The official AHF WW1 quiz thread

[Rob Stuart]

Well done, Sheldrake. It is indeed Billy Bishop.

Over to you,

Rob

[Sheldrake]

Ok a couple of questions on four Gunners:-

Two WW1 Gunners, one British (A) and one German.(B) One famously happy and the other gloomy and dispiriting. Both achieve high rank in WW2 - but in a different arm of service. They command opposing forces in one of the most famous battles of the war.

Two French Gunners: Both are associated with the tactics of all out attack and criticised for the costliness of their attacks. Both criticised as glib and talkative.

General C is an intellectual who studied the German army and taught the French armies the lessons of 1866. Possibly his most famous quote from 1914 is a byword for optimism and aggression. He made a remarkably prescient prediction about the Versailles Treaty. Although regarded by contemporaries as one of the most original thinkers of his generation, his reputation has faded from its post war heights.

General D has a spectacular career, but ending in spectacular failure. He is a single letter from being a personal pronoun legend. His military legacy is limited. However his most famous words have been quoted, in different languages ever since his order of the day, by all sorts of determined types including soldiers, revolutionaries football supporters and even worn on a T Shirt by Pussy Riot member Nadezhda Tolokonnikova.

Who are A, B C & D

[Rob Stuart]

A = Dowding
B = Kesselring
C = Foch
D = Neville (not sure)

[Sheldrake]

Almost 100% correct Robert Neville is the hero of "I am Legend". Robert Nivelle was the French General whose order of the day was "'Ils ne passeront pas"

Over to you

[Rob Stuart]

Thanks Sheldrake.

So, here's the next question: Name at least two of the three officers in the front row in this picture:

[Rob Stuart]

Hint #1: Two of the three seated officers later became the senior most officer in their army.

[Rob Stuart]

More hints: The three seated officers were all gunners. The picture was probably taken in 1917, when all three were serving with the Canadian Corps, but one of them was not Canadian.

[Rob Stuart]

More hints:

The officer on the far left in this 1945 photo was then the commander of a certain field army. The officer sitting on the left in the WW1 photo was the first commander of the same army.

The officer second from left in this 1945 photo is also in the WW1 photo.

[Attrition]

Smith-Dorrien?

[Attrition]

and Brooke?

[Rob Stuart]

Smith-Dorrien: Nope.

Brooke: Yes, he's one of the three seated officers in the WW1 picture. Which one do you think he is?

[Terry Duncan]

Alan Brooke is the one seated on the right as we look at them?

[Rob Stuart]

Yes, that one is Brooke.

Another hint: In the WW2 picture, the guy standing between Brooke and Churchill is a corps commander whose boss is the guy on the far left in the same picture, who, as I mentioned, commanded the army whose first commander was the officer seated on the left in the WW1 picture.

[Terry Duncan]

Is the guy on the left Harry Crerar? If so I guess the seated officer in WWI is Andrew McNaughton? Would that make Guy Simonds the officer between Brooke and Churchill?

[Rob Stuart]

Yes, it's McNaughton, and the two Canadian officers in the 1945 picture are Crerar and Simonds. Well done.

The challenge I put out was to identify two of the three seated officers in the WW1 picture. "Attrition" offered one incorrect answer (Smith-Dorrien) and did not say which one Brooke was, so I would say that Terry wins, since he gave no wrong answer, said which one was Brooke and identified McNaughton. The third seated officer, fyi, was MGen Sir EWB Morrison KCMG, CB, DSO, who became the commander of the Canadian Corps artillery in December 1916. Brooke joined the Canadian Corps artillery HQ early in 1917 and McNaughton was appointed the Counter Battery Staff Officer at the same HQ at about the same time. Brooke left the Canadian Corps at some point in 1918, so the photo has to have been taken in 1917 or sometime in 1918 prior to Brooke's departure.

Over to you, Terry.

Rob