Last January whilst doing some research for an up-coming tour, I found that there were Egyptians buried within a Military Cemetery on the Somme. Before then I hadn’t realised that any Egyptians had served on the Western Front.

There aren’t any accurate figures as to how many of the Egyptian Labour Corps served on the Somme, but there are six buried at Bray.

When I wrote the post in January, I promised that the next time I was there I would pay them a visit. True to my word, last Saturday whilst on tour down on the Somme I managed to do just that.

I’m glad I made the effort.

I came back from a tour to Gallipoli last week, where the Hood Battalion of the Royal Naval Division fought with distinction, as did many other battalions of the MEF (Mediterranean Expeditionary Force) during the Dardanelles Campaign.

An excellent memoir of the campaign written by Joseph Murray who served with the Hood Battalion called ‘Gallipoli 1915’ (not to be confused with other books of the same title), is well worth a read.

The picture above is of the entrance to Gully Ravine at Gully Beach. Just to the right (next to the segment of tyre in the shape of a ‘u’), is the well that Murray describes trying to find in his memoir, whilst attached to the Royal Engineers. Their inscription can still be seen on the concrete lip of the well. The well is still in use – I pulled water from it myself.

Another notable member of the same battalion was Sub-Lieutenant Rupert Brooke, the renowned poet who died at sea en route to Gallipoli on St. George’s Day 1915, after having developed septicemia from a mosquito bite. He is buried in an olive grove on the Greek Island of Skyros.

I’m no poetry fan, but the first three lines of his fourth War Sonnet, The Soldier, does speak to me, and that’s why I’ve used it on the homepage of my website. Here’s the poem in full:

The Soldier

If I should die, think only this of me:

That there’s some corner of a foreign field

That is for ever England. There shall be

In that rich earth a richer dust concealed;

A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware,

Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam,

A body of England’s, breathing English air,

Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home.
And think, this heart, all evil shed away,

A pulse in the eternal mind, no less

Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given;

Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day;

And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness,

In hearts at peace, under an English heaven.

Rupert Brooke

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.

It’s vitally important that these facts are correctly told and not forgotten, because to do otherwise, would be a great injustice to those that served and died for their country.

It reminded me of an article I read whilst doing some research for a tour I guided (with the son of one of those Royal Navy sailors who crewed one of the LCAs carrying in the Rangers) last year to Omaha Beach.

Here’s an extract from that article, which sums it up better than I ever could:

Matters were hardly improved by the film ‘Saving Private Ryan’. I have no objection to the film as such because it wasn’t a documentary and Spielberg can use his remarkable talents to portray a story. But when asked by a BBC interviewer why he did not show any British involvement, he replied ‘This is a film about Omaha Beach. There were no British on Omaha. There is no role for the British.’ Spielberg also claimed that ‘Historical accuracy is the bedrock of films such as Saving Private Ryan.’ He follows the tradition of Marshall who wrote in an article ‘Normandy was a great American victory.’ Perhaps it was all a bad dream and I was not there.

‘Saving Private Ryan’ depicted C Company of 2nd Ranger Infantry Battalion landing on the Dog Green sector of Omaha Beach. Their two British LCA landing craft and the six LCAs carrying A Company of 116th Infantry Regiment of the 29th Infantry Division of the Army of the United States of America came under my command at that exact point and time. I was British then, as were all of the hundreds of other British sailors landing American troops on the morning of D-Day. Denying the presence of the Royal Navy on Omaha Beach or dishonouring them was a gross injustice.

On a more serious note, Omaha deserves a place in American history. Those who died bravely at Omaha deserve to have their death recorded accurately. We who survived owe it to them. We owe it to those who served in World War Two to remember their stories, like mine, and we owe it to them to remember them accurately, as they actually happened.

As Lieutenant Ray Nance, a veteran of and second in command of A Company of 116th Infantry Regiment put it ‘We were with the British. They were the best.’

Jimmy Green

If you have the time, I would recommend reading the full article, ‘The Royal Navy on Omaha Beach’ by Kevan Elsby, which is available online at: bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar

“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’m not a historian and all the reading I’ve done has yet to highlight a primary or secondary source to support that account.

On the contrary, the account I’ve read by Clay (even if considered a secondary sources because of the time that passed between the event and it being recorded), says that the drummer boy came in through the South Gate.

It’s because I’ve read a lot I’ve come to question some historians’ account of that specific event, which does turn that hypothesis on its head.

So what’s my take out on all of this?

One should continue to keep on reading everything one can with an open mind, and be prepared to question what historians have written in the past. It’s not about scoring points, but getting as close to the truth as possible.

It’s for this reason I look forward to reading the new accounts of the Waterloo Campaign that have been translated and published on the Waterloo 1815 Archive by John Franklin.

The picture above is of the cross that hung inside the chapel of Hougoumont before it was stolen last year.

1. You won’t get rich being a battlefield guide; therefore you should ensure you have a regular secondary income that will cover your monthly outgoings, whether it’s a part-time job or a pension.





2. If you’ve never guided before or don’t have a lot of experience, you should consider going on a course to learn about the trade and the craft of guiding. There’s a newly formed company that’s been specifically set-up to provide this service called Travel Guide Training and Validation Limited.  TGT-V will give you the training you need, but it won’t give you a qualification.

3. For that, you should consider joining the International Guild of Battlefield Guides. The Guild holds many events through the year where you’d have the opportunity to learn more about the craft, network and socialize with liked minded people with an interest in military history and battlefield guiding. Once in the Guild you can then tread the path towards becoming a qualified Battlefield Guide through the Guild’s Validation program. The Guild is an industry partner of the European Tour Operators Association and as a member; you’ll be able to apply for an ETOA Card through the Guild.





4. Have public liability insurance. If you join the Guild you can benefit from their scheme. It’s extremely competitive and will cater for low tour volumes, which is good for those just starting out.





5. Get some experience under your belt – offer to take your friends on a ‘not for profit’ tour and ask them for their constructive feedback on all aspects of your tour; planning, preparation, timings, travel, accommodation, meals, tour content and the delivery of your stands. Don’t dismiss any comments especially negative ones – learn from them – it will make you a better guide.
   
   
   
   And finally, remember a tour is just as much a social event as trip to the battlefields. Don’t battlefield them out – allow enough time for your clients to have a beer, or two!

The picture above is of me rubbing the head of the brass monkey outside Mons Town Hall for good luck, probably just as some of the men of “A” Company of the 4th Battalion, Royal Fusiliers would have done prior to the Battle of Mons in 1914.

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?

Most of the stories do mention and even quote Pte. Matthew Clay of the 3^rd Regiment of Foot Guards, who was there. What’s evident is that most of the books take quotes from other books rather than going back to the original source. If they had, they would have found a better story.

If one reads the whole of Clay’s original account, he goes on to say that the French also forced the South Gate where small number got in, including the drummer boy, who he took responsibility for. The South Gate being breached isn’t mentioned in any of the books.

Clay’s account is corroborated by Lt Col Wyndham of the Coldsteam Guards and Capt Büsgen of the German Nassauers within letters they had written about the action.

Clay concludes his account with; “On going into the yard [Hougoumont] it being evening, and perceiving a clear glowing fire ring from the ruins of a stable or some out-house, I took the opportunity of cooking the remaining portion of pork which I had stowed away in my haversack, and after having placed it upon the fire and quietly awaiting it being cooked, discovered that the glow of the fire arose from the half consumed body of some party who had fallen in the contest.”

It goes to show that if you look a little deeper, the facts are often better than the fiction.

The photograph is one I took of a lithograph found hanging in one of the anterooms of the Officers Mess at Wellington Barracks, depicting the Guards quite clearly closing the South Gates of Hougoumont.

Clay’s account ‘A Narrative of the Battles of Quatre-Bras and Waterloo; with the defence of Hougoumont,’ edited by Gareth Glover, is available from Amazon.

I hadn’t realised that Egyptians had served on the Western Front. Having looked into this further, I found out that the Egyptian Labour Corps (ELC) was formed in 1915 specifically for the Gallipoli campaign. Apparently they weren’t a great success there as they refused to work under shellfire. However, the ELC also served in Egypt, Palestine, Mesopotamia and Salonika, as well as in France from March 1917 building roads, railways, laying water pipes and moving stores on a six-month contact.

There aren’t any accurate figures as to how many of the ELC served on the Somme, but I know of six, and the next time I’m in Bray I’ll make a point of paying them a visit.

Besides doing what it says on the tin (no pun intended), I’ve been able to find out that on the 17^th of July 1941 the 1st and 2nd Companies of the Battalion (58 commissioned officers and enlisted men) together with 200 PoWs arrived at Köln from Krefeld to help with the excavation of burials and the removal of bombing debris as a result of the RAF raids on the area. www.bunkerarchaeologie.de

Although they weren’t front line troops, they didn’t exactly have it easy either. The next thing now is to find out whom the disc belonged to…