Warsearcher Posted 13 January , 2014 Share Posted 13 January , 2014 Greetings! I am a recent member, but have worked on a range of FWW and SWW projects. It has given me a unique perspective on war trophies, and the work of the Canadian War Trophies Commission, 1917-c. 1927. Battalions of the Canadian Expeditionary Force, particularly from April 1917 on, captured a wide range of war trophies. A large selection was shipped back to Canada on many merchant ships (At least two dozen 21cm morsers, down to thousands of MG08s) I would like to invite all members to check out my website/blog: War Trophies of Canada . It features several in depth explorations of weird and wonderful trophies. The main reason the site exists is to allow interested parties to search through a database made from the WTC's ledger of captured artillery allocated across the country, and find out about local guns. I have also tried to incorporate, especially for pieces that I know to have survived, more details from other documents at LAC and the CWM, personal observation, photo research, and CEF War Diary entries available on LAC’s site. In the allocation section of my website you will find a link to the google docs. spreadsheet and explanations on using it: Allocation Database . As in most other Allied nations, a majority of guns were scrapped during the next war, however, I hope that this project identifies many guns that are not well known in communities across Canada. I also think the topics are useful for any nation which ends up with a tide of Krupp, Rheinmetall, Spandau, etc. This project honours the CEF, and should surprise all members with how much has actually survived in Canada. BRING UP THE GUNS! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Boonzaier Posted 13 January , 2014 Share Posted 13 January , 2014 Hi, I wonder how many of the MG08s are still there where they were gifted just after the war? Best Chris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Warsearcher Posted 14 January , 2014 Author Share Posted 14 January , 2014 That is a great question! About 2,500 MG08s, MG08/15s, and a few lMG08/15 aircraft guns were allocated to local communities (usually for cenotaphs), museums, schools, and Great War Veterans Association branches. Many more were kept in Ottawa (for example some Russian maxims on wheels that were shipped from the Eastern front and then recaptured by Canadian battalions) , and some were sent to military units for instructional purposes. There should still be a lot out there...but I made a decision early on to only include MGs I was sure of that are still in existence in Canada, otherwise it would have taken me 4X as long to data-enter the whole ledger! If you have a specific gun in mind I could check by serial no. or community it went to, though. I am very interested in having the database contain accurate MG info. I'm not sure I will ever get an accurate idea of these! thanks for the interest! AC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Boonzaier Posted 28 January , 2014 Share Posted 28 January , 2014 Hi, I have 2, an 08 captured by the 1st Division on the canal du Nord, and a 08/15 whose number is listed twice. So no 100% certainty as to where it was captured. I will dig out the numbers for you when i get a chance... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now