How clever packing helped win WW1
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- čas přidán 16. 05. 2024
- Soldiers who enlisted during WW1 were not permitted to take much in the way of personal belongings with them. Almost every square inch of space in their kit bags and pockets was taken up by items crucial to their survival and duties on the front.
But the average Tommy still found ways of bringing a little bit of home with them on the journey and many found unexpected ways of repurposing their kit for the challenges of trench warfare.
So what exactly was the standard kit they packed for life on the front line? How useful was it and what are some of the unique ways soldier’s personalised their kit?
George Nicholls, a living history expert from the Great War Society, explains all.
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This video includes the following artworks:
A portrait of James Paris Lee by John Horsburgh
Sketches of soldiers in various kit by Jean Berne-Bellecour
Please note that the water bottle featured in this video has a capacity of 2 pints, rather than the 2 litres stated and the Enfield element of the rifle’s name relates to the design of the barrel.
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Thank you to George Nicholls, Ramsey Green, Ben Rufus Green, Owen Powell and The Great War Society for supplying FWW living history actors and research.
Check out The Great War Society here: www.thegreatwarsociety.website/
Ben Rufus Green's website: www.thisisgreensville.com/
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Think that waterbottle capacity was 2 "pints" not 2 Litres ie 40 fld ozs versus 70 fld ozs (approx).
So, how was it packed, then? We never find out. It would have been good to see the narrator actually putting the kit on after packing it, rather than just sitting behind a desk....
County of Enfield? That’s not a county. Lee designed the bolt/chamber … Enfield (named after the small arms factory in Enfield) designed the barrel. Hence Lee Enfield
They weren't initially going to a trench. They had no idea that was coming. They had the experience of the Boer war as a pattern & early smiling recruits was presumably in anticipation of a jolly scouting expedition...
I love a packing video, especially an historical one.
1:30 Enfield was never a county. At the relevant time it was in the county of Middlesex.
And most were manufactured at Birmingham.
@@51WCDodge BSA
Mail was always a pleasure. I searved in the Navy another much later war.
The Short Magazine Lee Enfield Mk 1 . The action was designed by James Paris Lee, who was Canadian, and more importantly , the Detachable Box Magazine. Enfield, describes the rifling pattern used, not where the weapon was manufactured. The webbing is the 1908 pattern cotton webbing , manufactured by the Mills Equipment company. however later as they could not keep up with demand an emergency leather pattern was re-introduced.
Always thought Lee was born in Scotland - might be wrong though 😉
I've had quite a bit of experience with the SMLE and it was an excellent weapon.
@@jeffreycrawley1216 Born Scotland, emigrated to Canada , became citezen
@@51WCDodge Thank you.
Lee had his action first adopted by the Americans, Remington Lee .45-70 adopted by some USMC elements . 5 shot box magazine bolt rifle
Great Video! It is also a sad video. Videos like this one always brings home to me how little we have learned as a people on this little blue marble we all live on. The last part of the video showing the soldiers smiling and looking at the camera looks pretty much like how Ukrainians look today, fighting to save their country from a barbaric, little, old bunker orc. It is is obvious that mankind will never learn from the horrors of war that war is never a long term answer to disagreements or conflicts. Thank you for the video and all the awesome WW1 footage. It has been over 100 years and wars today still look the same as they did back then. Smiling, young faces doing the dirty work of greedy, prideful old men who don't have to spill their own blood or experience the war first hand.
I thought that the sewing kit was called a housewife. Or is that a later name?
I believe the name is now a victim of political correctness…
It was called a housewife, this video is absolutely full of inaccuracies, very disappointing coming from the IWM!
Used to be prounounced 'Hussuf'
Given it was soldiers' slang, 'housemaid' is also acceptable--'Housewife' was what we called our sewing kits in the 1970s US Marine Corps--I still have mine, and use it occasionally!
Yeah, same here - and spelt 'hussif'.
Outstanding enjoyable presentation!
You gotta hand it to a squaddie... if it can be begged, borrowed, pilfered, purloined, or adapted. Old Tommy Atkins will 'acquire' it and find a use for it.
You forgot "plundered" 😅
Great video, thank you. 😁
Not 3 minutes in and already have spotted several things stated as fact that most definately are not. First off, the British SMLE (Short magazine Lee Enfield) rifle was not name because it was made in the county of Enfield but because it was developed at the Royal small arms factory in Enfield. The Enfield factory actually built relatively few of them compared to the millions made at all the other manufacturing facilities both state ran and private firms like BSA and aong all the ones made in the colonial states. Second, the .303 rifle cartridge it shoots is most definately NOT accurate out to a mile. Most soldiers were only trained to shoot only to around 600 yards and volley fire up to 1200. At a mile, the 174 grain Spitzer bullet (the latter adopted projectile from what was originally adopted for it) would be traveling less than 500 feet per second at that distance and trust me, a bullet going that slow is GOING to be tossed around by the wind and more luck is involved at that distance if your able to hit anything smaller than a house.
I'd agree that the SMLE isn't accurate at a mile unless you're talking about a company or battalion firing at another company or battalion. Even then there'd be a lot more misses than hits.
Learning how to roll your Greatcoat is the secret of the 08 pattern Valise ( Large Pack).
The British pack when opened to obtain anything absolutely fell open and disgorged its contents forcefully into the mud, sewage, blood, etc... that was ubiquitous on the front.
If you were trying to get
a bandage it would be covered with filth and be unusable.
Tight squared away kit was indeed the mark of the well-trained British soldier. "Only 250,000 Regulars on strength" is the "wretched little army" nonsense spouted by the Imperial German General Staff. The hidden strength of the British Empire was the vast numbers of highly trained ex-regulars all around the Empire serving in Territorial Regiments, Colonial Militias, and other organizations.
Colonials trained in local wilderness. Hard-scrabble colonial farmers, foresters, fishermen, and others with vast outdoor experience were the core of the story of the Nova Scotia Highlanders, the Canadian Black Watch out of Montreal, the Queens Own Rifles out of Toronto, and the hundreds if not thousands of Regiments - not mere dozens - from Africa, India, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, and so on. The size, scale, and quality of "Colonial Militia" Regiments deployed in 1914 - 1918 belies the tiny army myth. Was not the Indian Army the vital core of the "British Imperial" forces in the Middle East in both World Wars?
Old Imperials ran many hundreds of "Colonial Militia" Officers and Sergeants Messes. Damn few if any were Old Etonians or other toffs of any kind. Dominions and Colonies self-equipped their own Regiments with Imperial Pattern Kit, trained their Regiments to Imperial War Office Training standards, from WO Manuals. Imperial War Office standards and scales for Kit were vital. The story told in this video is an Empire-wide story. ANZAC and Blue Puttee Newfoundlanders at Gallipoli. The Canadian Corps at Vimy through to the 100 Days, Sir John Monash's unexcelled Corps of ANZACs. And so on around the globe. None were dreamed of. Only 250,000? Balderdash.
You make a good point. The small-army argument was an apples-and-oranges sort of comparison, with the German Empire on one side and the British home islands on the other. The Germans lost because they couldn't withstand the might of a sea power that ruled one-fourth of the world's surface and one-fourth of its people. Quite early in WWI, the Territorial Army was sent to garrison India, releasing the Indian Army to fight in Europe.
Am expert should know there is no "country" of Enfield and that is was called the "Lee Enfield" because the bolt was designed by Lee the Enfield part comes from the rifling system which was designed at the Enfield Factory and replaced when the previous rifling (the Metford) was found to not cope with the new high power smokeless powder that came into use.
The Christmas tin of chocolate was funded by donations from the public
4:34 is actually a WW2 photo, shows the 1937 pattern small pack or haversack. Otherwise an excellent video.
1:24 By then field artillery could also shoot 20 rounds a minute. I imagine that’s why the “experienced” BEF folds back when engaging the enemy.
Bravo.........there are no winners in war............and the hero's are zeros.......and the common people bear the brunt ......
Fascinating stuff. What’s that gun contraption that fires from the trench without the soldier sticking their head over the top? (about 01:45)
They're called trench rifles (at least that's the name I'm familiar with). If you search CZcams for 'trench rifle' you can see some videos of them and how they work.
@@Calum_Sthank you.
@@Calum_S There are example at various musuems. The idea was to be able to aim and operate the rifle from below the parapet.
6:38 I love that Tommy's gin after surviving what he did.
Thanks Napoleon 1er for that idea. He created it.
FWW? Why not WW1? Just asking as I had to think for a moment what FWW meant 😅
It wouldn’t be unreasonable for a museum dedicated to imperial history to refer to the conflict as the Great War.
It’s a phrase which deserves to be remembered for its impact on wider social history in the C20 and beyond.
The term ‘great’ refers to the immensity of industrialised slaughter - and certainly not implying the conflict was a bit of a hoot.
More correctly The Great War, after all, no one knew there would be a second.
@@51WCDodge not sure I'd say "more correct" . That's what they called it at the time, sure. But with our position in the future we have the unfortunate knowledge that there was another.
But anyway on further thought I think they put FWW for the sole reason that people would comment on it, hence driving engagement. So I've been played, really 🤣
Yeah, I've never seen this abbreviation before.
The Lee Enfield Mk 1 rifle was designed by Lennie Peters, of 1970's pop duo "Peters and Lee". At this time Lennie was in love with his singing partner Dianne Lee. In recognition of his two greatest loves, Peters gave his weapon Lee's surname and that of his birthplace, Enfield. I do hope this information lays to rest the frankly absurd so-called 'facts' written on this important subject.
What the heck is "the FWW"? do you mean WW I?
First World War
I think it means First World War, noting the first letter of each word. By extension, I wonder if he calls World War Two "SWW"...
Entrenching tool not favoured for trench raids, hatchet was preferred option.
The Germans liked using a sharpened shovel, and actually trained with it for trench raids. So it might be a German thing not a British thing.
it sounds like all this gear weighed more than your average 19 y/o in 1914.
There was no recruiting campaign.
so you did NOT have mittens
To my knowledge Enfield has never been a county! (Lee Enfield rifle part).
I suppose a straight pull would be faster though, so is it the 10 round magazine that make the Lee-Enfield the fastest shooting because you don't have to reload as often?
Action (Also how smooth it was to operate), and 10 rds, there is also a way to hold and operate the bolt and yet fire the weapon using the second fire.
Where was the Bully Beef carried?
👍👍👍
Didn't really say that much about the packing. IWM has so many resources at it 's fingertips and they, to me, fail quite often with poorly constructed videos.
There was quite a lot about packing- webbing and items. Maybe you saw just the first 10 seconds before you commented
Bit harsh.
No pull through and roll of 4 by 2 to clean the rifle barrel?
I believe that the 4x2 and pull through were carried in the button trap of the rifle.
Should read butt trap
@@stephenmcdonald7908 Good point! How could I forget? You had the brass oiler first then had to coil up the pull through and squeeze it in with the brass tag in its groove.
They still had us drilling with Mk4s in the RAF in Basic during the early 70s and I seem to remember that for parades we'd leave out the oiler and cord and stick in a handful of washers so it made a noise when you ordered arms.
Never saw the point as we never fired them and I went into avionics anyway!
During my service in the 1980s, field ration packs were still issued with the hard biscuits that were, by then, officially called "Biscuits AB." There was a rumour circulating that the "AB" of these rock hard biscuits stood for "anal bleeding!" 😲
Is it true that with the 303, when checking for safety, you could cock the weapon with the magazine on?
Although the mag is removable, drill by this point was to leave it on at all times except as part of cleaning. Only the very earliest models were intended to have mags swapped for reloading, and then only as a last minute emergency measure (the first remained dangling from the rifle by a chain).
The action on the SMLE is Cock on close, so shutting the bolt does cock the action. As his lordship says, magazine was supposed to changeable, but ended up leave in place load by stripper clips. You can also manually re cock the action after misfire by pulling the tail of the bolt.
I thought that the roll with knife, fork ,spoon, washing kit etc. Was called a holdall . Is this a later name or was carryall a mistake ?
KFS, wash kit, and the Hussuf (Housewife)
2 litres of water in a Mk.VI water bottle?!?
I heard they packed up their troubles in their old kitbags.
This is riddled with inaccuracies; 2 pints in the water bottle not litres, rifle accurate up to a mile?! with iron sights I doubt it, webbing is designed to transfer load to hips not place it all on shoulders etc etc
😅accurate to one mile what ever that means. ide like to see you give a demo
The SMLE couldn't be fired 20-30 times a minute, that's just incorrect and I've no idea where you got this from. Pre-war regulars were trained to fire 15 accurate rounds, with only 5 in the magazine to start with, in range conditions during the 'mad minute' and that was good going. TA, volunteers and conscripts were never expected to achive skills at this level and it was neither desirable, for ammunition conservation, or possible in field conditions. As the war progressed, the importance of accurate rifle fire diminished anyway in comparison to artillery and machine guns and grenades.
@@stevenblack7928 This is very poor from the IWM. The 15 rounds 'mad minute' was in perfect conditions by professionals shooting for extra pay. The SMLE could be cycled quicker than the Mauser 98 because of the shorter bolt but never more than about 10 rounds in battlefield conditions and in reality this had zero impact on the outcome of battles or the war itself and it's just perpetuating a myth to suggest it did.
No it isn’t. There was a Dan Snow video that said a ww1 marksman fired 38 rounds in a minute. About 4 minutes in.
czcams.com/video/tznEcq_r4KA/video.htmlsi=BeFgN02rcmJ1cDj6
The Mad Minute originated with the instructors at the Musketry School in Hythe, Kent.
The first Mad Minute record was set by Sergeant Major Jesse Wallingford in 1908, scoring 36 hits on a 48-inch target at 300 yards with a SMLE.
This was topped a few years later by Sergeant Frank Snoxell with another world record of 38 hits, all within the TWENTY FOUR INCH target at 300 yards at the start of WW1.
@@stevenblack7928 Perhaps a bit of research on your own behalf before you commented . . . ?
@@jeffreycrawley1216 Thank you, I stand corrected that the SMLE COULD be fired accurately over 30 times but Wallingford was not only and instructor but a world class marksman. This is exceptional, rare and far from the normal standard expected of regular army, much less wartime recruits and certainly not in battlefield conditions. The point I was making is that as far as infantry rifles of the Great War go, in the hands of the vast majority of soldiers, there was little or no significant advantage gained by one rifle over another and it is simply perpetuating a myth to suggest it could. In 1917/18 for example, Pershing believed the AEF could dominate and win battles with accurate rifle fire, by the end of Meuse-Argonne he realised they couldnt, the recruits couldn't manage it and it was really all about artillery and machine guns.
House wife not house maid.
Pity you showed a ww2 bayonet instead of the much longer bayonet sword used in ww1. Easy mistake when the ww1 bayonet is twice the length of the short or ww2 bayonet.
The video does show a ww1 bayonet, the pattern of bayonet didn’t change from 1907 until the introduction of the no.4 spike bayonet with the no.4 rifle in 1941 (apart from the deletion of the hooked quillion not long after the outbreak of war), although this video is still absolutely full of inaccuracies regardles!
What would a WWI soldier think of today's bayonet? Barely longer than a dinner knife for some and a kitchen knife for others.
Mark from Melbourne Australia 🇦🇺
@@markfryer9880 at least the Gurkhas still carry their kukris.
8:55 Whats going on? Two men are wearing German helmets.
"FWW"!?!? You mean "WW1"
The green jackets of the rifle brigade were an earlier example of an attempt at camouflage in the British army - in place of the red of the normal line infantry in wellingtons army (and in North America before that)
Not so.
This misses any connection of how British infantry equipment won WWI. If anything, the German tornister pack was meant to hold a spare pair of boots, which is pretty useful in a wet or muddy trench, and they lost. What won WWI? German mistakes and attrition along with American made supplies and munitions that kept the Entente in the fight. Claiming British infantry kit won it is absurd.
Oops!
"Khakhi" means dusty
20 to 30 , hardly
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Warning!!! This video is full of inaccuracies!!!
And what exactly does FWW stand for?
First world war cobber.
First World War
For What it's Worth??????
First World War
First World war
Enfield a county? Only in your world son.
People that say “accurate to about a mile(1600m)” have never actually shot a rifle. Yes, the best shot in the battalion could do that but the 95% would be happy at the 100m hitting a 6” target.
An enjoyable video spoiled by a puerile lack of fact-checking. If the Imperial War Museum can’t even get this kind of information correct, what is going on??
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It helps to have narrators with experience of soldiering,
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rather than filling positions for mere box-ticking -
because otherwise -
to use an old musketry term,
your video goes off at half-cock!
/
Khaki is persian not hindi
And it came to English from Urdu not Hindi. Making it a double loan word.
It’s both Persian and Hindi, as stated in the Colin’s English Dictionary.
According to OED, from "Urdu (Persian)". So probably a double loan word.