Cometh the hour, cometh the man.

Men of my father’s generation received a cunningly worded invitation to participate in World War 2.

I doubt very much that the dress code was ‘come as you are’ so these chaps must have made a special effort.

After all, you should always look your best if you’re about to spend several hours lobbing six inch shells at enemy shipping, but they do let themselves down by their choice of accessories.

Corporal Klinger, thou shouldst be living at this hour.

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Hilarious images have revealed one of the lighter-hearted moments of World War Two as British soldiers man anti-aircraft guns* in full panto-drag, which the wartime government banned so they did not damage the image of the 'butch' British soldier.

The amusing pictures capture the home defence troops in drag when their Christmas charity performance was interrupted by a coastal alert near Gravesend, Kent forcing them to wear the dresses with compulsory helmets on the field.

The set of photographs, taken by John Topham while working in RAF intelligence, was censored by the British Ministry of Information.

Pantomime was popular in the army as a way to relieve stress by letting the soldiers enjoy themselves on their downtime.

LINK

* I think they got that bit wrong.

My grandfather taking part in a concert party in WWI.

He was tall wasn't he.

Maybe the rest of the guys were short. :haha:

We're a tall, bigfoot tribe ...

limey;1013509 wrote:

We're a tall, bigfoot tribe ...

I hope that you don't mind my asking, but I was wondering what regiment or corps your grandfather served in?

That would be Proud Feets !!

British soldiers man anti-aircraft guns*

Carruthers wrote:

* I think they got that bit wrong.

Any gun can be an anti-aircraft gun, if you just aim upward.

Or the aircraft are flying NOE.

Carruthers;1013512 wrote:

I hope that you don't mind my asking, but I was wondering what regiment or corps your grandfather served in?

He was in the Royal Fusiliers (London Regiment) rising from Private to Company Sergeant Major and saw service in North Africa. I have his photo albums from that time.

limey;1013543 wrote:

He was in the Royal Fusiliers (London Regiment) rising from Private to Company Sergeant Major and saw service in North Africa. I have his photo albums from that time.

I saw a report of a survey conducted by a commercial genealogy site* the other day which concluded that people generally don't have any idea about how their families served in WW1.

I wonder how long it will be before WW1 completely fades from public recognition?

My grandfather served in the Royal Engineers in the Somme offensive and was wounded as his unit moved up from Northern France into Belgium.

He was sent home, with countless others, by ambulance train and, after recovering, was transferred to the Royal Flying Corps at Halton then the RAF.

Unfortunately I don't have any photos of him from that time but I do have his service record. It's sitting on top of my printer as it happens!


*Not exactly a disinterested third party!

Here on Arran a new war memorial for a village which hasn't had one up to now is about to be inaugurated. And on the dreaded "Very Popular Social Networking Site" the instigator of this project (a woman about 10 years younger than me) is also running a page which commemorates all of the Arran conscripts who lost their lives in WWI with a brief biog. and picture (if possible) of each one.

Carruthers;1013544 wrote:

My grandfather served in the Royal Engineers in the Somme offensive and was wounded as his unit moved up from Northern France into Belgium.

He was sent home, with countless others, by ambulance train and, after recovering, was transferred to the Royal Flying Corps at Halton then the RAF.

Unfortunately I don't have any photos of him from that time but I do have his service record. It's sitting on top of my printer as it happens!

Last night I watched a Time Team special about the archaeological excavation of the WW1 Vampire dug out in Belgium.

The team had a photo of the RE Sappers who did the original hard work and they managed to trace the grandson of the CSM who was in the centre of the photo.

I just happened to mention to Dad that his father was fortunate in not being involved in that sort of work.

He said: 'I think there's a WW1 photo of him somewhere'. I ascertained that it was taken in France but haven't got much more information than that.

I don't want to push Dad too hard, and I'll have to choose my time carefully, but I'd love to see that photo.

[YOUTUBE]usncav3TcPo[/YOUTUBE]

That was a great video being able to see in the past. Thanks Carruthers.

captainhook455;1013723 wrote:

That was a great video being able to see in the past. Thanks Carruthers.

What surprised me was the generally good condition of the objects they found, especially the pump filter, oil can and shovel.

The shovel was standard issue for decades and was confusingly known as the HMS Bulldog shovel. It had nothing to do with the ship of the same name, it was just a trademark.

We've got one in the garage. It's date stamped 1938 and is looking a little care worn but still good enough for jobs in the garden.

FWIW...

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I wasn't aware of the blowing up messing ridge. Horton couldn't have been in charge, he didn't have a moustache.
I feel sorry for the children of the Belgian farmer who were starving because this crew was digging up dad's cornfield.

xoxoxoBruce;1013739 wrote:

I wasn't aware of the blowing up messing ridge. Horton couldn't have been in charge, he didn't have a moustache.
I feel sorry for the children of the Belgian farmer who were starving because this crew was digging up dad's cornfield.

I'm sure Dad was compensated. Personally I don't think I could stand eating 2 acres of corn through the winter.

That's because you ain't been hungry enough.

Did you ever eat sliced banana peppers with mayo and white bread for 2 months? Toasted bread with butter and mustard is yummy too.

Try a few months of EITHER mayo on white bread OR spaghetti with butter.

I'm too smart to be eating peppers, period.

xoxoxoBruce;1013790 wrote:

I'm too smart to be eating peppers, period.

That’s what Iron Man said. 😈

You're a bad man, a very very bad man. :rolleyes:

xoxoxoBruce;1013794 wrote:

You're a bad man, a very very bad man. :rolleyes:

Thank you. :devil:

I've been eating hot peppers since before I was born.

fargon;1013811 wrote:

I've been eating hot peppers since before I was born.

I'm not sure I want to know how your mother got them to you.

:D

What the Mother eats the baby eats. Of my Mother's 6 kids the only on that she didn't eat hot food when she was pregnant was Kevin, and he hates spicy food.

Sheldonrs;1013777 wrote:

Try a few months of EITHER mayo on white bread OR spaghetti with butter.

A spaghetti sandwich was for Friday, but a lettuce sandwich with mayo was a snack for watching TV on the 19" b&w.

You spoiled motherfuckers with your warm spaghetti sandwiches, and your mayonnaise soup.

When [SIZE="5"]I[/SIZE] was kid all [size=5]we[/size] had to eat for breakfast after our second job of licking the street gutters clean each morning, was a cold bowl of gravel what we'd saved from the guttersweepings. The pigeon milk we got we saved for warm gravel porridge at lunch.

fargon;1013844 wrote:

What the Mother eats the baby eats. Of my Mother's 6 kids the only on that she didn't eat hot food when she was pregnant was Kevin, and he hates spicy food.

The only thing my Mom ate on a regular basis while pregnant with me was speed pills.

That explains the quickie. :lol:

I'm sorry to hear that.

xoxoxoBruce;1013875 wrote:

That explains the quickie. :lol:

You forgot the "s"

Shush, that's just between us. ;)

xoxoxoBruce;1013884 wrote:

Shush, that's just between us. ;)

And your legs.

xoxoxoBruce;1013875 wrote:

That explains the quickie. :lol:

Sheldonrs;1013881 wrote:

You forgot the "s"

Squickie?

Gravdigr;1013908 wrote:

Squickie?

hitheads!

:-)

Gravdigr;1013908 wrote:

Squickie?

Get out of my head.

Damn.

It's dark in here.

Who said that?!