Weapons and Equipment

• by Jan_Greenslade

  I have a report on the usefulness or otherwise of weapons and equipment issued to men in the trenches ie. Hales Rifle Grenade' 'Very Pistol' , Periscopes, etc and Braziers fuel hazardous, and what looks like Strawwisps being useless in wet weather etc. How do I tag these references? At present I use the 'Other' tag in 'Army Life' and post a comment, but not sure this tag is correct for the weapons. Could someone please clarify this for me? Thanks Jan

  Posted July 13, 2014 10:33 AM

• by HeatherC moderator

  Tricky one Jan - there is no specific tag. Might have been nice to have an "Army Life - Equipment" one but we are not likely to get changes in tags now. I can only suggest hashtagging the specific items since I'm not sure how useful "weapons" or "equipment" would be as hashtags.

  Anyone got similar examples? After all we didn't really expect to be tagging horses and look at all the stuff we're doing with hashtags on that now!

  Posted July 13, 2014 11:32 AM

• by Jan_Greenslade

  Thanks Heather will continuing tagging as above unless alternative instructions

  Posted July 13, 2014 1:07 PM

• by HeatherC moderator

  So it's clear that quite a few of you are finding interesting stuff around weapons and equipment and also possibly ammunition. Let's consider how we might capture this with hashtags in much the same way we did with horses?

  We already have #ammoshortage and #weaponsdestroyed added recently to the list of definitive hashtags. What other issues to do with equipment and weapons are people finding and how might we capture them. Obviously we don't want a multitude of different hashtags or it gets too complex so what suggestions do people have?

  Posted July 14, 2014 10:51 AM

• by Jan_Greenslade

  I have references to new equipment being issued, sometimes for trials.
  Jan

  Posted July 14, 2014 1:38 PM

• by ral104 moderator, scientist

  I'd suggest #weaponsevaluation

  Or do we need something more general, like #kitevaluation?

  Posted July 14, 2014 2:14 PM

• by HeatherC moderator

  Good question! I think maybe we have two different things here:

  1. New equipment gets issued. This might not be for trials at all
  2. Equipment gets issued for trials

  If we're going to tag the issue of such equipment then they need separate tags maybe?

  Also I notice Jan has tagged a few things where comments have been made about equipment - I think there was one saying that trench periscopes were good but not if they were made of cardboard! That might be one for the evaluation tag?

  Do we in fact need to hashtag the normal issue of equipment at all? Is it really unusual enough? Maybe what we want to gather is the comments that Units are making on how well their equipment performs? In which case #equipmentevaluation or #kitevaluation would be ideal and would only apply where some comment was actually made about the performance of the equipment. We could then use the same tag for weapons, other equipment, uniforms, etc and see how we get on?

  Posted July 14, 2014 2:34 PM

• by ral104 moderator, scientist

  Sounds like a good plan - I'll update the hashtag list to include #equipmentevaluation.

  Posted July 14, 2014 3:29 PM

• by IKINAWANA

  Got a question for you all on this subject, for clarification. As HeatherC has mentioned before, I always keep the word "unusual" in the back of my mind when adding hashtags. Please correct me if I'm wrong here - #equipmentevaluation as you have directed in the hashtag list applies to "the effectiveness or otherwise of weapons and other kit used". It seems to me that a lot of people are tagging any mention of specific weapon systems regardless of any talk of their effectiveness. For example, #howitzer, #trenchmortar, #fieldgun, #tank, and on, and on, and on. It seems to me that a lot of the time, the diary entry only mentions these weapon systems and in such a way that "unusual" really doesn't apply. I have two recommendations to present for your consideration: First - keep #equipmentevaluation for use when a unit comments on the EFFECTIVENESS of any equipment, including weapons and "kit". Second - add a new hashtag to cover any mention of SPECIFIC weapon systems, maybe #weaponsystems or something similar. This hashtag would take the place of all the separate weapons tags - #howitzer, #trenchmortar, #tank, etc., that is, once people get used to it. The hashtag list is extremely helpful!

  Anyway, just a suggestion for you all to consider. I must admit, when I see any mention of a specific weapon system, my first thought is HASHTAG!!! Then "unusual" brings me back to my senses! If this doesn't fit that well with the project, NO WORRIES!

  Thanks! Now, get back to tagging! 😃

  Posted July 26, 2014 6:31 AM

• by HeatherC moderator

  Glad to hear you are thinking "unusual"! I'd also suggest "useful" as a thought to have while hashtagging - i.e. will someone find this specific mention of this word or phrase a useful thing to be able to search for. This is exactly why we have discouraged the use of a hashtag simply saying "horses" and have encouraged the use of the specific tags developed by users here instead. It's also why we have been discouraging those of you tagging medical units from simply tagging every diagnosis - it's just NOT either unusual OR interesting!

  Totally agree with your comment on the equipmentevaluation hashtag. The point of it was that the Unit had in some way commented on the performance of the equipment or weapon. So they might say "boots were poor and fell apart", or "we needed to have a heavy trench mortar as the light one was useless". These would both be good examples I think.

  As you know part of the strength of crowd-sourcing projects like OWD is that users can suggest directions for us to take. So let's pursue the idea of a weaponsystems tag. First of all, we'd need to have a list of what it could be applied to. Remember not everyone has a military background and some people are going to apply it to "rifle" and "machine gun" and maybe even "gun" if we don't define it specifically. Secondly what do we think we might gain from having this hahstag?

  Comments and discussion welcome!

  Posted July 26, 2014 8:23 AM

• by ral104 moderator, scientist

  I like the sound of the weapons systems tag - it might throw up mentions of interesting, little-known amongst more common stuff. Happy to add it to the list, if everybody's in agreement.

  Posted July 26, 2014 2:43 PM

• by HeatherC moderator

  I've had a look at some of the #equipmentevaluation hashtags and have to say I agree that I can't actually see how some of them relate to the performance of equipment. It would be most helpful if when using this tag (and maybe also others that we have developed for specifics) people could put a very short explanation of why they thought the tag applied.

  So for example -

  • #equipmentevaluation - guns firing short due to faulty fuses
  • #horsescondition - horses very tired after 20 hours under the saddle
  • #ammoshortage - ran out of shells at noon

  Then we can judge much more easily if the hashtags are being used correctly. It also makes it MUCH easier for the person who may have searched for the hashtag to find the mention on the page (since of course hashtags have no specific position) . When I was looking for examples of horse hashtags I often found I had to read the whole of a closely written page to find why the hashtag had been used!

  Posted July 27, 2014 8:03 AM

• by Jan_Greenslade

  Does anyone know what a Barrett Jack is in this context? The mine will probably explode the Barrett Jack running along the shaft. push pipes. Thanks Jan

  Posted July 30, 2014 11:13 AM

• by HeatherC moderator in response to Jan Greenslade's comment.

  Jan - can you give us a link to the page please? It often helps to see this kind of thing in further context.

  Posted July 30, 2014 6:13 PM

• by Jan_Greenslade

  This is the link Heather, regards Jan
  Image AWD0000zlw

  Posted July 31, 2014 11:52 AM

• by HeatherC moderator

  What an interesting one Jan. The only thing I can come up with is that the Sappers did have hydraulic devices known as "Pipe-pushers" which were designed to push metal containers of explosive through the ground under the enemy's front line so they could be exploded immediately before an attack (which looks like the intention here). the hydraulic devices were known as "jacks" and I can only assume Barrett to be either the make of jack or simply the name by which the jack was known for some reason.

  There are some details on pages 3 and 4 of this document http://www.tunnellers.net/files/transcripts_to_corp_history_branagan_1987_paper.pdf

  Posted July 31, 2014 1:03 PM

• by Jan_Greenslade in response to HeatherC's comment.

  Thank you Heather that's fascinating and a lot clearer. I spent ages on the internet trying to find an explanation without success. Regards Jan.

  Posted July 31, 2014 1:20 PM

• by IKINAWANA in response to ral104's comment.

  Hello Rob - thought I better follow up with you on the use of the proposed hashtag #weaponsystems. I don't see it on the list of definitive hashtags. I'm still of the opinion that this one would help to eliminate separate hashtags for each and every weapon discussed. I've used it a few times already. Thank you!

  Posted September 6, 2014 11:56 AM

• by ral104 moderator, scientist

  Thanks Kris - looks like that one slipped through the net. I'll add it in now.

  Posted September 8, 2014 9:04 AM