Description
Object description
British officer cadet served with Royal Military College, Sandhurst, GB, 8/1914-4/1915; officer served with 2nd Bn King's Shropshire Light Infantry, 80th Bde, 27th Div on Western Front, 5/1915-7/1915; served with 1st Bn King's Shropshire Light Infantry, 16th Bde, 6th Div on Western Front, 4/1916-4/1917; served as instructor with 12th Officer Cadet Bn at Newmarket, GB, 4/1917-2/1918; served as intelligence officer with 1st Bn King's Shropshire Light Infantry, 16th Bde, 6th Div on Western Front, 3/1918-11/1918
Content description
REEL 1 Aspects of period as schoolchild at Winchester College, Winchester, GB, 1908-1914: organisation; army class specialisation; Officer Training Corps (OTC) training and summer camps; passing entry examination for Royal Military College, Sandhurst, 6/1914. Recollections of period as cadet at Royal Military College, Sandhurst, GB, 8/1914-4/1915: newspaper notification to report, 14/8/1914; adaptations to course; weapons training; bridging exercise; developments in trench digging theory due to effects of shellfire; use of entrenching tool; subsequent adaptations in Ypres Salient, Belgium, 1915 including revetted breastwork trenches and use of 'A' frames to carry duckboards; tactical exercise.
REEL 2 Continues: opinion of training in open warfare infantry attack tactics; sketch map reconnaissance training; development of static trench warfare on Western Front and increasing barbed wire defences; importance of discipline and role of drill; story illustrating relations between cadets and regimental sergeant-major; reaction to outbreak of First World War, 4/8/1914; question of potential duration of war. Recollections of operations as officer with 2nd Bn King's Shropshire Light Infantry, 80th Bde, 27th Div on Western Front, 5/1915-7/1915: immediate appointment to command company due to rate of officer casualties; nature of trench warfare.
REEL 3 Continues: reaction to first time under fire; wiring and covering parties; necessity of using periscope rather than binoculars due to German snipers; development of gas masks; mortars; use of 'jam tin' hand grenades. Recollections of operations as officer with 1st Bn King's Shropshire Light Infantry, 16th Bde, 6th Div on Western Front, 4/1916-4/1917: opinion of Steel Helmet Mk I introduced in 1916; superiority of German trench and dugout construction; state of morale, importance of regimental spirit and effect of officer casualty rate; effect of casualties, 4/1918.
REEL 4 Continues: living conditions; ground conditions; night alarm signals; increased shellfire illustrated by German barrage during attack on Transloy Ridge, 10/1916; question of personal morale during attacks. Recollections of operations as intelligence officer with 1st Bn King's Shropshire Light Infantry, 16th Bde, 6th Div on Western Front, 3/1918-11/1918: attachment as intelligence officer to 107th Infantry Regt, US Army, 7/1918; opinion of US Army troops and their lack of trench warfare experience and discipline; opinion of Allied troops.
REEL 5 Continues: superiority of German dugouts and pillboxes; relations with other ranks; opinion of performance of territorial, volunteer and conscript troops; opinion of possible deployment of cavalry and tanks on Western Front; opinion of staff officers, chaplains and high command.
REEL 6 Continues: rations and ration parties; story of losing rum ration during attack on Mannikin Hill, 8/10/1918; comparison of other ranks and officers' rations; routine tours of duty; use of light railway in Ypres Salient, Belgium; periods in front line during offensives; trench routine; recreational activities during rest periods; front line daily routine; necessity of cleaning weapons; patrols; planning of raids.
REEL 7 Continues: question of raids and conservation of manpower; attitude to possibility of losing war; steady advance, 9/1918-11/1918; Armistice, 11/11/1918; effects of war and question of disillusionment amongst demobilised troops; story of civilian reaction to massed British colour parties during Victory Marches in Paris, France and London, GB, 7/1919; story of medical treatment for facial shell splinter wound recieved serving with 2nd Bn King's Shropshire Light Infantry and reception at Victoria Station, London, GB, 7/1915; role as battalion Lewis Gun officer on posting to battalion in Ypres Salient, Belgium, 4/1916.
REEL 8 Continues: role of Lewis Gun in contrast to Vickers Machine Gun; question of decline in primary role of rifle; hospitalisation with trench fever; role as battalion intelligence officer, 3/1918-11/1918 including importance of monitoring German front line activity, intelligence gained from capture of German ammunition wagon, preparations for attack and ascent in observation balloon. Question of changes in attack tactic taught during period as instructor at 12th Officer Cadet Bn at Newmarket, GB, 4/1917-2/1918.