Sioux Indians in Salford Lancashire

[Yan Taylor]

Chuck; ‘’Battle Ground’’ is a very good movie (I bought a copy on DVD years ago), but I must say that the ‘’Band of Brothers’’ series did a great job covering that part of the war, the snow, ice and freezing fog and the dense woods of course.

Shame about a new BLBH movie, I wish I could have some input if they did decide to make one, I can just see it now, an good aerial shot of Reno moving down the valley at speed with ‘’March of the Valkyrie’’ playing at the same time.

Ray Milland did his film career no favours when he decided to take a roll in one of the worst films ever, ‘’The Thing with two Heads’’. That movie must rank alongside ‘’Plan 9 From Outer Space’’ for celluloid crap.

Ian.

[quincannon]

Ok Ian, your trivia assignment for the week is identify the unit that Van Johnson and his Battleground comrades belonged to in the movie. I will tell you that it won't be easy. The unit is never mentioned but the clues are there. You must know a lot about the 101st ABD to get the answer.

I will tell you this. I checked Wiki, just to see if they gave away the answer. They do, but have it wrong, sort of. Just did not want to make it to easy for you.

[Yan Taylor]

Well as you know Chuck Wiki say’s the 327th Glider Infantry Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division, but was it the 1st Battalion of the 401st? They held the line along with the 327th so I will have a guess and say it’s them.

Ian.

[quincannon]

Exactly Ian. Very good job. Officially there was no Company I and K in the 327th GIR. Both were mentioned in the movie.When the airborne divisions were formed they had two, two battalion glider regiments. The 82nd lost its second GIR before it went overseas retaining only the 325. The 101st went to England with both the 327 and 401. In preparation for Normandy the 401st was broken up and 2nd Battalion went to the 82nd's 325 GIR, and 1st of the 401st went to the 327th. Officially there was a duplication in company letter designation. Not wishing this to be confusing a local order was issued changing them. All this did not become official until March 45, but it was used in practice from Normandy on. You can also tell from the tick mark in the nine o'clock position on the trefoil helmet stencil. 1st Battalion 401st it is Ian. Very well done. Harper and the Germans getting the Nuts message is a dead give away for the regiment.

[Yan Taylor]

Phew!!! I thought you were going to throw a ringer in there Chuck, like the 1st Radio Section of the 1st MRBC or something, but I thought it maybe along the lines of an attached unit.

Ian.

[quincannon]

OK: Just for a follow-up. What was the TD unit depicted in the scene by the railroad bridge?

While you are at it what unit portrayed the 4th Armored Divisions relief of the 101 during the final sequence in the movie where Whitmore forms the platoon on the road? Specifically what unit were the tanks from?
That is probably a lot harder than identifying the real units.

[Yan Taylor]

Chuck, I think in real life it was the 705th TD Bn (M18s), but I don’t know if they used the same units in the 1949 movie.

Ian.

[quincannon]

Ian: I am 99% sure that it was Company C, 609th Tank Destroyer Battalion. The who portrayed answer to my late addition is the 72nd Heavy Tank Battalion, 2nd Infantry Division. Those closing scenes were shot at Fort Lewis, Washington. The same location was used for "To Hell and Back" but the extras and the Germans were portrayed by the 4th Infantry Division, then at Lewis, not right down the road at Carson.

[Yan Taylor]

Chuck, Not a bad film ‘’To Hell and Back’’ Audie was a real life hero, I remember my Father mentioning him when I was a kid, and I can remember the film first being shown on TV, I got a lot of those movies from Amazon U.S., remember when I said that the dollar was two to a pound, well I did a great trade in buying used but new DVDs from the states via Amazon, and Battleground and To Hell and Back were among them.

Ian.

[quincannon]

Liked everything in the film except the river crossing in Italy. Very contrived. That should have been a TD that Murphy climbed on near the end. I suppose that by the time the movie was made all the TD's were gone.

Most of those characters were fictional, but based on composites of real folks. The Brandon character was real though, Murphy's closest friend, but I believe his real name was Tipton.

The movie that is just waiting to be made is "Devils in Baggy Pants" It would make Band of Brothers seem like Aunt Bea's tea party. That is a book you really need to read Ian. Still in print by a guy named Ross Carter. If no place else has it go on line to the 82nd Airborne Division Museum Store. I am sure they must have it.

[oglallah]

I know you guys have been having your own discussions which is great. I have been off the airwaves for the past few days. Jobs around the house and in the garden needed to be done before Autumn sets in. However, I did get to watch the first part of Comanche Moon and I thought it was quite good. I will certainly watch the rest of it. On the costume dramas you mentioned in earlier postings I have no input to give. I have watched a few but only under duress - when my ex-wife wanted to watch them. I much preferred North and South and Roots. My ex didn't mind North and South because toe late lamented Patrick Swayze was in it. Also some more sad news to impart regarding the death of Elmore Leonard who was noted for his crime novels. He also made his name in Western fiction - Valdez is Coming with Burt Lancaster was based on one of his short stories. R I P Elmore Leonard!

[quincannon]

OG: That entire series of Lonesome Dove was great. Comanche Moon being exceptional. A very good rendition of Republic days in Tejas. The last in the series sequentially with Garner (I think it was produced somewhere in the middle of them all though) put a good cap, a finality on the character of Captain Call. Jones could have done it well to but he was not yet at the right age and Garner was.

Elmore Leonard was a loss. Last of a certain generation I believe. Have you ever read any of Max Brand's war reporting, and stories. He was known for his westerns but during WWII diversified.

I think you would also like the adaptation of Centennial as well. It is about my home in fiction, but it sure covers most of the bases in the settling and developing of the State of Colorado, as does the same author's Texas, but the film only cut and pasted it way through about twenty years of a much biger and broad based story.

[oglallah]

Cloth Caps and Cowboy Hats; the Day the Wild West Came to Wigan

On the 29th of September 1904, a small army invaded the cotton manufacturing town of Wigan in Lancashire. Nearly a thousand strong it was a mixture of veteran US soldiers, Lakota Indians, American cowboys, Mexican vaqueros, Arab Spahis (light cavalry), japanese acrobats, wives, consorts and other camp followers. There was also a contingent of teamsters, horse wranglers, carpenters, stage hands, electricians (for the special electric light plants), armourers, cooks and butchers. Together with a convoy of fifty wagons, including a stagecoach, carrying supplies and equipment, they made the trek through the town to Lamberhead Green, a semi rural area just over a mile to the south. It was pure spectacle with the Sioux warriors resplendent in warpaint and eagle feathers, the vaqueros in gaily coloured ponchos and sombreros and the darkskinned Spahis mounted on their spirited chargers. Then came the cowboys wearing stetsons and silver spurred high heeled boots amusing the spectators with rope tricks. And in the vanguard waving gallantly to the crowds lining the roadside, rode Col William Frederick Cody, six feet four and clad in buckskins, thigh length black riding boots and wide brimmed white sombrero. Ex army scout, showman and self-styled killer of Cheyenne war chief Yellow Hair, with cascading curls and well waxed moustache and goatee, at fifty eight still erect astride his prancing horse. It was an entry to make even Caesar blush. Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West Show was in town.

Arriving at their destination, an area stretching from Lamberhead Green to present day Worsley Hall, an encampment of canvas tents and tipis was erected. Then came the main tent and a number of marquees around a central horseshoe shaped arena. Inhabited by peoples of many nations, it was a town within a town. Two weeks before the Shows arrival hundreds of posters had magically appeared in shop windows, on billboards and vacant walls, heralding the imminent arrival of BUFFALO BILL AND HIS CONGRESS OF ROUGH RIDERS OF THE WORLD! The frenetic schedule included two shows, afternoon and evening (hence the new fangled electric lighting). Admission was priced at one shillings upwards to four with box seats costing five shillings and seven shillings and sixpence. Children under ten were admitted at half price. For a ha'penny you could have a cone filled with popcorn. Programmes and other souvenirs were also on sale. Locals were even allowed to visit the tipis of the Native Americans. Some of those who attended later recalled how they had dressed up in their Sunday best for the once in a lifetime occasion. Some may even have remembered earlier visits to Lancashire by Bill and his Wild West. The famed frontier scout had whooped them up on three previous tours. He had even met Queen Victoria, a huge fan. So the ground was well ploughed.

The Show opened with a review of the entire company who, to the accompaniment of William Sweeney and his Cowboy Band, galloped and paraded around the arena. Then, as the music morphed into The Star Spangled Banner, Buffalo Bill made his dramatic entrance. Mounted on a handsome black steed wearing a silver bridle, a present from Edward Vii back when he was Prince of Wales, with a flourish of his white sombrero he introduced the Congress of Rough Riders of the World who, at his signal entered into a dazzling, kaleidoscopic routine of interspersing concentric circles. Then came the entertainment proper. A panoply of riding and roping and shooting exhibitions performed by the troupe - Cody included. Edwardian Evel Knievel George C. Davis did death defying feats on his bicycle, one of them involving a fiftysix foot jump across a chasm. There were also acrobatics and other spectacular feats. The cavalry and infantry drilled and marksman Johnny Baker showed off his considerable shooting skills. But these were only curtain raisers for the melodramatic main events - frontier vignettes featuring Buffalo Bill as Pony Express rider, Buffalo Bill as buffalo hunter, and Buffalo Bill as the thrilling last minute rescuer of a settlers cabin surrounded by Indians. There was also an Indian attack on the Deadwood stage. Buffalo Bill to the rescue again! And then the high point of the whole spectacle - a re-enactment of Custers Last Stand, the finest hour of Lakota and Cheyenne resistance to white encroachment on their land. The arena echoed with gunfire and the war whoops of triumphant Indian warriors as they wiped out the wasichus. Johnnie Baker, wearing built up boots and a blonde wig, played Custer. The Indians played themselves. Some of them may have even been present at the actual battle. Sitting Bull jnr, son of the chief who had, played the role of his father. For him, like the rest of the Native performers, it was a temporary escape from the grim realities of reservation life. And the pay was good. But of greater importance though, was the opportunity it gave them to present a culture and lifestyle that was fast disappearing, and to relive again the old ways and old victories.

Then it was over. The last shot fired, the last Indian felled, the last settler saved. Buffalo Bill bade the crowded stands farewell and they filtered home with their programmes and souvenirs and memories. In the just dawning century a new medium, made of flickering images, would take on the role of storyteller of the American West, presenting an image that the old scout, both in real life and in fiction, had had a major role in developing. He would even appear before the camera himself. But the movies, captivating as they were, could never deliver the excitement, the experience of being there. You were in the presence of REAL Indians and REAL cowboys and a REAL western hero - Buffalo Bill, attesting to the authenticity of his Frontier tableaux. For Cody himself, the show presented America's, and his own, take on the conquest of the Plains and it's native peoples. He was the most famous American of his day, and the world was wild about the West. But to the hundreds who crowded the canvas covered stands on that long ago day in Wigan, Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show was never anything more than entertainment and spectacle. A temporary bolt hole out of a coal mine or cotton mill and into another world, albeit one long gone.

References

Gallop, Alan. Buffalo Bill's British Wild West. Sutton Publishing Limited, 2001.
Kasson, Joy S. Buffalo Bill's Wild West; Celebrity, Memory and Popular History. Hill and Wang, 2000.
Sell, Henry Blackman, and Victor Weybright. Buffalo Bill and the Wild West. Oxford University Press, 1955.
Stillman, Deanne. Blood Brothers; Sitting Bull and Buffalo Bill. Simon & Schuster, 2017.
Warren, Louis S. Buffalo Bill's America; William Cody and the Wild West Show. Vintage Books, 2006.

Newspapers.

Blackburn Times
The Guardian
The Northern Daily Telegraph
The Rochdale Observer
The Southport Visiter
The Wigan Observer

[oglallah]

Cloth Caps and Cowboy Hats; the Day the Wild West Came to Wigan

On the 29th of September 1904, a small army invaded the cotton manufacturing town of Wigan in Lancashire. Nearly a thousand strong it was a mixture of veteran US soldiers, Lakota Indians, American cowboys, Mexican vaqueros, Arab Spahis (light cavalry), japanese acrobats, wives, consorts and other camp followers. There was also a contingent of teamsters, horse wranglers, carpenters, stage hands, electricians (for the special electric light plants), armourers, cooks and butchers. Together with a convoy of fifty wagons, including a stagecoach, carrying supplies and equipment, they made the trek through the town to Lamberhead Green, a semi rural area just over a mile to the south. It was pure spectacle with the Sioux warriors resplendent in warpaint and eagle feathers, the vaqueros in gaily coloured ponchos and sombreros and the darkskinned Spahis mounted on their spirited chargers. Then came the cowboys wearing stetsons and silver spurred high heeled boots amusing the spectators with rope tricks. And in the vanguard waving gallantly to the crowds lining the roadside, rode Col William Frederick Cody, six feet four and clad in buckskins, thigh length black riding boots and wide brimmed white sombrero. Ex army scout, showman and self-styled killer of Cheyenne war chief Yellow Hair, with cascading curls and well waxed moustache and goatee, at fifty eight still erect astride his prancing horse. It was an entry to make even Caesar blush. Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West Show was in town.

Arriving at their destination, an area stretching from Lamberhead Green to present day Worsley Hall, an encampment of canvas tents and tipis was erected. Then came the main tent and a number of marquees around a central horseshoe shaped arena. Inhabited by peoples of many nations, it was a town within a town. Two weeks before the Shows arrival hundreds of posters had magically appeared in shop windows, on billboards and vacant walls, heralding the imminent arrival of BUFFALO BILL AND HIS CONGRESS OF ROUGH RIDERS OF THE WORLD! The frenetic schedule included two shows, afternoon and evening (hence the new fangled electric lighting). Admission was priced at one shillings upwards to four with box seats costing five shillings and seven shillings and sixpence. Children under ten were admitted at half price. For a ha'penny you could have a cone filled with popcorn. Programmes and other souvenirs were also on sale. Locals were even allowed to visit the tipis of the Native Americans. Some of those who attended later recalled how they had dressed up in their Sunday best for the once in a lifetime occasion. Some may even have remembered earlier visits to Lancashire by Bill and his Wild West. The famed frontier scout had whooped them up on three previous tours. He had even met Queen Victoria, a huge fan. So the ground was well ploughed.

The Show opened with a review of the entire company who, to the accompaniment of William Sweeney and his Cowboy Band, galloped and paraded around the arena. Then, as the music morphed into The Star Spangled Banner, Buffalo Bill made his dramatic entrance. Mounted on a handsome black steed wearing a silver bridle, a present from Edward Vii back when he was Prince of Wales, with a flourish of his white sombrero he introduced the Congress of Rough Riders of the World who, at his signal entered into a dazzling, kaleidoscopic routine of interspersing concentric circles. Then came the entertainment proper. A panoply of riding and roping and shooting exhibitions performed by the troupe - Cody included. Edwardian Evel Knievel George C. Davis did death defying feats on his bicycle, one of them involving a fiftysix foot jump across a chasm. There were also acrobatics and other spectacular feats. The cavalry and infantry drilled and marksman Johnny Baker showed off his considerable shooting skills. But these were only curtain raisers for the melodramatic main events - frontier vignettes featuring Buffalo Bill as Pony Express rider, Buffalo Bill as buffalo hunter, and Buffalo Bill as the thrilling last minute rescuer of a settlers cabin surrounded by Indians. There was also an Indian attack on the Deadwood stage. Buffalo Bill to the rescue again! And then the high point of the whole spectacle - a re-enactment of Custers Last Stand, the finest hour of Lakota and Cheyenne resistance to white encroachment on their land. The arena echoed with gunfire and the war whoops of triumphant Indian warriors as they wiped out the wasichus. Johnnie Baker, wearing built up boots and a blonde wig, played Custer. The Indians played themselves. Some of them may have even been present at the actual battle. Sitting Bull jnr, son of the chief who had, played the role of his father. For him, like the rest of the Native performers, it was a temporary escape from the grim realities of reservation life. And the pay was good. But of greater importance though, was the opportunity it gave them to present a culture and lifestyle that was fast disappearing, and to relive again the old ways and old victories.

Then it was over. The last shot fired, the last Indian felled, the last settler saved. Buffalo Bill bade the crowded stands farewell and they filtered home with their programmes and souvenirs and memories. In the just dawning century a new medium, made of flickering images, would take on the role of storyteller of the American West, presenting an image that the old scout, both in real life and in fiction, had had a major role in developing. He would even appear before the camera himself. But the movies, captivating as they were, could never deliver the excitement, the experience of being there. You were in the presence of REAL Indians and REAL cowboys and a REAL western hero - Buffalo Bill, attesting to the authenticity of his Frontier tableaux. For Cody himself, the show presented America's, and his own, take on the conquest of the Plains and it's native peoples. He was the most famous American of his day, and the world was wild about the West. But to the hundreds who crowded the canvas covered stands on that long ago day in Wigan, Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show was never anything more than entertainment and spectacle. A temporary bolt hole out of a coal mine or cotton mill and into another world, albeit one long gone.

References

Gallop, Alan. Buffalo Bill's British Wild West. Sutton Publishing Limited, 2001.
Kasson, Joy S. Buffalo Bill's Wild West; Celebrity, Memory and Popular History. Hill and Wang, 2000.
Sell, Henry Blackman, and Victor Weybright. Buffalo Bill and the Wild West. Oxford University Press, 1955.
Stillman, Deanne. Blood Brothers; Sitting Bull and Buffalo Bill. Simon & Schuster, 2017.
Warren, Louis S. Buffalo Bill's America; William Cody and the Wild West Show. Vintage Books, 2006.

Newspapers.

Blackburn Times
The Guardian
The Northern Daily Telegraph
The Rochdale Observer
The Southport Visiter
The Wigan Observer

[oglallah]

Sorry chaps! Didn't mean to post it twice.