This week’s postcard is an image of the protected cruiser HMS Devonshire:
This cruiser was laid down in 1904 and served with the Royal Navy during the First World War. She had a displacement of 11,000 tons and measured 473 feet from bow to stern. Her bow had a typical cruiser shape with a distinctive pointed slope:
Her stern was also traditional in shape, with the rounded shape seen on many turn of the century cruisers:
The ship was powered by two four cylinder triple expansion engines that used fifteen niclausse and six cylindrical boilers, the smoke from which exited via the ship’s distinctive four funnels:
The ship had a crew of 610 men and was commanded from a large open bridge just forward of the main mast and boilers:
The ship was armed with four 7.5 inch guns on the main deck, one fore, one aft and two amidships. Her secondary armament was six 6 inch guns, four carried in case mates on the ship’s hull.
She was launched on 30 April 1904. She was completed on 24 August 1905 and was initially assigned to the 1st Cruiser Squadron of the Channel Fleet. She was transferred to the 2nd Cruiser Squadron of the Atlantic Fleet in March 1907 and was then assigned to the reserve Third Fleet at Devonport in August 1909. In 1913 the ship was assigned to the 3rd Cruiser Squadron of the Second Fleet together with most of her sister ships.
The squadron was assigned to the Grand Fleet in mid-1914 as the Navy mobilised for war. It spent much of its time with the Grand Fleet reinforcing the patrols near the Shetland and Faeroe Islands and the Norwegian coast where Devonshire captured a German merchantman on 6 August. She was refitted in September and again in February. Despite numerous sorties with the main body of the Grand Fleet, she did not see combat. She patrolled the Norwegian coast in April 1916 and was then assigned to the Nore. Devonshire was assigned to the 7th Cruiser Squadron of the Grand Fleet before she was transferred to the Atlantic to protect Allied shipping in December. She remained there into 1919 and was listed for sale in May 1920. Devonshire was sold for scrap on 9 May 1921 and broken up at Barrow-in-Furness in 1923.
The details of the sender in the corner show which camp he was stationed in and his name, Edwin Edmunds:
Whilst the stamp in the top corner indicates that the card was sent through the German postal system in November 1944:
The rear of the postcard has the prisoners message:
This reads:
The material of the puttee was folded to a point and the woven tape sewn on:
The opposite end was merely doubled back on itself and sewn together to prevent the fabric from fraying and coming undone:
When not being worn, it was typical for the puttees to be rolled up, with the tape wrapped around:
Short puttees had been reintroduced in 1950 and the official list of changes recorded:
Puttees seem to have been phased out in the mid-1980s, not always to the pleasure of troops some of whom were very fond of the short puttee:
The neck is ‘V’ shaped and bound with white tape:
There would originally have been a label sewn into the neck but this has been removed, possibly it was scratching the wearer’s neck and he felt it would be better taken out.
The letter ‘M’ equates to 1944 so the vest can be dated to that year. The design of the vest includes a cut away at the seam on each side, presumably to help make it easier to put on and remove the garment and to improve its comfort:
As well as an item of underwear, vests were also used for PT:
Or by reversing it a tan outer:
To allow the jacket to be worn either way, the zip has an interesting feature that allows the pull tab to be swapped from one side to the other:
Zipped pockets are provided on both sides:
Interestingly the stores labels are sewn into the pockets, presumably so they are not on show if the garment is reversed to get the other colour. For some reason this jacket had the label for the trousers sewn into it!
The ends of the sleeves are elasticated, to help trap a pocket of air inside the jacket to help keep the wearer warm:
A drawstring is provided at the waist for the same purpose:
Here the jacket can be seen being worn under body armour, it’s shiny finish making it easy to identify:
The jacket was supplied with a compression sack, like a sleeping bag, that allowed it to be squashed down and the air removed so it took up less space in a soldier’s bergan. Sadly I am missing this element but apparently these are quite easy to find as a separate item so I will keep an eye out for one.
As is often the case, the green colour has faded of this belt so it is far less intense a colour than it would have been when new, nevertheless when compared to standard Indian made 37 pattern webbing the contrast is clear.
As are the rear buckles:
A C/|\?? inspector’s acceptance code is faintly visible on the rear of the belt:
As is the maker’s mark and a date of 1946:
The jungle green 37 pattern webbing was only introduced in 1944 so was only used in the last 12-18 months of the war. Nonetheless it was a simple but welcome change to the soldier’s equipment and far more suited to jungle fighting than the tan version.