Description
Object description
British private served with 3rd and 1st Bns Northamptonshire Regt in GB and on Western Front, 1915-1916; served with 5 Coy B Bn Heavy Branch, Machine Gun Corps and Tank Corps on Western Front, 1916-1918; served with North Russia Relief Force in Soviet Union, 1919
Content description
REEL 1 Background to recruitment underage into Northamptonshire Regt, 15/3/1915. Recollections of periods with 3rd Bn Northamptonshire Regt at Weymouth, Gillingham and Stroud, 3/1915-9/1916: vaccinations; training; move to Gillingham, 5/1915; send offs for drafts leaving for service battalion; cancellation of posting overseas as under 19; move to Stroud, 10/1915; weapons training including Lewis gun and Mills hand grenades; guard duties including contact with wounded German POW in Fort Hill hospital, Chatham; hospitalisation with scarlet fever attack. Journey out to Infantry Base Depot at Etaples, France, 16/9/1916: posting to 1st Bn Northamptonshire Regt; reaction and personal morale; story of attending church service.
REEL 2 Continues: story of attending church service and subsequent importance of religion. Aspects of operations with 1st Bn Northamptonshire Regt in Somme area, 9/1916-12/1916: nature of fighting; opinion of stretcher bearers and Advanced Dressing Stations; state of woods; first view of tank; question of volunteering for Heavy Branch, Machine Gun Corps; effects of mud and wet conditions in front line; role as bomber; NCO's attempt to prevent experienced soldiers transferring to Tank Corps; personal morale; role of British observation balloons; air warfare; role of padre and church services.
REEL 3 Continues: Recollections of period training as driver with 5 Coy B Bn Heavy Branch, Machine Gun Corps at Sautricore Tankodrome, France, 12/1916: volunteering; pay and food rations in infantry; role of padres; story of German shell disabling tank during attack on Menin Road, Ypres area, 1917 including German shellfire and aircraft attacks and view of priest giving last rites to corpses; pianist during visit to YMCA canteen; tank camouflage nets; training and assessment; forming tank crew; Male and Female Mark V tanks; role as second driver; interior and crew roles in Mark V; choosing tank name 'Baby Mine' and relationship with officer; importance of camouflage.
REEL 4 Continues: Recollections of attack in 'Baby Mine' at Messines, 7/6/1917: situation; prior planning and secrecy; role supporting Australian troops; awareness of mines; detonation of mine and moving forward, 04.00; story of effects being hit by German shell; evacuation of wounded; view of German casualties in mine crater; return to start line; role of tanks; question of vulnerability of tanks; view of French troops marching. Aspects of Third Battle of Ypres, 1917: question of development of German anti-tank weapons; question of use of tanks, casualties and loss of 'Baby Mine'.
REEL 5 Continues: Aspects of Battle of Cambrai, 11/1917: crossing Hindenburg Line; German POWs, dugouts and taking souvenirs; situation; Prussian POWs; use of fascines; visit from Prince of Wales; close escape from dangerous mission. Story of seasickness during journey back for GB leave, 12/1917. Aspects of attack in Somme area, 8/8/1918: role as Reconnaissance Officer's runner; situation; advance of Australian troops; tank casualties caused by German artillery battery missed by advancing infantry; effects of direct shellfire hit on tanks; story of losing touch with officer.
REEL 6 Continues: story of losing touch with officer; view of wounded coming back with improvised stretchers; state of wounded officer; story of friend's premonition about Ypres service and his subsequent death there, 1917. Recollections of German offensive, 21/3/1918: situation; redundancy of tanks and temporary transfer to infantry role; view of failed charge by Bengal Lancers; rearguard actions; food rations. Various aspects of operations with 1st Bn Northamptonshire Regt, Heavy Branch, Machine Gun Corps and Tank Corps, 1916-1918: comparison of conditions of service in tanks and infantry; story of heavy German shellfire whilst volunteering to rescue wounded in Somme area, 9/1916-12/1916; story illustrating importance of religious beliefs in action; anti-spark masks; tank casualties in Somme area, 8/8/1918.
REEL 7 Continues: question of German tanks; comparison of British and German weapons; story of state of wounded on volunteering to rescue wounded under heavy German shellfire in Somme area, 9/1916-12/1916; advanced dressing stations and use of light railways to evacuate casualties; friend's GB leave; German trench mortars; issue of rum ration and cocoa during cold weather; status of tank crews; tank uniform.
REEL 8 Continues: Aspects of period with North Russia Relief Force in Russia, 1919: difficulty in settling into civilian life and background to rejoining army; period in Woolwich Barracks; voyage with reinforcement drafts aboard Tsar to Archangel; role defending Archangel base depot; pay; Russian bear wrestling; question of relationship with Russian civilian women working in base depot; journey up River Dvina; VD warning; question of political situation; story of Russian children begging for food; question of relationship with Russian civilians; story of troops stealing wine and question of standards of discipline; seasickness during voyage out; permission to take stores for personal use during emergency evacuation; voyage back.