For King & Empire

FK&E member C. Eustace figures prominently at Beaumont Hamel in the banner. Be sure to check out the excellent content over at Canada.ca/Canada-Remembers. If you haven't already gotten a poppy they are readily available through the efforts of Cadet and VAC volunteers in public locations.

We just found out about this page. Check it out.

Women In The Services - WITS The history of all women of any military or military related service, through the decades and confli

One of the things often forgotten in the telling of military history is what happens at the end of the war. This is just as great a social upheaval as the war effort itself; reintegrating millions into the economy, coping with different sorts of stress and lingering memories or habits, reconstituting or reorganising households, etc. This is not addressed in great detail in any works we are aware of, please feel free to post some below if you are. It is a topic that is perhaps most thoroughly or at least commonly addressed so far in gender histories and the question of women into and women out of the workplace.

As said, by war's end there were several million uniformed servicemen to demobilise and return home. Brusque bureaucratic forms proliferated, for example Army Form Z22 (Disabilities claim) and Z44 (Clothing ration or cash clothing allowance), and the state of infrastructure after the demands of four years of war slowed returns. Troops were provided with small guides on programs available to demobilised soldiers, such as the eleven page Soldier and Sailor's Handbook published by the Civil Re-Establishment Committee in January of 1919. Many soldiers spent considerable time in camps waiting to be returned home knowing that those arriving first would receive the pick of what jobs were available, and in some cases the bureaucratic injustices of troops who had not been overseas as long being demobilised first led to riot and mutiny as at Kinmel Park Camp. The homefront was likewise prepared for the soldier's return with rather more whimsical and quite possibly satirical articles such as this provided courtesy of The Regimental Rogue.

The Minute Book Have you a returned soldier in your home? And would you like him to be happy? To forget those French mademoiselles Tout Suite? To go back to his old job and stick, even though it does seem to be a bit of a bore at first? Then follow this advice, approved by Colonel Woods, assistant to the secretary…

For King and Empire will be on Signal Hill this weekend as part of this event.

This August 12th to 14th, Signal Hill will pay tribute to the brave soldiers who fought in the First World War through a full weekend of special events and interactive military demonstrations. For details visit www.parkscanada.gc.ca/signalhill.

We were at the Halifax Citadel National Historic Site last weekend for their First World War event. Here are some photo's! Much thanks for the continued support of The Army Museum and thanks to our friends at the Halifax Citadel Regimental Association. You can distinguish the two groups, due to the FK&E guys wearing the 29th Infantry Division red triangle on the shoulder.

Photo Credit: Ellen & Derek.

Our Parks Canada and For King & Empire team at Beaumont-Hamel this morning.

Graciously hosted by the Marjorie Mews Public Library, FK&E was able to present to another wonderful audience. Deserving of particular mention that day is our bantam-sized gas "voluntoldeer."

Excerpts of Howard Morry's account of 1 July were posted here two years ago. Since that time more work has been done by his family on his memoirs. There has been a book published, entitled When the Great Red Dawn is Shining. There have also been a few articles published, like this one in the Legion Magazine.

Morry pulled no punches when it came to discussing the war. He was at times brutally honest about what he thought of others, such as Lieutenant Col. Hadow, and about what he witnessed. Especially in his account of bringing in the wounded and dead in the hours and days after the attack at Beaumont Hamel. Morry equated the attack and its aftermath to a butcher shop in hell, the images he paints in his memoirs really push that point.

https://legionmagazine.com/en/2016/03/how-i-survived-at-the-somme/

How I survived at the Somme - Legion Magazine A Newfoundland Regiment soldier recounts the 1916 tragedy that was Beaumont-Hamel Introduction by Christopher J.A. Morry | Diary by Howard L. Morry Howard L. Morry, my grandfather, was a fifth-generation Newfoundlander. His immigrant ancestor, Matthew Morry, was a self-made fish merchant from De…

The first photo is of item UNI 10425, part of the Imperial War Museum's collection, accessed through their splendid website catalogue. Links to this item and a related one will follow at the end of this post. Uniform item 10425 is a camouflaged sniper's overgarment, this particular example being a single-breasted robe made of canvas with a fitted hood and facemask. It is very much typical of these items, save for the three-dimensional camouflage in the form of applied foliage.

As with all other aspects of the First World War, the sniper's war was a continuous learning process, the marksman's role ever-evolving. It is discussed very readably by Maj. H. Hesketh-Prichard, DSO, MC in his work "Sniping in France." The second photo is from this work, demonstrating the efficacy of the camouflage robe in an open field in broad daylight: some of the most unfavourable conditions imaginable. In the North American cultural context, sniping and reconnaissance is rightly held up to be very important work but is broadly misunderstood: while vital, for decisions are only as good as the information on which they are made, the role of information gathering is held entirely secondary to the role of stalking and shooting the enemy. Films and books are replete with stories involving the heroic lone actor effecting the war effort directly with a single shot, acting independently of friendly forces and with little if any communication with them. This is largely due to the legacy of the settler-frontiersman and trapper-hunter in the 'frontier nation' mythos held by both Canada and the United States. Hesketh-Prichard's work holds up the importance of intelligence gathering and its role within the all-important combined arms team. A link to an online copy is provided below. Some excerpts follow:

"But taken long by broad the accuracy of the information given by snipers was really wonderful. On one occasion the snipers of the 33rd Division reported that two Germans had been seen with the number 79 upon their helmets. This information went from Battalion, through Brigade, Division and Corps, to Army, who rather pooh-poohed the snipers' accuracy, as the 79th, when last heard of, had been upon the Russian front. Within a day or two, however, the Germans opposite the battalion to which these snipers belonged sent a patrol out of their trenches one misty morning. The patrol fell in with our scouts, who killed two and carried back the regulation identifications. These proved the sentries to be correct."

"But the duty of the sniper changed as the war went on. At first his job was to dominate the German snipers, destroy their moral, and make life secure for his own comrades. At the same time there was his Intelligence work. Later, as the warfare became more open, he proved his value over and over again in attack.

When a trench was taken, it was his duty to get out in front and (lying in a shell-hole) to keep the enemy heads down while his companions consolidated the newly-won position."

In connection with the Newfoundland Regiment's experience, the snipers and scouts of the Regiment were deployed at Monchy-le-Preux in early 1917 for exactly the role defined above by Maj. Hesketh-Prichard. The effect of a sniper screen in the hasty defence was to kill enemy scouts, preventing him from gaining an accurate picture of the consolidating unit and any follow-on forces and to disrupt any counterattack made. As part of daily trench life, the capacity of scouts and snipers for observation was of vital importance, with the smallest details often making big returns. Those already familiar with anecdotes from the sniping war will find full accounts in "Sniping in France," including the story of 'the headquarters' cat.'

http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/30092440

http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/30097861

http://www.allworldwars.com/Sniping%20in%20France%20by%20Major%20Hesketh-Prichard.html