In Memory The Battle of Monchy-le-Preux |
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Macd
Senior Member Joined: January 26 2018 Location: Canada Status: Offline Points: 195 |
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Posted: April 19 2018 at 6:32am |
http://www.rnfldr.ca/history.aspx?item=147#Ten
One of the defenders was from the 1st Essex. I don't think they could have successfully fooled the Germans into thinking there were more defenders with any other rifle then a Lee Enfield. |
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Canuck
Special Member Donating Member Joined: January 17 2012 Location: Agassiz BC Status: Offline Points: 3535 |
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Great photo memory, thanks for posting it Macd!
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Castles made of sand slip into the sea.....eventually
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Honkytonk
Senior Member Joined: December 30 2017 Location: Brandon Mb Status: Offline Points: 4770 |
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Pardon my ingnorance, but is this the battle where Tommies facing an overwhelming force and through training were able to cycle their Enfields (Mad Minute to the extreme!) probably such a sustained rate of fire the enemy thought they were facing machine guns?
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Shamu
Admin Group Logo Designer / Donating Member Joined: April 25 2007 Location: MD, USA. Status: Offline Points: 17603 |
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I made the link live for you, you can just click on it to read the article now.
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Don't shoot till you see the whites of their thighs. (Unofficial motto of the Royal Air Force)
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Macd
Senior Member Joined: January 26 2018 Location: Canada Status: Offline Points: 195 |
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That was the Battle of Mons at the beginning of the war. Four German battalions attacked the Nimy bridge, which was defended by a company of the 4th Battalion, Royal Fusiliers and a machine-gun section led by Lieutenant Maurice Dease. Advancing at first in close column, "parade ground formation", the Germans made easy targets for the British riflemen, who hit German soldiers at over 1,000 yards (910 m), mowing them down by rifle, machine-gun and artillery fire.[25][26] So heavy was the British rifle fire throughout the battle that some Germans thought they were facing batteries of machine-guns.[27] Captain Bloem of the 12th Brandenburg Grenadiers led his men out of the woods only to find all the buildings were little British fortresses from which there “came a sharp, hammering sound, then a pause, then a more rapid hammering: machine guns!” The soldiers holed up in the canal-side cottages and warehouses belonged to the 1st Battalion Queen’s Own Royal West Kents and it was their hot Lee-Enfields doing the damage, not the battalion’s two Vickers machine guns. The BEF had to retreat as the French 5th Army had pulled out on their flank. This began the "Great Retreat" or also called the "Retreat from Mons" for the BEF which ended with the Germans being stopped at the First Battle of the River Marne. |
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A square 10
Special Member Donating Member Joined: December 12 2006 Location: MN , USA Status: Offline Points: 14452 |
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thanks , that was something i did not know of , appreciate that
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