"blobs" can't be right surely?

[Bardess]

Also "and provided carrying parties for the ?????? Brigades.

Grey lead is fast becoming the enemy

[ackimzey]

Diane, could the word possibly end with "ing", note how the "g" is formed in brigades..

Ann

[Bardess]

Thanks Ann. I think I have brain freeze - just like my fingers - but just can't think of anything that fits? Have slightly enlarged it

[peterhogg]

Could the second word be "leading"?

[Bardess]

Brilliant!!!

It's funny how you can talk yourself into a word beginning with G and then you can't 'see' anything else. Thanks Connor. Now - blobs?

[peterhogg]

I am afraid "blobs" is driving me mad at the moment!!! i will give it a rest and look at it again tomorrow morning. It really does make one want to solve this puzzle.

cheers

peter

[Mark Hone]

'Blobs' describes a tactical formation of informal section groups, a move away from rigid lines or waves. In attack the section 'blobs' would often move forward with the four sections of each platoon forming a square or diamond shape. They could change direction, e.g. to move to a right or left flank much more easily than a line or column ('snake' or 'worm') formation. According to Paddy Griffith in 'Battle Tactics of the Western Front' this was particularly useful when the infantry were not following a creeping barrage and came into its own during the open warfare of the 1918 Hundred Days (Griffiths page 97-where there is also a useful diagram). Interesting to see evidence of use of the term as early as (I presume) mid-1916. All helps give the lie to the 'Blackadder' myth that British tactics were static throughout the war.

[Bardess]

Mark that's fantastic, Yes, indeed, 15.09.16 1st Grenadier Guards:

15.09.16 ALBERT 1/40,000; FRANCE 57 C SW 1/20,000

Guards Division attack Zero hour 6:20am. 3rd Guards Brigade in support. The Bn advanced to GUILLEMONT Station in blobs at 9am; at 12:30pm advanced to trenches SW edge of GINCHY and provided carrying parties for the leading Brigades for the rest of the day.

Ann and Peter: 2 bob behind the bar.

Mark: 1/2 a crown for you, Sir.

EDIT: I have used your description as a footnote!

[Steven Broomfield]

Ann and Peter: 2 bob behind the bar.

Sghouldn't that be Two Blobs?

[janecavell]

'Blobs' describes a tactical formation of informal section groups, a move away from rigid lines or waves.

Amazing, you learn something new every day on this forum! (There's no sign of this military sense of the word 'blob' in the Oxford English Dictionary, so I think their dictionary team would be interested in hearing about it.)

[tootrock]

Could that be "Asking Brigades", ie those brigades that required carrying parties?

Martin

[Robert Dunlop]

An alternative formation was 'worms'. Don't be surprised if this crops up in some accounts

Robert

[Bardess]

No, Martin, no, no, no. Please don't give me a choice

[centurion]

Amazing, you learn something new every day on this forum! (There's no sign of this military sense of the word 'blob' in the Oxford English Dictionary, so I think their dictionary team would be interested in hearing about it.)

Possibly because as the term suggests it had no solid defineable meaning and could be used in a variety of ways eg

"by now we had no continuous front line, merely a series of blobs of various sizes occupying shell holes"

"reinforcements began to arrive in a series of bits an blobs as men were marshaled and sent forward"

[centurion]

Further to this "The blob formation, first used in 1917, referred to ad hoc gatherings of 2 to 4 men, hidden as well as possible" William Owen writing on infantry tactics for the Royal United Services Institute refers to a formation called "the blob", and reflects that "this group of three to five men will naturally tend to form something that functions like a Wedge unless they are making a deliberate effort to adopt another arrangement".

I think the use of blob in the text under discussion merely means that the men arrived in small groups without any specific organisation (and as such were easily snaffled for use as working parties)

A "skirmishing blob" is also used to describe a form of French infantry tactic first used against the Austrians at Jemappes (1792)

[ianw]

Quite agree that the OED should be informed.

[centurion]

Quite agree that the OED should be informed.

With what definition?

[Bardess]

An email is winging its way to them right now [naming GWF]

[truthergw]

Blob, worm. Both had similar meaning. A deliberately irregular formation of men as opposed to rank, file. A section would advance as a blob.

[centurion]

An email is winging its way to them right now [naming GWF]

What definition did you use?

[Bardess]

I sent them a copy of the extract and figured they would decide for themselves

[Mark Hone]

Please note that I mention both 'worm and 'snake' formations as well as 'blobs' in my original post. They were all terms, I suspect, that had slightly different meanings to different units who had their own customised variations. This is true in more recent times-I've never been taught ambush drills exactly the same way by any two instructors.

[dfaulder]

An email is winging its way to them right now [naming GWF]

Done similar to the Word Wide Words website (maintained by Michael Quinion who is I believe associated with OED)

http://www.worldwidewords.org/index.htm

David

[Bardess]

Wow, am I impressed. Not 2 hours later [unfortunately while I was asleep] I received this reply

Thank you for your message, and for alerting us to a sense of the noun blob which is not at present covered by the Oxford English Dictionary.

I suspect the problem may be that the present entry is a mixture of first edition text, dating from 1887, and Supplement and second edition text (1972 and 1986) – in other words, some of the entry is too early and the rest too late for this usage to have been easily picked up by our reading programmes. We shall certainly pursue the sense when we come to revise the letter B, and the fairly good news is that as soon as we finish R later this year we are going back to A, and will work forward from there. The amount of work to be done on the early letters of the alphabet is most daunting, but we are at least getting towards B. It should help that our learned consultant on military history is Professor Hew Strachan of All Souls College, a very considerable expert on the First World War.

So yes, we shall indeed follow up your suggestion, but I cannot provide even a rough estimate of when the entry will be revised.

Margot Charlton

Oxford English Dictionary

[wizard2250]

Kudos to you, Diane, on alerting the OED. Keep 'em on their toes!

I think this enlarged image may help in clarifying the 'leading/asking' question.

shawn

edit.....Or maybe not!?