Description
Object description
British private served with 1/10th Bn London Regt and 2/5th Bn Essex Regt in GB, 1916-1917; served as driver with Army Service Corps on Western Front, 1917; POW in Germany and Poland, 1917-1918
Content description
REEL 1: Background in Walthamstow, London, 1898-1914; family; education; employment; memory of outbreak of war, 8/1914; story of enlistment with 10th Bn London Regt, Hackney, 1916; reason for enlistment. Aspects of training with 1/10th Bn London Regt and 2/5th Bn Essex Regt in GB, 1916-1917: description of basic training on Salisbury Plain; drill; attitude to army life and discipline; story of sergeant; relations with NCOs; question of gambling in barracks; reason for transfer to 2/5th Bn Essex Regt; description of training as driver for horse transport; care of horses. Recollections of operations on Western Front, 1917: description of role during Battle of Cambrai, 11/1917; memory of going over top; story two shells hitting each other in mid-air.
REEL 2 Continues: story of being taken prisoner during Battle of Cambrai; description of being cut off and surrounded by Germans; question of treatment by Germans on surrender; attitude to being taken prisoner. Recollections of period as POW in Germany and Poland, 1917-1918: story of journey to camp in Minden, Germany and memory of corpses; conditions in camp; problem of lice and fumigation; washing facilities; opinion of food; story of journey to camp in Poland; description of camp; accommodation; food rations; sleeping arrangements; memory of ersatz coffee; tobacco; nature of work outside camp; sanitary facilities; clothing and wooden clogs; description of huts; daily routine; relations with guards; discipline in camp; recreational and sporting activities.
REEL 3 Continues: relations with fellow POWs; question of escape attempts and punishments; memory of Russian POWs; description of receiving Red Cross food parcels; communication with home; question of pay; morale; problem of boredom; amusing story of German guard and whip; story of volunteering to work on farm; daily routine and work duties; question of sabotage; description of farm.
REEL 4 continues: daily routine and description of farm work; attitude to work; opinion of using bullocks for ploughing; accommodation and sleeping arrangements; problem of lice; amusing story of bullock; opinion of French POWs; opinion of rations; daily routine; recreational activities; story of visiting pub in village; relations with local civilians; story of poisoned thumb and grasshopper; story of visit to Hamburg; question of food shortages; reason for receiving four loaves of bread; story of release and return to GB; reaction to end of war; opinion of treatment as POW. Demobilization in Ireland, 1919.