Photos WW1 British, Commonwealth & US Forces

[BravoZulu]

British soldiers posing in the aftermath of the Third Battle of Gaza in the Winter of 1917 with the remains of a Mark I tank that had been knocked out by Ottoman artillery during the Second Battle of Gaza

 

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Prisoners bringing in wounded as Mark V Tanks with crib fascines advance near Bellicourt, 29th September 1918

 

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New Zealand soldiers eat a meal in Solesmes, France. 9 November 1918

 

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A New Zealand 18-pounder field gun in action near Le Quesnoy on 29 October 1918.

 

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A raiding party of the 10th (Service) Battalion, Cameronians (Scottish Rifles) waiting in a 'sap' for the signal to go. Lt. John Warwick Brooke, the official photographer, followed them in and a shell fell short killing seven men. Near Arras, 24 March 1917.

 

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Battle of the Scarpe. Gunners of the Royal Horse Artillery in a German 5.9-inch howitzer emplacement on the Arras-Cambrai Rd, April 1917

 

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Mark V Tanks and infantry going forward following the Capture of Grévillers by the New Zealand Division. 25 August 1918

 

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The Mayor of Jerusalem, Hussein Salim Al-Husseini (with walking stick and cigarette), with his party under a white flag-of-truce, attempts to deliver the surrender document signed by the Ottoman Governor Izzat Pasha just outside Jerusalem’s western limits on the morning of 9 December 1917 to Sergeants James Sedgewick and Frederick Hurcomb of 2/19th Battalion of the London Regiment (fourth and seventh from left in the picture). The surprised sergeants, who were scouting ahead of General Sir Edmund Allenby's main force, refused to take the letter, as did several more arriving troops. The Mayor was accompanied by a number of officials including his nephew Toufiq Saleh Al-Husseini, police inspectors Abdelqadir Al-Alami and Ahmad Sharaf (Second from right in the picture), policemen Hussein Al-Assaly and Ibrahim Al-Zaanoun, as well as a group of young men among whom were Rushdi Mohamed Al-Muhtada, Jawad Ismail Al-Husseini, and Hanna Iskandar Al-Lahham, who carried the white flag. The Mayor was also accompanied by a young photographer named Lewis Larsson, who later became Swedish Consul in Palestine, and whose role was to record the ceremony. It began to look to the Jerusalemites as if nobody would let them surrender, until Brigadier-General C.F. Watson, commanding 180th Infantry Brigade entered the town, accepted the documents, and Larsson could photograph the event properly”

 

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Two Australian regimental cooks cutting up meat for a stew in a support line in front of Zillebeke, 21 Sept 1917

 

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2nd Battalion Mark V male tank B33 "Blighty II" knocked out by German artillery along with three other B Company tanks near Boyonvillers on the first day of the Battle of Amiens on August 8th 1918

 

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Troops of the 1st Australian Division (1st ANZAC Corps), some wearing German helmets, photographed between La Boisselle and Pozieres on their return from the taking of Pozieres, 23 July 1916.

 

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A patrol crawling forward during the attack on the German trenches at Beaumont Hamel, 1st July 1916. The slope of the defenders' hill is clearly visible.

 

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The mine under German front line positions at Hawthorn Redoubt is fired 10 minutes before the assault at Beaumont Hamel on the first day of the Battle of the Somme, 1 July 1916. 45,000 pounds of Ammonal exploded. The mine caused a crater 130 feet across by 58 feet deep

7:45 am, 16th Battalion (Public Schools), Middlesex Regiment (29th Division) retiring after having reached the crater on Hawthorn Ridge

 

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Mark I tank knocked out during the Second Battle of Gaza in 1917

 

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British cavalry soldier, Ovillers, September 1916

 

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Mark IV tank "BLARNEY CASTLE" gutted by German personnel after it was knocked out at Cambrai in November 1917

On Friday, 23rd November 1917, during the Battle of Cambrai, in Fontaine – Notre Dame, which is located about 4 kilometres to the West of Cambrai, a British Mark IV ‘female’ tank of 6 Company, 12th section, B Battalion, was knocked out by German artillery. The name painted on the side of the tank read: ‘BLARNEY CASTLE’.

It was destroyed along with six other tanks by K Flak Batterie 7, a truck borne anti-aircraft gun-crew, firing an armour-piercing round through 6.1 mm to 12 mm (about half an inch thick) armour which turned the tank’s interior into a blazing inferno within seconds, incinerating the eight-man crew. It is reputed to have been the first time this type of gun was used in an anti-tank role. Apart from one, all the tank commanders and most of the crews were killed. All have no known graves and are honoured on the Louverval memorial.

The 27-ton tank (serial no. 2873) could be under the command of either 2nd Lt. Julian Cecil Lazonby or 2nd Lt. Thomas Henderson but on this tragic occasion it was commanded by Lt. Lazonby. B 57 was the crew number. ‘B’ was this battalion’s letter and tanks usually had their names, which began with the battalion letter, chosen by the commander. 2nd Lt. Henderson was the son of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Henderson, land owners of Ardrum, Inniscarra, Co. Cork. Ardrum was a home of the Colthurst family, owners of the famous Blarney Castle so it is easy to see why the name Blarney Castle was chosen. It was armed with 5 Lewis machine guns plus 1 spare, making it a ‘female’ tank. A ‘male’ tank had 2 six-pounder guns plus 3 machine guns.

It was to become one of the most famous and most photographed tanks of WW 1. Lt Henderson also lost his life on this day while in command of tank B54 ‘BEHEMOTH II’ (serial no. 4516). Both tanks made it to the east side of the village where they were hit and knocked out. Lt. Henderson’s tank B54 also caught fire and all the crew were killed either inside the tank or trying to escape the inferno.

 

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Mk II training tank D26 knocked out near Bullecourt in April 1917

 

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John Collier Marshall, a 14-year-old bandsman, touted in this patriotic postcard as "The Youngest Soldier In The British Army", 1914

He joined the 5th (Territorial Force) Battalion, Loyal North Lancashire Regiment on the 29th April 1913 and was issued with the number 1636. His surviving attestation paper shows that he was a piecer by trade and was aged 14 years and eight months. If he did eventually serve overseas, it was not with this regimental number, as he was discharged on the 26th August 1916 "having made a mis-statement as to age on enlistment." His father Henry (also a bandsman, in the same battalion) was killed on the Somme the day before. I found church records from his parish showing that he married in 1921, but sadly died after an illness in 1925.

 

[uktabber]

That's a great Bravo Z......sad in the end, thanks for posting!

 

[BravoZulu]

New Zealand artillerymen firing an 18 pound gun in snowy conditions on the Butte, Belgium. January 1, 1918