Description
Object description
British signaller and NCO served with 124th Heavy Bty, Royal Garrison Artillery in GB and Western Front, 2/1915-7/1916; hospitalised in Birch Hill Workhouse Hospital, Rochdale and 2nd Western General Hospital, Manchester, GB, 7/1916-1/1917; NCO served with 144th Heavy Bty, Royal Garrison Artillery on Western Front, 6/1917-11/1918
Content description
REEL 1 Aspects of period training as signaller and NCO with 124th Heavy Bty, Royal Garrison Artillery in GB, 2/1915-3/1916: hutted accommodation and stables at Hedon Racecourse Camp, 2/1915-4/1915; use of adapted 4.7 Inch Naval Gun and question of adequacy of recoil mechanism; role of gun crew; complement of horses; gun limber; importance of getting team of horses to pull as one; use of drag ropes to help free bogged down guns; limbers and General Service (GS) wagons; duties of specialist personnel including farriers, saddlers, wheelwright, water carriers; signallers; role of officers and lack of signal expertise of signal officers; playing football.
REEL 2 Continues: learning Morse Code and flag drill; method of using heliograph; method of using Begbie Signal Lamp and story of being caught reading it by mechanism noise rather than light emitted; attending accelerated course at riding school including arrival of horse, 2/1915, horse corn ration, stages of learning to ride horse bare-backed, cleaning saddlery, cross-country riding and horse's response to touch of reins on neck rather than mouth bit; method of laying telephone lines on horseback and use of climbing irons on telegraph poles.
REEL 3 Continues: telephone and Fullerphone equipment; training in use of Barr and Stroud range finder; re-equipment with BL 60 Pounder Heavy Field Gun and comparison with adapted 4.7 Inch Naval Gun; description of loading and firing BL 60 Pounder Heavy Field Gun. Recollections of operations as NCO with 124th Heavy Bty, Royal Garrison Artillery on Western Front, 4/1916-6/1916: effects of wear on range and consequent replacement of gun rifling tube; siting telephone lines to avoid damage from German shellfire and skill in detecting line breaks; difficulties with infantry breaking lines laid along side of trenches to observation posts; method of using Lucas Mk I Electric Signal Lamp; method of using directors to locate German artillery positions by flash spotting; absence of horses; method of locating and repairing breaks in lines.
REEL 4 Continues: story illustrating importance of splicing new lengths of line to avoid sectors under heavy German shellfire; recreational activities including gambling and music; beetle swarm; dugouts; rations. Recollections of operations as NCO with 124th Heavy Bty, Royal Garrison Artillery during and prior to Battle of Somme, 6/1916-7/1916: method of communication with artillery observation aircraft; bringing up shells and cartridge boxes for preliminary bombardment; digging in gun trail; use of common shell to destroy church tower at Mametz, France, 6/1916; description of shrapnel shell workings; premature shell detonation; different types of shell fuse used.
REEL 5 Continues: forward observation posts in front line and No Man's Land; camouflaging of observation posts; registering on German batteries; occupying observation post at night; use of aiming post to align guns and use of siege light at night; observation post duty during preliminary bombardment; account of acting as brigade forward observation post behind first wave during attack on Montauban, Somme, France, 1/7/1916 including lack of effective briefing, being buried by German shells, attempt to get water supply and inadvertently carrying corpse to dressing station; move to Carnoy Valley; account of accompanying attack as forward observation post during attack from Montauban towards Longueval, Somme, France, 14/7/1916 including preliminary bombardment, officer's loss of nerve, narrow escape from shellfire, small arms fire, joining 8th Bn East Yorkshire Regt, casualty, crawling through German artillery box barrage; establishing observation post.
REEL 6 Continues: obtaining rations from infantry, view of Morane-Saulnier Type N pilot warning 9th Royal Deccan Horse of proximity of German machine guns and of their subsequent successful charge; German prisoners of war attempt to escape; treatment of officer who lost nerve; account of going forward and investigating Trones Wood and Bernafay Wood, Somme, France, 17/7/1916 including sight of dismembered corpse, discovering German observation post and collecting German brass buttons to replace British composition issue; story of receiving jaw, neck and back wounds from German shell burst. Recollections of medical treatment and evacuation from France to GB, 7/1916: Royal Army Medical Corps advance field dressing station in Bernafay Wood; crossing former No Man's Land in horse ambulance; motor ambulance journey; story of nurse discovering back wound; fear of tetanus because of locked jaw; use of former London buses; Royal Army Medical Corps advance field dressing station in Bernafay Wood; story of taking in water thorough port hole whilst crossing English Channel aboard HMHS St Andrew; train journey from Southampton to Birmingham.
REEL 7 Continues: civilians' bidding to buy souvenir German helmet; civilian perception of success of Somme Offensive; problems in coping with rate of casualties; reception from civilians on arrival in Manchester and drive to Rochdale; loss of weight. Aspects of period of hospitalisation in Birch Hill Workhouse Hospital, Rochdale, GB, 7/1916-12/1916: civilian volunteers; hospital staff; story of breaking out of hospital to visit town and clash with doctor; relations with civilians; ageing effects of war experiences; Christmas celebration, 25/12/1916. Aspects of period of hospitalisation in 2nd Western General Hospital, Ducie Avenue, Manchester, GB, 12/1916-1/1917: complaint over inadequate rations; confused hierarchy amongst hospital staff; specialist jaw treatment and question of operation to remove shrapnel; disciplinary problems.
REEL 8 Continues: successful request for discharge from hospital. Aspects of period on sick leave in Kingston upon Hull, GB, 1/1917: story of buying pliers for later army use; personal and civilian knowledge of progress of war. Recollections of period as NCO with Royal Garrison Artillery at North Camp and Royal Field Artillery Command Depot, Ripon, Fort Fareham, Avington Park Camp and Winnall Down Signal School in GB, 1/1917-5/1917: reception; attitude of Medical Board; story illustrating attitude of senior officer; protest over inadequate rations; stealing coal; reaction to unnecessary fire drill; opinion of 'John Bull'; inspection of parcels sent home; example of anti-Semitism perpetrated by Medical Board and victim's subsequent death.
REEL 9 Continues: volunteering to return to active service; question of continuing status as signaller and background to decision to refuse offer of commission in Army Service Corps; footballing activities and success in six-a-side competition; passing signal course. Aspects of period as NCO with No 1 General Base Depot Harfleur, France, 5/1917: Bull Ring obstacle course; subsequent mutiny. Recollections of operations as NCO with 144th Heavy Bty Royal Garrison Artillery on Western Front, 6/1917-11/1918: initial difficulty in locating unit, 7/6/1917; march to Vlamertinghe, Belgium.
REEL 10 Continues: deployment in gun positions at Kruistraat and Menin Gate, Ypres, Belgium, 6/1917-11/1917; role; observation post at Hussar Farm, Ypres Salient, Belgium; corpses of horses; difficulty in knocking out German pillboxes; unsuitable nature of terrain for tanks; observation post at Jasper Farm, Ypres Salient, Belgium; story of difficulty in getting back to gun positions from observation post during daylight and signaller's retaliatory gesture; sight of German aircraft crashing in Ypres, Belgium; German gas shell attack, 5/9/1917 including gas shell operating mechanism, repairing telephone lines, casualties, role of Royal Army Medical Corps orderly in evacuating wounded and effect of gas on rats; acquistion of rabbit for officers' mess; leaving guns in position on move to Cambrai, France, 11/1917.
REEL 11 Continues: yellow fever case; explosion of delayed action German booby trap under latrine; techniques of harassing fire behind German lines; No 106 Shell Fuse mechanism; air observation; No 92 Shrapnel Fuse mechanism; moving battery and importance of water supply for horses; question of use of gas shells; success in salvaging two guns trapped in No Man's Land after German counter-attack at Vaucelette Farm near Cambrai, France, 11/1917; freezing oil in recoil mechanism; effect of firing gun on snow and consequent necessity of camouflage; stories illustrating inexperience of officer on observation post duty.
REEl 12 Continues: difficulty in burying telephone line in frozen ground; effects of thaw and difficulty in moving guns in mud, 1/1918; account of German offensive in Sorel sector, France, 3/1918 including initial confused situation under German shellfire, 21/3/1918, attempt to re-establish communication, success in rescuing guns from No Man's Land and retreat in sections whilst maintaining constant covering fire. Aspects of demobilisation in GB, 3/1919: reaction to delay prior to demobilsation; demobilisation system; fights with former Welsh miners provoked by earlier wartime strikes; sight of demobilisation draft fighting with Corps of Military Police personnel at Leeds Railway Station.
