The Heroic Story of The Grantham Machine Gun Corps | The Forgotten Gunners of WWI | Timeline

The team explores the grounds around Belton House near Grantham which were home to thousands of men training for frontline duties in WWI.
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[@michellemunn7959]

That moment at the end in memory of men who died. Got me very choked up. My grandfather was a gunner for the Canadian forces stationed in Scotland

[@cindymitchell6719]

MY Brother and I were brought up by our Grand parents as our parents died very young in a car accident, our Great Uncles (Uncles) were overseas inWW2 ages 19, 18, and one of the boys turning 18 when he landed in England. My father in Law was a gunner on a boat his mate asked him to trade guns , just for a change. All 4 boys came home. Very Proud of your Grandfather and my Canadian family.

[@cindymitchell6719]

PS I am a proud Canadian

[@jimc12]

My great grandfather fought in WWI. He was in the U.S. Army and I have his campaign ribbon from the eastern russian front. I am truly in awe at these men that fought. The thought of enviable death on their minds and the prolonged execution of it during their tenure on the lines must have been tremendous. I for one will never forget them, keeping their memories alive.

[@adamwilliams5849]

Wait what. he was in the US Army and you have a ribbon for the Eastern Front? are you sure that wasn't after World War 1 when they were fighting the Reds the Red Army?

[@jimc12]

@@adamwilliams5849 Dont know. I have his enlistment papers and discharge papers for the army. And his draft notice. The ribbon appears to be the ww1 victory medal but it has a metal ribbon across the fabric above the medallion that says Russia.

[@adamwilliams5849]

@@jimc12 that's pretty damn cool you should do some more research and find out what exactly that metal is and where his (division/company/he) and all that went. That's really kool

[@fdijkstra614]

@@jimc12 Does it has a winged female holding shield and sword? Then it's a First War American Victory Medal. The 'Russia' service clasp is for personnel who served in Russia. President Woodrow Wilson sent troops to Russia in July 1918 to join Allied expeditions in northern Russia and far eastern Russia in an effort to reopen the Eastern Front against Germany. They ended up fighting the Bolsheviks in Siberia during a bitter cold offensive in January 1919. Your great grandfather must have seen some sights during those days. Some of his comrades are now buried in White Chapel Cemetery near Detroit. Their graves are surrounding a white polar bear.

[@jimc12]

@@fdijkstra614 That was the time frame he served. And coincidentally he was from Detroit and I am pretty sure he is at the white chappel cemetery with my great grandmother. As for the medal, I do not recall what the image is on the medal, I do know it was of a woman. The outer bands are purple, next to that going in are blue, then green, then yellow and onto red or orange in the middle. I'll have to pull it out and examine it.

[@kirkmooneyham]

See my spirit on the wind Across the lines, beyond the hill Friend and foe will meet again Those who died at Paschendale

[@paulgartner4619]

my great uncle was a machine gunner in US Army in WWI. He was killed at Chateau Thierry in 1918.

[@JackKlemeyer]

The Time Team shows are superbly done. Each and every one!

[@motorcop505]

My grandfather served as a machine gunner with Battery B, 21st Field Artillery, 5th Division, US Army in WWI and served at the Battle of St. Miheal. My great uncle was killed by a German machine gunner while serving as an infantryman with Co. K, 110 Infantry, 28th Division on Sept. 6, 1918, just two months before the war's end.

[@shri081]

Stewart works some serious magic for time team man

[@Thirdbase9]

In the mid 80s I went through Basic at Ft. Sill. Our barracks buildings dated back to 1940s. Wooden buildings set on a numbers of concrete pads. I imagine that all that is there now is a series of 8" square pads if that.

[@Robert-ic9eb]

Private Baldrick's new documentary looks really good!

[@alanabrams8017]

I wonder if Tony choked up at the final salute as I did, remembering the final episode of Blackadder.

[@malakai713]

you can tell the age of a time team episode by the rings of sweat on phil's hat

[@RobBoudreau]

Dendro-phil-ology.

[@maggiefleuriot4427]

Respect and thank you.

[@henrysmommy7]

It really is pretty cool that locals seem to take interest and bring in the pictures or other local info to them. I've seen other shows dealing with archeology in Britain that also seem to experience that sort of local participation... I don't know that the same things happen elsewhere ... Then again I don't really run across a lot of archeologists in the U.S. the way I'm guessing people might do in Britain.

[@jimbo5458]

scripted

[@Gilren1]

No more wars. - In my opinion, all soldiers and citisens within a war are victims of politics. Everyone wants to do their best on either side of the front, everybody experiences horror, and all create horror.

[@BushcraftingBogan]

“No! I said kill all the GOFERS! Not the GOLFERS!”

[@pelyor2413]

They can rest a lot more , God bless there souls ,

[@JayEss414]

good thank you

[@KRN762]

Love cordite. Played with that stuff as a kid.

[@SonsOfLorgar]

Cordite is love, hot, deflagrating love ;)

[@Husky110]

I realy like Tony Robinson as a host. If I had a wish for a KZbin-Video from you guys, I would love to see an episode with him and Jason Kingsley together... Those two nerding about medival age stuff could be awesome! :) Greetz from Germany!

[@abQUINTON1]

Nice to see this in better than 480p

[@franksmodels29]

Your out there looking for brass casings .. They saved them all reused them brass was at a commodity ...

[@bearbuster157]

I'm surprised that the back berm had not been mined for lead and copper.

[@oceanhome2023]

No more Brothers Wars ! Ever !

[@SirDaffyD]

Lest We Forget.

[@1339LARS]

Oh dear all blanks !!!

[@KetogenicGuitars]

I wonder how peacefully those survived machine gun guys lived rest of their lives. They must have been victims of highest level PTSD.

[@jimbo5458]

no such thing chap

[@KetogenicGuitars]

@@jimbo5458 What thing? life or ptsd? or peace?

[@Andersella]

Dammit why cant anyone make a documentry aboot germany for once

[@basedsalty6970]

I'd love a ww1 documentary about one

[@CinimodNorton]

Because, Germany LOST both WW1 and WW2. Now, after that, I agree. There are a few on KZbin, mainly tactics and such.

[@fratersol]

Because might is right and winners of war write the history

[@SonsOfLorgar]

Six weeks of training... For specialists... Damn, my conscript training as a radio specialist in 2003 was 10 months long, 1 month of which were just basic soldier and outdoorsman skills before the actual specialist training started as the privates started their basic training.

[@marty9376]

SonsOfLorgar ... yes with life expediency over the top , of less than 8 seconds

[@SonsOfLorgar]

@@marty9376 yeah, I visited Verdun, Vaux, Fort Douamont and the ossuary less than a month after my 300day conscript training was over. In february 2004, I was part of a well drilled battery control squad for three 12cm mortars firing dozens of 13kg airburst fuse shells a day 7.5km across a training field to targets someone else had measured in and observed. Three weeks later I stood and saw the countless white crosses and the belived impregnable forts, battered to less than the medieval church ruins in my childhood county, together with my father, a retired coastal artillery officer, my uncle, an airline pilot who started his flying career in a jet fighter, and my grandfather, retired printer and entrepreneur who had served as a staff officer's driver while ww2 raged on the other side of our borders. It was a highly emotional experience, one of sorrow, of frustration and existential contemplation.

[@denysbeecher5629]

I'm guessing that the 6 weeks of "specialist training" was just that, training in the use of the machine gun. This article from the British library in 2014 indicates that troops would have received about 3 months of basic training before moving on to specialized schools. www.bl.uk/world-war-one/articles/training-to-be-a-soldier

[@charlesjepsen]

I go back to 1914 all the time

[@cs_fl5048]

must have been a tough dig for some of those folks.

[@cs_fl5048]

cordite usually propelled at subsonic level...

[@psychiatry-is-eugenics]

Probably should have a sod company remove top layer . Might even be able to put it back . Guessing they never worked for a sod farm

[@aljohnalfaro7288]

Are you the man in the blackadder with the late rowan atkinson am i right? Sorry for not recognizing

[@michellemunn7959]

Rowan Atkinson isn't dead!

[@tonymooney736]

There's some lovely mud over here

[@SlavicCelery]

I didn't vote for you!

[@beckster181]

Even if they had found where they fired the guns from on the range they would be unlikely to have found any o the used cartridges as especially in war time the military in training woul have picked up all te brass to be returned to be either reloaded or recycled into nem cartride cases and reused. The militaty does this today because even i the brass cant be reused its scrap value is enough to make a sizeable return income to help offset some of the cost of te cost of the amunition used in training. In 20 years of military service I never once did not have to at end of the days shooting have to pick up used brass this even goes from small pistol rounds all the way up to tank and 155 mm artillery guns. Also to give you an idea o how many rounds would have been fired on a range like that into the mound at the end of the range in this time period of this camp each range would be used for about 8 hours of firing every day with the range being open for about 10 hours a day and even some times night firings with about a total of only 3 total hours max durin that time when the guns would not be firing due to time to swap details from the firing position to the target area and for lunch and morning tea and afternoon tea etc and that short belt fired full out at the end was only about 50 rounds not the full belt length of 100 to 250 rounds. The lewis gun was water cooled so could be fired in long sustained bursts unlike the later air cooled machine guns that would be fired in short bursts of 4 or 5 rounds at a time to prevent overheating and excess barrel wear. The .50 cal famous in WW2 though in bommer planes would fire long bursts when in combat those barrels were in air temps of minus 25 degrees so they would cool off quickly where as the same guns used on the groung woulf have to be ired much more sparingly unless you were in deep trouble and it was keep up the rate of ire or you died.

[@cs_fl5048]

you notice he didn't warn them it was blanks...

[@Jack-Hands]

37:29 i always love the way how the British completely butcher the name "Passendale"

[@Murderface-oq9lp]

we'll say it how we bloody well want boy

[@Robert-ic9eb]

Fairly sure its spelled passchendaele mate. But you do you :/

[@Jack-Hands]

@@Robert-ic9eb it isn't. The british used horribly outdated maps during both wars. That's why you see old names pop up that weren't even used at the time.

[@Robert-ic9eb]

@@Jack-Hands Fair enough mate. Doesn't really matter a whole lot to me how the name was pronounced. Just so as long as we remember the brave men who fell there.

[@motorcop505]

Phil has such a strong Cornish accent!

[@philaypeephilippotter6532]

*Wiltshire* accent.

[@michellemunn7959]

I live Phil's accent

[@nonnobissolum]

"What would have been going through a man's mind...clambering out of the trench...." Hopefully not a bullet?! Sorry, crass and dark, but irresistible nonetheless...

[@marty9376]

NonNobisSolum ... as Australian- your trained as a Digger - NOT TO LET YOUR MATES DOWN

[@YouTuber-sv7lk]

I can say that playing verdun that the machine gun is unfair

[@HiImSeanIPlayBass]

Cassie got a bit slammed at the shindig at the end of day 2, eh?

[@evilmoif]

Wait - what???? 23:01 They're shooting a weapon that hasn't been fired for seventy years? That seems a bit reckless!

[@SonsOfLorgar]

Not at all. As long as it's been stored properly and checked by someone who knows what to look for, it's perfectly safe to fire a weapon of any age. People are still using 200yo rifled muskets for hunting without a hitch.

[@evilmoif]

@@SonsOfLorgar I bow to your superior knowledge.

[@busterbeagle2167]

DAVE ADAMS!!!! Where is he.

[@CinimodNorton]

Yaaa, you guys found the loo. Time stamp 34:50

[@CinimodNorton]

Awesome, though.

[@travelinman70]

with all those people living there...where is the trash dump?

[@johnpetric979]

Damn, that was cool! Leave it to the Brits. Lovely Empire.

[@johnhart3480]

They all dress like they just got back from the North Pole, couldn't be that cold 😅

[@Erviniumd]

John Hart they're in England. It can get pretty damn cold there

[@michellemunn7959]

It is a different kind of cold then in say Canada. It is a very damp cold

[@wayneandrews9298]

Im getting fed up with this channel , once they were original no just plagiarists , this programme was uploaded by someone else long ago , poor show , timeline ..

[@bolivar2153]

Well, Timeline license the content for distribution (did your 'other channel') and certainly don't pass it off as their own content, so hardly plagiarism. I, for one, am very grateful for their excellent uploads.

[@maverick2161]

Anyone else secretly a Central Powers fan??

[@faeyrie4747]

No, I am Armenian .. Մենք չենք մոռանում թուրքերի արածը!

[@adamwilliams5849]

More a straight up german fan. No so much the other countries. Although Germany basically carried its allies in both Wars

[@brentdawgs8905]

If English accents rub you the wrong way be warned..