Description
Object description
British officer cadet served with Royal Military College Sandhurst, Camberley, 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 training and summer camps; passing entry examination for Royal Military College Sandhurst, Camberley, 6/1914. Recollections of period as cadet at Royal Military College Sandhurst, Camberley, 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 Imperial German Army 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 artillery fire illustrated by Imperial German Army artillery 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, United States Army, 7/1918; opinion of United States Army troops and their lack of trench warfare experience and discipline; opinion of Allied troops.
REEL 5 Continues: superiority of Imperial German Army 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 Army 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 Railway 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 Imperial German Army front line activity, intelligence gained from capture of Imperial German Army 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.
