Archive for the ‘Durham Light Infantry’ Category

All Quiet on the Western Front

Posted: June 17, 2012 in 1914, 1915, 1916, 1917, 1918, Durham Light Infantry, Royal Air Force, Royal Flying Corps, Western Front, Ypres
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This is the must read at the top of any list of TEN.

See the film produced in 1930 too.

Can anything beat it? Let’s see how Daniel Radcliffe performs in this role when the latest remake comes up for release in 2014 and some of the myths of the First World War are given another boast.

The reality?

Fear
boredom
Junior Officer’s who did their best and their utmost
Generals who could have done no differently and did look for different ways to end the war (innovations, new fronts)

Before you get swamped by the new titles that will inevitably feature over the next couple of years, what would you considered to be the must reads?

I’ve just started ‘Tommy’ by the late Richard Holmes and recently completed the diary of the lady nurse, Lady Dorothy (Doddles) Denbigh which, despite the proximity to death, was somewhat alleviated by frequent rides, and fine dining with royalty and generals.

The war to end all wars: the centenary of World War One (LINKS)

Posted: June 12, 2012 in 1917, Ypres, 1918, Royal Flying Corps, Royal Air Force, 1915, Durham Light Infantry, 1916, Western Front, Somme, Passchendaele, 1914
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Please offer your suggestions for additional links

Imperial War Museum

World War One Centenary

WW1 Shellshock film

Commonwealth War Graves Commission

1914 IWM Centenary Projects

National Archive

Department of Culture, Media & Sport

University of Birmingham WW1 : Beyond Blackadder

French Embassy Announcement on investment in remembering the La Grande Guerre

Arras – Real Time Tweet

Ypres

Gas attack at Ypres

BBC World War One

The War of the World Professor Niall Ferguson

Red Cross Fickr Stream

First Hand Accounts of WW1

Learning Resources for Teachers

Europeana

Paul Read : Research, photos and battlefields

Infographics of WW1

In Act of Remembrance

Woman of WW1

Love to Learn with Pearson Education

The Open University

Open University WW1

OU History BA

OU History MA

OU History MA Part One

OU History MA Part Two

Total War and Social Change

What is Europe? Free learning from The OU

History as commemoration

Centenary Flickr Wall

In Flanders Fields Museum

In Flanders Fields Educational Activities

Decorated ‘in the field’ with the Military Medal by Brigadier Sandilands

Posted: June 6, 2012 in 1915, Durham Light Infantry, Machine Gun Corps
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A studio photo taken soon after joining the Durham Light Infantry, March 1915 before transfer to the Machine Gun Corps or ‘Suicide Squad’

This picture used in the Consett local paper when Jack Wilson was awarded the Military Medal

(This photograph from a faded original cutting from the paper originally kept by Jack’s mother Sarah Wilson nee Nixon)

How to put a puttee on – 1915

Posted: July 9, 2011 in 1915, Durham Light Infantry
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From there we put on our clothes and marched from Gateshead across the Tyne Bridge and up to Fenham Barracks.

There we were issued with the kit. It was absolutely terrible – neither touched, nor fitted. Things hardly fit, tunics were thrown at you; you weren’t even shown how to put a puttee on. The Corporal tried to show us. It was touch and go. What a right lot we were. The boots had me crippled. They were made from a heavy raw leather. It was thick with no flexibility in it at all.

”You’ll get them changed at Shields.” Said the Sergeant.

They didn’t even give you paper or string to wrap your suit up to send it home. You had to go to the canteen and buy a sheet of brown paper and some string to wrap your goods up in for 4d and send them home. You got a label to fill in and they delivered your bundle to your home for free.

We then walked from Fenham down to the Central Station.

From the station we took the train down to South Shields to Mortimer Road Schools which were commandeered.

The first thing we were taught was how to put puttees on.

I was given a pair of second hand boots and changed my tunic which was too big. We slept in one of the main halls on palliases with a couple of blankets.