{"id":10866,"date":"2015-03-26T06:00:43","date_gmt":"2015-03-26T10:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.royalmontrealregiment.com\/?p=10866"},"modified":"2015-03-26T06:00:43","modified_gmt":"2015-03-26T10:00:43","slug":"10866-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rmrmuseum.com\/fr\/10866-2\/","title":{"rendered":"The Very Pistol in 1915"},"content":{"rendered":"

Friday, March 26, 1915<\/i><\/p>\n

In trenches, Rue\u00a0Petillon<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Battalion War Diarist wrote for this day: \u201cHeavy day.\u00a0 Many wounded.\u00a0 The 3rd<\/sup> Canadian Brigade was relieved by 24th<\/sup> British Brigade, the 14th<\/sup> was complimented by the G.O.C. 24th<\/sup> British Bde. for the quickness and accuracy with which the trenches were handed over. Left considerable quantity of trench property, such as periscopes, Very pistols, etc. with the Worcesters, and was questioned by 3rd<\/sup> Bde. as to why this was done.\u00a0 Worcesters had lost everything in the Battle of Neuve Chapelle a few days before, and it was impossible as well as dangerous to leave them without these stores.\u00a0 Battn. marched back to rest billets at Estaires, arriving about midnight.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 .\u201d\u00a0<\/em>[1]<\/a><\/p>\n

THIS DAY IN RMR HISTORY:\u00a0In fact on this day several men of the 14th were killed, and approximately a dozen wounded. \u201cPrevious to this activity, a patrol of the Royal Montreal Regiment in No Man\u2019s Land had been fired upon by the enemy, Pte A. S. Jones falling and one other man being wounded. On receiving a report from the survivors of the patrol, a party of three men, under Sergt. Lang, went out to help Jones if he were still alive. They searched till dawn, but no trace of the fallen man could be found. Accordingly, on the Battalion records there was placed this entry: \u201cPrivate A. S. Jones \u2013 Wounded and Missing.\u201d[2]<\/p>\n

Private Arthur Stanley Jones was officially declared \u201cMissing\u201d on March 26th, 1915. He was a 22 year old clerk, a native of Montreal, who has served 3 \u00bd years with the Victoria Rifles of Canada before enlisting in the 14th Bn. at Valcartier on Sept 22, 1914. His name is inscribed on the Vimy Memorial, Pas de Calais, France.<\/p>\n

\"Webley<\/a>
Webley & Scott Mk III flare pistol
British Army, dated 1918; 1″ (25.4mm) calibre [3]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\u201cThe name \u2018Very Pistol\u2019 is derived from the name of the inventor, Lieutenant Edward W. Very, of the United States Navy. He invented a large caliber single-shot pistol with a single action firing mechanism, that could fire special flares into the air. It was designed to be used by people to send signals and reveal their position, usually to indicate that they were in distress and needed assistance. Flare guns were heavily used in both world wars and are still in use today. The flare guns of World War II era had a 1-inch bore (25.4 mm) and modern ones are smaller (12 gauge (18.53 mm.) diameter). \u00a0Modern versions are usually made of brightly colored plastic, so that they’re easy to find in an emergency situation.\u201d[4]<\/p>\n
[1]\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 War Diary, 14th<\/sup> Canadian Battalion, The Royal Montreal Regiment<\/em>, March 26, 1915.\u00a0 Library and Archives Canada, Ottawa,\u00a0http:\/\/data2.collectionscanada.ca\/e\/e044\/e001089702.jpg<\/a><\/pre>\n
[2]\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 R.C. Featherstonhaugh, The Royal Montreal Regiment 14th<\/sup> Battalion C.E.F. 1914-1925<\/em>, Montreal, The Gazette, Printing Co., Ltd., 1927, pg. 32.<\/pre>\n
[3]\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Andy Dingley<\/a>\u00a0at\u2026<\/pre>\n
\u00a0http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Flare_gun#mediaviewer\/File:Webley_%26_Scott_Mk_III_flare_pistol.jpg<\/a><\/pre>\n
[1]\u00a0\u00a0 http:\/\/firearmshistory.blogspot.ca\/2011\/03\/utility-firearms-flare-gun-or-very.html<\/a><\/pre>\n
 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Friday, March 26, 1915 In trenches, Rue\u00a0Petillon The Battalion War Diarist wrote for this day: \u201cHeavy day.\u00a0 Many wounded.\u00a0 The 3rd Canadian Brigade was relieved by 24th British Brigade, the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10866","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-this-day-in-rmr-history"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rmrmuseum.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10866","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rmrmuseum.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rmrmuseum.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rmrmuseum.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rmrmuseum.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10866"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rmrmuseum.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10866\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rmrmuseum.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rmrmuseum.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rmrmuseum.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}