Remember the Dead – The 3rd Bn. Monmouthshire Regiment & the Second Battle of Ypres

Men of the initial draft of the 3rd Battalion Monmouthshire Regiment (colloquially known as 3rd Mons, and mainly recruited from the Gwent area) parade at Abergavenny in South Wales in August 1914.  Part of the 83rd Brigade, 28th Division, they would cross the channel to France on the night of 14th February 1915, and would find themselves digging trenches around Ypres within four days of their arrival in Flanders.  Continue reading

Posted in Miscellaneous | 9 Comments

Austro-Hungarian Hand Grenades of the Great War Part Fifteen – The M16 ‘Cigaro’

Here’s another of those curious contraptions that litter my Man Cave.  And if you disregard the vanes at the top, this image shows exactly why this was referred to as the Cigaro.  Continue reading

Posted in Austro-Hungarian Grenades, Weaponry & Relics | 4 Comments

Post Update No. 5 – Railway Dugouts Burial Ground (Transport Farm)

Just like London buses, you wait for ages, and then two turn up almost at once.  Here’s another updated post from way back for you, and this one has had a major overhaul.  You can see what you think by clicking here.

Posted in Zillebeke | 2 Comments

Post Update No. 4 – Bedford House Cemetery

An update to a post that was first published over thirteen years ago, mainly because I have always been aware that when I visited I had missed, among many, one particular grave that I should have photographed, and which I have now been able to put right thanks to one of you kind people.  I have also added some extra text and a few other bits and pieces, and removed those tables that I used to include in the early days (anyone remember them?) that related to the headstone photographs in the post, and although it’s still hardly comparable to tours of more recent years, it’s better than nothing, and certainly better than it was, if I say so myself.  All will be revealed by clicking here.

Posted in Zillebeke | 5 Comments

A Meeting of Military Minds

Not exactly your average Sunday, as we find ourselves in a school hall somewhere in the depths of leafy Surrey – and we do have a lot of leaves in Surrey, being the county, apparently, with the most trees in the whole of England. Continue reading

Posted in Miscellaneous | 12 Comments

Mending the Soldiers: An Introduction – Harold Delf Gillies

Pioneer of plastic surgery and, later, much later, sex reassignment surgery, maxillofacial mastermind Harold Delf Gillies (later, Sir Harold Delf Gillies), pictured before the Great War.  Continue reading

Posted in Medical | 4 Comments

Neuve Eglise (Nieuwkerke) Churchyard

Neuve Eglise church, the small green sign on the right telling us, as if we didn’t know it already, that there are CWGC graves to be found in the churchyard.  Continue reading

Posted in Neuve Eglise (Nieuwkerke) | 9 Comments