Picture of the day

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Bert Levy's hand tools. The two daggers in the centre appear to be custom made. Too bad the bigger one is sheathed. Refreshing to see a pesh - kabz that is not a wallhanger pos for the tourist trade.

How in the hell did he get a real combat ready pesh - kabz? One does not simply buy a combat ready pesh - kabz. Bert Levy was an hombre who could make things happen!

donor said:
Even less know that many Red Finns emigrated to Canada after 1920 and settled in N.Ontario.Some Finnish and Ukrainian Canadians headed to International Brigades and joined Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion.

There was enough of them to form "Ilkka" MG Company.

Ilkka_Company.jpg
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1/2 of the Mac - Pap volunteers stayed in Spain - mostly below ground. Just to give you some insight into the powers of ppl. like Bert Levy. Levy I heard was in the Abraham Lincoln Brigade. I am not sure if the units were ever mixed in together from time to time.
 
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fat tony said:
A bunch of streets in Dartmouth Nova Scotia were to be named after Allied generals of WWI. This might have been designed to coincide with the opening of the Vimy Ridge Memorial but I don't know either way. One street was going to be named after Gen. Pershing, another was going to be named after an Italian general but I do not recall who - maybe Diaz? I believe one street was to be named after Edmund Allenby.
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Halifax named streets after lots of military and colonial types, hence Stairs, Livingston and Stanley streets being clustered together.
 
Dosing said:
Halifax named streets after lots of military and colonial types, hence Stairs, Livingston and Stanley streets being clustered together.
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They should have a street named "Clockmaker Street" it would fit in with the inbred business climate here.

I might have posted a pic of this before if so sorry.

Carved in stone are the names Alma, Balaklava, Inkerman, Tcherenaya, Redan, and Sebastopol.

The Old Burying Ground has made some of the graves a touristy history lesson with the narrative: "why Nova Scotia is not a US state." or something like that. They fit in to this touristy narrative some naval actions between the RN and USN focusing mainly on the War of 1812, and of course the ever popular privateer era.

The Welsford Parker monument is deliberately left out of this touristy / privateer / War of 1812 narrative. Rightly so. There really is no redemption wrt the Crimean War. It is a rather ugly war of attrition to a questionable end. The monument - an archway to nowhere.

Welsford-Parker_Monument_at_the_entrance_to_the_Old_Burying_Ground_in_Halifax%2C_Nova_Scotia%2C_Canada.jpg
 
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‘There really is no redemption wrt the Crimean War’.... no argument on that point although Canada claims its first VC for Dunn at the charge of the Light Brigade .... and maybe this is the beginning of the romantic Anglo Saxon notion of overcoming adversity because of honour and valour or because ‘it was there’
 
The Victorian era was one with a different world view. Britannia not only ruled the waves, but most of the land mass. Death in the service of the Queen was an honourable thing and there was no shortage of volunteers to answer the call.

Like most wars, it was a cluster f___k of the first order, the Brits learning everything the hard way at the expense of the common soldiers. The French were the better troops, better led and equipped. However, the war sparked some long over due revisions and updates to logistics and much needed medical reforms.
 
Sharps '74 said:
The Victorian era was one with a different world view. Britannia not only ruled the waves, but most of the land mass. Death in the service of the Queen was an honourable thing and there was no shortage of volunteers to answer the call.

Like most wars, it was a cluster f___k of the first order, the Brits learning everything the hard way at the expense of the common soldiers. The French were the better troops, better led and equipped. However, the war sparked some long over due revisions and updates to logistics and much needed medical reforms.
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Can't remember where I read it, but the Crimean was what sparked a massive life changing/lifesaving policy for the troops... To start carrying a water canteen into combat as standard kit. Sounds like a simple small thing, but it made a huge difference. Standard practice had been to leave all personal mess items, including their canteens, at camp when moving to engage in combat. But some enterprising doctor noted that of the battlefield casualties being brought in to the field hospital, often hours and sometimes days after the battle and injuries had occurred, that the soldiers who had kept their canteens with them had nearly double the survival rates. Staying hydrated after being shot matters.
 
Sharps '74 said:
The Victorian era was one with a different world view. Britannia not only ruled the waves, but most of the land mass. Death in the service of the Queen was an honourable thing and there was no shortage of volunteers to answer the call.

Like most wars, it was a cluster f___k of the first order, the Brits learning everything the hard way at the expense of the common soldiers. The French were the better troops, better led and equipped. However, the war sparked some long over due revisions and updates to logistics and much needed medical reforms.
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That war was basically where the Cardwell reforms got their start (Edward Cardwell, British Secretary of State for War), which included eliminating the purchase of commissions in the British Army and eliminating flogging soldiers in time of peace (was still ok to use in wartime) for breaches of discipline. He was able to start making the British Army a professional force (in the modern sense of the word) with these reforms. Naturally, the "old soldiers" didn't like this as it meant change from what they were used to.
 
shredder said:
That war was basically where the Cardwell reforms got their start (Edward Cardwell, British Secretary of State for War), which included eliminating the purchase of commissions in the British Army and eliminating flogging soldiers in time of peace (was still ok to use in wartime) for breaches of discipline. He was able to start making the British Army a professional force (in the modern sense of the word) with these reforms. Naturally, the "old soldiers" didn't like this as it meant change from what they were used to.
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The Brits also punished desertion by shooting up to WWl. The Australians and New Zealanders got pretty upset after one of their own was executed. The Germans even executed a couple of their own, after the war ended, With Canadian complicity, would you believe ? A movie made about that, but can't remember the name.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/13_May_1945_German_deserter_execution


Grizz
 
fat tony said:
They should have a street named "Clockmaker Street" it would fit in with the inbred business climate here.

I might have posted a pic of this before if so sorry.

Carved in stone are the names Alma, Balaklava, Inkerman, Tcherenaya, Redan, and Sebastopol.

The Old Burying Ground has made some of the graves a touristy history lesson with the narrative: "why Nova Scotia is not a US state." or something like that. They fit in to this touristy narrative some naval actions between the RN and USN focusing mainly on the War of 1812, and of course the ever popular privateer era.

The Welsford Parker monument is deliberately left out of this touristy / privateer / War of 1812 narrative. Rightly so. There really is no redemption wrt the Crimean War. It is a rather ugly war of attrition to a questionable end. The monument - an archway to nowhere.

Welsford-Parker_Monument_at_the_entrance_to_the_Old_Burying_Ground_in_Halifax%2C_Nova_Scotia%2C_Canada.jpg
Click to expand...

When the Soviet fishing fleet worked out of Halifax you could always find a few Russians in front of the Sebastopol Monument, photographing and being photographed. They also used to sit up on Citadel Hill and photograph whatever NATO ships happened to be in harbor at the time. Halifax street legend claimed that the the lion on top of the arch used to roar every time a virgin walked by.
 
" Halifax street legend claimed that the the lion on top of the arch used to roar every time a virgin walked by."

Talk about cat calling!
 
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If you have ever heard a sailor talk about pitching and rolling in heavy seas and not really appreciated what that means, check out this photograph of the escort carrier Block Island (CVE 106) rolling to starboard in the Atlantic Ocean during 1952
 
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