Edward Walford Manifold was born on 28th April 1892 and grew up in the Western District of Victoria. Together with his older brother William Herbert (Bee), he travelled to England to join the Royal Field Artillery when World War I broke out. Day by day, this blog publishes his letters home and the entries he made in his diaries, from 1915 when he was first sent to France until 1918 when his service ends.
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Glued into the diary, on the facing page from the entries, are these lists, which I think must be of targets and ranges and which guns cover which areas:
Yes, I seem to think this relates to the troubles they are having with targetting their 'guns'.
The informal names are fascinating. 'Dook' is the sound that a rifle makes as replicated in a game by young boys 'dook dook dook dook dook' Don't know who Perkin was, but the Hindenburg label is clear.
The other thing I find of interest is the way that EWM forms the lower case 'r' which is in what I regard as the American form, not what was taught here in the script/running writing era. Not to my memory at any rate.
Yes, I seem to think this relates to the troubles they are having with targetting their 'guns'.
ReplyDeleteThe informal names are fascinating. 'Dook' is the sound that a rifle makes as replicated in a game by young boys 'dook dook dook dook dook' Don't know who Perkin was, but the Hindenburg label is clear.
The other thing I find of interest is the way that EWM forms the lower case 'r' which is in what I regard as the American form, not what was taught here in the script/running writing era. Not to my memory at any rate.