Australians on the forum. (1 Viewer)

[Rob]

I carried Coombs book all around Europe in 1992. It is indeed the 'bible' of battlefield travellers, although I have the new Australian War Memorial Guidebook which came out this year and it gives an Australian focus. Holt's guides are very good too - I have used their Arnhem and Normandy ones - on my honeymoon!

Rob - no doubt you have seen Beaumont Hamel and Vimy Ridge? Excellent spots as well!

You have a very understanding wife my friend ! If I suggested a battlefield trip for our honeymoon I'd have probably remained there with the fallen!:wink2:

Yes I've been to both Jack, as you say excellent places to visit. Vimy ridge with the statue of Canada weeping is very moving. I understand there are so many shells rising to the surface there now that they are having to use robotic cutters to mow the grass. Beaumont Hamel is a highlight of the Somme, it has everything hasn't it. Memorials ,Trench lines, shell holes, lots to explore. When you walk across the shell scarred ground towards the German lines its amazing how any of them came out of there alive. It was if memory serves one of the highest casualty rates of the 1st July 1916. Of around 800 Newfoundlanders who went forward only about 100 were not either killed or wounded. Just draw dropping statistics, many of these were dead or wounded within twenty mins. Just horrible. At one point the Germans were sat atop their trench waving the Newfoundlanders forward. Heart breaking stuff.

Not far from there is my favourite of all places on the Somme. The Sunken Lane. It was here at the same time, the Lancashire Fusiliers tried to three times to get out of this lane and advance, each time they were cut to pieces by withering machine gun fire from the woods opposite. There is a very famous clip of the LF's smoking and laughing at the camera minutes before they went over the top. By 8am this totally ordinary nondescript looking lane was full of dead and dying men. The LF's lost about 470 men and around twenty officers here, none of them got more than a few feet from the lip of the lane. The dugouts in the lane have begun collapsing in recent years and can be viewed, with great care!.

Sorry if I've prattled on Jack, but you've hit my fave subject here!

Rob

 

[waynepoo]

You have a very understanding wife my friend ! If I suggested a battlefield trip for our honeymoon I'd have probably remained there with the fallen!:wink2:

Yes I've been to both Jack, as you say excellent places to visit. Vimy ridge with the statue of Canada weeping is very moving. I understand there are so many shells rising to the surface there now that they are having to use robotic cutters to mow the grass. Beaumont Hamel is a highlight of the Somme, it has everything hasn't it. Memorials ,Trench lines, shell holes, lots to explore. When you walk across the shell scarred ground towards the German lines its amazing how any of them came out of there alive. It was if memory serves one of the highest casualty rates of the 1st July 1916. Of around 800 Newfoundlanders who went forward only about 100 were not either killed or wounded. Just draw dropping statistics, many of these were dead or wounded within twenty mins. Just horrible. At one point the Germans were sat atop their trench waving the Newfoundlanders forward. Heart breaking stuff.

Not far from there is my favourite of all places on the Somme. The Sunken Lane. It was here at the same time, the Lancashire Fusiliers tried to three times to get out of this lane and advance, each time they were cut to pieces by withering machine gun fire from the woods opposite. There is a very famous clip of the LF's smoking and laughing at the camera minutes before they went over the top. By 8am this totally ordinary nondescript looking lane was full of dead and dying men. The LF's lost about 470 men and around twenty officers here, none of them got more than a few feet from the lip of the lane. The dugouts in the lane have begun collapsing in recent years and can be viewed, with great care!.

Sorry if I've prattled on Jack, but you've hit my fave subject here!

Rob

Rob.
How lucky you are to live so close to so much history, not only the two World Wars but the U.K 's and Europe's as well, I envy you being able to jump across the Channel ( or under it ) and see what I have only read about or seen on the Media. Apart from the original Australians everything here is only two hundred years old at most.
Waynepoo.

 

[Rob]

Hey Waynepoo,

Yes I guess we are lucky to be near so many famous battlefields over here, you do need an understanding wife though, I'm lucky in that as long as we have one 'proper' holiday a year my good lady doesn't mind (in fact really enjoys) battlefield trips,as long as I tell her what happened where we are stood etc!.

I never tire of visiting the Western front , whether its the Brits at Serre, the South Africans at Delville wood or the very brave young men of your country who gave so much at places like Pozieres. The Australian memorial at the windmill at Pozieres is very moving and a nice salute to those brave young men many of whom never came back. Honestly mate if you get the chance to visit just once in your life you will be very glad you did.

And even if you never make it I strongly suggest you get hold of Rose Coombs Before Endeavours fade and a Holts guide, they make good armchair reading anyway.

Cheers

Rob

Rob.
How lucky you are to live so close to so much history, not only the two World Wars but the U.K 's and Europe's as well, I envy you being able to jump across the Channel ( or under it ) and see what I have only read about or seen on the Media. Apart from the original Australians everything here is only two hundred years old at most.
Waynepoo.

 

[waynepoo]

Hey Waynepoo,

Yes I guess we are lucky to be near so many famous battlefields over here, you do need an understanding wife though, I'm lucky in that as long as we have one 'proper' holiday a year my good lady doesn't mind (in fact really enjoys) battlefield trips,as long as I tell her what happened where we are stood etc!.

I never tire of visiting the Western front , whether its the Brits at Serre, the South Africans at Delville wood or the very brave young men of your country who gave so much at places like Pozieres. The Australian memorial at the windmill at Pozieres is very moving and a nice salute to those brave young men many of whom never came back. Honestly mate if you get the chance to visit just once in your life you will be very glad you did.

And even if you never make it I strongly suggest you get hold of Rose Coombs Before Endeavours fade and a Holts guide, they make good armchair reading anyway.

Cheers

Rob

You would have to beat my girl with many sticks to stop her going on any trip overseas, she is happy to walk across the street !
Waynepoo.

 

[Rob]

You would have to beat my girl with many sticks to stop her going on any trip overseas, she is happy to walk across the street !
Waynepoo.

^&grin

You're all set to go then, they also sell delicious chocolates in Ypres!:wink2:

Rob

 

[Bottlesoldier]

G'day Waynepoo, My name is Johno, and I live in Newcastle NSW. I've been away for a bit, and therefore not been on the Forum. I have had some posts here with pics of my work earlier. I collect, model and customise 54mm Napoleonic, US Civil War and Marlburnian figures. I also build military dioramas inside small bottles and carve likeness figures of people I know, and put them in glass tubes. Lately I have included Dime store figures in my collections.I have yet to post pics of my figure carvings. Cheers mate. Johno.

 

[Ragnar]

Hi Waynepoo
Played with Airfix WW2 as a kid....But to cut a long story short got back into the hobby in 2003 walked into Peter Nathens shop and picked up a Conte ACW set
needless to say i was hooked.
Started Painting Plastics and metal kits figs of various time periods also top them up with the odd pre-painted set here and there.
Normans/Vikings pretty much all Conte, few hundred ACW Conte WBritain's Blackcat,Napoleonics a good few of them also in 54mm and now doing Naps in 28m.
Other interest WW2 and Ancients.
Rob,

 

[theBaron]

Brad,
Thanks mate. Where you are from if remember rightly, is it not famous for its iron works or some such factorys? Wow! aren't you blokes about to subject yourselves to another round of Presidential sillyness , hope your lot aren't as stupid as our lot.
Cheers.
Waynepoo{sm3}

Hi, Wayne, right you are! Bethlehem, PA, once home to Bethlehem Steel. Their headquarters are still here, but the old steel works property is now a casino

Prost!
Brad

 

[waynepoo]

Hi, Wayne, right you are! Bethlehem, PA, once home to Bethlehem Steel. Their headquarters are still here, but the old steel works property is now a casino

Prost!
Brad

Brad,
Ok a casino, don't you just love capitalism.
Waynepoo.

 

[waynepoo]

G'day Waynepoo, My name is Johno, and I live in Newcastle NSW. I've been away for a bit, and therefore not been on the Forum. I have had some posts here with pics of my work earlier. I collect, model and customise 54mm Napoleonic, US Civil War and Marlburnian figures. I also build military dioramas inside small bottles and carve likeness figures of people I know, and put them in glass tubes. Lately I have included Dime store figures in my collections.I have yet to post pics of my figure carvings. Cheers mate. Johno.

Well done Johno, post those pics mate so the rest of the world can see what we convicts are up to.
Waynepoo.

 

[waynepoo]

Hi Waynepoo
Played with Airfix WW2 as a kid....But to cut a long story short got back into the hobby in 2003 walked into Peter Nathens shop and picked up a Conte ACW set
needless to say i was hooked.
Started Painting Plastics and metal kits figs of various time periods also top them up with the odd pre-painted set here and there.
Normans/Vikings pretty much all Conte, few hundred ACW Conte WBritain's Blackcat,Napoleonics a good few of them also in 54mm and now doing Naps in 28m.
Other interest WW2 and Ancients.
Rob,

Rob,
Mate did the same at Bretts here in Bris, when in looking for replica medals and walked out with an addiction to K&C , forgot the medals has it happens.
Thanks Rob , get some pics up mate.
Waynepoo.

 

[Ragnar]

Wayne mate plenty of pics you might find buried through out the forum...I also have some pics in my profile Gallery stop in anytime ^&grin

 

[Jack]

^&grin

You're all set to go then, they also sell delicious chocolates in Ypres!:wink2:

Rob

You are quite right about the chocolates. Did you buy them at the shop just opposite the Cloth Hall and up the street toward the Menin Gate?

 

[waynepoo]

Wayne mate plenty of pics you might find buried through out the forum...I also have some pics in my profile Gallery stop in anytime ^&grin

You learn new things every day, didn't know about profile gallery as I have only been on the forum a short time and still working it in out . I was going to start a thread to ask you blokes to post pics of your collections , no need now and I would have feel a right wally then only to discover porfile gallery later.
Waynepoo.

 

[Jack]

You have a very understanding wife my friend ! If I suggested a battlefield trip for our honeymoon I'd have probably remained there with the fallen!:wink2:

Yes I've been to both Jack, as you say excellent places to visit. Vimy ridge with the statue of Canada weeping is very moving. I understand there are so many shells rising to the surface there now that they are having to use robotic cutters to mow the grass. Beaumont Hamel is a highlight of the Somme, it has everything hasn't it. Memorials ,Trench lines, shell holes, lots to explore. When you walk across the shell scarred ground towards the German lines its amazing how any of them came out of there alive. It was if memory serves one of the highest casualty rates of the 1st July 1916. Of around 800 Newfoundlanders who went forward only about 100 were not either killed or wounded. Just draw dropping statistics, many of these were dead or wounded within twenty mins. Just horrible. At one point the Germans were sat atop their trench waving the Newfoundlanders forward. Heart breaking stuff.

Not far from there is my favourite of all places on the Somme. The Sunken Lane. It was here at the same time, the Lancashire Fusiliers tried to three times to get out of this lane and advance, each time they were cut to pieces by withering machine gun fire from the woods opposite. There is a very famous clip of the LF's smoking and laughing at the camera minutes before they went over the top. By 8am this totally ordinary nondescript looking lane was full of dead and dying men. The LF's lost about 470 men and around twenty officers here, none of them got more than a few feet from the lip of the lane. The dugouts in the lane have begun collapsing in recent years and can be viewed, with great care!.

Sorry if I've prattled on Jack, but you've hit my fave subject here!

Rob

One of mine too - spent a good deal of time searching out spots on the WF, but it came at a cost. You have no idea the number of galleries of modern art that I have visited and had to then stare at what passes for art! In my wife's defence, we have also passed many wonderful hours at the Louvre and at your own National Gallery. I think you'd agree if I suggested to Wayne that you really must have a car to see anything of real interest. Langauge is no problem - apart from 'excuse me', 'thank you', 'pardon me' and 'you are very pretty and I am very rich' I have only a handful of French phrases. The most important is chicken nuggets neuf, grande coco cola and grande frittes. And they say Australians don't understand culture!

I carried home a rust encrusted 18 pounder shell casing from Dellville Wood. Australian Customs - you have to love them - let me bring that home but questioned me about the mud on my shoes!

At Beaumont Hamel did you walk around the Caribou (Moose?) to get 'that photo'? Been there three times and have never got it just right!

 

[waynepoo]

^&grin

You're all set to go then, they also sell delicious chocolates in Ypres!:wink2:

Rob

I can see it now, if I took her any where near those chocolates after we returned home it would be endless '' Does my bum look big in this dear ''.
Waynepoo.

 

[Bren]

Wayne
I live in Darwin and i collect a wide variety of King & Country AK EA FW IWJ etc.....
I also collect the odd japanese sword.
I were very close to my grandfather and he was a veteran from the 7th Division 2/4 field artillery.
So in a way i have always had an association/interest in Australia,s military past.
I came to Darwin for work 4yrs ago and have enjoyed its military history also.
Bren {sm4}

 

[waynepoo]

Wayne
I live in Darwin and i collect a wide variety of King & Country AK EA FW IWJ etc.....
I also collect the odd japanese sword.
I were very close to my grandfather and he was a veteran from the 7th Division 2/4 field artillery.
So in a way i have always had an association/interest in Australia,s military past.
I came to Darwin for work 4yrs ago and have enjoyed its military history also.
Bren {sm4}

Bren,
Thanks for your post mate, we share something in common, my Uncle was with the 2/10th field artillery 8th Div.
He was captured at Singapore and perished at the hands of the sons of Nippon on the Burma Railway in 1943.
Good to see more Aussie collectors posting.
Waynepoo.{sm4}{sm3}

 

[TomNT]

Jack mate,
I thought you would have known that all the nerdy collectors are in Brisbane. They hang out at the Brettstirs.^&grin^&grin The serious collectors are in Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth.:wink2:
Cheers Howard

Give me a break Howard, the serious collectors are in Darwin!!! ^&grin

Tom

 

[Jack]

Bren,
Thanks for your post mate, we share something in common, my Uncle was with the 2/10th field artillery 8th Div.
He was captured at Singapore and perished at the hands of the sons of Nippon on the Burma Railway in 1943.
Good to see more Aussie collectors posting.
Waynepoo.{sm4}{sm3}

I have a copy of the 2/10th's regimental history packed away in a box somewhere - have you read it?