Sign that you were a friend, not a foe
JOhN PresTON’s review of Andrew roberts’s book elegy: The first Day On The somme mentions the tin triangles sewed on to British soldiers’ backs so their officers could plot their progress. rather than being just another example of folly on the part of World War I generals, this illustrates an abiding problem of that war, little appreciated in these days of mobile phones and battlefield radios. There were very good reasons for devices to show the soldiers’ location, including reducing the possibility of ‘friendly fire’. One observation technique involved royal flying Corps aeroplanes on ‘contact patrols’, sending back to hQ news of the troops’ advance on the ground. Ground flares were lit in trenches or shell holes to show how far the troops had got and the metal triangle, on show all the time so the individual soldier didn’t have to remember to display it, was an innovation introduced for the somme offensive. Other devices were introduced during 1917 including the Watson fan; a fan, black on one side and white on the other, which could be opened when a soldier was at the bottom of a shell hole or trench. This was used successfully at the Battle of Messines. however, the contact patrol system wasn’t thought as good as it should have been during 1917, and at the end of the year General headquarters of the British expeditionary force conducted a survey among its units on what had worked or not and asked for any ideas of changes in equipment or procedures. The results were analysed, various trials and experiments undertaken and some changes made. By August 1918, a new device was being introduced into the British Armies consisting of an extra flap attached to the gas mask haversack that, when opened, showed white cloth with a metal disc on the flap. When called for by the contact aeroplane, the troops could ‘flap’ this device to indicate their location while under shelter of a shell hole, etc. This was a popular device with all the British Armies as it didn’t add much weight for an infantryman to carry and was on a piece of equipment they were unlikely to throw away. however, the war ended before all troops were equipped with these. Those metal triangles used on the first day of the somme were an early attempt at solving the problem of accurately trying to locate troops on the World War I battlefield.
MIKE MEECH, Clacton-on-Sea, Essex.