Snapper

Reckon you'd be right. It looks like it. Can't believe there are two in Riffraf markings. It looks great - like to see it towing a QM, though. Good call. Ta.

I can remember one of these Commer Q2 (I think) tractors at Beltring in 1999. I took a couple of snaps. I haven't seen the vehicle since. Wonderful archive snaps - thanks for sharing. MB

Joris and Tony. Thanks for the excellent pix. Tony - I'd treasure that snap. I have long distance plans to take the MUTT to Belgium and/or the Somme before long. There are other sites building up a database of war graves, cemeteries, memorials,monuments and so on and I only want to emulate them in terms of sharing our experiences of the battlefields. It makes for a brilliant continuous project everyone can dip into and contribute; no matter where in the world your snaps come from and no matter if others have been there before you - this can be your place to share your experience. They all count. Please do join in. Joris: I'm always interested to see pix of graves we can put names to, but the unknowns are equally important. So if you can add the names when you have time, that would be great. I did not have a clue about the numbers of bodies washed down the river. All individual tragedies worthy of our attention. Advert: I am gradually building info on the mass of pix I took in Hong Kong to start posting. I was hoping to be able to add further info on the individuals and make things more interesting. Thanks to the brilliant Hong Kong War Diary website this has proved a lot more easier to do. The site owner Tony Banham, who has written two books on the whole tragedy of the defence of Hong Kong and the fate of the defenders, has agreed to do an interview chat for us. It will be interesting to step completely outside of the European theatre.

I like this snap because it shows the Menin Gate during the day when it is a busy thoroughfare for local traffic...of all kinds. When I look at these snaps I find myself wishing I was on the trail now and not stuck behind my desk sorting out all kinds of rubbish. But the bills have to be paid. We'll hopefully get back on the road again early next year. We used to do a Xmas holiday day trip to Ypres which was mad, cold and great fun - like a sort of graveyards bumfreezer. But with the pound so low against the euro and there being so much to do at Barnesfork, there won't be a window of opportunity for a tad. So, the snaps will have to do.

It's nice to think that the CWGC go to so much trouble to care for graves, even for the Unknown soldiers. So, just to prove I am something of a war cemeteries anorak; here is a temporary marker from Delville Wood cemetery. This picture was taken in 2004.

Fantastic. Just saving the old girl matters most. I love these motors. Good man.

I think there are other websites for that sort of thing, young Vince. :cool2: However we all like a laugh, so I suppose we can supress the sniggering for a few minutes. I can't imagine Mike as Widow Twanky - but I suppose he would make a good beanstalk. I think we saw him at the Palace Theatre Westcliff On Sea in 1989.

Thanks men.... The Somme Mud book is a classic. I really enjoyed it (if that is the word). Thanks for the additions to this thread. I'd like it to gather strength with stuff from all and sundry. It's the little details that matter about people we do not necessarily know.

I think Mike is going thru a massive amount of work. He took the time out to send me a bit for the MUTT. MB

Busy bees aren't you! I can't see me ever being so active.

Brilliant stuff. I would really like to see more of your snaps from the cemeteries and battlefields when you have time. MB

We spent a week on The Somme in 2006, staying at Chavasse Farm; which I strongly recommend. It's a lovely place in the village of Hardecourt-en-Bois which is to the south of Longueval and Guillemont and to the north of the Albert-Peronne road. We walked out to Delville Wood, which is a fair-ish punt, but nice in good weather - this day it was moderately bloody freezing and horrible. On the way Grimmer took to explaining the difference between the artillery shells we passed along the way. It all adds to the sense of occasion - but gawd, the wives were bored. In Delville Wood Cemetery I was looking for the graves of a couple of poor souls who had worked for previous incarnations of my current employer. While doing this I came across this grave of an unknown soldier which had the picture of an officer left with it. He was Lieutenant John Curtis Moakes, aged 29 from Reading, who died on 05.09.1916 while serving with 155th Field Company Royal Engineers. We found the same picture left at Thiepval where his name is recorded with the missing and have noticed several instances of this down the years. How sad. He is out there somewhere.

Nice one, Dave. Good call. I agree with Tony, totally jealous. Essex Farm looks good in any weather and Langemark is a strange old place because of the way the Germans use oak trees as part of their remembrance. The statue of the four soldiers at the back of the cemetery is a very sad looking thing. Tyne Cot must have been crowded. I would still have liked to have been there. But being at the Menin Gate would have been wonderful. Thanks a million for being there for us. MB

These are all interesting points. I think we under 50s (six months to go :whistle:) always assume that many people in their mid to late sixties and onwards would automatically wear a poppy, but this is plainly not so. It seems that when we were kids in the sixties that everyone wore a poppy in those days when they had no green leafs and still had Haig Fund written on them. Time marches on. Stopped traffic and notices on the puiblic transport system are to be commended. More please. As for poetry - do you mean new original work or reproducing classics, or both? I think it would have to stay in other stuff and there is the ever present need to ackowledge copyright. But it would be nice to see something that rhymes (or not).

good man...

To end the day, here is a snap of the London Regiment which sits on the triangle of land in front of the Royal Exchange opposite the Bank of England. The Londons are dear to my heart for family and other sound reasons and it is good to recall that of all the pals and chums battalions, so associated with the north of England; that the first formed were of the Londons. There were 27 Battalions in the end and this may seem low but you have to remember that the way London was divided in those days between the old counties meant that much of it was administravely still in Essex, Surrey, Kent and Middlesex so many more Londoners went to regiments associated with those counties. I was once lucky to go on a tour of the Bank of England and really wanted to photograph the very impressive Roll of Honour there, but this was forbidden. A shame. I've always liked their paper products. To digress, I can remember standing near opposite the Londons memorial for the Lord Mayor Show of 1965 or 1966 which was opened by Graham Hill and Jim Clark. Gone but not forgotten.

Sandpits is a little cemetery close to the A26 motorway that passed Bethune on it's way down to Vimy Ridge and on to Arras. If you look the place up on the CWGC register it is officially at Fouquereuil which actually on the opposite side of the motorway to where it is located. The cemetery looks out on the little village of Goznay which has a lovely hotel in what used to be a convent. Just next to this is the communal cemetery which has yet more British graves. At Sandpits all the casualties are VIII Corps soldiers killed in 1918. The first time we visited the CWGC were relaying the access road which passes under the motorway. They were using old headstones for hardcore and we unashamedly took a few pieces to preserve at home. A large piece with a Sherwood Foresters badge on it sits on my son James' desk. Getting the blue Audi over the unmade road was a test for the old Vorsprung Durch Technik adage from the adverts. There are the usual mix of people in the cemetery and one of these is a chap called Ebenezer McJannet. It's a great name, but something of a cheap shot to mock him. A better alternative to show is the grave of 21156 Lance Corporal James Kinnish of 13th Bn King's Liverpool Regiment. This was a K3 Service battalion formed at Seaforth in September 1914. It formed part of the 9th Brigade of the 25th Division and was severely mauled in June 1918 necessitating a refit and reconstitution in England before a return to France. James Kinnish died on the 18th of June. He came from Onchan on the Isle of Man and had volunteered with his three brothers in 1914. The inscription on his grave reads A MANX VOLUNTEER OF 1914 WHO GAVE HIS LIFE FOR KING AND EMPIRE

The Memorial to the Crimea by John Bell was erected in 1859. The figure on top represents Honour while the three soldiers are a Grenadier Guard, a Fusilier and a Coldstream Guard. The monument is sometimes called the Guards Memorial, although the better known monument to the Guards from WW1 is at Horseguards. This monument stands off Waterloo Place in London, next to a statue of Florence Nightingale.

Here is the memorial to Denmark which is just inland from Utah Beach. It is important for me to include these places on my travels because they bring together people from countries it might be easy to otherwise forget. We had a glorious day there in 2005. After this we ended flying kites at Utah and making a general nuisance of ourselves. One of the funniest things my friend Richard witnessed was in the cafe there when he was visiting on a quiet day. There were a number of, shall we say, high volume American ladies in there and when it came to ordering, one of them said she would do it because she spoke French. She promptly shouted "I WANT FIVE COKES" at the staff and raised five fingers. It seems to have worked. Hands across the sea.

Welcome to the Friendly Forum. Good luck with the project - looking forward to seeing the M10 looking pretty again. MB

The answer to the question is Prince Charles.

Absolutely right. Education is what matters. M

It's a pleasure and I will try and do some more as and when time allows. I welcome contributions from friends - graves, cemeteries and memorials with appropriate details and comments. Remembrance Day and Armistice Day have come and gone and for many people the poppies go in the bin for another year. But not for us on HMVF. It's an all year round every day thing. MB

This is Gordon Brown's podcast...I think it is impressive. It was 90 years ago today that the guns of the Western front fell silent, on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month. This morning I will welcome to Downing Street our last world war one veterans and their families. Today we are blessed that these survivors remain with us, our living link with momentous events that happened before our time. In honouring them we can give our thanks for the sacrifices made by so many. But for those who did not return from the battlefields, those who “gave their tomorrow for our today”, we will take time to remember and to grieve at war memorials across our land. The presence of moving memorials in thousands of council chambers, assembly halls and market squares stands as an eternal testament to the fact that no British city, no British town, no British village went untouched by the horror, no family escaped without grief, each school had its representatives among the fallen. The memorials remind us of the sheer scale of the sacrifice and the breadth of the courage to be found in that generation of Britons. But so too do they remind us of something even deeper – that while each of us is unique we are not sufficient unto ourselves but citizens, members of a community with shared interests, mutual needs and linked destines. We owe obligations to others because they are part of what we are. I will always remember the inscription on the Scottish memorial to the war dead. It says “the whole earth is the tomb of heroes and their story is not only graven in stone over their clay but abides everywhere without visible symbol - woven into the stuff of other men’s lives.” And so today we remember all that is woven into the stuff of our lives. We remember the heroism of those who served in Korea, Northern Ireland, the Falklands, the gulf and the Balkans, and the brave men and women who today wear the British uniform in Afghanistan and Iraq. It was hoped that the Great War would be the war to end all wars but sadly that was not the case. Sacrifices continue to be made by those who serve in our armed forces today and, whilst the numbers involved are thankfully not on the scale of world war one, the individual cost can remains the same. My thoughts are very much with all the men and women of our armed forces, serving with such distinction at home and overseas, and my thoughts are also with their families. So let us today pay tribute and give thanks to all who wear the British uniform, all who carry our flag and all who risk or have given their lives that our country can remain strong and free. Our gratitude is unbounded your heroism unsurpassed. You are in our thoughts today and always. Thank you.

To return the compliment to Grimmer. Here he is at Rifle House cemetery in 2006. We were surrounded by baby frogs and toads hopping amid the gravestones. This cemetery is one of three in Ploegsteert Wood which lies on the Armentierres-Ypres road near Messines Ridge. The wood is swamp and I can tell you it is a very unpleasant place to venture in to at the best of times, so imagine having to live and fight in it. We were eaten alive by midges and mosquitoes and never found the concrete bunkers in the wood because nature forced us to beat a retreat. I recommend a crisp winter's day to visit - and must remember to do so before too long. It is an amazing place. The other cemeteries are Toronto Avenue and Ploegsteert Wood. The predominently NZ cemetery at Mud Corner is just outside the confines of the wood and if you venture back to the farm road you will come to Prowse Point cemetery. They almost overlap each other there. You might even find the barbed wire post James found which we could not fit in the car. Curses...