8th Rifle Brigade (11th Armoured Division) website

Discussion in 'British Army Units - Others' started by 8RB, Mar 30, 2019.

  1. harkness

    harkness Well-Known Member

    According to the late Bill Gray, 23rd Hussars, the tank commander in Malines is 'Matelot' Stephens (first name unknown).

    The lady below is the 'baby':

    Malines-1944-003.jpg
     
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  2. 8RB

    8RB Well-Known Member

    For the 8th Rifle Brigade, Christmas 1944 was celebrated in 1945. In December 1944, they had other engagements: they were called upon to fight the Germans in the Ardennes. Christmas was only finally celebrated on 21 January 1945, in Bree, Belgium. Photo: G Company’s Christmas dinner table. On it some cans of English beer. See also: D-Day to VE-Day - 8th Rifle Brigade


    8RB G Coy Christmas table Bree Belgium - 21 Jan 45.jpeg
     
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  3. harkness

    harkness Well-Known Member

    I like that shaft of light streaming in. Wonder who sat in that place....
     
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  4. 8RB

    8RB Well-Known Member

    Whoever it was, he won't have seen much of his companions... ;)
     
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  5. harkness

    harkness Well-Known Member

    They would have seen him all right :wacko:
     
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  6. 8RB

    8RB Well-Known Member

    This weekend, I finally "finished" and added organisation schedules for all companies in the 8th Rifle Brigade (the Motor Battalion of the 11th Armoured Division), to http://8thriflebrigade.co.uk/organisation-8th-rifle-brigade/. Some of these schedules however are still far from complete. Any additional information would be much appreciated!!!

    If proof were needed, the schedules certainly confirm that life as a platoon commander was an extremely risky job...

    Chart G Coy.jpg
     
  7. 8RB

    8RB Well-Known Member

    First part of maps section added to http://8thriflebrigade.co.uk/maps/ : 20 wartime (GSGS) maps showing 8th Rifle Brigade's route from Normandy to the Belgian border.

    001A - GSGS-4042 Le Havre.jpg
     
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  8. m kenny

    m kenny Senior Member

    How big are your Normandy 1:25000 Maps? I need a detailed copy of 7F/2 1:50,000 if anyone has one and have all the other 50.000 maps scanned as c. 52 mb 6000 x 4000 TIFF images. If you have any 1:25,000 as decent scans I would not mind copies.
     
    Last edited: Sep 25, 2019
  9. 8RB

    8RB Well-Known Member

    I have a few decent Normandy 1:25,000 maps (between 10 and 40MB size). They are Caen, Cheux, Creully, Francevill Plage, Ouisteham, Ryes, Thaon, Torrigny and Vassy. If you send met your mail address, I could send them to you through WeTransfer. 7F/2 1:50,000 (and much more) you can find and download at Troarn (link found in excel which I found somewhere else on this great forum!).
     
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  10. m kenny

    m kenny Senior Member

    Got it in 50 screen grabs and stitched it together for at 7000 x 5000 5mb Jpg and 70 mb TIFF.
     
  11. 8RB

    8RB Well-Known Member

    I usually download the 1GB file and then save it to a smaller size (10 to 20MB), using photo viewer. Still, you've got it!
     
  12. 8RB

    8RB Well-Known Member

    Addition of a further 8 maps on 8th Rifle Brigade's advance through Belgium, in September 1944. From Tournai to Antwerp and then towards the Dutch border: http://8thriflebrigade.co.uk/maps/
    022A - GSGS-4022-Lille-Ghent - Brussels-Liege.jpg
     
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  13. m kenny

    m kenny Senior Member

    In case you missed it the IWM have put the entire B Series online. A lot are low quality 'phone-photos' but every photo is there so you can now check either side of a pic you are interested in.
     
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  14. 8RB

    8RB Well-Known Member

    Thanks! Will certainly take a good look!
     
  15. 8RB

    8RB Well-Known Member

    Another item has been added to http://8thriflebrigade.co.uk/members-of-the-bn/ , this time on Lance Corporal Bob Austin of G Company, who got badly wounded a few days after operation Bluecoat, in the early days of the Breakout of Normandy. If you have information on former members of the 8th Rifle Brigade, please do get in touch with me!!!
    LCpl Austin - comp - cut.jpg
     
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  16. 8RB

    8RB Well-Known Member

  17. vestingjager

    vestingjager Well-Known Member

    Was just going through this again, and was looking at the pictures of the 8th Rifle Brigade in Antwerp on your site. The one of 159th brigade troops with 2" Mortar must have been taken close to one of the forts or the outside of the ramparts, as it shows one of the wooden buildings within 575m of them (you weren't suppose to build in front of the forts), so this is clearly in the suburbs of Antwerp.
     
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  18. 8RB

    8RB Well-Known Member

    Thanks! You'll mean this one (from France to Germany - 8th Rifle Brigade). I always assumed it was a roll-down shutter from a shop window. Do you have any photos of what the buildings looked like and do you know the street(s) where they once stood (assuming they have been demolished, as, sadly, were quite a lot of building shown on these photos)?
    Antwerp-1944-06-o7x8j0x8paq298dsc7omxbjakgx24wxrlhzpr4dvcw.jpeg
     
  19. vestingjager

    vestingjager Well-Known Member

    You had them in almost every chape and form, here are a few survivors:
    Erfgoedobjecten | Inventaris Onroerend Erfgoed

    They were originally built within a circle of 575m around the outside of the ramparts and in a circle around the brick forts in 1860, later also around the concrete forts rom 1909.

    They couldn't have a cellar and had to be taken down on the expenses of the owners during an emergency. Also hedges were forbidden under the law of Military Servitudes in this period, to create a filed of fire.
     
  20. vestingjager

    vestingjager Well-Known Member

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