Comments by "Big Blue" (@bigblue6917) on "The History Chap" channel.

The Pine and Coffin families date back a long way. One came over with William the Conqueror while the other family was on King Harold's side. One of the officers who served under Pine-Coffin was a captain by the name of blood. Imagine, as one young lieutenant did, that your immediate superior officer was called Blood and above him was a man by the name of Pine-Coffin. As it happened he and the rest of his glider troops got through the D-Day with barely a scratch.
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True. But we are talking of a period of English history which was extremely repressive towards the poor. As an example there is a record of a young girl hanged for stealing a gentleman's handkerchief. While at the same time a chimneysweep whose brutal actions caused the death of his young apprentice was only deported to Australia. So a gentleman handkerchief had more value than that of a young boy. There is also a record from the early 19th century of two young girls being hung, or more accurately slowly choked to death, for being in possession of forged banknotes. Their only crime being that they were sent by some person to take these fake banknotes to another person. So as far as the poor were concerned these were people striking back at their repressors.
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The first time I came across Cochrane my thoughts was he would be a fantastic special forces commander. His raids on Spanish fortifications in the Mediterranean was stuff of legends. It got to the point where on sighting his ship he was followed along the coast by a formation of cavalry waiting to pounce the minute his men stepped ashore. What the cavalry did not know was that his raiding party had already been dropped in the ships boats leaving them behind to mount the raid once he had drawn off the Spanish.
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Just imagine the Bantams facing the Prussian Guards. How would you feel fighting someone who is the same height as you nether region. That's one place you would not want to be attacked.
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Violet Jessop and Arthur John Priest were also aboard the Olympic on her fifth voyage on 20 September 1911 when she turned across the bow of the British cruiser HMS Hawke. Hawke had a ram bow which was designed to sink enemy warships by ramming. So when she collided with Olympic's starboard side near the stern she tore two large holes in Olympic's hull, above and below the waterline, resulting in the flooding of two of her watertight compartments and a twisted propeller shaft. In command of the Olympic that day was captain Edward John Smith who was captain of the Titanic.
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I do know something about the Operation so it was not new to me, I seem to have the same interest in history as you do. But I am pleased to write that you did manage to find a number of details I had not come across before and that your telling of the story of Operation Masterdom was very well done.
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During the war Niven made the film The Way Ahead in he starred. Working on the film was one Sergeant Peter Ustinov. When there was no other officers about their relationship was very relaxed despite their difference in rank, they were fellow actors after all. But Niven was pulled up on this and was told that they had to observe military protocols. I understand that in todays modern British Army it is not unusual for the men to refer to any officer up to the rank of captain by their first name, Seem like Niven and Ustinov were ahead of their time.
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@Jaymark-gk4li Thanks. Yes and most of them used to suppress the poor.
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I'm pleased to see you have taken up my suggestion and you are covering Captain Noel Chavasse. A remarkably brave man. Interestingly of the three men who received the the VC twice two were doctors and only Chavasse won both in the same war. My paternal grandfather served with the Royal Garrison Artillery at both the Somme and Passchendaele.
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@eamonnclabby7067 thanks, much appreciated
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History, as in life, nothing is as simple as it seem.
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The amount of detail the BBC and the writers went to for this character is fantastic. The Home Guard Disbanded on the 31 December 1945 but became inactive 3 December 1944. Ironically the German equivalent, the Volksgrenadier, became active in the autumn of 1944. When the Home Guard was made active 14 May 1940 many of the men were WW1 veterans and as such may have had the most combat experience of any British unit. One of the things not depicted in the show was the fact that many WW1 veterans suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and found it very difficult when out on patrol. Despite the newspaper headlines Britain did not issue a formal declaration of war in 1914. I believe the Foreign Office Minister told the press that Britain was at war but there was no formal announcement. Interestingly Private Godfrey who was played by Arnold Ridley was depicted as a WW1 conscientious object whereas the actor suffered so many wounds in combat during WW1, including the Somme, he was discharged on health grounds. He did serve in the Home Guard at Caterham.
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@vitabricksnailslime8273 Me too. You probably know this already but Stalin was also training for the priesthood. Imagine what he would have done to the birds and the animals
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Thanks, History Chap. It's interesting how these three men have similar traits as well as connections between them.
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Interestingly Churchill's son was to replace Chamberlain's son and Prime Minister in 1940. May I suggest two men for future biographies. One is Captain William Henry Shakespear. Like Burnaby he was a linguist and explorer. He had close friendship with ibn Saud who would later go on to become the king of Saudi Arabia. and like Burnaby was to die in battle. I also wish to put forward Sir Samuel Baker who, like Barnaby, was also an Victorian adventurer who did much to stop the slave trade and was a close friend of General Gordon. In fact Gordon had asked Baker tp go to Khartoum in his stead. Baker turned him down saying that his wife was against it, but you have to see how much history would have been changed if he and not Gordon had been at Khartoum.
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Yes to Albert Ball. Spanish Flu actually originated in the US but because of reporting restrictions only the flu raging in Spain could be mentioned.
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I have seen Lady butler's The Return From Inkerman as it is in the Ferens Art Gallery near where I live.
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The Commander of the German troops in the East Africa campaign was celebrated as a hero when he returned to German as he was seen as the only successful German senior officer.
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Arnold Ridley suffered from the pain of those wounds throughout his life which may have been one of the reasons he became a playwright. Ridley had to sell the rights to The Ghost Train to cover the costs of a failed project he had worked on. He wanted to do the right thing by involved in the project and make sure everyone got what they were owed. But for that he could have retired and would have lived off the royalties of the play and would never have appeared in Dad's Army. Following the theme of medical people receiving high military awards in WW1 may I suggest you look into making a video on Captain Noel Chavasse. He was one of only three people to win the Victoria Cross twice and the only one to win both awards in the same war. World War One. He received the second award posthumously after dying of his wounds. Interestingly the first person to win the VC twice was Surgeon Captain Arthur Martin-Leake and it was he who had tried to save Captain Chavasse's life the night Chavasse died. Captain Martin-Leake had won his second VC earlier in the war. Like Captain Chavasse Captain Martin-Leake had won his VC saving a large number of wounded men.
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I did know about this story but I came across it sometime ago so it is good to be reminded of the details.
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Many highwaymen stories included some wealthy lawyer being robbed and this class was much hated amongst the poor. There is one story of a man who on being stopped by a highwayman avoided being robbed by claiming he too was a highwayman and was about to rob the robber. He was convincing enough that he was sent on his way. Later that evening at an inn he related the story of how he had made a fool of the highwayman and had kept his wealth. When he set off the following day he was again held up by a highwayman but this time his story of him also being a highwayman failed to get the results ha had hoped for. It turns out that the first highwayman was also in the inn that night and heard him boasting. So that morning the highwayman had departed early to get ready to stage the second holdup. There was a very successful farmer called William Davis, 1627 to 1689, who paid for everything in gold and as such he became known as Golden Farmer. Then one night he was shot and wounded near a highway. The shooter was a passenger in a coach Davis had just robbed. He had been a successful highwayman for some 40 year, extremely unusual in that profession. In fact he should have been called the Golden Highwayman and not the Golden Farmer. He had retired from being a highwayman but decided to return to his old trade one last time. The problem was he had lost his edge and failed to check the passengers for weapons. As he turned to ride away one passenger produced a hidden pistol and shot him in the back. He was taken to trail, convicted and hung. There is a story of him paying his landlord the yearly rent for the farm only for the landlord to be robbed by a highwayman on his way home. Next time Davis saw the landlord he was very sympathetic and his loss. And yes it was Davis. Interestingly many pirates at this time were also royalists, though many decided to remain in the pirate trade even after the restoration of the monarch. The just refrained from attacking English ships.
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A very remarkable man
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Bourne's moustache and sideburns were called Burnsides, named after the US army general of the same name who had fought for the North in the civil war. When men stopped growing the moustache but kept the rest then the name was reversed and they became sideburns. Stanley Baker owned Chard's original Victoria Cross, though he did not know that at the time. And, of course, he should have worn a blue coat being an engineer. At the end of the film Michael Caine, playing Bromhead, tells Baker's Chard that he had not fought a battle before. This was not true as he already had combat experience.
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I do know of this battle but it was good to hear it again. Interestingly the British government did receive a number of letters from the families of those conscripts who served and died in Korea. They understood why their sons may fight and die in Europe as they would be protecting Britain and Europe against Soviet forces. But not in a country the other side of the world. Something which would be echoed by Americans during the Viet Nam War.
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@kaoskronostyche9939 your welcome
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I did know much of this as I had seen a video where Michael Caine spoke about his experiences in Korea. But I did enjoy the video. Actually during the Viet Nam War there were several incidences of North Korean incursions into the south with casualties on both sides. Because of the fighting in Viet Nam much of this was not reported. As to the reactions of the British population to the Korean. Whereas the people could understand the conscripts serving in German to protect the West against the Soviets they did not see why their sons were out there fighting and dying so far from home. A sentiment later held by many Americans during the Viet Nam War.
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