535 Sir Thomas More is beheaded in England for refusing to swear allegiance to King Henry VIII as head of the Church.
    1536 Jacques Cartier returns to France after discovering the St. Lawrence River in Canada.
    1685 James II defeats James, the Duke of Monmouth, at the Battle of Sedgemoor, the last major battle to be fought on English soil.
    1770 The entire Ottoman fleet is destroyed by the Russians at the Battle of Chesma.
    1788 10,000 troops are called out in Paris as unrest mounts in the poorer districts over poverty and lack of food.
    1836 French General Thomas Bugeaud defeats Abd al-Kader’s forces beside the Sikkak River in Algeria.
    1835 John Marshall, the third chief justice of the Supreme Court, dies at the age of 79. Two days later, while tolling in his honor in Philadelphia, the Liberty Bell cracks.
    1854 The Republican Party is officially organized in Jackson, Michigan.
    1885 Louis Pasteur gives the first successful anti-rabies inoculation.
    Last edited by Lt. S.Kafloc; 07-06-2017 at 08:43.
    See you on the Dark Side......

  36. #2536

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    Another reet cracker of an edition Neil.

    Rob.
    "Courage is the art of being the only one who knows you're scared to death."

  37. #2537

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    Great reading indeed Neil - a mammoth stint. Just caught up after some time out from holidays and family duties etc. and I'm still full of admiration for all the work you guys put into this.

    Looking back briefly to the 30th June and the illustration of the Albatros DIII of Flik 42/J, I can't help wondering if anyone has ever done a repaint of this!

    Great account of the Black Flight - very interesting stuff. Finally, a belated congratulations to you guys for the 2500 posts - awesome

  38. #2538

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    Frederick Youens VC (14 August 1892 – 7 July 1917) was twenty four years old, and a temporary 2Lt in the 13th Battalion, The Durham Light Infantry, when the following deed took place for which he was awarded the VC.
    On 7 July 1917 near Hill 60, Belgium, it was reported that the enemy were preparing to raid the British trenches and Second Lieutenant Youens, who had already been wounded, immediately set out to rally a Lewis gun team which had become disorganised. While doing this an enemy bomb fell on the Lewis gun position without exploding. The second lieutenant picked it up and hurled it over the parapet, but soon after another bomb fell near the same place and again he picked it up, but it exploded in his hand, severely wounding him and some of his men. The officer later succumbed to his wounds.

    Today we lost: 524


    Air Operations:


    British aeroplanes bomb Ghistelles (Belgium).

    Operation Türkenkreuz's Fourth Raid:

    On the morning of 7 July the new commander of Kagohl 3, Rudolph Kleine, launched the second successful Gotha raid on London. Observers on the Kentish Knock lightship reported a force of 22 Gothas at 9.14am. Home defence aircraft began to take off at 9.30am, 15 minutes before the Gotha formation came inland over the River Crouch in Essex. Before then one Gotha turned away and, flying over Kent, dropped three HE bombs on the Cliftonville area of Margate at about 9.30am. Falling east of Dane Park, one demolished a house at 11 Arundel Road and killed the three occupants, Mr & Mrs Marks and Agnes Cooper. A bomb that landed in the back garden of 7 Price’s Avenue demolished the rear of the house while the remaining bomb caused damage to buildings in Crawford Gardens and Northdown Road. The local AA guns fired off 115 rounds.

    As the rest of Kagohl 3 passed inland the guns of the Harwich AA command fired over 400 rounds without deflecting the attack on London from where the first AA gun opened fire at 10.21am. Soon joined by 43 others, they fired over 2,060 rounds. Over Epping Forest Kagohl 3 split into two sections, the first turned towards London over Tottenham while continued to Hendon before it also turned towards the City, allowing the attack to be carried out in two waves just a few minutes apart. The first bomb fell harmlessly in Chingford, followed by others in Tottenham and Edmonton. The first casualties occurred when two bombs fell in Boleyn Road, Stoke Newington killing 9 and injuring the same number as well as causing widespread damage. In all about 72 bombs fell between from Stoke Newington in the north to London Bridge in the south, and from King’s Cross in the west to Whitechapel and Stepney in the east. These bombs claimed 44 lives and caused injuries to 135 people, while AA shells killed another 10 and injured 55.
    In the City five died in Bartholomew Close, one in Cox’s Court, a soldier on duty at the Central Telegraph Office died too, as did a man in Fenchurch Street and four men in Lower Thames Street. Other bombs in the City caused damage in Aldersgate Street, Barbican, Leadenhall Street and at Billingsgate Fish Market

    In Tower Hill eight people were killed as were three horses and 15 people injured. In Shoreditch 12 died in Witham, Gifford, Styman, Murray, Herbert, Cavendish and Wenlock streets and over 40 were injured. Three bombs landing close to St. Pancras station damaged the Midland Railway Goods Station and 14 houses as well as killing a man. Bishopsgate Goods Station was also struck by three bombs which damaged 53 houses nearby. On the Thames a bomb struck and sunk a barge moored at Cotton’s Wharf as Kagohl 3 turned east along the river and away from London. One AA shell that landed close to the docks, in Strafford Street, Millwall, killed four people and injured seven others.
    The RFC sent up 79 aircraft of 20 different types, while the RNAS had 22 aircraft searching for the raiders. A number of aircraft made contact with the Gothas but many reported their guns jamming or the inability of their aircraft to keep up the pursuit. One aircraft though did manage to engage effectively. An FK8 from No.50 Squadron, piloted by 2nd Lt. F.A.D. Grace with 2nd Lt. G. Murray as observer/gunner, spotted a straggler, attacked, and shot it down over the sea while RNAS aircraft pursued the Gothas back towards Belgium. Two British aircraft were lost. An Australian pilot, 2nd Lt. W.G. Salmon flying a Sopwith Pup of No. 63 (Training) Squadron, attacked the Gotha formation but a bullet pierced his petrol tank while another cut across his forehead.
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    2lt WG Salmon

    He attempted to get back to Joyce Green airfield but died when his aircraft crashed before he reached safety. The other aircraft, a Sopwith 1½ Strutter of No. 37 Squadron, crewed by 2nd Lt. J.E.R. Young and Air Mechanic C.C. Taylor, appears to have fallen victim to ‘friendly fire’ from an AA fire. Both men died.

    Casualties: 57 killed, 193 injured
    Damage: £205,622

    Royal Flying Corps Losses today: 22

    Lt Battersby, P.W. (Philip Worsley), 55 Squadron,RFC.
    2Lt Berwick, R.G. (Robert George), 60 Training Squadron, RFC.
    A Mech 1 Chisnall, P.F. (Percy Frederick), Balloon Stores Depot, RFC.
    Lt Crafter, J. (James) MC, 20 Squadron, RFC, is killed at age 23. His brother was killed in November 1914 and they are sons of the President of the Blackheath Harriers and he is a member of the Harriers.
    LM Edwards, W.J. (William J.), 5 (N) Squadron, 5 Wing, RNAS.
    Flt Cmdr Eyre, C.A. (Cyril Askew) , 1 (N) Squadron, RNAS.
    Capt Fitzherbert, W.W. (Wyndham Waterhouse) , 55 Squadron, RFC.
    Lt Fotheringham, J.B. (John Beveridge), 45 Squadron, RFC.
    2Lt Gleed, J.V.A. (John Victor Ariel) , 45 Squadron, RFC.
    2Lt Green, J.H.S. (John Henry Stanley), RFC.
    Capt Griffin, R.H. (Reginald Herbert) , 9 Squadron, RFC.
    2Lt Hewson, T. (Thomas), 45 Squadron, RFC.
    Lt Leckie, G. (Graham), 21 Squadron, RFC.
    A Mech 1 Middleton, R. (Robert), Eastchurch Naval Air Station, RNAS.
    Flt S-Lt Millward, K.H. (Kenneth H), 1 (N) Squadron, RNAS.
    Capt Osborne, H.P. (Hubert Patterson), 21 Squadron, RFC.
    Flt S-Lt Ramsay, D.W. (Donald Wynard), 1 (N) Squadron, RNAS
    A Mech 2 Roberts, E.R. (Evan Richard), Royal Naval Air Service, H.M.S. 'President II', RNAS.
    Lt Salmon, W.G. (Wilfred Graham), 63 Training Squadron, RFC.
    Lt Snyder, F.C.H. (Frederick Carle Henry) , 45 Squadron, RFC.
    A Mech C.C. Taylor, 37 Squadron, RFC.
    2Lt. J.E.R. Young, 37 Squadron, RFC.


    Claims: 49 confirmed (Entente 39 : Central Powers 10)

    Frederick Carr Armstrong #5th confirmed victory.
    Francesco Baracca #14th confirmed victory. (Italy)
    Geoffrey Bowman #8th confirmed victory.
    Geoffrey Cock #11th confirmed victory.
    Ralph Curtis #4th confirmed victory.

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    Rowan Heywood "Bill" Daly claims his 1st confirmed victory with HD, RNAS. Flying a Sopwith Triplane he shot down a Gotha GIII 15 miles off Ostend. The son of Charles V. and Kate A. Daly, Flight Sub-Lieutenant Rowan Heywood Daly received Royal Aero Club Aviator's Certificate 4450 on a Maurice Farman biplane at Royal Naval Air Station, Chingford on 8 February 1917. From Home Defence duties, Rowan he was posted to 10 Naval Squadron in France. He was wounded in action on 26 September 1917 whilst scoring his third victory. His Sopwith Camel (N6359) was marked "Wonga Bonga."

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    Sidney Ellis #5th confirmed victory.
    Albert Enstone #5th confirmed victory.
    Joseph Fall #9th, #10th & #11th confirmed victories.
    Robert Farquhar #6th confirmed victory.
    Philip Fletcher Fullard #8th confirmed victory.
    James Glen #4th & #5th confirmed victories.
    Thomas Harries #4th, #5th & #6th confirmed victories.

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    2Lt Richard Aveline Maybery claims his 1st confirmed victory with 56 Squadron, RFC. Flying a SE5a he shot down an Albatros DV near Henin-Lietard. Richard Aveline Maybery, the son of Aveline and Lucy Maybery of The Priory, Brecon, transferred to the Royal Flying Corps after serving with the 21st (Empress of India's) Lancers. Upon completing his training, he was posted to 56 Squadron in June 1917. He quickly proved to be one of the best pilots in the unit, scoring 6 victories in the month of July. One month after he assumed command of A Flight, Maybery scored his 21st victory over Bourlon Wood, downing an Albatros DV. As he followed the burning plane to the ground, Maybery's SE5a was hit by anti-aircraft fire, crashing 600 yards south of the village of Hayecourt. He was buried where he fell by members of K-Flakbatterie 108. Ever cheerful and extremely popular, Maybery's death was a tragic blow to the members of 56 Squadron.

    Douglas McGregor #3rd & #4th confirmed victories.
    Andrew McKeever #3rd, #4th & #5th confirmed victories.
    John Milne #2nd confirmed victory.

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    2Lt James Fitz Morris claims his 1st confirmed victory with 25 Squadron, RFC. Flying a DH4 with observer Lt David Luther Burgess, he shot down an Albatros DV near Dorignies. From Polmont, James Fitz Morris, the son of James and Jane (Brown) Morris, was educated at Laurieston School. Enlisting early in the war, he served as a motor despatch rider with the Highland Light Infantry before he transferred to the Royal Flying Corps. Prior to becoming a pilot, he served with 11 Squadron in France as an observer on Vickers Gunbuses and was mentioned in despatches. After recovering from a serious accident in August 1916, he served as an instructor at Harlaxton aerodrome and was promoted to Temporary Captain. Returning to France with 25 Squadron in the summer of 1917, he scored seven victories flying the DH4. With 23 Squadron in March 1918, he scored seven more victories flying the Spad XIII. Captain Morris was killed in a crash while touring the United States with a contingent of R.A.F. fliers in the summer of 1918.

    Harold Mott #4th confirmed victory.
    William Kennedy-Cochran-Patrick #19th & #20th confirmed victories.
    John Pinder #2nd confirmed victory.
    Alexander Pishvanov #5th confirmed victory. (Russia)
    Cecil Richards #4th confirmed victory.
    Cosimo Rizzotto #2nd confirmed victory. (Italy)
    Leonard Henry Rochford #3rd confirmed victory.
    Henry Scandrett #2nd confirmed victory.

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    Lt Anthony George Allen Spence claims his 1st confirmed victory with 1 (N) Squadron, RNAS. Flying a Sopwith Triplane he shot down an Albatros DV north of Gheluveit. After receiving a Bachelor of Arts from Toronto University, Spence joined the Royal Naval Air Service in November 1916. Flight Sub-Lieutenant Spence received Royal Aero Club Aviator's Certificate 3826 on 28 October 1916. Posted to 1 Naval Squadron (later 201 Squadron of the RAF), he scored six victories flying the Sopwith Triplane but was wounded in action on 8 November 1917. Several months later, he rejoined his squadron, scoring three more victories flying the Sopwith Camel. On 10 May 1918, he returned to England where he spent the remainder of the war at the School of Special Flying in Gosport.

    Richard Trevethan #4th confirmed victory.
    Desmon Uniacke #3rd confirmed victory.
    Arthur Treloar Whealy #5th confirmed victory.

    Friederich Altemeier #2nd confirmed victory. (Germany)
    Lt Fritz G. Anders claims his 1st confirmed victory with Jasta 4, shooting down a Sopwith Pup near Hollebeke. Anders was wounded in action on 13 October 1918.
    Heinrich Bongartz #9th confirmed victory.
    Walter von Bulow-Bothkamp #17th confirmed victory.
    Eduard von Dostler #14th confirmed victory.

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    Lt Karl Gallwitz claims his 1st confirmed victory with FA37, shooting down a balloon near Sturin, south of Riga. On 27 March 1918, Gallwitz shot down a Bristol F2b piloted by English ace Robert Kirkman. A month later, Gallwitz was injured in a crash and never returned to combat.

    Hans Klein #14th confirmed victory.
    Rudolf Klimke #2nd confirmed victory.
    Alfred Niederhoff #4th confirmed victory.
    Oswald Trankner #3rd confirmed victory.

    Western Front


    French gain ground at Cerny (northern Aisne) and at Verdun.

    Tunstills Men Saturday 23rd June 1917:


    Billets in the Steenworde area.

    The weather remained fine.

    2Lt. Sydney Charles Ernest Farrance (see 4th July), who had joined the Battalion just three days previously, was promoted Lieutenant.

    Pte. Harry Squire (see 29th June), who had spent a week under treatment for a mild case of ‘trench foot’, returned to duty.

    Pte. John Dennis Moss (see 30th June), who had been wounded a week earlier, was evacuated to England.

    Lt. Henry Kelly VC (see 19th January) who had been in England since being taken ill on Christmas Day 1916, returned to France en route to re-join 10DWR. However, on arrival he again seems to have been taken ill (details unknown) and he would return to England just two days later, having never actually reported to 10DWR.

    Capt. Gilbert Tunstill (see 14th June), currently serving with 83rd Training Reserve Battalion, based at Brighton Road Schools, Gateshead, was readmitted to Hammerton VAD Hospital in Sunderland. It was reported that, “His foot was painful and he was unable to walk without limping. His foot has been put in Plaster of Paris”. He was to stay in hospital for further investigation and treatment.

    Pte. Mark Beaumont (see 28th June) reported for duty at Northern Command Depot at Ripon; he had been in England since being wounded in January.

    The North Eastern Daily Gazette published the text of a letter from Brig. Genl. Lambert (see 5th July) to the Mayor of Middlesbrough, regarding the part played by 69th Brigade in the Messines attack,

    “I think you will be interested to hear once again how well the men of Middlesbrough and the rest of Yorkshire have done. We had a big task during the Messines battle. It entailed long preparations and much hard work.

    On 6th June we got into our positions during the evening, and there lying out, we watched the mine explosions which were to be the signal for the great advance. They were a stupendous sight, and were followed immediately by the outburst of our artillery and machine guns under which the men advanced. They went splendidly as ever right under our barrage and, except for one or two ‘pokets’ of Germans who were dealt with in due course, without a halt, to what were known repectively as the red and the blue objectives. Within an hour machine guns, Lewis guns and platoons were each in their allotted place, finishing off with the bayonet and bullet the Germans who resisted, and passing back numbers of prisoners. The place was soon made defensible and a good many Huns were dealt with as they made off out of their dug-outs.

    The explosion of the mines must have had a serious effect on them. It was impossible, of course, to say how many were caught up in them, but there is no doubt the number was considerable and those that were not close enough to be killed had a very severe shock! Of course we lost some valuable lives but no troops could have behaved better and no success more complete.

    Other parts of the Brigade now passed through the blue line and met with almost equal success in a further advance, so that practically the whole of the objective was soon taken and the demoralied Huns who remained were chased away or killed or taken prisoner. I daresay some of our wounded will already have told you some of our exciting adventures. I can only say that Middlesbrough can be as proud this year as it had cause to be on the Somme last year of its representatives in the Brigade. We took a dozen machine guns and many other trophies. I have asked that some of the trophies may some day be sent to your city where I am sure they will be received and treated with honour in memory of those who fought so well for their country.”

    Eastern Front:

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    Kornilov being feted by his officers in July 1917.

    July 6 1917, Ivano-Frankivs’k–The Kerensky offensive had seen some successes in its first two days, especially in the Eleventh Army’s sector. However, the main body of the infantry involved seemed to think they had done their duty and were unwilling to move beyond the Austrian trench lines that they captured. The Eleventh Army attempted to attack again on July 6 but made no progress. Its commander reported:

    “Despite the victories of July 1 and 2, which should have strengthened the offensive spirit of our units, we have not seen this in the majority of the regiments. Some unites are dominated by the conviction that they have done their duty and are not obligated to carry on further uninterrupted offensives.”
    Further to the south, the Russian Eighth Army, under Kornilov (newly sent south from Petrograd), also began its attacks on July 6. Kornilov hoped that German and Austrian reserves had been sent north to stop the Eleventh Army, and that he would be able to smash through the Austrians in front of him. The attack on July 6, initially intended as a diversion, still took many Austrian positions. A larger attack the next day broke open the Austrian lines and took 7000 prisoners.

    The resulting gap in the Austrian lines was large enough that, for one of the few times in the war, the cavalry prepared to exploit a breakthrough could actually be used to great effect. Two entire cavalry divisions pushed through and reached as far as Kalusz, over 15 miles distant, by July 11. However, with the Seventh and Eleventh Armies to his north unwilling to renew their offensive, this left the Eighth Army’s rapidly advancing flank increasingly exposed.

    Africa, Asiatic & Egyptian Theatres:

    Despatches on winter operations in Egypt published.

    Naval Operations:


    SM U-99 a Type U57 submarine was torpedoed and sunk in the North by HMS J2 with the loss of all 40 crew.

    Shipping Losses: 15 (6 to mines & 9 to U-Boat action)


    Political:


    French Government affirm their right of control in respect of army services.

    Chinese Manchu Emperor abdicates.

    Anniversary Events:

    1742 A Spanish force invading Georgia runs headlong into the colony’s British defenders. The battle decides the fate of a colony.
    1777 American troops give up Fort Ticonderoga, on Lake Champlain, to the British.
    1791 Benjamin Rush, Richard Allen and Absalom Jones found the Non-denominational African Church.
    1795 Thomas Paine defends the principal of universal suffrage at the Constitutional Convention in Paris.
    1798 Napoleon Bonaparte‘s army begins its march towards Cairo from Alexandria.
    1807 Czar Alexander meets with Napoleon Bonaparte.
    1814 Sir Walter Scott’s novel Waverley is published anonymously so as not to damage his reputation as a poet.
    1815 After defeating Napoleon at Waterloo, the victorious Allies march into Paris.
    1853 Japan opens its ports to trade with the West after 250 years of isolation.
    1863 Confederate General Robert E. Lee, in Hagerstown, Maryland, reports his defeat at Gettysburg to President Jefferson Davis.
    Last edited by Lt. S.Kafloc; 07-07-2017 at 07:10.
    See you on the Dark Side......

  39. #2539

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    Sunday 8th July 1917

    Today we lost: 382

    Air Operations:


    As an example of the changed scale of the air war, the British, French and Belgian air forces assemble a force of 750 aircraft, of which 330 were fighters, between the Lys Valley and the Channel for the Battle of Ypres. They were opposed by about 600 German aircraft, including 200 fighters.


    Royal Flying Corps Losses today: 2


    Capt Brooks, C.A. (Charles Alfred), 27 Squadron, (attached 1 Squadron AFC), RFC. Killed in Action aged 29. Flying Martinsyde G100 7477, in Combat with Enemy Aircraft. Tail of his aircraft collapsed and he crashed near Tel el Sheria.

    2Lt Brufton, H.C. (Howard Charles), 47 Squadron, RFC. (Rifle Brigade attached Royal Flying Corps) is killed at age 22 when he is shot down behind enemy lines at Salonika. His brother will be killed in September 1918.

    Claims: 1 (Entente 0 : Central Powers 1)


    Karl Gallwitz #2nd confirmed victory.

    Home Front:

    Britain:
    July 7 1917, London–The Gotha bombers left for their fourth raid on England on July 7. It would be the second to reach London, with 21 bombers making it to the city. They dropped 4 tons of bombs, killing 57 civilians and wounding around 100 more. The air defense presence around London had been stepped up since the previous raid, and over 100 fighters took off to try to intercept the bombers. However, they only succeeded in shooting down one, on the Germans’ return trip over the English Channel; two British fighters were even shot down by the Gothas’ defensive guns.

    Another daylight attack on London caused outrage among the population there. In the East End, riots broke out, with violence directed towards people and businesses suspected of being German or having German ties. Throughout the city, people demanded that more be done to protect them from the bombers, and more squadrons and planes were ordered for that purpose–many being diverted or transferred from service in France, including 24 new Sopwith Camels.

    Western Front

    Tunstills Men Sunday 8th July 1917:


    Billets in the Steenworde area.

    A wet day.

    L.Cpl. Paul Bland (see 15th June) was promoted Corporal.

    Pte. Ernest Hardcastle joined the Battalion from 34th Infantry Base Depot at Etaples, where he had spent the previous two weeks since arriving in France. He was a 19 year-old apprentice from Silsden.

    Eastern Front:

    Heavy fighting south of Lake Babit; no material change of positions.

    Russians recover island in Dvina near Glandau.

    Enemy advance in Casin and Susitsa valleys (Moldavia), capture Focsani, with 5,500 prisoners, and make progress near Fundeni.

    Africa, Asiatic & Egyptian Theatres:

    Russian forces begin withdrawal from Western Persia; Qasr-i-Shirin evacuated (see May 7th, 1916, March 25th, 1917 and January 8th, 1918).

    Naval Operations:


    Shipping Losses: 13 (1 to a mine & 12 to U-Boat action)


    Anniversary Events:

    1099 Christian Crusaders march around Jerusalem as Muslims watch from within the city.
    1608 The first French settlement at Quebec is established by Samuel de Champlain.
    1663 The British crown grants Rhode Island a charter guaranteeing freedom of worship.
    1686 The Austrians take Budapest from the Turks and annex Hungary.
    1709 Peter the Great defeats Charles XII at Poltava, in the Ukraine, effectively ending the Swedish empire.
    1755 Britain breaks off diplomatic relations with France as their disputes in the New World intensify.
    1758 The British attack on Fort Carillon at Ticonderoga, New York, is foiled by the French.
    1794 French troops capture Brussels, Belgium.
    1815 With Napoleon defeated, Louis XVIII returns to Paris.
    1822 29-year old poet Percy Bysshe Shelley drowns while sailing in Italy.
    1859 The truce at Villafranca Austria cedes Lombardy to France.
    1863 Demoralized by the surrender of Vicksburg, Confederates in Port Hudson, Louisiana, surrender to Union forces.
    1864 Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston retreats into Atlanta to prevent being flanked by Union General William T. Sherman.
    1865 Four of the conspirators in President Abraham Lincoln‘s assassination are hanged in Washington, D.C.
    1879 The first ship to use electric lights departs from San Francisco, California.
    1905 The mutinous crew of the battleship Potemkin surrenders to Romanian authorities.
    See you on the Dark Side......

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    Dunno how I missed this anniversary:

    July 7 1930 Arthur Conan Doyle dies – Great War Connections include

    Arthur Alleyne ‘Kingsley’ Conan Doyle

    Arthur Conan Doyle connection

    • Arthur Alleyme Kingsley Conan Doyle – son
    • John Francis Innes Hay Doyle – brother
    • Malcolm Leckie – brother-in-law
    • Leslie W S Oldham – brother-in-law
    • Arthur Oscar Hornung – nephew
    • Alex Forbes – nephew
    • John Ernest Vivian Rathbone – Basil Rathbone’s (Sherlock Holmes) younger brother
    • Eric William Benson – a cousin once removed of Basil Rathbone.
    See you on the Dark Side......

  42. #2542

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    I guess that's a relatively quiet day for WW1 Thanks Neil. Mike

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    Monday 9th July 1917


    Today we lost: 1,254


    Air Operations:


    British aeroplanes bomb Constantinople and the Turkish-German fleet.

    Royal Flying Corps Losses today: 3


    Lt Evans, S.N. (Stewart Nicholson), 40 training Squadron, RFC. Killed while flying aged 26. NFDK.

    Cadet Page, C. (Clairmont), 44th Wing, Canada, RFC. Dies as a result of an aeroplane accident. NFDK.

    A Mech 3 Richmond, W., Recruits Depot, RFC. NFDK.

    Claims: There are no confirmed claims today

    Home Front:


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    Soldiers in the Polish Legions throw down their weapons after refusing to swear the oath.

    July 8 1917, Warsaw–Germany, hoping to use Poland’s extensive manpower to help them fight the war, had promised an independent Poland in November 1916 and oversaw the creation of an (advisory) provisional government in January. The hoped-for influx of volunteers did not occur, however; Piłsudski’s Polish Legions remained small and unreliable.
    By the summer of 1917, however, Piłsudski had grown disillusioned with the Central Powers. The revolution in Russia had removed the hated Czar and brought in a government that had gave a believable guarantee of Polish independence, and American entry into the war made it more likely that any Allied-enforced peace would recognize full Polish self-determination, instead of nominal independence as a German vassal.

    Piłsudski saw his chance to make his objections known in July, when the German governor of Poland required that soldiers in the Polish Legion swear a loyalty oath to a “future King” of Poland and be a “loyal brother-in-arms” of the Germans and Austrians. On July 8, after resigning from the provisional government, Piłsudski instructed the men of the Polish Legions not to swear the oath, and most publicly refused to do so the next day. Austrian subjects in the Legions were forcibly drafted back into the Austrian army and sent to the Italian front; Russian and German subjects who refused to swear the oath were treated as prisoners of war. Piłsudski himself was arrested by the Germans later in the month and remained in captivity until the final weeks of the war.

    Western Front

    British line advanced slightly on Messines front.

    German counter-attack on Aisne front repulsed.

    French counter-attacks successful at Braye-en-Laonnois (Aisne).

    Tunstills Men Monday 9th July 1917:


    Billets in the Steenworde area.

    After the rain of the previous day, fine weather returned

    L.Cpl. Wilfred Clarkson (see 25th June) was promoted Corporal. Ptes. Fred Wilson Fawcett (see 23rd February) and Martin Reddington (see 31st May) were promoted (unpaid) Lance Corporal.

    Pte. William Franklin (see 5th July), who had joined the Battalion just four days previously, was reported as having been “dirty on parade”; he was reported by Sgt. Richard Everson (see 16th May), and was sentenced to three days confined to barracks. Pte. Leonard Hurley (see 25th March) was reported by Cpl. George Heeley (see 28th June) for having a “dirty rifle when dismounting guard”; he was to undertake three extra guard duties. Both punishments were on the orders of Capt. Bob Perks DSO (see 1st July),

    Pte. Richard Marsden (see 3rd June), who had been wounded six days previously, was evacuated from 3rd Canadian Stationary Hospital at Boulogne, travelling to England onboard the Hospital Ship St. Denis.

    A payment of £2 11s. 6d. was authorised, being the amount due in pay and allowances to the late Pte. Richard Field (see 19th May); the payment would go to his widow, Minnie.

    Eastern Front:

    Russian offensive progresses south-west of Halicz, enemy driven back behind River Lomnica; 1,000 prisoners.

    Southern Front:

    Austrian attacks on Italian positions west of Tolmino (Upper Isonzo) repulsed.

    Africa, Asiatic & Egyptian Theatres:

    Russians report evacuation of towns on Mesopotamian front owing to Turkish pressure.

    Naval Operations:


    Shipping Losses: 4 (1 to explosion & 3 to U-Boat action)


    H.M.S. "Vanguard" blown up as a result of internal explosion; 3 survivors of those on board at the time.

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    HMS Vanguard was one of three St Vincent Class dreadnought battleships built for the Royal Navy in the first decade of the 20th century. She spent her whole career assigned to the Home and Grand Fleets. Aside from participating in the Battle of Jutland in May 1916 several months later, and the inconclusive Action of 19 August, her service during the war generally consisted of routine patrols and training in the North Sea.

    Shortly before midnight on 9 July 1917 at Scapa Flow, Vanguard suffered a series of magazine explosions. She sank almost instantly, with the loss of 843 of the 845 men aboard. The wreck was heavily salvaged after the war, but was eventually protected as a war grave in 1984. As a war grave, the wreck has been designated as a controlled site under the Protection of Military Remains Act 1986 and diving on the wreck is generally forbidden.

    Vanguard was refitted in Rosyth in December. On the afternoon of 9 July 1917, the ship's crew had been exercising, practising the routine for abandoning ship. She anchored in the northern part of Scapa Flow at about 18:30. There is no record of anyone detecting anything amiss until the first explosion at 23:20. She sank almost instantly, with only three of the crew surviving, one of whom died soon afterwards. A total of 843 men were lost, including two Australian stokers from the light cruiser HMAS Sydney serving time in the battleship's brig. Another casualty was Captain Kyosuke Eto, a military observer from the Imperial Japanese Navy, which was allied with the Royal Navy at the time through the Anglo-Japanese Alliance. The bodies of 17 of the 22 men recovered after the explosion, plus that of Lt Commander Alan Duke, who died after being rescued, were buried at the Royal Naval Cemetery at Lyness, not far from the site of the explosion. The others are commemorated on the Chatham, Plymouth and Portsmouth Naval Memorials.

    A Board of Inquiry heard accounts from many witnesses on nearby ships. They accepted the consensus that there had been a small explosion with a white glare between the foremast and 'A' turret, followed after a brief interval by two much larger explosions. The board decided, on the balance of the available evidence, that the main detonations were in either 'P' magazine, 'Q' magazine, or both. A great deal of debris thrown out by the explosions landed on nearby ships; a section of plating measuring approximately six by four feet (1.8 by 1.2 m) landed on board the battleship Bellerophon. It was found to be from the No. 2 Hydraulic Room abaft 'A' barbette. It showed no signs of a blast from 'A' magazine, which reinforced the visual evidence suggesting that the explosion took place in the central part of the ship.

    Although the explosion was obviously an explosion of the cordite charges in a main magazine, the reason for it was much less obvious. There were several theories. The inquiry found that some of the cordite on board, which had been temporarily offloaded in December 1916 and catalogued at that time, was past its stated safe life. The possibility of spontaneous detonation was raised, but could not be proved. It was also noted that a number of ship's boilers were still in use, and some watertight doors, which should have been closed in wartime, were open as the ship was in port. It was suggested that this might have contributed to a dangerously high temperature in the magazines. The final conclusion of the board was that a fire started in a four-inch magazine, perhaps when a raised temperature caused spontaneous ignition of cordite, spreading to one or the other main magazines, which then exploded.

    The wreck was heavily salvaged in search of non-ferrous metals before it was declared a war grave in 1984, although some of the main armament and armour plate were also removed. As might be expected, the wreck, which lies at a depth of 14.2 metres (46 ft 7 in), and its associated debris cover a large area at. The amidships portion of the ship is almost completely gone and 'P' and 'Q' turrets were blown some 40 metres (130 ft) away. The bow and stern areas are almost intact as has been revealed by a survey authorised by the Ministry of Defence in 2016 in preparation for the centenary commemoration planned for 2017. The wreck was designated as a controlled site in 2002 and cannot be dived upon except with permission from the Ministry of Defence.

    Political:


    Secret Session of House of Commons on London air raids.

    Anniversary Events:

    118 Hadrian, Rome's new emperor, makes his entry into the city.
    455 Avitus, the Roman military commander in Gaul, becomes Emperor of the West.
    1553 Maurice of Saxony is mortally wounded at Sievershausen, Germany, while defeating Albert of Brandenburg-Kulmbach.
    1609 Emperor Rudolf II grants Bohemia freedom of worship.
    1755 General Edward Braddock is killed by French and Indian troops.
    1789 In Versailles, the French National Assembly declares itself the Constituent Assembly and begins to prepare a French constitution.
    1790 The Swedish navy captures one third of the Russian fleet at the Battle of Svensksund in the Baltic Sea.
    1850 U.S. President Zachary Taylor dies in office at the age of 65. He is succeeded by Millard Fillmore.
    1861 Confederate cavalry led by John Morgan captures Tompkinsville, Kentucky.
    1900 The Commonwealth of Australia is established by an act of British Parliament, uniting the separate colonies under a federal government.

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    As the sun sets somewhere on the 'Empire' and on that final note gentlemen I bid you farewell as I sail off into the sunset bound for a desert island in the tropical sun, coconuts, bananas and all the other tropical fruits to sample. I hand over to Chris and hope to see you all soon in the future......
    Last edited by Lt. S.Kafloc; 07-09-2017 at 00:56.
    See you on the Dark Side......

  44. #2544

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    Thanks for the extended break Neil, I am back in the editor's chair from tomorrow, lets see what you have left me...

    Never Knowingly Undergunned !!

  45. #2545

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    All the best Neil. Hope all goes well on that desert island. Don't forget the suncream Thanks for all the hard work. Laters, Mike

  46. #2546

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    Hope all goes well Neil.

    Thanks for your unstinting work on the "Times" once again.
    Rob.
    "Courage is the art of being the only one who knows you're scared to death."

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    I second that - thanks for such a long stint Neil

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    Well I'm back, it seems like ages (bet it seems even longer for Neil - thanks again mate). This evenings edition is brought to you courtesy of a 1997 bottle of Chateuaneuf du Pape I found hiding away within the depths of my wine rack. God I need to go on another holiday there....

    10th July 1917

    Operation Hush - the Battle that never was

    On the 6 July 1917, the MarinesKorps Flandern began a desultory artillery bombardment, which continued for the next three days. Fog and low cloud prevented detection of the German build-up. Then, at 5.30am on the the 10 July the massed German artillery, including three 24cm naval guns in shore batteries and 58 artillery batteries (planned naval gunfire support from destroyers and torpedo-boats was cancelled), opened up on the British positions in the bridgehead. Mustard gas (Yellow Cross) was used for the first time in the barrage. All but one of the bridges over the Yser River were demolished, isolating the 1/Northamptonshire and 2/KRRC of 2nd Brigade, 1st Division on the extreme left flank. Telephone communication was also cut. The German bombardment continued throughout
    the day. The British artillery attempted a counter-barrage but several guns were knocked out and the German infantry were well protected. At 8pm, the MarinesKorps launched the infantry assault, by which time the two British battalions had suffered 70-80% casualties. The German stormtroopers attacked down the coast, outflanking the British. Their attack was then followed by waves of German Marines, supported by flamethrower teams to mop up dugouts. After a gallant defence, the British battalions were overwhelmed. Only 4 officers and 64 other ranks managed to reach the west bank of the Yser.

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    A contemporary trench map of the Yser brideghead prior to the Strandfest attack. The River Yser can be seen with Nieuport-Bains on the (left) bank. The North Sea coast is at the top of the map. The British front line is sketched in blue on the opposite bank, with the German front in red facing it. It was here that the 1st Northamptons and 2nd King’s Royal Rifle Corps suffered such heavy casualties on 10 July 1917.

    The German attack on the 32nd Division, further to the east, was less successful. Only the 97th Brigade was attacked and although there was some penetration into the line, a counterattack that night by the 11/Border Regiment, supported by two companies of the 17/Highland Light Infantry, restored all but 500 yards of the front line. A general counterattack was ordered for the 11 July by General Rawlinson. Wisely, he later rescinded his decision at the request of XV Corps Commander, Lt. General John Du Cane. The total British casualties amounted to approximately 3,126 of all ranks, killed, wounded and missing. Of these, fifty officers and 1,253 other ranks belonged to the two battalions of 1st Division. Lieutenant Colonel
    Richard Abadie DSO, Officer Commanding 2/KRRC, has no known grave and is commemorated on the Nieuport Memorial to the Missing.

    Yellow Cross: the advent of Mustard Gas in 1917

    In July 1917, on the eve of the Third Battle of Ypres, the Germans introduced two new chemical weapons to the battlefield. One was a failure, the other a spectacular success. The story of their use illustrates one of the lessons of chemical weapons from the First World War: the impossibility of predicting how they would behave in the field.[1]While gas played a comparatively minor role on the battlefield in 1916, it would become ubiquitous by the end of the following year. Chemical warfare in 1917 was characterised by the British introduction of a new and effective means of delivery for chemical agents, the Livens projector, and by the German introduction of a new agent for artillery shells, mustard gas. This article focuses on the introduction and impact of mustard gas.

    All the combatants used colour-coded markings on their shells, and the Germans used a system to simplify the complex varieties of chemical fillings according to their function. The existing diphosgene shells and others containing lethal lung irritant gas, which might dissipate in a few hours and was regarded as non-persistent, were marked with a green cross. In July 1917 as the preparations for the Third Battle of Ypres were underway, the Germans introduced two new chemical agents, neither of which can accurately be described as a gas.

    The first was diphenyl chloroarsine, or Blue Cross. The concept of these shells was not in themselves to cause death or injury, but to penetrate the respirator filters using a fine particulate dust, causing uncontrollable sneezing and coughing which would force the wearers to remove their respirator and succumb to lethal diphosgene shell. The ‘mask-breaker’ shells were coded with a blue cross. If effectively disseminated, the arsenic dust could cause intense pain to the sinuses and mental depression. However, two factors served to diminish the effect of these shells. Firstly the Germans chose as their method of dissemination to embed a glass bottle containing the powder in a high explosive shell and this rarely produced particles fine enough to penetrate the British respirator filters. Secondly, the British had already introduced this concept with stannic chloride and between April and June 1917 had issued a particulate filter as an extension for their respirator to protect their own troops in the Ypres Salient. Moreover, they had under development a new filter box incorporating the filter which they began issuing in July. The Blue Cross shells however had the advantage of being effectively indistinguishable in flight and detonation from normal high explosive shells, thus soldiers had no warning of the bursting of the shells and might succumb before they could adjust their masks.

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    Strandfest: the first use of Blue Cross at Nieuwpoort, 10 July 1917

    The Germans introduced Blue Cross shells during their operation to retake the bridgehead at Nieuwpoort (Nieuport) from which they rightly suspected that the recently arrived British were to launch an operation along the Belgian coast. They amassed 146 batteries for this small, local action, under the codename Strandfest (which might roughly translate as ‘Beach Party’). Because of bad weather the attack date was shifted several times, until early on 10 July orders were issued for a ten-hour preparatory bombardment to commence at 10am. In addition to diphosgene (Green Cross) and tear gas shells, the British reported another type which burst like a high explosive shell but caused sneezing, slight irritation of the nose and eyes, and tightness of the chest. At 8pm the German 3rd Marine Division stormed the British positions and threw them back over the Yser. Despite taking 1,250 British prisoners, the Germans were apparently unable to establish how useful the new Blue Cross shells had actually been in achieving the success.[2]

    In order to obtain evidence of the effectiveness of both the Blue Cross shells and the method of combining them with Green Cross, the Germans staged a major raid on 28 July at Wytschaete, south of Ypres. Code-named, Heuernte or ‘Hay Making,’ the operation involved bombarding British positions at 10.40pm for six minutes by nine light field howitzer batteries with 100 rounds each of Blue Cross ammunition. This was followed by 14 minutes of high explosives after which five raiding parties entered the British trenches. They found however that the British had withdrawn from the shelled area and no prisoners were obtained.

    British investigations following the 10 July attack where also inconclusive. There were reports of the new symptoms but they were unable to recover an unexploded shell in order to identify the filling until early August. The more dramatic use of mustard gas shortly afterwards also delayed investigation of the Blue Cross shells. This occurred on the night of 12-13 July.

    The development of Mustard Gas

    While Blue Cross was developed as an attack ammunition for use in conjunction with Green Cross, mustard was adopted as a defensive agent which was suitable for the continuous poisoning of an area. Mustard gas, dichlorodiethyl sulphide, is in fact an oily liquid with a low boiling point, given the name mustard gas by the British owing to its odour of mustard or horseradish in its impure form. It was to become the most effective chemical agent used during the First World War owing not to the numbers which it killed but to the temporary effects of skin blistering and severe conjunctivitis and to its ability to render ground uninhabitable owing to the time which it took to evaporate. Its effect on the skin was noted by Viktor Meyer in 1886 but both the British and French considered adopting mustard in 1916 but rejected it on the grounds of its lack of toxicity. Professor Ernest Starling, in charge of British anti-gas research, had ordered experiments on cats in 1916. However, the persistency of mustard, the way that it continued to poison for hours or days after release, was not noticed and the range being only that of a bursting shell it was turned down. The Germans named it ‘Lost’ after the names of the proposers: Dr Wilhelm Lommel at the Bayer research laboratories and Dr Wilhelm Steinkopf at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute. Trials were carried in September and October 1916 out by Doctors Ferdinand Flury and Curt Wachtel, toxicologists at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute. Their tests results on monkeys demonstrated eye and respiratory injury but made no mention of skin symptoms. Wachtel later described how, in late 1916, mustard came to be adopted. [3] The head of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physical Chemistry and also head of the German chemical warfare programme, Fritz Haber, learnt from the German commanders Hindenburg and Ludendorff that they required a defensive gas suitable for preventing Allied attacks expected in the summer of 1917. Haber was able to propose the newly tested mustard gas which would remain dangerous for long after the gas shell then in use had dissipated and industrial production was initiated. Haber’s son, L F Haber, however suggests that, while mustard was selected because of its persistency, its effect was still expected to be as a lethal lung-irritant rather than the non-lethal casualty producer that it in fact turned out to be: ‘No one appears to have remembered that Meyer, thirty years earlier, had written of its blistering action.’

    The lack of lethal effect was in fact noted before it was used in the field, according to Wachtel, following a serious explosion at the Adlershof gas shell filling plant, near Berlin, in the spring of 1917. Occurring after the first 1,200 77mm shells had been prepared, this explosion delayed the first use of mustard by several weeks. But a lack of casualties during the fire fighting and cleanup led to claims that it was not sufficiently toxic which had to be refuted with further toxicology tests. A trial was conducted in which 500 mustard shells were fired on a test range on which several hundred cats and dogs were tethered. Before its use in the field, mustard was dismissed by most gas warfare experts as being the best means to kill cats but not as a war gas.

    On this day 867 British Lives were lost

    Captain ‘the Honorable’ Edward James Kay-Shuttleworth (Rifle Brigade) is accidentally killed at home while returning to service at age 27. He attended both Eton and Balliol. He is the youngest son of the 1st Baron Shuttleworth and grandson of the educational and social reformer ‘Sir’ James Kay-Shuttleworth. His elder brother was killed in action in March of this year. (I wondered if Edward was a scion of the Shuttleworth family responsible for the SHuttleworth Collection at Old Warden erodrome - but this turned out not to be the case- editor)

    Today’s highlighted casualties include:

    Lieutenant Colonel Richard Neville Abadie DSO (commanding 2nd King’s Royal Rifle Corps) is killed in action. He is the second brother to be killed in the Great War, two other brothers having died in the King’s service prior to the Great War. He is a veteran of the South African War.
    Major Harry Cheyne (Royal Field Artillery) is killed at age 34. He is a writer to the Signet.
    Captain John Lister Dillwyn-Venables-Llewellyn (Coldstream Guards) is killed at age 20. He is the son of ‘Sir’ Charles Leyshon Dillwyn-Venables-Llewellyn the 2nd Baronet and has a young brother who will be killed in Norway during the second war in May 1940..
    Lieutenant Sanford William Shippard (North Lancashire Regiment) is killed at age 21. He is the son of ‘Sir’ Sidney Shippard KCMG DCL.
    Lieutenant Arthur Glynne Lewis (Indian Army Reserve of Officers attached Lancers Indian Army) is killed at age 38. He is the son of ‘Sir’ Henry Lewis.
    Lieutenant Arthur Vincent Wallis (attached Egyptian Labour Corps) dies as a prisoner of war in Kut. He is the Marshall of H M Prize Court at Alexandria.
    Second Lieutenant William Sheepshanks (King’s Royal Rifle Corps) is killed at age 27. He is the son of the Right Reverend John Sheepshanks Bishop of Norwich.
    Second Lieutenant R F Lockhart (London Regiment) is killed at age 24. He is the son of the late Reverend William Lockhart.

    The War at Sea

    A good day's hunting for U-53....

    U-53 was ordered from Germaniawerft, Kiel in 1914 and launched in 1916. She was commissioned under her first commander Hans Rose in 1916.

    Rose became the 5th ranked German submarine ace of World War I sinking USS Jacob Jones and 87 merchant ships for a total of 224,314 gross register tons (GRT).[5] Rose's first patrol with U-53 was to Newport, Rhode Island. His mission had been to sink any British warships in position to ambush the merchant submarine Bremen; but he heard a radio broadcast on 28 September 1916 indicating Bremen had been sunk. U-53 entered Newport harbor on the morning of 7 October 1916. Rose paid courtesy visits to Rear Admiral Austin M. Knight, Commandant of the United States Second Naval District, and Rear Admiral Albert Gleaves aboard the cruiser USS Birmingham; and then received courtesy visits from both admirals aboard U-53. Admiral Gleaves brought his wife and daughter to visit U-53. It took the neutral American government about two hours to decide how to handle this surprise visit. When the harbor master started talking about quarantine regulations, Rose returned to sea to avoid being interned.

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    U-53 commenced military operations the next morning two miles off the Lightship Nantucket. The American steamer Kansan was stopped by a shot across the bow at 0535, and then released when examination of her papers revealed no contraband cargo. A large passenger liner was allowed to pass at 06:00 because Rose felt unable to provide for the safety of a large number of passengers. The 4,321-ton British steamer Strathdene was stopped at 06:53 and torpedoed at 07:43 after the crew had abandoned ship. The 3,878-ton Norwegian steamer Christian Knutsen with a cargo of diesel oil for London was stopped at 08:03 and torpedoed at 0953 after the crew had abandoned ship. The 3,847-ton steamer West Point was stopped at 1130 and sunk by explosive charges after the crew had abandoned ship. Seventeen American destroyers were dispatched from Newport to search for survivors in response to the Nantucket lightship's reports of sinkings. The destroyers arrived about 1700 as U-53 stopped the Dutch steamer Blommersdyk bound for England with contraband cargo. The 3,449-ton British passenger liner Stephano was stopped and the gathering American destroyers took off its crew and passengers. Rose used his last torpedoes to sink Blommersdyk at 19:50 and Stephano at 22:30. Rose set a homeward course via the Gulf Stream and evaded three British destroyers sent from Canada to intercept him.

    There was a great deal of anger amongst the Allied powers after the visit of U-53 to the American port and the subsequent sinking of Allied shipping. While all of the sinkings were done according to Prize Court laws and nobody was killed during them, the attacks instilled fear in the British because of the reach of the German U-boats, and the United States because these attacks occurred so close to American shores. The British were further outraged that most of the attacks occurred while the submarine was surrounded by American destroyers. After a soothing speech by Sir Edward Grey, these complaints were calmed when he pointed out that the American ships had no legal right to interfere with these attacks and had done all they could to rescue the sailors in the water. German newspapers celebrated the trip as a great demonstration of the reach of the German Navy and Captain Rose was praised for his actions.

    on this day...

    Cedric United Kingdom The trawler was scuttled in the Atlantic Ocean 55 nautical miles (102 km) south by west of Suðuroy, Faroe Islands by SM U-53 ( Kaiserliche Marine). Her crew survived.
    Mabel United Kingdom The trawler was scuttled in the Atlantic Ocean off Suðuroy by SM U-53 ( Kaiserliche Marine). Her crew survived.
    Pacific United Kingdom The trawler was scuttled in the Atlantic Ocean off Suðuroy by SM U-53 ( Kaiserliche Marine). Her crew survived.
    Peridot United Kingdom The trawler was scuttled in the Atlantic Ocean off Suðuroy by SM U-53 ( Kaiserliche Marine). Her crew survived.
    Pretoria United Kingdom The trawler was shelled and sunk in the Atlantic Ocean 130 nautical miles (240 km) north by west of Hoy Head, Shetland Islands by SM U-53 ( Kaiserliche Marine). Her crew survived.
    Romantic United Kingdom The trawler was scuttled in the Atlantic Ocean off Suðuroy by SM U-53 ( Kaiserliche Marine). Her crew survived.
    Sea King United Kingdom The trawler was scuttled in the Atlantic Ocean 60 nautical miles (110 km) south by east of Suðuroy by SM U-53 ( Kaiserliche Marine). Her crew survived.
    Stoic United Kingdom The trawler was scuttled in the Atlantic Ocean off Suðuroy by SM U-53 ( Kaiserliche Marine). Her crew survived.

    Yâdigâr-ı-Millet (aka Jadhigar-i-Millet)
    Ottoman Navy The S165-class destroyer was bombed and sunk at İstinye, Turkey in the Bosphorus (39°56′00″N 29°10′30″E) by a Royal Naval Air Service Handley Page aircraft with the loss of 26 of her crew.

    The War in the Air

    Air Mech 2nd Class Anderson, W.R.
    (William Roger) School of Technical Training
    Flight Sub Lt. Busby, E.W. (Eric William) 4(N) Squadron RNAS
    Lt. Pearson, F.G. (Francis Gilbert) 10 Squadron RFC
    Pte. Thomas, C.B. (Charles Benjamin) RFC
    2nd Lt. Jakins, W.V. (Walter Vosper) 54 Squadron RFC

    The following aerial combat claims were made today...

    Phillip Prothero Scotland #2
    Robert Little Australia #28
    Andreas Dombrowski Austro-Hungarian Empire #5
    Johann Risztics Austro-Hungarian Empire #2

    Ferdinand Udvardy Austro-Hungarian Empire #1 #2

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    Called up in 1915, Udvardy served in the infantry before he transferred to the Army Air Service. Posted to Flik 10 on the Russian front on 1 October 1916, he received fighter pilot training in January 1917 and was reassigned to Flik 42J in May 1917. With this unit he scored nine victories flying the Hansa-Brandenburg D.I and Albatros D.III. Udvardy marked both sides of his Albatros D.III with the number "7." During 1918, he formed a strong friendship with fellow pilots Friedrich Hefty and Johann Risztics. Amongst the airmen of Flik 42J, the trio became known as the Arany Triumviratus (Golden Triumvirate). Post-war, Udvardy served in the 8th Squadron of the Red Air Force.

    Andre de Meulemeester Belgium #3
    William Bishop Canada #32
    Arnold Chadwick Canada #9 #10

    Ronald Keirstead Canada #1

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    Ronald McNeill Keirstead learned to fly at the Curtiss School in Toronto in 1916. He joined the Royal Naval Air Service and was posted to 4 Naval Squadron in June 1917. Flying the Sopwith Camel, he score 13 victories.

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    Andrew McKeever Canada #6
    Georg Strasser Germany #4
    Alan Scott New Zealand #5

    Never Knowingly Undergunned !!

  48. #2548

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    Great edition Chris, mustard gas...horrible. My grandfather was invalided out of the Engineers in 1917 due to gas. Sorry lads couldn't get to sleep. But it's bon voyage now after a thrilling read.
    See you on the Dark Side......

  49. #2549

    Default

    Nice one Chris. The Camel E9968 shown above started life as a standard Camel but was converted to a two seater sometime in 1918.

  50. #2550

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    Thanks Chris,
    mustard gas...horrible
    Yes indeed. Both of my grandfathers were gassed in this way. Both survived, one with no apparent lasting effects, the other never quite got full health back
    Cheers
    Mike

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