The Western Front Association

[Tizer]

Our Village Hall in Somerset hosted a one-day exhibition on hobbies and interests today and among the topics was a presentation by the Deputy Chairman, Martin Hornby, of the Western Front Association whose objective is to further studies into the Great War (World War 1). Martin is one of our former neighbours and is a great source of information on the Great War. He put up slides showing sources of information for anyone researching their ancestors that were in the services during the Great War. I've listed some below in the hope that it might help OG members (and promote the Western Front Association of course).

* The Long, Long Trail: The British Army in the Great War
http://www.1914-1918.net/

* The Great War Forum
http://1914-1918.invisionzone.com

* The Western Front Association
http://www.westernfrontassociation.com/

* The National Army Museum
http://www.nam.ac.uk/

* Military Genealogy
http://www.military-genealogy.com/

* Imperial War Museum
http://www.iwm.org.uk/

* London Gazette
http://www.london-gazette.co.uk/

* Army Museums Ogilby Trust
http://www.armymuseums.org.uk/

* Naval & Military Press - book publishers, including regimental histories in the Great War
http://www.naval-military-press.com/

Telephone numbers of the officers of the Western Front Association are available on their web site Contacts page and I have an email address for Martin Hornby if any OG member needs it.

[Travis]

'Been a member for many years.

[Stanley]

Brother Leslie is a member. He has helped us on the site several times.

[Tizer]

With 6000 members, two magazines and 50 branches nationwide it's very successful - and will become even more so as we move into the the centenary in 2014-18.

When I was talking to Martin after his presentation I mentioned how a bloke called Stanley had told me that the British were buying shells off the Germans in the Great War and he added more tales of the same sort of thing, especially involving Krupps. Also how GB had to pay France after the War for all the roadstone we used to build roads for the armies to move about - as Martin said: "And that after we chucked out the Germans for them!" We talked about the raising of the scuttled German fleet at Scapa in the 20s and 30s and I reminded him about how when the scrap metal was shipped down the east coast to the British ports in the 1930s there were German ships carrying some of it - and under the Swastika flag! He told me that the scrap from the Hindenburg was sent from Scapa to Germany and used to build the Graf Spee and how ironic it was that the Hindenburg/Graf Spee was probably the only ship to have been scuttled twice!

[Stanley]

Not the shells Tiz, just the licence to make the fuses, but yes, after the war I think we paid Krupps £60,000. Lots of strange things happened in the engineering field. Newton once told me that Krupps forgings were still coming into the UK for steam engine manufacture well into WW1. I can't remember the source but there was an armour plate cartel in place across UK, US and German firms during WW1. Dig for Harvey Process armour plate.