Description
Object description
British civilian railway clerk in London, GB, 1914-1915; private trained as wireless operator with Royal Flying Corps at British School of Telegraphy, London and at Royal Flying Corps Station Farnborough in GB, 10/1915-10/1916; NCO served as wireless operator with 17th Kite Balloon Section, Royal Flying Corps in Salonika, Greece, 11/1916-5/1918
Content description
REEL 1 Aspects of period as railway booking clerk in London, GB, 1914-1915: reaction to being given white feather; joining Derby Scheme, 1915; securing exemption following dispute over lack of leave; recruitment as wireless operator with Royal Flying Corps at Royal Flying Corps Recruitment Office, Whitehall, London, 30/8/1915. Aspect of basic training as wireless operator with Royal Flying Corps at Royal Flying Corps Station Farnborough, GB, 9/1915-10/1915: reception; reaction to army drill and discipline; pack drill punishment; lectures; over crowding in camp.
REEL 2 Continues: Aspects of training with British School of Telegraphy, London, GB, 10/1915-3/1916: home billets; learning Morse Code; spark wireless sets; erecting aerials. Aspects of period as wireless operator with Royal Flying Corps at Royal Flying Corps Station Farnborough, GB, 3/1916-10/1916: volunteering for canteen fatigues; instruction to become recruit drill instructors.
REEL 3 Continues; reaction to overseas posting. Aspects of period as NCO with Royal Flying Corps at Mikra Bay, Salonika, Greece, 11/1916: unloading cases containing Royal Aircraft Factory B.E.2c aircraft; health risk from shallow buried corpses dating from the First Balkan War, 1912. Recollections of period as NCO with 17th Kite Balloon Section, Royal Flying Corps in Salonika, Greece, 11/1916-5/1918: composition of unit; gas making equipment in lorry; method of inflating balloon; winching out balloon; telephone line from balloon observers via exchange to local artillery units; move as part of advance party to set up telephone lines prior to moving balloon; avoiding German shellfire.
REEL 4 Continues: technique of 'walking' balloon during moves; method of artillery air observation from balloon using telephone; method of air observation from aircraft and restrictions of wireless sets; work in chart room collating intelligence and aerial photographs to form detailed aerial map; briefing balloon observers; filing photographs; offer of balloon flight with Lieutenant Sutherland; sketches made from balloon by Corporal Wood.
REEL 5 Continues: account of flights with Lieutenant Sutherland including parachute, testing telephone line, ascent, binoculars, weather, role as observer, use of minarets to pin-point targets, passing information to chart room, quiet period during afternoon and descent by being winched down; question of value of balloon observation work; rations; tented accommodation.
REEL 6 Continues: washing; latrines; state of health and attacks of malaria; recreational activities; story of Lieutenant Leonard Thrower being shot down in balloon by Albatross D.III piloted by Leutnant Rudolf von Eschwege; Lewis Gun defences; effect of shooting down of balloons; story of commanding officer Captain Charles Gimingham being shot down by Leutnant Rudolf von Eschwege and his death on failure of parachute, Orljak, 9/11/1917; question of measures to counter Leutnant Rudolf von Eschwege.
REEL 7 Continues: success of ruse using dummy observer in balloon filled with explosive to kill Leutnant Rudolf von Eschwege at Orljak, 21/11/1917; malaria attack and evacuation to hospital in Salonika; period with No 1 Wireless School, RAF at RAF Farnborough on return to GB, 8/1918-3/1919.