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- #61
Britannia in the USA on a promotional visit and participant in the "Hero Land" exhibition...
Hero Land WW1 Exhibition 1917
Hero Land WW1 Exhibition 1917
Images from WWI
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Hansie Bloeckmann
Senior Airman
With the smiling faces on some of these Italian ladies--well I wonder what they are thinking at the moment??-- Have to remember that in WW1-Italy was an Ally, Mussolini was a copy editor -and Ernest Hemingway was a Red Cross volunteer ambulance driver-- Interesting, how the "War To End All Wars" set the stage for their future careers.
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Hansie Bloeckmann
Senior Airman
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vikingBerserker
Lieutenant General
It must have been something driving that into combat.
buffnut453
Captain
Pretty awful from all accounts. Hot and cramped with engine exhaust fumes constantly leaking into the crew compartment, leading carbon monoxide poisoning and some other interesting side effects. Oh...and they're doing this while slithering over the muddy battlefields of France/Belgium while trying to attack the enemy (and desperately avoiding getting stuck).
Not a job I'd care to do, frankly!
buffnut453
Captain
Further to my last, this comes from Wiki (yes...I KNOW!!!!) but it jives with most things I've heard about regarding conditions in the early British tanks:
The hull was undivided internally; the crew shared the same space as the engine. The environment inside was extremely unpleasant; since ventilation was inadequate, the atmosphere was contaminated with poisonous carbon monoxide, fuel and oil vapours from the engine, and cordite fumes from the weapons. Temperatures inside could reach 50 °C (122 °F). Entire crews lost consciousness inside the tank or, sometimes, collapsed when again exposed to fresh air.
To counter the danger of bullet splash or fragments knocked off the inside of the hull, crews were issued with leather-and-chainmail masks. A leather helmet was also issued, to protect the head against projections inside the tank. Gas masks were standard issue as well, as they were to all soldiers at this point in the war (see Chemical warfare). The side armour of 8 mm initially made them largely immune to small arms fire, but could be penetrated by the recently developed armour-piercing K bullets. There was also the danger of being overrun by infantry and attacked with grenades. The next generation had thicker armour, making them nearly immune to the K bullets. In response, the Germans developed the 13.2 mm Mauser anti-tank rifle, and also a Geballte Ladung ("Bunched Charge") – several stick grenades bundled together for a much bigger explosion.
A direct hit by an artillery or mortar shell could cause the fuel tanks (which were placed high in the front horns of the track frames either side of the drivers' area, to allow gravity feed) to burst open. Incinerated crews were removed by special Salvage Companies, who also salvaged damaged tanks.
Steering was difficult, controlled by varying the speed of the two tracks. Four of the crew, two drivers (one of whom also acted as commander; he operated the brakes, the other the primary gearbox) and two "gearsmen" (one for the secondary gears of each track) were needed to control direction and speed, the latter never more than a walking pace. As the noise inside was deafening, the driver, after setting the primary gear box, communicated with the gearsmen with hand signals, first getting their attention by hitting the engine block with a heavy spanner. For slight turns, the driver could use the steering tail: an enormous contraption dragged behind the tank consisting of two large wheels, each of which could be blocked by pulling a steel cable causing the whole vehicle to slide in the same direction. If the engine stalled, the gearsmen would use the starting handle – a large crank between the engine and the gearbox. Many of these vehicles broke down in the heat of battle making them an easy target for German gunners. There was no wireless (radio); communication with command posts was by means of two pigeons, which had their own small exit hatch in the sponsons, or by runners. Because of the noise and vibration, early experiments had shown that radios were impractical, therefore lamps, flags, semaphore, coloured discs, and the carrier pigeons were part of the standard equipment of the various marks.
The hull was undivided internally; the crew shared the same space as the engine. The environment inside was extremely unpleasant; since ventilation was inadequate, the atmosphere was contaminated with poisonous carbon monoxide, fuel and oil vapours from the engine, and cordite fumes from the weapons. Temperatures inside could reach 50 °C (122 °F). Entire crews lost consciousness inside the tank or, sometimes, collapsed when again exposed to fresh air.
To counter the danger of bullet splash or fragments knocked off the inside of the hull, crews were issued with leather-and-chainmail masks. A leather helmet was also issued, to protect the head against projections inside the tank. Gas masks were standard issue as well, as they were to all soldiers at this point in the war (see Chemical warfare). The side armour of 8 mm initially made them largely immune to small arms fire, but could be penetrated by the recently developed armour-piercing K bullets. There was also the danger of being overrun by infantry and attacked with grenades. The next generation had thicker armour, making them nearly immune to the K bullets. In response, the Germans developed the 13.2 mm Mauser anti-tank rifle, and also a Geballte Ladung ("Bunched Charge") – several stick grenades bundled together for a much bigger explosion.
A direct hit by an artillery or mortar shell could cause the fuel tanks (which were placed high in the front horns of the track frames either side of the drivers' area, to allow gravity feed) to burst open. Incinerated crews were removed by special Salvage Companies, who also salvaged damaged tanks.
Steering was difficult, controlled by varying the speed of the two tracks. Four of the crew, two drivers (one of whom also acted as commander; he operated the brakes, the other the primary gearbox) and two "gearsmen" (one for the secondary gears of each track) were needed to control direction and speed, the latter never more than a walking pace. As the noise inside was deafening, the driver, after setting the primary gear box, communicated with the gearsmen with hand signals, first getting their attention by hitting the engine block with a heavy spanner. For slight turns, the driver could use the steering tail: an enormous contraption dragged behind the tank consisting of two large wheels, each of which could be blocked by pulling a steel cable causing the whole vehicle to slide in the same direction. If the engine stalled, the gearsmen would use the starting handle – a large crank between the engine and the gearbox. Many of these vehicles broke down in the heat of battle making them an easy target for German gunners. There was no wireless (radio); communication with command posts was by means of two pigeons, which had their own small exit hatch in the sponsons, or by runners. Because of the noise and vibration, early experiments had shown that radios were impractical, therefore lamps, flags, semaphore, coloured discs, and the carrier pigeons were part of the standard equipment of the various marks.
- Thread starter
- #68
Nice shots guys!
- Thread starter
- #70
Some German internees on Torrens Island near Port Adelaide who spent their time bodybuilding...
World War I – National Archives of Australia
World War I – National Archives of Australia
Hansie Bloeckmann
Senior Airman
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- Thread starter
- #73
The Basket
Senior Master Sergeant
- 3,712
- Jun 27, 2007
Point of note
Camera tech in ww1 was not as good as today. Didn't have digital back then.
So a lot of shots were staged and not action shots as we know today.
Camera tech in ww1 was not as good as today. Didn't have digital back then.
So a lot of shots were staged and not action shots as we know today.
- Thread starter
- #76
buffnut453
Captain
Great pic. One of my relatives was a stretcher bearer in the RAMC (1/3rd West Lancs Field Ambulance). He was awarded the MM at 3rd Ypres and, luckily, survived the war.
The Basket
Senior Master Sergeant
- 3,712
- Jun 27, 2007
To be honest I did wonder how the medical services coped with the mass casualty of a big push.
Very badly I would wager. Horrible to even contemplating the sheer scale of the injuries. Glad it wasn't me.
Very badly I would wager. Horrible to even contemplating the sheer scale of the injuries. Glad it wasn't me.
buffnut453
Captain
It was very carefully planned...but was, inevitably, messy once the "show" began. The entire casevac process was well-documented and understood from the front-line stretcher-bearers and field dressing stations through the Casualty Clearing Stations to the rear hospitals. The challenge was getting the wounded off the battlefield in the first place, which is where my relative came into play. The stretcher bearers were drawn from specially-trained Field Ambulance RAMC soldiers--the equivalent, in that day, of today's EMTs--as well as rank-and-file soldiers who were assigned to the task from the line regiments. Carrying the wounded on stretchers from no-man's-land was hard, particularly during battles like 3rd Ypres where the battlefield was turned into a shell-pocked swamp. It was standard practice for each stretcher to be carried by 4 bearers. By the end of the first day of 3rd Ypres, the stretchers were being carried by 6 and sometimes 8 bearers simply due to the horrendous conditions. The longer carries were about 3,000 yds and could take upwards of 7 hours to complete in the conditions prevalent at 3rd Ypres. I cannot imagine the horrors those men must have witnessed, and yet they kept at their task working themselves to exhaustion-point to recover as many wounded as possible. Brave men all!
