Landships II

Members Login
Username 
 
Password 
    Remember Me  
Landships II -> Landships WW1 Forum -> Individual weapons & tactics -> A rifle named Rosalie
Post Info TOPIC: A rifle named Rosalie
kieffer


Commander in Chief

Status: Offline
Posts: 730
Date:
A rifle named Rosalie
Permalink   

Hi all,

At the outbreak of the war, French-Canadien immigrant Henri Lecorre went back to France and joined his former unit. Being wounded he was brought back to Canada and after recovery he joined the French-Canadian 22.Infantry.
He 'baptised' his new Lee-Enfield into Rosalie, after a popular French song about "les marraines de guerre", the female pen-pals to whom soldiers could write letters.
He engraved the name on the barrel stock and was reprimanded for doing that, 'damaging the King's property'. His rifle was confiscated. He was lucky and could save the weapon out of a scrap heap. Since then he kept the rifle well-hidden out of sight of every officer, and carried it with him during the war. In the mean time his comrades helped him out: when an officer discovered much to his astonishment the rifle again, his mates hastely scratched another rifle and gave this in, preserving old Rosalie for destruction.
Lecorre was severely wounded again when he tried to rescue two wounded comrades laying in No Mens Land. He woke up in a hospital in Canada, without his rifle.
But Rosalie was saved and came to England. In 1943 Canadian general Andrew McNaughton saw the gun while visiting an arms factory where it was preserved. He took the gun back to Canada. Lecorre himself saw his gun back by coincidence on a military exhibition in 1956. He died in 1963.
Corporal Henri Lecorre engraved not only 'Rosalie' on the weapon but also the battlefield names where his 22.batallion had been: Arras, Passchendaele, Cote 70, Lens, Lievin, Piericour, Neuville, St.Vaast, Sully Grenay, Courcelette, Zillebeke, Hoodge, St.Eloi, Kemmel and Vimy.

source: Der Weltkrieg 1914-1918, publ. Rother, for the Deutsches Historisches Museum Berlin 2004

regards, Kieffer

Attachments
__________________
Rectalgia


Legend

Status: Offline
Posts: 1152
Date:
Permalink   

That is a great story Kieffer.

It is said British Empire troops 'caught the bug' for carving their rifle stocks from the Boers. The Boers were very independent, the British army much less so. For the army it was damaging equipment - worse, damaging weapons. That was a court martial matter. 'Injuring his arms,' I believe is the term used on the charge sheets at that time.

Never-the-less, especially the New Zealanders and even, surprisingly, the much more respectful and polite Australians (caution, irony) copied the Boers. There is some talk about this at http://www.sabona.com.au/articles_detail.ews?articles_detail.ewdid=430 where Dave George promotes his two books on the matter. I have seen some of that work (pictures, I forget where), it includes some truly artistic concepts and masterful execution, the worst of it was, at least, nicely decorative.

Either Henri Lecorre re-invented the genre or was inspired/infected by the example from that earlier war. But for the rifle to survive so much and to be seen again at last by its 'creator', that is a marvelous coincidence in a world that is not usually so generous to the non-conformist.

__________________
Facimus et Frangimus
Page 1 of 1  sorted by
 
Quick Reply

Please log in to post quick replies.
Landships II -> Landships WW1 Forum -> Individual weapons & tactics -> A rifle named Rosalie
Tweet this page Post to Digg Post to Del.icio.us


Create your own FREE Forum
Report Abuse 		Powered by ActiveBoard