Mont Kemmel Part Fifteen – Dranoutre Military Cemetery

Now there’s an interesting, if curious, still-life for you.  Continue reading

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The Men Who Came Home – A Memorial Part Eleven – The Royal Navy

Another postcard for you, although what you see is what you get; I have no information whatsoever about these men, the reverse of the card being blank.  Nice picture though, don’t you think?  Continue reading

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Mont Kemmel Part Fourteen – Dranouter Churchyard & War Memorial

Appropriately, on Remembrance Sunday, it’s time for us to return to the battlefields of Kemmel, where the churchyards and military cemeteries still tell their sad tale of death and sorrow.  We begin Part Two of our tour at the rebuilt Dranoutre (now Dranouter) church, a mile and a half south west of Mont Kemmel.  Continue reading

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Austro-Hungarian Hand Grenades of the Great War Part One – The Rohr Stielhandgranate

Many of the early hand grenades in use during the first few months of the war, across all the combatant nations, were improvised explosive devices, tins full of bits of metal or anything likely to cause damage, often attached to handles for easier throwing.  The Austro-Hungarian Army was no different, but by the spring of 1915, these improvised hand grenades were being replaced by not only the German Stielhandgranate, which the Austrians soon began importing in large quantities, but by other Austrian-manufactured stick grenades, and in particular the Rohr hand grenade.
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The Rifle Grenade Part Three – The German Karabingranate M17

The Germans’ response to the French Viven-Bessière grenade we looked at last time was the Karabingranate M17, introduced in 1917.  Continue reading

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The Rifle Grenade Part Two – The French Viven-Bessière Grenade

Here’s a neat, but deadly, little thing.  Continue reading

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The Men Who Came Home – A Memorial Part Ten – The Scottish, Irish & Welsh Regiments

Here’s a postcard I haven’t shown you before, with plenty of tam o’ shanters on view – or are they Balmoral bonnets – I believe there is a difference, but being a Sassenach, what would I know?  Continue reading

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