7 replies to this topic

[Lt Colonel Gerald Smyth]

I remember watching Michael Palin's very fine documentary on the last day of the war, great scene where he reaches down nearly 90 years later and is still able to pick up a clip of American rifle bullets from the battlefield. He states that the last 4 British soldiers killed in the Great War were an Englishman, an Irishman, a Scotsman and Welshman. Can anyone confirm this or is it just a myth?

[Paul Reed]

That's not quite what he said. The place you are referring to is Nouvelles Communal Cemetery where four of the men who died on 11th November 1918 are buried. They were all from units in the RND which was advancing on the flanks of the Canadians and meeting a lot of resistance. We don't know when these men died but four combat casualties buried together from 11th November 1918 is unusual and even more so as these four men are indeed from England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

http://www.cwgc.org/...MMUNAL CEMETERY

[KGB]

Cough cough. You are 38 years old and a Lt-General?

[Paul Reed]

The ranks are pretend, mate. Plus I haven't been 38 for a while.

[KGB]

Excuse me, I mean Lt-Col. Top of page. Aged 38. Nite.

[Crunchy]

KGB, on 19 June 2012 - 09:18 PM, said:

Excuse me, I mean Lt-Col. Top of page. Aged 38. Nite.

Nothing unusual about LTCOL's aged 38 in real ranks.

[DavidB]

During the war, at that age he probably would have thought that he had been passed over.

[Lt Colonel Gerald Smyth]

Hell in WW2 James Gavin was a General in his 30s.  "Bloody Wars and Sickly Seasons".