U.S. Use of the SMLE

[rayg]

What are those pouches that look like 1911 pistol magazine pouches side by side but look like a single closing flap, if I seeing it right? Ray

[gsimmons]

1911 magazine pouches, interestingly they have on mounted belts.

[rayg]

Yes 45 auto mag pouches but I never saw a twin pouch with a single wide closing flap.

---------- Post added at 07:22 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:19 PM ----------

Yes 45 auto mag pouches.

[gsimmons]

The early eagle snap pouches

[rayg]

Yes 45 auto mag pouches. I must be losing it, I forgot they had a single closing flap.

[gsimmons]

I'm glad I'm not the only one.

[Roger Payne]

Rob, sorry, didn't mean to imply you Canadians were not heavily involved in the final 100 days, Breaking of the H Line etc!
I was simply referring specifically to the Riqueval/Bellicourt sector.

[Surpmil]

Rob, sorry, didn't mean to imply you Canadians were not heavily involved in the final 100 days, Breaking of the H Line etc!
I was simply referring specifically to the Riqueval/Bellicourt sector.

Kind of you Roger, but I wasn't referring to your post at all, or even the original poster's.

After reading the original post I went looking for more information on the whole business and was struck by how the Wikipedia entry for example doesn't mention the Canadians at all on the breaking of the Hindenburg line.

Hindenburg Line - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Hundred Days' Offensive - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

or

Canada's Hundred Days - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

What's the old story? "Defeat is an orphan while victory has a hundred fathers!"

Sorry to tootle on the old horn, but I think we owe it to those who were there.

[Tom Jackson]

When I was growing up my grandfather and most of his friends were WWI veterans. My grandfather had a great deal of respect for the British Army ('British' collectively meaning - U.K. and Commonwealth soldiers). My Grandfather told me he was very impressed by the British instructors who taught at OCS in 1917-18 - "real soldiers". However, my grandfather excepted, the general opinion at the time was that the AEF won the war at Meuse-Argonne after the British and French failed to defeat the Kaiser. I think that is still a common view here in the U.S. and it comes thru in Bruce Canfield's references to the SMLE in several books. However as a veteran and former U.S. Army officer, I don't think that understanding the role of the BEF during the 'Hundred Days' takes anything away from my grandfather and his friends and the sacrifices they made. I certainly think that the U.S. troops who fought with the BEF are entitled to the same recognition as the soldiers who fought under Pershing.

[breakeyp]

Additional information if anyone is interested and would like to obtain a copy:

"Borrowed Soldiers", by Mitchell A. Yockelson. University of Oklahoma Press. Oddly someone cut out the frontis page so I don't know when it was published. The book does give an email address, Borrowed Soldiers, by Mitchell A. Yockelson .