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N.O.S.

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Posts posted by N.O.S.

    Scammell Constructor Gallery.

    in Transporters & Wreckers (All Nations)

    Posted

    There is one Constructor under contract no KL/H/0402/CB27B, listed as supplied to MEXE, but no date or chassis no.

     

     

    Suggest this mght be the high-speed road surfacing vehicle built by MEXE for British and US armies. A good photo appears on page 121 of Nick Georgano's nice book "Scammell The Load Movers from Watford". Shows 'MEXE No. 812' on the door.

    A SAD ENDING? WW1 Memorial Stone

    in Battlefields, museums, monuments and memorials.

    Posted · Edited by N.O.S.

    With the very kind assistance of a curator at the Cheshire Military Museum, I now have a copy of the typed (!) War Diary entry for he 1st Cheshire Regimant for September 2nd 1918.

     

    This adds a bit more light on the attack on Beugny. Sadly, as with Norfolks, there are no Cheshire 'Orders' for that day's Raid.

     

    1918

     

    September TRENCHES FAVREUIL

     

    1st

    The battalion moved from FAVREUIL to an assembly position West of BEUGNY village.

     

    2nd

    The Battalion was ordered to attack and capture BEUGNY village and occupy the high ground to the East of it – on a 1,500 yard front with the 1st Norfolks on the right and the 62nd Division on the left. Ten minutes before zero hour the enemy put down an extremely heavy barrage on the assembly position causing heavy casualties and putting most of the officers and N.C.Os out of action before the advance commenced. In spite of this however, the right Company(“A” Coy) under 2nd Lieut. J.D. PINGUEY, went on through the village, capturing several prisoners and succeeded in reaching their final objective in touch with the 1st NORFOLKS. The left Company advanced about 1,000 yards and were then held up by very heavy hostile machine gun fire which also held up the Division on the left. N enemy counter-attack later in the day drove back the left flank of “A” Company and the right flank of the 1st NORFOLKS, where there was a gap of about 500 yards between them and the NEW ZEALAND Division.

    An immediate counter-attack however re-established the position on the high ground held by the 1st NORFOLKS and the left was swung back through the western outskirts of the village. This position was held throughout the night.

     

    3rd

    The 15th Infy.Bde. again attacked at dawn with the 1st BEDFORDS on right, 16th WARWICKS on left, 1st NORFOLKS and 1st CHESHIRES in support. The village of BEUGNY was successfully captured and the enemy who had withdrawn most of his troops during the night was followed up as far as VELU WOOD. In the evening the Brigade was withdrawn to reserve billets near BEUGNY.

     

    Zundapp?

    in MV Chatter

    Posted

    .. specifically designed to be used with the sidecar which had a driven wheel....

    Now that's interesting, thanks Degsy - did we/US have anything similar with driven sidecar wheel??

    Zundapp?

    in MV Chatter

    Posted

    A friend just spotted this 1944 bike in Tuscany, I have never heard of it, but I said I might know some folk who have! Can anyone enlighten us a little?

    Tuscany - K&J 2008 087.jpg

    Tuscany - K&J 2008 088.jpg

    GMC - its broke - HELP

    in American Vehicles

    Posted

    Is this a case of the dreaded Jimmy 'thermal cut-out' cutting out?

    Usually goes off with a bang and stays off until it cools and resets itself.

     

    If by this time you have not found the cause of the short, you're stuffed until it happens again :-D . Under the dash, the big thing behind the light switch. Perhaps on this occasion it didn't reset itself??

     

    That is as good a place as any to start prodding a meter about, alternatively use the plug-in diagnostics tool called "Kewelde", I think it is compatible with some US kit?

    Prime movers..

    in Pre WW2 vehicles

    Posted

    Each 38cm M16 howitzer required five C-Zuge (i.e. tractor plus a four-axle 30-ton trailer) - one each for the left and right base, one for the mount, one for the barrel and one for ammunition.

     

    I'm struggling to find an image of this beast, can only find 28cm guns (anyone?), but I can't believe a solitary Scammell Constructor wouldn't manage the whole caboodle.....:whistle:

    Autocar U-7144T

    in American Vehicles

    Posted

    While Jack is still high from his flight over the beaches, I'll quietly sneak in a couple of pics of a recently acquired set of wheels - been after this one for 7 years........

     

    Restored in mid '90s and fitted with Scania diesel, she has that lovely patina of a well-used truck, and is in great condition. Hope to get her out and about this year.

     

    While searching for info on planes named after the Autocar :-D I found two B17s, one of which was with 96BG at Snetterton Heath, the other served with 390BG.

     

    A photograph of the96BG plane shows not yellow painted bombs, but 5 yellow crawling babies with a note that 5 babies were deliverd on board :confused: I'm awaiting an explanation from the 96BG historian, and will advise in due course.

    Blonde Bombshell 1.JPG

    Blode Bomshell 2.JPG

    BlondeBombshell 48323 390BG.jpg

    The Blonde Bombshell.jpg

    A SAD ENDING? WW1 Memorial Stone

    in Battlefields, museums, monuments and memorials.

    Posted · Edited by N.O.S.

    In case you anybody tries to follow up on the link to tanks through the officer mentioned he came from Blaina, Gwent

    Yes, well spellchecked Degsy!

    The actual link is www.hellfire-corner.demon.co.uk/Westlakeblaina.htm

     

    By the by, an interesting eyewitness account of tanks in action comes from The History of the Norfolk Regiment 1914 - 1918, and concerns the use of tanks in the capture in November 1917 by 9th Norfolk and 1st Leicester of a wide front of the Hindenbrg Line near Cambrai, which was very heavily wired.

     

    A crucial role of the tanks was to flatten out the wire sufficiently to allow infantry to pass freely. This is a partial account of the battle by Colonel Prior:

     

    "Everything was peaceful and still, and there was no indication of the inferno that was shortly to be set loose....The guns had opened before we got half way down the line, and the leading line of tanks, followed by the Leicesters, were crossing our trenches and starting across 'No Man's Land' - a wonderful spectacle in the half light of the early morning. Ponderous, grunting, groaning, wobbling, these engines of war crawled and lurched their way toward the enemy lines, followed by groups of men in line. Overhead our shells were pouring over.......but the slowness of those tanks! It is at these moments that one itches for quickness and rapidity, and the slow, deliberate action of these monsters is exasperating"

     

    Sounds like a good design brief to me!

    A SAD ENDING? WW1 Memorial Stone

    in Battlefields, museums, monuments and memorials.

    Posted · Edited by N.O.S.

    Some progress at last -

     

    1) TRENCH MAPS

     

    I managed to get a 1/2 day at the National Archives Friday (thanks for your offer David, but it was a last-minute opportunity), and after having my biro confiscated and buying a pencil from the shop I was able to access the map room and eventually come face to face with some original trench maps!

     

    The poor copies which I posted a while back are in fact the only ones relevant to our search, but the originals make it easier to work out what's going on - so I've ordered some quality digital copies. Some maps I looked at give the names of each trench, but sadly ours show very little of that sort of info on them. I've also discovered how to interpret map co-ordinates of the time, like 5.16a.90/30 (see www.btinternet.com/~prosearch/tomspage13html )

     

    2) 1st Batallion Norfolk Regiment - their context within the British Forces

     

    The 1st Battalion Norfolk Regiment formed a unit of the 15th Infantry Brigade which, together with the 13th and 14th, formed the infantry of the 5th Division. The 5th and 3rd Divisions constituted the 2nd Corps.

     

    Other units of the 15th Infantry Brigade, who fought alongside the 1st Norfolks throughout the war, were the 1st Cheshires and 1st Bedfords. The 1st Dorset, in at the start, were replaced in 1915 by 6th Cheshire and 6th Liverpool until these two were replaced in 1916 by 16th Royal Warwickshire Regt.

     

    3) More detail of Beugny Raid 2 SEP 1918

     

    Realising that 1st Cheshire were fighting alongside the Norfolks on this day, I found a summary of their movements from an interesting website, www.stockport1914-1918.co.uk The following extract is taken from that site:

     

    The village of Beugny is some 10 kilometres north east of the French town of Bapaume. By this stage of the war, the German army was in retreat but was far from beaten. It was fighting carefully planned rear guard actions from prepared positions and it was known that the village was heavily defended.

     

    The Cheshires moved into position during the evening of 1 September, ready for the attack scheduled for 5.15 the next morning. The march up to the front line was, in itself, difficult as the guides lost their way and enemy planes were bombing close by.

     

    Just before the attack started, the enemy artillery opened fire. Captain L Ferguson wrote in his diary
    "The enemy guns opened on our trench and in less time that it takes to write had just about blown us to hell. Great big shells fell right into the trench, causing at least 50% casualties before we started. We also got sneezing gas and liquid fire mixed up with the H.E. I was uncertain what order to give.... but it was certain that if we stopped in the trench till 5.15 am none of us would be left to attack..... so I called to those who could hear me to get out and lie in "no man's land" till time was up. Shells were now falling like hail and I saw a number of fellows blown to bits....."

     

    When the order to advance was given, the Cheshires found that, although the British artillery fire had been heavy and accurate, German machine guns were still active. One company managed to enter the village but was forced out again by a counter attack. The Battalion consolidated overnight and Beugny was captured the next day by other units

    Another link with Beugny found was a site recounting the fate of soldiers from Blaira, in Gwent - a Lt. George Henry Adney MC was killed in action near Beugny on 2nd Sep 1918, aged 21. He served with 7th Tank Corps. So tanks were being used in the location at this time, but the Norfolk war diaries make no mention of this.

     

    I have requested a copy of the war diary entries from the Cheshire Regt. museum, but they do not have a complete set of diaries and I am waiting to hear if we are in luck. Hopefully they will give us more information on the raid.

     

    4) The Significance of the Beugny Raid

     

    Found in 'The History of the Norfolk Regiment' by Petre is the following extract from battalion orders, which testifies to the conduct of the Norfolk men that day:

     

    "The divisional commander has asked the commanding officer to inform all ranks of the 1st battalion of the Norfolk Regiment how much he appreciated the extraordinary goodwork carried out by the battalion during the operation from August 21st to September 2nd. During this time the division has recaptured a depth of over fifteen miles of enemy territory, which is more than any other division in the whole army has been able to accomplish in the same time, and has captured an enormous amount of booty and prisoners.

     

    "During the operations near Beugny village on September 2nd the 1st battalion the Norfolk Regiment was the only battalion, out of three divisions, that reached the final objective in its entirety, and it was only due to the fact that the battalion held on throughout the night to the high ground south of the village that the village became untenable to the enemy, and he was forced to retire...

    The trouble is, we could go on and on finding new information, and I think we have enough now to paint a reasonable picture of the circumstances surrounding Jackson's last days. Hopefully the Cheshire records will yield a bit more detail, and we can then look at writing it up (where's that Rob Langham hiding?).

     

    More as and when :sweat:

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