13 Complete Soldier's Kits From The Armies Of 1066 Until 2014. Wow.

Tickld ^

[naturalman1975]

The Anglo-Saxon warrior at Hastings is perhaps not so very different from the British “Tommy” in the trenches,’ photographer Thom Atkinson says. At the Battle of Hastings, soldiers' choice of weaponary was extensive.

.....

Re-enactment groups, collectors, historians and serving soldiers helped photographer Thom Atkinson assemble the components for each shot. ‘It was hard to track down knowledgeable people with the correct equipment,’ he says. ‘The pictures are really the product of their knowledge and experience.’

[RedStateRocker]

Speaking only for myself, I tried to enlist three times; was rejected every time, and it darn near killed my old man (a one star with 40 years in). Have about 25db hearing loss in one ear and 40db in the other, a result of an infection when I was 3. Even tried cheating the hearing test, sitting next to someone with good hearing at the Oakland induction center (I scored top two tenths percentile on my ASVAB test). Wanted to fly helicopters and the Army was/is pretty much the only place to learn to do so (other services have choppers, but the Army has many many more.

I still think they made a mistake not taking me, but that’s how it goes.

[RedStateRocker]

I would imagine that the modern packs allow more stuff for the same amount of pain and inconvenience.

[ZULU]

Awesome

[M Kehoe]

Bttt.

5.56mm

[Bigg Red]

It is fascinating. Thanks for posting this.

I am curious though about what looks like the trunk of a young tree that has been chewed down by a beaver in the kit of the 1485 Yorkist man-at-arms, Battle of Bosworth.

[GreyFriar]

Thank you. And excellent compilation.

[zot]

Thanks for the ping. Very interesting.

[Chainmail]

It's just me, making generalizations again - a whole lot of young men tried to join and couldn't because of some injury or disability and some of those who joined tried to volunteer for combat but were turned down. Just luck of the draw, sometimes.

I was lucky to be accepted in the Marines - nearsighted all to beat heck and I had a broken back from a motorcycle crash - but they took me anyway. The Marine Corps tended to accept volunteers readily and thinned out the less motivated through the strainer of boot camp.

I am certain you would have been a fine soldier - the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. In a sense, I'm happy you didn't get into uniform. I saw way too many good, motivated young guys with excellent potential killed. We have that wall covered with their names.

[RedStateRocker]

I still like Heinlein’s formulation betsy: one MUST serve in order to vote, teach (certain subjects), or hold public office (of course the services must take you if that were the case). I’ve fried a few lib neurons when suggesting this as it actually WOULD make for a pool that would be more composed of non whites than anything else that could be done :-)

[AnAmericanMother]

Sharpened stakes to defend against cavalry.

It's actually the longbowman at Agincourt (the caption is underneath not above the pic). You may recall that the English archers had the French cavalry's number that day.

[AnAmericanMother]

Sheesh! The PICTURE is underneath not the caption. Anyhow, you can recognize the archer by the longbow -

What of the bow?
The bow was made in England:
Of true wood, of yew-wood,
The wood of English bows;
So men who are free
Love the old yew-tree
And the land where the yew-tree grows.

[AnAmericanMother]

I think it's utterly hilarious that the photographer's name is so close to "Tommy Atkins". Can't help wondering if it's a pseudonym; if not, he was born for this job!

"Tommy"

I went into a public-'ouse to get a pint o' beer,
The publican 'e up an' sez, "We serve no red-coats here."
The girls be'ind the bar they laughed an' giggled fit to die,
I outs into the street again an' to myself sez I:

O it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Tommy, go away";
But it's "Thank you, Mister Atkins", when the band begins to play,
The band begins to play, my boys, the band begins to play,
O it's "Thank you, Mister Atkins", when the band begins to play.

[Bigg Red]

Yipes! Poor horses. Early forerunner of the pike?
(I know a little about history, but my knowledge of military history is quite lacking.)

***
...the caption is underneath not above the pic....

***
Duh! Not the first time quick skimming has gotten the best of me.

Thanks for the info.

[AnAmericanMother]

The housecarls at Hastings had pikes.

This was a "field expedient" - they cut down tons of small trees out of the local woods and sharpened the trunks. It is believed that they got the idea from the Ottoman Wars a couple of decades earlier.

But very few of the horses reached the English lines because of the massive volleys of arrows fired at the French knights. A lot of them tried to reach the English lines on foot but were bogged down in the mud and slain (or held for ransom).

To read all about the period in a nicely researched and charmingly written novel, see here:

Get the N.C. Wyeth illustrated version if you can. Look at this lineup of archers - rough crowd but good guys to have with you in a fight:

[DeoVindiceSicSemperTyrannis]

thanks for all the pics