Last night I watched ‘Series 2012 – Saving Private Ryan: The True Story’ on Channel 5.
It was an interesting story, though the repetition of information after each commercial break is always annoying.
However, one of the most important points that should be taken out of the program was the fact that it wasn’t American Higgins Boats crewed by the US Navy that took the Rangers into Omaha, but British LCAs (Landing Craft Assault) crewed by the Royal Marines and the Royal Navy.
My post entitled ‘Fact or Fiction?’ created a lot of good debate on Project Hougoumont’s Facebook page. However after a lot of thought, I felt compelled to respond to one contributor’s comment that:
“Critical analysis of sources is what marks out a historian from someone who reads a lot.”
I’m note sure that I agree with that hypothesis.
The dictionary defines a historian as someone who is an authority and/or a writer of history.
Books written by historians about Hougoumont and Waterloo, such as Paget & Saunders, Uffindell & Corum and Fletcher all mention the drummer coming in via the North Gate of Hougoumont.
I was asked for some advice the other day on how to become a battlefield guide, so here are my top five tips for you:
One of the things about being a battlefield guide is trying to sort the fact from the fiction without taking anything away from the stories we tell.
To give you one example; almost all the literature you’ll read about the struggle for Hougoumont during the Battle of Waterloo, says that all the French who entered the complex through the North Gate were killed, less a drummer boy who had lost his drum.
It’s a good story and demonstrates the compassion that could be shown by the Guards to their foe, even in the height of the battle.
However, reading all the original sources that I’ve found, there isn’t one that corroborates the story of the drummer boy coming through the North Gate. So is this fact or fiction?
Last week a relative of a soldier who had died on the Somme and buried at Bray Military Cemetery contacted me. Whilst trying to locate the position of the grave within the cemetery for them, I noticed there were also plots for Indians and Egyptians on the CWGC cemetery plan too.
Well it’s not really, it just new to me. Following a recent family bereavement, you might say I inherited a German WW2 ID tag, that is believed to belong to a member of the family. What’s interesting is the name of the unit: 3./ Kr. Gef. Dachd. Batl. VI, (Kriegsgefangenen Dachdecker Bataillon), which translates to: 3rd Company, 6th PoW Camp Roofer Battalion. What’s new to me is that such a battalion existed!
