Description
Object description
British private served with Machine Gun Corps attached to 8th and 49th Divisions on Western Front, 1916-1918.
Content description
REEL 1 Recollections of background in Abernant, 1896-1915: family dairy farm; education; work on farm; family involvement in Boer War; increased German horse purchases at Lampeter Fair, 5/1914; work in bank, 1913-1914; question of recruitment. Aspects of period with South Wales Borderers at Brecon and Sniggery Camp, Liverpool, 11/1915: prior training at Lampeter Drill Hall; family reactions to recruitment and effects of war on farm; opinion of instructors; kitting out; story of punishment for laughing on parade; nature of training. Background to volunteering and training with Machine Gun Corps at Belton Park Camp, Grantham, 1916. Aspects of period with Machine Gun Corps Coy of 8th Div in Bethune area, France, 4/1916-5/1916: journey out; sings: 'Apres la Guerre finis'; German machine guns; minenwerfers; question of religious beliefs; mining operations of South Wales miners.
REEL 2 Continues: role of Welsh miners; Vickers machine gun posts; sings song sung by Welsh miners in estaminet; rat problem and story of rat hunt watched by Lloyd George and Prince of Wales; question of gallantry award given to Prince of Wales; opinion of Portuguese troops and assistance with training; conditions of service; view of British aircraft piloted by school friend Captain Ira Jones shot down whilst attacking German observation balloons, 1918, Aspects of period with Machine Gun Corps Coy of 49th Div in Somme area, 7/1916-10/1916: background to posting; situation; attack in Thiepval sector, 9/1916, including British shells falling short, incompetent officer, German gas attack, story of removal of incompetent officer with shell shock, story of using steel helmet to protect genitals as joke, German POWs, hold up of neighbouring 38th Div, wet conditions, 9/1916; situation and movements; casualties; relationship with Captain Husband; religious beliefs; close escape from German shell; equipment with revolvers.
REEL 3 Continues: effects of gas shells; story of soldiers committing suicide by mixing rum and gas; effects of gas on rats; battlefield terrain; question of use of tanks. Period in Arras and Bethune areas, 10/1916-7/1917: effects of winter conditions and story of avoiding frostbite by clog dancing; question of commission; shortage of machine gun teams; effects of detonation of Messines mines, 6/6/1917; lice problem; German machine gun fire; march to Nieuport. Period in Nieuport area, 6/1917-10/1917: crossing Nieuport Canal to set up machine gun posts; role as runner; situation and question of launch of offensive in Ypres area; account of German gas attack, 21/7/1917, including crossing canal, opinion of German strategy of 1914, crossing Nieuport Canal to set up machine gun posts, billet in outskirts of Nieuport, warnings of new German mustard gas and beginning of mass German gas shell bombardment.
REEL 4 Continues: account of German gas attack, 21/7/1917, including story of locating first aid post before guiding stretcher bearers to gas victim, check on front line machine gun posts and first symptoms of gas poisoning; temporary blindness caused by gas and subsequent medical treatment in hospital prior to rejoining unit, 8/1917; question of award of medal. Aspects of period in Ypres area, 10/1917-1/1918: first impressions on move into front line; view of attack on German pillboxes; occupying German pillbox including German corpses subsequently buried in shell hole, difficulty in sleeping in wet conditions and reactions to advertisement for Portland Cement; nature of fighting and opinion of German machine gunners.
REEL 5 Continues: opinion of German troops and machine gunners; dispositions of I Corps; reactions to British corpse; role of British heavy artillery; conditions of service and food rations brought up by mule; nickname; effects of gas; soldier's premonition of death; water supply; food rations; situation; problem in evacuating wounded; story of problems in guiding Australian troops into line; opinion of Australian troops; story of minor wound from German shell whilst acting as runner during attack on Passchendaele Ridge, 11/1917; German dugouts; reactions to relief by Canadian Div, 11/1917; casualties; exhaustion on being relieved; GB leave, 1/1918.
REEL 6 Continues: question of strategic situation, 1917; nature of fighting and terrain; singing hymns; opinion of generals; GB leave, 1/1918, including seasickness, death of brother and question of war profiteering; state of morale; sings and importance of comradeship; attitude to homosexuals. Various aspects of service on Western Front, 1918: role training US troops; move to Armentieres sector during German offensive, 4/1918; situation; inability to deploy machine guns; French refugees and retreating British troops; story of death of Husband, subsequent retreat and volunteering to return to bury him; support fire from French 75mm guns; retreat to Cassel; story of deploying in No Man's Land and taking cover in ditch from German machine gun fire; stemming of German advance, move to Arras area and beginning of advance; German booby traps.
REEL 7 Continues: advance; reactions to Armistice and celebrations, 11/11/1918. Demobilisation, 1/1919: medical examination; return to work in bank. Sings extracts of various soldiers' songs. Various aspects of operations on Western Front: personal morale; retreating British troops, 4/1918; dugouts; trenches; story of close escape from German shell; role of Welsh miners; state of health; question of shell shock; state of discipline; aspects of operations in Ypres area, 1917; opinion of German machine gunners and question of using captured German pillboxes.
REEL 8 Continues: ammunition supply and stoppages; opinion of role of Lloyd George; importance of religious beliefs and absence of padres; minimal contact with GB; minimal contact with French and Belgian civilians; opinion of US troops; nature of open warfare; effects of German shells. Post-war career: religious beliefs; development of glaucoma attributed to being gassed, 7/1917.