Oriskany's Final Days of the Great War - Australians + British tanks vs. Germans at Hamel
Part Two - Completing 36th Ulster Division for Valor & Victory
Almost done with the base counter template.
Also found some shoulder patches I will try to recreate and incorporate into the counters.
Finished counter, at least for the full rifle section.
The complete "army" - not bad for a night's work. I have a -2 rated captain (the -2 is a bonus, not a penalty) - a certain fellow we may know from Coleraine. :) He's assisted by a cadre of brave lieutenants. Also, note the full rifle section, half rifle section, Vickers MG, Lewis Gun, "Mills Bomb" grenade counter, and 3-inch Stokes Mortar.
A reinforced company of the 9th Battalion, Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, 109th Brigade, 36th Ulster Division (II Corps, British Second Army, BEF) in the streets of Beveren, Belgium (east of Ypres) - final days of the Great War.
Its certainly an interesting part of our history and like many other parts of the world that fought in WW1 the troops that fought and the battles they took part in have reached almost mythic status.
If you drive round Belfast you can streets named after the battles of the Somme,Albert, Bapaume,Hamel etc
As an interesting aside Ireland (as it was all one place at the time) in WW1 never introduced conscription. They were going to introduce in April 1918 but was never put into effect
Thanks very much, @torros. So I was a little worried that the “Royal Ulster Rifles” specifically (the green and black badge) might be a historical mismatch with the 36th Ulster Division. But now I’m finding sources that say that might be at least somewhat accurate after all. So one source says (of specific battalions of Royal Ulster Rifles Regiment): The 11th (Service) Battalion (South Antrim), 12th (Service) Battalion (Central Antrim) and 13th (Service) Battalion (1st County Down) landed at Boulogne-sur-Mer as part of the 108th Brigade in the 36th (Ulster) Division in October 1915 for service on the Western Front.… Read more »
Also, battle reports hopefully soon to come. Wonder what @avernos will think of this project. He might actually be able to help with my whole “Royal Ulster Rifle” vs. “Royal Irish Rifle” thing.
Honestly might just be an oversight on one of these sources.
Also, names of regiments sometimes change, and the new name sometimes gets retroactively “time-stamped” back on previous records. In the earlier period, the regiment technically had another name, but records show the new name to maintain lineage and consistency.
The Royal Irish rifles became the Royal Ulster rifles in 1921 after Northern Ireland became a thing
Epic. Thanks, @torros – I was hoping it was something like that. That would explain why my first source don’t specify Ulster / Irish rifle battalions (more of an overall history of the regiment itself) – and the second source (which focused strictly on World War I) specified the more precise Irish Rifles name for the battalions (to be updated to Ulster Rifles) later. So … the one spot on my counters that are actually historically inaccurate are the black arc flash that says “Ulster.” For WW1 units that should say “Irish.” I will make that update tonight when I… Read more »
Really interesting and different project. WW1 terminology; 36 Ulster Division raised primarily from the 9 counties of Ulster; Royal Irish Rifles renamed Royal Ulster Rifles in 1921 after Irish partition. As an aside, still have a really interesting regimental museum Waring Street Belfast, covering early years,WW1, WW2 and battle of Imjin Korea. Worth a visit if anyone passing.
Thanks, @mark28 – Yeah, like I was saying with @torros above, the 1921 renaming change lines up with my sources, and why the different sources list different information. I could tell the units were the same, but wasn’t sure if the units actually changed name, or whether one of my sources was just sloppy. Big clarification, and a big help. Thanks! Looks like the only thing I have to change is that black shoulder flash. No worries. 20 minutes in Photoshop (this is why I save these files as editable templates). 😀 Fantastic source for the 36th Ulster in World… Read more »
This is always s favourite place to visit
http://www.sommeassociation.com