Description
Object description
British officer served with 1/5th Bn Suffolk Regt in GB, Gallipoli, Egypt and Palestine, 1913-1919
Content description
REEL 1: Recollections of background at Ickworth and Lavenham, 1896-1914: family's Suffolk links; father's farming career; education at Woodbridge School; awareness of approach of war; OTC activities; work as farmer, 1913-1914. Recruitment as officer with 5th Bn Suffolk Regt, 15/12/1913: reasons; training; pride in unit. Recollections of mobilisation in Lavenham, 5/8/1914: procedure; local reactions; brothers' territorial service; reporting to Bury St Edmunds Barracks; personal morale. Recollections of periods in training at Folkestone, Colchester, Thetford and Watford, 8/1914-7/1915: coastal defence duties; marching in Essex and songs sung illustrating relationship with other ranks.
REEL 2 Continues: songs sung illustrating relationship with other ranks; billets at Mile End Asylum, Colchester; volunteering for overseas service; route marches; tactical exercises on Thetford Heath; revolver and sword; officers' mess; role of regular adjutant in defining officers' responsibilities to other ranks; pride in territorial status; removal of local Bde and Div titles; Watford billets. Recollections of voyage on Aquitania to Mudros, Lemnos, Greece, 7/1915-8/1915: send off at Watford; reactions to posting.
REEL 3 Continues: conditions and routine; brother Owen's transfer to unit, 1914; reaction to being left behind to clean and unload ship at Mudros on unit's departure to land at Suvla, Gallipoli, Turkey; premonition of brother Owen's death; second hand reports of failure of Suvla offensive and unit's attack, 12/8/1915; fly problem at Mudros. State of morale on joining unit in reserve at Suvla, 15/8/1915. Recollections of period on Karakol Dagh, 8/1915: terrain; reserve role; sangar front line; naval support; water shortage; sea bathing.
REEL 4 Continues: reactions under fire; church service near lines illustrating inexperience; working party duties and consequences of lack of transport. Rest period at Lala Baba, 9/1915. Recollections of period in Hill 60 sector, 9/1915-10/1915: situation; initial trenches; corpse problem; improvements to trenches; distance from Turkish lines; repelling Turkish patrol and subsequent problem with smell of corpses; Turkish enfilading field gun; shellfire, small arms fire, sniping and bombing.
REEL 5 Continues: use of jam tin bombs; other bomb types; opinion of policy of trying to get closer to Turks in contrast to Second World War practice; question of adequacy of training and competence of high command; inefficiency of catapult bomb throwers; personal morale; water and food rations; latrines; fly problem; state of health; fatigue; state of unit morale.
REEL 6 Continues: daily routine and duties as platoon commander; story of leniency shown sentry asleep on duty in Palestine, 1917; relationship with NCOs; rest period working parties; letter and parcel contact with GB; role of religion; Gurkha, Sikh and ANZAC troops; attitude to Turkish troops. Recollections of being wounded and evacuation, 30/10/1915: receiving leg wound during British bombardment which landed in support trenches, 30/10/1915; vulnerability whilst in beach hospital.
REEL 7 Continues: vulnerability whilst in beach hospital; hospital ship voyage to Alexandria. Story of collapse of latrine in Dixon's Gully, Suvla, 10/1915. Reactions to leaving Gallipoli. Convalescence in Alexandria, 12/1915-2/1916. Opinion of successful evacuation of Gallipoli, 12/1915-1/1916. Recollections of period on rejoining unit in Egypt, 2/1916-2/1917: state of unit; initial camps prior to taking up defensive positions to defend Suez Canal; water supply; patrolling activities.
REEL 8 Continues: patrolling activities; brushing sand and checking for intruder tracks; acceptance of role on quiet front; local leave; daily routine. Recollections of move into Palestine, 2/1917-3/1917: march on wire roadway; period at El Arish depot; view of tanks. Recollections of First Battle of Gaza, 26/3/1917-27/3/1917: initial lack of opposition; consolidating position on Sheikh Abbass Ridge; confused situation and withdrawal; acting as sentry to allow other ranks rest.
REEL 9 Continues: taking up positions on Mansura Ridge; view of battle from Sheikh Abbass Ridge; withdrawal to starting positions. Recollections of Second Battle of Gaza, 17/4/1917-19/4/1917: interval between battles; recapture of Sheikh Abbass Ridge; breakdown of attacks passing through position; personal morale; further advance and digging in; withdrawal to Sheikh Abbass Ridge; slight leg wound. Recollections of period in Gaza area, 4/1917-11/1917: improving trenches; state of morale; stories of patrols in Samson Ridge sector.
REEL 10 Continues: stories of patrols in Samson Ridge sector; conditions of service; evacuation with dysentery to Alexandria, 10/1917; rejoining unit, 11/1917. Recollections of advance through Palestine, 11/1917-10/1918: marching conditions; selection as representative officer to join triumphal entry into Jerusalem and its cancellation on continued Turkish resistance; surprise attack to capture Bornet Hill, 15/12/1917; close escape from shrapnel; story of avoiding duty in command of firing squad for suspected Palestinian spies and effect of experience on replacement.
REEL 11 Continues: sentries method of staying awake; comparison of conditions with other fronts; GB leave and Armistice, 10/1918-11/1918. Rejoining unit and period in Cairo, Egypt, 11/1918-7/1919: role controlling civilian unrest; court of inquiry duties. Demobilisation, 7/1919: question of staying in army; effect of experience on religious beliefs. Sings 'We Are the Suffolk Boys'.