My first self-referential posting! The tank-man heard me make fun of him in the below posting “The tank-man bumbleth!” and now has returned! Stepping out of my house this morning this was the sight I was greeted with on my front lawn. Okay, well actually this is Canadian War Records Office Official photograph O-3041 (credited to photographer William Rider-Rider), whose caption indicates that I and Les Invalides, the French national Army museum in Paris both were wrong about this little guy being French. I guess his toothy Mauser 98 was the indicator. One came back to Canada as a trophy and was in evidence in several of the travelling trophy exhibits, 1919-1920. There is another one still in the Australian War Memorial’s collection, which is identified as British. If he was indeed trying to pass himself off as a mobile sniper’s shield, my opinion of him remains: a ridiculous and conspicuous bumbler! I have no relevant info about which Canadian battalion captured him, but I would guess some table scraps and a large sack were involved.
