description
Object description
British NCO served with Durham Light Infantry on Western Front, 1918
Content description
REEL 1 Recollections of operations with Durham Light Infantry on Western Front, 1918: description of living conditions in trenches; personal hygiene; problem of rats; question of not making noise; morale; opinion of rations; rum ration; opinion of iron rations; question of British sense of humour; opinion of officers and General Staff; role of battalion officers; casualties among officers; question of motivation to fight Germans; description of soldier hit in face by shrapnel; memory of throwing back live grenades; question of fear and attitude to survival; story of losing consciousness in shell hole during trench raid; helmet hit by piece of shrapnel; story of encountering German machine gun post; description of retreat following German offensive, 3/1918; foraging for food; story of German trailer; memory of soldier swimming across River Aisne; problem of finding way across open country; story of walking through burning village.