Mil News stubborn soldiers who REFUSED to play ball in WW1 Christmas truce

[Bombardier]

'We don't trust you and ye hae been four months shooting as us': Recently discovered photographs reveal the stubborn soldiers who REFUSED to play ball in WW1 Christmas truce
​It is one of the most inspiring moments in military history – British and German soldiers downing their guns on Christmas Day to play football together in the mud of No Man’s Land.But previously unseen documents show not everyone in the trenches during the truce of 1914 was quite such a good sport.

The 1st Battalion of the Cameronians – formed of men from the tough streets of Glasgow – simply ignored the offer to take part.


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[Newman]

Hi,
Bombardier I am from Glasgow now live in London the Scottish regiments where a tough bunch there was an incident in 1960 when the Cameronians where stationed in Minden
Germany something about them trying to poison the water they also an riot in the town hence the locals gave them the nickname The Poisoned Dwarfs it made the headlines in
the UK and Germany.Also the Highland Light Infantry were known as Hells Last Intake and in Aden the Arabs called the Argyles the Scottish Red Rats.
Regards
Bil

 

[Bombardier]

The problem is how do we control such a spirit in peace time?
I refer to Rudyard Kipling

" Its Tommy this and Tommy that and kick him out the brute, but its hello Mr Atkins when the guns begin to shoot"

probaly not 100% accurate but you get my drift

 

[Connaught Ranger]

"The five stretcher bearers, non of them wearing protective helmets, were wrapped up in what they called 'teddy bears' - goatskin jerkins issued to combat the biting wind.

The absence of helmets was down to the lack of equipment supplied to the British troops early in the war compared to their German foe who had the best and latest military hardware and clothing available."

Typical "Daily Fail" Journalism, the Germans had no steel helmets until the Model 1916 was issued in February 1916 to German troops at Verdun.

At the beginning of World War I, none of the combatants were issued with any form of protection for the head other than cloth and leather caps, designed at most to protect against saber cuts. When trench warfare began, the number of casualties on all sides suffering from severe head wounds (more often caused by shrapnel bullets or shell fragments than by gunfire) increased dramatically, since the head was typically the most exposed part of the body when in a trench. The French were the first to see a need for more protection—in late 1915 they began to issue Adrian helmets to their troops. The British and Commonwealth troops followed with the Brodie helmet (a development of which was also later worn by US forces) and the Germans with the Stahlhelm.

All helmets produced for the (German) infantry before and during 1914 were made of leather. As the war progressed, Germany's leather stockpiles dwindled. After extensive imports from South America, particularly Argentina, the German government began producing ersatz Pickelhauben made of other materials. In 1915, some Pickelhauben began to be made from thin sheet steel. However, the German high command needed to produce an even greater number of helmets, leading to the usage of pressurized felt and even paper to construct Pickelhauben. The Pickelhaube was discontinued in 1916.

As none of the countries involved in the conflict foresaw the conflicy was going to roll on for over 4 years no country had made any real provision for any special clothing to make life comfortable in dug in trench conditions that became the norm in WW1.