Description
Object description
Ms diary (232pp, in 4 volumes) covering his service with the 109th Battery, 23rd Brigade RFA (3rd Division), August 1914 - July 1915, during the opening months of the war in France and Belgium including Mons, the Aisne, the Marne and Ypres where he remained until spring 1915, evoking effectively the life of an artilleryman and including interesting descriptions of the First Battle of Ypres (October - November 1914), the capture of Hill 60 (April 1915) and the Second Battle of Ypres (April - May 1915), aeroplane and Zeppelin raids, the exhaustion of forced marches, atrocities allegedly committed by German soldiers, inspections by HM King George V, HRH the Prince of Wales, Field Marshal Sir John French and Sir Douglas Haig, living conditions in the trenches, Christmas celebrations, German undercover spies and Belgian collaborators, his impressions of the ruins of Ypres, the shooting of surrendering Germans by both sides, the use of gas and the threat from snipers, the admiration of German prisoners for British artillery skills, plus the problems of burying the dead and graphic descriptions of wounding, with a ts transcript (51pp) of the diary and a photograph of him in uniform.
Content description
Ms diary (232pp, in 4 volumes) covering his service with the 109th Battery, 23rd Brigade RFA (3rd Division), August 1914 - July 1915, during the opening months of the war in France and Belgium including Mons, the Aisne, the Marne and Ypres where he remained until spring 1915, evoking effectively the life of an artilleryman and including interesting descriptions of the First Battle of Ypres (October - November 1914), the capture of Hill 60 (April 1915) and the Second Battle of Ypres (April - May 1915), aeroplane and Zeppelin raids, the exhaustion of forced marches, atrocities allegedly committed by German soldiers, inspections by HM King George V, HRH the Prince of Wales, Field Marshal Sir John French and Sir Douglas Haig, living conditions in the trenches, Christmas celebrations, German undercover spies and Belgian collaborators, his impressions of the ruins of Ypres, the shooting of surrendering Germans by both sides, the use of gas and the threat from snipers, the admiration of German prisoners for British artillery skills, plus the problems of burying the dead and graphic descriptions of wounding, with a ts transcript (51pp) of the diary and a photograph of him in uniform.
History note
Cataloguer APR
History note
Catalogue date 1997-01-28