description
Object description
French trooper served with French Cavalry on Western Front, 8/1914-11/1918
Content description
REEL 1 Recollections of operations as trooper with French Cavalry on Western Front, 8/1914-11/1918: reaction on mobilisation, 8/1914; account of attack, 25/9/1914 including wet conditions, German machine gun fire and effect of French 75mm gunfire; heavy casualties; conditions and question of state of morale; signs of mutiny, 1917; story of casualties amongst inexperienced American troops; French pre-war determination to reclaim Alsace-Lorraine, conscription and cavalry training on outbreak of First World War, 2/8/1914; conditions during action on Yser Canal, Belgium, 1914; failure of attack in Artois, 9/5/1915; question of French doctrine of attack; sight of corpses during front line service at Neuville St Vaast, 1915; attack, German counter-attack and construction of defensive line in Champagne area, 9/1915; state of unit morale after failure of Nivelle Offensive in Aisne area, 16/4/1917; treatment of Russian 1st Special Infantry Bde serving in France following Russian Revolution; opinion of American troops during attachment to US Army Corps during attack on St-Miheil, 9/1918.