20th+: January 2019

https://glamourdaze.com/women-in-uniform-in-world-war-two

WAAF - Women's Auxiliary Air Force
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women%27s_Auxiliary_Air_Force
WAAF

WI - Women’s Institute
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women%27s_Institutes
WLA - Women’s Land Army > Land Girls
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women%27s_Land_Army

WTC - Women’s Timber Corps > Lumber Jills
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women%27s_Timber_Corps
WRNS - Women's Royal Naval Service > Wrens
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women%27s_Royal_Naval_Service .
Linguists & Y Stations ..
WVS - Women's Voluntary Services
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Voluntary_Service
https://www.royalvoluntaryservice.org.uk/about-us/our-history
Women's Volunteer Groups - BBC
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ww2peopleswar/categories/c54954/

Women Under Fire in World War Two
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/britain_wwtwo/women_at_war_01.shtml .

Conscription
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conscription_in_the_United_Kingdom#Second_World_War

39-40 Conscription

On 29 March 1939, the Secretary of State for War announced that the Territorial Army was to be increased in establishment from 130,000 to 170,000, and then doubled in numbers. Each of the existing first line Territorial Army units and formations were required to form duplicate (or second line) units and formations. Although the personnel came forward, equipment for them was scarce.

Conscription was introduced on 27 April 1939 for the first time in British peacetime history. The Military Training Act required all males to serve in the Armed Forces for six months on reaching their twentieth birthday. On completion of six months service, the conscripts were required to serve in the Territorial Army or Special Reserve. This measure had only just been instituted by the outbreak of war, with only one intake of 35,000 men called up on 15 July.

Germany invaded Poland on 1 September 1939, and in consequence, in accordance with Polish-British Common Defence Pact, the United Kingdom declared war on Germany with effect from 3 September 1939. The British Army had started mobilizing on 1 September, but was woefully ill-equipped and ill-prepared for war. Much of the strategy, tactics and equipment dated from the Great War. The first elements of the British Expeditionary Force left for France on 3 September 1939, just over twenty-five years since its predecessor had crossed the English Channel bound for war.

Prior:
At the dawn of 1939, the likelihood of another European war was growing ever greater. Germany had invaded, and then annexed, Austria in March 1938. In October that year, contrary to the Munich agreement, German troops occupied the Sudetenland which was part of Czechoslovakia.

In March 1939, Germany occupied the whole of Czechoslovakia, and war seemed inevitable. H.M. Government began to change its policy of appeasement, and full-scale rearmament of the British Armed Forces commenced (although it can be argued that some form of re-armament commenced in the mid-1930's, contrary to popular belief). Plans were drawn up for the British Army to send an expeditionary force of two corps (each comprising two infantry divisions) to France at the outbreak of war. This was in anticipation of defending France in a similar manner to the circumstances of the Great War.

http://www.britishmilitaryhistory.co.uk/documents.php?nid=2 .

Commonwealth

Australia

AAMWS - AWAS - AWLA - WAAAF - WRANS ..
ANZACs ..
Australian Women -- WW2 ..

Canada
CWAC

Morale

Service Central Book Depot ..

USA
USATC - US Air Transport Command ..

Weaponry
Comparisons - aircraft, naval, tanks ..

Wednesday, January 30, 2019

● Military Training

Catapult Training - Naval Instructional > .
Naval Instructional - tb >> .

Home Guard Exercises 1941 > .
Training, Education -tb >> .
Non-combatant military training - Canadian Newsreel - 1942 > .

RAF Flying School - Ben >> .

Unarmed Combat > .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkVtqrtD-W4

Special Operations

Fairbairn & Sykes ..

21st > Combat Operations >>

LSCO - Large Scale Combat Operations ..

Recruiting, Training, Retaining, Equipping - 21st ..

23-3-20 British Army's giant virtual battlefield - Forces > .

Unarmed Combat - Tony Blake
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtakTnKQQMCwbIWKD6Kq81fojBGc3HuxN

WWII Combatives - DarrenKT1
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL4Mm5K7MAdc0bnMVI7c5PKPtr8SVHESQJ

Training > .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCHD5UMbMe4 .

Training >> .
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLT7MnaHh-LAmdaL3WshY8HA0YsZxnOVlx .

Army Fit Videos
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLT7MnaHh-LAnsitd8e4SVmsvxdpHNZUGE .
Fitness Training playlist
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtakTnKQQMCxqZu1iqKBrneEXyLopFpzL .

Monday, January 28, 2019

AAMWS - AWAS - AWLA - WAAAF - WRANS

ANZACs ..

Aussie women
Women's Transport Corps, Women's Flying Club, Women's Emergency Signalling Corps and Women's Australian National Services, Queensland-based Women's National Emergency Legion. The Royal Australian Air Force established the Women's Auxiliary Australian Air Force (WAAAF) in March 1941, the Army formed the Australian Women's Army Service (AWAS) in October 1941 and the Australian Army Medical Women's Service (AAMWS) in December 1942, and the Women's Royal Australian Naval Service (WRANS) came into being in July 1942. In 1944 almost 50,000 women were serving in the military and thousands more had joined the civilian Australian Women's Land Army (AWLA). Many of these women were trained to undertake skilled work in traditionally male occupations in order to free servicemen for operational service. Women were also encouraged to work in industry and volunteer for air raid precautions duties or clubs for Australian and Allied servicemen. The female branches of the military were disbanded after the war.

Women in the Military - watm >> .

Australian women during World War II - Wikipedia

ANZACs

Australia at outset of WW2 > .

AAMWS - AWAS - AWLA - WAAAF - WRANS ..

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_Army_during_World_War_II .
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_history_of_Australia_during_World_War_II .
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attacks_on_Australia_during_World_War_II .
http://www.awmlondon.gov.au/australians-in-wwii .
https://anzacportal.dva.gov.au/history/conflicts/australia-and-second-world-war .
https://www.britannica.com/place/Australia/World-War-II .
https://www.warhistoryonline.com/war-articles/life-australia-world-war-two.html .
https://ww2db.com/country/australia .
https://www.britannica.com/event/Battle-of-Brisbane .

Full History of Australia - Doc - FoL > .

21-12-28 Australia to streamline weapon-buying process - Focus > .

Army - BEF | BRE

How BRITISH Infantry Squads Evolved in 100 Years - Battle > .

Army Units & Sizes
http://secondworldwar.co.uk/index.php/army-sizes-a-ranks/86-army-units-a-sizes

The British Army consists of the General Staff and the deployable Field Army and the Regional Forces that support them, as well as Joint elements that work with the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force. The Army carries out tasks given to it by the democratically elected Government of the United Kingdom (UK).
http://www.army.mod.uk/structure/structure.aspx

http://www.hierarchystructure.com/british-military-hierarchy/

Army Units & Sizes
Unit Name Consists of [1]: Approx Number of men:
Brigade 3 or more Battalions 1500 to 3500
Regiment[2] 2 or more Battalions 1000 to 2000
Battalion 4 or more Companies 400 to 1000
Company 2 or more Platoons 100 to 250
Platoon (Troop) 2 or more Squads 16 to 50 1st Lt.
Squad 2 or more Sections 8 to 24 Sgt.
Section 4 to 12 Sgt.

http://www.hierarchystructure.com/british-military-hierarchy/

ATS-Army | WAAF-RAF | WRNS-RN |

Auxiliary vs Military Ranks WW2
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/58/cb/75/58cb75624452c757cbc659f636928d31.jpg

http://www.hierarchystructure.com/british-military-hierarchy/

s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/58/cb/75/58cb75624452c757cbc659f636928d31.jpg

'40 - Rebirth of the Army > .

Army - LDV - Auxiliaries - SAS - tb >> .

British Army in Europe 44-45 >> .

ATA - Air Transport Auxiliary

A history of the ATA > .

ATA Hamble No15 Ferry Aeroplane Pool - Attitudes to Women Pilots - SOTON > .

ATA Hamble No15 Ferry Aeroplane Pool - Buildup to D-Day - SOTON > .

ATA & Attagirls - tb >> .
I Was There - BBC >> .

A history of the A.T.A. > .
"Spitfire Sisters, women of the ATA" > .
The Air Transport Auxiliary - Spitfire Women Preview - BBC Four > .
Ferry Air Pilots & Mr Churchill At RAF Station (1941) > .

Female Luftwaffe Pilots in Combat 1945 - mfp > .

Training in ATA > .

WASPs > .
The Women Airforce Service Pilots - WASPs > .
Women in the RAF; School discipline, Woman's Hour - BBC Radio 4 .

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jul/29/mary-ellis-obituary .

Air Transport Auxiliary, ATA

Ferry Air Pilots & Mr Churchill At RAF Station (1941)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buZRWX9GvdY

In 1938, Sir Gerard John Regis Leo d'Erlanger, a member of a renowned banking family and an accomplished pilot, became convinced that Great Britain urgently needed the help of its amateur pilots to wage a war he saw coming.

When Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, the plan was suddenly taken seriously. D’Erlanger was by then the director of British Airways, so the company was asked to oversee the initiative. Letters were sent to about 1,000 male pilots asking if they wanted to serve their country by ferrying airplanes. About 100 replies came back, and after interviews and flight tests, the first 30 men were picked that September for what became the Air Transport Auxiliary, or ATA (which d’Erlanger joked stood for Ancient and Tattered Airmen). But what was most unusual—even radical—was the decision two months later [December, '39?] to satisfy the increasing demand for ferry services by including female pilots. On December 16, 1939, the first group of twelve women pilots were assembled at Whitchurch, and flight-tested in a Gypsy Moth. From this group of twelve, eight were selected and appointed as Second Officers.

It was the first time in British history that women were hired to fly military aircraft.

Pauline Gower, daughter of a parliamentarian, Sir Robert Gower, was asked to organize the ATA’s women’s division. In January 1940, Gower was given the authority to recruit eight experienced female pilots to transport two-seat Tiger Moth trainers from the de Havilland factory in Hatfield, north of London, to bases in the United Kingdom. The team members came from a wide range of backgrounds: Rosemary Rees was a former ballet dancer; Mona Friedlander, an international ice hockey player; and Winifred Crossley, the daughter of a doctor. Marian Wilberface was a pilot with her own Gipsy Moth. Joan Hughes had been Britain’s youngest pilot; she started flying at 15, before age restrictions were established. Margaret Cunnison and Gabrielle Patterson were both flight instructors (the first woman to instruct, Patterson also was a member of the National Women’s Air Reserve, a group that provided aid in national emergencies).

Some of the later recruits, such as Diana Barnato Walker, came from privileged backgrounds. Heiress to the DeBeers mining fortune, Walker grew up riding horses and attending lavish parties hosted by her father, race-car driver Woolf Barnato.

One recruit, Molly Rose, had taken her first flight from her own back yard. One of her older brothers, Arthur, had learned to fly at Cambridge and used the fields behind their house to take off and land his Tiger Moth.

http://www.airspacemag.com/military-aviation/the-womens-raf-118165440/?all&no-ist
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pauline_Gower
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-3194754/The-female-Guns-World-War-II-Inside-RAF-s-woman-ferry-squadron-rubbed-shoulders-men-flew-Spitfires.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1219834/The-sisters-fly-Spitfires-WWII-reunited-iconic-aircraft.html
http://hitlernews.cloudworth.com/female-pilots-women-of-ww2.php

http://www.wickfordhistory.org.uk/page/ata_girl

Ferry Pilots
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmc6INOwQ3U .

USA - WASPS:
Women Proved to be Exceptional Pilots During WW2 > .
Women in the Military - watm >> .

ATS - Auxiliary Territorial Service

ATS train for housework 1945

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nyE6ZPQYs4

ATS Girls with the Guns > .
Schoolgirls, Canadian Big Guns - Canadian Army Newsreel - 1943 > .
Women in the Military - watm >> .

?search ATS WW2? .

Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS) spotters

From 1941 all unmarried women between 20 and 30 years old were called up to join one of the auxiliary services. These were the Auxilliary Territorial Service (ATS), the Women’s Royal Naval Service (WRNS), the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) and the Women’s Transport Service. Later this conscription was extended to some married women. They were not intended to serve in the front line of battle – but for much of the war the front line was indistinguishable from the home front, especially with regard to Anti Aircraft gunnery. 731 women died serving in these Auxilliary units during the war.

Mary Latham was just one of hundreds of thousands of young women who suddenly found their lives completely transformed:

The year was 1942. I was a hairdresser in Chorley, Lancashire. As hairdressing was considered to be a luxury trade in wartime and I was 18 years old, I was given the choice of munitions work or joining one of the forces.

My friend May and I travelled to Preston to sign up in the forces and received the King’s Shilling. Two weeks later we were notified to go to Lancaster. We were met at Preston station by a sergeant, taken to Lancaster and fitted out with our uniforms.

How different my life changed in the next 4 years. We moved from Lancaster to Arborfield, where we did 6 weeks of intensive training all at the double. Each one was assessed for:
* Fitness
* Hearing
* Eyesight
* Nerves (in Ack-Ack action)
It was necessary to pass all the tests.

Fortunately I passed as a Predictor operator No.3 – which involved looking through a telescope, keeping the target on the horizon line. This demanded steady nerves under gunfire and we needed a lot of practice. At the end of the day, we were mentally and physically exhausted. We lost our voices as all orders were shouted as loudly as possible.

The procedure was as follows:

The predictor (Kerry – called after its inventor) [Major A.V. Kerrison at the Admiralty Research Laboratory, Teddington] passed the information we put in on to the guns (3.7) then the gunners fired the shells. We worked in 2 groups – A and B. I was in B group – 5 on the predictor, 3 on height-finding.

Plotters were on duty for 24 hours underground. The plotting room was always ready for any aircraft flying overhead.

We were well looked after with health inoculations every 3 months, regular dental care, F.F.I. (Free From Infection) each Friday.

We (14 girls in each hut) were confined to our billets on Friday nights. We had to clean all our equipment, even to the studs on the bottom of our boots.

After 6 weeks practice in Arborfield, we were sent to Bude in Cornwall. This was our first Gun-Site this was not operational, but it gave us a taste of what was to come.

The only description of the gunfire (4 guns firing in a semi-circle with the predictor 20 yards away) was like hell let loose. However, we got used to it.

Our battery was moved to 36 different sites along the East and South coasts of England.

…

During our time in Hull we shot down one of our own aircraft (a Wellington). The crew gave us the wrong signal. Fortunately they landed safely – just the tail missing. We were commended for our accurate firing but the crew were not impressed. Hull was badly hit at the time.

At Caister, near Yarmouth, 25 A.T.S.s were killed by machine-gun fire. The enemy aircraft flew over in the early morning at sunrise, when it was impossible to see them and peppered the coast with gun-fire. It was a frightening sight to see Focke Wulfs diving down while we tried to pay our respects, standing to attention during the playing of the Last Post, to those who had been killed.

http://ww2today.com/27th-december-1942-the-life-of-an-ats-ack-ack-girl .
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ww2peopleswar/stories/49/a2159949.shtml .
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ww2peopleswar/stories/98/a7120298.shtml .

'Ack Ack Girls' were members of the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS) that helped operate Anti-Aircraft Guns in the defense of Britain from German bombing raids during World War 2.

From 1941 onward all unmarried British women aged 20 to 30 were required to join one of the Auxiliary services, which included the ATS. One of the most dangerous and exciting ATS roles was to be selected for 'Ack Ack' duty, manning the Anti-Aircraft guns known for their distinctive ack-ack sound as they fired. The idea to use women in gun crews was first proposed by British engineer Caroline Haslett and was eagerly approved by Prime Minister Winston Churchill. Churchill's own daughter, Mary Soames, was one of the first Ack Ack volunteers and served at a gun site in London's Hyde Park.

As a royal proclamation forbade women from operating deadly weapons, Ack Ack Girls worked as part of mixed-gender squads where men would load and fire the weapons with the women's support. The three main roles of the women were Spotters who used binoculars to find enemy planes, Range-Finding teams who calculated the distance a gun shell would have to travel to hit the target, and Predictor teams who worked out the length of the fuse necessary to make sure the shell exploded at the right height.

Women were subject to the same intensive training as men and had to undergo rigorous testing in terms of fitness, hearing, eyesight and nerves in order to be accepted. This was essential for enduring the hard conditions at the gun emplacements and to keep on task while bombs fell all around them. When the Germans deployed V1 flying bombs against Britain, 369 Ack Ack Girls were killed in just 3 months. Their sacrifice and dedication proved invaluable to the war effort, as well as providing a boost to civilian morale, the sound of the Ack Ack guns becoming a well-recognised symbol of British resistance.

Read a personal account of Ack Ack Girl, Vee Robinson, here.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ww2peopleswar/stories/96/a2089596.shtml

http://thefemalesoldier.com/blog/ack-ack-girls

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auxiliary_Territorial_Service
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-aircraft_warfare#Second_World_War

A battery of 4.5 inch anti-aircraft guns in action at night. In the foreground is an ATS section operating the height finder.

Some time during December 1942 the War Office photographers were out with their colour film again. Given the difficulty of their subject matter, including gunfire, they made a pretty impressive job of it.

From 1941 all unmarried women between 20 and 30 years old were called up to join one of the auxiliary services. These were the Auxilliary Territorial Service (ATS), the Women’s Royal Naval Service (WRNS), the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) and the Women’s Transport Service. Later this conscription was extended to some married women. They were not intended to serve in the front line of battle – but for much of the war the front line was indistinguishable from the home front, especially with regard to Anti Aircraft gunnery. 731 women died serving in these Auxilliary units during the war.

Mary Latham was just one of hundreds of thousands of young women who suddenly found their lives completely transformed:

The year was 1942. I was a hairdresser in Chorley, Lancashire. As hairdressing was considered to be a luxury trade in wartime and I was 18 years old, I was given the choice of munitions work or joining one of the forces.

My friend May and I travelled to Preston to sign up in the forces and received the King’s Shilling. Two weeks later we were notified to go to Lancaster. We were met at Preston station by a sergeant, taken to Lancaster and fitted out with our uniforms.

How different my life changed in the next 4 years. We moved from Lancaster to Arborfield, where we did 6 weeks of intensive training all at the double. Each one was assessed for:
* Fitness
* Hearing
* Eyesight
* Nerves (in Ack-Ack action)
It was necessary to pass all the tests.

Fortunately I passed as a Predictor operator No.3 – which involved looking through a telescope, keeping the target on the horizon line. This demanded steady nerves under gunfire and we needed a lot of practice. At the end of the day, we were mentally and physically exhausted. We lost our voices as all orders were shouted as loudly as possible.

The procedure was as follows:

The predictor (Kerry – called after its inventor) [Major A.V. Kerrison at the Admiralty Research Laboratory, Teddington] passed the information we put in on to the guns (3.7) then the gunners fired the shells. We worked in 2 groups – A and B. I was in B group – 5 on the predictor, 3 on height-finding.

Plotters were on duty for 24 hours underground. The plotting room was always ready for any aircraft flying overhead.

We were well looked after with health inoculations every 3 months, regular dental care, F.F.I. (Free From Infection) each Friday.

We (14 girls in each hut) were confined to our billets on Friday nights. We had to clean all our equipment, even to the studs on the bottom of our boots.

After 6 weeks practice in Arborfield, we were sent to Bude in Cornwall. This was our first Gun-Site this was not operational, but it gave us a taste of what was to come.

The only description of the gunfire (4 guns firing in a semi-circle with the predictor 20 yards away) was like hell let loose. However, we got used to it.

Our battery was moved to 36 different sites along the East and South coasts of England.

…

During our time in Hull we shot down one of our own aircraft (a Wellington). The crew gave us the wrong signal. Fortunately they landed safely – just the tail missing. We were commended for our accurate firing but the crew were not impressed. Hull was badly hit at the time.

At Caister, near Yarmouth, 25 A.T.S.s were killed by machine-gun fire. The enemy aircraft flew over in the early morning at sunrise, when it was impossible to see them and peppered the coast with gun-fire. It was a frightening sight to see Focke Wulfs diving down while we tried to pay our respects, standing to attention during the playing of the Last Post, to those who had been killed.

'Ack Ack Girls' were members of the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS) that helped operate Anti-Aircraft Guns in the defense of Britain from German bombing raids during World War 2.

From 1941 onward all unmarried British women aged 20 to 30 were required to join one of the Auxiliary services, which included the ATS. One of the most dangerous and exciting ATS roles was to be selected for 'Ack Ack' duty, manning the Anti-Aircraft guns known for their distinctive ack-ack sound as they fired. The idea to use women in gun crews was first proposed by British engineer Caroline Haslett and was eagerly approved by Prime Minister Winston Churchill. Churchill's own daughter, Mary Soames, was one of the first Ack Ack volunteers and served at a gun site in London's Hyde Park.

As a royal proclamation forbade women from operating deadly weapons, Ack Ack Girls worked as part of mixed-gender squads where men would load and fire the weapons with the women's support. The three main roles of the women were Spotters who used binoculars to find enemy planes, Range-Finding teams who calculated the distance a gun shell would have to travel to hit the target, and Predictor teams who worked out the length of the fuse necessary to make sure the shell exploded at the right height.

Women were subject to the same intensive training as men and had to undergo rigorous testing in terms of fitness, hearing, eyesight and nerves in order to be accepted. This was essential for enduring the hard conditions at the gun emplacements and to keep on task while bombs fell all around them. When the Germans deployed V1 flying bombs against Britain, 369 Ack Ack Girls were killed in just 3 months. Their sacrifice and dedication proved invaluable to the war effort, as well as providing a boost to civilian morale, the sound of the Ack Ack guns becoming a well-recognised symbol of British resistance.

Read a personal account of Ack Ack Girl, Vee Robinson, here.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ww2peopleswar/stories/96/a2089596.shtml

http://thefemalesoldier.com/blog/ack-ack-girls

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auxiliary_Territorial_Service
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-aircraft_warfare#Second_World_War

The life of an ATS 'Ack Ack' Girl - WWII Today

The life of an ATS 'Ack Ack' Girl - WWII Today

From 1941 all unmarried women between 20 and 30 years old were called up to join one of the auxiliary services. These were the Auxilliary Territorial Service (ATS), the Women’s Royal Naval Service (WRNS), the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) and the Women’s Transport Service. Later this conscription was extended to some married women. They were not intended to serve in the front line of battle – but for much of the war the front line was indistinguishable from the home front, especially with regard to Anti Aircraft gunnery. 731 women died serving in these Auxilliary units during the war.

Mary Latham was just one of hundreds of thousands of young women who suddenly found their lives completely transformed:

The year was 1942. I was a hairdresser in Chorley, Lancashire. As hairdressing was considered to be a luxury trade in wartime and I was 18 years old, I was given the choice of munitions work or joining one of the forces.

My friend May and I travelled to Preston to sign up in the forces and received the King’s Shilling. Two weeks later we were notified to go to Lancaster. We were met at Preston station by a sergeant, taken to Lancaster and fitted out with our uniforms.

How different my life changed in the next 4 years. We moved from Lancaster to Arborfield, where we did 6 weeks of intensive training all at the double. Each one was assessed for:
* Fitness
* Hearing
* Eyesight
* Nerves (in Ack-Ack action)
It was necessary to pass all the tests.

Fortunately I passed as a Predictor operator No.3 – which involved looking through a telescope, keeping the target on the horizon line. This demanded steady nerves under gunfire and we needed a lot of practice. At the end of the day, we were mentally and physically exhausted. We lost our voices as all orders were shouted as loudly as possible.

The procedure was as follows:

The predictor (Kerry – called after its inventor) [Major A.V. Kerrison at the Admiralty Research Laboratory, Teddington] passed the information we put in on to the guns (3.7) then the gunners fired the shells. We worked in 2 groups – A and B. I was in B group – 5 on the predictor, 3 on height-finding.

Plotters were on duty for 24 hours underground. The plotting room was always ready for any aircraft flying overhead.

We were well looked after with health inoculations every 3 months, regular dental care, F.F.I. (Free From Infection) each Friday.

We (14 girls in each hut) were confined to our billets on Friday nights. We had to clean all our equipment, even to the studs on the bottom of our boots.

After 6 weeks practice in Arborfield, we were sent to Bude in Cornwall. This was our first Gun-Site this was not operational, but it gave us a taste of what was to come.

The only description of the gunfire (4 guns firing in a semi-circle with the predictor 20 yards away) was like hell let loose. However, we got used to it.

Our battery was moved to 36 different sites along the East and South coasts of England.

…

During our time in Hull we shot down one of our own aircraft (a Wellington). The crew gave us the wrong signal. Fortunately they landed safely – just the tail missing. We were commended for our accurate firing but the crew were not impressed. Hull was badly hit at the time.

At Caister, near Yarmouth, 25 A.T.S.s were killed by machine-gun fire. The enemy aircraft flew over in the early morning at sunrise, when it was impossible to see them and peppered the coast with gun-fire. It was a frightening sight to see Focke Wulfs diving down while we tried to pay our respects, standing to attention during the playing of the Last Post, to those who had been killed.

http://ww2today.com/27th-december-1942-the-life-of-an-ats-ack-ack-girl .

Australian Women -- WW2

Women of Australia -- WW2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWROfQgsLOg

Land Women Of Australia -- Come The Three Corners (1943)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9DXr3zqDaw

Women in World War II
http://military.wikia.com/wiki/Women_in_World_War_II

Women in the Military - watm >> .

Women in World War II

Auxiliaries

Weapons & Explosives of the Auxiliary Units - Extended Trailer - StBe > .
CART Archaeology 2020 - StBe > .
Resistance - auxiliers, LDV - SuHo >> .

Auxiliary kit > .

Operational Bases of Britain's Secret Underground Army - Auxiliary Units > .

Auxiliaries - British Resistance > .
Army - LDV - Auxiliaries - SAS - tb >> .
British Resistance - The Auxiliary Units - Tom Sykes >> .

Operational Bases of the British Resistance > .
Bunkers > .
ARP, Bunkers, Shelters, Underground - BePr >> .

Bunkers, Underground ..

British Resistance Archive > .

? https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=auxiliary+british+resistance ?

Auxiliary vs Military Ranks WW2
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/58/cb/75/58cb75624452c757cbc659f636928d31.jpg .

Stay Behinds - Cold War ..

Sunday, January 27, 2019

BEF & Ten Year Rule

Was Chamberlain wrong to appease Hitler? - IWM > .

BEF & Ten Year Rule

The British Expeditionary Force (BEF) was the name of the British Army in Western Europe from 1939 to 1940, in the early stages of the Second World War.

During the 1930s, the British government planned to deter war by rearming from the very low level of readiness of the early 30s and abolished the Ten Year Rule^^. The bulk of the extra money went to the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force but plans were made to re-equip a small number of Army and Territorial divisions, potentially for service overseas.

The BEF had been established in 1938, in readiness for war, after Nazi Germany annexed Austria in the Anschluss of March 1938 and made claims on Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia, that led to the Munich Agreement (30 September 1938), ceding Sudetenland to Germany and the German occupation of Czechoslovakia (15 March 1939). After the French and British governments had promised to defend Poland, the German invasion of Poland began on 1 September and on 3 September, after the expiry of an ultimatum, the British and French declared war on Germany.

The BEF (General Lord Gort) began moving to France in September 1939. The British assembled along the Belgian–French border on the left of the French First Army as part of the French 1er groupe d'armées (1st Army Group) of the Front du Nord-est (North-Eastern Front). Most of the BEF spent the Phoney War digging field defences on the French–Belgian border before the Battle of France (Fall Gelb) began on 10 May 1940. The BEF constituted 10 percent of the Allied forces on the Western Front. The BEF participated in the Dyle Plan, a rapid advance into Belgium to the line of the river Dyle but had to retreat through Belgium and north-western France, with the rest of the 1 er groupe d'armées, after the German breakthrough further south at the Battle of Sedan. The BEF, French and Belgian forces were evacuated from Dunkirk on the French North Sea coast in Operation Dynamo.

Saar Force, the 51st (Highland) Infantry Division (with reinforcements), had been detached for service along the Maginot Line as part of a plan for the BEF units to gain experience. The force fought with local French units after 10 May, then joined the Tenth Army along with the improvised Beauman Division and the 1st Armoured Division, to fight in the Battle of Abbeville (27 May – 4 June) on the south side of the Somme. The British government attempted to re-build the BEF with divisions training in Britain, troops from France and lines-or-communications troops south of the Somme river (informally known as the 2nd BEF) but after the success of the second German offensive in France (Fall Rot) over the Somme and Aisne rivers, the troops were evacuated from Le Havre in Operation Cycle (10–13 June) and the French Atlantic and Mediterranean ports in Operation Ariel (15–25 June, unofficially to 14 August).

^^ The Ten Year Rule was a British government guideline, first adopted in August 1919, that the armed forces should draft their estimates "on the assumption that the British Empire would not be engaged in any great war during the next ten years".

The suggestion for the rule came from Winston Churchill, who in 1919 was Secretary of State for War and Air. Former Prime Minister Lord Balfour unsuccessfully argued to the Committee of Imperial Defence which adopted the rule that "nobody could say that from any one moment war was an impossibility for the next ten years… we could not rest in a state of unpreparedness on such an assumption by anybody. To suggest that we could be nine and a half years away from preparedness would be a most dangerous suggestion".

In 1928 Churchill, as Chancellor of the Exchequer, successfully urged the Cabinet to make the rule self-perpetuating and hence it was in force unless specifically countermanded. In 1931 the Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald wanted to abolish the Ten Year Rule because he thought it unjustified based on the international situation. This was bitterly opposed by the Foreign Secretary Arthur Henderson who succeeded in keeping the rule.

There were cuts in defence spending as a result of this rule, with defence spending going down from £766 million in 1919–20, to £189 million in 1921–22, to £102 million in 1932.[4] In April 1931 the First Sea Lord, Sir Frederick Field, claimed in a report to the Committee of Imperial Defence that the Royal Navy had declined not only in relative strength compared to other Great Powers but "owing to the operation of the 'ten-year-decision' and the clamant need for economy, our absolute strength also has...been so diminished as to render the fleet incapable, in the event of war, of efficiently affording protection to our trade". Field also claimed that the navy was below the standard required for keeping open Britain's sea communications during wartime and that if the navy moved to the East to protect the Empire there would not be enough ships to protect the British Isles and its trade from attack and that no port in the entire British Empire was "adequately defended".

The Ten Year Rule was abandoned by the Cabinet on 23 March 1932, but this decision was countered with: "...this must not be taken to justify an expanding expenditure by the Defence Services without regard to the very serious financial and economic situation" which the country was in due to the Great Depression.

A group of retired admirals have called the planned decade-long gap between the retirement of the Ark Royal and the coming into service of the Queen Elizabeth class aircraft carriers a new "10-year rule"

British Expeditionary Force (World War II) .

British Expeditionary Force (World War II) - after Dunkirk .

BRE - British Royal Engineers

History of the Corps of Royal Engineers > .

Royal Engineers - Battle of Messines - June 7-14, 1917 > .

23-7-22 Trench Warfare; History, Tactics - U24 > .

History of the Royal Engineers - Unraveling > .

Road to Victory - Royal Engineers in WW1 > .

Tunnelers of WW1 > .

WW1 Underground Tunnels - Worst Place To Fight? - HiHi > .

Tunnel Warfare During World War 1 | tgw > .

Messines Ridge - 1917-6-7 - Blast that Obliterated 10,000 Germans - Dark > .

Lochnager Crater - 1916-7-1, Battle of the Somme - Destinations > .

Royal Engineers Bridge Building (1915-1916) - Pathé > .

Royal Engineers (1915) - Pathé > .

Man Behind The Bailey Bridge (1945) - Pathé > .

Bailey Bridge - bridge design that helped win WW2 - Vox > .

Combat Engineers of D-Day - WW2 > .

Royal Engineers WW1 - BeGe >> .

Royal Engineers WW2 - BeGe >> .

Royal Flying Corps - Royal Engineers WW1 - BeGe >> .

US Combat Engineers

Army Then and Now | Combat Engineers - US Army > .

Combat Engineers of D-Day - WW2 > .

British Royal Engineers
Explosives WW1 ..

http://www.wartimememoriesproject.com/ww2/allied/royalengineers.php

The war of 1914-1918 relied on engineering. Without engineers there would have been no supply to the armies, because the RE's maintained the railways, roads, water supply, bridges and transport. RE's also operated the railways and inland waterways. There would have been no communications, because the RE's maintained the telephones, wireless and other signalling equipment. There would have been little cover for the infantry and no positions for the artillery, because the RE's designed and built the front-line fortifications. It fell to the technically skilled RE's to develop responses to chemical and underground warfare. And finally, without the RE's the infantry and artillery would have soon been powerless, as they maintained the guns and other weapons. Little wonder that the Royal Engineers grew into a large and complex organisation.

The Battle of Messines (7–14 June 1917) was an attack by the British Second Army (General Sir Herbert Plumer), on the Western Front, near the village of Messines (now Mesen) in West Flanders, Belgium, during the First World War.

The battle began with the detonation of 19 mines beneath the German front position, which devastated it and left 19 large craters. A creeping barrage, 700 yd (640 m) deep began and protected the British troops as they secured the ridge with support from tanks, cavalry patrols and aircraft. The effect of the British mines, barrages and bombardments was improved by advances in artillery survey, flash spotting and centralised control of artillery from the Second Army headquarters. British attacks from 8 to 14 June advanced the front line beyond the former German Sehnenstellung (Chord Position, the Oosttaverne Line to the British). The battle was a prelude to the much larger Third Battle of Ypres, the preliminary bombardment for which began on 11 July 1917.

Manpower: how big was the RE?

On 1 August 1914, the RE consisted of 1056 officers and 10394 men of the regular army and Special Reserve, plus another 513 and 13127 respectively serving with the RE of the Territorial Force. By the same date in 1917, it had grown to a total manpower of 295668. In other words, it was twelve times bigger than the peacetime establishment.

The Royal Engineers in 1914

The officers and men mentioned above in 1914 manned 26 coastal defence Fortress Companies (of which 15 were overseas); 15 Field Companies (2); 7 Signal Companies (1); 3 Survey Companies, 2 Railway Companies; 2 Cable and Airline (signalling) Companies and miscellaneous other units. There were also 9 Depot Companies carrying out training and administrative duties, as well as various Schools. The detailed sections below describe how these numbers and types of unit expanded during the war.
http://www.1914-1918.net/cre.htm

The Fortress Companies
http://www.1914-1918.net/re_fortress.htm
The Field and Signals Companies
http://www.1914-1918.net/re.htm
The Field Survey Companies
http://www.1914-1918.net/re_survey.htm
The Special Companies (poison gas)
http://www.1914-1918.net/specialcoyre.htm
The Tunnelling Companies
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunnelling_companies_of_the_Royal_Engineers .
http://www.bbc.co.uk/guides/zggykqt .
The Railway Construction Companies

http://www.1914-1918.net/re_rlwy_cos.htm
The Light Railway Companies
http://www.1914-1918.net/lightrail.htm
The Trench Tramway Companies
http://www.1914-1918.net/what_tramway_RE.html
The Inland Waterways and Docks Companies
http://www.1914-1918.net/iwd.htm
Other RE units
http://www.1914-1918.net/otherre.htm
The RE depots and training units at home
http://www.1914-1918.net/RE_ukbasedepots.html

The extraordinary sophistication of military railways in the Great War. At Richborough in Kent, a whole new port was built to expand Cross-Channel supply shipping capacity. Among its features was what we we today call a "roll-on, roll-off" ferry - for railway trains. Among the many tons moved from Richborough were complete trains carrying tanks, direct from the factories to the British army in France.

The contribution to the war effort, especially on the Western Front, of the designated Railway Construction Companies of the Royal Engineers is largely overlooked and/or not researched in most accounts of the conflict. Given the fact that the earliest troop movements gave rise to the phrase "war by timetable" and that the railway was the primary means of movement of men, munitions and supplies, the important if unglamorous role of this military function cannot be underestimated.

The RE railway construction and maintenance troops RE in 1914

In August 1914, there were only two Regular and three Special Reserve RE Railway Companies. Their establishments were as follows
.......

After the realisation that the war would not be over by Christmas, the British Army set in motion plans to expand upon the remaining rail network still in Allied hands in France and Flanders. The 8th Railway Companyy landed in France in August 1914 and the 10th and two Special Reserve Companies in November of that year. The third Special Reserve Company landed in February 1915. It was soon seen that these units would not suffice for probable requirements and the Director of Railway Transport was instructed to organise additional Railway Construction units. In October 1914, the Railway Executive Committee in England formed a Sub-Committee for Recruiting. Very large numbers of the employees of British railway companies were then volunteering for military service and the men for RE Railway units were selected from them. By the end of 1917, out of 180,000 enlistments from English railway companies, about 40,000 were serving in RE Railway units.

Training the RE troops

The HQ of the regular railway troops before the war was at Longmoor in Hampshire and the Special Reserve Companies came there annually for training using the specialised Woolmer Instructional Military Railway. During the war, Longmoor, and subsequently part of Bordon, became the centre for all RE railway and road personnel and at one time also for Inland Water Transport personnel. From the outbreak of the war until the armistice, nearly 1,700 officers and 66,000 other ranks were sent overseas from this centre.

The source of railway troops

Approximately half the officers for the new units were provided by the British railway companies on the recommendation of the Railway Executive Committee and the other half were mainly men from overseas who had been employed on colonial and foreign railways. Some of the Companies formed in 1915 drew upon a large contingent of local men, forming the kind of unit seen in the infantry as "Pal’s Battalions". However, as time wore on and with the major transport logistical re-structuring of 1917, the local flavour would become diluted as men were swapped around and experienced men from other army units were combed out to swell the ranks of the Railway Companies.

Railway construction

Once in France, the sappers would be assigned to a Construction Train, of which there were eight in operation in mid-1915. Each Construction Train would have a complement of up to two complete Railway Companies, with a Captain as officer commanding the train. This enabled the sappers to carry both themselves and all their necessary tools and equipment to and from wherever the next work was required. The Companies would pitch tents for accommodation, as required. Large-scale work would include the construction of the major stores and ammunition dump at Audruicq, ten miles from Calais. Here, and at numerous other locations such as the nearby major ammunition dump at Zeneghem Yard, there was great use of Chinese Labour and R.E. Labour Companies to prepare the ground, ready for the platelaying sappers.

Immense undertaking

As the various campaigns and battles unfolded, RE Railway Companies were engaged all over the British sector, joined by Dominion RE Railway Companies. Close examination of the period maps bear testimony to miles of what was to be temporary track that criss-crossed the area. Howitzer Spurs, Ambulance Train Sidings, Tank Enablements and bridges were all constructed, in addition to the constant maintenance and line doubling. Work in progress was always a potential target for enemy artillery and also there were the attentions of the German Air Force to contend with. Zeneghem Yard, for instance, was a natural target and sappers from RE Railway Companies are recorded as having to help extinguish serious fires resulting from air raids.

A primary objective was always to take standard gauge railways as close to the front as possible, to lessen the demands on light railway systems, horsed transport and manpower. For the sappers, work could mean toiling around the clock, especially where lines had been cut by shellfire. Inevitably there were casualties; analysis of the records shows that 173 men from Railway Companies lost their lives. From just the two Regular Companies in 1914, there would be a total of forty-five Companies engaged in Standard Gauge Railway Construction, including other theatres such as Egypt and Salonica, by the end of hostilities. Most of the men in the RE Railway Companies had enlisted for the duration of the war and were naturally keen to return home as soon as possible. However, there was still much line repair work to be done in order to restore the lines of communication now extending deeper into the areas formerly held by the Germans. The Railway Companies gradually began to be demobilised and by August 1919 the last Company had laid its last sleeper.

The RE also raised Railway Operating Companies and Railway Workshop Companies.

The Royal Engineers Labour Battalions

The RE raised 11 Labour Battalions consisting of navvies, tradesmen and semi-skilled men who could be released from munitions production work, for use in construction of rear lines of defence and other works. The first of these units began to arrive in France in August 1915. 30th Labour Battalion RE was allotted permanently to transport work; it was eventually converted into three of the railway construction companies and one wagon erecting company.
http://www.1914-1918.net/re_rlwy_cos.htm

Royal Engineers Museum > .

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=ww1+royal+engineers

WW1 - British Royal Engineers & tunnelers

Tunnel Warfare - WW1 > .

Peter Barton: Was the tunnellers' secret war the most barbaric of WW1? > .

http://www.bbc.co.uk/guides/zggykqt

The Tunnelling Companies
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunnelling_companies_of_the_Royal_Engineers
http://www.bbc.co.uk/guides/zggykqt

Explosives - WW1 Uncut - BBC > .

The Somme Secret Tunnel Wars BBC full documentary 2013 > .

WWI - Mining Activity On the British Front 220737-02
WWI - Mining Activity On the British Front]
Intertitle: “A party of tunnellers with stores & explosives are taken to an advanced post near the firing line in motor lorries.” Soldiers loading two trucks w/ cases / boxes & planks & wood for cribbing. Troops board trucks & leave. Men out of trucks at destination & wave to camera as they march past. Unload & carry crates.
https://youtu.be/w-1XBaEcRtg?t=4s
1 “Entering the communication trenches.” Soldiers carrying crates singly & two w/ a pole down into trench.
https://youtu.be/w-1XBaEcRtg?t=1m34s
2 “At the shaft head. A man equipped w/ oxygen
apparatus reports...no danger from gas...” He climbs out of shaft wearing breathing equipment.
https://youtu.be/w-1XBaEcRtg?t=1m54s
3 “Looking up the incline shaft from. Men descending w/ material.” Men come down; others entering w/ equipment & w/ timbers. Inside shaft, men fill sacks; passing them up. Moving timbers in for cribbing.
https://youtu.be/w-1XBaEcRtg?t=2m14s
3b Picking and timbering at the gallery face.
https://youtu.be/w-1XBaEcRtg?t=3m5s
4 “An officer listening underground to the sound of German countermining. An order is given to commence charging the mine.” Cases of explosives are handed down; lowered on winch & carried along tunnel. Sacks put down to prevent back blast. Men leave mine, CU connecting detonator in open trench.
https://youtu.be/w-1XBaEcRtg?t=3m24s
4b Preparing the changer and laying the charge of explosives
https://youtu.be/w-1XBaEcRtg?t=3m53s
4c Tamping or stemming the charge with earth-filled sacks to prevent back blast
https://youtu.be/w-1XBaEcRtg?t=4m5s
4d Work finished, the officer orders all the men out of the mines
https://youtu.be/w-1XBaEcRtg?t=4m16s
4e Testing the circuit and connecting the electric leads
https://youtu.be/w-1XBaEcRtg?t=4m37s
4f Connecting the exploder
https://youtu.be/w-1XBaEcRtg?t=4m43s
5 “Before the explosion the infantry take cover in a neighbouring crater on the Hohenzollern Redoubt.” Soldiers w/ rifles hurry down hillside.
https://youtu.be/w-1XBaEcRtg?t=5m12s
5b Officer checks watch; pushes plunger.
https://youtu.be/w-1XBaEcRtg?t=5m20s
5c huge explosion under German trenches w/ barbed wire in FG. Secondary explosions.
6 Infantry, some Scottish in kilts run across open ground. Troops in trenches setting up machine gun, pan around barren landscape.
7 CU as bullets fed thru machine gun. GOOD. Pan round barren deeply cratered landscape w/ soldiers inspecting.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-1XBaEcRtg

Meet the man with a WW1 trench in his back garden
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IitKjI4NA_g

World War 1 in Color
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLgeJ6bGP6EDlgg1EB1_CDrvvUdcI2mjsr

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=ww1+royal+engineers

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLB2vhKMBjSxMU2-UiexaQ_pwpxxgQUdat

Evolution of the British Infantry during World War 1 I THE GREAT WAR Special > .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVs1F3x3eOs

WWI videos
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVs1F3x3eOs

Technology and Warfare in World War 1 - tgw >> .

BRE - Western Front, WW1 > .

Royal Canadian Engineers - mining ore in Britain - Newsreel - 1943 > .
Newsreels (Canadian Army) WW2 >> .

The Corps of Royal Canadian Engineers expanded dramatically in size to support Canada's war effort. On August 31, 1939, the Permanent Force engineers included 50 officers (with 14 seconded to other branches of the Canadian Army) and 323 other ranks; the maximum size of the Corps was reached in 1944, when it included 210 officers and 6283 other ranks.

In keeping with British Army practice, company-sized units in the two armoured divisions were called "squadrons" following cavalry terminology. Units were deployed in Canada and Europe.

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Thursday, January 31, 2019

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