Winter War: British Dugout on the Somme 1916
This image comes from the same collection as the trench scene featured yesterday and shows three British officers of the 11th Battalion East Yorkshire Regiment (Hull Tradesmen) in their dugout at Hébuterne in December 1916. This system of trenches had been taken over from the French in the summer of 1915 and despite attacks here during the Battle of the Somme, the line had remained unchanged.
Very few images exist taken inside WW1 British dugouts and this one shows it is a basic construction with solid timber supports. The occupants have salvaged a table from a nearby house and all are dressed for the cold; the officer on the right is wearing a goat or sheep-skin jacket, common in the winter but prone to being a breeding ground for lice. That particular officer is Second Lieutenant John ‘Jack’ Harrison. Harrison was a prominent local Hull rugby player; he had joined the Hull Pals in 1914 and served with them in Egypt and on the Somme. He would later be awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross for his bravery in the fighting at Oppy Wood on 3rd May 1917.
Gallipoli: Lancashire Landing 25 April 1915
This week Great War Photos will feature some Gallipoli related images as Wednesday will be ANZAC Day.
At times someone with a casual interest in the Great War could be forgiven for thinking Gallipoli was an ‘Australian Battlefield’ but the reality is that the majority of troops who assaulted Turkey on 25th April 1915 were British. This image depicts the men of the 1st Battalion Lancashire Fusiliers landing at W Beach that day. Coming under fire from the bluffs above they took heavy losses and my own grandfather, a member of a Naval party from HMS Implacable, rowed them in and remembered the sea running red with their blood. The bravery of the men that day resulted in the award of sixVictoria Crosses leading to the legend of ‘six VCs before breakfast’. W Beach itself would be officially renamed ‘Lancashire Landing’ in honour of the action here on the first day of the landings.
Great War Photos 