Description
Object description
British NCO served with 1/6th Bn, East Lancashire Regt in GB and Western Front, 1914-1918
Content description
REEL 1 Recollections of background in Crawshaw Booth, 1898-1914: family circumstances; education; acting as stable lad in builders yard; work as apprentice engraver at print works, ca 1911-19; recreations; reactions to outbreak of war, 4/8/1914. Recruitment underage with East Lancashire Regt at Recruitment Office, Rawtenstall, 15/2/1915: initial rejection; parents' reaction; medical. Period at Fulwood Barracks, Preston, 2/1915: reception and kitting out; drill; food rations; cookhouse fatigues. Recollections of conditions of service, daily routine and lifestyle during training with F Coy, 3rd Bn, ELR at Laira and Fort Hefford, Plymouth, 2/1915-12/1916: train journey down with draft; billets.
REEL 2 Continues: morning routine; drill; rifle training and passing as marksman on range; method of cleaning rifle; bayonet training; route marches; PT; hand grenade training; trench digging; tactical training; recreations; cross country run.
REEL 3 Continues: story of meeting future wife in billets; story of drill session with NCO; hut accommodation on move into Laira Camp; kit inspections; relationship with ORs, NCOs and officers; guard duty including 'stick system' and story of being warned for being caught asleep by NCO; preparing for kit inspection; physique; question of adequacy of training; pride in regiment.
REEL 4 Continues: issue of tropical kit ready for draft; subsequent removal from draft as underage and transfer to B Coy at Fort Hefford; barrack accommodation; relationship with older soldiers; card games; story of reformed ex burglar and soldiers raiding canteen; kitchen fatigues and punishment of being confined to barracks; VD warnings; recreations; food rations and visits to former billets; church parade; duties as officer's servant; treatment of boil; opinion of officers; duties as officers' mess waiter; promotion to acting lance corporal and training as instructor.
REEL 5 Continues: course as instructor at Jellabhad Barracks, Tidworth, 1916, including accelerated promotion to corporal, story of losing opportunity for promotion as sergeant instructor and success in taking battalion drill parade; role as drill instructor including success in platoon competition and relationship with ORs; courses in Vickers machine gun and Lewis gun; extra pay. Periods at Saltburn and Redcar, 12/1916: relationship with local civilians; tent accommodation; reasons for volunteering for active service; question of knowledge of conditions on Western Front; vaccinations. Story of sighting mine whilst crossing Channel aboard destroyer to Boulogne, 2/1917. Period at Infantry Base Depot, Etaples, 2/1917: trench fighting course; assault course; opinion of instructors.
REEL 6 Recollections of joining D Coy, 1/5th ELR at Courcelles, Somme area, 2/1917: state of unit; promotion to platoon sergeant; recreations including pantomime, concert parties and estaminets. <Mr Birtwhistle was too upset to record details of his service at Ypres, 1917> Recollections of conditions of service, lifestyle and daily routine on Western Front, ca 12/1917-3/1918: movements; nature of trenches and dugouts; story of close escape from bomb dropped by German aircraft; ration and carrying parties; food rations and 'tommy' cookers; attending cookery course and building brick ovens; discovering cases of stealing of meat ration during period as company sergeant cook; water supply; rum and cigarette rations.
REEL 7 Continues: washing and shaving; latrines; rubbish disposal; lice and rat problems; feral cats; stand to; making tea; role touring front line posts; relationship with ORs and officers; checking use of whale oil; relationship with ORs; repairing trenches; food rations; sentries; question of minimal small arms fire in quiet sector; German shellfire and minenwerfers; story of German gas shell bombardment on working party; reconnaissance patrols including white camouflage uniform worn in snow, story of crossing canal and locating with German patrol in No Mans Land; wiring parties; story of trench raid.
REEL 8 Continues: story of trench raid, occupation of trench and retreat following German attack covered by smoke screen; tours of duty; German shellfire during periods in support and reserve lines; rest periods; Christmas celebrations and concert party, 25/12/1917. Recollections of operations in Somme area, 21/3/1918: meeting retreating troops during move from Courcelles to Ablainzeville; situation on taking up defensive positions; account of German attack, ca 23/3/1918-24/3/1918, including view of advancing massed German troops, firing on German Uhlan scouts and retreat in stages; arrangements to obtain supplies from stores at Courcelles; effectiveness of close range artillery fire; hospitalisation with fibrositis of spine; rejoining unit.
REEL 9 Various aspects of service on Western Front, ca 4/1918-11/1918: move to coastal positions in Dunkirk sector; story of bathing in sea; story of capture of suspected Belgian spy signalling British troop night movements to Germans; move up to face Hindenburg Line; story of taking over from Portuguese troops; story of gift of watch from German officer captured in former British tank being used as pillbox during advance in Cambrai area; transfer to new platoon; story of being pulled out of attack and sent on leave; GB leave including difficult journey back, reception, lice problem and civilian ignorance of conditions on Western Front; role on promotion to company sergeant major; attack of fibrositis on knee and evacuation back to GB, 10/1918. Period in hospital at Birmingham, ca 10/1918: amusing reception from patient; assisting nurses on wards.
REEL 10 Continues: date with nurse. Period at Heaton Park Convalescent Camp, Manchester, ca 10/1918: story of problem with drunken escorts during trip to escort prisoners to Burnley; reaction to news of Armistice, 11/11/1918; background to marriage to woman met in billets Plymouth; recites poem about strait-laced aunt; demobilisation, 15/2/1919. Post-war career: return to work at print works; story of threatening foreman illustrating mental effects of war service; question of rejoining territorials; story of attending meeting of East Lancashire Regimental Association. Reads piece summarising feelings relating to service in Ypres area, 1917.