The Short 184 was designed to meet a requirement for a torpedo bomber. It was developed from the Short 1913 circuit of Britain airplane with a 225hp Sunbeam Maori engine and was notable for its rearward folding wings and three-float landing gear. A major production programme began in the spring of 1915 involving 9 contractors in addition to Short. A variety of engines powered the Short 184 including the 240hp Renault and Sunbeam units. Production totalled more than 900 aircraft of which 300 were still in service at the end of the Great War.
Lohner L
The Lohner L, a slender, elegant flying boat, was produced by the Jakob Lohner Werke of Vienna. Powered by either a 140hp Hiero or by an Austro-Daimler of 140 or 180hp, this two-seater aircraft could carry up to 200kg of bombs or depth charges and also operate quite effectively as a fighter armed with a Schwarzlose machine-gun on a rotable mounting. It was used in the Austro-Hungarian Navy against Italian targets from 1915 until the end of the war in the reconnaissance, night bombing and anti-shipping roles.
The Taube or ‘Dove’ was so-called because of its swept-back wing tips and long fan-shaped tail. It had inherent stability, was pleasant to fly and had a reasonable performance. The Rumpler company took over the manufacturing rights from the designer, Etrich, and many makes of Taube were produced by the Albatros, Gotha and Rumpler firms. All civilian versions were pressed into service at the outbreak of the war and, on August 30th 1914, Paris was bombed from Taube with five 6.6lb bombs. In the same month a Rumpler Taube was instrumental in saving the day for the German 8th Army at the Battle of Tannenberg by observing an unexpected Russian advance. Approximately 500 Tauben were built for the German armed forces.
Avro 504
The Avro 504 first appeared in 1913, an airplane considerably in advance of most of its cotemporaries in design, construction and performance, despite this, only 13 Avro’s were used by front-line units in France. One Avro of No.5 Squadron RFC was the first British machine to be brought down by the enemy while another, from the same squadron, armed with a Lewis gun, made the first ground strafing attack of the war during the first Battle of Ypres, October 22nd 1914. The most audacious action by this type occurred two days later when four Avro’s bombed the Zeppelin sheds at Friedrichshafen on Lake Constance. Later marks saw some operational service until the Avro 504 came into its own as an excellent training aircraft.
These two Memorial Death Plaques or ‘Death Coins’ from WW1 were given to the families of George Sloan Brown and Alexander Cumming for their sacrifices during the First World War.
It was in October 1916 that the British Government set up a committee for the idea of a commemorative plaque that could be given to the next of kin for those men and women whose deaths were caused by the First World War from 1914-1918. The first a family would know of the death of a family member was the arrival of a telegram from the War Office. This would then be followed by the First World War Death Plaque and any medals the serviceman would have earned serving his country.
Production of the plaques, which was supposed to be financed by German reparation money, began in 1919 with approximately 1,150,000 issued. They commemorated those who fell between 4th August, 1914 and 10th January, 1920 for home, Western Europe and the Dominions whilst the final date for the other theatres of war or those who died of attributable causes was April 30th 1920.
The next of kin of the 306 British and Commonwealth military personnel who were executed following a Court Martial did not receive a memorial plaque.
When HM Factory Gretna was built in WW1 they needed a place to house all of their workers, they came up with the idea to build two new townships near the Factory site. These two townships were Eastriggs and Gretna, many houses and hostels were built to house all of the workers during WW1 some of which you can see in the photo below of Dunedin Road in Eastriggs.
The photo below shows the temporary wooden huts which were eventually converted into proper houses using brick after the war built in Gretna along with some of the permanent hostel buildings which have now been converted into houses.
Below is a photo of the girls reading room which would be used some of the 12,000 female workers who worked at HM Factory Gretna during their spare time. The interior looks very nice but some reports we have of girls who worked at the Factory say that it was very cold inside during the winter as there was no heating.
Built at first by Rene Hanriot and Pierre Dupont at Billancourt, Paris, this attractive French fighter found little interest with the Aviation Militaire, who did not use it operationally. The Italian Air Force thought otherwise; producing large numbers at the Nieuport-Macchi factory at Varese and adopting the aircraft as its most widely-used fighter, in Italy, Albania and Macedonia. it also equipped the Belgian Aviation Militaire and was used by the French and United States Navies.
Fokker E-111
During the early months of the Great War the Dutchman, Anthony Fokker, supplied three monoplane designs to the German Army. In April 1915 Fokker was asked to develop one of these to be armed with a fixed machine gun firing forwards through the propeller. Three months later an interrupter gear was devised by Fokker and Lubbe and fitter into the Fokker M5k single-seat monoplane already in service. The airplane was then given the military title of Fokker E-1. The E-1 was powered by the 80hp Oberursel rotary engine and was soon replaced by the E-11 and the E-111 both with the 100hp Oberursel. At first, armament was a single Parabellum gun but the standard equipment soon became the Spandau. The E-IV, a larger machine, powered by the 160hp Oberursel was armed with two Spandau’s. The Fokker Eindecker entered service in later 1915 to start the ‘Fokker Scourge’ that gave German’s air superiority. 258 were built and used by the German’s, Austro-Hungarians and Turks. Production ended in July 1916 when the airplane had become thoroughly obsolete.
This WW1 Trench Art from the Museums store shows what soldiers could create with used objects while they were stuck in the trenches.
The first item is an Ash Tray which has been made from the bottom of a shell. As you can see some of the pieces of the shell have been melted and folded outwards to fit cigarettes in them.
The next item is what we think is a lamp or heater. But could also possible be another ash tray looking at the design.
Trench art is any decorative item made by soldiers, prisoners of war or civilians where the manufacture was directly linked to armed conflict or its consequences. It offers an insight into not only their feelings and emotions about the war, but also their surroundings and the materials they had available to them.
Not limited to the World Wars, the history of Trench Art spans conflicts from the Napoleonic Wars to the present day. Although the practice flourished during World War One, the term ‘trench art’ is also used to describe souvenirs manufactured by service personnel during World War Two. Some items manufactured by soldiers, prisoners of war or civilians during earlier conflicts have been retrospectively described as trench art.
In the Museums store we have many different kinds of medals and badges from different regiments and wars. These three badges and medals are all from WW1. These include a badge from The Royal Scots, a WW1 Allied Victory Medal and the 1914-15 Star.
The Royal Scots (The Royal Regiment), once known as the Regiment of Foot, was the oldest and most senior infantry regiment of the line of the British Army, having been raised in 1633 during the reign of Charles 1 of Scotland. The regiment existed continuously until 2006, when it amalgamated with the King’s Own Scottish Borderers to become the Royal Scots Borderers, which merged with the Royal Highland Fusiliers (Princess Margaret’s Own Glasgow and Ayrshire Regiment), the Black Watch, the Highlanders (Seaforth, Gordons and Camerons) and the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders to form the Royal Regiment of Scotland.
The WW1 Allied Victory Medal as awarded to all those who received the 1914 Star or the 1914-15 Star, and to most of those who were awarded the British War Medal. It was not awarded singly. To qualify, recipients need to have served in the Armed Forces of the United Kingdom or the British Empire, or with certain recognised voluntary organisations, and to have entered any theatre of war between 5 August 1915 and 11 November 1918. While home service did not count, United Kingdom based members of the RAF who were actively engaged in the air against the enemy did qualify, as did those who flew planes to France. Women qualified for this and other First World War campaign medals while serving in nursing and auxiliary forces in a theatre of war. It was also awarded for mine clearance in the North Sea between 11 November 1918 and 30 November 1919 and for participation in the Allied intervention of the Russian Civil War up to 1st July 1920.
The 1914-15 Star is a campaign medal of the British Empire which was awarded to officers and men of British and Imperial forces who served in any theatre of the First World War against the Central European Powers during 1914 and 1915. The medal was never awarded singly and recipients also received the British War Medal and the Victory Medal. The 1914-15 Star was instituted in December 1918 and was awarded to officers and men who served between 5 August 1914 and 31 December 1915, provided they had not already received the 1914 star. The period of eligibility was prior to the Military Service Act 1916, which introduced conscription in Britain.
The Caudron G4 came into service during the spring of 1915 as a bombing reconnaissance airplane with a good useful load of about 220lbs, an extraordinary rate of climb and even equipped with a wireless set. G4s were assigned to 38 escadrilles of the French Air force and used extensively throughout the war. At first they operated on reconnaissance duties then, in November 1915, they undertook daytime bombing sorties attacking targets beyond the Rhine. By the autumn of 1916 they were withdrawn from this duty because of the greatly improved German fighter defences. The RNAS used the Caudron G4. 43 were imported from France and 12 were built in the British Caudron plant. They were used to raid the German Zeppelin, submarine and seaplane bases along the Belgian coast. The G4 was also built in Italy and used by the Italian Air Force while 10, acquired by the American Army Air Force, were used as training aircraft.
Vickers F.B 5
Vickers Ltd were one of the first companies to design fighter aircraft. Their Type 18 ‘Destroyer’ was featured at the 1913 Aero show at Olympia armed with a belt-fed Maxim gun. The production aircraft, the FB 5, was bought by the RFC armed with a drum-fed Lewis Gun. No.11 Squadron RFC was the first specialised fighter Squadron to be formed with FB 5s in February 1915 and was soon in action with its ‘Gunbus’ used as a fighter, ground-strafer and sometimes a bomber. On 7th November 1915, 2nd Lieutenant G.S.M. Insall of No.11 Squadron RFC won the Victoria Cross for an action in a Vickers FB 5. This slow airplane, with a meagre performance, remained in service until July 1916, by then being no match at all for the German Fokker monoplanes.
These two objects are being kept in the Museums store so I thought I would do a bit of research on them. One of the items are .303 British shell casings from WW1 and the other is an officers side arm holster also from WW1.
The .303 British bullets were first developed in Britain as a black-powder round put into service in December 1888 for the Lee-Metford rifle. In 1891 the cartridge was adapted to use smokeless powder. It was the standard British and Commonwealth military cartridge from 1889 until the 1950’s when it was replaced by the 7.62x51mm NATO. During a service life of over 70 years with the British Commonwealth armed forces the .303-inch cartridge in its ball pattern progressed through ten marks which eventually extended to a total of about 26 variations. The bolt thrust of the .303 British is relatively low compared to many other service rounds used in the early 20th Century. During World War One British factories alone produced 7 billion rounds of .303 ammunition. Factories in other countries greatly added to this total.
The other item is a leather WW1 British Officers sidearm holster which we believe used to hold a Webley-Fosbery Automatic Revolver which was used by British Army officers as their side arm. The Webley-Fosbery Automatic Revolver was designed in 1895 and was produced from 1901-1924, the revolver is easily recognisable by the zig-zag grooves on the cylinder. Though Webley viewed this weapon as an ideal sidearm for cavalry troops, the Webley-Fosbery was never adopted as an official government sidearm. Several models of the Webley-Fosbery revolvers were produced, and the type saw limited action in the Boer Wars as well as World War One, where some privately purchased examples were carried by British Officers in the .455 service bearing. Reports from the field suggested that the Webley-Fosbery, with its precisely machined recoil surfaces, was more susceptible to jamming in wartime conditions of mud and rain than comparable sidearms of the period.
The Lloyd C1 produced by the Ungarishe Lloyd Flugzueg and Motorenfabrik immediately before the outbreak of the Great War achieved instant fame by reaching an altitude of 20,243 feet at Aspern near Vienna. The aeroplane was already in service when the war started and between four and five hundred of the Lloyd C1, C2, C3, C4 and C5 were built and used extensively by the Austro-Hungarian Air Services during the first half of the war. No armament was first carried but the observer later had a schwarzlose machine gun. Some we fitted with a second machine gun mounted on the top wing. With its good rate of climb the Lloyd was a popular aircraft in the mountainous Italian front. It was stable and easy to fly even in the roughest weather. It then served well as a trainer after its operational life had ended.
Morane-Saulnier L
The Morane-Saulnier L was developed from the Type G which appeared together with three other excellent Morane designs at the Salon Aeronautique in Paris in 1911. The Type L, powered with either a Gnome or Le Rhone rotary was ordered in large numbers at the outbreak of war as a reconnaissance machine but, as it was found to be appreciably faster than German two-seaters, pilots were encouraged to arm their aircraft with pistols, cavalry carbines and other small arms. Nearly 600 Type L’s were built and used by Escadrilles MS3, 12 and 23 whose pilots and observers were successful in brining down many German aircraft during the first half of 1915. It was also used by No.3 Squadron RAF and No.1 Wing RNAS which accounted for the destruction of Zeppelin LZ37 on 7th June 1915. In the reconnaissance role it was operated by 8 French escadrilles and the Russians.
This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish.AcceptRead More
Privacy & Cookies Policy
Privacy Overview
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
