Speaker - Simon Baldwin
Tue, Aug 1st 2017 at 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm
Recalling events 100 years ago during the First World War, Simon Baldwin gave an illustrated talk to fellow Kilrymont St Andrews Rotarians.
Simon began by telling the story of Squadron Commander Edwin Harris Dunning, born in South Africa, who became the first pilot to land an aircraft on a moving ship.
Dunning (25), of the British Royal Naval Air Service, landed his Sopwith Pup on August 2, 1917. Only 5 days later during his second landing attempt of the day on HMS Furious in Scapa Flow, an updraft caught his aircraft's port wing throwing it overboard. Knocked unconscious, he drowned in the cockpit.
Simon then went on to recount the Battle of Passchendaele, also known as the third battle of Ypres, and the horrific death toll.
The battle began on July 31, 1917 and ended 3 months, 1 week and 3 days later on November 10. Shelling and heavy rain reduced the area to an unimaginable quagmire which halted any meaningful attack. Many troops were said to have drowned in water-filled shell holes.
Allied casualties were said to have been about 260,000 and a slightly higher number of German troops were killed or injured.
Simon had started his talk showing a slide taken from Lucklaw Hill looking towards St. Andrews, a walking distance of 7.4 miles, the same short distance that the allied soldiers advanced by the end of the battle.
George McIntosh thanked Simon for his most interesting and poignant talk.
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