Description
Object description
Ts transcription (77pp) of a diary kept by him between 19 October 1917 and 15 January 1919 during his service with the 210th Field Company Royal Engineers, recounting his experiences at the Battle of Cambrai in November, the extremely heavy losses sustained by the British as a result of the German offensive and the subsequent humiliation of the British retreat; the Battle of Hazebrouck in April 1917 in which the 4th Battalion Grenadier Guards and 3rd Battalion Coldstream Guards were decimated by the Germans after being surrounded, which the 210th Field Company RE could have prevented if given the orders to stay and fight, and his subsequent guilt at discovering they were massacred; Operation Borderland in June 1918 in which the east line at Hazebrouck was to be strengthened and where he won his MC and lost his friend Lt. Harold Keating (the circumstances of whose death comprises much of the appendices at the end of the diary). The volume also contains various letters written both to and from Aldous to the family of Lt. Keating, letters of sympathy to Keating's parents from other soldiers and 70 photographs covering his service from school in Woolwich to his service following the close of the war. Also included with the collection is a CD version of the diary and photographs.
Content description
Ts transcription (77pp) of a diary kept by him between 19 October 1917 and 15 January 1919 during his service with the 210th Field Company Royal Engineers, recounting his experiences at the Battle of Cambrai in November, the extremely heavy losses sustained by the British as a result of the German offensive and the subsequent humiliation of the British retreat; the Battle of Hazebrouck in April 1917 in which the 4th Battalion Grenadier Guards and 3rd Battalion Coldstream Guards were decimated by the Germans after being surrounded, which the 210th Field Company RE could have prevented if given the orders to stay and fight, and his subsequent guilt at discovering they were massacred; Operation Borderland in June 1918 in which the east line at Hazebrouck was to be strengthened and where he won his MC and lost his friend Lt. Harold Keating (the circumstances of whose death comprises much of the appendices at the end of the diary). The volume also contains various letters written both to and from Aldous to the family of Lt. Keating, letters of sympathy to Keating's parents from other soldiers and 70 photographs covering his service from school in Woolwich to his service following the close of the war. Also included with the collection is a CD version of the diary and photographs.
History note
Cataloguer KAW
History note
Catalogue date 2006-09-19