HMS M.33

HMS M.33 is a 1915 Coastal Bombardment Vessel, one of only two British warships to survive from the First World War.

She saw action in the Mediterranean between 1915 and 1918, supporting troop landings and evacuations at Gallipoli in 1915. Then in 1919, she played a part in the Russian Civil War covering the withdrawal of Allied and White Russian troops. Following her return from Russia, she spent the rest of her active life in Portsmouth Harbour.

Today she is berthed near the new Mary Rose Museum and Nelson’s flagship, HMS Victory, in Portsmouth’s Historic Dockyard. Her location in No. 1 dry dock allows visitors to get a closer look at her exterior from the dockside, although currently she cannot be boarded. Her national and historical significance has been recognised and she features in the National Register of Historic Ships.

HMS M.33 is currently being renovated and it is planned that the work will be completed, allowing full public access, in time for the 100th anniversary of the Gallipoli Campaign later this year.

The ship behind HMS M.33 is the recently retired HMS Illustrious.

A Promise Honoured

To mark the start of the annual Armed Forces Week there was a flag raising ceremony outside the Great Hall in Winchester and the unveiling of a memorial to those that passed through Morn Hill camps during the First World War.

On Monday, June 23, proceedings began with a selection of military music at the Buttercross, High Street, by The Band & Bugles of the Rifles.

They then marched to St Maurice’s Covert where they were met by a contingent of service personnel drawn from the Royal Navy, the Army and Royal Air Force.

Together they proceeded up the High Street to the Great Hall for the ceremony and unveiling of the ‘To Honour a Promise’ memorial, which marks the centenary since the outbreak of WWI in 1914.

It sits at the base of the steps in the courtyard by the Great Hall, and throughout the ceremony was covered in a cloth made by textiles students from Peter Symonds College.

Simon Smith’s brief was not to create a standard memorial, but something to represent those who had passed through the camp. The memorial sensitively shows the kit as if it has been left on the seat- but where is the soldier now?

View on YouTube

The Tenderness of Patient Minds

One of the things that caught my eye when I visited Winchester Cathedral was an art and poetry exhibition (The Tenderness of Patient Minds) commemorating the First World War.

The glass poppies in the first photograph were made by Year 7 pupils at Lakeside BESD school in Chandlers Ford.

At the Going Down of the Sun…

…and in the morning, we will remember them.

During 2014-2018 a series of nationwide and international events are taking place to commemorate the centenary of World War One. The series of events is being led by the Imperial War Museum, which has a dedicated website entitled 1914.org.

The events will serve to remind us of those who sacrificed their lives so that we can enjoy the freedoms we have today as well as reminding us to be grateful for their sacrifice.

One of those events was the planting of 888,246 poppies in the moat around The Tower of London, one poppy for each fallen British and Commonwealth servicemen. As Remembrance day 2014 approached, a sea of poppies filled the moat as a visual reminder of the number of those who sacrificed their lives and the blood lost…

The poppy fields as described by the ‘War Poets’ are a poignant reminder to me of the lives that were lost in both World War One and World War Two and also the lives lost in more recent wars.

Poppies to me are a simile of the lives that were lost.  They are vibrant, standing strong and bold yet fragile and defeated by a heavy downfall or a spring breeze.   They remind me of the fragility of peace and freedom and how easily our freedom can be lost.

Reflection on World War One (and the more recent World War Two) serve as a reminder of what might have been if the outcome of those wars had been different…

In Flanders Fields

In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae
1915

At the Going Down of the Sun…

…and in the morning, we will remember them.

During 2014-2018 a series of nationwide and international events are taking place to commemorate the centenary of World War One. The series of events is being led by the Imperial War Museum, which has a dedicated website entitled 1914.org.

The events will serve to remind us of those who sacrificed their lives so that we can enjoy the freedoms we have today as well as reminding us to be grateful for their sacrifice.

One of those events was the planting of 888,246 poppies in the moat around The Tower of London, one poppy for each fallen British and Commonwealth servicemen. As Remembrance day 2014 approached, a sea of poppies filled the moat as a visual reminder of the number of those who sacrificed their lives and the blood lost…

The poppy fields as described by the ‘War Poets’ are a poignant reminder to me of the lives that were lost in both World War One and World War Two and also the lives lost in more recent wars.

Poppies to me are a simile of the lives that were lost.  They are vibrant, standing strong and bold yet fragile and defeated by a heavy downfall or a spring breeze.   They remind me of the fragility of peace and freedom and how easily our freedom can be lost.

Reflection on World War One (and the more recent World War Two) serve as a reminder of what might have been if the outcome of those wars had been different…

In Flanders Fields

In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae
1915

Motorcycles from the War Years

1917 Vickers-Clyno – 5/6hp machine gun outfit

Clyno built large numbers of motorcycles for the British Army throughout the First World War. The majority were side car outfits designed to carry a Vickers machine gun. Each carried ammunition, cooling water and spares for the gun together with petrol and spares for the motorbike.

An outfit like this would have been accompanied by two others; one carried extra ammunition and the other was a spare gun carrier, brought into use if the first bike broke down.*

1942 Norton 16H

Norton supplied 100,000 motorcycles for military use during World War Two, mostly the 16H model. Following successful performance in War Office tests during 1935, orders were placed for 16Hs every year from 1936 to 1945. It was used by all British armed services and was also issued to Canadian forces. Although a dated design, the 16H’s mechanical simplicity  and rugged construction meant it was well suited to military use. A few remained in service until the late 1950s.*

*From an information plaque next to the car.

The Royal Tank Regiment

The very first battle involving tanks took place on the Somme when approximately 30 tanks attacked German positions between the villages of Flers and Courcelette on Friday 15 September 1916. This was one of the largest battles of World War I, with more than one million casualties. At dawn on 20 November 1917 the first successful tank battle was fought at Cambrai involving some 300 Mark IV tanks. The arrival of the tank signaled the end of trench warfare and established the tank as a dominant factor of battle right up until the present day.

The design of the Royal Tank Regiment grove reflects these events with a collection of Ash trees, a tree of significance to the Regiment, some of which have been propagated from trees from the battlefield at Cambrai whilst inside the circular seat is an oak tree from Flers. On the brick plinth is a model of a Mark IV, one of the earliest tanks. In the spring the Grove bursts into colour with hundreds of daffodils planted in the pattern of tank tracks. On the flagpole flies the Regimental flag of brown, red and green signifying ‘through mud and blood to green fields beyond’.*

*From the National Memorial Arboretum Guidebook Edition 4

Westminster Abbey – First World War Vigil

Above is the single candle that I lit for a shared moment of reflection, marking the centenary of the First World War. To reflect on the occasion I tuned into the BBC2 broadcast of the Vigil Ceremony at Westminster Abbey.

Drawing upon Sir Edward Grey’s famous remark that “the lights are going out all over Europe”, Westminster Abbey will mark the centenary by moving from light into darkness, until one candle remains at the Grave of the Unknown Warrior, which will be extinguished at 11.00pm to mark the moment of the declaration of war.

The Abbey Vigil will metaphorically “pause” in penitence on the moments leading up to the outbreak of the war and on those first months of conflict without rushing to conclusions or adopting particular narratives. The Service will not be a premature marking of armistice, but rather a particular commemoration of the centenary of the beginning of the war: remembering the effects of human frailty and failure, as well as the looming violence which characterised so much of that lengthy and devastating conflict.
The Abbey will be lit so that the light falls away from the East to the West until the Procession reaches the Grave of the Unknown Warrior, where a single light will remain. The congregation will be given hand-candles, which will be extinguished in blocks as the Vigil proceeds. In the structure which follows, there are four moments where light can be extinguished before the final, symbolic flame is put out at 11.00pm.

The order of service can be found here.

Photographs of the BBC2 footage of the vigil:

Lights Out

Lights Out

Cherie's Place Thought for the Week

The lamps are going out all over Europe; we shall not see them lit again in our lifetime.

Sir Edward Grey, British Foreign Secretary, August 1914

Photo Copywright – http://www.1418now.org.uk/lights-out/

Lights Out

The outbreak of the First World War was a cataclysmic event in world history. We know now that the enormous losses, huge economic cost and unprecedented political upheavals incurred by the conflict would change the world forever. With the benefit of hindsight, it seems extraordinary to us that no one was able to intervene to halt the slow descent into war triggered by the unexpected assassination, in distant Sarajevo, of a foreign royal by a 19-year-old terrorist. Were Europe’s statesmen blind to the catastrophe that they were bringing down upon the world?

The British Foreign Secretary, Sir Edward Grey, was among those to glimpse the enormity of the imminent war. For almost ten years he had aligned Britain into a deepening friendship with the great European powers of France and Russia. Although this new relationship had alienated Germany, Grey had tried to keep Britain free from any firm commitment to intervene should a wider European war break out. Yet in July 1914 he stood at the heart of the crisis as ultimatums came and went, and the political and military decisions were taken that made it increasingly likely that Britain would stand beside France and Russia if either was attacked by Germany or Austria-Hungary. The German invasion of Belgium en route to France finally tipped the balance, making Britain’s entry into war inevitable.

Late in the afternoon of 3 August, on the last day of peace, Grey stood at the window of his office in Whitehall and was overwhelmed by a sense of foreboding tragedy. As he looked out he saw that the streets lights were being lit down below. He turned to a visiting friend and observed, ‘The lamps are going out all over Europe; we shall not see them lit again in our lifetime.’

ON MONDAY 4 AUGUST 2014, EVERYONE IN THE UK IS INVITED TO TURN THEIR LIGHTS OUT FROM 10PM-11PM LEAVING ON A SINGLE LIGHT OR CANDLE TO MARK THE MOMENT THE UK ENTERED THE FIRST WORLD WAR, ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO.