Quote:
Originally posted by Displaced Flames fan@Nov 11 2004, 09:35 PM
BTW...Cow, that's an amazing picture. Is that something you have personally or did you get it off the net?
It's amazing how looking at an image like that can overwhelm you as you think about all that it encompasses.
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The story of the picture:
We've always had his letters to friends (describing taking the King around the battlefield of Belinglise), letters of commendation from officers recommending him for medals and a description of the action behind it, regimental histories, etc and always knew that Riqueval Bridge had been the one he assaulted on Sept. 29, 1918. Relatives through the years have visited the bridge as it stands today.
That's kind of where it stood for about 80 years.
A few years ago I was in a used book store in Red Deer and saw "The Battles Of The Somme" by Martin Marix Evans. Flipping through it I was startled to see not only my grandfather's name coming up in a description of the action that morning, but also the photo above as well as a contemporary picture of the bridge as it stands today with captions describing his assault.
I bought the book (and found another later) and using a new fangled thing called the internet, I then searched and found a copy of the picture above which I distributed to the delighted maniac historians in the family (not myself believe it or not).
More recently, while surfing the net, I was surpised to find a British war artist who plans a canvas of my grandfather leading the charge over this bridge.
http://www.militaryartist.co.uk/about/gjgiddins.html
I'm not on a mad hunt for my grandfather's history. But without the book and its captions first of all, I probably wouldn't have made the connection.
The photo is one you see come up quite often in WWI histories. The war ended about a month or six weeks later.
My grandfather returned to central Alberta to his quiet farm.
Cowperson