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The Great War (1914-1918) Forum

Remembered Today:

The British in Palestina / Palestine


Regulus 1

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After the photo albums on the Central Powers in Palestina, now a very large album on the British troops :

Part 1 is now under construction.

http://www.forumeerstewereldoorlog.nl/viewtopic.php?t=17622

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Johan

Weer eens baie dankie.

Two very nice images of the ubiquitous 4.7-inch guns on extemporized carriages - "Jericho Jane" and "Nablus Lizzie".

Carl

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Johan

The pictures you have posted yesterday and today are truly amazing, not just in the way they bring history to life but in the quality of the photography which in my opinion is at times of the highest order. Many thanks for the trouble you have taken to post them.

My father who was in the Dorset Yeomanry was a great raconteur of his experiences in Gallipoli and Palestine and having listened to his stories on perhaps too many times as a child I feel I know some of the places in the pictures you posted yesterday (El Arish, Gaza, Ramleh, Beersheba) as if they were towns and villages in Dorset. Its nice to see what they really looked like at the time he was there.

The pictures of the advance on Jerusalem brings to mind a story he told about a private from the Dorset Yeomanry who was sheltering from terrible weather under a rock with an Australian padre within sight of the city . Thoroughly fed up the padre was heard to say 'when I go back to Australia, if anybody wants me to sing Jerusalem I will ring his bloody neck'. (Transcript of interview with Peter Liddle, Brotherton Library).

I would be interested to learn more of the provenance of these albums? Is anything known about the photographer or the ownership of the albums in the intervening years?

All the best

John

PS I was struck by the contrast between the elation at the capture of Jerusalem and the unfolding of the divisions in the immediate post war years leading to the terrible situation in the headlines of today. Looking at your pictures it seemed to have the inevitablilty of a Greek tragedy.

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John,

The album is in very good ownership, the Library of Congress in Washington DC !

I have the German album in high resolution also, and soon expect to have the British album in the same quality. There are no copyright restraints on them and they can be used freely.

They are indeed, as you mentioned, most interesting and really unique documents. And a Greek tragedy the situation nowadays is indeed !

Best from Johan

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Well done Regulus; there's a lot of hard work there in all that reproduction

The albums are made up of shots from the Matson collection and the full collection "includes more than 13,700 glass and film negatives"

see http://memory.loc.gov/pp/matpchtml/matpcabt.html

where you will also find the search engine

You have to be patient with the latter and may have to keep trying variations of your request before you get what you want

but keep trying because it's a great resource

You also have to be careful of the captions though

eg: Photograph No.1 (on this British thread)

is not Brig. General C. F. Watson and Lady Watson, ca. 1917

but is, I believe, a picture of General and Lady Allenby

Carl,

Your comments about Jericho Jane are of interest

I am currently reading about the DMC who were on the receiving end of Jericho Jane

which 'shelled Ghoraniyeh, Jericho, and other back areas at a range of some 20,000 yards'

By the way Jericho Jane also had 'two wicked sisters' making life difficult for the allies in the valley.

Have you positively identified the gun from the photograph, as being a 4.7?

The DMC history was written by Lt-Col the Hon R.M.P. Preston DSO, who thought that the gun(s) were 6-inch

Best regards

Michael

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Some fabulous pictures. Shows how much of a art photography was and how spectacular the pictures could be. If only my Great-Grandfather's unit was pictured (189th Heavy Battery RGA).

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Just ran into these, thanks to the link given by Michael :

05792r.jpg

05793r.jpg

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. . . positively identified the gun from the photograph, as being a 4.7?

The DMC history was written by Lt-Col the Hon R.M.P. Preston DSO, who thought that the gun(s) were 6-inch

Michael

Only on the admittedly slender evidence that the guns do not look like 6-inch guns (the proportions are wrong) and the 6-hole steel disc wheels look like the wheels made in the Salt River (Cape Town) railway workshops at the end of 1914 / beginning of 1915. (Hogg, I V and Thurston, L F British Artillery Weapons and Ammunition 1914-1918, (London 1972) on page 109 and Australian War Memorial image H10729) or even on the Boer War era 4.7-inch guns used for gun drill on Whale Island by the Royal Marine Artillery pre-WW1 and near Antwerp in 1914.

Carl

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quote: Just ran into these, thanks to the link given by Michael

Regulus,

This is indeed, one of my favourite sites

and it has provided me with hours of interest

While it is not all WWI, there is so much there that is of the Great War and of interest

Ones that I can remember with ease:

Lt Worthington - there are three photographs - one of his battlefield grave, then his grave on Mnt Scopus (with the temp. marker) before the headstone & then with the headstone

Flood; his original grave on Mnt Zion (in the Jerusalem Latin Cemetery) which is now lost

and QMS E Scott - a mystery - see

Thank you for bringing this to a wider attention

best regards

Michael

...................

Carl,

Thanks for your thoughts on this

best regartds

Michael

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Hi Johan

The photo of the burials is very interesting as it proves that Ottoman stormtroopers did go into action. The only other photos I have seen of these helmets are in training, post war or parade situations.

Thanks for posting them

Cheers

Dominic

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