Fix Bayonets 🇺🇸🇬🇧🇨🇦🇩🇪🇪🇺🇬🇱

@fixbayonets.bsky.social

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Mark Flowers • British-American • Former treadhead • History nerd, esp. the WW1 BEF • No coffee too strong • Death before dismount • Yes Marmite, but Vegemite works too • Always use the schwa. https://www.facebook.com/Fixbayonets1985/

'in 10th Avenue. Philosophe', 1916. Pen and ink drawing on paper by Paul Sarrut (1882-1969), dated 25 July 1916. Image credit: National Army Museum.

"'in 10th Avenue. Philosophe', 1916A thoughtful British soldier leans against a trench wall with his rifle close at hand. '10th Avenue' was the nickname of a trench in the Vermelles area, in the Pas de Calais. Philosophe, near Marzingarbe, is now the site of a British war cemetery. Text from the National Army Museum website.

"The Runner" by James Fraser Scott, 1919, Australian War Memorial.
Communications in World War I were not nearly as advanced as the weaponry employed by the combatant nations. Runners performed an absolutely vital function in combat. Facing danger at every turn, they delivered vital information back and forth from the front lines.

Here we see a runner on a wet night, likely heading back towards his headquarters with an update. Passing him is a working party carrying duckboards. In the distance, an artillery barrage brackets the trenches with fire. This was a scene that occurred countless times on the Western Front during the Great War.
Never forget, Mark

I've been searching a long time for "Leadership in the Trenches" by Professor Gary Sheffield. One of my key interest areas is the relationships between soldiers in the #GreatWar. This is a fantastic book and belongs in every #WorldWar1 collection.

@profgsheffield.bsky.social #BEF #fwwhist #history

"The Runner" by James F. Scott, 1919, Australian War Memorial.

Night was often the busiest time in the #GreatWar #trenches. Here, a working party carries duckboards into the trenches as a messenger passes on his errand. The backlighting by a heavy barrage lends a sense of peril to the scene.

Albert Jacka was the first Australian to receive the Victoria Cross in the Great War. Serving with the 14th Battalion, AIF at Gallipoli, he defended the line with undaunted valour on 19-20 May 1915, earning the VC.

Serving later on the Western Front, Capt. Jacka was decorated twice with the Military Cross. Wounded and gassed, he earned the reputation as one of Australia‘s most respected soldiers.

Sadly, Albert Jacka died at age 39 early in 1932. Like countless soldiers of the Great War, his health was damaged beyond healing by what he had endured. He was laid to rest at St Kilda Cemetry in Melbourne, Australia.

This painting of Capt. Jacka was created by noted artist Colin Unwin Gill and is part of the Imperial War Museum collection.

Zonnebeke, Winter 1917-18. A British infantryman is stuck fast in a large pool of liquid mud in a shell hole. To the right one of his comrades stands beckoning to him. There is barbed wire in the background. text: Stuck Fast in Mud. The beginning of an awful experience! One of the 10th Service Battalion York and Lancaster Regt got held fast by the mud and slime in a shell hole which flooded as he struggled. To haul him with ropes was impossible as he would have died. It took four nights hard work by the Pioneers to get him free. HIs comrade stood by him day and night under fire. He fed him by means of a long stick. When eventually saved both went delirious. Alexander Jamieson, Captain QM 10th York & Lancaster Regt.