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In Memory The Battle of Monchy-le-Preux

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Topic: In Memory The Battle of Monchy-le-Preux
Posted By: Macd
Subject: In Memory The Battle of Monchy-le-Preux
Date Posted: April 19 2018 at 6:32am
http://www.rnfldr.ca/history.aspx?item=147#Ten" rel="nofollow - http://www.rnfldr.ca/history.aspx?item=147#Ten

One of the defenders was from the 1st Essex.  I don't think they could have successfully fooled the Germans into thinking there were more defenders with any other rifle then a Lee Enfield.





Replies:
Posted By: Canuck
Date Posted: April 19 2018 at 8:02am
Great photo memory, thanks for posting it Macd!

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Castles made of sand slip into the sea.....eventually


Posted By: Honkytonk
Date Posted: April 19 2018 at 9:12am
Pardon my ingnorance, but is this the battle where Tommies facing an overwhelming force and through training were able to cycle their Enfields (Mad Minute to the extreme!) probably such a sustained rate of fire the enemy thought they were facing machine guns?


Posted By: Shamu
Date Posted: April 19 2018 at 9:52am
I made the link live for you, you can just click on it to read the article now.


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Don't shoot till you see the whites of their thighs. (Unofficial motto of the Royal Air Force)


Posted By: Macd
Date Posted: April 19 2018 at 11:33am
Originally posted by Honkytonk Honkytonk wrote:

Pardon my ingnorance, but is this the battle where Tommies facing an overwhelming force and through training were able to cycle their Enfields (Mad Minute to the extreme!) probably such a sustained rate of fire the enemy thought they were facing machine guns?


That was the Battle of Mons at the beginning of the war. 

Four German battalions attacked the Nimy bridge, which was defended by a company of the 4th Battalion, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Fusiliers" rel="nofollow - Royal Fusiliers and a machine-gun section led by Lieutenant https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maurice_Dease" rel="nofollow - Maurice Dease . Advancing at first in close column, "parade ground formation", the Germans made easy targets for the British riflemen, who hit German soldiers at over 1,000 yards (910 m), mowing them down by rifle, machine-gun and artillery fire. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Mons#cite_note-FOOTNOTEBloem191639,_41-26" rel="nofollow - [25] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Mons#cite_note-27" rel="nofollow - [26] So heavy was the British rifle fire throughout the battle that some Germans thought they were facing batteries of machine-guns. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Mons#cite_note-28" rel="nofollow - [27]

Captain Bloem of the 12th Brandenburg Grenadiers led his men out of the woods only to find all the buildings were little British fortresses from which there “came a sharp, hammering sound, then a pause, then a more rapid hammering: machine guns!”  The soldiers holed up in the canal-side cottages and warehouses belonged to the 1st Battalion Queen’s Own Royal West Kents and it was their hot Lee-Enfields doing the damage, not the battalion’s two Vickers machine guns.
 
The  BEF had to retreat as the French 5th Army had pulled out on their flank.  This began the "Great Retreat" or also called the "Retreat from Mons"  for the BEF which ended with the Germans being stopped at the First Battle of the River Marne.
 


Posted By: A square 10
Date Posted: April 19 2018 at 7:34pm
thanks , that was something i did not know of , appreciate that 



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