British Army Acronyms, WWI, Cs continued

CHA - Commander Heavy Artillery

CHDAVC - Convalescent Horse Depot Army Veterinary Corps

C-in-C - Commander in Chief

CID - Committee of Imperial Defense

CIGS - Chief of the Imperial GEneral Staff

CLC - Chinese Labor Corps

CLLE - Charger-Loading Lee-Enfield (rifle)

CLLM - Charger-Loading Lee-Metford (rifle)

CLRO - Corps Light Railway Officer

CME - Chief Mechanical Engineer

CMG - Commander of the Order of St. Michael and St. George


Bibliography
Call-to-Arms: The British Army 1914-18, Charles Messenger, Cassell Military Books, 2005

British Army Acronyms, WWI, Cs

CB - Commander of the Most Honorable Order of the Bath, also Confinement to Barracks, also Counter Battery.

CBE - Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire

CBSO - Counter-Battery Staff Officer

CC - Confinded to camp(punishment) also, Chief Censor

CCD - Commander of Coast Defenses

CCRA - Corps Commander Royal Artillery

CCS - CAsualty Clearing station

CDS - Corps dressing station

CE - Chief Engineer

CEF - Canadian Expeditionary Force

CPEC - Chief Engineer Port Construction

CF - Chaplain to the Forces

CFC - Chief Field Censor, also Canadian Forestry Corps

CGI - Corrugated Galvanized Iron

CGS - Chief of General Staff


Bibliography
Call-to-Arms: The British Army 1914-18, Charles Messenger, Cassell Military Books, 2005

Lost WWI Bible to return home

NZHerald.co.nz: Lost WWI Bible to return home
A New Zealand soldier's Bible - lost and found in the trenches in World War One - will be returned to his homeland this week by the family of the British soldier who found it.

On April 12 1918, Herbert Hodgson fell into a shell hole during an attack near Messines in Belgium. There he found a Bible encrusted with mud.

In his memoirs he wrote: "There was no name inside it but the army service number 34816 had been written across the top outer edges of the pages". He was told by an officer the original owner would be impossible to trace and he should keep it for luck.

His family without success tried to trace the number until last June his publisher Geoffrey Hodgson (no relation) identified the original owner of the Bible as Richard Cook, of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force.

Mr Cook died in a hospital in France in October 1917 of wounds received a few days earlier in battle near Passchendaele in Belgium. He is buried in the war cemetery in Etaples in France. Passchendaele was one of the major battles of World War One.

Herbert Hodgson survived the war, became an acclaimed printer and eventually wrote his memoirs entitled Impressions of War, which were published last year.

His family will donate the Bible to the National Army Museum in Waiouru at a ceremony on Wednesday.

His son David, publisher, and relatives of Mr Cook will attend.

News: WWI submarine found off Dutch coast

The Local: Germany's News in English: WWI submarine found off Dutch coast
A German submarine from World War I has been discovered off the north coast of the Netherlands, where it sank in 1917, and will become an official war grave, the Royal Dutch Navy said Wednesday.

The U-106 was discovered in the North Sea, north of the Dutch island of Terschelling, in October 2009 by a Dutch naval ship mapping the sea floor, the navy said in a statement.

The find was not announced earlier because the German government needed time to find and inform the next-of-kin of the 41 crew who sank with the boat.

"The ship will be left where it was found, and will become an official war grave," the statement said.

The submarine of 838 tonnes, 71.5 metres (234 feet) long, took to the water for the first time in July 1917, commanded by "Kapitänleutnant" Hans Hufnagel, fresh from submarine school.

It is believed to have hit a British mine on the night of October 7 after it lost radio contact in a British undersea mine field.

Last Surviving U.S. Veteran of World War I Laid to Rest

Fox News: Last Surviving U.S. Veteran of World War I Laid to Rest
The nation is saying farewell Tuesday to the last surviving U.S. veteran of World War I.

President Obama and Vice President Biden made an unscheduled stop at Arlington National Cemetery to honor Army Cpl. Frank Buckles, whose body was laying in honor inside the chapel at the cemetery.

Buckles will be buried with full military honors later Tuesday. A private service for his family is planned for 4 p.m.

Buckles, who was born in Bethany, Mo., lied about his age to enlist in the army at age 16. He died last month at age 110 at his farm in West Virginia

British Army Acronyms, WWI, Bs

BAC - Brigade Ammunition Column
BAPO - Base Army Post Office
BC - Battery Commander, also Base Commandant
BCA - Battery Commander's Assistant
BEF - British Expeditionary Force
BGGS - Brigadier General General Staff
BGHA - Brigadier GEneral Heavy Artiller
BGRA - Brigadier General Royal Engineers
BL - Breech Loading
BLC - Breech Loading Converted
BM - Brigade Major
BOR - British Other Rank
BRCS - British Red Cross Society
BADM - Battery Sergeant Major
BWIR - British West Indies Regiment

Bibliography
Call-to-Arms: The British Army 1914-18, Charles Messenger, Cassell Military Books, 2005

British Army Acronyms, As contined

APC - Army Pay Corps, also Assistant Principal Chaplain
APD - Army Pay Department
APM - Assistant Provost Marshall
APMMC - Almeric Paget Military Massage Corps
APO - Army Post Office
AQMG - Assistant Quartermaster GEneral
ARMW - Army Reserve Munitions Worker
ARO - Artillery REconnaisance Officer
ARP - Ammunition Refilling Point
ARS - Advanced Regulating Station
ASC - Army Service Corps
ASD - Army Schools Department
A&SH - Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders
ASO - Area Searchlight Officer
ASP - Ammunition Sub-Park
AT - Army Troops
AVC - Army Veterinary Corps


Bibliography
Call-to-Arms: The British Army 1914-18, Charles Messenger, Cassell Military Books, 2005

WWI British Army Acronyms, As continued

AFA - Australian Field Artillery
AG - Adjutant General
AGS - Army Gymnastic Staff
AHR - Army Horse Reserve
AIF - Australian Imperial Force
AIS - Assistant Inspector of Searchlights
AMB - Armored Motor Battery
AMFO - Assistant Military Forwarding Officer
AMLO - Assistant Military Landing Officer
AMO - Administrative Medical Officer
AMS - Assistant Military Secretary
AMTD-Advanced Mechanical Transport Depot
ANSR - Army Nursing Service Reserve
AO - Army Order
AOC - Army Ordnance Corps
AOD - Army Ornance Department
AP - Armor Piercing (ammunition)


Bibliography
Call-to-Arms: The British Army 1914-18, Charles Messenger, Cassell Military Books, 2005

Football on the frontline: The ball British WWI soldiers dribbled towards their deaths after being sent over the top

Daily Mail Online: Football on the frontline: The ball British WWI soldiers dribbled towards their deaths after being sent over the top
It seems to be a stunt too extraordinary to be believed.

But, while staring death in the face, a group of World War One soldiers hatched a plan to dribble six footballs towards the German front line in a unique display of British bravado and courage.

Their commanding officer rumbled them on the eve of the Battle of Loos in 1915, and before the attack shot five of the balls rendering them useless.

But the soccer team of the London Irish Rifles managed to keep the sixth ball hidden and, defying orders, dribbled it as they advanced across No Man's Land while under heavy machine gun and mortar fire.

The footballing soldiers' antics, even more extraordinary than the official truce called on Christmas Day 1914 when thousands of troops emerged from the trenches to have a kick-about, went down in folklore among the men of the London Irish Rifles and the ball was displayed at the regimental museum in Camberwell, south east London, until 50 years ago.

After that it languished in a container in the sergeant's mess at the museum for the next five decades but recently resurfaced in a decrepit state and in danger of perishing into a pile of dust.

Conservation experts were called in and, after painstaking restoration, the ball will now be the centrepiece of the regiment's St Patrick's Day parade this weekend.
The 1st Battalion of the London Irish Rifles was sent to the Western Front in May 1915 and took part in the first major British offensive of the war in September.
Nigel Wilkinson, vice-chairman of the London Irish Rifles Regimental Association, explained: 'The London Irish had a first class football team and they were keen to score a goal in Jerry's front line trenches.

'One of the platoon commanders thought this was a bad idea and just before the whistles blew for the attack he went round puncturing all those that he could find.'
London Irish football team captain Sgt Frank Edwards who punted the ball out of the trenches and dribbled it for 20 yards towards the enemy before being shot in the thigh .

But the last remaining ball had been stuffed up the tunic of team captain Sergeant Frank Edwards who removed it and blew it up with his mouth while his comrades gave him cover.

As the whistle for the 'big push' sounded, Sgt Edwards booted the ball out of the trenches. It was passed between a small band of men before it ended up being pierced on barbed wire on the German front line.

'Defying orders, the London Irish kicked off the big push by punting the football into No Man's Land and went hell for leather after it,' Mr Wilkinson said.

Sgt Edwards was said to have dribbled the ball for 20 yards before he went down injured when he was shot through the thigh. Private Micky Mileham stopped to fix a tourniquet to the wound and saved his life.

Pte Mileman, Pte Bill Taylor and Pte Walter 'Jimmy' Dalby were later recorded as having kicked the ball at some point.

Some time after the devastating battle - which resulted in 50,000 British casualties - the muddy ball was recovered from the battlefield and taken back to Britain.

'The ball wasn't necessarily lost over the last 50 years but more overlooked and neglected, Mr Wilkinson explained.

'Frank Edwards' grandson-in-law Ed Harris recently wrote a book called the Footballer of Loos. During his research he asked us what had happened to the ball after it was removed from the museum.

'We found it in a container in the sergeant's mess. It was in a very poor condition and was at risk of disintegrating into dust.

'We are delighted the ball has been conserved and will be okay for another 100 years and will be the focus of the story of the Battle of Loos.'

In the battalion's record of World War One, Second Lieutenant SF Major noted how the men were seen to pass and re-pass the ball until they disappeared in a smoke cloud towards the German front line.

In his record in the Weekly Dispatch, Pte Phil Gibbs wrote of how the men cried out 'on the ball London Irish' as they advanced.

The episode was later immortalised in a watercolour painting by historical artist Lady Butler.

Susan Harris, granddaughter of Sgt Edwards, from Whitton, south west London, who died in 1964 aged 71, said: 'I remember my grandfather very well and remember his love of football.

'His story is one that has been forgotten about so I'm delighted that his ball has been conserved for the future.' Yvette Fletcher, head on conservation at the Leather Conservation Centre in Northampton, said: 'It came to us in quite a bad state. There were a lot of tears in the leather which was very weak and we were concerned it would fall apart.

'We used leather dyed the same colour and we patched it together from the inside. The rubber bladder had completely perished so we padded the inside out with pure cotton to give it the shape.

'There is still the rudimentary stitching on the ball from where it was repaired having been cut on the barbed wire.

'It is still very fragile which is not surprising as it is a football that has been through the First World War.'

Will Congress Let Frank Buckles, Last WWI Vet, Lie in Capitol Rotunda?

[I have to take issue with one sentence in the below article. Most "heroes" are those who took heroic action in combat, true, but whose to say an ambulance driver, whose job it was to save lives, was not also a hero, albeit of a different kind?]

Politics Daily: Will Congress Let Frank Buckles, Last WWI Vet, Lie in Capitol Rotunda?

Nearly everyone agrees that Frank Buckles, America's last surviving World War I veteran who died last month at age 110, should be honored.

Buckles' passing has been noted by leaders in his home state of West Virginia and nationally. He has been celebrated by veterans' groups, who hail him as the last link to the tens of thousands of dough boys killed in the Great War. A military funeral is planned at Arlington National Cemetery. President Obama ordered flags on federal buildings flown at half-staff on March 15, the day of the burial.

Before Buckles is laid to rest at Arlington, however, his family is holding out hope for one final tribute. They want Buckles' remains to lie in honor in the Rotunda of the United States Capitol, to allow government officials and the public to pay their final respects.

Buckles' daughter says she's seeking the rare recognition, not because her father was a hero (he was an Army ambulance driver who never saw combat), but because of the role he took on in the last years of his life as "representative of all the service members who served, fought, and died in the Great War."

In a weekend statement obtained by AOL News, Susannah Buckles Flanagan said her father felt that it was his duty to stand up for his World War I comrades, "just as strongly as he felt the call to enlist and help fight that war."

It's up to House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to grant the honor of allowing a body to lie in the rotunda, and so far they have denied it, without explanation. The New York Times pointed out that the two congressional leaders are "perhaps mindful that the honor has been given to only 30 people" since 1852.

While lying in the Rotunda is usually reserved for high-ranking federal officials (among them Abraham Lincoln, Gen. Douglas MacArthur, J. Edgar Hoover, John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan), there have been exceptions. In 2005, civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks was allowed to lie in honor, as were Capitol police officer Jacob Chestnut and detective John Gibson, who were killed in a shootout at the Capitol in 1998.

Former Senate Republican leader Bob Dole, who was seriously wounded in World War II, is among the growing number of current and former politicians calling on Congress to allow Buckles to lie in honor.

"It's the end of an era, so to speak," Dole, the former GOP presidential candidate, told National Journal Tuesday. "It was a war that changed the world, in effect, and it should be recognized. I hope and I think it is going to happen."

Dole joins lawmakers from West Virginia in pushing for a Rotunda memorial. Democratic Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W. Va.) said it would be a "fitting tribute." And Rep. Shelley Moore Capito, Buckles' Republican congresswoman in the eastern panhandle of West Virginia, said the delay wasn't doing the late veteran justice, according to Fox News.

Rep. Roscoe Bartlett (R-Md.), a senior member of the House Armed Services Committee, said the issue should go to the full House for a vote this week, the National Journal said. No such vote has been scheduled.

Susannah Buckles Flanagan said her father's death marks the passing of a generation, one that should be marked in a public way, on the national stage that the Capitol Rotunda provides.

"The issue is how do we as Americans come together over this loss, by providing a befitting venue to do so? How do we demonstrate to our own people and people all over the world how the United States of America honors its citizens of distinction?" Buckles Flanagan asked in her statement. "If the last American soldier surviving is not suitable to serve as a symbol around which we can rally to honor those who served their country in the Great War, then who can serve that purpose? There is no one left."

WWI British Army Acronyms As continued

AD - artillery depot
ADAPS - Assistant Director Army Postal Services
ADAP & SS - Assistant of Army Printing and Stationary Services
ADC - Aide de camp
ADGR&E - Assistant Director of Graves Registration and Enquiries
ADGT - Assistant Director General of Transportation
ADL - Assistant Director of Labour
ADLR - Assistant Director of Light Railways
ADMS - Assistant Director Medical Services
ADOS - Assistant Director Ordnance Services
ADRT - Assistant Director Railway Traffic or Transport
ADS - Advanced Dressing Station
ADTn - Assistant Director Transportation
ADVS - Assistant Director Veterinary Services
AEF - American Expeditionary Force
AF - Army form


Bibliography
Call-to-Arms: The British Army 1914-18, Charles Messenger, Cassell Military Books, 2005

Darlington, UK: World War One play

The Northern Echo: World War One play

A MOVING play about a company of soldiers in the First World War is being staged at Darlington Civic Theatre.

Journey's End tells the story of Raleigh an 18-year-old soldier who joins a besieged company of soldiers in the British trenches at St Quentin.

There he finds his new comrades being led by his old school friend Stanhope, but discovers that the man in army greens is much changed from the boy he left behind in cricketing whites.

The RC Sherriff play is directed by David Grindley and won critical acclaim in the West End and on Broadway.

It is based on the author's own experience of the front and life in the trenches, and celebrates humour and courage in the face of certain tragedy.

The play runs until Saturday, March 5.

Tickets are available from £15 to £22, with discounts available. Performances are evenings at 7.30pm with matinees today (THURS) at 1.30pm and 2.30pm on Saturday.

To book, contact the Box Office on 01325-486555 or visit www.darlingtonarts.co.uk

A donation for each ticket sold will be made to the poppy appeal supporting The British Legion.

Grand Rapids photographer had special link to last World War I vet Frank Buckles

MLive.com: Grand Rapids photographer had special link to last World War I vet Frank Buckles
GRAND RAPIDS — It was an unlikely friendship: Two men separated by 68 years and almost 500 miles. One was a photographer, the other, the last living veteran of World War I.

But four years ago, a photograph began a friendship Dave DeJonge could never have predicted; one that would come to influence every aspect of the Grand Rapids-based photographer’s life.

In the last four years, DeJonge had met with Frank Buckles about 20 times. The two traveled across the country — hitting the nation’s capital, Kansas and Missouri — promoting a memorial for World War I veterans. DeJonge, 42, calls Buckles’ 55-year-old daughter his older sister; she calls him her little brother.

In the aftermath of Buckles’ death on Sunday at 110, DeJonge — who has been the Buckles’ family spokesman since 2007 — said he’s been too swamped with phone calls and e-mails from media outlets ranging from ABC to CNN and the BBC to truly mourn his friend’s passing.

Buckles died of natural causes at his home in West Virginia.

“I’ve just been focusing a lot on the position as a spokesman side of things with an occasional flourish of, ‘Hey, I just lost a friend,’” DeJonge said Monday in his photography studio in Grand Rapids.

He held up the photographs he took of Buckles in 2007 and recalled the friendship that sprung from them.

DeJonge met with Buckles for the first time while working on his project photographing the last living World War I veterans. He spent 20 minutes talking to the veteran after photographing him and was fascinated by his life experiences.

“You know, every time he opens his mouth, it’s another nugget of global history that he’s experienced,” DeJonge said.

Buckles rode a horse to school. He used wireless radios to talk to his friends because phones weren’t around yet. He was an ambulance driver in World War I who saw the ravages of the Spanish flu, sailed across the world as a merchant shipper and met Adolph Hitler in a hotel lobby.

He attended the 1938 Olympics in Germany and watched as American sprinter and long-jumper Jesse Owens won four gold metals. During World War II, Buckles was held as a prisoner of war.

DeJonge was intrigued — and wanted to hear more.


Courtesy ArtWWI veteran Frank Buckles as photographed by Grand Rapids photographer David DeJonge.
“It doesn’t stop there. It just keeps going and going,” he said of Buckles’ experiences.
The two hit it off and kept in touch after the photography session. Buckles’ stories should be remembered, DeJonge thought. He began working on a documentary about him — one that is still in progress.

When DeJonge was invited to the White House and Pentagon to unveil his photographs of the last living veterans, Buckles came along.

“At the end of that ceremony, I looked to Frank and I said, ‘We need to go see the only symbol to your generation in D.C.’ and he said, ‘OK, let’s do it,’” DeJonge said.

Two sidewalks led to the District of Columbia War Memorial, which was dedicated to D.C. residents who gave their lives in WWI. The sidewalk was nearly impassable, the memorial crumbling.

It was after Buckles’ wheelchair had to be woven around the cracks to get to the memorial’s base that DeJonge and Buckles began advocating for its restoration and renaming as the D.C. and National World War I Memorial.

The veterans of World War I are forgotten, DeJonge said. They suffered horrible deaths, fought terrible battles
.
“War is hell, as they say, but this is a deeper level of hell than anyone has ever experienced,” he said.

The men and women who fought through that need to be memorialized with something of national significance, DeJonge said.

That goal brought the two across the country as they began pushing for the measures, and their friendship grew. They formed the World War I Memorial Foundation to advocate and raise money.

Through the challenges and rejections and doubts on the part of some, DeJonge continued standing by Buckles’ side. Although some questioned why he spent so much time on the goal, he pushed on.

A piece of the sidewalk from the D.C. memorial sits on DeJonge’s desk as a form of inspiration.

“It’s about giving someone your word and following through, you know, that you’ve got his back. We’ll restore the memorial, we won’t give up,” DeJonge said.

DeJonge says although Buckles has passed away, he still won’t give up the fight. One of the things he says he learned from the veteran was to keep pressing on, no matter the odds.

“He was always an optimist, always looking forward to the future,” he said of Buckles. “Just because he’s on the other side right now, I look at it as, he’s free to help us fight.”

WWI British Army Acronyms As

AA - anti-aircraft, also Army Act
AADC - Anti-Aircraft Defense Commander
AA&QMG - Assistant Adjutant and Quartermaster GEneral
AASC - Anti-Aircraft Searchlight Company
AASS - Anti-Aircraft Searchlight Section
AB - Army Book
ABPO - Advanced Base Post Office
AC - Armoured car
ACC - Army Cyclists Corps
ACG - Assistant Chaplain General
ACI - Army Council Instruction
ACME - Assistant chief mechanical engineer


Bibliography
Call-to-Arms: The British Army 1914-18, Charles Messenger, Cassell Military Books, 2005