Description
Object description
British officer served with 3rd (Reserve) Bn Devonshire Regt in GB, 4/1914-10/1914; served with 2nd Bn Sherwood Foresters (Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regt), 18th Bde, 6th Div on Western Front, 10/1914-12/1914; served with 2nd Bn Devonshire Reg, 23rd Bde, 8th Div on Western Front, 4/1915-5/1918; prisoner of war hospitalised in Heidelburg and Mannheim, Germany, 6/1918-10/1918; repatriated to GB, 10/1918
Content description
REEL 1 Recollections of perid as cadet aboard naval training ship HMS Conway on Mersey River, GB, 1909-1911: failed application to enter Osborne Naval College; entrance interview; organisation of naval and Merchant Marine cadets; ship layout and accommodation on orlop deck; coaling ship.
REEL 2 Continues: relations with Merchant Marine cadets; role of cadet petty officers; story of being fooled by practical jokes on arrival and subsequent punishment over misunderstanding; injuries recieved through practical joke whilst climbing rigging and subsequent punishment of offender; stowing hammocks; corporal punishment with spunyarn.
REEL 3 Continues: question of bullying by senior cadets; stowing hammocks; washing; mess table; breakfast; cleaning decks; divisional parade; educational classes; learning to fire boiler; sailing pinnace; lunch.
REEL 4 Continues: tea; recreational activities; tea parties with captain; rowing contests; failing entrance examinations for Royal Naval College, Dartmouth. Aspects of period as member of Officer Training Corps (OTC) at Plymouth College, GB, 1911-1913: summer camp exercises; Certificate A training. Recollections of period of training as officer with 3rd (Reserve) Bn Devonshire Regt at Exeter and North Block, Raglan Barracks, Devonport, GB, 4/1914-10/1914: pay and bills.
REEL 5 Continues: description of officers' mess lifestyle including mess bills, necessity of securing allowance from father, drinking habits, treatment of officers in financial debt, recreational activities, disapproval of regular dining out of mess, food and traditional procedure of mess night; pride in regiment; officers' saluting drill; subsequent effects of war on messlife.
REEL 6 Continues: story of accidentally failing to salute commanding officer's wife; necessity of securing commanding officer's permission to marry; inspection of officers' civilian walking out clothes; ceremonial uniforms worn in officers' mess and on church parade; tea dances; calling card etiquette; drill; rifle training including practice in aiming and target recognition.
REEL 7 Continues: rifle training including rifle range procedures, rapid fire techniques and ammunition control; other ranks' ceremonial uniform, webbing and equipment; preparations for kit inspections; puttees; nature of disciplinary offences and punishments including clashes with sailors and punishment drills; route marches.
REEL 8 Continues: question of other ranks wearing civilian clothes; status of regulars; guard duties and 'stick man' system; practice in digging shallow trenches with entrenching tool; mobilisation procedure and posting of drafts to 1st and 2nd Bns Devonshire Regt on outbreak of First World War, 4/8/1914; mass recruitment and consequent shortage of uniform.
REEL 9 Continues: shortages of uniform and shells; wartime attitude of British and French civilians to soldiers; move to North Block, Raglan Barracks, Devonport; role of depot. Recollections of operations as officer with 2nd Bn Sherwood Foresters (Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regt), 18th Bde, 6th Div on Western Front, 10/1914-12/1914: circumstance of posting to replace officer casualties; train journey and march to join unit; ration parties; communication trench; reception and posting as platoon commander; morning routine; sentry system; repairing trenches.
REEL 10 Continues: cooking arrangements and rations; iron rations; sentries; reconnaissance patrols and checking state of German barbed wire; wiring parties; repairing and improving trenches; question of shaving and baths; effects of wet conditions including attempts to drain trenches and trench foot.
REEL 11 Continues: problems with lice; story of being wounded in foot during reconnaissance patrol; rations; medical treatment at Regimental Aid Post (RAP) and evacuation to GB, 12/1914. Recollections of operations commanding trench mortar section with 2nd Bn Devonshire Regt, 23rd Bde, 8th Div in Armentieres sector, France, 4/1915-7/1915: prior trench mortar training and method of firing; German artillery retaliation to mortar fire; problem carrying mortar bombs; reaction of infantry to mortar fire; comparison of British mortars with German minenwerfers.
REEL 12 Continues: method of deploying into mortar positions and firing on map referenced targets without direct observation; recieving nickname of 'Suicide Club'; effects of war; reaction to newspaper reports on Western Front. Recollections of operations as officer with 2nd Bn Devonshire Regt, 23rd Bde, 8th Div, Somme, France, 1916-1917: state of unit morale; battlefield conditions; comparison of British and German dugouts.
REEL 13 Continues: question of value of experience in trench warfare; German shellfire; story of trying to avoid zone of fire of German machine gun prior to going over top; question of discipline including story of over strict officer shot by his own men during attack, later state of morale during retreat, 3/1918, role of training and value of instilling self reliance in other ranks; question of behaviour of German officers; fighting patrols and incident of getting caught in German barbed wire; introduction of No 106 Fuse Shell designed to clear barbed wire; consolidation of German trenches. Recollections of operations as officer with 2nd Bn Devonshire Regt, 23rd Bde, 8th Div in Ypres area, Belgium, 4/1917-7/1917: question of varying conditions on Western Front.
REEL 14 Continues: absence of winter offensives; training on practice battlefield; familiarisation with Railway Woods sector; storing ammunition in elephant shelters; rest period at Wieltje including checking ammunition, recreational activities, visits to estaminets and church canteens and concert parties. Account of operations as officer with 2nd Bn Devonshire Regt, 23rd Bde, 8th Div during attack from Railway Woods towards Bellewaarde Lake, Belguim, 31/7/1917: question of rain; briefing; rum rations atmosphere in front line prior to attack; successful advance to Lake Farm.
REEL 15 Continues: rate of progress and formation employed in advance; use of hand grenades on German dugouts; question of use of bayonet and prior training; receiving bayonet shoulder wound on jumping into German trench; medical treatment at Regimental Aid Post (RAP) and Casualty Clearing Station (CCS) at White Chateau during evacuation as walking wounded; period of hospitalisation and convalescence. Recollections of operations as officer with 2nd Bn Devonshire Regt, 23rd Bde, 8th Div in Ypres area, Belgium, 9/1917-12/1917: difficulty in using railway sleeper and duckboard tracks and case of drowning in mud.
REEL 16 Continues: situation and muddy ground conditions; absence of latrines; nature of shell hole trench lines; difficulty of locating front line posts; tea in former petrol cans; hay boxes; use of ration parties supplied by other units; use of lime chloride; trench fever and trench foot; rest period at Wieltje, 2/1917; strategic background to Ypres Offensive. Recollections of operation as officer with 2nd Bn Devonshire Regt, 23rd Bde, 8th Div during German offensive, Somme, France, 3/1918-4/1918: commanding C Coy in defence of Saint-Christ Bridge across River Somme, 23/3/1918-25/3/1918; rearguard actions during retreat.
REEL 17 Continues: supply situation; question of physical fitness; emergency move back into line and operations at Villers-Brettonneux, 4/1918; reinforcement drafts of former rear echelon troops. Recollections of operations as officer with 2nd Bn Devonshire Regt, 23rd Bde, 8th Div during German offensive at Bois des Buttes, France, 27/5/1918: move to River Aisne area, 5/1918: reception on taking over from French Army troops; appointment as adjutant and question of quality of reinforcement drafts; cave billets at Roucy; emergency move from reserve into line on German attack and attempts to locate 'battle headquarters'; German preliminary bombardment; case of accidental firing on retreating French Army troops; defence of Pontavert Bridge from repeated German attacks from direction of Juvincourt-et-Damary including orders not to retreat, ammunition shortage, leg wounds and ordering final bayonet charge.
REEL 18 Continues: capture by German troops. Recollections of period as prisoner of war in hospitals in Heidelburg and Mannheim, Germany, 6/1918-10/1918: inadequate nature of medical treatment; inspections by German officers; story of having jaw broken by rifle butt having accidentally hit German doctor during operation without anaesthetic; special treatment during inspection by Swiss delegation; lack of notification of parents; food. Aspects of repatriation to GB from Germany via Netherlands, 10/1918: reception from civilians in Cologne, Germany; nature of repatriation scheme for severely wounded; attack on German medical orderlies on passing into Netherlands; effects of rich food; story of German doctor grafting officer's amputated arm stump to chest prior to repatriation; closure of bank account having being notified dead; reception in Plymouth, GB; hospitalisation in GB, 1918-1921.
