Description
Object description
British trooper served with 2/1st Yeomanry Sussex, 2/1st Southern Mounted Bde in GB, 1915-1916; private served with 10th (Service) Bn Queen's (Royal West Surrey Regt), 124th Bde, 41st Div on Western Front and Italy, 9/1916-11/1918
Content description
REEL 1: Aspects of enlistment and training with 2/1st Sussex Yeomanry, 2/1st Southern Mounted Bde, GB, 1915-1916: enlistment in Brighton, 1915; question of age and reason for volunteering; physical fitness; question of pressure to enlist; cavalry training; attitude to discipline; question of overseas service. Recollections of operations as private with 10th (Service) Bn Queen's (Royal West Surrey Regt), 124th Bde, 41st Div on Western Front, 9/1916-11/1917: posting to France, 9/1916; move to Passchendaele area, Belgium; description of role as No 1 in Lewis Gun team with B Coy during attack on Messines Ridge, Belgium; effect of Lewis Gun fire; equipment and weapons carried; weather conditions and problem of mud; recovery of wounded; question of firing on stretcher bearers; casualties; problem of aiming Lewis Gun; question of personal morale; description of communication trench Poppy Lane.
REEL 2 Continues: holding line at Passchendaele, Belgium; problem of rats and lice; personal hygiene; opinion of rations; sanitary and washing facilities; humour in the trenches; attitude to psychological breakdowns and self-inflicted wounds; receiving shrapnel wound in neck at Menin Gate, Ypres, Belgium, 11/1917; nature of wound and medical treatment; posting to base camp at Boulogne, France. Aspects of operations as private with 10th (Service) Bn Queen's (Royal West Sussex Regt), 124th Bde, 41st Div in Italy, 1/1918-2/1918: move to Italian Front, 1918; accommodation with farmer; sight of Zeppelin airships over Monte Grappa; role as Lewis gunner; comparison of trench systems on Western Front and Italy. Aspects of operations as private with 10th (Service) Bn Queen's (Royal West Surrey Regt), 124th Bde, 41st Div on Western Front, 3/1918-11/1918: return to Western Front following German offensive, 3/1918; retreat following German breakthrough, Somme, France; opinion of organisation and reassembly of unit.
REEL 3 Continues: transfer to Ypres, Belgium; description of mines exploding under German positions on Messines Ridge, Belgium; story of attack on German machine gun post; opinion of Imperial German Army troops; British prisoners of war; story of death of unit member on morning of Armistice Day, 11/11/1918; reaction to news of Armistice, 11/11/1918. Aspects of period as private with Army of Occupation in Germany, 12/1918-3/1919: attitude of German civilians; story of British soldiers being stabbed by Germans; question of fraternisation with Germans. Reflections on service as private with 10th (Service) Bn Queen's (Royal West Surrey Regt), 124th Bde, 41st Div on Western Front, 9/1916-11/1917 and 3/1918-11/1918: visit to Waterloo Monument, Belgium; attitude of Belgian civilians to Germans; sight of German prisoners of war.
REEL 4 Continues: story of No 2 in Lewis Gun team being tied to wheel of wagon as punishment for insolence; attitude to discipline in front line; opinion of officers; role in grenade attack on German trenches at Passchendaele, Belgium; opinion of American, Italian and Imperial German Army troops; attitude to shooting Germans; question of fraternisation with Germans; daily routine out of line; home leave and description of scene at Victoria Station, London; question of protection against various types of German fire; opinion of conditions at Passchendale, Belgium.
REEL 5 Continues: state of health; attitude to conduct of war.