Wolff's last days.

[Volker_Nemsch]

Hello alex revell, hello Taz,

please excuse my curiousity in this case but I have only very limited knowledge of the frontlines in Northern France / Belgium during WW1.


I'm a bit more 'interested' in the Verdun region that differs considerably from the relatively flat front more northeast.

If I can help you with some information or pictures from that place please let me know - maybe I can make some photos or research there during this summer.


Volker
.

[alex_revell]

Taz
My apologies, I had forgotten that your primary interrst is in markings. Please regard any other posts that I may make here as addressed to the other forum readers, unless I make it clear that it is addressed to you. Before you go though I'd like to ask you something which I completely forgot to mention in my last post. In his post No.6 of the thread MT says 'Nachtegaal is found on the battle map of a Feldartillerie Regiment for the period 16/9/17 to 27/9/17.' Later in the same post he says: 'No doubt the soldiers surrounding the triplane are from the Feldbatterie'. I asked him in post No.7 if he was now saying that both yourself and MT (I didn't know Passat54 was in fact MT at this point) were incorrect in previously saying that the soldiers were from PK89 at Nachtigal. He did not answer this.
Would you care to comment on these remarks by Passat54(MT). Incidentally, I also noted the Flemish spelling of Nachtigaal in the Feldbatterie report.

[alex_revell]

Volker,
The placing of the front line with any pinpoint accuracy is fairly hard to do, especially for an exact date. One would need trench maps of each week to do this accurately. The nearest I can find in my records is for the battle of Third Ypres (Passchendaele) from July 1917 to 10th November 1917. From
31st July 1917 the line didn't alter much until 4th October when it bulged out into a salient just east of Zonnebeke, a little further north from our area, then curved back in again to rejoin the line of 31 July 1917. The line did not alter again until 10 November, when it curved out east of Passchendaele, but this is further north than the area we are interested in. In the area which interests us, the line at 31 July 1917 did not change and is shown as about a mile west of Zandvoorde. This puts the front line trenches about three and three quarter miles from the approximate point on the Menin to Ypres road where we are given to understand the photos of Wolff's triplane were taken, at Nachtigal, the small railway stop.
Artillery ranges. British guns. The 4.5 inch howitzer had a range of 3.9 miles. The 60 pounder field gun had a range of 5.8 miles. The 9.2 inch (Mark 1)howitzer had a range of 5.6 miles. Taz Phillips has said that the album shows that Nachtigal was in a shelled area and these ranges seem to confirm that it was within the range of the British field guns, probably a registered target because of the railway.
Being this close to the front line I feel that if this is indeed where Wolff landed sometime between 11th September and 15th September he must have had a very good reason to do so. Certainly a reason more important than a social visit.
Thanks very much for your kind offer of information on the Verdun front. My interest is primarily in British operations on the western front - that's a complicated enough subject! - but if I think of anything I will let you know.
Regards
Alex

[Taz]

Alex- Ask him yourself. Surely a great historian like yourself has his contact information or friends who would be happy to provide it. Thank you very much for telling me which threads and posts to which I should respond. Us colonials have a hard time figuring those things out. As usual it has been an extreme displeasure working with you and I hope any further discussions we have are as unpleasant as you seem determined to make them. I worry about you as you seem to get more nitpicking as you age.

Never was sure where you were going with this thread except I am sure it was self-serving in some major fashion. Feel free to ask me questions on any future articles and original source material I have. I will try and respond in an appropriate manner.

Your Humble Servant and Admirer,
Taz
Terry Phillips

[alex_revell]

Taz,
You know what really puzzles me - and others- about you is the way you always seem to take any other opinion than your own about a question so personally and get so defensive and personally nasty about it. Why is that. It's as if you think that people have some hidden agenda and are trying to discredit your research or yourself. Over the years I've had many letters asking me how I arrived at a conclusion I have published. Maybe I'm niave, but it never occurred to me for one moment that the person was trying to prove me wrong in order to discredit me, merely that they were interested in the reasoning and evidence of how I had arrived at my conclusion. Sometimes it happened that they had other evidence, which resolved or provided another part of the puzzle. It's called mutual help.
I have always found in a discussion that if a person descends to personal abuse then it's a sure sign that he knows he is losing the argument, or has realised that his case has flaws which he does not care to admit. I note that you have not responded to my question, a straightforward one, surely, whether or not you agree that Manfred T has now changed his mind over where the photos of Wolff's triplane were taken. I gave you the post numbers purely in the spirit of being helpful, to save you searching for where MT had said this. Even this you seem to take as some kind of personal insult. Finally, take note that someone once said: sarcasm is the lowest form of wit.