Picture of the day

People say the Sikhs were decent fighters but I have heard from more than one 8th Army vet that they routinely showed up at the aid station with bullet wounds through their hands in order to get out of battle. They would sit in their trench, raise their hands above protection in order to be wounded.
Dark Alley Dan said:
Had me fooled! :)

Speaking of staged Universal Carrier pics, check this out:

A_Universal_Carrier_and_mortar_team_of_the_Indian_6th_Royal_Frontier_Force_in_Italy,_13_December_1943._NA9785.jpg


Note the unconventional "main armament" on the carrier...

"Und a little fine adjustment mit der Grosserhammer to knock ze shmell of Englisher out uf it..."

universal-70.jpg
Click to expand...
 
Recce21, on the other side of the coin, my uncle fought alongside Sikhs in North Africa and Italy and his version was completely the opposite of yours. That doesn't mean the stories you heard weren't true though. That sort of thing, although uncommon, happened in every army.
 
bearhunter said:
Recce21, on the other side of the coin, my uncle fought alongside Sikhs in North Africa and Italy and his version was completely the opposite of yours. That doesn't mean the stories you heard weren't true though. That sort of thing, although uncommon, happened in every army.
Click to expand...
The 4th Indian Division fought in North Africa and Italy as part of the 8th Army and had quite a distinguished record. It's soldiers won over 1000 decorations, incl 4 VCs, during WW2. Maybe an apples and oranges comparison due to different numbers and duration of combat operations, but 27 troops serving in the British Indian Army were awarded the VC in WW2 while 10 soldiers serving in the Cdn Army were so decorated.

Any troops that are poorly equipped, led and motivated, or who are inadequately trained or experienced, will display some degree of "jumpiness" when exposed to combat. When we run tactical training simulations for the Army we can dial in various degrees of "jumpiness" to reflect this. Combat fatigue is another factor. Troops in combat have a certain exposure limit before they begin to display various degrees of combat related stress/neuroses and start becoming combat ineffective. That's why rotations off the line are important in addition to the other factors.
 
Last edited:
Kevan said:
Dad was a member of the 1st Div., served with the Saskatoon Light Infantry and he too had the highest respect for the Sikhs and the Ghurkas..
According to him they were fighters to the end..
Click to expand...
I was on a joint excercise with the Ghurkas and they were great soldiers. I have no experience with the Shiks but from what I have learned, they were as good as any others out there.
 
grelmar said:
Thanks for that JP... I'll add it to my collection of info about the Gras/Chassepot in Canada.

One of these days, I want to get a Chassepot to go with the bayonet I have. The concept of rolling my own paper cartridges intrigues me, and breach loading paper cartridge rifles were an important transitional design that seldom gets much airtime in gun history circles.
Click to expand...

I wonder if your bayonet is a relic of the Northwest rebellion left behind by one of the 65th Quebec Carabiniers (Voltigeurs) serving with the Alberta Field Force.
 
I've been looking for additional details on just when and how the Ross Rifles were replaced by the Lee - Enfield in the CEF during WW1. In doing so I pulled out a copy of a Sept 1915 dated book titled, "With the First Canadian Contingent", published in England by the Canadian Field Comforts Commission. There was nothing specific to the Ross, but the book contains a lot of photos from the trenches and is written in the flavour of a "Boy's Own" adventure story with lots of references to the vile Hun and plucky and heroic Canadian boys doing their bit. Interestingly, I found two 1910 dated German 100 mark bills tucked inside the pages. I've had this book for some time and had never found the bills before. This caused me to wonder if some old sweat might have bought this book as a souvenir, and maybe used it to store some currency that he may have picked up in the trenches. I'll never know, but it's interesting to speculate. BTW, those banknotes are valued up to $18 today depending on condition.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom