War Story (Need a Hand)

[Ifwecouldjust.......]

Also, a quick question,

When a bomb is dropping do you actually hear the "whistling" effect.

My grandfather said that you never heard the bullet that hit you because it travelled faster than the sound it made. I would also assume that the whistling of the bomb was made as it travelled through the air as logically the bomb would be in front of the sound wave. if you were directly beneath it you probably wouldn't hear it.

Just as an aside the reason why you never light a third ciggarette with a match is due to the war. As the match was struck and the first ciggie lit the enemy sniper would spot the light. The second ciggie would be 'aim' and the third 'fire'<br /><br />-- Wed Mar 24, 2010 11:15 am --<br /><br />They could end up standing on the body of one of their mates (a lot of regiments were formed at workplaces and towns, and everyone in a town would sign up together, go to war together, and die together) - quote


There was a professional football team (Heart of Midlothian ) in scotland that was on the verge of winning the league when the entire squad signed up.

Hearts in the Great War
In November 1914, Heart of Midlothian comfortably led the First Division. The First World War saw increasing criticism of young men playing football rather than fighting. Sixteen players from Hearts enlisted to fight in France. In doing so, they became the first British team to sign up en masse. They were part of "McCrae's Battalion" (the 16th Royal Scots) or the Provost's Battalion (the First Royal Scots). The creation of the Hearts Great War memorial in Contalmaison, France commemerated their efforts in the first battle of the Somme and has become an annual pilgrimage for Hearts fans.

i think that seven of them survived. There is a memorial in the town centre to McCraes battallion at which a ceremony is held every year....now the council want to remove it to make way for a shopping centre or something and there is a petition against it.

Amazing that the club (whilst proud of this history) don't milk the tragedy like others you could mention

 

[Newlunar]

The British raised three different armies.

1914-1915 The old contemptibles so named after the Kaiser called them a comtemptible littlle army. It was the original professional army that all expected to be home by Christmas but were almost vanguished by 1915.

1915-1916 Then came Kitcheners Army. The pals regiments where mates joined up together and died together. Virtually wiped out on the Somme offensives of 1916. The pals regiments were abandoned as a bad idea when towns all over the country lost so many of their men at the same time.

1916-1918 The conscripted army. The cabinet made it clear to Haig that attrition was unnacceptable. This when new innovations came in like rolling barrages, and tunnel warfare to try and break the stalemate. Many of the lessons were forgotten at Passchendael though.

By the end of it the British Army was a highly efficient machine after learning the hard way.

I saw a programme the other week about the last day of the war. U.S General Pershing knew of the armistice at 1100 hours yet still ordered an attack on a section of the line, the Germans were ready to surrender and had no intention of attacking themselves.
Several thousand American soldiers were killed on the morning of 11/11/18 for Pershings ego. He was unrepentant to his dying day.

The soldiers the Germans most feared were the Canadians apparently because they were particularly brutal thugs.

 

[Prestwich_Blue]

Basically they'd go over the top, and face a barrage of machine gun fire. They'd hear bullets whizzing past their ears and the screams of comrades who had been hit. They'd be running over dead bodies, some of which could have been there for weeks. They could end up standing on the body of one of their mates (a lot of regiments were formed at workplaces and towns, and everyone in a town would sign up together, go to war together, and die together) charging forward. Bombs and mines would be going off too.

My grandfather said was that the scenes of men running were totally false. You had hordes of working class, underweight and undernourished lads who were carrying all their kit on their backs for starters. Then they had a rifle, tranching tool, bullets, as many Mills Bombs (grenades) as they could carry plus other stuff. It could come to 60 pounds or more, which was over half their weight so running would be difficult even under normal circumstances.

However the ground between the trenches had been subject to constant bombardment and was churned up and generally muddy, so that it was very uneven and your feet stuck in the mud.

If by some chance they got within striking distance of the enemy trenches, they were supposed to use the grenades to clear the machine guns.

The other thing that sticks in my mind about his stories was the waiting for the signal to go over. Most would be scared to death with many openly crying and literally wetting themselves.

 

[bizzbo]

Also, a quick question,

When a bomb is dropping do you actually hear the "whistling" effect.

[/quote]

normally, yes. in the movies the pitch decreases in pitch, but in reality, when a body falls to earth, due to the doppler effect, the whistle increases in pitch. I don't know how much noise the bombs dropped in the first world war made, but they were bulky and hardly aerodynamic, so I would assume they were quite noisy.

at the end of the second world war, the germans started firing V2 rockets, the first supersonic long range weapon. if you heard one of these, as the soundwave was trailing behind it, it had overshot you.

 

[crizack]

it was one of the most blistering days he had ever known, he tucked his mouth into his jacket to avoid the chill. the thing he didn't like was that he craved nicotine so much right now and this made it hard to smoke his cigarette. not only had he got to contend with the weather, but also the ache from his ribs after spending one of the coldest nights so far, between two beams of wood in his rat infested trench. Smithy looked into the field, which made the colour grey in contrast, seem a cheerful colour. The pot holes from the clusters and debris from the surrounding shells not only made the grass seem like a sheet of fear, but each of the pot holes giving off after smoke from the previous nights explosives, this made the holes look like mini chimneys in the ground which left a distinct aftertaste of sulphur in the throat. then all of a sudden, a rag...in the distance came at smithy with a gun...smithy and his mates shot the rag. the rag died.

 

[tueartsboots]

Also, a quick question,

When a bomb is dropping do you actually hear the "whistling" effect.

normally, yes. in the movies the pitch decreases in pitch, but in reality, when a body falls to earth, due to the doppler effect, the whistle increases in pitch. I don't know how much noise the bombs dropped in the first world war made, but they were bulky and hardly aerodynamic, so I would assume they were quite noisy.

at the end of the second world war, the germans started firing V2 rockets, the first supersonic long range weapon. if you heard one of these, as the soundwave was trailing behind it, it had overshot you.[/quote]

Weren't whistles put in tail fins so the psychological terror was increased?

 

[johnny on the spot]

<a class="postlink" href="http://www.1914-1918.net/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.1914-1918.net/</a>

<a class="postlink" href="http://www.iwm.org.uk/searchlight/server.php?change=SearchlightGalleryView&changeNav=home" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.iwm.org.uk/searchlight/serve ... geNav=home</a>

 

[crizack]

mention the 'gay bombs' we dropped, very interesting. the mustard gas, the nerve gas and also the game of football on christmas day (christmas truce). soldiers comtiing suicide and also eating rats to survive. nazi's on cocaine etc etc.