Private Papers of Brigadier A B van Straubenzee DSO MC

7 ms letters home describing his professional and social life as a subaltern with an unidentified RFA battery in South Africa (November 1911 – August 1912); 32 ms letters (1 incomplete and 2 with photographs attached) covering his service on the Western Front, August 1915 – December 1918, mainly in command of an RFA battery in the 33rd Division (December 1915 – March 1917), of 407 Battery (?) RFA (? Army Horse Artillery Brigade) at the time of the German spring offensive (March – April 1918) and of Z Battery RHA (April – May 1918) and including a few interesting comments on conditions in the front line, the personal qualities of his fellow officers, and Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig and his appointment as Commander-in-Chief, BEF in December 1915; together with an ms and ts article (19pp) written in the 1930s about his experiences during the First World War emphasising the inadequate training and military knowledge of most of the officers and NCOs whom he commanded; a small collection of ms notes and 3 letters, 1936, concerning the history of the School of Artillery (India) since its inception during the First World War; and his ms notes (11pp), with ms covering letter dated 26 August 1943, on his appointment as CRA, 5th Indian Division during the campaign in Eritrea in 1941, with particular reference to the artillery operations under his command at Keren and elsewhere and the lessons learnt by the Royal Artillery during the fighting.

Cataloguer RWAS